Wednesday Night Time Trial #2
Last night we held the second of five races in the Wednesday night Timetrial series.
Despite weather conditions much improved over the previous week's race, turnout was a bit lighter last evening. Only a couple of dozen, give or take, riders showed up to test themselves.
Weather wise, temperatures at race time were in the middle 70's. Winds were out of the east at about 7-9 mph.
Despite the much lower speed wind this week, we all felt the effects of it. The first part of the race course was directly into the wind. A little over half-way out the course turns slightly south, which put the wind over onto our left shoulders.
After the turn the wind became more friendly. And then more friendly still after the bend headed directly west.
Unlike last week, I went off early yesterday. I started third, a 6:03pm start time.
Results wise, I ended up with a time just 2 seconds better than last week's effort. Wattage wise, I was not only able to manage power better than the week before, but also I had slightly more power to manage. My watts in the two halves of my timetrial differed by only 1 Watt. Average Power was up to just over 300 watts for the entire timetrial.
I would really like to find a little more speed, so now I'm wondering how to go about becoming more aero.
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helmet
I have a teardrop shaped TT helmet that I am not using...interested?
Reports vary as to just how much gain you can get in a short TT from aero gear, but every little bit counts to some degree.
pacing strategy
looks (from the speed trace) that you could improve your performance (results, not power) by a pacing strategy.
just a thought.
g
Yes.
That trace is all over the place.
Looking at the power profile, I am guessing that there were speed sensor dropouts causing this erratic trace. The power profile looks pretty smooth to me (especially considering that speed profile).
Not sure I follow
I don't follow you. This is a flat out-and-back TT. My pacing strategy was to use a little more power into the wind. Racing into the wind is like climbing, right? Overall elapsed time is minimized by applying a little extra power into the wind and when climbing.
When I made the turn and headed home (downwind, more or less) that strategy calls for a little less power. Obviously I wasn't about to let up, heading home and all, so I worked like a dog to maintain power at my "little extra power" level.
And yes, it really was a little extra power, about 2% more than last week's. I might be doubting that I truly reached for it had I not worn my HRM - something I have not done in a very long time - and seen my MaxHR. HR averaged 184bpm in the final 90 seconds of the race.
Regardless, I'd welcome your thoughts on how to improve pacing.
improved pacing...
while hard to read the numbers as the graph is so small,
you could send me the file and I could take a closer look, but you suggested that there was a delta outbound/inbound of ~1w.
I would guess that a delta of ~20-30w would produce a faster time.
Kill yourself into the headwind and hold on for dear life on the way home...
Just a suggestion.
g
Timetrial power file
Holding on for dear life. That's how it felt in the last couple of km's.
In truth, I hadn't thought about it that way though. Even if I'd blown and could only do, for example IF=.80 for the last 3km, maybe I'd have gone faster. Hmm, that bears a closer look.
If you're interested in having a look at my power file from last night's timetrial, I'd welcome your comments and thoughts on pacing.
will look...
tonight... new mbp arrives in 2 hrs. then I will finally have a decent pc again...
g
Wed TT 4/23
Crikey Mark, you killed it last night. My average power was just under 300W but I was more than 2 minutes slower than you. I had a TT helmet and clipons but must have some inefficiencies somewhere. Bill H, Cat 4, The Hub Cycling Team
Thanks Bill. Great to hear
Thanks Bill. Great to hear from you.
A lot of it has to do with becoming more aerodynamic. Actually almost all of it. Whatever power we can produce is consumed by friction - wind and rolling resistance and mechanical friction. On a flat and relatively smooth course like that one power consumed by aerodynamic drag is by far your biggest enemy.
That reminds me though, I really need to clean up my chain on my TT bike. :)
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