Ewan's Training Log

[Ewan]

p.s. A comparison of Paul's and my ride... I don't see a minute's difference in there...


Me in blue, Paul in red.

[IanM]

Do you have Strava premium? Looks like you lost much of the time in the last 4 miles: https://www.strava.com/segments/7186031 ... k3NjY0MzI4

Screenshot in case you can't see it:

[Ewan]

yeah, thanks. I can access the compare tool without premium, it's just difficult to select which riders to view in the comparison.

I'm not so concerned about my particular comparison to Paul, he's a great guy and we often talk after races and although I think this is the first time he's ever beaten me, he's had a good season so far with several sub 23min rides on the F11 course. The H10/17r is considerably slower than Tring, so this was a big step up for him but he's very diligent about learning the sport and progressed loads since last year. However the comparison might be instructive for identifying what went wrong for me.

Thinking about what might have slowed me down, my hypotheses are:
1) Tired. I can partially discount this because although my power was down when compared to Wednesday, it was identical to May. However I did *feel* tired, and I had a psychological battle to keep the power on during the tough sections of the course. Normally I might expect/hope to see a slight increase in power on the difficult sections, however I remember looking down and seeing 220w at one point on the way up to the turn... very depressing. Going soft on these sections would cost me more time than if I had gone soft on the flat/decent/tailwind sections and might account for some of the difference. This possibility is supported by Ian's chart where I appear to lose time steadily up to the turn and then dramatically on the exposed headwind section approaching Southmoor roundabout.

2) The old "my brakes were rubbing" excuse. Lol... as much as I'd like this to be true, it's patently not. If it were, I'd have expected to see a steady loss throughout the race.

3) Aero as a brick. I hope this isn't the case, since I've dropped my bars and changed my hat, both on Xav's recommendation. I also tried to keep 'shrugged' although my tiredness probably negatively impacted my ability to hold this position. I don't look too bad in the picture, but I would probably benefit from tilting the helmet backwards on my head a little bit. The fact I lost time on the uphill drag to the turn possibly suggests that aeros weren't my biggest problem, although the exposed headwind section is the point on the course where aerodynamics would be most important and I did lose a lot of time there.

4) variable conditions. By and large, the weather was good. High risk of thunder storms meant low air-pressure, and although there was wind it was gusting in a favourable direction. Pre-race everyone was talking of fast times and I hear several old timers saying "you won't get better conditions than today for this course". Post race however, there was much more talk of variable conditions, and several people said how it had been harder than they had expected. However the weather was also changing a lot... there was a 3minute downpour during my warmup and the wind seemed to come and go a lot. I lost a big chunk on an exposed headwind section and perhaps I was just unlucky to run into a wall of wind at the wrong moment. Still it seems a bit disingenuous to blame all my losses on some freak headwind when so many other people seemed to have a good run. Also, I lost time on the sheltered, tailwind drag up to the turn so I can't blame the weather alone.

At the end of the day I'm never going to get a definitive answer so there is no point in worrying about it, it's almost certainly a combination anyway. I'll just have to try a bit harder next time and hope I move a bit quicker. Still, last year I was very much focussed on the power, but I find it interesting to think about the multiplicity of other factors that can influence a performance... good or bad.

[Jack Hughes]

Power meter calibration???

[Jack Hughes]

Factors:

1) Power
2) Wind and air density
3) Rolling resistance.
4) Aero dynamics

Evidence:

You say you were tired, but power wasn't down that much
You've ridden the course before, so things like taking a long way round or other sorts of errors shouldn't be a factor. Road surface not changed since last time.

Tyre pressure OK? Brakes not rubbing...

Seemed to be a fast day as others faster.

So, it comes down to power and aerodynamics. Given the faster conditions, the aerodynamics would have to have been a lot, lot worse after the adjustments.

So, reasonable power, but feeling tired (does this also mean RPE down?).

So, first thing to eliminate is misreading on the PM....

... even if you've put it behind you, worth checking it's OK for next time!

[Ewan]

Yeah, I don't know how to address that. I performed both static and dynamic calibration before the event, and I haven't changed the pedals for a few weeks so we can assume correct torque. Nothing in particular stands out as odd in my power file either.

Will take the road bike out for a change tomorrow, and then back to the tt for the weekend.

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

[Ewan]

So... Tomorrow's training schedule gives me 2 options...

10mile TT followed by 15minute run

Or

45min @ Z4 followed by 15minute run

Tomorrow I have 2 choices for races... either the Brill Hilly, one of my favourite TTs but it's 15miles and usually takes about 50mins. Or, I could go to Tring and have a pop at the F11/10... Both sort of fit the requirements of tomorrows training in one way or another, and I do enjoy Brill, but I'm tempted to try my hand at a fast 10 course for once

[Jack Hughes]

what's the weather forecast?

High pressure sunny, go for the hilly

Low pressure thunderstorms. Go for the 10.

Except if there is a lot of road spray and flooding, then back to the hilly

[IanM]

Go and do Tring. Doesn't matter if it's not optimal conditions, you get a chance to ride the course, and next time you do it (maybe in better conditions) you can apply pacing experience accordingly.

And you'll probably come away with a PB too

[IanM]

Just looked at the forecast... low pressure, and what looks to be a beneficial wind direction. You'd be mad not to...

#iamanunashamedpbwhore