First race of the year. C-priority race (range of A-B-C). Goal: Help Wardy. Goal 2: training at race intensity. Goal 1 result: Wardy said there wasn't much I could do to help. Goal 2 result: Success.
I raced this event last year. That was my first stage race ever, and my first time trial race ever. Last year's time trial was a learning experience and I lost 4 minutes on the rest of the pack which immediately took me out of contention. This year the results don't look much better at first: 3:38 behind the leader. BUT! But the leader is a TT freak. He is ahead of second place by 45 seconds. He likes to solo LOTOJA for nine hours. Freak. Really nice guy actually, but freak nonetheless.
This year's time trial put me in 28th place out of 43. Still out of contention, but I improved over last year by one minute on a 9 mile event. I wanted to shave two minutes but I only made up one.
Tonight I finally looked closely at my data from this event. I improved tremendously over last year. First I matched my personal best 10 minute (CP10) power measure. This means I have reached my best 10 minute time from last June in April which is promising. I improved my average power over the whole event by 47 watts (I know Garmin shows 44 watts but I believe PowerTap numbers) while in a lower heart rate (average 183 this year and 187 last year). My power was much more consistent this year; I held my power above lactate threshold nearly the whole time. My power to weight ratio for the whole event: 4.03 watts/kg. Nice.
One area of improvement is obvious if you're paying attention: why did my heart rate average drop from last year? A lower heart rate means I am not pushing as hard as I was last year. If I push my body further it raises my heart rate, if I push my body further I generate more power. If I had pushed to 187bpm or higher maybe I would have gotten another 30 seconds.
As far as the other two events over the weekend: I did pretty much as well as last year. Not terrible, but definitely not podium or even top 10.
Monday, April 12, 2010
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