Last Friday's crit - the iBike power-meter view of 10 laps in D-grade

I had a break. Well several breaks really, and a fall (with no breaks, just pain!). But I'm back on the bike and racing - and training - with the intention of staying race-fit until the "road season" (which is Aussie-speak for our winter as we do track and crits in summer). We shall see. Although I raced at least twice (maybe 3 times) back in October/November last year I have taken January 2010 as the "real" starting point. I am training, rather than just riding, and trying to have an influence on the race.

So here's an iBike power-meter view of what was race 2 for me in 2010. I was carrying a hamstring injury (of all things) and wasn't sure how hard I could push it - I could feel a twinge of pain when I rose from the saddle or pulled up with the right leg - so I "sat-in" as any old ex-Randwick-Botany racer would do and just followed wheels. For the 2nd race in a row - hey this is only D-grade at CCCC's Lucca Rd circuit, don't get excited - I got 3rd place. But I contested the sprint and didn't ever feel like getting dropped. Average speed was just under 33kmh for the 30mins + 1 lap. Nornalised power (my own formula with coasting "zeroes" removed and weighting given to "power-on" rather than "slacking off") was just under 200W (seeing as how I have been cracking 200W training it shows that I was taking it easy, but the iBike is also not that great at measuring power whilst sucking wheels, either). You can see that the sprint (end of the bike race, folks) was the only time I exceeded 50kmh but we cracked 40 every lap. That's on a downhill but there was a headwind!!) There's a small but painful "rise" that starts at a left-hand turn (so only the brave really take a run-up at it) every lap and the wattage hit 450-600 every time up that incline as someone always "had a go" to dislodge a few non-trainers. There's also a smaller power peak each lap just after the "big" hill and past the start-finish straight where we go left again and kick up a smaller but noticeable gradient. The speed rises once more as we hit that gentle climb - must be enthusiasm or the excitement of it all. If you took this seriously you could train to these conditions and increase output in key situations. You could replicate the course or sections thereof and impose repeated loads. Or you could use this race data to optimise race speed whilst keeping the lid on over-enthusiasm, power-wise. Hang back a bit, save the powder as it were. Now you could do this without a power meter - heck, I raced for more than 20 years without one - but it's so nice to get pictures, isn't it?

Onward, ever onward. Even at 52.

Posted via email from gtveloce's posterous