Originally Posted by
carleton
As Craig Colduck said, road sprinting feels hard, but is still sub-maximal. Meaning that you aren't tapping 100% of the available energy.
Maybe a pro road sprint after a 6 hour ride. But riding protected in a flat 60 to 90 minute flat circuit race is the perfect warmup for a maximal effort sprint. And if my road sprints are sub-maximal then why is my track sprint soo slow in comparison. This is the reverse of my issue and part of the reason my lack of track speed doesn't pass my smell test. I have more power on the road at the end of race than I have ever had in a 200 meter effort. Now a tight crit or a long or hilly road race will change that, but a flat short circuit race will allow for a maximal effort, IMO.
That said my numerical analysis of my track work is limited. Most is by 200 meter times and comparison to peers and "feel" which is not scientific, but with 25 years of experience, I know enough to know something is up. I just got a stages power meter and once the weather stays over 75 for long enough I will be able to get out there and figure out the exact power differences between the efforts and learn more about the reasons or at least details behind my issue.
For now, I just want to find a way to translate existing road speed at low RPM to track speed at high RPM. With the understanding that I have 25 years of off and on experience in both, and have likely raced each surface close to the same number of times.