transplant

goals:
- pacing! don't blow up, finish strong
- avg 360w (4.34w/kg)

so i did my first TT on sunday, albeit an indoor one. i'd done a 20min tt the day before to re-test my ftp, so i had a good of how i wanted to pace myself.

arrived a little late and only had about 20minutes max of warmup time, far less than what i had hoped. luckily adrenaline took over and we were racing before i could blink. i looked down at my powertap cpu after about 10 seconds and ways pushing 400w...too high! there was another guy in my heat on a P3 who was really putting the hurt on, so i tried to keep up with him. the next twelve minutes were in the hurt box as i jacked up the ipod and divided my attention between P3 dude, my cpu and the projection screen showing the racermate data.

two minutes to go and i was huuuuurrrting... then i look up and it's the last tenth of a mile! so much for the 'really push it the last minute' idea. i finished something like less than two seconds behind P3 dude. but i was okay with that...

finished at 14:22.5 / 25.9mph / avg 363w (4.37w/kg)
this earned me second place in my category and a tshirt.


*caveat* i'm not sure if the computrainer was calibrated correctly and i should've been slower? my powertap came out as 363w avg / and over 26mph avg (can't remember exactly, not at home right now), but the computrainer put me finishing at 383w avg / 25.9 mph... so that doesn't seem to add up? am i wrong here?

Scummer

How do those indoor TT's work? You bring your own bike and it will be strapped to a trainer? Or do you ride some kind of stationary bike?

Duke of Kent

We had 250+ entrants for the TT, and ~230 actual contestants. Seems the potential weather hazards put some people off.

Basically, yes, you put YOUR bike on a computrainer. Just like any other trainer, but it has a powermeter/strain gage inside it to measure torque/cadence/power. Then, it takes into account your weight (they weigh you holding your bike before your race) and height (provided by you as well), and does some sort of calculation. Generally pretty accurate, but not always. I've seen plenty of wattage disparities, but it's not robbing people of 50+ watts, either.

eb314

And what's the point of riding a TT bike if you aren't actually moving? Is the power transfer better? I thought it was worse, but then again I don't know anything and haven't ridden on aero bars.

transplant

that's awesome. looking at the preliminary results, 45 raced in 4. i should've raced in 3 because i would've won that category, hah.

Duke of Kent

The guy COULD be a triathlete, you know...

Duke of Kent

Do you happen to race for a "Team Pegasus"?

eb314

Interesting...

transplant

thats me. were you there?

Duke of Kent

Nah, I can't torture myself like that, psychologically speaking, at this point in the year.

I do ride for ABD, though. Might be a ride leader for their Monday easy ride or Tuesday moderate/medium-hard ride this year, if the powers that be agree to it.

Scummer

Interesting.. thanks for the clarification. Maybe I'll try one in March.