Sunday, October 04, 2009

Contre la Montre; contre Performance

Well that was interesting. Time Trial today. Last one of the season. I was hoping for a top 4 as I’ve finishe3d top 4 in the past in this Championship… well ok, I was secretly hoping for a medal, but seeing as I’ve been sick for almost 2 weeks and I logged a whopping 91km last week… I knew it wasn’t gonna happen! However the interesting thing is the Heartrate to Power result. Whereas my threshold HR is 175, (sometimes 170 by this stage of the season) but average wattage should have been between 340-360W (knowing that I did 380 something recently for a similar time, so if all the preparation had gone properly, one could have expected a little higher than 340-360), however, from the moment I started warming up, my HR seemed disproportionately high compared to my power.

24km slightly windy of course hilly TT, with an average HR of 185!!!!!!!!!!!!!! L My max is 188 and threshold 175 normally, and today my HR got up to 196. So… What the hell? Throughout the whole TT I struggled to keep my power over a mere 300W. I never felt even in my effort. I did catch my 2 minute man by the half way point, so that was good, and it turns out I was actually 7th, so not too bad at all considering. However my final numbers are absolutely all over the place. 185 average HR for a rather week 323W. What’s going on? I’m assuming it has something to do with my having been sick. Oh well, I have a Doc appointment Tuesday, so I’ll talk to him about it.

Well, that was actually a fun race. I enjoyed it. It didn’t feel good but was fun for some reason anyway. However these past few weeks have shown me that I am gonna SSSSUUUUUUUUCK at CX in a couple weeks. Oh well, it’s all just for a bit of fun and keep me motivated in the cold winter months anyway.

I also found out today, thanks to a very kind e-mail from Mr Hayes, that Pez has used a rather embarrassing photo of Greg Sonnenburg and myself as part of their clothing advertising…. Oh dear oh dear oh dear!!!

http://pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=7567&status=True&catname=Latest News

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

you also learned something else. your max HR isn't 188. it's 196.

simjetlag said...

Well, all previous tests have always found it as 188. On bike, in the lab etc etc...

crispy said...

Sounds like you're not completely over your cold. At least, that's what those symptoms in me would suggest, but you may be different.

7th place is quite decent. That's better than I'll ever place in a TT, because I'm too cheap to shell out for a TT bike!

simjetlag said...

You're right. I'm not over the cold. Saw the Doc yesterday and he confirmed your theory. So you got that right!

TT bike, well, I don't think the bike makes the difference. I wish it did... I used to SUCK at TTs, until a few people from different teams (including US team Saturn) worked with me on it and the difference was amazing. Had nothign to do with the bike, I was just a TT idiot, had no idea what I was doing. It was interesting actually.

Anonymous said...

hey, if you saw 196 you saw 196. you have a new max HR and i expect higher output from here on out!!!

simjetlag said...

I'd like to think so, but it was actually much lower HR. And God knows I don't like the idea of reajusting all my HR zones.... that would mean I'd actually have to ride harder every day... nahhh.... sod that for a game of cricket. :)