Less Watts = Faster TT?

HI!

Remember me? Yes, i'm still alive! =)

Been uber-busy, so much work to do among other things, like apartment hunting....know of any places within a few blocks of Oak Bay & Foul Bay?!

There's a lot i'd like to catch up on, hopefully soon... I'll start off with last night.

Headed out to the OA-TT, just Stephen Price and Don 'The Immortal' Gillmore were out (Emile's been racing at the AVC, and FSA this weekend - good luck!) I haven't been out to do a TT since May.

Anyway, somehow i dropped a HUGE chunk of time - over 30 seconds! I finished with a 21:55, and my previous efforts were in the 22:30 range....wow! I didn't change any gear, although my aero bars were spaced about 4mm wider on each side...hahah..

Weather conditions were fairly typical - a bit of a wind, although it was blowing more towards the water (seems to usually come off it), and a few degrees warmer, but not a *lot*.

Let's take a look at the numbers:

Effort #4, June 20th

Section:  #1    #2    #3    TOT

Time:     8:12  8:49  4:53  21:55

Watts:    281w  260w  265w  269w

HR:       179   187   188   184

RPM:      99    103   107   103

Spd:      35.5  37.5  42.0  36.9

Now, compare the previous three results:

Effort #1, Apr 20th

Section:  #1    #2    #3    TOT

Time:     8:30  9:10  4:56  22:36

Watts:    305w  267w  274w  283w

HR:       174   182   184   180

RPM:      97    97    99    97

Spd:      34.4  36.4  41.5  36.8

Effort #2, May 4th

Section:  #1    #2    #3    TOT

Time:     8:24  9:01  5:08  22:32

Watts:    291w  278w  286w  285w

HR:       174   184   186   181

RPM:      99    99    102   100

Spd:      34.7  36.7  40.7  36.8

Effort #3, May 18th

Section:  #1    #2    #3    TOT

Time:     8:36  8:57  4:56  22:28

Watts:    281w  270w  268w  274w

Est.Wts:  292w  281w  279w  286w

HR:       175   185   187   182

RPM:      101   102   103   102

Spd:      33.8  37.1  42.1  36.9
I totally killed it, at least relative to myself!! Yet i didn't go as hard... (My HR was a lot higher tho..?)

Well, maybe not. Normalized Power isn't really very accurate at efforts under 1hr, so i can't really compare the numbers, but i did a bit more coasting this time. There are a few fast & short descents, and instead of pedalling in the aero bars as i normally do, i opted instead to tuck...and that's on the first section, where i made the most dramatic gains. There's a couple short drops in the 2nd stretch, but i didn't coast much for those..

I felt like i pedalled a bit harder in the spots where there were more resistance, and eased off more when there weren't...but i can't really put my finger on what was really different! I'm pretty sure the wattage is correct, i checked shortly before and a little while after, and it was zeroed. Looking at the file, however, in the spots where i coasted, it hit zero, but mine actually shouldn't (oops!) Due to resistance from the old, gooped-up freehub, it should usually register a few watts - literally the resistance of the cassette itself! So maybe it isn't accurate, and is actually low....that would make more sense given the time and HR.

Don had an off night, not feeling very well. Stephen rode well, but when both passed me, it wasn't very dramatic...when Don normally goes by, there's a big WHOOSH! For Stephen, he got by and made a little ground, but didn't really get away too far...maybe 50-80m ahead by the line..

I dunno, maybe the wattage was off! hahaha... We all agreed i was moving pretty well out there.

Anyway, that is the mystery that is the time trial. I'll take a 30 second improvement, even if it doesn't make sense. =)

More later!

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