On Friday, April 3, 2020 at 3:55:11 PM UTC+2, Bertrand wrote:
On 4/3/2020 8:41 AM, wrote:
On Friday, April 3, 2020 at 12:31:20 PM UTC+2, Duane wrote:
wrote:
On Friday, April 3, 2020 at 2:30:38 AM UTC+2, Mark Cleary wrote:
I have been going out each day early getting 50 miles a day. Had a PR
for March for miles. Go out, ride, come back, stay away from everything
and person. Get decent food and drink good beer. It could be worse.

Deacon Mark C

I ride every other day and for the rest I also keeping a low profile. I'm
working on my FTP to have a goal so I did a hard 78 km ride yesterday..
Managed an average power of 194 Watt. Not bad for early spring. It did
hurt with the headwind the first part but I flew home the second part
pushing a 52-15/16 gear to keep the power high. Today recovery day,
spring cleaning of the back yard and setting up a workplace at home for
next week. I hate working from home. Go to work as much as possible.

Lou


194 watts over 78km is pretty impressive in April. I’ve been slacking on
the training so. The worst thing about this working from home is not
having to stop and leave the office.

Just got my bike off the trainer and road ready. My plan is to commute as
much as possible even though it will be a round trip each way.

On a trainer it is almost impossible to sustain an average of 194 Watt for 2,5 hours. We had a lot of wind the last weeks and then it is also difficult to sustain that kind of power, because you pushing 240 Watt for an 1-1.5 hr with a headwind and then .... nothing with a tailwind and end up with an average of 170-180 Watt. A moderate wind like yesterday is the best.



Like you, I usually find that it hurts more with a headwind, but I'm not sure
why. As long as gearing is adequate, we should be able to downshift to maintain
the same power and cadence, and just accept a lower speed. But it feels worse.
I don't know if it's purely the psychological effect of not wanting to go so
slow, or if there's something else going on. Maybe the different effect of
small changes in gradient on speed (with headwind compared to no wind or
tailwind) plays a role.

I think the natural reaction to a headwind that is not constant is that you push a little harder to maintain the same cadence, you are downshifting always with a delay. You see the power go up 20-40 Watt almost instantly and then think I have to downshift to maintain the same power. Only change in cadence is what I feel immediately. Only Frank is able to maintain the same power and can measure the speed loss when turning on his dyno ;-).

Lou