Non-Tour question: my power output

I've been watching the meters on the machines at the gym. (I don't have
an SRM on my bike.)

I warm up at 150 Watts, can manage 200-220 steady-state, and did 500 at
my MaxHR tonight. I have reason to believe that in LSD efforts, I can
achieve much higher steady states, because on a century where I'm pacing
myself, I can motor at 25+mph for several miles at a time.

How good a racer "should" I be? I won't be a good climber any time
soon, being the same height as LANCE and weighing 40 lbs more.

My conditioning is still fragile. I haven't had a chance to do speed
work, so I assume that I'll still get dropped easily. And I know that
those exercise machines aren't bikes and so can't be compared directly,
so I'm just interested in WAGs. Still working on the smoking too, damn
things.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall
"I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we could to protect
our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security."
--Microsoft VP in charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

"Raptor" wrote in message ...
I've been watching the meters on the machines at the gym. (I don't have
an SRM on my bike.)

I warm up at 150 Watts, can manage 200-220 steady-state, and did 500 at
my MaxHR tonight. I have reason to believe that in LSD efforts, I can
achieve much higher steady states, because on a century where I'm pacing
myself, I can motor at 25+mph for several miles at a time.

How good a racer "should" I be? I won't be a good climber any time
soon, being the same height as LANCE and weighing 40 lbs more.

My conditioning is still fragile. I haven't had a chance to do speed
work, so I assume that I'll still get dropped easily. And I know that
those exercise machines aren't bikes and so can't be compared directly,
so I'm just interested in WAGs. Still working on the smoking too, damn
things.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall
"I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we could to protect
our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security."
--Microsoft VP in charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.


How much do you weigh? That value can be used to estimate steady state but
not racing. I would take a very wild guess that you can train to become a 4
if you are 180 and maybe a 3 if you train a lot and lose 10 pounds. This
assume a bunch including a "normal" response to speed work. (IIRC you stated
that youa re 180).

"Raptor" wrote in message ...
I've been watching the meters on the machines at the gym. (I don't have
an SRM on my bike.)

I warm up at 150 Watts, can manage 200-220 steady-state, and did 500 at
my MaxHR tonight. I have reason to believe that in LSD efforts, I can
achieve much higher steady states, because on a century where I'm pacing
myself, I can motor at 25+mph for several miles at a time.

Watts your average wattage output for an hour?

Dashii

In article , Raptor wrote:

I've been watching the meters on the machines at the gym. (I don't have
an SRM on my bike.)

I warm up at 150 Watts, can manage 200-220 steady-state, and did 500 at
my MaxHR tonight. I have reason to believe that in LSD efforts, I can
achieve much higher steady states, because on a century where I'm pacing
myself, I can motor at 25+mph for several miles at a time.

How good a racer "should" I be? I won't be a good climber any time
soon, being the same height as LANCE and weighing 40 lbs more.

My conditioning is still fragile. I haven't had a chance to do speed
work, so I assume that I'll still get dropped easily.

Racing speeds vary alot and being good at steady state might not be
enough, unless that steady state power is enough to hang in and recover
even if you suffer badly during the accelerations that are part of
racing. You really have to do 3-4 races to make an accurate assesment
of what it would take for YOU to be able to hang in a race or do well
in it. If you feel great in your first race, do not attack until the
finish or you may be unpleasantly surprised to learn how quickly the
speed can go from too easy to too hard.

-WG

Top Sirloin wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 21:34:37 -0600, Raptor wrote:


I've been watching the meters on the machines at the gym. (I don't have
an SRM on my bike.)

I warm up at 150 Watts, can manage 200-220 steady-state, and did 500 at
my MaxHR tonight. I have reason to believe that in LSD efforts, I can
achieve much higher steady states, because on a century where I'm pacing
myself, I can motor at 25+mph for several miles at a time.


Come on now dude, when you did your first race you said you could motor at 23,
last week it was 24, and now it's 25. Check google if you think I'm kidding. :-)

I'll be competing in next year's Giro if I can keep this up.

My training "regime" is sufficiently sloppy and casual that I really
only have these WAGs to go on. I'm still simply curious as to how
strong I am compared to other riders. To be honest, there's still a
vestige of pie-in-the-sky youngster dreaming that maybe I'm worth
kicking my own ass with the goal of becoming a really successful racer
(Cat 2 would be "really successful" in my mind).

My computer is slightly generous, so I try variously to correct for it.
When I'm warm and not doing massive distance (50+ miles), 23-24 is
something I can do for several minutes at a time. The computer will
show me 24, but it's probably really 23.6. But I've done a small few
non-competitive centuries in recent years, and notice that in the third
quarter of such rides, I reach a state where the speed I'm doing solo is
surprisingly fast: 25+. I look hard to make sure I'm not on a false
downhill or getting pushed by a tailwind. I'll hold that speed for 10
or more minutes before feeling like I need to recover, then I can go
again. At the very end of my last century, I towed a fellow rider in to
the finish at 25-28 mph for the last 2-3 miles, to properly finish the
effort off.

My conditioning is still fragile. I haven't had a chance to do speed
work, so I assume that I'll still get dropped easily.


If I remember correctly you were doing ok in your first race until the first
primes - I thought you mentioned you were going to do speed work then.

I went to a flat training crit recently, worked on staying with the
front 10. Shortly after the first attack, I was done. Saddle sores and
a severe ankle sprain (probably tore something - I find out tomorrow)
have gotten in the way since. But the basketball shot I made while
killing my ankle was highlight-reel material. :-)

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall
"I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we could to protect
our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security."
--Microsoft VP in charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.