Garden, Garden Creek Gap, and Watts

Random post. . .

I finally got around to planting a garden. Over the last couple of years, I've dug up flowers, bushes, and grass and replaced them with things I can eat. For the last few summers, I've had some nice zuchini, tomatoes, and peppers in my front yard flower beds.

Garden Creek Gap went ok. Compliments to Jess Dear for riding aggressively throughout the race. He attacked with 250 meters to go and nearly got the win. Chase out sprinted him though. McGovern got 3rd. I got 4th. After the race, I wished I had attacked at the bottom of the climb rather than wait until 250 meters to go to sprint. My excuses (not necesarily in this order) are: (a) my back was hurting, (b) I was scared that I'd burn myself up and give Chase and McGovern a nice lead out, (c) it was really cold and wet and my brain wasn't functioning properly. It was still a good race though.

Today I did some intervals. I intended on doing shorter intervals, but it ended up that I did 5 5 minute intervals up a climb. I recovered for 5 minutes between 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and recovered for 10 minutes between 2 and 3 and 4 and 5.

I learned a few things about myself. Here are the numbers:

Interval 1: 1 mile, 4:59.9 minutes, 5.73 power to weight ratio (based on norm power), 78rpm, 12.1 mph, 9 perceived exertion (PE), and 16.3 training stress score (TSS).

I was fresh for this interval. Lots of standing on the pedals. Relatively higher cadence. Best time. I was pretending I was Contador (he stands a lot).

Interval 2: 1 mile, 5:12.5 minutes, 5.20 power to weight ratio, 77 rpm, 11.6 mph, 9 PE, 14 TSS.

One of the hardest intervals. I felt like I was going to throw up. Mixture of standing and sitting.

Interval 3: 1 mile, 5:07.4 minutes, 5.45 power to weight ratio, 76 rpm, 11.7 mph, 9 PE, 15 TSS.

I stood for a solid minute. Standing and sitting off and on afterwards. Relatively high TSS. Second best time.

Interval 4: 1 mile, 5:22.6 minutes, 4.78 power to weight ratio, 79 rpm, 11.2 mph, 8 PE, 12.1 TSS.

Mixture of standing and sitting at the beginning. Sitting for the last 3 minutes. Worst time. Lower TSS

Interval 5: 1 mile, 5:07.4 minutes, 5.00 power to weight ratio, 86 rpm, 11.8 mph, 8 PE, 12.7 TSS.

Sitting the WHOLE time.

Of most interest was a comparison between Interval 3 and Interval 5. Interval 3 I stood quite a bit. Interval 5 I sat the whole time. My times were exactly the same -- not necessarily a time savings if I sit or stand. I went slightly faster (11.8 mph) for Interval 5.

HOWEVER, note that the TSS for Interval 5 was 12.7, compared to 15 for Interval 3. Note that my power to weight ratio for Interval 5 was 5.0, compared to 5.45 for Interval 3. In essence, I used much less energy for Interval 5, compared to Interval 3, but went the same speed. For me, it's much more efficient to sit, rather than stand. Although, if I do stand and really punch it -- like Interval 1 -- I will go slightly faster, at a much higher cost though.

Also note, that my cadence for Interval 5 was much higher. Although I pedaled faster, I used less energy because I wasn't pushing as hard.

Though this is something I know intuitively, it is interesting to see the data. This illustrates that although Levi might be boring to watch, he is smart and conservative.