TOUR OF WESSEX DAY 1

Ride Stats - The below box is a ride summary. What is interesting to me is that my lactate threshold seems to have grown remarkably since the test at xmas. There is no way I could hold an IF of 1.169 for 155km as 1.0 is presumably my lactate turnpoint. This will need adjusting I think :-) The ergomo has the course down as 2075m of climbing, and 47km of the 155 is uphill which shows how tough a day it is. Holding a normalised power of 350 watts for the ride is very pleasing indeed. Will have to go back to the drawing board to work out what power I will be holding for IM Germany in July.

Graph showing altitude (brown) and watts (yellow) smoothed to 4 mins. Took out other data to help with display.

This is a classic too hard too soon graph, but that was kinda the point for me of day 1. I got in a group with the Fred Baker cycles boys and they weren't hanging around. Spending the first hour of the ride above the 420 watt mark was too much for me obviously, and the power dies off towards the end. What is pleasing though is that I was still holding 300 watts for the last hour, so although this is obviously a fade from the start, its not a dissaster. In a race, I wouldn't have gone tanking off at the start anyway. Held a pretty consistent 350 watts for most of the ride, and with a strong wind blowing, the time isn't too shoddy :-)

TOUR OF WESSEX DAY 2

Ride Stats - The below box is the ride data for Day 2 of the Tour of Wessex. This for me was a tough day. I wrapped up in too much waterproof material and was sweating profusely. This lead to dehydration and a big bonk about 20 miles from the end. Rode with a couple of clubmates today and this kept my power much more under control.

Graph showing altitude (brown) and watts (yellow) smoothed to 4 mins. Took out other data to help with display.

The long climb up morton abbas (sp?) on about the 4h30 mark did for me. Never quite found my legs again after this and hung on till the final aid station where you can see the watts drop significantly (about 5h20). Struggling to hold around 230 watts this was one big hurt box ride home! I expected to be feeling a bit tired after yesterday, but didn't expect to get hit this hard. The ergomo puts the climb at 1800 meters, but I would be inclined to say this is very sparing! Anyway, tough day in the saddle, and I was glad that I had already decided against day 3 in favour of a long run.