June 21, 2004
Almost Painless Time Trial
The perfect time trial would be to ride as fast as you possibly can for the entire duration of the course. Any successful time trialist will tell you this has nothing to do with SPEED or AVERAGE SPEED but instead the highest sustainable level of output. Most of us measure that "output" with a heart rate monitor, although power meters are becoming more common among both racers and non-competitive cyclist.
While a HRM alone does not supply a complete picture of how hard your motor is working, it does provide some point of reference. You must also consider your cadence, for example you may be spinning a small gear wildly at 150+ rpm sending your heart rate through the roof, but not propelling your bike very fast at all. With some practice and experimenting you can find your optimal cadence, an RPM that produces the most power without bogging down the legs or blowing up the HRM.
You do not always need to practice full-speed, all-out time trials to discover your optimal cadence and position. Below is a HRM graph of a ride I call a "Zone 1 Time Trial" around the 19.6 mile GTC TT Course. This is a relatively painless effort and when the weather is nice you won't even hardly break a sweat. What it does require is CONCENTRATION! Zone 1 is the easiest zone, often considered the recovery zone (for me the top of Zone 1 = 132 BPM). Click here to Calculate your Heart Rate.
You will notice that the level of output or effort was consistent throughout the ride, except in the beginning because I did not warm-up at all prior to the start, and there was a noticable power drop while descending Indain Shoals because I was tucked instead of spinning (using my weight advantage). Even though the graph indicates I averaged only 132 BPM (max 142) my average speed was well over 19 mph as a result of the steady effort.
Other notable facts:
* Solo - no drafting.
* Standard road bike w/no aero equipment.
* 12x25 cassette (could have used a lower gear on the climbs)
* Overcast, windy with occasional gusts.
* More than 10 pounds overweight (see below).
* I've been off the bike for the past 6+ months due to illness and injuries.
Bottom line: maintaining a consistent and steady effort produces better time trial results.
Posted by dancoy at June 21, 2004 10:18 PM