Looking back at the race traces (Crystal palace and Milton Keynes) from last year I think I need to try a bit harder during the races. My HR max is 186 and my average for a Cyrstal Palace 3+4 event was 166bpm, which included a coule of laps off the front (1st mistake - not commited - gave up after the first lap and thinking I could not maintain my HR at around 177 for 8 or so laps). During this event the average speed was 24.2mph with 343 meters of climbing. That was not so bad...Milton Keynes was a little different as my HR averages were 156, 157 and 158 for 3 races with average speeds of 26, 24.4 and 24.5. The first race was on the inner circuit, which had effectively no corners but stil had 285m ofclimbing over the 28.1 miles. The other 2 races at Milton Kenes were 33.7 miles and 29.8 miles (approx 1 hour + 5 laps) in distance with around 343 meters of climbing (matching CP). The difference between Milton Keynes and Crystal Palace though is the duration, the inclusion of a hairpin that drops the speed right off and a single steeper hill climb. Crystal Palace seems more of a sprinter / interval style intense burst type circuit as a result, which makes it harder. The one difference though is it can be easier off the front,as long as you have the average power... From a friends trace (www.lbrc.org) the average lap power seems to be around 360W-380W (I'm guessing this was with his nose in the wind from the picture he sent me) so in theory all you have to do is maintain that on your own for 45-50min !
Spent a while last night doing some fixes and adjustments to the bike, which had been overdue, whic included taking 16" off the brake and gear cables that were almost usable as a washing line on the front of the bike. That in theory should save a watt or two into the wind !
The other change was fiting 25x700's with my old 23x700's inside them with about 7mm cut out and the beading cut off by around 4mm on each side. This makes the tyres quite heavy (dual garotskins) although they should make them near on as puncture proof as you can get, while making the hills a bit longer. That was after a couple of punctures in the space of 7 days (glass and flint pushed through a gatorskin) and also wanted to try out some 25's for more comfort while training. The weight is irrelevant at the moment as the power meter will show the same value regardless and I will just be a little bit slower on the flat and a bit more slower up hill.
This weeks training total has added up to around 50 minutes on Tuesday night and that's it until Saturday before a big week in Devon with lots of miles and hills.
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