Training questions: heat and power

[Tom]

Got schooled yesterday in a charity century. I simply couldn't hold the wheel of the front group. My excuse is that there were two pro guys and a bunch of the local hot shots, but it did expose some weaknesses. If it hadn't been a charity event I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to see them at all after about three miles but what happened was that these people simply don't slow at all on the rollers. I did. After forty I only caught them if they stopped at a water stop. After sixty five, forget it.

- How do you guys train to maintain your power in the heat? It was somewhere in the higher 80s and humid as could be. I'm guessing the dew point was in the mid to upper 70s. I drank two full bottles of Gatorade stuff every 15-20 miles so I certainly was hydrated. My problem seemed to be that I was fine up to 85% of power but the whole top end was gone. Nutrition? Electrolytes? What was missing?

- What's a good drill for being able to open up good strong seated efforts? I started playing with gearing this morning and I noticed that bigger gears kept my heart rate down and my speed up. That was on a thirty mile ride. I'll have to try that on a long one and see how my legs react to pushing a bit more.

It turned out to be a good century, I averaged 20.6 miles an hour and learned a couple of things. And damn, was it hot.

[pjm]

So Tom, you averaged 20.6 for a century in hot and humid conditions, and this is a problem??? :confused: :p

[Too Tall]

Don't underestimate heat adaptation and specificity in training. Racer doods and doodettes work on 5s/30s/1min power. Do you? Quit whining, you did great. If you want to improve in the high end VO2 stuff than train for it. Krikey, that's a fine avg. spd. for 100 miles in the heat bruddah.

[Tom]

Power: Don't do power intervals other than hammer shots up little hills. Time to read up and try to work on that.

Heat: I typically ride in the morning before work. I suppose if I played dodge 'em with the angry commuters in the pm I could learn the heat thing. I think I'll just try that on the weekends.

Disclaimer: Polar says I went 20.6. It lies. So do I. I went 19.5 if you do time division over distance. I have to call Polar. I really dislike that feature. It doesn't count stop signs, water stops, coffee breaks, any time I go zero miles an hour against the average.

[Birddog]

Tom,
Would you classify yourself as a "heavy sweater"? If so, then part of your problem is that you have trouble keeping your core temp down during exercise in the heat. When it is humid the sweating and evaporation from your skin isn't enough to cool you off and the heart rate goes up to help out. That could account for why you felt the way you did.

Birddog

[Climb01742]

this is in the "for what it's worth" category...

about heat...my guess is, like the rest of us easterners, your body hasn't yet fully acclimatized to the sudden 90/90 days. after a long cool wet spring, the sudden heat and humidity are tough. give it time.

about power...here's my coach-created workout this working...

1. a warm-up
2. 15 minutes of 100 rpm cadence work
3. 10 min recovery at 85 rpm
4. 4 x 3 min all out efforts, with 3 min recovery between
5. 15 minutes 100 rpm cadence
6. cool down, for a total workout of about 110 minutes

at 5 AM, it's 80 and humid as h*ll. power is no accident. doing specific workouts is the key, i think. my coach has helped me tremendously by structuring a training program. perhaps consider a coach? even if you have no specific racing goals in mind, i'm enjoying my riding now more than ever simply because i am now more fit. fitness seems to equal fun.

[Peter]

Both the heat and your fitness were factors in your performance. The heat was the lessor of the two. It's tough to face the limitations of our genetics. The only thing you have control of is your training, and if you want to ride strong for long distances then you have to train that way. I'll bet those two "pros" have a lot of long, hard, race and training miles in their legs. That's money in the bank.

You could try longer rides (3hrs. or more) where you ride at a moderate pace until the last hour where you unload anything you have left. The results won't come overnight, but the coolest idea would be to develop a training plan that focuses solely on improving your performance in that century's 2006 edition. Hopefully, those two guys and the local hotshots will show up again and quietly you'll be able to gauge whether you've improved after a year of focused, goal oriented training.

Go for it!

[csb]

heavy sweaters are 4 winter training

[flydhest]

I love it when she's in heat and has extra power.

[dirtdigger88]

I love it when she's in heat and has extra power.

there are so many things I could say- but I have been lucky enough not to get banned as of late- so I will abstain.

Jason