I do intervals back-and-forth on a straight rural road about 1 1/2 miles in length. We're very near the Gulf of Mexico, and there's almost always a strong wind coming in off the water and aiming straight down my road. So half my intervals are with the wind and half against. I don't have a powermeter but after quite a few years of training I have a pretty accurate sense of effort. I try to keep the same level of effort on each back-and-forth leg (so obviously I go slower into the wind). So why do the stints into the wind hurt so much more than the ones with the wind?
To my way of thinking there's only two explanations. One is that I'm actually working harder and putting out more watts when I'm going into the wind. The other is that, for example, putting out 250 watts into the wind hurts more than putting out 250 watts with the wind (which doesn't make sense).
Does anyone have an opinion on this? Have any of you with powermeters found that a certain watts output into the wind hurts more than that same output with the wind?
To my way of thinking there's only two explanations. One is that I'm actually working harder and putting out more watts when I'm going into the wind. The other is that, for example, putting out 250 watts into the wind hurts more than putting out 250 watts with the wind (which doesn't make sense).
Does anyone have an opinion on this? Have any of you with powermeters found that a certain watts output into the wind hurts more than that same output with the wind?