donrhummy said:
...You wouldn't happen to have an extra PM lying around would you? (Just kidding)...
Sorry, you'd have to wrestle it away from Feltrider and from what I understand of Felty I wouldn't try it
..Thanks again for ALL your help! (BTW, do you do this for a living? ...)
Thanks for the kind words, but no I'm just a hack bike racer. I taught and coached nordic ski racing for a long time but don't coach cycling. But I do read everything I can and try to put this stuff to the test in my own training and racing. I also had a lot of very mediocre seasons racing bikes when I was younger and have had much better results since getting a PM and moving to Coggan/Lydiard style SST base work which is why I'm such a big fan of this approach. Anyway, the information is out there and it's not too hard to separate the tradition based training from the science based training but it takes time, effort, and some healthy skepticism.
BTW, your experience with pacing falling off during your long efforts reminded me of frenchyge's very good point in a recent HR vs. PM vs. RPE thread. Many of us have had to learn how to do steady paced efforts. It's easy for me to look back and say I'd scrap the HRM now that I know what it feels like to do a steady 20 or 30 minute interval but that's 20/20 hindsight. For some reason there are folks out there that just figure it out sans instrumentation, after all there have always been top cyclists that have been able to pace time trials well even in the days before cycling computers. But a lot of us need some help to dial in the proper pacing and steady power L3/L4/L5 efforts are a lot like time trials for the appropriate durations. The power meter really helps to figure out what it means to hold steady power, but not everybody can or will make that big an investment.
The best advice I can think of is to treat those intervals like training time trials. No, they don't have to be ridden right up against your best possible effort like you would in a race but try to pace them evenly from start to finish. Don't start too hard and try not to let your speed drop during each effort.
-Learn to time trial to learn to train ... learn to train to learn to time trial....
That may not apply to someone focusing on century rides, but it's pretty much why my race results have improved in recent years. I hated TTs when I was younger and could never nail the pacing or sustain the efforts. I also had to race in the group at all times since I couldn't conceivably get off the front and go it alone for any distance. Training with the PM and doing longer steady power efforts taught me to pace which taught me to TT and some of my best finishes have happened when I went off the front, got something going and came to the finish in a small group.
Good luck,
-Dave