So I've come across something odd that befuddled me a little when out on a ride in the hills the past couple of days.
On the flat I've no problem with cruising along at 290 to 310 watts. It takes some concentration to make sure it stays there, as I'm not used to training at that level for long periods outdoors, but as long as I'm in the big ring, life is good.
Where the problem comes in is when I have to drop it down into the small ring as the road climbs. Perceived effort goes up - the power goes down, which is the opposite of what I'd originally believed. i.e. it's easier to put out bigger numbers on the hills. 300 watts on the flat takes concentration - 300 watts on the hills is pretty much living hell after 15 minutes.
The only two things that I could come up with is the higher torque required when climbing. Most of the time when I have been out getting lots of riding in the hills I've been pacing myself for 3 to 5 hours of actual climbing on sometimes really steep hills so I've been shying away from really hard efforts and the associated high torque efforts. The other thought is the heat - it's been getting pretty toasty out here the past few days - over 100F by 10.30am. On the flat you have a breeze, on the climbs, well... I'm sure that a juiced Iban Mayo could create his own breeze climbing a la Alpe D'Huez in 2003 at warp speed but when I'm climbing the wind goes somewhere else and leaves me to fry.
Thoughts, ideas and comments welcome...
On the flat I've no problem with cruising along at 290 to 310 watts. It takes some concentration to make sure it stays there, as I'm not used to training at that level for long periods outdoors, but as long as I'm in the big ring, life is good.
Where the problem comes in is when I have to drop it down into the small ring as the road climbs. Perceived effort goes up - the power goes down, which is the opposite of what I'd originally believed. i.e. it's easier to put out bigger numbers on the hills. 300 watts on the flat takes concentration - 300 watts on the hills is pretty much living hell after 15 minutes.
The only two things that I could come up with is the higher torque required when climbing. Most of the time when I have been out getting lots of riding in the hills I've been pacing myself for 3 to 5 hours of actual climbing on sometimes really steep hills so I've been shying away from really hard efforts and the associated high torque efforts. The other thought is the heat - it's been getting pretty toasty out here the past few days - over 100F by 10.30am. On the flat you have a breeze, on the climbs, well... I'm sure that a juiced Iban Mayo could create his own breeze climbing a la Alpe D'Huez in 2003 at warp speed but when I'm climbing the wind goes somewhere else and leaves me to fry.
Thoughts, ideas and comments welcome...