So I was curious as to just how much faster I'd be on the bike if I weighed 10-15 pounds less.
I found a "bike calculator" that helps answer that question. Of course I haven't a clue what kind of power I can push but I played around with it a bit to see what happens.
Here is a link to the Mooseman Bike course if you want to try and estimate some distances and elevations. Turn on Elevations from the menus on the left side of the screen.
Enter in 190lbs. 4 mile hill. pushing 150W. 300ft climb. Then change to 170lbs. It looks to be about 45 seconds faster or .5 mph faster. Which doesn't sound like much, but if you visualize that 45 seconds as him cresting the hill 45 seconds ahead of you...
I seem to choose races that have hills so I may as well try to make the job easier for myself. Although I'm starting to think I need to choose one flat course this summer.
NJ State perhaps. It's about 25 minutes away and the swim is a non-wetsuit swim which I am fine with.
2 comments:
I use a power meter, so to give you a wattage idea, @ ~160 pounds, I would push easily 250-300+ watts going up a hill like that at race pace. On the flats I am in the flat 200 range.
Add 30 pounds and recalculate. Physics says you will be pushing more watts to maintain same speed. I am curious how much of a difference it would make.
We were considering buying a power meter this year. I like the idea of being able to measure the effort and make the most of your training. Especially when it's on the trainer in the basement.
No power meter yet. I'll keep up with the HR training and putting as many miles in as I can fit. We will see where it puts me once race day rolls around.
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