Perceived Exertion - Update

Mt Keira - 0.22.59 - pacing by Perceived Exertion - Update.

Almost a minute better than my previous attempt using pacing by Power.

Felt very weird not having a guide of some sort to reference back to. I decided just to pace at an uncomfortable level for as long as i could. I had no idea of power or speed data - only cadence, which i decided to keep as high as i could.

16 minutes in and i blew up, I simply went too hard too soon, by this stage I was barely turning the cranks over... after a minute or so, my legs started to feel good again and i got into a easy rhythm and continued up. After a minute or two I looked down at my watch and noticed that i would probably come close to my previous best time, so i decided to dig in for the last kilometre or so and try and at least match my previous time.

So what does it all mean?

1. Pacing by FTP is only good if your FTP is correct!
2. Pacing by power boxes you in and doesn't let out the inner mongrel.
3. Blowups from perceived exertion are to be expected, but may be worth the punt.

I think there is a middle ground somewhere in all of this. Sometimes the power meter has to be ignored - and be used more as a reference not a limiter. This probably holds true for short bursts like the Mt Keira TT which is only 20 odd minutes of effort. I would expect that power pacing would be far more valuable for longer durations.

- Update: Well the power graph below tells a strange story, there really isn't a significant jump up in power between the two passes i made up Mt Keira. What is startling is the large variation in power throughout the climb - both graphs have identical smoothing!

1/ - 12/3/08 - 22.59min

2/ - 06/2/08 - 23.50

You can see on the `fast` graph where I bonked, and the wild fluctuations in power and speed. The second chart is more `flat lined` where power and speed are both fairly constant - probably something not conducive to a fast time.