Practicing my pacing

number geek

So after last weekend's failed long ride at the Hounslow 100, I was back out onto the A24 yesterday, riding solo and seeing if I could ride consistently at a set intensity factor. I  decided on 0.70 IF as this is more on the conservative side, and it would be interesting to see what sort of pace that would translate to.

The numbers that came back were pretty pleasing. Firstly, I was able to nail the correct IF. It started out a little high with a few early hills but I was able to keep it nice and consistent after that, and with a few Horton loops near home I actually got it under 0.7, which was very cool. 19.4mph average speed so something in the region of a 5:35-40 bike split, depending on wind and heat etc. It would be good if I can keep knocking my ftp up over the next few weeks and see if I can bring that projected time down a bit. I might feed these numbers into Best bike Split and see what that gives me. The golden question, can I run off the bike at this intensity? Yes, pretty comfortable with being able to, although my niggly right calf has come back so I'm laying off running for a few days.

I've had a couple of really good swims this week. Friday's swim was 30x100 broken into three sets with the middle 10 being off 2 minutes and all the reps around my CSS pace of 1:46. The last time I did this session I was bent over double at the end of the pool, seeing stars. This time, it was a lot more comfortable; a feeling of being nicely over-exerted rather than 'fu*k, I'm going to die.'