Fred D Mentor Group - Part II (Page 36)

Has the difference between you Quarq and PT measurements been closer together in the past?  I wouldn't doubt that they could be up to 20 watts different, but what is important is that they are consistantly different.  I am assuming all your testing and training this year was with your Quarq?

Was this the exact same course as last year (loop, out and back, point to point)?  Were course conditions the same?  Did you tweak anything with your position or equipment?

I also find that anytime I do a test or TT...if there is any point in the ride where I mentally give up...I find that my results are way off from what I expect.  Even if I try to pour it on at the end.  There's just something about that mental strength.  If you're mentally committed...you can push so much more than if you're doubting yourself...even if it the pain feels the same.

It seems you've got a lot of factors that are contributing to these weird results.  I would start by doing more testing with your PT and Quarq to see if there is any more variation between them...or maybe they simply are 20 watts appart. 

Normally my PT will read about 10 watts lower, which is normal given a bit of loss in the drivetrain and slight differences in the measure. So if the PT is 200, the Quarq will be about 210. It does vary a bit.

But yesterday was the opposite.

Today I calibrated, it came back with normal calibration numbers and all behaved as expected. Very weird. Last night calibration numbers were strange.

I am in correspondence with Quarq. Their customer service is amazing

Last year's numbers were with the Quarq.

I will redo the TT next week. Nothing like 20 mins of pain to debug a powermeter.

It does go to show you that a backup plan, RPE or HR is a good thing. That's why I like to look at my HR for a given wattage. HR is my plan B

Yeah...if PT is normally lower than Quarq, then something was wrong yesterday.

If your PT was right, at 284...then maybe your quarq should have been reading 294?

Still though, that doesn't explain why you were over 1 km/hr faster at 11 lower watts unless there was a difference in your position, course, or the weather.

For sure there was a difference in position. A big one. I worked my position over the winter, dropped 4cm on the front and got narrower.

I suspect I was 294ish. One way to find out. Do it again :-)

I find these TT very difficult physiologically. Some people strive on this stuff. I hate it. I get nervous and anxious. The 2hrs leading up to it are hell. And with roadies it's even more intimidating

Good luck to all who are racing this weekend!

A quick question whilst I'm here. I got an email from the RD of the HIM i'm doing in a couple of weeks about what nutrition will be available on the course and it mentioned special needs points. Since I wasn't expecting it, I hadn't made any plans for it. So my question is what do you guys put in your special needs bag? 

I slept like crap last night.  I'm hoping for better tonight!

I just got back from a short swim sans wetsuit and going to do a quick ride on the bike to make sure everything is working well.  The bike tech guys got my rear brake working a bit better and also noticed that I was missing a spacer on the headset - he said it was rideable but put one in for me (for free).  I'm sure I'm less aero now!

Thanks everyone!

Bike is racked (do they usually take a picture of everyone's bike??), bags dropped off.  I'm the same as you Fred, I'll put the bottles and computer on my bike in the am.

I'm hoping for some sort of sleep tonight.  I'm a bit hit and miss there with races but I'm hoping last night's poor sleep will have me tired enough to get a decent sleep tonight.

The weather forecast looks great, not too warm and and much in the way of wind.  Chance of showers late in the afternoon.

Got myself a short KOM today.  Ironically a local cat 1 (16 time state champ and 2x national champ in team pursuit) had the KOM for about an hour until I loaded my ride and beat him by 1 second.  We both rode the segment within a few minutes of each other as I saw him come by me after the segment as I was waiting for the rest of my group. 

I'm going to pretend that he was going specifically for the segment, all out from the start to finish like I was...  If nothing else, he's at least going to get an email saying I took his KOM!

Well...Look at it this way.  She was trying to cook, wash her hands, take care of her nails, and clean.  Her intentions were good...LOL.

Well, I actually got a decent amount of sleep last night.  Not perfect but much better than the night before!

The weather still looks good.  Jen and Fred, have a great race, hope to see you out there!