Originally Posted by
horatio
Results are in... Friel's "estimate" was waaaay off, lol. But I expected that: this motor needs some work.
The Garmin Vector 2S power meter is installed on the Cannondale SIX-5, sporting a compact crank and 10-speed 105 group, with stock wheels and 23mm clinchers. With the loaded saddle bag and pedals it weighs in at 20 pounds. Fully clothed I'm tipping the scales at 175 pounds.
I picked a stretch of road just long enough to run 20 minutes at about 20 mph, which I figured would push my present "fitness" limits. I had used this same road many years before when getting a baseline for HR zones. Long story short, my 20-minute average power was
186W.
Normalized power was 200W, a little better indicator of the effort I felt. Max power was 406W. Average
HR was 178, which used to be high Zone 3. Max was 184. Average speed was 19.1 mph, very close to my estimate.
I don't think I could have pushed it much harder, but I could have maintained the pace for another 10 minutes, had I not run out of road. A full hour? Probably not, unless pancake flat. (I thought the road was fairly level, but the data shows about a .7% average downgrade. The last five minutes was on a 3-4% upgrade where the power came up quite a bit, well over 200.) I was breathing really hard on that last rise.
I used HR to judge the effort and set the pace, as it was fairly constant once stabilized, leaving power to fluctuate. (I have the power display set to average over 10 seconds. Forgot to change that prior to the ride. Will use shorter timespan from now on.) It will take some time to figure all this out, especially learning to use power rather than HR to set the pace for my workouts.
So, what's the take away? I've got a long way to go, baby(!), but with data useful for building my base, as well as planning for next year. Will I be ready for
Paris Mtn in 12-16 weeks? Maybe. It's really late to be building base, but it is what it is. I'll probably get a new cassette with a
32-tooth low, just in case.
With those numbers, you don't need 12 weeks before the climb. You could do it next week.
Is this the Paris Mountain climb?
strava.com/segments/522982. About 2 miles, 7% avg, 800 feet of climbing. Strava shows some sections near 10% grade. The other side is has less average grade, but has "the wall", which strava says is 14% for 65 feet of elevation, and might hit close to 20% briefly.
I'm older than you, weigh about the same, and have a lower NP & FTP. I'd climb it on either side, it would be a challenge, but it doesn't seem to be too much for me. And I can handle those short, very steep climbs, up to 18% -- if a portion is over 20%, then I might stall out.
I do really like my 34F-32R low gear. I can stay seated on a 10% grade, riding at a slow speed with a very low cadence, but just a moderate pedal pressure--not mashing the pedals. ( I do like to shift 2 gears harder and stand up occasionally, just to use different muscles.)
With the power meter to pace yourself, you could likely do it right now at around 160 watts for most of the climb, higher on the steeper parts. You'd be working hard, but not close to maxed out. I like to see 3-second and 30-second average power while I'm climbing. It's surprisingly hard to keep an exact power goal, I have lots of fluctuation from one pedal stroke to the next. But the averages keep me from going too hard at the start.
2.1 miles, 7%, 160 watts is
about 5 mph, so around 25 minutes. That's a VAM (vertical meters per hour) around 600, a decent climbing rate for a longer climb. (strong riders are around 1000, KOMs might be 1400 or more.) Then, next time, you'll have a better idea of pacing, and can likely go harder. It's always easier for me to repeat a climb. ("burning a match" on the steepest parts is a good strategy for speeding up a climb. A rider can save a lot of time with a harder effort on the slow, steep parts. it's more effective than a hard effort on the shallow grades.)
For comparison:
Locally, during an hour ride last week, I tried for a personal best on one of the local climbs. It's 1.0 mile, 310 feet, 6% avg. I recorded 208 watts for 6:58 elapsed time, 8.4 mph, 810 VAM. At the top, I had nothing left, and would do a longer climb (or a climb on a longer ride) at a considerably lower power. I was aiming for 200w during the climb, and kept within +-30w of that most of the time, then a harder effort for the last 30 seconds. My 7 minute effort matched your 20 minute effort. I couldn't hold that for 20 minutes.