queerpunk

This gets at part of what I was saying, too. We all know that air resistance increase with the square of speed. that means that it takes more power to go from fast to faster than it takes to go from quick to fast: the initial accelerations are the easiest and the later ones are the hardest. And unfortunately the former happen first, and the latter happen, well, later. When you're already tired.

Long power is necessary not just to gain speed endurance and ensure even splits, but also to keep accelerating. If you have a power fade through the 20 seconds (wind up and effort) of a f200, you're not generating the ability to accelerate from the speed you're at - you're just trying to reduce how fast you slow down. Speed endurance is the ability to keep applying power that accelerates you deep in an effort, and this is how you raise your top speed: not by increasing your max power in the first 5 seconds of an effort, but by lengthening your power output, increasing the power you apply in the 10-15 or second range of an effort. That's a) where more power is required to accelerate, b) where you're going faster, and c) the range that most people don't have. You can try to get to your top speed faster, or you can try to spend more time at it.