burnthesheep

You will, but not as much as many people often post about it. Hence why I said about 10% over, max. The reason is physiologically, you cannot "bank" that much extra of your critical power for an effort of a duration of an hour or so. If you can do 300 for an hour your best standalone 20min might be as high as 318 or so. But if you do 318 once for 20min up a hill, go down the hill at a LOT lower.......you won't be able to still average 300w. That's not how ftp and critical power works.

So, you have to game the physics and physiology to maximize how many KJ's you can put out for the effort........while minimizing the time spend going slowest.

So, assuming it isn't a mountain climb and descent TT......but just hills you can still pedal down. A good bet would be 105% up and 95% down and as damn close to 100% as you can bear it on the flats.

FYI.........I have more than one regional gold (in category) for USAC TT. And it's not due to monstrous power either, mostly efficiency.

genejockey 

If you're pedalling at 150 rpm without actually putting down any power, you're WASTING effort.
Again - Hence, gears.

LarrySellerz

The reason one would pedal like that is to avoid coasting, ty reduce the accordian. Just being a good wheel. Ive been riding a 42x18 ss so this happens when trying to follow fast guys on flat ground

tomato coupe

I don't have a catalog of all your previous posts so, no, I don't recall them.
That's fine and dandy, but it still means a 100kg cyclist would have to spin at 220 RPM to reach 200 W, which barely touches the "hundreds of watts" stated by the OP.

Yep, spinning at 150 RPM without putting out any useful power is incredibly pointless.

LarrySellerz

The reason one would pedal like that is to avoid coasting, to reduce the accordian. Just being a good wheel. Ive been riding a 42x18 ss so this happens when trying to follow fast guys on flat ground

tomato coupe

The article is correct on it's general points but, personally, I have a hard time putting faith in the computer simulations done by anyone that states "Air resistance increases exponentially with speed."

indyfabz

You are a pilot. Did you stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night?

bampilot06

Airport Crew room is about the same experience, so, yes I did.

indyfabz

I didn’t know that was a thing for pilots. I do know that some railroads that operate in remote areas have somewhat similar accommodations. When I spent 2 nights in Edgemont, SD, I saw crews being shuttled to what looked like a dorm building.

bampilot06

Oh, that sounds better. This is a room with some recliners thrown in.

PeteHski

Yes of course the variation in power has to be within your performance envelope. It's no good if you blow up on the climbs. But the general principle is that you bias power in proportion to the gradient. I often use Best Bike Spilt software to generate a target power profile for a course and with an FTP of around 300W, it typically recommends around 150W on descents, 200W on the flat, 250W on medium grade climbs and 300W on steep climbs. This would be over a typical 100 mile hilly course with an IF of around 0.75, so Normalized Power around 225W. If I targeted a constant 225W on the same course I would be much slower. In practice I don't follow the power targets religiously, but I certainly follow this principle and I'm pretty competitive in local events. Our local region is all rolling hills with countless punchy climbs and hardly any sustained flat. So managing power variation is critical. It's actually impossible to ride at a constant power output on these roads.

Mojo31

At least you don’t have to sleep on the floor like us peasants.

bampilot06

but it does. How would you like it to be said?

bampilot06

Something has to separate us.

bampilot06

Drag increases exponentially with speed.

genejockey 

The Rolling Stones said "What a drag it is getting old." So, does drag increase exponentially with age, or is it more of a linear function?

tomato coupe

No, it increases quadratically with speed.

bampilot06

Now we’re splitting hairs, but you can have your podium back.

bampilot06

Thats a good song, I have not heard that one in a long time.

Mothers little helper.

tomato coupe

It may be splitting hairs to you, but it doesn't help the credibility of someone claiming to do computer simulations.

genejockey 

Pedants R Us!

(Though a true pedant would point out that 'R' is not a word, and you really should use the subjective case, not the objective, and the word order is wrong.)

Mojo31

Quite an elitist attitude.

bampilot06

I wasn’t being serious.
I suspect you are not either.

Mojo31

No, not at all.

Bah Humbug

Was this thread ever serious?