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      10-04-2017, 11:20 PM   #710
Mr Tonka
is probably out riding.
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Drives: Something Italian
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Sweatypeninsula

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Quote:
Originally Posted by M_Six View Post
I was looking at some Strava runs tonight and noticing the elevation differences. As I understand Strava (and Garmin), they count elevation gains because they represent work, whereas as elevation losses do not. Mr Tonka's 33 mile run today (nice run) had a total of 289ft of elevation gain. My 10.8 mile run had 535ft of elevation gain. I can tell you my run was mostly hills. Some were rollers which are a blast to storm through, and some were just plain nasty climbs after passing over creeks. It's a shame there's no way to record wind resistance as I take from Mr Tonka's description of his run that he fought the wind for a good part of it.

Harvest is well underway here, so soon the fields will be empty again. On the one hand that makes intersections a lot less of a pain because you can see what's coming along the intersecting roads. But it also represents a loss of screening from the wind. In some places now the ground will be wide open to the horizon. Wind will become a fact of life and a factor in planning rides.
Wind = Florida hills. 16mph head wind on the way out. What sucks about riding in the evening is that as the sun sets, the wind dies down. So while i started out fighting a 16mph head wind, i only had about 6mph tail wind pushing me home. lol

You've got the idea though, don't put too much stock into what you see on Strava. You don't know the conditions or if they were in a 20 person draft pack. Flybys can help you figure that out. I saw a buddy throw down a super fast time in a segment and after viewing his flyby data, i see that he was with 8 other guys, one of which was a past Cuban national champion. haha

The elevation though, does not lie. You see someone with 6000ft of climbing in a ride, whether it be over 30 miles or 80 miles, you can guarantee that ride took significant effort.

I tend to ride solo and even when i ride with people they are usually doing specific workouts, so usually no drafting. My Wed rides are workout rides, but i'm still not back to previous form from battling some GI issues. In Jan i had increased my FTP to 278w. It's probably around 225 right now. It's frustrating... in Jan i was averaging 215w over 3 hour rides and having enough gas in the tank for 550w avg sprint over 1 min. Today i averaged 170w and average sprint watts were only 305. To add insult to injury, my calf cramped during cool down. haha

Enough with the woe is me though, a positive from tonight was a 215w 20min average. I think, that means i can start building fitness again. Which also means intervals. haha
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