RBK D2: 4 hours in the furnace

RBK D1: 3 hrs in the furnace

⛰️ Paul’s plum pudding pain, 2

Hoogekraal once more (just the climb and DH)

Hoogekraal initiation

Felt like 3 hours, heat is gonna be a big problem

Sports science insight: 

This is one, by the way, where the normal load calculation (100 x time x IF^2) as we discussed on a podcast this year doesn't come close to doing justice to how hard the ride is. This was definitely one of the hardest rides I've one in the last few months. I stuffed up the pacing on the first climb - classic MTB switchback climb, so very hard around steep hairpins, recover between, but it ends up being a severe effort - you can see in the image how variable the pace is (purple line, regular spikes above 450W, then right down to below 200W between them. That was too hard - I really need to learn to even out the effort and hold everything nearer 250W).

That accumulated work is not reflected in the Intensity Factor (Normalized power/FTP), but it's way more costly than just riding at 290W for 10 minutes.

Then going down, I'm still not technically good enough to recover, so I'm working 25% too hard (also isometrically), and then the next climbs hits.  All this at 32C, peaking 33C.  And then a third climb, all the same, but each one got weaker and weaker and I was way over my limit on the steep sections.  I was cooked and right on the limit despite low average power.

So the true load here should be way, way higher, because of how the power is created, and conditions, but it comes out at 80 load units, only slightly higher than a pretty easy two hour road ride last Saturday.

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Ross Tucker

Hoogekraal initiation

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RBK D2: 4 hours in the furnace

RBK D1: 3 hrs in the furnace

⛰️ Paul’s plum pudding pain, 2

Hoogekraal once more (just the climb and DH)

Hoogekraal initiation

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