I had a lot of fun comparing last Saturday’s ride in San Diego to the one this weekend. Conditions couldn’t have been much different. My ride in San Diego was sunny, in the 70s, and along the ocean. My ride yesterday in the basement was under lights, in the 50s, and uh, in the basement. Interestingly, my ride on the Computrainer yesterday felt much harder than my ride in San Diego even though it was an hour shorter. All of the rides during our trip probably wore me out, plus I can’t really coast on the Computrainer while 24% of my time outdoors was coasting. Here are my power profiles for the 2 days.

Saturday, February 21 – La Jolla to Camp Pendleton

You’ll notice there is a large difference between my average power and normalized power. The average power includes all time points whether you were producing power or not (eg, time coasting downhill).  Normalized power calculates your average power only for the time that you were producing power.   For example, I coasted about 25% of the time.  By omitting the one hour of coasting, my average power would have been comparable to pedaling nonstop at 228 watts for 3 hours.

I had a couple of points during my ride when I went into VO2max on hill climbs, but most of my time was spent in the endurance/tempo zones.  I could really feel my time in the saddle after my ride.  It wasn’t like the exhaustion you feel after a race, it was more general tiredness. My longest outdoor ride since last summer.

Saturday, February 28 – Ergvideo – Adirondack Club Ride

A lot of fun with one of my favorite new Ergvideo rides.  I couldn’t believe how tired my legs felt after 5 days in San Diego.  This indoor ride would not have normally felt so hard.  I did a 30 minute warm-up, then road 2.5 hours of the Adirondack Club ride at 100% FT.  Sometimes, I would be going easy, other times I would be hammering uphill.  You’ll notice that the average and normalized power are closer, because you really can’t coast on the indoor trainer. I don’t think this ride was as hard as my ride the Saturday before, but coming at the end of two hard weeks made it more challenging!