How hard do you ride?

milemuncher1

My NP rarely drops below 250 Watts, even on a commute ride.

First.Aspect

I can't help myself either.

I usually have a tail wind on my way in, plus its more downhill than up, so I go easy. In the evenings, its lots of climbing into a headwind, so its either go hard, or very hard.

Ooo-err.

meanredspider

Milemuncher1 wrote:

My NP rarely drops below 250 Watts, even on a commute ride.

+1 when I'm pootling





I can never pootle. Drove me mental in AMS. Most mornings, I'd set off and try to ride like a Dutchie. If there weren't any other bike and there were no lights, I'd probably have managed but pulling away from the lights (often hunting down an RLJer) on the SS, I'd just get faster and faster. And, as it was just a short ride, I'd only have warmed up when I arrived at work then I'd break out into a sweat in the office

milemuncher1

When I ride with power meters, my Normalized power is usually around 230-250 Watts, ( about 3.8-4 W/Kg) a bit more if I'm going over Z4 for any length of time. I don't usually get out of Z2 very often, if I want to enjoy the ride.

okgo

I generally ride hard only where safe to do so, and depending on who thinks they're going to be quicker.

Normal commutes are about 200w avg and 240-250NP which means taking it pretty easy with maybe the odd spurt here and there.

My best NP for a commute was 345W (without autopause on, so may have been a bit higher) but it didn't feel all that safe as if I wasn't stopped I was going well over 25mph and it isn't ideal down Kings Road.

.Ian

Another one who can't trundle along and tend to give it 90%. Start gentle and get sucked into going faster and faster.

Still I bet most of you taking it easy is still faster than my 90%.

joncomelately

Nail it for the whole 13 minutes, apart from anywhere near the tram tracks - mainly because I'm either late or want to get home. Even when towing approx 50% extra of my bodyweight in the trailer, it's good to try and win.

I did stop tracking my commute though, as I found the only thing that drastically affected my time was the traffic lights.

squired

Decent pace, but not hard. Partly because my knees aren't in the best shape, but partly because there is no point on my route (London). There are often guys riding much faster than me who pass me within the first mile of my ride. Three quarters of the way in (total distance of 20km) I'm still with them thanks to traffic lights. If my knees were better I'd probably put in more effort sometimes, but unless you have a nice traffic and traffic light free route it doesn't really save any time.

aberdeen_lune

I'm a pootler so go as slowly as possible. In Obrees book he advises to take it very easy on recovery rides and don't bother if a granny on a shopper overtakes you. I save my legs for training and racing.

Must admit though I don't like being overtaken by guys on BSOs cruising along the pavement.

meanredspider

Aberdeen_lune wrote:

I'm a pootler so go as slowly as possible. In Obrees book he advises to take it very easy on recovery rides and don't bother if a granny on a shopper overtakes you. I save my legs for training and racing.

Must admit though I don't like being overtaken by guys on BSOs cruising along the pavement.

The advice in the book I have is that when you're working hard, no-one should overtake you, and when you're recovering, you should overtake no-one.

aberdeen_lune

Well put that man. It's more difficult to do than you would think.

I never use my commute for training, it's too short at 6 miles and there are too many cars around.

milemuncher1

Aberdeen_lune wrote:

I'm a pootler so go as slowly as possible. In Obrees book he advises to take it very easy on recovery rides and don't bother if a granny on a shopper overtakes you. I save my legs for training and racing.

Must admit though I don't like being overtaken by guys on BSOs cruising along the pavement.

It's hard not to take the bait, when someone on a BSO, wearing board shorts and flip flops, goes all 'batman' when you're trying to do an easy commute after a weekend of hills and hard sprints, but you have to bite your lip, and resist the temptation to hand their @rse to them.

Thigh_burn

Commute into central London. Not very far and I leave early, so try to add miles on in the morning - often a few laps of Regents Park - when I go all out.

On the way home, I take it much easier mainly because there are a ton of cars and each one of them seems intent on wiping me out.

straas

Set off this morning for a bit of an extended commute (45km) so decided to take it easy for the first few miles.

That lasted about 0.25 miles until I saw someone I *had* to overtake. I'd be rubbish in a race, I'd go 100% for the first bit then burn out.