Last week, I was able to get out on the road with my PC bike for a couple of hours. To my surprise, I had very little trouble keeping the bike up to speed on long stretches.
When I first rolled out, I had a little issue with my rhythm, as I hadn't ridden the PC's outside for quite some time. But by the time I was outside of the city limits, I was pedaling smoothly and was didn't feel obliged to "think" about pedaling properly.
I also spend a good amount of time riding out of the saddle. I am not sure if riding the PC's out of the saddle gives the user any training benefit, but logic tells me that it must. I found that if I kept my cadence low and applied even power throughout the pedal stroke, I was able to pedal out of the saddle for a minute at a time. The only problem was that in keeping smooth, I was sacrificing power output. When standing on hills and keeping everything smooth and even, I found that I was traveling slower than it I remained seated. Usually the reverse is true on a hill, you get out of the saddle to accelerate or to maintain the same velocity using different muscles.
Speaking of power, I just received my extra PowerTap pickup, which I will be installing on my PC bike. I also got a Campagnolo compatible freehub body so that I will no longer have to use the destroyed conversion cassette. The chain skip caused by the conversion cassette is my go to excuse for my poor TT test result 2 weeks ago.
Once I get this all installed, I will compare power outputs and corresponding heart rates on a PC bike and a non PC bike to note the differences. I promise that I will not post any power data, as always, I will keep all of the data qualitative.
Next week, after collecting a little data, I plan on attempting to complete some tempo workouts on the PCs, perhaps even some hill work. I may even post a schedule so that you all can come out and laugh at me.
4 comments:
dude, you are wasting your money and time. just buy an altitude tent. much better bang for the buck and a lot less "effort" required.
plus the lady can share the benefits so it's really like getting 2 for 1.
Actually, I am considering it once I am fully employed. It will solve the vexing problem of our "integrated" living/sleeping space. If we were sleeping in the tent, we'd have more privacy.
It cheaper than building walls.
You better make sure your tent can move enough oxygen for two people, unless you want to wake up on the verge of asphyxiation. Or so I heard.
Colin:
Good Point.
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