Wanting to be the fastest on a particular Strava segment...

[Upstream]

Hi all,
Here's the situation... There is one particular strava segment near me that I really want to be the fastest on. I need to do it four seconds faster than my best so far. The section is 1.1 miles long and the terrain is something like this;

1. Downhill section where if I freewheeled, I could get to about 20mph. It then flattens out after about a quarter of a mile and then
2. Slightly uphill for another quarter of a mile followed by
3. Slight descent for about another quarter of a mile before
4. Uphill (but short) bit before the final flattish stretch.

Usually when riding this segment I pedal hard down the first section and get my speed up above 30mph - this isn't easy for me so then at the bottom I ease off to recover a bit. I think that this second section is the section that slows me down and makes getting the fastest time elusive.

My question is one of physics... When I'm going down that hill that I could freewheel at around 20mph, instead of pushing hard to 30+mph, would I use less energy to sit at say low to mid 20's then then use that conserved energy through section 2 or is it more energy efficient to push even harder than I have been doing in section one and then enter section 2 with a fair bit of speed to carry me through section 2?

My average speed is 25.5 and I need to get to an average of 26.2 to take it ;-)

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Rob3rt]

Don't freewheel on the descent, push on, but don't go full gas. The return for the effort in terms of mph gained is lower at high speeds so you will gain more on the flat or uphill.

TBH, at a mile long, you should be able to ride it at VO2 max or above, with a large anaerobic contribution, i.e. almost flat out, just punch it and hold on, don't be a pussy!

 

[MrGrumpy]

MTFU

 

[palinurus]

Even out your effort, although a short distance you still need to be concerned with pacing. You don't want to have to recover until you've finished. Don't ease off, do the bit you currently do hard a little easier and go harder on the rest. At the end you can crank it up to an unsustainable effort if you have anything left.

Training will help quite a lot.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Squats

 

[Andrew_P]

Do the segment with an iPhone or Android app

 

[marzjennings]

Don't think about it in distance, just consider the time, maybe just over 2 minutes of balls to the wall effort. Find a pace and effort you can hold for the time you need and peg it. You can recover after you're done, just like interval training.

 

[Hip Priest]

Do the segment with an iPhone or Android app

My iPhone app regularly records top speeds of 50mph plus, even though I never go over 35mph. If this ever happens on a segment, I made the ride private, like a good boy.

 

[Andrew_P]

My iPhone app regularly records top speeds of 50mph plus, even though I never go over 35mph. If this ever happens on a segment, I made the ride private, like a good boy.

Veloviewer alt leaderboard (when it was available) Calculated distance travelled and estimated real speed. Very rarely was the KOM running an accurate GPS signal and had travelled the 10% or more less distance than the segment was. 9/10 they were running it on a phone app

 

[jarlrmai]

My Nexus is pretty accurate I think, certainly comparing it to my magnet/reed speedo.

I always remove crazy obvious GPS errors.

KOM's on short non climbs are not really anything I put much faith in.

 

[byegad]

Put your device in a car and drive the section at a steady 60mph.

That will upset the rest of the STRAVA racers no end.

 

[Hip Priest]

They did the National TTT on my local training roads last weekend and a member of the winning team had their Strava on.

My chances of getting KOM were slim, but now they're non-existant!

 

[jarlrmai]

Should be illegal

It was the same on my commute, a guy in a race with CAT 1's etc had his Strava on when they finished some memorial race right down my route.

 

[Zofo]

My question is one of physics... When I'm going down that hill that I could freewheel at around 20mph, instead of pushing hard to 30+mph, would I use less energy to sit at say low to mid 20's then then use that conserved energy through section 2 or is it more energy efficient to push even harder than I have been doing in section one and then enter section 2 with a fair bit of speed to carry me through section 2?

My average speed is 25.5 and I need to get to an average of 26.2 to take it ;-)

Any thoughts?.

Get a life ?

 

[jdtate101]

If you use a Garmin set the data recording at 1sec, but phone app records every 5secs, therefore strava has to match the nearest datapoint recorded to the start and finish GPS co-ordinates, thereby introducing a large amount of error. The shorter the segment the more pronounced the error when using a phone.

As an example I recorded a ride on both phone and Garmin. The phone recorded an avg speed 2mph higher overall and I bagged a KOM on the phone whereas the Garmin was 13secs slower on that segment putting me in 3rd place. When I see people doing 35mph up a 10% hill sprint from a standing start (but obviously not using a car or motorbike...by looking at the rest of the data for the ride) it's always using a phone and I discount it. I've given up contesting Strava KOM's as the variation makes a joke of competition.

The reason why Phone apps tend to have longer recording intervals is all about battery life...shorter intervals slaughters phone batteries.