Westwood HC - new PB 14:26

Last night's WTNC was slower but I made up for it by attacking on the downhill and then leading up the climb... but I paid for it by almost popping off the back. Heart rate not quite by almost off the chart with peak 10s 184 bpm, peak 1min 182 bpm and peak 2min 180 bpm.

Nominally anything over 180 means I have to recover at a corresponding lower rate below 180 for a similar amount time...

Tonight I did my Westwood HC route, 3.72km, 279m of climbing, 7.6% grade average.

Even with a slight delay for the (new) traffic light a third of the way up I still beat last years PB by 8 seconds, 14:25 vs 14:33. Power numbers up a bit as well, probably because I'm about 1-1.5kg heavier than this time last year.

I'll hopefully have time to do the Cypress HC in two weeks (the day before the BC TT which I'm acting as race director for so won't get to do.. :-( ). This ride indicates I should be able to take about a minute or more off of last years time (38:29).

But that is a mass start race, so the time you get depends a lot on getting on and staying on a good wheel. That said, last year, by the time we got to the last 1-2km, it was down to about 2-3 riders and if I recall, I popped with about a km to go, but had only one other rider with me (just behind by a bit) for the final 500m or so. I knew that the other couple of riders where in a (vastly) different age category and couldn't find the watts to stay with them as they pulled away.