Less drag, more effort

EuanB said:

Well not really but it wasn't what I expected.

For once the planets aligned and I knew where I'd be for two days on the trot at work, so on Monday took two days worth of stuff in which allowed me to leave the panniers at work bv.com.auicon biggrin.gifOpen ↗ Still had the rack on; I'm sure it's a mortal sin to okky strap a crumpler to a rack but for 30kms it seemed like the sensible thing to do.

I felt [censored] on Monday so we won't talk about that. Today though I felt relatively chipper (I'm not a monring person) and felt good on the bike. Spinned up to that point which my legs are telling me I'm at the right effort. Then I looked at my heart rate. Well I'll be, it's 15 beats higher than normal!

My percieved effort was pretty much the same as it always is but I was going faster and my heart was working harder. I probably haven't explained that very well so here goes for another stab.

I percieved that I was pedalling at exactly the same intensity as if the bike had panniers. Given less weight and drag, I would expect a higher spped.

I had a higher speed but I also had a higher heart rate, for what I percieved to be pretty much the same effort as if I was riding with panniers.

It doesn't make much sense to me.

Sounds like my last week. Two days of feeling pretty average before I got on the bike (both am and pm) and then having a great ride at higher than expected speed for no perceived effort increase. Took a break of two days, then same thing following day. And again. Feeling pretty average today, glands in neck are a little sore but no other obvious problems. I figure I am fighting some virus. But I can't work out why I felt good riding.

sinus said:

Sounds like my last week. Two days of feeling pretty average before I got on the bike (both am and pm) and then having a great ride at higher than expected speed for no perceived effort increase. Took a break of two days, then same thing following day. And again. Feeling pretty average today, glands in neck are a little sore but no other obvious problems. I figure I am fighting some virus. But I can't work out why I felt good riding.

Oh god I hope not. I've just gotten over (thought I'd gotten over) a nasty sinus infection which landed me my first civvy sick certificate. Bedded down for two days :-(, that was just before Castlemaine.

EuanB said:

Well not really but it wasn't what I expected.

For once the planets aligned and I knew where I'd be for two days on
the trot at work, so on Monday took two days worth of stuff in which
allowed me to leave the panniers at work [image:
http://www.bv.com.au/forums/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif] Still had
the rack on; I'm sure it's a mortal sin to okky strap a crumpler to a
rack but for 30kms it seemed like the sensible thing to do.

I felt [censored] on Monday so we won't talk about that. Today though I felt
relatively chipper (I'm not a monring person) and felt good on the
bike. Spinned up to that point which my legs are telling me I'm at the
right effort. Then I looked at my heart rate. Well I'll be, it's 15
beats higher than normal!

My percieved effort was pretty much the same as it always is but I was
going faster and my heart was working harder. I probably haven't
explained that very well so here goes for another stab.

I percieved that I was pedalling at exactly the same intensity as if
the bike had panniers. Given less weight and drag, I would expect a
higher spped.

Not significantly except when accelerating and climbing (and, you'll be
slower descending!)

Maybe you're getting a bug?