- Now when we rock up to a race, we probably have
a target race pace or power in mind, and that is
all very well if it is perfectly flat with zero wind.
But unless we are racing indoors or on a velodrome, perhaps,
then it is unlikely that is actually going to be the case.
- Exactly, well, one of the factors you obviously do
need to to consider when you are thinking about your
pacing is the wind, and if it is a headwind,
the question is, do you want to ride harder into it,
or should you actually back off a bit?
Do you want to get more aerodynamic?
Should you up your cadence, or should you lower it?
- Yeah, well we have come to the perfect location
for this because we are out in Kona, Hawaii ahead of
the Iron Man World Championships, an infamously windy
course, and thanks to our partners coming out with their
power metres today, we are going to be analysing our power
and talking you through those changes we should make
in our power, and how to make the most out of
those pesky headwinds.
(calming music)
- While riding into a headwind can be the most
demoralising things ever, and I bet some of you
have even wondered whether your brakes are rubbing.
I have certainly experienced that
a few times over the years.
- Yeah, I have definitely been there.
But what about the feeling when you have the Headwind
and then you are waiting for the tailwind home, and
it just never materialises?
Well, I can moan about the wind in that situation
all day, but when it comes to a race, well,
you can't actually change it.
So it is best that you learn how to ride into a headwind.
- So, to help me explain this today, we need to do
a little math.
And quite simply, we are hoping to show you the effects
of a headwind on our speed, and how we can make ourselves
faster into it.
- Now, we are going to be doing a one kilometre time trial
on part of the road behind us, nice and flat.
I am going to be trying to ride at 300 watts,
whilst Heather is going to be riding at 200 watts.
For this, we need to refer to a very popular online
bike calculator, that I have used a lot in the past,
and, kindly, some chap has made a very detailed spreadsheet.
We all love that.
So, what we need to do is input our rider weight,
bike weight, the temperature, all these bits of information.
And it has come back with a speed of
38.6 kilometres per hour for myself, meaning that I will
complete the one kilometre in one minute and 37 seconds
on the hoods.
- Well, for me, it calculates it at 32 kilometres
per hour, in a time of one minute 52 seconds.
But, that is obviously with zero miles per hour or
kilometres per hour of wind, and, as you can see,
we are in Hawaii, and of course there is some wind.
Apparently today it is about 13 kilometres per hour,
and it is coming from a northwesterly direction.
So, I think it is about time we went and put this
into a test in a real-life situation, and find out
what we get.
- Okay, well, now I am going to do 300 watts on the hoods
in real life with the headwind.
- Yeah, I've got my 200.
I think I am going to let you go first, Mark.
- Okay, well, here we go.
- Good luck.
You might be wondering why we are starting on the hoods.
Well, we are using this position as a control run
that we can then use to compare with
a more aero position in a moment.
But, right now, I better get going and follow
Mark up the road.
(calming music)
- The first run done on the hoods, and I was ever so
slightly slower then that predicted time with zero wind.
I actually came in with a time of one minute and 40 seconds,
which isn't quite as much as I expected it to be,
and actually it felt quite hard, but I think there was
that draught effect considering we are on a highway with the
lorries flying past, so I think if you took that away,
we would probably be a little bit slower.
- Yeah, I was six seconds slow, so I came in at a time
of one minute 58 seconds.
I really did once or twice feel like lovely surge
that you get, which is kind of affecting our experiment
a little bit here.
- Yeah, but like I said, it did feel hard, but this is where
aerodynamics really comes into play, where we are trying
to improve and reduce our frontal area.
So now I think it is time that we got into our usual
aero positions on these aero bars and see
what difference it makes.
- Yeah, when you are ready, Mark.
- Ready.
- I will chase you down.
- Let's go.
- Okay, this is a more comfortable position,
as Mark mentioned, so I am quite looking forward
to being like this, but a little concerned about
these lorries coming past.
But, anyway, I don't think I am going to catch him,
so I better go.
(calming music)
- It comes as no surprise that we were both
significantly faster on the aero bars.
I was actually 14 seconds quicker, and that was without
quite as many lorries helping as well.
- Yeah, I think it is point proven that the headwind
had a massive impact on our speed and our overall times.
I was actually around 10 seconds quicker being
in the aero bars, so aerodynamics clearly plays
a very big part our speed and trying to
cut through the wind, but say you already do have
a good position, and you are holding that on race day,
you turn a corner into a headwind, well, this is where
the big question arises, should you actually
be pushing harder when it is easier when you've
got a tailwind, or should you be pushing harder when the
going gets tough when you've got a headwind?
- Okay, we could go into some complicated science
right now, but we are going to stick to the facts that
have been successfully tried and tested already by the pros.
It was actually Graeme Obree, the former one-hour
record holder, who previously stated that "it's not
the person who goes the fastest that wins, but the person
who slows down the least that wins."
- In other words, it is really important as triathletes
to maintain or keep our average speed up throughout
our ride rather than peaking for some sections and then
stalling for others, and if you think about it, when
we are riding into headwinds, obviously we are going
slower, and that then takes up a large proportion of our
overall time on the bike.
So if we can increase just by a fraction our speed,
on that part of the ride, when we are going
into the headwinds, we are actually increasing our pace
for a large proportion of the race.
- So, yes, this does mean you are going to have to increase
your power a little bit, and as triathletes, you do need to
remember you've still got the rest of the bike and the
run to come, so there is no point in putting in surge
of hundred watts or more just so you can maintain that
pace into the headwind, because you will find that it will
come back to bite you later on.
- Yeah, instead, we should aim to ride well
and somewhat evenly.
Now, this does obviously mean that we do need to increase
our power, as you've mentioned, but it is really important
that we do keep a cap on that.
So I normally suggest somewhere around 10 to 15 watts
higher, and that you need to make sure you are monitoring
on your computer as you are going, because if you do
allow it to go any higher than this, then you are starting
to burn valuable matches that could start to impact
you later in the race.
- And I know I am guilty of this one and a lot of you
will be, is dropping your cadence
when you are riding into that headwind.
- Yeah, I can join that club, too, and I think it is because
it sort of feels quite good because it is starting
to have less effect on our heart and our lungs,
and by lowering the cadence, well, I guess we don't get
out of breath, our heart rate is not through the roof,
but actually what is happening is you are almost, like,
doing squats in the gym continually like we are lifting
a heavy weight, and it becomes quite taxing on the muscles,
particularly the quads, which, again, is really not
great prep for coming off the bike and then heading
onto the run.
- Yeah, well, the ideal sort of thought of average cadence,
I suppose, for a time trial trial would be 80 to 100 RPM,
and it is okay to drop that slightly when you are riding
into a headwind, say 5 to 10 RPM, but if you start
to drop any more, you actually need to be dropping
down your gears to compensate, so just like you would be
when you are riding up a hill, you want to try and keep
your cadence above 80 RPM, you just need to drop down
the gears, and don't be embarrassed to go out of the
big ring into the small chain ring because you are going to
be the one laughing in the long-run because
your legs will stay fresher.
- Yeah, and as with the power, it is really important
to continually monitor our cadence.
Obviously, we are all aiming to be really dialled into
our cadence and we are in tune with the ideal cadence
for ourselves, but when we are riding into a headwind,
as we have mentioned, it is very easy to slip out
of that rhythm, but, fortunately, most power metres
do pick up our cadence, and they feed that to our computers
or our head units so that we can continually, throughout
the ride, monitor that cadence and make sure you are
on the right numbers.
- So, to sum it all up, if you want to get more aero,
you want to ride a little bit harder into those headwinds
so you can maintain your speed, and you want to keep
your cadence high.
- Yeah, this is a topic we could get even more technical on,
so if it is something you are interested in or perhaps
you have your own thoughts on it or experience in it,
then please do drop those in the comment section below.
But if you like this video, hit our "thumbs up" button,
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- And if you want to get more powerful on the bike,
we have made a video with three exercises to help you
find that extra power just here.
- And if you would like to see our what is FTP functional
threshold power and how to do an FTP test,
then just click down here.