ARE YOU FEELING IT?
DATA OVERLOAD IS A THING. From Whoop to Strava to Training Peaks to Wahoo to Garmin plus all the different power meters and heart rate monitors...
... it's enough to make your head spin.
Which is not what we long for.
We want our...
- our legs moving
- feet charging
- arms pulling
... our bodies to be ripping it up.
And, that can be a huge problem with the data.
Just last weekend at Gravel Nats, I looked down and saw...
... power numbers that freaked me out!
Not in a good way.
Too high.
But, was it?
My legs felt great,
my breathing as in check.
I knew I was in the zone,
on a good day...
... and that power data was crap!
Worthless.
It was the kinda data that I see on group rides and instantly back it down for fear...
... I might blow up.
Is this resonating with you?
I'm not saying we don't need data while we're racing,
I'm saying saying if we're not careful too much can foul everything.
We have a helmet for any physical blows we might encounter.
What do we have to prevent the mental blows?
On fast, technical MTB XC races, my head unit is often in my back pocket, same for crits...
... so my head is in the race.
That's one idea.
Here's another, only show a few data points when racing...
- cadence
- distance (if it's a long race)
- time (if it's a timed race)
... so we aren't overwhelmed.
So we can focus on the racing.
I wonder if the cats that crossed wheels on the climbs last weekend were staring at the numbers in disbelief instead of...
... believing they were on a good day?
Check the pic above, it's the data points I taped to my stem for Nats...
- where and how long the climbs were
- where the feed zone was
... on my Wahoo was HR, power, cadence, distance.
Here's the real question:
If we weren't freaking out on our data on group rides, Zwifties and B races...
... would we ride a lot harder?
Because, if we would, that probably means the data is nice to review after that action, but holding back...
... our amazing potential.
Kinda makes me nostalgic for the old days
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162
8 hrs
Rip On RaceDay Circuits
10 minutes recovery
90 minutes reading + Journaling