You are hereThe difference between flogging it and cruising?
The difference between flogging it and cruising?
Two weeks ago I put in a PB at the Dam so though it would be interesting to include this for comparison.
Conditions were better today, although a little warm the track was dry and had more grip. I almost had a pogo OTB on the first lap due to turning the damping on the lefty down a bit too far for some reason. This would not have been funny given I OTB'd twice on Sunday! 
Ah, but thinking about it am not sure I'm on 100% form due to Sunday's exploits: the left elbow is still a bit tender and the left leg was feeling a bit off. That said, this all felt fine after warming up for the second lap which is what this post is all about.
So anyhow, the deal is this:
Revenge of the Rush laps:
Warm up: 38:24
'Hot': 32:20. HR ave/max 178/188
Rest: 02:00
Cool down: 42:38
And today's cruise:
Warm up: 38:19
Cruise: 36:43 HR ave/max 152/172
Rest: 04:44 (well - meet up with the other guys and go for another lap)
Cool down: 42:29
Note that for a cruise the warm up and the cruise should really be the same as you don't need to warm up for a cruise do you? This could very well be the case as the warm up today included a break naturale and another stop.
But the point here is this... 4m23s is the difference between smashing myself silly and cruising along.
The HR figures are rather telling, and here's some more fun with numbers...
I know the energy burn these devices say isn't very accurate, but as a relative comparison the numbers are quite interesting. On the smash lap it said I was burning 974 cal/h whereas on the cruise this was only 786 cal/h that is a rate of burn of 12% lower when cruising. But when you look at the absolute energy burnt (525 smash it versus 481 cruise) going slower only actually saved 8.4% of your calories for the same distance. Or to put it another way... erm... OK, maybe not. Time to stop playing with spreadsheets now 
Isn't it amusing that there was 5 seconds difference on the warm up laps and 9 seconds difference on the cool down? Just call me Mr Consistency
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Interesting numbers Rob. For the Fling I did my usual race practice of going to fast too early so cramped/walked near the finish. Since then I've been toying with HR levels and speeds, trying to teach myself to cruise. I had a play HR lap on the dam earlier in the week. I was trying to keep my Max HR under 150 the whole lap. On the flats it is actually quite surprising how low your heart rate gets, and obviously the downhills even lower. However on the uphills I was really surprised how quickly my HR climbed. This could be attributable to my riding technique which is momentum based for most climbs. Anyway, I had to change technique and tackle most things in granny/granny with smooth cadence to keep the rate down. This made things much more challenging. Heart break hill in granny granny, crawling along, bouncing off tiny obstacles was soooo much harder than moving faster. (For reference I didn't keep it under 150, but I think with some practice it could be doable for me) I think this sort of lap every now and then would make a refreshing challenge. I guess it's also good to let people go by without having the competitor in your head start screaming to overtake them.