In an attempt to try and figure out how to ride through the night (for the N24HC event) and with what kind of effort (power), I took off to my "super secret test facility" last night "per a suggestion from Ratz", after my wife went to bed and rode for 6 hours. It was actually windy part of the night (amazing, and humid and light fog developed after 3am. My visor and glasses fogged up almost immediately so I know I gave up about 1/2 mph on the speed, but that was not the point so not a big deal. I really wanted to see what my power/HR where after having been up all day.
I also could not really seem my Garmin even when lit, so I was riding mostly blind from the perspective of what kind of power/speed/HR I was really outputing.
I rode the entire 6 hours on 7 scoops of infinit in 36 ounces of water and drank no other water during the ride.
I went about as fast as I could safely ride with the fog, which required extreme focus especially around the corners which come up every 20 seconds!
I tried to hit the lap button about every 15 minutes so it could help me fish through the data.
I stopped 3 time to "relieve" myself and check my lighting and power pack. I think I missed one at 18 so it is 30 minutes instead of 15.
Therefor laps 7, 13 & 18 have a slower average mph (and a little less power) because of stopping for over a minute during the segment.
I only "felt" kind of tired once. This is when 2 large moths flew into my light beam and field of view and scared me pretty good.
I ended up averaging about 140 watts on and average HR of 131 which is close to my upper aerobic training limit. I went around the track about 570 times!
Obviously I do not know if I can push this kind of power after having being ridding for 14 hours before it gets dark, which is what will happen at the event.
https://www.strava.com/activities/605610601
While I was riding through the night I did some math in my head: There are 256 participants in this event. The small night loop is 6.9 miles long. Accourding to my "math", that is 5280'*6.9=36,432'. Divide this by the 256 riders already signed up and you get 142'. That means on average, there is only ~140 feet between each cyclist during the night loop. To put that into perspective, that means that is like 9 people sharing that little 1/4 mile track that I just rode on. That is an amazing density. I guess no one should get lonely!
Another intersting tid-bit: Of the 256 cyclists, only 12 are riding recumbents, and 3 of them we know are riding Vendettas
