Bunker Hill by the numbers

Strava gives some pretty nice analysis tools (Summit membership required) if you have a power meter. Being a data geek, I thought it'd be interesting to compare some of the numbers from my first set of repeats on Bunker Hill on April 22 with the more recent go on May 2nd. Some things to keep in mind:

• I'm coming back from injury so power and endurance are both lower than normal.
• Because of the injury, I've not done much in the way of long rides. As I write this, I've only done 4 rides longer than 60 miles this year. This is uncharacteristically low.
• I weigh about 15 lbs more than I normally do (though sadly the weight is consistent between the two efforts)
• It was on average 10 degrees warmer on May 2nd.
• On the first attempt, my goal was 5K feet which I reset to 7500 during the ride so I wasn't necessarily "pacing" myself for a long effort. On the second, my goal was 10K feet or more.
• On May 2nd I also had the goal of completing the Fleche within the time limit. Although I'd previously said this was a secondary and therefore expendable goal, on the day I decided I didn't want to let the team down so I made it the primary goal.
• Focusing on the Fleche caused me to take fewer breaks than I probably should have since I was cognizant of the time limit (I made it with 6 minutes to spare).
• On the first attempt, I only had a Gu in the first 12 laps then stopped for a longer break.
• On the second attempt, food intake was more regular. I took a long break after 18 laps and had 21 minutes off the bike total. 
• The numbers are for the climb only, descent is not counted.

With that as intro, here are the numbers (lap with a long break in red):

Lap   4/22    5/2   
1     184     187
2     180     188
3     181     186
4     194     183
5     187     184
6     177     181
7     179     184
8     183     183
9     176     181
10   185     182
11   192     184
12   174     176
13   181     176
14   188     170
15   184     169
16   182     160
17   168     183
18   172     175
19   181     153
20   173     164
21   177     155
22   169     155
23   161     153
24    ---      160
25    ---      162
26    ---      152
27    ---      161
28    ---      148

So what does that tell me?

1. The first thing that stands out on the 4/22 effort is that the break at the end of the 12th lap was restorative. My power levels returned to essentially what they were prior to taking the break.
2. It appears that the break on 4/22 also slowed the overall decline in power. Although the numbers went down toward the end on both efforts, the drop was more pronounced (and more immediate) on 5/2.
3. As I've observed in my ride summary, I felt OK after the break at lap 18 but my power was off significantly and never came back.

Two data points don't necessarily constitute a trend, but this is what I'm going to try differently next time based on what I've observed:

• I'm going to take regular, longer breaks every two hours. The data suggests the earlier break on 4/22 worked better than delaying it as I did on 5/2.
• I'm going to stop briefly at the end of every other lap and eat/drink/replenish electrolytes. The goal here is not to go into a deficit on anything. This isn't planned to be an extended stop, no more than 2 minutes, but I think this should help me do a better job of maintaining power levels for a longer time. 

Not sure exactly when the next outing is going to be. I'm planning on going over to Denzer hill and doing some repeats. Not a serious effort, perhaps 4-6 repeats, just to get a "feel" for the hill and how it compares to Bunker.

Stay tuned!