So what does easy / steady or hard mean?  Several regulars on the Bird Hills ride recon I don’t know the meaning of words especially the first two words.   More in this in a moment, but first to days steady ride.

Only 4 riders turned up today.  In addition to myself there was Danuta, Les and Colin all looking forward to a steady ride on a mild dull Sunday just before Christmas.  Mike W had texted to say he was suffering with a cold and Stuart made apologies the previous week.  Les took charge of the route today and we headed up Hawthorn hill and round into the Great Park.  Out of interest does anyone know why the speed limit in the park is a massive 38 mph which is also a very unusual number?

We left the park and headed down Crimp Hill and into Old Windsor for a right turn on along the Thames at Runnymede and on across Staines Bridge.  Today was Danuta’s first time in Staines (The girl from Cookham Dean needs to get out more).  With Les still firmly in charge we headed to Wraysbury, Datchet, Eton and across Eton Wick common were a minor echelon formed, due to the cross wind.

We crossed the A4 at Taplow and headed on up to the A40 do drop down into Woburn Green, Bourne End and on to Marlow, where Danuta headed for home.  The remaining 3 continued on to Henley before heading back to the golf club via Wargrave and Twyford.  Colin took the Twyford winey sprint and I picked up the sprint into the golf club.

Today was indeed a moderate ride and we completed just under 60 flattish miles at 18.7mph.

Today we did around 970ft of climbing compared to last weeks 1300ft.  But that can be deceptive.  The B383 heading towards the Great Park rolls along with a number of short sharp climbs.  These short climbs can easily consume vast amounts of effort as it’s tempting to push to keep the speed up, especially early on during the ride.  Lots of short sharp efforts can quickly fatigue riders and this may have contributed to Les’s difficulties latter on. 

So why do I say moderate.  My SRM power meter reported an average power of 199w, 221w normalised power and an intensity factor or 0.724. If I compare to last week I did an average power of 218w, 257w normalised with an intensity factor or 0.828.  So today’s ride was about 10% easier than last week.  If you want more details on these terms looking on www.trainingpeaks.com.