Comparing level of difficulty of different segments (in terms if effort)

Pampa

Pampa

Well-Known Member
I started looking into this when trying to estimate how long I could go on a bikepacking route each day with a similar level of effort and riding time. Looking at the relationship between miles done and feet climbed I worked out a (non-scientific) basic formula to calculate the effort level of a segment: Difficulty = miles + ft/mi The units obviously don't match so I just call the result "points". Below is an example.

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Anyone knows another way of looking at this?

I'm now looking at another application of this "metric". I started a training program and I'm curious about how I'm doing versus several other times that I attempted more or less the same training, so I created sort of virtual racers out of past training data and I'm comparing how I'm doing vs previous "versions of me". The two most important metrics I compare are accumulated mi/hr (total time) and ft/hr (tot time). The thing is that I don't know if I'm doing better or not because the rides are different. For example, I'm doing better than a virtual racer on mi/hr but at a lower ft/mi and with another one I'm going slower but doing more ft/hr, so how can I get to a unifying/combined number that I can use to determine if I'm doing better or not? One option would be calculating the number I calculated above for the distance of each virtual rider but I don't know if that means anything really.

Any ideas?
 
teabagger11 said:
Over think much....just ride your bike
Or is this just a trick question..
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No trick question. I enjoy analyzing numbers, and the planning/prepping part for a race as much as riding my bike. Of course, I know that "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face", which always happens to me. Also, competition is part of what motivates me when training and training 6+ months without competing gets boring for me (I ride alone 100% of the time pretty much 100% of the time).
 
Steve Vai said:
I’ve had hilly sections go by quickly, and flat, sandy sections take all day. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. Don’t think about it.
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Yep, I'm planning to be much more prepared this time in terms of planning 🙂 The two races I've done I had no idea of the efforts ahead, where to stop/stay, etc. These numbers are more out of curiosity/for fun, and maybe to make me feel more confident that this time I'll be able to finish. If I'm in decent shape to attempt this, I'll line up no matter what.
 
scott62 said:
Water supply? Weight of required gear?
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Not sure how to work this into the numbers but I think all that goes into how fast and how fast can you climb at the end of the day, when looking at this over accumulated months of training for the same thing, because the training is similar. In terms of the weight, I'm also looking at the work done to do the distance and elevation climbed (in KJ).
 
The 2 times I went bike packing, the weight of the rig set the base line of how hard the trip was. The trip I went on where we had to carry in all the water rather than just filter it kinda sucked.
 
I don't think you are too far off with your miles+climb_factor.

maybe throw in a surface factor - ie multiply by 1 if all road, then if 50% is gravel multiply by 1.5, 100% gravel multiply by 2? and anywhere in-between.

the only other thing would be a climb difficulty factor for the individual climbs - a really steep, extended climb where you get all the elevation in one dose should be considered harder than a bunch of smaller climbs (the idea of bench press 150 10x, but can only bench 250 once.)

weight, effort, weather, mechanicals - probably falls under your prep as you noted above.

Avoid "Gotta get to my planned destination" if it adds risk. Fatigue, late night, etc.
Let the adventure present itself!
(this is from my pilot days, )
 
One of the best ways to figure this out is to simply load up your bike and go for a ride on a route you already have data for. Then you can get an idea of what the added weight of the bike packing gear will add to the effort.
 
Pampa said:
Yep, I'm planning to be much more prepared this time in terms of planning 🙂 The two races I've done I had no idea of the efforts ahead, where to stop/stay, etc. These numbers are more out of curiosity/for fun, and maybe to make me feel more confident that this time I'll be able to finish. If I'm in decent shape to attempt this, I'll line up no matter what.
Click to expand...

During the Huracan, I rode with a guy that's done CTR a dozen times Single-Speed. Him and Jesse are going out this year to do it. I may sign up and do it. Is that what you're training for?
 
Patrick said:
I don't think you are too far off with your miles+climb_factor.

maybe throw in a surface factor - ie multiply by 1 if all road, then if 50% is gravel multiply by 1.5, 100% gravel multiply by 2? and anywhere in-between.

the only other thing would be a climb difficulty factor for the individual climbs - a really steep, extended climb where you get all the elevation in one dose should be considered harder than a bunch of smaller climbs (the idea of bench press 150 10x, but can only bench 250 once.)

weight, effort, weather, mechanicals - probably falls under your prep as you noted above.

Avoid "Gotta get to my planned destination" if it adds risk. Fatigue, late night, etc.
Let the adventure present itself!
(this is from my pilot days, )
Click to expand...

Yes, the surface factor is a good idea. I started thinking about that when @Steve Vai mentioned that above. The big impact, in this race in particular, are several hard hike-a-bike sections. I have to identify those well.
 
Steve Vai said:
During the Huracan, I rode with a guy that's done CTR a dozen times Single-Speed. Him and Jesse are going out this year to do it. I may sign up and do it. Is that what you're training for?
Click to expand...

Yes!!! I was about to message you! If you are planning to consider it, you have a place to stay near the starting line and pickup from the finish line. I think you'd have a lot of fun with this one, and suffering, that's a given 🙂

SSing this thing is crazy! In my first try I rode a day with Alexandera Houchin and was amazed at her ability to adjust to the terrain - lots of long momentum-sucking sections.
 
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