Ford Road - recovery ride

Just an easy ride to try and get the legs more limber. They are still sore after Saturday's race.

Oh my aching legs

Obviously did more than usual amount of anaerobic work yesterday.

My legs are aching all over today. Have not felt this bad in the last six months or so... :-(

TSS points at 30 minutes was about 60... So I was pushing fairly hard for the first two laps.

Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll be trying a 40K TT on Neaves Road to see if I can establish a reasonable pace for the BC Championship TT in two weeks. I've done lots of short 8-10K TT's. but they require a much harder pace than the 38K that we do on the Squamish course.

So I plan on doing a preliminary 40K on Neaves this week. Then on the weekend I'll do a pre-ride at that pace on the Squamish course. Hopefully that will give me a good idea what power output I can expect to maintain on race day.

I'm thinking that 320 watts on the outbound should be about right. Then if things go well to go up to about 325 for the return trip.

My goal is to take at least two minutes off of last years 54:45 time. Get down to 52 minutes.

BCMCA Victoria RR

Very tough course. It is a 10k loop, with about 200m of climbing per loop. But there is not a single section of this course that is either straight or flat for more than 200m!

See here for course map: BCMCA Victoria RR

This was definitely a course for people with good 1 minute power levels so you could blast up the hills and then recover on the coast downs.

I had to do the best I could by going up at my own pace (350-400 watts) and then trying to maintain a fast pace down (300-320 watts). But that still got me dropped on the second (of five) laps. As most of the 45-60 group at the front where going up at what would have taken me about 475 watts.

Had a bit of cramping in one calf by the last lap.

Ryder 8K - 11:05

New best time for me 11:05, took 10 seconds off previous best.

The new and (possibly improved) aerobar position was comfortable and maybe faster. My average power was down slightly compared to the 11:15 time (352 versus 358). So it is quite possible that getting the bars moved in (about an inch closer together) has helped reduce CdA.

I'll update this tomorrow when I see if other people where also faster. See the Ryder link on the top right for consolidated results.

Ryder 8K TT:

Duration: 11:05
Work: 234 kJ
TSS: 24.5 (intensity factor 1.152)
Norm Power: 357
VI: 1.01
Distance: 7.54 km
Elevation Gain: 84 m
Elevation Loss: 26 m
Grade: 0.8 % (58 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 776 352 watts
Heart rate: 112 186 173 bpm
Cadence: 36 105 86 rpm
Speed: 11.2 53.8 40.8 kph
Pace 1:07 5:21 1:28 min/km
Altitude: 130 197 167 m
Temperature: 22 28 25.0 Celsius

Ford Road - easy ride to try new aerobar positioning

Did an easy ride on the TT bike to see if I liked the new aerobar positioning. I'm trying to get the bars closer together... The problem being to accommodate the ergomo computer.

I tried moving the bars out and flipping the pads to the inside. Then to rotate them slightly to get the fronts back together... Almost works, except the pads have to be angled a bit to get them far enough apart and that results in to much pressure on the smaller part of them...

Not quite comfortable enough.

So after that ride I put them back to the previous positioning. But also dug up a small bar we made up last year to allow mounting the iBike. This is mounted across the aerobars and allows for a sold mounting point for the Ergomo, quite a bit forward and allows it to be mounted exactly in the middle of the bars.

This in turn allows the bars to be positioned very close, and allows for the pads to be properly positioned.

I'll try that tomorrow in the Ryder 8K TT.

Golden Ears - try out revised aerobar position

I was hoping to use the Golden Ears road for some coast down tests. This is the Race the Ridge TT course. Unfortunately the hills are either too short or to flat... While you get up to some reasonably high speed on some that is simply because you are pushing pretty hard. Not because of there is a very steep hill to go down... So not suitable for coast downs..

To top it off the rains returned and made my workout a fairly soggy one. Just did some TT work to try out the new bar position.

I have moved the aerobars out slightly, but then turned the ends in to bring my hands back to the correct position. This allows for more room through the middle for cables and computers. But requires that the arm rests be flipped over.

Overall I think this new position will work, but the armrests need a bit more tweaking.

TT Rules Summary from Slowtwitch

Summary of UCI rules relating to TT:

Slowtwitch UCI Rules Summary

Note section 1.3.019:

In that case, the Panel may conduct the following test. Using a
plumb-line, they shall check to see whether, when pedaling, the
point of the rider’s knee when at its foremost position passes
beyond a vertical line passing through the pedal spindle (see
figure 1).


Notes and interpretation:

Slowtwitch TT Dual Use Comments
Slowtwitch TT Fit Comments

Notes from above on passing tests. First for short riders, how to get the seat moved forward legally:

How is such an application made, and how often is it granted? According to the rules, the riders are given a "test" by the commissaires prior to the race. You pedal the bike, and the forward protrusion of your knee cannot pass in front of the pedal axle. Of course, you simply ride on the rearward part of the saddle during the test. As one highly-placed federation technical director put, "Everyone who takes the test passes, and these people get to ride a position unavailable to the naive or unaware."

And for taller riders, how to get another 5cm for the aerobars (80cm instead of 75cm maximum from bottom back extension to end of aerobars):

Taller riders face rule 1.3.023, which says that the maximum distance from the bottom bracket to the forward protrusion of the aerobars cannot exceed 75cm. But, you can get an extra 5cm if you take "the test." This consists of adopting the aero position aboard your bike, with your elbow angle not exceeding 120 degrees. For this test you ride on the very tip of the saddle, and you extend your arms forward to that 120 degree angle.

Here is latest from TDF, outlawing the Landis position:

VeloNews on 2007 TDF TT changes

General bikefit (more Tri than TT):

Slowtwitch Tri Bikefit

Hazelmere - 2.5 hour endurance ride

Tempo ride to the Hazelmere Dog show. About 70km, 130 TSS points.

Legs could still feel the effects from yesterdays tempo ride (with the anaerobic intervals...)

Anmore Tour plus anaerobic hill reps

Soggy day again, feels like a Vancouver March or April. so went out a little slower than normal. Compensated by doing a few extra anaerobic intervals at the end push TSS up another 20 points to 160.

The anaerobic hill reps are starting to feel a little better. Can now do 550 plus for 30 seconds without feeling like falling off the bike. This gets me out of untrained and into cat 5 territory for 1 minute power... I'm trying to extend this power level (550 watts) out to one minute which will get me into cat 4 levels for one minute.

That in turn may keep me from getting dropped on mid-range (1k 5%) type climbs when racing. The younger guys tend to power up those at about 400-500 watts. And I can't quite hang on.

I have less trouble over longer climbs (especially low grade 3-4%) that can't be climbed in under 2-3 minutes. But it seems that most of the local races have lots of short snappy hills. And not very many longer ones. So I need to work on that power range.

More wheel testing - VeloDrome

It was raining... hard... like winter....

So off to the track. Which was pretty much empty...

So I thought I would try and do some longer wheel tests. Get some baseline data for the Mavic training wheels. And the Zipp 3000/Zipp 900 disc.

Test regime was 12 laps at about 30 kmh, 16 laps at about 36 and 20 laps at about 42.

As with previous tests at the Velodrome, the CdA was lower than I see on the road. Even without AeroBars and Aero Helmet I'm seeing numbers in the 0.230 to 0.250 range. Which is similiar to TT bike with full Aero everything.

On the other hand, the CRR numbers are high. About 0.007 to 0.009. Which is a lot higher than I would expect. This could be the Tufo problem (the mavics have Tufo S3 Pro's, the Zipps S3 Lite < 165). The Zipp's seem worse (higher) than the Mavics... although in theory the S3 Lite should be better. But they are mounted with tape.. (don't know how Mavics are mounted.)

I have some Tufo Elite Jet < 135, which (at least at high PSI) are supposed have acceptable CRR values. I'm tempted to glue those to the Zipp's.

It's been a couple of months since I was at the track. It is suprising how hard it is to push bit watts (> 300) out on the track bike. Higher cadence, smaller cranks and fixed gear... probably all three. Finished with 24 minutes at about 280 avg power. Hard to do. Would have been a piece of cake on the TT bike.

More wheel testing - coast down

I took the TT bike and three sets of wheels over to Belcarra to see if I could find a nice spot to do a coast down.

The first attempt using the White Pine Beach road proved to be too short and too slow.

The next was better, using Bedwell Bay Road. Dropping for about 200m (7%) from the White Pine Beach turnoff, to then coast up to the Belcarra Park turnoff.

But the results where a bit disappointing. Even with three sets of two tests (one in each direction, the advantage of using a bowl...) for each wheel set, it was hard to get believable results. Possibly from traffic. There was not a lot, but it takes a while for the air to calm after a couple of cars go by. And in a couple of the tests there where cars passing in the opposite direction.

So nothing worth reporting. Perhaps the Bontrager Aeolus 6.5's where faster than the Zipp 404's. But maybe not...

I'm going to try again using a longer test. I think a section of the Belcarra Park Road will give me close to 900m of about 6% grade. Not a bowl. So I'll have to use time to travel fixed distance from exact same starting point. With close attention to path (stay set distance from center line.)

There is very little traffic on that road. And the longer distance should get me to a terminal velocity for a fairly long test time.

Finished the evening with a quick V02 max ride from White Pine to Belcarra to Burrard Thermal and back to White pine. 58 TSS points in 33 minutes... Mostly from the climbs.

Time Trial time estimating

I did a quick spreadsheet to compare times based on estimated CRR, CdA and power against previous time trial results. And got reasonably close results.

For the VeloVets 8k using CRR 0.004 and CdA 0.265 and adjusting the length for start and turn around times I got a finish time of 13:37. About 10 seconds faster than Saturdays time. But reasonably close. The actual time was probably slower due to the very slight amount of elevation gain, 17m; and the very slight wind (about 2-3km) in one direction.

For fun, using the same CRR and Cda (although most likely they where not quite as good last year) I put in the numbers for the Squamish TT from last August, using 280 as the average watts (as measured then with Polar). The numbers where amazingly (and most likely just luckily) close 54:47 estimated versus 54.42 actual.


TT Timing spreadsheet

The CRR, CdA and power numbers where crunched at Analytic Cycling to get the speed.

The CRR and CdA numbers where from the last wheel testing session and crunched using Alex Simmons spread sheet:

Excel spreadsheet
Google Docs Version

VeloVets Iona 10K TT - 13:47

Almost perfect conditions for VeloVets 10k TT. Warm with just a hint of wind.

Took 35 seconds off last years best time of 14:19.

Average power up as well, 368 watts.

VeloVets 10k TT:
Duration: 13:48
Work: 304 kJ
TSS: 32.4 (intensity factor 1.187)
Norm Power: 368
VI: 1
Distance: 10.064 km
Elevation Gain: 17 m
Elevation Loss: 19 m
Grade: 0.0 % (0 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 933 368 watts
Cadence: 38 102 84 rpm
Speed: 13.4 47.6 43.8 kph

Normal club social ride after, plus pre-ride warmup etc, for 170 TSS points.

Anmore Tour - late night so slow

Waited until dusk and cooler temps.. which meant a little slower pace in the dark. Also to get around some park gates etc. Mainly building base and getting in some hill rep's.

Anmore Tour:
Duration: 1:51:44 (1:52:07)
Work: 1315 kJ
TSS: 150.6 (intensity factor 0.899)
Norm Power: 279
VI: 1.42
Distance: 40.256 km
Elevation Gain: 1157 m
Elevation Loss: 1137 m
Grade: 0.0 % (20 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 787 196 watts
Speed: 1.8 59.1 21.6 kph

Ryder 8K - Hot, windy, slow, bad start...

Hot, windy, slow... average times about 30-40 seconds off.

I had a bad start, the initial push off the line managed to shift the rear wheel (didn't clamp it tight enough) so that it was rubbing. So there I was 10m from the starting line off my bike adjusting the rear wheel and tightening it... lost at least 30 seconds. Did manage to get going before the next rider :-(

Then managed to fall off the bike avoiding a (the) spectator at the finish line.

Official time was 12:26. Unofficially (from computer data) about 11:57 ...

Ryder 8K TT:
Duration: 11:57 (12:13)
Work: 243 kJ
TSS: 26.3 (intensity factor 1.15)
Norm Power: 356
VI: 1.05
Distance: 7.498 km
Elevation Gain: 81 m
Elevation Loss: 23 m
Grade: 0.8 % (58 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 834 339 watts
Speed: 4.9 54.7 37.6 kph

Most of the faster riders who have previous times where about 30-40 seconds slower as well (Tolkamp 32, Perkins 40, Squire 50). So my unofficial time would have been commensurate with that. And would have put me about 10 seconds faster than next cat 4 finisher (Blair Scott 12:03). Even at 12:26 I was second and faster than next cat 4 by 16 seconds (Wallace 12:42).

Easy days - Anmore Tour Abridged

Too hot for Vancouver... 28 Celsius. So took Monday off and did an abridged Anmore Tour today. Only about 80TSS points. Very little intensity. Still went through almost two water bottles in an hour and half...

Ergomo programable display

Ergomo released their new user display program today. It allows for customizing the default and alternate displays. It can now display to eight items on each page.

I keep power (watts), speed and stop watch on both displays, in the same position.


The default page shows the power related items like average and NP watts, TSS and distance.





The alternate page shows grade, meters climbed, heart rate, cadence and clock.

Ford Road - work on total TSS points for the week

Mainly building base. Ford Road at a reasonable pace (for the hot weather) with some hard bits to build TSS up. Finished with some little climbs up Westwood.

Ergomo was acting up a bit.. at one point it recorded about 15 seconds of (exactly) 2422 watts... which made it hard to figure out what my work load actually was (added about 50 TSS points!!) But at least it was high enough that it was immediately recognizable as a problem ... and easy to fix in WKO+ after.

Entire workout (170 watts):
Duration: 2:40:19 (2:47:24)
Work: 1634 kJ
TSS: 138.4 (intensity factor 0.72)
Norm Power: 223
VI: 1.31
Distance: 67.469 km
Elevation Gain: 692 m
Elevation Loss: 683 m
Grade: 0.0 % (0 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 697 170 watts
Speed: 1.7 46.5 25.3 kph

Mission

113 km, TSS 239. Reasonably fast sections. Poco to Mission (36km) in 55 minutes.

The intent was to put in high speed miles (kilometers..) to build base on the TT bike.

Since the testing on Wednesday was at best inconclusive for moving the seat forward I moved it back. Certainly more comfortable. I had been using a steep (27 degree?) 100mm stem. Swapped that for a 7 degree and moved it up the stack about 3mm (one medium spacer). Effectively this moved the bars down about 8mm. Still fairly comfortable.

Entire workout (199 watts):
Duration: 3:41:14 (4:02:51)
Work: 2637 kJ
TSS: 239.2 (intensity factor 0.805)
Norm Power: 250
VI: 1.26
Distance: 113.84 km
Elevation Gain: 911 m
Elevation Loss: 822 m
Grade: 0.0 % (0 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 597 199 watts
Cadence: 25 102 68 rpm
Speed: 1.6 61.8 30.9 kph

Anmore Tour - slow tonight

Too hot, TSB negative... slow times. Couldn't get up to speed or keep it up.

Finished in about 1:41. About 5 minutes off two weeks ago. Would have been a good time last year. :-(

CdA testing

CdA testing at Neaves Road... But probably a bit too much wind to get really accurate results.

Two tests. Each test was 2km out and back at target speed (kph) of:

- 26
- 32
- 38
- 44

The first set was at my current TT setup:

- Cervelo P2C
- seat in rear position
- bars set high (stem up)
- Bontrager Aeolus 6.5 wheels
- Veloflex Record Tubulars
- short sleeve skinsuit
- full finger gloves
- Rocket aero helmet
- Campanogla shoe covers
- bottle cage, no bottle

For the second test I move the seat to the forward position and reversed the stem to lower the bars (but moved up on the stack, probably about 1.5" lower.)

Results:

Test 1 Test 2
CdA 0.261 0.259
CRR 0.004 0.004

So perhaps a very slight difference in the setups with a preference to the seat forward position. But not outside the error range for the test conditions.

Probably the best I can say is that current CdA is no higher than about 0.260, and CRR no higher than 0.004. Good, but certainly not great.

The forward position with lowered bars was not very comfortable. I'm going to pickup a flat stem so I can try some intermediate positions. Forward but with more comfortable positioning of the bars.

Spread sheet

Quick ride to Kwiki Mart

Quick ride down to the Kwiki Mart... :-)

Followed by a Ford Road recovery ride (to recover from yesterdays Ford Road recovery ride.)

Ford Road - Recovery Ride (sort of)

Well it was supposed to be a recovery ride....

But after TT'ing north on Neaves (at 300 watts) some Cat 2 riders caught me after turning onto McNeil Road... took turns with them fighting the wind at 39-40k until Pitt River Bridge.

Then to finish did a new PB up Heritage (6:30) to Wilkes.

Entire workout (188 watts):
Duration: 1:55:24 (2:21:41)
Work: 1301 kJ
TSS: 126.9 (intensity factor 0.812)
Norm Power: 252
VI: 1.34
Distance: 55.236 km

Min Max Avg
Power: 0 799 188 watts
Cadence: 25 103 71 rpm
Speed: 0 60.5 28.7 kph

Ford Road Loop

Canada Day 140K Populaire

Hard and reasonably fast on the TT bike. Worked with Craig Premack to finish in 4:19 on the bike, 4:33 elapsed (too much time waiting at controls to get cards filled in...)

Plenty time spent at 300-320 watts. The power chart shows the peak at 300-320 watts.


The year to year comparison shows a large increase in average watts (181 to 239) and speed (27.8 to 33.1).



I am using this as a way to build base for my A race (BC TT Champs) in early August and to help move CTL up.

Will do the BC Randoneur 200k event next Saturday with the same emphasis. Go out hard and fast.

Then back to short and (really) hard TT specific intervals for the next two weeks.

Canada Day 140K Populaire
BC Randoneurs