Back to the track and Computrainer testing

Back to the track last night... did two sessions at about 300 watts avg, 15 minutes and 25 minutes. Had to get home so only a short workout.

Former Canadian track star Don Gilmore was over from Vancouver Island tuning up for the upcoming World Master Track meet in Australia. Scott and Sarah Laliberte where there doing the same.

Today was supposed to be outdoors, four hours... weather (rain, lots of rain) intervened.

So I did some testing on the computrainer.

First to see if I could get track bike setup a bit better. I brought it home and compared the setup to road bike (Cervelo Soloist) and the TT bike (P2C). I think the seat was a centimeter too low, and the bars about 1 cm too low and 1 cm too close. Brought the seat up and swapped the 100mm stem for a 110, reversing and dropping it down one spacer.

I then did some computrainer ERG workouts. Specifically the "senior warmup" which is a 10 minute ramp from 150 to 280 watts, then three repeats of two minutes at 100, then one minute at 340 watts, then a cool down.

The new setup seemed to be a little more comfortable and easier to maintain 340 watts for a minute.

I also ran some of the tests with the ergomo so I could compare what it recorded to the computrainer. While not identical, the TSS values where reasonably close (18.7 versus 19.0). The average watts where a little farther apart but normalized power amost identical.

I ended up doing three sets of the "senior warmup". All at fairly high cadence (high cadence is useful for track racing). Average over a 100, as high (during the one minute 350 watt sets) as 120 RPM.

As always these workouts seem (PE) to be much harder than the resulting numbers indicate. (Note that these are ERG workouts, so ignore the distance and speed numbers, they are meaningless, the Computrainer sets load to specific wattage regardless of speed or cadence etc.)

Warmup Senior (203 watts):

Duration: 22:00
Work: 268 kJ
TSS: 19.5 (intensity factor 0.729)
Norm Power: 233
VI: 1.15
Distance: 28.119 km
Elevation Gain: 0 m
Elevation Loss: 0 m
Grade: 0.0 % (0 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 378 203 watts
Cadence: 2 120 104 rpm
Speed: 0 87.6 76.7 kph
Pace 0:41 0:00 0:47 min/km
Altitude: 0 0 0 m
Crank Torque: 0 52.5 18.6 N-m

Ford Road - recovery / tempo

Easy ride today.

Forecast is for rain. So most likely track tomorrow night and Computrainer on Sunday...

No idea if I'll be able to be able to get my workouts in... was supposed to do 4 hours on Sunday.

Anmore Tour - Tempo / Threshold

Tempo / Threshold workout.

The Ergomo was reporting too high. I thought there was something wrong with yesterdays ride, the fourth of the 4 identical intervals had higher overall wattage for slightly longer time. Then today the whole ride was also obviously showing numbers far too high.

Working with yesterdays file, applying a scaling factor of .80 got the 4th interval power to almost identical values to the previous 3 tries. (I've updated yesterdays blog entry with updated info.) Todays numbers have also been scaled by .80. This gives overall ride stat's in line with previous times I have done this route.

Lansdown - 4x10 LT-4

4x10 LT-4 workout... ended with two short 20-30 second all out sprints, to see if 5 sec power was still at about 1000 watts.

Tomorrow is scheduled to be 2:00 hour tempo ride. Hopefully the weather will hold. If it doesn't I may head over to the track. Racing starts a week this Friday, I should get some time in on the track prior to that.

[Update: Sep 26, Ergomo was mis-behaving yesterday, it was reporting watts about 20% too high, starting with the 4th interval, I've scaled things back, which will reduce ATL/CTL a bit, and the overall trip numbers... Numbers below are fixed.]

Entire workout (172 watts):

Duration: 1:45:49 (1:47:33)
Work: 1091 kJ
TSS: 118 (intensity factor 0.818)
Norm Power: 262
VI: 1.52
Distance: 31.171 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 867 172 watts
Heart rate: 0 181 115 bpm
Cadence: 1 123 62 rpm
Speed: 0.1 42.7 17.7 kph
Pace 1:24 600:00 3:24 min/km
Crank Torque: 0 76.6 27.0 N-m

Peak 5s (819 watts):

Duration: 0:05
Work: 4 kJ
TSS: n/a
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 52 m
Min Max Avg
Power: 780 867 819 watts
Heart rate: 113 114 114 bpm
Cadence: 108 120 116 rpm
Speed: 34.6 39.8 37.3 kph
Pace 1:30 1:44 1:37 min/km
Crank Torque: 62.6 76.6 67.6 N-m

CVCC Mt. Washington HC - pictures

Some Mt. Washington HC pictures courtesy of Comox Valley Cycling Club.

Yours truly...










John Sullivan working hard...















And Michel Pelletier winning the Watts/minute competition..

The Road Cyclist's Guide to Training by Power - Charles Howe with Andrew Coggan

A good post over at the Mid-Georgia Mid-pack training referencing the "The Road Cyclist's Guide to Training by Power" by Charles Howe with Dr. Andrew Coggan's input.

If you are interested in racing and want to know how a power meter can help you train you should start by reading this document. It is a free guide outlining most of the extant ideas and concepts on training for road racing using power meters.

Contents:

2 Foreword and acknowledgements
3 Introduction
5 Energetics of road cycling
9 Power-based training levels
14 Training principles
16 Power Profiling™
23 The annual training plan
28 Miscellaneous notes on training
38 Tables and illustrations
47 Bibliography
58 Appendices
65 Endpages

The introduction is short and covers the pro's and con's or using a power meter:

BENEFITS OF POWER-BASED TRAINING
1. It eliminates guesswork from gauging exercise intensity.
2. Similarly, power-measuring systems allow the demands of racing to be quantified, using interpretive tools such as Normalized Power and Quadrant Analysis,
3. It allows fitness to be precisely quantified, and training regimes to be objectively evaluated
4. It allows training load to be more realistically assessed and effectively managed,
5. Powermeters have other uses, such as pacing during time trials and even breakaways in mass start races; aerodynamic testing; stationary trainer calibration; and possibly as an aid to dieting and weight control.

DRAWBACKS TO TRAINING BY POWER
Still, any advocate of power-based training should have an appreciation of its limitations:
1. It appeals to the more analytical and technically-oriented.
2. It lends itself to a structured program, while demanding discipline and patience.
3. It is conducive to solitary training.
4. Even the most affordable models are expensive.

Energetics of road cycling, covers the theory behind power and how it is produced in the body. Mainly the phosphagen system, non-aerobic glycolysis and the aerobic system. Also explaining how each needs to be tested and trained separately.

Power-based training, (section by Andrew Coggan) is adapted from earlier postings and proposes a training regime based on power levels. From

Level 1 - Active recuperation
Level 2 - Endurance
Level 3 - Tempo
Level 4 - Lactate Threshold
Level 5 - Maximal aerobic power
Level 6 - Aerobic Capacity
Level 7 - Neuromuscular power

These are matched to the power systems previously introduced and the expected physiological and performance adaptations from training at each level is discussed.

Training principles, covers the concepts for how to train:

1. Periodization
2. Individualization
3. Progessive Overload
4. Balance
5. Specificity
6. Reversibility
7. Tapering and Peaking
8. Evaluation
9. Rest, recuperation and diet

Power Profiling™. is another posting from Andrew Coggan explaining his Power Profile Charts. These use your best 5 second, 1 minute, 5 minute and Functional Threshold (60 minute) power levels to show your strengths and weaknesses. These levels roughly equate to the power sources suggested above. And the shape of your power profile to some extent will show what you should be good at (e.g. sprinting versus road racing versus time trialing).

The annual training plan, discusses how to build an annual training plan based on precepts proposed in the previous sections.

Miscellaneous notes on, provides some additional information. Notably a section on sprint and interval workout tips, again from the perspectives gained from being able to measure power.

This quote explains quite succinctly what I need to do for sprinting:

As Adam Myerson has pointed out, someone with a high maximum wattage should typically go later, i.e., follow wheels, save their burst, and come off a wheel at the last moment, whereas a rider with a lower maximum but a good average sprint wattage needs to go early and
try to hold on until the finish.

Another sub-section "Structure and Stochasticity" discusses "Racing is the best form of training".

Heart rate monitors are discussed in "Hi-Intensity confusion: the misuse of Heart Rate".

Overtraining and how to avoid it is covered. Along with some suggestions and comments on indoor training.

Finally extensive tables and charts are provided showing the types of information that can be gained. And an extensive bibliography is provided.

CVCC Mt. Washington HC - 59:37

1059m of climbing over 16.5km. As steep as 14-15% in places, but also with a few short downhill bits to catch your breath in. Best times today where about 47 to 52 minutes.

I went over with John Sullivan who did 59:15 and Michel Pelletier 60:27.

John beat me to the top by a few seconds, 59:14 to get 9th overall. My time was 59:37 to get 10th overall out a a field of 28 male riders. And certainly I think John and I where the first in our general age categories (John is 60-64 age group.)

I thought my power numbers where slightly down, probably due to slow RPM's.. harder to get power up and keep it up. Certainly I felt better and stronger in all of the portions where the grade was lower (say 6% and less.) and put out I think higher numbers there.

Mt Washington HC:

Duration: 59:37
Work: 1067 kJ
TSS: 91 (intensity factor 0.957)
Norm Power: 306
VI: 1.03
Distance: 16.498 km
Elevation Gain: 1059 m
Elevation Loss: 28 m
Grade: 6.3 % (1031 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 777 298 watts
Heart rate: 0 179 103 bpm
Cadence: 40 113 67 rpm
Speed: 4.3 59.5 16.6 kph
Pace 1:01 13:57 3:37 min/km
Altitude: 130 1161 686 m
Crank Torque: 0 102.7 44.2 N-m
Temperature: 14 19 16.7 Celsius

Here for example are two sections about 5 minutes apart just past the middle of the climb showing 300 avg watts over a short section at 7.9% grade and then 277 avg watts over 11.7% grade. Cadence dropped from 73 to 54.

8% avg grade:

Duration: 1:40
Work: 30 kJ
TSS: 2.6 (intensity factor 0.966)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 407 m
Elevation Gain: 31 m
Elevation Loss: 0 m
Grade: 7.9 % (32 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 190 376 300 watts
Heart rate: 0 170 88 bpm
Cadence: 60 73 66 rpm
Speed: 13.1 15.8 14.6 kph
Pace 3:48 4:35 4:06 min/km
Altitude: 815 846 831 m
Crank Torque: 27.5 59.8 43.6 N-m
Temperature: 17 17 17.0 Celsius

12% avg grade:

Duration: 1:50
Work: 30 kJ
TSS: 2.3 (intensity factor 0.876)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 301 m
Elevation Gain: 34 m
Elevation Loss: 0 m
Grade: 11.7 % (35 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 204 343 277 watts
Heart rate: 0 166 15 bpm
Cadence: 44 54 50 rpm
Speed: 8.4 10.6 9.9 kph
Pace 5:40 7:09 6:05 min/km
Altitude: 914 948 931 m
Crank Torque: 39.7 69.7 52.6 N-m
Temperature: 17 18 17.1 Celsius

I normally train and race on an 11:23 cassette, but did put on an 12:25 for today. Given the above numbers it seems that this climb might have benefited from a 12:27 setup.


Here is course route. I'm using a new map site which is a little simpler to use and has a better elevation view (click through to the "View this route in MapMyRide" and then add select "Display elevation" in the view options.)

Warmup for HC

Didn't want to go too hard today, really a warm up for tomorrows hill climb. But since I couldn't get out for the last two days, still wanted to get the TSS points up a bit... Even so ATL down, so CTL also starts down... at least that leaves TSB positive for the HC..

I'll have to buck and put in more hours next week, weather permitting. I seem to be stuck cycling (pun not or maybe not intended) up and down between 70 and 80 for CTL. I'm less worried about getting up higher than simply making sure that I can keep it at least close to this level until late fall. Having it higher would simply give me more reserve if the weather or work keeps me off the bike.

BC Championship (Squamish) TT pictures

Finally have some pictures from this summers BC TT.. shows off my (not all that) aero position reasonably well.

Comments and suggestions for improvement welcome.

Computrainer and Ford Road

Yesterday it was raining, so coach supplied an alternate Computrainer workout. Nothing special, just a 15 minute warm up moving from 100 - 200 watts, then 7 repeats of 3 minutes at 200, then 3 minute ramp of 200 to 290..., finishing with 15 minutes at 150. But boy that hurt... and only 55 TSS points :-)

Computrainer workouts, especially the ERG based ones (the trainer makes you do the required watts regardless of the RPM you are pedaling at) are hard. Similar to track workouts, no coasting to let your legs get a little rest, shed some lactic acid, get your breath for the next climb etc... You go at exactly the pace the workout specifies (or stop completely...) so unless the workout left some slack at a very low wattage (like under 100) you work continuously for the length of the workout. I find that doing the high (290 watts !!???) sections at a high cadence (>90) helps...

Today the sun was shining again, so back to Ford Road for my standard tempo workout. Although I had to pickup the pace at the end when I realized that I was running out of daylight and had forgotten to put the blinky lights back on my P2c... So it was a bit of a race back home before it got too dark to be safe on the road.

Change of plans for next weekend. John Sullivan and Michel Pelltier decided to go over to Vancouver Island and do the BCMCA Mt Washington Hill Climb. Over 1000m of climbing over 19km... Apparently with some sections at the end close to 18% grade. Run as a mass start race.

So how can I resist... even though I'm a little to heavy to be competitive in hill climbs. Especially since the popular local Mt. Seymour Hill Climb didn't take place this year (900m over 12km). Should be fun.

Won't get the same bump in CTL as the 200km event but should still be fairly good. I'll have to try and get out and do another Mission ride over the next week or two. But CTL is at least back over 80.. Which is (in my mind) the minimum I want. So as long as I keep it at that level, I know that I can bump it up another 5-8 TSS points with another good weekend. Our weather turns wet now, but it's reasonable to assume I'll get at least one good weekend in October to put in a couple of long rides.

Track racing starts on either Oct 12 or Oct 19. It will be interesting to see how popular it is this year. We went from 10-12 in A and B groups two years ago to 12-14 in A, B and C last year.. double the riders. If we double again this year there will be too many people on the track even if they add a D (novice) group. I race the B group and it gets a bit hectic on our 200m track with more than about 12-14 people racing.

Mission

Wet and soggy day.. fortunately not cold. But enough to make it hard to concentrate and keep your speed up. Still managed to do about 34kph average out to Mission and back (not including stops for lights etc..) The end result was 200+ TSS points which finally got ATL pushed up and CTL backup to 80.

I'll have to work to maintain CTL over 80 till the end of the week. Next week (assuming reasonable weather) I'll be doing the BC Randeneurs Flatlander 200km on Sunday. Which should be be good for about 400TSS points and a corresponding boost to CTL...

Mission and Back:

Duration: 2:24:01 (2:31:22)
Work: 1881 kJ
TSS: 141.2 (intensity factor 0.767)
Norm Power: 245
VI: 1.13
Distance: 82.588 km
Elevation Gain: 88 m
Elevation Loss: 102 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-14 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 474 218 watts
Heart rate: 0 159 136 bpm
Cadence: 26 101 73 rpm
Speed: 4.5 55.4 34.4 kph
Pace 1:05 13:20 1:45 min/km
Altitude: 0 17 4 m
Crank Torque: 0 67.9 28.6 N-m
Temperature: 13 14 13.5 Celsius

I still had some time left to do when I got back into Port Moody, so I finished with some slow climbs up Westwood.

Entire workout (200 watts):

Duration: 4:00:23 (4:20:10)
Work: 2886 kJ
TSS: 220.3 (intensity factor 0.741)
Norm Power: 237
VI: 1.19
Distance: 116.132 km
Elevation Gain: 597 m
Elevation Loss: 606 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-9 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 565 200 watts
Heart rate: 0 159 131 bpm
Cadence: 26 105 69 rpm
Speed: 0 55.4 29.0 kph
Pace 1:05 0:00 2:04 min/km
Altitude: 0 311 32 m
Crank Torque: 0 96.6 28.5 N-m
Temperature: 11 19 13.4 Celsius

The distance above is out by about 4km, the wheel magnet was slightly out of alignment and I didn't notice until I after I got started.

Johnson Road and Plateau hill climbs

A couple of hill climbs at threshold and endurance/tempo for the balance.

Interesting in that I did Johnson Road hill climb (about 320m of climbing in just under 4km) in about 16:30. Which I would have thought a great time last year... And in fact only 10 seconds over my previous best time from May of this year... Last years times where almost all over 17 minutes.

But then I was trying for a PB, today it was the second climb of the day and I wasn't really pushing that hard until the second half.. In fact I was 30 seconds behind my pace at the mid-point and gained 20 seconds back in the second half.

So I'm presuming if I had done Johnson first and with a bit more of an effort I would have been a little faster. The average power for the first climb was (for example) 325 watts. Although again there I wasn't pushing for a high number. Shows what higher FTP does.

Johnson/Parkway Climb:

Duration: 16:58
Work: 325 kJ
TSS: 28.8 (intensity factor 1.009)
Norm Power: 323
VI: 1.01
Distance: 3.954 km
Elevation Gain: 326 m
Elevation Loss: 0 m
Grade: 8.3 % (326 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 31 523 319 watts
Heart rate: 95 175 161 bpm
Cadence: 34 97 60 rpm
Speed: 7.2 29.4 14.0 kph
Pace 2:02 8:20 4:17 min/km
Altitude: 35 361 195 m
Crank Torque: 8.7 84.1 52.5 N-m
Temperature: 22 23 22.9 Celsius

Entire workout (132 watts):

Duration: 2:39:37 (3:02:00)
Work: 1260 kJ
TSS: 134.5 (intensity factor 0.711)
Norm Power: 228
VI: 1.73
Distance: 50.106 km
Elevation Gain: 1173 m
Elevation Loss: 1157 m
Grade: 0.0 % (16 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 755 132 watts
Heart rate: 0 175 93 bpm
Cadence: 25 98 56 rpm
Speed: 1.6 52.6 18.8 kph
Pace 1:08 37:30 3:11 min/km
Altitude: 23 366 154 m
Crank Torque: 0 84.6 22.9 N-m
Temperature: 21 24 22.4 Celsius

This is all in aid of getting ATL and therefore CTL up. Tomorrow will be mostly flat, about 120km run out to Mission and back on the TT bike. Try for average speed of about 32-33kph.


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Upper Heritage Intervals - Threshold

Warming up for a (planned) hard weekend... some threshold intervals.

Entire workout (150 watts):

Duration: 1:40:07 (1:50:24)
Work: 901 kJ
TSS: 97.3 (intensity factor 0.764)
Norm Power: 244
VI: 1.63
Distance: 28.627 km
Elevation Gain: 874 m
Elevation Loss: 865 m
Grade: 0.0 % (9 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 767 150 watts
Heart rate: 0 175 113 bpm
Cadence: 24 106 55 rpm
Speed: 0 48.6 17.2 kph
Pace 1:14 0:00 3:30 min/km
Altitude: 34 297 150 m
Crank Torque: 0 103.9 26.3 N-m
Temperature: 18 26 19.9 Celsius

1x5 minute threshold, then 4x3 minute at threshold, then 15 minutes at tempo.

Best (and last) of the 3 minute threshold workouts, Interval 4:

Duration: 3:37
Work: 71 kJ
TSS: 7.1 (intensity factor 1.082)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 1.333 km
Elevation Gain: 58 m
Elevation Loss: 7 m
Grade: 3.8 % (51 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 596 327 watts
Heart rate: 101 171 160 bpm
Cadence: 38 105 68 rpm
Speed: 14.3 48.6 22.1 kph
Pace 1:14 4:12 2:43 min/km
Altitude: 129 186 163 m
Crank Torque: 0 66.9 45.9 N-m
Temperature: 19 19 19.0 Celsius

Anmore Tour Extended

Added still more to my Anmore Tour. Slightly lower pace, little less VO2Max and more at Threshold and then (last hour) mostly and Tempo pace.

This is starting to get ATL up and therefore CTL. The plan for this weekend is some long hours at an endurance pace to get ready for the BC Randeneurs Flatlander 200km event the weekend after.

I've got till mid-October to get CTL back to 90... (start of track season, and probably about when the rainy season will start...)

Anmore Tour:

Duration: 2:48:00 (2:49:26)
Work: 1952 kJ
TSS: 178.8 (intensity factor 0.799)
Norm Power: 256
VI: 1.32
Distance: 65.475 km
Elevation Gain: 1647 m
Elevation Loss: 1646 m
Grade: 0.0 % (1 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 849 194 watts
Heart rate: 0 0 0 bpm
Cadence: 26 112 65 rpm
Speed: 1.6 60.5 23.4 kph
Pace 0:60 37:30 2:34 min/km
Altitude: 10 306 124 m
Crank Torque: 0 126.6 29.6 N-m
Temperature: 17 25 19.4 Celsius

Ford Road - recovery ride

Two easy rides.. Did Buntzen Lake loop on Sunday and Ford Road today.

Trying out a new export from WKO+ via Excel to create a simple graphic showing TSB, ATL, CTL TS and IF.

Alternative Perspectives

Very good article on training with power by Dr. Philip Skiba and Terry Kerrigan.

Alternative Perspectives

To summarize his rules:

1. Know what system you are training.
2. Build your foundation.
3. Go short and fast before you go long and fast.
4. Don’t do anything in the race you didn’t first do in training!

The emphasis is on getting your body to first go fast, then to go fast and long. This is exactly what I'm attempting to do with my Anmore Tour workout. I have built up my FTP doing it, built up my speed (really VO2Max) doing a lot of short TT's (Ryder and VeloVets), and now I'm preparing for next season by extending that core workout by about 30%.

To quote directly from this article:

In other words, the athlete does not simply ride long and slow. Rather, the athlete rides in a directed way with extended periods of time at a high LSD / low-end tempo pace. An increase of just 5-10% results in very significant gains in terms of Ironman race power over the long term.

VeloVets Iona 10km TT

Very high winds. About 25kph from the ocean which helped enormously for the trip out. Averaged 49.2kph...

But was a bear to go against coming back. Was only able to average 36.9 kph.

My overall power was down, only able to average 335 watts.

Still a good time, 14:21. Just not as good as two months ago (13:48).

Rest of the day was mostly a social ride. Except for the final ride back out to Iona Beach against the wind. Which was against the wind again.

VeloVets 10km TT:

Duration: 14:21
Work: 288 kJ
TSS: 26.8 (intensity factor 1.058)
Norm Power: 339
VI: 1.01
Distance: 10.082 km
Elevation Gain: 11 m
Elevation Loss: 14 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-3 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 960 335 watts
Heart rate: 86 182 173 bpm
Cadence: 39 106 85 rpm
Speed: 11.7 55.8 42.2 kph
Pace 1:05 5:08 1:25 min/km
Altitude: 123 129 126 m
Crank Torque: 0 114.5 37.6 N-m
Temperature: 17 19 17.8 Celsius

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Anmore Tour Extended - threshold

This was first attempt at extending this workout. It is a threshold workout and I want to extend it from about 95 to 150 minutes. When I first started doing this route my times where well over 120 minutes. I've moved the time down, but haven't added length to pull the overall time back up.

This is reasonably easily done on this route by doubling back and redoing some of the sections a second time. Today I added the Belcarra Park, Whitepine Beach and Buntzen Lake sections. This added a little over 30 minutes and about 10km, and 200m more climbing.

I think I'll need to also add a second loop back to the Burrard Thermal plant, which would add another 6km and 130m of climbing. That should get me to about 2:30.

I wanted to get this new workout mapped out and done this year so I have some reference times for next spring.

Anmore Tour Extended:

Duration: 2:19:38 (2:20:53)
Work: 1763 kJ
TSS: 170.2 (intensity factor 0.855)
Norm Power: 274
VI: 1.3
Distance: 56.841 km
Elevation Gain: 1418 m
Elevation Loss: 1418 m
Grade: 0.0 % (0 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 815 210 watts
Heart rate: 0 178 93 bpm
Cadence: 26 116 68 rpm
Speed: 2.4 63 24.4 kph
Pace 0:57 25:00 2:27 min/km
Altitude: 18 280 131 m
Crank Torque: 0 126.5 30.5 N-m
Temperature: 16 23 17.9 Celsius

Ford Road Reversed - recovery

This was supposed to be a recovery ride, but I felt far to good to go slow... :-)

So more like a short endurance ride with some mini threshold intervals thrown in.

Have to get used to the early nights. Almost got caught in the dark, with no lights or blinkies on... Coming home around Coquitlam Mall in traffic at dusk... Not fun. But the alternative would have taken longer and then I would have been in the dark literally. As it was just managed to get onto Heritage and climb up it before loosing all light.

Trying to get ATL up. So I can push CTL up before the rainy season (Nov/Dec) arrives here.

Ford Road Map

Ford Road Reversed:

Duration: 1:57:23 (2:04:51)
Work: 1274 kJ
TSS: 108.9 (intensity factor 0.746)
Norm Power: 239
VI: 1.32
Distance: 53.465 km
Elevation Gain: 317 m
Elevation Loss: 220 m
Grade: 0.2 % (97 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 804 181 watts
Heart rate: 0 174 130 bpm
Cadence: 24 130 72 rpm
Speed: 1.5 46.8 27.3 kph
Pace 1:17 40:00 2:12 min/km
Altitude: 4 147 20 m
Crank Torque: 0 108.7 23.7 N-m
Temperature: 17 23 20.3 Celsius

BCMCA Cobble Hill RR - 1st

Last BCMCA race of the season. Went out in good style.

It was seven laps of the Cobble Hill RR course.

Cobble Hill RR

This course is easy enough except for one short sprint climb. Only about 30m of climbing, at about 8% (with steepest bit at the top being about 12%). Just long enough that I could have bust my anaerobic limits (burned too many matches) if I had tried and take it too fast. There is more climbing elsewhere, but mostly rolling and short little hills. All of which was easily handled at a steady pace well under VO2Max.

The finish was after a long and fast downhill, leading into some rough pavement about 400m from the finish, with the final sprint slightly uphill for about 250m.

So I was faced with two problems. First not blowing up trying to push up the one hill. And second was how to do well at the finish. Even if I could get to the finish, there where three or four better short (200 - 300m) sprinters than I am ... and it was at the bottom of a crazy fast descent which they where also faster at getting to the bottom than I was ... so I would have been stuck trying to come from 20-30m back and catching up over 250m, against faster sprinters. Which basically meant 3rd or 4th.

The first half of the course is roughly uphill, culminating in little rolling hill, followed by some sharp corners and bends. In the first few laps I managed to get ahead on the roller and had to soft pedal through the turns to let the group get back on.

On the second last lap I did the same, then as soon as I went around the first turn I went hard to get around the next bend in the road and out of sight. Then worked the next couple of klicks to get to the bottom of the sprint hill. I took that at a reasonable pace and even though the group was only about 50m behind when I crested the top, that was enough that I could get into a big gear, get low in a TT position and get well ahead. By the time they crested I was out of sight with only a little more than a lap to go.

I went into TT mode, averaged just under 300 watts and ended up finishing about three minutes ahead of them. My average pace for the last 15km was 37.7kmh. Our group had been averaging about 35kmh.

The other tactic I used was to always hit the sprint hill at close to the front of the pack. I then climbed up at my pace, allowing myself to drop up to 10m behind the group. This meant that I did the climb in about 1:10 instead of about 50-55 seconds that everyone else was doing. And therefore at a much lower overall wattage than I would have needed. Typically about 430 watts average. To keep up I would have had to do about 460 or higher.

The difference, for me, is night and day. I have a lot more 430 watt matches than 460 watt ones... I can (and did) do seven of them at the lower watts. And had lots of power left to TT to 1st. If I had muscled up it's probable that I would not been able to. (Last Wed I was only able to do three and a half reps of two minutes at 450 and blew up completely. )

Cobble Hill RR:

Duration: 1:47:43
Work: 1638 kJ
TSS: 149.3 (intensity factor 0.912)
Norm Power: 292
VI: 1.15
Distance: 64.131 km
Elevation Gain: 792 m
Elevation Loss: 791 m
Grade: 0.0 % (1 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 794 253 watts
Heart rate: 108 180 159 bpm
Cadence: 39 122 82 rpm
Speed: 12.2 76.8 35.7 kph
Pace 0:47 4:55 1:41 min/km
Altitude: 129 201 170 m
Crank Torque: 0 102.5 30.1 N-m
Temperature: 18 21 18.8 Celsius

Sprint Hill:

Duration: 1:09
Work: 30 kJ
TSS: 4 (intensity factor 1.439)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 429 m
Elevation Gain: 31 m
Elevation Loss: 0 m
Grade: 7.3 % (31 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 697 430 watts
Heart rate: 159 180 172 bpm
Cadence: 56 107 73 rpm
Speed: 17 35.4 22.4 kph
Pace 1:42 3:32 2:41 min/km
Altitude: 161 192 176 m
Crank Torque: 0 100.2 57.9 N-m
Temperature: 19 19 19.0 Celsius

Breakaway:

Duration: 24:11
Work: 432 kJ
TSS: 39.2 (intensity factor 0.986)
Norm Power: 315
VI: 1.06
Distance: 15.18 km
Elevation Gain: 167 m
Elevation Loss: 220 m
Grade: -0.3 % (-53 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 790 297 watts
Heart rate: 152 179 170 bpm
Cadence: 43 119 85 rpm
Speed: 12.2 73.9 37.7 kph
Pace 0:49 4:55 1:36 min/km
Altitude: 131 200 174 m
Crank Torque: 0 96 34.7 N-m
Temperature: 19 20 19.3 Celsius

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