Three reps of 10km practice TT's. Goal Pavg 310 watts, with 10 minute rest between. Hopefully all efforts to be within about 20 seconds time for the same distance.
TT #, NPavg, Pavg
Here is an interesting time trial analysis site run by Celia McInnis in Ottawa.
It takes results from time trials repeated over time and compares the times, speeds etc for individual and all competitors.
She has a database for three Ottawa TT series going back between 10 and 20 years. She has also kindly added the last two years of the Vancouver VeloVets 10K TT results (2006 and 2007.)
Ford Road as L3 tonight on the TT bike. Just under 90 minutes. Plus WU and then the climb to get home. Possibly the peak 30 minutes qualified as SST.
I managed a 5th in Cat 4/5 at the TT.
I went out at a reasonable pace for the first lap... I.e. something that I could have replicated five times if I had to. And that amounted to 40TSS points... and got me well and truly dropped...
I did the big climb in just about exactly five minutes, NPavg 381. At a guess the lead Cat 4/5 riders did it in about four minutes. I could have kept up (I think) for at least the first lap. But I was fairly certain that above these numbers it would be a stretch to another four laps the same. And even at this slow speed the total race would have been about 200 TSS points.. Which would have left my legs toasted for tomorrow.
So I very quickly turned the pace down. The Cat 3's (five minute head start) caught us in lap 3. Their lead group was down to about 15 (from 30 starters.) Very quickly after that the lead group of about 5-6 Cat 4/5 riders caught us as well. They where definitely less than five minutes behind the Cat 3's at that point (i.e. they where catching up...) The rest of the Cat 3's and Cat 4/5's where spread across the course in mostly small bunches. Except for one largish group of Cat 4/5's (about 10-15).
Now if I don't do well in the TT tomorrow I will be peeved.
Very easy L1 ride to warmup for this weekends RaceTheRide Stage Race.
Assuming the weather holds out ... And assuming that my legs hold out.... This will be a fairly hard weekend.
We roll out tomorrow at about 9:00AM for the RR, five laps of 12km and 250m of elevation gain. With about half of the climbing in two longish back-to-back climbs... which should take us Cat 4/5's close to six minutes... If I can stay at the front I'll work. But if I get dropped I'll soft pedal and save my energy for....
Showing up at about 8:00AM on Sunday, for the 22km TT with 250m of elevation gain. I did this in 33:45 on Wednesday in reasonable (aka dry but cool) weather... Forecast is for rain. With luck the rain will hold off till later in the day. If they do the same format as last year us Cat 4/5's will be first off... which may be advantageous if it means we get out before the rain...
Then after drying off and putting dry/warm clothing on (assuming the worst...) we move to downtown Maple Ridge (10 minutes away...) for the Crit at 12:45... It's close enough, I may just go home and grab a cappucino etc...
I didn't do the Crit (or the RR for that matter) last year. But I did go out and watch. It is flat with a few fun turns and one "tricky" bit where it uses a short stretch of pavement that is (I think) a bike path, not a road. Tricky in that you need to get on to it with a bit of a turn, it's narrow (compared to the rest of the course which is a normal urban road..) and then get off it with another turn.
At this point I have no pre-conceived ideas about how well I'll do. The RR course may favour my power profile (six minute climb...) but IFF I hammer that, then ITT will suffer the next day... And who knows *what* will be left for the Crit...
But I guess that's what doing a Stage Race is all about :-)
The plan was 6x6min starting at L6 (about 1 minute > 400 watts) and then finish at L5 (5 minutes > 320 watts). These are tough.... was able to do 5 reps. The last time was just able to do the L6 so didn't attempt a 6th rep.
Did a few shorter L5 and L6 intervals on the way home (the one advantage to living on the side of a mountain is that there are always lots of climbs that you can find to do on your way home...)
Painful but a great way to get TSS points and push CTL up :-)
I actually own two of these plastic rain jackets and rarely ever take one along simply because I could never figure out how to get one stuffed into a rear pocket. (I own two because immediately after buying one I got a free one as draw prize at a race.)
So for everyone who wants to know how to fold your plastic rain jacket, go here... complete with before and after and how-to pictures!
Did a pre-ride on the RaceTheRidge Golden Ears TT. Late evening, bit of wind, finished in 33:45. Not a bad time... but not great. Need to take at least a minute off that next Sunday.
This is a "fun" TT course. Just under 22km in length, with 220m of elevation gain. But almost all of that on reasonable slopes. Mostly under 5% grades. There is only one short section, about 200-300m at just over 6%. A strong rider can do the entire course in his big-ring even with an 11x23 cassette. Even a less strong rider only needs the little ring for one or perhaps two very short sections.
And you do want an 11x23 cassette for this course. There are several sections, including the finish, where you can push the pace up past 60kph with just a little extra effort. But you won't be able to without an 11 unless you can spin high RPM's..
About 2.5km before the finish there is a half km downhill section that you can do at > 60kph coasting. Which gives you a (short) rest before a slight climb and then putting the hammer down for the (long) slightly downhill finish.
Overall there are two long climbs, two medium and two short climbs. Which really screws up your pacing. You start uphill so the tendency is to start with higher watt's than you probably would like too. And then you have to roll up the hills and try and make time on the downhills..
Overall though it's fun. Hopefully I can redeem myself on Sunday. I had an absolutely horrible time last year on the Zipp 404's with Tufo's... finished in 36:26. Anything in the 33 minute range, plus/minus 30 seconds would be acceptable. Under 33 minutes is probably top three. Probably something close to 32 minutes is needed for a first or second.
A lot will depend on how hard and long I go in the RR on Saturday. With the RR's two long climbs (and a couple of short ones...) it's probably not a race I can do well in. So I probably will be saving myself for Sunday's TT and Crit. Go easy in the RR, hammer the TT and then see what's left for the Crit. Most likely the TT is the only one I have much hope of doing well in.
Easy short loop around Ford Road with Ryan tonight. Weather still a bit brisk but at least the rain held back.
CTL has plateaued quite nicely above 80. Hope to have it at 85 or so by early part of May. And 90 in late May.
Tough race...
The Aldergrove course is short, about 9 laps of 6.6km. It is basically a box with a short but steep (250m at 9%). There are a couple of other shorter climbs, and 2km along an open area that usually has bad head winds, but today had a nice 20kph+ tail wind.. The finish is just before the climb, and the start at the top of it, so it was only done 8 times. Run with Australian Pursuit rules.
Larry Zimich and Chris Spires pushed the pace up in the 40-49 group. They caught us (50-59) in lap 5 (of 9), just after we caught up with the 60-69 group in lap 4.
Duane Martindale, Gerry Van Gantz, Bill Riley and I where able to grab on with that group as they went by just before the "climb". Unfortunately I got a little winded in the climb and lagged a bit in the next 2km and then in the next (small) climb got gapped. Very annoying as just after that, about 300m in front of me they proceeded to pull up a bit... I followed for about one lap at 300m... close enough to see them, but not close enough to catch them.
I caught up with Gerry Goodleff (60-64) on the climb and together we proceeded on... Eventually the 40-49 chase group caught up with us with (I think) 3 laps to go. We managed to stay with them to the end.
Duane got first in the 55-59, Gerry Van Gantz got first in the 50-54 (2nd overall), both staying with the 40-49 break-away group. Bill Riley got dropped and time-trialled to the end finishing just ahead of my group for 2nd in 50-54. Larry Zimich was first overall.
Which left me with a (distant) 3rd. The other 50-54 and 55-59 riders finished shortly after that.
Our good friends over at biketechreview posted some CRR numbers for Bontrager Tubes and Tires.
Race X Lite Tubes comparison:
Mich Pro 2 Light/Mich Latex (22/23) tube, ----, 0.00266And Bontrager XXX Lite Tire:
Mich Pro 2 Light/Bontrager RXL Butyl (18/25) tube, 65, 0.00292
RXXXL (22)/Mich (18/20), 21.7, 0.00281I'm riding RXL Butyl tubes in the RXXXL tire. So presumably that would mean roughly 0.00307 per tire. They measured higher in the testing last weekend 0.006. I'll have to see what I get with a better session and the iAero when it arrives.
Coldest April 18th in Vancouver in I don't know how many years.... It sort of looked ok when I looked out mid-afternoon. Cool but some sun. By the time I got finished work it was spitting... Anyway, ride out to Pitt Meadows was OK... cold, but OK. But the closer I got to home on the way back the worse it got. First temp went from about 6C to 4C and it started to rain. Then to about 3C and it was sleet. The about 1C and almost snow.. Fortunately that was only the last 10-15 minutes....
Another article on Time Trial Pacing at the Association of British Cycling Coaches.
This one discuses some older studies using Computrainers and while using power numbers from the CT assumes that PE is used to gauge effort. Some useful data points though.
Also found this one there: Pace Judgement in Time Trials
That also provides some confirmation for the start easy end hard strategy. And comments on another suggestion, start with higher cadence, then drop cadence to maintain power. Which is a suggestion I had not heard before.
Some more good articles over at Pez Toolbox:
My iAero is on order!
The upgrade price of $250 ($220 with coupon, read ibikeforums announcements) is too good to miss. Although because I only have the original wired speed sensor I also opted to upgrade to the wireless mount as well for another $250. But still very acceptable upgrade path from the iBike Pro.
Stay tuned...
More TT drills. 6x6 minutes, starting flat out. Managed to do flat out for the first three at least. The first two managed about 45-50 seconds flat out, the third managed about 450 watts for one minute. But then couldn't do the rest of the TT drill :-( So the last three where just done as moderate 6 minute L3 type intervals.
(N.B. not sure what went wrong with the excel spreadsheet, the TSS was about 89... ignore the graphic.)
The reference manual for the iAero has been put online here.
The iAero is a new version of the iBike Pro that addresses some of the problems with the original hardware design (most of which have been overcome with latest firmware revisions and the new ibike 2 software.) But the new model promises even better accuracy and damping control in rough pavement.
Anyone interested should read the manual. It looks like this is exactly what everyone on the ibike mailing list (now ibikeforums.com) have been asking for.
I'll describe three different new features that have me excited.
First is SnapShot CdA(TM). As long as you have an iAero and cadence/speed sensors the iAero can easily tell when you are producing zero watts (cadence is zero and the bike is still moving.) At that point it can determine what the differences between your current CdA and your baseline CdA (as computed in coast downs, 4 mile ride, saved in profile etc.) and can then display that number. Just find a long hill (2-3% works well, you don't really want to get going too fast) that you can get up to appropriate speed on and then coast for > 10 seconds. Now you can adopt various positions and see what the difference in CdA is just by doing repeated tests.
While not quite as good as wind tunnel testing (we presume) it's a lot less expensive and more convienent. Note that you don't really need a hill. A long straight road that you can get up to speed on and coast for 10 seconds will also work.
Second is Time Advantage(TM). Assuming you already have a power meter (e.g. Ergomo, PowerTap, SRM, Polar) and can use it for the same rides, then you can use the ibike 2 software to incorporate that power data into the iAero ride file for comparison. Differences between the two are assumed to be due to CdA changes. This can then be used to show how much time you have either lost or gained over a ride compared to what you should have done if you stayed in the same position as your coast down rides.
Coupled with SnapShot CdA, you can now determine what changes you would like to try on a long TT (farther forward, more relaxed, etc) and see overall the impact in your finish time when you analyze the data.
Finally we have Continous CdA(TM). This requires that you have an Ant+Sport(TM) enabled power meter. E.g. Quarq Cinqo or (soon?) SRM Wireless. This is paired with the iAero and when this data is available the iAero can show CdA in real-time. Make a position change and see the change in CdA.
Also see the cumulative effect with the realtime TimeAdvantage readout. Based on your predicted time based on your baseline CdA, how far or behind are you. In real-time. As you are doing your TT!!
So. First during training, learn how to get CdA low. Change equipment, move things around, do lots of testing. Find the sweet spot for hardware and position. Then, during the race, keep yourself in that sweet spot. Even when you start to get tired (for me that's 5 minutes into the TT) it will tell you when you are moving out of it.
Possibly not as good as having your coach following you in a car 100 feet away, yelling "Allez, allez" continously over your team radio. But again a (lot!) less money and most organizers don't allow coaches in cars on their course anyway. At least at my level :-)
Now if only I could get them to sell me one NOW. I want it NOW. I have important TT's in two weeks. Can't they UNDERSTAND I NEED IT NOW...
Neaves Road tonight for 2x20 SST workout. Did it on the TT bike to get some more iBike testing in.
Interesting article over at Velonews Training titled Power at lactate threshold wins races.
Overwhelmingly, the most damaging error committed by developing cyclists, from a methodological point of view, is spending too much time training aspects that do not efficiently contribute to the athlete’s potential. This is a double whammy for the aspiring cyclist, because it takes energy from the systems that contribute the most. The error compounds in that energy is being wasted working systems that aren’t effectively maximizing the rider’s output.
The most common example is cyclists that cripple themselves with an overdose of excessively depleting work (zone 5/ VO2). The systems involved in races of an hour or more are primarily aerobic, and the focus of the training for these events should also be aerobic. If an athlete is forced to go anaerobic in order to make a selection, then the racers in the selection that are able to maintain aerobic status are clearly in an advantageous position. Going to VO2 (lactate accumulation) against riders who are at or below LT, is usually a losing proposition.
With some minor exceptions the TT iBike testing went very well on Saturday. First there was possibly just a little more wind than I would have liked. About 3-5kph. Second, there was more traffic on my test roads. Finally my scale misbehaved so I ended up with wrong weight entered (83kg should have been 85kg.)
I did testing with two wheelsets on my Cervelo P2C, all aero-gear in place (skinsuit, aero helmet, gloves, booties, bottle cage off):
Went out and enjoyed watching the Cat 1/2's do their thing at Harris Roubaix. Mostly people kept the rubber side down. The few that didn't only had some minor bruising and managed to self-transport themselves back to the finish.
Michel Pelletier was marshalling, after the race we rode out to the RaceTheRidge RR course and back.
Out to Neaves Road to do TT testing and practice drills. 4x5km with the P2C / Bontrager Aeolus 5.0 wheelset. The 1x10km with the P2C / Bontrager Aelous 6.5 Wheelset.
The weather was almost perfect for iBike testing except for a 5-10km wind from the North. I haven't downloaded the iBike yet, so don't know how successful it was. I was hoping to get some solid numbers for Cda and CRR. I'll do another post once I've had a chance to look at the iBike data.
I think I did do a PB on the last drill with the Aeolus 6.5 wheelset. About 14:10 for 10.1km, but that was with two turns. Normally I do this course from the south end and do one turn at the North. I was running out of time today. So after doing the coast downs and "4 mile ride" I only had just enough time to do the course, but from where I was parked, in the middle. And because the turns where un-supervised I have to take them fairly slow to make sure there are no cars. So this would have been about 13:40-13:50 if done in the normal manner.
Also this was the last drill for the day, not much left in the legs, Pavg was low, only 295 watts. So presumably getting reasonable aero and rolling resistance numbers.
Another slow day. Legs still feel heavy from last weekend and I'm scheduled for a reasonably hard TT exercise tomorrow.
Sunday I'll be spectating (only) at Harris-Roubaix. I don't like the dash along the dyke. It might be a bit better this year as it was resurfaced last year. But still 2km or thereabouts of gravel don't turn my crank. I got enough of that crap when I was doing mountain bike racing.
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A little bit better weather today, and a pump that works. Managed to get home without needing to use it. Legs still a bit heavy from Sundays ride (Pacific Populaire.)
Easy ride, cold, wet, flat tire, pump wouldn't, call home for pickup, wife annoyed.
Sigh :-(
Stumbled across this blog post today at Training Thoughts which points at some interesting research reported at physorg.com.
From the article summary:
Ibuprofen or acetaminophen in long-term resistance training increases muslce mass/strength.As the blog post at Training Thoughts points out, neither ibuprofen or acetaminophen should be used casually.
Taking daily recommended dosages of ibuprofen and acetaminophen caused a substantially greater increase over placebo in the amount of quadriceps muscle mass and muscle strength gained during three months of regular weight lifting, in a study by physiologists at the Human Performance Laboratory, Ball State University.
The forecast was slightly better locally than for Vancouver Island, so we opted to get rained on locally. At least we didn't have to pay the ferry fee's and gas etc for the privilege.
100km, L3 for three hours, on the TT bike. Lot's of time on the bars. Good training for RaceTheRidge TT in three weeks and WarpSpeed TT the week after that.
Another slowish, cold, damp day. Hard to get speed up either uphill or down.
Weather for the weekend looks bad. So the consensus is to get rained on for free locally. We'll do the Pacific Populaire on Sunday. The forecast is slightly better and at least we haven't spent a couple hundred bucks in gas and ferry fees to get over to the Lake Cowichan RR.
From a training perspective the Populaire is better anyway. We are going to try and do it (100km) in 2:50. It is an "urban" ride. Lots of traffic, street crossings and some hills. So that's a fairly aggressive goal. The best recent time was 2004, a group finished in 2:52. Michel finished with a small group last year in 2:57.
So it should be a three (almost) hour ride at L3+.
Another lazy L2 ride. My left knee still bothering me a bit from last weekend (Snake RR climb to be specific..)
R0de out and did a pre-ride on the RaceTheRidge RR course, it looks horrific. About 240m of climbing over 11km loop. Us Cat 4/5's get to do five laps. I predict a split group, with me in the auto-bus.
It's hard to say though. The big climb is 129m over just under 2km, about 6.6% grade. That may be just about long enough to get people out of their one minute power range and closer to their five minute power. If so that may be to my advantage.
Of course they follow that up (without much of a rest) with a second 800m climb at about 5%. Which does favour those with good one minute power.
