Westwood - 5x6m L6/L5

Practice 6 minute TT's again tonight... managed five reps before slowing down.

Heritage Intervals - 5x3 L5

Was supposed to do 5x3 minutes at L5 (about 350 watts Pavg) with high cadence (90). Felt reasonably strong so did the last three reps to a full 5 minutes.

CTL is at an all time high (only barely reached 90 last year and only for perhaps one day...) TSB from the climb is still negative (especially after double race days like last weekend...) but I think overall I'm starting to feel better. The intervals today where quite comfortable. And even though the weekend was a big work load I actually felt good both yesterday and today...

I'm going to have to see what I can do in a 10k ITT. Either a test 10k on Neaves Road or failing that the VeloVets 10k a week on Saturday. My best efforts in that distance (under 15 minutes) last year where about 350 watts Pavg. I'm probably not quite back to there but I'd like to see how close I am.

Ceder RR pictures...

Thanks to Duane Martindale who dropped out and took a whole lot of great pictures... See the whole gallery here.


This was the final turn before the start/finish (although this wasn't the final sprint.)



This is the 50's pack that stayed out front to finish first overall. Gerry Van Gaans leading the way followed by Stuart Lynne, Chris Cameron, Derek Tripp and Mike Sevcov.


















This is Michel Pelletier and myself at the line last week at Deep Cove RR.

BCMCA Nanaimo Road 33k ITT

Another park-n-ride, up at 4:20, ferry at 6:30... arrived at venue with 20 minutes to spare.

This is a very nice ITT course, the only criticism being that there is perhaps too much climbing. But even the climbing is done in short bursts. Overall about 280m of elevation gain, about 180m out and 100m back. Otherwise, a nicely paved road, no debris, little traffic, rural setting...

The course is generally up on the way out. With possibly the worst (steepest but short) climb being just after the turn-around on the way back.

I managed 50:07 with Pavg at 298 watts, NPavg 306. Which was not bad given the RR effort yesterday and the general lack of sleep etc. Heading up the first climb, about 100m after the start my legs where saying what the f*ck... But after a few minutes I managed to get them going.

Michel Pelletier started one minute back and managed to catch me just before the turn around, but I managed to stay very close to him all the way back (he is stronger on the uphill, I'm slightly advantaged on the flat/downhill...) It was nice to have a carrot 200m ahead. He finished in just under 49:00.

Don Gilmore started (I think) three minutes back. And finally caught me with about 5km to go. It was like being passed by a semi-trailer... I swear the turbulence pushed me over a half meter :-) He finished in under 47 minutes..

I started one minute back of Duane Martindale. But never did manage to make much time against him. I think he was 50:11. It must have been the Zipp disk!

Being familiar with the course will help. The next time I'll be able to take advantage of some of the dips and not have to worry about a couple what appear to be blind downhill corners. Generally there are no downhill sections that can't be ridden down on the aero-bars. Just one or two spots where you can't quite tell that.

I also did the race on the Bontrager Aeolus 5.0's which where not optimal for this course (heavier and not as aero). The 6.5 Aeolus's would have been better and the Zipp disk as well. But I didn't want to commute over from the ferry on those (the 5.0's are clinchers so less of a problem on the road if you flat.)

BCMCA Cedar RR - 3rd/4th

This is the alternate Cedar RR course. About 7.5km. We where supposed to do 9 laps but (fortunately) there was a mis-count and we only did eight. This is a mostly flatish/rolling course with a couple of sharp short sprint climbs. Michel Pelletier and I did it as a park-n-ride from Horseshoe Bay. Ferry over to the island and then about a 15km commute down to the venue. Arriving (well warmed up) with about 20 minutes to spare.

Right from about the 1km point two of the riders in my group (50-59) took off and we then did the short sprint climbs and by the time we where two thirds of the way around 5 of the 11 starters had dropped off. The 6 of us remaining setup a pace line and kept the pace to over 40km/h for the first three laps. One rider dropped out so he could get some pictures... The rest of us kept the pace fairly constant, dropping the average just slightly over each lap until the end of the race.

We caught pretty much everyone ahead of us and kept away from everyone else. So our group of five took the top five spots overall. Only Gerry Van Ganz was in my catagory and he sprinted away from the field to take first overall and first in our catagory. My legs where just on the verge of stopping from cramps (hot day, probably didn't drink enough, although I did go through two bottles of sports drink in 1:30...!!) so I was happy with a fourth overall and second in my age catagory.

Tomorrow if I can drag my carcass out of bed at about 4:00AM we will be back to the island on the 6:30AM ferry to do a 33km TT..

Anmore Tour Remix - SST

Anmore Tour Remix - I double back and redo various loops to get make it longer and harder... The goal with this workout is close to race level effort and push the length so I can compete better.

Entire workout (214 watts):

Duration: 2:44:21 (2:48:55)
Work: 2115 kJ
TSS: 232.7 (intensity factor 0.922)
Norm Power: 277
VI: 1.29
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 61.199 km
Elevation Gain: 1664 m
Elevation Loss: 1687 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-23 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 685 214 watts
Cadence: 26 131 66 rpm
Speed: 1.8 63.5 22.3 kph
Pace 0:57 33:20 2:41 min/km
Altitude: 0 276 84 m
Crank Torque: 0 101.3 33.0 N-m
Temperature: 13 22 15.3 Celsius

BCMCA Deep Cove RR - distant 3rd

Distant 3rd today... as in I got dropped lap 8 of 10. The pace of this race was a bit faster this year. And given a set of heavy legs from yesterdays hill climb, I was struggling.

This is a fairly short course, about 6.6 km. With a 500m climb at 6.5%. I was climbing this at over 400 watts in about 1:20. And typically getting a little more gapped each time. After this climb there is a nice descent followed by another 500m climb at about 4.5%. Each time I was able to get back to the pack on the descent and then even get past them on the second climb.

The 40 year old pack caught us at the top of the climb on lap 7. And the next time around they went up just that little bit faster while I was going just a little bit slower... and the gap was too big to bridge back on the descent. Jerry van Ganz and Don Shaw managed to hang on I think to the end for the 50-54 group. And I think Derek Tripp, Mike Sevcov and Duane Martindale for the 55-59 group.

Still a fun ride. We parked at Tsawwassen Ferry terminals and went to Shwartz Bay as foot pasengers and then rode 10 minutes to get to the race. The weather was very nice, a balmy 20 degrees Celsius. So very pleasant all around.

BCMCA Mount Seymour HC - 49:21

Very hot, which I think may explain the slow time. I did this two years ago in 48:25 with lower Pavg (280 then, 320 today..) Also different power meters (Polar then, Ergomo now.)

Still I was the first 50-54 to finish. And only one other person over 50 (although he was over 60!!) was ahead. I think about 10th overall. I'll summarize results later when they are posted.


I rode the TT bike with Aero helmet. The helmet may have been a mistake given the heat. But I remain convinced that I can put out more power on the TT bike. Felt very comfortable all the way up.

There is one stretch in the top third where the grade lowers to about 4-5% and I was able to pull past several other riders who could not maintain the speed as they where not as aero.

Overall, 12.3 km, 854m elevation gain, 6.9% average grade.

Anmore Tour Extended - SST and L3

Extended Anmore Tour again... SST for the first hour then L3/L2 for another hour and a half..

Trying to build endurance at these power levels. More specifically this course when done aggressively is reasonably close to a road race for work load. For BCMCA and Spring Series C one and a half hours or about 135-150 TSS points works well.. But the harder Cat 4 sanctioned races need probably 200+ TSS points as they up the power level a bit and last a bit longer, say about two hours.

Can't race what you don't train for. So I have to extend this workout to match expected race lengths.

Entire workout (219 watts):

Duration: 2:49:30 (2:53:59)
Work: 2227 kJ
TSS: 252.7 (intensity factor 0.946)
Norm Power: 284
VI: 1.3
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 62.999 km
Elevation Gain: 1698 m
Elevation Loss: 1624 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-9 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 863 219 watts
Cadence: 26 125 66 rpm
Speed: 2.2 59.5 22.3 kph
Pace 1:01 27:16 2:41 min/km
Altitude: 0 263 78 m
Crank Torque: 0 100.7 33.2 N-m

Temperature: 12 22 14.6 Celsius

Anmore Tour - L2/L3

Easy pace, did Anmore Tour instead of Ford Road because there was rain in the forecast. I didn't want to be an hour away from home and stuck in the rain.

I missed blogging yesterdays intervals... 5x2m L5 on Heritage Mountain.

Anmore Tour Extended

Two hours plus ... first hour SST ... second L3...

Hopefully this helps push FTP up and extend endurance so I can be competitive in sanctioned Cat 4 RR's..

Peak 60min (270 watts):

Duration: 1:00:00 (1:01:54)
Work: 972 kJ
TSS: 108.5 (intensity factor 1.042)
Norm Power: 313
VI: 1.16
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 26.251 km
Elevation Gain: 674 m
Elevation Loss: 679 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-5 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 921 270 watts
Cadence: 26 119 70 rpm
Speed: 2.7 61.9 26.3 kph
Pace 0:58 22:13 2:17 min/km
Altitude: 0 195 74 m
Crank Torque: 0 95.4 38.9 N-m
Temperature: 12 20 13.6 Celsius

Entire workout (231 watts):

Duration: 2:25:06 (2:28:38)
Work: 2008 kJ
TSS: 218.5 (intensity factor 0.951)
Norm Power: 285
VI: 1.24
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 55.205 km
Elevation Gain: 1475 m
Elevation Loss: 1483 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-8 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 921 231 watts
Cadence: 26 119 65 rpm
Speed: 1.5 61.9 22.8 kph
Pace 0:58 40:00 2:38 min/km
Altitude: 0 227 70 m
Crank Torque: 0 109.1 36.0 N-m
Temperature: 10 20 12.1 Celsius

Neaves Road - 2x20 (TT bike)

Neaves Road 2x20 SST again...

WarpSpeed ITT - 3rd Cat 4 - 26:50

Fantastic conditions today. Not too hot, not cold, just a hint of wind, sun was out mostly...

My time at 26:50 was a lot faster than last year's 28:15. But I suspect that everyone's time was faster. I'll summarize overall results in another post after the full race results are posted.

Mike Sidic and Sebastion Salas where back again to show me how to do TT's :-) Mike getting about 26:30 (TBV) and Sebastion about 26:45 (TBV). This should be the last race I'll have them to deal with. I think they both have enough upgrade points to get pushed up to Cat 3 :-)

This is a 19.3km dog-leg course. Just under 2km south, then 8km west in a straight and flat line, then turn around and return. The biggest undulation in the course is perhaps 2m. What wind there was slightly helped on the return.

This course, in these conditions, calls for the traditional TT pacing strategy. Start easy and then gradually ramp up as you go. I managed this reasonably well. My best 20s, 30s, 1min, 2min, 5min, 10min, and 20min ALL terminate at the finish line. The best 5s and 10s both start at the starting line.

This translated into a slightly better return time even though the (slight) grade is against you on the return.

I had one small problem. I was going to use my Bontrager Aeolus 6.5's with Veloflex Record tubulars. But the front had a problem with the valve, so I had to use the Aeolus 5.0 on the front. The 6.5 would have been better in these conditions (no side wind).


Warp Speed ITT

Duration: 26:53
Work: 493 kJ
TSS: 45.4 (intensity factor 1.006)
Norm Power: 307
VI: 1
Distance: 19.272 km
Elevation Gain: 33 m
Elevation Loss: 30 m
Grade: 0.0 % (3 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 935 306 watts
Cadence: 28 135 89 rpm
Speed: 10.7 49.5 43.0 kph
Altitude: 70 87 78 m

I'm still trying to get my Pavg numbers up for this length of ride.

After the race a small group rode over to pre-ride the Team Coastal Campbell Heights RR course.

Buntzen - L1

Easy rides yesterday and today. A mini-taper for tomorrows WarpSpeed ITT. The weather promises to be fantastic as well, sunny and warm.

Alex Simmons updates the Seven Deadly Sins

Alex Simmons (a very frequent contributor to the wattage mailing list) has updated and commented on Coggans list of Seven Deadly Sins in a post on his blog.

The issue is how to and how often you need to test your FTP. The list is a number of different ways you can test for FTP. Some with better or worse results.