BVC Structured Workout - 2 days

Yesterday was motor pacing. today was Whistle drills...

I put on a smallish gear tonight, 51x16 (about 84")... 

Felt like a sewing machine... The Whistle Drill was mostly short sprints and one set of take-a-lap... Which where are  really difficult (well for me) on that small a gear... I found it tough to spin fast enough to get speeds up... 

When I did get speeds up my heart rate went up and I got out of breath quickly... And how humiliating .... "C" racers where out sprinting me :-)

BVC Workout - 10 sets 6on/6off

Straight forward workout today.

Six sets of 6on/6off using 51x15 (~89"). then four more sets using 51x14 (~95") gearing. The target for the "on" was 43-44kph, or L5.

I noticed while doing the first sets on the 51x15 that I my breathing was labored by the end of the set. So after doing the first four I stopped and put on my HRM. Then did two more on that gearing.

Then switched up to 51x15 and did four more sets.

There was a definite difference. The overall Pavg for the first six sets was 322 watts, and for the last four, 329 watts. Subjectively the first six where also "harder" with my breathing more labored and (I think) heart rate higher.

The difference in cadence is not huge, about 95 for the bigger gearing and 101 for the smaller.

In theory, assuming I could maintain the same force, the higher cadence should have meant higher wattage. Since wattage went down, it means that I loose a fair amount of force as cadence moves up from 95 to 100.

This may also explain to some extent the difference in wattage between the TT bike and on the track. On the TT bike I maintain a cadence around 88. If there is a similar drop (in force) from 88 to 95 that starts to explain why I find it hard to maintain the same power output on the track.

I'm hoping that I can get my leg speed up, with appropriate force, and without pushing the heart rate up, as of course that would make my track results better. As it is I can do well in the local B group as I have just enough jump, speed and endurance in the 51x14 to be competitive.

But I would get crushed by the A group. To get up their speeds would require jumping up another notch (say to 97"), but that would leave me in the dust... But on 95" I would be spinning out (due to leg speed) when they lead out 58-60kph.

BVC Workout - 3 sets 3onx3off

Track was open today, so was able to workout there instead of outdoors (cold, wet, cold, dark, cold) or on the computrainer...

Started with a good high pace warmup (dodging the guys doing motorpaced madison training...)

Did three sets of 3 laps on (> 400Pavg, L6) and 3-4 laps off. First set was on 91x14, did the reset on 91x15 (effectively 95" moving down to 89".) Trying to see if I can get leg speed up a bit (a weakness.)

Then 20 minutes L3, and cooldown.

BVC Structured Workout - Flying 500's

Four rep's Flying 500. Then 25 minute Tempo/L3 workout with 10 minutes at Threshold/L4 (average speed about 41kph). Finished with 20 minutes endurance/L2 and cool down.

The first 3 Flying 500's where with 50x15 (about 87"). I switched to 50x14 (93") for the last and left that on for the Tempo and Endurance workouts.

I still find that gearing (50x14) more comfortable and seem to be able to get a higher average wattage for longer with it. Even though it was the 4th attempt, the last with the bigger gear was had the best average speed (53kph compared to 52.5, 52.8 and 51.2). And the 10 minutes I spent at L4 felt easier than previous nights. I could cruise along at 42 fairly easily, breathing hard (not heavy). And if I dropped back to 40 I wasn't even breathing hard...

BVC Structured Workout - Point-a-lap Drill

Nice workout today. Three point-a-lap drills. Pace line maintains about 36-38kph, man on front goes at best speed until he catches up. Next person on front goes.

Typically about 50 seconds to 1.5 minutes depending on sprint speed and how fast the pace line is going.


Best Sprint:

Duration: 0:55
Work: 24 kJ
TSS: 3.5 (intensity factor 1.524)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 709 m
Elevation Gain: 1 m
Elevation Loss: 4 m
Grade: -0.4 % (-3 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 162 851 428 watts
Heart rate: 0 0 0 bpm
Cadence: 78 130 109 rpm
Speed: 35.1 55.9 46.4 kph
Pace 1:04 1:43 1:18 min/km
Altitude: 129 132 130 m
Crank Torque: 16.1 74.5 36.9 N-m
Temperature: 16 16 16.0 Celsius

Hopefully I can get some good workouts in this weekend, ATL dropped precipitously because of missed Saturday and low numbers on Sunday...

BVC Friday Races - a 4th

Three races, all fast...

4x4 Win-and-out. I didn't get out... finished near the end of the pack. Hadn't had an adequate warmup... and this was a short (16 lap) race.. so just used it as a (hard) warm up. Tony Zachary took first.

25 lap Point-a-lap. This moved along at a very fast pace, 44.8 kph average speed! Not the highest I've seen in B group, but fairly close (we did an 80 lap Points race at the six day last year that averaged 45.6!)

25 lap Point-a-Lap:

Duration: 7:27
Work: 145 kJ
TSS: 15.4 (intensity factor 1.115)
Norm Power: 346
VI: 1.06
Distance: 5.566 km
Elevation Gain: 9 m
Elevation Loss: 16 m
Grade: -0.1 % (-7 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 789 325 watts
Heart rate: 0 0 0 bpm
Cadence: 31 130 106 rpm
Speed: 17.8 54.7 44.8 kph
Pace 1:06 3:22 1:20 min/km
Altitude: 122 129 126 m
Crank Torque: 0 67.8 29.0 N-m
Temperature: 18 19 18.9 Celsius

At about lap 18 I was part of a small dropped group with about 4-5 fast riders in the lead group. I managed to bridge back up to them. Then after a short half lap went through that group to get a point. I kept going and it became apparent that there was no-one behind me... They apparently where all bagged as I went on to get the next 4 lap points as well.

At the line with one lap to go I was pretty much all out, could hear riders behind me, pushed to get that point and then went up track to let them by... And there was really only one rider (I think Iona Wynter Parks, Team Colavita) close! If I had known I could (well maybe...) have kept on their draft and taken another point at the finish (double points for final lap, 2 for first and 1 for second.)



Ended up with a 4th... score one for being able to go long and hard after doing the bridge!



Final race was a 35 lap Scratch. A little slower 42.5 kph average speed, but unlike last week everyone attached and kept the pace up straight through to the finish. Tony Zachary managed a great sprint from about 5 riders back to take first. I was watching from the far side, too bagged to try and keep up with the sprinters on their final lap..

We have out of town visitors this weekend... So probably won't be able to get back on the bike until Monday.. Then Tuesday will be doing BVC Structured workout (Whistle drill again...). Goal is to push high end (L4-L6) and just maintain CTL at or near where it is now through Oct/Nov.

With luck (well more like with hard work) come out next spring with FTP near where it was last season (320 watts) but with 5 sec and 1 minute power numbers way up.

Update 2007-10-26: apparently I got a 2nd in the Point-a-lap... Nick Berry was first.

BVC Friday - no wins

As predicted, B group is very fast, and building. Thirteen riders tonight..

First race was an Elim-2-scratch, I got boxed into the sprinters lane and was first out :-(

Second race was 4x10 points race. Again fast paced. I think I managed to squeak out a 4th in the first sprint. The rest of the race I was just trying to stay near the front. But there where always at least 4-5 faster riders leading out for the sprint. Avg and norm power numbers did move up a bit from last week.

Points 4x10:

Duration: 12:00
Work: 211 kJ
TSS: 20.8 (intensity factor 1.02)
Norm Power: 316
VI: 1.08
Distance: 8.7 km
Elevation Gain: 18 m
Elevation Loss: 17 m
Grade: 0.0 % (1 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 740 294 watts
Heart rate: 110 182 171 bpm
Cadence: 40 123 101 rpm
Speed: 12.6 53.2 43.5 kph
Pace 1:08 4:46 1:23 min/km
Altitude: 127 131 129 m
Crank Torque: 0 67.9 27.6 N-m
Temperature: 17 17 17.0 Celsius

Final race was a 25 lap scratch race. No one wanted to get a pace line going, there where 2 or 3 attempted breaks that we managed to bridge back up to. I ended up at the front with 6 laps to go, way up above the blue line, with no-one wanting to pass or make a move. I knew that Anthony King was close behind so I dived down with about 3.5 laps to go and lead him out. He really enjoyed that, coming around with a half lap to take first.

Scratch 25 lap:

Duration: 7:52
Work: 147 kJ
TSS: 15.6 (intensity factor 1.09)
Norm Power: 338
VI: 1.09
Distance: 5.537 km
Elevation Gain: 11 m
Elevation Loss: 15 m
Grade: -0.1 % (-4 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 42 743 311 watts
Heart rate: 125 184 170 bpm
Cadence: 40 121 98 rpm
Speed: 21.7 52.2 42.2 kph
Pace 1:09 2:46 1:25 min/km
Altitude: 125 129 127 m
Crank Torque: 4.3 65.7 30.2 N-m
Temperature: 16 16 16.0 Celsius

This did give me some nice power numbers over 1-2 minutes. But at the end I was down to 323 watts, need to be able to do 400 for one minute.

Final Sprint:

Duration: 0:55
Work: 25 kJ
TSS: 3.7 (intensity factor 1.555)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 747 m
Elevation Gain: 0 m
Elevation Loss: 2 m
Grade: -0.3 % (-2 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 237 743 460 watts
Heart rate: 173 184 180 bpm
Cadence: 95 121 113 rpm
Speed: 41.1 52.2 48.9 kph
Pace 1:09 1:28 1:14 min/km
Altitude: 125 127 125 m
Crank Torque: 23.8 64.1 38.7 N-m
Temperature: 16 16 16.0 Celsius

BVC Tempo / L3 - 1:14

Got into a pace line with Murray Soelim, ended up going for 1:14... Good L3 workout.

Entire workout (250 watts):

Duration: 1:14:37
Work: 1119 kJ
TSS: 91.2 (intensity factor 0.856)
Norm Power: 265
VI: 1.06
Distance: 47.086 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 654 250 watts
Heart rate: 0 0 0 bpm
Cadence: 24 111 92 rpm
Speed: 1.8 46 37.9 kph
Pace 1:18 33:20 1:35 min/km
Crank Torque: 0 76.2 25.6 N-m

Best 30 minutes was 40.5kph, with best 60 minutes not too far back with 39.7kph.. Still low wattage numbers though compared to TT on the road.

Tomorrow is a rest day. Back to the track on Friday for 2nd race night of the fall series.

BVC Testing - 2k

BVC Coach Jeremie Storie was doing testing at the track this morning as part of the masters structured workouts.

Just a 2k (10 lap) effort at VO2Max.

2k test:

Duration: 2:49
Work: 61 kJ
TSS: 6.3 (intensity factor 1.156)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 2.067 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 246 486 358 watts
Heart rate: 0 0 0 bpm
Cadence: 96 110 104 rpm
Speed: 41.1 46.8 44.0 kph
Pace 1:17 1:28 1:22 min/km
Crank Torque: 24.5 44.7 32.9 N-m

I'm still surprised at how hard I find it to maintain this power level over this short a distance on the track compared to (e.g. Ryder) TT for 8-10k distances. Not sure if it is bike positioning or fit, or just fixed gear versus normal etc.

Also did a warm up and then a 30 minute tempo workout.

And of course because I got up early and went to the track the predicted 1" of rain never materialized...

Back to the track - going to be a tough series

First night of the BVC Weekly Track Racing for the fall. There where about 10 riders in each of A, B and C/Novice.

Our B group has a bunch of new and fast riders. We started out with a 4 lap Chariot Race. Five up and I only managed to get 3rd. So only got to try for the consolation round and then only manged 2nd.. I think I was under geared (50x15), I was leading the sprint through the last lap and could feel that I was a max RPM (125) but not going fast enough to hold off the two younger guys on my tail.

4 Lap Chariot (3rd):

Duration: 1:05
Work: 31 kJ
TSS: 3.9 (intensity factor 1.46)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 857 m
Elevation Gain: 1 m
Elevation Loss: 2 m
Grade: -0.1 % (-1 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 8 738 470 watts
Heart rate: 125 177 163 bpm
Cadence: 57 125 112 rpm
Speed: 26.8 53.6 47.5 kph
Pace 1:07 2:14 1:16 min/km
Altitude: 129 131 130 m
Crank Torque: 0.7 98.5 41.4 N-m
Temperature: 19 19 19.0 Celsius

Second race was a 25 Lap Tempo race. Two points for first and one point for second for every lap. I swapped the big ring so I was on a 51x15, about 92inches. Managed to stay at the front and take a fair number of 2nd places and a few firsts. Average speed was high for B's, 43.5kph. For the most part everyone else was coming up and taking 1-2 firsts and then dropping back. So I managed a 2nd place.

25 Lap Temp (2nd):

Duration: 7:18
Work: 135 kJ
TSS: 12.8 (intensity factor 1.025)
Norm Power: 328
VI: 1.06
Distance: 5.295 km
Elevation Gain: 11 m
Elevation Loss: 12 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-1 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 713 309 watts
Heart rate: 0 181 170 bpm
Cadence: 40 122 101 rpm
Speed: 9.6 52.9 43.5 kph
Pace 1:08 6:15 1:23 min/km
Altitude: 128 131 130 m
Crank Torque: 0 66.1 29.1 N-m
Temperature: 19 19 19.0 Celsius

Final race was a 30 lap Scratch race. I was doing well and keeping a reasonably good position and then managed to get boxed in for the final lap sprint. So only got 5th.

30 Lap Scratch (4th):

Duration: 9:29
Work: 153 kJ
TSS: 13.5 (intensity factor 0.924)
Norm Power: 296
VI: 1.1
Distance: 6.543 km
Elevation Gain: 8 m
Elevation Loss: 9 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-1 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 694 269 watts
Heart rate: 0 184 170 bpm
Cadence: 38 127 96 rpm
Speed: 20.9 55.5 41.4 kph
Pace 1:05 2:52 1:27 min/km
Altitude: 129 131 130 m
Crank Torque: 0 67.9 26.7 N-m
Temperature: 17 18 17.8 Celsius

Typically things pick up after the first few weeks ... so it looks like this will be a very competitive series. We could end up with a very large B group. In theory 20 is the max for the size of the track. But anything over 15 for weekly races is a bit dicey. Hopefully there will be another group added (D or B+/A-?) if there are too many riders.

Assuming the weather holds (two gorgeous fall days in a row, with me taking one day off and one day on the track.. figures) the final VVV 10k tomorrow morning. That will be fun after the racing tonight...