Stave Lake - social ride sort of

Headed out and did a VeloVet ride on Saturday. Now that the Albion Ferry is no more the meeting place is closer, Starbucks at Harris Rd in Pitt Meadows. Then out to Stave Lake and back along Dewdney. Lunch at Tim Hortons in Maple Ridge, then home.

Felt great, and shoulders where not too bad. I've been doing some exercises to get strength back up and that seems to be helping.

Heading home after lunch, about four hours in, definitely my longest ride this year, legs felt strong and fresh enough to climb up part of Westwood on the way home. Total TSS for the day about 250. On a base CTL that is only about 58...

Sunday I went out for a recover ride. Just a spin out around Ford Rd. Legs felt terrible, no strength, no push.. Definitely sore and out of energy after the ride on Saturday.

JRA - Exploding derailleurs

Bummer, half way across the Golden Ears Bridge, JRA (Just Riding Along) and all of a sudden the rear wheel skids to an abrupt halt. Upon inspection I see the dérailleur hanging from the chain jammed into the spokes of my training wheel! The hanger broke allowing it to get pulled around the cassette. Fortunately neither of the stays OR the wheel seems to have been damaged. I think just replace the dérailleur and chain ...

Friday night I was back at the track for three hard races with the A's... I'm still really out classed there. I should be racing in the B's.. But the A's seemed to need some more riders to fill things in a bit (pack fodder) and where doing longer races than the B's so I stayed with them to get a better workout. Still bloody embarrassing putting in many many laps off the back ...

I did manage to get some points in the first face. It was a Tempo and for some reason the pack let me jump off the front and take the first five laps... I think they where just being kind and knew that it wouldn't really matter HOW many laps I got... And of course they where right, that got my wind up so I was not even able to hang in with them as they sped by.

Neaves Road - L3

Out to Neaves Rd in Pitt Meadows. The new Pitt River Bridge open in both directions now, including the bike lane... Mainly doing about an hours worth of L3, then some short hill climbs in Westwood on the way home. Didn't get all the way up Westwood though as the temperature dropped from about 9C to about 3C within minutes when the Sun set. So I went half way up and then scooted across on Panorama Dr. before I froze to death.

Anmore Tour - L3/SST

Had to run out today and get the car through AirCare ($45 bucks to let my car tell them through the OBD connector that it isn't polluting...) I was a nice day and tomorrows forccast was rain, so that even though it was getting late I decided to do a fast SST ride. Aka, Anmore Tour...

Back home in exactly two hours. Which is a little on the slow side. But I was taking all of the downhill bits really slow. First there where a lot of spots that where wet (melting snow). And hitting some of the downhill hairpin corners fast when they are wet is no fun... Second my rear brake started making a lot of noise. I suspect (havn't checked yet) that one of the pads has worn down. So I was just using the front brakes. Works, but you don't want to go too fast just in case...

Anyway, only five minutes slower than a mid Feb ride from last year. And I think most of that in the second half (was getting cold too.)

New FTP!

Good news bad news...

After doing a VO2Max test a few weeks back I decided that my Ergomo's where reading too high. At least WRT to the Computrainer at the Lab.. So I repeated the ramp test here on my Computrainer, using my P2c with Ergomo. And then compared the results... 

It showed that P2C Ergomo was reading perhaps 20% to high in the "interesting" range (200-350). 

So I replicated the test using the Soloist with it's Ergomo. Similiar, although possibly not quite 20%. 

So off to the track and drag home the track bike and test with it... There the numbers matched reasonably well, although possibly slightly low.

So mea culpa... I now have a good explanation of why the numbers on the TT bike where slightly higher than the road bike. And why both the those where higher than the CT or Track... 

I had assumed, since the number from the two road bikes (Soloist and P2c) where reasonably similiar, that they where fairly trust worthy.. Apparantly a bad assumption.

I'll do a separate post showing some sample results and explaining the test regime. The results are that I have reset the K-Factor's on each of the Ergomo's to adjust them down (or up) as appropriate:

1. Track 181 -> 182
2. Soloist 184 -> 165
3. P2C 196 -> 164

This assumes of course that the Lab Computrainer I have is accurate. Not necessarily a great assumption. But the main excercise is not so much absolute accuracy as having the all of the devices I use provide equivalant data. I'll also point out that a) it is a Lab CT, b) it's reasonably new and lightly used (<2years)>

The above adjustments should mean an FTP in the new regime of about 280. I"ll need to do some testing to confirm that one way or another.

The other problem is that CTL/ATL/TSB for the last few months (since I've been back at the track) are off significantly. If the track bike was under reporting as compared to the FTP from testing on the road, then TSS points computed and therefore CTL/ATL/TSB are too low. Especically true on the track where we see short and intense efforts. 

Going forward we'll be ok. But it takes some work to get the past few months corrected. The simplest approach is to simply use the "new zones" feature to set a new FTP prior to each weeks track or road. Moving it up and down to match. The end result was to move current CTL from about 70 to 79.

Today was the first day out on the re-calibrated Soloist... Got rained on doing Ford Road at L2/L3. The legs where a bit tired from doing the (5) ramp tests yestered (start at 100 and ramp at 60w/minute until failure, about 5 minutes...) 

Ford Road - 20s anaerobic intervals and Track L3

Yesterday was 20 second anaerobic intervals... One every five minutes for an hour... Done with 53x13 gear, start at low speed,  push as hard as possible for 20 seconds... A lot harder than it sounds... 

Tonight out to the track. Mostly L3 in a small group... Pushing up to a few sets of 7-8 laps on the front at about 42-43 km/h. Then as group slowed down, three take-a-laps (drop down from blue and sprint until you catch the group again...)

Track legs starting to come back. The lead outs at 42-43 for 7-8 laps felt comfortable.. much better than last month when I simply couldn't get up to speed without getting short of breath...

Fall season track racing starts Oct 3... 

Mt Seymour Challenge

It never rains but pours...

This time figuratively speaking...

Approaching the start line with 3 minutes to go there was the loud bang of a tubular blowing out... mine...

Quick run down to the car, madly swap the spare front wheel in, back to the finish line a half km uphill... started about 2:20 after everyone else.

At least it didn't actually rain on us, the road was wet as it had rained about an hour earlier..

Power felt better, and the adrenalin kicked in a bit... Had to time trial up the entire way. Managed to catch up and pass a few people.

Official time 49 and a bit, but the actual time was 47:12. Not bad, previous time up this year (May 17) was 49:30.

This was on the road bike with climbing cassette, 12x25. Seymour has max grade of just over 7%, so was able to keep the cadence up over 70 almost the entire way.

Even adjusting back Bill Riley beat me by one or two seconds today to take third in our age class (... and about six seconds yesterday... Much better weekend than I had :-) )

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

Anmore Tour - L3

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+.

Westwood Tour - L2/L3

A couple of easy hours doing hill climbs.

I made the mistake of installing Office 2007 yesterday, which of course broke my excel charting spreadsheets... So no TSB/TSS graphic today, and PMC chart not upgraded. Hopefully I can figure out what has changed between 2003 and 2007 versions of Excel and fix it without too much trouble :-(

Heritage Intervals

All about intervals today, 2x20 L3, 6x10s L7, 2x5 L5.

Was supposed to do more of the L7 (10) and L5 (3) intervals. But my shoulder was bothering me doing the high watt sprints (lots of body movement, including shoulders...I swear I can feel the plate.. ) and I was running out of daylight. Even with daylight savings it is hard to get a three hour workout in after work. Did do 2:10.

I felt a bit off both yesterday and today, it was like pulling teeth to get the watts up.

Not sure what to do this weekend. I'd like to try the new Snake race course. But I'd also like to do well on the Bradner Course on Sunday. I've done it three times and have yet to finish with the group. It has three small climbs that follow a 90 degree turn. So this plays into both of my worst abilities.

First I drop 3-4 places going through the turn. Then I have to keep up with the short mini-sprint up the climb. For the first few laps there is almost always another bike or two to follow back into the group. Second or third climb in lap four all of those riders have been dropped and I have to work back into the group on my own.

I've been dropped in almost exactly the same place every time I've done it (lap four, third turn. So it's a bit of a grudge match. I would *really* like to finish in the group.. But if I work to keep up with the lead group on the Snake on Saturday I won't have much form left on Sunday.

The current forecast is showing a slight advantage to Sunday (rain vs. possible showers). I won't do the Snake if it is raining. It is (other than the climb) the same course as the Armstrong Road course. We did it last year in the rain. The descent is NOT fun when wet. Not too mention doing a sharp climb with wet gear (adds a couple of kg) slows you down considerable.

Anmore Tour - L3

A little cold and damp today, a little slow.

Barnet 10K TT - SFU Kermesse - Westwood

Started out by doing my Barnet 10K TT route. Not terribly bad time, 17:30, for this time of year with tired legs from yesterday and no aero (PB is 15:00, all aero, neutral TSB etc..).

Then climbed up SFU and did two laps of last years Kermesse course... (short and with some nasty climbining.)

Then over to Westwood for another 300m climb and home. 200+ TSS points making it 400+ for weekend total. Which gives me a current ATL just a shade under my all time high of 113.

Although that was with a higher FTP... so PE (perceived exertion) wise this is the same, but I actually had to do more work for the other (although with higher FTP that meant I *could* do more work...)


Entire workout (176 watts):

Duration: 2:59:01 (4:13:01)
Work: 1887 kJ
TSS: 205.8 (intensity factor 0.83)
Norm Power: 245
VI: 1.39
Pw:HR: 29.87%
Pa:HR: 38.5%
Distance: 64.34 km
Elevation Gain: 1538 m
Elevation Loss: 1470 m
Grade: 0.1 % (68 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 879 176 watts
Heart Rate: 0 169 113 bpm
Cadence: 26 137 60 rpm
Speed: 1.9 54.3 21.6 kph
Pace 1:06 31:35 2:47 min/km
Altitude: 0 425 236 m
Crank Torque: 0 98 28.8 N-m
Temperature: 11 20 14.3 Celsius

Spring series starts next Sunday with River Road course. Hopefully the weather will hold. Normally Spring Series is cold and wet.

The weather this last week has been fantastic. Typical late March or April temps. Certainly arrived at just the right time for me to get some really nice base riding in.

Computrainer - Senior Warmup, 10k TT,

Senior Warmup (v2, 4x350), 10k TT - SST, and misc for antother 40 minutes of L3. Only limited time, so only managed 80 TSS points.

With luck, weather may be good enough to get outside for the next two days.

Computrainer - 10kTT

Warmup, then Computrainer 10k TT, then Dachau course.

The 10k TT was against previous performance from last October... about 40 seconds slower (15:56 versus about 16:36..)

Entire workout (270 watts):

Duration: 16:36
Work: 269 kJ
TSS: 23.6 (intensity factor 0.924)
Norm Power: 273
VI: 1.01
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 9.975 km
Elevation Gain: 192 m
Elevation Loss: 125 m
Grade: 0.7 % (68 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 110 408 270 watts
Cadence: 50 99 81 rpm
Speed: 19.5 43.9 36.0 kph
Pace 1:22 3:05 1:40 min/km
Altitude: -8 68 23 m
Crank Torque: 16.8 54.1 32.3 N-m

Still NPavg moving up.

I tried a suggestion from wattage posting on Friday (Rich Wharton I think). User pacer at fairly high wattage then sit in draft. Going in and out of draft periodically gets you some small VO2Max workouts. Overall the workout also tends to be a little less boring. I set the pacer at 310 watts. Which over 40 minutes gave me an NPavg of about 240 watts.

Update: It was William Black's suggestion.

Computrainer - Senior Warmup, Dachour

Started with Senior Warmup, V02Max, 3x1 minute at 350... after about 10 minutes L3 warmup.

Then Dachou 48k, L3. With a few V02Max bumps.

Computrainer - L5 and L3

Wildflower course again (flatter, easier to be consistent..) L3 with a few L5 sprints towards the end.

Overall NP avg down from yesterday. But best 20 minutes finally qualifies as SST (sweet spot).

Peak 20min (253 watts):

Duration: 20:00
Work: 304 kJ
TSS: 24.8 (intensity factor 0.862)
Norm Power: 254
VI: 1
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 9.929 km
Elevation Gain: 527 m
Elevation Loss: 116 m
Grade: 4.1 % (411 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 180 351 253 watts
Cadence: 35 104 81 rpm
Speed: 15.2 44.7 29.8 kph
Pace 1:21 3:57 2:01 min/km
Altitude: 2 520 326 m
Crank Torque: 21.1 55.6 30.2 N-m

Computrainer - L5 and L3

Started with an L5 level, Senior Warmup, which is 3 sets of 350 watts, after a short 10 minute warmup ramping to 280 watts.

Then did KtownLong 56k as L3. Beat last weeks pace by about 3km (about 6 minutes.) .

Entire workout (235 watts):

Duration: 1:35:48
Work: 1353 kJ
TSS: 105.6 (intensity factor 0.813)
Norm Power: 240
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 55.816 km
Elevation Gain: 597 m
Elevation Loss: 593 m
Grade: 0.0 % (5 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 547 235 watts
Cadence: 7 108 83 rpm
Speed: 11.4 55.1 35.0 kph
Pace 1:05 5:16 1:43 min/km
Altitude: -1 101 50 m
Crank Torque: 0 51.3 27.3 N-m

Legs are starting to feel better for this type of workout (endurance...) Most of the last few months was high intensity short duration (aka track...) which was working well for me competitition wise.... but between that and loosing a week in December due to a cold and almost two weeks in January my comfort level for endurance paced workouts was (is) not where I want it.

By way of comparison, a ballpark figure for C group races in the Spring series (which start in four weeks!!!) would be 65k in 1:30 with normalized power of about 290-300. So assuming I can race in four weeks (hopefully, if I stay out of the potential trouble spots and minimize chances of crashing...) I have to move from doing 240 to 300 NPavg, at a minimum.

I actually want to be able to do a bit more than that by then.

Computrainer - Wildflower L3

Short on time today so just
1 hour of L3...

Entire workout (237 watts):

Duration: 1:10:30
Work: 1003 kJ
TSS: 80.3 (intensity factor 0.827)
Norm Power: 244
VI: 1.03
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 38.683 km
Elevation Gain: 956 m
Elevation Loss: 479 m
Grade: 1.2 % (477 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 67 402 237 watts
Cadence: 24 93 75 rpm
Speed: 14.9 45.6 32.9 kph
Pace 1:19 4:02 1:49 min/km
Altitude: 0 520 364 m
Crank Torque: 14.9 69 30.1 N-m

Getting numbers up a bit.. best 30 minutes norm AP 251 watts.

Peak 30min (247 watts):

Duration: 30:01
Work: 445 kJ
TSS: 36.2 (intensity factor 0.85)
Norm Power: 251
VI: 1.01
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 15.615 km
Elevation Gain: 661 m
Elevation Loss: 221 m
Grade: 2.8 % (441 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 83 345 247 watts
Cadence: 24 89 75 rpm
Speed: 14.9 45.6 31.2 kph
Pace 1:19 4:02 1:55 min/km
Altitude: 17 520 357 m
Crank Torque: 15.5 61.4 31.9 N-m

Need to translate that into full hour and push it up.

Computrainer - Wildflower

Wildflower course (flat mostly), pace up a bit. L3 for the first hour. Then L2.


Peak 60min (231 watts):

Duration: 1:00:01
Work: 833 kJ
TSS: 64.2 (intensity factor 0.801)
Norm Power: 236
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 32.13 km
Elevation Gain: 885 m
Elevation Loss: 464 m
Grade: 1.3 % (421 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 90 580 231 watts
Cadence: 2 98 75 rpm
Speed: 14.1 48.1 32.1 kph
Pace 1:15 4:15 1:52 min/km
Altitude: 12 520 367 m
Crank Torque: 16.3 101 29.7 N-m