globecanvas

The older I get, the less I warm up.

sarals 

The older I get, the LONGER warmup I need!

revchuck 

The last couple of days went pretty well. I'm working on the ability to stay with surges. Yesterday's schedule was 6x45" spin-ups, where I start in the 53-25 at 90 rpm, accelerate hard to 100 rpm, upshift, and repeat until I can't reach 100 rpm...which happens about halfway through the interval, so I just hold that until the end. I ended up doing seven of them, just to see how close I was to death, and it wasn't that close. RBI was 2:15, and it seemed to be enough. IF was .90 for the 1h:27 workout, so I apparently wasn't lollygagging too much.

Nothing formal scheduled for today, so I decided to ride for two hours at endurance pace. A cold front came through last night, so temps were in the low 60s with little wind and no clouds, just perfect riding weather. It was a great morning to be on the bike!

TSS goal for the week is 550-650, I'm at 266 with three days of perfect riding weather left in the week.

sarals 

@revchuck, you've become a regular BEAST.... In a very good way!

sarals 

Leaving for the high country in a little bit to do some weekend racing. Tour de Nez crit tomorrow, and the NCNCA District TT on Sunday. Coach and Mrs Ex have graciously provided shelter for me over the weekend! I'm looking forward to it. The racing, too!

Heathpack 

Good luck @sarals! Have fun.

echappist

+1 to the above.

Heathpack 

I had three days of gym workouts while I was at my conference and a day of "rest" yesterday.

With "rest" in quotes because yesterday we got this:



Puppy!

OMG there's lots of wiggling & writhing & running around.



But she's a really good puppy, we are a bit smitten.

This am, I had two hours to ride whatever bike I wanted however I wanted. With the new puppy, I wasn't sure exactly when I'd get out the door in the morning. So, a solo ride. And if I'm riding solo, might as well get in some TT love ❤️ in the new position.

Headed out to a local canyon which is an approx 15 min threshold effort for me, a slight uphill grade with a few tiny lumps in the road. Then you turn around and whomp on that 1-2% downhill grade. I love it. Plus some chances to get in a few TT efforts on the way out to the canyon & back home.

In short: it went really well. The new position is hard in exactly the same way the TT bike was initially difficult, so I'm optimistic I can adapt over time. I was listening to a podcast yesterday & the interviewee made the point that he thinks many people never give themselves enough time too adapt to a position- they just go out & do a few races and struggle. Then go right back to their old position. Mistake.

So we'll see. I had fun today doing my thing. Really nice to get in a slightly supra threshold effort on the downhill grade- almost 30 mph for 7 min. A little bit off the QOM for the segment, which I know for a fact was set by a woman riding in a group ride with men! Oh yeah & I had a headwind.

I could post more puppy pics but I don't want to bore y'all.

Hermes

Cute puppy.

sarals 

Goodness gracious, EVER!!!!

sarals 

Day off. Feet up. Cleaning bikes. Got a mani-pedi. Racing tomorrow night with the (Cat 1/2 men) Geezers at Hellyer. More thrashing!

Life is GOOD!!

Heathpack 

Boo yah.


Monday I had a "test the waters" type of workout with the new TT position: a couple of easy 20 min intervals, one sub-threshold and one at threshold. Piece of cake.


Tuesday rest, Wednesday openers for todays workout, which was one 20 min "max effort" interval.


Its hard with the new position to really know what's max, anything that's at all uphill feels way harder. My 20 min route starts with a gradual uphill for the first 10 min so I was hoping to put out x watts but that didn't feel sustainable initially, so I settled into 0.95x. But then I started to feel better and better (this is typical for me on a long interval) and by the end was easily riding at x. Wound up at 0.975x for the 20 min interval and know now that I could've sucked it up and hit x after all. Live and learn, getting used to the feel of the new position.


Anyway, TL/DR basically no loss of power in the new position and it wouldn't surprise me if I wind up with a new higher FTP very soon. Next time I will go for x watts for sure.


Aero testing at the velodrome on Saturday.

sarals 

@Heathpack, say hi to @VanceMac for me while you're there! BTW, there is an Omnium that afternoon (I do wish I could go)!

Cramp calf night last night. I think they're tired. Going up to Hellyer for a sprint clinic tonight.

Heathpack 

If I had any idea who @VanceMac was, I might do that.

We're going to be testing at night, so we'll overlap with the racers but maybe doing our thing in the fit studio (I'm not actually sure of the exact process) while they are clearing out.

But I'll just generally be friendly & say Hi to everyone, cover my bases.

valygrl

This is so completely the opposite of me.

sarals 

@Heathpack, he's easy to spot!

@valygrl, I get better and better and then I get worse and worse as the ride progresses.

Heathpack 

Ha, one of those Facebook memories came up on my feed today. Four years ago, I did my longest ride evah! 31 miles! The next goal was 36 miles.

@valygrl, I have a response to your post but I'm swamped and trying to find a time to write it.... I've had crazy cases this week, everything is not what it initially seemed to be and more complicated than expected. My head hurts.

sarals 

I did an advanced session last night at Hellyer, for sprinters. I had to "negotiate" my way in, because the supervisor didn't know me. It was a fun session! There were five guys there, sprinters all, with varying levels of experience, all the way up to expert. Once they saw that I could actually sprint, and do it pretty well, and that I had a clue to boot, they warmed up to me. I heard a lot about weight lifting, leg strength, leg speed, VSC vs. Hellyer power required, 200 meter technique, and lots of other nuggets. And, I got to do five 100 meter jumps. I rode a relatively low gear (85 to 86 inches) because I am still trying to build cadence. I kept banging into a 124 RPM peak and wasn't able to crack it, but that gave me 32 MPH. We weren't timing anything, it was all about getting the jump, a hard jump. My goal is to get through the mid 120's and get my working cadence up into the 130's, consistently.

For six miles total of riding and maybe forty minutes on the bike took 2 1/2 hours, because a sprinter MUST rest for 20 minutes between sprints to recharge ATP. Lots of discussion is done in those twenty minute rests!

We ever thought a simple thing like a sprint could be so involved? I am loving this stuff!

Heathpack 

Track sprinting is the Coffee Klatch of bike racing?

sarals 

Could be!

sarals 

JRA on the menu this morning, on the TT bike. I left the house at 0540, it was a lovely morning! Much as @Heathpack has been feeling as of late, I felt "mighty"! It was so easy to breeze along at 22+ MPH, even with the slow wheels and the draggy clothes I was wearing. I'm not peaking, I'm just stronger, a LOT stronger! The sunrise today was sublime. I rode along the coast to Lovers Point, and then back, using the rec trail for most of the ride. I normally avoid the rec trail like the plague, it is so crowded with people walking, ****ing, people with dogs, strollers, hipsters on single speeds going way too fast, because it's annoying and even hazardous. Early in the day, though, it's deserted, and it's peaceful and oh so nice.

I like my TT bike. Coach has me ride it for adaption, but he really doesn't have to tell me to ride it, I like to ride it. I adapt to it instantly, and it's actually more tolerable for me on a long ride than my Look road bike is.

Tomorrow, strength training at the gym

echappist

very nice!

a picture would have been nice

the moment when you feel you can churn out the watts on the TT bike after months of agony (read, adaptation) is something special

valygrl

Sigh. I raced a 40K tt and averaged 22.9mph. dead flat, some wind. Crappy result. I'm waiting for someone to wave that magic TT wand in my direction.

echappist

Can't comment on the power and physiological side of the equation, but one could always lower CdA and Crr. For quite a while, I lamented at my low speed on the bike despite being otherwise very conscientious of aero details. Then I realized that there were a whole lot of things I weren't doing. So, before your next ITT, check

-Derailleur bearings/bushings. No one pays them mind, but they can get quite rough. I must have been using a rough bearing for more than a year.
-Tires. Supple tires + latex tubes or supple tubeless tires
-Helmet. Get something that fits your style of riding; short tail for head down position, etc.
-Skinsuit. This actually matters quite a bit; I spent $250 on mediocre suits before plunging $225 for a fancier one.
-Leg shaving; most likely a moot point for you but I had this notion that I wasn't going to shave until I accumulated 15 points for my cat-2 upgrade. Then I realized just how much savings were to be gained from shaving.

All this meant that instead of doing 27 mph on 300W, I was doing closer to 28.5 mph on 310W. Small details add up

valygrl

Thanks echappist!

By the way - I realize there are folks here who are not waiting for a magic wand, but actually doing the work to make their TTs better - so I regret phasing my comment that way. I'm having a weird season and haven't really committed either to training (I'm riding a lot but not training) or making headway on all those details. So i shouldn't really lament my results if I'm not doing what is needed to improve.