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Beasty's 2011 assault on the vets

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  • 19-12-2010 7:50pm
    #1
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭


    Hopefully there will be a bit more structure to my 2011 training.

    2010 was all about getting kilometres into the legs, but when I set the 10,000km target I had no intention of taking racing seriously. It was simply a matter of fitter, faster, further. Having said that, the distance I have covered has given me an excellent base for 2011.

    So what will 2011 be about? It will be focussed on some specific racing targets. Distance is not going to be an end, but a means to an end. In 2010 I found myself overdoing it sometimes during the racing season, simply to get the kilometres in.

    In terms of specific targets, I really want to see what I can achieve TT'ing. I now have the bike, and will be getting the wheels in the New Year. The intention is they will serve me for both the road and track (I will be able to convert the rear disc wheel for track user)

    My primary aim is to improve on my 3 fourth places in the IVCA track championships. I want a medal, and my best chance is in the 2km TT, where I was just a few seconds off 3rd place in October. Given it was my first experience of track racing, all those ahead of me had specialist aero wheels, and were using TT bars, I am hopeful. But ultimately it’s down to form on the day, and who turns up. My time for the 2km TT on the Kanturk track was 3m 4s, and I am confident I will be able to break 3 minutes at Sundrive. Indeed, if I get decent conditions I would hope to get down to around 2m 50s

    I want to do a few more vets road TTs also. My best times are 24:49 for 10m and 1:04:52 for 25m, I would like to break 24 minutes and 63 minutes respectively, and hopefully some new wheels will help.

    The vets TT league runs on Tuesday nights, which means I will be cutting back on Swords league racing. I will form a plan once the respective race calendars are out, but I will not be looking to do up to 3 hard races a week. I will try and get some track racing in also (which is on Wednesday evenings, the same night as the Swords league), and if I get a chance I may try my hand at one or two of the Dublin Wheelers TTs.

    There are some “special” challenges also:

    Beat RobFowl in a sprint finish
    Don't let RobFowl beat me in any TT
    40k in the hour - if I get the opportunity I would like to give this a go on the track in Manchester again, although I will not let this distract me from my other objectives.

    Oh, and yes, it would be nice to get at least one extra point (beyond those awarded for simply turning up!) in the Swords League.


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    #2
    GlennaMaddy
    Registered Users Posts: 851 ✭✭✭GlennaMaddy


    40k in 1hr would be something to talk about, you were so close last year and you'd be able to taunt your rivals with 'I did 10,000km in one year, and 40km in one hour -beat that'


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    #3
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Given the weather, a decent start to the New Year - 241km at 29.2kph, including a track session in Manchester on Tuesday, a commute, 3 evening sessions, 40 minutes on the turbo and I have just started a tour of hotel gyms

    Next week will be more gym bike sessions...


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    #4
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Bit of an odd week - I managed to get into various hotel gyms on each day, except Friday (which was not surprising really, as where I was Friday only lasted 4 hours!!)

    Managed over 8 hours in total for 240+ km.

    Next week will be more of the same, but with the added advantage that it will stretch to 179 hours (which is 27 more hours than I encountered this week;)).

    Hopefully I may even get to try a real bike on some real potholes over the weekend


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    #5
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    World tour of hotel gyms completed - Melbourne and Singapore this week - 7+ hours for over 210km in total (as well as 30+ hours hanging around airports and planes)

    I resisted the temptation to go out this evening, given all the number of stories of recent crashes in the main forum - my own elbows are only just getting over a spill on ice 2 and a half weeks ago - 3 layers of clothing were largely undamaged, but I ended up with large friction burns and and a bruised hip.

    Hopefully I'll get a commute or two in this week (weather permitting) in addition to some turbo sessions


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    #6
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Delighted to get back out on the road this week - a commute and 3 evening sessions, totalling 132km. I was going to head out again tonight but the plummeting temperature and memories of last February gave me the excuse to stay in.

    Some of my power records towards the end of last year were inaccurate, as the Powertap was not zeroing correctly - that's now heading back for repair under warranty. Fortunately the spare which had been lent to a couple of other riders has returned so I am now back to reliable power records. This time last year I had been using the Powertap for around 5 months, and had bettered 900w on only 2 occasions in that time. Last night I got over 900w on 5 separate occasions (beating 960w 3 times). My normalised power for the week has been around 260w, with over 280w for an hour last night (which is a PB), and everything is looking encouraging.

    Total distance for January 833km at 29.4kph

    I'm away for 3 days next week. Hopefully I should still get an hour on the track a commute and a couple of evening sessions (weather permitting). I


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    #7
    levitronix
    Registered Users Posts: 1,824 ✭✭✭levitronix


    Was your PT reading low or high ? how did you know it was out


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    #8
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    levitronix wrote: »
    Was your PT reading low or high ? how did you know it was out
    Some of the time it was showing a reading when was coasting, and on other occasions it was showing zero when I was putting light pressure on the pedals - I reckon it was typically in the range + or - 40w or so. I tried re-calibrating it and changing the batteries, but, although it would sometimes appear OK, the readings would subsequently move one way or the other


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    #9
    michael196
    Registered Users Posts: 1,222 ✭✭✭michael196


    Beasty wrote: »

    Total distance for January 833km at 29.4kph


    I am around the same mileage for the month, but not that same speed !!!

    think I am begining to understand the ''nick'' name ''Beasty'' !!


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    #10
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    michael196 wrote: »
    I am around the same mileage for the month, but not that same speed !!!

    think I am begining to understand the ''nick'' name ''Beasty'' !!
    A lot of the time in January was spent on gym bikes, and so the speed was a bit arbitrary. Having said that, I averaged around this for the whole of 2010, and it's a reasonable approximation (an hour on the Manchester track at 38kph+ always helps also)


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    #11
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Back in Manchester today, and I had a session on the track at lunchtime. This time I had my own bike, so have accurate speed, distance and HR data. I managed to to 37.85km in 58m 34s. However when I ignore the speed up and slow down segments I actually averaged 39.35kph over 55 minutes. This was without any warm-up and is only 200m short of my hour attempt back in August.

    It's not directly comparable, as I had benefit of some drafting today, but that was probably for only about a third of the session, and I was only on the drops for about half of it. Average HR was 167, lifting to 170-175 when I was riding solo. I hit 183 at one stage, which is only 3 off the highest I have ever recorded. Even then, I did not feel as if I was pushing as hard as I could.

    I even managed to put a couple of 2km TTs into the course of the session, both coming in at under 3 minutes, with one right at the end of the hour at 2m 55s, which is 8s faster than I managed (from a standing start) at the vets championships in October.

    Hopefully with the addition of aero-helmet, skinsuit, aero-bars, overshoes and the new wheel, I will soon be able to crack the 40km


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    #12
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Legs were aching for a couple of days after Tuesday's track exertions. I managed a commute on Friday and then a couple of evening sessions over the weekend, to make a total distance of 147km at 29.3kph. Year to date 980km at 29.4kph

    Before the weekend my maximum power achieved was 1,012w. On Saturday I managed to push this up to 1,061w, with another couple of 1,000w+ surges. Tonight I improved this further to 1,100w with a total of 5 x 1,000w+ surges. In addition I managed to achieve a normalised power of 300w for 1hr 7m. This is 20w higher than I have done before (except with the dodgy Powertap a few weeks ago)

    The power curve is therefore moving in the right direction. The black line shows what I achieved tonight, with the coloured section showing where I was at before the weekend:

    cp060211.jpg?t=1297028178


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    #13
    Lumen
    Registered Users Posts: 31,009 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    Well done on cracking 300W/hr. I still think you're cheating using NP though. :)


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    #14
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    My first 25mTT of the season will be the real test ...

    Having said that, working back from my speed on the track on Tuesday, I must have been pretty close then (and it definitely felt a lot harder than tonight)


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    #15
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    A paltry 111km this week, all between Monday and Wednesday - since then I've been travelling and home-alone with the kids, so unable to get out. I guess that makes this a rest week. I think I was probably due it after last week's exertions.

    Although total mileage is down on last year (1,091km v 1,495km), I feel the quality is much better. At this time in 2010 I had no real racing ambitions, and was simply focussed on getting the distance in. Average speed is up (29.0kph v 28.3kph). I don't have the normalised power data from the corresponding period last year, and average (pedalling) power is only slightly up (223w v 221w), but I am now regularly hitting much higher maximum (up nearly 30% at 1,100).

    Next week will be mainly evening sessions - hopefully the distance will be back up again.


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    #16
    biomed32
    Registered Users Posts: 697 ✭✭✭biomed32


    yo Beasty, dont be too hard on yourself, your flyin it at the moment. I also feel your right in saying that its the quality is better this year in comparison to last year and your average speed is testement to this. Keep it up:)


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    #17
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Ongoing problems with the showers at work meant no commutes this week, and so I've done 5 evening sessions, totalling 151km

    YTD now stands at 1.242km at 28.5kph

    Next week is likely to be much of the same. Although I would like to get some longer spins in, it looks like this will have to wait until I can recommence the commutes.

    The good news is that I should now be able to improve on what I was doing at this time last year (when I was off the bike as a result of a broken wrist)


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    #18
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    With one Powertap wheel now being rebuilt, after blowing up on Wednesday's commute, fortunately the other had arrived back from its warranty repair on Monday. So I have been able to at least confirm some of my recent power records are consistent across the two Powertaps

    A bit more done this week than in the corresponding one last year (which was the only week all year when I failed to do any cycling based training as a result of my broken wrist and bad roadrash following my fall on ice)

    I managed 5 evening sessions in addition to the ill-fated commute. Total distance 207km, bringing the YTD total to 1,449km at 28.1kph

    I did some hill work on Monday and Tuesday, but after some intervals on Thursday my hamstrings were feeling a bit tight. Despite that I've been out over the last couple of evenings when I have tried to push up the short end of the CP graph. I've also been doing a few minutes high cadence/low resistance work during each session.

    I've managed 14 x 1,000w+ surges over the past couple of nights which is particularly pleasing given the state of my hamstrings and when at this time last year I would have been happy with surges over 800w. I was only 12w adrift of my maximum tonight, so hopefully I'll be surpassing that when the temperatures rise a bit

    A couple of days rest next, as I'll be away until Wednesday, then it will be a commute or two and some more evening sessions next week


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    #19
    levitronix
    Registered Users Posts: 1,824 ✭✭✭levitronix


    Fecking hell thats some damage to the wheel, did it burst on the rim weld ?


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    #20
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    levitronix wrote: »
    Fecking hell thats some damage to the wheel, did it burst on the rim weld ?
    No - I suspect there was some rim damage from hitting a pothole or stone


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    #21
    mc2000
    Registered Users Posts: 85 ✭✭mc2000


    I think that it might be rim wear Beasty [someone else in that thread said something along those lines I think as well] - I know you said you didn't do loads of miles on it, but what would matter more is especially if you did those miles over winter, and all the crud gets stuck onto the brake blocks, and they then act like grinders to your rim. Especially on a commute you might be doing more braking as well, so more wear, and over winter is way worse than in spring/summer when all the wet and road crud gets embedded into the brakes. And on a commuter bike you might not, er, worry about diligently cleaning the rim every time you do a spin :rolleyes:

    One thing to do is check the rim with your fingers, if you can feel like theres a kind of concave trough in it, you know it's wearing thin - some rims also have a wear indicator [e.g. the aksiums have a black line, and when you can't see that anymore, it's time to dump the wheel - I used to have a pair of Xero wheels and they had an "X" in the rim as a wear indicator - I remember that wearing quite quickly, especially the rear wheel]


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    #22
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    ...or more accurately the wheels that cost a fortune

    Got to try out the new wheels on the TT bike today. The only time the bike had been out before was for the Boards 10mTT back in August. There were no special wheels that time (except for the Powertap)

    It was a short session, just to try it out, now I have the tyres and Quarq installed.

    I decided to compare performance with my road bike, and included an out and back route that was 2.5km in total to test what difference the wheels made. A more scientific option would have been to simply swap the wheels over on the TT bike, but I couldn't be bothered to go to that much trouble

    The key was to try and maintain similar speeds while adopting similar riding styles. I chose to try and ride fairly upright on both bikes - on the hoods on the road bike, and bull bars on the TT bike. However there is still bound to be a level of inaccuracy

    The results, when adjusting for the relevant power outputs - the TT bike was around 1.5kph faster than the road bike. This could be worth over 2 minutes over a 25m TT - hopefully even more in full aero position when compared to the clip-ons I used the last time I did a 25m TT

    While on the road bike, I also managed to push up my maximum power output from a previous PB of 1,100w to 1,128w. Daylight helped and I'm hopeful I can push this a bit further, particularly when it starts to warn up.


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    #23
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Two commutes and another three evening sessions since Wednesday - total distance 195km in just over 7 hours, bringing the YTD total 1,644km at 28.1kph

    Managed to hit a new power peak tonight - 1,153w. I've been pushing up the short end of the power curve quite a bit in recent weeks. A couple of weeks ago 1,000w was a threshhold I rarely breached, and then I started surpassing this several times on each session. Now I seem to be able to exceed 1,100w, not quite at will, but I have done it six times over the past couple of days, and I seem to be getting over 1,050w pretty much every session.

    My 5 second peak power now stands at around 12.3w/kg, which gets me into the lower half of "Category 5" racers in the Hunter Allen "Racing and Training with a Power Meter" book. I feel there remains room for improvement, as I have been hitting some of the peaks when far from fresh

    The next interval in the book is 1 minute, where I am floundering at the "untrained/non racer" level at around 5.7w/kg. This is clearly something I need to focus on! My output for intervals between 30s and 3 minutes is pretty poor, although I suspect I just need to find an opportunity to test this when I am reasonably fresh to push the power curve up a bit

    Moving onto the 5 minute interval, this is something I get a bit of practice on when climbing some of the local hills. I am at 4w/kg which gets me in the top half of Category 4, or nearly in the bottom of Category 3, which I am delighted with

    The final "test level" is at functional threshhold. Based on my recent normalised power, I am at about 3.4w/kg, which again gets me into the bottom of the category 3 level. I guess this supports the view that my strengths lie in TTs, where I can churn out the power consistently over long periods.

    Of course, the other way I can push all these measures up a bit is by losing a bit of weight. Another 3kg should be readily achievable without any material impact on my power output, and this would improve my w/kg by 3.3% or so.


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    #24
    levitronix
    Registered Users Posts: 1,824 ✭✭✭levitronix


    Beasty im kinda in around the same power levels as you, i ve hit 1200 watts and 5s at 1115 but i cant do it so far in a race, i cant get the wind up i get in trainning and so far have not been in the right gear or right position to try and unload :(


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    #25
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Opportunities in a race to hit those levels will be few and far between - you'll be knackering yourself if you do it early on, and unless you've managed to get some pretty good shelter the chances are you would not have that sort of power in you for a sprint finish

    Having said that, you're new to the power meter, and you may not yet have reached your potential - it's taken me getting on for 18 months to build up the strength, and work out when/where best to unleash it to maximise power output


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    #26
    Lumen
    Registered Users Posts: 31,009 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    Gissa fresh CP curve mista.


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    #27
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Lumen wrote: »
    Gissa fresh CP curve mista.
    You show me yours first ....


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    #28
    Lumen
    Registered Users Posts: 31,009 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    Beasty wrote: »
    You show me yours first ....

    I don't have one. My current training plan involves no actual training.


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    #29
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    It's just I feel as if I'm the only boardsie regularly flashing mine around on the internet ....

    There's actually not much to add to the one I put up a month ago - peak power has improved, but nothing else. I don't get a chance to do much at threshhold over the 30mins - 1hr+ range until I do some racing - can only get out for an hour or so on an evening, or the commutes.

    It does mean I am neglecting the long spins, although total distance is still OK, and when I do commute I tend to get nearly a couple of hours in during the day

    I'm hoping some serious TT attempts will push up the long end of the CP curve (although given the way the vets handicapping works, I need to be a bit careful I don't push too hard too early in the season;)) - this is where my best performances came from last year

    Anyway, just for you, I'll dig out my latest CP curve tonight.


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    #30
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,303 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    So here it is, with Sunday's session shown as the black line:

    cp060311.jpg?t=1299623460


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    #31
    chakattack
    Registered Users Posts: 1,315 ✭✭✭chakattack


    You're certainly living up to your name with that cp curve :cool:


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