Beasty's 2011 assault on the vets

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...

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

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

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.

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)

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.

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

Lumen wrote: »

Gissa fresh CP curve mista.

You show me yours first ....

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.

3 evening sessions and an hour on the track added up to 112km this week, bringing the YTD to 1,756km at 28kph.

Racing is expected to commence in a couple of weeks with the vets league - the first race is a DMS - it's billed at 60km, so I'm guessing it will be nearer 45km!

I'll be away on a couple of occasions next week, and should get one track session in. I'll be trying to get out on the other evenings during the week. Hopefully I'll manage to get a couple of hundred km in, and will then ease off a bit for the week before the first race

197km this week - my back continued playing up, although it's not as bad now as it was at the start of the week, and I managed to hit a new power peak of 1,174w tonight, with another 4 1,100w+ surges

YTD total now stands at 1,952km at 28kph

I hope to do my first race of the season next Sunday, so will aim at another couple of evening sessions early in the week, before easing off towards the end of the week

michael196 wrote: »

oh gosh, here comes the big guns ....

- err... not quite - I've never gained any points other than those they give for turning up

michael196 wrote: »

what category do u race Beasty ?

- the slow one

It's the vets races I am talking about - there's a DMS next week and I expect to be in the middle of 3 races (there are 6 vets categories, and based on last year I should be in the 4th (ie 3rd slowest)

4 commutes and a couple of evening sessions this week resulted in 243km (my longest weekly distance of the year to date) at 27.5kph. Given the windy conditions, I'm not too unhappy with the average, and my YTD total now stands at 2,375km at 28kph

I managed to improve my 5 minute Power from 359w to 386w (normalised 389w) this evening, which means I have now improved pretty much all intervals up to about 6 minutes over the winter. I have improved longer intervals on a normalised basis also, although I am hoping absolute improvements come along when I start doing some TTs (my existing PBs have been set during TTs)

Tonight's power/CP curve:



Subject to the back problems it feels like everything is starting to come together for the new season (I know, famous last words....)

The back spasm has settled down a bit, although I am still feeling the sciatica in one leg - in theory this will diminish power output, but I suspect in my case it does not make much difference.

Looks like I won't be racing next week due to family commitmemnts, which means my next race will be the start of the Swords League a week on Wednesday, with a 5 and a half minute or so uphill TT;)

In the meantime, I'll be looking to get a bit more distance in ths sweek with a few commutes and perhaps another couple of evening sessions

mc2000 wrote: »

Hey Beasty don't forget about the Vets and your assault thereon! Expect to see you there next Sunday in Batterstown, it's a CP, go on you'll love it!

Never mind those just-over-a-mile hilly time trials [i'm marshalling that one] - good to hear your back seems to have settled down, so get yerself back out on the road racing:pac:

Assault is aimed at the TT/Midweek Leagues!

Sundays remain difficult because of family commitments (and the prospect of another European Cup final, with ticket already secured, although Dirk may be seeking that out after tonight:eek:). The family are away over Easter though

This Sunday is dependent on the FA Cup Semi Final. If we beat them in normal time with a bit of luck I should be home in the evening, and hopefully racing on Sunday. If it goes to extra time (I know it's City we are playing, but you can't rule it out), it will be the first flight back on Sunday (both options are booked )

Back spasm has calmed down, but the sciatica remains, so I have not yet run out of excuses

So after Wednesday's escapade on the Swords Hill climb I had to use the spare bike on Thursday's commute. I've not used it that much, and it's almost as new.

On the way home, heading up the hill, out of the saddle - crunch then crash, as I hit the deck for the second time in 24 hours. The plaster on my knee come off, and I end up with cuts on top of cuts. Indeed the damage was quite a bit worse than that suffered on Wednesday - and it was the chain again - it had kinked at the joining pin, and came off the big ring. The chain was almost new, and I guess the pin was not properly engaged.

This prompted me to go and retrieve the damaged chain from Wednesday - again it was just about a month old and had only done about a thousand km or so, That one had snapped at a normal link. When I restarted the hill climb on Wednesday I took it a bit gingerly, but still hit 800w, and I suspect I was pushing out quite a bit more on the ill-fated attempt.

Anyway, there were no further dramas in today's vets race. It was so relatively easy I decided to go out and give Ardgillan another go tonight. The weather was similar to Wednesday, but fortunately there was no wet mud on the road this time

I clocked 5m 18s, which is identical to my time on Wednesday. Bearing in mind this was after this morning's race, I am hopeful there is more in me, and at some stage I would like to break 5 minutes for the climb. Power was slightly down (366w versus 376w), but interestingly normalised power was only 3w higher, whereas on Wednesday it was about 18w higher, perhaps highlighting the more stop and start nature of that attempt given road conditions, and the gearing problems I had

This week's total distance 160km, bringing the YTD total to 2,746km at 28.2kph

Next week will hopefully see races in the Swords League on Wednesday and the vets on Sunday

Race report from last night here

Now for the stats:

Average speed - 36.1kph
Power - average 254w, pedalling 271w, normalised, 283w max 883w
HR - average 166, max 181
Cadence - average 85, pedalling 89

It was exactly a minute slower than my fastest time last year on this course, when I averaged 37 kph in a much larger Group 2 (that was never caught - it was towards the end of the season when everyone was quite fit and taking their turns at the front)

Last night I was averaging about 37kph (293w normalised power) before we were eventually obliterated by scratch, and I was spending quite a lot of time on the front. Interestingly last year my overall average cadence was 78, but when I was pedalling it was 96, a difference of nearly 30%, whereas last night the difference was less than 5%, which highlights how much more time I was spending leading the group or on my own. I think the wind must have been worse last year as my normalised power was also 283w, with an average of 248w and pedalling 280w.

If the pace had been a bit steadier when we were caught I may have hung on, but as it was the second half of the final lap turned into a bit of a TT, which I guess is good preparation for the first vets TT of the year - a 10-miler next Tuesday

Here's the power curve from last night:

Tonight saw the start of the vets TT and midweek league, with a 10-miler on the Black Bull course

The TT League is one of my main focuses for the year, so I guess this is where it starts getting serious

Over 40 in total taking part, and I was number 10 off. There was an easterly wind which would be hampering the return, but should have assisted the first half.

I set the Garmin to lap every 4km, and tracked my average power in each 4km (approximately 1/4 distance) segment. I was expecting the 3rd quarter, with headwind and slight incline (13m climbing) to be hardest

I set off at my allotted time, and found myself putting out nearly 300w for the most of the first quarter, but was averaging 39.5kph. I was expecting to be slowed down in the second half, so was slightly disappointed to not be cracking the 40kph mark, as it did feel as if I was working very hard. The computer beeped and I glanced down to see a time of 6m 4s. The next quarter I kept up the same speed, but my average power was down to 265w - I felt reasonably comfortable, and wanted to save up something for the return into the headwind.

The computer beeped again exactly half way round the roundabout, and I set off on my return journey. I felt like I was pushing only slightly harder, but maintaining my lap speed at 39.5kph. Although my main aim was to beat handicap (25m 6s), I was hoping to go as fast as 24m 30s, and if I could keep this speed up I would just about do it.

Into the final quarter and I was still on target for 24m 30s. As I went through Batterstown I was thinking I would just about get there. Just before the end I finally had another rider in my sights - my 6 minute man (admitedly he is over 25 years older than me!), and I rolled in just after him

My time - 24m 25s, a 2.75% improvement on handicap and 24s faster than my previous best time in the Boards TT last August. I feel there is more to come, particularly in more benign conditions.

Now for the interesting bit - my pacing. I had no intention of doing this, but my splits for the 4 x 4km segments were:

6:04:36
6:05:00
6:05:00
6:05:00

ie I hit exactly the same time, to a hundredth of a second, in 3 of the segments, and was less than 2/3 of a second faster in the other! I thought there must have been a mistake when I saw the lap times, but they do add up (together with another 6s or so for the final bit) to my total time for the ride.

Power output was 267w average, 273w normalised, 446w max
Splits - 292w, 264w, 267w, 249w
Cadence average - 95, which is very high for me, and perhaps reflects the better shifting available with the bar-end shifters

Hopefully I'll be back for another crack on the same course next Tuesday, with again my main aim being to improve handicap