Beasty's 2011 assault on the vets

Steve Marquis wrote: »

Where are the 25m TT's taking place?

It's at Moy Valley, Enfield. However, based on your own log, I think your start time would be in just under quarter of a century, as it's run by and for the vets (over 40s)

BTW, what sort of time did you clock for the Munster 25mTT Championships?

It was the vets 25m TT Championships at Moy Valley (Enfield) this morning. This would be my final 25 miler of the year, and marked the start of my final push in the vets TT handicap league. I’ve made no secret that this league was one of my main objectives of the year, and after today there would be only two 10 milers, the 50m Championships and the hill climb left. I was lying 8th before today, 23 points behind the leader, but third place was only 11 points away.

I changed my warm-up routine, using a turbo trainer for the first time before a TT. I also decided not to do any stretching before the race following a thread on here suggesting it may diminish power output.

The weather forecast was excellent – it should be the best conditions of the year, both warm and still. When I arrived just before 9 there was a light drizzle, although I was expecting to cloud cover to burn off before the race. Given the conditions I was hopeful of breaking 63 minutes.

I did about 30 minutes on the turbo, pushing my HR beyond 160 and getting a decent warm up.

I was number 13 off, and as always I was conscious of not pushing too hard early on. Unfortunately the drizzle had not cleared, and the temperature hovered around a disappointing 13 degrees.

Within 500m my HR was up to 160 and continued to climb, hitting 170 after about 3km. Power was around what I was looking for, 280w for the first 4km. The drizzle continued, and I headed into a stronger than expected wind over the first quarter. My HR remained at or above 170, which was a bit of a concern – It’s the sort of level I may see for a 10m TT but my last 25 miler I had an average of less than 160. I was operating at 90-95% of maximum, and focussed on trying to get it back below 170. I’d not been on the bike much at all prior to my 2 races earlier this week (when again my HR was higher than normal), and I guess it reflected a lack of conditioning. I didn’t want to blow up, so although I possibly had a bit more in the legs I wanted to try and keep a lid on the HR.

Turning after the first quarter I then had a slight tailwind and was able to pick up pace a bit. My HR remained high though. Another 20km and it was the final turn back to the finish – At my average speed 63 minutes was still possibly on, but I would be heading back into the wind, and the final few km has a nasty short climb. That climb really slowed me down, and it was clear after it that I wouldn’t beat handicap (63m 32s), let alone 63m. I crossed the line in 63m 57s, 25s outside handicap, which was a bit of a disappointment.

Looking at the stats, I was actually marginally ahead of my previous 25m TT power (249w v 248w) so I guess my slower speed was down to either worse conditions or being less aero. I think it’s possible that I was slightly less aero, as riding into the drizzle I was more inclined to point my head down a little to protect my glasses from it. I probably could have put a bit more power out, but my HR was a bit of a concern. I also think the conditions were slightly deceptive, although some guys did post some pretty good times (one was 54 something, and a 63 year old hit a lifetime best of 60 something, about 2 minutes inside his previous best for the year)

When I got off the bike I could hardly walk – my hamstrings had pretty much seized up – the first time this has happened to me since my first 25m TT last year (the only other one when I did no stretching), so it will definitely be back to stretching before the next one.

I think any chances of the TT league will have gone after this race, so I’ll focus on improving my position – I guess a podium finish is still an outside possibility.

I've seen something suggesting it takes your muscles up to an hour to "recover" from the stretching, which means I probably shouldn't do it for track events, hill climbs and 10 milers. 25 milers and above may be different though - I'm getting a sports massage later on this week and will ask about it, as I've been advised before that my hamstrings are particularly tight and I should do more stretching.

All the vets championships (10m, 25m and 50m) are run on the same road - the R148 (I'm guessing the old N4) starting off at Moy Valley and heading towards Enfield or Kinnegad - just over a complete circuit for the 25 and twice round for the 50

I'm probably going to be doing two 50s - the first to get a handicap (which does not count towards the league) and the 2nd will be the Championships as well as counting towards the league

Everyone who completes the 3 distances during the year gets a "Best All Rounder" certificate with their cumulative time

... for another vets 40km DMS tonight.

The same circuit and distance as last week - many of the same opponents also.

In fact there were lots of similarities - it was slightly slower this week (37kph against 37.9kph last week). (Well actually, according to the Garmin average speed was 150kph, which looks a bit odd, as it recorded a distance of 3,905.17km, which by my reckoning was an average speed of over 3,600kph;))

Average power was 244w (245w). Normalised power was 276w (276w). Cadence 85 (84). In fact the main difference was my HR, which averaged 154 tonight with a maximum of 180, and last week the average was 160 with a maximum of 185. I guess that probably means I've quickly regained conditioning following my holiday breaks. The other thing was it felt very different. Last week felt like one of my hardest vets races, and tonight felt like one of the easiest. Indeed if I did not feel a bit boxed in during the sprint (or indeed if the finishing line had been another 100m further on), I am sure I would have bettered my 5th place (which is itself my best ever placing in a "proper" race). I never felt I had the chance to go full blast and I had plenty more to give - I guess I'm going to have to think a bit more about getting better positioned for the run-in.

Back to Batterstown this morning for the Vets Age Championships CP this morning

I was feeling a bit under the weather and almost didn't bother, but then thought I'd do a couple of laps and see how it went from there. I have a TT on Tuesday, and wanted to be reasonably fresh for that, so today was going to be more of a training effort

Having checked the vets ability matrix I expected to see a few from my ability group with some more from the next couple of groups up. As it trned out there were only 2 or 3 others from my group, a few from the next group up, and then quite a lot from semi-scratch and probably one from scratch

The first lap would be a bit longer than laps 2, 3 and 4. The group ahead had about 5 minutes on us and we would be 2 and a half minutes or so ahead of the next one

There were about 15 of us, and I expected to be hanging off the back. We set off at a handy pace, and about 10 of us were doing the work. We were averaging over 40kph and I think a few riders were suffering from quite early on

I missed a couple of turns, although there were some riders who were not coming through at all - in most cases I think they were simply trying to hang on.

I knew the two groups behind us would be a lot faster, so I wanted to stay in the group, although after about 23km or so there was a bit of a drag and I lost touch about half-way up it. I stuck with it and was caught by the next group after about 27km as I approached the finishing line. I managed to hang onto them for another half lap or so and then the young nippers (40-45 year olds) caught us. I stuck with it for a while, but knowing I would be dropped on the drag next time round I decided to ease off the back to head back to the car

I knew my power output was relatively high - I actually hit PBs around the 32-34 minute mark, as well as for the full distance I did (47km in just under 1hr 18mins)

Next week there's an age DMS, with races for each 10-year age span from 40-49 onwards. It will be interesting to see how it pans out - I'm sure there will be plenty of attacking going on given the clear ability of some in the age category, but there will also be a number of older riders who will be keen to try and keep it all together

Last night was a 20.5km circuit TT from Batterstown on the Mullagh circuit

It was a very technical circuit and I lost lots of time on the bends and junctions. I clocked 33m 6s, but reckon with more practice on the course I could improve that by up to a minute. Certainly my power output was up there at an average of 270w or so, which matches my best 10mTT on the TT bike, although I was still a couple of kph slower last night

I knew I had a decent handicap, and managed to beat it by 4.5% to take second place, although there may be a stewards enquiry into some of the handicaps - any changes will certainly not improve my position

Then tonight it was back to the track.

First was a points race - I've never done one before - points awarded would be 5, 3, 2 and 1 after laps 4, 8 and 12. At the first sprint I managed to get a bit clear of everyone else for the last half lap and took the 5 points. I took the 5 in the second also, so only needed a third place in the final one, which I duly got to take the victory:D

Second was the Kierin. Although I had ridden behind a derny in Manchester before, I'd never raced behind one. I was badly positioned about 2nd or 3rd from last in the line. When the derny pulled off we had a lap to go. One guy managed to break to take the win - still I managed 2nd

Third was a team pursuit, with teams chosen randomly from the respective groups. My team lost, but we did ride very well as a team, keeping it all together throughout

Finally we had an all-in scratch race involving all three ability groups. Darkness was closing in, and we were instructed to leave the track if we were half a lap behind the leaders. I managed to hang on for the first half of the race then TT'd the second half pretty much alone. I couldn't work out how far ahead the leaders were because of the darkness so stayed on the track. During the last lap I felt someone approaching so upped the speed. In the end there were 2 behind me who had not been eliminated, both from my own group - they were the stronger riders from the group so I reckoned there was no-one ahead of me from my group and hopefully will pick up the group points

All in all a very productive evening. Nice to meet tawfeeredux also

All the cycling this week has been either warming up for or taking part in races. A total of 141km at 34.3kph, from Tuesday's TT, the track racing on Wednesday, and today's vets age handicapped DMS

YTD distance has now surpassed 5,000km, standing at 5,097km at 29.5kph

Tuesday's 2nd place has been confirmed, gaining me 9 points in the vets ability handicapped TT league, moving me up a couple of places to 5th. I'm still 16 points behind the leader, but have closed the gap on 3rd place to 7 points with 4 TTs remaining (although one of them is a hill climb where I have not established a handicap, and hence I can only expect a couple of points if I take part)

I'm still awaiting confrmation of points gained in the track league, although I'm hoping to have narrowed the gap on the leader of our group, Kumate_champ07

I was hoping for an easier race than last week in today's vets DMS, but it wasn't to be, with some early breaks resulting in lot of speeding up and slowing down, and a quite fast overall pace. I went in intending to sit in. It was quite a large group and I tried to stay towards the front of the group. I ended up taking a couple of turns at the front on the first lap. The break had established quite a lead by the start of the second lap and some of the riders in the bunch tried to organise things a bit better. I did quite a few spells this lap but was quite concerned when seeing my HR hit 180 - normalised power on lap 1 was 275w, but had increased to 276w by the end of lap 2 - normally it drifts down during a race.

Moving into the 3rd and last lap I drifted back a bit and was quite surprised how quickly I found myself at the back. We must have dropped at least a third of the group and there was only one other from my ability group still there - everyone else was from the next 2 faster groups.

About a third of the way round the last lap I struggled to hold on up a longish drag and drifted off the back. We'd closed the gap on the break quite considerably and I hoped they would catch them and slow up, allowing me to try and get back on during the next descent, but it wasn't to be, and I TT'd it back to the finish to find that break had managed to stay away and take the victory

Still I managed to set new power bests from around 90 to 110 minutes so I'm not complaining. Normalised power was 258w, and average (including zeros) 233w

Next week I'll probably be heading off to the track again (weather permitting) or doing the Swords League if it's raining on Wednesday and there's a vets 10mTT on Saturday. Depending on how I feel there's then a vets CP on Sunday

In my efforst to get as much racing in as possible, this was another week where it was a matter getting the recovery in between races

Between the 3 races and related warm-ups I did 183km at 33kph - the racing cerytainly helps get the average speed up

YTD now stands at 5,280km at 29.6kph

Next week's calendar is hpefully going to comprise the vets 40km DMS on Tuesday, Track League (weather permitting, otherwiseSwords League) on Wednesday, and then my first 50 mile TT on Sunday

The plan on the TT is to take it steady for the first 25 miles, and then push on in the second half if I feel I have anything left. It will certainly be interesting to see how the body copes with being in the TT position for well over 2 hours.

... but possibly never again - doing a 50 makes you appreciate how relatively "easy" a 25 is:eek:

Today was my first 50m TT, on the same course as we used for the vets 25m Championships a few weeks ago. It would basically be the same course, but done twice, finishing slightly beyond where we started. This was another first - I would be able to record data at 4km intervals from each "circuit" allowing me to compare and contrast performance in pretty similar conditions - there would be about 3.6km of "overlap" in each 4km segment, reflecting the fact the course was not exactly 40km.

There were no TT league points at stake today, and it was an option event. Some riders were only doing 25 miles whereas others would be doing the full 50 miles (12 in total, it turned out, with another 20m or so "just" doing the 25). This would allow me to establish a handicap for the Championship event on the same course in 2 weeks time, assuming I would still be up to it after today's "experience"

The weather was the best of the year for a morning TT, and I was hoping to do something around 2hrs 12 or 13, which would require average splits of between 6m 30s and 6m 40s for each 4km segment. I reckoned this would take around 225w over the full distance, which would be PB. The plan was to take it relatively easily in the first half and push on in the second 25

The first segment was slightly into the wind and downhill, and I clocked 6m 38s, just about on target. Power was slightly up at 262w, reflecting the extra effort required to get up to speed.

Part way through the second segment I went through a small village, and it appears as if I hit it jus as the whole village was descending on the church for mass. There were cars pulling up, and joining the road from all directions, as well as a number of pedestrians crossing the road. I ended up stuck behind one car with another then pulling out right in front of me, and then various pedestrians slowing my progress. This is where comparing with second time round is particularly beneficial, as I did the same segment a few second slower but at 13w less. My HR spiked at 179 going through the village first time round, and I reckon the hold-ups cost me over 10s

There was no further problems until I approached the first turn-around just before 12km. There were 3 roundabouts in quick succession, and at one of them the marshall was too concerned with a rider coming back the other way, and a car came round, taking the next exit after the road I was entering from. I came to a virtual standstill, and again comparing with next time round I think I lost getting on for 20s.

Heading back to the start my normalised power was settling down in the mid 230s, with average (excluding zeros) of about 228w. Everything seemed in line with what was required to get back to an overall average of around 225w.

It was quite demoralising knowing I was only just over 1/4 of the way there when I went past the car, and knowing the 10km or so from the next turn-around would be hardest, as it was both uphill and into the wind. In addition a number of riders paassed me, and I didn't know if they were just doing 25m, or would also be doing the full 50m. Anyway I ploughed on, and coming back I tried going up the steepest part of the course out of the saddle, both to maintain momentum and to use some different muscles for a while. This shows in the power records, when I did the same section at around the same power output about 30s faster second time round

My arms were getting a bit uncomfortable by the 3rd quarter, and my hands were feeling a bit numb. By the final quarter I was finding myself sitting up for short intervals to ease the pressure.

My time in the end was 2hr 14m 42s, a bit slower than I had hoped, but normalised power was 230w, average (excluding zeros) just over 220w, and including zeros 224w, pretty close to what I was looking for. Interestingly I did the first 25m in 1hr 7m 7s, and the second in 1hr 7m 35s, so my overall pacing was pretty good, although I probably lost getting on for 30s due to the first half "incidents". I think I was about 6th fastest of the 12 doing the full distance. I suspect I could have gone out a little harder, and there are some refinements to the bars required to make things a bit more comfortable over this distance

My power output was a PB between about 2hrs and 2hr 15m, and given I reckon I lose over 20w in the TT position is quite pleasing.

Did I say "never again" - OK, we'll see ...

And the final "first" of the day - when I took the bike out of the car I spotted my first evidence of roadkill on the stem:



All I can say to other hornets is if you know what's good for you stay clear of Beasty's TT bike

That's it - the assault is over. I'd planned to do the vets 10mTT on Saturday, with a view to improving my 5th place in the handicap TT league. However events conspired against me, and I couldn't make it. It's probably not a bad thing though, as my head was not in the right place, and even if I'd turned up the chances of me putting in a decent performance were pretty low.

Following the TT I've slipped to 6th place with only the 50m championships and hill climb to come. I've no handicap for the hill climb, and even a good place in the 50 mile would not get me up into a podium position. As I've already set a 50m time last week, I've now posted times for the vets Best (based on age handicap) and Fastest (based on absolute times) All Rounder categories. I think I was 6th fastest when I did the 50 miles, and others will better me in the Championships, but I'm hopeful that I may be able to get in the top 10 in the "fastest" category.

Hence I'm going to give the Championships a miss. Hopefully that leaves more scope for improvement next year, although as I'll be starting with faster times in the 3 other distances we do I'm not holding out much hope to do well in the handicap league - it will be more a matter of trying to move up the age handicap league

For anyone who witnessed my performance at the track tonight



I got to the track to find my promised promotion had not materialised - a close escape;)

So I remained in Group C, meaning the first race was a hare and hound against Group A. This time despite our efforts we did not manage to get onto the back of teh scratch group - a few of us made a big effort, and probably halved the gap at one stage, but the A riders got their act together and pulled away

That left a couple of us having pulled away from the other "C" riders, although we were soon joined by a third in the 8 lap race. We were really pushing it, with an average speed of nearly 46 kph on the second lap, then dropping to between 43 and 44kph for the subsequent laps.

Alas it was to no avail and the scratch riders caught us with about a lap and a half to go. The other two held on for a while, but I knew the game was up - I was starting to feel sick and eased a little knowing the scratch riders would pick up all the points

Next it was a 1km handicap race - we were split into two races and I was in the faster one. 2 of us were given the toughest handicap, with a gap of probably 70-80m to the next riders, and probably getting on for 150m over the slowest

I pushed hard to try and close down, leading the other guy for getting on for 600m or so before accepting I would not bridge, but I had hopefully managed to give the other guy a chance. I eased up the track to let him through - he caught some of the others but did not manage to get into the points, and I rolled in at the back. There were signs I am improving my starting, as I manegd to get up to 50kph within about 180m

Finally it was the derney, and again I was in the fast group. After it settled down I found myself right at the back of 8 or 9 riders. Once the derny pulled off I started moving up, but the guy at the front had created a gap of around 10m or so. I managed to pull into the gap with a lap to go and closed him down by the start of the final bend. I was level moving into the final straight and pulled past him, but was had brought someone with me, and they sprinted past to take the victory. Still my second place in the race confirmed I had secured second place overall in the C Group and I was delighted to discover later on that I'd won a medal, as well as some prize money:D. Congratulations to Kumate_Champ07 who won the B Category

So that's it for track racing this year - I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and will definitely be back next year, although it will be tougher in the "B" group

This week's riding comprised the final evening of the track league on Wednesday, followed by the "record-breaking" commute on Thursday and another commute on Friday

I then did another evening of nocturnal training on Sunday evening - I was setting off about 20 minutes later and probably had an extra 30 minutes or so of darkness which probably contributed to an overall slower speed but higher power output this week - I suspect I was on the brakes a bit more in the dark, although I also think it was a bit windier last night

I did the Nags Head hill climb again, knocking just over 30s off last week's time. There was another headwind, and the improved time was pretty much down to increased power output - around 15w higher than last week, to establish a new PB for most of the range between 6m and 9m 30s or so. It actually didn't feel as hard as last week - possibly down to better gearing and spending a bit more time in the saddle.

Total distance for the week was 150km, bringing the YTD total to 5,659km at 29.7kph

I'm hoping to do 3 commutes at the back-end of thsi week, and with a bit of luck I'll get out one evening over the weekend

I tend to refer to last week as "this" week, and next week as "thsi" week to avoid any confusion

Maybe we need to start a thread somewhere on Boards to establish what exactly is meant by "this" in "this" context though;)

3 commutes w/e 11/09/11 - 136km at 29.9kph
4 commutes w/e 18/09/11 - 181km at 31.4kph

+ another 18km today, bringing the YTD total to 5,994km at 29.7kph

Hope to get another 3 commutes in next week, with a bit more in over the weekend

Three commutes over the past week - 136km at 30.8kph which means I'm now past 6,000 km for the year - 6,130km at 29.8kph. It's still about 1,600km down on the same stage last year, but it is about 0.3kph faster. That makes me think about a new target for the year - I'm going to try and average 30kph across all disciplines. Things do tend to slow down a bit over the winter, but setting myself a target like this will hopefully keep me pushing a bit harder. I'm guessing my total distance for the year will be something in the order of 8,500km.

The plan for next week is a commute tomorrow (forecast Southerly wind which should help with the home commute;)), then it's Champions League duty - no track time though as the GB Championships are taking place during the week. It looks like track opportunities in Manchester will be more limited over the forthcoming months as Team GB are using the velodrome a lot more in the build-up to London 2012.

Then Sunday should hopefully see my final racing "event" of the year...

Sunday’s victory in the vets 2-up Sanyo Cup was a very pleasant way to bring the curtain down on my racing season.

In total I’ve taken part in 37 events over 1,222km, in TTs, road races and on the track. Last year I managed only 24 events and on occasions was absolutely shattered, vowing never to do 3 races in a week again. However it was very different this year. Mixing up the disciplines definitely helped, but it was the hard work over the winter that benefited me most, together with easing off a little when I felt it necessary. At one stage I managed 5 days of racing over an 8 day period.

TTs
13 races in total (378km)
Probably my most successful discipline with 2 handicap victories (each with trophies still to be collected!), a 2nd place and placing 6th overall in the vets handicap league. In addition I was second club rider in the Swords 10m championships and 4th in the 25 mile championships.

Road racing
10 vets races, 6 in the Swords league (774km)
I managed to pick up my first “extra” points in the Swords league, as well as getting in amongst the points in each of my final 4 vets races.

Track
6 track league nights plus 2 days of the IVCA C hampionships
My greatest achievement in cycling (and indeed sport in general) – the Vets 50+ pursuit champion and I also placed 2nd in the Autumn Track League (3rd Division)

One of the tools available on Training Peaks (and indeed Golden Cheetah) is the “Performance Manager”. Basically this shows the short term workload (Acute Training Load, or ATL), long term workload (Chronic Training Load, or CTL) and Training Stress Balance (TSB), which is basically a playoff between the 2 and reflects current form/fitness (more on these measures in the context of the Performance Manager here). CTL is basically a weighted average daily Training Stress Score over a 3 month or so period.

This is my Performance Management Chart since 1 April:



Basically it reflects the work I was doing in the build up to the season (averaging just short of 200km a week in the 3 months to March), to give me a CTL of around 63 at the start of the season

The CTL gradually reduced as I cut down on total distance and time in the saddle while racing, averaging nearer 150km a week during the racing season, and allowing time to recover between races. Essentially I was “cashing in” on the winter training (CTL), allowing me to maintain overall form over a very long season of 37 races – much more than I did last year when I struggled a lot more towards the end of the season. My best performances arose when I could get the TSB line moving up and in the 5-15 range, which reflected relatively low acute/recent work while eating into the accumulated CTL

With this in mind, and looking to next season, the plan is to try and get the CTL to a higher level at the start of the next racing season. Basically I will need to be averaging around 250km (8-9 hours) a week from January to March. That should give me a TSB of over 80, and hopefully a bit more in the tank for next season. To get there I’m planning to average 150km per week (just over 3 commutes) until the end of November, building up to 200km a week during December and increasing to 250km in January (by extending the commute and getting out a couple of evenings a week). That's the theory, at least ...

3 commutes this week, then the Swords spin yesterday - I say the Swords spin, but it wasn't the usual "format". I was out a little early and one of the older club members who likes to get a head start came up the road out of Skerries, so I joined him to Balrothery, then waited for the rest of the group. Another vet who joins at Balrothery came along and after a quick chat he headed off to catch up the first guy.

A couple of minutes later I saw the peleton heading towards me and decided to head down the road, expecting them to catch me fairly quickly. I then thought what the hell and headed off to catch the other two - it took me a few minutes to bridge over, and by then there was no sign of the main group, so I gave the "old guys" a pull round the circuit - the main group must have had a mechanical or two as they never caught us.

I've just signed up to Strava and decided to go for a PB on the Swords to Blakes X segment, averaging 41.3kph to get 2nd fastest overall:). I then let the old guys catch up and we headed back up towards Balrothery as some of the regulars head up that route after the spin - just before we got there one of the old guys broke a spoke, so we were delayed a couple of minutes, but still no-one from the main group caught us. I then headed off home, taking in the "Balcunnin to Skerries" sprint - quite pleased with my 5th place on that one given the 2 fastest times were ridden in the Ras, and this was the end of an 80km spin for me

On the final stretch back home I passed some of the guys heading back into Skerries at the end of the spin - I would guess they must have had getting on for 30 minutes of delays for some reason

I then did another 36km today to bring my weekly total to 246km, and YTD past 7,000km, now standing at 7,024km at 29.8kph

I'll try to get out again tomorrow, then will be over in Manchester for a couple of days, with plans for some track time. I won't be back until Saturday evening, and will hopefully manage to get out again on Sunday.