When you think your riding slow your not

After starting back up on the bike, having my legs stolen on the first ride and then slowly hammering myself into a hole it has taken 2 weeks to recover properly and this morning I felt good for the first time in two weeks. That said, not all the off the bike time was exactly feet up with a few intervals of mixing cement, moving a few tonnes of steel/material around and walking the dog for miles. Still, all seemed to work wonders for the fitness as I went out for a ride and thought I was not riding that well (fast), with a head wind on the way out and a back wind home. The average speed was not bad (not great) and proved my ticker can still get to at least 183bpm, while I have dropped my performance hr around 5-10bpm of the 30bpm difference to where I was back in 2009. So, still 20-25bpm to go before next year...

Main lesson here is the recovery process takes longer than you think at times and the eagerness to go out for a hard ride all too often takes the edge off the recovery and you don't get all the benefits of the previous rides. Either that or you dig yourself into a very big hole. Plus, the second lesson that works for me is that long duration (2hr minimum) low-medium effort rides is what has most effect on baseline and muscle for this point in time, not Sunday club run weekend warrior rides. Best part of the longer rides with the endurance (still working on that) is the ability to see lots of the surrounding area, explore and see what you can find.

Resting heart rate

Having dug out the garmin and the HR strap I thought it would be interesting after a few days off the bike to see what my resting heart rate was after all the pizza and beer I had stuffed down me in the preceeding years since riding something near seriously (for someone who usually sat at a desk).

Surprisingly my resting heart rate was still 40-41, although I noticed this time it did not drop into the 30's for 10-20 seconds before rising back up to 40 as it used to do when I was fitter. This time it slowly drifted back down to settle at 40-41 range, which tells me nothing at the moment appart from I have either heart failure or I have not screwed up my heart yet.

Back in the saddle

Well, after best part of a year off the bike almost entirely with brief attempts between work to get some fitness back prior to that I am now hopefully back on track for some targets next year. Inspired by watching the Tour and a friend pestering me to get out on the bike for many months (I had run out of excuses) I ventured out a few weeks back.

In true style I had not really eaten that much and then with the wind in the hair, sun on the back and legs feeling good I headed out, only to have someone steal my legs half way round a 57km circuit and then be faced with the brutal reality of how much fitness I had lost. Crawling back home I could have been passed by my 96yr old gran on the slightest of hills as my remining leg refused to put out any power (ok, stupidly I had not taken any drink or food with me as well, thinking I was 18 again). So, with brutal reality check in place my focus was drawn back into what was really needed to do something next year.

The next few rides were better and around 2-3hrs with one jaunt at 88km and 863m of climbing http://app.strava.com/activities/70515802 although still feeling like I was being robbed somewhere along the ride. That said I am trying to keep my heart rate very low and just get the miles in as if it was a winter ride and not 30C, which means base trainign when everyone else is trying to rip each others legs off on the Sunday club runs.

The most important discovery I have made this time around (appart from all the revalations as to why my previous training did not go as far as it could) was the main problem I was having regarding long rides and saddle sores. After 3 hours it was usually a case that it started to get uncomfortable and that was with the best bib shorts I could find after many trials over the years. The cumulative day on day effect also created constraints with days in the saddle turning to pains... The time limititing factor stole an element away from longer rides and some of the freedom the bike actually gives you. So, this time around I tried a more radical solution, which involved a shaver (I did not try and enter the Veet commedy list) and removing any potentially offending hairs (nearly all of them). The next ride out was completely different with no issues (appart from my legs wanting to drop off towards the end of the ride) and this will hopefully pave the way for a great training plan.

Back but lacking the winter base

After around a month of changed training pattern and the first venture out onto the road since December I realised I'm lacking quite a bit of base from the reduced winter riding. More specifically the lack of any real long rides over the winter has taken it's toll.

Work stress and a general lack of time (plus the weather) meant I ended up spending all the time indoors, even on the odd sunny day, to try and get the most out of the time I had available.
Over the weekend I went for an hour and a half ride, which was interesting and a bit painfull to realise the difference out on the road. I kept my HR low and though I'd just go for a reasonably gentle couple of hours, although it ended up a lot shorter than expected. Getting out late did not help either and part of the decision to cut the ride short.

Last night I spent an hour and a bit on the trainer watching an episode of top gear, which was quite hilarious as the film crew or editing suite made sure they captured Clarkson breaking the law twice (crossing a single line and overtaking on hash markings). After that I thought I'd see what I could do for 5 minutes and set off gently just over 400W. Towards the end I was doing around 460W and my HR up at 179bpm (need rest / more sleep). The average ended up around 443W, which does not seem too bad and makes me thing I need to get some more miles in gently to round off before building further. I think I still have the possibility of an additional 50W to add onto this, providing I get the right training and rest.

Milton Keynes sprint

Well, the circuit was interesting to say the least and more like Crystal Palace for turns and arrangement. Just throw in the exposure to the wind as a hill replacement and the match is almost there. Route was on the upper circuit due to a concert in the bowl going through rehersals and was extended out over the bridge and around the mini roundabout for a hairpin turn. Due to the circuit the CAT1+2 and 3+4 could not be on the same circuit so it was 20 minutes + 5 laps. Sprint time !

From the finish line it starts sloping down slightly and the circuit turns right gradually until you get a 90 degree right hander that can be taken without slowing down if you get the line right, although you have some bushes and a few trees to dodge if you get it wrong. From there it flattens out to a long right hand sweeping curve that takes your up to the bridge crossing and over to the roundabout. Hairpin turn round the roundabout, while avoiding the stones lining the edge of the roundabout and then back across the bridge to a sharp left hand turn. The left hand turn needs a bit of speed decrease before turning in, although the runoff is onto the grass field if you go too wide. Then flat to the finish line.

The race was started off at the finish line so that the bunch had a bit more time to file out as the bridge crossing had cones and barriers down the center and was wide enough for 2 bikes each side (probably 3 if your Mark Canvendish !) For this I realised you needed to be at or very near the front if you had any hope of getting ay points unless you should really have been riding a CAT 2 event... From the start I moved up to within the first 6, avoiding to be at the front for the start.

One rider was away almost from the start though and he was then the chase target for the rest of us. After the first lap I tried to bridge the gap and spent a few laps on the front but could not manage to get across and the gap seemed to stay static. After about 5 laps I started to get a stitch (probably the water or 2 bits of flapjack I had an hour prior) and had to either throw up or back off, so I eased up and joined in the chase bunch for a rest. Another rider went off the front and tried to catch the first break, who punctured on the roundabout with a blowout of the front tyre and hit the deck. Seemed ok, if not a little road rash.

That left another solo out in front, which I had nother go at bridging (solo) before trying with the rest of the bunch we ended up with at this point (about 6-7 of us ?). Once back in the bunch I derifted back a few spots and a couple of riders moved off the front an nobody else closed the gap and I held back thinking they would !!!! So it was now 1+2 out in front ahead of a smaller chasing group, which seemed to be driven by around 3 /4 of us semi chaotically rather than a nice through and off sequence. Hence the chase did not do too well and we never cought the 3. I was already in recovery mode at this point for the finish.

Going into the last lap I moved up, making a point of not ending up on the front, slotting in 4th place going over the bridge and took a place after the hairpin to be 3rd. Going into the left hander the rider in front either hit his pedal on the desk or his tyre slipped and I though he was going down so breaked slightly. He stayed up and I chased in a sprint for the line but could not reach them and ended up 6th overall (1+2+2 riders ahead of me overall).

We had started lapping riders around lap 15 ? and it was one of the hardest races I had done for a long while. Looking back the circuit is actually quite good, if not a little on the harsh side, but who's to say racing is suposed ot be easy !

Race 2 down, lungs out of action

Well, an interesting first real time out on the new bike, in a crit. First conclusion is nice, handles very well and is smooth.. but... the wheels are a little more flexible than I hoped they would be. I bought a pair of Zipp 404's and like them a lot and as long as your not putting out over around 700W they will be fine. The problem starts when you start going up hill at a pace, which is where I was starting to experience brake rub on alternating sides. Maybe it was in part due to the way I stand and swing the bike, however I never get anything with the old SSCL's. Will have to try some different bike handling out to counter some of the lateral flex pressure at the next race.

During the race I started off with hayfeaver and a sore throat, which I put down mainly to the sneezing as I usually get a sore throat early on when I get hayfeaver, although I suspected I may have had a very light cold. Anyhow, during the race I was not going all out and my nose was starting to really hurt on the right hand nostril, which was a bit of a distraction. Manouvering to the side to blow snot rather than blunderbus the pack behind seemed a little more sivilised and safer after hearing about a crash being caused by riders swerving out of the way of a snot blast ! The pain only dissapeared a couple of times when I was chasing breaks down. After the race, the following day, the worst I thought would happend and the throat infection had been sucked into my lungs, so back to the vitamins, sleep and R&R. Bit dissapointing but another lesson learnt.

The race itself was a little dull as it was on the inner circuit and you did not really require your brakes (appart from stopping yourself ramming the rider in front) so it was a repetition of a break attempt on every 2-3 laps going off the front and then either they drifted back or were pulled back in. A couple of times some riders broke off and loked as if they would hold as nobody was really wanting to chase that much and I pulled a couple of breaks in, which left me at the front or very near a fair bit of the time. As time went on a couple of riders broke away and then another two and at that point I realised I did not have a clue what time it was, cue the quick drift around the bunch to look at cycle computers and watches. Did to have time to fix my garmin on, which is what I wanted to use as it would do lap times, but did not have time on the day. For quite a few laps I could tell they were not doing a pace much faster than the bunch as they were only pulling away relatively slowly.

Anyhow, the time was near an hour after the start and the 5 lap countdown started, which left me with the option of breaking to chase or waiting to see if the pace picked up before going later (lap 2 or 3). By the time a couple of laps went past I was near the front and ended up going into the last lap at the front, not where I wanted to be as I could not do anything without dragging everyone along, so I slowed down a bit. Nobody passed and I trundled along hoping the pace would get picked up by someone else, which never happened until we were near the base of the hill. By this time a few riders accelerated past from a few poisitions behind and I had to accelerate to catch up. Halfway up the hill I was around 4th, which meant 8th overall, in the bunch and going well as I could see some of the riders pace level off or decrease, however I thought chasing for 8th is not what I want to do and eased off. Bad thing to do I suppose but I was happy with what happened as I almost free wheeled over the line as riders were still sprinting past.

Lesson for the next race is to turn up 100% fit, not stressed, better clothed (was a little too cold for what I was wearing and my shirt was riding up my back), water bottle and my garmin attached. Then I'll ride a better race to aim for 5th upwards and put some more effort in.

Recovery completed with a new max heart rate ?

Well, must have been over doing it quite a bit on lack of quality recovery time (60%) and over training (40%) from what I can fathom out of the whole experience. Rode in to work last week and on the return leg home I managed to get my heart rate up to 187bpm on the one small hill I have to climb en route and felt reasonable (as reasonable as you can be after 45 miles on the bike and a day at work). So, it was a nice day on Sunday and ventured back out with the club run to initially intend to have a very gentle ride out and back to wherever was the scheduled destination (never bother to find out as it does not really matter).

The ride out was nice and gentle, quite moderate, with no sprint or interval sessions mixed in with the ride not turning into a race on the outward leg. Spent some time on the front, which allowed the pace to be controlled a little to just below my threashold for a period of time and all felt ok, even into the headwind !

The ride home started off reasonable and moderate, for a period, before the pace started to pick up and turned into a 25-30mph run for a while, which was good as I was sat in line and had no intention to have a go on the front at that pace. Further on the pace eased a little as we approached one of the longer slow hills and then the power stepped up during the climb, again all going well. Then one of the riders passed by (2 were in front of me at the time) as he put the hammer down for one of the usual race periods and I set off to follow, it was during this sprint catch up effort that I put my heart rate at 190bpm for 18 seconds. It was not during that effort either that I managed to get my 3rd best 20 second output, so all being well I'm racing on Thursday, recovered :-)

More sleep and a very big hole

Did another test today on the same hill that I have done the previous ones on so far, although the test last weekend was a little distorted as I was pushed into the side of the road by a rider trying to move out of my way while I was undertaking. The hill was being used as part of a charity ride route so I laughed it off, after all it was not as bad as the fall I took while out with my son earlier in the day covering the 10mile loop. I got cought in a deepening tyre rut in the grass (riding on the sides of a gravel track) to the point that I ended up falling sideways and unable to clip out I landed sideways in a heap. Was quite funny as I was on my training bike in kit ready to go for a ride afterwards and looked a right sight laid out on the side of the road ! My son did not think it was as funny and was more concerned about me being ok, although I was laughing too much....

Anyhow, did the same hill again today and this time looked at the time and set off. The dip in power output is when I changed down a gear or two as my cadence felt wrong. Further up the hill I looked at the time and kept on going another 10 seconds until the minute was up.. net result.... 721W.

Well... I'm starting to think about my training and previous style of blasting around, no wonder I did not get much improvement ?

This now brings my profile to a point that says I need to work more on my sprint....

Recovery almost done but at a cost

Seems like my HR response is almost or is back to normal now as my max on the last hill home was 175bpm without too much bother. Compared to Crystal Palace the pick up to 175bpm was a lot, lot faster and the recovery after seemed better.

The overall impact was quite large in terms of time off (3 weeks) and a major dent in my race calendar as the one race I was really looking forward to is this weekend. After the current training outage and the style of course involved I have decided not to enter, which is a great disappointment.

What was gained ? A big lesson on how over training can creep up on you when you ignore what your body is telling you, namely when to recover more. The other really good lesson, which has made it a worth while experience (not really) is the difference a reasonable recovery break can make.

My previous best for 60 a second output was 622W and at the weekend a brief test I managed 649W although I stopped at 55 seconds (not consciously going for a 60 second test, more a heart rate response) and the 55 second average was 689W with my heart rate topping out at 175bpm. Interesting and frustrating as my previous 55 second figure was 624W, which indicated an over 10% improvement on the back of the rest, but frustrating from the point that I had to let it slide to get my heart rate back on further rest.

The other side of the lesson is the difference that recovery rides make, both from a physical and psychological level. They make you feel much better and if kept at a low enough intensity help recovery by boosting circulation for a period of time. I'm at the point of thinking that time off the bike with total rest is at times more detrimental than a period with recovery rides only.

28W and 6bpm recovery so far

Against Crystal Palace race last week and the intervening time off the bike (only 2 hour long sessions since then) my recovey has been slow with my max HR on the Saturday test getting up to 179bpm and then tonights session and test up to 181bpm. Still a long way short of 188/9bpm, which was last achived over christmas and looking back at my log the only other excursion into the 180 zone was to 184bpm at the end of the march when I set a new 60 second power output personal best. That has left me confused as I though that over trained showed through as a decrease in power ability rather than lower HR and increased power, unless the training had compensated to a certain degree and the over training (or under recovery) just showed through as a lower than possible reading ?
Will take it easy for the rest of the week and at the weekend go for a long steady paced ride or ride in to work on Friday at a much reduced pace.

Over trained and 14bpm short at Palace as a result

From the increased number of outings, which were generally a TSS of 100+ my CTL increased rather quickly, while my TSB dropped like a stone. Not really listening to my body until it was a point blank refusal to play ball when I did my first race of the season at Crystal Palace last night.

The original plan was to ride into work the previous day and then ride out to Palace to watch the first race of the season. Instead I ended up riding into work and then to Palace and entering, which racked up over 40 miles prior to racing.

On the line the people were still signing on and thinking there were going to be some crashes due to the number of people (50+) navigating the hairpin I thought I'd get out of the way. With this in mind as soons as the start was given I was off and first round the hairpin and into the next curve before easing up a little. Nobody passed before the next corner so I eased up again and then the stream started as about 10 riders passed and I thought I'd recover a bit. This is when I noticed my heart rate was not quite behaving normal as it was only 166bpm after the effort (528W over 1min 28sec). Keeping up with the bunch up the hill was then a bit more of a struggle but did not let too much space slip as the hill min to max averaged 456W (44 sec).

The first lap (excluding the hairpin turn) took 2min 8sec at an average 463W and the second lap over the same distance then averaged 1min 54sec at 354W with 10 seconds null output for the hairpin. Third lap was chasing the lead split in the bunch as it was big enough to stay and bridging the gaps from riders dropping out of the bunch, which ended up with a 382W lap (inc hairpin). Fith lap much the same but at 406W and a maximum heart rate over the race of 175bpm. This time it was blatent that something was wrong as it was now 8 minutes into the race with a 396W average (438W norm) and my heart rate was 14bpm below maximum so I eased off after catching the bunch and the next lap averaged 290W. Next lap 324W, still not feeling right. Next lap another gap and 342W, 330W, 379W, 354W. By the 11th lap I was chasing the lead bunch and cought them as 3 riders peeled off the back, which opened up yet another gap to bridge, which was 20 years and ended up averaging 422W through and up the hill and my heart rate was now only 169bpm. Time to pull up.

After drifting down to the start line I pulled over and out of the race after 22min 22sec and an average wattage of 361W (407W norm) with my max heart rate 14bmp below my normal maximum at an average of 162bpm. Cadence 92rpm, 175m climbing, 47.7TSS 1.131IF, 38.5kph.

By this time I'd clocked up a TSS for the day of over 200 over around 50 miles with commuting, getting to the event and racing, which should not have been too bad if I was rested. Even now, I still feel very tired and in need of a few days R&R with some easy short rides at the weekend only. Time to allow the CTL to drift back to the 60's and feel right.

CTL 80+ for a win and a CAT 3/4 road event ?

Been thinking about the race performance last year and my training level at the time, which brings me to one of 2 criteria for a win in my target road race event (56 miles 804m climbing over 6 laps). Either you have to have "quality" CTL above 80 and / or get a good set of wheels.

The wheels and tyres would focus around 20-30W back onto road speed rather than blowing in the wind (5-10W for the tyres and 20W for the wheels) and will make a >5% difference. When it comes to the hill the lower weight of myself and the bike (3kg down from a month ago) should make a difference on the one long climb of just over 100m. Providing the bunch does not disintegrate totally within the first lap and at least holds together for 2-3 laps it should provide a good warm up for the 2nd hour.

For the next month, ahread of the race, I have 3 weeks (last week taper) of training to add around 3-4TSS / week to my CTL, which should bring the level up to around 82-85 before dropping back ahead of the event.

Too much too soon, patience...

CTL peaked at 76.5 yesterday after the commute to London and felt quite good. TSB was -35 after the commute on Wednesday after dipping to -42 on Sunday and recovering on Monday/Tuesday to -15. From the weekend and commuting experience this week the benefit seems to be dipping to around -35 to the most -40 steadily and then recovering but the impact does not come through if you don't get the TSB down enough and most importantly recover effectively. Monday was a bit of a wakeup as I knew that something was a little wrong as I noticed I had a runny nose first thing when I woke up with the alarm and felt pretty bad on top of that. Back to bed and waking up around 5 hours later seemed to work wonders and felt a lot lot better for it.

The only other recent time that my TSB has gone lower was around Christmas time when it dipped to -50 after a few rides (Fri 85, Sun 136 and Mon 274) which pushed the ATL up far too quickly at the time to a high of at the time 96 compared to the ATL of 117 on Sunday. The CTL increase at Christmas was from 38.4 to 45.7 in a few days vs the step of 68.5 to 76.5 over last week.

Lesson - too much too quickly... time for a little easy spinning and sleep.

Slow and steady progress - maybe a bit too slow

With time constraints bound by a family and work commitments the the challenge of fitting in all the training becomes a trade off at times between quality and quantity. Commuting to work gives some of the quantity but not the quality (and tires you out in the process) while dedicated trainer sessions are good quality but you need to leave your brain outside to do 90 minutes plus.

So far the commuting went well, although a bit of a transition in training as the training stress from 1 day took a while to get used to, which also meant that the quality took a hit as London commuting is not the best of trining environments. Recovery time seems to be improving and having 1 week off the commute (replaced with leaving work early and going out for an hour and a bit) and holding the training stress seems to feel better now. Possibly from increased recovery time and a more balanced workload throughout the week.

Plan for the next week is ride in and get some extra quality time in at the weekend to build up the training stress before racing the week after at Crystal Palace. What I'll be racing on I'm not quite sure as there is a slight o slim chance I'll have a new bike ready in time for the first event.

The Criteriums on Tuesday and Thursday (Crystal Palace and Milton Keynes) will hopefully provide an incremental training load for the following month ahead of the road race.

First club run in a while

Decided to go out on the club run again, seeing that the weather was looking all right and was wondering how my form was developing. Unfortunately the majority of the club was out at an event so only a handfull of riders turned out, so I started off with 4 others with the moderate group as there was no fast group.

The ride out was ok, sat on the back as I had no mudguards and the majority of the road was wet, so I did not feel too guilty about that, even though I recieved a fair bit of spray from the bike in front (with mudguards).

On the way back the wind was begining to tell on two of the other rides, one of whom was not feeling too well shortly after we set off and a couple of hill later they broke off. The other rider and myself did not wait for them as we were closer to home so I took the opportunity to burn some energy in a test.

Big ring and head down I pushed hard until we reached the city sign and then backed off a bit.
The end result was a peak 435W average over 5 minutes at 175bpm average, which is 29W lower and 2pbm higher than my peak from last summer. But..... one was a hill climb.

Conclusion so far - the training is improving things but the cumulative training stress from riding to work is not returning the same results as sitting on the trainer in the shed for a shorter period of time ! The jury may still be out as the commuting is only 7 weeks (trips) so far.

Going nowhere fast or no perception of going somewhere

Click on the images for the full resolution.

Trianing solo can be good and bad over time, the best bits (for me) are riding round on an early morning blue sky day in summer (the worst are commuting in the p***ing rain) with the main problem bein a lack of feedback or measurment to see how your going.

After doing a bit of a 5 minute test out on the road (417W) I though I'd have a go at my 60 second record today. My previous was actually 603W early last year and not 640 (not sure where I'd got that from) and todays test I managed 622W.

The first try I burned out far too quickly after setting off 200W over a sustainable level and by 30 seconds I was out of gas and a bit put out, however I waited for my HR to drop back to into 120 and then went for it again but a more steady pace, which felt right. I did not have any particular target worked out rather I rode at a pace, which I thought I could sustain before falling off the bike.

My 622W at a lardy 75.5kg puts me at 8.24W/kg for 60 seconds rather than 8.5W/kg if I were down to 73kg. So, now I'm into CAT3 zone for 1 minute I should at least be able to do a decent solo in a CAT4 event for the last lap (in theory) but if that where the case (according to cycling peaks) I'd already have won a lot more events by just riding off the front for the whole race. Hmmm...

Power to weight cost for criteriums of 2.5 watts / kg

Looking at new wheels is a bit of a mine field in terms of the different benefits that are listed with the list that I have seen in various adverts indicating different characteristics with the main three being weight, aerodynamic drag and stiffness.

Thinking about weight and the cost of this over either a time trial or creiterium and the weight characteristic is split into three elements. Horizontal energy expelled lifting a mass is not fully recoverable in cycling as the down hill speed is not necessarily recoverable in the same degree as the speed is higher and therefore more aerodynamic drag as a whole is increased.

When you take a 1kg mass and lift it 300 meters you would need to input 2940 joules of energy or an average of 0.817 watts over an hour. For a typical crit, which lasts just under an hour you could approximate this to around 1 Watt per kg of weight you are carrying around, on average.
So, if your on a heavier bike, heavier body and lugging 2 water bottles around you could need an extra 10 watts more than the next person.

Accelleration and inertia are the next element to evaluate, in terms of the constant accelleration and decelleration during a crit. Suppose the riders mass is 80kg (inc bike) and is accelerating from zero to 22.4mph in the space of 30 seconds, which would require 133 watts input (excluding drag, rolling resistance, etc.) just to accelerate the mass. The cost of an extra 1kg in mass would equate to an extra 1.7 watts over the 30 seconds.
The typical crit could involve 3 accelerations per lap of 10mph average increase in speed and over 30 laps this would equate to an average energy requirement of 100 watts if the event lasted 45 minutes. So, add and extra 1 kg into the pot and this equates to 1.25 watts per kg average.

Rim weight is the next interesting one as the acceleration of the bike, effectively includes the energy required to accelerate the rim weight to an average speed of the bike but the rim is travelling between zero and twice the speed of the bike as you move. As the potential energy includes the square of the velocity this makes the rim more critical and the hub can be ignored. The energy input for the rim is therefore double that of a mass attached to the bike, so your extra 500g on the rim could equates to approximately an extra 1 watt over the duration of a crit.

Drag is the last one to add could be anywhere depending upon your bike position and choice of wheels the easiest options to change, for this example we will assume the bike position is un changed and the wheels equate to a 10 watt difference in drag (approximation for medium carbon rims and a reasonable alloy race wheel)

So, summary so far is you require an extra 2.25 watts per kg for a crit to cover just the kinetic and potential energy of the mass, if it where attached to the bike (not the rotating mass of the wheels). If you were a 77kg rider on a 8.2kg bike racing against a rider on a 7kg bike and weighed 73kg you would need an extra 11.7 watts just to compensate for the kinetic and potential of the mass.
Add in an extra 1 watt due to the heavier rims and then throw in the extra 10 watts for the arodynamics and you end up with a 22.7 watts difference in energy requirement for the two riders.

Station run TSS

When returning home from my weekly longer commute into London one evening last week I ended up getting the train for the last stop, having almost made it home but ran into thermal dropout (i.e. I was starting to get tool cold from being wet and not eating enough).From the station I had a typical ride back home and then had a look at what the TSS was for the ride, which I had previously been logging as a conservative TSS of 6.

Turns out the ride home (one way) registered at 10, so in theory my daily TSS was getting a weekday base support of around 15-20, which now seems to make some sense in relation to my previous training and impact. I now can notice the impact (good and bad times) when I do not have a day on the bike, which either helped with the recovery, misses an input at a time it would have had a beneficial effect or a detrimental jaunt.

Riding no more than 150% your event distance

I had a thought about this in relation to my crit performance from last year, the training for my events this year, the comments from some other riders and a bit of common sense. Taking an extreme approach to this would mean that training for a 1km persiut event you would only ever ride 1.5km and potentially spend the rest of the day in the gym or ride the 1.5km repetatively ? The other extreme would be for a 24 hour event would you try and ride for 36 hours ? This leaves you with a mix inbetween where a degree of moderation exists but I do believe that the longer rides are beneficial in different ways than just riding 1.5 times the event distance. Training for a 10 mile time trail by riding 15 miles every day would help but a single longer ride (replacing some of the other miles) at the weekends should help a lot more.

The other way to think about it is with your training stress as you need to build up the training stress to get fitter and this equates to getting on your bike and doing some miles. As a guide I think you will not win a race on a CTL of sub 50 and a minimum of 45 is required for a top 10 (on a reasonable CAT3/4 event).

To get to a CTL of 60 you will need to be doing a minimum of around 120 miles per week (at 3.5 TSS per mile).

Remember, remember, a map

Well, the day started off a little later than planned with the usual directional aid from the sun and the wind, which should have worked quite well if I took a watch out and kept track of the time. Once the sun dissapeared from the sky that was the first sign things were not going to plan (basically to get back home while I can still see the road). So, about 20 miles from home and only a rough guide for directions (London 33 miles, Hemmel 16 ? on a signpost) I set off, fortunately with a back wind, down the A14, alhough it's not the best of roads to be riding in sunlight. With 2 lights on the bike (both rear) flashing away like a christmass tree I did not feel too alarmed at riding down a dual carrageway. With cars thundering past I only recieved one blast of the horn from a white van driver, which summed that up and carried on praying the light would not fade too quickly. In the end I managed to get back while I could just see the road with a couple of lessons learnt.
1 - Always take full lights out if you run the risk of getting cought out in the dark (a puncture would have delayed me to the point I'd have been on the phone for the recovery vehicle !)
2 - Take a map if you don't know the area, unless you have plenty of time to leasurely ride around in circles.
Days ride - 266TSS, 301Wavg, 324Wnorm, 3624Kcal, 56.3miles, 3h 7m (3h 24m lapsed - inc food stop)