Dry winter and carbon monoxide free

Chart of the session (from the 23rd Nov) was a cadence plot, which maxed out at 195rpm at 646W.

Bought a dehumidifier, which has a carbon filer in, to try and dry out the shed a bit as I have been sweating in it for a few weeks and it seemed to be getting a little unhealthy. The moisture was causing problems as it was starting to cause everthing to rust withn a week and it was always a little stuffy. So, plan 1 (after opening the door) was to see how much water would be taken out over the space of a week.

The dimensions of the shed are 5m x 4m (ok, not quite the ordinary size) with a pitched roof, which gives a volume of around 42 cubic meters and so far around 10 litres of water (in 4 days) has been taken out. Considering I was adding around 0.5 - 0.75 litres per hour this is getting near to a months worth of water, although I think there is a bit more to go yet.

This then got me onto thinking about altitude training in a slightly different way, due to the active carbon fiter and how they are used in confined environments (for removing / scrubbing carbon monoxide). My thought was in the space of 2 hours, if you do not open any door or window and excersize at say 75%, how much of a decrease would be seen in the oxygen level ? If you can remove the carbon monoxide and filter out any other bits in the process then you should be able to simulate a session from sea level to as high as you want (providing you don't pass out).

Training so far seems to be progressing well and even better after getting rid of a slight cold / cough that was doing the rounds in the office and train. This next week will be some steady hours on the trainer, ready for some good rides and miles over the chistmas break. Consistency and steady progress will continue to be the focus for now, but may go to pot if the weather is nice as I'll try and get out each day (as long as it does not cause any arguments !)

2 day 1 day + more

Sunday - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - Saturday - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - Friday

The training over the last 3 days has been a bit of an experiment in restraint, boredom and trying to read, on a static trainer with the fan blowing in your face. The first 2 days were done at a relaxed pace and output with my HR average of 125ish (259W 1h 35m), 128 (262W 1h 46m) and 136 (282W 1h 42m) with todays session including 30min at 350W (155bpm avg).

The first 2 days were at an easy enough pace and generally felt quite good at the end of each session as they were just above recovery zone, although I did the majority of it at a lower cadence. Todays session I felt quite good and after half an hour I thought I'd increase to sub threashold power and see how my HR responded, backing off when it was getting close to going over 160bpm.

Will be interesting to see how I feel during tomorrow nights session (providing I get the time).

Conclusion - more of the same in my plan.

Good start to the winter ?

The combination of yesterdays session and tonights left me feeling quite good (new 5 sec max)and very hopefull for next years results with the only big issue being time. My commute to the station has changed a little from the sprint sessions to one of a little more moderation but higher gears for the hills. The moderation is a partial attempt to prevent myself from catching a cold (chilled lungs in a sweaty train is not good) and to get in some strength training instead. The direction to the station is more downhill than up and that provides 2 climbs to navigate, although the first is outside the door and not too good to start off on. Comming home is a lot better as I put it into top and then wind up the hill on return, which provides something like a 20 second all out blast on the legs at 60-70rpm.

The other strategy, which I have been thinking about is the development of fast twitch vs slow twitch and the "genetic" bias which seems to exist and the theories about the difficulties in trying to get fast twich fibers to develop. My thought is around a different in training style for strength which does not involve slow strenght actions.

Leg presses are good for strength but they would only develop slow twitch fibers because the time for the leg extension, when compared to a pedal revolution is much, much slower. The other option is to train on the bike, but, instead of changing up a few gears and slowing to 60rpm why not effectively do an all out 10-20 second effort at 100-120rpm ? After all, if your training for sprinting then why not effectively sprint train ? That said the efforts should stop well before your HR gets up too far as all your after doing is getting fast high power cadence in.

This is the combination that I'm going to apply this winter for my strength build combining some high spin high power with the slow hill commutes and see how this works out.

10 mile TT test 22:23 at 379W

Was going great guns, up until just after 7 minutes when the half litre I drank 15 minutes ago started to threaten a return and backed off. Up until that point I averaged 415W but my heart rate had crept upto 174bpm. After a brief easing off for a few seconds I pushed on at a lower pace (366W) to cap my HR but that droped the wattage average down to 397W by the 11min mark and the drink was still not settling. After 25 seconds at 250W I upped the pace again to around 364W and finished off the distance, which dropped the average down, still at least it was above my 25 mile pace so have not lost too much so far.

Weekly total 4h 3m

Not a great start so far for the week, although a stready increase in TSS for each session to 78.9 today at a very relaxed IF of 0.66. Distance was 86 imagic miles as it was all on the trainer spread across 3 sessions.

Winter training starts with a whimper

Well, after having the best part of a month off the bike I certainly noticed it as all those odd bottles of wine, chocolate and cakes cought up. In terms of fitness it has not dropped off a cliff but it is certainly noticeble as to what you loose after a few weeks of treating your body like s**t. For my next years training I need to get into a more balanced regime, which does not involve vegitating in front of the TV, rather sleeping instead as this will go some way to remaining health.

Tube and train travel in London seems to be a strange place in winter as hoards of people insist on dragging themselves into work coughing and spluttering all over. Thoughts on this are to keep my immune system as topped up as possible without reaching for the vitamins until required. From a training and balance perspective this also means base is base training, no mad moments on the club runs and lots of sleep so that I'm in great shape for late March before winding things up.

Goals for the winter are to get out for at least 6 hours at the weekends and include indoor trainer sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Friday towards the back end of winter. This should give me a block of 4 days volume and a weekly total of around 10-12 hours of quality riding. With this volume, based at the right intensity, I figure that it should be enough to get me where I want to be by around May/June, which is in the >400W category. 1st race will be mine.


Finally got around to putting a new chain on, although I still need to give the bike a bit more of a clean and sat on the trainer for half an hour easy spin. Next real job is to get the sterio moved in and update the music tracks, then I'm all set for a stready build.

My ergomo battery finally gave up the ghost and cyclepowermeters were very quick to exchange the unit out, arriving the next day, which is a rare level of customer service these days. For my next bike (2008 purchase) a power meter will be a must adn they will be top of the list.

25 mile TT test

With a bit of additional motivation in the form of my dad sitting with me while I sat on the iMagic the decision was to do a 25 mile TT. Did a warm up for 13 minutes and then re-set the program to zero and then set off for the test. Unfortunately 11 minutes later the program stopped as I had done my TT pace at 378W for the same distance as my warm-up, so cooled down for 3 min before creating a specific program (1 segment of 25 miles) and then starting off again. Oh, well a 30 minute warm-up period should be ok...

Time : 55min 27sec

Power : 375W (376W norm)

Heart rate : 168bpm (187bpm max)

Cadence : 99prm (107 rpm max)

2-4 Weeks catch up

Managed to get out for a coule of hours tonight, before it became too dark (had not took any lights out and do not want to ride the roads round here in the dark as I'd like to see the sun again). 2 Hours 5minutes and 40.2miles later I was a bit stuffed but feeling like I'd had a good and productive ride, although looking at the data it seems like I'm about 2-4 weeks back from my peak (3 weeks ago).

NP60 was 358W (avg 335W) with an average HR of 140bpm and max 175bpm over the local area that included 300m of climbing and about 2 minutes of stops. The average speed of 20.1mph gives a fair idea of my aerodynamics on the bike, resting on the hoods. Need to work on my stability a bit when I'm resting on the tops of the bars.

With the additional weight loss the one thing, which did stand out a little, was going up the hills as it seemed a little more comfortable to get into a pace at 400W for 3-5min at a time with my HR picking up to 169bpm. Conditions were cooler (16C) and I did go out with my longs on (arm warmers in the pocket until after 90min), which probably helped more.

So, tomorrow night is hopefully an hour on the bike to the park with Luke as a recovery spin before another session on Wednesday as the build to the next race.

Back in training and it feels good

Back in training, but did not feel up to it to start off with as I was still feeling tired and unsettled. Once I was on the bike the feeling did not go until about 10 minutes in when it started to settle down and felt good, which was helped by an indication that I had not lost too much over the previous 2 weeks.
After a mixed session on the trainer I ventured out onto the road for a quick 15min blast up the road and averaged 385W, but my HR was way high, touching 184 at times before backing off a little.

I have to refine my bike position as I think that this is the key element to my next season as this is where I have not really focused as much as I should have. Reading through Obree and Hutchinsons books they both recognised that aerodynamics are the end game, which has a far higher impact that outright watts.

My goals for the rest of this year are to ride one more crit in around 4 weeks before entering winter mode and preparing for next year, which I'm going to hit full on this time, with avengance. I know now that if I carry some of what I have this year into next and train properly in the preceeding months I should be able to win the first crit.

Even with the recent weight loss I still have a bit of a gut hanging over my shorts, but it's only my spare....

Nobody has replied so far to my 2 queries in relation to the results from Milton Keynes.

Half bottle of peptobismol later and 71kg

Well, in the end I resorted to desparate measures and reached for some medicine. Hourly doses of peptobismol for a few hours with a little bit of water and that seemed to have sorted things out. Enough anyway for me to have something reasonable to eat later on without having any rumbling guts so far. My weight dropped to 71kg before I resorted to this in the hope that added vitamins and liquid would be enough, although that did not seem to be enough on it's own, or may have been in a few more days, but who knows. Hopefully sorted for now.

Managed to read Michael Hutchinsons hour record attempt while in bed, which was interesting in his character and the physical characteristics / genetic side of things. Found a link later, which has some interesting statistics for the hour record holders and indicates what is really required for the hour and to win the Tour de France. Goes to show I'm a long way off...

Milton Keynes results in question

From the 16th event in the series, which I thought I had come 5th (after checking with the marshal on the line at the end of the event) the results appear to indicate otherwise and according to the BC website results that have been posted.

5th and 6th had a 3/4 of a lap head start (the unofficial handicap start). 7th place is a CAT2 rider, who at the time of the event seems to have had more than 40 points, so according to BC rules should have been a CAT2 entrant. 10th place was another, who would have had 3/4 of a lap head start, although I'm reasonably sure we lapped them if there were only 4 in front.

For the results from the 18th event the winner of the CAT3/4 race was a CAT3 license, CAT2 ability with more than 40 points as a CAT3 ?

Need to read up on the details of the rules as it appears the racing is not done as I thought and is possibly a lot more mixed than expected... puzzled.

Stomach troubles and the 4yr old 10 miler

After the race in the wet the previous weekend it was about 3 days until I felt really off, not quite sick but a feeling that something was deffinately not right. Wednesday evening I was asleep very early and after about 12-14 hours sleep I ended up spending the next few hours in bed and on the toilet... not nice... After a 36 hour period of not feeling that great things seemed to be getting better again, although after a couple of days it seems to have returned and again, not feeling too great if I have a lot to eat, so a liquid diet for now. Riding to the station on Friday was an experience as the lack of an quantity of food for 36hrs depleted the energy a noticable amount.

Currenty down to below 72kg, which is not good due to the way in which this has been achieved and does not leave me with a gut to burn while I'm drinking mainly water. Justr focusing on keeping hydrated well and hope the injection will work it's way through or be zapped by my imune system.

Thought it was a good opportunity though to take some time off the bike (my excuse and rasoning not to get pissed off about it), even though it has been one of the best weekends this year and would have loved to have been out on the bike. A good break with the family.

While away for the weekend I took my £50 commuter special with us and Lukes pedal bike, which he likes to ride a lot now. Luke and myself set off from the site we were staying at to the local Reservoir, which has a track / path running round it and made our way to the playground at first (about 1.5 miles away). Following a few minutes on the rotting climbing frame Luke got back on his bike and we set off further round the circuit, along the top of the dam wall, with a few stops for Luke to have a look over the top and see what was about. Before long we were half way round and at the local pub for snack with a lemonade and coke.

After the pit stop we set off back the way we came and I ended up pushing Luke along about a mile of the road (sort of short cut) that ran paralle to the paths before we arrived at the start of the dam. Returning back along the same route to the caravan the distance all in all seemed to be around 10 miles. Not bad for a 4yr old...

Welyn Wheelers 55mi - Lost my bottle and pulled out

The weather on the drive to the start at Cardington seemed hopefull, with warm overcast conditions with very light drizzle. The promise of clear skys, however did not materialise and the rain arrived early and constant from the start.

5 Laps of the Northill circuit were on the cards and with the conditions as they were I was a but dubious about starting, but after paying to enter and having Richard there (who rides to work all weathers) I did not want to look like a bit of a wimp (a dry one at that).

For the first lap the combination of the spray and rain quickly made sure that the decision to pull out or not on the first lap was almost irrelevant as I could not get any more wet and felt quite good. Stayed towards the back of the bunch at the start, however after seeing how much it strung out, the number of break attempts and the probability of accidents I thought it would be better all round to move up.

Seond lap went reasonable, until my bottle bounced out and slid down the road, clipped by a few wheels on it's way into the gutter. This was a bit of a disaster as a 2hr + ride without any drink would be a bit of a killer and I would not be able to get any points without a drink.

The thoughts that came to mind were to ask for a drink, however that would probably be met with quite a few refusals and me in a more desparate position.

Drinking road wash came to mind, however that was discounted in a few milliseconds when I recieved a load of spray off the road from the bike in front dosed with horse shit, which left me with a couple of options. Part of the strategy was to colect my bottle on the next lap round.

The first option was just to have a go off the front and see what I could do in terms of gap and duration of staying away, which I did shortly afterwards and settled down for 3 min at 460W before dropping back to 390W for the next 4 minutes, staying away for 4.7km before drifting back to the bunch. What I was thinking about was creating a bit of confusion by breaking off the front and then pulling out, but I did the break at the wrong point in the loop to collect my bottle. Would have been quite funny though, although Im not sure how it would have been taken by some. I was picturing the thought of the bunch on a perpetual chase for the next 2 laps.

After being cought I stayed close to the front and rode along, until we came closer to the bottle drop and then drifted back in the bunch before stopping, turning arund and collecting the now empty bottle.

Arriving back at the start I felt a little dissapointed about the bottle drop and the weather, although the weather was not as bad in some ways as it at least kept me cooler, even if I could not see a thing out of my glasses.

Before the bottle colection :
Duration 1h 14m
Power : 309W (357W norm)
TSS : 129 / IF 1.02 / VI 1.16
Altitude : sensor blocked with water....
Speed : 39kph
Power averae : 5min 441W / 10min 401W / 20min 364W

Conclusion : Would have finished with the bunch (possible points as the hill finishe was long enough to suit me better), must get a different water bottle that will not bounce out of it's holder.

Milton Keynes - 8th

Turned out a bit different his week, bunch not as big or did not seem to be at first and then everyone lined up. Few less than last week due to the weather nt looking all that great earlier in the day, although the forecast was for it to clear and driving through a couple of showers I had my doubts.
Blue sky start, sun blinding on one corner (must get my glasses sorted out) to the dergee that I could not really see the road very well. Not a good situation when your surrounded by bikes at speed, leaning into a corner.

The bunch pretty much stayed together for the whole race with a few smal breaks off the front, although almost non of them seemed to have the momentum to hold. One did seem to have the momentum, although the riders did not give it the commitment as a group and it faded after a couple of laps. Perhaps I should try another tactic in the next race by trying to form a break or getting a group to work together.

Did a few laps on the front as I thought I'd put a bit of pressure on up the hill and see if I could thin the group out a bit, although there were still the odd one or two riders, who would attack on the down hill section and then get cought within a lap.

No real attempt to do a solo as I thought the group may have formed a split in the bunch later on, which would have provided me with the points that I needed, however it did not materialise as too many people were following wheels (me included).

Comming round to the last laps the pace picked up a bit for 5 to go, then a bit more for 4 to go and then dropped a little for the 3 to go before someone put the pressure on the hill going into the last lap. Trying to hold a position not too close to the front (around 10-11th) but probably a bit too far back in retrospect was better this time as the pace was higher and the line a bit more drawn out. Starting the hill section I put the power down and ducked for cover wherever possible, while moving up. Approaching the line I managed to pass another rider to put me into 8th place, 1 point less than I needed !!! DOH !!! Should have 9 points now :-)

Race duration : 1:08:18
Distance : 43.84km (312m climb)
Power : 318W avg (389W norm)
Heart Rate : 154bpm avg (183 max - need more sleep !)
Speed : 38.5kph
5s (1134) 10s (1080) 30s (854) 1m (564) 5m (408/449) 20m (355/409) 60m (322/385)
IF : 1.11 ? / VI 1.22
TSS : 140 (1304k)

To Brighton and not quite back

Long ride today, from Herne Hill to Brighton and back to Haywards Heath for the train back as it was near 6:30pm and the sun was low. Riding to the next station would have put us in darkness from the home stations or left riding with a low sun on the horizon, which makes you a great target for drivers who can't see you.

Ride summary TSS 321.1, 118.5km, 4h 32m, 1420m climbing, avg 238W, 295W norm.

Peak 30min was 353W/363NP and peak 5min was 464W/481NP while going up Ditchling beacon (109m of the 159m climb), which was a new high above my 449W from a couple of weeks back. According to CyclingPeaks that in theory puts me close to a domestic pro.. hmmm... maybe not... but should make a break on the criteriums more of a possibility.

Longest day out on the road at nearly 6:30 including stops.

5th at Milton Keynes

Well, driving to Milton Keynes I was still tired and not feeling up to racing, although after leaving work early I though I could not get away with blagging a story afterward, but it was very tempting.

The start was very different, full circuit to start with, lower loop in an anti-clockwise direction, which meant the climb was not as steep (or did not feel it) but the first corner from the down hill section was interesting (more on that later). Lining us up the usual occured at first with the CAT1+2 at the front and then the CAT3+4 behind. What happened next was they asked all those who did not have a top 10 finish to move to the front out of the CAT3+4 group and then set them off first. About 0 seconds later a CAT1+2 came through on the grass shouting he had to catch up, which was highly amusing to all of us as it was probably about 60 seconds later he would hvae realised what happened !

Next the CAT1+2's went off and then us, although it seemed quite a long while since the first bunch set off (3/4 of a lap estimate from the guy starting us off). This gave the pace a bit of a kick from the start and the chase was on, which was not too bad and I held a position around 10th for the first few laps before having a pull on the front for a lap a rest and then another go at the front before moving back into the pack.

About 25-35min in we ought the front 34 group, at which point a small goup broke off the front at some pace and I though thy may stay out, but I was boxed in and about 15 paces back, so I had to sit in and then move up. This is the point where it became a bit more confusing as another group must have split off the front, which I chased and joined, which made 5 of us. I thought we were the 5 at the front at the time and did not know another 4 were still in front.

The next few laps we worked together and dopped one off, and then a few laps later another dropped, and then another, which then left myself and 103, with somewhere between 10 and 20 minues to go.. Thinking we were off the front and in the lead I pressed on and we both worked together and I made sure I kept the other guy on board to help me and help him, as a solo it may have been good for the ego but I would not have lasted (lesson from the previous week).

We cought one 34 bunch and passed them and then came across another 34/12 mixed bunch, which we passed and then the pair of us worked at the front. Comming into the last laps I was getting close to being worked into the ground and a little annoyed that we were towing them along, which in a way helped as I pressed on more at certain points to try and drop them as well !

Onto the last lap it was a joy and fortunately I did not sit up and punch the air as I would have looked a right plonker ! The final result was 5th and a hard earned 5 points with 103 comming in 6th behind me.

Race overall averaged 345W with an NP of 381W in 1hr 9min 22sec. My HR average was 163 with a speed of 40kph and 367m of climbing.

The break lasted around 21min (I think) with an average power of 380W, NP406W, 174bpm avg at 100rpm.

Peak 60min (343 watts): Work: 1236 kJ
TSS: 116.7 (intensity factor 1.08)
Norm Power: 378 VI: 1.1
Distance: 39.785 km - Elevation Gain: 320 m
Power: 0 1024 343 watts
Heart rate: 133 184 162 bpm
Cadence: 44 120 95 rpm
Speed: 28.6 52.9 39.8 kph

Now for some much needed cerials and sleep !

Road junctions take more than watts

When you get on a nice stretch of road and get into a rhythm, along comes a junction with about 300 cars to mess things up. That is unless you adopt a high risk strategy and see if you can get someone to either flash their light, honk the horn or are so gracious as to bounce you off thier vehicle bonet. My approach is one of enjoy it while I can, so I have to sit and wait for 300 people (all 1 person per vehicle) to pass by on their way home, or not.

Anyhow, the first 20 minutes started off without the intention of going too hard, but that quickly fell appart after about 4 minutes. The next 17 minutes were spent at a comfortable but hard pace that felt ok and not out of breath. Unfortunately my HR strap needs a new battery as the reception range on the Ergomo only picks up the signal when I'm stood or lent over the bars, not too good for comfort... but at the end of the 20 min range my HR topped out at 173 on the top of a small rise. Looking back at the data I recorded an NP of 399W and an average of 388W, cool, a new record !

At this point I thought that's it,otherwise I will be totally out of action tomorrow night. Easy 10 minutes followed and then a mixed set on the next hill for a couple of minutes, ok a bit short.... turn around, 2:15 burst up the other side again at 458W before a slow ride back.

All in all a short ride of just over an hour, hopefully enough to set me up for tomorrow.

Thursday race + Sunday = watt ?

From the test a couple of weeks ago I noticed that the power was loaded to the back with the lats 20 minutes at 359W average or 357W taking out the last 2 minutes. The first 25 minutes averaged 353W and backing off when I got the chest pain at 35min took another 2-3W off the average. The one thing that I'll have to look into though is the normalised vs average aspect, when the intensity factor is calculated as my rides are now getting close to an IF of 1 and over (Sundays ride of just over an hour was 1.001 - as below) even though the average is way below my threashold.

Raced on Thursday night last week, which was good, although I managed to get no points. But it was not for trying and helped some guy win.... hmmmm...

The race was the clockwise loop with the upper circuit for the 2nd half of the hour + 5 laps, which I preffered as the hill seems steeper and more effective than the clockwise loop. What tuned out a bit diferent was the pace was higher, never split up much and did not join the CAT1+2's when they came past. That was better as I could then sit in for a while before putting much effort in, with the original strategy to go at 3 laps to go.

Within the race the pace picked up and slowed down as usual with the odd occurance of people going for a break (or more likely a stretch of the legs) on the down hill sections, which seemed a bit pointless or a place where you were going to burn more effort to gain a given gap.

Slowly through the first hour people dropped off the back with the sustained pace and the odd bit of pressure placed at the front.

4 laps to go, started to move into position, when a bunch of CAT1+2 came by and then sat about 10-20 yards in front with the CAT3+4 at the back. Going into the 3rd lap the situation was the same and into the 2nd.

With the last lap approaching going up the hill I realised this was the only option left, unless I waited for the final sprint. So, I picked up the pace and moved through the bunch and off the front past the CAT1+2's that were sitting at the front.

Going round the first corner at the top with no brakes I almost over cooked it and nearly ended up on the grass, which helped push my HR up to 188bpm and then I looked back to see where I was. From the vauge image I figured about 20-30 yards and did not notice anyone on my wheel so I pressed on again into the next corner, where again I almost ended up in the bushes.

Looking back again I think I had about 40 yards and someone was on my wheel, so as we entered the flatter section I signaled for him to come through and I took cover.

As we came to the bottom of the hill section I knew I had less energy left than him and shouted "go for it I'm knackered", which probably wasn't the best of things to do in retrospect....

He launched off the front and I continued to plug on, with the energy draining from my legs.

Reaching near the top and thinking I did have a chance of 2nd with 30 yards to go and the first person past me on the final sprint, then the 2nd, 3rd...... 10th, 11th.... "bollocks!" With 30 yards to go and 10 seconds later I was out of the points after backing off completely when I realised.

The aspectes of the race and the lessons are that I don't know when the other guy got on my wheel and if the CAT1+2 group helped pull the rest of the 3+4 back up a bit. Either way I felt it was a great race and a great lesson in racing strategy and tactics. My lesson is to make sure you look fully, guage your pace better and get some more luck. Plus, get out and add some more watts...

60min test

Not feeling brilliant and a bit tired I started off last nights session on the trainer at an easy pace for 10min and then picked up a bit. By the 15min mark I was at threashold output and my HR was still low and not picking up very much, although it was quite cool (2 fans blowing from 2ft away) so I put this down to body temperature. After about 15min I was still feeling ok, HR low (but rising) so I thought I'd hold for an hour and see what happens. 40 min in my HR was up to 160 and then by 50min 170 (from memory, will post the chart and clarify). At the 60min mark a pickup in pace was in order, which did not last very long. 354W average on the Ergomo Pro and 357W on the iMagic (supprised the iMagic matched up so close with the Ergomo). All in all not a bad session, but not quite intended.

Nice roads and a long hill

Went out at the weekend for a couple of longer rides than normal, while I had the chance of riding on uncongested smooth tramac instead of fume filled potholes. Both days were quite nice at around 3 hours with a test on the 2nd outing to see if I could set a new 5 min power. One of my theories is that cooling is far more important to 5min+ efforts than what is generally looked at for performance improvements, hence the test. During an indoor effort I set a 5 min record of 421W at the begining of July, which had fan cooling only on the upper body. The test ride at the weekend was out in the open with approx 20C broken sky conditions and I managed 449W, which put me into the CAT1 are on the power profile. Either I managed to get better motivation riding out in the open (30%), improved by 28W in 2 weeks (10%) or had better cooling (60%). The percentages being what I think the difference came from - a combined effect.

During the home bound section of the ride on Monday I ended up on a time trial course with 2 riders ahead to chase. I managed to pass one of them and then stayed about 100m behind the other, who had better aero performance than me (on a section at 33mph he was pulling away slightly). The aero element is something else that I need to work on so that I do not have the profile of a brick.

So, all I need to do now is (appart from the impossible) to maintain my 5 min output for an hour and then I can enter the toru next year.... ha... ha...

Empty legs and no riding

Bit of a supprise in sundays session as I thought my attempt at setting a new 60sec power record went really badly when my legs fel appart about 40 seconds in. Looking at the power profile over the 60 seconds it was a start with too much output that caused my legs to empty in no time at all and I could feel them loosing power by the second. At around the 50 second mark I almost gave it up as a bad job because I did the test after an hour and a half at 270W (294W norm) that had 1 hour at 300W (315W norm). Seeing how low the power had dropped I though it was a sub 600W average and not the 640W recorded. My HR finished at 179 (10bpm lower than my max) but my legs were well and truly shot.

Since then I have not touched my road bike and only done the short run to the station, now it's Friday and my CTL is back to what it was a month ago... Oh, well.

The weather this weekend is looking good and the Tour is in town, so it's either a ride down to watch it on Saturday or take the camera on foot. The ride down seems more appealing in some way, afterall I can always sit on my bike to watch it..

Progress stalling on time

Progress so far has been a little mixed with relatively small gains on the back of a low training load. Felt quite good last night after a bit of a break and some hill work on a couple of days last week and set a new 5 min power output at 5.61W/kg (421W).

My CTL is stalling around 55 as I struggle with the time to get some decent hours in when either the weather is not too bad or it is not too late at night after work. The problem with the after work sessions is that a couple of hours on the trainer finishing at 8:30pm or 9:00pm leaves you wide awake, which is not too good for either getting some sleep or making sure you eat for a good recovery. Fortunately the High-5 recovery powder seem to work quite well with some semi-skimmed and have been thinking about using a mix on some cerials to save some time.... bannana milk on wheetabix... mmmmmm...

Well, considering the weather this weeks crit at MK seems like it will be 50/50 so I'm going to train the rest of this week and then ride in to London on Saturday to watch the Tour and then possibly ride out again on Sunday to watch the 2nd stage depart.

Wattage inversely correlated to pain

Had a bit of a strange episode where a higher wattage was more unfomfortable, although a lot less painfull than the feeling after reducing the wattage after a period of time. 30 minutes at 345W with a 6 repeats of alternating 1 minute 380W-390W and 2 min at 320W in the middle was quite interesting as backing off to 160W afterwards started to really hurt after about a minute. Increasing the wattage back up to 280-300 dulled the pain after about 30 seconds.

Anyhow, tonight set a new max 5 min average, although not quite sure how you can have a normalised power reading lower than the average ? Good thing was the average HR was nearly 10bpm lower than 1 month ago, but, the previous 5 min was out on the road.
5 minute average = 412W (410W norm ? - hr 162 avg )
Previous = 410W (416W norm - hr 171 avg)

Set a new 5 second last night.
5 second 1135W (1171 max) - max reading on ergomo was 1203W ?
Previous 1123W (1200 max) - ergomo >1200W ?
Not quite sure how the ergomo is reading >1200W when the sampling was set to 2 revs / sample as my cadence was lower than 120, which should represent 1 second...

It's not the only distortion

Trying to put together an email to FSA to try and ask them to resolve or answer what is going on and it seemed a bit long winded. At the end of the mail I was not really clear what I was asking for or how the problem could be resolved.

Putting some options together I thought I could use my Dura-Ace chainrings on the FSA spider and in the process really see if the chainring was bent by putting it on a flat surface. At first I did not know it the Dura-Ace rings would fit and then after a quick measurement and check I fit them onto the FSA spider and it almost looks good.... hmmm...

This left me with the first check to see how much the FSA chainring was out of shape, so I laid it the desk to see if it was out of shape, thinking the table was not flat I turned it round a bit, then a bit more, bit more and finally figured out the desk was not bent....

Going back to the chainring on my bike I now had a look to see if that was bent anymore and it was now showing a slight eliptical distortion and a distortion in the other plane as well that I had not noticed before (both sideways and vertical, which I had not checked for before removing the chainrings).

Now that I have probably invalidated the warranty in a quest to prove a case and in the process making my bike look a little bit more odd, anyone want to buy a bent FSA chainring, only 1,000 miles ?

Bendy FSA-SLK Crank chainrings ?

After having a power meter installed (Ergomo) I had to change my cranks from Dura Ace to FSA or more to the point the choice was limited at the time. This in itself did not seem to be much of an issue at the time, however strange things have occured since and the chainrings seem to have a life of thier own.

I did not have any means to directly measure the chape of the chainring profile, so thought the camera resolution would provide a good view of what I am seeing.

To clarify what was going on I setup my camera on a tripod (to eliminate camera shift) and then took pictures at 6 tooth increments around the chainring, which then gave me 9 shots (well about 9 in the end after about 40-50 trial shots).

From each of the pictures I took a slice at 800% enlargement (so that the pixel size was hightly visible) at the location shown on the top image and then shrunk it width ways into Excel so that the tooth profile was visible again. Each of the 9 images was processed in this way to give an end picture as shown to the right.


As a secondary means of measuring the distortion I then shrunk the row height to 0.75 and marked off each row position that correlated to the tip of the tooth on the chainring, took the row location and normalised the row numbers to a zero base, which gives the figures in the base of the picture.

The first image represents the right hand crank (chainring side) pointing upwards to 12 o'clock.

What stands out is the profile is non eliptical and distorted in 2 areas with the main distortion with the crank position around 90 degrees (each picture is a 40.75 degree inrement from (6/53)*360 degrees) that resulted from the chain in the 12 tooth sprocket on the cassette when I was training as this either creates a chain angle just enough for the pedal force to bend the chainring or the carbon fiber crank arm is distorting ?

I'm a bit puzzled as to why they are bending, although I can bend them out of shape in the opposite direction if I end up climbing in a 53-23 combination and put on a lot of pressure. That said, the doo seem to be very stable sub 1000W, it's just when you go above this some jelly seems to become involved.

Chain problems

This is what happened to one link in my Dura-Ace chain, which did not have the pin inserted correctly. After about 20 miles the chain eventually fell off..

Right place at the right time, just did not hold it...

Well, 2nd race at Milton Keynes and nill points, now comes the excuses, err, sorry, analysis.

Read the race quite well and managed to keep with the lead bunch and conserve energy, even when they tagged on to the CAT1/2 bunch, which subsequently ripped the CAT3/4 field appart. They also reversed the circuit round so we were turning right (clockwise round the circuit), which form the warmup laps I figured that I'd be better waiting until the last lap and joining the sprint on the hill as it was just enough (and with a back wind) to make an outright power (aerodynamics less relevant) based sprint possible, which should have suited me better. The crux of the problem was getting in to the right position and holding it until the last turn before the hill, which I did not manage to do.

For the sprint I maxed out with a HR at 189 (new high), 1083W peak and a 30sec power of 750W, which allowed me to pass around 10 rides, however a very small gap had opened up on the last 2 corners (the difference between those at the front going round corners without braking and the right line and those following...) which I had not noticed until passing through the bunch on the hill. After getting through the back group I continued up and joined the front 12 just before the line, outside the top 10.

Earlier on when the CAT1/2 bunch passed through I kept and eye out as I was expecting them to tag on, however with the first bunch they did not, but the 2nd they did. This subsequently created a couple of difficult laps (HR at 172 avg, 183 max and 378W avg), which in turn dropped over half the field. I held on after bridging some gaps and tagged along, hoping it would last for a few more laps before turning back down again as this would thin the pack out further as it seemed to have reduced to around 15. ,Unfortunately it did not last and they eased off and the following 2 laps were 100W lower, which allowed the chasing bunch to catch up again (alternate strategy out the window).

The chart at the top includes the warm up and cool down. The cadence distribution shows how much time was free wheeling in the bunch (around 10-15min) and the spinning up the hill section (15min)

Duration 1:09:26 - 47km - 1137kJ

TSS 110 IF 0.977 VI 1.25

Norm power : 342W avg 273W

Max 1083W, 10sec 1014W, 1min 503W, 30min 286W, 60min 277W (344norm)

Climb 380m

Things I did differently

- spin up the hill 100+rpm on more occasions

- decide to go for the last lap gallop

- take it easy until I had to put the power on

Mistakes

- Breaking harder than required on the 4th to last corner

- Not staying in a good position when I had the chance on the 3rd lap to go

- Thinking the bunch had a deathwish

What I'd do differently

- Hold the position better towards the last laps

- Try and position for the corners better so I don't have to break or as much

Sunday ride with no coffeee stop

Todays outing was made a bit harder by not stopping for the usual coffee and cake at the mid point in the run, which created a TSS of 256.8 for the ride as a result, which in turn is the largest TSS for any day I have done this year. Riding to work and back would create a TSS of 226 (60 miles round trip) although todays run was 70 miles. 3,500kCal burned in the process and my CTL is still below 50, although todays ride gave it a kick up 5 points.

Registered a new max HR at 187 for 5 seconds on one of the climbs, out of breath a bit and looked down to see where my HR was and then supprised at a 186 value at the time as I did not expect it to go so high. The 1 min power during the clumb was still sub cat 4, although registered my 3rd best 5 min power. The previous 1 min power readings were done from rest as a comparison.

Debating weather to postpone any more races this week and to get more longer training sessions in and then race the following week, which should provide enough of a boost to win if I get the recovery period right.

Broken chain woes - must remember to get a link kit

Riding out today, though I'd swap the chain back to a Dura Ace chain for my training and unclipped the other chain and put the new one on. The pins that come with Dura Ace seem reasonable, although they can be problematic if coupled with a bent FSA chainset. Well, after a few miles a click developed, which (sod's law came into effect) at the furthest point away from home it snapped. Anyhow, 30 minutes later and now acomplishet with the chain tool I managed to bend a few more links and shorten the chain that much I could not use some of the gears, but I managed to get home. Oh, well.

The picture above is early on when I went to the front to pull a group back and to try out the pace a little as I was not feeling all that good and had not done anything for the first few laps. I though the group was all on, however on the slight hill on the circuit it appears not as 3 of us ended up creating a gap. 3rd back was the guy who I think won as he was on my wheel on the lap before the bell when I thought I'd try and split things up a bit or see what happened. Thinking back I should have tried a break to make a gap and then end up dropping back in rather than tow anyone along. When I moved to the front it was without any significant speed difference, but it was at the start of the hill where everyone seems start the breaks from.

Strategy for next week is to possibly try something along the same lines again a little later and with more conviction at the start, although if I'm feeling better then I'll go for the jump break and then 2 / 3 up if we get much of a gap.

Compared to how I have felt in the previous few weeks I should have been stronger than what I was and felt a lot better (weather that would have translated into watts and a few more seconds on the front is unknown). All good fun though...

Milton Keynes 2/3 points for 8th or 9th

Not feeling that great at the start (feeling hungry driving down the motorway did not feel right) I had a couple of biters of a bannana and some sweets in the car on the way. 15 min of gentle tootling round on my bike (getting passed by everyone) during warm up made things a bit more calm and then felt a bit better.

The race was on the shorter oval circuit (no braking) for the first 30 min and then opened up to the extened circuit (3 corders where you ended up braking some of the time) for the remainder of the hour+5 laps.

During the race for the first few laps my HR was quite low averaging 146bpm before going at the front for a lap warmed things up a bit, but did not feel as good as I thought it should.

Overall the power output was lower than expected, averaging 273W for the race and 318W normalised, with a HR avg of 154bpm (ok sat at the back for a while). The periods of rest at the back and the downhill free wheeling did distort things a little as well. The chart on the right is a good indication of what happened, the bar on the right is the race compared to the previous 3 weeks of training and riding. Picked the wrong day !

The difference was in the last few laps where I moved up from the back as we had 5 laps to go.

As the 3rd lap came round I figured I had over 10bpm left in the tank and moved further up, into the 2nd lap to go I pushed a bit more and moved into the front at a pace I thought may have split the bunch a bit more. My reasoning was I did not have the sprint, so the only other option was to try and go at the 2nd or 3rd lap to go with a break or to fragment the bunch. On the bell I went through the line 2nd having pushed my HR to 182bpm and in need of a little rest I hooked on to the guys wheel, who had passed me. Looking back I can't recall if we had a gap as I think a gap had opened as he indicated for me to move up again to work 2 up, however the pedal was near to the floor and I needed some reserve for the last half lap to make sure I got some points as I started to realise we were not going to hold out the full distance. On the last corner people moved by anbd I gave it all realising my position was moving backwards.

Across the line with my HR at max (186) and a 15sec sprint at 658W, which in retrospect is a lot lower than what I can do (if you exclude the previous hour and a bit of racing). Crossing the line I tried to count my poisition out and it was either 8th or 9th.

The last 3 minutes were at 420W and 5 min were at 380W (NP404W).

Race: Duration: 1:12:53 Work: 1196 kJ

TSS: 100.7 (intensity factor 0.91)

Norm Power: 319 VI: 1.16

Distance: 46.727 km

Elevation Gain: 385 m Elevation Loss: 376 m

Power: max 964 avg 274 watts

Heart rate: max 186 avg 154 bpm

Speed: max 56.7 avg 38.5 kph

TSS for 12 minutes in a farmers field ?

What a week, rain, gales and the inability to get out (or the lack of wet weather gear and a 2nd bike).

What I was hoping to be a good training week's holiday turned out to be a wet and windy session with only 2 days half decent riding.

The most amusing session was a quick run out between the rain that was forecast to arrive in a few hours. Into a near headwind that was about 25-30mph and only going about 14mph forwards a truck on the opposite side of the road passed by, which prompty blew the cap off my head with what must have been a 50-60mph gust. Upon stopping I realised that it had possibly gone into or over the top of the 7ft embankment at the side of the road and then spent the next 12 minutes wanderin up and down it trying to find my cap. The cap turned up eventually a few feet into the field of what was fortunately short green wheat shoots. After the off road session my cleats were a bit clogged up and any sprint felt quite loose on the pedals as a result, although they never came out of the pedal.

The first days run out was quite good and I felt good after a gap off the bike with only 1 day on during the week, although I should have eased in with an easier session, I ended up setting a new personal best for 5min power on some of the hills of 5.52W/kg. Tonights session on the iMagic also set a new peak 5 sec power at 1123W (14.97W/kg) and is just in to the CAT 4 zone in cyclingpeaks.

One thing that seems to be the case (for me) is that it is easier to get watts out on the move than on a trainer. The developing power profile also seems to indicate that I am more suited to an early (joint) or late (sole) break than going for the sprint finish in a bunch....

Race analysis form last year and a bike tune up

Looking back at the race traces (Crystal palace and Milton Keynes) from last year I think I need to try a bit harder during the races. My HR max is 186 and my average for a Cyrstal Palace 3+4 event was 166bpm, which included a coule of laps off the front (1st mistake - not commited - gave up after the first lap and thinking I could not maintain my HR at around 177 for 8 or so laps). During this event the average speed was 24.2mph with 343 meters of climbing. That was not so bad...Milton Keynes was a little different as my HR averages were 156, 157 and 158 for 3 races with average speeds of 26, 24.4 and 24.5. The first race was on the inner circuit, which had effectively no corners but stil had 285m ofclimbing over the 28.1 miles. The other 2 races at Milton Kenes were 33.7 miles and 29.8 miles (approx 1 hour + 5 laps) in distance with around 343 meters of climbing (matching CP). The difference between Milton Keynes and Crystal Palace though is the duration, the inclusion of a hairpin that drops the speed right off and a single steeper hill climb. Crystal Palace seems more of a sprinter / interval style intense burst type circuit as a result, which makes it harder. The one difference though is it can be easier off the front,as long as you have the average power... From a friends trace (www.lbrc.org) the average lap power seems to be around 360W-380W (I'm guessing this was with his nose in the wind from the picture he sent me) so in theory all you have to do is maintain that on your own for 45-50min !

Spent a while last night doing some fixes and adjustments to the bike, which had been overdue, whic included taking 16" off the brake and gear cables that were almost usable as a washing line on the front of the bike. That in theory should save a watt or two into the wind !

The other change was fiting 25x700's with my old 23x700's inside them with about 7mm cut out and the beading cut off by around 4mm on each side. This makes the tyres quite heavy (dual garotskins) although they should make them near on as puncture proof as you can get, while making the hills a bit longer. That was after a couple of punctures in the space of 7 days (glass and flint pushed through a gatorskin) and also wanted to try out some 25's for more comfort while training. The weight is irrelevant at the moment as the power meter will show the same value regardless and I will just be a little bit slower on the flat and a bit more slower up hill.

This weeks training total has added up to around 50 minutes on Tuesday night and that's it until Saturday before a big week in Devon with lots of miles and hills.

Some pictures of the family and garden

The family photo on the hill in front of the shed I use for training and storing all the other sh*t that is banned from the house.

The windows are wired to the mains as part of the alarm systems, although that is part of the silent alarm system....

The training setup has changed a little since this photo as well, although the fan is still used, or was... The PC, as usual, is in bits or part built with the cover off and insulation has been added to the roof to stop it from being either a fridge or oven depending if the sun is out.

The iMagic is linked up to the PC and one of the speakers for the music is visible.

Last picture is playtime in the garden before the shed was built, but after we burnt down the other 2 sheds that were in the garden beforehand. The fence was replaced as well, in part due to it falling downs and the other part was it ended up a bit charred from the heat of the shed's blazing away.

Click on the images to load the full size image.

FT power up to CAT2, 5 sec improvement next..

After yesterdays ride the FT power reading was pushed up a bit, although with finishing at the 45min mark the average was knocked back a bit from where it should have been. Should have chose a longer run and measured a true average. The FT on the chart is around 4.35W/kg and should be closer to 4.6W/kg, which in theory puts me in good stead for a time trial but not for criteriums. My sprint 5s and 1min still need working on to bring them up to CAT2 level, which will require around 1350W for the 5sec (up about 250W) and 675W for the 1min mark (up 75W) with a weight loss down to a race weight of 73kg. The sprint wattage will be the most difficult to get, although I will have to try it with a decent set of wheels on as the Askiums I use for training flex too much, rub against the brake blocks and feel like jelly at times. May be tempted to do Crystal palace on Tuesday, although I would have to either ride in tomorrow or take my bike in a bag on the train and ride to the circuit. Would be interesting to see the power profile for a crystal palace race. Tonight will probably be 30 min on the rollers as a prep for either riding in tomorrow or a recovery for Tuesday night.

Catch up

Monday was my first long session in a gym, which I spent the majority of time on the bike and next the stepper. The stepper machine was interesting as it had a wattage reading and you could see the effect of increasing and decreasing the difficulty level. Overall I spent around an hour on the machines and did some weights for the legs, although they did not have a specific machine to do leg extensions, rather just the thighs or calfs depending on the setup. 160kg lifts for the thighs and around 120kg for the calfs.

Thursday was a ride in to work and back, which turned out a bit more interesting. Stepped out the door at 5:45am and realised it had just started to spit with rain a little. Given the conditions and what I thought was the forecast I expected it to be brief and stop after 30 minutes or when I got closer to London. Big mistake, about 30 minutes later my shoes were starting to fill with water and I still had an hour to go. Fortunately it eased up and never really rained hard so it was more road splash that soaked the shoes than direct rain. One thing I did realise was my overshoes were not very waterproof at all, rather more like a sponge.

On the way in I did not get any abuse, just a taxi driver trying to get past in a bus lane and on the way home I got a friendly toot from a trucker I waved past on one section of road. All in all one of the better rides in realtion to traffic, oh, appart from the twat who did a U turn in front of me and then breaked like a moron to carry out an emergency left turn. Oh, and the van that cut in front of me in the bus lane to turn left.

The ride home in the end took over 2 hours and felt quite long and I almost was desparate enough for food to ride through the drive in at a MacDonalds. That was before the throught of puking up a greasy burger 5 minutes later up the only long climb back home put me off and I stopped and had a go bar instead.

Today I ended up doing a brief warm up on the rollers and then heading out on the road on the usual 28km route (out and back) with 267m of climbing (50m up one hill at the turning point after a fast desent). Once I started I felt good so decided to even the power out and push it a bit and see what happened. The power figures were good, although I get the feeling I'm riding like a sail into the wind and need to work on position and aerodynamics a lot more. The speed was brought down a bit by the 14 junctions and 1 turn at the bottom of the hill though.

---------Out ----- Return ------ Trip Avg
Watts -- 356/364 - 360/368 ----- 350/363 (average / normalised)
Speed -- 31.6 ---- 36.8 -------- 34.2 (kilometers per hour)
HR avg - 156 ----- 164 --------- 159 (beats per minute)
Distance ----------------------- 25.2km

Trying to watch a film

Well, session set, film set, drinks, food, go..... steady pace, nice and easy...... what the hell is this s**t I'm watching. Oh, well, though it was a good sci-fi but turned out to be one hell of a boaring chick flick, so about half an hour in I swapped it.

1hr 38m long on the bike with TSS of 98 and IF of 0.747, which is among of the lowest of Intensity Factor rides. Felt good and I think the sweat sessions have helped but not worked completely as I sounded like I had smoked a dozen cigars when I woke up this morning.

Training charts so far

This is the power profile for the 60 second burst last night and how the last few weeks have turned out so far in terms of my performance build.


On the chart you can see where I changed down a gear to maintain a higher cadence but the power drop was quite large as a result. I should have maybe started off more easy and then finished with a peak or tried to maintain a more flat profile.


Training has been progressive but a bit random in a way with a reasonable build in daily TTS, although factoring in the on-off health perception so far so good. Alt least I have not porgressed back to A&E.


Comparing last year to this I think I'm on track to be ready in another 4 weeks to race, providing the XRay does not come back with anything and my sweat sessions have worked. In theory I should be able to get some points in a CAT4 race relatively easy (in theory).

What's up doc ? Nothing.... go have an XRay

Went to the doc's on Friday morning to have another checkup, which I knew he would not find anything from listening to my chest and testing my blood pressure. "What do you want me to do ?" he then asked, which sort of summed things up so far. So he sent me for a chest xray to see if anything will show up on that, in the interim I had an idea.... maybe not a good one or one that may be recomended. Off I trundled to the hospital to get an XRay and then be told it may be 2 weeks before I hear anything, unless I have something that stands out.

Given that when you have an infection your body heats up in the process of killing off the invader, not necessarily though increased workload but to make the host less inhabitable and kill off whatever has invaded. So my theory was to turn the fan off (or point it away so at least there is a little air circulation), ride indoors and sweat it out.




Friday nights session was just over an hour long with an IF of 0.87 and TSS of 79.7 but a new 60s personal record (previous was 512W the previous weekend during the club run). During the session I thought that I'd give the 60 second power interval a go, see how my heart reacts and try and help convince myself I'm not mad (or am).



So, 39min into the ride upped the gears and gave it all. After 40 seconds I had to change down as my HR increased and finished the 60 seconds at 186bpm on the polar but only 184bpm on the ergomo with a power average of 603W. The first 40 seconds was 638W followed by the next 20 at 547W. So, that answered one question.

Todays session was a bit longer with one sprint to see what my 5s was 1h 48m into the ride a single sprint topped out at 1156W with a 1078W average. I forgot to tighten the forks into the steering frame and almost ended up on the floor when they nearly jumped out a few times. Total ride was 1h 50m long with TSS of 120, IF 0.81, avg power 240W, norm power 267W.

Before the ride I weighed my self (76.4kg), after (75.7kg) and also measured out the water and food at around 1.2 litres with another 120g of food/gell. This equated to a sweat loss of around 2 litres in the space of 2 hours between readings or 1 litre per hour. I estimate that my peak sweat loss during one part in the session was at a rate of around 1.4 lires / hour.

With the 2 sweat sessions it may be working.....

Lergy still not gone ?

Tonights session (TSS 95) seemed a little odd, although I'm not entirely sure what is going on in relation to my HR and power output. Started off nice and easy with my HR avg at 127bpm and power 266W avg 269W NP over the first half hour. Then ramped it up a bit to see where it would settle for a given output and to get some data to compare the iMagic power levels to the Ergomo. 2min at 345W avg pushed my HR to 149bpm but my legs started to feel as if they had done 60 miles, ramped back down for a few min and then ramped back up to 390W for 30 seconds and then pushed it up to 500W over the next 15 seconds, HR peaked at 156bpm ? felt wrong or different. Backed off for 14min and then did another 2 min at 375W, HR peaked at 157bpm.

Later on again, tried a run, 4min 45 at 339W avg and my HR peaked at 158bpm (last 20 seconds at 370W).

Looking back at the weekend my max HR was only 179bpm (vs 186bpm max) in retrospect (the highest this year) either I was not trying my max or I need to back off for a while until I get rid of the flem in my throat that seems to be still hanging around, even after nearly 5 months.

Been trying the vitamins and took a Barroca today to see what effect that would have, although I now suspect that some of it is passing through as my urine has changed colour to a brighter yellow from normal. This seems to be vitamin C passing through. So, next test, is to drink only water and juices while keeping well hydrated with no vitamin supplements for 2 days. See how that goes before riding in to work again on Friday.

Entire workout (245 watts) Duration: 1:20:15 Work: 1178 kJ
TSS: 95.1 (intensity factor 0.843) Norm Power: 270 VI: 1.1
Distance: 52.231 km
Power Max 502 Avg 245 Heart rate max 158 avg 123 bpm

Sunday ride data

The reason why so many people prefer to ride on thier own is the effects of the bunch and drafting. While it is good to talk (not on the phone) and get out with other like minded cyclists the impact as a source of training can be quite mixed.

Consider the effects on your HR and your power output as within a bunch the effects of drafting can make it quite easy at times as you end up getting pretty much sucked along and only have to put a bit of power out. That is until it goes up hill.

The effect of the bunch (majority have the competitive drive to burn themselves out on a Sunday given a group - me included) can be good or bad. During one of the climbs I gave it a go and you can see my HR maxing out and then the power slowly dissapearing away, along with my immune system and a fair few drops of sweat. Started off too hard due to being in a group and trying to keep pace with someone else, rather than go it at my own pace for the whole climb. This can be a good thing, as long as it's not done too frequently (every day).

The overall summary for the ride was interesting with peak power just over 1000W.

The power distribution shows the full effect of drafting where you end up not pedaling for quite a time as you would otherwise end up running up the back of someone, unless you choose to ride on the front for the whole time.

The heart rate distribution is also skewed further up and more broad as you have the easy times mixed in with the hill climbs at pace. For a training run I would have though you would be better of setting a couple of criteria for power zone and HR tone time and then riding to suit.

Then again for race training it is the only time you may get the urge and motivation to push yourself harder than you would on your own.

I would not tend to ride as far on my own and probably spend too much time at a higher pace than what I should be doing, so the group is good.

Sunny weekend rides

Saturday was a little cooler than expected, however that did not stop the milkbottle legs from dazzling drivers as they screamed past me. The suntan lotion (kids - all I could find in the house) also had extra whitening in so between the original state of my legs and the suncream I must have been the brightest rider out. For the ride I ended up just riding anywhere with no real set route, appart from the one hill climb that I wanted to do. THH of 117 over 1h 13 with an IF of 0.977 was a little higher than I thought and will need to adjust my threashold.
Later on I took Luke out on his bike to the park the park, so had a gentle 45min afterwards (TSS of 15.8).

Sunday ride consistend of the usual 3 stages - to the meeting point - cafe stop - home.
Cutting out the first few mins the norm power for the cafe run was NP 257W, avg 204W, 31.7kph. I did have the original intention of going out for a ride with the moderate group to take it easy and ended up in the fast group.

The homeward leg has a few different points with a couple of reasonable hills included. After someone had a puncture the next 32 min were at 31.5kph but NP319W, avg 264W with 126m of climbing. The homeward leg in total was NP287W, avg 214W at 31.9kph.

For the ride as a whole the TSS was higher than the ride to work and back at 270 with a similar intensity factor, although the ride has pushed my cumulative training stress very negative (time for an easy week...). I did set a new personal record 60sec avg wattage of 512W but my 5 min was 392W, still down on last year, although I still need to run another analysis with the iMagic vs Ergomo to verify what is what.

The 5 min power was set on one of the climbs where I thought I would give it go a bit and try and keep up with Matt (cat 2 rider) who promptly ride off into the distance leaving me gasping for air. The first 2 min of the climb was at 448W avg.

Overall felt good, better that I thought, although I do need to ease off this week to recover properly. Time to do some spinning on the rollers.

Ride to work - 61.4 miles

Felt better than I thought after getting home as I was expecting the first homeward leg to be a bit more of a drain, although the power meter has made a difference, even with a wobbly crank (more on that one later). The journey to work and back always seems very interesting from the aspect of driver mentality within London compared to the rest of the country. I was called a "f***ing p**k" once and cut up twice, all for riding my bike in accordance with the highway code.... nice eh ?

But, it gets the hours in (improves my sanity) and once I'm out of London the rest of the ride is quite nice, so nice I will be investigating a longer route (and more quite) for the return journey. Setting off early in the morning ensures you have less of the 4x4's, BMW X5's and rust buckets to try and knock you off or kill you with fumes....

Today I tried the first of my masks that I have bought to ride with, once in a high traffic area, which is a near chemical biological protection mask. The filtering is P3 (you get P1-P3 with P3 filtering out the smallest particles) so it seems to get rid of all the soot from the busses quite well and better than the screwfix special, which is a P2. The mask filtered out everything and for the whole journey I could not smell anything, appart from when I lifted it up for a drink.

The mask did make it more difficult to breath in slightly and was a bit uncomfortable around the nose as the fitting seems to be for when you are not gasping for air with your mouth wide open. Wearing the mask could only be done for upto 45min to an hour before it would need emptying (water) and your nose re-adjusting back. But, I'd rather breath through a mask than the inner London smog, ozone and whatever else is released into the air. Later on I'll post the pictures and a better review.

This week (last 7 days) I have managed to get in 9:45 on the bike with a TSS of 766 and a kCal burn of 9,025 (at 22%). Nice weekend ahead and a gentle club run for a recovery.