Goals Galore, v2.008

Alex Simmons

Thanks guys.

I shaved my leg tonight after another 30-min trainer effort @ 154W.
Did the old cover up the meter for a while trick while I watched an old repeat of Top Gear's Clakson drive a Porche and a Merc around while soldiers were shooting blanks at him... it was silly but distracting - just happened to be what was on the box when I turned it on.

But I did peek at how long to go as 30-min was enough....

Ergo bike arrives Mon/Tue. SRM fitted shortly after.

Get to 1hr @ 150W and I head outdoors....

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http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/
http://www.cyclecoach.com/

Jeff Vader

Goal: Finish a metric century in under six hours. Came close last week. After I recover for a month or so, I'm going to give it another try.

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Cake or Death?

frost

Bit late with my goals but better later than...

1.) FTP 360 watts

2.) 5MP 440 watts

3.) Weight 92kg-->90kg (at least for a while so I can say I reached FTP of 4w/kg. I could easily drop more weight but that would require a really hard and long discussion with my wife )

4.) Get myself to compete. Participate at least a local weekly TT

I have been cycling for a couple of years now (some more in the past) and got my first powermeter in late March. Just prior that I had 6 weeks off because of business and holiday trips and the very first trainer session I struggled to hold 250w for 10 minutes. Now I just upped the FTP in WKO to 330w based on L4 intervals and it could be that it is still a bit conservative so even 360w sounds like a big improvement I believe in it.

Because of my size (196cm/92kg) breaking 300w wasn't really something to call home about but the long, long term distant goal is to break 400w.

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"It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

frost

... and forgot the hardest ...

5.) 40km under one hour

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"It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

Jono L

I don't think you will break 400.

Why? Because you'll loose too much weight in the process!

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Classic1-
Don't get me started on triathletes. Sluggo wearing, mechanically inept, dirty, dribbling, elbow steering spawn of Satan. Anyone who sticks food to their bike is a disgrace IMHO.

frost

I have already come down 15kg from my gym days. In principle I could drop maybe 5-10kg more just by "shaving away" my whole upper body but I don't think it is worth it and my wife definately does not see the quest for w/kg that important !

But you're right the process really needs feeding and I have been always famous to eat literally double the amount others do.

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"It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

Alex Simmons

1. Tick, already done.
2. Tick, have had four outdoor rides, two of them races.
3. Have raced 2 crits and plan to ride the track bike, most likely on 10 August when I'm running some guys through some trial pursuits.

Suppose I better set some new goals to be attained before year end. Let's see:

- FTP lifted to 225 watts (current estimate 200 watts)
- MAP lifted to 315 watts (currently 289 watts)
- reduce body mass by at least 5% (currently 98kg)
- finish a local D grade crit with the bunch
- ride the track again (maybe a race)

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http://www.cyclecoach.com/

jock.c

Great news Alex! So good to hear that you're making solid progress.

One question though, why did you say "maybe a track race"? Does riding a fixie create some potential problems (like when slowing down) or is it more a confidence/balance thing?

Alex Simmons

It's more a matter of opportunity, working through any potential technical issues and being fit enough to manage the higher level of intensity track racing demands, in particular the neuromuscular demands.

I need to ride on a track first to see what technical issues it may/may not present. One thing I've learned so far is that you don't actually know what challenges there are until you try. Balance is not one of them. At the start line of a local crit the other week I was quite capable of doing a track stand for a couple of minutes while waiting for the start.

Accelerations are the most difficult aspect for me at present, as is technique out of the saddle (it's a bit tricky) and I have that disconcerting sensation of being close to unclipping from the pedal. I've rationalised that to the fact that since I have no ankle, the whole leg has to remain perpendicular to the pedal axle and there is no natural lateral ankle flex to manage the side to side rock you normally do when out of the saddle. The tendency is for the bike to "straighten up" on the left leg down stroke rather than swing with a more natural sideways rock. If I do try to keep the sideways rock motion going, then that puts lateral forces on the pedal/cleat akin to how I unclip. Transfer that to the track, managing out of the saddle efforts in the bends etc and who knows. That said, the bends might actually make it easier.

Unclipping on a freewheel is bad enough. Unclip on the track and you can kiss your ass goodbye. Last time it happened to me I ended up in hospital with a broken bone in my foot and fell unconcious from the pain!

It will be solveable and won't stop me doing it but it requires some adaptation time and maybe some set up adjustments. Hence not putting a time limit on achieving that goal this year. I do however intend on doing some regular track training.

The only local track racing in the immediate future is that at which I am the Commissaire.

That said, if I am OK technically I am sure I would be able to participate in the occasional race.

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daveryanwyoming

Well, this weekend's race marks the last of a long season so it's time to come clean on season goals for better or worse...


Nope, didn't quite make it. Managed a PB of 56:30 as well as a 57:30 and a 57:40 in my three 40K TTs this season. I learned a lot about CdA field testing and flexibility as I got progressively more aero during the season but also learned a lot about power tradeoffs with agressive TT positioning as my race day power suffered. My best time was at my lowest power so I'm not ready to start raising my aero bars but I definitely have work to do between now and next season to find the best power/CdA balance. This goal to be continued.....Yep, managed this fairly early in the season and have earned a handful of upgrade points towards the 2's...Nope, tough race scheduling this season with a lot of events that I did last year stacked on the same weekends leading to difficult choices. Ended up doing only 2 stage races this season and finished them in 8th and 7th place GC respectively. Pretty happy with both finishes, but didn't hit this goal in 2008... No problem here, raced 19 events plus a handful of weeknight training crits. Managed 7 podium finishes in weekend races but no top spots this season. Placed top 10 in all but 3 events including my DNF this past weekend from multiple broken spokes and a self destructing rear wheel. Topped out with an FTP of ~4.4 W/Kg in June and CTL was above 100 during May and June but that was my highpoint on both as life and work demands capped my training and racing started to bleed my training base. I'll be doing a bit more CTL ramp planning before this winter to avoid hitting my CTL ceiling so early in the season. I felt great at my CTL highpoint of ~110 TSS/day but had no room to continue the build with limits on my training time so I started spending CTL earlier than planned. Still felt great all season and very consistent during races with no particularly bad days and quite a few good days.

Reviewed my two year PMC mid season and learned a lot about how my peaks come about. Was able to put that to use prior to late season races and brought on some really nice race day peaks even with my sagging CTL.

All in all a very good season and fairly long season which started in early April and ran through September. Fell short on several of these goals but raced with far more consistency than in years past. Time to detox a bit now, do some other stuff and start planning my next winter training cycle.

-Dave

chainstay

2008 Lotoja? Self destructing wheel? Zipp? What happened? And what about the wheel car?

daveryanwyoming

American Classic 420's. I was riding in the first chase group descending Salt River Pass with a handful of riders up the road when I popped a rear spoke. I stopped taking pulls and sat at the tail end of our group trying to flag down a wheel vehicle, but my wheels were up the road following the break.

When the second and then third spoke popped I stopped to open my brake calipers and to pull the flailing spokes that were thrashing my carbon stays. I did a lot of riding with one hand in the air but ended up limping along for nearly 15 miles into the Afton feed. I probably could have scrounged a wheel from someone but was pretty psyched out after watching my race go up the road and losing tons of time. Just finishing wasn't all that exciting after riding a strong 125 miles. Amazingly enough my time from Logan to Afton was within 20 seconds of last year's time at a few minutes over 6 hours, broken spokes and all.

I've got a couple of racing seasons on these wheels, they've never been crashed but I've gotta wonder about the build quality and spoke tensioning when I lose multiple spokes one after another. Looks like I'm in for a total rebuild. I'm not too bummed, I had a great first half of the race and this is my only race day mechanical in the last two seasons. I guess the odds finally caught up with me

-Dave

chainstay

That is too bad about your wheel. Just about my entire pack went up the road when I stopped in Preston to wait in line for a porta potty to take a number two. LOL. I just can't seem to get that issue taken care of before the Lotoja race. This year I spent a couple of months trying to get regular, couldn't do it, and then took extra fiber the day before and it backfired on me---no pun intended. But I slowly picked off guys in my pack between Preston and Afton and got back up to number eight or so in my start pack (still never saw the lead group though), but then I had to stop in Afton to take a second number two and lost another group in my pack. LOL.

Overall, however, it wasn't a bad day for this low level racer, and I am making some progress. I love the Snake River section between Alpine and Hoback Junction---gradual uphill with a cool, tailwind and fantastic scenery!!

daveryanwyoming

That sucks... I'd definitely suggest the extra fiber two days out and not eating a huge meal the night before. Realistically you should have your glycogen stores really well topped up and that dinner the night before isn't nearly as important as carbo loading mythology would have you believe. I definitely try not to overeat before a big event with a predawn start. But that's definitely one of the problems with very long days like this one, you can hardly get up early enough for a normal breakfast, some coffee and normal digestion. I end up waking much too close to the race, cramming down some breakfast just to have something in my stomach, skipping my normal moring java to avoid a bloated bladder and hoping I can empty my bowels before race time. I definitely think my years of mountaineering with many predawn alpine starts helps me there, but it's tough to get everything working right in the cold and dark.

Good deal, sounds like an o.k. day all in all and I agree, the ride up the Snake River canyon is beautiful and a whole lot nicer since they widened it a few years back. If they'd only get around to widening the road North of Hoback junction I'd train in the canyon all the time.

How'd the rest of your season match up with your preseason goals?

-Dave