Another Hill Climb? Cruagh - March 30th

Beasty

Congratulations to everyone taking part. The absence of some of those who may have been considered favourites made it a very close event, with not much more than 8 minutes covering the field.

I arrived a little early and drove up to the finish, to make sure I knew where it was, and that there would be somewhere to park. On the way back down I passed a couple of cyclists who were heading up - one of whom I recognised as Dirk. It appears he and ROK ON decided to head up a bit. ROK ON completed the course and so his time below was self-timed. Fair play to Dirk though, as he must have done the climb over 1.5 times.

All excess weight was put in my car before the start, and Ryan and Mel showed up to see everyone off. It started to rain a little, so we commenced setting everyone off.

We initially had 6 starters, who set-off at 1 minute intervals. Then another 3 turned up, which made it a bit tighter, as once I had seen them off I had to drive up to the top to time the first finisher, who was Diarmuid. He took me a bit by surprise, and his time may be out by a couple of seconds (not that it affects his placing).

I am sure everyone appreciated the spectacular rainbow at the finish (what rainbow? I hear some of you say)!

So here are the full results:
1. madrichie - 18.02
2. niceonetom - 18.21
3. Diarmuid - 19.10
4. DirkVoodoo - 19.35
5. Gavin - 20.10
6. levitronix - 21.09
7. the taxman - 23.00
8. el tonto - 23.12
9. jimm - 25.23
10. ROK ON - 26.42

I am sure ROK ON would have posted a better time if he had gone with the rest, as he seemed to be taking it relatively easy when I passed him. He declined the offer to do it again though:)

Well done to our winner madrichie as well as everyone else taking part, and thanks to Ryan for putting this idea forward in the first place.

The tax man

Big thanks to Beasty for looking after the timing end of things this evening.;)

Well done to the fast people.

madrichie

Well, that was fun

Thanks for organizing and time keeping Beasty. Feckin' ragin I didn't break 18 - especially after dropping the chain at the viewing point turn which cost 5 to 10 seconds. Mad to try it again tho.

ROK ON

Thanks Beasty.
However I doubt I could go much faster tbh. I was paved up by Dirk so felt fresh at the lookout so tried to open it up. HR for the last 2km up to 490m was done between 175 and 186. Not much left after that. Happy with my modest effort. Never felt caput in anyway and actually enjoyedbthe second time I did it.

I actually have an excuse in that my rear derailler wouldn't shift to 27 ring. So I climbed predominantly in 34/24.

Good to catch up with everyone. Nice to finally meet Beasty. Well done to the front markers.
Thanks to Ryan for organising.

ROK ON

Just ro verify my time. I will throw up link to GPS log later in the week when I get to my PC.

niceonetom

First pilgrimage to the pain cave in a while. It's still horrible in there.

I'm quite pleased with that result (though it might have been nice if the the favourites had been able to do it too - I'd be prepared to be a bit further down the results table if it gave me a better understanding where I actually stand in the grand scheme of things - curse them for putting proper sanctioned events ahead of boards!).

My computer died on me this afternoon (bad polar!), so all I had to go on was my HRM watch. Not knowing how far I had to go meant that I very nearly blew completely with at least a km to go. Nothing left. I died several excruciating deaths, and if it hadn't been able to distract myself by trying to decide whether the rainbow was real or a hypoxia induced hallucination, I might well have just eased off. I've never had my heartrate that high for that long. Just in time, the finish appeared and I shifted up and got out of the saddle to try to look PRO for the imaginary photographers (hard to do when your face is covered in tears, snot and dribble btw).

18:21... I could have gotten a little faster if I'd paced it properly and gotten the corner at the viewpoint right, but basically, I can say that time is about all I had to give. That's a nice feeling.

Well done to everyone who made it out, and huge thanks to Beasty for running the show so well, and to Ryan for instigating the whole thing, and seeing us off even if he couldn't take part.

@scienceboy - how much weight would I have to lose to be 20 seconds faster up that? and, to the nearest second, how detrimental were my 32 spokes heavy bastard wheels relative to a pair of 202 tubs?

levitronix

Cheers for the organistaion beasty and taking time out for the timing !!

And thanks tax man cos if i hadnt of meet you coming up i was going back since i got the start line wrong

Hope to see yous all again at the club league

The tax man

levitronix wrote: »

Cheers for the organistaion beasty and taking time out for the timing !!

And thanks tax man cos if i hadnt of meet you coming up i was going back since i got the start line wrong

Hope to see yous all again at the club league

Just as well I stuck the Boards jersey on.:D Good to meet you and to put a face to the name.

jimm

Who said that was fun?
Just over a coughing spell (similar to ones in Chest Complaint/Coughing thread). Probably from sucking in all that damp air. Anyway, thanks Beasty for the timekeeping & gear carrying and thanks to all for turning out.
Pleased with my time also.......can safely say I won the Vet catagory....1st out of.....one

Beasty

jimm wrote: »

Who said that was fun?..

I thought it was great fun:D. Those are the times when you appreciate being "injured"!

@Tom and your question to "scienceboy". Based on the Bike calculator I guess you would need to lose about 2kg to gain 20s. You could also get there by increasing average power output by around 3% or so

Lumen

Well done chaps, great reading. Sorry I couldn't even make it out to support.

Despite the absence of the climberati (not me, obviously), the results confirm what I suspected about Tom and Dirk.

I also think that Ryan was sandbagging with his 15 minutes suggestion

Richie - imagine what you could do if you started taking road racing seriously?

What's next then?

Chips Lovell

Lumen wrote: »

What's next then?

The general consensus last night was a 10 mile TT.

niceonetom

Lumen wrote: »

...the results confirm what I suspected about Tom and Dirk.

I can't let that go... what do you mean?

niceonetom

Beasty wrote: »

I thought it was great fun:D. Those are the times when you appreciate being "injured"!

@Tom and your question to "scienceboy". Based on the Bike calculator I guess you would need to lose about 2kg to gain 20s. You could also get there by increasing average power output by around 3% or so

I can do that.

Lumen

niceonetom wrote: »

I can't let that go... what do you mean?

Dirk should never get dropped from an A4 bunch with a time like that, it's all about positioning and putting the effort in.

And you are definitely faster than me, so you can stop sandbagging.

DirkVoodoo

Lumen wrote: »

Dirk should never get dropped from an A4 bunch with a time like that, it's all about positioning and putting the effort in.

And you are definitely faster than me, so you can stop sandbagging.

I actually told Tom at the start that he would pass me at the viewing point. He actually passed me a bit later but he still finished ahead of me starting a minute behind. When I said this he started going on about power to weight, he would beat me on the flat but I would win on the hills, blah blah. Total sandbagger!

Lumen

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I actually told Tom at the start that he would pass me at the viewing point.

That's your problem, right there.

DirkVoodoo

Lumen wrote: »

That's your problem, right there.

No, no, no...I'm a realist, just calling it like it is. I was putting the sandbagger on the spot and I was right. It had no effect on my own performance, I was going pretty hard the whole way up, plus my time was very similar to my last run (I think it may be identical to my "predicted time").

Chips Lovell

Really enjoyed that last night, even if hill climb TTs are definitely not my thing. Even though I was well down the pecking order I was pleased with my time since I thought I'd be near half an hour. Avg HR for me was 180. Max HR 186.

ROK ON

How do people sustain a 180hr ave for the 6km.
I think this is where the racing cyclists have a definite advantage over the leisure folks. In that I imagine that racing gets one used to operating at a very intense level.
My HR was between 162 and 186 but more often appeared 172-74. On the false flat at the top say for about 2km it was 180 -86. I found that difficult enough, but recovered quickly. Maybe I just need to hared up and delve deeper. I mean on the steep bit upto the bridge/pineforest I was never above 177hr. I did this twice last night andreadings were similar both times.

bbosco

ROK ON wrote: »

How do people sustain a 180hr ave for the 6km.
I think this is where the racing cyclists have a definite advantage over the leisure folks. In that I imagine that racing gets one used to operating at a very intense level.
My HR was between 162 and 186 but more often appeared 172-74. On the false flat at the top say for about 2km it was 180 -86. I found that difficult enough, but recovered quickly. Maybe I just need to hared up and delve deeper. I mean on the steep bit upto the bridge/pineforest I was never above 177hr. I did this twice last night andreadings were similar both times.

I think it varies a lot from person to person. I can tootle along at 180bpm while chatting away to the person beside, but I am very far from the fitness levels of a racing cyclist (as you can personally vouch for). I don't think being able to sustain 180bpm for a long period is an indicator of fitness - my goal would be to increase the power I can put out at 180bpm which is currently way too low. I could have this all wrong though, just going on my personal experience.

Edit: by the way, saw your time from last night - well done. I was up that way on Saturday and I doubt I was anywhere near that time based on the speeds I remember doing.

Chips Lovell

ROK ON wrote: »

How do people sustain a 180hr ave for the 6km.
I think this is where the racing cyclists have a definite advantage over the leisure folks. In that I imagine that racing gets one used to operating at a very intense level.
My HR was between 162 and 186 but more often appeared 172-74. On the false flat at the top say for about 2km it was 180 -86. I found that difficult enough, but recovered quickly. Maybe I just need to hared up and delve deeper. I mean on the steep bit upto the bridge/pineforest I was never above 177hr. I did this twice last night andreadings were similar both times.

I've sustained that kind of heart rate in a 40km TT as well. To be honest, it is dependent on the person and on what their max heart rate is. While over 180bpm is not pleasant for me, I seem to be able to deal with it for an hour at least. However, if I get near my max of 193bpm I'm in a world of pain.

Nietzschean

ROK ON wrote: »

How do people sustain a 180hr ave for the 6km.

180? thats like pottering about, you wanna maintain 198+ for it, then your testing the old system

Lumen

ROK ON wrote: »

How do people sustain a 180hr ave for the 6km.

El Tonto has the legs of a horse and the heart of a chicken.

Seriously, I don't know whether getting HR high early and keeping it there is a good or bad thing.

In non-competition it takes me 5 minutes of 105% threshold to get to 170bpm, and another 10 minutes of that to get near 180bpm. And even then I'm fading badly.

In a road race I can maintain 170bpm for an hour or two, but that's probably just the terror.

High HR is definitely trainable though.

madrichie

Lumen wrote: »

Richie - imagine what you could do if you started taking road racing seriously?
What's next then?

Ha, I'd probably have multiple bone breaks and plenty of missing teeth

niceonetom

Time trialling is an exercise in pure masochism. I did that whole TT with a HR between 181 and 190 at the top. My max is ~196 I think. Afterwards I felt quite nauseous, and I spent all evening afterwards coughing and wheezing. It's just stupid to do this for real reason (no, "the internet made me do it" is not a real reason).

Being at 185bpm never becomes comfortable - it's appallingly unpleasant - but you do get to know from experience that all those signals your body is telling you about being about to die or pass out or whatever, those signals are LIES! Your body can take a lot more punishment than it will admit to. It is, if you like, a sandbagger, constantly saying that's all it has to give and now it is time to ease off. LIES! Evolution had not favoured individuals who went around squandering resources willy-nilly, it has favoured those who only went flat-out in life or death situations and sat around lazily is all other situations...

It really is a question of mind over matter then, or in cycling terms, shut up legs!

Chips Lovell

I think it really depends on the person, so comparing yourself to others is a bit moot.

Lumen, as I recall you have quite a low max HR.

Lumen

el tonto wrote: »

I think it really depends on the person, so comparing yourself to others is a bit moot.

Lumen, as I recall you have quite a low max HR.

Yes. I blame years of couch potatoism. People who exercise throughout their adult life maintain a high max HR, or so I've read.

It is definitely trainable though - your muscles develop the capacity to make greater demands of your aerobic system, and I suspect that in the untrained cyclist the muscles respond to training faster than the heart does because the heart has greater capacity to start with.

ROK ON

I did a 202 max HR once. I almost vommitted and I think I actually fainted. I sat at the top of a climb for about 20mins before getting back on the bike and descending. Never again. While I take Toms point about evolution I am not that mentally able to enter the paincave. My legs rarely tire, it is more head/heatt attack fear. Shut up heart doesn't sound quiet as sensible as shut up legs. Latt night my rear deraileur wouldn't shift to lowest gear. However I got up in a slightly more difficult gear. Despite that it wasn't anymore difficult in perception. So this is more of a mental issue.
Must try harder.

niceonetom

ROK - I'm the same as you with regards to the legs thing. Mine almost never feel that painful, they just get heavier and heavier and eventually cramp (that is painful), it's my heart and lungs that really beg for mercy... it may not be sensible but 'shut up heart' is precisely the approach I take. Unless you actually have a heart condition I think it's wuite hard to kill yourself from pure exertion... right? right?

Scienticians - any theories as to why some of us feel it in the legs and others in the chest? Physiology? Training?