Beasty's 2011 assault on the vets

victorcarrera

mloc123 wrote: »

Is this the same route as the Batterstown 25m TT? But just out to the firt roundabout and back?

Yes, thats it except that the 25 start/finish is a few hundred meters up the road at the derelict house on the left.

Beasty: Well done on that one. I went off at 24 mins and I thought the wind had dropped to little or nothing by then.
24:32 for me (18 seconds down on last years best) and I think there is room for improvement there for both of us if you consider it was the first one of the year and the air was much colder last night than later on in the year. Good air can make a big difference.

PS: Im not doing the results for this one but I thought I saw 23: something for you on the sheet ???. I was half cooked at the time though.

Beasty

Definitely 24m 25s. I checked with Donal myself. The guy after me was in the 23m zone though.

NB. I'm immune to the cold (although admittedly did not get much of a sweat up last night)

morana

how does it compare to the CP curve? What was your best power for 24" 25'?

Beasty

morana wrote: »

how does it compare to the CP curve? What was your best power for 24" 25'?

I was going to do another post about that

I did the boards TT on the same course last year at about 15w higher. My best, which was on the previous vets TT on the same course, is 286w, and the CP curve is at 289w. Each watt is worth getting on for 2 seconds over that course. I really wasn't pushing it in the last quarter last night, and had something left in the previous two.

The main difference is the wheels, as I was over 20s slower in the boards TT in what were probably more benign conditions

However I still have a couple of minor aero improvements up my sleeve, and I reckon I can put out at least 20 watts more this year than last

Beasty

Second

Can't complain - highest ever placing in any race (in my life, bike or otherwise), and first time on the podium (I know it's handicapped, so not a "real" second;))

Anyway, that should also put me second in both the TT and midweek leagues:D

Just need to find another 30 seconds or so for next week now...

Planet X

Well done.

..........30 secs. is a big ask, hope you do, but when you start improving that much over last years times, I, anyway, last year, was knocking seconds off TT times. Only seconds. Sorrento 24:03, Vets 24:06 and eventually, Sorrento 23:57 (all approx except last one )
Came down from 28's to 26's and down to 24's and then the rot sets in. Actually, never did a 25, in about 4 years of racing now. Funny that.

Beasty

Planet X wrote: »

Well done.

..........30 secs. is a big ask,

It's heavily dependent on the weather, but having looked at previous years results I reckon 30s, which is around 2% of handicap, is what you need to get placed in these races. (although that would not have been enough in the last 10mTT of last year)

I don't yet have handicaps for the 25m and 50m TTs, so will be heavily dependent on the 10 milers for any points I do get (and it will clearly get harder if I do improve my handicap)

In fact, lousy weather with everyone coming in at over handicap is probably the most efficient way to accumulate points if there is any slack left

Beasty

I’ve now done the Black Bull 10m TT on 3 occasions – the first time on the road bike with Aerobars, on then on the TT bike with normal wheels, and finally on Tuesday with Aero wheels (deep rim on the front, disk on the back). I guess I can now have a stab at how much difference the bike and wheels make.

Obviously conditions were not identical across all 3 rides, but in all cases they were reasonable, neither calm, nor were there strong winds. Hence I don’t think conditions will distort the position much. I had a skinsuit and aero helmet on all 3 attempts.

First the raw data
1st attempt (vets, 03/08/10) – time 25:06 (38.5kph), Average power 286w (highest recorded for this time interval)
2nd attempt (Boards TT, 31/08/10) – time 24:49 (38.9kph), Average power 277w
3rd attempt (vets, 03/05/11) – time 24:25 (39.5kph), Average power 267w

As a result of playing around with the bike calculator, I reckon, over this distance, every watt is worth about 2 seconds

On this basis, using my first attempt as the benchmark:
2nd attempt – 17s faster, 9w (equivalent to 18s or so) lower – overall impact of the bike, 35s improvement, or 0.9kph
3rd attempt – 41s faster, 19w (38s) lower – overall impact 79s improvement, or 2.2kph

So on this analysis, the bike is worth around 35s/0.9kph, and the wheels another 44s/1.3kph over 16.0934km.
Over 25 miles (40km), these figures can be multiplied by 2.5 – the bike may be worth about 90s, and the wheels another 110s

I guess it's not inconsistent with this from the Biggest Bang for your Buck article:



The only other question is whether the more aero position restricts, in any way, my power output, when compared to the road bike with aero bars. My gut feeling is not, but it is very difficult to properly evaluate this (unless I go back to experimenting with the road bike, which I have no intention of doing!)

So did I get Bang for my Buck? - well I'm not complaining anyway:D

Lumen

Beasty wrote: »

The only other question is whether the more aero position restricts, in any way, my power output, when compared to the road bike with aero bars. My gut feeling is not, but it is very difficult to properly evaluate this (unless I go back to experimenting with the road bike, which I have no intention of doing!)

I think practice 16km TTs on a road bike make good training for road racing, particularly getting comfortable and aero on both drops and hoods, and practising looking through your eyebrows.

Maybe you could separate out the CP curves for TT bike and road bike to understand a bit more about where the power is.

Nice average power, btw.

Beasty

Lumen wrote: »

Maybe you could separate out the CP curves for TT bike and road bike to understand a bit more about where the power is.

Road bike, aero bars, 286w, 25m 6s:


TT bike, aero wheels, 267w, 24m 25s:



So the TT bike curve is much flatter - hardly any variation in power (peak was when getting up to speed at the start, and a fairly steady effort throughout). I guess I was also able to focus on keeping it steadier this time.

However my previous efforts involved a very hard push at the end - I didn't need to this time as I knew I was already well within handicap (I averaged around 45kph for the last minute or so on the road bike, and nearer 35kph on Tuesday)

morana

I am sure that the TT position versus the road postion does restrict your power output but I think its largely due to the position not being normal for the rider but its nice to see that with the more aero stuff you throw at it the faster you go for less power........would you question your pacing in the event seeing as you had a tailwind out followed by a head wind and incline back to the finish???

(sorry Paul just throwing stuff out!! not being critical. I know you are not sensitive..you support that team )

Beasty

morana wrote: »

I am sure that the TT position versus the road postion does restrict your power output but I think its largely due to the position not being normal for the rider but its nice to see that with the more aero stuff you throw at it the faster you go for less power........would you question your pacing in the event seeing as you had a tailwind out followed by a head wind and incline back to the finish???

I realise there is some trade-off of power when adopting an aero position - my lack of certainty was when comparing using aero bars on the road bike (where I would not be so low, but would be perhaps a little less comfortable) with the TT bike which is specifically designed for the aero position.

On the pacing point, the key in my mind was to beat handicap, but not by too much, as this would count against me going forward. You probably have forgotten what it's like to win a league, but my focus (at least at present) is the whole season rather than a single event;). Hence I needed to make sure I was ahead of schedule rather than behind it, as it would be easier to slack off than pick up pace towards the end

As it is, I don't know how much I missed winning the trophy by, but I probably got as good a result I could have hoped for in the context of the season as a whole

morana

I hear you!

As for winning Leagues next year is the year....did I ever tell you I won a League 5 times?

Anyway keep posting the stats I am sure you will bethere at pointy end.

RobFowl

morana wrote: »

I hear you!

As for winning Leagues next year is the year....did I ever tell you I won a League 5 times?

Anyway keep posting the stats I am sure you will bethere at pointy end.

Nothing to do with Shels ??

morana

RobFowl wrote: »

Nothing to do with Shels ??

Those were the days alrite! we were ****!

Beasty

A mere 104km this week, although it was relatively intense and averaged 31.9kph

YTD now stands at 3,133km at 28.6kph

Had a track session in Manchester on Thursday. I took my own bike over and tried a different gear ratio. The hire bikes are typically up to 84 gear inches (50x16), whereas I tend to have a very high gearing on my own bike – 92.6 gear inches (48x14). Although I’ve never felt I had a particular problem with this gearing, I wanted to try something slightly different, so I changed to 50x15, or 90 gear inches. Tbh I did not really notice a difference. However I will be dropping the gearing a bit more when I get back to Sundrive, and I certainly think it slowed me down a bit particularly in some of the shorter events in last year’s vets championships at Kanturk. I’ll probably change to 48x15 (86.4 gear inches) next time.

I’ve noticed a bit of a head cold over the past couple of days, which may explain why I didn’t go quite as well as normal on the track. Hopefully it will be fine by Tuesday when the next vets 10m TT takes place (on the same course as last week) – as indicated above, I would like lousy conditions which should allow me to preserve something like my current handicap. The wind is currently forecast to be more forceful than last week, although it should drop a bit from current conditions.

Assuming I’m up to it, I will then be doing the Swords League on Wednesday and perhaps a commute to end the week off.

Beasty

Back to Black Bull for the 2nd round of the vets TT league tonight

Weather was a bit breezy with the threat of showers, although it was a bit warmer than last week. A few more (mid forties) turned up to give it a go tonight

The wind was a bit blustery in places and would be a cross wind coming from our left heading out and giving us a bit of a push on the way home.

I was 16th off and I knew the first half would be harder than last week. I glanced down at the Garmin after the first 4km toi see a time of 6m 13s, 8s outside last week's time. I originally had ambitions of getting close to 40 kph average over the full course, but when I saw the weather I was thinking any improvement on handicap would be a bonus.

I then encountered a shower which made conditions more difficult, with higher gusts of wind and by the half-way stage I was 29s down on last week, but turning to get some respite from the wind

The rain died down a bit and I picked up speed. I did the 3rd 4km in 5m 55s, so I was still 19s down on last week.

I managed to pick it up in the final quarter, getting above 50kph just before the end and clocking 5m 45s for the final 4km, meaning I actually bettered last week's time by 2 seconds. That was the 6th 10m TT I've done, and I've improved my time on each occasion

Although it felt much harder than last week, the stats are very similar. Average power was 271w (compared to 267w last week), normalised power 273w (identical to last week), and average cadence 97 (95)

Even the power splits were very similar, except for the final quarter tonight when I was really pushing it:

Q1 - 290w (292w)
Q2 - 263w (265w)
Q3 - 260w (267w)
Q4 - 271w (249w)

I suspect it felt harder because I'm just getting over a slight head cold, although it did feel noticeably harder when the rain arrived - maybe I was just having to focus more on what I was doing because of the wind and lack of visibility. Hopefully by the time of the next TT in a couple of weeks I'll be ready to improve my 25m handicap

kennyb3

Beasty,

I see you gave HR stats for the bog race but none for the two TT's? Be interesting to see how th HR compared for the two TT's...

Beasty

kennyb3 wrote: »

Beasty,

I see you gave HR stats for the bog race but none for the two TT's? Be interesting to see how th HR compared for the two TT's...

Forgot the HR monitor last week!

Last night I averaged 167 with a max of 178

In TT's (and on the track) my HR basically drifts upwards for the whole event, and 167 is about my thresshold for an hour or so. I think last night was a bit higher than I would have normally expected for that power output and distance, probably because of the head cold. For road racing the HR can be all over the place, but typically a lower average.

morana

Well done!

Can I ask do you do specific TT training?

Beasty

morana wrote: »

Well done!

Can I ask do you do specific TT training?

Training to date has been down to trying to improve my commuting times!! It's not a bad form of training though, as it's a good distance (23km or more depending on route taken) and largely on country roads

Having said that, I have spent time on the track in Manchester over the years which gives more opportunity to push hard and long at a steady pace.

I also think getting my head round the power details and focussing on output during TTs helps my performances considerably - I have a pretty good idea what my limits are (although I am continuing to push them out a bit - I'm still very much a novice with only just over a year of "serious" cycling behind me)

Coming to the sport (very) late on in age I found myself more predisposed to this than road racing

NB - results are now up - 10th in the handicap league and 21st based on Age standards. That puts me 5th in the handicap League over the 2 races to date

morana

Beasty wrote: »

Training to date has been down to trying to improve my commuting times!! It's not a bad form of training though, as it's a good distance (23km or more depending on route taken) and largely on country roads

Having said that, I have spent time on the track in Manchester over the years which gives more opportunity to push hard and long at a steady pace.

I also think getting my head round the power details and focussing on output during TTs helps my performances considerably - I have a pretty good idea what my limits are (although I am continuing to push them out a bit - I'm still very much a novice with only just over a year of "serious" cycling behind me)

Coming to the sport (very) late on in age I found myself more predisposed to this than road racing

NB - results are now up - 10th in the handicap league and 21st based on Age standards. That puts me 5th in the handicap League over the 2 races to date

I thought you were a seasoned vet!!! thats all the better then your progress should continue unabated! I like your approach to it breaking it down into the sectors and concentrating on them.

Keep up the good work!

Beasty

I’ve been spending a bit of time thinking about tapering for races, and how my power records may assist.

There is a section in the Training and Racing with a Power Meter book that explains a bit about fitness versus freshness. Basically you need the underlying fitness (miles in legs) but there’s no point in having that going into a race if you are fatigued. The key is getting the balance right.

The concepts used to help understand this are:

ATL – Acute Training Load – basically the amount of work done in the very recent past – the WKO+ software defaults to a 2 week period – the higher the ATL, the lower your freshness
CTL –Chronic Training Load – this is your long-term workload, with a default of 84 days work done
TSB – Training Stress Balance – this is basically the measure of freshness – the play off between CTL and ATL

The key, at least in theory, is to get a slightly positive TSB coming into an event. In the WKO+ software the type of score we are talking about is perhaps in a range of 5-15, although this will vary dependent on the individuals concerned. It’s really a matter of trial and error to establish the best “score” for a particular individual.

With this in mind, I show below my “Performance Manager” chart covering the period from a week before my first race this season. ATL is in pink, CTL in blue and TSB in yellow. In the period prior to this from the beginning of 2011 there had been a steady increase in my CTL, reflecting the relatively high level of work I was doing (CTL increased from 45 on 31/12/10 to 57 on 16/03/11)



Looking at my individual race performances:

27/03/11 – 60km vets DMS – TSB -1.1. I was dropped and abandoned the race with a lap to go. I put it down to a bad back at the time, which certainly contributed, but the chart shows I had the fitness (high CTL) but was not particularly fresh (high ATL)
17/04/11 – 80km vets CP – TSB 16.7. I felt very comfortable in this race – our group finished ahead of scratch and I finished strongly – probably my easiest race since I started
20/04/11 – 32km Swords League – TSB 9.9 – probably my best power records in any race I have done – felt very strong and it was only the steep hill at the end that prevented me from contesting the finish – our group stayed away
24/04/11 – 80km vets DMS – TSB 12.1 – very comfortable and would probably have been contesting the finish if I had not been cut-up in the run-in
27/04/11 – 40km Swords League – TSB 7 – although our group was caught and I was dropped, that was down to Martyn Irvine taking the race by the scruff of its neck – Again I had some good power records and felt strong throughout
03/05/11 – 10m vets TT – TSB 7.2 – felt very comfortable beating my PB by nearly half a minute
10/05/11 – 10m vets TT – TSB 14.8 – another PB, but did not feel as good as the previous week, but recovering from a head cold
11/05/11 – 55km Swords League – TSB 18.7 – again felt strong. The hill defeated me but I fought hard to try to get back on, and again delivered some PB power intervals

So where does that leave me? The CTL has dropped quite a bit as I have eased off ahead of races. I need to get it back up again to get a better base going forward – I have a vets DMS on Tuesday, but may consider that more of a training run to help improve my CTL, giving me capacity to taper ahead of my next priority - the vets 25m TT the following weekend. The aim will be to get a TSB close to 10 as for that TT.

morana

this is good stuff paul.

My experience of using PM has being quite similar in that when it says I should be good I usually am. However, I have noticed that my best performances come when I am around -13 on the TSB graph. Also, if you have ever seen Adam Hansens from the tour a few years ago his best performance came when he had his lowest TSB (-78 !?!). I think you need to experiment with it to get it spot on and its individual.

I use tapering a lot and do it for my A goals (nat vets RR champs) and it works well for me. I think i have it down to a fine art now and I found that you have to do intense stuff during that taper period. Some guys who trained with me in those sessions couldnt believe how hard they were. Anyway I am confident in what I do in those sessions.

Keep it up!

Beasty

2 successive days racing this week - Vets 10mTT on Tuesday, Swords League on Wednesday. Then a couple of commutes and I was knackered by the end of the week. I went out for 50 minutes tonight to bring the weekly total to 195km, and YTD 3,328km at 28.4kph.

I'll give it a rest tomorrow before a vets 40km DMS on Tuesday. I'll be marshalling in the Swords League on Wednesday, so should get a commute in on Wednesday or Thursday. I'll then be aiming to do the vets 25mTT on Sunday. Best time to date is 1hr 4m 52s, and if the weather is decent I would like to dip under 64 minutes.

Still have a bit of a cough after the head cold, but hopefully that will not be bothering me on Tuesday.

Beasty

Tonight I rode a 40km vets DMS. Before the race I and another rider (who shall remain nameless) hatched a very cunning plan. He rides for Orwell and I ride for Swords - two of the biggest clubs.

So the plan was to make a joint break, possibly at the start, or some time round the first lap, when we got to the winding roads at the back of the circuit. Ideally there would be plenty of other Swords and Orwell riders who would try and keep the bunch at bay. There were 20+ in the race, with half a dozen or so Swords and Orwell riders in addition to the two of us.

It was quite windy, and we thought pushing it from the start with a relatively large field would be too hard, so we would leave it until a bit later

We set off, and before we knew it there were already 3 or 4 riders up the road, including representatives of Swords and Orwell, so there was no point in pushing it at this time. What we did not know was they took a wrong turn, and were actually behind us with 1.75 laps to go.

At this stage there was another break, again including Swords and Orwell riders - it seems it was a common rather than cunning plan we had. Anyway the two of us did the right thing and tried to slow the pace down when we hit the front. In fact there were probably 4 or 5 riders really trying to get the bunch working, and probably a similar number of trying to do exactly the opposite.

Then a couple of guys tried to bridge - I did not realise they were some of the guys who had taken the wrong turn. One of them was from Swords, so now we had 2 in the break, and Orwell still had another couple also.

One of the Swords guys (not the one who took the wrong turning) came back to the group, and we spent the next lap or so trying to stop anyone closing down the break - we could see the lead car in the distance, but they still had a healthy lead. I found myself spending quite a bit of time at the front, or in the gap between the front rider and bunch.

Coming to the last 6-7km and the pace did pick up, but the break was well away by now. I felt OK, but had probably pushed it a bit hard during those 6-7km and had little left when it came to the final sprint, and rolled in at the back of the field (my HR hit 185 during the build-up to the sprint, which is only 1 less than my highest recorded, although it didn't feel that hard)

Anyway, when I checked, the Swords guy had won - the cunning plan had worked (for him at least)

Average speed was 37.5kph, which is 2.7kph faster than the only other time I have done this circuit.

Power - 253w Average, 260w Pedalling, 277w Normalised, 821w max
HR - 167 Average, 185 max
Cadence - 89

The power stats are not far off PBs, and overall I'm happy with my performance as I feel as if I had quite a bit in reserve

Beasty

Today was the first vets 25mTT of the year, starting on the old N4 at Moy Valley, heading almost exactly east for about 11km or so, turning at Kinnegad, and then returning past the start and on the Enfield before turning back to the finish a few hundred metres past the start.

The weather was less than ideal. In fact it was atrocious. Strong WSW winds - according to the forecast 40kph+ although it would probably be a bit less at ground level. The wind was forecast to turn to the West and increase in speed, so the plan was to get an early slot. Temperatures were around 10 degrees, but the wind made it feel nearer 1-2 degrees at the start. As it was, a form of seeding was in force and I was 9th off.

When we eventually got away the wind had not relented. In fact it had intensified. The starter looked at my rear disc wheel and front deep section rim (80mm) and asked if I had already been up the road, looking at me as it I was a lunatic for trying to ride in those conditions with the wheels.

Anyway I started – this time the autolap was set at every 5km. It felt very blustery and I was being blown about so much that in places I had to take my left hand off the aerobars to hold onto the bar to help control the bike.

It was difficult to work out how to pace myself in the conditions – it’s worth pushing a bit harder into the headwind as you get a better “return” than with the wind behind you. The question is how much harder to push. My first split came at 8:51 and the second at 9:50, so I was only averaging around 31.4kph. However the power was at 275w and normalised probably 10w or so higher. In fact I was pretty close to a PB over the first 30 minutes or so.

Anyway, I was making inroads into the riders ahead of me. I overtook 4 by the first turn. I then decided to take some fluid, but it did not go down well and I struggled with my breathing for a minute or so (my HR hit the highest for the ride around then at 177). One guy managed to get back past me, and I had to drop back 25m or so before I was allowed to re-take him, which I duly did. Planet X was marshalling at one of the roundabouts and gave me a cheer as I went by.

A lot of the return journey was done at 50kph or more, but I was still passed by 2 riders who had started after me. I managed to take another rider but knew there were then only 4 people ahead who had started before me (I didn’t know one had dropped out – he had been unable to control his bike in the conditions). I was victorcarrera’s minute man, but I managed to hold him off.

The rest of the return was relatively straightforward – at an average speed of 45.5kph the tail wind was hardly any bother.

Turning back for the final time the wind was definitely more of a headwind than the first section, but was also stronger. Control was not much of an issue, but speed was, and I was only averaging just over 28kph (although there was a bit more uphill involved). For the first time ever on a “flat” TT I had to resort to the small ring, and even then felt I was running out of gears on one uphill bit.

This was tough. But it was the same for everyone so I kept pushing. The legs were suffering – I probably had pushed a bit too hard in the first section. Anyway I now had the guy who was first off in my sights – I managed to take him a couple of km from the end and then pushed on to the finish

My time – 1:06:22 – 90s outside my best, but in the conditions I’m not complaining. I reckon the wind added at least 5% to the times today (probably more), and the psychological effect of the wind on some riders would probably have slowed them even more (as would the pacing issue)

Speed – 36.2kph (max 57.1kph)
Power – average 251w, normalised 260w, max 615w
HR – average 165, max 177
Cadence – 86

Beasty

The leg muscles are now starting to settle down a bit after this morning's ordeal. Interestingly, although my HR was relatively high, I did not feel out of breath at all except after taking on liquid - I need to work more on refueling during longer events

Tuesday's vets race, today's TT and a commute came to 149km at 32.7kph, bringing the YTD to 3,477km at 28.8kph

Next week I'll be marshalling on Tuesday, and then it's the Swords 10mTT Championship on Wednesday - not sure where it will be yet, as the proposed route still had numerous sections of cones on Friday, leaving no overtaking space.

I'll try to do a couple of commutes towards the end of the week before the main event on Saturday. Looking forward to seeing Giggsy perform on the big stage again. Hopefully he'll bag another trophy to add to his collection;)

Beasty

Wednesday’s Swords 10mTT was my last racing activity for a couple of weeks, as I’ll be away on business next week. I should be returning for the Swords 25m TT on 8 June.

So far this year I have taken part in 12 races compared with 7 at the corresponding time last year. The vets TT league is going particularly well, as after 3 races I am lying equal second. This reflects a 5th place in Sunday’s 25m TT, but much more importantly I appear to have been upgraded in the first 10m TT from 3 weeks ago – the guy who had originally placed first had been given the wrong handicap, meaning I actually won it – this was my first solo victory in any sport since I won the school high jump competition aged 8 – I had a bit of an advantage at that time as I was at least 6 inches taller than everyone else!! Even better, I think there may be a trophy to go with it.:D (although it's possible the results could be completely re-written again before the awards ceremony in November)

In the Swords League I’ve managed to stick with my group much more than last year, and feel much more comfortable when riding in the group, and more aware of what I need to do to avoid getting dropped. The results of last night’s 10m TT have not been published yet, but when I left I think I was in about 4th place with only another 5 or 6 riders to come in – A top 10 finish will get me the extra point I was looking for in my OP. A lot of the big guns were not there last night, but I’ll take the points however they come. With a bit of luck there may be some more in the 25m TT.

The next 2 weeks will be about re-building fitness – getting a few more kilometres in than I have been (although some of them will, by necessity, be in hotel gyms). When I’m back there are another couple of vets TTs before one of my main objectives for the year – the vets track championships early in July (just after a trip to Disneyland Paris and before another week away). I’ll be aiming to get down to Sundrive for at least one night of the track league before then

Beasty

4th place in the Swords 10mTT on Wednesday means I can tick off one of this year's objectives. The guy who was first is not a club member, and I don't think the second rider is either, which would mean I'm runner up in the Club Championships:D

In addition I've done a couple of commutes and was also out this evening resulting in a total distance for the week of 153km at 30.4kph. YTD now stands at 3,630km at 28.8kph

Next week I'll be away for 3 days, but will hopefully get a couple of commutes in as well as some time in the hotel gym, before returning for th Swords 25mTT championships the following week

Beasty

Fastest ever commute this morning - 35.2kph.

Given there was hardly any wind (4kph tailwind per Accuweather) and my previous fastest (34.8kph) was set with a 34kph tailwind, I think there is more to come. In addition I slowed down when I caught the guy who crashed last year - it's the first time I've spoken to him since he got back on the bike a few weeks ago, and we spent about 5 minutes chatting before he turned into work - he seems to be recovering OK although said his hand was still bothering him a bit. I reckon that cost me about a minute

I also tend to be a bit slower in the mornings, although I was fresh this morning, as I had only had a couple of hours in hotel gyms since my previous commute on Monday. Maybe I'll try the clip-on aero bars one day (possibly even the TT bike;), although I'll then have to take the wheels off when parking up!), but even without them I reckon with the right conditions I should be able to get up to around 37kph which should knock a couple of minutes off today's time

Kav0777

Beasty wrote: »

In addition I slowed down when I caught the guy who crashed last year - it's the first time I've spoken to him since he got back on the bike a few weeks ago, and we spent about 5 minutes chatting before he turned into work - he seems to be recovering OK although said his hand was still bothering him a bit.

Glad to hear he's OK.


More importantly, what's his new bike like?

Beasty

Kav0777 wrote: »

Glad to hear he's OK.


More importantly, what's his new bike like?

He's not got one - he's currently borrowing his son's

Beasty

No racing this week, but a couple of commutes, two gym sessions and an hour or so tonight added up to 173km bringing the YTD total to 3,803km at 28.9kph.

I'll be resting up before Wednesday's Swords League 25mTT, and will then look to finish the week off with a commute or two

Beasty

183km this week - I guess a lot of boardsies have done more today alone. I managed to average 29.6kph to bring my YTD total to 3,986km at 28.9kph.

Wednesday saw the Swords 25m TT Championships. With hindsight I think I could definitely have pushed harder in the second half - I didn't quite have the motivation when saw a number of regular A1 and A2 riders from the Club League and a few guys from outside the league who were clearly TT specialists. The other vet who beat me in the 10m Championship a couple of weeks ago was also there, so I was pretty much resigned to not placing particularly well. In addition I adjusted the saddle for the first time since buying the bike, mistakenly thinking it should be level rather than pointing down slightly - this made the ride very uncomfortable

As it turned out I finished 10th overall, but 4th amongst club members, and I'm happy with that. I think I could probably gained another minute or so in the second half, but Wednesday was more about a bit of experimentation for the vets TT league.

I then had a long commute, taking in marshalling the Swords Open race on Thursday, before a couple of evening sessions over the weekend. Last night I got pretty close to power PBs between 28 and 38 minutes, and tonight I upped my PB for most of the way between 6m 30s and 12m 30s.

This week I'm planning to race on Wednesday - if it's dry I'll hope to make my racing debut at Sundrive as part of my preparation for the vets track championships next month. If not, it will be the Clonalvey circuit in the Swords League.

Then on Sunday it's the vets 10m TT Championships. It is decided on an age handicap basis, and I have absolutely no chance of placing. There are some guys in their 60s who are capable of clocking sub 23 minutes which would need me to be getting under 21 minutes, ie 3 and a half minutes faster than I have done. However there will be normal handicap points also available, and assuming decent conditions I would hope to be close to breaking the 24 minutes (40kph) barrier

Beasty

Managed to get down to Sundrive last night - the first time since it was vandalised last year, and my first track league event. The only other track racing I've done was at the vets championships at Kanturk last October - all but one of those events were TTs, but last night was all about "proper" racing

There are 4 groups - the good guys go in Group A, and the youths in Group D, leaving a question as to whether I would be placed in with the "Seniors" (Group . However I managed to convince them I was a real novice (despite the deep section rims on my track bike), and was placed in the slightly easier Group C, which included other novices, a couple of other vets and riders who were not quite fast enough for Group B. It was all about getting to understand a bit more about racing for me, and Group B is probably the best place for me, at least for now

There were 11 of us in the Group, and the first race was an 8 lap scratch race

We went off at a reasonable pace, with anyone trying to push it being quickly closed down. I was well positioned with a couple of laps to go, and decided to up the pace. This must have dropped a few but given there were plenty still with me I eased a little with about a lap to go. No-one was going to come through so I concentrated on slowing it down a bit to give me a bit of recovery. Then with a couple of hundred metres or so to go I gradually picked the pace up. Coming into the home straight I could feel everyone else creeping up on me. I maintained my line as some got passed me to hold on to 4th. Can't complain about that, particularly given I'd made myself a sitting duck at the front.

Next up was the first round of the match sprint. Given the odd number of riders I ended up in the final race of three with the 2 other vets. It's basically 2 laps, first over the line take the point and progresses to the next round.

The younger of the two opponents led off with me second. I moved to the front early in the second lap and pushed hard. The younger guy was on my wheel initially, but by the end of the back straight I think I'd dropped him. I had no idea where the 68 year old was though, so I continued pushing. About 40-50m from the end I sensed him coming up alongside me - getting closer and closer, so I had to pick it up again and managed to hold him off, albeit only by a few inches - anyway, my first ever track victory was in the books

Next round I was up against the 68 year old again - they'd let him through to even up the numbers, so at least I only had one opponent

This time I was leading from the start. He went up to the top of the banking and I stayed at the bottom - this time, with only one opponent, I was able to keep him pretty much in sight all the way. It stayed like this until about 350m to go when I just pushed hard all the way to the line. I think he was well back at the end so it turned into a comfortable victory.

There were 3 of us in the final. Again my 2 opponents kept to the top of the track, and I stayed a little lower to keep both of them in my sights. With 400m to go I dipped down the track and the guy immediately behind me took the bait. He pulled across to the inside but I just couldn't close the gap enough to get on his wheel - it was just a mad race for the line then and I had to settle for 2nd plaec. I did record my fastest lap of the evening though, at just under 49 kph

The final event was a team pursuit of a kind - the Italian pursuit. 2 teams line up at opposite sides on the track. It's a blast from the start with everyone doing half a lap at the front then dropping off, leaving the final 2 riders to battle it out over the last half-lap.

I was 4th in our line, but was taken totally unawares by the speed of the start and a big gap opened up ahead of me. The next in line quickly closed it but I couldn't get on his wheel. The pace eased a little and I managed to close the gap a bit over the next lap, but then had to pull out (together with another guy, so we were 2 men down) - the other team must have had similar problems - by the last lap each had a couple of riders left and our guys managed to get the win despite my abysmal performance.

My inabilty to react quickly enough to changes in the races was clear, and one thing that may help is reducing my gearing slightly - I know I run a high gear on the track, which suits TT/pursuiting, but not this type of racing.

I'll probably be back to give it another go just before the vets championships next month.

Beasty

9.15 start at Moy Valley, east to Enfield and back again for the vets 10m TT Championships this morning

A bit of a westerly breeze and around 45-50 signing on for the event

The Championships are decided on an age handicap basis - my age standard is 25m 38s, although the three 10m TTs I've done this year (all on the Batterstown course) have been between 24m 23s and 24m 28s. A similar time would give me +1m 10s or so on age handicap. However last year's winner was nearly 4 and a half minutes ahead of handicap, and therefore I would have no chance of placing in the event

However League handicap points were also available, which would be based on my ability handicap - my best recorded time of 24m 23s from the previous vets race. I was hoping to break the 24 minutes barrier if all went well.

Another 2 (at least) boardsies turned and we were off straight after each other. victocarrera was number 7, me 8 and Planet X off at number 9.

I set off at my allotted time - with a good tail wind the speed was quite high and I averaged 44.5kph for the first quarter. To get under 24 minutes I would need to be a bit over 40kph, so everything was looking good, although I knew it would be a much more difficult return

Coming up to the roundabout turn I was overtaken by a large lorry and then a car. Unfortunately the lorry seemed to take an eternity getting on and round the roundabout, holding me up quite a bit - it took around 20s to get on and around the roundabout, about 4-5s slower than I have done previously. I was still averaging 42kph although turning into the wind. Unfortunately it was a straight head-wind, which made it difficult to get any shelter.

I managed to average 38.0kph for the 3rd quarter and so was just about still on target. However the 4th quarter include the only part of the course that resembles a hill, and had some particularly exposed parts. Despite upping the power output slightly I was unable to maintain the speed, and went over the finishing line in 24m 28s (exactly the same time I clocked in the Swords Club Championships a few weeks ago) - at least I can say I'm being consistent with now four 10m TTs done this year with only 5s separating my fastest and slowest times

That gives me a 1m 10s Age handicap benefit, and I am 5s behind on ability handicap. We'll see in due course if I managed a top 8 finish in the ability handicap (which would earn extra points) - I think it's unlikely though

In terms of the stats:

Average speed 39.5kph, max 55.3kph
Power - average 267w, normalised 271w, max 530w
HR - average 168, max 176w
Cadence - 92

Breaking down the stats into quarters

Q1 - speed 44.5kph, average power 282w
Q2 - 41kph, 253w
Q3 - 38kph, 268w
Q4 - 35.1kph, 271w

Power is down by nearly 20w since I did the same course exactly a year ago (well within 3 minutes anyway;)), although that was on the road bike with clip-ons, and my time was 25m 39s in what I think were slightly warmer conditions. It was with a different power meter, and therefore not directly comparable. The power was also down on my previous 3 10m TTs this year, but they were all in the evening and I find it much easier to push out the power after a day of activity. I also feel I was not as fresh as I could have been, but am still a little disappointed not to have at least improved my handicap. I hopefully have another couple of (evening) cracks at it over the remainder of the summer.

Beasty

Track League on Wednesday and Vets TT today, with a commute in between was the main activity this week. Total distance was only 112km at 30.1kph, but it was fairly intense and on the back of a couple of hard sessions last weekend

I also spent a bit of time on the TT bike set-up yesterday, trying out a new TT bike-specific saddle:



I tried it in today's TT and although it was not quite right it was a lot better than my old set-up. I'll experiment a bit more before the next (25m) TT the week after next.

Next week will be mainly about preparing for that TT, with a couple of commutes, although I'll be looking to get the Swords League race in on Wednesday

Cookie_Monster

Jasus Beasty, do you ever take it easy?

Beasty

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Jasus Beasty, do you ever take it easy?

Are you referring to the suffering I inflict on the Credit Card?

Anyway, it looks like I got 6th place in the handicap league in the 10mTT on Sunday - that's worth 5 points. I remain in 7th place in the League but have closed the gap on the leader to 9 points (from 12)

On an Age Standard basis I was 25th out of the 46 starting

Beasty

.... of the Ring circuit

7 points for my 8th place - I claimed to have achieved my objective to

get at least one extra point (beyond those awarded for simply turning up!) in the Swords League

with my 4th place in the Club 10m TT Championships a few weeks ago, but as they are not actually awarding League points for the TT results this year last night's result puts this one beyond doubt!

In terms of the stats:

Total time 1:22:13, average speed 36.5kph, max 49.8kph
Power – average 250w, normalised 280w, max 858w, work 1180kJ
HR – average 161, max 182
Cadence – average 87

Breaking it down between the 5 laps (power excludes zeros)
L1 - speed 36.2kph (max 49.8kph), Power - average 267w (max 858w), HR - average 155 (max 169), cadence 87
L2 - speed 36.3kph (max 48.5kph), Power - average 268w (max 795w), HR - average 161 (max 171), cadence 88
L3 - speed 36.5kph (max 48.0kph), Power - average 260w (max 703w), HR - average 163 (max 176), cadence 86
L4 - speed 36.0kph (max 48.1kph), Power - average 248w (max 767w), HR - average 159 (max 171), cadence 85
L5 - speed 37.3kph (max 49.8kph), Power - average 268w (max 720w), HR - average 164 (max 175), cadence 87

One of the really pleasing things is the consistency, and that I still felt quite strong at the end - maybe I should have tried to have a dig with a couple of KM to go, perhaps trying to join the guy who had broken and eventually won

Beasty

Two commutes, the Swords League race on Wednesday and a couple of short sessions over the weekend amounted to a total of 182km at 30.4kph.

YTD total now stands at 4,279km at 29kph

The weekend sessions were to try and get a decent position for the new TT bike saddle. I'm sure there are more refinements to come, but I need to see how it goes in the vets 25m TT on Tuesday. I'll also perhaps get another 1 or 2 commutes in, then it's off to Disneyland Paris for a few days:D

Beasty

Back to Batterstown on Tuesday evening for my 3rd (and probably penultimate) 25m TT of the year, this time in the vets league. I hope to take part in the vets championships at Moy Valley in a few weeks to complete my 25s for the season.

The vets run 25s and 10s at both Batterstown and Moy Valley, with the 10's being basically on the same course as the 25s. Of the two locations I find the Batterstown course is better for the 10s, and Moy Valley for the 25s, partly because of the profile of the respective courses and partly because of the way you can get shelter in certain places

My previous two 25m TTs have been affected by strong winds (almost gale force for one of them), but tonight the forecast was very good -just 11kph from the WSW, which would be a slight head wind from the left on the way out, and should allow for some shelter from the hedges

My "official" target was 64 minutes, but given the conditions I was actually hoping to get nearer 63 minutes. Anything under 64m 52s would improve my vets handicap, and give me a chance of some points in the handicap league

The autolap was set to 4km, allowing me to compare with some of my 10m TTs on the same course - my best 10 had been set by hitting almost spot-on 6m 6s for each quarter. would need to be hitting just over 6m 20s for each 4km segment to get under 64m in total.

I started off at a decent enough power output, with normalised initially hitting 400w and then slowly drifting towards 300w. The first 4km was done in 6m 26s, slightly outside target, but I was averaging over 280w and there was an incline and slight headwind to contend with.

In the next 4km I passed my 2 minute lady. Again it was generally uphill, and the power eased back to 255w, with the autolap recording 6m 46s, so now I was over half a minute behind my target pace

In the next 4km I passed 2 others. The fastest guy in the field started 2 or 3 minutes behind me, and I was expecting him to whoosh by at any time. However there was plenty of downhill in this section, and I did it in 5m 54s, clawing back 26s or so, meaning I was only 6s down on target, Power was down to 229w though

In the 4th segment I picked the power back up to 245w - again there was a bit of a decline, and I managed to clock 6m 3s, bringing me ahead of schedule for the first time. I was suffering some discomfort from the new saddle, but nowhere near as much as in previous rides, and there was certainly no numbness.

In the final segment before the turn I was overtaken, but I didn't think it was the guy I had expected to get past - it subsequently turned out it was him, but as he was in the new Usher gear I had not recognised him. I reached the turn in just over 31m 30s, which was quite a bit ahead of schedule, but the next 10km or so would be the most difficult given the amount on incline involved. Hopefully it would be tempered a bit by the tailwind though.

The next 3 segments were a struggle, at 6m 37s, 6m 27s and 6m 47s respectively, putting me back behind target. I managed to pass a couple more riders though, making it 5 of the 11 that had started ahead of me. Power was pretty constant at just over 240w.

I was now entering the final 8km - very familiar territory from my 10m TTs. I knew it was largely downhill and this was an opportunity to take advantage of the tailwind and push on. I passed one more rider, clocking 5m 54s and 231w for the penultimate segment, and pushing it up to 261w for the final 4km which took exactly 6 minutes - there were a few more seconds for the extra quarter of a km or so to make up the total 25m, and I crossed the line in 1:03:32 - a 1m 20s improvement on my previous best

It did feel hard, but I don't think I was as fresh as I could have been, and hope there is something left in me to help get nearer if not below 63m. When I checked the weather later on it turned out that it had been around 19kph from the WNW, making it a straight-on headwind on the way out, and easing back to nearer 11kph on the way back, so the wind had probably been a bit more of a hindrance than I had expected

Other stats:

Average speed - 38.1kph
Power - average 247w (slightly up on my previous attempt), normalised 254w (again slightly up), max 567w
HR - average 159, max 174
Cadence 87

The segmental power analysis shows my highest power outputs were in the first and last segments, and lowest in the 3rd and penultimate ones (although these were also the two fastest segments!). Indeed throughout the ride the respective segments on the same bit of road but going in different directions were almost mirror images, with average speeds being very consistent when aggregating again across the two segments on the same bit of road.

EDIT - results are now up - 15 beat handicap, and I managed 7th place, which gives me another 4 points. The guy who passed me clocked 56m 19s:eek: (and there were 4 others under the hour)

mloc123

Have you tested your FTP recently or do you have a power target in mind when doing 25/10mile TTs?

38.1kph for 247w is a pretty decent return on Irish roads.

Beasty

The wheels are supposed to save me getting on for 40w in the right conditions, - not last night though as it was relatively calm (they perform better in comparison to standard wheels in a cross wind)

I was hoping to be getting 260w+ (I've been over 300w on a normalised basis on similar length club races), although as stated above I was not quite as fresh as I would have liked last night. IIRC I was hitting this sort of level with the road bike and clip-ons (when I did my previous best of 1:04:52 actually), but the aero position on the specialist TT bike does seem to cost me getting on for 20w (still gains me nearly 1kph though). I'm still getting used to it though, and think I could get a bit more aero yet

Beasty

Tuesday's vets 25mTT followed by a commute on Wednesday which took in marshalling at the Swords Club Champs, and the last 3 evenings on cycle machines in the Disneyland Hotel gym - a total of 190.13km at 30.6kph, bringing the YTD to 4,469km at 29.1kph

Next week will hopefully see a return to the track league on Wednesday, before the vets Track Championships over the weekend. My main focus will be on Saturday, with the 2km pursuit probably my best event, and the 500m TT. Sunday will see the match sprints and scratch races (together with the possibiluty of a team sprint, where the aggregate ages of the 3 riders must be at least 135!)

Beasty

2 day event at Sundrive. Yesterday was the 500mTT and 2km pursuit, and today the 200m flying TT and scratch races

What I've clearly established is I am a very poor starter, a poor sprinter, but not so bad at endurance events

The 500mTT did not go well, as I finished last in my age category. I could not get going, and actually did not hit the sort of speeds I was able to later in the pursuit. I'm still sussing out my best gearing on the track, but I think part of the problem with the 500 was I was more focussed on my main event, the pursuit, and probably had that at the back of my mind, I definitely think there's plenty of scope for improvement, particularly if I can practice my starting a bit more. I also think inertia is an issue - I was probably one of the heaviest riders and I need to work on translating the weight into a more powrerful initial surge.

And so onto the pursuit - as a reminder from my OP:

Beasty wrote: »

My primary aim is to improve on my 3 fourth places in the IVCA track championships. I want a medal, and my best chance is in the 2km TT, where I was just a few seconds off 3rd place in October. Given it was my first experience of track racing, all those ahead of me had specialist aero wheels, and were using TT bars, I am hopeful. But ultimately it’s down to form on the day, and who turns up. My time for the 2km TT on the Kanturk track was 3m 4s, and I am confident I will be able to break 3 minutes at Sundrive. Indeed, if I get decent conditions I would hope to get down to around 2m 50s

So I came into the year considering tjhis my main event - my primary aim was to try and get a medal, and I thought this was my best chance

There were 3 pairs riding, and I was in the final race. I had sussed out the fastest time before me was something slightly over 2m 50s (about 2m 54s as it turned out)

I set off slowly, and my opponent was clearly ahead after the first (of 4.36) laps. This is where I put the foot down, and with 2.5 laps to go I sensed I was back on even keel with him. Another lap and I thought I was slightly ahead, so I continued pushing, although I felt I had a little left in me at the end. I was pretty sure I had beaten him, but it took a while for all the times to be confirmed. I did 2m 49.43s - not only had I beat the 2m 50s target, but I had struck Gold:D. My opponent came second in around 2m 53s. Having gone back through the previous 3 Championships my time is the best for the age group (albeit by 1/100 of a second!).

Moving on to day 2, and the first event was the flying 200m. Again I pushed hard, but felt I was spinning out a little. I'd increased my gearing slightly overnight, but didn't feel I was able to use all my power. I finished 5th, and with the top 4 riding off this gave me a chance to rest for the scratch race.

The two who met in the final were very fast sprinters. I was hoping they were fatigued after all their sprint rounds, and my tactic for the scratch race was to try and stretch it out and hopefully split the group with the sprinters dropped. I put a higher gear on for the race

After about 6 (of 12) laps the pace picked up, and one rider tried to make a break. I went with her, hoping we could get perhaps one more into the break. I took over at the front and pushed it (I actually did one lap about 7s faster that I did the first lap of the 500m TT yesterday). I looked back and no-one had gone with me. I was about 50m ahead of the group and faced with the dilemma - do I push on or go back into the group. I was actually feeling quite comfortable, and if the group had split I would probably have pushed on, but with them all still working together I thought I had little chance of staying away.

With hindsight I should probably have pushed harder to try and break their spirits, and hope they became more worries with each other, letting me go. But I actually just maintained the gap (which allowed me to recover quite well). With a couple of laps to go they did close a bit, and I let them catch up. Onto the final lap and the pace picked up, but I was still feeling relatively comfortable. A couple of riders came round me on the final bend and another in the straight, but I still managed to hold 4th place quite comfortably

Anyway, I can now tick off number one objective for the year. I remain tactically naive on the track, and feel I could have done better in some of teh events, but if anyone had offered me a Gold in the pursuit before the event I would have snapped their hand off

Beasty

The calling off of Wednesday's Swords League race meant I only got a gym session in on Monday before the weekend's IVCA Track Championships

Total distance was only 82km bringing the YTD to 4,551km at 29.1kph

Away on holiday from tomorrow for a week, which will be only the 4th week in the past 2 years where I will get no bike activity in (unless the kids drag me out on a hire bike on the Camel Trail;))

Beasty

The vets track championships over the weekend were nice climax to the first part of the season. I’m away this week, so will be getting a bit of a break before returning for the second half. Hence this is an opportune time to review my achievements to date, and refine my objectives for the rest of the season.

It’s been a very positive 3 months, with a lot of my racing going pretty much to plan. I managed to win my first vets handicapped TT (10 miles) back in May – my first ever race victory, and followed it up with extra points in all but one of the other vets TTs I have done. The Clubs league TTs have gone particularly well, finishing second club member (4th overall) in the 10m, and 4th club member (10th overall) in the 25m. I’ve managed to improve my 10m PB by 26s to 24m 23s, and my 25m by 1m 20s to 63m 32s

In the club league racing I’ve scored my first points, and managed to stay with my group for all but one race - I’ve only struggled in one of the vets races, the first one of the year when I was suffering with back problems.

On the track I’ve managed to get down to Sundrive for one Summer League event, and hit gold in the 2km vets pursuit over last weekend

In terms of my specific objectives:
IVCA track championships – “get a medal” – achieved
10m TT – sub 24m – current best 24m 23s – so far I have not had decent conditions, but with at least another couple of opportunities I’m hopeful of getting there
25m TT – sub 63m – current best 63m 32s – only one further attempt expected – I think I will need particularly good conditions and will have to be on my best form to get this one. I’ll give it a go anyway
40k in the hour – unlikely to get a chance to do this, unless the new indoor Dublin Velodrome gets off the ground and I am able to hire it for an attempt later in the year
Extra points in the Swords League – achieved

With regard to the RobFowl “specials”, I’ve managed to avoid him so far in all the TT’s, and likewise he’s not been around whenever I’m “sprinting” in a road race – maybe these two will get resolved later in the season

I’ve a couple of big opportunities left to make inroads in the vets TT league over the next few weeks, and my success, or otherwise, will determine to what extent I will continue to focus on this league during the remainder of the season.

So far as road racing is concerned, I will continue to use this to maintain and hopefully improve my fitness for other events. I will be looking for any opportunities to impress in either the Swords or vets leagues, but this will not be to the detriment of my other objectives

Finally the track. I’ve proven what I pretty much knew already – I’m not bad in endurance events although need to suss out the best tactics for scratch-type races. I clearly need to improve my starting and sprinting, and with this in mind I’ll be looking to do at least a couple of the Sundrive Autumn League events, and also get down to some of the training sessions over the next few weeks. There is a vets Omnium championships in September that I’d like to give a go also. I’ll have absolutely no chance as it will be across all vets age categories, but I will use it to get further experience, and hopefully benchmark myself against some of the other guys in my age group.

Beasty

So for the first time for over a year I have no activity to report in my weekly summary.

I'm flying back to Ireland from my holidays tomorrow and hope to get out some time in the late afternoon just to turn the legs over after the mid-season break. Then there's a vets 40km DMS on Tuesday evening - I'll definitely be aiming to hide in the bunch for that one, as there's also a Swords League race at the Bog of the Ring on Wednesday that I'll be aiming for if I have no particularly adverse reaction to Tuesday.

The vets 25m TT Championships are next Sunday - it should be my final 25 miler of the year (unless we do a boards one;)) - it will be interesting to see to what extent my reduced activity over the past couple of weeks affects my performance.

So the plan is 3 races in a week - I struggled with this level of activity last year, so I guess it will be a useful test of how things have progressed (or not) since then.