Team BKool CycleChat

[gbrown]

One important thing to remember on this current Handicap stage is that drafting is not going to be much help, as the speeds rarely get high enough.

For a stage that is very much like a 30 minute FTP test, maintaining the highest sustainable power and deviating as little as possible from that level (above or below) will likely produce the fastest time. The Handicaps should tend to put the majority of you together in the final few minutes and then anaerobic capacity should determine who wins on the road!

I'm surprised just how hard most of you push on the first Handicap runs of a new stage, although I seem to remember I was much the same, which is probably why I ended up in Hospital.

One possible strategy would be to keep just a little in reserve for the first go, so as not to end up with a Handicap that is very hard to live up to. Then you could lift your effort in the next run, before really giving it your all on the third run.

Geoff

 

[<Tommy>]

One important thing to remember on this current Handicap stage is that drafting is not going to be much help, as the speeds rarely get high enough.

For a stage that is very much like a 30 minute FTP test, maintaining the highest sustainable power and deviating as little as possible from that level (above or below) will likely produce the fastest time. The Handicaps should tend to put the majority of you together in the final few minutes and then anaerobic capacity should determine who wins on the road!

I'm surprised just how hard most of you push on the first Handicap runs of a new stage, although I seem to remember I was much the same, which is probably why I ended up in Hospital.

One possible strategy would be to keep just a little in reserve for the first go, so as not to end up with a Handicap that is very hard to live up to. Then you could lift your effort in the next run, before really giving it your all on the third run.

Geoff

Trouble is Geoff I don't think anyone wants to give an inch!

 

[Randyberlin]

Hey - Bill & Bob...thanks for your openness on here today. It gives us all an insight into what is going on physiologically and mentally with the guys at the top. Suffering and cycling are familiar bedfellows - always have and always will. Its the toughest sport in the world. One famous team manager once quoted 'you play soccer but you cant play cycling' - even though I have a long cycling history and consider myself an experienced rider, I remind myself that competitive cycling is never 'played'...its just so true. Just imagine efforts like that that last three hours or more.

I think one of the Lotto Jumbo lads recorded an average wattage of 400 or so during one of the Tof B stages last year and said it was harder than the classics he had ridden that year - so again confirmation that suffering never goes away.

For those of us on here without the benefit of a cycling history and the experience that would give it must be really difficult to understand the level of pain and suffering that the good guys go through. It really is incredible. I rode as an amateur in Belgium and France through the 90's EPO era & it was an education.

My personal experience last night was that it was as hard a half hour as I can remember - just chuck in a roaring crosswind, rain, cold and some Belgian toothpaste (google it!) for the real world experience.

Mark

Just started reading "a dog in a hat" about Belgian bike racing. Check it out.

 

[kapelmuur]

@kapelmuur - I think we must be about the same age, and like yourself I was a leisure cyclist before I got my turbo in October last, and came across this 'mob'.

I have been taking part in most events since then, and have always felt shattered after each one. I did a comparison of my data on a ride I did when I first started and repeated recently, which I found quite interesting:

Power - Up 30%
Cadence - Up 10%
Time to complete ride - Improved by 21%
Heart Rate - Up 4% to an average figure of 152 which I feel reasonable comfortable with.

I'm still shattered when the finish line eventually arrives, but no worse than when I first started and used to trail in last just about every race.

My point being, I think it would be wise to pull back a bit, but keep going and I'm sure you'll feel the benefits - you can't be too careful at our age.

Let the young 'wipper snappers' fight it out for all the glory, and let us just enjoy the 'ride'.

Thanks for the encouragement! As for us being the same age, I remember seeing Billy Wright play at Molineux

 

[<Tommy>]

I've done two rides the last two days that haven't appeared on strava. Is there anything I can do to sort this?

 

[Roleur1]

You can export the ride file from Bkool - from your home page on the site. Open the ride and one of the boxes on the right gives you the option to export on different file formats. I export FIT files and then drop them into a desktop folder on my pc. Then I go into my Garmin Connect account, open the desktop folder and imprt it to Garmin. it then shows up on my ride history on Garmin with the full power readings/hr etc just like a real ride, but the title includes 'indoor cycling'.

You will need to know what file format strava uses. Sounds complicated but its not.

 

[berty bassett]

One possible strategy would be to keep just a little in reserve for the first go, so as not to end up with a Handicap that is very hard to live up to. Then you could lift your effort in the next run, before really giving it your all on the third run.

Geoff[/QUOTE]

o poop

 

[<Tommy>]

You can export the ride file from Bkool - from your home page on the site. Open the ride and one of the boxes on the right gives you the option to export on different file formats. I export FIT files and then drop them into a desktop folder on my pc. Then I go into my Garmin Connect account, open the desktop folder and imprt it to Garmin. it then shows up on my ride history on Garmin with the full power readings/hr etc just like a real ride, but the title includes 'indoor cycling'.

You will need to know what file format strava uses. Sounds complicated but its not.

Ah cheers mark

 

[JLaw]

I think I used the wrong tactics last night, I went with a pace/watts that I thought I could hold for the duration, but after watching some of those video clips I agree with the crowd on here, should have just gone for it for as long as I could. Mind you might not of been any quicker overall !

Right. I'm new to FTP and power meters, but ISTM that for a 30-ish minute ride you ought to be able to reasonably exceed your FTP by ~5%. After all, isn't the standard method to take your power over a 30 minute ride and slash off 5% to get a good estimate of your FTP?

Having ridden the course twice in a week, I'm keen to compare my efforts a bit. I have a sense of what I did differently on the second run to shave that 90 seconds -- but I want to back that up with real data and use that to guide next week's race.

 

[bazzer99]

First March chaingang ride done. Wrong day I know but, at least it sets you all a target

 

[Soarerv8]

Blimey bit deep on here today and all about cycling, are we seeing a new era of maturity for the second 1000 pages?

I am more than happy to lower the time of needed.

 

[Soarerv8]

I think I used the wrong tactics last night, I went with a pace/watts that I thought I could hold for the duration, but after watching some of those video clips I agree with the crowd on here, should have just gone for it for as long as I could. Mind you might not of been any quicker overall !

Not sure if that was what I did but was a long way down on the pace I did on Friday and that was after a killer Thursday. I think having someone to chase helps massively but the long shallow climbs don't suit me as much as a bit of up and down (with more down).

 

[<Tommy>]

I am more than happy to lower the time of needed.

Another win for predictive text!

 

[<Tommy>]

First March chaingang ride done. Wrong day I know but, at least it sets you all a target

Well done bazzer

Wish I could say they get easier

 

[kipster]

I have no strategy on rides, I try and leave that at work where it is all about strategy.

Ride to how I feel, I get motivation from those around, but I know my place in the Bkool hierarchy

A bit like Bill, I've been 'stuck' at the level I am for a while, but it is great to see others getting back to where they were and the newbies making gains all the time. I've been putting in some half decent speeds on the road for this time of year, the real test will be one of the advanced evening club rides, last year they were over 20mph for a flatish 40 miler.