Team BKool CycleChat

[AAAC 76C]

I am here after a shower still pouring sweat all over the floor. I can't cool down yet. Off to stand outside

Way to go Andy, just looked at your stats, 344 watts just 5 down on me and we were averaging about 70 more than Bill.
Nice speed graph as well (it looks a bit like mine) and guess what my name is Andy too.

 

[BILL S]

Yeah, the pro is carp at cadence sensing. Sometimes my avatar stops pedaling completely even though I'm pedaling. I never pay any attention to cadence though and I must admit I didn't even look at my heart rate once today. I hardly even looked at the speed. It was all Power, Gradient, and time between riders and of course the drafting thingy.

 

[AAAC 76C]

I do of course agree with that AAAC. There is free speed there for the taking as we all know and it's all a case of where the line is between what's acceptable and whats not. Apart from the slingshotting I do try to ride in a similar way to what I would out on the road, although my power graph is nowhere near as steady as some. BTW I think I would take responsibility for the third graph down @gbrown would that be right and AAAC probably the top one?

And would the bottom one be Bob's, know your enemy, Bob the worst Bkooler to draft with (no offence intended Bob just an observation)
I just love all this drama, we should see if someone wants to make a reality show out of it and before you know it we'll all be celebs in Big Brother.
Second thoughts, perhaps the reality show is not a good idea!

 

[AAAC 76C]

Yeah, the pro is carp at cadence sensing. Sometimes my avatar stops pedaling completely even though I'm pedaling. I never pay any attention to cadence though and I must admit I didn't even look at my heart rate once today. I hardly even looked at the speed. It was all Power, Gradient, and time between riders and of course the drafting thingy.

I love my Pike and im carp at tiping as well!

 

[AAAC 76C]

I hardly even looked at the speed. It was all Power, Gradient, and time between riders and of course the drafting thingy.

I spent a lot of time looking at my cross bar near the end, a) making sure my legs were still reciprocating and b) hoping that when I looked up it would all be over.
There was one point when I was 6 seconds behind you and gaining and I saw you ahead so dug deep and it turned out to be someone else further back but on the same bit of virtual road.
I remember now that that was one of my 4 give up points.
I freewheeled for 15 seconds or so and then told myself no to be so childish and suffer like everyone else was as it was my turn to be put in the hurt locker because if nothing else I was still on for a PB.

 

[BILL S]

When you look at your crossbar (which I do sometimes) you really just want it all to be over. This was the case for me on the bonus sprint 2. I can not cope with that kind of suffering for more than a minute or two. I certainly wouldn't want to feel like that on a chain gang ride.

 

[AAAC 76C]

That's where I was for over 50% of today's and Thursday's.
Part of it is my 'saddle issue', for want of a better term, which distracts you from what you should be doing and can result in incorrect posture which then can tranfer stress in to the lower back and or hands.
Today I had both, or three things including some saddle knives, lower back pain and numb hands, the latter I have not had for a while, so I think I can put that down to the Rido Original saddle I was trying (slightly modified, padded out underneath, as out of the box it is too soft)
The concept seems to work in practice so I have got my eyes on the firmer Rider LT.

 

[CXRAndy]

I was comparing my two attempts from Thursday and Saturday. Thursday I averaged 163bpm HR and Saturday 169bpm HR. Saturday felt it was harder but not by so much. I am putting this down to the temperature, where I find I perform better when its warm as long as I can keep from overheating (big fan to the rescue).

Looking at the splits of the first 4 riders, Bob and I died away as the race progressed, but AAAC, Bill were able to put in strong split later on. More work needed

 

[LBHIFI]

Looking at stage 1 of May's Chain Gang, which was fairly flat, the speed graphs show the different techniques...

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Firstly, sorry for being absent lately, but the real world cycling conditions here is putting Mallorca to shame.

I think my graph is a bit in the saw-tooth category, but for me it is a natural consequence of trying to stay near/draft opponents. If drafting worked like in the real world, I'm sure I would have a more straight graph.

 

[CXRAndy]

Looking forward, stage 6

26 short steep hills

over 20 miles

 

[bobinski]

I was comparing my two attempts from Thursday and Saturday. Thursday I averaged 163bpm HR and Saturday 169bpm HR. Saturday felt it was harder but not by so much. I am putting this down to the temperature, where I find I perform better when its warm as long as I can keep from overheating (big fan to the rescue).

Looking at the splits of the first 4 riders, Bob and I died away as the race progressed, but AAAC, Bill were able to put in strong split later on. More work needed

I couldn't quite believe your start Andy. It was like watching one of bridgy'.s.awesome stuff. Whereas I just couldn't really get going. Heat in the loft, lack of a proper warm up and a very tight and painful left calf left me having to spin lower than ideal gears to loosen the legs and especially calf which meant I overheated and struggled with breathing very quickly. I just about stayed with bill, recognising he would probably again be faster in the second part of the ride, and sensing he was perhaps holding back so I could join and draft together () but by 10k I was spent, eased off and hoped to recover enough to finish. It took until the 25k stage but at least allowed me to continue. So, slower than Thursday but strangely more challenging and rewarding on what is a not very nice course.
Now Andy, if you can just extend your power over a longer race like that ...

 

[CXRAndy]

I have surprised my self a little, no alot! I think my performance began to improve a few weeks ago when I completed a long hill climb and was surprised at being able to hit 340/350Watts later on in the session. Sort of self belief, if you know what I mean?

 

[CXRAndy]

Bizarrely, I have been given an 'elite 2' status from Bkool, I think this must of been when I forgot to change my weight back. My W/Kg must of been pretty high for Bkool to erroneously reward me with Elite

Definitely wont last, but will enjoy the new colour for the time being

 

[BILL S]

Bizarrely, I have been given an 'elite 2' status from Bkool, I think this must of been when I forgot to change my weight back. My W/Kg must of been pretty high for Bkool to erroneously reward me with Elite

Definitely wont last, but will enjoy the new colour for the time being

Last night when I started the session. You joined, then Bob and then another guy joined who was Active. Then a few seconds later he left and I thought to myself, "He's spotted Elite CRXAndy and decided he's seen enough, time to get out of here!!". But then a minute or so later he came back and rode with us so I guess he wasn't so intimidated after all. If he noticed your start he wouldn't need convincing you were Elite.

 

[<Tommy>]

(big fan to the rescue).

Andy if the noise that fan makes is anything to go by I think you could quite literally turn it into some type of helicopter and rescue flooded Parisians with it!

Seriously though sounds like you had a belter yesterday well done bud . Looks like I've got some catching up to do