Road Cycling
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Some quality images here: https://cyclingtips.com/2019/07/the-2019-tour-de-france-in-100-frames/
Hadn't actually realised that. Not a bad time but certainly a fair few more seconds available there. Should be 190bpm+ for a segment that length. Meanwhile King of the mountains Dowsett did roughly my PR up Box 6 times in a rowCan see why you like that segment, your ride from May is 10s faster than even Dowsett up there!
Soldato
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Wahoo users....
I really don't get the syncing activities to my phone. The activity appears in the history tab, but it just says 'waiting to sync'.
I go into the Roam settings to make sure it's connected to WiFi, and on the Roam itself, it has the WiFi connected symbol, but nothing happens.
EDIT: ok this morning's ride eventually sync'd after refreshing the tab. But most of my past activities still say 'waiting to wync'
I really don't get the syncing activities to my phone. The activity appears in the history tab, but it just says 'waiting to sync'.
I go into the Roam settings to make sure it's connected to WiFi, and on the Roam itself, it has the WiFi connected symbol, but nothing happens.
EDIT: ok this morning's ride eventually sync'd after refreshing the tab. But most of my past activities still say 'waiting to wync'
I was feeling pretty good yesterday, solo blast to nursery I found was able to sit at my old FTP (270W) which is quite a result considering I've been estimating it at 250-ish for a while (which seemed pretty accurate). Really overdue a test I think! Rode the Chariot back around 10-15 mins later at a good tempo with that average around 200W, which is around normal. My legs where feeling a little flat afterwards though (not unusual second consecutive day of chariot towing, especially in gusty winds as the torque required really fatigues, regardless of the power). Jumped into a short iTT on Zwift in the evening (10km). Legs still feeling good with power numbers good for it around 270W still, so then did a 25 minute extended solo session (half cooldown). Legs still feeling great with an seemingly good bump in available and tempo power! I've found some form/power from somewhere! Woohoo!
Then again so is this - https://www.strava.com/activities/2599497246 Greipel, 100 miles, 21.5mph avg, 242W avg, 106bpm avg. #prolife
Any special security with your WiFi or such the ROAM might be struggling with? Any other connectivity issues/woes with your phone?
My ELEMNT seems to prefer my works Wifi (uploads as soon as a ride is finished) which is a basic Plusnet router. My home fibre is Plusnet with a newer/more advanced router and it doesn't seem to like that as much. Occasionally requiring a power cycle before it uploads. Admittedly I finish my rides far closer to my works wifi router than I do to my home router, maybe that's it. Could also be channel hopping. My works router is set on a wifi channel (think it's 11) without any other networks around. There's 3-4 others around mine at home so I have the router channel hopping.
I noticed that, his times up there where so consistent (strava comparing the steep lower section), 5.12 (423W), 5.23 (419W), 5.04 (422W), 5.28 (402W), 5.18 (400W). Really quite an eye opener on how to manage effort/pace!Meanwhile King of the mountains Dowsett did roughly my PR up Box 6 times in a row
Then again so is this - https://www.strava.com/activities/2599497246 Greipel, 100 miles, 21.5mph avg, 242W avg, 106bpm avg. #prolife
Weird. How's the ROAM behave without the phone on your Wifi?
Any special security with your WiFi or such the ROAM might be struggling with? Any other connectivity issues/woes with your phone?
My ELEMNT seems to prefer my works Wifi (uploads as soon as a ride is finished) which is a basic Plusnet router. My home fibre is Plusnet with a newer/more advanced router and it doesn't seem to like that as much. Occasionally requiring a power cycle before it uploads. Admittedly I finish my rides far closer to my works wifi router than I do to my home router, maybe that's it. Could also be channel hopping. My works router is set on a wifi channel (think it's 11) without any other networks around. There's 3-4 others around mine at home so I have the router channel hopping.
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Soldato
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I was feeling pretty good yesterday, solo blast to nursery I found was able to sit at my old FTP (270W) which is quite a result considering I've been estimating it at 250-ish for a while (which seemed pretty accurate). Really overdue a test I think! Rode the Chariot back around 10-15 mins later at a good tempo with that average around 200W, which is around normal. My legs where feeling a little flat afterwards though (not unusual second consecutive day of chariot towing, especially in gusty winds as the torque required really fatigues, regardless of the power). Jumped into a short iTT on Zwift in the evening (10km). Legs still feeling good with power numbers good for it around 270W still, so then did a 25 minute extended solo session (half cooldown). Legs still feeling great with an seemingly good bump in available and tempo power! I've found some form/power from somewhere! Woohoo!
From my own experience, going at ~15%+ above my estimated FTP (based of 95% of my best 20min MAP of the previous six weeks) for ~5mins is very feasible if my legs aren't fatigued. As an example, back on May 21st my estimated FTP was 262W, having already climbed another cat4 in 6mins21secs @312W I then averaged 316W over 7min6secs up the next cat4 https://www.strava.com/activities/2385831153/analysis/4198/4624 . I'm surprised at how few riders have gone quicker up either so far this year, but each Strava rider can choose when and where they really push themselves, I'm certainly under no illusions of thinking I'm anything like a top10 hill climber around Warnford... It simply means very few riders younger/stronger/lighter/fitter than I have given those two hills an all-out effort.
Shame your TT was not a few minutes longer to reach 20mins, if you had held that 273W then you could legitimately increase your estimated FTP to 259W, good effort though... Keep on pushing the envelope!
My 2019 summer season is still in tatters, knee niggle coming and going; weather has either been too hot or too wet; often feeling mentally very fatigued and not being able to decide a ride plan for the periods of time I have to do a ride (which wasn't helped by still being fixated on trying to hit 500k feet of climbing from indoors and outdoors until very recently); so I've rarely headed out to around Butser Hill, already used up my free 25Km free trial on both Zwift accounts for August and seriously thinking on subscribing for at least a month.
I increased my estimated FTP by a whole 1W the other night to 251W, after fudging my FTP in Zwift to 275W before doing Emily's Short Mix, go me!
https://www.strava.com/activities/2596784560/analysis/474/1676Deleted member 68110
Deleted member 68110
Can you help a novice understand this?!
Reading about FTP, I thought it was meant to be measured in W/kg. Are your figures 100*W/Kg? Is that the more common measurement?
In the first Strava link your power output is 207W - are you using a difference source for the wattage figures to extrapolate out to your 270W FTP.
In the second your Strava wattage is only a bit less (184) than in the first, and yet you say your FTP was much lower - 200.
Sorry for the questions. As I say, I'm new to this FTP data and interested in understanding it better so I can start measuring my output.
Soldato
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FTP is quite often quoted as the 20 minute power, which then you can express as W/kg.
It's useful as a test you can perform every x months, to see how you're progressing, or not maybe.
Soldato
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W/Kg should make your times up a climb comparable under the same conditions with other riders and/or previous weight sizes of yourself, so for example a 75Kg rider putting out ~300W up a climb should get a very similar time to a 60Kg rider putting out ~240W i.e 4W/Kg.
FTP estimates are commonly done by taking 95% of your best 20mins Maximum Average Power in the session is the last six weeks, https://power-meter.cc/home for example is a free site I use, that you allow to connect to your Strava account. It keeps a record of your all-time best 5sec/1min/5min/20min MAP and what your bests are from the last six weeks.
FTP estimates are commonly done by taking 95% of your best 20mins Maximum Average Power in the session is the last six weeks, https://power-meter.cc/home for example is a free site I use, that you allow to connect to your Strava account. It keeps a record of your all-time best 5sec/1min/5min/20min MAP and what your bests are from the last six weeks.
Great insight and data as always Steve, although others may gloss over I really do enjoy reading your insights and observations. Probably as they're quite similar to mine! We probably go more in depth than we should, but numbers and data are a large part of cycling for me so get quite a big of enjoyment from analysing it all!From my own experience, going at ~15%+ above my estimated FTP (based of 95% of my best 20min MAP of the previous six weeks) for ~5mins is very feasible if my legs aren't fatigued. As an example, back on May 21st my estimated FTP was 262W, having already climbed another cat4 in 6mins21secs @312W I then averaged 316W over 7min6secs up the next cat4 https://www.strava.com/activities/2385831153/analysis/4198/4624 . I'm surprised at how few riders have gone quicker up either so far this year, but each Strava rider can choose when and where they really push themselves, I'm certainly under no illusions of thinking I'm anything like a top10 hill climber around Warnford... It simply means very few riders younger/stronger/lighter/fitter than I have given those two hills an all-out effort.
Shame your TT was not a few minutes longer to reach 20mins, if you had held that 273W then you could legitimately increase your estimated FTP to 259W, good effort though... Keep on pushing the envelope!
My 2019 summer season is still in tatters, knee niggle coming and going; weather has either been too hot or too wet; often feeling mentally very fatigued and not being able to decide a ride plan for the periods of time I have to do a ride (which wasn't helped by still being fixated on trying to hit 500k feet of climbing from indoors and outdoors until very recently); so I've rarely headed out to around Butser Hill, already used up my free 25Km free trial on both Zwift accounts for August and seriously thinking on subscribing for at least a month.
I increased my estimated FTP by a whole 1W the other night to 251W, after fudging my FTP in Zwift to 275W before doing Emily's Short Mix, go me!
I've been quite fatigued for several weeks/months due to the little man & warm nights, but I think I must have also acclimatised to it a little. Even now I'm averaging 6-7 hours sleep a night maximum. Some might even be closer to 5 hours and I feel groggy as hell when first woken up (by the mini-human alarm), but within 10 minutes and a coffee I'm pretty good. With the group ride on saturday (I utterly emptied myself) I am still carrying some of the load from, so my legs really have no rights to be feeling as good as they do, along with having a seeming increase in power. When I should be needing recovery I seem to be thriving at the moment. But I really need to rest, the lack of sleep/rest just means I'm more susceptible to any illnesses little man brings back from nursery and illness is what's really killed my fitness and form this year (always seem to be recovering). You've been hit hard with it this year too... Without being able to blame a mini germ factory!
Yeah shame about the TT length not making it a 20 minute effort, equally, glad I entered CAT B and not C for it as seeing it was short (10km) I knew I'd be over CAT limits. So no worries about using my newfound power to really put down a marker. I'm fairly sure I could've sustained the average (if I trim off the start & end, that's 267W) for 20 minutes. Did 2 minutes cooldown, then 3 minute gap (easy spinning) before the following race started and my 10 minute 245W effort. Even that didn't feel like a proper threshold effort like the TT, more of a paced hard-tempo effort.
TLDR; really need to do that 20 minute test!
'FTP' is just a power figure. An FTP test in the general sense we talk about is a 20 minute threshold 'maximum' effort. You then calculate 95% of that figure, to give a rough figure to what you should be able to sustain over an hour. Some riders may even be able to ride at more than 95% over the hour, there are hour long FTP tests. But the fatigue and time they carry/take (including warm up & cooldown) most riders find the figure from a 20 minute test accurate enough.
W/KG Steve has covered well, in the sense of CAT's on the road and virtual racing like Zwift, then the figure is your FTP/KG. So for me this season I've been using 250/76 to give me 3.3w/kg. Firmly a CAT C and quite a competitive one at times. But bear in mind that's my maximum. The majority of Zwift races you don't ride that hard, it's all efforts and recovery before a sprint. I'm quite good at a long sprint and rolling terrain, so generally try and break away/close gaps and go long. But Zwift that really doesn't work well at all, I just can't peak high enough to beat real sprinters so have to try something. Usually find myself leading others out.
First Strava link should show my average power at 274W. The ride back with the Chariot was at 200W. Those are power figures, not w/kg.
If it was w/kg then the first would be ~3.4w/kg (me 76kg and backpack 2/3kg) with the second something ridiculously different around 2w/kg (I'm towing a 4-5kg chariot with 15kg child, me 76kg and 2/3kg backpack). I only called it FTP in the first as that was my previous FTP figure, when I weighed around 74kg (3.6w/kg!), trained more and rode more! Had a little boy in 2017 and it's really killed my cycling lol
I thin your confusion comes from getting muddled over power, w/kg and FTP when they're all related. Average power over an hour is generally an FTP (wattage) figure. Then w/kg is generally that figure divided by bodyweight.
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Soldato
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@Roady i hear your pain about sleep deprivation, before kids I could sleep for England but that goes out of the window and it only gets worse.... our kids are 13 & 19 and I’ve never got back into sleeping properly, 6 average I would say but I can function on 4! I remember one night I slept for 8 whole hours 
I only realised the last few days, I guess since a recent update, I no longer need to connect mine to my phone. When I get home and end the ride, I think it is automatically connecting to my WiFi and syncing everything. I guess it might have always done this as I usually leave and return to my garage, that doesn't have any connection. Only recently have I kept the bike in the house.
Soldato
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@AndyCr15 hmmmmwhen I finish a ride and get home, it does nothing. I even have to go into the app, to the wifi settings in order to activate the wifi on the unit itself. Then occasionally, some of the rides comes through.
But I did 3 rides on Tuesday, the last one sync'd, but the other 2 didn't.
But I did 3 rides on Tuesday, the last one sync'd, but the other 2 didn't.
It hurts! To be fair I've always generally been a 'night owl'. Previously from late night gaming/TV in my teens through to my 20's, then combined with overnight partying/drinking/clubbing/raves with restricted sleep lead to 5-6 hours most nights. But I usually had 1-2 nights a week I 'caught up' sleeping for 10-12 hours or so. But since my 30's I've had a more fixed schedule/commitment due to work (start at 8am). Has meant bedtime is usually 11pm rather than the previous 1-2am, getting 7-8 hours quality sleep (sleep so well since I started cycling!).@Roady i hear your pain about sleep deprivation, before kids I could sleep for England but that goes out of the window and it only gets worse.... our kids are 13 & 19 and I’ve never got back into sleeping properly, 6 average I would say but I can function on 4! I remember one night I slept for 8 whole hours
Little guy coming along really reinforced that commitment to quality sleep. He has always been a good sleeper, from 3-4 days old he was sleeping 8-9 hours unbroken and would generally have 1 nighttime feed and be in bed for 12-13 hours (6.30pm-6.30am).
Now his bed time has been generally pushed back until 7.30/8pm there's some times we struggle to get him to sleep as he's just not tired. We still have one nap (restricted to 1 hour), but are getting close to dropping that, so hopefully things get better when we do.
The last 2-3 months his morning wakeup has generally got steadily earlier - previously he woke with our work alarms at 6.30am, occasionally sleeping in until 7am on the weekends. Now we don't even set alarms as he's got even earlier, waking at around 5.15-20am like clockwork. Sometimes can get him to settle until 5.30am, sometimes he'll wake before 5 and settle until 5.15am. Most of the time not. He's just wide awake! So I'm getting 6 hours sleep a night max!
Now his bed time has been generally pushed back until 7.30/8pm there's some times we struggle to get him to sleep as he's just not tired. We still have one nap (restricted to 1 hour), but are getting close to dropping that, so hopefully things get better when we do.
The last 2-3 months his morning wakeup has generally got steadily earlier - previously he woke with our work alarms at 6.30am, occasionally sleeping in until 7am on the weekends. Now we don't even set alarms as he's got even earlier, waking at around 5.15-20am like clockwork. Sometimes can get him to settle until 5.30am, sometimes he'll wake before 5 and settle until 5.15am. Most of the time not. He's just wide awake! So I'm getting 6 hours sleep a night max!
Yup, I'm sure there's a setting. My ELEMNT has always done this. Or at least it was added from within a few months of me owning it (start of 2017).
Ahhh, that could be your problem. My ELEMNT happily connects to WiFi. I generally only connect/sync mine with my phone once a week or two as I have so many activities it takes too long to leave it so I do it when I have time... The few times I 'need' to use the app (loading a route that hasn't sync) I don't have time to wait the 15/20 minutes mine seems to take to sync the 15-20 activities that are sat on the unit...
Think you have to have the WiFi connections saved on your phone as it gets the credentials from there but I'm sure there is a way to 'enable' it within the Wahoo app for individual networks. Don't have mine with me today (drove in due to scheduled monsoon/tropical storm this afternoon), but will try and find info for you.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/03...uter-in-depth-review.html#setup-configuration
Ray seems to indicate it's part of the initial setup - 'One of the first things I’d do though is to setup your WiFi networks. This allows it to check for firmware updates and download routes. So go ahead and add in any networks you’d like.'
EDIT: should be similar on the ROAM: https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000638644-Connecting-ELEMNT-BOLT-ROAM-to-WiFi
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I've had Sportives suggested to me as something I might enjoy, so I'm ready to sign up to the 50km one here. Anything I should know/consider before I do?
Also, just to share, as I wont lie I'm rather proud of myself, tomorrow will be my 5 month cycling anniversary and the scales told me this morning I'd just broken the '5 stone lost' barrier!
Also, just to share, as I wont lie I'm rather proud of myself, tomorrow will be my 5 month cycling anniversary and the scales told me this morning I'd just broken the '5 stone lost' barrier!
I've had Sportives suggested to me as something I might enjoy, so I'm ready to sign up to the 50km one here. Anything I should know/consider before I do?
Also, just to share, as I wont lie I'm rather proud of myself, tomorrow will be my 5 month cycling anniversary and the scales told me this morning I'd just broken the '5 stone lost' barrier!
5st in 5 months is very impressive. Well done
Thank you. I've got quite used to that odd look on someone's face that hasn't seen me for a month or two while they either a) try and work out who I am or b) try and work out why I look different
I've had Sportives suggested to me as something I might enjoy, so I'm ready to sign up to the 50km one here. Anything I should know/consider before I do?
Also, just to share, as I wont lie I'm rather proud of myself, tomorrow will be my 5 month cycling anniversary and the scales told me this morning I'd just broken the '5 stone lost' barrier!
Top work on the weight loss!
British Cycling has some useful content on sportives here: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/skills/sportives-ridesmart
Very useful to know things like hand signals and group etiquette as you get into sportives and might be riding in a group for the first few times. 50km is nice a distance to start. Get used to eating / drinking on the go (a little and often is my preference), what gels / bars / snacks (malt loaf etc) work for you etc but not too far to break you.
Ok guys put my mind at rest.
I have a 10 speed shimano setup on a trainer. I ‘think’ any 10 speed road bike chain and cassette will be ok and compatible. Looking on wiggle and the shimano 105’s looks the best bang for bucks.
Sound about right?
Thanks
I have a 10 speed shimano setup on a trainer. I ‘think’ any 10 speed road bike chain and cassette will be ok and compatible. Looking on wiggle and the shimano 105’s looks the best bang for bucks.
Sound about right?
Thanks