Race reports

Woohoo, back to some sort of form yesterday.

I don't think I said but I got an Aerocoach Axis Saddle week before last, and couldn't get comfy on it last week, brought it quite a bit forward and was much improved, after recent weeks I think my focus on power has been holding me back so yesterday I rode on feel with bare basics on my Garmin, I noticed this meant I kept my head up a lot more and felt good all the way round, but reckon there are still a few watts left in me!

It was our local hilly league yesterday and on a course I enjoy, but somehow I always forget the massive great big lump in the middle :D Not the strongest field out and our club was certainly missing it's big guns, but wanted to put on a big performance to get a good haul of points and try to keep us in touch with the leading club. Managed a 25:34 which is a 32 seconds PB and felt like only a tiny bit harder at the end could have been achieved, I smashed it to the first roundabout and set a good tempo up the ruddy great hill in the middle! Finished up with 270w average and 278 normalised, which I think is my best power in a 10, so happy with that. Need to translate those watts to the flat/tuck now!

https://www.strava.com/activities/954206664
 
I raced a new (to me) 10 course on Saturday too - D10/1 near Skelmersdale. Quite an interesting/odd one with a lane start and finish with the remaining 7.5 miles or so on a fairly quiet dual carriageway. The wind was definitely in the wrong direction, giving you even more of a push down the out hill and making the finishing drag like treacle, so not a fast day. It was my first time using the Zipp 808 and the crosswinds on the DC were interesting. :o Got the hang of it eventually.

Annoyingly my powermeter cut out intermittently for the first mile or so. I returned an average of 297w for the bit it did record properly which is a power PB at least, so really happy with that. Unfortunately my efforts to be definitely 3cm compliant have made me about as aero as a brick based on my first few rides this year, so that needs a lot of work. Position isn't comfortable either so total failure across the board.

It's a good course though so will ride it again.

https://www.strava.com/activities/953260439/analysis/109/1335
 
Moved from Road Thread:

Got some points this evening :cool: Wet one at MK, as expected no breaks will stick on the inner circuit unless you happen to have sustainable power to drop the bunch solo. No one snoozing again. Frustratingly nervy riders were obviously a bit tense due to the wet. Did feel something on my ass at one point, another riders hood. "Errr excuse me, do you mind". Also had another calling 'ON YOUR LEFT" who was actually on my right :o did ask him if he knew his left from his right :p

Was placed well throughout, didn't stupidly chase anything down or bring anything back as the grade/bunch did that for me ;) Wasn't quite sure what was happening at the end but seems the sprint started at the bottom of the climb rather than the crest. Had to dab a brake to swing left around another rider. Comfortable again from a fitness/power perspective so just a case of being a bit further forward for the final lap. Did grab a spectator slow-mo video of the finish over airdrop :)

Club mate almost pipped me to 9th :eek: but a 9 & 10 for the club we were happy with :)


Not sure where the other 20 riders were! Can't have been that many DNF's...
 
Great read as always.

Something the race made me look at as well was getting a W’bal app on my Garmin. For those that don’t know, this looks at threshold power, and your total KJ of power, to give you a percent reading. 100% at the beginning of the race, with anywhere below 10% being race ending effort. The advantage is being able to have measure of when you’re able to make an effort, and when to throttle back and try and recover, rather than just having to rely on intuition of when you’re going to blow.
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I've had a similar idea albeit not for racing but with regards to zones & fueling. My Elemnt will show on the fly time in both power & HR zones which could 'in theory' be used to determine when you're going to start to feel a little flat or need to eat and also from a weight management perspective as to a fat/carbs macro split.

For example on a long ride if you find that 60 minutes in total are spent in Z1/Z2 then is there a real need to re-consume those calories burned as they should in theory be drawn from fat, so if trying to trim up it could be a savvy strategy to lean out without affecting recovery or performance.
 
booyaka said:
great write up as always - cup of tea and a biscuit to read your blog is a nice way to break from the monotony of paperwork!!!

Can you explain - " However near halfway the race was stopped due to riding standards" - what happened?
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In road races, we have a rolling road block on our side of the road with NEG motorbikes and race convoy, but the other side of the road is open to oncoming cars. A lot of the time what happens though is that racers spill onto the other side of the road when its clear. People generally shout oncoming cars and so tuck in to avoid. The rules are such that you should only really be on the right side of the road when moving up. Sometimes on tight circuits the race just ends up rolling along with people spread across the road, which was pretty much what was happening. So the Comms just stop the race and give everyone a talking to, then generally its tidies it up.

BennyC said:
Great read as always.

I've had a similar idea albeit not for racing but with regards to zones & fueling. My Elemnt will show on the fly time in both power & HR zones which could 'in theory' be used to determine when you're going to start to feel a little flat or need to eat and also from a weight management perspective as to a fat/carbs macro split.

For example on a long ride if you find that 60 minutes in total are spent in Z1/Z2 then is there a real need to re-consume those calories burned as they should in theory be drawn from fat, so if trying to trim up it could be a savvy strategy to lean out without affecting recovery or performance.
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Yeah not a bad idea. I really like the W'bal number. Helped me out numerous times, both seeing it getting too low and finding respite, or on the other hand knowing I had lots in the tank to bridge or mark an attack. Highly recommended to anyone racing.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
In road races, we have a rolling road block on our side of the road with NEG motorbikes and race convoy, but the other side of the road is open to oncoming cars. A lot of the time what happens though is that racers spill onto the other side of the road when its clear. People generally shout oncoming cars and so tuck in to avoid. The rules are such that you should only really be on the right side of the road when moving up. Sometimes on tight circuits the race just ends up rolling along with people spread across the road, which was pretty much what was happening. So the Comms just stop the race and give everyone a talking to, then generally its tidies it up.



Yeah not a bad idea. I really like the W'bal number. Helped me out numerous times, both seeing it getting too low and finding respite, or on the other hand knowing I had lots in the tank to bridge or mark an attack. Highly recommended to anyone racing.
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cheers - thanks.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Yeah not a bad idea. I really like the W'bal number. Helped me out numerous times, both seeing it getting too low and finding respite, or on the other hand knowing I had lots in the tank to bridge or mark an attack. Highly recommended to anyone racing.
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Going to have to check this out for CX!
 
If you don't already, worth checking out Golden Cheetah, which uses this feature. In order to program the app you need your CP number and total KJ, which you only really find by emptying the tank so to speak. i.e. you can't go below zero. So you ideally need a fair amount of data to get your total KJ number dialled.

This is an example of the GC W'bal plot from yesterday as an example, if you've not used it already.

 
Thanks, will look in to W'bal. Pretty sure the Elemnt has it as a metric but will check.

By total Kj do you mean determine an existing work glycogen/anaerobic work capacity or just the Kj burned during a ride to determine a baseline?

Had a few Crit's recently which probably have some useful data.
 
Super handy for TT's. If you dial your data in very accurately as Thomas gets at, you can see in GC how well you actually paced TT's from the W' expended. I got 102% for a TT on Saturday but I did not bury myself and go super deep so know my data is not super accurate but is not too far away.
As for using W' on the fly whilst racing I have never done so, but believe it may be worth pursuing.

Thomas, you can tidy that graph quite a lot in GC by limiting the high/low points actually represented with numeric value and reducing font size too on the chart settings. But that just me being OCD as bloody always, it bothers me that it doesn't bother you :p
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
I really like the W'bal number. Helped me out numerous times, both seeing it getting too low and finding respite, or on the other hand knowing I had lots in the tank to bridge or mark an attack. Highly recommended to anyone racing.
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Amazing write ups as always, although shame you guys couldn't quite get the result you wanted from the 3 day! :(

What's the W' an abbreviation of? Think I understand the concept - basically current 'short term workload' measured against your 'energy reserve'?
 
Roady said:
Amazing write ups as always, although shame you guys couldn't quite get the result you wanted from the 3 day! :(

What's the W' an abbreviation of? Think I understand the concept - basically current 'short term workload' measured against your 'energy reserve'?
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Watch this pal. It's a really great video, the battery concept of explaining it is spot on:
 
'W prime' - name doesn't really help to explain it! ;)

But think I was right to start with, I like the battery concept with slow charge and fast charge.
 
So yesterday I rode the Elite race at Battle in the Bowl 2017, a 2 hour-ish CX race at Matterley Bowl in Winchester.

Turned up nice and early with a load of equipment (2 CX bikes and 1 MTB, as well as spare Wheels, just in case) Weather was glorious but with a strong easterly wind, so knew some of the open sections would be tough.

Set myself up and went for a little tour of the lap, not much had changed from last year, but it was very very dry, so would be quick all through the race, had decided on MXP Clements the night before and stuck with them as it was a rocky course in places and wanted a bit of extra puncture protection. The lap was 2.7 miles with 300ft of climbing each lap, with not a great deal of technical stuff, so if you could climb the two main climbs well I knew I could pace it.

I got to the grid early but was still about 4th row back, but knew I'd be able to work up from there on the first climb out of the bowl, this was a good half mile or so. Got off quickly and settled in counting myself about 15th or so heading onto the first climb, from here I grabbed a wheel of a Scott sponsored rider who looked a bit handy along with my club mate who usually races in the 50+ league, and kept on the coat tails of the first group of riders. I knew my lines from the previous year, and kept to them, as I approached the 2nd climb of the lap, I started working my way up a bit more and reckoned I was about 12th heading around the top of the bowl. My HR was very high (180+) so I tried to settle in, but felt I had strong legs and provided I could fuel correctly I would be able to keep going.

First 2 laps went by quickly passing a few unlucky riders who punctured early, I had my strategy set up to grab a gel and bottle (half filled) every 2 or so laps, with my pit bitches set up knowing this, the first hand off was great! My GF doing a great job and handing it as we practised at the start of Climb 2, unfortunately what followed next was not so good, I went to grab the gel off my bottle and pulled both the gel and bottle out dropping both! So I now had no bottle and no gel, on a very hot day, with no way to relay this to the pit, as I got round I had to shout to let them know, and this sort of got through, but it was a bit of a case of rescheduling, so next time around, I was much more careful with my bottle and gel.

The race flew by, and I knew I was moving up slowly by being consistent, my first 4 laps all within about 3 or 4 seconds of each other, I then settled in a bit and tried to recover my hydration situation, grabbing a bottle every other lap and had to ask for a couple more gels. My pace had dropped, but I was keeping with riders, my plan was to fuel to about 1hr30 whereby I wouldn't need anything more, I grabbed my last Gel and Bottle at about 1hr28, perfect, unfortunately I had not accounted for the awful timekeepers who at about 1hr 45 started calling bell next time around for the leaders, at this point I knew I was in for a ride of about 2hrs 15, so got fluids in me, but knew if I took a gel it wouldn't do anything, so I tried to save myself a bit just in case I was caught towards the end, knowing I had a large gap behind me, in the end I lost a position just as I came onto my penultimate lap, to a guy who I'd spotted gaining time on me, but knew I had nothing left to give, so I enjoyed the last few laps, and pushed a little towards the end catching my club mates ( 7 of us in the race) and cheering them on finishing as a trio (although they were 2 laps down on me). I also eased back a bit on the descents as on the 2nd to last lap my brake pads were squealing quite badly and I'd obviously cooked them, so they'll need replacing!

Overall it was a great race for me, I pushed myself far beyond what I've done before and managed to finish 9th overall and 6th in the obviously competitive Senior category, and I managed to do it without getting any mechanicals or punctures, although I don't know how with the hits my rims took on a few occasions, and my SuperX survived it's first proper outing.

Few aches and pains today, but mostly in my shoulders rather than legs.

https://www.strava.com/activities/999062487

https://app.lap.io/event/2017-battle-in-the-bowl/results

https://app.lap.io/event/2017-battle-in-the-bowl/result/2099521
 
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