Road Cycling

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Vonhelmet said:
In other news, slightly closer future me is thinking that he'll buy a power meter of some kind next year and buy a 5800 groupset to replace the Tiagra on recent past me's Planet X bike.
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Don't you mean 6800 (Ultegra) if thinking Stages, not 5800 (105 2015)...?

Great average: https://www.strava.com/activities/349500509

lordrobs said:
Cheers Gents :)

I had a little spin on the turbo last night just to make sure all was well and while sweat was pouring off me I was thinking that using my phone isn't really ideal so I'll take the laptop with me to use.

I'm thinking ANT+ might be the way to go. At some point I'm going to update my Garmin and my wife has a Vivofit so I've got an ANT+ USB stick I can use already :D

I'll pick up a heart rate monitor at some point but I'll start off with speed and cadence.

Not too fussed with videos at this point. I'd rather do 20 or 30 minute focussed sessions than anything longer so some music should be enough to keep the boredom in check.

I was surprised at the maximum resistance (or lack of) that the Cycleops offers when at max setting TBH. I was kind of expecting it to be like riding up a 20% gradient on a road made of treacle but I was able to keep decent pace in top gear for short periods. I may also disconnect the remote resistance control as you don't use it on TR.

Repeated my longest ride of the year today (a modest 36 miles :o ) and it felt pretty good. Off to the middle east for another 2 weeks on Friday so no cycling again :(
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Good call on the ANT+ USB stick, you're half way there already! ;)

The novelty of the Turbo will wear off very soon, when it does videos can be a good way to 'pass the time'. In theory anything which is a distraction without requiring 100% of your attention is a good thing. I found watching rugby/Game of Thrones good for base work (maintaining cadence for sweet spot etc) but for the more complex things I needed less of a distraction and more of an encouragement. Sufferfest videos and the GCN pages on Youtube are good for this.

Resistance is futile, kind of :p . I did some drills of low cadence/climbing workouts where I just screwed the turbo really hard against my rear tyre. I used old tyres for this rather than ruin my trainer tyre. It worked well but the smell of hot messy ruined rubber was rather offputting and not something I'd want to do for long periods or more regularly. I turbo outside and even then the smell was pretty bad! :o

Trainer is more to wear you out or to do intervals on than climbing work. There's lots of drills you'll read about online you can use rather than subscribing to something like TR. At least until you're sure you want to follow some kinda training structure then it is invaluable.
 
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Roady said:
Info?
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It's a multi layered jersey jacket thing that doesn't try to keep you 100% dry. I want to get one but they ain't cheap. Sounds perfect for 80% of my winter riding.

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/...roduct/review-castelli-alpha-jacket-15-49189/

Roady said:
I've tried basic DHB (2 Active, 3 Flashlight), 1 pair Castelli, 1 pair Altura and 4 Northwave I'm heading back towards some more DHB. Probably the Aeron or Pro ASV. The Actives I have are rubbish on any rides over 30 mins, fine for short easy riding/commuting. The Flashlight are better but after a couple of hours they're uncomfortable, almost on par with the Northwave as any rides over 3 hours in them I get some pain/discomfort (sit bones). The Castelli and Altura I tried were on par with the Flashlights (not as comfortable as the Northwave) and I found them poor fitting.

Santini and Endura will be brands I check out soon as lots of scope within their ranges. Although part of me thinks if I'm spending £150 on a pair of shorts (unlikely) I should get some Ralpha's?
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I've tried numerous bibs, similar to you above. I use DHB flashlights/Endura FS260(work branded) for my commutes.

But my long rides, I use my Rapha/Assos bibs, Rapha are the most comfortable overall, although the pad on the Assos is slightly more padded so perfect for Cross riding.



Talking of which had epic fail of a ride today. Went to attempt the South Downs Way on my CX bike as my MTB is broken, and I have been so lazy to not fix it for going on 6 months now!

Got 25 miles, and got my first puncture, going about 35 offroad down Butser Hill. Pumped up hoping it wasn't too bad (slime tube) but it started going again a couple of miles further on, so swapped it out, this got me about 5 miles and then I got another, swapped it out again and less than 200 yards later boom another. Both of these caused by pinches, even though the tyres were rock hard (60+psi I reckon)

Was on my last tube so I found the nearest road and came home, via a local independent ice cream shop, who had stollen ice cream in stock!!!!

Doing a bit of reading around looks like my tyres aren't the strongest in the sidewall. Doh! Ohwell, now to plan another date to do it on. Won't be going a year without doing SDW in a day.

https://www.strava.com/activities/350786774
 
Damn it... I didn't expect you to call my bluff :eek:

I guess all my renditions of the song whilst we played BFBC2 all those years ago must have really struck a chord.
 
26 miles to Heaton Park and back. Slightly lower average speed than I'd have liked on account of a couple of miles bimbling in the park itself. Still, pretty good run, some decent PRs. All in the big ring so bits of it hurt but it paid off in places. Nasty headwind on the return leg, and I was pretty much cooked by then anyway.
 
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