Road Cycling

Tomorrow is looking nice. I'm planning to go out tomorrow morning for 30 or so before church.

My crowfoot adapter for my torque wrench has finally arrived, so I can fit my garmin vector s pedals now. I'll do them tomorrow night, then probably get out to test them one night this week. I've found an ftp test routine, so I'll have to program that into my garmin and then get the turbo set up and give it a go. 2W/Kg incoming... I'm looking forward to quoting my horsepower/tonne instead.
 
Vonhelmet said:
I've found an ftp test routine, so I'll have to program that into my garmin and then get the turbo set up and give it a go. 2W/Kg incoming... I'm looking forward to quoting my horsepower/tonne instead.
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Did my FTP test in my garage on Tuesday (it'd been a while). Thought it was odd how my HR was the limiting factor... turns out even with 2 fans and 1.5l of chilled water 25 degrees will still do that to you :eek::p

First thing in the morning when it's significantly cooler next time I think!
 
Argh my blasted Garmin just ate 31 brilliant miles. Over 2000 feet of elevation on that route and I know there were bits I was doing way faster than I've done them before.

I should have suspected something was up - within half a mile of starting my Garmin switched itself off. I switched it back on and resumed recording the same activity. Next time I'll know to kill the activity and start afresh.

DAMMIT.

I saw quite a few triathletes going over Rivington as I was coming back over the far side. They must be doing recon for imuk next weekend. I also ran into the Manchester-Blackpool sportive. I was coming down a hill that they were coming up so I was doing battle with impatient car drivers who were driving up the carriageway I was trying to descend. Rubbish.
 
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Vonhelmet said:
Argh my blasted Garmin just ate 31 brilliant miles. Over 2000 feet of elevation on that route and I know there were bits I was doing way faster than I've done them before.

I should have suspected something was up - within half a mile of starting my Garmin switched itself off. I switched it back on and resumed recording the same activity. Next time I'll know to kill the activity and start afresh.
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Try looking into the Activities folder via USB on the Garmin itself and the SD card. If you can find it it'll probably be somewhat corrupt but then chuck it into the corrupt time fixer on http://fitfiletools.com
 
It's already back on my itinerary! Can't do it next weekend as it's actually imuk, and I don't want to get mistaken for a triathlete. Granted I'll be headed in the opposite direction to them, but that's exactly the sort of mistake a triathlete would make.
 
Weather is quite frustrating at the mo...ended up cutting my morning ride short due to it turning to cack...and of course half way home it became lovely and sunny. Sigh.

Finally got a not utterly cack time on Blaze Hill, even though my attempts to get a decent PR were slightly scuppered by having to stop for some road works part way up.

edit: An entire minute behind OMS though, ouch. Hopefully by the end of summer I'll make up most of that time.
 
Ok, so one of my cycling objectives for the year is "Get a power meter and figure out what the hell to do with it." Well, I've managed to pick up a Garmin Vector S on eBay for £339 and I've successfully installed it, so hurrah there. It took a while to get it calibrated, but apparently that's a problem with the Garmin 500 I'm using, which doesn't like calibrating while its expecting any other ant+ devices. It seems to work, so that's part one of my goal done. Next job: figure out what the hell to do with it. I'll probably try to get out for a quick ride with it after work to get a rough idea of my abysmal numbers, and then I'll do a proper ftp test when I can bear to do it!
 
Vonhelmet said:
Ok, so one of my cycling objectives for the year is "Get a power meter and figure out what the hell to do with it." Well, I've managed to pick up a Garmin Vector S on eBay for £339 and I've successfully installed it, so hurrah there. It took a while to get it calibrated, but apparently that's a problem with the Garmin 500 I'm using, which doesn't like calibrating while its expecting any other ant+ devices. It seems to work, so that's part one of my goal done. Next job: figure out what the hell to do with it. I'll probably try to get out for a quick ride with it after work to get a rough idea of my abysmal numbers, and then I'll do a proper ftp test when I can bear to do it!
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My advice is to simply ride normally for a bit with it. Don't concentrate on how high or low the overall numbers are to start with but get an idea for how much power you're naturally putting down when doing things like setting off from stationary, going up gentle inclines, descending, etc. You'll probably be surprised by your output (one way or the other) in all those cases.

Do you have https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...ggccakkgdfcadnklkbljcgicpckn?hl=en]StravistiX for Chrome? Absolutely awesome plugin and gives you way more interesting stats than you get from Strava premium.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Ok, so one of my cycling objectives for the year is "Get a power meter and figure out what the hell to do with it." Well, I've managed to pick up a Garmin Vector S on eBay for £339 and I've successfully installed it, so hurrah there. It took a while to get it calibrated, but apparently that's a problem with the Garmin 500 I'm using, which doesn't like calibrating while its expecting any other ant+ devices. It seems to work, so that's part one of my goal done. Next job: figure out what the hell to do with it. I'll probably try to get out for a quick ride with it after work to get a rough idea of my abysmal numbers, and then I'll do a proper ftp test when I can bear to do it!
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I'm pretty much in the same situation, I started to do my ftp on my turbo but gave up due to boredom. I went out for a 40 mile ride and after I found out that Garmin Connect works out your max 20min ftp anyway so I've just kept it as that. Sure if I just did a 20min ftp session the figure would be higher but as I tend to ride quite hard anyway (relative to my ability) it should be a reasonable starting figure.

After that you know what your zones are and you can then work within specific zones: threshold, sweet spot blah blah blah to get the effect you are targeting.

Personally I am currently doing was FT was suggesting to you and just riding as normal to get some info to churn over, although it's amusing to do some mini sprint sessions to see how much power you can generate or not generate :)

Also I found out I have a L/R balance of 54/46 not sure if that tells me anything other than I seem to pedal harder with my left leg.
 
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Vonhelmet said:
Ok, so one of my cycling objectives for the year is "Get a power meter and figure out what the hell to do with it." Well, I've managed to pick up a Garmin Vector S on eBay for £339 and I've successfully installed it, so hurrah there. It took a while to get it calibrated, but apparently that's a problem with the Garmin 500 I'm using, which doesn't like calibrating while its expecting any other ant+ devices. It seems to work, so that's part one of my goal done. Next job: figure out what the hell to do with it. I'll probably try to get out for a quick ride with it after work to get a rough idea of my abysmal numbers, and then I'll do a proper ftp test when I can bear to do it!
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Also take a look at these 2 books: The Power Meter Handbook: A User's Guide for Cyclists and Triathletes and Training and Racing with a Power Meter

StravistiX is also great.
 
What a contrasting day, got filthy this morning riding a TT (dirtiest bike has ever been) and then lovely summer evening ride tonight being 19c at 18:00. Although one constant, the wind! Hope it dies off overnight, was very gusty out there!
 
Bear said:
Is the free version of training peaks any good, from what I can gather the full version is very good. Anyone on here use it and can shed any light on it?
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I have an account, but to be honest, I haven't spent a huge amount of time looking at it. I think you have to pay to use a lot of the analysis features :(
 
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Beast of a sportive yesterday, ~75 miles and 7500-8000ft of elevation in strong winds and around 4.5 hours of rain. Utterly soaked & legs utterly empty! Proper write up to follow at lunchtime. :cool:

Lethal` said:
Anyone tried something like this or have another suggestion which doesn't require a new stem? http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-stem-faceplate-mount-for-garmin-edge-and-gopro/

I don't need gopro mount. I did try this but the mount was poorly designed - arm moves left to right... rounded out bolt trying to secure it. http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-out-front-mount-for-garmin-edge-and-action-camera/
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Really like the look of the first, if you get one please let me know what you think of it as I'd be tempted to try one! My Superstar combo is good (similar design to the second) but so much vibration comes up through the bars it utterly destroys the quality on rough roads as the VIRB tries to compensate/refocus. The stem mount may vibrate less and help to smooth things out.
Jon33 said:
I think I was quoted ~$470 including delivery for a 50mm 25mm wide wheelset which comes in at around £363 according to google.
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Sounds good with the current exchange rates!
Django x2 said:
Time Xpreseo or similar are what I'm thinking but looking for recommendation really. Something with plenty of adjustment to avoid long distance knee injuries, etc.
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Do you suffer from a recurring knee injury? Cleat setup and placement will totally control any knee stresses, far more than a cleat type! Positioning/comfort is quite a personal thing too! Most cleat types have a cleat option or pedal strength setting with lots of float.
ThaReaperGuy said:
Regarding the Zuus wheels, I got them mainly for the peace of mind (hopefully) if anything went wrong, would rather deal with a UK seller then an eBay/AliX seller that could shut up shop whenever they fancied! :eek:

Plus warranty & Crash replacement sounded quite nice.
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Who's to say Zuus will be there in a years time! ;)

To be honest though, the amount of them I'm starting to see around (know at least 2 local guys using them) they're becoming quite a popular choice.
 
got a craft performance rain jacket for 50p cos it had a small rip in it the other day. Fixed with repair tape. Performed superbly this morning.
 
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