It wasn't an 81 mile epic like Yogurt boy's but it kicked my ass.
Here's what ya do when ya need to get some sore legs...
Ride your cross bike, with 32 spoke wire wheels, and 38c wire bead heavy ass commuter tires, with a couple guys riding wicked light carbon bikes and wheels that cost more than your whole cross bike put together (maybe not including the powertap) and 23c tires.
To make it worse, i got a shell from the fall out zone. Didn't get flat till we were sitting waiting to head out. So - we delayed departure by a few minutes while i changed the flat. GD seagulls... And so rather than having the 75 psi i started out with in the morning. I was riding somewhere around 35-40. Why not more?
Well you try and pump up a 38x700 wheel with a mini-pump. Plenty of air to prevent a pinch flat... but... not enough air to make it easy to keep up with the two fit yahoos on the fancy bikes.
When ya look down in the draft and are working and see 350watts on the display ya think no freaking way. It feels like 350 watts, but i'm in the draft, i don't have a trailer. Check zero... yup calibrated... 'fuck now i'm gapped' shit this ride's gonna SUCK...
When guys you've ridden with start saying "I've never heard GeWilli breath this hard" ya know its a bit of a work out.
Stats. the one meaningful one: 1780kJ of work in a tad over 2 hours. Even if i had just Yogurt boy'd it it still would have been one heck of a lot of work.
Fuel? Banana, Shift (straw Ban flavor) 1/2 pot of french press coffee, and... 1/2 bottle of gatorade with a shake or two of sea salt. Followed it up with the offer of a bowl of oatmeal at the cafe we started at. I couldn't pass up a bowl of oatmeal. Big heaping bowl, mounded with chopped almonds and rasins, drenched with honey and a touch of milk. Went down well. Pretty damn big bowl too. Its great to have team mates that bring cash when you forget to.
There were some great climbs and one town line sprint that i had to win, even if on the slow bike...
And Murat is making a great argument against carbon cages. Gimme an old fashioned rig... ya know, bent wire... heavy... no chance to drop or eject a bottle... ones that work :D
anyway - i just DL'd the data - the 15 minute ride in i managed an average around 3w/kg felt like i was working hard. I needed to get in on time.
Turns out the full 1.5 hours on the bike during the 'ride' i was averaging (and it wasn't flat) 2.6 w/kg i know... i know... not that great... only 1250kJ/1.5 hours or only 833 kJ/hr but it hurt... and knowing those guys weren't working any where near as hard made it tough. It makes me want to stick some different tires on... but then... heck... i can maximize my time on the bike and increase my work load by running these obese tires - and that's a good thing...
right now i'm feeling like OTB material. But had a positive note too. One of the guys on the ride said he'd tried showing up on a group ride with big tires on his cross bike and got shelled, turned back early and barely made it to his door. some comfort there. Gotta stay positive. I just keep reminding myself - this will translate in the benefits for cross season...
one of the longish hills it helped (the tap did), i was tempted to jump like normal and slowly fizzle, but this time i dug in and held my ground, at a mellow 440 at the bottom, and kept it at or above that mark all the way up the hill and it worked. Rather than exploding at 600 at the base and fizzlin so i can barely turn over 200... i held it... felt great...
example when yes - you might be able to do that w/o the tap but having a metric there for me is helpful...
My legs are sore...
respect
G
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
You have been riding 10 hours a week all fucking winter. If you are OTB in April, there is no hope for the world.
That said, your training is probably f'd. Too many medium days make a medium rider. Too many medium days in a row make a tired mofo.
You've got to make the commuting work for you. It's a great opportunity, but it's not exactly and Olympic training center program. Some days you just got to go easier, especially riding twice a day. Some other days just have to be longer and harder.
I concur.. Murat begins riding to work when the low temps stay above 45 or so (soon I hope).
My ride is 13-1/2 miles each way, but on certain days I leave home earlier and make it 26 or so miles.. or other days I stretch the ride home to about 30 miles.. And on some days I make it an all out go for broke effort to achieve a PR time..
I too anticipate that the G-ster will have excellent endurance, but worry about speed. We should all meet up for a "bloggers ride" one of these days and subject ourselves to each other's scathing criticism on such matters. Either of you going to Wells Ave this Sunday? Promises to be less than leg-breaking with most of the hammer pilots going to Marblehead. Last year's April 1 Wells Ave race averaged 24-1/2 mph.
As a measure or judge of the daily jaunt i do - sometimes i'm only on the bike for one hour 20 minutes total, some days it is 2 hours...
same distance...
Speed work? Might be helpful...
although, what is speed anyway? Power right?
The internal combustion engine is a good model, sort of.
My fuel economy should be pretty good - my torque is pretty solid and i'm making acceptable power i think...
now to just take the motor out of the 2 ton limo and drop it in the 1500 pound race chassis...
Power=speed, sort of..
but speed does not necessarily equal power. You can have great power and terrible acceleration. You can have great power without the ability to go very fast (such as people who are 20-30 pounds overweight- powerful but slow, just able to pull a lot more weight)
Ever go motorpacing behind a motorcycle or car or van? (I mean with a friend driving, deliberately) Doesn't take much power to get up to speed, does it? IMHO, motorpacing is a way to "get used to the speed".
Too many factors relative to this sport.. speed, strength, power, endurance, LT, AT, VO2, all mean different things. We all have a unique combination of limits, for all of the above. I'm against pinning it all on power and dismissing the rest. It's one of the larger factors, but not the only one.
Yes - power in that i should stop and correct the common misconception that i made...
Power to weight... w/kg
Big fat ass might make 1000 watts but if his peak w/kg is only 4-4.5 he ain't gonna be going very fast...
Acceleration = torque
Torque = leverage/force
leg speed + above = power (ala high rpm power making)
Diesel with massive torque will beat an equal weighted gas car off the line but will run out of RPM before the gasser will and doesn't develop as much horse power and will loose a longer drag race...
but yes i cannot disagree of find fault in any of your wise advice/knowledge...
Post a Comment