We received word Saturday that the course would be changed racing to Middlebelt and back three times. Long story short, the water drained off the road and the original course was back on.
The course was wet and a little muddy. Everyone coming in looked like they had been in a cyclocross race.
My race went well. I felt no wind riding to Nankin but after the turn around it seemed like I was getting a good push. (Big Ray told me that it is actually slightly downhill on this section.) About four miles into the effort, my fancy new aero water bottle departed my bike. I felt something hit my leg then the bottle was jettisoned. My first thought was, "Can keep my time down with no water?" To make matters worse, I hadn't had a sip out of that bottle. After the second turn around I noticed some headwind. I struggled a little on this leg against the wind. I knew I just had to hang in there and keep my speed up because I was going to fly on the way back to the finish. After the last turn around I picked up the tailwind and proceeded downhill to Helms. My bike computer said 27.2 mph average by the time I was going under Telegraph Rd on the final stretch. I switched my computer back to elapsed time and I realized this number couldn't be correct. That speed would have me finishing around 55 minutes, I think and I was definitely going beyond that. Anyway, I hammered up to 400 watts to the finish and ended up with a 56:51 good for first in the cat 3's and sixth overall.
My normative power was 285 watts up 5 watts from the previous weeks effort. That small amount of added power doesn't account for the almost one minute off the earlier effort. The difference maker was the aero wheel I borrowed from Mike Sackett. He loaned me his Bontrager Aeolus. Thanks Mike!!
James "Bike Boy" Anderson had a rough go of it in his bid for a State title. He believes he was told to go "1 lap" but he understood that to mean one lap on the new course. When he got to the turn around there was no water and no turn around so he kept going. Eventually he became concerned that he missed and he turned before the official turn around. When he came in around :29 I knew something was messed up. We asked for and were granted another try so James went out a second time an hour and a half after his first effort. That effort yielded a 32:48. At the end of the day he was DQF'd. We learned a few more lessons through all of this.
My gentle sweet little girl, Abby, rode her first TT in wet muddy conditions and won! She is the champion!
Monday, June 30, 2008
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12 comments:
Good work winning the Cat 3.
That TT equipment must make a huge difference, I pushed 314W avg/317W norm, on a stock-bike with clip-ons, and managed a 1:01:50.
Aero is everything. Gotta get out of the wind. The aero helmet is just huge also. Skinsuit...it all adds up. I can't remember if you had an aero helmet or not. If you didn't, my guess is that would have brought your time down under 60. Aero wheels, take off another minute. TT bike, take of at least another minute. Now you are looking at a 58. Loosen up those mountain biker hammy's get down lower on the bike and you may be looking at a 57.
"teenager who lost his bike later on that same day"
So basically what you're saying is that I'm an idiot who misunderstood the officials?
You rocked it, Ace! And not to toot my own horn, but let me also point out that my prediction of a minute off with the aero wheels a few posts ago was pretty much spot on. (Although given that my unstated margin of error was +/- 30s, I'm so sure how significant this is.)
These aero gains don't quite all sum up linearly, but you're right that a good position, an aero helmet, and a skinsuit can make a huge difference. And a normed power of 285W? Are you sure that thing is reading right? Somehow that seems a touch on the low side.
Dr. DMO, professor of speed, I thank you for all your wisdom! Don't think I won't be picking your brain when you're in Boston and Vancouver!
After working with several different power meters and my Computrainer I am pretty comfortable with my meter. Eric's SRM has a significant error and I don't know if it has been resolved or if it is even necessary. When I tested him I noted the SRM was reading very high. The Power Tap meters have been pretty good when compared with the Computrainer. However, I can't quite work out Alan's numbers. I had his same basic setup two years ago on that course and was about 23 seconds slower. I am very confident I put out more power now than I did then. Alan, you might want to check your meter and make sure it is zeroed. If it is a wireless, I would be happy to swap you at crit practice and we can check it.
I was completely stock-bike, except for some aero bars I put on that morning and guessed on the position of them. (No TT helmet, regular jersey/shorts, no booties. I did lose the gloves though, and put a waterbottle in the back-cage). I did manage to stay in the tuck for everything except the turn-around - though I have no idea how good my position was.
I think my power-numbers are good (at least consistent with what I've seen with that hub):
- I didn't zero it morning of - but I did notice it did read 0 when I was coasting. I also have the auto-zero on.
- My CP60 as measured back in January before the bulk of my LT work was 337W. At this point the hub was about 2 months old.
- Based on my L4 training - my CP60 appears correct
- Tests on a different PT hub last year in March '07 had my CP60 around 290, so 337 after a year doesn't seem too unrealistic.
That being said:
- The offset as I sit here is 535, which is a tad high - neutral, is 512.
I'd chalk it up to different conditions, it was cooler and more humid (higher air density, greater effort to move through it), and the mud-slinging is probably worth a few J's here and there, maybe even wind conditions.
I have the wired 2.4 system - so no clue on whether that'll work with a wireless hub. I'm taking a break this week on the bike - if you're around for the crit practice we can give it a shot.
*Crit practice next week I'll be around for that.
Doug how do these spammers make it through even though I have word verification set up?
These power meters do have some error of course. I tell my athletes not to sweat it too much either way as long as they use the same meter for testing and training. So if your CP60 comes out at 300 or 320 it matters not because your training zones will be based off of those same numbers. The only problem is if you apply those numbers to training done on a different meter or recalibrate your meter without re-testing and adjusting your zones for the difference. One of my athletes using the power tap was getting a consistent 25 watt error on the high side. His hub eventually failed and he got a new one from Saris. When the new one came in it agreed with my computrainer. As I mentioned that SRM unit had a similar error. That error wasn't a big deal as long as we used the powertap numbers for his training. If I used the computrainer numbers then assigned power zones he would not have been affecting the targeted metabolic systems. Wonderful equipment. I wouldn't train any other way but sometimes they can leave you scratching your head. Oh yeah, I have also noted a difference between PT and computrainer due to a chain that needed lube. Not huge, maybe 10 watts but throw on some lube and the numbers begin to line up. Dr. DMO, could you assist on the physics of that one? :-0
Alan, probably the best thing would be to come over to my "lab" and I can put you, your bike and your tap on the computrainer and make some comparisons. We could also throw mine in there and between the three meters we could probably whittle away the error in all three. Let me know if you would be interested.
Blogger's word verifications (CAPTCHAs) were cracked by bots back in May :-P
Yeah I would be down with testing in the 'lab'.
Hmmm, I don't really have a good answer. Suppose you were to superglue your rear wheel to something so that it couldn't rotate at all. Would either of those powermeters measure anything even though the hub wasn't rotating? If they would not, I guess chain lube could be important. On the other hand, if they would get a reading of you pounding on the pedals and not going anywhere, chain lube shouldn't make much difference. In this case, my best guess is that the strain gauges in these devices are temperature-sensitive and take a while to warm up.
Oh, and maybe I should start doing aero consultations?
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