Working towards 20mph

pinno

orraloon wrote:

StravAsshole is yon kid who, under whatever other id, was dissing Steve Abraham months back, yeah?

Oh yeah. Good work Inspector Orraloon.

burnthesheep

Original thread starter checking in again.

At the expense of my own shame, I thought this was worth posting the pictures of: 9 months of serious riding has seen a gain of 1.5w/kg. Less MAMIL filling up that kit these days.

Mt. Mitchell, just the last climb, 2017 around Aug/Sep: ~180 lbs


Assault on Mt Mitchell 2018, beast of the east fondo 103mi 11k feet: ~150 lbs and a better kit

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Good job, hope you are climbing those hills quicker now!

burnthesheep

It's night and day difference uphill.

There's differing opinions on it, but if you're a cyclist without huge hours to train, keeping a good weight can really be a great thing.

MiddleRinger

Great job!

That amount of weight drop - plus added power - would certainly make a HUGE difference.

(and now you no longer need to hide behind signs, lol)

burnthesheep

MiddleRinger wrote:

Great job!

That amount of weight drop - plus added power - would certainly make a HUGE difference.

(and now you no longer need to hide behind signs, lol)

Someone figured that one out! I knew it for a year, and nobody ever said anything. I was definitely hiding behind the sign in the old picture.

I bought a cyclocross bike for my birthday. Used, but very nice. It's a 2014 Crockett. I'm going to do a 100mi gravel grinder in October and do a few cross races in the fall/winter. Being light makes practicing run-ups a little easier. Or running with a bike period.

My pet project is to get to a 4.5 watt/kg (20min, not hour). No more weight can be utilized to reach that goal now. Only power. I need another 30 watts. I should get 300 by end of this year without issue.

Thanks for all the encouraging posts. For anyone out there doubting, this is from dedicated riding for 2 years. About 1 year of that with dedicated training and watching the diet. Let's be clear, I'm not THAT fast or good at this. But it's just proof that an average joe dad can be a decent rider.

So you can do it too! And this is on "only" about 4 to 7 hours a week on average. No coach, no Strava premium or Trainingpeaks, just a spreadsheet and a power meter and some determination.

Oh, and reading lots of arguments from Andy Coggan over on the Slowtwitch forums.

burnthesheep

It doesn't take a lot of power to do it, even alone. Went out yesterday for a solo training ride and the stars aligned and got it. I pay more attention to the training zones than speed and stuff these days, but thought it interesting that I got it.

I think the elevation is a bit generous, maybe 3k feet. Certainly not 3800. But, this was on the road bike out alone for a training ride.

So, there you have it, done.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2395950947

For that power and ride, if interested this is on a Propel, GP4000's with latex on old Giant PSLR wheels, normal kit, Evade lid, and I weigh about 70kg. Probably 68 or 69kg by the end of the ride.

Wayne Plunger

burnthesheep wrote:

It doesn't take a lot of power to do it, even alone. Went out yesterday for a solo training ride and the stars aligned and got it. I pay more attention to the training zones than speed and stuff these days, but thought it interesting that I got it.

I think the elevation is a bit generous, maybe 3k feet. Certainly not 3800. But, this was on the road bike out alone for a training ride.

So, there you have it, done.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2395950947

For that power and ride, if interested this is on a Propel, GP4000's with latex on old Giant PSLR wheels, normal kit, Evade lid, and I weigh about 70kg. Probably 68 or 69kg by the end of the ride.

Fair play, you reached your goal. Perhaps you may need to set another to keep you motivated!

pinno

Tour de France next.

willhub

On flat/hilly (half and half on a ride) - 67 miles I used to manage at my best 22.3MPH average, that was solo at 73kg with an average was of around 265W, before by powertap broke .

Now I struggle to hit 19mph on a proper ride, weighing in at 86kg and max of 240W average now and a limit of about 30 miles before a end up bonking.

It's so depressing when form is lost and you need to work up to it again. I don't think I'll ever be as fit as I used to be, even then I felt like crap though. I feel like an inferior human now, doesn't help I love my takeaway chicken tikka every week and greggs pasties at work.

Freelikethewind

I run a 20 minute 5k and can run 10k at 7 minute miles and I couldn't get anywhere near 20mph average over three hours on a bike! Very different types of fitness running and cycling

willhub

Fitness is so different between them. Make me run 100 metres and I'm out of breath and pulled my back out lol.

kingstongraham

Freelikethewind wrote:

I run a 20 minute 5k and can run 10k at 7 minute miles and I couldn't get anywhere near 20mph average over three hours on a bike! Very different types of fitness running and cycling

Also, 20 minute and 40 minute efforts are quite different to 3 hour efforts...

Freelikethewind

True. More speed endurance than out and out endurance.
Just someone posted further up that they thought a half marathon at 8min mile pace equated to 3 hours on the bike at 20mph
I could run a half marathon at that pace but not 20mph on the bike!

burnthesheep

Freelikethewind wrote:

I run a 20 minute 5k and can run 10k at 7 minute miles and I couldn't get anywhere near 20mph average over three hours on a bike! Very different types of fitness running and cycling

In the time between last writing in this topic, I did take up running a bit in the off season and maybe once a week or so to get a little "load bearing" exercise.

I set a goal to break 25min in a 5k run. It took a little bit of time, but I broke it twice during the same duathlon I did in April.

In April I went 21:30 for the first 5k, did 23.5 mph on the bike leg for 30k (TT bike), then did the second run in 23:00.

To give an idea how "normal" those 5k times are to a runner, I managed 2nd best bike split but the "runners" ran about 18min for both 5k runs. Even then, those are duathlon run paces for them, not standalone 5k. Those chaps could probably do 16min for just one and done. That's just soooo fast!

New goal is to break an hour for a 40k on the TT bike. On good weather and good roads I'm getting close. But more training and a bit better tires are necessary. Sprinter tubs aren't super quick.

ben@31

Kajjal wrote:

On the flat, riding in the drops, on a well maintained / setup bike you would need to be very fit to keep it going at 20mph average for three hours. In reality the wind, hills, road surface and traffic would make this alot harder. In a pack much easier.

This is why I think its better to have a power goal in watts than a speed goal. As average power takes wind, hills, road surface, drafting, soft pedalling into account.

w00dster

Hi Ben, that's only possible with a power meter. Without one the best instrument is the speedo. I agree with the sentiment though. I did a ride yesterday, only 32 miles, my average power was estimated at 198 watts. Which I would suggest was way out. But its impossible to say for sure, it was windy yesterday, and while it was a circular route, I reckon I was not far below threshold for a good portion of the ride.
But completely agree that power is the only accurate way of tracking a ride - speed is much more arbitrary based on conditions.
I can comfortably do 75 mile solo rides in excess of 20mph (weather and route dependent), but I couldn't even run a bath. Even the thought of running 5km hurts my knees! I'd rather stick pins in my eyes....
My 12 year old daughter is a track runner, part of a successful club. Watching the older teens run is phenomenal, some of them are really talented. I do keep looking for a parent and kids duathlon so she can do the running leg for me.

ugo.santalucia

ben@31 wrote:

Kajjal wrote:

On the flat, riding in the drops, on a well maintained / setup bike you would need to be very fit to keep it going at 20mph average for three hours. In reality the wind, hills, road surface and traffic would make this alot harder. In a pack much easier.

This is why I think its better to have a power goal in watts than a speed goal. As average power takes wind, hills, road surface, drafting, soft pedalling into account.

Speed is still a pretty reliable indicator. Over the same 50 km loop, giving it the beans early in the morning with no traffic, I average between 29 km/h (windy) and 30.5 (calm), so not a lot of difference

pinno

ugo.santalucia wrote:

ben@31 wrote:

Kajjal wrote:

On the flat, riding in the drops, on a well maintained / setup bike you would need to be very fit to keep it going at 20mph average for three hours. In reality the wind, hills, road surface and traffic would make this alot harder. In a pack much easier.

This is why I think its better to have a power goal in watts than a speed goal. As average power takes wind, hills, road surface, drafting, soft pedalling into account.

Speed is still a pretty reliable indicator. Over the same 50 km loop, giving it the beans early in the morning with no traffic, I average between 29 km/h (windy) and 30.5 (calm), so not a lot of difference

Not that windy where you are obviously.

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