Faster Please

jempi

Tony Rymer wrote:

Always best to recognise the variables in what can be measured, time, speed, heart rate, distance etc and only change one at a time appreciating that when commuting there can many obstacles on the journey

My apologies, I don't understand fully what you mean. Do you mean it's a bad idea to mix or combine parameters/measurements ?

chris_bass

Jempi wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

i was reading some reviews of the garmin edge 130 and it seems pretty decent for the price and has strava live segment info (also power meter support! )

A good option I think. What holds me back a bit here is the lack of ant+ and mapping. Think those are worth 100 euro on the longterm. Also I have terrible experiences with garmin car gps'es. I know its not fair to compare but the things that frustrated me there I recognise in the reviews of the bike gpseses...

It has Ant+ support and yu are able to follow routes on it, we all know DC Rainmaker knows his stuff and he said this:

"When it comes to navigation, the Edge 130 offers the ability to follow tracks and display alerts about upcoming turns. It’s akin to how most Garmin wearables work in terms of following a breadcrumb trail. You can create those routes/courses on Garmin Connect or via Garmin Connect Mobile, and then sync them to the device. This means you can also use Garmin Connect’s newish course creator to get automated routes of a given distance generated (i.e. a 30-mile course using popularity routing):"

and this:

"Like I said at the start – this is really the unit that impressed me the most in terms of features to price, and it’s ironically the one I expected to be least impressed by. Sometimes good things come in small packages."

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2018/04/gar ... eview.html

jempi

the edge130 has ant+, I was wrong about that. I read the review of it here on bikeradar. They state that there is navigation but no mapping, you just get a black line on a white screen with your route, but no data around that line. That's a bummer I feel.
For all the rest it looks great for the money and other specs are very close to an elemnt.
My christmas tree will consider it !
I loved my tomtom watch that I use to run but it's not super for cycling. A pitty they don't make cycling computers.

ugo.santalucia

You have a BMI of 26.8 and although this is a fairly generic indicator, you are bang on in the middle of the "overweight" category. The first step to "go faster" would be to reduce such number to 25 or less, which broadly means losing 6-7 kg. Given your commute, it shouldn't be a big task

jempi

ugo.santalucia wrote:

You have a BMI of 26.8 and although this is a fairly generic indicator, you are bang on in the middle of the "overweight" category. The first step to "go faster" would be to reduce such number to 25 or less, which broadly means losing 6-7 kg. Given your commute, it shouldn't be a big task

My weight has dropped from 91 to 87 in the last two months and is still going down. This week it was just under 87kg.
My first goal is 85. If things go well 80 could become a goal. Riding more and eathing less works great
Keep in mind that I have a very physical job, so my fat% is certainly not that of a typical bmi-27 fatso.
And even in my taekwondo days I was around 85kg, so I guess i'm just big boned
It's good you mentioned it, cause it's definitely the cheapest way to get faster !

jempi

So after a windy winter I understand the power meter better

I bought the wahoo elemnt (the big one not the bolt) around christmas) found a discount for the pack with te sensors, super cool, thank you Santa !
When I saw the results of the heart rate sensor I was quite shocked. When I learned about zone 1 & 2 I was shocked even more. With my "training" it seemed I was just killing me slowly.
I still go nuts and still chase speedpedelecs but now I make sure my weekly heart average is around 75% in zone 1 & 2 .

Firts weeks where hell, I was extremely slow, mostly around 22 km/h @135 bpm.
Never thought my legs would hurt so much by riding slow. A couple of weeks later things starting to look better.
Reaching 25km/h and more @ 135bpm. And I'm getting back pr's on the segments I choose out to go full on.
Checked the strava's of some pro's and some juniors. I was shocked. I know they ride in groups and I don't, but to get averages above 30km/h over 150km at an HR average around 120 bpm realy opened my eyes the way I should train.

The next upgrade will be a new wheel set for my caad12.
I fell in love with those zipp 302's but my bikeshop advised me to build custom wheels for me. they advised me to take alloy dt-swiss r155 rims with 28 spokes with a classic 350 hub instead of carbon clinchers.
half te price, super stiff and a little bit aero (32mm).
A good advice?

darkhairedlord

Jempi wrote:

So after a windy winter I understand the power meter better

I bought the wahoo elemnt (the big one not the bolt) around christmas) found a discount for the pack with te sensors, super cool, thank you Santa !
When I saw the results of the heart rate sensor I was quite shocked. When I learned about zone 1 & 2 I was shocked even more. With my "training" it seemed I was just killing me slowly.
I still go nuts and still chase speedpedelecs but now I make sure my weekly heart average is around 75% in zone 1 & 2 .

Firts weeks where hell, I was extremely slow, mostly around 22 km/h @135 bpm.
Never thought my legs would hurt so much by riding slow. A couple of weeks later things starting to look better.
Reaching 25km/h and more @ 135bpm. And I'm getting back pr's on the segments I choose out to go full on.
Checked the strava's of some pro's and some juniors. I was shocked. I know they ride in groups and I don't, but to get averages above 30km/h over 150km at an HR average around 120 bpm realy opened my eyes the way I should train.

The next upgrade will be a new wheel set for my caad12.
I fell in love with those zipp 302's but my bikeshop advised me to build custom wheels for me. they advised me to take alloy dt-swiss r155 rims with 28 spokes with a classic 350 hub instead of carbon clinchers.
half te price, super stiff and a little bit aero (32mm).
A good advice?

Could be faulty HRM.

jempi

Could be faulty HRM.

Mine of those of the pro's?
The pro's only share HR in the wintertraining.
The juniors sometimes in races.
In wintertraining there all between 100 & 75 % @ zone 1&2.
In races they are mostly around 75% to 60% in zone 1&2.

What I wonder most: How do they ( or how do you train ) brake away and then drop there HR again and still stay ahaed of the pack.
Not in the final miles but like Thomas De Gendt and such, after 10 km.
I taught they were just in the red all day (and are trained that way) but if you check data you see they do that in zone 2.

ugo.santalucia

Stick your forearms on the bars and tuck down, you can watch videos of Cancellara doing it... it's very effective, as effective as riding with aero bars... it's over 1 mph gain... no need for extra training, no need for extra power

It's free speed, grab it...

jempi

I tried that a while ago but it didn't feel good. Could not get my arms stable. It felt like my arms shove trough. Could it be you can do that only on a flat aero steer? I have a classic round deda zero. I try it again my next rides, maybe it goes better now I ride more relaxed.

A couple of years ago you saw those mini tt-bars a lot. I don't see them no more but was that any good?

I love to tuck away in the classic way. Elbows in 90° and head down, in the drops or on the tops. Making myself as compact as possible. I like to pull on the steer a lot also.

darkhairedlord

You need to just relax, don't look at the HRM ride on feel. Analyse the data later if you want but not during the ride, youll just skew the outcomes. Of course the pro's can ride away then keep up a good tempo, they're pro's. They may appear to into the red but it's a calculated gamble and managed effort, the total energy expended over the stage will still be to plan, whether the extra effort is at the start or the finish.

Most or all of the above may or may not be true.

jempi

They may appear to into the red but it's a calculated gamble and managed effort, the total energy expended over the stage will still be to plan

Yeah I know, but how to train for that?
I would like to know cause my hobby is to chase down speedpedelecs.
So most of the time I have to sprint all out to catch up with theme and then I can follow them for quite long distances.
But I see I never really get my HR down. It's around 180 in the sprint, when I'm in the wheel it drops a little bit but always stays above 170, 175. If I could train for that specific then I could go to the next step: passing them!!

I've succeeded that like three times in the last year. Twice at 40 km/h for like 1km. And this morning on a long bridge (0,5km up and 0,5km down) but the speedpedelc only rode 35 km/h. It was kind of a slowpedelec. Still that gave a good. feeling

Midlands Grimpeur

Yeah I know, but how to train for that?

I assume what you are referring to is how to increase your power and speed whilst lowering your HR? In my experience the best way to do this is to train at tempo pace or just below threshold HR. If you start to do 2-3 rides a week at this intensity (duration of at least 30mins) you should start to see some changes to your fitness and then an increase in speed for less effort. This takes time though, most likely months for consistent improvements.

For example when I started to train properly some years ago my tempo HR rate was around 150bpm. On a training ride I would generally average 28/29 kmh at this HR, regardless of duration of ride. I would now expect to average 32-34kmh at that HR but that is after years of training and building my endurance. From memory, even starting to see a 1-2kmh increase took 18 months of regular tempo sessions, week after week. Simple fact is there are no shortcuts to being consistently faster, it is being consistent with your training and having patience.

jempi

I skipped the LSD-sessions completely. It feels great and I have never been faster. I just follow my legs now. Mostly that's going hard. Sometimes that's going slow. My average HR is stupendously high. Mostly around 150 to 160 bpm. I only do short rides max 2 hours. Sometimes I do cadence drills.