BT Winter Cycling Program Challenge 2015 - 2016 (Page 4)

Originally posted by Bradleykd Oh good lord! Did the 20 minute test. I'm dead now... lol! https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/2681404-20-Minute-Test253 for the 20 minute average!

Originally posted by SHTri I have a power meter and use Garmin connect. How do I upload my data?

Originally posted by Donto

]To post a pix, its best to upload the picture to an photo hosting site or make an album on your photo album here on BT.  Then you copy the link of the picture and use the 'inset/edit image' tool on the message post toolbar (looks like small mountain scene icon next to the chain link icon).  When you select the icon the sub-window pops up and you paste the link into the Source line, also recommend to adjust the image dimensions to be no larger that 700 wide then tab over to the next input so that the image auto-scales the height.

I think you can also select the 'Attach a file after posting' at the bottom of a message post and it may display if its a jpg file, not 100% on that though.

Originally posted by TTom

20 min test done, but not cleanly. A comedy of errors as it turns out.

As Don suggested, I targeted 200W for the 20'.  Ended up having to take a break at the 15' point (explanation follows) but got back on board at 16'.  Ended up with a 202W AP for the first 15' and 203W for the last 4 minutes.  Overall, the 20' segment came in at 195W.  Here's what the ugly thing looked like:

At somewhere around the 12 minute mark I started to get a squeaking sound from my rear wheel.  I'd decided to set a new standard for setup following Don's example and go to 110 psi and when I did I found I needed to actually crank the tension up a half turn to make sure that there was no slippage.  So, when I started hearing the sound, I thought I'd screwed it up and was getting slippage.  Over the next few minutes the volume and duration of the sound increased so it seemed slippage on the trainer shaft wasn't the issue, and I could not get it to correlate to anything in particular in terms of pedal position, etc., but it seemed that it took more effort to sustain the cadence.  I put that off to fatigue and at 15 minutes, the effort had gotten high enough that I had to back off for a minute.  I noticed when I did the periodicity of the sound also dropped, but the volume continued to increase.  Said screw it at minute 16 and cranked it back up determined to finish the test with some modicum of composure.  I have to admit to being somewhat worried it could be metal on metal somewhere but wasn't going to stop the test that far in!

So what was it?  For this challenge I'm using my Cervelo P2 Tri bike, doing all the work in Aero to make the power results track to race day.  The rear fork of the Cervelo where the wheel mounts uses a horizontal mount as opposed to a vertical mount.  Thus, the wheel slides on to the frame directly from the rear of the bike as opposed to from below it.

Apparently the combination of the increased tire pressure and the increased in tension, coupled with what apparently was not a tight enough skewer, pushed the wheel forward in the mount.  It seems that either the tire has more rubber in one section or the wheel is slightly out of true, with the result that one section of the tire was actually rubbing up against the frame on the vertical bar beneath the seat, increasing the effort required to maintain a given cadence - and causing the grating sound.  I don't think it would have any impact on the outcome of the test if I had kept going for the entire 20 minutes, so I'm going to just go with the 195W number for this period of the challenge.  Oh, and reposition the tire while tightening the snot out of the skewer.

Originally posted by TTom

Way to go Brad - looks like you executed that test just like it was made for you with a bit of a push at the end.  Great start!

Originally posted by TTom

Started thinking about the end goal of the program, being faster on the bike, and realized it was a nebulous concept to me; I need something a little more real world. I didn’t really have a handle on what a given increase in power would do for me when I got to a race, so started looking on the web for some guidance. Found a pretty neat interactive site http://www.gribble.org/cycling/power_v_speed.html that allows you to plug in your weight, bike weight and other factors (which I left at their estimates) and get a nice chart that shows how much speed is generated at a given power level. So I plugged in my info and came up with the following chart:

 

I took that and captured the data in 10W increments from 150-220 and put it in a spreadsheet to allow me to calculate what race times would be at given power levels. Here’s what that looks like:

 

I’m thinking that after I get a well-established CP that can be extrapolated over different ride times (I doubt that I’ll get a good set of CP data for actual 112 mile rides prior to race day!) and couple that with a few practice runs on the actual race course with the topography it presents, it should be possible to get a good idea of what level of effort would be required to hit a target bike split. If nothing else, it certainly gets the thoughts going and may help me understand what I stand to gain if I can increase the power level I can hold by 20-30W between now and race day.

Does this look like something worthwhile to those of you more versed in Power use, or am I veering off the tracks here?

Originally posted by SHTri Also in regards to the testing I believe you are using the standard testing protocol outlined in Allen and Coggan Training and racing with power meter. I assume these tests are done tandem and not on separate days correct?

Originally posted by SHTri I have a power meter and use Garmin connect. How do I upload my data?

Originally posted by TTom

Started thinking about the end goal of the program, being faster on the bike, and realized it was a nebulous concept to me; I need something a little more real world. I didn’t really have a handle on what a given increase in power would do for me when I got to a race, so started looking on the web for some guidance. Found a pretty neat interactive site http://www.gribble.org/cycling/power_v_speed.html that allows you to plug in your weight, bike weight and other factors (which I left at their estimates) and get a nice chart that shows how much speed is generated at a given power level. So I plugged in my info and came up with the following chart:

 

I took that and captured the data in 10W increments from 150-220 and put it in a spreadsheet to allow me to calculate what race times would be at given power levels. Here’s what that looks like:

 

I’m thinking that after I get a well-established CP that can be extrapolated over different ride times (I doubt that I’ll get a good set of CP data for actual 112 mile rides prior to race day!) and couple that with a few practice runs on the actual race course with the topography it presents, it should be possible to get a good idea of what level of effort would be required to hit a target bike split. If nothing else, it certainly gets the thoughts going and may help me understand what I stand to gain if I can increase the power level I can hold by 20-30W between now and race day.

Does this look like something worthwhile to those of you more versed in Power use, or am I veering off the tracks here?

Originally posted by TTom

Randy, thanks for the BestBikeSplit link.  I plugged in current values for the Vineman IM based on the last round of testing then created a second "what if" scenario where the FTP had increased by 30W.  According to their algorithm, that would result in a time savings of 24 minutes on the bike, not inconsequential.  My starting point for this challenge is pretty low, so I'm hoping for some significant gains and 30W more would just put me to about where I was (based on the TR virtual  power) in mid training for the last time I raced there.  The key takeaway for me is the knowledge of a significant return on the next 15 weeks of pain investment I'll be seeing.  And the timing is right to segue from the challenge into the training for a race in July.  I just have to learn to love the trainer . . .

Originally posted by johnthecat Ok after a crazy busy week I finally targeted my 5 minute test. This is the first time I'm using a bike trainer and I'm trying to use Golden Cheetah. I'm not quite sure I have my setup where it needs to be as I was able to get to speeds I'm not able to hit on the roads. Also I got interrupted by my two little ones multiple times so I had to eventually abandon the test. Will try again either later tonight or tomorrow. Any tips on how tight the wheel should sit against the trainer? When I do a hand spin I get a little bit over 1 rotation on the tire, but then every spin by hand is not necessarily consistent with the previous one. I guess I have to play with it and adjust where it feels more like the real road and go from there. Also my trainer isn't listed on any of the sites with a power curve (I have a Sunlite mag trainer). Do you guys think I can use the power curve from a different mag trainer or do they differ so much where I should just do the program based on heart rate and not power? Thanks Markus

Originally posted by Donto

Dave, I'm not familiar with GC.  If it can perform power analysis, take the 5' average and the 20' average numbers and input them into the Google spreadsheet to calc the CP.

Must of us are using a trainer program to perform the WO's.  I posted on page 1 the .mrc files for the phase 1 workouts if you need them.  I'm using MaximumTrainer and others are using Perfpro and TrainerRoad.  After the WO is completed I take a screenshot with the snipit tool and attach the file or link it from a photo hosting site.  Or you can jsut paste a link for others to view your WO as Brad did.

Originally posted by TTom

As I was finishing up the the 5x1m VO2 +15 min tempo workout today, I was thinking back to the 20 minute test and the problem I had with the tire rubbing on the frame.  Decided I better take a look to see if the new positioning was holding well (appears to be) and in the process looked at the tire to try and gauge how out of true it was.  The big surprise was how much wear there was on the portion of the tire that was rubbing.  The tire was fairly new and I had planned to ride both on the trainer and road with the bike over the coming months, so didn't switch over to a training tire.  Oops.  The portion of the tire shown on the right was not rubbing and you can still see the bead.  The portion shown on the left where it was rubbing, well, I guess I understand why it got progressively harder and louder:

I guess my lbs will be seeing me soon for a tire truing visit. 

Originally posted by triosaurus Donto, Which version of Max...Trainer are you using, free or paid? I see the free version lists a 15-min workout length. Thanks

Originally posted by triosaurus Sorry folks, another question or two. I have an old trainer, no PM, so will have to use virtual power. I guess I will need a USB stick, sensor, and the power curve. I found the power curves in the trainer's manual... But how do you add that to the cycle software? Where and what brand sensor and USB stick to get? I need to be frugal, so free software is ... easiest. I could buy a one-time program if required, like perfpro. Sorry if I am on wrong thread...