SBR Utopia - OPEN (Page 119)

Hmm, I suppose that is true as well.  Back to free speed I guess.  

Thanks for the responses, everyone.  I'm currently looking for other options in terms of physician and physical therapist (my PT came highly recommended, but just kind of seemed to give up when he couldn't figure out what might be wrong or how to help me). 

And although I feel like it's not going to help, I'm going to stop all riding and running for a bit.  The reason I feel like it's not going to help is that there must be some underlying issue that no one has been able to diagnose so far, so even if I rest for a while, I think starting back up is going to bring the issues up (assuming they even get better with rest).  So hopefully while I'm taking a break I can find someone who can give me some relief.

I'm going to keep swimming (maybe skip out on kick sets), as I'm pretty sure I'd go crazy without some amount of exercise in my life!  Feeling a little lost and pessimistic right now, but hopefully it is as everyone says it is....that it will eventually get better and I won't just be injured forever.  Thanks for the support.

No, smart implies purchasing wisely. It doesn't have to be the most expensive. Zip Ties and a cheap cage for a B-T-A bottle setup will do just as well as the expensive X-Lab equivalent. Both of which are faster than basically any other bottle setup. For refilling options, it would be better to work on using a Speedfil A2 than the frame tank.

Not just purchasing, but doing things wisely (which of course means when you do purchase something, you do so wisely.

So there are all kinds of speed out there, evidently: "Earned Speed" which is the speed you get from getting up at 4:30 every morning and taking a tour through Sufferlandria. "Free Speed" when you take something that you already have and maximize it: body position, bottle location, clothing fit, etc. "Smart Speed" is comprehensive and considers a wide variety of factors, which may or may not include $$$. I think a good example was the recent discussion about tire selection where it was proposed that maybe there was a "smarter" setup than just selecting the tires with the lowest rolling resistance. Embedded in that discussion was the point that if you think of your bike (in this example) as a system then you have to think about all sorts of variables when constructing the overall system. Heck, as I think about it that is probably actually beyond even smart speed as it takes a lot of wisdom to actually do that well. So maybe that is actually "Wise Speed?"

Nicole - just because your PT has thrown in the towel it doesn't mean that you should. It only means that it is time for you to move on. Years ago when I was suffering from a debilitating mystery injury it took me four docs and well over a year to figure out what was going on. The first one basically told me that I was not going to ever be able to swim again. The second one told me he didn't know what the problem was, but if he opened up my ankle and did some exploratory surgery he could figure it out. The third did what he knew how to do and basically gave up - he actually came across kind of frustrated with Me because I wasn't getting better. The 4th doc actually embraced the mystery and took it on as a personal challenge to solve. It took a year of trying all sorts of thing, carefully and methodically eliminating eliminating possibilities, and a year later he had me completely fixed up. So my big advice is to be persistent, don't get discouraged, and know that there is an answer out there.

My little advice is that if you are going to stick with your plan of laying off running and cycling, then at least substitute every one of your scheduled runs with a walk (if it does not cause pain) of the same duration. In my own experience this single bit of advice from my doc made a HUGE difference in my eventual comeback to running.

With my first roadie I bought a Profile Design Aero Bottle. I didn't really know about the alternatives. It's not as aero as the Speedfill, but I don't really want to go purchase something else for between my shorties. I've also a frame cage, that I kept extra water bottle during my long training rides. I wasn't thinking at that point about being super aero. Wondering if I should remove the frame cage for Saturday or not. The weather will prolly be in the 80's. 

Kate - how many aid stations on the bike course? Where are they? What does your nutrition plan call for? Are you going to live off the course?

Are you trying to freak me out?

Don't change any of this so close in. Being familiar & comfortable with using the setup is going to be far more important at this point. Especially for someone like you in not having lots of experience. Don't think about what you could do better on stuff like this. Just make sure what you have planned is ready to go.

Thanks for the movie advice. I will, look for it.

I wish we had more athletic options here. It's basically football, basketball, cross country, track, golf, and tennis for boys. Not even baseball and soccer. Forget about swimming or any kind of cycling.

Well of course not!

Hydration is one of the things I personally change up a lot based on the answers to those questions. I did a hot HIM two years ago that had aid stations roughly every 10 miles so only took one bottle (between the arms) and the frame bottle (downtube) came off. My plan had me at about 100 calories per hour from liquid, so i just alternated between sports drink and water between each hand up. Last years HIM (also hot) had lots of slow climbing and 3 bottle exchanges. I kept the frame cage and kept about a half bottle of each sports drink and water all the time. 3 years ago one of our HIMs was VERY, VERY hot (hey it's the south, all of our races are hot) and they only had two exchanges. I wound up with a bottle between the arms, one on my frame, and an empy crushed and stuck in the back of my shorts. I would toss one bottle (plus the crushed up one) grab two more and go. One went on the frame, then when I cleared the drop I would guzzle part of the third and dump the rest on me, then crush it and into the shorts till the next aid station. And that was probably not enough fluids for me, actually, but also rolled the dice and intentionally overcooked the bike a bit for those temps. I suppose some might want some alternative way to carry that third bottle...

For IMLP I will have a bottle between my arms and one somewhere else, probably on he down tube. But I will roll out of town with only about 1/2 a bottle of sports drink. It will be very cool compared to what we are use to in July, I will get a very good drink in t1, there is a good climb rolling out of town, and the first aid station is less than 7 miles out of town, then roughly every 10 after that. Fred actually suggested rolling out of t1 at LP as light as possible - and it is very good advice. It really is crazy to see how loaded down from the get-go a lot of folks are on that course, but I suppose everyone has a different plan..

You can also take this philosophy and apply it to training as well.  Squeezing in that extra 5 minutes of running, an extra 100-200 yards in the pool, or climbing one more hill on the bike.  By themselves, they won't do much at all.  But combine them, and do them CONSISTANTLY over time and you'd be surprised at what it adds up to at the end of a season.

ETA:  When I made the transition to 6x per week running, I started out at about 2 miles for my shortest run.  Seemed pretty insignificant at the time.  But over time, I've got that run now in the 3.5-4 mile range.  And if I do it consistantly for 52 weeks, that's roughly 200 additional miles a year.  For some people...that's like an extra 2 months of running.

 I keep this formula handy. It's from Coggan

50g of drag (at 30 mph) = 0.5 s/km = 5 W = 0.005 m^2 CdA = 0.0005 Crr = 20s on Oly, 45s on HIM. 

I think this all makes sense. I guess for me right now I just don't choose to put any money into my bike. I don't think I am being unwise. I am just prioritizing. If I knew of free ways to make my bike faster, I'd totally do that though 

Um.. cool.. I'll keep.. that... handy... erm.... yeah. ok. Is this a fancy way of making some of us readers feel dumb?

I've been looking at it for 2 minutes and I cannot get it. 

If I'm reading it right, they are all equivilant.  So originally, you asked about 5.6 watts which happens to fall very close to one of the units in the equation (the 5 W).  So with the 5.6 watts, you would save roughly 45 seconds in a HIM.  If someone told you that a set of tires would improve Crr by 0.0010 (double what is in the formula) you can see that that you would save about 90 seconds (or 1.0s/km or 100g of drag  or 10 watts, etc.)

Clear as mud?  

Ok. now I get it. 

My only question - which way do the numbers go for drag, at 20mph?  If you ride slower than the stated 30mph does the reduction of drag equal a savings of greater than 0.5s/km or less?

Also wondering if anyone has examples of what creates 50G of drag?

I am sorry. I should have made it clearer

riding 5 watts more will improve 20s in an Oly and 45s on a HIM at 30MPH.

reducing drag by 50g will do the same. This is useful for things like wheels and frames where they express everything as g of drag. if you buy a frame that has 50g less drag, you can pedal at 5w less and maintain the same speed

.005 square meters of cda reduction will do the same. get lower, have less frontal space and you will be faster.

sorry about that

They are rough numbers

So for example

at 300 watts, a 80kg rider+bike with .29 cda does a 40km in 57.33 (that's about 42km/h)

at 305 he does it in 56.98 so 5 watts saves 21 seconds...pretty close to that 20s

at 200 watts same guy does 66.85 vs 66.22 at 205. So he saves 37s

the slower you are going the more savings you will get per incremental watt

the faster you are, the more wattage you need to get incremental speed. Going from 20 to 21km/h is much easier than going from 30 to 31.

to see an example of 50g, look at something like the HED or Zipp charts where they show drag comparisons of various wheels.

or like at Cervelo's data for the drag of various bikes. They always show it as g of drag.

look at the wheel differences charts that zipp provides

Maybe after making you feel....welll. you know....maybe I can make you happier

http://www.powertri-blog.com/biking/preliminary-wind-tunnel-results-on-hydration-systems.html

The front profile design systems are faster than speedfill.

Great idea for a tatoo. No ?