SBR Utopia Season II - OPEN (Page 131)

I wasn't originally planning on trying to lose weight, but have dropped a couple pounds in the last month and am now curious what a few more will do for my racing.  Regardless, it may be good for motivation to not eat too much over Christmas / New Year's.  Also would like to get the weight loss out of the way before I'm too deep into my build for SG70.3.

I have to admit I see my weight as a limiter and something that can easily make me faster.  I know that I am so much faster in the 150s.  The last couple years I have been around 165#.

I will not be trying to lose weight rapidly.  Hopefully just 1-2 pounds a month in order to concentrate on building my FTP on the bike.  Losing weight would probably be a little detrimental to that and that is the focus.

Question for you guys and whether or not I am nuts!!  My 20' power is at 271 (tested Sunday).  I am targeting around 315 by April.  Crazy or possible?  My focus will be completely on the bike, probably riding 5-6x week, mostly 1-1.5 hour quality sessions with one longer ride.

Ryan, what are you basing the 315 goal on, just a target or have you been up in that area before?

I would like to be in the 2:25 range for HIM bike split and I think I need to be in this general area to get there for the courses I will be racing (generally flat).  I know their are a bunch of other factors involved with weather, weight and general setup.  But, I really want to focus on the bike and researching similar athletes it seems like this is where I would need to be.

I just started training with 'real' power over a month ago so not alot of historical data to work with.

Hmm, Marc, Chris and I went 2:26-2:27 in Miami (dead flat) on a lot less power than that.  214 for me, 218 for Chris...  not sure what Marc was.

So, back to your question, it seems a bit ambitious to me but if you feel that your current power is a bit lower than it has been in the past and you will quickly regain some power it could be doable?  I increased my 20' power by ~30w last year with a big chunk of that coming from a quick rebuild to what I had been in the summer before.

Anyone ever tried this?  http://www.bestbikesplit.com

I input data for Miami 70.3 and depending on the wind angle I give it, it predicts my bike split to within 17 to 50 seconds.

Given your size, I'm a bit suprised that you feel the need to get your FTP quite that high.  To Arends examples above, these are bigger guys than you (at race weight), pushing a lot less watts than you feel you need.  Seem to be plenty of guys going fast on ST at average or even low watts as well.

I wonder how well it works for a hilly course. 

Oh, I don't think I mentioned it but I signed up for Muskoka 70.3.  4th time's the charm!!!

It didn't do quite as well for me for Mont Tremblant  but I didn't change many of the defaults.  I may experiment.

Massaging the numbers a bit gets it to within a minute and a half of my MT time.  It seems to think I could get up some of those hills on a lot less power than I did.  

Muskoka is in their database Neil.

Chris - on my most recent flattish HIM (Augusta with only about 1100' of gain, I'll bet) I went <2:29 on 195w. I was post IM and in "have fun" mode, so probably raced around 162lbs @ 5'-10" (I think you and I are roughly the same size/build?) so I too think your numbers sound a little funny: if you have optimized your setup it sounds like you are proposing to race a HIM at <65% of your 20 minute FTP AND you are going to sacrifice your run fitness to do it?

To your question though, for me personally a 5 month FTP focus would be way too long - I would get pretty stale. In my 12 week FTP focus blocks I can manage about a 10% bump, but that is really on only 3~4 bikes per week. I think your run is good (you are a sub 40 10k guy, right?) and I personally would not want to abandon that. Instead I might work FTP through mid march, then a threshold block: instead of just trying to make the HIM bike easier get to where you can complete the run by maintaining a higher effort. And as I have said before I would work my threshold through A LOT of hard swimming, and a little hard running; again I think you already have the run legs to run fast without a ton of hard running.

Of course, take that for what it is worth - remember this is from a guy that counts the ability to squeeze in a 15 minute run last night as a huge victory this week!

Cool - I want to play with this at home when I have my data in front of me.

How did you "massage" the numbers?

Wind angle and speed - I really didn't know the actual conditions so I was mostly guessing there.  The road conditions and changing the 2, 5, 10 and 20 min power limits to what I actually did brought it a bit more in line.

Thanks for all the comments. 

My run is definitely my best weapon and it is very hard for me to give it up a little bit.  I am working with a coach right now and he knows my run capability.  Basically doing 2 or 3 runs a week with some fast intervals, like today 4x1mi at 10K pace, which I am dreading by the way.  He thinks we can work my bike/swim heavy now and get my run back by next season with losing very little.  Part of the problem lately is I have been sick so everything is down.

I am not sure but all of my HIMs lately are small races where I am riding 56 miles by myself the whole time.  I am wondering if doing those bigger races with the slingshot effect would sure help. 

I also never really had any aero help before (no aero helmet, whells, etc..).  Now I have PT with aerojacket, aero helmet and plan to get a cheap race front wheel.   I have hung around this group awhile .

Hey all.  I've been just lurking for the last couple months - took some time away (work, injuries, mental recharge, etc.) - but am starting back with structured training again and am looking forward to hopping back in here.  Hoping to keep the injuries at bay as I get back at it!

Looking forward to next season and being around here in a more active way.    That is all.  

Matt

Marc - I have not done that test since I got my PT.  However, when I tested previously (numerous times) my 5MP was typically 120% of FTP based on virtual power with TR.

Welcome back Matt.  

I dropped a good bit of weight over the last 2 years without really trying too hard (just a byproduct of training and being more mindful of not putting too much crapola into my pie-hole!).  

I had read that each pound translates to 2 seconds per mile on the run, all else equal, and I found that to be pretty close to spot on.  I picked up that much over and above the bump that I would expect from the training I had been doing.  2 seconds doesn't sound like much, but take off 10 pounds and that's some serious time over a HM (take off 25, which is about where I am over 2 years, and I've been PR'ing just about every distance the last year).

I have not seen anything about the direct effect on cycling, other than the obvious W/kg improvement you'd see.  I have read that trying to drop weight and improve power at the same time cycling is less effective than doing either alone (focusing on weight loss while maintaining power or improving power without dieting) for improving W/kg over a given period of time.  I don't have the reference handy, but recall it was a fairly well designed study about 2 years ago?

Holidays make all of that hard, though, don't they?  Mmmmmmm…. pie……..

Matt

To the basic question, these are my numbers when I started working with Shane and testing regularly.  *** These numbers are from the computrainer, calibrated, and are the averages for the 20', so it's not so much about the actual number but the improvement - I generally take my CT tested FTP with a grain of salt.....But a similar increase can be done with some focused riding.   This was based on 2X trainer ride and 1X outdoor ride per week, with your run and this type of improvement you are going to be dangerous

1/16/13 - 295
5/29/13 - 312 Ave
7/1713 - 318 Ave

ETA - there is no dobt in my mind that at Miami, and less so at Oceanside, the slingshot effect is very real.  Both physically and mentally.

ETA one more thing - how's your fit?  A lot of things came together at once this season, so it's hard to pin it on one thing, but after getting a proper RETUL fit, my bike performance went to a different level. 

That's a pretty neat site.  No idea how accurate it is, but I'd be pretty happy with my SG70.3 split if it's predicting it accurately....even better if I have the fitness to run off the bike this year, as opposed to what I had to do last year!

Well...I lost 6 pounds...

http://www.strava.com/activities/98552635