SBR Utopia - OPEN (Page 136)

I think it does better if your gps unit has a barometric altimeter (910xt).  Most running ones don't though, so Strava falls back to estimates from their maps service in that case.

My weekend in the mountains next next weekend looks to not be happening...It keeps snowing and its cold. 5 hr trainer ride on sat on tap and 2:30 on sun. Good thing Dexter is getting really interesting right now..... (Season 2). Also have the Killing...might have to get another series too for the next 2 weekends...

Thanks for the input on my "possible" PM issues.

First and foremost, I completely agree with Ben that I need more side by side testing.  I still have the PT, and do have an edge 500 and 910, so I can ride them side by side, and plan to do so for the next couple of weeks. 

Being that I only got the Quarq installed on Friday night, I only got one test ride on it Saturday, and the numbers were very close...within 1-2 watts.  At first the Quarq was reading about 7-8 watts higher, but I forgot to zero it out at the beginning of the ride, so after I did that, they were about even.  I agree with Mark though that I would have figured the Quarq would have been higher by a few watts due to drivetrain losses.

When I got to the halfway point, I was fading physically.  The wattage was dropping, but it was pretty much in line with how I felt physically.  IOW, it didn't seem that all of a sudden the wattage numbers were reporting 25 watts lower.  It felt more like how Arend described it...that I was overcooked by about 25 watts, and dug way too deep a hole.

I also have not ruled out other factors as far as performance.  Another big difference on race day was my weight.  I dropped about 6 pounds in the past 2.5 weeks, and I'm not sure how much of that was water weight.  I can imagine if I was 1-2 pounds dehydrated, that would significantly affect performance as well...but it doesn't quite explain how I ran that time on such low wattage.

In any case...back to what Ben said...more testing is in order before I start jumping to conclusions.

Thanks

Sons of Anarchy

Game of Thrones

Also Jason I don't know if this is a factor for you in Hawaii, but time of day really affects how my body responds.  I'm not a morning person and I don't train much in the morning except swimming.  But a lot of the time trials in my area start really early.  I wouldn't be surprised if my power numbers were a bit off the mark.

Interesting perspective.  I tend to do a lot of my interval workouts on the bike in the afternoon for this very reason and prefer to run easy in the mornings.  My body tends to need to wake up before doing a really hard effort.  The only time I ride in the morning is during a long ride.  However, in previous TTs with early starts, I've found that a long warmup (at least 30 minutes) helps a lot.  In my last TT, which was also in the morning (about the exact same start time), I performed really well and above my expectations as far as hitting my target wattage. 

+1 on the Sons of Anarchy

Holy Crap!!! I decided to do some "Insanity Workout" with friends from work and did the first workout yesterday. I didn't do it up to speed, but completed all the movements. I am sooo hurting today.

Glutes, quads, chest.. everywhere muscles might hurt.

ow. 

I'll check it out for next weekend's trainer extravaganza. Let the fun begin. 

Did my run through crazy winds and some areas of 5inch deep slush. Super wet but didn't feel too bad overall. Hopefully it dries up a bit more for my long run on thursday. 

I ordered the Desoto cool wing and some spiffy sunscreen today. Sent it over to Kim's house to pick up when I go to NJ! Some planet sun and bullfrog. I've been describing the cool wing to my friends as "the back of a shirt with sleeves". lol. 

So now the question is which one is right?  Is your PT one of the newer ones that will send the torque offset to a Garmin? Mine won't - I need the LYC.

The beauty of the quarq is with a $50 dongle, which also serves other purposes, you can get all the diagnostics to figure out exactly what is going on.

But one way to diagnose a power meter is to use aerolab in GC to determine virtual elevation, based on power, speed, weight....and compare it to actual elevation. While not perfect it does give a good indication of what is going on. The course Jason did is perfect for this, since CDA is not as much of a factor on such a steep climb.

Well, of course the one that reports higher is correct - duh.

Shane is right, if the difference between the two is constant then it really doesn't matter so long as you don't get caught up in Segal's Law: "A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure."

In your blog you list a host of factors that you could attribute for underperforming. If you just randomly assigned -3 watts to each you would just about be at your effort on race day, so yes, it could have just been one of those days. Outside of the Quarq issues, the first one I might look to is the quick weight loss. I suffered similar results six years ago when I crashed my weight from 153 to 147 fairly quickly - I suffered a HUGE performance loss on the bike. When I got back up to 153 I was right back at it.

But like I said in your blog, Based on my own experience I would still look to the quarq as the culprit. The first one I bought had to be sent back immediately for diagnostics and replacement (it just chewed through batteries). Thre next one worked great for a year and a half, but then flaked out on race day at IMLP. Exactly as it sounds like yours is doing: On race day it was consistently under-reporting about 20~25 watts when bracketed against RPE and HR. Upon my return from LP I sent it in to quarq and it turned out it had a faulty processor and they replaced it again (Quarq has the best customer service and fastest turn-around I personally have ever dealt with). I know a lot of friends that have them, and a couple have had similar issues, but always resolved quickly with quark. Also, for a number of folks there seems to a "settling in" period in which the offset number will creep up and then stabilize over a period of several weeks: my first one did this (drifted upward over 300 points) but the one I have now did not. Also, temperature variations do make a difference on my ride this weekend the temps started out at 37 degrees but topped out around 80. My zero offset was about 50 points different at the end than at the beginning (I re-zero frequently in-ride, so no worries). Like you noted, it is tough to re-zero a quark (or a PT for that matter) on a hill climb though. 

Yup - with that, their Qalvin app, an iPhone/iPad, and a laboratory-grade weight (50lbs is good) you can actually do a static calibration yourself and settle the issue once and for all (unless the quarq is actually broken). We did that with my wife's when she wanted to swap over to a set of "non-compatible" chainrings (dura ace). Again, quarq was awesome - I spoke with them several times on the phone during the process just to make sure what we were seeing was right - they were really cool about it. Her zero offset number is high (in the low 800s, usually) but they assured us that even though that was out of spec it was fine and accurate based on the modification we did once we did the static calibration and it remained stable (no drift).

In my case I was able to determine that something was actually wrong with the unit itself, as the actual slope # kept changing (not the offset) and that shouldn't happen if the unit itself is operating properly.

FWI - if/when you ever return the unit to quarq for calibration they perform both a static and dynamic test on the unit, so it is probably slightly more accurate as to the real watts measurement, but so long as you are not trying to compare it to another power meter the static test is plenty good enough.

Oh, yeah. I did insanity for about three months last fall as part of my strength training block and it is tough, tough, tough. I liked it as I was traveling a lot and it was portable (you don't need anything except a little bit of space to do it). You are very, very smart to do the movements slowly - all you have to do is watch the videos for a bout 5 minutes and you can see how doing the exercises as fast as they do leads to really bad form. I did the same thing as you: followed the routine but did it much slower/fewer reps. I'll get my cardio somewhere else, thank you very much. Since there is a lot of isolateral and plyometric work in the routines, I would recommend 3 or 4 weeks of something more Pilates and/or yoga based before I "jumped in" (ha! a pun!) to insanity. I can only imagine how many folks have gotten injured doing it, especially us triathlete types that spend all our time moving primarily forward in the sagittal plane.

I do think it was a very valuable part of my strength block.

That's a really great idea. 

Nice. It's getting hot here. Great weather, but I can feel the heat starting to come our way. (Tampa)

Anyone ever dealt with post tibial tendon dysfunction, PTTD?  I *may* have it, based on my internet-awarded MD degree and awesome search skills....   Left ankle was reconstructed YEARS ago, as in mid 80s.  Took one of the two peroneal tendons and re-created some other ligament I destroyed in high school gym basketball.  As a result, it's never really moved like an ankle should, and I've had recurring issues there.  This is the latest.

Slight pain/discomfort just below the medial malleolus - the inside ankle bone - noticed before yesterday's run, went away within one mile. I had a sharp pain there on a run a few months back, but attributed it to those aches and pains that sometimes pop up at the beginning of runs, that work themselves out, which it did.

Not really pain, more like discomfort, a 1 on a 1-10 scale.  I can invert the foot without pain, I can do heel lifts without pain, so it may not be PTTD, but something's going on there.  I did feel it on short heavy intervals this morning on the bike trainer, again not pain but sensation.

And my PT who has gotten me thru every injury is so popular now I can't get in until May.  WTF. 

I know Nicole went through the injury dance recently, and like others I do not do well with injury.  Get de-motivated to do anything....  So Wildflower is tentatively on hold....  Have to be patient to keep my focus on IM Canada, (although I already go to the freakout "if I have to take a month off then I am startingfromscratchandnowayIcantrainforanIMin3months" kinda thing.  I am sure no one can relate) I rely heavily on my wife during these times for some perspective.

Nope, can't relate....not at all.

Sucks about the pain/discomfort, but it sounds like you're being smart about it by not just writing it off.  And it really sucks that your PT is booked up for the rest of this month!  Maybe you can get on a wait list or something in case there's a cancellation??

Is running the only thing that triggers it?  I've found that focusing my energy on swimming and biking to be a decent consolation for not being able to run -- and I like to think that keeping my swim/bike fitness up (and walking for the allotted amount of time I'd be spending running) will make the transition back to running less brutal.  Really hoping this works out quickly for you!

I have GREAT docs to work with but no way I would wait for 2~3 weeks to see them. Like Nicole says, try to get on a waiting list with your PT. Also explain politely that you cannot wait that long and you would simply like a referral to another specialist they trust. I have found that to either a) motivate them to see you a little more quickly or b)you will actually get the name of another doc that will. You are "fortunate" in that there are a variety of folks that you can work with for a mystery pain like that. I might first seek out a sports podiatrist and then maybe a sports chiro that is also up on current soft tissue manipulation methods. Outside of word of mouth for finding these kinds of docs, you can contact your local pro/semi pro or collegiate teams (football, basketball, baseball, track, hockey, etc) to find out who their podiatrists are - they will all have one. Also find out who the docs are for any large marathons you might have - you might have some success there.

If nothing else it will give you something to occupy your time while you wait 3 weeks to see your current PT....

Edited by TankBoy 2013-04-10 2:27 PM