Slornow and Wannabefaster's mentor group...Closed (Page 33)

So trying my best to get all training done. I have been flip flopping a week of 12 hour days followed by a week of 12 hour nights for the last month or so. It's a challenge to adjust to the schedule. I feel like a zombie when running but my times don't reflect any sig decrement (as slow as I am). My biking is getting stronger as evidenced by the numbers. Swimming - well I feel as if I have been in a rut with no progress for last few months. Finally only one more night shift tonight then some normalcy except that I'm traveling for the next few weeks. I've only been home for a few nights since the new year. I lug my bike and Kickr with me everywhere I go if I drive. So far so good. I continue to make gains but do wonder how poor sleep cycle is affecting me.

I just got back from two days at the Milton Velodrome. Lionel, another LG pro, an elite AGer and one of our top Canadian track juniors got tested.

Some pretty cool stuff happened. We were having a beer and Andy gets a call from some advice on the best cyclist in the world. Kind of wild.

If I were a pro I would be very very concerned about Lionel's aero. Very concerned. I can't publish numbers but he is there with the best.

Oceanside next weekend will be very interesting - pretty outstanding field for Lionel to match up against. How much adaptation do you think he's going to have make? He's been on this new position for like a month now, and I don't know how much tweaking was done in Milton but I assume it was more fine tuning rather than the overhaul he got in Montreal. In any case, is it likely he'll take a little while to adapt to the new position, or do you think we'll see him at his best in Oceanside?

The best cyclist in the world? Pauline Ferrand-Prévot? Sagan? Cancellara?

There was very little tweak to his position. He went lower but came back up.

Andy is known to be working with the Trek team, Sky, FDJ and many others.

He has been doing a lot of work with the Canadian Women's team who are gold contenders in Rio.

Sorry I didn't answer. I think you will be OK. I had a 28 but never went into the last gear. I have more W but I have a lot more /KG :-)

Apparently space will open up this summer. With the Olympics, track time is rare

This was a special event hosted by LG. It was not open to AGers.

I suspect he got a good 30watts in aero. He may send one of his race files for analysis.


Edited by marcag 2016-03-24 8:26 PM

I ran a compact crank, 52/34 with an 11-28 cassette and was fine at Tremblant.

This was more than enough gearing for me.



The watt side of my equation doesn't seem to be moving too much so I am working on the kg side. I am very lean right now. Thinnest I have been at this point in a season, ever. All the running seems to do that to me.

This one won't get by the rules committee, but pretty cool... aptly named FUCI ;-)

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/21/tech/specialized-concept-bike-bicycle...

Stu

So how does everyone feel about their training now that North American race season is almost upon us? Have you been getting in your sessions? Is your fitness where you want it to be? Improvements made over the winter? First race?


For me, the knee surgery about seven weeks ago and the month of hobbling around before the surgery was a significant detriment to the winter run fitness I was hoping to build. At this point I wanted 6:50 miles to feel relatively easy in the hopes of knocking out 26 consecutive miles at that pace. Didn't happen. I'm running 7:00s, but working to do it. I suspect that I will be slightly over 7:00 pace for a full marathon but who knows? Maybe with a little taper and a good day....

I am about where I always am on the bike. Maybe some very small incremental gain over the winter. I haven't tested in awhile and I suspect that a test will be on my schedule after Boston to better organize my bike training.

Swim. I feel good in the water. Swim training has been on the back burner for the last four weeks but I have gotten in the water enough to hopefully maintain.

I'm thin. Leanest I have been this early in the season, ever.

Overall I feel good.


Other news. After Brussels, the US State Department issued a warning about travel to Europe. I think the chances of something bad happening in Paris next week are pretty minimal (driving my car is probably riskier) but my wife was just not comfortable travelling in the face of a travel advisory to not do so. So, my Paris trip and Paris marathon are off the schedule :-( Maybe it is for the better. It gives me another 2.5 weeks to train and focus on being the best I can be in Boston. Our entire trip was refundable so we got all of the $ back and actually booked a trip to Iceland instead. We will spend six days traipsing around Iceland next week. Everyone I have talked to raves about Iceland being one of the neatest places that you could ever visit so it is a pretty 'cool' consolation prize.

Bike is pretty good. FTP is probably up 10w, position is really dialed for power, testing to come soon. I have verified FTP a few ways and it seems accurate. My first TT of the year got cancelled due to snow

Run was pretty good but I hit some achilles and hip problems. I finished up the ST100/100, took 3 days off and I feel much better. The ST100/100 is great but sometimes you let it get in the way of common sense.

My swim fitness is good but my top end speed is off. Should not be an issue for my first race in June.

Weight is on track. I am leaner than all of last year and very very slowly dropping. I found the sweat spot of calories with MFP

I am looking forward to pavement. The trainer is getting old.

I did a write up of the Velodrome with Lionel on FB
http://tinyurl.com/gr2ge9p


We can openly discuss here. Lionel was very open to sharing his data

Hard to believe, but last night's game was the first game of the tourney I saw! Stilll think Carolina is the team to beat - they've really been on a roll. Kind of wild having 4 ACC teams playing for a single berth in the final. No mixed feelings about Duke here. Generally, I root for the conference, but there are some exceptions ;-)

In more tri-related news, had a good race last weekend in the Charlottesville 10 miler. Time of 1:33, which was my slowest time in about 10 years - just after I started running. On the other hand, after taking the Fall off and still being 20-25 lbs over race weight, it was better than I expected. My five mile split was just a bit off the last couple of years' time. The hills took their toll in the 2nd half of the course as well as fatigue from carrying around those 4 sacks of potatoes, but managed to stay under 10 min pace every mile. Glad I signed up... gave me something to aim for this Spring. Looking at the race calendar going forward, so many conflicts. My goal is just to stay active and be as consistent as possible. Will try to find some race to sign up for over the summer. Always helpful to have a goal.

Ufff... today's 10K jog was slow and hurt. Body just doesn't spring back like it used to!

Stu

Today was my first "ride" (trainer session) on the bike with Nicole's 155 cranks installed and I wanted to give an update: they are awesome!

I was able to spend almost the entire ride in aero which has always been tough for me on the trainer and I was able to hit my power for all of my intervals.

I then got off the bike and ran for 30 minutes at a very relaxed 7:30 pace.

These cranks seem like they are going to be a success. I will admit that I was very nervous about gong all of the way down to 155s from 170s, but one session done with them and I wonder why I waited so long to go short. It felt like I was spinning in tight little circles and was very comfortable. I moved my seat up only about at 1/2 cm as I thought it was a little too high already and back only about a 1/4 cm. There may be some tinkering but I am overall very satisfied.

NIcole, thanks for the cranks.

Marc, thanks for encouraging me to give them a try.

I feel pretty good. My weight is in line with where I want it to be. My swimming is coming back around just fine. I am finally figuring out the hill climbs a bit and my overall power on the bike is good. My running still sucks, exacerbated by my calf strain. It feels fine when I am swimming or biking but feels tender when I run. On doctors advice I am running very little. I can only hope that my overall conditioning will get me through my HIM in 7 weeks.

I have been following the conversation on the compact cranks with interest. Looking to see how they worked out for Jason. So today one of the more experienced riders from my TDC team asks me if I ever considered a compact crank. I may start looking around for one and give it a go.

FYI, Compact usually designates the number of teeth on the chainring. For example a compact may have 50/34 where a standard may be 53/39. 50 is easier to climb than 53 and 34 easier than 39, but not as fast. The bolt setup is what makes it compact or standard

see here : https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/cycling/2011/05/compact-cranks-...

Jason got shorter crank arms which does not fall under the compact designation.

Well to be totally accurate, these are compact cranks that also have short crank arms. 155 vs 170-75, which is a more typical crank arm length.

It is the shorter arm which is what makes this crank different for me as I was already running a compact crank but with 170 mm arms.

That's why I come here, to learn things.

Thanks,

If you find yourself riding around and your easiest gear is still too hard and/or you have to ride low cadence to go up hills, you want a compact crank with less teeth on the rings OR a different cassette

If you find you can't get low enough in aero, find your hips tight when in aero....then you want shorter cranks

I'm cautiously optimistic about my training so far. First race isn't until end of May but I'm on a good timeline entering my Build phase.

Swim: I didn't expect to make any serious gains from last year as I'm only swimming twice a week, but I probably should do a long TT soon to assess where I am compared to this time last year. I'm quite sure my top-end speed is the same but I'm hoping my endurance is up as that has been my main focus for the past couple of months. For 200s at a moderate effort (CSS pace) I'm consistently coming in at times that would have been all-out TT times last year.

Bike: Feeling good - still no idea how fast I am as I'm just on the trainer, but my FTP is up and my position is more aggressive, so I fully expect to hammer out some solid bike splits this year. I've been sticking to the Trainerroad plans with only a few illness-related hiccups.

Run: Gradually transitioning to outdoor running, and will start incorporating speedwork soon. I think my base training this winter has paid off with my Zone 2 pace up significantly from last year. I've been dealing with some foot pain that's caused a decline in volume lately. I went for a gait analysis and left with some footwear recommendations and some tweaks to my run form. Running with this new form has left me a little sore and also slowed me down a little, but I'm still 4 months out from my A race so hopefully lots of time to adapt.