Fred D Mentor Group Part III (Page 97)

You can suck that file into Golden Cheetah, open the Aerolab tab, enter your weight, an approximate air density and it will tell you your Cda. Or email it to me and I'll do it for you.

Marc, can I do that with any file or just that because it is specific to a loaded course?  I would like to see if I put in Rev 3 Quassy or the relay leg I did this summer to and see if they all match up pretty close.  Can't do it now..but will fetch them tomorrow.

Yes!

There is a correlation between HR and power. Some people would say it's not a close one but I can tell you, for me, it is very close. I can almost predict to the beat what my HR is by looking at my power and vice versa.

If I put out 200w, my HR will be at 140. Every 10w more, my HR goes up 3-4 beats.

Now, on a bad day, with no sleep, dehydrated and after 6 coffees, it will be off. So I never have more than 5.

Jorge did a version of his plan with HR. The only problem with HR it lags a little. Let's say I am doing 180watts and my HR is 131. The all of a sudden I go harder at 210watts. It will take about 30 sec before my HR gets to 140. This is fine when you are doing 10min intervals, but when you are doing 30second intervals HR is harder to use.

But Jorge had a good plan, even for HR users.

While I have a PowerMeter I do use HR when I travel. I could easily race by HR and be fine.

I did Jorge's HR plan but I did it by RPE, cause like you said, HR lags.  Somewhere on his site he had a chart that mapped his HR ranges to RPE

Any course

What aerolab does it takes the power, your weight and your speed and it calculates what it thinks would be an elevation profile. It compares it to an actual elevation profile from the GPS data. To make the two match, it needs to calculate a CDA.

So yes, any GPS file with power, speed and elevation data, preferably barometric elevation data since it's more accurate will work. If you have a Garmin 500 or 910, that's the best.

A few have suggested joining this group, so here's a bio. Thanks for letting me in!

Name: brigby1 / Ben

Story: I’ve been involved with a number of sports my entire life, the biggest ones growing up were soccer & basketball, but at least bits of everything were tried at one point. After college it was harder to do any team sports, so ended up doing various workouts, more strength oriented though. Also rode the bike around, trails, roads, whatever. Occasionally ran too. Not really a swimmer but had lessons to stay afloat. Lots of familiarity with water from canoeing, kayaking, fishing, etc.

Think I always had some interest in tri, but could not get over the swimming. Not until a friend with almost identical capabilities started and found being able to make it came fairly easy. From there, everything kind of came together and took off.

Family Status: Single

2012 Races: An assortment of sprint, Olympic and Half Iron races. There was a duathlon in there as well. A few bike events just took the place of a long ride that day. All for fun. Pretty good season (4th yr in) even though I fell short of goals for a number of events.

2013 Races: Still picking things out. Was close to burning out this past year, so am going short to start. Then maybe HIM at the end of the season.

Weightloss: More of a body type change. Converted from general strength/fitness to endurance, which seems to be a more natural build for me.

Winter Goals: Learn from last year so I can put up a strong training load again, but keep it going more consistently. Lots of running. Smarter, directed swimming (and more of it). Keep it going on the bike, but balance work/recovery better.

What Would Make Me a Good Member: I love to learn & figure things out, then share that with others.

Wish I could use aerolab for a previous race, but I had no GPS data to go with the power file at the time.  I hear what you guys are saying about all the intangibles, and I'm not expecting some miracle by going lower - I'm just trying to see what else will lend itself to additional speed.

Here's my pic after I dropped the front end as low as it will go.  I'd consider getting the Zipp Alumina clips because they are ultra adjustable, and I *could* go lower with them if it was to my advantage to do so.

Edit to add - I'll need to meaure again, but I think I'm running about 12-13cm of drop from top of saddle to top of pads.

(New Side.JPG)

Hey Neil I don't think your position is much different from mine.  You're probably getting into small nitpicky things to adjust, which is why it's helpful to test with GC Aerolab if possible.  This was the only photo I had from the side (Australia last year):

Can't see it here but my arms are pretty lined up with my legs and I'm compact in the front.  I keep my legs close to the frame and head mostly down.  This pic is "relaxed" for me.. I turtle better in an Olympic race.

(Yeah my race number was loose)

The only other recent change I made was to go to a torpedo bottle up front.

Question for the group:

 Doing Whistler. Will also be doing Oceanside and Wildflower, so all fairly bumpy but plenty of opportunities on all 3 courses to get in aero and "hammer". Been racing on HED3s since 2008, and don't really see upgrading wheels for the near future.

I know HEDs aren't the lightest wheelset. I hope to be racing around 190#.

Stick with the HEDs or get a wheelbuilder cover for my training wheel (weighs the same as the trispoke) and run a disc rear/HED3 front?

Course is here (sorry, can't link to the pdf as my desktop is acting up...)http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/ironman/canada/course.aspx#axzz2EP4TIwdp

*far from a fit expert*

Looking at the two pics of Neil and Mark, the things that jump out to me are:

1. Mark just looks more relaxed - obviously riding outside vs the trainer could have a big impact on this.

2. Head position.  Neil, if you were to just lower your head more, it might make a big difference.  I remember a post by Leegocrapp on the TT forum where he went to the wind tunnel and he said that adjustments in head position made a huge difference in drag.

x2 on the cover. 

Any plans for this weekend besides following Yanit at IMWA?

Going for a long ride tomorrow, then will pick up my packet for the Honolulu Marathon which is on Sunday.  I only plan to do about 11 miles of it (from 11-22) and will spectate the rest of it.  Hopefully I won't get yelled at for cutting the first 11 miles of the course

just a training run or pacing a friend?  Either way have fun.  Nothing much on my training schedule, just a medium run.

Part of it is just training, part of it will be to help pace a few friends (if I can keep up).