I'm 50/50 on tonight. Work ish. Will post later if my 7:45 becomes available.

I only have a B+ game but I'll bring it

I'd like a 6pm spot if available.

Il be there!

@Ryan: with your California trained B+ I'll be hurting! Luckily, there are no uphill TT computrainer courses.....I hope.

There's a good chance that I will not be able to make it to the 7:45 session this evening because of work stuff. Please let me know by 6:30 at neilxross@yahoo.com if you want to take the spot.

Second 745 bail - I have a family member that just popped into town, so I doubt I can make it. Trainer +dvr time at ome later tonight is on queue.

Argh I have to skip my 7:45 again - work blah blah

hardest

computrainer session

ever

Tried to soften up the group on the early climbs so they couldn't pummel me later. Worked on a few. Not Perlberg or Ragot - not enough, anyway. I think we hurt John M a little but he also had mechanical problems.

Mike, Ragot and I got away about half way through. Missed an attack by Mike and folded, no way I could close. Ragot attacked Mike later and rode away.

For the record: following Perlberg as he sets his hour record hurts, to say nothing of following Ragot (the trainer Jedi).

I set a record for the good ol' 1:07 interval at 253w.

Friendly competition with congrats all around after.

Definitely the badest one to date—here's the data dirt.
The front four dropped me early fair and square (plugs falling out a disruption but everyone politely waited).
Deserved solo victory to Ragot who held off Perlberg using caveman-like yell.
Got within 500 of Vlad, but absolutely cracked in the process. Great end to this years races, I mean training.

The 7:45 session was sparsely attended --Harry, Drew (Jeff O's pal from DC's NCVC team) and myself. We choose the same Maryland Tri course that the early crew rode. Drew and I went pretty hard out of the gate and obstinately half-wheeled each other for almost 10minutes, then he seemed to wear down a bit and since I felt good and needed to push my intensity --I kept going at that power-level (284) and resolved to keep it there as long as I could. It was still at 284 avg at the 1 hour checkpoint, so I increased power over the last climb and continued increasing power on the descent into the finish... 288w avg, I don't recall the timing nor the avg speed, but I think Harry got a snap of the outcomes. Drew kept rolling consistently and finished a little later (also, I would be remiss not to note that Drew helped fuel my moderately crackling ride by graciously re-filling my water bottle at the half-way point... what a cool dude!). Harry, who was on his 2nd session of the evening worked on his pedal stroke and opted to hop off the bike at about an hour and 20mins. That is a difficult course to do twice! It was fun and I'm glad I wasn't in the 6pm session as TT'ing makes it easier to get nice watts than having to match accelerations and shake and shiver with so many fit dudes hammering for glory.

That is a man's ride Norm; 288 is no joke on a trainer!

Yupppppp.


Hard day. With busy days and little riding expected on MTu ThFri this week, it was time to let it all hang out on the compu-trainer slaughter sessions.

Ryan put me on the limit all day, and Vlad and John kept things honest. Eric put the nail in coffin over a crest where I was unable to close the gap. Can't catch him on real downhills, or computrainer downhills.

for 1:07:10 of riding time, I averaged 298 watts, 305 Xpower, avg HR of 181 bpm. good sings include higher average cadence than usual, 96 rpm.

So far this season my testing and training indicated a FTP of 291 watts, so this is significantly higher.

Good day. very happy. My butt hurts real bad.

Its interesting as my watts were lower - 288 and xPower (Normalized) of 298, avgerage HR - 170, but I was faster than two weeks ago on the same course and I don't think I spent that much time sitting in. So, I guess I have to go harder. Damn it...

the other thing is that it doesn't make sense as I am heavier than Mike and should have put out more power. Oh well, computrainer racing will have to wait for next year...

portends good things for steady efforts of a sort.

nice hard ride by all. it hurts as much as a hard park race - actually more.

29feb

the 7:45p session:
monster effort by sirNorm!...well deserved domestique support by Drew, 'service to those out front.'

again, harry w/world record low voltage(6pm 163w &7:45pm 143w)...if i manage to perform well in races, may submit myself as 'mouse' sample for clinical a trial of 'ultra-low voltage transfer media,' see: "Ultra-low breakdown voltage and origin of 1/f2 noise in metallic nanorod arrays" for further reading.

http://www.tifr.res.in/~softmatter/papers_authored/nano280192P5.pdf

haha.
-h:>

ps. *thanks 'chapeau' to JoshC for organizing winter training sessions &coordination w/rideBrooklyn! +shout out to rideBK folks as well, very cool!!!

Pissed that I had to bail early on the 6PM (early pickup for daughter's swim practice)...sounds like it ended up a great hammerfest.

Disclaimer to following question: I really have no idea what these numbers mean and my *training* is totally half-assed, unscientific and sporadic. But I do *have the gear* and feel obligated to use it.

Question: Eric, Michael...do you generally find your xPower according to Golden Cheetah is higher than your power meter average as it was last nite? Because while outside my xPower is always higher than my average, on the trainer, it's almost exactly the same.

(I.e. when I bailed at mile 16, the CompuTrainer (trusty no. 8) was showing an avg of 290 for me, my Garmin was showing me almost exactly the same number (292) and Golden Cheetah calculated an xPower of 290 when I uploaded.)

Why am I asking? Because if I have to throw down 305w against that sticky CompuTrainer resistance, semi-trained, early in the season like Perlberg did (actually more, since I weigh 174 lbs), I will conclude that my ultimate destiny is *not* in the upper categories and move on with what's left of my life....:-)

Xpower will usually be higher outside because it essentially discounts periods of not pedalling to show the true physiological effects of the effort. Your bike score and intensity factor are calculated off of xpower. Avg power is too easy to manipulate.

So I wonder why your and Perlberg's xPower was so much higher inside?

Because we are hitting / attacking climbs, giving up some big power spikes, but also coasting and sneaking in some rest with the drafting situtation on computrainer.

JP gave a good scenario from a park race. 2 guys, same avg power. One sitting in all day, another busting his ass at the front, attacking, recovering etc. Sit in guy xPower nearly the same as avg. Guy up front, much higher xPower.

Hmmm...So should I interpret xpower as what i *could* hold steady state (i.e. tt power for that time interval and FTP if interval is 60 min) or just what the intensity of my effort was?

Mitch,
Seems like Xpower is another term for normalized power (NP). IF you go to the Trainingpeaks website, you'll find an explanation. Basically, you've got it right for normalized. Assuming that you've tested your FTP recently, think it's accurate, it's unlikely that your NP for an hour could be above your FTP. If it is, you probably need to move your FTP estimate up to the NP number for that hour.

So Perlberg needs to move his FTP up to 305 and start training harder :-)

Doing an actual hour at your FTP should be an agony filled, taste-blood-and-wish-for-death experience that makes you want to quit cycling and curse the inventor of the infernal machine.

My money is on Mike's FTP being a lot closer to 320 than 295... but hey, I'm the armchair guy today.

Interesting topic in general though - probably belongs in training thread - different methods for estimating FTP because it's so unpleasant/difficult to do the actual hour.

To throw out another complication, Golden Cheetah calculates "critical power", which I understood to be more or less FTP. So maybe that differs from xPower in that it's statistically derived by crunching data from multiple rides, while xPower tries to get at the answer to the same question by crunching a single ride?

Golden tells me my 60-min critical power is 312, although I've always doubted I could achieve that on planet Earth. But quoting Jules, maybe that's because I lack the mental strength to sustain "an agony filled, taste-blood-and-wish-for-death experience....." :-)

@ Mitch Good topic for the other thread

My 3 mile test extrapolates to a wattage I don't think I could do even with EPO... although my coach thinks I'm selling myself short :P

@Jules...which thread? Re your coach, maybe he thinks you just need years of coaching :-)

Thanks Mark. Which park are you a mile south of? And how many machines do you have?

I'm planning on having four Computrainers. They'll be new so no problem with maintenance. I'm a mile south of Prospect Park. Near Church Ave and McDonald Ave. 

That's cool that you'll have four machines! RB had 8 machines and three much fought over fans. 

John, what error am I looking for in the pic?