Fitz v AAC250

Now that the AAC250 has been done and dusted, debate has started as to whether this is harder then the shorter 200km version and how it compares to our very own Fitz's Epic.
Firstly I haven't ridden the 200km version of the Audux Alpine Challenge so I will be doing a comparsion with Fitz Epic which I have ridden the last 2 years.

Fitz Epic



The Fitz Epic is an Audux ride here in Canberra around the base of the Brindabella mountain range taking in a number of major climbs. These are Fitz's Hill, Apollo Rd, and Corrin Rd. These climbs range in length from a mere 4km for Fitz's Hill to 12km for Corrin Rd.

The rest of the course os characterised by open rolling roads with shorter steeper climbs in the region of 300-600m.

The temperature at the time of year that is run is normally in the mid to high 20's and this normally accompanied with wind later in the day.

The check points are not of the quality of the AAC, but this due the smaller nature of the event and also that they are situated in the middle of no-where with no buildings, electricity, running water.

ACC250

My report from the ride is located here so I won't reiterate too much of it.

The AAC250 is an Audux ride starting from Bright and traversing through the Victorian mountain range taking in a number of major climbs. These are Mt Hotham, Falls Creek, and Towanga Gap. These climbs range in length from a meer 7km for Towanga Gap to close to 30km for Mt Hotham.

The rest of the course os characterised by a mixture of open roads with some shorter climbs in the region of 1-2km.

There are also three significant descents the First from Omeo, the second from Falls Creek and the final descent from Towanga Gap to the finish.

The temperature was in the high 20's little to no wind to speak of

The check points were some of the best I have seen with good facilities and plenty of food and water.


Multi-File Analysis

When version 3.0 of WKo was released I briefly mentioned the multi-file analysis feature of the software. What this allows is a comparsion between multiple rides on the same or similar courses (Yes, JD this would be perfect for your 100's of testing laps around Majura!).

The results once the files are combined is firstly a graphical plot with key metrics listed underneath for easy reference. The second result is a combined quadrant analysis plot of the files.


Graphical Plot of Fitz's v AAC250


Quadrant Analysis of Fitz's v AAC250

Conclusions

First up are the basic numbers,

AAC250
time: 8:42hr
work; 6048kJ
TSS 560
IF 0.81
VI 1.29
Normalised Power: 249w
Average Power: 193w
Average Speed: 27.9kph

Fitz Epic
time: 7:34hr
work; 5624kJ
TSS 543
IF 0.851
VI 1.29
Normalised Power: 267w
Average Power: 206w
Average Speed: 27.6kph

So we can see straight away that I had both a higher average and normalised power for Fitz than the AAC250. The VI of 1.29 indicates that there was a reasonable amount of coasting for both rides despite Fitz's having significantly less downhill.

On examination of quadrant analysis the % time spent in the 4 quadrants is roughly the same (within 3-5%). What is interesting is when the outliers are examined, the majority for quadrant II (high force/ low cadence) are from the Fitz's ride, and the for quadrant I (high force/ high cadence) from the AAC250 ride.
This shows that the climbing for Fitz's entailed a higher amount of low cadence/ high force climbing than the AAC250.
I would suggest that this is a result of the number of rolling hills and Fitz's Hill it's self.

In summary from this data I would conclude that Fitz's Epic is a "harder" ride to complete physically than the AAC250

More Push Tuning

The bike shop rang seems they forgot to give me the dyno tuning graphs when I picked up the rear shock.
AS you can see there is a noticable difference in the profile of the shock post tuning.


Pre-Tuning

Post-Tuning

Alpine Assault 2010(250k)

Sorry for the late report but it's taken a couple of days to get this together.
Well I'm back, tired and sore after my jaunt through the Alpine Region of Victoria.
The ride began yesterday at 6.20am....so that meant a 4.00am back up to get some food in and also to get from Mt Beauty over to Bright for the start.

Breakfast consisted of 2x packages of Uncle Tobie's porridge and Gatorade. After a restless nights sleep through a foreign bed, no aircon, and a number of trips to the toilet (the after affects of hydration). I wasn't feeling the freshest, and with no coffee on tap the feeling didn't go away anytime soon.

The drive over to Bright aloud me to see the final climb of the day up Towonga Gap, and it wasn't looking bad. Driving it in the dark it seemed only about 5k and on the way up I spotted the location of the water stop on the side of the road.

Over in Bright we got a parking spot close by and I see about getting ready, pump the tires, bottles on the bike, shoes, helmet and off for a final trip to the toilet, before coming back and loading the pockets.

So what went in the pockets for a potential 9hr+ ride?
-3x clif bars
-2x gel shots
-4x bags of clif shotz
-2x 750ml bottles of Clif Salty Lemon Mix




The Start to Mt Hotham



The roll out along the road to Mt Hotham was pretty chilled with the bunch sitting on a steady 30kph. The morning was cool and crisp and just right to begin along day in the saddle. A couple of surges went in that put the bunch briefly into single file but no one was foolish enough to try attacking.

At the foot of the climb up Mt Hotham I moved towards the front as the grade picked up. There were no accelerations just a slow stripping away as the steady tempo and grade took it's toll.
After about 2km there was a small group of seven riders left at the front. At this stage I was surprised and actually enjoying the climbing. The road was smooth and the grades shallow, I knew "The Meg" was coming up and sure enough it rared its ugly head. I took the outside line through the corner to reduce the grade and made it through and onto the next pitch without going into oxygen debt. Over the top and there were 4 of us left and over the next few k's the group of 7 reformed.

Next up was the long false flat before the open section up to the top. It was on this section that the legs began to protest and I knew that I was not on a good day. The beginning of the open we were met by another steep pinch of about 600m metres and sure enough I got unhitched here. I decided well that I was better off riding at my own pace along here and try and catch back along the next shallower grade.

As road turned the corner the front 4 riders slowed and the wind across the peak turned into a x-wind. Back on the bunch briefly before unhitching again just before the top at the ski resort.

I crossed over the top with the other 3 riders before making a mad dash down the descent and catching back to the leaders before the first checkpoint at Dinner Plain.

At the checkpoint I refilled my bottle, stretched a bit before we hit the road again for Omeo.

Falls Creek



The road for the next 50k was open and rolling but downhill to it allowed plenty of recovery. By this stage we were out of the high alpine area and the temps went from chilly to warm and pleasant.

Rolling into Omeo and the checkpoint at the school it was time for a toilet stop and another bottle refill before hitting the road again.

At this stage we were joined by the bunch from behind as we hadn't been hammering the open road too hard and our numbers swelled to about 12 riders.

Out of Omeo and after a brief 3k climb it was a twisting winding descent for the next 40k. At this point my legs were really starting to protest to it was back off the bus for me as I tried to pile in the food and drink in the hopes that they would come right before we began the ascent up falls creek. But no dice, with every small acceleration out of the corners they squealed like a small pig.

It was about then that I decided that I would probably end up riding the climb on my own. Unfortunately the hard left came far too soon and I was steering up the face of a 10% for about a kilometre or so.
Start from one end of the cluster to the other and I tried settling into a rhythm, but unfortunately that wasn't happening.
The heart rate was up in the low 170's the power was 300w+ trying to keep forward momentum, and it all came to a grinding halt about 3k up the climb.

I swung to the right of the road under a tree and stopped to try and get the heart rate and breathing under control. To try and describe this climb is hard but unrelenting is probably the best word with no respite. It twists and turns it's way along the ridge leading up to Falls Creek with no let up!

After getting myself under control again I set off again with the power hovering at about 260w and cadence stalling to below 50rpm at times to keep everything under control.

Breaking out onto the plains area at the top of the climb offers some spectacular views but unfortunately I didn't have time to stop and take any pictures before the 10k rolling section to Falls Creek it's self.

At the check point another toilet stop and bottle refill before a sweet 30k descent into Mt Beauty.

Passing cars, 4wd's, and bus on the way down was a blast and allowed heaps of time to recover.
Towanga Gap



In Mt Beauty, the wife was waiting and I stopped off and grabbed a couple of bottles of poweraide and lay on the grass outside chatting for 5 minutes before beginning the assault up Towanga Gap.

The was another climb similar to Mt Hotham with shallow grades and a smooth surface. I just noodled my way up the 7k to the top turning my legs over in their smallest gear.

Crossing the top I had another 15k descent before me and I started to switch off a bit before getting a reminder halfway down not too. Coming out of a corner there were 2x ambulances picking a rider up. I didn't see the rider themselves but it looked like they had over cooked a corner and gone into a bank....

In the valley at the bottom and only 7k to the finish it was time to give it everything left in the tank.

Numbers for the Day

Km: 248
Ride Time: 8:48hr
Calories: 6001Cals (12.5 Big Macs!)
Peak 20min power: 333w
Peak 60min power: 313w

Fluids: 5 litres

All up this was a fantastic training ride, both really well run and with some spectacular scenery. I would highly recommend doing this to anyone look for good base k's early in the year.

Off to do dumb stuff

Well it's long weekend here in Australia with their (yes I am still a Kiwi!) national holiday on Tuesday. I have taken Monday off work...so 4 day weekend.
Months ago I signed up to participate in the Alpine Challenge for this weekend on Sunday and its finally arrived.

From memory there is about 4000m (10,000ft) of climbing over the 250km route so I'm thinking I am going to be somewhat sore come Monday morning.

This will be a great early season hit out to get some base km's in the legs for next month as it's looking like a solid month of racing.

TARWAPM Edition 2

For those that don't know Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan will be releasing a second edition of Training and Racing with a Power Meter. This should be available early April this year.
It contains a number of updates plus several new chapters covering new areas and tools in WKO.

The Doctor is back in the Lab

In other exciting (well if you like numbers exciting) news Dr Andrew Coggan is also currently working on a reformulation of the TSS metric and performance manager.

First proposed by Banister et al. in 1975, this model, and/or variations thereof, has been repeatedly shown to accurately predict training-induced changes in performance (both positive and negative) in a wide variety of endurance and non-endurance sports. The impulse-response model has therefore been successfully used to design theoretically-ideal training programs, optimize tapering regimens, evaluate the effects (or lack thereof) of cross-training in triathletes, etc. However, this model also has a number of inherent limitations, which tend to limit its usefulness outside of a laboratory setting.

To read more see here

The details are very scarce other then Dr Coggan posting teasers on the Wattage Group list, but it currently was a working title of TSS 2.0.

The Coolest Sh!t I have seen this year!

Someone has managed to combine a helmet cam with gps and power data!
Apparently the secret is in the software, but imagine this for short course/ XCC racing!!

Super Sofa

This is Part II of my review of my Push tuned rear shock.

When I first got my El Salt I described it as being as comfortable as a big sofa to ride. Well I can now say that it's the "Super Sofa".
When I sent the rear shock off to Dirtworks I asked them to tune 2 things,
-The pro pedal settings for my weight (These just weren't working, it was like the three bears with 2 settings too firm and the other too soft)
-The stock rebound speeds (At times the back end felt sluggish even with the rebound dampening switched off)

So testing these two tweaks yesterday through Stromlo and yes it's now riding like I want. The rear is a bit more responsive and "race like" in feel but still having the same level of comfort.

Riding Pork Barrel, I had forgotten how much more fun a dually was through the rough stuff. The shock was using all it's travel yet not bottoming out.

So my recommendation is that it is worth considering having your rear suspension "pushed" if,

1) Your a picky b@stard

2) You are not happy with how your bike is performing and can't adjust it out using rebound/ air pressure

3) Have to service your shock anyway ($350 vs $150-$200)

Push It!

So I got a call from the LBS today. My rear shock had comeback from Dirtworks, freshly "Pushed"

So what does $350 buy you?

-A fancy sticker

-Blue O-ring

-A bag of spare parts

-And hopefully a custom riding shock




When you send the shock in to be serviced you are also asked to fill in some basic details, and also list exactly what characteristics you are want to have tuned.

Tomorrow will be the maiden ride so I'll report back how it goes

Team Sky's First Win

Despite the piss poor team kit Team Sky have notched up their first win for the year.
Congratulations to Hendi! This is a guy I used to race against weekly when I was studying at Uni...nothing like getting the cr@p kicked out of you week in week out for 4 years....
It's good to see he is now getting his chance to shine after stepping out of Cavendish's and Gripel's shadow.

The Ultimate present to say "Yes I do Love myself!"

I think the title says it all really.....

MTB Quadrant Analysis

So continuing on from yesterday, today I have posted up a quadrant plot from a MTB ride. What we will do is compare it to yesterday's road ride.


- The general shape of the plot (a tight elipse, but there are alot of seemingly random outliers)
- The direction of the shape (low right to top left, but the major axis is steeper than yesterday and closer to the my self selected average cadence)
- Where the outliers are sitting (Again the majority are Quadrant 2- High force, low cadence)
- What the percentages are in each quadrant (This is very important, note the amount of time spent in quadrant 1)

Tomorrow I will post up what I have gleened so far from usin this tool.
Feel free to post up questions if you have any.

All in...

Just entered for Rocky Trail Entertainment's 100 miler in March.

Should be a bit of fun and see whether I can get closer to the magic 8hr mark this time.

The course consists of 10k and 23k loops. Speaking to Martin @ RTE they haven't decided on the exact composition yet... so worst case is 7 x 23k.

'Cause I am smarter then your average bear

Just to prove I actually do something with all the power data I have.
This is the quadrant plot from the road ride I did today.
So what is it?
Quadrant Analysis is a way to measure the neuromuscular power demands of cycling. Taken from the book, "Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Hunter Allen and Dr. Andrew R. Coggan, "Tools such as Normalized Power, Intensity Factor, and Training Stress Score explicitly recognize the seemingly stochastic nature of cycling power output and help coaches and athletes better understand the actual physiological demands of a given race or workout.

Neuromuscular What? “Neuromuscular function” may sound complicated, but it simply means how fast you can contract a muscle, how strongly you can contract it, and how long you can contract it before relaxing it again.

Each quadrant represents a different combination of force(how hard you push on the pedals) and pedaling velocity(how fast you push on the pedals).
QI: High Force and High Cadence- An example of this would be sprinting.

QII: High Force and Low Cadence- An example would be steep hill repeats, big gear intervals and a lot of Mt. Biking resides in QII as well.

QIII: Low Force and Low Cadence- An example would be a recovery ride or just an easy ride around town.

QIV: Low Force and High Cadence- An example would be a Criterium or fast pedaling drills.


I have highlighted some key areas to look at when reading one of these plots.

These are,
- The general shape of the plot (a tight elipse)
- The direction of the shape (low right to top left)
- Where the outliers are sitting (Quadrant 2- High force, low cadence)
- What the percentages are in each quadrant

So this is what a road training flie looks like. Tomorrow I will post up a MTB ride to highlight a number of points.

And we have a new winner!

For Worst Team Kit of the Year....what were they thinking??????

At the Pound

Yesterday turned out to be an easier day training wise spent with the family.

We took wee man to Stromlo so he could ride his little bike around the kids track. Even at 10AM the temperatures with starting to bump up into the 30's. Wee man got bored playing with the other kids so took himself off down to the Crit track and was trying to chase a couple of riders around...but when your wheels are only about 10cm your not going to go very fast.

He would try skooting after them on the straights then use the short cut through the middle of track to catch them on the other side.

Want a Kitten?

I'm not really a cat person but we stopped in at the RSPCA yeterday on the way home and they currently have about 30+ kittens that need homes. So if you are a cat person there is alot to choose from at the RSPCA at the moment.

Square Eyes

Everyone says get outside enjoy summer, my response is "Piss off it's too f^&ken hot!"

I have to admit I have a bit of a dislike to the Australian summer. The reason being that anything after about 10am and your already into the mid-30's. This makes trying to train after this but really hard physically due to the risk of dehydration but but backing up and recovering hard too. So this generally means that training means being super motivated and a 6am start or rolling out after work at 5pm and still getting cooked.

Yesterday was a Bakery bunch and and extra couple of hours around Uriarra for a bit of sunbaking. Today ftp intervals on the death machine.

After a couple of weeks the FTP is back up over the 300 watt mark...and the garage floor is looking like it's got a permanent sweat stain on it.

So what have it been doing with the rest of the time you ask?



Training the old reflexes on Modern Warfare 2 (Thanks Santa) I'm sure it's useful for MTBing somehow....

Ginga' Roo

Given the amount of time I have spent lately at Stromlo, I'm getting to know the 'Roos on a first name basis.
However yesterday I almost ran over one of these, hadn't met him before. I didn't even know that they made them this colour. I'm going to call him Stan

A Ginger Kangaroo

Now this has to really demonstrate God has a sense of humor.... I can't really think of a worse colour to make an animal that lives in the bush.

Fail!

Willing to pay your riders top dollar--> Check

Willing to get into legal battles to recruit riders--> Check

Top Class bikes (Pinarello)--> Check

Skimping on the team kit--> Fail!

2009 by the Numbers

Training
Total time: 472hrs (Same as 2008)
Total Km's: 12000km (Less than 2008)
Total TSS: 34200(10% increase on 2008)
Total Energy: 330600kj (169 Big Mac's!)
Peak CTL: 116.4 (17th May)
Peak ATL: 153.2 (8th Nov)
Low CTL: 82.4 (24th July)
Highest FTP: 330w

Racing
Best Race: 100 mile Fling. Not sure why but I just really enjoyed the course and the day.

Worst Race: Jetblack 101. Run with a kangaroo on the way to the race, crap course (due to last minute changes), breaking 4 spokes in the rear wheel and having to DNF

Not going to make it moment: Otway. This wasn't a physical moment, more mental at the 1/2 way point.

Luckiest Escape: Coota Road Race. Not piling in on top of everyone else in the mass crash

Longest Road Trip: Otway Odessey. 9.5hrs

Longest Race: Tie. Token 12hr & 100 mile Fing both 8.5hr

Worst Accomodation: Nothing jumps out this year yah!

Best Post Race Food: The dodgy hamburger after the Otway race.


Other Stuff

Best Purchase over $1000

MTB Powertap

Best Purchase over $500

Garmin 705

Best Purchase under $100

Schwalbe Racing Ralph Tires