Thanks all.
Yes, it's H50/8. I'll try and pop down and do one of the club nights on H10/8 beforehand as I've not ridden it before.
I'm a bit rubbish at remembering to drink, tempted to get a bar mounted bottle. About the same price as a decent aero bottle and likely a bit more aero.
Can anyone hear suggest a useful way to stop an already hot helmet* falling over my eyes without buying a new one. It was fine until I put the front wheel into a pothole.
I've thought of a buff, cap backward.
*Giro Selector
Can't quite remember how it looked now but I've taken the back bit out of my selector so i can tilt it back more readily. Comes out quite easily I think. I don't have any problems with mine tipping forwards.
I've heard of some people taping a bit of Velcro to the tail of their helmets and the back of their skin suits so keep the helmet in position 🙂
Done the h10/8 and the h25/8 which make up parts of the fifty course a few times, iirc they're quite nice courses, bit of a drag up on t the return legs but quite swift
The RDFCC season starts on Tuesday evening with a 6 miler. Its a CATI so all can ride as long as you are happy on the road. Better finish the "TT" bike off as I have yet to ride it and still need to chop 6" off the steering column.
I do 50s without a bottle (just two iso gels), just got to make sure you're properly hydrated before - plenty to drink from the moment you wake up. But if it's your first you might want to play it safe.
The stretch between the Holybourne and Chawton rbts has a terrible surface. Couple of draggy little climbs but it's not exactly a hilly course. Farnham rbt can get a little busy but it's Sunday morning so you should be alright. Headwind on the outward leg is fastest i think.
Going to go out on a limb and suggest the Charlotteville will be won with a 1:39 this year.
Hydration and fuelling is an interesting one. Some of the research suggests that the body's mechanisms for regulating output are not only linked to what stores it currently contains, but also in some part to the triggers that stores are being replenished. Studies found that even the taste of sugar could trigger a boost in performance, way before the time that the energy could be digested and distributed to the muscles. There is an interesting summary of similar findings on hydration over at [url= https://cyclingtips.com/2014/04/hydration-for-cyclists-how-important-is-it-really/ ]Cyclingtips.com[/url].
So I think the takeaway from this is that is [b][i]your[/i][/b] physiology is such that you feel at all like you need to drink during a longer TT, then your performance will probably benefit from being able to.
V235 for me today. Most comfortable ride on the TT bike yet positionwise (not comfortable in terms of effort though!) so the bike fit feels like money well spent. 3 minutes faster than the same event last year and £30 for 2nd lady (admittedly in a small field!). I think I should also have gone top of the ladies competiton in the Yorkshire SPOCO competition by my maths.
Now looking for some events on faster courses for the next month because I have my eye on a club record or two (one of which is already mine but I reckon I can go faster)
Two hours testing a position and the new wheels on the Drift Road circuit. Rather pleasingly I was lapping in 23:10 without serious effort, so I'm hoping to manage a sub-hour 25 again this year at our inter-club TT next month. Position needed wider bars and raised a cm so I can keep my fingers wrapped around the shifters. You might like to know that my calibrated Powerpod reported 2:12 Watts#, and bikecalculator validated this with a predicted time of 23:01! Physics is great isn't it 😉 . I also validated bikecalculator using the winning time at Wednesday's Westerley ten and a bit at Hillingdon using a direct force PM. Am very satisfied now with the device now.
Still deliberating the 50, and thinking of how to make some disc covers for the Jet 9's. I set them up with tubeless Vittoria Corsa Speeds, and my they do feel fast. Make a great noise too 😀 . Helmet change might be next, head comes up when tired, and I have to look over my glasses, making vision poor and eyes stream. Might go with contact lenses and a helmet/visor such as the Bambino.
#The geeks among us will recognise that the Powerpod and bikecalculator.com use the same model to make predictions, but consistency is nice to have ad validation was based on an independent dataset.
EDIT - entered -see you all on May 7th
It's extraordinarily unlikely that a Bambino will be the fastest helmet for you.
Why so? it's meant to have a better position for more of the time for riders who don't tuck their head away completely (which I can't do for very long). Currently wearing an Advantage, that I hold in a pretty aero position (head doesn't go down), but I definitely need a visor and an Aerohead is out of the question on price! Selector is a possibility too and I prefer the fit of Giro to be honest.
Am very satisfied now with the device now.
I'm pleased, mine arrives tomorrow 🙂
Did you buy the speed sensor too? Most of my issues have been with speed sensors. I don't bother with cadence and have not found any difference. Be sure to run the out and back calibration wearing your TT kit (helmet at the very least).
Instructions here https://ibikeforum.com/download/file.php?id=3517
TiRed - it isn't very fast because there is a still a gap behind your head where low pressure will form. Get a Selector or Javelin. The safest bet for the mostest people.
I'm liking bjj.andy's progress.
H50/8 - dont be lulled into thinking it is 2 lots of Bentley 25 - the extra leg has the most annoying road surface in London West, South and London South Districts.
Badump
Badump
Badump
Badump.
One isogel, 500ml bottle if you think you need it, but it is doable without. It's just if you think you need a drink, and dont have one, that will mess with your brain and cause far more problems than the possibility of 2 or 3W of drag from a bottle
Did you buy the speed sensor too?
I did - the Garmin one that wraps around the rear hub. I also bought 2x garmin mounts with the action cam mount, one for the road and tt bike respectively so its mounted dead centre away from my hands.
So, i was going to only perform the calibration for one bike then swap the sensor/powerpod as needed, but you think i need my aero gear on and that makes a difference? Therefore a 2 bike setup? I still havent worked out how you switch it from bike A to B looking at the internet instructions.
If one of the Spesh aero bottles fits well in the angle of your frame it may well even be faster than without a bottle.
You need TWO speed sensors. Set TT bike with first sensor mounted on front wheel. Isaac software will guide you through the set up. Ride out and back for calibration. Repeat with second sensor on other bike.
Powerpod has a set of values for CdA and rolling resistance. It needs to know if you are on your TT bike and it gets this info from the speed sensor it pairs with. I keep the red pod on my TT bike with dedicated sensor on front hub. I use the black pod on my road bikes and run two profiles, by using the TT speed sensor or another sensor depending on bar mount or combo mount. The integrated speed and cadence sensors in my Giant bikes didn't work reliably. Once calibrated, I've been very impressed, but am still working on the combo bar mounted calibration.
You'll also find that weight of rider and bike are not very sensitive, and the defaults aren't bad, but there is a BIG change based on TT position compared with hoods or drops. Have a play on bikecalculator to get a feel for predicting watts for speed and hence time for distance. The average gives a good predictor of what powerpod is reporting in real time when on the bike.
Ok thanks - why on the front hub - nearer the powerpod/less likely to be covered in debris? And how do you switch it from bike to bike, or does it just know from the speed sensor ID?
Hopefully I'll have it set up for Hillingdon on the 3rd!
Direct line of sight and the inverse square law. It recognises the ANT ID of the sensor automatically.
Did the L101 course on Saturday morning, a out and back via a roundabout along the A6. Great dry and sunny day but chuff me it was a bit nippy ! Had a slight headwind on the way out with a nice tailwind for the return leg. Did a 21:31, coming in 4th overall and 1st vet. Talking to a few afterwards and a lot was saying it wasn't a quick day due to it being so cold so to come so close to my official 10 PB (21:27) bodes well for the rest of the season. Don't know if it was the coldness of the morning but according to my stages my power was way down, averaged 319w for the 10 against 340w the last 10 I did at the beginning of the season? Looking on the bright side if my pm was working as it should've at least it means my position is better 
TT'ing 101 required please STW 🙂
The Zwift based club I'm in is doing a 'real life 10mile TT time' thing at the moment where everyone posts a real life ten time. So I'm going to give the Newbury RC one a go on Wednesday.
I'll be on my road bike with a PM- so what's a good pacing strategy??
Aero advice is appreciated too but there's not masses of scope tbh 😀
so what's a good pacing strategy
It's 16 km, so divide into 4 km autolaps on distance, then FTP-5%, FTP, FTP+5% and FTP+10% is a good start. You can probably go harder than that, just don't start too hard and "try to hang on".
Personally I think TiRed's pacing strategy is too variable.
EDIT: and mathematically is 102.5%FTP which is a bit shit for a 10 - should be more like 107% if you do a good one (ie smell blood at the end)
If you know your best 20 minute power, ride to that, then turn it up for the last two miles, go flat out with a minute to go, and sprint the last 15s.
You also got a free sprint of 15s or so at the start, but try really hard not to overdo it, a ten is a sustained > FTP effort and requires considerable concentration and mental freshness.
andy - some serious Watts there, get yourself on a fast course and the PB will be destroyed - my 10 PB is 20:55 off 264W so you should smash that as your position looks reasonably sorted now
And go harder on the uphillish bit and easier on the downhillish bit?
He did say first 10 😆 . Whatever you do CH will be a PB and as mentioned 110% of FTP is a target 😈 . I'm rubbish at these short efforts, and have only raced hilly ones and Hillingdon. Might try an open on a fast course and VTTC. Much prefer 25s.
But he's got a power meter so must be pretty serious about something so I would expect some pacing ability?
Definitely worth turning it up a bit on drags or into the wind and knocking it off a bit on fast bits, experience will tell you how much, its not smash it then recover, like XC or road racing
10s are hard mentally as it is a sustained > FTP effort, as already said, this requires quite a lot of concentration, and a difficult day at work or mental stress will suck the ability to do a good one out of you. As will smashing the first few minutes when it feels like you could do 30W > FTP all the way round 😉
Gulp! Not sure I'll be 110% ftp 😆 That sounds a little too painful for a first attempt!
Last year my first tt's at hillingdon i started - whilst riding to power - a negative split as this is how I felt good on the turbo. I later found consisitent pacing with the last two laps as smash laps faster for me.
In additon I recieved advice to go easy on the hill - I was faster trying harder on the hill and using the following S bend for recovery. FWIW I averaged FTP for 24 minutes. Its all personal.
This year I have a TT bike and can tolerate my pain more, it'll be interesting to see what happens.
My Powerpod has arrived so it will be measured.
CH, don't over complicate things 🙂 For first attempt just aim for even splits at around FTP. Worth setting your Garmin to 2 mile splits and try not to let the lap average power drop too much.
You'll be on H10/3 which I find a hard course to ride well. It's rather exposed on the way out, usually with a relentless headwind, there are lots of false flats, and the roundabouts at Hungerford can be quite busy. Bit more fun on the way back, but going out it's one of my least favourite bits of road to race. Good luck 😉
110% of FTP? That seems optimistic.
The common formula for estimating FTP is 20 min power x 0.95. The inverse of that would get you an estimate of 20 min power from FTP. i.e FTP / 0.95.
Given crosshair has never done a 10 before, and he's doing it on a road bike, I am going to go out on a limb here and say he's not going to break 20 minutes.
A pretty good first go on a road bike would be about 24 minutes - 25mph average.
I would suggest that targeting 103-4% of FTP for the first 10-12k and then give whatever's left till the end.
If you can sprint at the end of a TT, you're doing it wrong. If you get to a mile to go and your eyes aren't bleeding, you need to turn it up to 11. You should be almost unable to turn the pedals by the time you approach the line, not breaking out the Cav. You might make a second by sprinting the last 50 yards. You will make much more than that by upping your effort in the last mile.
The only place that doesn't apply is if the TT finishes uphill. If you can't pedal 300 yards from the end in that case you'll stop, and I don't recommend that. 😆
For aero - Concentrate on hunkering-down on the hoods. Forearms horizontal, elbows tucked-in. Tuck your head down in front of your shoulders - but EYES UP ON THE ROAD!
Good luck, Crosshair!!!
That doesn't sound like any fun at all !
One other thing - have you done many/any all out 20 min efforts on the road before? If you have done testing on Zwift, you may find that you can push more Watts out on the road. How does your profile compare from the turbo to the crits you've been doing - HR/Power ?
That doesn't sound like any fun at all !
It's not. 😈 😈 😈
Best 20min power is identical from the first Hillingdon I did and the last indoor FTP test I did- 313w.
I am 'fitter' now though so I'd hope to improve on that slightly outside.
Lol @ 20mins 🙂 I was gonna treat anything over 20mph as a success 😆
You'll be fine. And no, they aren't a lot of fun. Just aim for about 320 watts going out and more coming back. Pedal hard in the downhills to keep your heart rate up. Come along to a Wednesday evening Hillingdon TT. Eleven laps of the same circuit makes for more consistency and pacing. Well that's what I tell myself.
Empty the tank is a better term than sprint. I might manage 400W compared to 900 in my old fart effort at a proper sprint
It's a continual progression of greater than FTP effort - sporting courses make this much harder to manage. Reviewing your HR trace after the event can help you see how well you achieved it
320?!? I would end up walking back if I try that. I'll start at 290 and keep cranking it up by 10w each quarter I think.
It's all a little bit academic as my 3 min, 370w Anaerobic intervals the other day only got me 25mph on the flat 😆
Well Crosshair, my plan was to ride Bentley tonight but don't think I'm going to make it so may well join you on H10/3 tomorrow night. Looks like it'll be cold, wet and windy, can't wait 😉
And it'll be a northerly wind, which makes for an effective headwind both ways.
Enjoy. 😉
I appear to have bought a boardman team tt....a quick n+1 just before baby #2 joins. Not sure if I'll get many actual races in, but at least it removes the chores of fitting clip-ons/swapping wheels/generally faffing about.
Looking forward to sorting the position on the turbo and seeing how it performs.
Anyone seen a cheap standard sram chainset, bb30, so I can swap my power meter over...
bought a boardman team tt a quick n+1
Welcome to the club 😀
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£800 from Halfords per chance?
Nice work DT78. Needs photos.
Got a few things to do to [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/a-bike-build-time-trialling-on-a-budget ]my TT bike[/url]. Got one of them new fangled Aerocoach single rings to fit, so need to remove the front mech and I might switch the base bar STI back to brakes only (must be worth at least half a watt 😉 ). Got a new fork to trim and fit. And got a couple of tweaks to do to the pole and pad position. And I really need to get the stupid plug out the rear hole on the seat post so I can move the saddle to the rear position, I'm beginning to suspect the thread's been glued I can't get it to budge 😕
Though having said that, racing has just not been happening this season. Picked up an injury at the beginning of March that is really making training and racing difficult. Only raced once so far this season. Just a club event but a win is a win 🙂 And a stressful lesson learnt in making sure I know where the parking and sign on is for the race before I set off 😉
Welcome to the club
Kryton, that's some tail light you have on there 😉
Ah cool MrBlobby! I should know a few faces now 🙂 I suppose I had better actually join at some point 😀
What's the form on warming up? Sign in, get a start time, make sure you are back ready to go before then??
What's the form on warming up? Sign in, get a start time, make sure you are back ready to go before then??
Pretty much. Sign on will be about half six. The start is a few mins up the road from the kebab van lay by so give yourself a bit of time to get there.
I'm beginning to suspect the thread's been glued I can't get it to budge
It might be threadlocked. Try heating the bolt a bit with a soldering iron.
