^ and lo he said unto thee post on STW ‘which aero road bike for TT – warning indecisive content’.

Calf muscles are not designed for prolonged power. Cleats further back mean less input from the calves – less short term power better endurance.

Seem to remember you need to be careful how far back you go to avoid position difficulties.

One of the reasons Torq reckon you should only do two intervals sessions per week!

According to the Coggan book your intervals should be until there is significant degradation in power. If you can’t adjust the number of intervals on TR then you need to work backwards and pace your power output such that the last set is only just achievable or borderline isn’t.

Yes and I’m feeling it to the extent I’m not sure week 3 is possible 😥 Moving from turbo to 3x long outside rides may help.

Second week of 800TSS Zone 2 completed. Barely able to get up a flight of stairs.

The cock up may not necessarily be yours.

Anything different to their normal spec should be discussed in a way that leaves absolutely no room for misunderstanding.

Generic answers to questions should be checked out – eg ‘We’ve never had any complaints’ isn’t a sufficient answer to ‘what’s the mud clearance like?’

I’m concerned about starting my season without miles in my legs

I haz miles but no intervals.

You have a very busy season? Torq were telling me that current thinking in the pro peleton is reverse periodisation – winter intervals and rely on the number of events in race season for miles in the legs.

^ You may be near me (Wallingford) – I have a QR 26″ wheel with a trainer tyre if you want?

I use an MTB for everything now to try to replicate my position as much as possible for that very reason.

I have a goretex jacket I’ve not used in 3 years and Castelli nanoflex bibshorts. I have no excuse other than my immune system has fought off the lurgy and 4hrs of wet will probably make me succumb. Lie in, shorter turbo session and make up for it next week in S.Wales

I’ll probably drive to a wood with a nice 5km fireorad loop in rolling hills and mimic the work out in that.

I was planning to do something similar but I haven’t got an aqualung. Whatever the weather I have to train outside this weekend as I am now so fatigued that I can no longer reliably hold zone on the turbo. ATL 100 doesn’t tell the whole story.

Great condition is too generic a term to take at face value. I always ask specific questions.

A dent is not ‘great condition’ in my opinion but if they are functional and it’s not too cosmetic it could just about be in someone elses ‘great condition’

The musculature on my left leg was noticably punier. I started using a Stages (left only) powermeter 18months ago. Invariably when I’m tired I start to ‘cheat’ by concentrating on my left leg style.

The result has been my left leg is now stronger than my right.

Slight hijack – how well do ‘singulators’ or sprung tensioners work. I’m wondering how they fare in mud, how noisy they are and how much risk there is of chain slip while honking up a climb and potentialy smashing a knee.

Wow – enjoy it!

Yup – legs protest climbing 2 flights of stairs when I’m training hard

I looked at a ‘bargain’ frame but then had to add a fork (no mention of frameset) which means getting hold of a Brain widget. That’s £300 from Specialized – IF they will sell it to you and then you have to buy a set of forks at full retail from a dealer and pay Specialized to fit the Brain. For a set of World Cup SIDS that’s a total of £1200

High volume trad base here building to a killer final 3 week block. Week 1 800 tss completed and now the cold/flu that’s been doing the rounds is starting to strike 😥

Pioneer and SRM (finally) announce 30% price drops

Unfortunately the SRM discount appears to apply to the US store only. Just tried the XX1 and it’s still 2.5k Euro……

I’ve had to shelve my desire for one of these. The economy just doesn’t stack up. Not sure if I could face using it training on Chilterns doubletrack, 6hr races I use my HT and I only do 1 or 2 12hr races a year.

Last year was my first winter single speeding. Ran 32:19 on a 26er. Able to spin on the flats like crazy and just get up long Chilterns hills. Each ride turned into an interval session – painful but a lot of fun.

No bad thing to have a rest month. Should be possible to carry some gains through season to season? For me:-

2014 – 53 from a rest month (october) of 12
2015 – 87 from a rest month (october) of 24
Currently 60 from a rest month (October) of 36 but I’ve had a bit of injury

Temptation is to build a line on a graph. It’s better to do quality intervals and quality training which may not build such an impressive line but will give better results.

Best practice would be that they closed the path (permitted a certain number of times per year) stopped/delayed or that someone requested you wait. After all the landowner (who may not hold the sporting rights) gets money for the permissive path.

That said, given the date, it was likely a ‘beaters day’ where those who spend the season beating get to stand and shoot on the last shoot of the season. Potentially different organisation and might just be one of those things.

Cheap shiman QR (massive camming action) done up really tight with DMR chain tug on drive side.

Works well on my Simple

^ Much stretching and foam roller on IT band

You can convert your regular 5minute stops to less frequent but much longer stops.

Tubeless is great until it isn’t then you can pick from any or all of these actions

1. Hear puncture, feel Stans on your legs/face, continue pedalling – it’ll seal

2. It hasn’t

3. Find puncture, inflate tyre* with puncture at bottom so sealant can work
(assumes tyre bead still seated)
4. Repeat 3.

5. It seals – hooray – resume ride

6. Fails under riding almost immediately

7. Repeat 3 and 4

8. Try plug

9. Small leak now massive leak

10. Admit failure and fit inner tube

11. Inner tube punctured from rattling around camelbak/seat pack for a year

12. Mend inner tube if 2year old cement still liquid

11. Fit inner tube

12. Resume ride

13. Puncture

14. Fix puncture and clear tyre of numerous thorns that weren’t evident until you fitted a tube

15. Resume ride

16. Get home and try to repair tyre – if step 8 was skipped then fail to find site of puncture which anyway isn’t necessary as it is now sealed as if by magic. If Step 8 was carried out or the puncture is a cut then try to fix with with a variety of patches, glues, stitching, boots etc all of which require unmounting the tyre, scrupulous cleaning, remounting, pumping, adding Stans and all of which will ultimately fail.

Marathons anyone?

^ HT How many of your precious watts are you wasting with FS on flat/non technical/short courses?

Is the surprisingly high percentage of commuter gear (dayglo anoraks, helmet peaks etc) a function of the horribleness of the weather/mud or does it attract a different rider?

Surely you need a 29er HT given the amount of XC you plan on doing?

Always wanted one.

On paper I’m between a Large and an XL. Would like the seat tube/height of the L but would prefer the length of the XL.

Because of this I got a Spearfish which I love, still tempted to upgrade my Flux to Czar but probably a bit too similar to the ‘fish and likely only 1/2lb lighter.

Marathon XC 29er HT is a significant comfort boost to a 26er. The 29C is brilliant – I have one and love it. I do long rides on it but as I’ve got faster, train harder, do more in a season I’ve started to use a short travel FS (Spearfish) for stuff over about 8hrs.

You are wise to avoid deciduous woods in high winds. The level of squirrel damage – stripping of bark – means that the possibility of large limbs falling is increased.

In a previous life my second job was woodlands – I didn’t and don’t go there in string winds.

More is better… until it’s too much

Each body is different, I’ve religously tapered for my ‘A’ events then got my best ever result going into Brighton Big Dog at the end of a 2 week training camp where week 1 was 750TSS and Week 2 was over 1,000TSS. While I won’t be taking it to that extreme I will be doing more in my tapers from now on.

How hard should 85-95% of FTP for 20min (x’s 3) feel

Like death would be preferable.

The grease tool.

3×10 – Race in the winter on the 32, use the big ring on tarmac and climb long Chilterns climbs in the mud after 50miles in the granny. Weighs a bit more, clatters a bit more but gives me versatility.

One thing people rarely mention is the negative effect of large cadence changes on steep climbs when you’re tired. Using the granny and not being right at the top of the cassette allows you to spin and change without leg sapping drops in cadence.

Very humbling FTP today comparing Stages and Powertap…..

Stages reading a fairly consistant 40-50W higher on the lactate session and overall 13.3% higher on the 30minute test.

I think my Stages is still useful as a training tool and for some elements of pacing but any willy waving over FTPs and W/kg I’ve ever done is duly rescinded 😳

I race and train on 29ers but I have a 2013 Flux which I can’t bring myself to sell. It makes me smile every time I look at it even though I don’t ride it much. When I do ride it I need a better eye for lines, sharper reflexes and a lot more respect for ruts. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not for my XC riding but it’s a different sort of fun.

Depressing reading. I’m currently getting up at 5am to do 90 minutes of turbo before driving a 21mile route that would be perfect training were it not too dangerous.

I’m looking at a route to avoid most of the A road (Wallingford to Aylesbury) but there is still a section of dodgy cycle path, 500m of A road and it’s 26miles.

Ridgeway to car when it dries out. Actually may do that in the mud.

Sounds perfect – want some fun, climbing and need to adjust to some short sections of steeper rocks on the race bike. The extra time to Afan is a pain at the moment.

Never ridden Caffel. Looking to find somewhere to practice riding rocky XC on a race HT without killing myself – does Caffel fit the bill?