Looking damp on Sunday…

I’ll always stick a tube patch on punctures that I’m worried about (once I get home). Hardly a big deal, and they’re bomber… Why go riding with that niggle in the back of your mind?

Hmm – but the context is important. Take Sweet Spot training. That’s moderately hard, but you do it for extended periods, so get the training benefit. For example, TrainerRoad makes you do loads of it (on the high volume base plan, anyway).

Yes – the best thing I can say about it is that I’ve not thought about it once since I fitted it (apart from the snazzy orange colour!)

I’ve got a Bolt for the Road Bike, and a RFLKT for the MTB (which is now discontinued but replaced with the Mini) which works well for me.

Just don’t need a full blown head unit when on the MTB (only usually display HR, elapsed time, time of day, and distance – with other metrics there if needed), don’t need to worry about battery and I’ll always have my phone on me anyway. I also won’t cry if I kill it with a crash, and I’ve had a few!

The Bolt is great, my only word of caution is that it is a bit fragile. I managed to crack the screen by being a bit cack handed when pressing ‘start’ when setting off. It was replaced FOC, but I’m quite careful with the second unit. I think the Garmins are more robust…

Two pints for that man! New nozzle on the way…

While we’re talking about angle headsets – is there a neat way of finding the exact front/middle of your headtude, to get the cup alignment bang on?

Viewranger doesn’t do turn by turn, which is a shame, but it’s a whole other layer of complexity I guess.

When I used my phone for riding nav, I turned the screen off an flicked it back on occasionally to conserve battery, and I could get at least 8 hours out my phone that way with the mapped cached and all comms turned off.

I did ask support if they could put an option in to turn the screen on at specifc waypoints so you could at least flag the junctions and not have to turn the screen on when braking, which was a bit annoying. I think they said they’d pass on the request (like every other request they get!), but I’ve got a ELEMNT Bolt now, so don’t use my phone for nav any more.

With Viewranger, the plots you enter are the plots you’ll see – there’s nothing clever going on. The level of detail is up to you, but if you have the ‘separation alarm’ (or whatever it’s called) to warn you when you’ve gone off track, then being reasonably accurate stop loads of false positives…

EDIT – better to create a route using a proper mapping tool and import the GPX. I only use the manual plotter when I don’t have access to my laptop.

Well this was a useful thread to find… I’m now approx £200 poorer, but happier for it!

Reading about the new FTP test got me looking at the other test protocols available on TR. If I do the HA & AC POWER PROFILE TEST, does it actually give you a ‘result’ for each of the 5 sec / 1 min / 5 min at the end, or do you have to review the power profile data from the test yourself and draw up your own numbers?

Virtual Power (ie estimating power using wheel speed, rather than having a power meter)on TrainerRoad is good enough to give you a flavor of structured indoor training… 12USD per month.

Shorty front, forekaster rear. But my xc may differ from yours….

I’ve got that on my Tallboy currently!

My more XC variant would be Forekaster front, Ikon 2.35 rear…

Putolene for winter / commuter and Squirt for summer.

The thing I like best about Squirt is it’s so easy to use. Apply, ride, quick wipe with a rag after and repeat.

It lasts better than nearly everything I’ve tried (I think it works best after a couple of applications) and there’s no build up of gunk… Very rarely have to do a full degrease.

Love – hand comfort and elbow comfort when going ‘faux TT’…

Another vote for PX neoprene ones. Easy to get on and off, and love that they don’t have zips.

If you’re not too fixed on going in northern hemisphere summer, I can recommend South Africa. No jet lag, food and wine were fantastic, and plenty of outdoors to explore / wildlife to see…

+1 for wot scaredypants said…

I’ve used tube patches to fix road tubeless tyres without problems – some decent size holes too (4mm ish). I use the more chunky patches that are 1-2mm thick.

You can’t really recover without carbs.

I see recovery drink as a stop gap between finishing training and eating something proper, not as the total recovery solution…

So you choose not to eat soon after riding then. That’s fine, but not the cheapest, as you’ve already indicated.

I weigh 65kg, so that’s two 30g scoops if following the “1g of recovery drink powder per kg body weight is the suggested amount”???

Torq – Mandarin Yoghurt (took what was at the top of the listing)
38% Carbs
22% protein

@ 2 scoops:
22.8g Carbs
13.2g protein

Which sounds about right to me??? I see recovery drink as a stop gap between finishing training and eating something proper, not as the total recovery solution…

– 1g of recovery drink powder per kg body weight is the suggested amount, that’s a lot of milk

SIS rego has 20g protein and 23g carbs per serving.

Alpro Chocolate ‘milk’ (what I use) has 10.9g carbs and 3.3g protein per 100ml.

Conclusion – SIS rego fails the 3:1 test, but 200ml of Alpro chocolate milk (which has the ‘correct’ ratio) gives you a meaningful contribution, certainly from the carb perspective.

You might need to draw your own conclusions on whether ‘more is more’ when it comes to protein…

I’ve recently learned to trackstand… Was rubbish, rubbish, rubbish then it suddenly clicked.
Hoping the wheelie will come that way too, as I’ve been stuck in the rubbish phase for years (do need to practice it more though!)

Cruising out of town with the club for the Thursday evening chaingang, and got an supposedly ironic “YEAH! WINNING AT LIFE!!!” jibe from a pedestrian. He was an adult and everything…

That was last week, and I still don’t understand what message the comment was conveying. Answers on a post[card] please…

Half of me wishes I’d stopped and asked him now.

worth noting that one of the team is a national level triathlete

The main disappointment of racing with someone who is significantly faster than average in your team is that they will get more rest than you! Assuming, of course, you don’t ‘forget’ to turn up in transition… 😉

whatever happened to the concept of the “do-it-all” mountain bike

Short travel FS 29ers came along and the claimed the title! 😉

The PopLoc system is a bit rubbish IME, and I hardly used it when XC racing anyway. When mine went, the cost of replacement was about half the cost of an RCT3 damper, so upgraded to that instead.

@ butcher

When you did your winter of long stead distance, were you disciplined in staying in your Z2, and did you do intensity work in conjunction with it? I’ve found I can’t ride in a group if doing Z2 work as my pace varies too much compared to everyone else to keep it cohesive…

I’ve had a successful year using Z2 training, and put some thoughts into a post here:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/heart-rate-question-2

I quite like the 80:20 rule, where on average you spend 80% of you time/training doing low intensity, and 20% high. I think it needs a couple caveats:
– that you need to be doing more than 6-8 hours a week,
– a proper plan is more nuanced and will shift emphasis depending on objectives,

but as a broad starting point that’s what I keep in mind.

I’m using Stans Race, ‘cos that what I had and it works pretty well – ie not as well as on the MTB, and has struggled occasionally on edge of tread / sidewall punctures, but has plugged a large nail hole (3-4mm) in the middle of the tread. I know where I am with it, so unlikely to change.

Muc Off ceramic was a bit ‘meh’ and didn’t seem any better or worse than the others.

I’ve now settled on Putoline for the commuter and when I know I’m going to put some miles in (more faff, but is apply and forget for a few hundred km) and Squirt which is easy to clean and reapply between rides. I take a small bottle with me on longer rides.

Would also have liked not to have to configure it manually on every site.

What… like a ‘standard’?!?

Get outta here with your crazy fool ideas…

Although I haven’t found specific articles to confirm- my conclusion now is that it was basically just a symptom of my poor aerobic base and lack of fat adaptation.
My diet is high carb, and my job full of Anaerobic lifting activity during the spring and summer so once my muscles had enough sugar on-stream, I felt great. But in that endurance zone, I struggled to fuel myself efficiently.
With 18 months of fairly consistent riding in the bank this time around, I haven’t noticed it for a long time.

Not sure it’s legit but makes sense to me.

… and to me (but with the same caveat about having any scientific basis).

I can now almost feel the two energy systems (fat vs carb) working now. On long Z2 rides, I can start to feel the effort, and there is an ‘effort hump’ approaching Z3, but I know that if I burst into Z3+ and get and carbs going, then that hump disappears for a while (say 30 mins) until the body settles back into Z2 / fat mode. (The effect could be real or psychosomatic – I’d happily be talked into either!)

Initially, I just thought the effort hump was just me getting tired, until I realised that if I put in a good effort, the tiredness went away for a while. Similar to having a gel in fact – bit of an energy boost.

It’s why I found the discipline to stick to Z2 to be so important. It takes a while to resettle into Z2 which is ‘wasted time’ and once you get the carbs going sticking to Z2 becomes more difficult to feel.

EDIT – and agree there are fewer things more uncool than Z2 training! Until you reap the benefits, obvs!

@ on and on

I’ve started joining club rides now my priority event is done and although I’m in good shape, and am competitive amongst the group, the high intensity smash fests really take it out of me. Legs are not used to that sort of exercise at all!

Sounds like we share a similar goal – covering a long distance, as quickly as possible. I targeted a couple events this year, the Dragon Ride and the Monster, and was happy with how I did.

I did a six day MTB stage race last year, so have done quite a bit of endurance training over the last couple years. I found that the fitter I got (especially this year on the road), the more effort it seems to take to sustain Z2 intensity ie working harder for same heart rate (where Z2 is approximately 70-80% of Max HR)

OK, I’m generally towards the top of the Z2 range, but it’s not a pootle (or walk as you describe it), and requires effort. At Z2, I now average around 30kph (18mph) on my own, in the South Downs…

To share my experience:

– I had a coach last year, and gained quite a bit of knowledge which gave me the confidence to structure my own training.
– Z2 training requires a lot of discipline, focus, humility, and quite a bit of time, but got results for me. I always feared not finishing the event first, and speed second, so that’s how I structured my training. Maybe I was too conservative, but the Monster especially was a big day out.
– it’s basically a time trial type effort, so a constant power delivery, with as little rest as possible (ie pedal all the time, especially downhill!)
– Z2 is the zone (ie has a bottom and a top) not the just max!
– HR only is fine for endurance training, as you’re not putting in differing efforts / intervals, which is where the power meter is better.
– I was constantly reminding myself of the purpose of it, to improve aerobic (fat burning) efficiency, so was thinking about other things like feeding (I now need to eat less than I used to) and did a reasonable amount of fasted riding as well. I tweaked my diet as well, reducing carbs and replaced with more green veg.
– I can ‘zone out’, which definitely helped manage the boredom (at times! I mostly enjoyed it!), especially as I rode mostly on my own.
– I focused quite heavily on endurance over the winter into spring, but always did some intensity each week, and increased the proportion of intensity as time went on, but the priority was consistently getting the long, focused Z2 rides each in week (building up to regular 4-6 hours without really stopping, save for water refills). I did no tempo riding at all, until the six weeks before my main event. Before that it was either HIIT (turbo) or Z2, and when I did start tempo training, was mainly Sweetspot which I often did on the turbo to get properly measured efforts in.
– I was riding 10-14 hours over 5 days a week.
– Z2 didn’t work well in groups, unless people are happy to ride at your pace the whole time – you need to constantly focus on what you’re doing and your own effort.

No idea if my experience is typical.

chalky

I’ve run them with 26mm Specialized Turbo Tubeless and currently have 25mm Schwalbe Pro One Tubeless on, and at 65 psi Front / 68 psi Rear measure up at around 28mm. The tyres run pretty much flush with the side of the rims.

I’ve done about 4000km on tubeless this year (mainly around Hampshire back roads, which are ‘variable’) and not had any issues running such low pressures. Was a bit surprised at where the pressures ended up, but I’m from a MTB background so don’t have any roadie baggage as to how one ‘should’ set up their bike. That’s just where they settled after a bit of trialing.

FYI – some of the Hunt rims have very similar rim diameters, and they advocate running 25mm tyres on 21mm internal rims. It was that corroboration plus other bits of reading which gave me a bit of confidence in the LB rims (or similar) would match well with the Roubaix.

Wot dirtyrider said…

These rims in fact: https://www.lightbicycle.com/Road-bicycle-rims-28mm-wide-46mm-deep-aero-clincher-road-disc-brake-available.html

And they’ve been great. I bought them off the back of good experience with their MTB rims, and wasn’t expecting that much an improvement on the DT460 DB rims they were replacing (I had cash left in the budget!) but have been really pleased with them, and they have been an improvement, and worth the expense on balance…

They also went on to a Roubaix, and although 46mm isn’t that deep, they were to be my only, all year round rims so didn’t want anything too extreme. Had them out in some pretty windy conditions (this year’s Dragon Ride, anyone?!?) and they performed brilliantly – I’m only 65kg as well…

I’ve used two tubeless road tyres so far, on Light Bicycle 21mm internal rims:

– Specialized S Works Tubeless Turbos at 26mm: went up with a track pump very easily, but I felt were on the fragile side, despite not being the lightest tubeless tyres around. Other than that, performed very nicely.

– Schwalbe Pro Ones at 25mm – took an airshot to get them on (Schwalbe always seem to be a pain to mount tubeless), and were about 50g lighter each end vs the Turbos. Again perform very well, but too early to tell on durability with only about 750km on them, but so far looking good. Probably my slight preference, despite the extra hassle of mounting them.

I’m running pressures of 65psi front and 68psi rear, and the tyres measure in at 28mm – I weigh 65kg. This is lower pressure than most seem to be running, but I’m yet to see any downsides (after about 4000km on tubeless this year), and is probably a function of the wide rims (which are the same width as one of my XC rims / Crests!) and my own weight. Fast, grippy, comfortable…

EDIT – I’m not blessed with smooth roads either – mainly Hampshire back roads, but also a few km in Wales recently including cattle grids etc.

I loved my 29er Anthem until I killed the frame riding it on terrain that was a probably outside the ‘design envelope’. I nearly killed my face at the same time, but the only reason I was riding there at all was because it’s such a capable bike, especially with a 1.5 degree angleset and 120mm forks… Was having too much fun and didn’t give a drop enough respect.

I replaced it with a Tallboy C, so no pics, but happy memories and a thumbs up…

@chiefgrooveguru

I don’t think that you can split the system between body heat and sun heat. The sweat is heated by both to a significant extend on a sunny day and any evaporation/cooling from the surface of the fabric will directly impact the skin underneath as it’s so close. You can’t have a significant temperature gradient across such a small distance of what, 0.5mm???.

What might by happening is that base layer increases the surface area available for evaporation which might increase cooling…

If you wear a highly wicking layer then sweat will be removed from your skin before it gets the chance to evaporatively cool you

There’s something about that statement which doesn’t compute in my brain. Higher evaporation rates means more energy taken out of the heating system (ie you) so the higher the cooling… You want faster evaporation, no?

Think of the extremes – no evaporation means no cooling, instant evaporation must be the maximum cooling…