Lol, not gonna work for me – already <60kg.

I don’t believe the puregrip is the same, reading between the lines of the press releases, they were trying to develop a new oem compound and stumbled across something quite good by accident.

Think its supposed to offer the same grip as BC, but without the magic that also makes it roll like lightning and have good tread-life

I guess 50% of the time

Think the new improved 34’s were the 2015 model, they weren’t available yet when i got my spectral in 2014

They had the Beta to get it all right.

Beta never gets it all right – i think there’s just no way to properly replicate the stress a new release of an AAA title has on network infrastructure.
And its not always the servers themselves at fault, often its top tier internet providers themselves that struggle under a mass of traffic all trying to go to one place.

I went and acquired this at lunch time but it looks like there are issues with the multi player servers. Been trying but can’t get online at all, apparently faults being reported all over the place.

Hardly surprising really on day1.

Either will be fine for what you describe – its a case of

I care about car drivers and don’t want to dazzle them. (Strada)
vs
I might like to do some more difficult off-road someday. (Toro)

Go slower than you want to

Would certainly be quite refreshing for me to do a course where this is actually an option.

The bottom of the range compound will indeed try to kill you every chance it gets.

Plan is here if you’re interested…

Cheers, that looks really good, although no idea how i’d fit in AM workouts – usually a zombie <9:30am

+1 for MyProtein, although be warned, they will spam your email with offers twice every single day – unless trying to lose weight, you will also be wanting carbs too.

Yes, plenty of time to get ready for a 12.
Just gradually build up your hours and your weekend long ride. 8 hours is plenty as a longest training ride.

Don’t forget its not all about pedalling, need to make sure your nutrition and kit are dialled in too. You should learn this along the way though.

Might be interested myself, although its a long way to travel. Can anyone give an idea what the course is like?

No use banning religion completely, you need the population to worship you and only you.

The number of miles you’ve cycled is pretty much irrelevant. It’s the number of times you’ve clicked that matters.

Not entirely sure its all due to clicking – especially on MTB. Since SPD’s have float in them, any mud/grit on a MTB will happily act as a grinding paste whilst just riding along.

On road, I guess you are right, but surely clicks/mile follows a standard deviation pattern like most things.

Just out of interest, what time are you aiming for on the bike leg, and how many hours a week of turbo’ing does that equate to?
Very interested in doing an Ironman myself (maybe 2018), but need to A) remember how to run – not done since my teens, and B) learn how to pace myself swimming to last more than 3 mins 😛

SPD-SL – about 2500mi
SPD – about 1000mi, although thats on MTB not commuting

I’m not taking waterproof shorts, i’m taking 8 pairs of shorts and ‘solid’ chamois cream

Agreed, but I guess it depends on your focus. In a similar vein to the other thread that’s running about only riding for enjoyment. I’m only riding for Ironman training, so I will be following the sessions to the plan, and only training on the trainer. Because the target I have requires that specific work. Outdoor rides, whilst nice, are too variable when I have a single goal of one 112 mile time trial. I get much better quality work in 3 hours on the trainer, than 5 hours outdoors. Particularly when I need to go an run for a couple of hours after it!

Whilst I agree about following plans in general, I really disagree with training full time on the indoor trainer. You end up really good at riding an indoor trainer and not very good at riding a bike. Whenever possible, sessions should be replicated as closely as possible outdoors.

When riding indoor you don’t:
place anywhere near as much strain on supporting/stabilisation muscles.
learn to stay smooth over rough road.
learn not to fight the wind.
and as good as modern trainers are, you don’t replicate hills the same.

Where is everyone buying PC version from?
Can’t see why I would pay £50 on Origin when I can get code in a box for £40 from amazon?

Got to admit it looks great although looks can be deceiving.
Played an unholy number of hours of BC2, and then BF3 came along and was something of a disappointment.

@cynic-al: Is your Supersix a hi-mod version? Should come in a fraction under 1kg. Also clever weight savings on headset aparantly which dont show up on the usual frame+fork weights.

Since its a build phase rather than base, include OU intervals in the last hour of your weekend road ride.

You’ll get most of the endurance benefits from riding easy for the first 2-3hrs and not miss out on the good stuff either.

I’d take a Supersix because i’ve found racey geometry seems a more natural fit for me, i’ve felt a bit squashed on bikes with sportive geometry.

Best bet is to find a local dealer and go sit on both. Or at least compare geometry chart to your current bike.

Yeah, thats about as stupid as stupid gets.

Did you grease the threads on pedals when fitting?
If not, do so!

You can also try dry lube on cleats, although i suspect you’d have noticed if that was the cause.

Nice write up.
Best bit of lunchtime reading in a long time 🙂

Typing is difficult thanks to the couple of seconds of delay between the keystroke and the letter actually appearing.

Just updated chrome to v54 which is now automatically blocking flash player. It seems to have made a vast improvement to the above.

Some turbos, especially mag ones, are very susceptible to this warm up effect.

Yep, virtual power on a cyclops fluid 2 would be comical – i’ve had 3 different fluid units (first 2 replaced under warranty after about 18 months a piece for fluid leaks). All 3 of them have had different resistance curves, and all 3 have taken a different amount of time to warm up, ranging from a steep warm up ‘step’ at 20mins to a continual ramp for over an hour.

Nah, not an age thing at all.
I’ve been grumpy and intolerant since i was 15, still going strong 20yrs later.

300W alone isn’t particularly impressive, it can only be impressive in the context of W/kg.
A 60kg rider with a 300W ftp is very impressive, a 100kg rider is quite unimpressive.

Yeah, interesting topic, and one i have mixed feelings on.

I very rarely go for a ride that isn’t training. Some training rides work out fun, some blend fun with suffering, and some are just suffering.

I dabble in racing – mostly endurance mtb events, and i know i’d be disappointed if i under-performed because i didnt give everything to my preparation.

Another huge reason i train is so i can get maximum enjoyment out of doing the really big stuff. For example i did Raid Corsica a few weeks back, 6 back to back days of 160km, 2400m climbing. Without the training it would have been a world of suffering – with the training it was awesome, little suffering, soaking up the views and flying up the hills if the mood took me.

So you want light, strong and cheap – pick 2 of 3 i’m afraid.

Check out the British Cycling training plans.
Solid range of plans for beginner to advanced(ish).
If you’ve got a bit of cash to burn you can buy plans from coaches on Training Peaks usually at $99 each.

Totally agree with @mrblobby about reading Friel and doing your own, but maybe thats not the route you want when a bit time constrained by small people

Flew with EJ to Corsica a few weeks back.
Pleased to report everything was fine.
Ticket price was low and price of adding extra bag and bike bag was quite reasonable.
Would happily do it again based on that experience.

Poor Trailblazers getting so much hate.
I really like them for what i’ve used them for so far.
Fully expecting i’m still going to like them on armour plated trail centre too.

6/10 today
Been email back/forward with my sisters OH about choosing his first bike 🙂
Even starting to warm to a slightly underwhelming task at work.

Poor upfront organisation means tonights ride is going to be running seriously late though

Assuming you know the exact date for the OP, plan your training so it lands on a rest week – then you miss out on very little.

To be brutally honest, the problem isn’t lack of intervals, its lack of riding.
2 days a week isn’t enough to improve once beyond the level of a raw beginner.

The only tip I can offer is to find an extra day or two to ride and get your volume up to 6hrs a week (pedalling time, faffing on group mtb rides doesn’t count)

So the question the audience, how come I was able to test and produce 306 for my FTP, when in hindsight,I’d have no chance of sustaining 306 for an hour. This was my test:

A) Looks like your test was all over the place – 40w increase 5mins in.
B) Something is indeed badly wrong if you found Haku and Antelope particularly hard. Maybe something wrong with the calibration of your PM during test?
C) Your comment on Antelope suggests you were tired and no power right from the outset – that’s a prime candidate for knocking session on head – all the fatigue for none of the benefit.

HD doesn’t shed mud that well – not ideal for the OP’s natural forest trails in winter