Road Bike Racing - Penguin makes with the soul crushing in tonight's ITT

"Penguin, what is best in life?"
"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women"
"That is good."

So ya, the penguin did well tonight in his time trial, and he did it with gusto and without aerobars. Every year, the team goes out once or twice to do a 12mi TT to see how our fitness is progressing from season to season. We use it as a benchmark to estimate who is going to progress how far in the coming up season, things like that. Our Cat2 wasn't around tonight, so lucky me, I got to be last off the line. 13 people in front of me, 30 second intervals, 12 miles to catch as many as I could. And, I caught them all :D That's right, I caught all my rabbits, Granted half of them were doing it for the first time, but all the guys that were stronger than me last year were riding with aerobars. I did have an aerohelmet, skinsuit, and a relatively aero front wheel, but that doesn't equal aerobars. I rested my forearms on the tops for a lot of the course, but it still sucked not being able to pull.

Unfortunately, the guy timing us screwed up his timekeeping, so there isn't an *exact* time. He did estimate me at 26:30 for the 12mi, which does seem to check out pretty much perfectly against the times others were given and how far behind me they came in. Just to be on the safe side though, I'll call it 27:00. The second fastest guy was about 2 minutes slower than me. Last year, my best time on this course was 31:25, so I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was.

We're going to try this again in a couple of weeks with a different guy timing us to get exact times. I'll see how well it goes then :D :D :D

Here's the profile:

Using cypress math

No aerobars = + 500
Helmet + skinsuit + wheel= -20
Gradient = + 300
Time error = +/- 200

So I'm thinking you were pushing anywhere between 580 and 980 watts :)

But really, nice job
wayne

Please report to the medical control trailer.

The penguin on top of your monitor is about to explode.

:eek: BANG :eek:

"How did he know that was about to happen?"

"He is a BBC announcer, they know everything."

Wow. 26.7mph avg, very nice.

What category do you race?

Cat4...what's weird is last weekend I did a 12mi ITT and only avg'd 24.5 or so. I assume it's because I didn't use any computer last night so I didn't try to hold myself back by looking at my HR or anything like that.

that's really cool. nice work.

You must have spent time with the crew at the BF Virtual Windtunnel to get that kind of speed :)

That's a good ride. If you could keep that pace for 40k you could win the 4/5 championship out here.

You're a climbing foo!! Nice job.

I PM'd you about (presumably) your missing teammate.

Mark

You must have spent time with the crew at the BF Virtual Windtunnel to get that kind of speed :)

That's a good ride. If you could keep that pace for 40k you could win the 4/5 championship out here.
sweet! I probably could if I had aerobars

Nice! Doing a tt cowboy style (no a-bars) and doing that well is a feeling that you'll remember for a while.

"Penguin, what is best in life?"
"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women"
"That is good."

So ya, the penguin did well tonight in his time trial, and he did it with gusto and without aerobars. Every year, the team goes out once or twice to do a 12mi TT to see how our fitness is progressing from season to season. We use it as a benchmark to estimate who is going to progress how far in the coming up season, things like that. Our Cat2 wasn't around tonight, so lucky me, I got to be last off the line. 13 people in front of me, 30 second intervals, 12 miles to catch as many as I could. And, I caught them all :D That's right, I caught all my rabbits, Granted half of them were doing it for the first time, but all the guys that were stronger than me last year were riding with aerobars. I did have an aerohelmet, skinsuit, and a relatively aero front wheel, but that doesn't equal aerobars. I rested my forearms on the tops for a lot of the course, but it still sucked not being able to pull.

Unfortunately, the guy timing us screwed up his timekeeping, so there isn't an *exact* time. He did estimate me at 26:30 for the 12mi, which does seem to check out pretty much perfectly against the times others were given and how far behind me they came in. Just to be on the safe side though, I'll call it 27:00. The second fastest guy was about 2 minutes slower than me. Last year, my best time on this course was 31:25, so I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was.

We're going to try this again in a couple of weeks with a different guy timing us to get exact times. I'll see how well it goes then :D :D :D

Here's the profile:

Nice job P. I'll be sure to only go near New Paltz on my motorcycle : ).

well done. i'd be interested to know what kind of workouts you've done to improve that much. i'll take all the advice i can get

smoke

My Secret? Last year was my first on the bike, so no matter what I did this year short of cutting off my legs I was probably going to improve.

My other secret? I've figured out how to train....kind of

1. intervals of all kinds, hill repeats, etc.
2. riding with guys significantly stronger than me. Tons more painful than any intervals when you're riding with the right people
3. group rides
4. practice races/races are good training
5. Long ass rides make the shorter harder ones seem not so bad
6. adequate rest is very, very important

I mix and match, nothing is too structured. Here's basically what I've been doing since may

Sunday: race
Monday: recover
Tuesday: practice race
Wednesday: recover
Thursday: group ride throwdown/ long ass ride followed by group ride throwdown afterwards
Friday: recover/taper
Saturday: further tapering/race

races obviously are all out efforts, practice races I turn into all out efforts by throwing down attacks pretty much every minute or two for the duration, the group rides I do are pretty competetive so it's easy to keep the effort high. Going for a 75+ mile ride followed by the 40mi group ride is probably the most extreme workout I do (although I don't do that every week), but it seems to have helped my muscles be able to last longer and push harder. Riding with guys stronger than me is probably what has helped me the most.

I have to admit though, I've been getting kinda lazy lately :) recovery days I've just not been riding at all, but when I am on my bike I go hard. This is one of a handful of weekends I've had off this whole season and my last weekend off until mid september, so I'm thinking I'll go for a hard ass ride tomorrow and go see a movie today. :)

I have to admit though, I've been getting kinda lazy lately :) recovery days I've just not been riding at all, but when I am on my bike I go hard. This is one of a handful of weekends I've had off this whole season and my last weekend off until mid september, so I'm thinking I'll go for a hard ass ride tomorrow and go see a movie today. :)


You just decribed me to a T. I'll be playing around on the boat today, then tomorrow I'll be scouting the hill climb course that I'm racing in late September.

My Secret? Last year was my first on the bike, so no matter what I did this year short of cutting off my legs I was probably going to improve.

My other secret? I've figured out how to train....kind of

I think you forgot the other key ingredients: an Amstel and a shot of Jack Daniel's the night before the race ;)

Congrats on a great ride!

thanks, penguin. how old are you, if you don't mind my asking?

smoke

I'm 20...21 in october