What's new

Race The Training Thread

I have rarely met a saddle I don't like, but the Specialized Power Saddle is by far the best one I have ridden. Unrelated to saddle type... but if you're having a lot of sitbone discomfort, maybe check your saddle height? Bit of recent personal experience with a measurement disaster. I did a big 6 week block leading into that last race, so I was really looking forward to my rest week.

Rest week came around and my legs were feeling good off the bike, but not great on the bike. Wife's family is visiting, so I figured no problem, I'll just take a 2nd fairly easy ~9 hour week. Bit into a ride I should have been well rested for I could just feel my legs (and sitbones) weren't happy. Cut it short, went home. It's here I got to thinking about my measurements... and found out my saddle has been about 5-7cm too short, yikes. I just messed up the first measurement and then that got stuck in my head as the "right" number.

Re-did my inseam measurement & reset my saddle using the 109% method. Night and day. Legs have felt so good ever since. I guess I just didn't notice the difference those first few weeks and then chalked it up to general fatigue the next few.

More training related:

I've started meeting up with a group on Tuesday mornings for a short "race ride". So far it has only been 8-10 folks. 5:30am meet time, so I'm up by 4:30, oof. 1 lap of the local lagoon rotating at an easy pace before 2 laps "racing". First week no one paid me much attention and I just followed moves. This week, unfortunately, lots of looking at me. One team is probably 6 / 10 riders, so they just keep attacking & counter attacking when I bring it back. Today I'd let two of them go up the road with a gap, then jump, forcing them into a longer chase.

It's a lot of fun and some good practice messing with tactics / getting my much needed punchy riding in. Very attritional and both times I have gone it has ended with me and two others in a three man break.

On the Tuesdays I teach night classes I can get a 4 hours ride in before 10am! And even when I teach day classes I can do 2.5 hours before work. Might need some extra coffee though...
Lately I am actually having far fewer saddle issues than ever. I only have problems when I use bib shorts and tights that are too small. For the longest time, I was in advertently buying them a size too small (for my girthy thighs), so I only have two pair of shorts that actually fit right, and no tights that fit right.

Hopefully I can find another pair of the same Assos bibs on sale so I don't wear my one pair out so fast... They are so nice, but so expensive. Just finding out the size I need was a pretty expensive affair.

Sounds like fun. We don't do nearly enough big group rides around here, and hardly ever race rides.

Four hours on a weekday sounds nice. Haha. I cannot force myself to ride before work for the life of me, other than to ride to work. But if I ride to work, the ride home makes me want to skip workouts...
 
Last edited:
Lately I am actually having far fewer saddle issues than ever. I only have problems when I use bib shorts and tights that are too small. For the longest time, I was in advertently buying them a size too small (for my girthy thighs), so I only have two pair of shorts that actually fit right, and no tights that fit right.

Hopefully I can find another pair of the same Assos bibs on sale so I don't wear my one pair out so fast... They are so nice, but so expensive. Just finding out the size I need was a pretty expensive affair.

Sounds like fun. We don't do nearly enough big group rides around here, and hardly ever race rides.

Four hours on a weekday sounds nice. Haha. I cannot force myself to ride before work for the life of me, other than to ride to work. But if I ride to work, the ride home makes me want to skip workouts...

Wiggle has occaisionally had Assos bibs on big sales. I have some Endura bibs from them that I really like.

I'm a pretty big morning person, but I love sleeping. So it's taking some time to make the mental shift of going to sleep early enough to get my 8-9.5 hours. 20:00 bedtime for the 4:15 wake up days is tough. But, not bad considering the sunrise/sunset times of Japan. Which I'm still not entirely used to. Back home I could easily ride 3 hours in daylight getting off work at 5pm in the summers. Even now the sunset back home is 20:00 (6:50ish sunrise).

Which reminds me I need to find a good sleep mask. Our apartment is thankfully full of natural light, even with double curtains, but as soon as a hint of light reaches me I'm up and going.

Also just found out my next race will be the East Japan Road Classic Day 2, April 30th. Another 6 x 10km event at the Gunma cycle center. Should be a fun one. I just hope there's no rain this time.
 
I'm finally back on the bike after 3ish weeks off. Then a work trip, so three more days off the bike. The hotel does have a nice gym, though, so I can at least get some exercise in. I did realize, though, how much fitness (off the bike) I have lost.
 
Wiggle has occaisionally had Assos bibs on big sales. I have some Endura bibs from them that I really like.

I'm a pretty big morning person, but I love sleeping. So it's taking some time to make the mental shift of going to sleep early enough to get my 8-9.5 hours. 20:00 bedtime for the 4:15 wake up days is tough. But, not bad considering the sunrise/sunset times of Japan. Which I'm still not entirely used to. Back home I could easily ride 3 hours in daylight getting off work at 5pm in the summers. Even now the sunset back home is 20:00 (6:50ish sunrise).

Which reminds me I need to find a good sleep mask. Our apartment is thankfully full of natural light, even with double curtains, but as soon as a hint of light reaches me I'm up and going.

Also just found out my next race will be the East Japan Road Classic Day 2, April 30th. Another 6 x 10km event at the Gunma cycle center. Should be a fun one. I just hope there's no rain this time.
Gunsai is a sufferfest. Prepare for twoish minute climbs on repeat.
 
Nah, not 2 minutes, more like 1 minute at the speeds they'll be going at.

I've hit the gym on the head for now. My acceleration out of tight corners on the CX bike felt great, but everything else felt kind of shitty. Might give it another go when I've got better road fitness but that experiment is over for now.

Instead, I've been getting my arse handed to me on group rides for the last two months. Learning the hard way that cornering practice on a CX bike is not a substitute for hard VO2 intervals. Painful lesson to learn.

I'll be racing at the East Japan Road Classic on Sunday too though. Also wishing for no rain whatsoever. Thing is, it's a qualification race for the national road champs so everyone who is anyone will be in full-on try hard mode. Hoping I can hang on long enough to finish the race but not fully confident of it. @Tsuga will come say hello if I see you :)
 
My Kickr Core just died on me... which was just the kick in the pants I needed to start bike commuting again. This might end up being a positive…
 
Gotta love a bit of Gunma CSC!

Screenshot_20230415-224527_Facebook.jpg

10 years on and I'm still on the same bike.

Switched the fork for a straight "one by esu".

The boy is the same but 14 years old now. I reckon the Nasa grade titanium top tube could still support him. He could even pedal for me!

Those Astuto tubular 50s are still alive too!

25mm Gatorskins! For a race! Pump them up to 9 bar! Old school!

Andy
 
They're sending me a new trainer. Hurray.
It's funny how big a role one piece of exercise equipment can play in your life...


I wonder if I could convert the old one into a dumb magnetic trainer?...
 
Last edited:
Nah, not 2 minutes, more like 1 minute at the speeds they'll be going at.

Instead, I've been getting my arse handed to me on group rides for the last two months. Learning the hard way that cornering practice on a CX bike is not a substitute for hard VO2 intervals. Painful lesson to learn.

I'll be racing at the East Japan Road Classic on Sunday too though. Also wishing for no rain whatsoever. Thing is, it's a qualification race for the national road champs so everyone who is anyone will be in full-on try hard mode. Hoping I can hang on long enough to finish the race but not fully confident of it. @Tsuga will come say hello if I see you :)

Phew. V02 was definitely my achilles heel. Glad to hear the climb is ~1 minute, as that's the ballpark interval I have been doing. Tuesdays are now a mixed bag day with that race ride and Thursdays I have been doing 1.5 minute power intervals 420-520w. I've found 450w @ 1.5 minutes to be OK. 555w+ is possible... but not repeatable, definitely a one and done kind of effort.

I think I'll be in a good spot fitness / rest balance wise so I'm pretty excited for this race. My wife and I will be around on Saturday to cheer the team on and then back on Sunday for the event. So either day feel free to shout at me if you see me. I guess I kind of stick out in a crowd with the beard and all haha.
 
Phew. V02 was definitely my achilles heel. Glad to hear the climb is ~1 minute, as that's the ballpark interval I have been doing. Tuesdays are now a mixed bag day with that race ride and Thursdays I have been doing 1.5 minute power intervals 420-520w. I've found 450w @ 1.5 minutes to be OK. 555w+ is possible... but not repeatable, definitely a one and done kind of effort.

I think I'll be in a good spot fitness / rest balance wise so I'm pretty excited for this race. My wife and I will be around on Saturday to cheer the team on and then back on Sunday for the event. So either day feel free to shout at me if you see me. I guess I kind of stick out in a crowd with the beard and all haha.

Great, will give you a shout! Will probably ask for a pic as well just so I can say I have met the famous Uncle Rinne

Hopefully will be good weather for a fun event. It's a unique facility up in the forest secluded from outside world. Used to be a cycling theme park in the bubble years, but the attractions aren't quite what they once were. At least the race circuit is still there, which is the main attraction and a huge roller-coaster on its own.

Wednesday mornings are when the local hitters meet up to train around here. Repeated 30 to 90 second all-out efforts up steep urban hills trying not to get caught out by the traffic lights or get dropped from the front group. Brutal but good training.
 
I just remembered the TT I signed up for was this weekend, but I haven't done any TT training. Hmm.
 
Just realized the Gunma race this weekend goes in the opposite direction on the circuit, so no one-minute climb, instead a more drawn out 3 minute climb. Sorry @Tsuga !! But on a more positive note, the forecast for Saturday has flipped form rain to sunshine and Sunday does seem to be getting better by the hour. Fingers crossed the cycling gods of Gunma will shine kindly on us 🤞
 
Just realized the Gunma race this weekend goes in the opposite direction on the circuit, so no one-minute climb, instead a more drawn out 3 minute climb. Sorry @Tsuga !! But on a more positive note, the forecast for Saturday has flipped form rain to sunshine and Sunday does seem to be getting better by the hour. Fingers crossed the cycling gods of Gunma will shine kindly on us 🤞
Haha, I was just looking at the team's Line chat and saw someone say that they had never done it counter-clockwise before. I'm not sure which I'd prefer to be honest. Comparatively, my 5 minute power is much better than my 1 minute power. So I guess to a certain point, the longer the better. But ultimately neither may be good enough in the end.

I'm looking forward to giving it another go though. Last race my TrainingPeaks Form was ~2. This race I'll be around 18. So I have tapered much better for this one, and training fatigue won't be to blame for a bad result. Still hoping for some dry weather, but definitely trying to mentally prepare for another wet race.

Will you be doing Saturday and Sunday?
 
@Tsuga
I'm just there for Sunday. Driving up with a team mate riding in the morning them I'm doing E1 in the afternoon. Some guys from the rival JCL series have also turned up on the E1 racer list so it will probably be a fast one. I did counter-clockwise once before but punctured on the first lap so also coming at it without much experience. Hoping to draft the real climbers up that draggy climb.

btw, the course is pretty far up a mountain and usually a few degrees colder than forecasts for the surrounding area so best to prepare for cooler temps just in case.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: jdd
@Tsuga
I'm just there for Sunday. Driving up with a team mate riding in the morning them I'm doing E1 in the afternoon. Some guys from the rival JCL series have also turned up on the E1 racer list so it will probably be a fast one. I did counter-clockwise once before but punctured on the first lap so also coming at it without much experience. Hoping to draft the real climbers up that draggy climb.

btw, the course is pretty far up a mountain and usually a few degrees colder than forecasts for the surrounding area so best to prepare for cooler temps just in case.
it's around 850 meters high, I think? That's just enough to start affecting your power.
 
it's around 850 meters high, I think? That's just enough to start affecting your power.
62A58D8A-9142-4971-849F-FADB2C43013B.jpeg

This is very old and likely outdated. But usually 915m is where it can become impactful. I used to live just over 1,000m & never really felt a difference until 1500+ when climbing into the nearby mountains.

It could be 3-5%. But, it probably does not take long for your body to adjust to such a low elevation.

However, I've never lived at sea level for so long in my life. So maybe it'll feel like when I used to ride up to around 1700
 
5% of 300 watts is 15 watts.

Alex Dowsett recently did an experiment that showed he lost 40 (or was it 60?) watts between 2000 m and sea level, which is more than you would think considering he was well acclimated. And that's at his undertrained FTP!
 
Last edited:
5% of 300 watts is 15 watts.

Alex Dowsett recently did an experiment that showed he lost 40 (or was it 60?) watts between 2000 m and sea level, which is more than you would think considering he was well acclimated.

Well, comparatively in the Bassett study you're losing 2% on someone that is acclimatized. So an acclimatized individual will be 291 vs 285 un-acclimatized at 3,000 feet.

6 Watts isn't nothing, but in the grand scheme of things it isn't something I'd worry about in a race. It increases a bit at higher altitudes, but for me the actual impact is the feeling of being at altitude.

At those ultra high altitudes everyone has less power, but the acclimatized person will feel better in general not dealing with altitude sickness. Not so much an issue at 3k feet or 900m
 
In today's TT I managed to set a few new PBs in terms of power and speed. Which is surprising since I expected to be a good 25 watts lower and three km/h slower! Hehehe.

Turns out I would have won if I had entered in my age category, but I didn't want to pay an extra 1000 yen…
 
In today's TT I managed to set a few new PBs in terms of power and speed. Which is surprising since I expected to be a good 25 watts lower and three km/h slower! Hehehe.

Turns out I would have won if I had entered in my age category, but I didn't want to pay an extra 1000 yen…
Nice! Glad to hear it went well.

I'm in the car now headed home from Gunma's day 2. First finish of the season which was my big goal. I was 66 / 86 finishers. Quite a lot of DNF again today, but not me!

Really nice to have that out of the way. I know I've got it in me. I didn't pre-ride the course which was a bit of a mistake… so it took me a few laps to figure it out. And unfortunately it was with 3 to go I realized I was taking a corner totally wrong, it didn't require breaking… so that's why that bit was so hard. Oops.

Overall a nice experience despite the weather. And a teammate got 3rd!
 
Back
Top Bottom