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Today Today - March 2016

Half-Fast Mike

Lanterne Rouge-et-vert
May 22, 2007
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This morning's commute was enlivened by a close call. A particularly brain-dead lightsaber-wielding construction site traffic flow assistant walked backwards off the sidewalk out into the bus lane right in front of me. Maybe he thought "It's just a bike, he'll stop", but actually I don't think he was thinking at all.

There was definite compression of his jacket by my shoulder.

I was reminded of this moment from TDF 2014.

GratefulLongKittiwake.gif
 
I've cycles into Tokyo today for a bit of work and experienced a few of them myself today. Nothing dangerous but one proper mongoloid looking specimen was waving his magic wand to inform traffic of the construction he was standing right in front of only he couldn't be seen as he was directly behind the truck carrying the tools for the works being done. Maybe it was his self preservation drive kicking in, something not many of them seem to have. I wonder what the life expectancy of a Tokyo City Jedi Warrior is...
 
As I was coming back from the big smoke today I remembered that @Heath and I spotted a gaggle of them being "trained" next to a bridge on the bank of the Arakawa on Sunday. I would have snapped a selfie if it hadn't been all I could do to keep moving towards home in that atrocious headwind after a big boy ride.

Synchronised batons and hand signals.

I turned to Heath and we both laughed, then very quickly grimaced again into the on coming southerly. It was like seeing a guy doing more than 30kph with tribars on a weekend on that river, if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes I would never believe it was true.
 
Ha ha ha! There are some sights to behold on that river when it comes to the mismatch of gear and rider. There is an old guy who must be about 70 who gets around Arakawa on his tribike, with the bars about 200mm up the stem. That seems to have been magically extended past what any manufacturer would make as standard. Aero like you have never seen before.

It was like seeing a guy doing more than 30kph with tribars on a weekend on that river, if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes I would never believe it was true.
 
Spotted I still get a 50km trial on Zwift despite partaking of the Beta for 6 mths - so gave the workout part a go for the first time this morning with a 20min FTP test (45min workout in total) . It was interesting to see what has changed compared to when the Beta stopped and how the workouts compared with Trainer Road (which I currently pay for).

First the bad news -
  • Dropouts between the Kickr and the Ant+ stick haven't improved. Laptop USB stick still needs to be within 1m of the Kickr vs 3m+ for Trainer Road, to avoid them.
  • Erg mode resistance change is also slower vs TR. The first time the Wattage ramped from 90W to 185W it took 5 seconds to get there. TR isn't the fastest either but recently improved it down to around 3s for a 100W change
  • No workouts designed to work with other on screen video such as Sufferfest vids
  • Other than in ergo mode no scaling to allow you to raise the overall resistance (I still find it is too light compared to real road feel and if I am doing a workout early in the morning I'd like to rip up the resistance to reduce the Kickr noise) - you can only raise the hill resistance at the cost of making the downhills easier

The Good news -
  • The graphics looked better. Plus the new course and turns were more interesting.
  • Ergo mode does have scaling to raise the overall resistance at a set <cadence & gearing>
  • Other online persons stayed connected and don't disappear / reappear like they used to in Beta
  • Workout mode seems very good. Haven't tried to create any workouts yet - will give that a try soon
  • Reasonable amount of workouts available
  • My FTP was 260W after a lazy winter and a lot of illness/work in November/December. 5W better than this time last year. Hope its not just the Kickr calibration has drifted 5W in a year:D
Oddball item -
  • After I finished it said my average for the 20mins was 276W and calculated my FTP on screen at 260, but when it updated my record it had slightly more accurately turned into 262W (276*095 = 262.2)

I know @Half-Fast Mike and @Musashi13 both use it regularly so interested to hear any comments from them (or others using it). Considering dropping TR in favour of it....
 
My free days ran out and I haven't really missed it. TR has more than enough (800+) workouts and a plan for every conceivable goal so I will stick with it. Riding around the island or Richmond was nice but if I am doing a workout I don't want that distraction and if I'm not doing a workout then I'm not on the trainer at all.
The positive feedback I have heard is all about the group rides....I don't get that. If you're pottering around the island with the ability to type and engage in "chat" wtf are you on the trainer for? If they ever sort out a way to race I may be interested but only for the novelty value, I can't see it being worthwhile in reality.

There is an audience for Zwift but I feel it isn't me. I was on it from November 2014 to January 2016 and it was nice to have it and see its progress but I can happily live without it.

Today I did a 3 hour tempo ride and a double act of Jedi knights allowed me to ride down what I thought was a new road under a bridge on the Edo river meaning I didn't have to cross the road at the lights near Matsudo. It was not a new road, it was a construction site, fuckwits never said a word to me. Later on one of their cohorts did stop a truck for me, so that was nice.
 
I know @Half-Fast Mike and @Musashi13 both use it regularly so interested to hear any comments from them (or others using it). Considering dropping TR in favour of it....
I don't use it for serious training - just as a distraction/amusement when I want to ride but the weather is horrible or I can't be bothered going outside.

The main attraction of Zwift for me, over just listening to music or watching TV while on the trainer, is that the virtual kilometers count toward my monthly quota on Stravr. #SadButTrue #OnlyFoolingMyself
 
Yesterday I passed a young lady at some traffic lights doing a track stand on a beat-up hybrid. Like
About a month ago I pulled up behind a young guy on a mamachari doing a trackstand. At the next light he repeated but only this time it was a no hands trackstand..... I'm easily impressed....
 
Recently I've been working on my pedaling. Doing high cadence drills and 1 leg drills.

Each time I try to make the intervals longer or the cadence higher.

I may have reached my limit in rpm today.

170 rpm x 20 seconds x 15 sets.

https://www.strava.com/activities/507437306

I feel like I'm learning a lot about how to maximise my pedaling efficiency.

I did a recent FTP test at 90 rpm (high for me compared to previous efforts grinding it in the 70s) which may have benefited from these drills....

Andy

www.jyonnobitime.com/time
 
Double your speed with two magnets on the wheels. But you'd need 2 left legs to double the cadence!

Andy

www.jyonnobitime.com/time
You saying you don't have two left crank arms on your bike? What's wrong with you man?

Ooh, that reminds me, I need to pop a magnet on my wheel. I'm sick of my garmin reading between 0 and 5kph when we hit the mountains.
 
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I did a real big block of training last week:

http://www.jyonnobitime.com/time/2016/03/build-2-week-1-1050-tss.html

This also gave me a chance to try out the new shoes and cleats in a variety of situations.

I went with some blue Shimano cleats that came with a new Dura Ace groupset.

What you notice straight away is less movement. Your foot is almost locked in position. So cleat positioning is very important.

I think these cleats may be good for short hard efforts. Like hillclimbs or TTs.

However they take their strain on longer rides. So I decided to have these switched to the yellow cleats. Stick with what your used to and all that.

I also found some lower back pain on the left side. We think this is related to the spacers we set up so we adjusted them again and did another bike fit.

As I said before, I think bike fit is ongoing. So I'll probably be back again.

The only decision I have to make is whether to risk the new set up for Tokyo Enduro.

May just go with the old slippers...

Andy

http://www.jyonnobitime.com/time
 
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Im in the midst of some nasty virus I caught riding with the Saturday Arakawa crew for a few weeks. So yesterday I gave in and went and bought a series of different brushes that I can use to ensure that my bike after cleaning has not a single piece of dust on it. This virus relates to dirt and more specifically dirt on my bike. I'm not sure when I'll be cured but until then the brushes will help with the symptoms.
 
Beautiful. The amount of 'cyclists' who smoke seems to have actually increased recently too. I got up the top of a climb in Tochigi a few weeks back, to find 7 guys all with F8s, Vias's, S5s, etc., all smoking together in a group. All of them. It is 2016. I have been riding since 1993, and had never seen a rider smoking (outside of BMX) since I got to Japan. It is so incredibly pathetic. And all those young lads who start riding here, who see that going on, are way more likely start smoking too, so it will just continue.
I was out on the Tama loop on Sunday... While having a break at the 7-11, it seemed like every other cyclist stopping sparked up a smoke stick.
Whats with this?
 
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