I knew this was going to be tough, but it was tougher than that! 20km commute, 3 uphill sprints, 3 downhill sprints. Sounds entirely doable like that, but hills aren't exactly averaged out on my commute in. In fact, 4 of the sprints were done by the time I got to about the 15 minute mark...
So the first one, uphill sprint on ~4% grade. I had slight problems with gear selection, but I still managed to make it a 30-second effort over about 275 metres. I hit just over 35 at about 80RPM and held it there the rest of the way, finishing at about 33km/hr. Strava tells me I hit over 1200W, which I'm certain is accurate. Give or take 40% or so. Not bad for a warmup.
Then 2 minutes later, it was time for the downhill sprint. I started at about 55/102, and finished at about 67/122 over about 250m. Pretty good, though it's still slightly downhill after the run-in - Strava reckons 3%, but again, that's probably accurate within about 40%.
I then had 3 whole minutes before the start of the next uphill sprint, this one 110m up a 6% climb. I started more than halfway up this one, so if I ever do it again I should probably start it earlier. I peaked at 30/74 in just 16 seconds, so half the length of the first one. But having so little rest between, I'm not sure how much longer I could have gone. Certainly I was crawling along at about 5km/hr afterwards!
But just a minute and a half later it was time for sprint number 4, and it showed. I started at 49.7/87 and peaked at 54.3/99 over 200m, Strava power a measly 700W. Time though for a bit of rest, if you can call climbing through Heidelberg rest! There was no way I was sprinting along Burgundy or Studley, so the next sprint would be along the flat post Ivanhoe descent on Heidelberg Road. Not something one would do in peak hour, but at 14:30, just fine.
I considered doing the full Red Rooster sprint, but piked in the end - not sure if that was a sensible idea, or if I should've kept going up the hill for that bit of extra capacity work. So it was 220m from the boulevard to the end of the bridge, entering at 58 with 0 cadence, losing about 1km/hr before accelerating up to nearly 61km/hr at 110RPM.
I finished with something else I'd never dream of doing in peak hour - a sprint up the Hoddle Street overpass. Accelerated all the way up to 40/99 over the top, before cruising the rest of the way to my destination. Rooted! This is why I'm no good at road racing.
Showing posts with label HS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HS. Show all posts
17 November 2011
02 June 2011
Just general Numby
I don't know why I specified that I'm a track numby, as clearly I'm just a general all-round kind of a numby! Headed off for hill sprints yesterday, but only managed to do two more or less properly - bloody chain kept coming off. I don't know. Seems that since I've switched to SRAM Force (and yes, installed it myself!) I've had heaps of trouble. And the cranks bear the brunt of it! Never had these problems with the Shimano stuff I've installed/adjusted - or not to this extent, anyway.
That said, I did get some work in, just no useful data, since the chain was coming off on the 4th or 5th pedal stroke. Still did 6 SS accelerations, at least. No way I was going to do the downhill sprints though - I've already experienced sitting on the top tube, cleats sliding down the road at 60km/hr desperately trying to slow down, steer and not hit the deck once, and I don't intend doing it again!
That said, I did get some work in, just no useful data, since the chain was coming off on the 4th or 5th pedal stroke. Still did 6 SS accelerations, at least. No way I was going to do the downhill sprints though - I've already experienced sitting on the top tube, cleats sliding down the road at 60km/hr desperately trying to slow down, steer and not hit the deck once, and I don't intend doing it again!
27 May 2011
Hill Sprints?
Erm... failed. No hill sprints this week! Spent all day in bed trying to recover from dentistry, on the assumption that it were better to recover, and be 100% for DISC this week, than to do the hill sprints (or perhaps only part thereof) and miss out on DISC.
I, unfortunately, lack a control duplicate to tell me whether or not this was the best course of action. However I will be fine for DISC, so I can claim that as some level of success!
I, unfortunately, lack a control duplicate to tell me whether or not this was the best course of action. However I will be fine for DISC, so I can claim that as some level of success!
19 May 2011
Hill Sprints up and down
Hill Sprints up:
79/27.1 (31.5)
76/28.0 (30.5)
78/29.0 (30.8)
75/28.3 (30.0)
76/29.0 (30.4)
76/27.3 (30.3)
Hill Sprints down:
116/59.1; 124/62.1 (64.8)
117/56.9; 130/60.8 (62.7)
120/57.1; 133/61.3 (63.8)
117/57.0; 131/60.6 (62.9)
116/60.2; 127/63.2 (65.6)
And then one on a slightly bigger downhill on the way home, just for the fun of it (this was in 53x12) 114/64.0
The numbers in brackets above are the maximum speed achieved - usually after I've stopped pedalling so hard! The good thing about that is it shows that I'm still accelerating by the end of the effort, so there's clearly more improvement possible. At least, that's the way I'm interpreting it!
So the numbers are getting better; mostly they're not getting better by much, but they are getting better. The maximum cadence on the downhill sprints is certainly much better, though there's also a clear correlation between maximum cadence and entry cadence.
Brief stats here and here.
79/27.1 (31.5)
76/28.0 (30.5)
78/29.0 (30.8)
75/28.3 (30.0)
76/29.0 (30.4)
76/27.3 (30.3)
Hill Sprints down:
116/59.1; 124/62.1 (64.8)
117/56.9; 130/60.8 (62.7)
120/57.1; 133/61.3 (63.8)
117/57.0; 131/60.6 (62.9)
116/60.2; 127/63.2 (65.6)
And then one on a slightly bigger downhill on the way home, just for the fun of it (this was in 53x12) 114/64.0
The numbers in brackets above are the maximum speed achieved - usually after I've stopped pedalling so hard! The good thing about that is it shows that I'm still accelerating by the end of the effort, so there's clearly more improvement possible. At least, that's the way I'm interpreting it!
So the numbers are getting better; mostly they're not getting better by much, but they are getting better. The maximum cadence on the downhill sprints is certainly much better, though there's also a clear correlation between maximum cadence and entry cadence.
Brief stats here and here.
13 May 2011
Mostly Hill Sprints
A day late, pouring rain, and didn't quite have time to do the lot so had to finish on the trainer at home. A slightly imperfect training session! But I got it done at least.
Uphill sprints this week felt a little better than last week, and though I was supposed to do them 'on the five' I was actually getting back in 3-4 minutes - and given the rain, wind and cold, I wasn't hanging around for the 5 minutes to roll around!
i) 74/27.7 (?)
ii) 75/27.6 (30.0)
iii) 78/28.3 (30.3)
iv) 76/27.8 (29.3)
v) 75/25.7 (29.4)
So quite a consistent set of results, much more so than last week. The slight speed discrepancy on the last result is probably because, although strava reports cadence and speed for each second, there's bound to be some lag, and I'm taking figures from the point of highest cadence (since when I get to the mark, I stop pedalling hard, in part to make it easier to analyse afterwards) and speed continues to increase for a second or two afterwards. All of this was in 53x17.
The one downhill sprint I managed to fit in had a similar profile to last week:
Entry: 114/56.1, Max 123/58.1(59.0)
Because of the weather, however, it's hard to compare too precisely - I had a tailwind for the uphill sprints, and a headwind for the downhill sprint of a good 30km/hr or so, plus the rain and so on. Still, good to do. Then I got home and did 4 X 8s PG sprints (110):5 in an attempt to roughly replicate the downhill sprints. Even in 53x25 it was a bit difficult to hold 120RPM as an entry cadence without taking too much away from the sprint, so I tended to go with about 110 as a target. The 4 sprints in 53x17 gave max cadences of 142, 147, 140 and 140. Which, really, doesn't mean much, but it's something to record, anyway!
Overall I felt quite good with the training today, despite (because of?) the rain and wind and cold. fairly strong and fresh, head felt fairly screwed on properly, and I felt like I was doing something worthwhile. Which makes training much more enjoyable and aggressive!
Brief stats here and here.
Uphill sprints this week felt a little better than last week, and though I was supposed to do them 'on the five' I was actually getting back in 3-4 minutes - and given the rain, wind and cold, I wasn't hanging around for the 5 minutes to roll around!
i) 74/27.7 (?)
ii) 75/27.6 (30.0)
iii) 78/28.3 (30.3)
iv) 76/27.8 (29.3)
v) 75/25.7 (29.4)
So quite a consistent set of results, much more so than last week. The slight speed discrepancy on the last result is probably because, although strava reports cadence and speed for each second, there's bound to be some lag, and I'm taking figures from the point of highest cadence (since when I get to the mark, I stop pedalling hard, in part to make it easier to analyse afterwards) and speed continues to increase for a second or two afterwards. All of this was in 53x17.
The one downhill sprint I managed to fit in had a similar profile to last week:
Entry: 114/56.1, Max 123/58.1(59.0)
Because of the weather, however, it's hard to compare too precisely - I had a tailwind for the uphill sprints, and a headwind for the downhill sprint of a good 30km/hr or so, plus the rain and so on. Still, good to do. Then I got home and did 4 X 8s PG sprints (110):5 in an attempt to roughly replicate the downhill sprints. Even in 53x25 it was a bit difficult to hold 120RPM as an entry cadence without taking too much away from the sprint, so I tended to go with about 110 as a target. The 4 sprints in 53x17 gave max cadences of 142, 147, 140 and 140. Which, really, doesn't mean much, but it's something to record, anyway!
Overall I felt quite good with the training today, despite (because of?) the rain and wind and cold. fairly strong and fresh, head felt fairly screwed on properly, and I felt like I was doing something worthwhile. Which makes training much more enjoyable and aggressive!
Brief stats here and here.
05 May 2011
Hill Sprints
So today was the day to get out on the road and do some hill sprints - up hill and down dale! First task was to try to find the best spot to do these. I eventually settled on Diamond Creek Road, between St. Helena Road and the big roundabout, as it's long, wide, and has a fairly constant rate of gradient change, except for one rapid change from 4-5% to 8-9% which, though it must be climbed/descended, doesn't form part of the actual sprints.
After a bit of a warmup/orientation where I chose the markers for my sprints, I headed back uphill to the starting point of my first attempt. I shifted in to 53x17, came as close to a stop as I could, and started off, trying to concentrate on my form. Upon reaching my finishing marker, I looked down to discover I'd only travelled approximately 60 of the required 80 metres! So I tried to dig in for the remaining 20 and looked for another tree to mark the new finishing point. Fortunately there was a handy one at close enough to the right spot, so I filed that one away and continued on up the hill to my turnaround point - which is not ideal, as it's an extra 200m or so of 8-9% climbing which makes it impossible to get back for a 4-minute cycle.
My stats for the uphill sprints were (approx) 73/25.2km/hr, 70/27.6, 66/24.6 and 74/29.3, starting (I think!) R,L,L,L, all in 53x17, all seated, not out of the saddle.
Downhill sprints were a little smoother, though I changed gearing for the last two - from 53x13 to 53x14 because the cadence was a little low. In theory each should start at a cadence of 120, but that's a bit tricky! Sprinting from 120RPM for 8 seconds should presumably see some sort of an increase, but my 4 results were:
i) Entry 114/59.7, Max 121/64.6
ii) Entry 113/59.4, Max 121/61.9
iii) Entry 117/56.5, Max 124/59.2
iv) Entry 115/59.4, Max 124/63.3
The slope is still approximately -1% at the start of the sprint, so I wonder at the extent of the influence of the slope. Clearly the entry speed makes a big difference to the final speed, even though my cadence on entry was lower in the final attempt. Interestingly, though max cadence was slightly higher once I dropped down a gear, entry cadence wasn't significantly greater, suggesting that the limiter of spin speed was me, not the gear. Which is odd, considering that in the 'spin' on Tuesday I was maintaining 130+ for 10 seconds or so - though that was absolutely head down smashing myself, which I wouldn't do on the road since I like to see where I'm going then! I didn't notice any rocking of the hips though. At any rate, much work still to do.
Brief stats here.
After a bit of a warmup/orientation where I chose the markers for my sprints, I headed back uphill to the starting point of my first attempt. I shifted in to 53x17, came as close to a stop as I could, and started off, trying to concentrate on my form. Upon reaching my finishing marker, I looked down to discover I'd only travelled approximately 60 of the required 80 metres! So I tried to dig in for the remaining 20 and looked for another tree to mark the new finishing point. Fortunately there was a handy one at close enough to the right spot, so I filed that one away and continued on up the hill to my turnaround point - which is not ideal, as it's an extra 200m or so of 8-9% climbing which makes it impossible to get back for a 4-minute cycle.
My stats for the uphill sprints were (approx) 73/25.2km/hr, 70/27.6, 66/24.6 and 74/29.3, starting (I think!) R,L,L,L, all in 53x17, all seated, not out of the saddle.
Downhill sprints were a little smoother, though I changed gearing for the last two - from 53x13 to 53x14 because the cadence was a little low. In theory each should start at a cadence of 120, but that's a bit tricky! Sprinting from 120RPM for 8 seconds should presumably see some sort of an increase, but my 4 results were:
i) Entry 114/59.7, Max 121/64.6
ii) Entry 113/59.4, Max 121/61.9
iii) Entry 117/56.5, Max 124/59.2
iv) Entry 115/59.4, Max 124/63.3
The slope is still approximately -1% at the start of the sprint, so I wonder at the extent of the influence of the slope. Clearly the entry speed makes a big difference to the final speed, even though my cadence on entry was lower in the final attempt. Interestingly, though max cadence was slightly higher once I dropped down a gear, entry cadence wasn't significantly greater, suggesting that the limiter of spin speed was me, not the gear. Which is odd, considering that in the 'spin' on Tuesday I was maintaining 130+ for 10 seconds or so - though that was absolutely head down smashing myself, which I wouldn't do on the road since I like to see where I'm going then! I didn't notice any rocking of the hips though. At any rate, much work still to do.
Brief stats here.
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