It's killing me but..........

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Sorry to crash the party, I couldn't resist.... for an amusing explanation of trash talking try this link on The Fat Cyclist blog
http://fatcyclist.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!1pUmGvi9idWgOodsIbhHUOQA!1598.entryThanks for that Alex, I now fully understand. If I can stay with the "Smoker" who hast just bought a new multi-thousand dollar bike, I will use the following tomorrow:
Cloaked boast: “Dude, that is a seriously nice bike. Riding with you today, I can’t help but admire that thing. How much does that thing weigh, 12 pounds? Sheesh, that’s light. I wonder how I'm managing to keep up with you, what with my bike weighing around twenty pounds, and my piles acting up and heading towards 65 years old.” :D TYSON

You're not getting off that easily, RD and I have decided that it's to be 2*30:00 @ 300W ;) ENJOY :eek:I agree completely.:D

Sorry to crash the party, I couldn't resist.... for an amusing explanation of trash talking try this link on The Fat Cyclist blog
http://fatcyclist.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!1pUmGvi9idWgOodsIbhHUOQA!1598.entry That's awesome! Perfect!:D

That's awesome! Perfect!:DHe sure does have some gems. This is one of my favourites from start of the season, make sure you click on picture of Robbie to see what it's all about....
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=features/2006/nelson_davitamon_lotto

Tyson wrote:

My wife came home last night and said "I've backed the car into a post."
So our nice new car now has a big dent in the rear. I say to myself it's only a chunk of plastic and metal, but nevertheless I can't help it, I feel a bit depressed today.
I started reading this and thought "Oh no, she backed into his bike:eek:" Suddenly the jet is launching off the aircraft carrier with all the power but mishapen wings. :D


My only hope is that the feeling wears off by tomorrow morning.
Great rides put everything into their proper perspective don't they? Big things take on their full stature and small things recede. Somewhere along the road to Biwa, not too far from the beginning, I'm betting we will see a big buddha smile on your face.

Tyson wrote:


I started reading this and thought "Oh no, she backed into his bike:eek:" Suddenly the jet is launching off the aircraft carrier with all the power but mishapen wings. :D



Great rides put everything into their proper perspective don't they? Big things take on their full stature and small things recede. Somewhere along the road to Biwa, not too far from the beginning, I'm betting we will see a big buddha smile on your face.
Contacted the insurance company today - Sony would you believe, and there's no problem, it just means the premium will go up next year and my wife will lose her no claims bonus. That's England's lingo - probably different in the US of A.:rolleyes: So anyway, feeling much better. It's coming up to 8.15 in Japan, so I'm off to bed soon as I have to get up at 4.30 to get to the start on time. Will report tomorrow night or Monday morn.;)

Contacted the insurance company today - Sony would you believe, and there's no problem, it just means the premium will go up next year and my wife will lose her no claims bonus. That's England's lingo - probably different in the US of A.:rolleyes: So anyway, feeling much better. It's coming up to 8.15 in Japan, so I'm off to bed soon as I have to get up at 4.30 to get to the start on time. Will report tomorrow night or Monday morn.;)
Have a great ride :D

Wow! What an experience.

For the last 2 or 3 days Japan has had very strong winds with roofs blowing off etc., and today was no exception. L.Biwa is notorious for wind and today was horrific. 90% of the time it was a cross wind of the lake. How no one got blown off, I'll never know.

I'll try and make the report easy to read.

1) 8.15 start.

2) The "Smoker" unlike last year set off in the first group, with me on his wheel.;)

3) Soon we'd burned everyone up and people faded into the distance (behind).

4) Made my first mistake - on a slight incline let him get 3 bike lengths on me.

5) Wind was too strong to catch him.

6) Cruised until "Move Racing Team" all in red and white outfits came roaring by.

7) Tucked on the back.

8) 2nd mistake. Suddenly I realized the guy I was tailing had been dropped.

9) Stayed with him until "Nagoya Racing Team" came steaming up - tucked in on the back and stayed there till the finish of the 1st stage.

10) 5km from the finish the smoker was standing at the side of the road. Said hello and carried on.

11) He caught me 1 km from the finish and we sailed in together.

12) Said he stopped because the wind was frightening.:rolleyes: No one else stopped.

Stage 2.
--------

1) At the start of the 2nd stage, the Move team and few Nagoya guys went off like bats out of hell, along with the "Smoker".

2) I was in the following group, but soon there were only 2 of us - a woman with legs that anyone in these forums would be glad of "steel oak tree legs".:D

3) We picked off several "Move" team riders who had been dropped.

3) We stayed together for a long time untill we hit a 1km hill. I'm afraid I had to leave her. She couldn't climb.:(

7) Arrived at the 2nd stop and there were no more than a dozen guys there.

8) Sat on a bench watching the Scott, Trek, Bianchi, Pinarello etc., some with carbon wheels roll in. I confess to smiling inwardly.

Stage 3
-------

1) A little respite with the winds coming across and from behind.

2) Speed picked up to 46-50kph

3) Stayed with "steel legs" till the finish. Again we caught many stragglers from the 2 racing teams.

4) Again the smoker was standing at the side of the road. He came in a few minutes after me and admitted he was tired today.

5) "Move" team complimented me on my "power" and were surprised when the learnt my age. That was nice!:) Makes all the training worthwhile.

Stage 4
-------
1) After a bowl of noodles we were off again.

2)This stage had a winding 4km hill.

3) I was in the 2nd group again. By the time we got to the top there were only 2 of us left. Arrived at stop 4, 30 km from the finish. The "Smoker" was already in the line for the toilet. Had massacred me on that stage.

4) Average speed at this point, despite the wind was 28.6kph

Rush for home
-------------

1) Now we were going back up the lake almost directly into the wind. It was terrifying!

2) I confess that I was now struggling.

3) 10 km from home got a twinge in the calf and thought, oh, oh!

4) Rather than blow up I dropped back selected a very low gear and cruised gently home.

5) The last 30 km, because of the wind and my easing off, my average dropped to 27.4. Disappointing!:(


What did I learn today.

1) More so than the century back in June I learnt about racing.

2) When you slow down for traffic lights with the group, be prepared for ridiculous acceleration when the lights change. I lost ground more than once through this.

3) Keep an eye on the pelaton not just the guy directly in front of you.

4) I found that guys (individuals) who whizzed past me couldn't always sustain the pace, and instead of chasing them, I learnt to slowly reel them in and leave them.

5) In future before a long race, do more long rides of over 100km.

6) I would say that a hell of a lot of the ride today was L4. Even when tucked in behind, I found that if I coasted for a few secs, 2 bike lengths or more would suddenly appear and to catch whoever necessitated an L5 effort. There was plenty of L5 and just a few moments of L6 efforts.

7) However, what I really learnt was:

I NEED MORE POWER!:D

I think a 300W FTP would be necessary to stay with the fast guys.

Overall, very, very satisfying. Thanks RD for bringing me along to the undreamt of level I've reached. Now we have to start the real work.

P.S. I think today's ride was far superior to any training on the bike in the gym, and hopefully this will be reflected in the numbers to come.

I'm glad you had fun! Oh and so many lessons there, you clearly gave this some thought. Which, I have to think, is wise as there is much, very much to be learned.

Racing definitely isn't the same as the trainer, and you certainly saw that. I imagine I'll see that next year too.

As for more power, well, don't we all!

:D

Great ride Tyson!

Now we see the real performance detriment that smoking produces.... you have to stop every 10 minutes to get your fix and everyone else catches up. :D

Sounds like you had a great experience.
Must have felt good to pass the smoker dude standing on the side of the road and knowing that your conditioning has improved from last year.

Glad to hear that you have your sights set on next year already.

Wow! What an experience.What a great ride! And ride report! Sounds as though the wind transformed this ride from challenging to brutal. The funny thing is that those are the rides that we remember forever. The easy ones fade quickly. We do have to work on your trash talking, though. When the "smoker" said he stopped due to the wind, you should have said, "Yeah, me too. In fact, I took a short nap.":D

what I really learnt was: I NEED MORE POWER!:D I think a 300W FTP would be necessary to stay with the fast guys. ... Now we have to start the real work.Great attitude! You may have to increase your volume (across the board -- L4s & L5s in particular) and it gets harder from this point forward (forget about 10W increments, you'll be thrilled to increase FTP by 2-3 watts), but I suspect that you have not peaked yet.

P.S., I have not forgotten about the promised documents. As soon as I finish documenting my ride file parsing application, I will finish them and post them on this thread.:cool:

What a great ride! And ride report!Ditto - good stuff.
We do have to work on your trash talking, though. When the "smoker" said he stopped due to the wind, you should have said, "Yeah, me too. In fact, I took a short nap.":D Yeah - this takes lots of practice;) I reckon you should offer him some nicotine patches so he can keep up with you.:D

When the "smoker" said he stopped due to the wind, you should have said, "Yeah, me too. In fact, I took a short nap.":D
LOL - you are such a malevolent influence on our saintly Tyson! http://cyclingforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Great attitude! You may have to increase your volume (across the board -- L4s & L5s in particular) and it gets harder from this point forward (forget about 10W increments, you'll be thrilled to increase FTP by 2-3 watts), but I suspect that you have not peaked yet.
Oh I'm very curious to see what becomes of this and what course you'll plot for Tyson's training future...

LOL - you are such a malevolent influence on our saintly Tyson! http://cyclingforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Yeah, I don't know how trash talking goes over in Japan. Hopefully he won't be made to sing 10 karaoke songs or something of the sort.

Oh I'm very curious to see what becomes of this and what course you'll plot for Tyson's training future...Shhhh. Let the poor boy rest for, say, 24 hours.:D

Yeah, I don't know how trash talking goes over in Japan. Hopefully he won't be made to sing 10 karaoke songs or something of the sort.Maybe they have to play a game of baseball but it can't end in a tie??? http://cyclingforums.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

Shhhh. Let the poor boy rest for, say, 24 hours.:DOnce a taskmaster, always a taskmaster!

I find it amusing how we can find ourselves relishing the high's and low's of our virtual friends...

Thanks guys - will respond later. Going back to bed.

Just one thing I forgot. And Lucy you will find this later.

The most exhilerating experience is the ability to turn the power on and off at will.

Last year, I couldn't have done that if my life had depended on it. Probably because I didn't have any power.:( Kind of running on almost flat batteries.

Goodnight! Tyson:D

Well, today I'm back in the land of the living - a bit like a zombie yesterday.

Lucy wrote:

I'm glad you had fun!
Fun isn't the word that immediately springs to mind when thinking of the ride.
More like "self-inflicted-torture" would be a better desription, but yes in retrospect I enjoyed it.

Frenchy posted:


Now we see the real performance detriment that smoking produces.... you have to stop every 10 minutes to get your fix and everyone else catches up.

Maybe so, but that guy still has a lot more power than me. I reckon in the first few kilometers when we left everybody behind, he must have been putting out at least 300Watts because of the wind. I mean we were motoring, or at least he was motoring, I was tucked safely in behind him 2 inches from his rear wheel.:D

Felt rider said:


Glad to hear that you have your sights set on next year already.

Yes, but only as a means of gauging progress. My main aim is to race more next year (in real races). The racing season has finished here in Japan until next Spring.

And Lucy 24 hours is a large consession from RD. But I'm ignoring him and taking today (Tuesday) off as well - so there RD!:p

Alex wrote:


Yeah - this takes lots of practice;) I reckon you should offer him some nicotine patches so he can keep up with you.

Smoking is prevalent in Japan with some 40% of males smoking and women catching up fast. I was surprised at just how many lit up at the rest stations.
In fact, the fastest guy in the Move Racing Team, i.e. the fastest guy on the day, was sitting there puffing away happily.

And finally Lucy wrote:


Oh I'm very curious to see what becomes of this and what course you'll plot for Tyson's training future...

Oy Lucy, what are you, some king of sadistic voyeur? I take it you want RD to inflict more pain upon me. You worry about your own training - OK!:D

Tomorrow RD, it's back to the drawing board, commencing with a ferocious VO2 max session.

GIVE ME MORE POWER, I HAVE TO HAVE IT ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHH!;)

I think I've flipped.:rolleyes:

Tomorrow RD, it's back to the drawing board, commencing with a ferocious VO2 max session.

GIVE ME MORE POWER, I HAVE TO HAVE IT ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHH!;)

I think I've flipped.:rolleyes:Cool, go for it!:cool: It's there for the taking, but you may need to take a hard look at how many hours/week you can commit to training and you may need to invest in some tools. I'm thinking specifically of CP WKO+, with a semi-manual input of training rides. BTW, do you have Microsoft Access? I built a small app in Access (plus a batch console app) to create CSV WKO+ input files from trainer rides (for those without a PM). This would give you some useful statistics and pretty pictures (charts) to help manage your training. I know you're a self-described feel guy, but if you want to go to the next level you may need to step up to some numbers-based applications. Let me put it this way. You're done with the easy part of increasing FTP (and VO2MAX and AC). From this point upwards, it's harder and you need all the tools you can lay your hands on to target your training and measure your progress.:D

Smoking is prevalent in Japan with some 40% of males smoking and women catching up fast. I was surprised at just how many lit up at the rest stations.
In fact, the fastest guy in the Move Racing Team, i.e. the fastest guy on the day, was sitting there puffing away happily.Bizarre, so how come they have such a high life expectancy?:confused: