Turbo – setting up the power meter

August 10, 2016 |   |  Comment  |  training

As I couldn’t get the power meter to set the install angles whilst riding on Sunday, I put the bike on the turbo to sort it out (easier to pedal at a particular cadence when you don’t have to negotiate junctions and traffic!). Sorted in a few seconds this time, helpfully. I’ve also set up a page on the Garmin to monitor L/R balance to be able to check if one of the pods drops out again (it didn’t). 

An hour touring Zwift Island passed rather more quickly than I recall before – absence makes the heart grow fonder? I think I’ll stick to riding outside anyway, though. It was a steady ride, nothing particularly hard. I was less tired yesterday, probably because I’d got enough sleep for a couple of nights and had caught up with food a bit better. 

Tired this morning though – awake for a couple of hours in the early morning. I must keep up with work and not let deadlines loom because the hamsters take over my brain at 2am. I was also short on calories yesterday, which won’t help either. 

Eat right. Sleep properly. That’s part of training as much as anything else is. 

Club ride

August 7, 2016 |   |  Comment  |  gadgets, training

Club ride out – 47.5 miles, 13mph, 3:40 moving time, 2,120ft elevation gain.

Good weather, generally – a bit windy – and the ride was good; I’m still atrocious on hills, but that will only improve with time and weightloss.

The new power meter pedals are – thankfully – straightforward to clip into and (more importantly) out of. I need to get some time to put the bike on the turbo and sort out the install angles (it wasn’t keen on doing it at the beginning of this ride) and I must remember to recalibrate after breaks. The power recorded for the second half of the ride, post-coffee stop, is half what was recorded for the first section (where I did calibrate). Looking at the data output, it apparently didn’t pick up one of the pedals properly after the break.

Post-ride: tired, wiped out. Probably need to sort out nutrition again – I may not be eating enough during the week.

Changes & power

August 6, 2016 |   |  Comment  |  gadgets, training

First thing to change (after the bike fit) is the pedals – nothing wrong with them, but I’m going to be training on power, so I have acquired Garmin Vector 2 pedals in order to get that power detail. The local bike shop came up with a good deal, so (after acquiring a torque wrench from ScrewFix) I installed them this afternoon.

Installation was pretty straightforward: the torque wrench isn’t critical, but it does help with maintaining consistency on both sides and from bike to bike. Part of the reason for going for this system is that I can move it to the other bike in winter, when the carbon bike goes onto the turbo trainer for winter. As the bikes have different bottom brackets, I can’t use a crank arm system. I did consider a power meter hub, but there’s a similar problem: the carbon bike has disc brakes, the steel bike has conventional brakes. The only one-type-fits all that’s really an option is pedals. Thankfully, the Vectors are Look Keo-compatible, as I’ve been using Keos for years.

Bike fit

August 6, 2016 |   |  Comment  |  coaching

Second coaching session was actually a bike fit: I’ve had a bike fit in the past, on an old bike. My steel bike was fitted when I bought it; my carbon bike was not. So, we started with the carbon. Which is too big for me, it turns out – not by much, but the stem which I had already shortened to 70mm has been replaced by a 60mm stem (I did not know they came that small …)

I need to work on my pedalling movement – heel lifts on the downstroke, so I’m now working on holding the foot flat (or push the heel downwards on the downstroke). Practicing on the mountain bike today – the pedalling movement stays much the same, regardless.

The steel bike is being tweaked – will collect it later.

Coach says …

August 6, 2016 |   |  Comment  |  coaching

I have acquired a coach: primarily because I find it easier to get going on things if I know I will be checking in with someone about it later. Otherwise, I procrastinate – not badly enough to fail, but I would like to do more than just survive LEL2017, and I would like to improve my cycling generally.

So, coaching it is. The first session was general discussion – starting to map out what needs to happen, what logistics to think about etc.

…beginning in the middle…

August 6, 2016 |   |  Comment  |  training

I’ve started training to ride London-Edinburgh-London in 2017: posts here will be about training, about logistics, about kit and all the rest of it.

I’ve been cycling seriously for about four years; this training is to build on that and see what I can achieve when I work for it – previous riding has just been ‘riding’ and limited serious training.