Thursday, March 13, 2008

2x20 Fixed/Roubaix Rollers



Did a couple of getting to know my bike sessions last couple of days. On Tuesday hooked fixed up to turbo for a 2x20 workout which was also intended to work out interval function on Ergomo and check the HR belt I got for it (it uses Polar coded).

Ergomo interval is nice once you get used to it. Shows useful stuff like averages of power/HR/speed and you can do up to 30 which should be enough for most things. Also like the feature that lets you see TSS/IF on the fly. Very handy.

Workout went pretty well. First 20 I did slow ramp up building to end. Worked out at 285W with just 2.4% decoupling. Second I started harder and did 20secs in each of the starting minutes at 300W+. This was tougher and I drooped a bit 3/4 of the way through. But pulled myself together and pushed on to finish with 283W. Decoupling over 6% (not surprising given power ups and downs).

HR still puzzlingly low, maxed at 173.


Yesterday put Roubaix on the rollers. Target was to get some practice riding on drops as dont tend to do this much so want to practice as will be useful in keeping speed up on sportives (and if I do many more road races).

Amazed how stable the Roubaix felt compared to the Giant. Think this mainly due to tyres and probably especially the slime inner tubes on the giant. These must slightly unbalance the wheeel.

Anyway turned out to be comfortable riding on the drops, though interestingly found I needed to add 5mm to the seat height to feel best. Once got into groove stepped down the gears and ended up in my biggest 53x11 gear. As a result the speed for the 65mins of the workout was pretty quick (50kph) though the watts relatively low (255W/260NPW). Decoupling good at 2.6% and HR felt comfortable. Towards end made specific effort to push above 170 at which time watts hitting 330+.

Interesting comparing power with the Giant. While on Roubaix 50kph is an easy 255W or so on the Giant I was doing 40kph intervals at 305W+. Explains why the Roubaix felt so light after riding all winter on the Giant.

Only issue I have is that seems will be difficult to do 330W+ VO2 intervals on the Roubaix on rollers. This looks like it will mean having to pedal at 100rpm+ and over 70kph which is quite hairy. Other option is doing on the turbo but this will mess up rear tyre. Doing fixed on turbo OK for tyres (as keeping the Marathons on it) but needs me to go over 110rpm. Could go out to ride hills in town but all of them have roadworks + temp traffic lights on. Could go out of town and ride hills but means going down hill quick in the dark.

So will adopt plan L and do a bit of VO2 on Lifecycle for next couple of weeks, after which time evenings will be light enough for post work rides.

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