The long and pedally Spring Classics thread. Gent Wevelgem sportive

[Ditchfinder]

Oh and take at least 1 more pair of gloves, a nice dry pair of gloves is an underestimated pleasure halfway through a wet ride

[weeksy]

Oh and take at least 1 more pair of gloves, a nice dry pair of gloves is an underestimated pleasure halfway through a wet ride

Aye, sounds like a very very good idea that's for sure.

[weeksy]

I've done 3 x 50+km rides on Zwift in the past week or so, today being the longest at 55km. Next target on Zwift is 75km

After yesterday's 55km I jumped on today, was solo though and did 45km before boredom killed me off. Not bad but not terrible.

[weeksy]

Interesting recently. I don't put many rides on Strava these days but I'm putting in plenty of miles.

Yesterday I did a Zwift which was 70km, but the first 50km was at 195w and felt reasonable.

Today I did the exact same first 50km and it was 215w and felt a lot lot tougher.

The difference in time between the 2 rides was 6 minutes. With times being 1hr 11 and 1hr 17.

However the faster ride was quite a bit harder overall.

I think it's shown me that sacrificing a bit of watts and time is the right plan. Keep the HR lower and the legs better

[Crosshair]

Cool well done.
If you look at your HR for both, the second ride had you mostly in Z4, whereas the first one had a good bit in Z2.

For what you have said you are hoping to achieve- you definitely want to be in Z2 HR so that you are under your Aerobic threshold.

Friel even recommends riding to (Z2) HR initially and then just measuring your power. You’ll see your power drop off over time as you maintain that same HR. That’s called decoupling.
After a couple of weeks, you’ll notice your power stays higher for longer at the same HR. (You may decouple by 10% initially but soon it will be 3-5% for the same power ride).

Once the decoupling has settled, THEN you can start targeting that power number for longer and longer to increase muscular endurance.

***************

That said- if you aren’t going to massively increase the length of your long rides to 3,4,5,6 hrs sort of ballpark then you may get better results doing rides that look more like the second one, Ie tempo rides. Basically just make each ride a couple of watts harder week on week.
So that 215w ride this week should be doable at 218-220w next week (or stay at 215w but add 15 minutes).

[weeksy]

I started a few weeks ago at 40km, we're now regular 50s and the 70 thrown in.

I don't see me going all the way to regular 5-6 hours indoors for reasons of sanity. But I'll concentrate mostly in 2 hours indoor and if time and sanity allows some 3s.

Outdoor will have some longer ones thrown in but finding time for that isn't really working out due to MTB practice and racing.

I think Z2 will be mostly where I hang my hat for now. Partly because of the factor of my riding buddy who I'll be doing the ride with. If I'm in my Z4 then he's in 6 lol. He ain't doing 5 hours in Z6 that's for sure.

[Crosshair]

I wouldn’t even worry about distance to be honest. It’s all about stress v time.
I’d try 2h at Z2 HR and then see what the power trace does out of interest.
Also, don’t be afraid to fuel the workout with whatever carb source you’re going to rely on for the event to train your gut. (Even though you’re targeting your ‘fat burning zone’, you are still burning carbs and as soon as you get warmed up, your body can process them directly out of your blood stream.)
I had 6 TABLESPOONS of sugar in my bottles for Dirty Reiver

Another way to go if you want to stick to sub 2hrs is to start adding in a race a week again. Do your race for an hour and THEN
try and hit your Z2 power for another 30-60 mins. Because the race will have depleted your muscle glycogen, those workouts are ace for improving endurance. (In calorie terms, it could be the same as doing 3-4hrs of Z2.).

And don’t worry about being ‘too’ fit for Crust, you can give his seat post a push if you’re feeling fresh

[weeksy]

I'm trying not to fuel in the rides currently as I'm trying to drop the weight. But I don't wanna hit the 5-2 currently so I'm trying to eat slightly better and pedal the fat away.

Race then ride sounds good, it's deffo a weakness of mine as once I'm done, I'm done.

I know you're gonna laugh here, but I don't even know what my Z2 is. I know if I sit at 120bpm that's what I perceive to be my all day pace. So I assume that's somewhere Z2 or so.

The other problem with Zwift for long distance/time is the hot and cold factors. I sweat a lot if I go hard, I then find I'm almost hypothermic afterwards. If I throw a fan on to keep the air moving, I just get even colder then, but not as early.
On yesterday's 70km I stopped at 50 and put new clothes on.

[Crosshair]

Looking at old races on Zwift, I’d say:

Z1 Recovery- <114
Z2 Endurance 114-139
Z3 Tempo 139-157
Z4 Threshold 157-176
Z5 Vo2 176+

It’s crazy how effective Z2 tacked on to intensity is- I’ve done Trainerroad workouts where 60 minutes of intervals at 400w or whatever has felt amazing. Then literally struggled to push 200w for 20!!

[weeksy]

Looking at old races on Zwift, I’d say:

Z1 Recovery- <114
Z2 Endurance 114-139
Z3 Tempo 139-157
Z4 Threshold 157-176
Z5 Vo2 176+

It’s crazy how effective Z2 tacked on to intensity is- I’ve done Trainerroad workouts where 60 minutes of intervals at 400w or whatever has felt amazing. Then literally struggled to push 200w for 20!!

Cheers. Not sure about 139 lol. 130ish, maybe.

[Crosshair]

Thought I’d post here as it relates to our discussion.

I haven’t done an endurance ride for ages so headed out today for 150mins. Didn’t really target power or heart rate, just let things settle somewhere in Z2. HR was 131 which is actually low for me- that’s Z1/recovery heart rate. Z2 starts at 142bpm.

Power was 220watts. But most pleasingly- my decoupling was only 0.6%!!! Ie the ratio between HR and power never changed!!

I’m really pleased with that as it show I haven’t lost any endurance during the past couple of months of Zwift racing.
But sadly, it shows I need to do *more work* on my endurance rides to get any benefit

[weeksy]

I didn't have a HRM on for mine today as my strap was in the wash and I can't find my 2nd one. I mostly cruised to a 177w ride but threw in a few efforts on the hills to give me an NP of 192w. But I'm feeling a bit turbo lagged so to speak at them moment and need a day or two off, so will jump on the core/strength stuff for the next day or two

[weeksy]

Went out on the Cadent today for some testing.

I'm still not convinced the gearing is going to fly as it stands but i also think the plan is fairly simple, which is, to use the lower 2 rings and forget about the big ring... Why, well, i only had a 2 speed front shifter lol. But the 48T front even on the flat just isn't needed. Using the middle ring (38T)as a test i was sitting at 44kph downhill and going along at 34-35kph on the flat in gear 8 of 10. So i'm not really thinking i need the 48T at all over there and when i hit one of the hills, the 38T front and the 36cassette isn't really enough. If it gets much steeper than today i'll either be grinding it or i'll be maxing the HR out to keep going. So what i can do is simply tweak the front mech to get me the 28/38 rings instead of the 38/48 . That's less than 5 mins effort to sort the cable out.

The handling, i can live with, but in honesty i'd like a bit 'more' in terms of grip/size of tyre, but i've got a 35c fitted already and not sure i can go much bigger at all. However the stability and bars does mean i'm not 'scared' as such which is obviously a good thing and means i can do things like eating, drinkng, texting or whatever while riding, i really struggle to do that on a road setup.

Brakes were a bit meh, but i think part of that is the pads which are brand new and on the road i can't say i exactly brake much. But i've now seemed to manage to get them to work OK in terms of brake rub, which was a pain on the rear last time, but seems pretty decent now. I might drop a tiny bit of fluid out of the rear just to get it to spin a bit more... but it's not terrible.

Over the course of the ride i was on 23kph average, which seems low to me.... but wasn't exactly flat and i was trying to make sure i didn't go into the red on the uphills, just simply because i'm trying to gauge where i/we realistically will be out there in terms of speed and effort.

Only other downside was that I completely forgot my garmin wasn't paired with my new HRM so i've got no data as to how hard i was or wasn't actually trying. Even though it felt OK and not too hard, i don't know 100%.

[weeksy]

I was taking a little look in the garage and thought "what rubber is in the loft space"

I found a set of Btwin puncture protect which are 700*45 and seem like they're likely to be pretty darn fast based upon the lack of tread lol.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/city5-pro ... R-p-145475

2022-01-19_02-18-50 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2022-01-19_02-18-45 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

They fit nicely with plenty of clearance.

[Crosshair]

Don’t succumb to running them too hard
I’d go somewhere in the 45-50psi range and see how they feel. (Super comfy I expect)

[weeksy]

Don’t succumb to running them too hard
I’d go somewhere in the 45-50psi range and see how they feel. (Super comfy I expect)

Yeah didn't like the grip/feel of them so went back to the ones i was running today. Funnily i was running them pretty much exactly that PSI yes.

[weeksy]

Well i think the main thing is deffo going to be 'flat' riding.

Yesterday as a short lunch test i did 18km, which was 200m of elevation.

The whole of the 140km of Gent Wevelgem is only 600m.

So yeah it seems flat and pedal.... flat and pedal baby.

[weeksy]

Training still ticking along nicely. Today was a 2 hour jaunt with a bit of 'radio tower' for anyone who knows Zwift. 980m of elevation and that's a decent bit of climb for me, especially over 45km distance only.

I'm still having the odd debate on the super fast carbon road bike over the road in the garage... i'm sure it would fair FLY along. but it does have skinny little 25mm or maybe even 23mm tyres on there and i think that may potentially leave us open to punctures... Whilst that's also possible for Crust as he's going full roadie, i'm not sure i want to risk it and suffer the pain at the side of the road with multiple tubes and patches.

[weeksy]

I’m just planning the day before which is the E3 HArelbeke.

So we can either spend the afternoon at the Oude Kwaremont or head to the finish line at Harelbeke

I’m inclined to dump our car and bags at the B&B which is just in Aalbeke, seems to be 28km from the Kwaremont. But do we wanna cycle 50km the day before the big event… Option 2 is to drive to Kwaremont but that does of course mean 1 of us isn’t having a beer… (likely me as i’ll be insured to drive) .. However the bar i’ve booked a reservation in for the evening serves lots of beer

[weeksy]

Well that didn't quite go as planned today. Was messing about trying to get the gearing sorted on the blue hybrid thing.

Can't for the life of me get all 10 gears sweetly... I THINK it's the rear mech, it must be over a decade old and it's i think just a bit tired, so struggles to drop into the 11t cog. If i mess about with the B screw i can get it easier, but then i can't get the 36T cog on the cassette... So i'm compromised either direction i take.

I decided to whip it all off and go back to the 8 speed standard setup.... However that all went completely wrong as once i'd nearly finished i noticed i don't seem to have the 8 speed chain here !!! Weird... but can't find it anywhere.

So i've got multiple options.
1. Get a new 8 speed chain and a cassette for the spare wheel
2. Get a different 10 speed rear mech (sram type)
3. Ignore it and just compromise on the gears, it's only 1 event. For Zwift it works well enough, even if i miss the odd shift, who cares

Added to that i've still got the debate on the front end shifting, do i got 3X for £10-15 for a new shifter. Or do i just use the 2 rings and see how i get on in training outdoor first to see where i need to change

I did fit new gear cables front and rear so the bike is working well, within the limitations it currently has.