Team gets new Garmin 705's

Wow, we have just received our new Garmin 705s. And even better news, Saris have announced that they will be providing Garmin Compatible Powertap hubs!! Double Cool!!

Race Report: Midvaal Vets Tour Prologue

Well, I woke up this morning with a severe sore throat. Last night I could feel I was not right, I had a fever and headache and the throat was scratchy.

I have been looking forward to this race for a long time. Having missed out on quite a few races lately I was keen to get back into racing. So, sore throat was not an option.

Went to the doc first thing. He checked it out and diagnosed a sinusitis. Prescribed some antibiotics.

The Prologue was 8km long, starting at the entrace of the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve and heading back towards Daleside. I was seeded 11th so my start time was 16:30.

This was the first time I was going to ride a Trek TTX so I was really looking forward to it. I had seen Andrew Mclean after his ride and he said the judges had told him he had ridden 8:11 for an 8km TT!! Holy Crap!! That is just under 60km/h.

The team rode out to the start together. The finish of the TT was close to the Boswell Wilkie Circus, so it was a nice warmup ride to the start. The Trek felt really good, best I have ever felt on a TT bike.

The ride went better than expected. I got to the start and started my powertap interval timer, then made the mistake of riding a slow loop waiting for my start. So, the CPU timer had started! Anyway, my target wattage for the ride was 370w. I felt this was a good target because I had averaged 368w for 20 minutes a few weeks back when I was doing my 20min threshold test. In the past I have not been able to match my road bike numbers on the TT bike, so I thought that if I could get 370 I'd be very happy.

I started out well. keeping the powermeter between 360 and 380. But by the halfway point I was really starting to feel it!! I found it very hard to keep the power levels up and started fading a bit. When I went over the line I was really hurting. I switched the CPU to time and say 10:14 - geesh, 2 minutes slower than Andrew over 8km, as Craig said, maybe we should take up golf!!

Anyway, at prize giving the results were given out and Andrew had done 9:11, not 8:11. The line judge must have made a small mistake. So, not as bad as I first thought, but I still thought I was about 1 minute slower, and I couldn't even blame the wind!

Times were pretty quick, Werner Moolman did 9:05 and Craig Harvey somewhere around 9:20.

Later when I got home and checked my powermeter data, I realised that my timer had started early and my time was 9:38 - okay, not so bad then!! Average speed was just a fraction over 50km/h.

Average power for the ride was disappointing - 344w. I really need to spend more time on a TT bike.

Grand Boucle Feminine International - Stage 1

Yolandi du Toit will be riding in the GBFI - the ladies version of the Tour de France for Lotto Belisol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotto-Belisol_Ladiesteam

Here is stage 1. I will be posting the other stages as I map them out.

Yolandi du Toit - First Lady in Stonehaven on Vaal

Yolandi came in first in the 80km Stonehaven on Vaal race today.

Nice one!!

Getting to grips with RaceDay

I have been getting all my training data from the beginning of the year loaded into RaceDay. Now I will start regular testing so that the software can figure out my own personal training parameters i.e. how my body responds to training from a fitness and fatigue perspective.

RaceDay Performance Predictor (developed by Dr. Phil Skiba) is based on the same principles as WKO+ Performance Manager, except it helps you determine your own personal "decay" constants with respect to fitness and fatigue. It also will predict your performance based on your testing protocol.

What is really interesting is that it allows a short duration testing protocol - 2min TT. The idea being that the anaerobic contribution is relatively constant, and changes can be attributed to aerobic improvements.

I have decided to use a RAMP test on my computrainer (MAP test as specified by Ric Stern). The reason for this is that it removes the need to pace a TT (even a short one) properly. Basically I must ride to exhaustion.

Today I did my first test, and was quite disappointed at my result :-( My average power (AP) for the last minute of the test was 405w. I was aiming for 430w, based on a 1 hour TT I did on my computrainer a few weeks ago - in which I achieved 321w AP. My ftp should be between 72% and 77% of the last minute AP of the MAP test. In this case it is 79%. Strange, because I was quite fresh when I did the test.

Anyway, I need to test quite regularly so that the software can construct a valid model for me.