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Post by sooner2 on Jan 30, 2017 16:30:19 GMT -5
Unable to ride the past four days.
Have hit clean eating habits well though, and am seeing 160-162 ranges in dry am weights now. Am happy with that. Should be on track for my goal of 157-159 be end of feb.
Should be able to hammer the next few weekends and attempt first race of the year at the end of the month.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 2, 2017 9:58:01 GMT -5
Weights are staying consistently in 161 range in am.... 158-159 range post workouts.
Got a 1 hour ride in yesterday with most of it in high rpm territory (105+ cadence ). Tonhelp recover from weights on Tuesday.
Tuesday got a good strength day in at gym. Squats . Leg extensions . Seated leg curls. Mil press. Seated rows. Chins. Calf press. Jump ropex15 min with 30 double unders.
Looking to get a solid 60 miler in one day this weekdn, as well as a spirited group ride
Sunday am trying to line up a motor pacing workout. Those really hurt, but are hugely beneficial for mimicking race level speed and efforts. Have a buddy with a moped who is one of only two people in town that I've trusted to do motor paced workouts with.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 4, 2017 20:35:39 GMT -5
Was planning on riding easy at the park last night but got into a pissing contest with a guy going the opposite direction. It becomes a fun fight to try and cut into where u are seeing them on each lap... letting them see than you are faster than them each lap... but also a little game to act like you aren't pushing that hard to do it. So u smile and try to breathe easily and give a casual wave each of the two times u see them each lap. Wound up cranking out 239 watts for 15 miles with 9 additional miles at casual pace. Once I saw the dude head to his truck and put his bike up i began to relax
This am ride with crazy cyclocross buddies and every hill was a pissing contest. Ended up a brisk paced 2:25. Almost 43 miles. Was cold to start 25 degrees , but warmed up. I continue to have great great results from the specialized winter lined shoes. Anyone who has any interest in riding in sub 30 weather should try these instead of the shoe covers. These, as well as craft thermal lobster gloves and the craft Lon's sleeve base layer with the wind stopper panel on the chest are three of the most versatile and valuable bits of clothing a cyclist can have during winter.
Got a damn saddle sore. Haven't had one in three years. Should have thrown out a nice set of thermal bin tights due to chamois wearing thin and becoming unstitched. Tried to self repair the chamois by stitching it myself since I really like the tights and they were my warmest set, and since they were 300 bucks. Shoukd have thrown them out. Have now thrown away the bibs I was wearing when it showed up and switched saddles . Am nursing it along. Feels better today than yesterday, so I don't think it'll be much of a hinderance .
Riding with a strong cat 3 tomorrow. Hope the past two days of Ill advised posing contests don't ruin the intervals I have to do tomorrow
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 5, 2017 19:12:35 GMT -5
Tough ride today with the strong cat 3 dude. Almost 3 hours and 50 miles. Average watts a very high 192. Did the over under intervals at 1 hour in. 12 hard minutes alternating 2 min on at 300 2 min offf at 205. Six minutes recover. Three sets of 12 min each. Faded significantly on the third.
Had cramps and was wasted on my final 40inutes. Hopefully another breakout workout. Still feel not race ready. But improvement is felt. Toughest three days consecutive I've had in the past 12 plus months.
Saddle sore seems on the mend. I felt it today for sure, but didn't seem to hamper much . Never good when u and not your toddler is the one using up the Boudreaux butt paste.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 8, 2017 10:23:50 GMT -5
Limited on time yesterday. Moderate KB workout at home. 40 minutes.
Big time cheat day on the foods.
Still 159.5 this am. Seems to be a new hopefully maintainable baseline
Saddle sore nearly resolved.
If work duties allow, I'll do a 90 minute trainer workout this pm. Weather should be good this weekend and allow for productive days
Tonight's bike has new saddle on it. Will take a few weeks to really get that broken in.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 13, 2017 11:00:25 GMT -5
Had a decent weekend.
Let nutrition get lax late last week.
Once again had a situation with time tonride Thursday Friday Saturday. But at my Age it's hard to train with high intensity for three consecutive days.
Tried to go easy Friday with some easy laps at my hilly park. 18 miles avg watts 141.
Saturday had a solid 50 mile effort with some racy stretches uphill and at stop sign and county sign sprints. Rode with the only other guy in town who is racing this season. He's a strong cat 3. Average watts were a solid 201. With one hour at 214.
Yesterday didn't feel tired , but legs felt heavy. Had. A bad solo ride with 35 mph winds and two flats screwing up almost all efforts at intensity. Managed some hard 305 watt spells for 2 minutes each an a hard 10 min effort of 240 watts.
Was hoping to get some yoga in. But no dice.
This am weight was 160.5. 161 most of last week. Want to see 159.5s all this week.
Missed my team's training camp this weekend reportedly our two team leaders in my category are strong and have solid early season fitness. They rode a hilly and spirited 62 miles Saturday and a flat and super fast 50 miles yesterday. Sounds like most of the guys who are usually on par with me popped yestersay when a former pro and an English prodigy who is spending a few years here w his wife turned the screws.
Still feels my like I'm a long way from race ready. But reminding myself that I'm stronger now than I was a year ago at this time.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 14, 2017 8:56:12 GMT -5
Weights last night. Getting stronger. Push-ups. Squats. Pitiful weights, butbagain... getting stronger. Worked "up" to one set of 6 reps with 145. Hack squats machine first time used thisnseaosn as well. Prone legbcurls. Smith machine mil press. Seated calf raise. Triceps extensions. Chins. 10 min ab work (kb pullovers. Russian kb twists. Planks. Crunches. Swings).
12 min high Rpm (115 plus) spin at the end.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 14, 2017 21:04:18 GMT -5
1:15 trainer workout. 14 miles. 5x5 min at 107 rpm and 220 w. Feeling much more relaxed at high cadence. Legs opened up from the squats and such yesterday.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 17, 2017 19:31:35 GMT -5
Wednesday off. Hard 1 hour trainer session last night. Felt pretty good.
Today did 1:15 endurance spin on open road. 21 miles. Weather is getting spring like. Nice to be out again.
6 hours planned for the weekdn hard shorter rode tomorrow w my cat 3 training partner. 4 hours easy paced ride Sunday w some guys as welll. Seem to be getting on track for my race.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 20, 2017 11:22:55 GMT -5
Had pretty good wether Saturday. Had to ride in the am while it was rainy. Stilll had a pretty good 2 hour ride with buddy, but he was still pretty sick and i didn't go hard until i dropped him off. I hammered it in my final 30 minutes home managing a sold 266 watts for 16 minutes.
Yesterday the guys who had planned to ride slow endurance longish 60 miler had to cancel. I ended up having family day stuff, and managed only 2.5 hours. However, i kept good solid tempo for this time and averaged 211 watts the whole way. 20.5 mph.
In the past, this was the effort that signified race readiness... if i could hold it for 3-4 hours. Feels pretty cool to know that i can hold this for 2 hours.... and likely much longer. Still... was hoping to have that 52 mile distance completed so it would be in my head before this weeekend's 52 mile race. I am much stronger than last year, but not at the levels of. 2013. The team has several solid guys so nothing will be asked of me. Finishing in main pack or less than 3 min behind will be considered a successful result. This week will be about keeping legs open and doing some low volume intensity on Wednesday.
weight is in goal range. Consistent 159.5. Should be a nice easy to maintain 158 or so by weekend.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 22, 2017 10:58:15 GMT -5
Took Monday mostly off. Short home based strength workout. 20 minutes tops
Mon night began to feel a cold virus coming on. Hit hard yesterday with high temps muscle aches and lots of drainage.
Slightly better today. No riding last night. If I can rest up more today will try to do an easybspin to keep legs open.
Not a good thing to deal with all of shit 4 days prior to a good early season race. If not better by Thursday pm I will pass on the race
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 22, 2017 21:46:22 GMT -5
This virus is nasty.
Feeling a bit more human this pm. Did a super easy 60 watt easybspin trainer ride . Wow. I could tell I was trashed from yesterday's fevers. I had nothing. Still happy that I'm feeling a tad better this pm. If things are still improving tomorrow , I'll race Sunday.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 26, 2017 21:01:14 GMT -5
This virus is not at all a fast moving one. Still with nasty coughing and congestion and fatigue.
No trainjng last week. Aborted the race today. Tried to spin easy yesterday to open up the legs some but felt badly fatigued after only 1:20 at 125 watts.
Today felt a bit better and was at least able to get out and do some tempo for two 35 minute bricks. Second one really hammered me. Confirmed my decision to not race.
Weight is down now to mostly 159 each am. Saw a 157 post ride today. Would have liked to have seen where my fitness stood with a race today. Will keep hammering away and try to line up another race.
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Post by sooner2 on Feb 28, 2017 11:02:07 GMT -5
Damn virus continues. Still congested and coughing a ton. Slept poorly last 2 nights. No workout last night.
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Post by sooner2 on Mar 1, 2017 9:33:05 GMT -5
Managed to get an open road ride in last night with lights as dusk set in. Legs felt ok. Not as bad as Fridays attempt, but still can feel the effects of this damn virus. 12 miles. 42 minutes. 181 watts
Team did reasonably well in the first race of the season. Had many guys in the 4/7/8/9/10 placings. A five man move got away with only one guy from our team in it. Am still confident that I made the right decision to race, but also bummed that I missed out on the race. It was a smaller manageable field of 31 guys and with a 5 man group getting away reasonably early, it would have been a good opportunity for me to sit in the main field and get some miles in while managing positioning and such in a race pack environment.
Weight breakthrough this am though. 157. Have seen 157s rarely in post rode dehydrated states in the past two years, but seeing 157s consistency in early am weights is a three year low for me.
Made my goal. Just jacked my power to weight ratio up nicely. I'm at joe smith / nolf weight. Now I gotta get down to metcalf/ Esposito / retherford weight. Haha.
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Post by sooner2 on Mar 6, 2017 10:36:13 GMT -5
Bad weekend of call. Hopefully at the end of this damn virus. Snot volume down some.
Did get an easy spin in to try to getblegs moving again. One hour only though. First pedals turned in over a week.
Silver lining is the weight. Now seeing mostly 155-156.5 in the mornings. Anxious to see if I have lost too much weight. Will see about this as some power workouts come up in the schedule this weekend. If watts are near what I have been doing at past during race season, I'll be near that very benchmark number of 4 watts per kilo.
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Post by sooner2 on Mar 20, 2017 18:50:16 GMT -5
Had two good weeks... getting a good intense ride in during the week as well as two goodnrodes in the weekend. Had to deal with some snow and ice last weekend but managed ok with some 3 hour bundled up rides with a mid ride clothing change.
Feel like the form is coming around. This past weekdn did a 3.5 hour ride with almost 65 miles and felt not the least bit fatigued afterward.
Sunday did 10-15-10 minute intervals at low threshold with 7 minuets recovery after each managed to average 245, 270, and 278 watts . Those are very good numbers for me relative to the past 2.5 years. Was really happy as was coach. Pretty soon she says we can start back on our old 2x20 and 3x 20!threhokd workouts.
First race will be a time trial in Late April. In not doing the full tilt time trial bike. They have a category for non aero bikes. Will ride with team 30 miles to and from race. The time trial is only 19 miles long... so it'll be a balls out 39 minutes or so.
Things are coming together. Weight has stabilized at 157 after some dips into 155/156 territory with my sickness. But it hasn't cost me any power thus far.
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Post by MMAJim on May 19, 2017 10:12:19 GMT -5
Where we at on this? Have you been on a 2 month long ride or what?
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Post by MMAJim on Jun 23, 2017 11:05:56 GMT -5
14.2 Mile ride into work today. I'm with coach Cal on this experiment, one and done.
I tried to take a longer route so I could stay on trails, but I wasn't familiar with all of them and ended up on some busy city streets anyway. So I took the long and busy-irritating route all in one. I'm sure I've never been on a bike ride more than a couple of miles so it was nice to stretch it out but I won't become an urban commuter to work.
1:08:09, avg speed 12.5 but that includes a couple of stops to figure WTF the nav was trying to tell me. Pace was more like 14.5 when uninterrupted. I won't be catching Sooner2 anytime soon, or ever actually.
Edit: Yes, my ass is already starting to smart a bit.
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Post by sooner2 on Jun 26, 2017 10:05:18 GMT -5
Haven't been updating much at the forums.
Glad to see baph is crushing it in the weights.
Happy to see you are still running well.
Glad to see u gave it a go on the bike. Commuting is a good way to get fit that doesn't add that much time into your day. If u live in a big city it can be creepy though; often dealing with lots of traffic and routes that may or may not be bike friendly .
I really can't commute. I live in a smaller city with no great commuting route options. And my job often has me driving to a few stops during g each day. Plus I have a hard time waking up an hour or so earlier.
Despite my absence of posting, I've been making some good gains on the bike. Weekdn work schedule has made racing not t in the cards this far though. The one race I was peaking for in may got cancelled due to massive flooding.
The new indoor trainer has been a massive game changer and has given me a fantastic fitness tool. I bought a wahoo "kickr" smart trainer. You remove the rear wheel from your bike and mount your bike onto a set of sprockets from the machine. Resistance is thus a function of the motor and belt in the machine... not just your gears.
It's been a game changer. There are some really cool apps that allow you to do group races against others on line several times each hour virtually around the clock. You can also select key Tour de France type climbs and rode them virtually. It's been great riding such climbs like the alp du huez, madone, tourmalet, or solour and to really struggle to climb a 8 percent gradient for extended periods of time. It has helped my bike specific strength development immensely.
My power on the open road has really started to come around because of the hard 2-3x per week workouts I do on the trainer.
Weight has also dropped to 154 ish, and the new 20-30 minute type wattages are getting back to 2013 levels. (285ish)
It's criterium season now. They are races that I don't like doing. Short track 1-1.5 mile courses with many turns often in downtown city squares requiring cornering as full gas in a large pack of guys with violent accelerations required. Those are things I'm not t good at.
So I won't race for about another month. Will have a week to train hard while in vacation in Colorado in August. And if all goes as planned my only race of the year will be a neighboring states state championship time trial tace. That will be in September. Haven't ridden that course before but it is supposedly fast with good roads and a slight hill and a fast corner or two. My best 40k time is 57:08. That's was on a faster course though. I'll be happy with anything around 58 on this course. Won't be good enough for a podium though...some fast dudes typically show up for this one . Dudes in my age group who routinely roll 40k in 54 minute range.
Will try to update more regularly
Cheers.
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Post by sooner2 on Jun 28, 2017 9:06:02 GMT -5
Good workout on trainer. 20 minutes endurance pace warmup. (160 watts). 20 minutes tempo paced riding to get knees loose and ready for pedal loads (205 watts).
Then using a mountain climbing app, I did 5 efforts of 8 minute each with 4 minutes recovery. Each 8 min effort was really hard at a simulated 9 percent incline. Rode a hard gear for each... so hard that I was able to keep things turning at a pretty slow rpm rate of only 65-67 rpm. (50x16 type gears).
Really hard workout. Grinding gears is demanding and the stresses on the legs are very different than my normal power cadence. I produce my fastest times at about 94 rpm usually.
These types of workouts previously could not be done since there are no long climbs in my open road area. I with the new trainer , I can get a pretty close approximation to those kinds of gradients.
Overall, it was a 1:45 workout with 1340 calories and overall average watts of 221. Good stuff!!
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Post by sooner2 on Jul 2, 2017 6:46:36 GMT -5
Some solid fitness coming along. Sadly... justbin time for the period of the year when I typically ride the least.... the tdf weeks. Hah. Always spend several evenings watching rather than riding. Hopefullly this year the wahoo trainer will make those indoor viewing miles productive ones.
Yesterday had a nice 2.5 hour endurance paced rode at park. High end of endurance .... 192 watts average. 44 miles.
Friday had a really nice evening ride on trainer. On zwift doing the London loop with box hill repeats. The key goal in this 90 min workout was a 1:06 block of sustained tempo...227 watts.
Thursday was rest.
Wednesday was a nasty workout with 5 efforts of 8 minutes each at super high gear low cadence climbing efforts. I used a giro Italy app on the trainer to simulate the mortirolo climb, a historic climb used in that tour. These things are massive strength builders on the bike. The workout had me spending over 30 minutes total at a high watt of 291.
Monday was a 2 hour endurance pace ride outdoors.
Super easy recovery spin on the trainer while I write this... 45 min at 110 watts.
Tomorrow will be a one hour pre race type of open road ride...
Then I plan a 70 mile endurance pace open road ride on the fourth. I'll wear my stars n stripes jersey. Hopefully no drunk rednecks use me for bottle rocket practice this year.
Fitness is coming along nicely. Used to be , endurance paced efforts at the park would require 158-165 heart rate. Now it's closer to 148. Resting heart rate is droppping nicely.
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Post by sooner2 on Jul 9, 2017 15:35:57 GMT -5
Good week of racing this week in the tdf. Today's stage was a good one to watch. Super close sprint on Friday.
Some good rides for me too, last week. Today had a great set of intervals on the wahoo trainer. 1:25 total with 20 minutes at 205 to open the legs, then a 20 min set at 265. 15 min recovery. Then a nice paced 12 minutes at 275. Met and exceeded my goals. These ways are really good usually the open road watts are 5-10 percent more.
Yetsedsy had a good ride w an old buddy 2:50 relaxed endurance paced. 39 miles.
Friday I did my third virtual race on zwoft. It was a time trial. 23 miles. The course had some 4-5 percent sections. Had a hard time pacing. Went out too hard and first 1/3 I held 273. But blew up and struggled to hold 245 for the final one third. Ended up 17 out of 47 racers though... for whatever that's worth.
Thursday was a day off. 15 minute core sessions
Wednesday was 1:50 endurance pace.
Tuesday was muscle tension power work. 5x8 at 50 rpm to gain bike specific strength. On trainer.
Watts are up nicely. Am very happy. But weight is up a kilo as well 159 again.
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Post by sooner2 on Jul 11, 2017 13:36:11 GMT -5
Rested yesterday.
Today managed to squeeze in a 28 mile London route with two ascents of box hill. Goal was to do one hour during this ride at sustained tempo (220). I sustained 226 with relative ease. Had to keep it in my pants on the box hill ascents though. Otherwise if I were to try to chase KOM standings on box hill, I could've risked blowing up
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Post by sooner2 on Jul 13, 2017 9:05:11 GMT -5
One hour easybspin last night. Outside.
Was hoping to awaken this am and do an on line race with a bunch of Australians. Slept in instead.
Might be able to find a race this pm.
Legs feeling jumpy. It's a good feeling to feel some fitness and jumpiness again.
Tdf stage today is the last chance for any of froomes rivals to put time on him. I dont think anyone will be able to put time on him.
Contador will try to attack in sure but he won't get anywhere. Froome is in perfect position. His rivals realaize that they really can't put meaningful time on him. Soon they will start racing not to beat froome, but to defend their own chances for a podium spot. This of course plays right into froomes hand.
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Post by sooner2 on Jul 14, 2017 8:22:12 GMT -5
Well... I was wrong abt tdf yesterday. Froomes team kept it all under wraps and had six guys in the final two climbs... but weren't able to do their thing. The final 400 m finish with a 20 percent rise certainly wasn't ideal for froome, but I still figured his team would have been able to drop nearly everyone.
Nope!.... aru, Martin, and uran hit froome hard in the finish Froome unable to keep up and he lost yellow to aru by six seconds
I still think froome wins this tour, but it's a fight now. Now the other teams smell blood and the veil of invincibility to the sky train isn't what it was yesterday. If froome can get to the final tt with less than 40 seconds I'd say he can win this tour. He may even be able to get yellow back before the final tt.
As for me? I had a nice ride last pm on trainer. I did the madone climb. Paced myself up far better than I had previously. A new best time for me. 54 minutes. Averaged 256 watts. The longer one hour type outputs are getting better and better for me.
Won't be able to ride much this weekend.
Trip to the mountains in two weeks to ramp up the climbing.
Still think fotmesss is coming together for my race in September
Will start riding the tt bike more next week to re establish the new position on the bike in the aero crouch.
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Post by sooner2 on Jul 14, 2017 14:40:31 GMT -5
Had some down time and did a criterium race in line. Had a tricky time trying to manage draft. Felt like I was either gapping people or getting gapped. Missed out on the lead group and wound up with two others. I can't sprint well so I took a dig with 1.5 miles to go. Dropped one of them but not the other. Lost to him in the sprint.
A hard 17 miles mostky at 265 for 44 minutes. Finished in bottom 25 percent though. Wierd trying to make sense of results in online races. You never really know who u are racing agaisnt.
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Post by sooner2 on Jul 17, 2017 8:28:42 GMT -5
Busy weekend at work. As noted above, races the online crit Friday afternoon. Sleepless Friday night. Busy Saturday all day. Things slowed a bit last pm and did another on line ride Intended to do a leg opener type ride (one hour with 3x5 minute sets at 105+ rpm). Ended up feeling pretty good on the bike and decided to contest the sprint twice on my 20 mile ride. It was a short sprint... 0.2 miles. I was able to push hard and get a good jump and do it in 16 and 15 seconds. Actually had the best time of all active riders for quite a while... and wore the "green jersey" for my final 30 minutes of riding. Hahah. As anyone who knows me knows... I am cursed with little if any fast twitch fibers. The way this sprint was... if u hit it at a high incoming speed, its slightly uphill and a powerful mash on the pedals can get you through reasonably quickly. I guess that's what accounted for my jersey. 30 second watts are imporving significantly however. Now in a personal best 700+ range. Maybe old dogs can learn to sprint if they strengthen their legs with massive in line climbs !?...😀
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Post by MMAJim on Jul 19, 2017 9:09:29 GMT -5
Is that "you" in the pic, or is that a guy in front of 'you'?
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Post by sooner2 on Jul 19, 2017 14:09:06 GMT -5
Hah. It's "me". Since all the people virtually riding the course that day were mostly riding it solo and not in large groups...the "sprints" are not bunch sprints. It's just a segment that u rode through on each lap.... and as u approach the segment , you get a display of the top 15 current times on that segment. The fastest time of the active riders on the course gets green.
U can change the viewpoint that u want to reflect an overhead view or
Wider view of you and those near you on road. I choose this view mostky.
U can sometimes see the green jersey on the road if u don't have green. There is a display of about 15 riders who are near u at any given time on the right of the screen (not captured in photo). It also lists how long each has ridden , and their relative time gaps in front or or behind you, as well as what their current watts/kg that they are putting out. If the guy wearing the green jersey (or king of mountains jersey) is near you on the riders near you display, his name is accompanied by a little image of the jersey beside it.
Hammered myself in the heat last night with 21 miles at the park. Thee of the 3 mile laps were hard "hot" laps . No watts or HR available. But the kinds of lap times i had would usually equate to about 270 -280 watts. Need to make sure I ride a bit more in the heat to stay acclimated.
Tonight it's my most dreaded workout. "Over unders ". 2 min each at 310 and 210 alternating for 36 total minutes. Pain cave.
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