Did a
Zwift fondo saturday morning to get some volume in as the heavy rain cancelled any club ride plans. Treated it as a tempo/threshold race rather than the 'sportive' type it's meant to be. I was just no on early enough for any long races....
Followed it up with an attempt at some SST intervals and struggled. Can't even hit and hold 260W for 5 minutes according to the Flux!
Beautiful weather sunday so did jump out for a
quick tempo 11.5 mile effort. Felt good but slow. Boo!
Hopefully these couple of sessions are pushing my fitness back the correct way. CVR tomorrow night is still going to be abusive, but with good weather hopefully next weekend I'm aiming to get out. Need to start fitting in a second Turbo ride in the week to push things forward, then I can knock off some of the intensity I seem to have brought to my commuting. I want to use my weekend social/club rides (15-17mph) as 'easy' volume, rather than my primary riding this year. The aim this summer is then to step up to another clubs saturday ride which is usually further and faster. Hopefully tie that into a reduction of Zwifting which I'll replace with a more social afternoon outside ride. No real commitments to any sportives yet this year, need to make some really as most seem to be selling out quickly.
Otherwise, just get GP4000s like everyone else.
Are most here running them in the summer? Think a few had gone the Lifeline armour route (
@SoliD?) but possibly not for 'good'?
I know lots of us used to rate the Mitchelin Pro 4 Endurance but with the price going up when they released the V2 and then the rebranding to 'Power Endurance' and a further price hike, who continued still using them? I certainly didn't after my experience of the Pro4E 28mm's wasn't great (rubbish wet grip, well worn and sidewalls cracked/ripped/scrubbed after less than 3000 miles).
I'm still drawing a big blank finding a good fast summer Tubeless 30mm tyre which reviews like it'll last well enough for commuting & leisure riding. Ideally I want to go Schwalbe due to their 'TL easy' technology (so I won't need a compressor or shock pump to mount them) but the
Pro One range tops out at 28mm, the
G One Speed come in 30mm but have tread which looks like it's aimed at gravel/trails and not road so will be sluggish.
Well cannondale superx has the highest top tube of all cx bikes. It's not a looker but that rear triangle is getting great reviews for comfort and handling which is all I'm after. They don't do yellow for the 9.0 so went for stealth as they didn't have the silver in my size.
Boo @ no yellow!
Wow - that's a big average HR. I'm 46 and see 190bpm max here and there and yup every time I'm up at that level I feel proper queasy.
Understandable you felt sick after that. Still - no point not giving 100%.
HR is very personal, you'll see people riding at 100bpm and think *Wow* yet that can be threshold for them. As
@Lethal` shows, his is quite high, for his age!
I've noticed similar before, on
Ian Bibbys profile strava stalking, most of his races average fairly normally 150bpm, he'll hit 180bpm sprinting towards the end. Fairly normal, then (if he's left the data). But you'll see some of his training/Zwift sessions he can hit 200bpm. Not bad for a 31 year old, but does show what a Pro is capable of. He's a good follow if anyone wants pictures, data & see how a pro trains.
Finally confirmed. Won't get it until the 18th though because I'm away.
Congrats. Excited!?
I am now looking at a Giant Propel though, had a look at the different specs and you can get them for around the same price as what I was looking at spending. Look great too. Going to ride one tomorrow and then potentially pull the trigger on the below:
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/gb/bikes-propel-advanced-disc-2018
Propel 2015/16 where really popular and saw loads of them around. Seems to be far less of them now, as most seem to ride the TCR instead.
Again, don't buy discs if you don't need/want discs! You're better going Di2/eTap and will probably 'feel' the benefit more on a summer road bike. You have a winter/bad weather bike.
Would I pay £120+ for it....no, however as I got it for £50 via a friend or a friend, then it's certainly worth it.
Great review thnanks, glad you're enjoying it!
So managed to get out and test my adjusted setup on Thursday evening.
I adjusted the seat down approx 20mm. It felt like it was down at the crankset when I kept sitting back down though it was surprisingly comfy.
I also lowered the nose of my seat as it was higher than lvl (also moved it back approx 20mm). It did feel like I was being forced forward on it but only a little. The ride was just over an hour and no numbness so that was a big win.
The weirdest change I noticed was whilst standing to pedal I felt far more in control of the bike. Before i felt I was way too over the bars and the front end felt twitchy. Not sure why this would change but am happy with it.
All in all felt it was a much better ride so now need to stretch the miles out. I have enrolled for the 100 mile C2C2C bike ride end of June which was the motivation to get back into training
Good start, any position change will feel different to start with and it's really only riding (time in saddle) which will help you guide your next steps. The main thing being your numbness was probably solved by the nose tilt. See how things go but it sounds like you're much closer than you where before. Slight tweaks now!
Thanks for the advice the GP 4000s are on ready for a ride tomorrow
Sweet!
Great looking Crux, always loved the
colours & patterns they came in.
Especially the really loud PINK! (owner of a
loud yellowygreeny Diverge)
Also... bonus question. Best way to cut brake cable square? Use side cutters instead?
I use the park cutters as you said it isn’t perfect, then take an old spoke and push it through from the “good end” to ensure it is clear. Then use a dremel grinder stone to tidy up the cut as the last winding is always a bit sticky out and sharp. Grind it down so it’s all nice and flush and smooth.
I don’t see why you couldn’t use a grinder or dremel to cut the housing, maybe too much heat would melt it internally if you took a while. Side cutters tend to squash things before cutting so o think you’d have an inch that was damaged but you could try it.
Side cutters crush too much without cutting very cleanly due to the toughness of the housing, I use the park cutters then I use a 'trimmed' down small flat blade (literally ground the edges to make it a spike) to splay the housing and inner sleeve. I do sometimes then use side cutter to trim down the metal housing afterwards, mine are quite heavy duty but still not man enough to cut housing (maybe it's the operators flimsy biceps).
Rapha - A Day In Hell
Well on my way to the ride this morning and it goes a little like this.....
15 minutes
4 miles
3 punctures (small split in tyre)
1 Lost pair of gloves
Wow, hope you had some more tubes and where able to ride more than that?!
175km (I rode there & back), 26.1kmh average moving speed (all the messing about backtracking!). Average Hr155 and estimated nearly 4000 calories.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1497161835
Great riding & report mate, sounds brutal! Impressive you manged to ride it on 23mm's without any punctures! Actually, I'm amazed!
EPIC post over lol
