Weight to lose

The biggest place I can lose weight is off myself.
I can lose the entire weight of the bike and still only be at the low end of "normal".

But apart from that, where could I save a bit off the bike?

Affordable Weight Fanaticism (Again!)

Used, but freshly cleaned, pg850 11-32 cassette.

Hmm. I shaved, and weighed my beard.
Because every gram counts, right?
(3 grams was all it weighed!)

On a more sensible note, I have been thinking about aluminium rear cogs.
If one can buy an affordable chainring in 6061 or 7075, why do there seem to be few (if any) similarly sized rear cogs available.
I'm not taking about the small sizes, like 11s through to 20-ish.
I am talking about the larger rear cogs, like 28 to 36.

Topping up the Exercise

A modest evening walk, because calories are calories, and walking is better than watching TV!
Also builds the legs up, if you are not used to running yet.
Even though the heart rate is under my Zone 1 throughout.

So, you've done the main exercise activity for the day.

30 minutes, say, of intense sweating.
You really couldn't do that again today.

Time for a nice sit down in front of the TV for the evening, then?

There is another choice.

The Long Slow Run - Getting A Bit Muddy On A Lap Round Town.

The Long Slow Run - it's not High Intensity!
My "threshold" is between the two short bars on the far right.
The two tallest bars are at about 85% and 90% of my threshold.
(this is a screenshot of a real run taken from my Training Peaks account)

The Long Slow Run.
A classic training technique.

It's not much to do with how fast you go - it is about stretching the distance.
It's not about being so dead beat at the end you can't move - it is about pacing yourself round, so you finish in "good order" - maybe a bit creaky, but not too much.

Workout Time Being Lost in Training Peaks - and a workaround

Hmm, Running exactly at midnight?
I think not!
Yet this is how my run is displayed in Training Peaks.

14:52, according to Garmin Connect.

14:52, according to Strava

I had a nice run yesterday, but there was a problem.
I uploaded my data from my Garmin 310xt to our PC via the Ant+ dongle to Garmin Connect.
Garmin Connect then automatically cascades the data to Training Peaks and Strava.
So what was the time recorded by Garmin Connect?


So it looks like Training Peaks has corrupted the time data!
Oh.
So I contacted the TP contact email ...
And they asked for a screenshot, which I duly sent.

Then I got this reply:

Reply to the apparent bug I found in Training Peaks,

So there you have it.
It really is Training Peaks corrupting the data.

The problem:
I always do Eleveation Correction first, then use the Recalculate option occasionally to adjust my "zones" as appropriate after a look at the data.
That is what seems to be causing the loss of time data.

The "official" workaround:
However, for the time being, Training Peaks advises that if you are going to use Recalculte, you use that first, and then do the Elevation correction after

My simpler "unofficial" workaround:
Since the time data is already held by Garmin Connect, I can just look it up, and manually overwrite the default "midnight" time in the affected workout!


It seems this "timestamp" problem only shows up if you use both Elevation Correction and Recalculate on the same workout, in that order, so it isn't that much of an issue.
Anyone who recalcultes after every workout is making a lot of work for themselves for little benefit.
the only reason I am doing it is because after my recent crash, I was (am!) a lot less active, and so all my old thresholds don't mean a whole hill of beans. I need to train for who I am, not who I was!

How Well Am I Recovering From The Crash?

Power figures from my Tacx trainer.
The first bar is before my crash, the second is afterwards.
Of course, I bought the trainer in the first place because I was having back problems,
so BOTH sets of figures are down on my "fit" state :-)
Also you can see various extimated typical power levels for athletes of various descriptions.

So there you have it.
A bit of "hard data", rather than just me saying this or that,
I did my first 60 minutes seeion since the crash earlier today.
A Hi-Lo session, with 60 seconds at about 200w, then a 4 minute recovery at about 90W, then repeat until six intervals have been done.

Bizarrely, this Hi-Lo caused my 60 minute power to actually be a tad higher than before the crash!

My arm was a bit sore at the end of the 60 minutes. I still can't take the weight properly with it, so I variously rest it on the bars and hold the elbow on the other side to take the weight of my arm off my shoulder.
And yet I still scored more on the 60 minute test than before my crash!


Progress indeed!

So, onwards and upwards!

Review of 2016

Mixed results for the year!

I brought up my Garmin Connect summary today for the last 12 months.
It tells a fine story of how my year went.
There is some more mileage not shown here, because I don't usually record the short bike commute I do to work and back.
Plus I am crosstraining with some running for much of the year, as well as some "Strength" workouts, so this is just the cycling, but it demonstrates the year rather well.

Anyway, onto the graphic.
Respectable February and March. A few longer rides. I remember a cold ride to Oxford in February, :-)
Then I got in my first "metric century" in March.
the end of March also brought news of the success of the diet that my local health clinic had advised me to go on.
At Easter I went away with high hopes for a vacation of superb training, but returned exhausted and ill :-(
April didn't go well :-(
May brought a new bike, which I then adapted a little to suit me.
June saw me concentrating on aero, weight, and riding in the local charity sportive, knocking an hour of last's years finishing time, and moving up the finishers' list from about 400th out of 500 to 200th out of 500. Moving up 200 places in a year, and knocking a hour off - wow, that was the highlight of the year!

But ...
I hurt my knee in the sportive on the final hill ...
So July and August sees me taking it easy to recover a bit.
By late August I was having back problems, and by September I was having to take time off work to deal with them. Struggling on like a Spartan just wasn't doing it any more, and I knew I just couldn't go on like this. So for the first time in seven years, I rang the boss and said I won't be in.

In September, I bought a turbo trainer, because the experts recommend walking and cycling for general back problems.
October and November show me using the trainer, and my mileage slowly going up again.
Indeed, by November I was good enough to go out on an "exploring" ride along the local canal path and a couple nearer to where I live, showcasing the local cycle infrastructure, warts and all.

The mileage dropped off in December because I only got 9 days cycling in.
On December the 9th, I crashed, breaking my shoulder blade, and getting a free lunch in the local hospital for a week (and a titanium plate fitted in my shoulder)


And that brings 2016 to a close.
Stepping back from it being me, and just looking at it in general terms, I could suggest that "over-enthusiasm" played a part in my breaks in training.
I was probably trying to do too much at Easter, and ended up doing less than I would normally do if I hadn't tried to do the extra!
Similarly, the crash happened on an insignificant minor back road wher I should have been cycling slower - the main "training" part of the ride was the category 3 hill I had climbed a little while before, so I should have been taking it easy on what was, essentially just a loop back to take me to the road home.

Having said all that, overall, it was a good year, and the stand out point was that charity sportive in June!