A POV video showing what it must have been like to be Eddy Merckx
Excellent road safety ad for cyclists out of Ireland.
Flanders weekend means hills, and nasty ones at that!
And last, an interesting video on pedaling technique.
Happy Easter and stay safe on the roads.
It was a beautiful morning this morning so I decided the home trained and Sufferfest videos will have to wait til later in the week.
I will let the photos do the talking.
And on the way home, I snagged probably one of my favourite shots from the Go Pro ever!
The little girl on her balance bike giving me the big thumbs up. Awesome!
Well, due to me scheduling this post for 2014, it is a little late. But, as they say, better late than never.
I had a grand total of 23 entries in the competition announced here.
Of those 23, there were some great answers. There were some shockers as well. John’s favourite spring classic isn’t the Tour de France! Only 8 people got both answers correct. I have to say, I was surprised.
So, I turned my rear wheel into a chocolate wheel to draw the prize.
I then spun the bejesus out of the pedals and waited a second then grabbed the rear brake.
The winning number was number 1. Number 1 has a name, and that is Ronan O’Connor.
Congratulations to Ronan. I hope you enjoy the premium package from Velocast Towers.
Also a huge thank you to John and Scott for putting up the prize. Thanks also to all those that entered.
Two videos for your viewing pleasure today. A nice short one if you are at work and just need a minute of biking video to get you through the day.
Now THAT is a big ring!
If you are ready to kick back, have a cuppa and couple of Iced VoVos, here is a 46 minute epic.
You really should grab this in 1080 and full screen.
Have a safe and fun weekend on your bikes.
Dan is doing a bang up job with that new Slow Mo camera.
Brrrr……
On Sunday afternoon, I thought I would head back to the land of suffer and try my luck at “The Downward Spiral”.
It was Milan San Remo night, so I needed an afternoon nap. What better way to make myself weary.
Having sorted out a few of the issues I had with the trainer, I was ready to go in a flash. I fired up the old laptop and jumped on the bike.
The warm up is footage of some gnarly mountain bike stuff that had me jumping about on the bike pretending I was, well, gnarly. I’m not!
Next thing I know I am thrown into suburban Melbourne in a bunch doing a crit!
Now we are trying to reel in a small break. I wasn’t expecting that. I was looking at the guys seeing if I know any of them and boom, more effort.
A bit more warming up and then the real work starts.
Yeah, that doesn’t look too hard actually. The minions then give you a virtual bitch slap with the next frame of the video, you are doing it twice.
I did one of those exaggerated cartoon gulps and tried not to think of what was ahead. I was still mentally preparing for the smashing I was about to give my legs, heart and lungs when the GO sound went and we were off. I flicked the gear shift for the front mech and into the big ring I went, testosterone coursing through me like a 16 year old boy surrounded by cheerleaders.
Looking at the screen I am think “hey, that looks like…” when this message pops up.
I was going great, pushing out some good speed and thinking the interval nearly over when I got a look at the screen, 1 minute left. What the, what the?
I was back in the time warp that is The Sufferfest. I grind my teeth and keep pushing, making it all the way through the full 2 minutes. Rest time and I was wasting energy punching the air. The first real interval of the Sufferfest I had completed. I was a champion in my own mind. I was still kissing my biceps when the 2 minute rest was up and I was off again. How does this happen? There is no way that was 2 minutes rest.
Bang, off we go for a 1:45 effort.
This can’t be good news, what dastardly deed is coming up?
Ah yes, excellent, more effort to latch on to the team car. Once again I dig deep, immersed in my very own Paris Roubaix, hoping I don’t do a George Hincapie when he was with US Postal and fly off the bike after the handle bars decided to go to lunch and shot him into a ditch.
The efforts keep coming. I finished the first block and had kept up the efforts for the allotted times. Unlike Revolver where I had bailed at the second or third interval. I was happy with the power I was putting out. The rest time went quickly. I was more than halfway through my drinks. My towel looked like it had just come out of the washing machine with out a spin cycle.
Bang, off we go again. I worked my arse off. I was turning into the human sprinkler again. The encouragement from the minions kept coming.
You just can’t help but go harder. It is like a virtual reality video game, you are there. All that was missing was a couple of burly makes to shake the shit out of the bike whilst I flew across the cobbles.
The minions really can’t help themselves. I am telling them to STFU and trying to see through the sweat. I finally smash out the last effort and notice I hit a record of 780W. I sit down and look at the screen expecting to be told what a man beast I am on the bike. I should know better.
I wont ruin the surprise for those yet to do The Downward Spiral, but the clue is the number one!
A few fuzzy minutes later it is all over. I am licking the condensation of my empty bottles. I look at the power reading.
Suck it minions!
Screw you minions, I’m a BEAST! (dear reader, let me have my moment, I realise 893 watts is nothing special and Brad Wiggins probably poops with more force, but I am a Non Pro Cyclist, a knackered one at that!)
I was a bit wobbly on my feet, but walked past a pair of dogs thinking I had gone mad and topped up my water bottle. This photo was about 15 minutes later. 15 minutes in front of the fan.
Here is what the work out looks like on Strava.
Click for larger.
To celebrate my first successful Sufferfest video, I threw this together.
One down, 12 to go.
Suggestions for the next video to try?
Thanks again to CellBikes for the trainer and The Sufferfest for the videos.
If you are bored at work and want to watch some behind the scenes videos from the Pro peloton, here is a list of teams that have YouTube channels. Some of these may not be the official teams videos, but close enough. 🙂
Please note. WordPress seems to have eaten most of this post. Will redo tomorrow.
Following on from my previous post about the home trainer, this one is a look at the Sufferfest video I used for my first ever visit to Sufferlandria.
I saw this recommended as one of the first videos to try. Having never done a structured work out like this before, it was all new to me. I had done a few interval session out on the road, and found them to be very hard work. Trying to maintain a set cadence and heart rate whilst trying to dodge pot holes, dairy trucks and cows crossing the road, had proved difficult. I had a lot of people telling me that intervals on the home trainer would be easier. Well that is bull shit. They obviously haven’t been introduced to the Sufferfest videos.
I fired up the video on my laptop, jumped on the bike, and started to spin the pedals as I watched the intro.
You get the usual copyright info and a warning about only attempting to follow the video if you are fit. Well that is a first. I was still contemplating this when the video started and i was spinning easily along a road behind a group of other cyclist. Excellent, here we go.
You get an overview of the work out ahead and that was when I got the second shock since I started pedaling. 1 minute of 10 out of 10 effort then 1 minutes rest. And you do this 15 times! Holy Merckx!
Steeling myself for the torture ahead, I was happily spinning along on the warm up when this popped up.
The odd thing about this was that that jacket was driving me nuts. I accelerated slightly and left him behind. And this is part of the beauty of the videos. You quickly get sucked in to thinking your efforts matter. I could have just spun away normally and the video would have had me sail past this bozo, but I actually worked harder.
There are audio cues to tell you when an interval is about to start, when it starts and when it finishes. These are great, because it wasn’t long before I wasn’t looking at the screen, I was watching my power figures on the JetBlack digital display.
I really have no idea how to judge what my perceived efforts are, so I tried to use the power figures. This dear reader is a massive mistake. For the first interval of 1 minute, I successfully held just over 400 watts. Well, I managed to do it for about 50 seconds before I had nothing left and had to back off.
The extra 10 seconds of recovery did nothing to help. Second interval I managed to keep my power at about 350 watts, again for 50 seconds before my eyes felt like they were trying to exit my ocular cavities. Just the effort of reaching around behind me to grab a towel had my head spinning.
I managed to dry myself off just before the next effort. I went for a full 60 seconds this time, but I was struggling to put out 250 watts. I was dying a slow and painful death.
The next 12 minutes was like I was in some sort of weird time worm hole. The 60 seconds of efforts went in slow motion. The 60 seconds of rest was in fast forward.
I reached for the water bottle and because I was wrecked, some water went down my breathing tubes. I coughed and spluttered my way through the next interval.
Interval #13 I just sat up. My head said go, but my legs and heart and lungs out voted it and sent it a very terse message back. It is a horrible fact, but I am quite the spitter on the bike. I think I need a Suffer spittoon.
The sweat wasn’t trickling out of my pores, it was squirting out. I must have looked like a bloody sprinkler. My whole body was crying. Why am I doing this? The video kept throwing up prompts to keep going. I was hurling abuse at the screen.
I gave it everything I had in the last interval. Smashing out just over 150 watts.
Finally, I was at the end. Thanks the gods. I was stuffed. Enjoying the warm down, catching my breath, then, with out warning, this!
WTF??? My rational brain, that tiny little bit near the back, was saying “well that is a bit sexist” at about the same time as the irrational part of my brain, the large bit near the front, got a message from my plums. “Don’t let these girls beat you!!!” Once again, I was immersed in the game being played and took off. For about 3 seconds I stamped on the pedals and was smashing out an outstanding 130 watts before my legs just gave up. I was beaten. I think at that point I mixed up my water bottles and squeezed Gatorade all over my face!
I did the warm down in a mental fuzz. The video ended and I stopped pedaling. It took me a few minutes before I could get off the bike. Revolver had ruined me. What ruined me even more was the fact that I hadn’t completed it. I had missed one full interval and cut a lot of them short by 10 to 15 seconds.
For about 15 minutes after that, I swore I would never do another Sufferfest video again. The trainer could go back to CellBikes and I would just ride on the road. After I had cooled off, had a shower and composed myself, all I wanted to do was have another crack at it. What was wrong with me?
I think at my current level of fitness, most of the Sufferfest videos will be beyond me. Is that going to stop me? Hell no. I owe it to David at The Sufferfest and Mark at CellBikes to keep at it. And, strangely enough, I want to keep at it. I can see how these videos will make me stronger and fitter.
I am off to have a crack at another one this afternoon, in preparation for Milan San Remo tonight. I need a nap this afternoon so I can watch the coverage. What better way to make myself tired than an hour in Sufferlandria!
As you will know, a few days back I posted about getting a home trainer from CellBikes. I have had a couple of rides on it now, so I thought I would throw together a post on my experience setting it up and my first impressions. I will also do a post on the first time I used the Sufferfest video. That later.
The unit is a nice sturdy piece of kit. Heavy so it doesn’t wobble about when you are putting in a big effort.
Getting it out of the box, you get the unit as seen above and a smaller box which holds the head unit, and all the associated bits and pieces. Cadence sensor, magnet, heart rate monitor, batteries and some CDs.
The head unit is a lot bigger than I expected, and that has its positive and negative aspects.
Setting it all up was very easy. You install batteries (included) in the roller itself.
Put batteries in the head unit. It turns on once you press one of the buttons on the front. To pair them, you hold down both buttons for 5 seconds until the display shows this.
Then you hold down the button on the roller unit.
Done. Easy. Next bit was to mount the bike. You are given a special Quick Release skewer. I am actually using an old wheel I have, so it was a 20 second job to swap the skewer out.
I lined the tyre up with the middle of the roller and wound the drive side mount out so it was engaged with the skewer. With the drive side located in the mount, you wind the non drive side to the point that it is nearly touching the skewer. Then just engage the locking mechanism and the bike is locked in.
Once the bike is firmly locked into the mount, you then wind the roller up to meet the tyre. I actually spun the wheel as I wound the locking screw up. When the wheel stopped moving I knew it had hit the roller. You then add 1.5 turns of the locking screw and use the second nut to lock it in position.
The bike is ready. Now you just have to mount the head unit.
This proved slightly problematic for me.
As you can see from the two photos above, real estate on my bars is at a premium. I obviously cant go on my left hand side (as seen from the saddle), the light takes up a lot of room there. On the right side I have my GoPro mount. It was going to have to go there, which doesn’t leave a huge amount of room for my right hand on the bars.
It is ok, but not ideal. The view from the saddle shows it a little better.
Now the size at this point was an issue. But once I was on the bike, and especially during hard efforts, I couldn’t see the Garmin at all, but I could see the larger numbers on the JetBlack head unit. I don’t think this would be an issue for many people, but there would also be a lot of people that have precious little room, like me.
Now dear reader, I hear you asking, why not just pair up the Garmin to the roller? Well, I thought exactly that. I couldn’t get a definitive answer on the interwebs, so i rang JetBlack and spoke with Mathew. Sadly, he confirmed that they aren’t using ANT+ on the trainers. I really think this is to their detriment. The JetBlack head unit does not log anything. So you can do as hard a session as you want, and all you get is your average and maximum power. You can also get heart rate and cadence, but because I didn’t want to wear two heart rate monitors and add another cadence sensor and magnet to my bike, I just use the figures the Garmin spits out.
If the JetBlack trainer was ANT+ compatible, people could just use all the bits and pieces they already have and add the roller as a power meter.
So, the trainer itself is great. I have had two sessions on it so far. The things I have learned.
– I need more fans.
– It is a lot harder than riding on flat roads.
– Where does all the sweat come from?
– Fluid trainers are very quiet.
– I need more fans.
– Combined with something like the Sufferfest videos or a PodCast, it is a great way to get the heart going and spin the legs.
– Have a towel handy.
I intend to do another review in a few weeks or so just to add to what I have written here. I find when something is new, I am always learning different ways to use it. Give it a few weeks and I will be used to it and will be able to give a better opinion of whether I think they are a good purchase or not.
I just want to remind people, this trainer was supplied by CellBikes at no cost to me. Any negative comments above are no reflection on CellBikes.
Getting a push!
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