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Agree to disagree, I'm fine with that Levi. Though not sure I am actually disagreeing with you. Carbon is great. Would put my carbon bike(s) up against any in the world, period.Riddle me this though. If you could get a steel frame to say within a 1/2 - 3/4 lb of carbon, why would a rider of equal caliber not do as well on the steel frame? Please think about Sean Kelly before telling me stiffness is the be all. Sorry just dated myself as a former Cat 1 racer during that time.I'm certainly not trying to pick an fight here, just curious for one's thoughts. Sorry comes natural being a "psych" major. And if we agree to disagree, I'm fine with that too. It is what makes the world go around, opinions. Everybody is their own movie critic. For example I think the Clayton Bros stink. Maybe I am just still made at you I was not invited to the NYAR in 10'. I love your Cervelo. You have put together a top notch build and I have no doubt you can ride me into the ground right now whether I am on a carbon, steel, or carbon frame. Though watch out, if I pull out my Stingray you are dead meat.Thanks for the tim and peace Levi.
I am glad that we agreed to disagree. Perhaps, my background is racing. My group who joins races every week (CAT1 and CAT2) would agree. That is not to bring a knife to a gun fight. Like wheels, aerodynamic frames do have an advantage but that is only if you go above 25-35mph. Speeds I often realize in our group trainings.To each his own.
Hey Jack, don't worry about your speed, just keep riding and set your personal goals. Keep riding with fast riders (8:00 or 8:30am group) you tend to develope your own technique and get to push yourself really hard. Cross training with other sports like Mountain biking also helps. Lastly, ditch the gdata specially the average speed. I noticed that if you stop in a light(s) ave speed suffers. My .02. My group always complain that they cannot draft behind me because I have such a small frame (142lbs) .
I'd love to have a power meter on my cranks. That would be the ultimate in training tool! I can't think about that right now because that is not healthy for my wallet. If you like hotties, Central Park is your destiny.
Jackman,My advice is to start doing 2x20 intervals once per week. Warm up for around 15 minutes then hit 90% of your FTP for 20 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes by soft pedaling and then do it again. I usually pick a route that will give me a 20 minute easy ride back home.If you're averaging 187 Watts on 2 hour rides, I would sort of expect your FTP to be around 210 to 220 watts. I could be very wrong there but you'll need to start somewhere and most pple resist going out and doing an FTP test - they just want to go out and ride. If you want to test your FTP, there are many sites on the web where you can get the details. Basically, to find your FTP you need to go out and hammer WFO for a period of time - some say 20 minute warm up followed by a few all out sprints to wake up your legs then a 20 minute all out time trial. The average of that 20 minute TT less 5% will be your FTP. Some folks say this overestimates your FTP and the only true way to determine it is to do a 60 minute all out TT. I don't think it matters too much as long as your efforts are really full on all out efforts for the time you choose. It is VERY hard to pace a 60 minute TT so most pple feel 20 minutes is a good place to start.I would also include some 4x10 intervals in there too, maybe once every 10 days. Do these at 100-110% of your FTP. Rest 10 minutes between each. Do a 20 minute WU before and a 20 minute easy effort afterwards.You can also do classic hill repeats. Find a hill you can climb in 10 minutes - or whatever - and hammer up it a bunch of times. Do some efforts sitting all the way and do some standing at the bottom and again at the top. Drive over the top. Always drive over the top .
Some of the local pros had to go ride elsewhere because everyone wanted to race them all the time. The pros and most higher cat riders stick to their plan when on the bike. They can't afford to get suckered into racing while out on a specific training ride. Save the efforts for when they really count. Of course if you are out riding to have some fun and aren't training for anything specific it's perfectly ok to crush some souls! Even if that soul is yours! lol