FTP and Physiology, Sprinting Mistakes, 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo & More – Ask a Cycling Coach 195

A great podcast story would be Jonathan’s battery dying in his digital pressure guage and not being able to measure 19.5 psi. :grin:

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True, that’s a good point. Though one could probably argue that the later races would be putting more strain on your body.

Now I’m really interested to see. Haha.

Agreed; If you lop off the two ends, I’d say it looks statistically inconclusive as to which approach was best, particularly given the small samples. At best, a marginal benefit to to HRV-G group, but statistically hard to prove.

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Maybe that’s built into the algorithm? As you do more, the heart beats are worth more? :man_shrugging:

Those are some interesting groupings

Personally it was good to hear that Jonathan doesnt use a trainer with Erg mode - Makes me realise I’m not missing out that much by not having it.

Maybe there’s something in this as a discussion point for the future? I.e. if you have the data on what kind of trainer is mostly used by users / mode etc.

I noted that as well, but having never ridden rollers, how hard is it to hit high power numbers and simulate a climb?

He is very light, so is that a factor.

Need good concentration 2 hours into sweetspot :slight_smile:

Looks like Nate needs to work on his bike throw as well as out of the saddle sprinting!

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@Nate_Pearson Having done loads of team 24hr races in the UK and Europe my advice would be definitely do not try to sleep! Especially as a four man team you’ll only have about 3 hours between laps. By the time you cool fown and calm down enough to sleep you’ll have to get up again and you will feel worse than before - especially if it’s 3am and raining… Double laps IMO do not help. You get a little more rest but again, you should not be planning to sleep. All the fast teams do single laps, unless the lap is really short (less than 30 mins).

Don’t use Chad as a beer genie - you need him as a pit boss. Someone to keep track of lap times, make sure the next rider is always ready to go (nothing more frustrating than to beast yourself around a lap and come back to find no-one in changeover). They can also sort food, clean and fix bikes, keep your camp tidy, and just be moral support for everyone. A good person in this role is invaluable. Have a white board and plan out who goes out when given projected lap times - update this as you go!

Take loads of clothing, more than you think you will need! Horrible to have to put on wet muddy kit if you are headed out for a night lap - though mud probably not such an issue for you… Same goes for bike spares.

Most of all - have fun, ride fast, and be nice when overtaking people (or being overtaken :slight_smile:)

Man - all this talk about 24s has got me fired up, might have to get the team back together for one this year… You guys are going to love it!

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Nice tips! We have another swany other than Chad to handle all of those duties.

I’m torn on the double laps. If we do one set of double laps we’ll get 6 hours between; but we’ll also go slower.

We don’t fly out until 7pm the next day so we’ll be so so tired.

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Was thinking the same thing, but just too polite a Canadian to say anything! :rofl:

But what do I know, I bike throw like Bjarne Riis. :roll_eyes:

If you have rollers with resistance like the Quick Motion, they can easily handle sustained wattage above 450w. Definitely more, but I haven’t tried to push them higher!

You can sleep on the plane :smile:

@Nate_Pearson Good you have another swanny and don’t have to rely on Chad with an unlimited supply of free beer. We have done 24s with significant beer consumption involved before and during - not pretty!

Oh, and I haven’t listened to the full podcast so you may get to this, but from the tyre chat I would suggest don’t select on the basis of one hot lap in dry and sunny conditions! Or on the basis of what a pro says they would ride. Something wih some knobs and less chance of flatting will be welcone in the middle of the night. Although it’s in Arizona I gather rain is not impossible? Don’t know the soil conditions there but that could change things dramatically. If you’ve got extra wheels (or even bikes) you can take with mud tyres that would be a good shout.

Look forward to the dawn lap - it’s glorious!

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@Nate_Pearson @Jonathan: You may know this already, but a recommendation if you happen to hit cactus: use elmer’s glue to get rid of the small needles that stick in and are hard to remove. Use it like wax–put it on, wait for it to dry, then peel it off. It should help to eliminate a lot of those pesky needles easily. Duct tape works pretty well, too.
Also, do everything you can to avoid the cholla (pronounced CHOI-ya; it’s a spanish LL that makes it a y). That’s nasty stuff.

If you can make it into Tucson for any part of the time, be sure to go to Beyond Bread for some amazing bread, salads, and sandwiches. :yum:

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I do the prescribed seated sprints on my rollers. I am too much of a chicken to try standing anything on my rollers. I have a magnetic resistance drum, prior to that, they would max out around 300 watts.

Why is he allowed to enter the kids race?

#sasquatch

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@Nate_Pearson, I’ve done 24HOP several times on a 4 person team. One year we did double laps and the second lap was about 10 minutes slower, although that was 2 laps once and not 2 people alternating. Also, FWIW, I am a light sleeper and have always managed to get a little sleep throughout the night.

Finally, I have typically started the race for the team and it is incredibly chaotic and disorienting trying to locate your bike. Fortunately for me, and Jonathan, I have a teammate that is 6’8" (but 6’6" is good too :wink: . You, the tall guy, should absolutely hold Jonathan’s bike, scream at him as loud as possible when he approaches, and hand the bike off to him. This is a true luxury for the first rider.

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For those of us who don’t have the luxury of having someone so tall on our team (ha), I’ve seen videos where people are holding flags, umbrellas or other things to help indicate where a bike is located. Would that be a good plan or is it a cluster either way?

Or they should do it SSWC style where they move all the bikes around / hide them / make a massive bike pile - just to level the playing field a bit from the start. The faster you are the more likely your bike is hanging 20ft up a tree :smile:

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Hi @Nate_Pearson @Jonathan @chad, are you guys going to be recording a live podcast from 24HOP? If so, I would love to join you guys and listen live. I’m here in Tucson and will be racing 24HOP as a 4 men SS team. Hope to see you there!

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