25 min test and tech talk

25 min test

After delivering the other half to the airport for the beginning of a 6 week trail bike riding holiday in India with a group of equally grey haired petrol heads, I fronted up at our indoor velodrome for the first of my 25 min tests.

The plan was to make this an easy intro and with the Powertap wheel in situ, establish what lap times a certain and relatively easy wattage took, then change to the Ghibli and 4 spoke and replicate that speed/lap time for 25 minutes and check on how the HR fared. A helper would ensure I kept on schedule.

Plans however have a habit of going awry. Since I had no idea what time I'd arrive at DISC due to farewell ceremonies etc, I told the helper not to come this time round.

SOOOOOO, my altered plan was : I would do the wattage bit, check the speed on the polar HRM and ride to that schedule with the count down mode my Casio watch bip bipping at the correct lap time.

And then what actually happened was this: I warmed up on a small gear, changed to my race gear, checked the timing, changed the wheels, set the count down thingy and set off.. ..first lap too slow, second lap too fast, third lap...oh bugger this for a joke...just ride at a speed that's comfortable.

And that's what I did..faster than I was s'posed to be doing and pretty close to my intended speed. The 25 minutes went by surprisingly quickly, although on a cold and lonely track with only a couple of people painting a bit of floor for company I'd have to say I was glad the test wasn't any longer. No dizziness problems; although I can see my legs will not be wanting to walk after an hour's effort and so I will be planning on having not only helpers but catchers on the night!

I pulled up really well, bouncing euphorically all over the place at work throughout the afternoon and feeling only a slight pull on the quads when walking up stairs last night...although that has morphed into something a bit more noticeable this morning. Feedback and briefing with the coach happens via Skype this evening.

Tech talk

I've bought 2 rather expensive chains..one for each bike that I will have set up for the attempt but have noticed to my surprise that the one I'm trialling first seems noisier than the cheapo BMX chain I was using..worse on the powertap that the Ghibli. Also I think I can feel some transmitted minor vibration through the pedal..so my Friday morning time off work will be to take the bike to Ben at Spoke(n) and check it out before I totally blame the chain. I'm also going to get a tarted up chainring and cog so as to maximise my waning power with as smooth a drive train as pos.