The New Season Begins Here…

… or more specifically, in the back kitchen, sat on the Tacx Bushido, cranking away like a hamster on a wheel.

Started the whole thing off with a 25 minute ramptest, designed to allow the Powercal Heart-Rate/Pseudo Powermeter to be calibrated.

there’s strava links for this fiendish little test here, and a quick graph from sportstrackes below…

Sportstracks Powercal Calibration Run – Power and Heart Rate Plot

Basically, this is a 5 minutes at 110bpm then 5×3 minutes at gradually increasing heart rates followed by another 5 minutes at 110bpm to cooldown again.

The data, when dropped into the Cycleops Poweragent software should allow the “personalisation” of the Powercal belt to the specific measured power output as measured with the real honest-to-god  powermeter from stages cycling.

The Second phase of todays ride turned into a bit of a Hill-Intervals session using the Tacx VR DVD –  T1956.37 Milan Sanremo 2008 – I actually rode the first 50.8km of the course, and did all the minor Capi before the poggio and cipressa.   Frankly, that was enough, on top of the earlier ramp test…   especially as I didn’t want to end up completely spannered for tomorrow, in case the new bike arrives.

Once again there’s a Strava link to the ride here, and a plot from Sportstrack – this time showing the “virtual” ascent/descents…

Tacv VR Ride – Milan San Remo

 

 

New Toys

Couple of bits and bobs in the post today –

First off, a new Gilet, from fleabay.   Not a lot to be said about it frankly, other than it’s actually a little on the big side for me – there’s a first with cycling kit!  It’s light, Blue, and windproof, and takes very little space in my back pocket.  What the hell do you want for £13 posted 😉

Second was a Cycleops Wheel Riser for use with the Turbo Trainer.   It’s a cracking bit of kit, much taller than the one that comes with the Tacx Bushido.  Holds the wheel solidly enough but still allows a bit of side to side motion without ripping the rim off the hub.

Third, and slightly belated, the cheap chinese copy BMC long sleeve jacket I bought a couple of months ago, actually fits now.   So – next time I get a chance for a outdoor ride, I’ll be giving it a crack.

Fourth – and even more belated, 6 years ago, I bought an Altura Nevis jacket.   It was the largest size they made, and I bought it via mail-order as a hopeful punt.   Needless to say, it wasn’t big enough, and it’s been in the wardrobe ever since.   Well – guess what – I tried it on tonight, and it fits.  Still a little snug, and I doubt I’d get anthing more than a base layer under it without it being tight rather than snug, but it does zip up – whereas 6 years ago it was 3 inches adrift of zipping…   To say this left me rather happy is something of an understatement!!

And finally for now, I bought some warm-up cream – anything to save the off-chance of the odd tweaked muscle here and there.   I love the smell of Belgian Knee-Warmers in the morning, it smells like Pro….