Categories: La Vie VelominatusLook ProRantings from the V-BunkerThe Bikes

Festum Prophetae: Waiting for the Hour

The Machine of the Hour

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

– Mike Tyson

The one thing everyone should always plan for is that however well-conceived a program might be, things will never go to plan.

The high level plan for my Festum Prophetae Hour Ride was as follows:

Have a custom Hour Bike built by Don Walker. Because reasons. Reasons like custom bikes are cool and last time I rode a Festum Hour, a rode an off-the-peg frame two sizes too small, plus three.
Have custom Go-Fast track wheels built by Café Roubaix. Because more reasons. Reasons like track bikes look super cool with Go-Fast wheels and Dan builds incredible wheels.
Get less fat.
Get more in shape.
Train on the track and ride rollers from May 1 onwards.

Suffice to say things did not go exactly to plan. The frame “needed” to be repainted because it got scratched by TSA coming back from NAHBS and my OCD kicked into full swing wanting to have it painted in VLVV colors. And Dan was having a hard time sourcing the hubs and rims he had spec’d for the wheels. Delays ensued. I may also have gotten distracted and lost track of the prescribed schedule and dependencies like having the frame in-hand in order to accomplish point V above. The frame made it back to me on Friday of last week and the wheels are in my flat as I write this, waiting for a final layer of glue before having the tires mounted.

I got less fat and in better shape before falling off the training wagon last week due to a tight work schedule. I quickly became more fat due to a wholesale refusal to reduce my alcohol intake to compensate for not training as hard as I should be. We call this phase of training “tapering”.

Since the bike isn’t even assembled yet, it follows that I haven’t done the time on the track, although @Haldy and I have used his crazy voodoo spreadsheet to determine a good gear choice based on my super-secret personal distance goal. As far as the rollers go, well those were sent by Keeper @Marko just as the weather started to get too good to justify riding indoors, so I’ve only spun on them a handful of times instead of the @Haldy-prescribed 2 hour sessions, twice a week. But I really couldn’t be bothered with that when I was laying down mad tanlines. (Rule #7 tends to be a priority when you live in Seattle. The struggle is real, people.)

Life is boring when things go as planned; chaos makes for interest. So here’s my new plan for tomorrow: Show up to the track early, get a feel for how fast I’m supposed to go, get used to holding the pace and get over the nearly irrepressible fear of falling off the track before diving head-first into the Pain Pool at 2:05. Try not to blow out the guns before the starter pistol goes off.

So head on down to the Jerry Baker Velodrome at 2:05 and heckle me. @Packfiller is driving over from Spokane to commentate (i.e. take the piss out of me) and we will be streaming the ride live at http://ustre.am/10hJX.

Special thanks to Don Walker, Café Roubaix’s Dan Richter, and fizik’s Nicolò Ildos for their support and sponsorship in provide the bits and pieces.

Eddy, may your strength flow through me and compensate for what a twunt I am for not Training Properly. Vive la Vie Velominatus, and may you each suffer on Festum Prophetae as the Prophet did for us.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

Next On Rule #28: The Case for Black Socks »

Previous « Anatomy Of A Photo: The Battle Of The 13th Bunker

View Comments

chris says:

Jun 21 2016 at 5:03 am
@wiscot

@RobSandy

@ChrisO

I’ve done a bunch of TT’s this season and without fail my Garmin chooses the first few kms to play up -either not giving me a decent reading of HR or speed so I’ve got no way to judge my effort.

I like to think I’m pretty good at pacing but I keep going off to fast – finding myself short of breath before my legs hurt or before I’m anywhere near threshold HR.

Mind you, just got back from my own Hour at Maindy, aimed for 40kms, rode at bang on 40kph for an hour, did 40.1kms in the Hour in the end. Felt great!

What kind of warm up do you do? When I rode in the 80s, I’d probably do 7-8 miles of warm up even for a 10. This was all pre-computer days, so you just had to make sure you arrived at the line on time and then reply on the timekeeper. Try a TT sans Garmin. Just focus on the effort, not what wee numbers are in front of you. Embrace the purity!

We've got about 5 or 6 youngsters turning up to our TTs on a regular basis and there's a marked difference between their warm ups and the older guys.

Whilst the old hands get out an turn their legs over on the road, there youngsters are always neatly lined up on their rollers doing a variations of the following Team Sky/British Cycling warm up:

Standard Time Trial Warm-Up

5 min light

8 min progressive to Zone 5

2 min easy

2 min to include - 3 x 6s accelerations to activate

3 mins easy

Notes:
1. Progressive means building to the power zone over the 8 minutes. Only in the last 1 min do you get to Z5
2. 6 second accelerations are sprints for a whole 6 seconds!
It's aimed at being used power meters but can be used on PE as well.

I don't know whether to put their performances down to the warm up or the massive pro spec headphones.
RobSandy says:

Jun 21 2016 at 5:08 am
@chris
@wiscot

We’ve got about 5 or 6 youngsters turning up to our TTs on a regular basis and there’s a marked difference between their warm ups and the older guys.

Whilst the old hands get out an turn their legs over on the road, there youngsters are always neatly lined up on their rollers doing a variations of the following Team Sky/British Cycling warm up:

Standard Time Trial Warm-Up

5 min light

8 min progressive to Zone 5

2 min easy

2 min to include – 3 x 6s accelerations to activate

3 mins easy

Notes:
1. Progressive means building to the power zone over the 8 minutes. Only in the last 1 min do you get to Z5
2. 6 second accelerations are sprints for a whole 6 seconds!
It’s aimed at being used power meters but can be used on PE as well.

I don’t know whether to put their performances down to the warm up or the massive pro spec headphones.
Chris has saved me answering wiscot's question.

That's exactly what I do. Except I do it on cadence rather than power or HR. so the first 10 mins I gradually work up from 90rpm to 115rpm, then do some 6 seconds spinning sprints.

I do wonder if I need to do some part of my warm up at TT intensity too, to solve the out-of-breath issue.

I'll experiment.
bea says:

Jun 21 2016 at 6:18 am

@frank

The difference between a road bike and track bike is staggering. The fact that you can’t switch gear to rest the legs even for a moment is remarkable. The wind was brutal as well; scrubbing precious speed that seemed harder to pick back up when the wind was at my back that it was to lose when riding into the wind.

The guns feel incredible, however, and the stroke magnificent. The fixed-gear bike is an entirely strange beast. More time will be spent on the track.

And this is why we build roofs over our tracks (and walls around it)...

Track riding is rather popular around here in winter time (maximum 100 cyclists per 2-hour session and people come an hour early to get a spot). You are not allowed on the track though without a proper track bike (which you can rent), scary the first time (especially in combination with the inclination and the other 99 cyclists), but you easily get used to it.
Buck Rogers says:

Jun 21 2016 at 8:46 am

@frank

@RobSandy

@Gianni

Well? What’s the data here? How many kilometers did Frank ride in an hour?

This. Come on, we need the proof of the suffering.

I actually don’t have the numbers; I had to stop at 50 min due to rain and never heard what the distance, time, or laps were leading up to it.

Are you sure that you did not stop at 50 minutes secondary to you being so fucking fantastic that that is how long it took you to ride the hour???
wiscot says:

Jun 21 2016 at 9:47 am
@RobSandy
@chris
@wiscot

We’ve got about 5 or 6 youngsters turning up to our TTs on a regular basis and there’s a marked difference between their warm ups and the older guys.

Whilst the old hands get out an turn their legs over on the road, there youngsters are always neatly lined up on their rollers doing a variations of the following Team Sky/British Cycling warm up:

Standard Time Trial Warm-Up

5 min light

8 min progressive to Zone 5

2 min easy

2 min to include – 3 x 6s accelerations to activate

3 mins easy

Notes:

Progressive means building to the power zone over the 8 minutes. Only in the last 1 min do you get to Z5

6 second accelerations are sprints for a whole 6 seconds!

It’s aimed at being used power meters but can be used on PE as well.

I don’t know whether to put their performances down to the warm up or the massive pro spec headphones.
Chris has saved me answering wiscot’s question.

That’s exactly what I do. Except I do it on cadence rather than power or HR. so the first 10 mins I gradually work up from 90rpm to 115rpm, then do some 6 seconds spinning sprints.

I do wonder if I need to do some part of my warm up at TT intensity too, to solve the out-of-breath issue.

I’ll experiment.
Damn, I'm old. The beauty of the TT is it's simplicity. Most of our races you were lucky if you could change/get ready in a pal's car as most folks (shock-horror) RODE to the races!

The beauty of TTing is learning how to prepare and how to ride to your limit. It's about mental and physical prep.I suppose with HR monitors and powermeters that genie is out of the bottle, but the course and conditions can vary so much that I'm not sure of the efficacy of such technology. At the end of the day, a howling headwind on the way out can only be partially compensated by the homeward tail wind. No powermeter's going to help you there.

My 10 and 25 PBs were set on a standard road bike. My 50 on a TT bike (no disc, but aero bars and good wheels) Had I had access to a full TT rig with a nice disc, they'd be lower I'm sure.
ChrisO says:

Jun 21 2016 at 9:50 am
@chris
@wiscot

@RobSandy

@ChrisO

I’ve done a bunch of TT’s this season and without fail my Garmin chooses the first few kms to play up -either not giving me a decent reading of HR or speed so I’ve got no way to judge my effort.

I like to think I’m pretty good at pacing but I keep going off to fast – finding myself short of breath before my legs hurt or before I’m anywhere near threshold HR.

Mind you, just got back from my own Hour at Maindy, aimed for 40kms, rode at bang on 40kph for an hour, did 40.1kms in the Hour in the end. Felt great!

What kind of warm up do you do? When I rode in the 80s, I’d probably do 7-8 miles of warm up even for a 10. This was all pre-computer days, so you just had to make sure you arrived at the line on time and then reply on the timekeeper. Try a TT sans Garmin. Just focus on the effort, not what wee numbers are in front of you. Embrace the purity!

We’ve got about 5 or 6 youngsters turning up to our TTs on a regular basis and there’s a marked difference between their warm ups and the older guys.

Whilst the old hands get out an turn their legs over on the road, there youngsters are always neatly lined up on their rollers doing a variations of the following Team Sky/British Cycling warm up:

Standard Time Trial Warm-Up

5 min light

8 min progressive to Zone 5

2 min easy

2 min to include – 3 x 6s accelerations to activate

3 mins easy

Notes:
1. Progressive means building to the power zone over the 8 minutes. Only in the last 1 min do you get to Z5
2. 6 second accelerations are sprints for a whole 6 seconds!
It’s aimed at being used power meters but can be used on PE as well.

I don’t know whether to put their performances down to the warm up or the massive pro spec headphones.
I tend to prefer getting out on the road for a decent period - at least 20 to 30 minutes - but I will try to do a gradual build and include a few intervals at varying intensities. The better TTers in our club tend to use rollers but I frequently ride or take the train to events so I think it's better to get used to doing an on-the-road warmup and stay consistent.

I have yet to be 'juniored' in an event, but no doubt it will happen one day with the law of diminishing returns at play.

I think I recall recently reading an interview with Matt Bottrill who said he liked at least a 40 minute warmup.
ChrisO says:

Jun 21 2016 at 9:58 am

@wiscot

The beauty of TTing is learning how to prepare and how to ride to your limit. It’s about mental and physical prep.I suppose with HR monitors and powermeters that genie is out of the bottle, but the course and conditions can vary so much that I’m not sure of the efficacy of such technology. At the end of the day, a howling headwind on the way out can only be partially compensated by the homeward tail wind. No powermeter’s going to help you there.

My 10 and 25 PBs were set on a standard road bike. My 50 on a TT bike (no disc, but aero bars and good wheels) Had I had access to a full TT rig with a nice disc, they’d be lower I’m sure.

Get those rollers off my lawn...

I agree about the purity but not so sure about your example - that's exactly where a power meter would be useful. Sit steady above threshold into the wind and then inevitably a bit below on the way back. Removing variability is the best thing a power meter does.

We do some club events on a very hilly course around Bletchingly. It starts out on a 1.5km uphill, then there's a long and twisty descent. I find it useful to have the PM and make sure I don't bury myself in the first few minutes but equally to make sure I keep the power up through the descent when there's a temptation to ease off.
Gianni says:

Jun 21 2016 at 12:03 pm

@Marcus

@frank

I had to stop at 50 min due to rain

It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.

Really. What happened to him?
chuckp says:

Jun 21 2016 at 12:52 pm

Did you have a play list and listen to music? If so, please share.
chuckp says:

Jun 21 2016 at 12:53 pm

@Marcus

@frank

I had to stop at 50 min due to rain

It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.

He is dead to me.