TCR no8.

[paddyirish]

and thirded.

[hellymedic]

+1thed

[Cudzoziemiec]

Good grief.

Nothing like a free press.

That sounds like pretty shabby behaviour.

I think where we are interacting is commonly known as 'a forum'. The mysterious requester should perhaps remind themselves of what that word means.

This, muchly.

[JenM]

I've learnt much from the replies to quixoticgeek's queries over the years. As a forum we should be encouraging those who go off on big adventures and not be putting them down.

quixoticgeek - please come back.

[orraloon]

Dotwatcher says just tell individual PM-er unknown to FRO.

[teethgrinder]

Racing?
TCR is a race, whether you race seriously or not. Audaxes aren't races but some treat them as such. Trans Atlantic Way isn't a race, but a lot of us treated it as one.

Taking the piss?
I'd be careful about saying that about a rider with a different approach without knowing their reasoning. I can see the benefits of camping and cooking. Better sleep quality makes a huge difference. They may have food allergies, a specific feed plan that works for them, problems with strange beds etc etc. A tent can be erected quickly if you know how and you don't need to hunt it down.
Even if someone isn't doing it the best way possible, knowingly or not. They might be doing it the best way they possibly can. I know that quite a few don't really race. Just as in the London Marathon.

£25 to apply for a place?
Screw that IMO. YMMV.

Riding to the start?
Seemed to work for Lael Wilcox when she won TransAm. I also had an interesting discussion with Ian Walker (N-S cross Europe WR holder) about how he felt that he started going better after so many days into his attempt and whether riding to the start might possibly be and advantage.

W/kg for climbing?
I aimed for <3W/kg on Trans Atlantic Way and Trans Alba (low end of tempo for me, as a guess, as I didn't know my exact FTP). Only going harder when I had to to keep my balance. Hardly ever over 3.5W/kg. Much slower than my peers but it didn't seem to do them much good. I was carrying more luggage weight than most.
As said, improving your W/kg will help your climbing. Don't overlook weight/strength training. I don't have the flexibility to do squats without hurting my lower back (or I just can't do them right) so I do EMS, which is also helping with my flexibility.

Gearing?
I used 28/38/48 and 11-32 for Trans Atlantic Way and Trans Alba. I thought that'd be plenty low enough. I'd have liked a bit lower and I don't like spinning. Steepest hill was about 25% IIRC.


I don't think anyone knows enough to say that one way works better than another. Especially when you consider the variations in routes, weather, different events, different riders etc etc. Always good to see different approaches and ideas.


Best of luck quixoticgeek 

(I hope you ignore whoever it was who tried to bully you into silence)

[S2L]

W/kg for climbing?
I aimed for <3W/kg on Trans Atlantic Way and Trans Alba (low end of tempo for me, as a guess, as I didn't know my exact FTP). Only going harder when I had to to keep my balance. Hardly ever over 3.5W/kg. Much slower than my peers but it didn't seem to do them much good. I was carrying more luggage weight than most.
As said, improving your W/kg will help your climbing. Don't overlook weight/strength training. I don't have the flexibility to do

Interesting. I always thought any W/Kg improvement had to come from a more efficient cardiovascular performance, rather than from more muscle mass. Certainly that seems to be the way doping has gone over the past 3 decades.
By doing a lot of strength focused gym work, doesn't one run the risk of offsetting any Watt increase by "beefing up" so to speak?

[teethgrinder]

Muscular strength and endurance isn't body building. Some women at the gym I go to have much better upper body strength and endurance than I do but probably smaller muscles. They're not big. I'd definitely want good muscular endurance and strength. Now is a very good time to start with weights + base miles, then the hard cardio several months before.
IIRC Beryl Burton and Eileen Sheridan did a lot of weight training. Neither of them had great big muscles.
Graeme Obree rode a big gear uphill as his strength training.

[bludger]

I went and watched the men's 60something kg weightlifting at the 2012 Olympics. Watching these dudes lift hundreds of kilograms over their heads was pretty astonishing. Unfortunately the womens event was cancelled 

[FifeingEejit]

I remember reading about motor racing that there are two attitudes: the Juan Fangio approach, in which you win at the slowest speed possible, and the Stirling Moss attitude that the car will explode through extreme abuse the instant it crosses the line. I may have got the wrong names, but you can surely find the names of ultraracers to fit.

Fangio was also a bit ruthless, apparently punting both Peter Collins and Mike hawthorn into the hedges on the Nürburgring, a few weeks later Collins was deid.

Italian cars were a bit more reliable than British ones at the time too, even though vanwalls owed a lot to ferrari.


As for gearing I've got 22-32 on my touring bike, never cowped off it due to low speed, well below walking speed before feeling a need to put a fit doon.

Also some people taking the "race" element far too narrowly.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[Mr Larrington]

Italian cars were a bit more reliable than British ones at the time too, even though vanwalls owed a lot to ferrari.

Up to a point, Lord Copper.  The Vanwall engine was closely based on Norton motorcycle practice.  The original and somewhat agricultural chassis was by John Cooper and its replacement by Colin Chapman.  The bodywork was designed by Frank Costin.  Tony Vandervell had previously run Ferrari 125 and 375 F1 cars under the "Thinwall Special" name which was enough to convince him that he could do better by starting from first principles.  It took a while, but in 1958 Vanwall won the Constructors Championship with six wins, compared with two each for Cooper and Ferrari.

[FifeingEejit]

Ah, For some reason I thought it was the thinwall special Ferraris that were used when they entered and won the championship.

The wikipaedia article on vanwall gives a decent breakdown of what went into the championship car and its various flaws.

Erm Ive rather taken this off topic...

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[mattc]

_{ANYWAY ...}

Re: application fees, entry lotteries, blah ...  I've now read about the bursary arrangement LostDot are setting up. This makes the £25 fee a little more understandable.
I'd say their intentions were wholly good, but I still feel it's not the right answer. Of course these things always evolve, and no system is perfect ...

EDIT: I only heard about this on Facebook - annoyingly, google can't find me a live page about it. [I don't understand why the Search Results page can show some particular phrase, but neither live page nor cached page contains it. Bah!]

[morbihan]

_{ANYWAY ...}

Re: application fees, entry lotteries, blah ...  I've now read about the bursary arrangement LostDot are setting up. This makes the £25 fee a little more understandable.
I'd say their intentions were wholly good, but I still feel it's not the right answer. Of course these things always evolve, and no system is perfect ...

Well said. Rory and Anna have had to buy out the rights to TCR at not inconsiderable expense. They are hyper aware of being inclusive and I am sure cognisant of the various feedback. As you say its a work in progress as the event gains more traction and if an alternative way to weed out entrants who have little or no intention of riding can be found Im sure the organisers will give it due consideration.
 Yup, ultimately I imagine there is always going to be some form of compromise and its one of the situations where they are never going to be able to please everyone.
I dont envy them their task and I just hope that folks keep their opinions kind and measured. Its not an easy thing that they do.

[quixoticgeek]

Just got an email from Lost dot.

Looks like I'm going to Brest!!!

613 people applied, including 64 women.

Who else got a place?

J

[chrisbainbridge]

Congratulations

[Frank9755]

I've been lucky again.

[morbihan]

I've been lucky again.

Ahh so we do get to meet in Brest after all Frank, a year after you bailed on me

Looking forward to racing against you. You too QG.

[Phil W]

Interesting. I always thought any W/Kg improvement had to come from a more efficient cardiovascular performance, rather than from more muscle mass.

“Active muscle mass involved during exercise is highly associated with VO2max and this relationship may explain partially age-related decline in VO2max. However, the influence of muscle mass on aerobic capacity in elderly athletes may be less, compared to younger athletes. Furthermore, central factors, such as the loss of HR and maximal cardiac output with aging clearly contribute to the reductions in aerobic capacity.“

From many of the studies on the subject.

Muscle mass used during exercise is highly associated with VO2 Max.  If you can recruit more muscle mass in the legs, you’ll increase that W/kg figure.  VO2 max is about oxygen take up, not just delivery. Recruit is also important as we don’t recruit 100% of the available muscle mass during exercise, but strength training increases how many of the available muscle fibres are engaged simultaneously during exercise. There’s some quite interesting studies on this as well.

Anecdotally since I started riding my new recumbent six weeks ago. I’ve been leg limited rather than cardio limited, after a year of mostly road bike and a quiet autumn.  So ramp tests would end as the legs gave out rather reaching max HR. I’ve been working on strength and committed to riding the recumbent every time since.  Recent ramp tests and I’m now pushing the HR 13 BPM higher before failure.  Definitely down to stronger and better adapted legs.

So for me leg strength work is definitely raising my max aerobic power.  My FTP On the recumbent has also risen 23% as I’ve got stronger. Admittedly from a low base (2.4W/ kg) for some.  I know I have efficient lungs for getting oxygen into my blood from the Kings College lung function study last May. From a similar starting point on road bike last year I reached 3.3W/ Kg (FTP) by late Spring and hope to do the same on the new recumbent.

So don’t neglect off bike strength work if you want to generate more power. Oh and my weight has remained pretty stable over same period.

And back to TCR no8...

[bludger]

Congratulations / (or commiserations? ) to the YACF athletic crème de la crème. I have struggled with the whole pay-to-regoster thing, but assuming the bursary scheme does some good things, I think I'll volunteer. Hopefully the lost dot mob fast track me as I'd been ready to support at a transpyrenean control point, until the sponsor pulled out and they had to remove it. I hope to be saying hello to all of you personally come late summer.

[sojournermike]

Interesting. I always thought any W/Kg improvement had to come from a more efficient cardiovascular performance, rather than from more muscle mass.

“Active muscle mass involved during exercise is highly associated with VO2max and this relationship may explain partially age-related decline in VO2max. However, the influence of muscle mass on aerobic capacity in elderly athletes may be less, compared to younger athletes. Furthermore, central factors, such as the loss of HR and maximal cardiac output with aging clearly contribute to the reductions in aerobic capacity.“

From many of the studies on the subject.

Muscle mass used during exercise is highly associated with VO2 Max.  If you can recruit more muscle mass in the legs, you’ll increase that W/kg figure.  VO2 max is about oxygen take up, not just delivery. Recruit is also important as we don’t recruit 100% of the available muscle mass during exercise, but strength training increases how many of the available muscle fibres are engaged simultaneously during exercise. There’s some quite interesting studies on this as well.

Anecdotally since I started riding my new recumbent six weeks ago. I’ve been leg limited rather than cardio limited, after a year of mostly road bike and a quiet autumn.  So ramp tests would end as the legs gave out rather reaching max HR. I’ve been working on strength and committed to riding the recumbent every time since.  Recent ramp tests and I’m now pushing the HR 13 BPM higher before failure.  Definitely down to stronger and better adapted legs.

So for me leg strength work is definitely raising my max aerobic power.  My FTP On the recumbent has also risen 23% as I’ve got stronger. Admittedly from a low base (2.4W/ kg) for some.  I know I have efficient lungs for getting oxygen into my blood from the Kings College lung function study last May. From a similar starting point on road bike last year I reached 3.3W/ Kg (FTP) by late Spring and hope to do the same on the new recumbent.

So don’t neglect off bike strength work if you want to generate more power. Oh and my weight has remained pretty stable over same period.

And back to TCR no8...

This, specicifity and eccentric vs concentric contractoin probably work to explain the gap between my running and cycling VO2max - both of which are lower than when I was in my 20s...

[Frank9755]

I've been lucky again.

Ahh so we do get to meet in Brest after all Frank, a year after you bailed on me

Looking forward to racing against you. You too QG.

Will be good to actually meet, given I feel like we've known each other for years!

[Frank9755]

Just got an email from Lost dot.

Looks like I'm going to Brest!!!

613 people applied, including 64 women.

Who else got a place?

J

Congratulations, but, to be fair, you would have to have seriously annoyed them not to have got a place!

I have a hunch that there might be at least one other on the forum who might have got a place too...

[rob]

Just got an email from Lost dot.

Looks like I'm going to Brest!!!

613 people applied, including 64 women.

Who else got a place?

J

Congratulations, but, to be fair, you would have to have seriously annoyed them not to have got a place!

I have a hunch that there might be at least one other on the forum who might have got a place too...

I know of a couple.  Maybe they’re in shock or on the turbo ?

[Karla]

When do they release the full list?