The TT Thread

[Karla]

Stockton Wheelers 50, 2:00:14 inc. 50 seconds late start penalty.  I (and several others) went to the start for the 10 and the 25, only to discover that this one started somewhere else. 

#FML

[Bairn Again]

I managed a run out on my club 10 last Wednesday : 28.43 - one of my slowest but I was using my audax/TT hybrid rather than my full on "instrument of torture" TT bike that im finding too uncomfortable at the minute.

Aiming to get down to Vets standard of 26.45

[rob]

1:00:17 in the Scunthorpe RC 25 on the C25/17 this morning.   Curses.  3 min improvement in PB, though.

Bit breezy and wet but seemed fast as the winner broke the course record.   Need to find 18 seconds on the E2 next weekend.   Frank is off 2 mins behind me so let's see when I get caught.

[Karla]

Nice result!  I'm on there next week, I now have a target 

Anyway, who are Python RT, when did you stop being OCRC head honcho and why don't PRT list you on their website yet?

[rob]

Chuffing hard on the E2 today.   2 mins slower than last weekend.   36 mins out and 26 mins back.   Only a couple under the hour when I left so probably a better ride than I thought.

[Karla]

Nice result!  I'm on there next week, I now have a target 

I dropped my chain.  Gave up, crossed the road and went home

[Frank9755]

Chuffing hard on the E2 today.   2 mins slower than last weekend.   36 mins out and 26 mins back.   Only a couple under the hour when I left so probably a better ride than I thought.

Too right!  I was 4 minutes slower than the same event last year. 
Problem is I probably can't quite blame all of it on the wind.  I can pin a bit of it on my 600km the previous weekend.  Some of it is due to me having done hardly any TTs this year and focused on longer distance, but I now have a nagging fear that I have simply got slower 

[rob]

Don't say that Frank.   I was using your ride to convince myself I could get under the hour on the right day.....

Saturday afternoon flagged a few issues for me, though.   I spent 4hrs in the car for an hour of threshold work (ignoring the warm up) which I could have done in the garage.   I don't really want to DNS events for no good reason, but I'm not sure I got back into TTing to drive up and down the country chasing fast times.   I've changed my schedule a bit for the rest of the year to stay closer to home apart from the 12hr and 100.

Anyway 12hr this Sunday.   Looking forward to this one.   Have increased my PB from 214m to 230m on my first 2 rides in the KCA so scheduling for an evens ride this time.   Looks like quite a few AUK and YACF faces on the start sheet.

[mattc]

I spent 4hrs in the car for an hour of threshold work (ignoring the warm up) which I could have done in the garage.   I don't really want to DNS events for no good reason, but I'm not sure I got back into TTing to drive up and down the country chasing fast times.   I've changed my schedule a bit for the rest of the year to stay closer to home apart from the 12hr and 100.

Wise words.

"driving 4 hours to get a fast time" seems to be Testers Disease. I have zero interest in that path! Having said that, us middle-markers do have a dilemma; if you're nowhere near the podium,, PB-chasing is the only easily-measured objective. And thus fast courses ...

[Karla]

I did  I ... was running without a front mech.  I'd had a mechanical issue and it was a toss-up between fixing the front gears and losing part of my warm-up or just removing the mech and risking losing the chain.  I gambled on the latter and lost.

[rob]

I spent 4hrs in the car for an hour of threshold work (ignoring the warm up) which I could have done in the garage.   I don't really want to DNS events for no good reason, but I'm not sure I got back into TTing to drive up and down the country chasing fast times.   I've changed my schedule a bit for the rest of the year to stay closer to home apart from the 12hr and 100.

Wise words.

"driving 4 hours to get a fast time" seems to be Testers Disease. I have zero interest in that path! Having said that, us middle-markers do have a dilemma; if you're nowhere near the podium,, PB-chasing is the only easily-measured objective. And thus fast courses ...

2015 so far :-

25 No.1 - punctured at 7miles, but averaging 26.5mph at that point
25 No.2 - 1:00:17
25 No.3 - 1:02:28 - very windy day

Have entered another (local) one the weekend after the 12hr as a last attempt to get under the hour and then I really need to just be satisfied at the improvements I've made this year and go and do PBP for fun.

[Karla]

Apparently, Jill Wilkinson has just beaten Beryl's 12 hour record with 279 miles. 

Wow.  Just wow.

It was actually 269, so Beryl's record remains intact with 277 miles.  Still, chapeau to Jill, that's a massive distance and puts her second in the all-time list!

[rob]

It was a god day and the first time I'd ridden those roads.  My computer said 257.5m at 12hrs.   They were working the results out when I left to drive home.

[Karla]

Wow, good distance Rob!

[rob]

Wow, good distance Rob!

Thanks. First time I've ever 'raced' a 12hr, but everything seemed to come together.   Feel dreadful this morning but I have a half day so need to drag myself to work for lunchtime.

Club record is 256.5 so it's a little tight.   Waiting patiently for the results.

[Assasin]

Somehow the 'slow trike' won the VTTA tandem Championship after the two fast boys on the two wheeled tandem abandoned after a few hours.
Some bits of the course not trike friendly in terms of camber or smoothness.
Glad when the lower section of the course was cut off to set us up for the finishing circuit.
Very happy with 207miles. Only 14 miles less than the last mixed TT 12 I did which was 20 years ago on a better course.

And we've got some gold bling to collect 

[Frank9755]

Well done once again, Rob. 
Consensus is that it seemed not to be as good a day as last year. 

I was using your ride to convince myself I could get under the hour on the right day.....

You should have no concerns at all on this score!  There are some tables knocking around which say what time someone who can do xxx miles in a 12-hour should be capable of for other distances.  I can never find them when I want to but, from memory, I think your distance corresponds to something like a 57 minute 25.  [anyone got the actual link?]

(Edit: found it: it's a pdf download called Standardised Handicapping from here http://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/Documents). 
On a half decent day you could also take a good minute off that on the E2 vs the H8

[rob]

Thanks, all.   I am still in pieces today.   Very gentle week planned.

Interesting document that.   I either overachieved at the 12hr or I'm underachieving at the shorter distances.   I'd say it's probably the latter as I can't seem to push myself really hard for short periods.

I am planning one more 25 early July and then a 50 and a 100 at the end of July on consecutive weekends.


Rob

[simonp]

Well done rob.

I looked at that chart. My best time for a 10 is in a row which has a 227 mile 12 hour.

That seems unreasonably fast. Particularly since I'll be on fixed, which I wasn't for the 10.

[Karla]

If it helps Simon, I did 222 miles in the Yorkshire (then the Elmet, now the Team Swift) 12 in 2011, a couple of months after riding with you for part of the Bryan Chapman.  I was only really in the 12 for the lollz, having done the Sussex 24 a month or so beforehand, and I think I might have spent a night riding to the lake district and back the week before as well - I was hardly tapered, and felt it in the TT.  I don't recall you being slow in the BCM (and you were on fixed unlike me) so I reckon 227 is within your grasp. 

[mattc]

the Mattc 12h-> 24h Conversion Rule Of Thumb is multiply by 5/3

This gives you [simon] about 380 miles for a 24, which happens to be exactly my PB (I havent finished a 12h) - i'll let you draw your own conclusion from that

If you can find the VTTA standards table, that seems pretty good at these kinds of predictions/conversions.

[simonp]

What I found on my trial run on the bike on Sunday was I was too stretched out, so I'm going to try a different seat post out. I also felt under geared most of the time, so I'm considering going to a 78" gear.

I was a lot slower on this year's BCM than in 2011, but I've been training pretty well since.

Was going to ride tomorrow's club 10 to experiment a bit more, but it's cancelled due to the course having been made dangerous by top dressing. 

[rob]

Beware bringing yourself up too short as you scrunch your upper body into a shape it doesn't like.   Concentrate on the hip angle and push yourself forwards as far as possible to open it up.   My TT rig has a 78 degree seat angle and a stubby tri saddle that I can perch on the edge of and I'm still not all that low.

To get to a position I can hold for 12hrs has taken me 3 years, 2 Winters of core strength exercises and an awful lot of money with a bike fitting specialist.   

[jsabine]

Somehow the 'slow trike' won the VTTA tandem Championship ...
Very happy with 207miles. Only 14 miles less than the last mixed TT 12 I did which was 20 years ago on a better course.

That sounds rather good. And shiny bling is always welcome.

[PloddinPedro]

.............. Only 14 miles less than the last mixed TT 12 I did which was 20 years ago on a better course.....    

And carrying somewhat less avoirdupois!! (And no, that's not a reference to your stoker    ) Seriously, a champion effort, the pair of you.