SBR "U" (Page 34)

Not sure what you would feel guilty about Jason.  A warranty exists for a reason, and that's to provide you some assurances and for the company to guarantee the performance of the product.  My original PT was out of warranty by almost 60 days but I called them up when the torque values went completely wonky and they replaced all the guts - no qualms from me.  Althought the warranty was only 1 year I certainly expect a product to last much longer than it's warranty period and for a company to step up if they truly back their product.  I'm on my 3rd 910XT because of the known altimeter issue, and I'm sure Garmin will honor it again if this one flakes out on me.

I had a cinqo saturn that was past warranty, and was past the time for the Riken upgrade they had going not too long before than, and they still gave me the upgrade deal for it. There was a leak forming somewhere so that any time the unit got wet it would kill the battery and had to dry out a few days before a new one would work.

Are you trying to suggest he lose weight again?

Now there's a possible solution to the problem.

I won't bore you with all the fine details of my past three rides with PT and Quarq, but it seems the Quarq is reading about 4-6% lower across the board.  Overall AP/NP for the ride, Z3, Z4, Z5, Z6...all the same thing.  As the power went up, the differences in watts went up, but all around that percentage.  Constant back pedaling between each effort.

I retorqued as per Quarq's suggestion to 12 nm.  The offset number went back to -680 (from -810)...and for the firs 6 minutes of my ride this morning I thought I had the problem solved.  Quarq was reading about 1-2% HIGHER than my PT...which you think it should given drivetrain losses.  Then suddenly the numbers flipped, and I was back where I started.  Put in a few efforts, same deal...and saw the same 4-6% differences.  There was one short effort where PT read 338 and Quarq read 333, but it was only 1 minute.

Finished my ride this morning and went to take an offset number reading...-1155.  No way...back pedalled 10 times and took another reading...-1142.

I'll test more later today on my way home, and over the weekend, but at this point it would take a miracle for me to gain faith back in this Quarq.

Yep, I know they're refurbished models - but the only thing I paid for either of them was shipping of the defective unit to Quebec .

Tab and I spent about 6 hours with Jim at ERO Sports yesterday doing bike fits for both our Tri and Road bikes.  Highly recommend him, he was super friendly and very knowledgeable and helpful.  In the end, we both had tri bikes that fit us well.  I ended up lower in the front and more reach but the P3 was a great fit for me.  For my road bike, I need a longer stem to really be right but he told me with my long torso and long arms I will probably have reach issues on a road bike no matter what I have.  And one of the numbers from the motion tracking system was something he said he has seen less than 10 times in the thousands of fits that he has done - knee lateral motion of 9mm, yay me!  

Tab needs two new saddles and depending on how things setup once we adjust the bike, she might need a negative 17 degree stem to get low enough.  When he first heard she had a 58 slice he said he thought there was zero chance it was the right size but once she got on the fit bike, he actually ended up raising her saddle more - he was shocked!  LOL.  We are such opposites, she's all leg and I'm all torso.

It was a really neat experience and he spent WAY more time with us than originally scheduled.

(Post-Fit_Arend.jpg)

Ha!  Good point.  We only had our road bikes so the Tri bike fit was just on the fit machine and I will have to setup the tri bikes based on the numbers in the fit report.

We did a 2 hour ride on the road bikes today and Tab really noticed the difference.  No hand numbness and no issues with her "lady bits" (those are her words...).  

Very cool - I remeber Chris had good things to say about him.  I can see the track outside the fitting room, did you get to give it a try?

Nope, there was lots going on though.  Jim said it was too bad the world championships were going on (in Paris?) as none of the really fast riders were there to watch.

Anyone following Tommy Danielson on Strava?  I just stumbled across his profile and he's in the middle of a training camp.  Looks like structured power training within a bunch of 100+ mile rides.

One of his workouts was a double climb of Mt Lemmon with some flatter areas mixed in.  From what I gather, this was his prescribed workout...and remember...this is just one day out of many...and he's probably just getting back into shape...LOL.

Warmup

20' @ 320w (flats)
8' Rest
2x20' @ 365w (on Mt. Lemmon) with 9' rest in between

Recovery descending before heading back up

20' @ 410w
22' Rest (215w is rest for him...LOL)
15' @ 400w

Recovery descending

35' @ 315w

Cool Down.

^^^ Sounds perfectly reasonable....   

Flight out of LAX was 3 hours late due to a check engine light which meant we missed our connection which meant we ended up taking 4 flights instead of 2 to get home and our luggage and bikes are nowhere to be seen....

I was able to apply some of the descending tips you guys made in a trail race/hill climb over the weekend. It was a perfect opportunity to expirament. I did, however get a little lost but got back on course. I took the female win and second overall. Now it sounds as though I need to brush up on the orienteering /navigation/map reading skills ; )I'll have a rr up to share my learnings when things calm down. Someone smashed into my parked car and totalled it so I'm unexpectedly car shopping. Good thing I run everwhere!

Just dropped off my Quarq to our mail room to send back.  Really not sure what the results are going to be.  It's almost like it's been teasing me.  For very short instances it would read really close to my PT...then it would be 12 watts lower...then 5 watts lower...then 25 watts lower...then back to 4 watts...etc, etc.  It's not doing anything terrible...like reading 30% low for a few seconds here or there.  Really makes me think it was some type of torque issue, but I've tried my best to double and triple check everything.

Hopefully get some type of resolution by late next week.  First race of the season is 3/15.

Yes, I was very happy with him, and need to go back this season.   When I was there one of the riders was there, i just saw him on the UCI worlds broadcast from Paris, son of the Felt owner.   Didn't have great results though.  I've never been on the track but a good friend wants to get me there.  They have open workouts, but it's kind of spendy

On the mary training front, last two long run weekends have been 19 miles with 2200 feet elevation, and 20 with 2300', both at 10:30 pace.  Due to the holiday two weekends ago, I actually ran long on Monday, making for a 52 mile week.  Longest week ever, and not sure how people do that consistently...  This week will be about 40ish

One last run this weekend, probably 23 with 2400+.  The mary has 4000 in 26, so quite a bit more climbing,.   Trying to be a little smarter with this one and not blow up by mile 5, but that had nearly 2000 climbing by then.  The one coming up is more spread out, opening climb is only 800 or so feet.  I've been using a 9/1 run/walk for the climbs and think it helps keep me slightly fresher beyond 15 miles, and I plan to walk more "scheduled" walks at the mary, as opposed to forced walks.  That's new to me    

Chris, how does your quads feel from all the descending?  Or is it a point to point net gain in elevation?  I would think the downhills would be the real challenge to train for as you don't normally pound your knees and quads like that from typical run training.

I've done 50+ weeks in marathon training before (nowhere near your type of elevation gain though)...with very little biking and swimming.  It's doable, but not long term for me.  It puts me on the border of over training and I've had mixed race results because of it.  A few of my buddies are into ultra running...now that just boggles my mind.  Running 90+ mpw (70ish average) with long runs peaking at 60 miles.  Uggghhh...

Funny, I was going to include that in my post but forgot.  Prior to my hamstring pull 6ish weeks ago they were fine, a I had done a lot of descending and legs built up to it.  I could even run a bit faster downhill     When I came back from the injury I ran 13 flat, then ran 16 hilly, basically the first hill in the graph below below twice.  My quads were killing me by mile 13 and the last downhill was a sufferfest, really all I could do to keep "running.".  And sore for 3 days like I had raced.  I think this is what Adrienne was referring to when she wrote to be careful as I may not have my legs back yet.  Aquarunning and elliptical kept up the fitness but can't recreate that pounding.

The last two runs I added a second big climb on the below profile, each week has gotten better, quads not as sore two weeks ago and not too bad on the descents, this week no soreness and no pain on the descents.  

I've kept up with 3 bikes a week, but only 1 swim.   I have a couple ultra runner friends, one was out for a 50K on the same trails we were running last weekend.  Have another friend that routinely does 30+milers with 5000 feet of climbing.

 I think I posted this on FB but below  was the last run we did, every up had a down.  This is intentional as the mary loses 1600 feet miles 23-26..   

It's just a gradual thing, getting to 50, then 60, 70,80, 90... Once you get to a point where you feel good doing it, it's hard to imagine not.

It's also very important not to be trying to increase volume and speed at the same time. When I begin to jump up in volume I sometimes cut back on a track workout, or take it a little easier than I might normally. 

I think it's excellent you are adding lots of elevation into your long runs. Blowing up by mile 5 would be tragic in a marathon. I couldn't imagine...

So, do you mean you will run 9 minutes and walk one on the climb?

Yes, on the hills I'll run 9 and walk 1. I thought I had run lots of hills for the last one, but I've run a lot more for this one.  

I went into the last mary a little under the weather and very tired from work, and it had a 1800 or something foot climb the first 3 miles. My HR was 167 at mile 5, and never really recovered as the hills just kept coming (also had a calf muscle get mad at me at mile 3, and it was also very very hot, it wasn't pretty all around, I almost literally thanked god for every mile sign, one less mile I'd have to be rescued from).  9/1 pattern (and healthy, knock wood), plan is to try to keep my HR in the 130-40 range, max of 150 on climbs, recover to 120s, for the first 10 or so miles.  

My other running all week is all ez.  The pace frustrates me and I am not getting "faster," but I know why I am doing it.