Dr. Seuss

did one yesterday, and have another one coming tomorrow morning! today only 1.5hrs L3 at my indoor FTP - going to be boring on the IDT every time i start the pyramids i think that today i will add in an extra L5 and L6, but after that second L5 i just want to throw up & sell my bike(s)!!!! ...maybe tomorrow

ok ok - i'll pay you not to ride tonight - this way i can also have a rest day - besides, a Dr. Seuss logo printed somewhere on your cycling jersey would look rather good i think!

got up at 04:10 and was trapped under the duvet by 2 monster cats. eventually managed to wrestle them off me knowing true and well that it is going to be freezing outside. walked outside and sure enough - it is freezing, but the pool water felt nice & warm. decided to do a session of bruce's 'pyramid of pain' on the idt, but the room was also freezing & i realized that 101% will NOT be out training, so convinced myself to get back into bed. the result of this now is that i am going to think all day about the suffering that lies ahead on the idt this evening!

thanks sonic - nice picks - looks even colder than it felt! the other 2 guys in the TT with the MTN kit is Stephen Courtney and Charles Pritchard.

yep - i torque everything - even the alu to alu stuff. washed my bike once and the rear deraileur came off the bike in my hand - suspect it was not tightened properly and the road vibrations just loosened the nuts over time.

take it to your LBS - you would actually be rather surprised to find out that a lot of them do not even use torque wrenches. i do all my carbon to carbon 5.5 NM. actually went out and bought a torque wrench after cracking my first carbon seat post and use the thing at least once a week!

ok, ok - i was talking cr@p - if you really concentrate you can go hard on the rollers. did a short session on saturday and found that i can get some decent wattage figures. i did however really start panicking when going at 50kph + - really requires a lot of concentration and it burns like hell! guys like 101% must be really brave for hanging on at 60km/h for over an hour - build good TT skills it would seem! doing 2x20's will be possible, but in my case rather dangerous.

101% - are you mad? (in fact, don't answer that!) what type of cadence do you do when you do this? don't you bounce around so much that it feels like you are going to hop off? this has to be on rollers with the metal drums like kreitler and some proper link between the front and rear rollers - not like the cheap TACX plastic rollers i have.

just remember that you do not really get that much excercise on the rollers as you might think you do (unless you have one of those resistance fans) if you use a powermeter you will see that it is really difficult to get above 200 watts on rollers even if you are sitting in the hardest gear you have. compare the stats below (first one = hour on rollers and second an hour on the IDT) - my RPE on both these was about the same. Rollers: Duration: 1:00:49 (1:05:30) Work: 491 kJ TSS: 27.3 (intensity factor 0.524) Norm Power: 141 VI: 1.03 Distance: 31.465 km Min Max Avg Power: 0 354 137 watts Heart rate: 87 159 134 bpm Cadence: 39 159 102 rpm Speed: 5.5 63.8 31.6 kph IDT: Duration: 1:00:54 (1:03:38) Work: 739 kJ TSS: 59.4 (intensity factor 0.771) Norm Power: 208 VI: 1.01 Distance: 29.214 km Min Max Avg Power: 0 330 205 watts Heart rate: 93 168 159 bpm Cadence: 43 118 89 rpm Speed: 4.9 36.2 29.2 kph

i am with TitusTi - get the PT and a coach & then a month or two later get the crankset and stem to congratulate yourself for all the 2x20s you have done!

marius - have you actually ever tried your L4 2x20's on the idt? or the 6min L5's for that matter? both using your road FTP? bruce is of the opinion that it is a mental thing, but somehow i disagree!

lancelot - where did you get those cranks from?

i use on of those small topeak lights & strap it on to the helmet - looks a bit stupid, so i leave the house at 04:30! actually does not work that well as you have to get the angle just right against the LCD otherwise you see nothing in any case! what them happens is that you concentrate so much on trying to get the angle right that you don't look where you are going anymore. i am warming up to the idea of using the idt this winter - soooo much better getting up at 05:00 instead of 04:10 when even the cats are not even moving yet. also battling with the L4 / L5's indoors & will do my indoor TT soon to establish an indoor FTP. do you find the L3's and L6's do-able on the trainer?

thanks Mud Dee - thanks for the pull TitusTI!

can anyone give me some advice on what clip-on TT bars to get? don't want to spend the money on the "real" TT bars and also don't want to spend a lot on something I will most probably only use 4 times in the year. - my thinking is that if I do a TT with my cervelo soloist, seatpost turned around and some clip-on TT bars, the likes of 101% will only put 19.5 minutes into me instead of 20.

who is TitusTI - the guy on the left with the PT, or the guy on the right - rode my final 2 laps with these acsis guys!

ditto marco, ditto jason - also got my BSC's from bruce. i have not tried any of the other brands, so i can not give a fair or unbiased rating - BUT - in my opinion it is very important to do your homework here - i have high cholesterol and have to take some serious medication to keep it in control - it would be very dangerous for me to just pull anything tight on to compress muscles and promote blood flow where the company has not done some very thorough medical research before selling their products.