virtual cycling with a turbo trainer workout creator

I've set up the recently adapted silver bike as the basis for turbo training during the winter months. The Doubletap indexed gears with the little number windows work a treat and give an extra feedback useful for turbo sessions. The leather saddle has lost its over-slipperyness since I re-Proofided it.

I've already clocked a few hundred road miles on it since I swapped the gear system over, and I've left a heavy duty TACX skewer in the back wheel to make it easy to pop on and off the turbo.

One day I'll draw the schematic of the turbo set-up, which uses a TACX wireless Bushido trainer, which is ANT+ enabled, a Garmin Edge 810 to read the speed, cadence, heart rate and power and a TACX Head Unit to set gradients and generally vary the effort required. It really is a wireless setup, with the Bushido generating its own power from the pedalling.

I've also got a PC as part of the set up, which can read the ANT+ signals and commune to the house wi-fi. This is handy because I can then use the immense TACX TTS4 software. This can use video, google or virtual routes and varies the load to the Bushido brake automatically as the route is traversed. The little video illustrates some of the features and also why it can take the tedium out of turbo training.

As well as TACX TTS4, an altogether simpler environment, ideally suited to parallel watching a movie is Trainerroad.

Trainerroad can be used on a PC/Mac full screen to run a series of intervals, or the playback of the intervals can be run horizontally across the bottom of the screen. It works fine with the Bushido and the Garmin and can even send a virtual power calculation back from the PC to the Garmin.

On the PC screen there's a space for a full screen graph of the training workout or to make a space to watch a video. I've been re-watching Weeds and Green Wing.

One day I'll provide some comments about some of the training videos that work with Trainerroad, but today I thought I'd mention my latest quick experiment, which is to create my own interval training scripts.

There's an option in Trainerroad to create custom workouts, and they use Functional Threshold Power rather than an absolute value when the workouts are being created.

If that all sounds like mumbo-jumbo, it's to do with the point up to which one can exercise aerobically. At the threshold power, glycogen starts to gets converted to support the effort and one's exercise goes anerobic with lactic acid accumulating in the blood (and accompanying huffing and puffing sounds). The little video shows how to create the custom workouts.

The trick with the exercise programmes is to do base training in the sweet spot around Functional Threshold Power. Just under and it's good for endurance, just over and it's building power.

There's a load more numbers too, like the Intensity Factor of an Exercise and the Training Stress Score (the load that the exercise creates on the individual). I wouldn't dream of creating my own plans if I hadn't already used the system for a while. The basic system includes training plans for Base Workouts and beyond to Intermediate levels. I guess any sane person would start by using some of those. I know last Winter I went through the entire Base and Intermediate plan set (50+ different routines).

The point of all of this is to make any time spent in hamster wheel mode productive rather than just pedalling. The programmed routes from Trainerroad and TACX help to do this.

For me, a big advantage of Trainerroad is its reliability. I'm running it on a Windows PC in the garage and it always starts, identifies all the gadgets, creates the plans and saves everything back to the Cloud at the end of the session. It doesn't mind whether you run it with music from iTunes, DVDs, Netflix or integrated training videos from the likes of Sufferfest and RideFit.

In the winter months I'm sure I'll appreciate that reliability.

In other news I've refitted mudguards and lights to the orange bike ready for seasonal duties.

ravens and writing desks?

It said 138.9p on the pump before I pressed the trigger. After the guy in the shop had pressed the start button, the price changed to 154.9p a litre. Hardly an example of energy and fuel price freeze in action.

We've just had a slew of political party speeches hinting at pre 2015 election positioning. Behind the scenes, the UK, like America, continues to print money to offset the bank piracy of the last few years. It's quietly eroding pension schemes and similar long term money, ultimately affecting citizens who can't see any of it happening.

I normally try to stay as positive as possible, but it's hard to think of a good storyline for the current situation. Our Chancellor of Exchequer George Gideon Osborne may have been travelling around wearing as many photogenic working hats and hi-viz jackets as possible, but it can't really wallpaper over Bullingdon Club membership, curious house expenses or that he is his heir apparent to Baronet Ballintaylor and Ballylemon.

Not quite the common touch his photographer is trying to promote.

Worryingly, across all of the conferences, I find my comparisons drawn once again from Alice's adventures. A mix of the Mad Hatter's tea party and the caucus race.

FeLiNa - blood, meth and tears?

I noticed that there's been a few recaps of TV series finales spread around t'Interweb over the last few days. One that is frequently quoted is that Sopranos ending.

I think there were two endings. The Hollywood ending a couple of episodes further back at the cliff-edge - I won't describe except to say it is Tony being King of the Canyon.

Then the writers for the last couple of shows came along to do the proper Sopranos ending. People (even the BBC) describe the 'fade to black' ending, but it was a 'cut to black'.

The popular view was that Tony Soprano was clipped by the guy in the "Members Only" Jacket. It's been described at length. But it also depends on the 'Point Of View'.

My alternative theory could be that it's the audience that gets the bullet. Cut to black with no audio. Hmm, pretty terminal.

Interestingly, Breaking Bad did something similar at the end of S5E13 To'hajiilee; Gunfire and a cut to black. Three episodes to go.

Different reasons, but it is making me wonder about false endings again?

small probabilities

I've already spotted Christmas Mince Pies in Tescos and Strictly is back on the television.

Our gang have one of those Strictly Sweepstakes running again, this time with an even more complicated scoring system than last time. The rolled garden hedgehog allocated me a contestant called Julian, so at some stage I'll need find out who I am supporting.

My picture shows some hedgehogs, who bear an uncanny resemblance to Werner Heisenberg whilst being tested against a brick wall. They should bounce off, of course, although in quantum mechanics there is a small probability that a hedgehog will appear on the far side of the wall. About the same probability as me winning the sweepstake.

And see what I've done? Managed to mention Heisenberg just before the last episode of Breaking Bad.

a small flutter

An interesting phenomenon when out cycling a couple of days ago. My Heart Rate Monitor reading suddenly sped up to 234bpm.

Fortunately, I could tell this wasn't accurate, because I wasn't even out of breath at the time.

I'd been peddling and also watching some migratory geese(?) flying east in V shaped formations. There were some big groups and a few stragglers.

I looked at the handlebar read-out and thought that maybe I should stop anyway.

As a general guideline, maximum heart rate (using the simple formula) is something like 220 minus age, which by any measure illustrates that the reading was a little on the enthusiastic side.

I quickly worked out what had happened. Let's just say my latest extra layer of clothing had created a micro-climate sufficient to create a short circuit on the HRM.

I re-traced the route today and it was at more or less my 'endurance' heart rate.

So as an ongoing reference, here's one of those little tables, based upon the work of Andrew Coggan, which illustrates cycling effort levels.

the wrong mans

I enjoyed the first episode of the spoof crime series "The Wrong Mans". Aside from its plot, which involves a Berkshire County Council employee stumbling into a ransom situation after a car crash, there's the frequent references to other movies.

It's been written by James Corden and his buddy Matthew Baynton and has funding from Hulu, who will show it on US streaming television too. I suppose it is fairly unusual for a series like this to make it across the pond without being redeveloped into an American setting.

They are only 30 minute shows but use a good shorthand to pack plenty into the episode. I almost felt like immediately watching it again, but the disappointing London Irish intervened.

The most obvious movie reference would be to Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man", although there's little pieces of snow laden Fargo, an overt reference to Fight Club, a superior version of snide UK office politics, a hybrid E.R. meets Casualty and enough swerves to keep anyone on their toes. Some of the scenes may incorporate cliches, but they are mighty fine cliches and with good twists.

I'm usually wary of "next week's show" trailers giving away too much, but on this occasion it's clear that there's plenty more fun and games as the series unpacks.

no need for speed

My last blog post included a reference to the movie Paul, which is a science fiction comedy about an ET character meeting two Brits whilst they are on an Extraterrestrial Trail holiday in a camper van.

There's a part where they meet a local Sheriff and he asks them about the UK policemen and the lack of guns. It's done for humour but also reminds me of my recent brush with US law enforcement when travelling slightly above the 25 mph speed limit in a small town. The lights from the powerful policecar filled the mirror and were like a space ship was landing behind us.

We pulled over and my out of state plates showed we were not from around these parts even before I opened my British mouth.

The shadowy police car with its re-inforced front bumper and row of red, white and blue flashing lights set the scene and the fella questioning me made sure to tell me I was being recorded.

In England we'd get out of the car, but here I asked first, and then had to fiddle around in the trunk to find the relevant paperwork. I noticed that as I did this, the Sheriff appeared to be resting his hand on his gun holster.

I found the documents, explained that we'd got lost and asked him if he knew the route we needed.

He didn't, although after he could see we were slightly hapless tourists, his attitude became very helpful and he commented that it was the first British driving licence he'd ever seen. It's fair to say we were only marginally over the speed limit and I think the effect of pulling us over right in the middle of the small town had a major effect on the local population, who would indeed think twice before edging towards 30 mph.

Suitably admonished, but also after shaking hands with the now smiling Sheriff, we made our way back into the area known as "lost".

sometimes time travel is required

I saw this diagram some time ago and realise that it's not just useful for movies. It could have been handy this week when I was busy running about, as a way to help me diagnose which type of time-poor situation I was in.

And the supplementary question: given one chance to time travel, would it be forwards or back? My answer is in an envelope.

Of course, we've all done it somewhere.

Stood on a dateline and jumped backwards and forwards like they do in the movie 'Paul'. We get a brief chance again next month when the clocks change, I suppose.

There's always been a useful date for time travel: 7th May, 2005. It's the date everyone was supposed to advertise to give time travellers somewhere to converge. Of course, the event was over-subscribed and so they had to turn a lot of people away. Some of the time travellers probably saw that Tina Fey newscast where she said that the party wasn't any good either.

It raises another paradox, that if a single event was unsuccessful, then maybe there's more. Sufficient to mean that time travellers wouldn't bother to show up. Or at least to travel incognito.

Then there's that coffee shop with the notes in the drawer.

Hmm, HAL, Dave, 687 comments?...

Note: I back-posted this to Saturday.

slippery in the saddle?

Since I've rejigged the silver bike's gears and all, bizarrely the thing that has taken the longest to re-adjust has been the saddle.

Most of my bikes have fairly similar profiled saddles on them. They have a quite a narrow shape with very little side walls. The Fizik Arione and the Charge spoon, to name a couple.

For the silver bike, I've kept the Brooks saddle that I've used with it previously. Despite its long sides, it is still classed as a B17 Narrow saddle and although it weighs about twice as much as my other ones, I don't mind at all on this bike.

It's at least three years old and I can still remember the first couple of rides were quite hard, but that quickly changed to something very comfortable. The thing I've noticed more since I readjusted everything is the slipperyness. I haven't re-treated it or polished it or anything, but I'm definitely sliding around.

I'm told that the nature of a Brooks saddle is to prevent aches by providing multiple riding positions, so maybe it's a feature, not a bug.

So now I'm experimenting with the front tilted up slightly and I think today was the first time since I fiddled with the bike that I've managed to get it 'just so'. We shall see.

Talking Bad

The last few gripping episodes of Breaking Bad are playing out through September, and it's interesting to see the way they are testing new ways of social viewing. The series is on AMC in the USA and has a Sunday 9pm slot.

There's a follow-up TV show called Talking Bad, to review the episode, in a way that is similar to the post-mortems of talent show contests here in the UK.

We don't have Breaking Bad shown on normal television here in the UK, although the Netflix version is available from sometime late on Sunday evening.

It's an interesting development comprising the show, the post show review and also a parallel internet dialogue running at showtime, which includes various votes and similar.

I don't know whether it will ever be shown here on terrestrial or satellite, but it would be difficult to recreate the US style experience. I wonder if there will be similar experiments with UK programming, other than cringe-worthy reality shows?

apple iTarte

We've been eating apples from the garden and have plans for a few more to go into some kind of tarte tatin.

The apples are the dessert rather than cooking kind, which should actually work better for the upside-down recipe. Caramelise the halved apples, top with shortcrust, bake, invert. Eat.

in which the hybrid bike gets its climbing gears

I took a few snapshots during the bike cog switchover the other day.

The result is that the hybrid bike now has a slick twenty speed climbing gearset(2x10), which breathes new life into it.

The old 9 speed deraillier was from a mountain bike and the handlebar selectors were 3x9. Note the direct cable routing, rather than a road bike's typical loop.

The previous gears on the bike were actually a 10 speed, so it's a bit mixed up before I start. It was 2x10 running on 3x9 selectors and a 9 speed rear deraillier plus a stretched chain. Oops.

I thought I'd sort out the front selectors too. The old 9 speed did work across the 10 gears, but it would be easier to put on a proper spare set of 10 speed.

They are SRAM flat handlebar selectors, with those little indexing windows. Ideal as I'll also use this converted bike with the turbo trainer.

Ping out the rear wheel. Find the new rear gear cassette. Somewhat bigger and a lot shinier than the old one.

Remove the old cogs with one of those special spanners. I always struggle to work out which way round to put the chain spanner, to get leverage.

There. New cogs installed. They only fit one way, thanks to the little indexing tabs on the bike hub. Its the same indexing for Shimano and SRAM. The original rear gear was Shimano, then a temporary SRAM and now this new one.

I noticed a couple of loose spokes during the process and have re-tightened them. I know they are inexpensive wheels, but a separate future project will be to get some improved wheels for the carbon bike and hand the current carbon bike's wheels down.

Time to break the bike chain and remove the rear deraillier.

I recalculate the length of the new chain instead of just copying the length of the old one. The new one should, in theory, be longer, but the calculation of 'tight around the biggest gears + 1 link + the Powerlink means it will actually be slightly shorter than the one it is replacing.

Remove the rear derailler with an allen key, then clean the rear hanger before putting everything back.

The replacement deraillier is bolted on via allen key.

Reattach the wheel with it's sparkling gear.

Rethread the chain and new cables, having first checked the deraillier alignment. Remember to pull the new cables tight before screwing them into place. Cut with a proper cable cutter and add those little caps.

Flick through the gears up and down a few times in both big ring and small ring positions (i.e. all 20 gears) to check alignment. Make micro adjustments (the last millimetre) using the black twisty wheels by the black outer cables.

Add a Garmin sensor, so that the bike counts wheel revolutions (speed) and cadence; useful on the road and also with the turbo.

And,'hey presto' a bike. There's still a few more things to adjust, but it is back in action. Elapsed time, with coffee, around one and a half hours.

According to the Garmin, I've put about 100 miles on it since I swapped it around and it's pretty much bedded in. So much smoother than previously. I guess the proper SRAM 10 speed chain helps! It may not be the fastest bike, but a very entertaining ride.