National Para-cycling TT Champs

[Alex Simmons/RST]

were held yesterday, at Mooball, NSW. U19 mens/women were held same day.

I was 2nd in my category (LC2) behind Ryan Hughes, a nice young fella from Tasmania, so a National Silver medal and first para cycling podium to add to my collection of able bodied results. Not bad 10-months after I tried to pedal again.

Not a lot of entries though (thankfully I suppose, not sure how to view that!).

Road race tomorrow.... it's a hilly beast

[toolonglegs]

Good going Alex...how far off the young fella were you?.

[mikesbytes]

Congratulations Alex. Sure you will go well in the hilly event too.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Good going Alex...how far off the young fella were you?.

About 2.5 minutes or so I think. While it wouldn't have changed the result, I must ask him today if the semi trailer that was allowed to roll through just in front of him at the start and was kept to TT speeds by the police helped / hindered the opening kms. I started 2-min behind him and could see from the 2nd turn around I had lost ground, although I had passed my minute man inside 4km.

[sogood]

Congrats Alex! We need to see photos of your race/podium.

One more thing, you have to get on Twitter so that you can twit the latest to us, just like LA.

[ni78ck]

well done Alex! now to the next goal

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Thanks guys.

Just back from a brutal RR. Tired and sore. 2nd again (4th overall in combined category race). Hard to combat those skinny kids! But I was close. They got away on the biggest climb on 1st lap of 4 (with 4 climbs each lap the last one is ~1.5km at 7-10%). Knowing there wasn't much point burying myself just to get dropped by them again, I sat up and waited for the leading tandem pair in the blind category who were only 50 m behind me and they towed me round the next three laps. It was hard enough hanging onto the tandem!

We were making ground and on the last lap (in the rain) we had them in sight, and on penultimate climb, I said "thanks" and decided to make my move. I got to within 30m of them at the base of the final climb but couldn't quite bridge and had to watch them ride away bit by bit, so I probably finished maybe a minute down. Shame, I reckon I'd have done them in the sprint. This is same guy who won the TT by over 2.5 min, so I had a good ride but I sure needed that tandem!

Still, I was giving away 20 years and 20kg on these guys, so all up I'm pretty pleased with that effort.

2 x Silver medals at National is good going less with than a year back on the bike.

[moosterbounce]

Congrats Alex. Get 'em next yeah!!

[toolonglegs]

Nice going Alex...looking forward to the power analysis

[Chuck]

Nice riding and reporting Alex.

[Ant.]

Congratulations mate!!

I actually forgot this was so soon.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Nice going Alex...looking forward to the power analysis

Thanks guys
Just got to download a few minutes ago....

Time Trial:
38:52
2nd place, down by ~ 2.5 minutes.
Average Power: 264 watts
Normalised Power: 276 watts
Happy with that, about a 10W bump on Calga NP. Difficult hilly course.

Road Race:
2:10:17
Average Power: 225 watts
Normalised Power: 271 watts
Very hard, hilly course, very bad roads for half of course. Finished 38 seconds down on winner.
No wonder I thought it was hard!

[Hebden]

Fantastic results Alex, well done!

Is this all with the new dedicated cycling leg? Or is that yet to arrive?

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Fantastic results Alex, well done!

Is this all with the new dedicated cycling leg? Or is that yet to arrive?

Haven't got new leg yet. I have another appointment at the limb centre this week, presumably to check out a prototype.

[mikesbytes]

Fantastic results Alex, well done!

Is this all with the new dedicated cycling leg? Or is that yet to arrive?

Haven't got new leg yet. I have another appointment at the limb centre this week, presumably to check out a prototype.

And a new sock

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Fantastic results Alex, well done!

Is this all with the new dedicated cycling leg? Or is that yet to arrive?

Haven't got new leg yet. I have another appointment at the limb centre this week, presumably to check out a prototype.

And a new sock

yeah, they wear out quick!!

[Ant.]

Nice going Alex...looking forward to the power analysis

Thanks guys
Just got to download a few minutes ago....

Time Trial:
38:52
2nd place, down by ~ 2.5 minutes.
Average Power: 264 watts
Normalised Power: 276 watts
Happy with that, about a 10W bump on Calga NP. Difficult hilly course.

Road Race:
2:10:17
Average Power: 225 watts
Normalised Power: 271 watts
Very hard, hilly course, very bad roads for half of course. Finished 38 seconds down on winner.
No wonder I thought it was hard!

Digging well into the suitcase of courage

Or well and truly opening the latches on the suitcase of pain

[toolonglegs]

Ok I honestly can't rember difference between Av & Norm.... but that looks like a damn good effort for the RR.
Silly question..but if you saw that your av power for a RR was higher than your ftp would you readjust your ftp to that?...or is that very unlikely (you could go on a 20 minute attack I suppose).Reason i ask is because I suppose a big part of setting your ftp is too make sure you are motivated enough in the first place...and nothing is more motivating than commiting to an attack!.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Ok I honestly can't rember difference between Av & Norm.... but that looks like a damn good effort for the RR.
Silly question..but if you saw that your av power for a RR was higher than your ftp would you readjust your ftp to that?...or is that very unlikely (you could go on a 20 minute attack I suppose).Reason i ask is because I suppose a big part of setting your ftp is too make sure you are motivated enough in the first place...and nothing is more motivating than commiting to an attack!.

Average Power is pretty straightforward.

Normalised power is just a clever way to account for the fact that the strain we experience is not linear with intensity (power). Hence variable effort rides, while they might have lower average power than a steady paced ride, can be just as, if not more taxing (e.g. a crit might have quite a low average power compared to a TT but a rider will often say that it was really bloody hard). Normalised Power accounts for that non-linearity.

If you have a 1-hour Average Power > FTP, then FTP is set too low since by definition FTP is best 1-hour average power (normally from a quasi steady state effort though).

If you have Normalised Power from a hard 1-hour ride > FTP, then it's a sign FTP might be too low but not necessarily. If 1-hour NP is <=105% of FTP, then not much in it but if 1 hour NP > 105% of FTP then that's a pretty good sign FTP needs retesting.

My FTP was previous set/estimated at 275 watts.

Looking at the numbers from my races:
My 39 min TT had a normalised power of 276 watts, so that's about right. Remember that in a TT position you can sacrifice a little power and I've had very little chance to ride that bike.

In the 2+hr road race my highest 1-hour NP was 286 watts, which is 104% of my estimated FTP, so still within the bounds of a 275W FTP.

My prior experience has been that NP from hard 1-hour races was often a little over my FTP.

[colafreak]

Congratulations Alex, look out London!?!?!

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Congratulations Alex, look out London!?!?!

Well that would be awesome however I don't think people realise how bloody good these guys are.
The Aussie qualifying standard time for the pursuit in my category, for instance, is better than my able bodied PB.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Here I am riding the Oceania paracycling championship TT this morning.

[sogood]

Interesting hand position in the photo!

[Ant.]

How'd you perform? From what I can tell so far: no power data, therefore there was no TT

[Alex Simmons/RST]

How'd you perform? From what I can tell so far: no power data, therefore there was no TT

Gold medal, Oceania Champion.

Not that big a deal really since it turns out I was only rider in my para category. Not the best for race day motivation. Still, one can only race who turns up.

I won't see file 'til I get home but average was about same as nationals TT a couple of weeks ago (~265W, NP will be higher, course was a little hillier than I expected), except this ride was ~ 52 minutes (nats was ~ 39 minutes).

like I've said before, as a TT rider, I make a good points racer
but I'm working on it.