2010 Commonwealth Games - 200, 500 & 1000 meter times

Kilometer Time Trial



Flying 200 Meter Time Trial




500 Meter Time Trial

 http://results.cwgdelhi2010.org/en/Root.mvc/

2010 Commonwealth Games - Womens 500 meter time trial

Gold - Anna Meares - Australia -  33.758 seconds

Silver - Kaarle McCulloch - Australia - 34.780 seconds

Bronze - Becky James - Scotland - 35.236 seconds

results

Australia drew first blood in the track cycling at the Commonwealth Games today when reigning champion Anna Meares retained her title in the women's 500m time trial.

It completes an astonishing comeback for Meares, who broke her neck in a cycling accident at the World Cup in January 2008 before fighting her way back to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"It taught me a lot about life and who I am," the three-time world champion said. "I'm now more patient and appreciate things more. I know I'm lucky to travel the world and ride a bike for a living."...... more from bike radar

2010 USA Elite Track Nationals California - 200, 500 & 1000 meter times

Flying 200 meter



500 meter



Kilo

 USA Cycling

My optimal cadence range for the Kilo and Flying 200

What is my optimal cycling cadence range for the kilo and flying 200 meter time trial?

Honestly I really don't know. But it would appear that at my current level of fitness, age and past performance - my optimal cadence range seems to be between 95 to 120 rpms for the Kilo and flying 200 meter. It seems like I prefer the lower cadences and larger gears, but this leads to muscular fatigue.

I read in the US Cycling manual, that a track cyclist should be able to maintain about 133 rpms for a duration of 7 minutes in a typical endurance race gear.....huh?

I guess as we get older the cardiovascular system is not as good as when we were "newer" -  like a new car engine versus a car with 100,000 miles on the engine. Maybe that is why I choose to go with bigger gears and shorter events.Optimal cadence is a trade off between cycling economy, power output and the development of fatigue.

For me to achieve my times in the Kilo and Flying 200 meter, then I would have to increase my cadence range to between 110 - 125 rpms. Also depending on the distance of the event I would then have to pick the right gear which would allow me to achieve this average cadence range.

For the Flying 200 meter it would have to be a gear between a 98" to 108" depending on the line I take, type of track and weather conditions.

For the Kilo it would have to be a gear between 92 to 96 depending on type of track and weather conditions.

2010 Kilo Comparison at Kissena Track

Today 10/2/2010 I did a Kilo to see what happens if I go out faster in the acceleration phase. I then compared it with the one I did on 8/28/2010 to see how the pacing compared. The major equipment changes are noted in red below. Also the weather differences are noted in blue. Kilo #1 was done on a hot and humid day, the air is less dense on a hot and humid day, therefore you go faster as a opposed to a cold and less humid day as was the case for Kilo #2. It is very difficult to duplicate efforts, there are too many variables involved on any given day, but at least I was able to confirm what my pacing and gear selection should be in order to get closer to my target time. It gives me something to plan/program for and work towards over the winter.

Kilo #1: 
Time - 1:20.59
Gear - 48x14 = 92"
Avg speed = 27.8 mph
Avg cadence = 103 rpm


Equipment:
Tiemeyer bike
Aero bars
Karbona rear disk wheel

Mavic ellipse spoked front wheel

Long sleeve skin suit
Casco helmet
Gloves
Shoe covers

Weather:

Temp - 83F

Humidity - 63%

Wind - 5 mph

Pressure - 30.18

Sunny

Kilo #2: 
Time - 1.21.99
Gear 50x14 = 96"
Avg speed = 27.6 mph
Avg cadence = 98 rpm


Equipment:
Tiemeyer bike
Drop bars
Karbona rear disk wheel
Cane creek sprint 85 spoked front wheel
Long sleeve skin suit
Casco helmet
Gloves
Shoe covers

Weather:

Temp - 65F

Humidity - 39%

Wind - 6 mph

Pressure - 29.93

Sunny

Note the 200 meter split times in green above for Kilo 2:
000 -  200m = 18.96 sec = 23.7 mph avg = 84 rpm avg
200 -  400m = 14.44 sec = 31.1 mph avg = 110 rpm avg
400 -  600m = 15.00 sec = 29.8 mph avg = 106 rpm avg
600 -  800m = 16.12 sec = 27.8 mph avg = 99 rpm avg
800 - 1000m = 17.47 sec = 25.6 mph avg = 91 rpm avg

400 meter track:
Lap 1 - 33.40 seconds
Lap 2 - 31.12 seconds

Kilo #1 & Kilo #2 speed comparison = 1.4 seconds difference: 

Kilo #1 (Blue line) with Kilo #2 (Magenta line). As you can see I went out too hard in Kilo #2 (magenta line) and faded badly from the 500 meter mark. In Kilo #1 (blue line) I went out slower and started fading later at 600 meters. This resulted in a faster time. One big difference was I used the aero bars in Kilo #1 and drop bars in Kilo #2. The drop bars enable a very powerful start which resulted in faster acceleration but drop bars do not put you in an aero position, so I probably lost one second for not using aero bars. Next I will have to experiment by going out slower and trying to maintain a constant speed through out the Kilo effort - probably maintaining a speed of 30 mph from the 200 meter mark to the finish would yield a faster time overall. A Kilo like the Pursuit is a delicate balance between aerodynamics, equipment, pacing and fitness. I am still trying to get the balance right. I think the 96 gear is too big for Kissena track, I would need to use a 92 or 94 and work on my leg speed to spin these gears to maintain an average cadence range of about 110 rpms.

10 1 2010 - Farting around on the spin bike

Today I spent an hour farting around on the spin bike, I guess the workout could be construed as a Fartlek workout? It consisted of a ten minute warm up touching a bit on leg speed, then a twenty minute excursion into lactate threshold, a ten minute recovery, four one minute intervals at Vo2 max with one minute rest in between efforts, then a one minute interval at anaerobic threshold, finally a ten minute cool down. Basically I have no clue what this workout was supposed to be targeting, hopefully endurance and aerobic fitness. I guess I am suffering from post competition depression with thoughts of a long dreary winter ahead.

Actually there is one last competition coming up at Kissena Track on October 10, 2010 - Kerin racing - at least this gives me something to look forward to, although I don't have high expectations of doing well in this event.

September 2010 - Steven Smith wins sprint gold in Cuba