BBL iBike Newton+

Cahaba river pedestrian bridge behind the ballfields (plus iBike Newton pic)

Baseball skills assessment collage … Josiah was scheduled for his tryouts at 2:45 … I rode 102 miles and arrived at exactly 2:42, but he had gone early because it was starting to rain. Fortunately I was able to catch them in the parking lot before they left.

Yesterday my new iBike Newton+ arrived, and so I ran through the basic setup to get up and running for today’s BBL ride. I still need to do my on-the-bike calibration ride, but looking at the numbers both during the ride and afterwards – the iBike Newton+ seems to be delivering pretty reliable power numbers even without that extra calibration step. We had a small turnout for BBL with a number of riders out for a variety of reasons — including the cylocross world championships up in Louisville, Kentucky. Still, we had a great time on the Kelly Creek – Tunnel – Wall – Mountain Top loop.

Once I get my Quarq fixed by SRAM I’ll be able to explore some of the more “wind tunnel” advanced features of the Newton. In the meantime, I’ve made a video and highlighted the data for each of today’s attack zones organized as follows – video first, attack zone data next, and attack zone graph last. I did this for all three attack zones / KOMs which I happened to take a clean sweep of today!

STERRETT ATTACK ZONE (1st place)
Dist:        2.77 mi (0:06:57)
Energy:     138.1 kJ
Cals Burn:  132.1 kcal
Climbing:     186 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  331.3  1049  W
Aero        0  264.9   774  W
Rolling    27   45.7    66  W
Gravity  -657    1.3   482  W
Speed    14.2   24.0  34.5  mi/h
Wind     13.5   23.2  37.1  mi/h
Elev      448    499   571  ft
Slope    -6.4   0.02   9.1  %
Caden      33   85.7   111  rpm
HR        139  162.4   184  bpm
NP:379W IF:1.28 TSS:19 VI:1.15
CdA: 0.328 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 2/2/2013 11:20 AM
43 degF; 1061 mbar

iBike graph for the sterrett attack zone (click to enlarge)

VANDIVER KOM (1st place)
Dist:        1.79 mi (0:07:21)
Energy:     152.3 kJ
Cals Burn:  145.6 kcal
Climbing:     498 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power     180  345.4   642  W
Aero        0   58.2   211  W
Rolling    18   27.9    43  W
Gravity    25  253.2   387  W
Speed     9.5   14.7  22.4  mi/h
Wind      4.4   14.1  23.2  mi/h
Elev      565    822  1064  ft
Slope     0.4   5.18  11.8  %
Caden      60   76.9   100  rpm
HR        141  170.8   180  bpm
NP:352W IF:1.19 TSS:17 VI:1.02
CdA: 0.328 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 2/2/2013 11:45 AM
45 degF; 1060 mbar

iBike graph for the Vandiver KOM (click to enlarge)

MIMOSA ATTACK ZONE (1st place)
Dist:        2.32 mi (0:06:07)
Energy:     135.6 kJ
Cals Burn:  129.7 kcal
Climbing:     241 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  369.5   957  W
Aero        0  236.7   851  W
Rolling    20   43.5    75  W
Gravity -1043   60.9   768  W
Speed    10.8   22.8  39.4  mi/h
Wind      0.0   21.2  37.9  mi/h
Elev      607    669   748  ft
Slope    -9.5   0.80  14.6  %
Caden      57   82.0   104  rpm
HR        122  165.6   181  bpm
NP:406W IF:1.37 TSS:19 VI:1.10
CdA: 0.328 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 2/2/2013 12:08 PM
48 degF; 1059 mbar

iBike graph for the Mimosa attack zone – annotated (click to enlarge)

COMPLETE RIDE
Dist:      104.76 mi (5:51:38)
Energy:    4063.1 kJ
Cals Burn: 3884.5 kcal
Climbing:    8491 ft
Braking:   -226.0 kJ (-5.6%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  192.6  1049  W
Aero        0  130.8  2294  W
Rolling     0   34.1    93  W
Gravity -2481    1.5   778  W
Speed     0.0   17.9  48.8  mi/h
Wind      0.0   16.1  52.5  mi/h
Elev      408    706  1107  ft
Slope   -19.9   0.02  18.9  %
Caden       0   81.8   130  rpm
HR         68  133.6   185  bpm
NP:247W IF:0.84 TSS:409 VI:1.28
CdA: 0.328 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 2/2/2013 8:28 AM
44 degF; 1063 mbar

BBL iBike data and videos

Fun day today at the BBL. I mainly wanted to put a post up with my iBike data for those of you curious about the iBike. I’ve highlighted the attack zone data below first – along with a video for the Sterrett attack zone and the Vandiver KOM. I forgot to turn the video back on for the Mimosa attack zone. The format for the post below goes like this: 1) data 2) graph 3) video. Then I’ve got the data and graph for the entire ride at the end.

Sterrett Attack Zone (1st place)
Dist:        2.64 mi (0:05:53)
Energy:     119.1 kJ
Cals Burn:  113.8 kcal
Climbing:     121 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  337.3   767  W
Aero        0  264.7   830  W
Rolling    33   51.5    70  W
Gravity  -632    9.7   481  W
Speed    17.2   27.0  36.5  mi/h
Wind      8.2   20.5  36.0  mi/h
Elev       77    126   182  ft
Slope    -6.0   0.11   7.9  %
Caden      47   86.8   107  rpm
HR        123  158.7   182  bpm
NP:366W IF:1.32 TSS:17 VI:1.08
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 5/3/2011 2:52 AM
48 degF; 1013 mbar

iBike graph for the Sterrett attack zone – I ended up winning this one after covering Mark’s attack on the final hill and then taking off before the swarm led by Jeff Fuller, Jim Brock, and Darrell O’Quinn could catch back up to us. This one shows clearly when I was drafting and when I had my nose in the wind (not often) – CLICK TO ENLARGE

Vandiver KOM (2nd place)
Dist:        1.72 mi (0:06:31)
Energy:     134.6 kJ
Cals Burn:  128.7 kcal
Climbing:     458 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power     175  344.2   642  W
Aero        0   51.1   300  W
Rolling    23   30.2    39  W
Gravity    49  260.0   482  W
Speed    11.9   15.9  20.5  mi/h
Wind      3.0   12.2  27.6  mi/h
Elev      199    451   660  ft
Slope     0.8   4.92  10.9  %
Caden      54   83.5   113  rpm
HR        151  180.3   185  bpm
NP:358W IF:1.29 TSS:18 VI:1.04
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 5/3/2011 3:16 AM
50 degF; 1013 mbar

iBike graph for the Vandiver KOM – you can see where the climb flattened out and I had trouble finding a gear that would hold that I could still keep up with Mark – couldn't do it and he rode away from me to take the KOM – CLICK TO ENLARGE

Mimosa Attack Zone (3rd place)
Dist:        2.56 mi (0:07:08)
Energy:     126.5 kJ
Cals Burn:  120.9 kcal
Climbing:     236 ft
Braking:     -0.0 kJ (-0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  295.5   793  W
Aero        0  189.1  1560  W
Rolling    16   41.2    79  W
Gravity -1889   27.9   571  W
Speed     8.5   21.6  41.6  mi/h
Wind      0.0   17.7  44.6  mi/h
Elev      221    302   375  ft
Slope   -14.2   0.39  12.0  %
Caden       8   84.4   123  rpm
HR        105  151.1   177  bpm
NP:338W IF:1.22 TSS:18 VI:1.15
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 5/3/2011 3:37 AM
50 degF; 1013 mbar

iBike graph for the Mimosa Attack Zone – I was having problems with a stiff link on my chain so I ended up setting a max cadence of 124 RPM when I finally found a gear that would stick … still held on for 3rd in the sprint – CLICK TO ENLARGE

iBike data for the ENTIRE RIDE
Dist:      103.94 mi (5:58:22)
Energy:    3781.5 kJ
Cals Burn: 3615.2 kcal
Braking:   -174.7 kJ (-4.6%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  175.9   793  W
Aero        0  117.9  2724  W
Rolling     0   33.2    95  W
Gravity -2123    1.6   603  W
Speed     0.0   17.4  50.1  mi/h
Wind      0.0   14.6  54.3  mi/h
Elev       77    347   823  ft
Slope   -16.5   0.03  19.1  %
Caden       0   81.3   134  rpm
HR         71  132.0   185  bpm
NP:231W IF:0.83 TSS:415 VI:1.32
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 1/26/2013 8:35 AM
50 degF; 1013 mbar

BBL 2013-01-26 iBike graph for the entire ride – note the addition of the gear ratio graph — pretty cool to show you when you switched gears. – CLICK TO ENLARGE

Tornado anniversary and return of the iBike

A lot going on in the cockpit … camera, iBike, and Garmin.

This is my last week off before the start of the spring semester at Samford, so I wanted to get in at least one more long ride. I’m riding my Scott Addict right now because the Trek is down for the count with a crack in the frame. Because I switched bikes to my Scott, I could re-mount the iBike again (the Bontrager stem on my Trek is far too thick for the iBike mount to fit). The only problem is that when I went to mount the iBike, I discovered I was missing a screw for the mounting bracket … a quick trip to the local hardware store with the iBike and a screwdriver in my back pocket and I was able to find the right screw.

In my opinion, the absolute best thing about the iBike is its ability to measure gradients quite accurately — much more so than the barometric pressure calculated gradient from the Garmin. The iBike has an internal gyrometer/accelerometer which can calculate gradient based on immediate changes in pitch, unlike the Garmin which requires motion and change in air pressure to calculate gradient based on the change of elevation over time. The ability of the iBike to measure power is a secondary benefit … and not too bad either compared to all the other power meters I’ve owned. You do have to get it calibrated correctly, but that is a one-time setup step which is supposedly eliminated on the new iBike Newton.

Excited about the iBike, I wanted to measure the gradients on the Emerald Lakes climbs which I discovered over Christmas and rode again a couple weeks ago on the way out to Skyball. I’ve posted videos below where I am calling out a small selection of the iBike gradient readings (it updates itself about every second, but I’m only calling out readings every few seconds). The front side climb Cat 4 climb (from the Lake) has the steepest pitch topping out at 30.4%, but the 20+% section is much shorter than the 20+% section on the backside Cat 3 climb. The descent back down the 30% section is dangerous. I was trying to be conservative and still hit 53mph (last video). I’m glad I was trying to be conservative because any faster, and I might very well have ended up IN Emerald Lake.

Red tailed hawk flying above its nest in tornado damaged neighborhood.

When I was planning out the return route, I noticed that the climb up to the top of the Summit Pointe neighborhood off of Tyler Loop road would probably be an auto-detected Strava cat 4 climb. The picture of the hawk above is just below the summit of the climb. I was trying to maximize climbing on the ride so I created a route through that neighborhood up the climb not realizing that I would be doing the ride on the 1 year anniversary of the Chalkville EF-3 tornado (just under EF-4) which went through a corner of the neighborhood. I came to the realization that it was the 1 year anniversary late in the video below as I was narrating the damage still visible a year later. Click the “youtube” button to watch this on youtube, and you can jump to specific parts of the video using the video bookmarks in the description area below the video.

Finally, here is a photoshop – annotated view of the iBike data from the ride. I was concerned with the cold weather that the iBike battery might not make it the entire ride so I cut it off after the Vesclub climb and didn’t turn it back on again until I got up to Trussville.

ibike graph annotated for the emerald lakes ride (click to enlarge and read the annotations)

iBike statistics - Emerald lakes ride (partial)
Dist:       77.57 mi (5:12:38)
Energy:    3691.5 kJ
Cals Burn: 3529.1 kcal
Climbing:    8806 ft
Braking:   -609.4 kJ (-16.5%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  196.8   692  W
Aero        0  120.6  2982  W
Rolling     0   19.2    68  W
Gravity -4009    4.0   548  W
Speed     0.0   14.9  53.1  mi/h
Wind      0.0   15.3  55.9  mi/h
Elev      -14    454   865  ft
Slope   -24.0   0.08  30.4  %
Caden       0   72.8   126  rpm
HR         79  131.3   165  bpm
NP:226W IF:0.81 TSS:345 VI:1.15
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0039
168 lbs; 8/14/2011 2:25 PM
52 degF; 1013 mbar

A few notes about the data … the climbing total is quite a bit lower because it’s missing 23 miles of the ride and the iBike is applying smoothing (either in the software or via how the barometric elevation sensor is recording) and doesn’t pick up all the rollers in its climbing total that the Garmin does. Also, the distance is short because I turned off the iBike to save battery after the Vesclub climb and didn’t turn it back on again until Trussville. Also, the “168 lbs” in the statistics at the bottom is my weight plus the weight of the bike plus weight of clothing, etc…

Dothan Cityfest 2012

Race summary
17th place after missing the winning break of 8. Kenda, Mountain Khakis, UHC-Georgia, Team Coco’s, and Rosetti brought their top crit riders. Frank Travieso (Team Coco’s) won the race from the breakaway by attacking on the last lap and holding on until the end. Emile Abraham (Rosetti) took the sprint from the rest of the break for 2nd with Brendan Cornett (Locos) taking an impressive 3rd to round out the podium after bridging up to the break by himself. Kenda and Mountain Khakis also had riders in the break so they were not chasing. Andy Crater (Cleveland Clinic) tried to bridge across twice late in the race and could not quite close the gap. I tried to go with several early moves thinking that an early break would stick. It seemed that the race was too fast for any breaks to stick. I started sliding backwards after a 20 minute section with a heartrate average of 182 bpm (several beats above threshold) that started 10 minutes into the race. I recovered after a few laps, but unfortunately the winning break went at this point. I tried three different times to bridge across and/or get a chase group started, but the field brought the move back fairly quick each time. Then as the laps ticked down I switched tactics to try and position well for the field sprint and I was happy with how the field sprint played out as it felt a lot like the last couple laps of the Sunny King criterium which is coming up in a couple weeks. I ended up 9th in the field sprint for 17th in the race.

The data
No powertap data for the race, as I had a loose spoke on my rear powertap wheel and switched to my light climbing wheels (2006 Bontrager 3X Lite) which are still pretty good for crits b/c they accelerate so easily. Still, I raced with my iBike and merged the iBike data with my Garmin heartrate data to obtain the annotated polar graph shown below. The iBike graph shows where I was drafting pretty clearly.

Annotated heartrate summary (two new yearly heartrate records so far this year – most time in Zone 5 for a race and highest max heartrate of 195bpm)

Heartrate and ibike power plot annotated (click to enlarge)

Annotated ibike data (click to enlarge)

Finally, here are some pics and videos that Kristine got. The picture after the videos is my favorite … looking for the magic entrance into the side of the building

Analise and Josiah look for the magic entrance into the side of a building while scootering in the parking lot

Spring climbing

After yesterday’s long climbs in Huntsville, today was a different style of climbing – numerous short, steep climbs. Check out the iBike gradient graph:

Numerous climbs – click to enlarge and count the changes in gradient from up to down and then post in the comments how many “hills” there are. I don’t have time to count but I would guess 100-200 hills instead of maybe 20-30 hills yesterday?

Also, I was inspired while riding through Mountain Brook to post some pictures of the beautiful spring flowers. I didn’t have my camera with me – so I’ll have to post a few of the pics from my parent’s house this past Sunday. Imagine riding past house after house with all different kinds of blooming flowers – particularly azaleas, dogwoods, and bradford pears. It was an interesting contrast to yesterday’s ride in Huntsville, which went through some really rural countryside where instead of the tended flowers, you get wildflowers in the fields and beautiful dogwood trees blooming underneath all the really tall pine and hardwood trees in the woods. Two contrasting climbing rides, two contrasting spring flower explosions, two fun adventures.

redbuds, azaleas, and a couple dogwoods

redbuds, azaleas, and a couple dogwoods

josiah, kristine, and analise underneath redbud

our family underneath redbud in shadow of dogwood

azalea bowl from grandmas front yard