Simulation avec A Faster You

Sebastian: Hi, this is the Afasteryou Podcast with Sebastian Schluricke and Björn Kafka. Your podcast for aerodynamics and endurance training. Morning. After a long time we're both managing to record a podcast again. We're not taking this long without reason — we've had an extreme amount going on. We can tell a bit about it. It might take a little longer, but then you'll have a sense of what's happened lately. First — the first thing we should mention is that we're bringing WattShop to Germany. Hi Björn. Sebastian — we actually just talked, too.

Björn: Yeah, I'm here today, for a change. Otherwise Björn would happily do this alone.

Sebastian: Always. I love hearing my own voice. Totally.

Björn: Too much irony. Okay, let's start. WattShop. WattShop — good cue.

Sebastian: Coming to Germany at the end of November. You can find info on our Instagram or in our newsletter. I think there are still two spots open. You can book in. And anyone who knows WattShop knows — they're the best aero fitters right now. Look at what they've done. Dan Bigham with his hour world record. Ghana, hour world record. I don't even want to know how many WorldTour teams they're employed by. They work with our software. So we've brought them over. Exactly.

Björn: If you want to get faster, go there. We've been working with WattShop for a while. They use our software for all kinds of aero testing and Powertesting in the UK. They have high-end clientele — WorldTour teams, world champions, hour world record, everything. They've really made a name for themselves. They fit with all the methods — in the wind tunnel, on the velodrome, outdoors. They use the whole repertoire and have gotten immense insights into aerodynamics. Dan Bigham was actively involved professionally before, and they fit the top teams. There's hardly anyone with as much experience and expertise as these guys. They always find savings. Really crème de la crème, the best of the best, now coming to... ...Germany. And we've been able to work with them for a while, and we've optimized a lot in our software with their help. They had many wishes, many things they wanted in the software, and we keep working on our aerodynamics measurement system, extending it, building in new features, new possibilities. We're really, really busy and trying to develop the best possible software — the one you or your athletes can use to improve, depending on who you are. That's our standard. Björn and I just enjoy making people better, providing software. We really try to be busy bees about it. And with WattShop we have a multi-year partnership now where we want to work together. Our goal is that here in Germany you have the opportunity to do aero testing with WattShop — to have the best right here on site. That's a great thing. And in general, we also provide our software to other good aero fitters here in Germany who use our software. Keep your eyes open and see our posts — there are also plenty of options to do aerodynamics tests in Germany. You can always get in touch if you're interested in aero fittings. It can be WattShop, of course, but it can also be other partners of ours in Germany who give you the chance to improve aerodynamically on the velodrome, for example.

Sebastian: Exactly.

Björn: Yeah, that's WattShop, it's really great. We're happy, it's a great partnership. As I said, we get deep insights, we work with them, develop new possibilities — maybe soon also remote aero fitting. So you could, for example, have WattShop as a coach, and with our outdoor test software you can do aerodynamics tests while WattShop coaches you on what to do and how to optimize aerodynamically. Through the software it's even possible to be live with you during the aero test outside — see your CdA values, give you direct live feedback on what to test next. So different options. We'll be offering a new way to improve aerodynamically, if you don't have the option to get to a velodrome or take on those costs, which are of course always a factor, and still be able to self-optimize. And getting a bit of start-up help from a professional aero coach at the beginning is a really great thing. Once you've done one, two, three aero tests with professional help, you're usually fully capable of self-optimizing. We have great examples. One who really did it very intensively is Ken. You know him well too, Björn. He became Bavarian TT champion, I believe. Yeah. And made sensational progress. He's tested so much it's unbelievable. With a lot of diligence, he got himself into such good aero shape that with the givens he has, he can actually win a race like that. I think he had a bit of bad luck at King of the Lake.

Sebastian: Did he crash? I think so. I don't remember exactly, but seeing the aero development in him, or in the athletes who test with us intensively, is really exciting. As a coach, I don't extract as much wattage as that — not in such a short time.

Björn: Yeah, with other pros — you were there too, and Max was there — we were at the velodrome in Büttgen and optimized a few pro women. Really exciting, what you can pull out there. So we're always open. Keep that in mind if you're interested. What were some of the things we did? A lot of it is — when you test aerodynamics, one of the most important questions at the start is your helmet. The helmet has enormous influence, and often it's: test helmets first, see which is optimal for you, then go to the position. Because there's always a systematic interaction between helmet, skinsuit, and overall arm position. Often one of the biggest factors — on average — is the helmet. That's why we optimize the helmet first, then seating position — arm posture, everything up front at the handlebars. Then you can add in the skinsuit. Theoretically there are combinations of all of these, but you can't test every combination practically. So we always try to follow the thickest branch and then move to the sub-branches. For example, helmet at the start. With that you have a good chance to directly improve aerodynamically. That's a bit of aerodynamics, WattShop. Then we've had sensational successes with the athletes Björn trains with Afasteryou. I can't remember everything. No, no, I can. But tell us — what moved you most?

Sebastian: What moved and shocked me most? Live during the race. I remember, I was with you. That was the MTB World Championship in Denmark. As many know, I practically grew up at the border, and Sebastian lives right at the border in Flensburg. So it was obvious — I visit Mum, drive up, and watch the guys race. Andi Seewald, Martin Frey, Simon Schneller, and all of them. And the result is unbelievable. Still sensational — because Andi took second, basically proving that after his world title he can repeat it on a course that's definitely not made for him. It was a flat course. How much elevation? 1.5 on 120 kilometers — basically nothing. Last year was four and a half days? Much more. Much, much more. Andi is the best climber in this segment, everyone knows that. We worked intensively on these capabilities, that these short acceleration phases — alactic, you can't really do much there, but especially through the glycolytic system a lot happens — and VO2max is still so high that we cope well. We also did a lot aerodynamically, because we knew — we won't be super fast overall. Other athletes are significantly better there. So we had to escape somewhere. We picked the spot. We knew where we'd do it. And we worked on Andi aerodynamically in training. Which position do we ride? Which helmet do we ride to be maximally fast, to close the gap or ride away? And that worked to perfection. I was live at the race and basically tiger-walked around the course. Very stressful — especially with 40 km to go, Andi had slipped a bit and someone was up the road. I got seriously nervous, crawled into a supermarket, bought myself some toffee and a hot chocolate, turned off my phone, because I knew — okay, I can't influence anything in the race now. Then I turned my phone back on. I knew, okay, the race should be over. I got a message from Julian Biefang from Canyon, and he said, yeah, too bad about Andi. I thought, okay, maybe he finished 10th or 12th. I called Julian and he said, yeah, Andi took second, great result, he almost became world champion again. And that was of course a result where I was like, wow, mega. And then Martin Frey finished a sensational fourth. Simon Schneller 11th — mega result from the athletes. Made me really happy, and especially the trust the athletes placed in my training, because what we did to prepare specifically for this course was a bit unusual. Other things too. We've gotten several riders into the WorldTour. Rainer Kepplinger is known. Nadine Gill is known now. There are two other riders — I'll mention them when the time is right. The contracts are fixed, but until the teams communicate it we can't. It's always great, because these are riders who didn't come through the development teams or the teams generally — we basically brought them into the top category via another route. That always makes me really happy. Because I think there are late developers, athletes who fell out of the U23 ranks awkwardly due to injury or similar and then basically don't have the chance to get into the WorldTour, or it gets harder — and we still managed, through our work, to produce such good results that they made it. That always makes me really happy. And yeah, lots of championship titles and so on — I don't want to list them all. Lots happening.

Björn: Then we can reveal one thing quickly. This might be interesting for some mountain bikers. The spot you picked where Andi attacked — do you want to reveal what spot that was?

Sebastian: We knew it had to be a climb. When we talk about training, I like to work with a concept that Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps' coach, had — Utilization and Capacity. First, with capacities, I build the physiological properties of the athlete. VO2max and VLamax have to be right. I always bring the athlete there. Then utilization — the specific execution, the physical provision of the power — I train on the course. You have to be careful — you have to see which lactate production rate you're triggering, it's about buffer capacities and so on. We picked this one spot where we knew, okay, here we have such-and-such power, need to hold it for a certain time, the acceleration or sprint-out has to last this long — and then we maybe get into an aero position and close the thing down. That was the idea behind it. And that's how we trained. Very classical. Anyone who knows me knows how I do it — I sometimes work for years only on capacity, only on the physiological properties, and I don't care about specificity at all at first. I often see, when we work with WorldTour teams or other coaches, a very strong focus on specific work. That belongs in the WorldTour, sure. But for developing athletes who aren't in the WorldTour, it's more important to first get the engine where it needs to be. Then we picked this spot — and I knew, okay, that property we've trained for a long time matches it really well. That's why it's important to know the course. And that's a nice segue — we'll talk more intensively now about the simulation software we've developed. Which you can also ideally use for this. Something else we have coming out — next week, after many coaches asked for it, we finally got it done, because it had been sitting around for a long time. We've now built in the lactate test we developed. We have our own ideas about what such tests should look like, and we're rolling it out as a feature — it's on our development platform, we're still testing. So coaches who have lactate equipment and take lactate measurements can now enter them into our platform, instead of just power values — direct evaluation — or spirometry values and lactate-VLamax values from the sprint test. Now we've added a classic step test according to our own ideas too, so you have even more options to analyze athletes.

Björn: Right. I think that'll be real added value for everyone who has the lab equipment. Meaning good lactate measurement devices, maybe a really good ergometer where they can do sprint tests, get good performance data in general — and with this new step test approach, they have an incredibly good way to determine VLamax very, very precisely. Maybe even take the whole system to a new level — even better measurement accuracy for direct lactate measurement to determine VLamax. And all our values come out of that, the same as for all our systems. Whether it's the performance test, the normal Powertest of our system, or the direct entry of lab values, or just power input, or distance values in running, we now have this lactate test. We can talk about the other things another time — we haven't presented them yet, but they're all in the system. Specifically for everyone who has a high-end lab, from next week on you have the full ability to offer performance diagnostics at a very high level on our platform, with all the other options the platform offers — simultaneously aero testing, for example, and now our new simulation software, so you really have one platform. ...for simulations, best pacing strategies — and not just any pacing strategies, but actually calculated, algorithm-optimized pacing strategies. Plus testing aerodynamics directly, in the wind tunnel, on the velodrome, or... ...on the road — everything through our software. So we're actually offering an all-encompassing platform for diagnostics and simulations that doesn't really exist on the market. Exactly.

Sebastian: Let's talk about simulation. The idea was always there. We were asked about it right at the start. Now you have it. You can determine aerodynamics very well. You can determine the metabolic profile well. You can now merge the two. Naturally. You basically know your carb consumption. How would it play out in an Ironman or a time trial? What's the best pacing strategy? That was the starting gun. Sounds simple at first, but at the end of the day the devil's in the details — first physiologically figuring out what the best pacing strategy actually is. Maybe you... ...tell us a bit about how we went about it.

Björn: Yeah, definitely. Maybe two words beforehand. Actually, in 2010 I developed my first software, and it was actually a simulation software. And specifically for race simulations — because back then, when I was still working as an engineer and was triathlon-crazy and loved cycling, my question was always: what does aerodynamic optimization actually bring? What does it bring if I can ride more power? What does weight loss bring? And to me it was always too imprecise, because there are big differences between riding a relatively flat bike course and the Ironman Lanzarote, where you have lots of elevation. Always from the triathlete's perspective. In cycling it's the same. So I developed that first software, and then it was always a bit too crude to just do a race diagnosis with one performance level you had to think about — which criterion do you use for performance? Back then I developed overviews in charts where you could directly see the effects of weight, power, and aerodynamics. That was always built into our platform. For every aero test, when you test aerodynamics, you immediately see the time predictions for the race, which depending on the parameters you entered — say the power you wanted to ride — were correspondingly accurate. But back then, when we integrated this into our platform, what mainly interested us was the delta — how big are the time savings? Without being absolutely precise. Meanwhile, other platforms gave a very clear race-pace display. But never an overview of the overall effects. Because we never presented it graphically that way, how much know-how was actually behind it got a bit lost. Still — the question of what power you should actually ride with always remained unanswered. So Björn and I really sat down together, spent many hours developing, researching, trying, constructing algorithms — because the problem of... ...this optimization problem is actually not trivial if you think about what a best pacing strategy should look like for a long distance or a cycling road race, because different physiological factors have to be considered. We actually started, with a specific model of you — of humans — based on VO2max, VLamax, carb storage, and your physiological possibilities. Now the question is — how should the power be invested? We started very classically, actually being able to pick free power for every segment, and then you have really many variables — tens of thousands of variables — that have to be minimized. And we actually tried to use the most modern algorithms, like the Differential Evolution algorithm, which is a statistical minimization method used for global minima. Great — if you're interested, look up Differential Evolution on Wikipedia, it's really a great algorithm. The basic idea: imagine you're hiking in the Alps and you're standing on top of a mountain, and everything around you is cloudy. Who tells you now that you're on the highest mountain? With normal gradient methods you use in math, you always look — okay, here's a slope, so I walk the slope uphill, and if I always follow the positive slope, eventually I reach a maximum. Right, you're on top of the mountain, but who says it's the highest mountain? That's the mathematical challenge of global minimum or global maximum. That's where we started, ran the optimization, and derived generalized rules from it. Because a Differential Evolution algorithm running on an Ironman route can easily take hours to compute — so many variables are optimized. You have to extract models that represent the Differential Evolution algorithm relatively well. ...because from the Differential Evolution algorithm you can recognize correlations, systematics. And we brought those into our system. And with that you now have the ability — based on the Powertest you did — to have the best pacing strategy for a race course calculated based on your physiological givens. And that's something that doesn't exist in this form. Sure, if you look at Best Bike Split — I'll name them too — you see Normalized Power. But Normalized Power doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the carb consumption you actually have on a course. And that's why it's... ...a question to what extent Normalized Power actually reflects your physiological givens. We definitely wanted to do better. Björn and I — as I already said — really sat together a lot and developed a best pacing strategy based on this metabolic profile, with which you can plan your race and then really see everything. You know the time you need, the speed you'll ride, the maximum speed, the power you put down, the standard deviation in power, how much carbs you consume, the distance you cover, the power for climbing, the power for descending. And that... ...and we didn't skimp — we really said okay, we want more features in there. So we don't just have the metabolic profile — we also said, okay, race courses have corners, and in corners you can't go full speed, so we calculate all the corners on the course, take their radii, calculate the max speeds you should hit in the corners, think about how you can decelerate by braking, then calculate backward. Backward from the corners, what max speeds you can actually hit. Then of course the next problem — data accuracy, how accurate are the points. So we also built in map matching — map systems that let us, using GPS points, get accurate routes. So the road maps match up, and we actually have a good way to calculate corners exactly — and therefore the max speeds for the corners and the decelerations. So where you brake, you actually brake and don't put down power. We built that in. We also thought about how to visualize it nicely so you get more insights. So we built in a Google Maps map, so you can see directly where you are. We show the graphs, four different variants. You can even see where you consume the most carbs on the course — which doesn't really exist elsewhere — how much power you use on the course, presented graphically through color scales, the gradients, where you have which speeds. And because that might not be enough for some, and I know there are... ...tour teams who wanted exactly that from us — we also built in Google Street View right away. Unfortunately it's not available everywhere, but at the big races it is, so you can see directly. ...where you are on the course. Some coaches also go through the courses with their athletes beforehand — where are the special spots, where might you need to brake? You can see that on the courses, where the corners are, they're drawn in, so that's visible too. There are many more features of course — for example in aerodynamics you can directly select your aero test right from the platform, just like the Powertest. Really easy and convenient to pull into the simulation software. And for aerodynamics, three profiles are supported. The normal profile for straight riding, a profile if you did a second aero test — for example a hoods position if you're a time trialist — so you can input the aerodynamics from your hoods position as well. There's also a third profile you can use for descending. While descending, power gets set to zero, because you take a particularly aerodynamic position. That's also considered. You have various parameters to set that. We also built in Sailing Points — a new metric we want to offer in the future, which we've already built in here. We'll have to do a bit more to make it more transparent, but the basic idea is the sailing effect you get with crosswinds: with angled air flow you may sail. So Sailing Points describes that sailing effect, measured in Sailing Points. For example, if you have two Sailing Points, then at a 10-degree yaw angle you get a two-point reduction in your CdA value. Instead of 22 aero points, you only have 20 — the two points are compensated by lift, or lift has an effect equivalent to two aero points.

Sebastian: Right. Let's talk about the Sailing Points. For these Sailing Points to matter, we need to know what the weather is.

Björn: How do we do that? Right, we've implemented it like this: within the simulation software we've integrated our weather API. We take weather info at various points along the course and interpolate across the course, so that at each location where you are in time, you get the corresponding interpolated values from the various points. So you know wind speeds and other parameters — like temperature of course, air pressure, humidity and so on. And, for example, wind speeds and wind direction, and also solar radiation. We take solar radiation because our perspective is that we want to engage more with heat — how big its effect is and what it means for your race on the course. And when you start a simulation, you can pick the start date of your simulation — up to seven days in the future — so that for race day you can really do the optimal simulation. With the wind speeds actually present that day, plus temperature and so on, solar radiation, humidity, temperature. All data is displayed on the platform. You can look at exactly how it looks across your race. And yeah — that gives you the ability to run really realistic simulations with the weather conditions actually present on your race day.

Sebastian: If you look at this — I have Hawaii open here right now — what a simulation can look like. Like you described, you see how many carbs you consume, the time, the average speed, the average watts to ride, and the distance covered. Then there's the Google Maps stuff and Google Street View. Then some interesting graphs. For example, you see that the CdA value jumps a bit now and then.

Björn: What does that mean? That's what I mentioned briefly before. When we climb or descend, aerodynamics change depending on which profile you have, and it's taken into account. It's the influence of aerodynamics, and you can see where you take which position.

Sebastian: Right, then we see power output, which is constant in large stretches, then higher again in places, then zero when descending fast. Classic, we know that.

Björn: Right, and also for example when we ride corners, where power drops to zero — that's built into the simulation too. Then we have the carb store. Really interesting. That's probably the biggest added value here, because it's your metabolic profile.

Sebastian: You see how it drains, how it drains faster. We always factor in fueling — you select how many grams of carbs you're taking in. We always take into account that there's a performance loss from a certain depletion level onward. So it's not like a car — just picture this: we fill the car and ride it empty. Unfortunately our body doesn't work that way. From a certain fill level, we automatically reduce power. There are studies on this, we've embedded them. So we actually calculate the optimal fueling and optimal depletion so that for the Ironman we say, okay, we have X grams of carbs left to still get a decent run in. That would be the next feature. Now you think a bit further. Ah, you can do this for running too. Sure, that would be the next step for us — we have running diagnostics. We have a metabolic profile for running. Of course it's a bit... welcome.

Björn: We're on it. Then you can upload your running routes and we'll have the best pacing strategies for your running courses. And we'll link that together and give triathletes or duathletes the ability to simulate races for running and cycling, and especially simulate exactly what the best pacing strategies look like for your carb consumption. There are some competitors who also offer best pacing strategies, but all of those — from my view, unless I'm mistaken — are not algorithms that actually calculate it for the specific race.

Sebastian: Yeah. If I keep going through these graphs — speed, of course, how fast are we going, then elevation. Graphically displayed. Then come several things where you wonder, why are these in here? Like you said — they're exciting for us in the future. We have humidity, temperature, air pressure — which is of course exciting for aerodynamics — and solar radiation. To bring these three in: humidity, temperature, solar radiation. It's a field we've been working on for a while. Currently we're still developing algorithms and calculations. How strongly does humidity, temperature, direct sunlight and similar actually affect your performance? That effect is there, documented by many studies. Some good books on it. We're developing a model that, based on speed and weather influences, reduces (or doesn't reduce) your performance. We'll build that in. Lots of things to factor in. Are you adapted to the heat? Not adapted? What do cooling strategies look like? And so on. So this'll be a next feature, because it's extremely decisive for races like these. We know that. And that's coming, so we can build an even bigger, more comprehensive prediction tool.

Björn: Yeah, you can always see we're really interested in developing the best software out there. With the step we have now, this is certainly already the best simulation tool you can find.

Sebastian: Yeah. Then there are things the general athlete might not immediately grasp. Especially the aerodynamic stuff. If we now see Effective Wind Speed and yaw angle. We have that in the graphic. Want to quickly explain what that means?

Björn: So effective wind speed is basically the wind speed that's effectively coming from ahead or behind. It directly affects your speed. And yaw angle — if you have a strong crosswind, you have the effect that the wind, the vector component or the vector speed, hits you at an angle of, say, 10 degrees. You could ask, what does that have to do with me? It matters the moment you have Sailing Points. So when you get a lift effect. If you actually have a disc wheel, a deep-section wheel, it's quite possible to gain two aero points at strong crosswinds. So it can make sense to choose wheels based on weather conditions. Depending on the actual wind speed, you might say — okay, some wheels are pretty similar under frontal airflow, but you could take wheels that have a big effect in crosswinds. Then you say, okay, for this race it actually makes more sense to take these wheels, even if they aren't perfectly optimal otherwise — they have such a big lift effect that for this race, with the strong wind speeds, they're better. We try to show in detail how the race on competition day will really play out, to give you the ability to have the best simulation you can get. It also always gives you an overview of the weather conditions — how strong is solar radiation, air pressure, air temperature, humidity, which we of course use to calculate air density, which has an immediate effect on how fast you ride. Also depending on altitude — if you're at 2000 meters above sea level, air pressure is significantly lower, so air density is significantly lower, and you'd ride much faster. That would in turn affect your metabolic performance capacity. We haven't implemented that yet, but we'll build that in too. There's so much to develop. Right now we offer you the tool that's most developed, and we'll keep continuously developing it for you, so you have the best simulation, the best pacing strategies. I think that's the next diagram we also used in our quiz.

Sebastian: Right, that's our — we had a little Instagram poll. We basically posted the image of the next chart — Pacing Strategy. We see four things listed there: power at a certain speed, here 45 km/h for example, then slope, wind, and speed. Want to explain what each of those means?

Björn: Right, I actually have a different simulation open, but these are the parameters, and many are intuitive. You have a base power that should be ridden at a certain speed. For example, you just said 45 km/h — that depends on how you're generally set up metabolically and aerodynamically. You might also have a base speed of 30 km/h. Depending on how good you are, what kind of race it is, how long the race is. It's a highly individual parameter, also tuned to the course. Let's say you have a base speed of 30 km/h at 200 watts. That means basically, if you're on a flat course with no wind, you should ride at 200 watts. Then come the added parameters — like the next one, slope. If for example you get a value of 6 watts per percent, that means on 5% gradient you should ride 30 watts more. If you're riding 30 km/h — we'll get to that more precisely. So that means, at 6 watts per percent, at 5% gradient that's 30 watts more to put down. Then the next parameter — the wind parameter — here it says minus 1 watt per km/h. That would mean with a tailwind of 10 km/h, you'd ride 10 watts less. Then the next parameter. So far all clear. You can already say — wind speeds often aren't 10 km/h directly along your direction of travel or directly in your face. So this parameter, at 200 watts, isn't as strong as you might generally think. That's a frequent question — what's the best pacing strategy depending on wind speed? You always know you have to ride a bit more or a bit less, but not really exactly. This tool really gives you the ability to find out what your best pacing strategy is in strong winds too, because we fully simulate it and then optimize with minimization methods. And now comes the parameter the fewest people know. That's speed itself. Here it says minus 1 watt per km/h. That means if you deviate from your base speed — say going faster, riding 40 km/h instead of 30 — you should ride 10 watts less. If you ride 50 km/h and your base speed is 30 km/h, ride 20 watts less. So instead of 200 watts, 180 watts. As you deviate upward from base speed, you invest less power for the best pacing strategy. And now the other direction. If you now ride slower than 30 km/h — say only 10 km/h — then deviation from base km/h is 20 km/h, and double-minus means you now have to invest 20 watts more, 220 instead of 200. So you have a cumulative effect from slope, wind, and speed. And if you think, hey, this is a bit complicated, you always have the option to download the file directly and upload it to your Garmin or other device. And see the course with power predictions live on your device. You don't have to think — for each GPS position you get the best pacing strategy directly. And on the other hand, you may not do a simulation for every race, and you can still take these parameters with you. You're on a flat, maybe strong wind making you slower. You know you have to invest more power. Then there's the speed parameter too — wind and speed — and you think about it cumulatively.

Sebastian: Yeah, like I said — one of my favorite charts, the Pacing Strategy, because you take something home. Like you said, even without having analyzed every race, you just know: headwind, 10 km/h slower than usual, I need to invest so-and-so many watts to move fast.

Björn: Exactly, and it's finally the answer to the eternal question — how much of what should I invest, when and how? And this is the calculation that works that out precisely based on your metabolic profile. So it's no more guessing, no more — yeah, I imagine the effect is such-and-such, so maybe a few more watts. No, this is really... ...with all the math, all the algorithms we've developed over the years, the optimal solution of the minimization algorithm.

Sebastian: And now come the questions everyone asks: what effect does it have if I ride more power, if I'm lighter, if I reduce my CdA? We've prepared three charts for that. Do you want to briefly explain?

Björn: Yeah, this is also what you could always see on our platform before — what I originally started with, and we've developed further here — directly see an overview of the effect of watts. You see eleven values — in the middle is the value that holds for your simulation, then at power you see in 5-watt steps up, 25 watts more or 25 watts less, and the effect on your target time. So you always have a basic idea of how important it gets. You see the same thing for weight. In the middle is your weight, then in 2-kilo steps — 10 kilos more, 10 kilos less. How big is the time gain or loss? So you know, does it make sense to go 2 kg lighter? Do I need to reduce weight? Does it have a big effect? And you can decide that individually for your race course, because at Ironman Lanzarote or on a flat road race, the effects of weight are very different, and you can look at that. Same for aerodynamics — here in one-aero-point steps, five up, five down, so you see the effect there. Just to give you an idea: the rider I'm simulating here had a target time of about 5:40, 5:41. If he rode 25 watts more, he'd be 18 minutes faster. Same thing — if he had 5 aero points less, he'd also be 18 minutes faster. It's calculating with 28 aero points, which is — that's a bit above the average for a time trialist. The average on our platform for triathletes is around 26 aero points, and we have many aero tests on record. We have about 26 aero points for time trialists, and it goes well below 20 aero points. There's endless potential, because the average athlete usually doesn't know their aerodynamics or hasn't optimized them. These are the typical aerodynamic questions — what can I do? You see the raw effect of aerodynamics, which is still sensational. So you have a basic idea of the effects of your power, weight, and CdA. Then we offer you a few more statistics — like how the distribution of gradient looks on the course, the distribution of yaw angle, so the effective airflow angle. And you see a distribution of the speeds you actually ride on the course. So how often you ride at 35 km/h, or what percentage you ride at 35, 40, 45, 50, or maybe 60 km/h, so you have an idea of how fast you're actually going in parts on these courses. You also see this nicely in the Google Maps display, where we work with color scales so you can see what speeds you hit at which locations on the course. Yeah, so we've developed a relatively comprehensive package. There are a few features we mentioned but left out for now, because our original idea was to release this right before Ironman Hawaii, so we'd have many athletes using it who wanted it. The other features will come step by step. You know we continuously work in all areas to improve our algorithms and the solutions we have for you, much of it based on your feedback. In this context too, I can only wish that you have lots of fun, joy, and success really having the best pacing strategy. If you have ideas and suggestions, we're always open and happy to exchange with you on how to further improve and develop the system.

Sebastian: One thing to add that I think people aren't quite aware of — this is all included. So if you have a Powertest, you can test your aerodynamics fully, as always. But you also have the simulation of your courses and similar. You can throw those in once you have your metabolic profile from a Powertest. There's no add-on you have to buy separately. It's all included.

Björn: It's all in our Powermans package that costs 24.90 euros. Sure. And you have all the options. Aero testing, Powertesting, running Powertesting, creating simulation courses, running simulations — you can do all of it unlimited, and you basically have the complete diagnostics-simulation package. Very nice.

Sebastian: I'd say that's it for today. We'll try to dig out the next topic with a shorter gap this time. We want to talk about nutrition. We've been pushing that off for a long time. If you, like Sebastian said, have wishes for what we should talk about — winter training, whatever — keep them coming. Email us at info@afasteryou.com. ...or feel free to DM on Instagram, and we'll try to take those into account. And now over the winter, when I have a bit more time and am not out with the athletes so much, maybe I won't be the missing link and can use the time better to do a few more podcasts. Exactly.

Björn: I'll leave it at that. We'll manage it. Very good. Thanks for your attention. Looking forward to next time. Until then, all the best with your training. See you. Ciao.