I've used their small, truncated cheat sheet to good success, of course, I don't have a bike computer so that's my only choice as I'm not going to paste a footlong plan with 100+ intervals to my top tube... plus even with race morning advanced weather, you'll still encounter unplanned winds so the cheat sheet should be enough IMO.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I use mine the same way, as the above poster. Just the quick cheat sheet with grade/ headwind. I've tried downloading and breaking the intervals into bigger pieces (ie 5-8 splits for a 70.3) but felt the cheat sheet helped me adjust to feel/ day of conditions much better, and felt like I could ride the course as opposed to chasing a power number all day.

I havent used it in a while, but you should be able to download the .fit file to your garmin. Load the course race morning and when you ride the course it should give you power targets to hit for the part of the course you are on. Since its all in your garmin no phone is needed.

In the past it worked pretty well. I had at least 1 race where the power prompts didnt display.

Had the course loaded during nationals, however it never displayed any data. Tried it in several other races aswel, never got it to work, so I just memorized the course and wattages from their website.

I spent some time playing with my 520 this morning and looking over the BBS Website. It looks like you can launch the course without your phone by going through the ride-training menu instead of launching the app through the iconnect menu option. Without being near the course, I can't for sure say whether the GPS options work - but I will try once I get down to Louisville on Friday.

 

I used it for Ironman Wales 2018. I live in hilly Houston Texas. Best Bike Slit projected a 7:05 bike split for me and I did an hour slower 8:05. BBS felt I was a better descender than I truly am and I feel that is where I lost the majority of the time. Also, my front derailleur stopped working on the second lap did not help any. Fortunately, it was stuck in the small chain ring.

Same as the other posters, I did not use the cheat sheet as it was far to long. I rode conservatively as the bike, a Specialized Transition, does not have a power meter.

I subscribed to a three month program at a discounted rate but really do not feel it was worth it. Not much more about it than what Trainer Road provides, which I already subscribe too.


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Once, I was fast. But I got over it.

I used for Ironman Mont Tremblant this year and it ruined my race, the splits were too extreme. Ended up 2 minutes slower than my best time.

2 minutes slower bike split ruined your Ironman race?

I've used BBS for dozens of races in the past, but had always just simplified the power plan in my head and tried to go from memory.

At a 70.3 a month ago, I used the BBS power plan directly on my 520 for the first time. I created the course and power plan in BBS. I exported that file as a course to my 520. I then went to ConnectIQ and downloaded the "BBS Power" data field to the 520. I configured my main riding screen in a way so that my 3 sec avg power was the top field. Then right below it was the "BBS Power" target. It worked flawlessly during the race. The 520 beeped at the beginning if each of the intervals. I just glanced down at the BBS power target being displayed on the 520 and tried to make my 3 sec power match that target power. I can't believe I had not ever done it this way in the past. It was easy peasy.

Well...not everything was perfect. I couldn't follow the BBS plan precisely. This was a 70.3 bike course with 4800 ft of elevation. I screwed up when creating the power targets (or when I chose my gearing). I was planning to cap my power at 260 for short sub-3 minute efforts. That simply wasn't possible. I learned I cannot climb 9-12 percent grades at less than 260 watts in 39-32. Conversely, I couldn't even reach the BBS target during somewhat technical descents. Well, I could have, but I may not have lived through it. As a result of those two issues, my VI was sky high and my actual time was different than my BBS target time.

This is why you need to validate whatever plan you come up with before race day. I went through several iterations of BBS plans for 70.3 CdA and "rode" them in Zwift like regular race sim workouts. After each iteration I'd tweak max 2-min power or IF until I had a plan that I could execute well and run well afterwards. You can't just come up with a plan that you've never tested out before and show up on race day and expect to be able to execute it well, IMO.

I’ve successfully used BBS on my 520 for multiple races. I go over the course and my settings on the website time and again up through the night before the race and make sure weather is accurate. I also import my rides several times to get estimated CdA. My Garmin beeps at me with 200 ft to go before a power change. I’m definitely not perfect at hitting the targets exactly but I am able to be within a couple min for half distance. It’s just math so if your inputs are correct so will be your outcome.

I use the cheat sheet. I tried playing with the connect iq app once, but it didn't work. i also like the simplicity of the cheat sheet.
BBS is close for me as a MOP biker. It was 7 min off (it was faster) for IMMT if you subtract my mechanical down time. I think it was around 10 min off (also faster) when I did IMWI.
I'm also doing Lou this Sunday. Good luck. As long as you pace yourself you'll be fine. Hoping the cooler and slightly wet weather won't be much of a factor.

I don't mean to high jack the thread, but would it also work the other way around?

I did a 13.4km (3 laps in a village center so couple of speed bumps in there etc) TT in August which took me 19'24" (averaged 41.26km/h). Since it took me almost 20' I was interested to see what this would mean my FTP would be since that TT was the only real 20' max. effort I have done this year. Unfortunately I don't have a powermeter on the bike, so I tried using BBS to get an idea of what power I would have averaged. Entered all the weights and setup choices, uploaded the GPX file and weather conditions of that day and time and tried playing around for varying road surface qualities and positions what type of power I would have produced to reach that average speed.

I got powers between 307 and 317W, at a body weight of around 66kg (147 pounds), 170cm (5'7") tall on a small Trek Speed Concept 7.5 with Flo 60/90 combo and with a decent position. Rode in tri suit and aero road helmet (Bontrager Ballista).

Any guesses how close these estimates could/would be? Other guys (although taller, probably slightly heavier but with rear discs, skinsuits and TT helmets) that were on the course together with me posted 327W for 43.1km/h average and 348W for 44.5km/h as a reference.

FWIIW, after a traumatic 5 days trying to work out how to use the software, I have finally managed to understand how it works. I will post on a blog all the mistakes I made to help other old gits but today I did a repeat of the trial test 17 ride and I found it was pretty accurate and helpful. I was not in aero at all (too dangerous with cars ruts etc in Oxfordshire UK rush hour traffic) and my non specific feedback is that the 3 s power is optimal rather than current power but with the 3 second delay you have to anticipate when to push on and ease off just before the target pace. I found the beep on change of split useful but could hardly see the figure for the Watts in the black line at the bottom and will suggest to BBS that this screen is changed and simplified. I found it easy to do too much power going up hills and that is where I think the software is likely to be so good for a long bike ride as in my next one (Frankfurt is 185 k (yes the b****s have INCREASED the mileage - some crap about road works!) as it forces you not to over do it. Just did not seem "right" to be peddling up hill at 8 or 10 kph in and easy gear but if that is what the computer says who am I to argue particularly if you can start the run less knackered. I found it pointless peddling hard down some of the hills as I was going faster that the split demand was with less wattage. All I now need is the wretched IM website at Frankfurt to leave a gpx course that actually works on Garmin and BBS They have changed the link but the file does not work No doubt I will have to do it in person on Thursday evening! Back to this thread, on my Garmin Edge 1130 I think the optimum screen is to have (as another had posted) BBS large (four tenths of the screen) at the top Power 3s underneath on two tenths and in the remaining four tenths put four separate items which in my case would be HR. cadence. Av speed Speed I found that if you swipe to the left twice from your default screen 1 you get to the generic BBS screen which also give the number of metres gone in the split but it is so annoyingly small I did not bother after a while

Chris

Last time I used BBS was for Norseman, which is a pretty unique bike course. Few things I learned and found most interesting -

1) You can choose in BBS what to bound your power plan to; either IF (ratio of NP to FTP) or TSS.
2) If you choose IF it will be relative only to your FTP and take no account of your speed/time on the course. This requires that you know the NP you can hold for the expected duration of the event.
3) If you choose TSS (which makes sense in a way, if the idea is to moderate "physiological work done") it will need to understand your cda pretty well and the expected conditions on the day to estimate how long you will be out there. And not only your cda, but your cda for that course or that kind of elevation profile if there are times when you will be out of aero. Otherwise, if you are out there for more or less time, your TSS will be higher or lower even if you hold the target power.

On point 3) you need to know that the target power is pre-programmed, and static thereafter. It does not adapt in any way based on being ahead or behind schedule, to get your TSS back on track for the duration of the ride if it is other than the predicted time. If you are hitting your numbers but are out there for longer, your TSS will be higher.

For example, at Norseman I was out there on the course for 6:41 vs the BBS (very optimistic) prediction of 6:15. I had decided to bound my plan to TSS with 290 as the target. My NP and IF was absolutely spot on at 181w and 0.68. Because I was out there an extra 26 minutes my TSS was higher than the plan, at 311. Which makes perfect sense as the increase in TSS vs target was in proportion to the actual duration vs target.

I put this down to an inaccurate estimate of my cda both in general and for that course profile. I hadn't fed enough data into BBS for it to have a more accurate model of my power>speed ratio over different gradients, in and out of aero. The only data I had really fed in was from a perfectly flat 100m TT that I rode 98% in aero, but I was up on the pursuit bars rather a lot at Norseman. I also missed the VI a little bit too, but not by a lot.

Or, in summary tl;dr crap data in, crap data out.

Not totally what you were asking about, but I found it pretty interesting.

Cheers, Rich.

 

i use it to determine what average speed i should target for the whole course, and also to get a sense of where the "hard" parts are where i can invest higher effort for a good return.

it's pretty accurate i find.