When I stopped riding my bike some time around June 2011 I was eating pretty terribly for my body and for my health. The health thing that occurred to me was at first a great mystery. I went to literally a dozen specialists and most of them said I was the picture of health. Blood work was normal, EEG, EKG, stress test (heart), all were normal. I even wore the EEG for three days because they thought I had seizure activity on their initial test. In any case, all negative. However, I still felt like I was dying at times, literally. Sometimes I would eat something and it would feel like I was poisoned. Without going into very lengthy detail, I eventually cut out everything but fruits, veggies, and meat and ate a stricter version of the Paleo diet. My diet was actually significantly stricter than that for a while, I started with bone broth and chicken for a month before adding other foods in. The only test that showed any clue to my issue was a food allergy test I took that told me I was allergic to all sorts of things I eat a lot of. In any case, after a few months of strict diet I began to feel better and slowly started to recover. I will most likely write a blog post in gory detail about my health issues, but I want to focus on my diet and how it affects my endurance training these days.
Since switching to Paleo (no grains, no dairy, and no legumes) I have cut out a lot of sources of carbs I was previously eating. Although I have been gluten free for a few years, adding (or removing) everything else was quite a switch. Interestingly, I rarely miss grains except when I think of something like pizza. My only consistent source of carbs these days is apples, some other fruits, and veggies. I cheat and sometimes have some raw sugar in a coffee but that's pretty rare. I usually just have raw honey (or Manuka honey) if I need something sweet. For a while after I got better I was eating a ton of vegan chocolate because I just needed the Paleo vacation after over a year of 100% strict dieting. That being said, now that I am training again (and plan to continue to train throughout the year) I am cutting out the crap and significantly decreasing the booze intake (which I recently ramped up after cutting for 18 months). I'm wondering how good my body is at burning fat as a source of fuel these days.
My first commute home I tried to ride 22 miles with 2000 feet of elevation change and a 20 lbs pack. I bonked hard after about 80 minutes. I rode another 20 in a state of stupor, barely going 5 mph in some places. My new house is at the top of a frickin hill and it's overkill for a first ride to do what I did. What I was worried about, though, is that I bonked after only 80 minutes and I was not hungry. At least I did not feel very hungry. It appears that my relatively low carb diet might be affecting my endurance exercise more than I thought. I have done some long runs (over an hour) on no food and I used to be able to step out the door and ride 2+ hours with no food without a problem. I know there are many Paleo athletes out there that have low carb lifestyles and still are able to train and race competitively. My goal is to eat strict Paleo and still perform for my workouts and races. Let's see how the season progresses.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Back in the Saddle
I'm sure there is a major percentage of cycling blogs that at one point or another do this, so here is my turn.
I have started riding again with the goal of racing CX this season. The first goal is to make it to my team's training camp and not get dropped on the first hill of every day, at least on the "B" ride. Coming off of an 18 month layoff is not as bad as I thought, though. Sure, my power is down and I bonked after 90 minutes on my first ride, but the motivation is really there. I actually have a feeling I will hit PB power numbers this season (altitude adjusted) but that won't be for another 3-4 months.
Speaking of power, my best 20 minute this season is a whopping 204 watts. The caveats are that I was on a trainer, I was not doing an all out effort (2x20s), and I now live at altitude. Regardless, even if I do a "trainer sucks" adjustment and an altitude adjustment, my FTP is at best 210 watts right now. That is about 25% off of my previous best, set sometime around the last time I blogged. This time around I'm not going to post pics because it truly is depressing to be killing myself for 200 watt 20 minute intervals.
This week is my 3rd week on the bike and by the end of the week I hope to do a proper outdoor FTP test, although I'm not really sure what for since I will be most likely doing most of my training on the trainer or on a spin bike. Yes, a spin bike. It's a fancy one, but it's still a spin bike.
So the nice thing about this is that it actually measures power. Well, sorta, it throws some numbers at me that look vaguely correct and consistent. There is no way I can manage to do something like 2x20s or 6x5x1s on this but it is good for Z2, tempo, Tabatas, and even SST (somewhat by RPE but using power to hold the right intensity). The reason I am using the spin bike at all is due to efficiency. It's much much easier to throw on kit, sneakers, and a shirt and go kick my ass on this thing then it is to go for a ride or even set up a bike trainer. I've been doing my trainer rides in the mornings (6:15-7:15 or so) but I can't manage to do that every time I need a workout.
Ah, Tabatas. I have been wondering what to do to get back into fitness. All the traditional plans have me riding base for at least 3-4 weeks before doing any intensity. I decided that for my "A" race this year, which is training camp in March, I'm going to have to get going a lot faster. I tried a bike commute (21 miles one way, 2000 feet of elevation change one direction and 1200 feet the other) and even a half commute (tough to structure some intervals) by driving half way with the bike and riding to and from work but only 10 miles each way. the full commute was miserable. It took me 1:45 to get home the first day at something like 13.1 mph. It was brutal, I bonked, I wanted to throw the bike in the ditch, call momma, the usual. Anyways, it was going to take me to long to get to any sort of fitness the traditional way. I decided Tabatas on the trainer would be the ticket.
Tabatas are quite simple, short lived, but surprisingly difficult if done right. The protocol includes 8 rounds of 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest. That is it, 2:40 of work and 1:20 of rest. One set of Tabatas takes 4 minutes. If you've never done Tabatas, you can do practically anything as a Tabata. Air squats, pushups, jumping rope, sprints, cycling, rowing, skating, etc. The other nice thing about Tabatas is that they scale. What I mean by this is that no matter the individual, if you truly go "all out" during the 20 seconds on you are pretty blasted after one set of Tabatas. For trained individuals, you should be able to take a 5 minute break and do another 2-3 sets (with breaks in between). Getting 4 sets of Tabatas on one day is pretty impressive and even the most fit individuals would get their asses kicked by this workout. The only remaining question is do they work? Tabatas original study synopsis is here:
Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max
Tabata found that both anaerobic and aerobic systems were highly stimulated compared to riding tempo 60 minutes a day. Not a very good test versus a comparison of more modern or more relevant workouts such as 2x20 @ 100% FTP or 6x5x1 @ 106% FTP, however still a valuable result. Since I cannot easily do 2x20 and 6x5x1 at work, I figured shocking my system into shape slightly by doing some Tabatas when I can't do a proper trainer workout is not a terrible experiment. We'll just see how bad I get dropped at training camp!
I have started riding again with the goal of racing CX this season. The first goal is to make it to my team's training camp and not get dropped on the first hill of every day, at least on the "B" ride. Coming off of an 18 month layoff is not as bad as I thought, though. Sure, my power is down and I bonked after 90 minutes on my first ride, but the motivation is really there. I actually have a feeling I will hit PB power numbers this season (altitude adjusted) but that won't be for another 3-4 months.
Speaking of power, my best 20 minute this season is a whopping 204 watts. The caveats are that I was on a trainer, I was not doing an all out effort (2x20s), and I now live at altitude. Regardless, even if I do a "trainer sucks" adjustment and an altitude adjustment, my FTP is at best 210 watts right now. That is about 25% off of my previous best, set sometime around the last time I blogged. This time around I'm not going to post pics because it truly is depressing to be killing myself for 200 watt 20 minute intervals.
This week is my 3rd week on the bike and by the end of the week I hope to do a proper outdoor FTP test, although I'm not really sure what for since I will be most likely doing most of my training on the trainer or on a spin bike. Yes, a spin bike. It's a fancy one, but it's still a spin bike.
Ah, Tabatas. I have been wondering what to do to get back into fitness. All the traditional plans have me riding base for at least 3-4 weeks before doing any intensity. I decided that for my "A" race this year, which is training camp in March, I'm going to have to get going a lot faster. I tried a bike commute (21 miles one way, 2000 feet of elevation change one direction and 1200 feet the other) and even a half commute (tough to structure some intervals) by driving half way with the bike and riding to and from work but only 10 miles each way. the full commute was miserable. It took me 1:45 to get home the first day at something like 13.1 mph. It was brutal, I bonked, I wanted to throw the bike in the ditch, call momma, the usual. Anyways, it was going to take me to long to get to any sort of fitness the traditional way. I decided Tabatas on the trainer would be the ticket.
Tabatas are quite simple, short lived, but surprisingly difficult if done right. The protocol includes 8 rounds of 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest. That is it, 2:40 of work and 1:20 of rest. One set of Tabatas takes 4 minutes. If you've never done Tabatas, you can do practically anything as a Tabata. Air squats, pushups, jumping rope, sprints, cycling, rowing, skating, etc. The other nice thing about Tabatas is that they scale. What I mean by this is that no matter the individual, if you truly go "all out" during the 20 seconds on you are pretty blasted after one set of Tabatas. For trained individuals, you should be able to take a 5 minute break and do another 2-3 sets (with breaks in between). Getting 4 sets of Tabatas on one day is pretty impressive and even the most fit individuals would get their asses kicked by this workout. The only remaining question is do they work? Tabatas original study synopsis is here:
Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max
Tabata found that both anaerobic and aerobic systems were highly stimulated compared to riding tempo 60 minutes a day. Not a very good test versus a comparison of more modern or more relevant workouts such as 2x20 @ 100% FTP or 6x5x1 @ 106% FTP, however still a valuable result. Since I cannot easily do 2x20 and 6x5x1 at work, I figured shocking my system into shape slightly by doing some Tabatas when I can't do a proper trainer workout is not a terrible experiment. We'll just see how bad I get dropped at training camp!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Training Update - FTP Work
Had two heavy days of FTP work thrown in between getting work (that pays the bills) done. I've been finding some time to train and making the best of it, although I'm still at a sub 90 CTL. I don't think that is going to go up this season, every time I produce more kJ for the week my FTP estimate has gone up and my CTL is lower.
The whole reason why I'm working on my FTP is to actually not be DFL in time trials this season. My previous season I was able to get some wins by sneaking away while no one was looking. That might work in crits but it sure as hell is not going to work in road races and time trials. My lack of power was evident whenever it was me against the clock, usually finishing in the bottom 20% of all racers in my category. Cat 4s. Yes, my time trialing is that pathetic.
Well, time to bust out my e-wang. Right now my FTP is about 280 if I use my best 20 minute power and take 95%. Today I think I proved it to myself by doing my first set of 3x20s ever, and really nailing the third 20 minute effort at 290 watts and using a pretty solid negative split of 284/296. I know I could have gone better and it was the third set of 60 minutes of FTP work today, so 280 is pretty realistic as an FTP with which to set training zones by. That means my 6x5x1s need to get up to about 302-305 watts, which is doable considering yesterday I did them at 300 watts average over the 6 intervals, +- 3 watts variation between reps.
Anyways, that puts me at 4.21 W/Kg. Not that great, but better than ever for me and also within reach of 4.5 W/Kg for Washington County. I'm dropping weight pretty well at about 1.5 lbs per week since laying off the sauce, something I'm sticking to for the next few months. Another 12-15 watts FTP and 3 lbs and I'm at 4.5. the 3 lbs is going to be easy, the 12-15 watts not so much. I basically only have one more build cycle before TofWC and another 5% increase is really pushing it. One day if I get to 4.75 I'll stop posting my numbers or just grossly exaggerating them :)
Anyways, here are the two workouts... Pretty pictures.
The 3x20s showed an interesting trend. Here are the splits for each set and also the cadence for each split.
Interval 1: 281W/288W = 285W
97 rpm/95 rpm
Interval 2: 278W/284W = 281W
93 rpm/91 rpm
My cadence seems to be dropping as I get tired. I'm happy to see I'm still above 90 rpm when I thought I was grinding away at 75 rpm.
The whole reason why I'm working on my FTP is to actually not be DFL in time trials this season. My previous season I was able to get some wins by sneaking away while no one was looking. That might work in crits but it sure as hell is not going to work in road races and time trials. My lack of power was evident whenever it was me against the clock, usually finishing in the bottom 20% of all racers in my category. Cat 4s. Yes, my time trialing is that pathetic.
Well, time to bust out my e-wang. Right now my FTP is about 280 if I use my best 20 minute power and take 95%. Today I think I proved it to myself by doing my first set of 3x20s ever, and really nailing the third 20 minute effort at 290 watts and using a pretty solid negative split of 284/296. I know I could have gone better and it was the third set of 60 minutes of FTP work today, so 280 is pretty realistic as an FTP with which to set training zones by. That means my 6x5x1s need to get up to about 302-305 watts, which is doable considering yesterday I did them at 300 watts average over the 6 intervals, +- 3 watts variation between reps.
Anyways, that puts me at 4.21 W/Kg. Not that great, but better than ever for me and also within reach of 4.5 W/Kg for Washington County. I'm dropping weight pretty well at about 1.5 lbs per week since laying off the sauce, something I'm sticking to for the next few months. Another 12-15 watts FTP and 3 lbs and I'm at 4.5. the 3 lbs is going to be easy, the 12-15 watts not so much. I basically only have one more build cycle before TofWC and another 5% increase is really pushing it. One day if I get to 4.75 I'll stop posting my numbers or just grossly exaggerating them :)
Anyways, here are the two workouts... Pretty pictures.
 |
| 298W/298W/301W/303W/300W/302W = 300W Average |
The 3x20s showed an interesting trend. Here are the splits for each set and also the cadence for each split.
Interval 1: 281W/288W = 285W
97 rpm/95 rpm
Interval 2: 278W/284W = 281W
93 rpm/91 rpm
Interval 3: 284W/296W = 290W
90 rpm/89 rpm
My cadence seems to be dropping as I get tired. I'm happy to see I'm still above 90 rpm when I thought I was grinding away at 75 rpm.
 |
| 285W/281W/290W - Negative Splits! |
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Jefferson Cup Race Report and Analysis
Jeff Cup was a lot of fun this year... more fun racing it than last year, although my result sucked I was overall pleased with how the race went. I guess it's a good thing I didn't have every high expectations and was looking at this as a "training" race. I went into it with pretty sore legs, having missed my Tuesday workout and essential riding very hard Wed/Thu/Fri before the race with about 350 TSS for those 3 days. Nothing major, but I'm only doing about 500-700 TSS per week so it was a decent block.
The race started out very fast and part of that was my fault. I was pushing the pace, knowing what I was doing was stupid. However, there was a number of us working at the front trying to catch folks off guard. Honestly, for a 60 mile 3/4 race it was too much too early. I did 250+ watts for the first 10-12 minutes, which is not much but definitely wakes up the legs quickly.
For 3 laps I tried to pedal 0s as much as possible and was pretty successful doing 0-5 watts for over 30% of the time for those laps. Furthermore, I was able to move from the back of the pack to the front in about 10 seconds due to the rolling enclosure and the fact that there was only 50 or so riders at this point.
At one point, I go OTF after counterattacking a break attempt that had just been caught. I dangle about 15 seconds in front of the pack and decide since no one is coming to join me, I'll sit up and wait. Decent sized match was burned attempting this. After that I decide to sit in and wait for the field sprint, nothing was getting more than 200 hundred yards up the road if that before the group chases it down. The racing was pretty negative the whole day. The reason why 3/4 races end up as bunch sprints 90% of the time is because no one lets a break form and when they do, some dumbass drags the whole pack up to the break thinking they are "attacking" or "bridging". One guy pulled a break back (only guy on his team in the race, by the way), looks at me, and goes "We got em, you can thank me for that!" I just rolled my eyes at the guy...
Well, after I had all buy given up, Avery Wilson (a fast junior) goes OTF with one lap to go. Immediately an All American Bicycling Club guy goes with him. I knew this move had a chance. So, I actually attack when the break is 50 meters up the road to make sure it doesn't drag the pack up to them. I put out my peak wattage for this attack, and it worked. I made it to the break and recovered for a minute before working. Within 5 minutes we were out of sight of the pack and had probably 30 seconds or more! It was the winning move, I could feel it. We were working really well together and I was pulling us up the final climb, feeling great, when the moto ref told us to pull over so the 1/2/3 field could pass us. Argh!!!! Ok, not a big deal... he says we have 30 seconds on the group. "Ok... " we say, "but how do you know?", they haven't even made the turn onto the climb and we are more than half way up, almost over the top. He says they checked it and it was 30 seconds and they will keep that gap. Still, 30 seconds is pretty good since we are out of sight.
We wait 5 minutes, the 1/2/3 field goes by, and then the 3/4 field starts coming up the climb. The ref had told us they would bring them up to us and then stop them and recreate the 30 second gap. Well, when the field is 1/3rd of the way up the climb and about 15 seconds from us, the other moto ref yells at us to go! We complain but he just yells "Go Go Go!!" Great... now we are in sight and the pack has momentum coming up the climb.
Well, long story short, we got caught, I recovered, was 5th wheel going around the final turn, and then blew up on the "sprint to the sprint" with 1k to go. Really what happened is my motivation went out the window. In retrospect I might have finished in the points if I didn't sit up.
Anyways, here is the ride file for the race with some comments.
The race started out very fast and part of that was my fault. I was pushing the pace, knowing what I was doing was stupid. However, there was a number of us working at the front trying to catch folks off guard. Honestly, for a 60 mile 3/4 race it was too much too early. I did 250+ watts for the first 10-12 minutes, which is not much but definitely wakes up the legs quickly.
For 3 laps I tried to pedal 0s as much as possible and was pretty successful doing 0-5 watts for over 30% of the time for those laps. Furthermore, I was able to move from the back of the pack to the front in about 10 seconds due to the rolling enclosure and the fact that there was only 50 or so riders at this point.
At one point, I go OTF after counterattacking a break attempt that had just been caught. I dangle about 15 seconds in front of the pack and decide since no one is coming to join me, I'll sit up and wait. Decent sized match was burned attempting this. After that I decide to sit in and wait for the field sprint, nothing was getting more than 200 hundred yards up the road if that before the group chases it down. The racing was pretty negative the whole day. The reason why 3/4 races end up as bunch sprints 90% of the time is because no one lets a break form and when they do, some dumbass drags the whole pack up to the break thinking they are "attacking" or "bridging". One guy pulled a break back (only guy on his team in the race, by the way), looks at me, and goes "We got em, you can thank me for that!" I just rolled my eyes at the guy...
Well, after I had all buy given up, Avery Wilson (a fast junior) goes OTF with one lap to go. Immediately an All American Bicycling Club guy goes with him. I knew this move had a chance. So, I actually attack when the break is 50 meters up the road to make sure it doesn't drag the pack up to them. I put out my peak wattage for this attack, and it worked. I made it to the break and recovered for a minute before working. Within 5 minutes we were out of sight of the pack and had probably 30 seconds or more! It was the winning move, I could feel it. We were working really well together and I was pulling us up the final climb, feeling great, when the moto ref told us to pull over so the 1/2/3 field could pass us. Argh!!!! Ok, not a big deal... he says we have 30 seconds on the group. "Ok... " we say, "but how do you know?", they haven't even made the turn onto the climb and we are more than half way up, almost over the top. He says they checked it and it was 30 seconds and they will keep that gap. Still, 30 seconds is pretty good since we are out of sight.
We wait 5 minutes, the 1/2/3 field goes by, and then the 3/4 field starts coming up the climb. The ref had told us they would bring them up to us and then stop them and recreate the 30 second gap. Well, when the field is 1/3rd of the way up the climb and about 15 seconds from us, the other moto ref yells at us to go! We complain but he just yells "Go Go Go!!" Great... now we are in sight and the pack has momentum coming up the climb.
Well, long story short, we got caught, I recovered, was 5th wheel going around the final turn, and then blew up on the "sprint to the sprint" with 1k to go. Really what happened is my motivation went out the window. In retrospect I might have finished in the points if I didn't sit up.
Anyways, here is the ride file for the race with some comments.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Status Report - 6x5'x'1 Efficacy Update
I haven't done an official 20 minute FTP test in a long time. The last couple of times in previous seasons went so badly. Had I set my training zones based on those numbers I'd be doing VO2 workouts at base. Therefore, I traditionally used NP for hour long hard group rides to estimate my zones.
Well, after several weeks of 6x5s it looks like my ability to TT is actually beginning to match my VO2 capacity. After an easy weekend with only an hour of racing I felt a little flat today but after 15 minutes of warmup decided to try a 20 minute all out effort just for the hell of it. My previous 20 minute best was 3 seasons ago and only 278 watts. Here is today's workout.
Negative split 288/296 and still felt like I had a lot to give. Probably should have kept going as long as I could, but for now I'm still surprised I was able to hit my first real goal of 290 Watts. This puts my FTP at greater than 275, which puts my power to weight at the 4 W/kg mark!
I also like the fact that I averaged 23.9 MPH on a windy day on a road bike. I really hope this transfers to the time trial bike, I have some stage races to go to this year.
I'm beginning to think a 315 Watt 20 minute (and 300 Watt FTP) is completely achievable this season.
Hurray 6x5s!!
Well, after several weeks of 6x5s it looks like my ability to TT is actually beginning to match my VO2 capacity. After an easy weekend with only an hour of racing I felt a little flat today but after 15 minutes of warmup decided to try a 20 minute all out effort just for the hell of it. My previous 20 minute best was 3 seasons ago and only 278 watts. Here is today's workout.
Negative split 288/296 and still felt like I had a lot to give. Probably should have kept going as long as I could, but for now I'm still surprised I was able to hit my first real goal of 290 Watts. This puts my FTP at greater than 275, which puts my power to weight at the 4 W/kg mark!
I also like the fact that I averaged 23.9 MPH on a windy day on a road bike. I really hope this transfers to the time trial bike, I have some stage races to go to this year.
I'm beginning to think a 315 Watt 20 minute (and 300 Watt FTP) is completely achievable this season.
Hurray 6x5s!!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Fulton Category 3/4 Race Report
Taken from my club forum:
A couple of us - Jeff Erler, Luis, Brian Meadowcroft, and myself - went up to "Peach Bottom" PA this weekend to race in the cat 3/4 road race. With a name like Peach Bottom it was hard to resist. What I thought was going to be a rolling, mellow course ended up being one of the hardest road race courses I've done.
As usual, we spent some time talking about cassette choices, the course profile, strategy, and tactics. Little did we know that a lot of that would go out the window once we saw the course! We showed up almost 2 hours early to see the start of the women's open and the 4/5 race. I'm still not sure whether the decision to pre-drive the course after the 4/5s was a good idea, but off we went to check it out. At this point the 4/5 race had 7-8 minutes on us and we knew we'd catch them and pass any stragglers. Barely 2-3 miles into the course, the carnage was already becoming apparent as we were seeing popped riders hanging off the back of the pack and unable to catch back on. Long story short, probably 25% of the 4/5s were dropped on the first lap. This course was muuuuch harder than the course profile suggested. It was very intimidating just to drive the damn thing, riding it was going to suck big time! There was one great part of the ride, which was at the top of one of the climbs - as one of the dropped riders was suffering off the back, a group of dogs came up and started nipping at his heels while he was in the red zone! Awesome image, you had to be there to get the full hilariousness of the situation. I was tempted to bark out the window as we drove by the poor guy.
As we lined up for the race, the self deprecating excuses starts in earnest - no one was very confident they will be finishing this one. It seemed like it would be a race of attrition and as we rolled off, mood was great but confidence was not particularly high.
The race starts on some nice rollers and I begin paying attention to who is in the race. The main person I was marking was Jeremy who now rides for Haymarket, so I was trying to stay near the front and near his wheel. Although I can't really follow him if he really wants to go, he does not always get tactics right and it's possible to stay close. The four of us, Luis, Jeff, Brian, and I were all pretty much together for the first part of the lap, but in short order the center line rule was ignored and people were shooting up the far left side of the course and all came around me. I did not want to be at the back of the pack up the climbs but looks like I would be.
After the doing the first lap it was very clear that the course is as hard as we thought! I put down personal best 2 minute power pretty much each time up the main climb. The other climb wasn't a slouch either, I actually think it did more damage because if you were close to the rivet the false flat that followed would pop you.
A couple more laps into the race, and I was sure that the next time up a climb would be my last. As I looked around, the group was shrinking each lap but somehow managed to stay with it. Overall the pace of the race was not fast, with a couple of moves going off the front here and there. I did not have the confidence to try and bridge and one time Luis went off the front and I at least went to the front and controlled the pace of the race. I would rotate into the front and just ride tempo, when people came around I let them gap me so that others were forced to move around me. Yeah, a little cheap but the point was to let a break get established and not just have the regular old race. Jeremy tried to "bridge" up to about 5 different small groups but instead dragged the whole pack with him... sigh.
By the time the last lap came around, though, I was getting more confident and moved to the front and began to really watch my position. On the last climb there was three off the front that we probably wouldn't catch and the chase group split into 3 different groups. I ended up in the 2nd group and accelerated out of it after recovering a bit, making sure not to let anyone sit on my wheel. I reached the front chase group and started to position myself for the sprint. I knew people would go too early, and when everyone jumped out of the saddle I stayed seated and in their drafts until the last 50m or so and sprinted for 5th in the group, 8th in the race. Pretty happy with that result given my winter training and how much more season is in front of us. One place out of the points but $30 richer! Luis bagged 18th and although he was disappointed, I think he's doing awesome this season and will have his podium finishes really soon.
Overall, this is a great race, highly recommended. Next year I'll play around in some of the breaks of the front for sure.
A couple of us - Jeff Erler, Luis, Brian Meadowcroft, and myself - went up to "Peach Bottom" PA this weekend to race in the cat 3/4 road race. With a name like Peach Bottom it was hard to resist. What I thought was going to be a rolling, mellow course ended up being one of the hardest road race courses I've done.
As usual, we spent some time talking about cassette choices, the course profile, strategy, and tactics. Little did we know that a lot of that would go out the window once we saw the course! We showed up almost 2 hours early to see the start of the women's open and the 4/5 race. I'm still not sure whether the decision to pre-drive the course after the 4/5s was a good idea, but off we went to check it out. At this point the 4/5 race had 7-8 minutes on us and we knew we'd catch them and pass any stragglers. Barely 2-3 miles into the course, the carnage was already becoming apparent as we were seeing popped riders hanging off the back of the pack and unable to catch back on. Long story short, probably 25% of the 4/5s were dropped on the first lap. This course was muuuuch harder than the course profile suggested. It was very intimidating just to drive the damn thing, riding it was going to suck big time! There was one great part of the ride, which was at the top of one of the climbs - as one of the dropped riders was suffering off the back, a group of dogs came up and started nipping at his heels while he was in the red zone! Awesome image, you had to be there to get the full hilariousness of the situation. I was tempted to bark out the window as we drove by the poor guy.
As we lined up for the race, the self deprecating excuses starts in earnest - no one was very confident they will be finishing this one. It seemed like it would be a race of attrition and as we rolled off, mood was great but confidence was not particularly high.
The race starts on some nice rollers and I begin paying attention to who is in the race. The main person I was marking was Jeremy who now rides for Haymarket, so I was trying to stay near the front and near his wheel. Although I can't really follow him if he really wants to go, he does not always get tactics right and it's possible to stay close. The four of us, Luis, Jeff, Brian, and I were all pretty much together for the first part of the lap, but in short order the center line rule was ignored and people were shooting up the far left side of the course and all came around me. I did not want to be at the back of the pack up the climbs but looks like I would be.
After the doing the first lap it was very clear that the course is as hard as we thought! I put down personal best 2 minute power pretty much each time up the main climb. The other climb wasn't a slouch either, I actually think it did more damage because if you were close to the rivet the false flat that followed would pop you.
A couple more laps into the race, and I was sure that the next time up a climb would be my last. As I looked around, the group was shrinking each lap but somehow managed to stay with it. Overall the pace of the race was not fast, with a couple of moves going off the front here and there. I did not have the confidence to try and bridge and one time Luis went off the front and I at least went to the front and controlled the pace of the race. I would rotate into the front and just ride tempo, when people came around I let them gap me so that others were forced to move around me. Yeah, a little cheap but the point was to let a break get established and not just have the regular old race. Jeremy tried to "bridge" up to about 5 different small groups but instead dragged the whole pack with him... sigh.
By the time the last lap came around, though, I was getting more confident and moved to the front and began to really watch my position. On the last climb there was three off the front that we probably wouldn't catch and the chase group split into 3 different groups. I ended up in the 2nd group and accelerated out of it after recovering a bit, making sure not to let anyone sit on my wheel. I reached the front chase group and started to position myself for the sprint. I knew people would go too early, and when everyone jumped out of the saddle I stayed seated and in their drafts until the last 50m or so and sprinted for 5th in the group, 8th in the race. Pretty happy with that result given my winter training and how much more season is in front of us. One place out of the points but $30 richer! Luis bagged 18th and although he was disappointed, I think he's doing awesome this season and will have his podium finishes really soon.
Overall, this is a great race, highly recommended. Next year I'll play around in some of the breaks of the front for sure.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Boom #2
Today's workout was a repeat of the last several weeks, a 5x5'x'5 set @ 115%-118% FTP. This means that if my FTP is set correctly, I should be doing them at around 305-312 watts. My latest thing is to definitely value quality over quantity, and this was another instance of following that philosophy.
The first interval was lower than I'd hoped but still on target @ 310 watts. Last week I started with one at 310 as well, so things looks ok.
Just to compare, this was last week's workout:
310/315/315/308/312 Watts
Well, this week, 2 minutes into my second interval, the lights just went out. It could have been mental at that moment, but my legs were just screaming and I could not get the wattage above 300 for any period of time. After 2 mins, I lost my willpower and bailed. After looking at the power for the first 2 min it wasn't terrible at 303 watts, but I knew I was going to blow up. I rode home and actually struggled to maintain 160-180 watts and rode at more like 125 for the remainder of the ride, 30 minutes or so.
Last week I went into this workout with much less fatigue in the legs, and most likely that made the difference. While I had 3 days off the bike completely last week, I have been on the bike since Friday, making that 7 days in a row. Time to recover again according to my new technique and avoidance of junk miles. No scheduled rest weeks, just reacting to my ability to complete my exercises. Last season and every season before that, I would have stayed out for another hour or so and probably ridden harder even though my legs were sore. This way I hope tomorrow's opener goes well and I am fresher for Fulton RR up in "Peach Bottom" PA. Love that name.
So, boom #2 in my new training philosophy happened today, hopefully I can slowly learn how to adjust my workouts and intensity to manage this well. I assume that as I continue to train and recover sufficiently, I will be able to take on more and more TSS per week. Right now I'm averaging what looks like 650 TSS per week, my CTL has gone up from 32 to 81 in 6 weeks and it's still climbing. Last season when I got to 100 CTL I blew up, so I'm wondering if I can hold that this season. Either way, I'm not going to force TSS down my throat for the sake of TSS. This week will likely be light since I missed most of today's workout, tomorrow is just an opener, and I'm not riding Sunday.
The first interval was lower than I'd hoped but still on target @ 310 watts. Last week I started with one at 310 as well, so things looks ok.
Just to compare, this was last week's workout:
310/315/315/308/312 Watts
Well, this week, 2 minutes into my second interval, the lights just went out. It could have been mental at that moment, but my legs were just screaming and I could not get the wattage above 300 for any period of time. After 2 mins, I lost my willpower and bailed. After looking at the power for the first 2 min it wasn't terrible at 303 watts, but I knew I was going to blow up. I rode home and actually struggled to maintain 160-180 watts and rode at more like 125 for the remainder of the ride, 30 minutes or so.
Last week I went into this workout with much less fatigue in the legs, and most likely that made the difference. While I had 3 days off the bike completely last week, I have been on the bike since Friday, making that 7 days in a row. Time to recover again according to my new technique and avoidance of junk miles. No scheduled rest weeks, just reacting to my ability to complete my exercises. Last season and every season before that, I would have stayed out for another hour or so and probably ridden harder even though my legs were sore. This way I hope tomorrow's opener goes well and I am fresher for Fulton RR up in "Peach Bottom" PA. Love that name.
So, boom #2 in my new training philosophy happened today, hopefully I can slowly learn how to adjust my workouts and intensity to manage this well. I assume that as I continue to train and recover sufficiently, I will be able to take on more and more TSS per week. Right now I'm averaging what looks like 650 TSS per week, my CTL has gone up from 32 to 81 in 6 weeks and it's still climbing. Last season when I got to 100 CTL I blew up, so I'm wondering if I can hold that this season. Either way, I'm not going to force TSS down my throat for the sake of TSS. This week will likely be light since I missed most of today's workout, tomorrow is just an opener, and I'm not riding Sunday.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Junk Miles
One of the nice things about a power meter is it's very good at telling you when you are wasting time on the bike. By wasting time, I just mean not enough adaptation for either the time or the effort. For instance, you are wasting the limited training time you have on miles that won't make you stronger. Even worse, you are leaving enough residual fatigue in your legs that you don't recover from the previous workout and then can't do your "hard" workout the following day either. I first read about this from Friel a few years ago, but like most self coached cyclists I didn't truly follow my own advice. Most published coaches, as far as I can tell, refer to tempo or Z3 as the junk miles zone. This is where I think it's an oversimplification for the sake of the reader. Using the definition I gave above, there is nothing wrong with a 2-3 hour tempo ride if you make it hard enough. Some people call the upper tempo training zones as Sweet Spot Training and as long as you are going hard enough for long enough it could be an appropriate training zone. I'm not going to talk to SST here since there is plenty of good literature on that by the FasCat guys.
http://www.fascatcoaching.com/?site_id=1060&page_id=34778&id_sub=34778
http://www.fascatcoaching.com/?site_id=1060&page_id=34129&id_sub=34129
You can define and scope the definition of junk miles even further than this, though. Depending on the build period you are on and when your A races are happening, a lot of miles that would otherwise be appropriate training become junk miles. For instance, doing anaerobic work in November is worthless unless you are racing cross. That's not to say you shouldn't do any intensity, but targeted VO2 work would be wasted 4 months from your first race of the season. Same goes for endurance riding like Z2. If you have 10 hours a week of training, Z2, even during base season, is a complete waste of time. A lot of people will disagree with me, but I would argue that the mainstream coaching community is coming around to this realization as well. If you have 10 hours a week and you want to raise your endurance, right high tempo steady state SST rides as much as you can. You simply do not get enough fatigue from riding Z2 10 hours a week to maximize your time on the bike. It's similar to the whole "fat burning zone" argument. Sure, if you jog slow for an hour you will burn more fat proportionally to carbohydrates, however if you run really hard for an hour you will burn so many more calories that you will actual burn more fat too! You can get endurance based adaptation without riding Z2 is the bottom line.
The reason I'm posting about this is because I can very accurately determine how many miles a week I ride that don't contribute to my intended fitness goals. The power meter, combined with WKO+, allows a detailed analysis of your rides throughout a build period. I'm riding many less hours this year but my junk mile ratio has gone down significantly. Hopefully I can carry this through the whole season, but so far so good, less TSS per week, better fitness gains, and overall less fatigue and therefore less chance of burnout. I think my biggest contributor to burnout was all the junk miles I spent commuting, thinking that the "intervals" I was doing were helping. This whole premise actually fits in rather nicely with my previous post "Anatomy of a Failed Interval" in which I explain my philosophy for this season (that I borrowed) of using a failed workout as a barometer for the need for rest. I'm sure I will be adapting this as the season progresses and my legs make up my mind for me.
http://www.fascatcoaching.com/?site_id=1060&page_id=34778&id_sub=34778
http://www.fascatcoaching.com/?site_id=1060&page_id=34129&id_sub=34129
You can define and scope the definition of junk miles even further than this, though. Depending on the build period you are on and when your A races are happening, a lot of miles that would otherwise be appropriate training become junk miles. For instance, doing anaerobic work in November is worthless unless you are racing cross. That's not to say you shouldn't do any intensity, but targeted VO2 work would be wasted 4 months from your first race of the season. Same goes for endurance riding like Z2. If you have 10 hours a week of training, Z2, even during base season, is a complete waste of time. A lot of people will disagree with me, but I would argue that the mainstream coaching community is coming around to this realization as well. If you have 10 hours a week and you want to raise your endurance, right high tempo steady state SST rides as much as you can. You simply do not get enough fatigue from riding Z2 10 hours a week to maximize your time on the bike. It's similar to the whole "fat burning zone" argument. Sure, if you jog slow for an hour you will burn more fat proportionally to carbohydrates, however if you run really hard for an hour you will burn so many more calories that you will actual burn more fat too! You can get endurance based adaptation without riding Z2 is the bottom line.
The reason I'm posting about this is because I can very accurately determine how many miles a week I ride that don't contribute to my intended fitness goals. The power meter, combined with WKO+, allows a detailed analysis of your rides throughout a build period. I'm riding many less hours this year but my junk mile ratio has gone down significantly. Hopefully I can carry this through the whole season, but so far so good, less TSS per week, better fitness gains, and overall less fatigue and therefore less chance of burnout. I think my biggest contributor to burnout was all the junk miles I spent commuting, thinking that the "intervals" I was doing were helping. This whole premise actually fits in rather nicely with my previous post "Anatomy of a Failed Interval" in which I explain my philosophy for this season (that I borrowed) of using a failed workout as a barometer for the need for rest. I'm sure I will be adapting this as the season progresses and my legs make up my mind for me.
Monday, April 4, 2011
VO2 Interval Progression
I’ve been seeing very solid steady improvement during my VO2 sets lately. My weapon of choice for the last build cycle was 5x5’x5’ at 112-115%. Although I’m sure not all of the gains are from actual fitness, I’m surprised by how much they have gone up 3 weeks in a row. Here is the progression:
March 17th: 283W/283W/280W/286W/283W = 283W Average
March 25th: 303W/302W/299W/305W/303W = 302.4 Average
April 1st: 310W/315W/314W/308W/312W = 311.8 Average
That’s almost 10 Watts per week gain on these. Although the first round on March 17th was slightly under estimated (I came out of doing these a little too fresh I think) the next two rounds were very painful. I could barely make it home after the 2nd one and the 3rd one really hurt as well.
This week will be a true test since I’m coming off 3 days of rest last week, totally of the bike Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Although this weekend’s workouts were quite hard (SST and 2x20’ FTP work) I’m still thinking I’m more rested this week and ready to really go hard on the 5x5’x5’s. I thought about switching up to another VO2 workout I’m curious what kind of gains I can see this week. If I hit 320 watts average for the 5 intervals I know I’m onto something good.
Here's how a 5x5'x5' looks in WKO+.
Here's how a 5x5'x5' looks in WKO+.
Not commuting to work on the bike is really lowering my junk miles significantly. It’s most likely the reason I’m able to get a quality 10-12 hours a week and see such gains.
On a side note, this weekend was the first successful set of 2x20’s in over a season. I hate steady state intervals and I was able to complete both @ exactly FTP. I will shoot for 102-105% FTP next time for maximum adaptation, but just doing them @ FTP is putting a smile on my face for now.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Anatomy of a Failed Interval
For a couple of weeks now, I have not taken an official rest week typical of periodic training plans. It certainly makes sense that after a period of build weeks you should plan some recovery. However, I’ve found that it is impossible or at least difficult to plan weeks ahead of time your rest and builds. The overall structure of your season can certainly be estimated and planned, but how your body and your life come together during training greatly determines the specifics of that plan. Most coaches following the periodic build approach recommend 3-4 weeks of build and one week of recovery. Typically this is about half the overall training stress of your biggest week in your build cycle. In a perfect world, I’m guessing this approach works very well. The problem with this is that it makes significant assumptions about how well the training has gone and how much fatigue your body has actually built up. This is where having a way to measure training load and fatigue directly is key in determining a need for recovery time.
It’s often said that you only recover when you rest. This is true, however balancing that with a loss of fitness or potential for better adaption through training is the end goal. Personally, I feel like I can never find that balance. On one end I’m either undertraining or not allowing myself to have enough quality workouts due to too much intensity close together. My hard workouts suffer and become junk miles for the sake of miles, which don’t do anything for my fitness but still keep me fatigued. Nothing new here, this is probably the most discussed topic in amateur cycling.
I mentioned having a way to measure fatigue and training load is essential to managing this balance. Some people can do it by feel and a workout points system with much success. I would say that a lot of the strongest riders I know manage to do this really well, by assigning points to workouts by difficulty, listening to their body, and modifying their plan accordingly. Again, this does not work for me and I just can’t achieve that balance. This is where training with power comes to the rescue. I’ve been using it for a few years but this season I’m using it to its potential and I’m finding a big difference in my growth and fitness. Instead of going into training with power, I’m just going to tie it back into the discussion around finding the appropriate time to recover.
After taking the entire base season more or less off the bike except for maybe 2-3 hours a week, I came back to training with a vengeance. After 5-6 weeks of upping my training load, I was beginning to feel like I could keep going forever! I was able to hit all of my intervals and workouts and made every training goal. I knew I needed to recover eventually, but I decided to keep going until my power meter told me it’s time to rest. Usually this is done by looking at CTL and ATL and the hours on the bike and sticking to the plan. However, since I was already outside 3 week build cycle I needed something else to use as an indicator.
On Tuesday, that indicator came in the form of a failed interval. On my 6th interval of my 6x5’x’1 FTP workout, I blew up about 3:00 minutes into it. Here is the WKO+ file showing the workout.
The first five intervals were fine, although I did overreach on the first one. The last one was a complete detonation. This is the indicator I was looking for to tell me it's time to rest. The last three weeks when I've done this exact workout (at different power levels do to improved fitness) I've been able to nail it and also feel great afterwards. The cumulative fatigue had built up in my legs and I was barely able to limp home after the workout.
Perhaps I overreached on the first few intervals and this was the cause, or I'm coming down with something, or otherwise fatigued, however it does not matter too much. Over the next two days I could feel how tired my body was overall and it's the first time in a few weeks I felt like moving my legs was just too physically demanding. I also felt that deep ache in the legs associated with training that becomes junk miles if I train on it. So I have taken the time to recover over the last two days and tonight I can feel the legs waking back up and ready for the next intervals and my next build cycle. Instead of forcing a schedule on my training, I'm allowing my body to dictate my build cycles. Sure, it's tough to plan for a peak and A race this way, but that's where I would compromise and do a little bit of both while maintaining peak, quality workouts during the rest of the time.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Back in the Saddle
Obviously an overused idiom but I'm not feeling particularly clever at the moment...
The end of last season was not enjoyable for some reason. Although I was able to accomplish my goals for the season (MABRA criterium champion, upgraded to 3) and more, I still felt somewhat unhappy about the bike. Not sure whether it was burnout or simply boredom, but when work dialed it up to 11 it shattered the last part of my season and winter training.
Fast forward a couple of months and things are looking better. After training camp and one race in the legs I'm actually feeling like this season might be salvageable. Although originally my goals for this year would be to make category 2, over winter they just turned into "build for 2012". However, my last few weeks of training are making me think that although cat2 might be a stretch this season, hopefully something better than just "riding around" is achievable.
First some numbers:
Feb 25rd 2011
CTL: 32.1
TSB: 19.9
FTP: 240
Weight/BF: 160.5 lbs, 22%
March 27th
CTL: 77.7
TSB: -43.7
FTP: 260
Weight/BF: 153.0 lbs, 16.5%
Although I haven't been putting in a ton of hours, I've been much more structured this season with the intervals and it seems to be working. Last season I did a lot of my training while commuting, and although I tried to work in intervals, I think I ended up with lots of junk miles, long hours on the bike, and lousy recovery and adaptation. This season I'm lowering the hours on the bike but making most workouts structured. My bread and butter right now is 6x5'x'1 @ 108% and 5x5'x5' @ 115% intervals. I'm really hoping the 6x5'x1' pay off, I did it a few times last season and always felt stronger on race weekends following that regiment. The explanation for these intervals is here:
"The goal is complete slow twitch fiber recruitment. I assume that results in the greatest gains. Simply put, the effort sustainable for 20 minutes straight (let alone 2x20) is below the level at which maximal slow fiber recruitment is achieved, while still adding extreme levels of fatigue. A more effective method is to use shorter intervals at slightly higher intensity, with shorter recovery between intervals. 105-110% FTP seems to be about right based on what I saw. Intervals should be in the 5 minute range. We did 8 of them, with 1 minute recovery between each. The number of intervals is what should increase, not the length of interval. The first two or three feel ok (as the first 10 minutes in a 2x20 would), the last ones get hard. You will work you over every bit as much as a 2x20 or 3x20 session, but apparently with bigger gains.
Now the numbers: I saw two studies, the first putting cyclists through 14 weeks of 2x20's. Total gains: 2.2% at threshold. The second had cyclists do only 7 weeks of the shorter intervals and saw a 7.9% increase in power at threshold. That's pretty huge. The fact that it was this particular guy showing me the studies and advocating the approach pretty much sealed the deal for me. He said there are others but he only had the two on hand."
The intervals were later modified to 6x5'x1' and I know why, usually that 6th interval drains the tank. If I can do more I will, but 6 seems to be a good number. The physiological reason for the success of these intervals as FTP trainers is based on the 1 minute recovery, not enough to recover your anaerobic capacity but enough to keep draining your aerobic and pulling your threshold up. I plan on using these along with SST @ 92% and 2x20s at FTP to keep bumping the threshold up. My VO2 workouts (5x5'x5' @ 115%) are working great in the sense that I am able to nail them and still feel like I could do more, recovery is quite good.
Oh, and as a last thing, I am doing Crossfit 2-3 times a week and I think that is helping a lot with the VO2 stuff. I think I might write down some stuff about how that is going as well.
The end of last season was not enjoyable for some reason. Although I was able to accomplish my goals for the season (MABRA criterium champion, upgraded to 3) and more, I still felt somewhat unhappy about the bike. Not sure whether it was burnout or simply boredom, but when work dialed it up to 11 it shattered the last part of my season and winter training.
Fast forward a couple of months and things are looking better. After training camp and one race in the legs I'm actually feeling like this season might be salvageable. Although originally my goals for this year would be to make category 2, over winter they just turned into "build for 2012". However, my last few weeks of training are making me think that although cat2 might be a stretch this season, hopefully something better than just "riding around" is achievable.
First some numbers:
Feb 25rd 2011
CTL: 32.1
TSB: 19.9
FTP: 240
Weight/BF: 160.5 lbs, 22%
March 27th
CTL: 77.7
TSB: -43.7
FTP: 260
Weight/BF: 153.0 lbs, 16.5%
Although I haven't been putting in a ton of hours, I've been much more structured this season with the intervals and it seems to be working. Last season I did a lot of my training while commuting, and although I tried to work in intervals, I think I ended up with lots of junk miles, long hours on the bike, and lousy recovery and adaptation. This season I'm lowering the hours on the bike but making most workouts structured. My bread and butter right now is 6x5'x'1 @ 108% and 5x5'x5' @ 115% intervals. I'm really hoping the 6x5'x1' pay off, I did it a few times last season and always felt stronger on race weekends following that regiment. The explanation for these intervals is here:
"The goal is complete slow twitch fiber recruitment. I assume that results in the greatest gains. Simply put, the effort sustainable for 20 minutes straight (let alone 2x20) is below the level at which maximal slow fiber recruitment is achieved, while still adding extreme levels of fatigue. A more effective method is to use shorter intervals at slightly higher intensity, with shorter recovery between intervals. 105-110% FTP seems to be about right based on what I saw. Intervals should be in the 5 minute range. We did 8 of them, with 1 minute recovery between each. The number of intervals is what should increase, not the length of interval. The first two or three feel ok (as the first 10 minutes in a 2x20 would), the last ones get hard. You will work you over every bit as much as a 2x20 or 3x20 session, but apparently with bigger gains.
Now the numbers: I saw two studies, the first putting cyclists through 14 weeks of 2x20's. Total gains: 2.2% at threshold. The second had cyclists do only 7 weeks of the shorter intervals and saw a 7.9% increase in power at threshold. That's pretty huge. The fact that it was this particular guy showing me the studies and advocating the approach pretty much sealed the deal for me. He said there are others but he only had the two on hand."
The intervals were later modified to 6x5'x1' and I know why, usually that 6th interval drains the tank. If I can do more I will, but 6 seems to be a good number. The physiological reason for the success of these intervals as FTP trainers is based on the 1 minute recovery, not enough to recover your anaerobic capacity but enough to keep draining your aerobic and pulling your threshold up. I plan on using these along with SST @ 92% and 2x20s at FTP to keep bumping the threshold up. My VO2 workouts (5x5'x5' @ 115%) are working great in the sense that I am able to nail them and still feel like I could do more, recovery is quite good.
Oh, and as a last thing, I am doing Crossfit 2-3 times a week and I think that is helping a lot with the VO2 stuff. I think I might write down some stuff about how that is going as well.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Crit Practice and Intervals
This year Evolution has been holding crit practice at the Ride Sally Ride course every Wednesday at 6:00. At first it was a few guys going around having 3-on-2-off little crits and it eventually grew to about 10-15 showing up regularly and making for a damn good workout. It's not Greenbelt, but maybe one day it can grow to something like that. Mid week racing seems to have helped my training immensely as my 1-2 minute efforts have gotten better and better throughout the season. Although I occasionally do some intervals in a structured manner, I really hate them and would typically rather chew glass.
Crit practice allows you to do structured intervals in a group setting, if that makes any sense. Since you're going around a loop, you can do your 1-2 min efforts either off the front, on the front, off the back, whatever, and know you're not going to get dropped since you can catch the group as it comes around. Although it's not that much of an issue these days, in the past I have been on group rides and sat in a little too much because I was worried I'd be spit out the back in the middle of NoVA with no idea how to get home. With crit practice, blowing up is the name of the game, if you get dropped, who cares!?
The other great thing about doing fast laps is that you get to work on a couple of important race situations - attacks, bridges, and positioning. Although it's not as aggressive as a real race it's not a bad simulation. The attacking practice is really important for guys like me that don't have that much experience racing. This year was the first year I have been something other than pack fodder, and so working on attacking finally became relevant. Attacking is a lot more than just riding hard off the front and most lower cats really f this up. Most of the reason why cat 4/5 races are such a big blob with no breaks is not because the riders going OTF are weaker, it's because riders in the pack that think they are "attacking" to bridge up are actually just dragging the field up.
I have to go off an a tangent here. It's really annoying when guys ramp up the pace with everyone in the pack right on their wheel. Don't they look behind them and see that the end result of their move is to just suck everyone along and force a reaction from the pack? There is 0 reason to do this, except in the following circumstances which apply to maybe 1% of the times someone nails the break back:
- Your team has a sprinter in the pack and you want to prevent any breaks from getting a gap because you're confident that your team has a better chance of winning in a field sprint than out of a break. However, even if you have the bomb-diggity cat 4 sprinter extraordinaire sitting in the field, what's the harm in trying to bridge to the break instead? You're going to blow up your lead out train or something?
- You love to be a sled dog to chase anything and everything that goes off the front. Sounds like a personal problem to me.
- You showed up to the race and your coach told you to pull everyone around all day because you missed all your threshold workouts last week.
- You're trying to get recruited as the lead out man for the best cat 4 squad in Northern Virginia.
- The cameraman taking pictures is on the back straight so you really need to position yourself well for that.
I really want to hear from people who think there are some other valid reasons for this move. I just call it negative racing, it prevents anything interesting from ever happening. I don't actually believe most guys are doing it on purpose, they just don't actually know what an attack is. Staying seated and rolling off the front at 1 mph faster than the guy behind you is not an attack. An attack requires gapping the field by 10-15 bike lengths is a few seconds. Otherwise someone will just sit on your wheel and take a free ride. If you look back after 10 seconds and the whole field is behind you, you're not attacking.
Anyways, crit practice is a great place to work on this. Timing of an attack at the end of the race is as important as raw power. I am not a strong rider when you compare my power data against other competitive riders in my category. However, I've managed to cat up this season with positioning and timing, essentially knowing when to use the sad amount of power I have. When I went all out at Hagerstown, it was an all or nothing commitment. If the pack caught me, I'd be going across the line dead fucking last. That's the type of commitment you need to have when going for the W. If I was a sprinter, I'd sit in until the last 200m but the best I can do in that situation is a top 5. In the 3s, my best pack finish will be out of the top 10 I'm sure. Crit practice helps define your limits and allows you to test out the attacks. The week of Hagerstown I did two all out attacks in practice with about 600m to go just to see if I could create the gap and hold it. It worked well enough, so I tried it in a race.
Maybe we can turn crit practice into a Greenbelt style training series, but honestly the current format might even be more conducive to training since it allows everyone to take some risks. With limited bragging rights, you're just worried about getting a good workout. At least I hope that's how people use it.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Upgrade Time
With the win at Hagerstown I'm officially sandbagging with 2 wins in 3 races and 27 upgrade points. Therefore, I submitted my upgrade request, hopefully in time for Giro di Coppi. If I can manage a top 10 there maybe I'll get a couple points towards my next upgrade, which is going to be a bit harder than the 4-3. I haven't done a ride over 50 miles in weeks and never at race pace so it's a little, can you say, ambitious to think I can even stay with the lead group in this race.
Cat 3, the ultimate cat, here I come.
Cat 3, the ultimate cat, here I come.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
What Getting Knocked Out Taught Me About Cycling
A couple weeks ago I was on the Reston Bike Club "1" ride, or simply the racer-types that get out and try to rip each others legs off on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the summer. Well, apparently we were going down Stuart Mill after Birdfoot and there was a crash. One of the riders hit a rock, bounced into a teammate, and then went down hard right in front of me. I don't remember any of this, but apparently I rammed into his bike/body at almost 30 mph and went over the bars, landing on my head and shoulder. What followed was a slide across the pavement on the side of the head and shoulder and a KO. 45-60 seconds later I got up, called my wife, and stumbled around. I'm not going to dwell much further on the actual accident and immediate aftermath, but I do want to add that all the guys that stopped to take care of me and the other rider were awesome. Although I was conscious, my memory of the day has faded into oblivion and I pretty much have to take people's word on what happened.
Well, the moral of the story is that getting knocked out is good for your racing! Before the accident I was sneaking into the top 10 throughout the season but I'd never had a podium, even as a cat 5. Just two weeks after the wreck I placed 1st in the Washington County Stage Race Criterium and then two weeks after that I won Hagerstown Criterium, the MABRA championship. Seems like getting creamed and using your head as a street sweeper helps...
The reality is, I've been decently overtrained for most of the season. The Zatopek effect (http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2010/04/history-lesson-the-zatopek-effect.html) pretty much defines my results this season and hopefully I can learn from it next year. The problem with the whole overtraining/training issue is that most training plans are designed for 1-2 peaks per season. When you're racing for upgrade points, it's difficult to focus on just a few races since they don't offer enough possibility to earn them. Therefore, if you're following a proper season training plan you're going to go into some race weekends with major fatigue in the legs. At the level I'm racing at (cat 4), it's not as critical to have a strict schedule with peaks in your season as it is for higher level riders. Basically, as long as you lots as a cat 4 you will win races if you recover correctly. Peaking is not as important as recovery between hard workout blocks. I'm not saying you can't do both, it's just a lot more difficult to plan for when life gets in the way of training and you need to make adjustments to your weekly schedule.
My personal experience and evidence this year is enough to make me fully appreciate the value of some time off the bike. Every single one of my good results was after extended time (more than 4 days) off the bike shortly before the result. Let's go over my season so far...
- Vint Hill: Went there at the end of a tough training block. Was totally destroyed and barely finished both races. The week before Jefferson Cup and I felt like all my work over the winter was out the window.
- Jefferson Cup: After Vint Hill I became sick and rode maybe 1-2 hours the week before the race. I got 4th and if it wasn't for the shock of being near the front I could have done better. Coming off of the Vint Hill results this was great news.
- Morgantown Road Race: Still recovering from being sick the week before and ended up 5th only because I bungled a 3 up sprint for 3rd. Still working off the good form I was on after taking 4-5 days off due to sickness.
- Murad Road Race: Again, took some time off the bike because of business travel. Came back and got 4th in that race. Again, felt awesome and like I had a lot more in me, just can't sprint.
- Washington County Criterium: First race after my concussion. 10 days off the bike, started riding two days before the road race. I win from a 3 man break after attacking on the final lap.
- MABRA Championship Crit (Hagerstown): I took a really easy peak week before the race and the legs felt better than ever. Didn't feel like I used any energy during the race and when I went for my solo flyer on the last lap it stuck as I rolled across the line 50 yards in front of the chasing field.
Moral of the story here is that all of my good results come after significant time off the bike in the week or two before the race. Although I'm not as fit as I would be were I to follow the training plan as prescribed, for the race calendar I'm riding and for my goals (upgrade!) getting my base fitness as high as possible and then properly resting every 3-4 weeks is critical. My rest weeks were only a 25-30% decrease in training stress (TSS for those training with power) and they should have been closer to a 50-60% decrease. The caveat here is that this works for my body and might not work for others as effectively. However, given all the other anecdotal evidence out there, it seems like many amateur cyclists fall into the same trap of thinking that if they're not wasted tired they're losing fitness. It took me getting sick and getting knocked the f-out to show me the way.
Hagerstown Challenge MABRA Championship Criterium
Bike racing at every level is serious business. Every rider, whether part of a cat 4 amateur team or a ProTour team, feels the same emotions and goes through the same thoughts when planning for a race (or at least we think we do!). Sure, we're not riding for a paycheck but we occasionally forget that and prepare for a race like we are. This was the mentally of our Evolution Cycling Team p/b Long and Foster when setting up for Hagerstown Challenge Criterium, at least from the perspective of laying down some race day plans and ambitions.
My initial strategy for the day began while looking at the list of preregistered riders. I noticed that there were not a lot of teams with big representation which was good for the tactics I was hoping to employ. With only 4-5 riders for each team, I knew that they would have difficulty organizing a chase under two specific situations 1) Break aways and 2) Solo flyers in the final laps of the race. Without good team organization, the field typically hesitates when reacting to moves and I was hoping to take advantage of those moments.
Once we had the team together and warming up, we made another decision to work with The Bike Lane team since we knew a couple of the guys and also to grow our virtual "team" from about 5 riders to 10. The goal of the collusion was to ensure that we tried to get into any breakaways together and not to chase each other. It was during the warm up laps that we came up with our final overall strategy.
- Make it into a break. I usually like to bridge to breaks because I like that psychological carrot and frankly I just don't have the wattage to put down at threshold to sit out front dangling until someone joins me.
- If a break fails, I was going to attack shortly after start/finish on the final lap. The goal here was to take advantage of the disorganization and the general unwillingness of riders to pull back late attacks when there is only 1k to go. Positioning and timing would be key to the success of this type of move.
- As a result of #2 above, other teams would have to chase. We had a rider in the field, Jeff, that had a good 5s-15s jump, so he would serve as our sprinter for the day. The plan was to force other teams to chase the 1k to go move and put our guys into position for free. Theoretically.
Since we didn't really have an actual sprinter in the group and most of us have not practiced or raced much together, no one was thinking of a leadout and so the plan was to use tactics and other teams to stretch it out at the end.
Throughout the week and during the warm up my legs have have felt pretty good. Unfortunately, nerves were extremely high and I had too much coffee so I was jittery. It didn't help that an ambulance was on the course and that everyone we talked to said there are crashes almost every lap. As the race began, most of the nerves went away but I could still feel the coffee. Now all I had to do was stay out of trouble for the first half of the race and let the plan develop.
Thankfully, the inevitable crashes were minor and not that big a deal to dodge. It helps to anticipate where they are going to happen and position yourself with an out. Because of the potential for crashes, the constant shuffle at the front end, and the fact that it was very easy to move up on this course I decided to tailgun this part of the race. It paid off big time, because after the race I was able to download the power data and see that my average power and normalized power were very close to each other for a criterium. It meant that I was not doing big accelerations out of the corners while still maintaining position. I was actually able to soft-pedal through an inside line and pass 3-4 riders that were hammering out of the saddle at each corner.
As the race developed, my legs were really looking for an opener. The "breaks" that developed were very small and never had enough gap on the field for me to bridge up, I could see that the field was not interested in letting anything go. Since I felt like I had some decent form, I decided to go out alone and see what happens. After 2 laps out front with what looked like a 10 second gap no one was joining me so I let up and rejoined the field. As I was watching other attacks form, I could tell there was nothing worth joining up the road because the field kept reacting to every move off the front. At one point there were 5-6 guys trying to form a break but they were all gapping each other so they effectively just dragged the field up with them.
The final 10 laps were all about positioning so I moved back up and tried to prevent being swarmed. My nerves came back big time at this point and I almost psyched myself out. Nick, the NCVC rider that won Reston the week before, was in the group so I was watching for him to make a late move. It never happened, and with 3-4 laps to go I knew I was going to try my flyer on the last lap. Throughout the race and especially at the end, everyone from Evo was near the front of the race and getting in position very well. With 2 laps to go, I made sure to be in the top 10 and as I passed start-finish on the bell lap I moved up to third wheel behind Nick and one of my teammates (Jeff). At the top of the little hill there is a 120 degree turn that everyone takes very wide. I was able to accelerate to the top of the hill and take the corner well inside and much faster than others, immediately getting out of the saddle with an all out 20 second effort. After sitting down and looking behind me, I had a good 100 yard gap and the field looked spread across the road. Perfect! The hesitation of the main group worked perfectly and no one wanted to chase. I didn't take this for granted and really buried myself at this point. The power data for this 2 minute effort showed that I beat my personal best by almost 6%, so I was motivated! Coming around the final turn I did another out of the saddle effort and crossed the line what looked like 50 yards ahead of the field.
However, as I cross the line I begin to have second thoughts! My victory salute is really weak because all I can think is "Oh crap. That wasn't the last lap. I just went off the front with 2 laps to go and now I'm cooked." Turns out it really was the final lap! Wow, now that feels really good. After a few seconds of confusion on my part, I realize it really is my win! Last year, I told myself and others I would win this race and by some miracle I did.
The cool down lap begins with Jeff riding up next to me, congratulating me, and getting plowed into from behind and crashing. It was not a light bump, it was a very forceful ramming. As Jeff falls, I ride over his bike but thankfully don't run over Jeff and also stay up myself. The guy who ran into Jeff had probably sprinted for 30th and we were a good 200 yards past the finish at that point. What a crappy way to end a great race - Jeff was pretty banged up, his right shifter destroyed, and his Orbea frame cracked. The fact that the guy didn't even stop to check on the result of his carnage is what really made this a classy move. Jeff, always with a great attitude, is still more focused on my win than on his broken bike and bruised ribs.
Well, I get to wear the MABRA jersey next year and have a nice big target on my back. Looks like another long winter ahead of me on the menu!
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