Friday, September 3, 2010
Powertap issues
I'm having issues downloading data from my powertap head unit. I got a new PC from work and somehow it is not recognizing the PT head unit well enough. It starts downloading and then just quits. So I've got a full PT and no data to download. Kinda frustrating but at least I still have some measurement for the workouts I'm doing. Yesterday I did the HOP workout which I simply love and this morning I warmed up for 30 mins and then did three sets of 3x2 min Power Intervals with 6 mins rest between sets. I got to 300-320W on average for the 9 intervals so that was a pretty decent workout. Kinda looked like this...
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
HOPping in Mumbai...
Very quickly wanted to share a great new workout that I've found. It's called Bill Black's Hour of Power or HOP. Basically it's 60 minutes at 90% of your FTP with 30 sec power intervals thrown in every 3 minutes to break things up. I think this is a great variation on the over/under intervals which really helps you develop the ability to recover at race pace.
So basically, this is 215W average for me with 19, 30 second intervals in the 320-370W range. Gives you a total energy burn of 823 kJ....very nice.
Check it out, try do one at least once a week and hopefully watch your FTP and ability to recover from surges rise.
Take care
So basically, this is 215W average for me with 19, 30 second intervals in the 320-370W range. Gives you a total energy burn of 823 kJ....very nice.
Check it out, try do one at least once a week and hopefully watch your FTP and ability to recover from surges rise.
Take care
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Talking about a hard Crit
Whitefish Bay - Superweek. Men's Elite 4/5 and Masters 4/5
Well, Whitefish Bay was a hammer-fest. We all thought we were headed up to Wisconsin for a low key race but it ended up being a super fast, super serious, end of super-week kinda race.
I signed up for the Cat 4/5 Elite and the Masters race but midway through the Elite race I was thinking there was no way I would be racing later. It was hard.
I've never had an issue with starts but this time I failed to clip in properly, found myself at the back and consequently pulled about 950W trying to assert myself in the group. That's something you definitely don't want to be doing so early in a crit. After a few laps I settled into the pain and began to move up. I saw my mate Andre up ahead and decided to push for him. Reaching him in a turn I then managed to slip ahead but fully expected to see him surface sooner or later. I concentrated on holding my position and trying not to blow up. I rode the whole race in the drops. Fortunately I have become very comfortable with how my cross bike handles with road wheels and there was never a big issue.
What I did notice is that trying to get faster through the apex by pedaling early was key to not being called upon to sprint harder out of each corner. I also took the outside line through all the left handed corners so that I could carry more speed and have to sprint less. Each time we came out of the final corner we were pulling big numbers up to the start finish. I would just be looking for a wheel to hold on to and also look to pass folks on the outside since this was really an area where you could move up comfortably.
This crit was harder than any other I'd done before and I was pretty sure it was all about the corners. Take a look at the data below and you can see that there were a massive amount of surges versus the other crits I'd done. It took a pretty big toll but I managed to hang in there.
At the end I was really pretty gassed and never really managed a sprint and ended up mid-pack. At least I finished and did not disgrace myself.
Later on I actually jumped in the Masters race which was almost as tough with a similar result. This time I actually got a point! I was asserting myself much better in this latter race. I was sitting in the top ten the entire race except for the last lap - when it counted. It felt like the race was just one lap too long and I fell backward instead of pushing harder. I need to work on that.
Interesting takeaways:
1. Whitefish Elite was definitely a STRONG race. We all felt that. It was longer than we’re used to and had more slower corners to deal with
2. The additional slow corners accounted for a roughly 2:1 factor in amount of surges overall versus the next highest race. But looking at the details shows a surprising fact: there were 3.5 times as many surges in the 564-705W range as the next most demanding crit (it’s baby brother: the Whitefish Masters Race)…the next most demanding race had almost 7 times less surges (Matteson Cat 1/2/3 which was a training race) and the others had minimal amounts of these types of efforts. I think a lot of these types of surges happened in the beginning of the race causing the splits etc.
3. The higher average torque values speak to the accelerations of getting out of the corners. I certainly felt that just about every corner required a significant effort over and above that which I had been typically used to
4. Fox Grove had the highest normalized power demands of the lot (and I still sucked!) as well as the highest torque values due to the hill. How to train for this next year? Hmmm…
5. I threw in the Judson group ride to see another set of data. Obviously you cannot compare this with the crits but it is interesting in that there are a lot of surges and I think that helps train you for the crit surges….although, perhaps not the big ones.
6. Sunday was my 10th most demanding day (in terms of kJ) of the year. See below:
Last thoughts are around how the heck do I get into the top 10. I’m not sure what is the best thing to do to train for this. I know that the race tactics are essential. I needed a bit more in the gas tank in the second race otherwise I think I could have placed. I was in a very good position for most of the race but really felt the pain in the last two laps. Maybe it’s just more conditioning that I need. I know I’m making better choices about where to be during the race. Interestingly, I was reading a bit about racing crits and Carmichael says that a skilled crit racer can move up through the pack from the back in one lap without exposing himself to the wind by going around the edges. I have been using the edges but Carmichael says that there are ways to assert yourself through the pack by looking for diagonal “gaps” and forcing other riders aside. I need to think more carefully about this. He also says to practice this in practice races by starting at the back, moving to the front and repeating.
Well, Whitefish Bay was a hammer-fest. We all thought we were headed up to Wisconsin for a low key race but it ended up being a super fast, super serious, end of super-week kinda race.
I signed up for the Cat 4/5 Elite and the Masters race but midway through the Elite race I was thinking there was no way I would be racing later. It was hard.
I've never had an issue with starts but this time I failed to clip in properly, found myself at the back and consequently pulled about 950W trying to assert myself in the group. That's something you definitely don't want to be doing so early in a crit. After a few laps I settled into the pain and began to move up. I saw my mate Andre up ahead and decided to push for him. Reaching him in a turn I then managed to slip ahead but fully expected to see him surface sooner or later. I concentrated on holding my position and trying not to blow up. I rode the whole race in the drops. Fortunately I have become very comfortable with how my cross bike handles with road wheels and there was never a big issue.
What I did notice is that trying to get faster through the apex by pedaling early was key to not being called upon to sprint harder out of each corner. I also took the outside line through all the left handed corners so that I could carry more speed and have to sprint less. Each time we came out of the final corner we were pulling big numbers up to the start finish. I would just be looking for a wheel to hold on to and also look to pass folks on the outside since this was really an area where you could move up comfortably.
This crit was harder than any other I'd done before and I was pretty sure it was all about the corners. Take a look at the data below and you can see that there were a massive amount of surges versus the other crits I'd done. It took a pretty big toll but I managed to hang in there.
At the end I was really pretty gassed and never really managed a sprint and ended up mid-pack. At least I finished and did not disgrace myself.
Later on I actually jumped in the Masters race which was almost as tough with a similar result. This time I actually got a point! I was asserting myself much better in this latter race. I was sitting in the top ten the entire race except for the last lap - when it counted. It felt like the race was just one lap too long and I fell backward instead of pushing harder. I need to work on that.
Interesting takeaways:
1. Whitefish Elite was definitely a STRONG race. We all felt that. It was longer than we’re used to and had more slower corners to deal with
2. The additional slow corners accounted for a roughly 2:1 factor in amount of surges overall versus the next highest race. But looking at the details shows a surprising fact: there were 3.5 times as many surges in the 564-705W range as the next most demanding crit (it’s baby brother: the Whitefish Masters Race)…the next most demanding race had almost 7 times less surges (Matteson Cat 1/2/3 which was a training race) and the others had minimal amounts of these types of efforts. I think a lot of these types of surges happened in the beginning of the race causing the splits etc.
3. The higher average torque values speak to the accelerations of getting out of the corners. I certainly felt that just about every corner required a significant effort over and above that which I had been typically used to
4. Fox Grove had the highest normalized power demands of the lot (and I still sucked!) as well as the highest torque values due to the hill. How to train for this next year? Hmmm…
5. I threw in the Judson group ride to see another set of data. Obviously you cannot compare this with the crits but it is interesting in that there are a lot of surges and I think that helps train you for the crit surges….although, perhaps not the big ones.
6. Sunday was my 10th most demanding day (in terms of kJ) of the year. See below:
Last thoughts are around how the heck do I get into the top 10. I’m not sure what is the best thing to do to train for this. I know that the race tactics are essential. I needed a bit more in the gas tank in the second race otherwise I think I could have placed. I was in a very good position for most of the race but really felt the pain in the last two laps. Maybe it’s just more conditioning that I need. I know I’m making better choices about where to be during the race. Interestingly, I was reading a bit about racing crits and Carmichael says that a skilled crit racer can move up through the pack from the back in one lap without exposing himself to the wind by going around the edges. I have been using the edges but Carmichael says that there are ways to assert yourself through the pack by looking for diagonal “gaps” and forcing other riders aside. I need to think more carefully about this. He also says to practice this in practice races by starting at the back, moving to the front and repeating.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Back in business...I think
Well, after a terrible week from a training point of view I finally got on the bike on Saturday. I had the South African Springboks versus the New Zealand All Blacks Tri-Nations Rugby game to watch so I quickly got down to business. The idea was just to get in a groove and see if I could do and hour or so at a steady tempo - nothing too ambitious. So I sat in at about 200W and eventually managed 2 hours at 200W with a 10 minute cool down period...oh, I also added in a 450W 30 second effort at the end to simulate the steady state after a sprint. Since I cannot sprint on a trainer I thought I'd skip that.
I was very happy with this effort. It was pretty comfortable the whole way and, interestingly, the 6th biggest effort I've put in all year from a kJ perspective. It burned 1,499 kJ in 2 hours which was more than most of the group rides in Chicago (aside from Judson) burn in 3 hrs. Fascinating.
I was very happy with this effort. It was pretty comfortable the whole way and, interestingly, the 6th biggest effort I've put in all year from a kJ perspective. It burned 1,499 kJ in 2 hours which was more than most of the group rides in Chicago (aside from Judson) burn in 3 hrs. Fascinating.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Delhi-belly puts an end to this week's sessions
Well folks, it finally happened: India caught up with me. Let's just say that my training plans are a week behind due to some unplanned visits to the porcelain. I took the day off on Monday to rest from a really good 2hr indoor ride on Sunday. Then Monday night it set in and it's now Friday and I'm still as weak as a dandelion in a early morning spring breeze. Oh well, I guess it's just the way things roll here on the sub-continent. I've been coming here since October and never gotten ill from the food. Well, it seems like the monsoons bring not only rolling storms with sideways rain but also an additional layer of complexity when it comes to water-borne illnesses. So I'm trying to avoid all salads and fruits that haven't been well prepared. That's painful when you want to eat healthily but I think it was some lettuce that finally took me down. Next plan is to try and avoid malaria and dengue fever and all of those other nasties that are brought on by mosquito bites. So I guess it's just me, my hotel room and the Ritchey. Hopefully I'm good enough to get on it tomorrow for a light spin. We'll see...
Thursday, July 1, 2010
How to get your first Top 10: Take two 9 hour international flights, land and race
A funny thing happened on May 15th. I arrived at O’Hare at about 1pm after two long international flights from Mumbai. I had left Mumbai at about 1am (which his when all the international flights happen to leave the city bound for Europe. It’s really a pain because it involves staying up late to catch the flight. I usually sleep pretty well (as well as one can in a narrow seat). Well, I learned a valuable thing on that flight. Funny how we’re always learning things. Number one: never, I repeat never, get the last row of business class. Always get as far forward as you possibly can. I had a massive, gear grinding, wood-cutting, chainsaw massacring snorer next to me and what felt like 4 Indian babies in stereo right behind me wailing persistently and relentlessly into the night. Needless to say, I had no sleep. Wine was the only option. Lots of it. Fortunately the Delta flight attendants didn’t hold back. But this meant that I arrived in Amsterdam rather parched and in a bit of a muddle. Second thing I learned: never forget to change into comfy clothes prior to the flight. You’d think that a guy with over 3 million lifetime flying miles would remember this but I was so caught up in a business meeting that evening that I forgot to change into jeans and a T-shirt. So I was bound to two flights in my suit and tie (OK, I removed the tie). Not a good start. The nice thing about Amsterdam is the KLM lounge which has luxurious showers for their club members. So I hastened to put my name down and managed to have a great and refreshing shower at the airport. The flight to Chicago wasn’t too bad. I had some more wine, got a few hours sleep in and the next thing I knew I was in a cab heading back to my place.
That day was the Monsters of Midway Criterium at University of Chicago and I had promised to go over to support a friend and fellow South African who was riding in the 4/5 race and then the Cat 5 race after. The race was later in the day and I got home and immediately took a shower, felt OK and was about to head out the door and off to the race when out of the corner of my eye I noticed my trusty rusty sitting there in my office. Yes, you guessed it, my bike was making eyes at me. Hmmm, I thought, what if I just took it along to the race? You know, making sure it wasn’t feeling too alone here at home. Perhaps introduce her to a few other race bikes that are bound to be lying around bored out of their minds while their riders prime themselves for the race. And what if I threw some bib shorts in a bag, perhaps a jersey, some shoes and my helmet? Yeah, WTF!
So I get to the race venue, see all the Spidermonkeys, have a quick natter and they all say to me, you’re going to get in the race right? I say, no I’m just here for support and just landed from India. I didn’t tell them that I had my bike with me. So I sauntered over to the registration desk and politely enquired: any Cat5 openings? Nope, came the reply, but you can get on the waitlist. So again, I put my name down on the infamous Cat5 waitlist. I’m a process consultant, I know that it’s very rare to have 100% of something pass first time. So I reckoned that I would be racing in a little bit.
I watched my buddy in the 4/5 race, saw a crash or two, and proceeded to warm up. I got a pretty good warm up in on my trainer. I think it was at least 20 minutes - see chart below. I was feeling OK but still VERY light headed and buzzed from lack of reasonable sleep and the time zone difference. Right now my body thought it was 4am. Weirdly, in the back of my mind, I thought that I was going to be good, actually better than good: my best.
I was sweaty when I got the call up, I got some sideline help from a friend to pin on the number and rolled up to the start finish. I got a brief lap in to check out the course and then hung out with all the other cocky Cat5 dudes. I noticed my friend Andre at the back and beckoned him over. He said the 4/5 race was pretty fast but overall he was feeling strong (he is always strong). So after the usual pre-race rigmarole we got going. I was determined to stay in the front and after racing at Matteson several times I was amply prepared for how I would assert myself on these guys. My plan was simple: Stay in the front and go early. I had checked out the finish and it was a long 200m (I think) straight, into a breeze coming out of a rather wide corner. My plan was to be on the outside with momentum and hammer as I was coming out of the corner and hit it hard all the way to the line.
The race was fine all in all. No worries of being dropped or anything. But it was plagued by the usual Cat5 sketchiness of riders zig-zagging their way down the wide boulevards. There were also folks in there who constantly yelled at us like coaches, like they knew something we didn’t. Which is really, really weird because you cannot be in Cat5 if you’ve had more than 10 races so anyone who is in there is just as rookie as you are. I wouldn’t listen to anyone yelling at me in a Cat5 race unless I he was pointing out something that I hadn’t thought of before and my brain had actually evaluated it as being useful.
Half way through there was a prime lap and I knew I did not want to sprint for it and actually it seemed that no one else wanted it too. Except for Andre who quietly put the hammer down and left us all in his wake on his way to claiming his first prime ever. Great result Andre! There were a couple of attacks and I bridged to one of these but nothing got away at all. There’s really no where to go and with the pack always having any break in sight it makes it easy for them to chase.
Well, the inevitable last lap came and we amped up the pace a little. Going into the second last corner someone right behind me decided it would be much better to complete the race skidding across the asphalt on his back with his carbon frame snapping at his heels than to actually sprint. So he came wide and could not recover before being introduced to the steep lip of the sidewalk. Carbon, bones and meat has a horrible sound when it hits the ground. Ouch!
I did exactly what I had planned, had a good line on the outside of the last corner and then jumped hard. Well, as hard as a newbie cyclist can jump. Which meant that I put down about half the watts that a Cat1/2 rider would: about 896W. I guess I had used up some fuel during the ride and on the flight over. But my jump was good enough to get me into what I thought were the top 10 riders. I was going hard, all out, I was in the zone, completely focused and then suddenly noticed that the rider in front of me was fading and I would pass him. So I decided to go around on the outside of him and then he, for whatever reason, chose to pull over to the side at the exact same time I decided to. WTF! Seriously? So I had to hit the brakes hard….did I tell you I’m racing on my cross bike with cantilever brakes? Well, I am and they suck! I hit them as hard as I could, lost several miles per hour, stopped pedaling and then shouted something very nasty to him at about 1,234 watts! Poor guy. But in the heat of it your emotions are high, sky high! I managed to recover, kept the hammer down as best as I could and then crossed the line. Yes, I thought I was going to throw up. I think it’s always going to feel like that. I got 8th out of 50 riders. I was on top of the world! My first official top 10.
That day was the Monsters of Midway Criterium at University of Chicago and I had promised to go over to support a friend and fellow South African who was riding in the 4/5 race and then the Cat 5 race after. The race was later in the day and I got home and immediately took a shower, felt OK and was about to head out the door and off to the race when out of the corner of my eye I noticed my trusty rusty sitting there in my office. Yes, you guessed it, my bike was making eyes at me. Hmmm, I thought, what if I just took it along to the race? You know, making sure it wasn’t feeling too alone here at home. Perhaps introduce her to a few other race bikes that are bound to be lying around bored out of their minds while their riders prime themselves for the race. And what if I threw some bib shorts in a bag, perhaps a jersey, some shoes and my helmet? Yeah, WTF!
So I get to the race venue, see all the Spidermonkeys, have a quick natter and they all say to me, you’re going to get in the race right? I say, no I’m just here for support and just landed from India. I didn’t tell them that I had my bike with me. So I sauntered over to the registration desk and politely enquired: any Cat5 openings? Nope, came the reply, but you can get on the waitlist. So again, I put my name down on the infamous Cat5 waitlist. I’m a process consultant, I know that it’s very rare to have 100% of something pass first time. So I reckoned that I would be racing in a little bit.
I watched my buddy in the 4/5 race, saw a crash or two, and proceeded to warm up. I got a pretty good warm up in on my trainer. I think it was at least 20 minutes - see chart below. I was feeling OK but still VERY light headed and buzzed from lack of reasonable sleep and the time zone difference. Right now my body thought it was 4am. Weirdly, in the back of my mind, I thought that I was going to be good, actually better than good: my best.
I was sweaty when I got the call up, I got some sideline help from a friend to pin on the number and rolled up to the start finish. I got a brief lap in to check out the course and then hung out with all the other cocky Cat5 dudes. I noticed my friend Andre at the back and beckoned him over. He said the 4/5 race was pretty fast but overall he was feeling strong (he is always strong). So after the usual pre-race rigmarole we got going. I was determined to stay in the front and after racing at Matteson several times I was amply prepared for how I would assert myself on these guys. My plan was simple: Stay in the front and go early. I had checked out the finish and it was a long 200m (I think) straight, into a breeze coming out of a rather wide corner. My plan was to be on the outside with momentum and hammer as I was coming out of the corner and hit it hard all the way to the line.
The race was fine all in all. No worries of being dropped or anything. But it was plagued by the usual Cat5 sketchiness of riders zig-zagging their way down the wide boulevards. There were also folks in there who constantly yelled at us like coaches, like they knew something we didn’t. Which is really, really weird because you cannot be in Cat5 if you’ve had more than 10 races so anyone who is in there is just as rookie as you are. I wouldn’t listen to anyone yelling at me in a Cat5 race unless I he was pointing out something that I hadn’t thought of before and my brain had actually evaluated it as being useful.
Half way through there was a prime lap and I knew I did not want to sprint for it and actually it seemed that no one else wanted it too. Except for Andre who quietly put the hammer down and left us all in his wake on his way to claiming his first prime ever. Great result Andre! There were a couple of attacks and I bridged to one of these but nothing got away at all. There’s really no where to go and with the pack always having any break in sight it makes it easy for them to chase.
Well, the inevitable last lap came and we amped up the pace a little. Going into the second last corner someone right behind me decided it would be much better to complete the race skidding across the asphalt on his back with his carbon frame snapping at his heels than to actually sprint. So he came wide and could not recover before being introduced to the steep lip of the sidewalk. Carbon, bones and meat has a horrible sound when it hits the ground. Ouch!
I did exactly what I had planned, had a good line on the outside of the last corner and then jumped hard. Well, as hard as a newbie cyclist can jump. Which meant that I put down about half the watts that a Cat1/2 rider would: about 896W. I guess I had used up some fuel during the ride and on the flight over. But my jump was good enough to get me into what I thought were the top 10 riders. I was going hard, all out, I was in the zone, completely focused and then suddenly noticed that the rider in front of me was fading and I would pass him. So I decided to go around on the outside of him and then he, for whatever reason, chose to pull over to the side at the exact same time I decided to. WTF! Seriously? So I had to hit the brakes hard….did I tell you I’m racing on my cross bike with cantilever brakes? Well, I am and they suck! I hit them as hard as I could, lost several miles per hour, stopped pedaling and then shouted something very nasty to him at about 1,234 watts! Poor guy. But in the heat of it your emotions are high, sky high! I managed to recover, kept the hammer down as best as I could and then crossed the line. Yes, I thought I was going to throw up. I think it’s always going to feel like that. I got 8th out of 50 riders. I was on top of the world! My first official top 10.
The sprint:
Critical numbers:
Race length: 26 min
Average speed: 25 mph
Average power: 225W
Average power while pedaling: 272W
Number of surges above 4 W/kg: 47
Well that didn't work...
I am trying a new workout today....three sets of 3x2 min Peak/Fade Power Intervals with 2 mins of rest beteween intervals and 6 mins rest between sets.
Well, I'm not sure what happened but I could not complete the exercise. Carmichael says to go all out, as hard as you can and then try and maintain that intensity all the way to the end. Well firstly, doing one of these babies for 2 minutes is extremely hard. Secondly, doing another 8 seems physically impossible for me. I'll try again soon but was wondering about reducing the time to 30 seconds and then adding 15 seconds the next week until I can maintain the full 2 minutes.
Anyone out there have any other suggestions?
Here is the power plot from the first set...(I did not complete the last two...way too dead. Maybe I'm getting sick). I will try some steady state power intervals tonight....or maybe I'll try this again with a shorter duration.
Well, I'm not sure what happened but I could not complete the exercise. Carmichael says to go all out, as hard as you can and then try and maintain that intensity all the way to the end. Well firstly, doing one of these babies for 2 minutes is extremely hard. Secondly, doing another 8 seems physically impossible for me. I'll try again soon but was wondering about reducing the time to 30 seconds and then adding 15 seconds the next week until I can maintain the full 2 minutes.
Anyone out there have any other suggestions?
Here is the power plot from the first set...(I did not complete the last two...way too dead. Maybe I'm getting sick). I will try some steady state power intervals tonight....or maybe I'll try this again with a shorter duration.
As a post-script to this, I was looking at a Golden Cheetah power profile of the workout vs. my current power profile and noticed that I hit a new personal best for a 1:52 interval. So I guess I am definitely close to my limit which would explain why it was so damn hard!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Training in a Mumbai Monsoon
Well, I landed in Mumbai last Friday after a week of slacking off and trying to keep off the bike. I was eager to get back on the trainer and get back to a more structured program rather than the ad-hoc lake front, group rides and races that I have been doing...OK, I miss the crits a lot. I find them challenging and I'm always learning something new.
So after getting to bed at around 2am I awoke Saturday morning and enthusiastically assembled my Ritchey Breakaway. It's a terrific bike to travel with. It fits into a smaller suitcase than a standard bike case so I can take it anywhere without paying the additional baggage fees that the airlines are so fond of. Mine is an old one that I got off Craigslist from a guy out in San Francisco. I flew in for the weekend, picked up the bike and imediately went on a 50 mile group ride in Monterey the next morning. More on that some other time. Beautiful riding out in Monterey. They are blessed.
My last serious intervals were done in May 13th where I managed 2 sets of 3x2 minutes at 305W average. So, given that my racing has come down to crits only, I thought this would be a good place to start again.
So I jumped on the bike thinking I could definitely do 2x4 @ 300W but I ended up doing only 5 intervals during the workout. I chalked it up to the jet lag.
The next day I woke up with a very bad sore throat which would not go away no matter what I did. Eventually, on Monday, I tapped into the beauty of Mumbai and walked into a chemist who gave me a couple of Amoxycillin anti-biotics for about $1. By the next day my sore throat was gone and I was getting stronger so I tried to get back on the bike that morning. I dialed it back to 2x3 @ 300W but this time I only managed 4 of these and noticed that my heart rate was way above where it normally is for these kinds of efforts. So with this in mind I decided to quit the effort and try again the next day.
Wednesday saw me dialing it back further to try 2x3 @ 290W which was far more successful (I think I was just getting over the illness) and I managed to get through the workout:
Thursday saw me up the power by 10W to 300W and get a better warm up in. Also, I am trying to do 30s all out efforts at the end of these workouts. My thinking here is that I need to raise my sustained power output 30 seconds after my initial sprint jump. I feel if I can maintain a target of 600W after jumping at about 1,000W then I think I have a better chance of finishing in the top 10 if I can get into a good position. Here's what I mean by that. The graph below is my final sprint in the Monsters of Midway Cat 5 race where I placed 8th:
Here I jumped at 850W and sustained about 550-600W to the line. The dip in the middle is another rider forcing me to hit the brakes as he squeezed me into the sidewalk.
Friday saw another 2 sets of 3x2 @ 300W and I got a better warm up in and managed the 300W intervals without too much drama.
On the weekends I try to go for longer trainer rides because I have more time. I had planned two 1:30 2x20 SST rides to raise FTP. I set the power for 220 - 230 W and completed the 20 min efforts without much of an issue. I also threw in a 10 min, low cadence effort at the end which had me out of the saddle. While I'm not sure this helps for crits, the pedal force is higher and allows me to develop more force....I think. What do you think? I quite enjoyed this exercise but was VERY surprised to see how difficult this was. I thought I could do 20 mins like this but actually 10 mins was very tough at about 230W.
Today I did another 2x20 SST ride and watched a movie. That kept me entertained. I hope that 2-3 more weeks like this will keep me in touch with enough fitness to be competitive in Cat 4 back home. I plan on racing the Glencoe Grand Prix on 8/14. So I have some time to prepare.
Weekly Summary:
I'm trying to get at least 6 hours in every week. While I know this is paltry compared to my fellow competitors, I feel I am getting the right intensity and my anerobic capacity is decent enough to keep me in the game. But who knows? Note that this is ALL trainer time so I think it is the equivalent of about 9 hrs on the road. I don't think I'm about to be dropped by any Cat 4 rides but I'm interested to see where 4-6 weeks of concentrated training like this will put me.
Next week I'm thinking of mixing the Power Intervals with 30 second efforts and 2 min efforts and get 2 (2x20) SST rides in.
My critical power plot is now looking like this:
Monday, June 21, 2010
Upgrading to Cat 4: Sherman Park crit
So a couple of weeks ago I sent in my application to upgrade to Cat 4 Road Racing. I have completed the necessary 10 mass starts required to get the upgrade and feel pretty good about hanging with the 4s given the effort I had in a previous 4/5 race which was mostly 4s. I've also done 2 training crits at Matteson in the 1/2/3 category and managed to hang with those guys as well....suprising even myself. Note to all wannabe crit racers: you don't have to have massive power to race crits. You have to be able to go anerobic for short bursts and handle the surges but don't think you have to lay down serious wattage for long spells. If you're smart about conservation you can find ways to be efficient. Of course, you will need serious power to win or place in the top ten but if you want to finish with the pack, get a great workout and have some fun then several weeks of intervals will have you there easily.
I got an email back from Steve Thordarson (the Illinois upgrade Czar) saying that he was in Canada coaching the national team and would get to my upgrade as soon as he returned. Well with the race appearing on the horizon and by the Wednesday prior, I still had not received word. I was luckily in town for the weekend and decided to try and race. The Cat 5 entries (both groups) were oversubscribed and Cat 4 was my only hope. I sent an email to Steve which he quickly returned saying I could race Cat 4 and tell the organizers to call him if they had any issue. Well I signed up online only to receive an email saying I was clearly myopic or incredibly over confident because I had signed up for the wrong race and they were putting me in Masters 30+ Cat 4/5. OK, great. I was OK to do that race but wanted to do the Elite 4s first. I emailed to this regard but heard nothing. I'll sort it out on race day is what I thought.
The day before was my little daughter's birthday and I decided (bad decision) to ride the 26 miles to see her, be there for her party and festivities and then return biking the remaining 26 miles. I would take it easy I thought. I won't go close to threshold and I would use this as sort of a base training warm up. It's always good to find out what doesn't work the day before a race. We're amateurs after all. All the other races where I've done well (against my goals), I have rested a lot. It turns out that this 'little' ride averaged
A couple of other 'learnings' from that day: Get great sleep and wave off that last glass of wine! I think it's ok to have two glasses the night before as long as you are well hydrated and get some good sleep. Scratch all of that!
So I get up (late) on race day, figure out that it's 12 miles to the race and that I would be riding. Quickly scoff down some cheerios, a bannana and some cytomax pre-race fuel which is carb intense and nice and chocolatey...perfect fo rthe morning. I followed this with a stiff Columbian brew and hopped on the bike to get on down to Sherman Park. Note to self: make sure you bring dry clothes, a towel and additional food! Dumbo.
The ride to the crit was easy enough. I had a great tail wind. Although, I did get concerned as the road and neighborhood closer to the race was a little dodgy.
Approaching the track I see the first Cat 5 race start to get going. Guys are lining up. I cross over the race track, ride through a deep pile of mud (which is probably still on my bike) and rode up to the registration. Here I went back and forth with the registrar about my upgrade and finally sorted everything out. One of the women behind the desk said, congrats on your upgrade! It was a nice little warming touch.
By now the coffee and food has kicked in and I needed to take a slash (to borrow a South Africanism) and send a fax (another beauty!). So I'm sitting on the can, trying to pin on my numbers and get business done when my phone goes off! Needless to say I didn't answer but sent a highly cryptic text in return. Something like: "On the can. Pinning numbers. Must get fax sent. Call later. T"
After answering the call I immediately headed over to the start/finish line. There was no warm up. I didn't get to see the track and rolled up to see my new Cat 4 buddies. Fortunately I saw Drew Kusnik from the Spidermonkeys and Moshe from RVB. So I at least knew I had someone there to follow. I also noticed Eric Christ who was a standout Cat 5 racer and someone to watch as well. I think there were close to 70 riders at the line.
We go through the usual official speeches and then we're off. And I mean OFF! It didn't start like a usual crit. Rather it was like a pack of Arabians leaving the gates with jockeys whipping their behinds in a blur of carbon tubes, race livery and slashing spokes. It got strung out f a s t! I was late to clip in and had to put some serious power down to catch up. I guess I was in about the last third of the pack as we rounded the first corner and then flew down a seriously bumpy stretch of road. All in all, the track was like a NASCAR oval - no turns to speak of, just flat out hammering with a slight lift (you car racing guys will get the term) for the slight downhill and a blast of gas on the gentle rise heading into start/finish. For the first several laps I think we averaged around 30 mph. It was certainly the fastest crit I have been in and it felt tough but for a reason I didn't expect: It was dangerous. And dealing with danger seems to sap energy. The riding was very skittish and getting boxed in was not fun. There was a distinct mayhem to the pack. It certainly was not very well organized. Managing this seemed easier and more controlable in the drops. And there I sat trying to figure out how to assert myself on this angry mob of riders going 30+ mph over very rough terrain not caring abotu anyone around them.
One of the keys to crits in my mind is asserting yourself in the front 10 riders at all times but especially at the end. In my previous races this was not terribly difficult to do. Things were smooth. But here, everytime I got into a good position it seemed like riders would swarm from either side and the middle would slowly implode leaving me to get sucked back into the pack. Not an overly comfy feeling! I kept trying to attack the outside and gain position that way and it worked. I should just have been more agressive to maintain it...but I felt like I didn't have enough gas in the tank and wanted to hold back and conserve.
About midway through the race I see a rider about 4 bikes ahead getting sideways, some yelling and screaming and he takes another guy out and they fall outwards and directly into my line. It was all happening in slow motion and I thought in an instant that this would be my first crit crash. Thoughts of trying to bunny-hop the flailing riders came to mind but instead I smoothly pulled around them on the outside. The noise was sickening. Dull thuds and crackling carbon was all I heard. Like elephants stamping through the bush. I didn't look back but by now most of the field had gone by. Not sure why but at that point I immediately thought: my race is done, I should just go in. And then I said: nope, chase on, you'll be fine. So I did and found cover in the pack.
This skittish, school of sardines, swaying one way and then swishing another kept the hammer down for most of the race. No one was getting away from the pack and the nervousness continued. Drew did slip away for the prime which was excellent and I thought he might stay away but he was eventualy consumed by the school which had morphed from sardines to Garricks. Teeth barring, mouths open, all consuming.
I'm not sure what happend or why I let this happen but on the final lap I didn't move up well enough like I was now used to. I guess I just blanked out or thought I had no business trying. This is such a wrong thought that it must be banished, deleted, purged, stamped out with intensity and never come back. There's only one reason you're in a crit and that is to win or place in the top ten. so why leave anything out there? It's just one minute of pain, one minute of legs bursting, of blood pumping and single mindedness. Unless you are injured, you have to do everything in your power to attempt to get to the front. I mean everything.
I'm used to sprinting early and trying to hold to the line. That's how I've achieved my best results. In most cases this means coming out of a corner at around 23 mph and sprinting to 33 or so. In this race, by the time we got to the sprint, we were already doing 33! I've never practiced sprinting from 33+ so this was new territory for me. All I could do was hang on, gnash my teeth and plod to the line.
I ended up getting 44th which is essentially a pack finish and OK for my first 4 race. I may have not featured but I learned a lot. Here are my key takeaways:
1. Rest, rest rest
2. Sleep well the night before
3. Warm up well
4. Take a gel before the race - I forgot this time
5. Race to win - assert yourself on the top 5 on the last lap or go home
6. Don't experiment with diet the week before - not sure if this contributed but it could have
7. With nervous packs, get to the front and stay there
Afterwards, I watched my mate Andre race and then we both went and had lunch and chatted about our mistakes. Next time we are there to compete not observe. I can't wait.
Power plot from the race:
Average Power: 199W
Normalized Power: 228W
Average while pedaling: 247W
Max Power: 835W (no, this was not in a sprint....damnit!)
Surges: 30 greater than 4 W/kg...which is really pathetic. More on this in another post where I'll compare several different crits.
1 min power: 341W
2 min power: 286W
5 min power: 268W
20 min power: 220W
And this which is interesting:
Given the above, this was really not a difficult race from a power point of view. But I felt horrible and took a while to recover. Obviously the +3 hr solo ride the day before sucked some out of me and with this and the overall nervousness of the bunch I guess I used up something I never thought of. We live and learn.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
First Crit Race of 2010: Burnham Racing at Blackhawk Farms Raceway
I'd been to Blackhawk Farms before. I knew it intimately. Every kink in the road, every corner entry and exit marker, the places to safely exit the track if there was danger and every place to make a pass. Unfortunately none of that made a hair of a difference at this weekend's race. See, I hold the track record in my class here at Blackhawk...except I was not riding a bike, I was driving a 1986 race prepped Porsche 911 Carrera. Definitely a different animal than my slow and sluggish steel Ritchey Breakaway.
It was March 27th, two weeks after completing the Argus 70 mile race in Cape Town. The temps were pretty nice for spring with a moderate breeze and tems in the late 40s, early 50s. As usual I was late getting my entry in so I was on the dreaded Cat5 waitlist. Cat5 seems to be the only category that is constantly oversubscribed. Mainly due to the reduced field size required for safety reasons by USA Cycling and due to the sheer amount of beginner newbie flesh like me trying to go racing.
I was definitely not nervous or concerned about being dropped. I'd been doing the Chris Carmichael TCC program for about 2.5 months now and was feeling pretty decent. My weight was manageable and the Argus had really tested my legs a couple of weeks ago. The only thing was I didn't have my race bike so here I was racing the Ritchey. My race bike was still in South Africa and only due back in the US in August (argggh!). But I wasn't really worried since I really didn't think that it would come down to bikes. I thought everyone was probably still a little green from winter and it wouldn't be that tough. I was right...kind of.
After getting myself in and my numbers pinned I raced back to the car to put my bike on the trainer to warm up. I remember reading in the Carmichael book how he believed that warmups were critical to getting the lactate buffer primed to cope with the surges that were bound to come. Fortunately there was very little braking and since the track was meant for cars and not bicycles this meant that the corners, while tight for cars (actually we call Blackhawk, Brakehawk because it is so rough on brakes) it is really wide and open for bikes. Unfortuantely in between getting myself in, paying, pinning numbers and wrestling the door of the porta-potty I only had about 5 mins for a warm up. Then it was over to the start finish line for a nice welcome lecture by race officials. Fortunately I got a good position near the front, noticed a couple of fellow Spidermonkeys in the group and settled in. I'm feeling really good about my temperament before races. I'm nicely calm and ready to ride.
The start was fine. Nothing serious. We generally stayed in a group and did nice slow (to me) laps of Blackhawk. I can't remember what the lap times were but in the Carrera mine was 1:20 on the nose. Some folks tried to attack a couple of times and I bridged up once thinking they could get away but every time it seemed that the group caught them and that there was no way for a break to stick. So I hung out in the front half of the pack.
Now I remembered that one of the rules of crit racing was that you needed to be near the front most of the time (to avoid crashes and to cover or get in breaks) and certainly at the end you want to be in the top 5 or so riders. And I believe I did this very well but I did something else that was to my detriment, something that I never thought of until after the race: I waited for everyone else to sprint before doing so myself! This is the first mistake I made this year and you will see why that's important when I describe some of my later races and how I managed to place higher by going on my own terms.
A funny thing happens to you when you're in your first bike race. You look around at the start and you see all these other healthy and fit guys, hiding behind their steel-eyed Oakleys, all bursting and bustling in their skin tight spandax, sponsors flashing at you from brand new race jerseys, freshly shaved quads rippling out from beneath their bib-shorts and squeaky clean carbon frames and flashy wheels. You suddenly think you don't belong. You feel like you're 'applying' to be a part of the club and the only way you'll get accepted is if you hang on, if you don't humiliate yourself in front of the group. You feel like everyone else has been there forever, they know the ropes, they have a plan, they've done this before. Well, some have, but you need to realize that everyone feels like that. And furthermore, when you are hurting chances are that the guy next to you is hurting just as badly. So when I hit the last corner and was in about the top ten I felt like I didn't have a license to sprint. I felt that the big boys, the experienced riders were the only ones with the right to initiate the sprint. Who was I to be telling this pack of elite cyclists when to go? Big mistake!
It was March 27th, two weeks after completing the Argus 70 mile race in Cape Town. The temps were pretty nice for spring with a moderate breeze and tems in the late 40s, early 50s. As usual I was late getting my entry in so I was on the dreaded Cat5 waitlist. Cat5 seems to be the only category that is constantly oversubscribed. Mainly due to the reduced field size required for safety reasons by USA Cycling and due to the sheer amount of beginner newbie flesh like me trying to go racing.
I was definitely not nervous or concerned about being dropped. I'd been doing the Chris Carmichael TCC program for about 2.5 months now and was feeling pretty decent. My weight was manageable and the Argus had really tested my legs a couple of weeks ago. The only thing was I didn't have my race bike so here I was racing the Ritchey. My race bike was still in South Africa and only due back in the US in August (argggh!). But I wasn't really worried since I really didn't think that it would come down to bikes. I thought everyone was probably still a little green from winter and it wouldn't be that tough. I was right...kind of.
After getting myself in and my numbers pinned I raced back to the car to put my bike on the trainer to warm up. I remember reading in the Carmichael book how he believed that warmups were critical to getting the lactate buffer primed to cope with the surges that were bound to come. Fortunately there was very little braking and since the track was meant for cars and not bicycles this meant that the corners, while tight for cars (actually we call Blackhawk, Brakehawk because it is so rough on brakes) it is really wide and open for bikes. Unfortuantely in between getting myself in, paying, pinning numbers and wrestling the door of the porta-potty I only had about 5 mins for a warm up. Then it was over to the start finish line for a nice welcome lecture by race officials. Fortunately I got a good position near the front, noticed a couple of fellow Spidermonkeys in the group and settled in. I'm feeling really good about my temperament before races. I'm nicely calm and ready to ride.
The start was fine. Nothing serious. We generally stayed in a group and did nice slow (to me) laps of Blackhawk. I can't remember what the lap times were but in the Carrera mine was 1:20 on the nose. Some folks tried to attack a couple of times and I bridged up once thinking they could get away but every time it seemed that the group caught them and that there was no way for a break to stick. So I hung out in the front half of the pack.
Now I remembered that one of the rules of crit racing was that you needed to be near the front most of the time (to avoid crashes and to cover or get in breaks) and certainly at the end you want to be in the top 5 or so riders. And I believe I did this very well but I did something else that was to my detriment, something that I never thought of until after the race: I waited for everyone else to sprint before doing so myself! This is the first mistake I made this year and you will see why that's important when I describe some of my later races and how I managed to place higher by going on my own terms.
A funny thing happens to you when you're in your first bike race. You look around at the start and you see all these other healthy and fit guys, hiding behind their steel-eyed Oakleys, all bursting and bustling in their skin tight spandax, sponsors flashing at you from brand new race jerseys, freshly shaved quads rippling out from beneath their bib-shorts and squeaky clean carbon frames and flashy wheels. You suddenly think you don't belong. You feel like you're 'applying' to be a part of the club and the only way you'll get accepted is if you hang on, if you don't humiliate yourself in front of the group. You feel like everyone else has been there forever, they know the ropes, they have a plan, they've done this before. Well, some have, but you need to realize that everyone feels like that. And furthermore, when you are hurting chances are that the guy next to you is hurting just as badly. So when I hit the last corner and was in about the top ten I felt like I didn't have a license to sprint. I felt that the big boys, the experienced riders were the only ones with the right to initiate the sprint. Who was I to be telling this pack of elite cyclists when to go? Big mistake!
You go when you go!
This is the second rule (behind the one that says: be in the top 5 in the final lap). If I had sprinted when I wanted to, on my terms, I might not have held onto my power for the entire length of time but I would have put myself several bike lengths in front of the guys who I was now trying to catch. So the sprint went like this: Nice position Tristan, final turn, nice and easy, watch their wheels....I think they're getting ready to sprint, yes they're getting ready, they're definitely going to sprint, any second now....THEY'RE SPRINTING!! GO GO GO! But it was too late already. They SPRUNT....ok, that's not a real word it's my word but it reminds me of SPRUNG as in this tire's sprung a leak...it sure felt like the air had been sucked out of me. So I didn't really sprint. I put down a meager amount of watts and splurged for the line. I got 17th out of 50. All in all a good attempt on my first effort but, yeah, I should have placed higher and backed myself. Which brings me to another point: You never know until you try. So why not try?
I didn't get dropped!
Critical Race Data:
Race length: 35 minutes
Average power while pedaling: 224W
Normalized power: 243W
Max: 865W
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Mumbai Pro-Criterium
Earlier this year I excitedly stumbled across an event called the Mumbai Cyclothon. It was claiming to have several top pro teams come out to India to race a crit in Mumbai as well as host the Indian Elite state champs and a 25k amateur race. I immediately signed up for the 25k but was bitterly disappointed to find out that it wasn't a race but a ride with 5,000 (yes, that's 3 zeros) of your favorite friends. I decided to bail on that idea worried that I'd get injured and not be able to ride the world's largest timed cycling race held in Cape Town in early March. Over 41,000 riders have signed up! I cannot wait - leave next Friday.
Anyway, dejectedly, I made my way over to the race area to find the pro race. If anyone is interested here is my "race report" that I posted on an Indian cycling site. Note: Stuart O'Grady, Baden Cook and Eddie Merckx were there...not too shabby.
I spent my time searching for the pro race and eventually found it. I asked several people that looked official but interestingly no one even knew it was happening. However, it was great to see the pro race - thanks for the organizers for getting SaxoBank and others there. I wish more Indian enthusiasts could have see it because it was very inspiring to see these great guys go at it. When I go there (about 20 mins into a 2:15 race) a group of three or four Team India riders went off the front. However, the group did not panic and, at a steady pace, promptly swallowed them up a little later. I must hand it to these guys - they had guts to try and get a break to stick against the caliber of teams like Saxobank. But it was not to happen - obviously. Just about at the same time a six man break away formed with two Saxobank team members Haedo and Baden Cook (both tremendous riders) in the break. Germany's Dirk Mueller, from Team Nutrixxion-Sparkasse and Tobias Erler, from the Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team were in there as well. I was rooting for Tobias as he was riding a Wilier Le Roi, which I am quite partial to, but unlucky for him he flatted and had to have a wheel change right in front of me. I thought his race was done and that he'd never bridge up to the breakaway but he did! Wow! What a tremendous show of power and single-mindedness to do that on his own as the lead group was really hauling the mail. There were many of these drama's happening all around. It seemed like all the breakaways were starting at the bottom end of the course away from where I was positioned - perhaps on a tight bend with the road rising uphill - because with about 3 to go the lead group split into two as Mueller and Haedo smashed the breakaway group and came muscling up the rise to the finish line. They stayed together trading pulls until again, and on the last lap, seemingly out of the Mumbai hazy smog leaped Haedo sprinting up the road towards the finish leaving an evaporated Mueller sucking on his exhaust fumes. It must have been hell out there - smog, heat and humidity but they did it. I hear that Haedo was doing 49 mph as he crossed the line....if that's true it is mighty impressive (and humbling).
One amazing bit of team work was on display to a few people looking for subtle plots: the great Stuart O'Grady was like a Lieutenant at the front of the peleton, calmly controlling its pace and no one seemed to want to mess with him. It looked like he was content in that he had Haedo and Cook in the breakaway group and was simply controlling the pace by leading from the front. To any of us mere mortals the amount of laps he literally pulled the entire group in those conditions would have been hell on two wheels. To O'Grady, the 2007 Paris Roubaix winner, it was just another day at the office as he blew by us lap after lap in the front breathing easily with nary a grimace on his face to show for it. Hat's off to O'Grady not seeking the limelight but allowing his team mates to be in the best position to win.
After the leaders (six men) had crossed the finish line (Tobias took third by the way) it was the turn of the peleton to bunch sprint. But by now the power of those up front had shattered its seemingly perfect formation to fragments of gasping riders. My bets were on O'Grady and he didn't disappoint - he leapt forward, crushing anyone daring to follow; it seemed like he still had lots of gas in the tank and comfortably took seventh.
It was great to see two Team India riders finishing. They managed to hang onto a fast main group but were a bit splintered on the final lap as the group strung them out. Their team mates looked on from the sidelines having been pulled out about half way through by the race officials - perhaps they'd burned their final match by pushing a breakaway so early. They will learn much from the experience.
It's always nice to see the camaraderie between team mates and yesterday saw one struggling rider mid way through the race way off the back of the main group struggling to get back on. Perhaps he flatted. Those of you who understand this position know that you have to push way past the limit to bridge up and more often than not you fail. Seeing that this rider wasn't going to be able to bridge, one of his team mates dropped back to 'fetch' him and it then, with the team mate pulling up front, it took about 1.5 laps for them to both regain the shelter of the main group. Great riding and teamwork.
Eddie Merckx was indeed there and said a few words to the crowd. But, in my opinion, he was overshadowed by wave after wave of dignitary speeches (yawn). All in all a good day in India.
Anyway, dejectedly, I made my way over to the race area to find the pro race. If anyone is interested here is my "race report" that I posted on an Indian cycling site. Note: Stuart O'Grady, Baden Cook and Eddie Merckx were there...not too shabby.
I spent my time searching for the pro race and eventually found it. I asked several people that looked official but interestingly no one even knew it was happening. However, it was great to see the pro race - thanks for the organizers for getting SaxoBank and others there. I wish more Indian enthusiasts could have see it because it was very inspiring to see these great guys go at it. When I go there (about 20 mins into a 2:15 race) a group of three or four Team India riders went off the front. However, the group did not panic and, at a steady pace, promptly swallowed them up a little later. I must hand it to these guys - they had guts to try and get a break to stick against the caliber of teams like Saxobank. But it was not to happen - obviously. Just about at the same time a six man break away formed with two Saxobank team members Haedo and Baden Cook (both tremendous riders) in the break. Germany's Dirk Mueller, from Team Nutrixxion-Sparkasse and Tobias Erler, from the Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team were in there as well. I was rooting for Tobias as he was riding a Wilier Le Roi, which I am quite partial to, but unlucky for him he flatted and had to have a wheel change right in front of me. I thought his race was done and that he'd never bridge up to the breakaway but he did! Wow! What a tremendous show of power and single-mindedness to do that on his own as the lead group was really hauling the mail. There were many of these drama's happening all around. It seemed like all the breakaways were starting at the bottom end of the course away from where I was positioned - perhaps on a tight bend with the road rising uphill - because with about 3 to go the lead group split into two as Mueller and Haedo smashed the breakaway group and came muscling up the rise to the finish line. They stayed together trading pulls until again, and on the last lap, seemingly out of the Mumbai hazy smog leaped Haedo sprinting up the road towards the finish leaving an evaporated Mueller sucking on his exhaust fumes. It must have been hell out there - smog, heat and humidity but they did it. I hear that Haedo was doing 49 mph as he crossed the line....if that's true it is mighty impressive (and humbling).
One amazing bit of team work was on display to a few people looking for subtle plots: the great Stuart O'Grady was like a Lieutenant at the front of the peleton, calmly controlling its pace and no one seemed to want to mess with him. It looked like he was content in that he had Haedo and Cook in the breakaway group and was simply controlling the pace by leading from the front. To any of us mere mortals the amount of laps he literally pulled the entire group in those conditions would have been hell on two wheels. To O'Grady, the 2007 Paris Roubaix winner, it was just another day at the office as he blew by us lap after lap in the front breathing easily with nary a grimace on his face to show for it. Hat's off to O'Grady not seeking the limelight but allowing his team mates to be in the best position to win.
After the leaders (six men) had crossed the finish line (Tobias took third by the way) it was the turn of the peleton to bunch sprint. But by now the power of those up front had shattered its seemingly perfect formation to fragments of gasping riders. My bets were on O'Grady and he didn't disappoint - he leapt forward, crushing anyone daring to follow; it seemed like he still had lots of gas in the tank and comfortably took seventh.
It was great to see two Team India riders finishing. They managed to hang onto a fast main group but were a bit splintered on the final lap as the group strung them out. Their team mates looked on from the sidelines having been pulled out about half way through by the race officials - perhaps they'd burned their final match by pushing a breakaway so early. They will learn much from the experience.
It's always nice to see the camaraderie between team mates and yesterday saw one struggling rider mid way through the race way off the back of the main group struggling to get back on. Perhaps he flatted. Those of you who understand this position know that you have to push way past the limit to bridge up and more often than not you fail. Seeing that this rider wasn't going to be able to bridge, one of his team mates dropped back to 'fetch' him and it then, with the team mate pulling up front, it took about 1.5 laps for them to both regain the shelter of the main group. Great riding and teamwork.
Eddie Merckx was indeed there and said a few words to the crowd. But, in my opinion, he was overshadowed by wave after wave of dignitary speeches (yawn). All in all a good day in India.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Pre-Season training - Establishing your base
Pre-Season Training for the Argus
As I mentioned in my opening post, I had a very specific pre-season goal and that was to take part in the Cape Argus Cycle Tour. This is a 70 mile race held every year in early March in Cape Town South Africa. It is a challenging course with 5 significant climbs, 35,000+ participants and usually a lot of wind. What makes this challenging for us northern hemisphere cyclists is that it comes right at the peak of the southern hemisphere fitness (early fall) and is right towards the end of the base preparation or early specialization period of the northerners. Regardless, it is a stunning ride through the most beautiful coastline you will see on a bike. The whole town grinds to a halt to support it and thousands of fans line the sidelines shouting out words of encouragement to the riders - truly an amazing event….but more on that in a later post.
This year’s Argus was made special by the entry of none other than Lance Armstrong and his Radio Shack team mate and fellow South African, Daryl Impy. They entered the pro race where they ended up in a 9 man breakaway (unusual for the pro field) where Daryl ended up second and Lance 9th.
Training – Determining your base
Since this was my first ever attempt at a race I knew I had to train properly, have a goal and set my mind to executing day in and day out for around 3 months. I faced two significant challenges:
1. How to train indoors for a 3+ hr race and
2. How to train while commuting between Chicago and India (where I was working)
I never really solved the first problem because it is very difficult to go for longer than 2 hours on an indoor trainer (I think I managed this 3 or 4 times). No matter how many movies you have or how interesting the Discovery Channel is, 2 hours seems to be a limiting factor – at least for me. Fortunately I did manage to travel to South Africa three times during this period, the last of which being for the actual race. So I got to ride the course (well, most of it…part of it is on a highway and not open to cyclists outside of race day) about 3 times. I got to experience every climb except for Wynberg Hill which came at the very start of the race and is arguably the hardest climb. It was great to have a picture in my mind of what the course was going to be like and where the difficult spots might be.
Well, back to the training period. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had decided to follow the Carmichael Time Crunched Cyclist (TCC) training program because it suited my travel situation and it fit in well with my long working hours. Usually I would have 1-1.5 hrs before work every morning to train. I ended up setting up my steady steel steed, a Ritchey Breakaway, together with a fluid trainer in my hotel room and that, unfortunately, would be my place of pain for the next 3 months or so. Riding outdoors in India, while perfect weather conditions, was never in play due to the heavy traffic, road conditions, pedestrians, cows, holes and any other sort of object that could ruin your day.
The Carmichael program basically serves up an 11 week power interval suffer fest where you are basically working out at very high intensity and recovering to do more high intensity work. The main focus is on raising VO2Max power (the sustained power you can put out at the maximum amount of oxygen your cardio-vascular system can produce). As we will see, I believe I suffered a bit by not building a long enough aerobic FTP (Functional Threshold Power – equivalent of your one hour maximum power output as measured by a one hour time trial and other methods). In retrospect, I believe that raising FTP is a significant factor in being successful in races longer than one hour. The Carmichael program is good for criterium races (which normally don’t last longer than 40 minutes at my level) and was excellent for having the power to cope with pack surges and bursting up hills. I really believe it paid off significantly in those specific cases. However, when looking at my Argus ride data I can see significant drop offs in power output after 1, 2 and 3 hours.
The whole TCC program is very simple (I like simple things) and is calibrated off of two 8 minute time trials ridden back to back with a 10 minute rest in between. Honestly, I could never manage the second 8 minute effort as I felt like I had pushed my eyeballs out during the first that I could not face another minute at that high intensity. It’s tough! In fact, for me, at my current state of fitness, I rolled off the bike and lay on my back in the middle of my living room thinking I was going to throw up any second. I recovered…
The power and target heart rates for every exercise in the book is now calculated from this 8 minute effort. So it is quite simple to figure out exactly where you should be at any given point. You can use heart rate as a guide to this but training with power data is so interesting and I think better in that it shows your true output to the back wheel at all times. It also is very good at showing you how you have hopefully improved over time.
So, getting to the raw data and exposing my relatively poor fitness at the time, the chart below shows that second attempt (Jan 16th 2010) into determining my baseline for the TCC program. The first was before I had a PowerTap and was on the hotel bike. I averaged 240W then (November 2009). Click on the chart to see full screen.
There are several things to take away and learn from this chart:
1. Warming up is critical – I cannot stress this more and Carmichael hits it in the book: make sure you warm up with intensity. It seems counter-intuitive but you really should have at least 3 max, all out efforts for about a minute each before you race a criterium (I like to do more now) and before you take on this test. Don’t think that you’re going to use up your energy stores or anything like that. What you are doing is warming up your lactate buffers. You are getting your body prepared for dealing with massive amounts of lactate. If you do not do this, you will get dropped from a crit if it includes several hard surges hard during the first couple of laps.
2. Time Trialing is a skill – You can see here that I started off riding at about 330W. I was feeling good, even smiling. Wow, this is easy. All I have to do is keep this up for 8 minutes. Well pretty soon you start feeling it in your legs and your breathing gets all ragged and you cannot maintain anymore and so you start dropping off. Perhaps you even shift down a gear. It’s hard. It’s an art and only after you’ve done it a few times will you know what your target 8 minute output should be and how to ride to it.
So looking at the graph one can see the warm-up (not so grand in this case) and the 8 minute effort. That effort shows that I was at 255W. This would now be the number that I would be using to calculate all my efforts for the next few weeks of the program.
15 Workouts Later…
So a month later and after only 15 TCC workouts, 305 miles and 18.25 hours on the trainer this is what my 8 minute field test results looked like:
1. 8 min FT: now at 273W which is an 18W increase or 7%
2. VO2Max Power Increase: Looking at the final 1 minute in the first FT, my average HR was 172 bpm (this is my “I’m really hurting range”) and I’m only able to average 227W. Comparing the final minute of the second test my HR averages 170 bpm (two beats lower) but my power output has jumped to 275. This is a great indicator that my power is increasing for a given HR.
Takeaways:
1. Poor warm up – I guess I was still not taking the “Warm up is critical” idea to heart. Shame on me.
2. Pretty steady effort – much better job of setting a target, manageable output and then sticking to it. You can see I picked it up a bit at the end suggesting there was a little more in the tank….actually there was. I’m not sure if it was the sheer elation and euphoria of seeing a 4 week increase of nearly 20W but I rested and then felt good enough to push out 9 Power Intervals (PI) of 275-300W.
3. You can still workout hungover – Yes, it is possible for your body to put in a good effort even if you’re hungover. I admit, I probably had a few too many glasses of wine the night before and was feeling pretty bleak but after the warmup I was ready to get on with business. Now here’s the tricky bit: they say that if you are going to perform these 8 min field tests, that you should always replicate the exact conditions as much as possible in order to get a fair comparison. So this week I will go out and buy a bottle of wine and start the preparations for my next 8 min field test … the night before!
That's it for today...look out for more discussion on aerobic coupling, power profiling and other "stuff".
As I mentioned in my opening post, I had a very specific pre-season goal and that was to take part in the Cape Argus Cycle Tour. This is a 70 mile race held every year in early March in Cape Town South Africa. It is a challenging course with 5 significant climbs, 35,000+ participants and usually a lot of wind. What makes this challenging for us northern hemisphere cyclists is that it comes right at the peak of the southern hemisphere fitness (early fall) and is right towards the end of the base preparation or early specialization period of the northerners. Regardless, it is a stunning ride through the most beautiful coastline you will see on a bike. The whole town grinds to a halt to support it and thousands of fans line the sidelines shouting out words of encouragement to the riders - truly an amazing event….but more on that in a later post.
This year’s Argus was made special by the entry of none other than Lance Armstrong and his Radio Shack team mate and fellow South African, Daryl Impy. They entered the pro race where they ended up in a 9 man breakaway (unusual for the pro field) where Daryl ended up second and Lance 9th.
Training – Determining your base
Since this was my first ever attempt at a race I knew I had to train properly, have a goal and set my mind to executing day in and day out for around 3 months. I faced two significant challenges:
1. How to train indoors for a 3+ hr race and
2. How to train while commuting between Chicago and India (where I was working)
I never really solved the first problem because it is very difficult to go for longer than 2 hours on an indoor trainer (I think I managed this 3 or 4 times). No matter how many movies you have or how interesting the Discovery Channel is, 2 hours seems to be a limiting factor – at least for me. Fortunately I did manage to travel to South Africa three times during this period, the last of which being for the actual race. So I got to ride the course (well, most of it…part of it is on a highway and not open to cyclists outside of race day) about 3 times. I got to experience every climb except for Wynberg Hill which came at the very start of the race and is arguably the hardest climb. It was great to have a picture in my mind of what the course was going to be like and where the difficult spots might be.
Well, back to the training period. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had decided to follow the Carmichael Time Crunched Cyclist (TCC) training program because it suited my travel situation and it fit in well with my long working hours. Usually I would have 1-1.5 hrs before work every morning to train. I ended up setting up my steady steel steed, a Ritchey Breakaway, together with a fluid trainer in my hotel room and that, unfortunately, would be my place of pain for the next 3 months or so. Riding outdoors in India, while perfect weather conditions, was never in play due to the heavy traffic, road conditions, pedestrians, cows, holes and any other sort of object that could ruin your day.
The Carmichael program basically serves up an 11 week power interval suffer fest where you are basically working out at very high intensity and recovering to do more high intensity work. The main focus is on raising VO2Max power (the sustained power you can put out at the maximum amount of oxygen your cardio-vascular system can produce). As we will see, I believe I suffered a bit by not building a long enough aerobic FTP (Functional Threshold Power – equivalent of your one hour maximum power output as measured by a one hour time trial and other methods). In retrospect, I believe that raising FTP is a significant factor in being successful in races longer than one hour. The Carmichael program is good for criterium races (which normally don’t last longer than 40 minutes at my level) and was excellent for having the power to cope with pack surges and bursting up hills. I really believe it paid off significantly in those specific cases. However, when looking at my Argus ride data I can see significant drop offs in power output after 1, 2 and 3 hours.
The whole TCC program is very simple (I like simple things) and is calibrated off of two 8 minute time trials ridden back to back with a 10 minute rest in between. Honestly, I could never manage the second 8 minute effort as I felt like I had pushed my eyeballs out during the first that I could not face another minute at that high intensity. It’s tough! In fact, for me, at my current state of fitness, I rolled off the bike and lay on my back in the middle of my living room thinking I was going to throw up any second. I recovered…
The power and target heart rates for every exercise in the book is now calculated from this 8 minute effort. So it is quite simple to figure out exactly where you should be at any given point. You can use heart rate as a guide to this but training with power data is so interesting and I think better in that it shows your true output to the back wheel at all times. It also is very good at showing you how you have hopefully improved over time.
So, getting to the raw data and exposing my relatively poor fitness at the time, the chart below shows that second attempt (Jan 16th 2010) into determining my baseline for the TCC program. The first was before I had a PowerTap and was on the hotel bike. I averaged 240W then (November 2009). Click on the chart to see full screen.
There are several things to take away and learn from this chart:
1. Warming up is critical – I cannot stress this more and Carmichael hits it in the book: make sure you warm up with intensity. It seems counter-intuitive but you really should have at least 3 max, all out efforts for about a minute each before you race a criterium (I like to do more now) and before you take on this test. Don’t think that you’re going to use up your energy stores or anything like that. What you are doing is warming up your lactate buffers. You are getting your body prepared for dealing with massive amounts of lactate. If you do not do this, you will get dropped from a crit if it includes several hard surges hard during the first couple of laps.
2. Time Trialing is a skill – You can see here that I started off riding at about 330W. I was feeling good, even smiling. Wow, this is easy. All I have to do is keep this up for 8 minutes. Well pretty soon you start feeling it in your legs and your breathing gets all ragged and you cannot maintain anymore and so you start dropping off. Perhaps you even shift down a gear. It’s hard. It’s an art and only after you’ve done it a few times will you know what your target 8 minute output should be and how to ride to it.
So looking at the graph one can see the warm-up (not so grand in this case) and the 8 minute effort. That effort shows that I was at 255W. This would now be the number that I would be using to calculate all my efforts for the next few weeks of the program.
15 Workouts Later…
So a month later and after only 15 TCC workouts, 305 miles and 18.25 hours on the trainer this is what my 8 minute field test results looked like:
1. 8 min FT: now at 273W which is an 18W increase or 7%
2. VO2Max Power Increase: Looking at the final 1 minute in the first FT, my average HR was 172 bpm (this is my “I’m really hurting range”) and I’m only able to average 227W. Comparing the final minute of the second test my HR averages 170 bpm (two beats lower) but my power output has jumped to 275. This is a great indicator that my power is increasing for a given HR.
Takeaways:
1. Poor warm up – I guess I was still not taking the “Warm up is critical” idea to heart. Shame on me.
2. Pretty steady effort – much better job of setting a target, manageable output and then sticking to it. You can see I picked it up a bit at the end suggesting there was a little more in the tank….actually there was. I’m not sure if it was the sheer elation and euphoria of seeing a 4 week increase of nearly 20W but I rested and then felt good enough to push out 9 Power Intervals (PI) of 275-300W.
3. You can still workout hungover – Yes, it is possible for your body to put in a good effort even if you’re hungover. I admit, I probably had a few too many glasses of wine the night before and was feeling pretty bleak but after the warmup I was ready to get on with business. Now here’s the tricky bit: they say that if you are going to perform these 8 min field tests, that you should always replicate the exact conditions as much as possible in order to get a fair comparison. So this week I will go out and buy a bottle of wine and start the preparations for my next 8 min field test … the night before!
That's it for today...look out for more discussion on aerobic coupling, power profiling and other "stuff".
Friday, January 1, 2010
Some background: Context to my racing preparation for the year
Last September I was already plotting my 'real' entry into racing bicycles in the Chicago area. I had done a little research and found some incredible and quite unbelievable inspiration in a client and friend of mine in Texas. Stuart was a fellow South African, 53, cycling for about 6 years and...wait for it...the owner of the Oklahoma State 40k Time Trial (TT) championship and second in the Texas State TT last year. He does a 40k in something like 54 minutes. Apparently you are not a serious cyclist until you can do a 40k in under one hour. Just to put Stuart's result into perspective: in the 2009 Tour de France final 40k TT, Contador won in a little over 48 minutes and Stuart's best time would have beaten about 30 of the pro TDF field.
Is that inspiration or what?
Stuart put me onto Joe Friel's "Cyclist's Training Bible" saying that he followed it religiously and the results followed. Naively, I had visions of me being super strong by the start of the season in 2010! Little was I to know that this was the start of an incredible journey of learning about training, physiology, applying my engineering background and nutrition. Perfect.
Stuart also recommended Chris Carmichael's "Time Crunched Cyclist". I started reading the training bible and then moved onto the TCC book. I found both texts to be highly informative and I learned a tremendous amount from each. What stuck out in my mind and resonated after the humiliation of my first criterium (see: Monkey in the deep-end) was that competitive cycling is one of the hardest disciplines to train for because there are so many dimensions to the sport and demands on competitors vary greatly from race variant to needing different strengths during the race. Hardly overt on the surface.
Ultimately I chose the TCC method because
1. I felt that it fitted in with both my upcoming schedule as well as getting me prepared for my first big race in Cape Town, South Africa. I will post a race report on this first mass start later on. I had accepted an assignment from work that would have me in India (Mumbai) from October through November next year with a schedule that had me in Mumbai 3 weeks and then back in Chicago (or South Africa) for 1-2 weeks. The wreaked havoc with my training schedule dictating that almost 100% of my training would be indoors on the trainer in my hotel room in Mumbai. Hence, I felt like a human hamster...later to be the human humidifier!
2. It targeted anerobic strength which, after the crit in Chicago, led me to believe that coping with 60-80 surges during a crit was my weakness. It had a strong prescription of Power Intervals (all out 2-3 minute intervals) to raise power at VO2max and to increase power at Lactate Threshold (LT).
TCC more of less ignores building a large aerobic base in the winter (which most other elite programs prescribe). And I assumed that I had a decent aerobic base from all my group riding of the previous season. I think that it started off that way, but as you'll see, I think I didn't have as big a base as I thought....all part of learning.
My perceived base came from about 2 seasons and 7,000 miles of fairly long distance riding with a relatively strong group out of the North Shore of Chicago - the Plaza Riders. We would religiously do around 60 miles on a Saturday and 80 on a Sunday. We average about 21 mph so we were going at a very respectable pace. I took this base with me on several road trips to a fast group ride in Dallas and twice out to Monterey and never felt out-gunned with any of the groups. Racing is an entirely different matter all together.
So, late October saw me in Mumbai and by the end of November I was on the TCC program following it down to every last detail. I will describe that process more in a later post but I just wanted to give everyone some background on where I was coming from.
Until later...ride on.
Is that inspiration or what?
Stuart put me onto Joe Friel's "Cyclist's Training Bible" saying that he followed it religiously and the results followed. Naively, I had visions of me being super strong by the start of the season in 2010! Little was I to know that this was the start of an incredible journey of learning about training, physiology, applying my engineering background and nutrition. Perfect.
Stuart also recommended Chris Carmichael's "Time Crunched Cyclist". I started reading the training bible and then moved onto the TCC book. I found both texts to be highly informative and I learned a tremendous amount from each. What stuck out in my mind and resonated after the humiliation of my first criterium (see: Monkey in the deep-end) was that competitive cycling is one of the hardest disciplines to train for because there are so many dimensions to the sport and demands on competitors vary greatly from race variant to needing different strengths during the race. Hardly overt on the surface.
Ultimately I chose the TCC method because
1. I felt that it fitted in with both my upcoming schedule as well as getting me prepared for my first big race in Cape Town, South Africa. I will post a race report on this first mass start later on. I had accepted an assignment from work that would have me in India (Mumbai) from October through November next year with a schedule that had me in Mumbai 3 weeks and then back in Chicago (or South Africa) for 1-2 weeks. The wreaked havoc with my training schedule dictating that almost 100% of my training would be indoors on the trainer in my hotel room in Mumbai. Hence, I felt like a human hamster...later to be the human humidifier!
2. It targeted anerobic strength which, after the crit in Chicago, led me to believe that coping with 60-80 surges during a crit was my weakness. It had a strong prescription of Power Intervals (all out 2-3 minute intervals) to raise power at VO2max and to increase power at Lactate Threshold (LT).
TCC more of less ignores building a large aerobic base in the winter (which most other elite programs prescribe). And I assumed that I had a decent aerobic base from all my group riding of the previous season. I think that it started off that way, but as you'll see, I think I didn't have as big a base as I thought....all part of learning.
My perceived base came from about 2 seasons and 7,000 miles of fairly long distance riding with a relatively strong group out of the North Shore of Chicago - the Plaza Riders. We would religiously do around 60 miles on a Saturday and 80 on a Sunday. We average about 21 mph so we were going at a very respectable pace. I took this base with me on several road trips to a fast group ride in Dallas and twice out to Monterey and never felt out-gunned with any of the groups. Racing is an entirely different matter all together.
So, late October saw me in Mumbai and by the end of November I was on the TCC program following it down to every last detail. I will describe that process more in a later post but I just wanted to give everyone some background on where I was coming from.
Until later...ride on.
This is where I spend all of my training time: on the faithful Ritchey overlooking the Arabian Sea
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