First Race of the Season

And I'm at home. Actually the Frostbite TT is delayed today, if not canceled; it's all white up north around Everett and snowing lightly down here in Seattle.

Unfortunately, either way the race isn't really an option for me. I've been off the bike since December. Not by choice however.. up to the end of Demeber I was commuting about daily, and getting in 13-16 hours a week.

Training for the 2011 season, getting ready to hit the ground running in the 3's. With 2 points carried over from last year I was ready to get some more.

But then..

The sad fact is that many drivers still don't look for bikes, much less see us. And they are apparently in a hurry.

A driver pulled out in front of me on a training ride, and with no time to stop I ran into the car.. long story short I haven't been able to ride for about two months now, recovery has been slower than I would have liked.

So here I sit, thinking about how Mason Lake (road race) is coming up on March 6th, and I'm still in pain now and then from the accident.. And the first Sequim road race is on the 12th.

Dammit.

It's not like the Mason/Sequim races were all that important, but it would have been nice to get out there with everyone else and put my training to use. Walla Walla is still an "A" race for me, and I really hope to make it there. But there's no rush.

Until the doctors give me official clearance to return to the racing, the main focus is still on recovery.

Be careful out there! And expect to see me in the peloton later this season.

Notes From Winter Training

Well technically it's not "winter" yet, but it seems close enough.

I got to ride in big snowflakes through the north end last week, which made me feel like Andy Hampsten on the Gavia, barely able to see through the thick whiteness of it all. Except the snow in Seattle wasn't sticking, so it made for a nice little ride.

(The ride was around the north end of Lake Washington - a nice hilly route including 5th Ave through Northgate/etc (hills), Juanita Hill, east side hills including the "col d'bellevue", that short-but-steep section leading towards I-90 off Main street.)

Start of Base Training

In other news, training for the 2011 race season is well under way! "Base" training (e.g. endurance-zone riding). A big part of my training plan is the commute to Redmond, about 17 miles over I-90 & Mercer Island, through Bellevue, or as I now call it the Belly of the Beast.

• Base 1, Week 1: 10 hours - commuting & a team ride on the weekend
  
• Base 1, Week 2: 13 hours - commuting & a team ride
  
• Base 1, Week 3: 16 hours! (probably the most I've ever done in terms of actual training)
• Base 1, Week 4: rest - just two rides on the weekend for a total of 6-7 hours
  

The pattern seen in Base 1 (three weeks of work, one rest week) continues in Base 2 and beyond, and after those two blocks I move on to the "Build" period - two more blocks of four weeks each, then it's time to shred some legs!

As a side-note, it's not just endurance rides I'm doing in this Base period, but also some "speedwork", such as spin-ups or low-gear sprints. I've been getting in the 34x25 gear and spinning out in excess of 160 rpm - the PT reported 218 rpm the other day but that seems crazy. By 180 rpm or so I'm bouncing on the seat, it probably looks interesting to anyone watching.

2011!

While the training hours can get tedious, and cold, I just try to think more about the upcoming 2011 race season in March.. it's not that far away right? Just 89 days away..

"Thursday Night World Championships" - Seward Park 4/22/2010

The biggest and baddest names in Category 3 & 4 WSBA racing showed up for the 6 PM race today. I heard someone in the pack say, "there's something in the air tonight" and he was right - most of us failed at meeting goals the previous week at Walla Walla most likely, and felt a refreshed sense of urgency to get That Win.

The air was cool, a little too much since I was only in shorts and a jersey - left the door in a hurry and didn't bring a jacket or anything - but that thought was soon washed away with the warmth of 170+ beats-per-minute of the heart.

The Race

We got to go clockwise, which I hadn't done since last year - I had a love/hate relationship with this direction - the climb sometimes felt harder going this way, since it's longer but less steep - but I seem to place better this way too. I think it's because we're sprinting on a 4-5% grade at the end - and if you start out the wind-up/sprint behind others, you're in the draft and can build up some nice speed. Tonight was no different.

The race started off pretty quick, the first few laps hurt, a little reminder of the big turnout tonight (50?), and the fact that this isn't the beginner's 4/5's race at 5:30 anymore. (Ok, so we're not the p/1/2/3 7 PM race either.. somewhere in between)

There were four other Recycled Cycles guys in the pack, all Cat 3s - wasn't sure what their plan was but I was mostly just gonna stay out of their way, and try to keep up. After all it's only been about a year since I started racing at all, and they've been doing this for years.

On a prime lap I thought I had a decent position to move up for it, and went to the left around the big group and shot up towards on guy close off the front, but didn't see that there was already a break of three that had a bigger gap up the road (including a team mate I think). Oops. You're not supposed to chase your own team mates, but at least it's just a training race so it's not a big deal.


Sprint

The group came back together, and 15 laps & 30 minutes later it was time for the final few laps. I had decent position near the front and the pack was speeding up people jostling for the top few positions. I didn't want to be up on the front, and couldn't really get up there in time anyway - was about 15 riders back at the bottom of the hill, and wound up the sprint to shoot up through a few people who had gone early for That Win. I could see the sprint pretty well, and could see three other RCR riders (Mike, Pauh, Adam?) in front of me - four team mates in the top 10, not bad! Ex-RCR rider Randy took the win, he's a strong guy for sure.

In the end I came in for 7th or 8th place - though points for the summer series are only given to the top 6. Still, I'm really happy with that placing in a pretty strong field. Good racing!

Next up: Vance Creek Road Race

Oh yeah, Tim: you were asking about cadence during the race? I'm impressed you can think/talk during a race like that! Anyway feel free to post that question here, I can't remember what it was.

Tour of Walla Walla 2010: The Data

So my gigantic post about ToWW covered the story-side of the racing, but not the data. The Powertap Pro+ I have is kind of like a flight data recorder - every second's data is stored for later analysis, telling the good and bad.

You might ask, what good does that do me? Some might say "all you need to do is go faster than everyone else." Yeah, yeah...

With all this speed/power/heart rate/cadence data I can see what race-level efforts (like sprints, breakaways, painful climbs) looked like in terms of actual power output. Taking that, I can try to repeat those efforts in order to get better at them. Repeat them until they feel easier.

This is my first season of relatively structured training, and so far it's been going well. You don't need a power-measuring device to do structured training, but it's nice to have.

I peaked just before the Walla Walla stage race, and even rested for three days (no riding!) before the event to make sure I was fresh for it. I think the training approach worked pretty well overall, and felt great going into the event.

Walla Walla Time Trial: 9.3 miles - 38th place

In the graph below you can see how the power was harder on the way up, lower on the way down. Looking back I wish I'd saved more for the downhill, but it's easy to say now. Power was actually decent (when I wasn't coasting on the downhill), but my aero-ness (e.g. frontal area) needs to be worked on no doubt.
ToWW TT: 277w/284w:
Duration: 23:55
Work: 397 kJ
TSS: 38.3 (intensity factor 0.98)
Norm Power: 284w
Distance: 9.309 mi
Elevation Gain: 618 ft
Elevation Loss: 675 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 885 277 watts
Heart Rate: 147 189 177 bpm
Cadence: 30 125 86 rpm
Speed: 3.7 ? 22.? mph
Crank Torque: 0 875 272 lb-in

The first half of the TT broken out - 306 watt average for almost 12 minutes! More than I usually do, I probably need to start training around this wattage more.

TT part 1 - 306w:
Duration: 11:55
Work: 219 kJ
TSS: 22.4 (intensity factor 1.062)
Norm Power: 308w
Distance: 3.862 mi
Elevation Gain: 501 ft
Elevation Loss: 78 ft
Grade: 2.1 % (424 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 885 306 watts
Heart Rate: 146 189 181 bpm
Cadence: 30 125 89 rpm
Speed: 2.3 33.7 19.4 mph
Crank Torque: 0 696 293 lb-in

(compared to the Frostbite TT I at least didn't go too hard at the beginning, but as you can see pacing still wasn't all that smooth. Kind of feeling around for a good zone I guess)


Then the second part of the TT, mostly downhill. Didn't have the legs or lungs to really spin out the 53x12 going down, and was recovering for the first minute or so of the downhill.

Then when the guy passed me, I sped up a bit, a second-wind spurred by the motivation of being chased and caught.

TT part 2 - 246w/256w - 27.1 mph:
Duration: 12:03
Work: 178 kJ
TSS: 15.7 (intensity factor 0.883)
Norm Power: 256w
Distance: 5.457 mi
Elevation Gain: 118 ft
Elevation Loss: 598 ft
Grade: -1.7 % (-480 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 640 246 watts
Heart Rate: 165 186 174 bpm
Cadence: 36 103 83 rpm
Speed: 3.9 41.6 27.1 mph
Crank Torque: 0 875 251 lb-in

Overall I think for next year (and this years other TTs) I need to work on spending time in those zones - simulating/practicing the TT position and all. Lots of work needs to be done here.

Walla Walla Cat 4 Crit - 25 minutes - 5th place

Now this was a race I was fairly confident about, and just wanted a top 6 for upgrade points. Of course 90-something other Cat 4's had the exact same idea I'm sure.

It was really short - scheduled for 25 minutes, but I think we only got 23 in. Is that even long enough to count towards a USAC upgrade?! I hope so..

Cat 4 Walla Walla crit!
Duration: 23:05
Work: 355 kJ
TSS: 35.1 (intensity factor 0.955)
Norm Power: 277w
Distance: 10.058 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1045 256 watts
Heart Rate: 114 206 182 bpm
Cadence: 24 137 83 rpm
Speed: 0.9 36.3 26.1 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1793 224 lb-in

Here's the power/speed graph from the crit, with a little smoothing. Nothing special but you can see how it gets speedier towards the end.

Cat 4 crit - 5th place:


Below is the last 3 or so minutes of the crit, no smoothing - as you can see, lots of bursts above threshold, and lots of coasting. The usual for my crits, unless you're on or off the front.

Not the best example of a sprint, but good enough for 5th. Jordan said he saw me coasting (again!) and thought he could catch me, which he almost did. Dammit, no more coasting in the last few meters!

Waitsburg Cat 4 Road Race - 58 miles - 14th place (~40 secs behind winner)

Looking at the data for the road race, no wonder I got bored in the first 9 miles of it. Some stats:

• before breakaway (incl. neutral rollout, big downhill): 72w average (130 watts Normalized Power)!
• the break was 259 watts average (281w NP) for ~40 minutes
  
• after the break was 160 watts average, 221 watts NP
• overall: 175 watts average (2.62 watts/kg), 236w (3.54 w/kg)

Waitsburg Cat 4 RR - 14th place
Duration: 2:35:00
Work: 1628 kJ
TSS: 170.7 (intensity factor 0.813)
Norm Power: 236w
Distance: 57.547 mi
Elevation Gain: 4482 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1053 175 watts
Heart Rate: 91 190 149 bpm
Cadence: 16 129 74 rpm
Speed: 0 43.4 22.2 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1694 189 lb-in

ToWW Men's Cat 4 Road Race - 14th place:(the highlighted section is my breakaway - note how the red line (heart rate) and yellow line (power) go up and stay pretty steady there..)

breaking away?! 259w/281w:
Duration: 35:23
Work: 551 kJ
TSS: 55.5 (intensity factor 0.97)
Norm Power: 281w
Distance: 12.85 mi
Elevation Gain: 1066 ft
Elevation Loss: 774 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1053 259 watts
Heart Rate: 107 190 170 bpm
Cadence: 28 106 82 rpm
Speed: 1.6 42 21.7 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1694 262 lb-in

Failed breakaway, caught on climb - the horizontal line is 171 bpm, my "Lactate Threshold Heart Rate" - when I'm above that for long, it hurts. And boy did it hurt once I got caught on the climb (non-highlighted part) - you can see the HR going way above threshold there. Ouch.

And going out with a bang, here's the final 5k or so of the Cat 4 RR, including the big climb...

uphill finish 309w/309w:
Duration: 7:41
Work: 142 kJ
TSS: 14.6 (intensity factor 1.067)
Norm Power: 309w
Distance: 1.793 mi
Elevation Gain: 533 ft
Grade: 5.6 % (527 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 131 797 309 watts
Heart Rate: 160 187 182 bpm
Cadence: 60 89 75 rpm
Speed: 1.5 22.7 14.0 mph
Crank Torque: 136 910 352 lb-in

(yellow=power, blue=speed, orange/brown=elevation, green=cadence)

You can actually see the exact moment on the climb where I cracked, right at about 2:46:00 - that's where I sat down, looked back and saw a gap on the rest of the pack, and just tried to defend my 14th spot for no good reason. Couldn't keep going hard to maintain contact with the leaders.

Hopefully given enough training, I can be one of those leaders next year.

Racing at Seward Park - 4/8/2010

Seward Park 6 pm training crit (Cat 3/4's)

It's a good sign this race is feeling slightly easier every time. Racing against 3's was at first daunting, but for the most part they seem like 4's who've just been riding for a while, and are a tad faster. The pack is smoother, and tighter too - experienced racers joke about how the 5's ride with two feet between each rider, which feels close enough for those new to racing - but in this pack we're less than a foot from each other, sometimes less. Not much room for sketchy riders, and luckily I didn't see many.

My plan, if I even had one besides getting in a good workout, was to "sit in" and save my energy for the finish. Since I weigh 145-ish lbs these days I have perhaps a slight advantage over some on the uphill-ish sprint finish. "Sitting in" always sounds easy but there are no free rides in a race.

The plan was loosely defined, and I just went with the flow. There were four "prime" laps, where the first person across the line wins $10 & some Nuun tablets and a water bottle. Enough to get the race animated! But I planned on ignoring those.

A Cat 3 on our team went for the last prime, with about 3 laps to go. On the downhill section he had a nice lead on us, he actually looked small in the distance. Chris & I got on the front and tried to control the pace, e.g. slow it down a tad to let our guy get away for the prime, though we probably didn't do the best job of it. This is important stuff folks! Winning a prime is not just for the material benefits, it's the bragging rights we're all after. A noble pursuit indeed.

But on the uphill just before the finish we could see that our guy was running out of gas.. so Jordan jumped to go for it and I hopped on his wheel. We blew buy the blown RCR guy and I'm sitting second wheel cruising up to the line, in perfect position to come around for the prime! Or so I thought..

I probably thought about it too much, and just when I was about to make my move Jordan's team mate Mark came flying by the both of us, taking the prime. Good job Mark, well played.

Well, that was fun but now I had to recover at 185 beats-per-minute & 25 mph! Only two laps to go so I better recover quick. And you'd think you can just coast on the downhill, but it seemed like there was a nasty headwind there and you had to fight just to keep up with the rest of the pack. A few seconds of coasting here and there felt great, but I lost positions on the climb the next time around.

On the final lap I was in the top 20-30 (e.g. not placed great), the pack was really fluid, but I saw the guy that won last week (from Garage Racing) and marked his wheel. He was moving up through the pack so it seemed like a good wheel to be on. We got to the climb and started winding up, but it was so crowded there wasn't much space to move around.

Still, I passed a few gassed people and was making up decent ground - certainly not gunning for a win but at least better than last week, maybe a top 20. Just as we're cresting the hill I see commotion out of the corner of my eye and look over to the right to see Mark sliding on the ground, with another guy tangling with him.. Yikes!

Sounds like the guy was either getting lapped or was just gassed, and decided to pull off to the right when he heard the pack coming - without checking behind him.. So Mark was coming up the outside (where there was some space) and this guy just ran into him. For the record, the correct thing to do when you're ready to check out of the race is just ride in a straight line; people will find their way around you. Mark ended up with some road rash, but he seemed OK and his bike was still functional.

Came in somewhere around 20th. Racing with 3's is great training for the 4's crit at Volunteer Park on Saturday, I hope. Feeling good, had fun, what more can I ask for. It was great to see all the familiar faces and get to race on dry roads.

Race Stats/Data

Duration: 42:46 (missed first two laps)
Work: 613 kJ
TSS: 73.1 (intensity factor 1.013)
Norm Power: 294
VI: 1.23
Distance: 17.095 mi
Elevation Gain: 1886 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1090 239 watts
Heart Rate: 148 189 171 bpm
Cadence: 25 139 82 rpm
Speed: 1.6 55.8 24.0 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1654 232 lb-in

Recently raised FTP estimate to 290, I think it's about right.

Peak 5-sec was 1,038w - best I've done in the last few months - alas, only 15.8 w/kg or so.. gotta work on that. (Good enough to drop your local commuter, or myself last year, but not good enough to win a field sprint outright)

Training - The Big Picture

Here is my Performance Management Chart from the last few months. It's a visualization of the "training load" you've accumulated over time. When the yellow bars are down and the blue/purple lines are up, I'm putting in lots of miles and fitness ("form") should be there. And while like any other approximation it will never be an exact representation of where I'm at (how I feel) - it gives you an indicator, a reminder of where you've been, training-wise.

In roughly the middle of the graph you can see the big dip in yellow and the corresponding rise in the blue/purple lines - I believe that was my "Base 3" phase - four weeks of 10-15 hours per week of endurance riding.

If you have no idea what I'm saying understand this: I've been gearing up for the Volunteer Park Crit!! Ready to tear off some legs on Saturday.. been waiting years to do this one. (all this mumbo jumbo & graphs is from the WKO+ app, by the way)

Bike Links

In other news I've added two pages to the blog that offer links to all kinds of cool sites.

• WSBA Racing Links - all the links you need to sign up & line up
• Randonneuring Links - all the links you need to ride into the night, and beyond
  

If you have other sites you think should be on either of those pages, send me a note!

Seward Park Bike Racing 2010: Bring It On

Today was the first edition of the Seward Park race, held weekly from now until April.

Last year I did Seward a good 15-20 times, all in the 5:30 PM race or the Cat 4/5's (beginners). The first race I barely hung on for a pack finish. Through the year, as I got stronger, I got a few top 10's, and one third place.

This year I initially planned to come back and do the 4/5 race again, to see if I could actually win it - but after thinking about it, and some prodding from others, I decided just to jump into the 3/4's race at 6 PM. 45 minutes instead of 25, and you get to race against more experienced (and in theory stronger) Cat 3's - guys who used to seem like pros compared to the 5's years ago. Now I get to line up next to them. The goal for now is to be one of them.

The Race

Lined up with some the other Recycled guys - Mike, Jason, Andrew, Busto, Pauh, and Chris - some of them I haven't raced with yet since they're 3's. Compared to how I used to feel (in a word, shaky) right before races last year, this year the jitters are gone.

The excitement is still there, but the nervousness is just about gone. And that's what I came here and paid money for, to train to get and more experienced stronger - not just to "have fun." I could stay in the 4/5's and shoot for that elusive win (not that it would be easy, but I'd have a better chance), but I figure racing in the 3/4's will be better training overall.

It had been raining off and on the whole day, but it was dry when we started. Still, I kept my booties on and wore a long-sleeve jersey in case it started pouring later. And boy did it rain later.

After a few words from Dave, the organizer of this series, we were off for a new season of competition. Most important note seemed to be to "stay out of the gutters - as you should in life," and don't stand/sprint if you find yourself on the outside in or near the gutter (wet mold). Which really sucks because the left/right sides on the little climb can be nice places to move up, considering it's hard to move up in the middle.

After a few laps I'd been riding so conservatively (since this was my first race with 3's) that I'd slid back further than I found comfortable. The pack of 50-60(?) would get strung out and small gaps would form on the downhill on the backside. Doesn't seem like it's enough distance to do much damage but closing a gap in a headwind when you're doing 35-40 mph can hurt. And it seemed like I'd come around the sweeping left on the downhill and see 200 feet of racers in front of me, with gaps everywhere.

Of course, the pack would usually bunch back up on the bottom of the downhill, but I still don't like to be anywhere but in the draft, in the peloton. So I decided to stop messing with the back of the race and move up.

On the Front

A prime came along, and somewhere in the ensuing chase I find myself on the front of the pack! Not what I wanted to do, especially on a windy day like today. Pulled the pack around for a lap, and just kept the pace reasonable - I used to tend to speed up too much when on the front, which is usually a waste of energy.

So instead of battling to get everyone off my wheel, I just kept my pace steady (and comfortable), and just waited for someone or a group to come around. People will get impatient and just come around if you want them to, I learned recently.

On the next lap I was second wheel for a little while, and at some points it seemed like a group of 5-6 of us was getting away from the pack, but it's hard to tell sometimes.

After about 5 minutes (a few laps) of hanging out of the front, and riding harder than I had the whole race, I started to feel the effects and found myself drifting back again. Which was ok, I'd shown my face at the front at least, now the goal was just to finish in the pack.

I remember seeing 9 laps to go (out of 22) and feeling like I wished the end was sooner, but the extra few laps (compared to the 15-laps 4/5's race) weren't too tough.

The rain started back up during the race, at first almost imperceptible but eventually big droplets and not to be ignored. I heard guys talking about dropping out if the rain kept up... which would make me more than happy to thin out the pack.

Before too long the rain was gone, though the roads still wet. That hard 140-degree turn at the top of the course was a little scary, but nobody went down. (This montage kept flashing through my mind)

The final bell lap came, and I didn't do anything differently (usually you will have already chosen a spot in the pack and will be battling for it, at a cost of course, the last few laps) and instead just rode it into the finish. Probably a good 30 riders back but in the pack, and not DFL. Mission accomplished.

Data

I like to think of the race data kind of like a flight data recorder. When I analyze races one of the things I'm looking for are trends, such as how my heart rate dips a bit towards the end of the race. Was that recovery from time spend at the front, or a mini-bonk? I'm guessing the latter.


Zooming in on the "Peak 5 minutes":


Entire workout (223 watts):
Duration: 42:53
Work: 577 kJ
TSS: 64.8 (intensity factor 0.952)
Norm Power: 276
VI: 1.23
Distance: 16.944 mi
Elevation Gain: 1885 ft
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1051 224 watts
Heart Rate: 109 190 171 bpm
Cadence: 16 139 83 rpm
Speed: 2.3 56.3 23.7 mph
Crank Torque: 0 1622 213 lb-in

Looking forward to more editions of the "Thursday Night Worlds," aka Seward Park. And now that I know I can hang on with the 3/4's I should be a little more competitive next week. We'll see.

Working on Force: Steep Hill Repeats

"Force" in cycling terms is the ability to overcome resistance. And I'm pretty sure this is one of my weaknesses, or "limiters"...

Today The Book called for "Steep Hills" e.g. doing repeats on a grade greater than 8% that take less than 2 minutes to climb - which isn't too hard to do around here in Seattle, even without going too far from Capitol Hill.

When seeking out really steep stuff I've always been a fan of those pitches off of Lake Washington Blvd, which has grades that are easily over 20%. Like Fullerton Ave's incline, which is about 16% for the first half, probably the whole thing (pretty short but sweet at about 2 mins to climb). [fullerton climb map]

Here's the elevation profile of this little climb (.1 miles total):


I did two sets with five climbs each (the descent counted as rest between each rep) - and each one averaged somewhere between 300 watts and 330 watts. (4.6 w/kg to 5.06 w/kg or 105% of FTP, for those keeping track). Or in human terms heart rate was was 175 bpm or more.

Each climb took somewhere between 1min 50sec and 2 mins flat. On some of them I saw the avg power for the climb at 299w near the end, and had to stand and sprint the last few meters to come in at 300 watts even. On some I finished closer to 330 watts. Not that it makes a huge difference, but 300+ was the goal for this workout. (My FTP is currently set to 285w, so this would be a 105+% workout)

Two people commented on my training during this session - comments like "that's some good training!" etc - but I can't really respond with both hands gripping the bars and at or above 175 beats per minute..

On the way back I did the 22% grade that is East Roy St on the east side of Capitol Hill. Ugh. A tad harder than Madison, if you can believe it. But at least the 22% part is only a block long.

More Importantly

Today was 50F with sun, and I was able to get by with only shorts! First time this year. Sure I was chilly at first, but once I warmed up it felt great.

Oh and the cherry blossoms on our street are starting to sprout those little pink flowers.. not that it will make the PNW any warmer, but it sure will look nicer!

Build 1, Week 1: Notes

I'm currently in the first week of the first "Build block" in my training plan this year. According to Friel's "Training Bible" my schedule for this week should look something like this, for a total of 12.5 hours.

• Monday: Cruise Intervals - went around the south end of Lake Wa, with three or four 10-12 minute intervals at ~100% of Threshold (FTP) along the way. Two hours total.
  
• Tuesday: Endurance 2 (zone 2) - ended up doing 2.5 hours, another nice ride around the south end of Lake Wa, with an added detour around Mercer Island. I like to call that route the "double-U". First ride of 2010 with bare arms!!!!
  
• Wednesday: off, though I did do 15 minutes of yoga using Wii Fit (still fluctuating at about 144.5 lbs btw!)
  
• Thursday: "Jumps". Was supposed to do five sets of these but only got in four (down to Seward Park and back). A jump is 10-12 pedal strokes in a Zone5c "all-out" sprint, in which I essentially try to rip my pedals & handlebars off the bike. Each set consists of 4-5 jumps, with one minute rest between each effort, and five minutes of rest between each set. They were actually pretty taxing - but it feels nice to ratchet up the intensity after so much Base riding. One hour total.
  

Rest of the week:

• Friday: Isolated leg drills, which I've never done before, or "Form sprints" (e.g. tuning your sprinting form but not going all out) - Form sprints sound like more fun to me
• Saturday: Recycled Cycles team ride - we'll probably put in around 80 miles since the season is quickly approaching.
  
• Sunday: An hour or two of "Active Recovery" - or maybe no riding at all, only time will tell.
  

In other news I signed up for the Tour of Walla Walla Cat 4 - Recycled will have 8 racers in Cat 4 and 8 in Cat 3 as well! It'll be great to do a stage race with a full team.

With a 100-rider field the Cat 4 Road Race & Crit, this will be interesting. I just hope it's nice and dry out there when we go in April.

Training for 2010: Base, Build, and Beyond

(photo of a bird on Lake Washington, taken from the I-90 bike trail on the way to Mercer Island)

Well it's a new year so that means I've got to tell you how many km's I pedaled last year: in 2009 I rode about 11,000 km (~6,800 mi), for a total of about 460 hours. Seems like a lot for me, but is certainly less than a lot of people too. For reference I did about 12,000 km in 2008, but did less last year on purpose, since I started racing and doing a bit less of those huge rides.

2009 was a lot of fun - a good number of brevets completed (or attempted), and about 25 races for the season - but 2010 will be even better! In my future I'm seeing less of the "why am I out here?" thoughts and more of the "I hope I can hang on!" kind of thoughts. E.g., less long suffering rides in place for more suffering in a shorter time-span, e.g. racing.

Training

And this year (actually the last few months now) I'm doing a 'real' training plan, e.g. the Base/Build/Peak/Race/Rest "periodization" style of training, from the "Cyclist's Training Bible".

So what does this all mean? In summary it's basically a formula that goes like: create an endurance base, then build on that with more intensity, peaking at a specific time (hopefully during race season!). Last year was more like a plateau for me, with no real rest/work cycles and just general "riding."

So here's my training breakdown:

• Base: not just "ride slow & long" but the endurance zone is actually slightly higher intensity than what I used to think it was. Think just under tempo, but certainly not "active recovery." In this Base period you work on Endurance, Force, Speed skill, and Muscular Endurance. There are three Base blocks in my plan, each consisting of three weeks of work and one rest week. (12 weeks total)
  
• Build: time to sprinkle on some intensity, tone down duration, and work on Anaerobic Endurance & some limiters. I'm doing two Build blocks, each three weeks long with one rest week. In fact I'm starting Build 1, Week 1 today! Today calls for some "cruise intervals" - should be fun. (8 weeks total)
  
• Peak: work on Anaerobic Endurance, Power, and a limiter. Hours are down from Base/Build but intensity is up.
  
• Race: work on Speed Skills, Anaerobic Endurance, and of course race at least once a week or so.
  
• Then you normally take a rest week after racing for a while, doing another Build block or two, and Peak again.
  

(Note: this is just a summary of the phases and also my understanding of them - you'll want to take a look at the training bible in order to get the real scoop on this stuff)

In racing team news the team rides from the shop on Saturdays have been fun, it's been great meeting the team and getting to know the other 4/5's I'll be racing with this year. I got an older RCR (Recycled Cycles Racing) winter jacket, as well as a jersey with the RCR blue & gold! Finally get to fly the colors of the team, and it feels good. Just got to remember not to flip anyone off while riding in it....

In more racing news I'm looking forward to the first Road race of the WA road season, Mason Lake #1 & probably the Sequim race the next day! At only 36 miles the Cat 5 Mason Lake will be relatively short, but sweet. Bring on the wet road races!! Oh and I'll most likely sign up for the Tour of Walla Walla, it will most likely be my first stage race.

About Those Brevets

With the race season approaching, the brevet season is also almost here too. While I'll probably do less brevets this year I do plan on doing a 200k-600k "Super Randonneur" series, as long as I can squeeze them in between life & racing.

And of course PBP is in Aug. 2011 so that's no that far off.. gotta keep the rando legs in order, as I still want to give PBP a shot.

Here's to a great year of riding! See ya on the road.

Seattle to Snoqualmie Falls And Back

Today was a perfect mid-December riding day: 40-something degrees and wet roads but dry skies. So I headed out to Snoqualmie Falls to get some hours in for the Base training I'm trying to do in preparation for next year.

The profile above shows how there isn't a whole lot of flat on this ride (and that's just the way out).


Map:


[full map link]

The first sizable hill the climb up to Newport Way through Factoria, and the second one is Black Nugget Road in Issaquah, which is 15-20% grade.. then you swoop down for a nice country ride out to Highway 202 and a little climb up to the Falls.

Thought I saw that pro who rides for Garmin-Chipotle out on Fall City road, but I'm not sure if it's him (he does live in North Bend though). (On second thought it looks like he's in Europe, so it must've been an impersonator)

Thoughts on Training

2009 almost over, but prep for 2010 has already begun. This season I'm doing a "real" training plan, e.g. the Base/Build/Peak/Race formula as described in "The Training Bible" book by Friel.

So instead of "Just Riding Around" like I've done in years past, I'm shifting gears a bit and slowing things down for the Base period, and just getting miles in - not worrying about sprinting, 5-minute attacks - at least not yet. OK, so maybe that's kind of like "Just Riding Around/JRA" except that I'm making it a point to go slower, err not go too fast.

The idea is to start with lots of volume, but lower intensity - then as the season moves on you dial up the intensity but bring down the volume. Of course "how much" depends on your racing category/goals, so my "big" base weeks are really just 12-14 hours total. But that can be a lot of riding when you're not doing it all at once, like the randos do.

So this is my third week of "Base 2," e.g. the second block of Base. I'm looking forward to the rest week next week, then moving on to the "Build" period.

Hell Hath Frozen Over

I recently did something I thought I'd never, ever, do: lift weights. Well, sort of. As part of the training plan I'm supposed to do some weight-training like squats, lunges, etc. (Focusing on the legs & core of course, I'm not trying to "bulk up" by any means, and the last thing I want to do is add upper-body mass)

So instead of going down to 24 Hour Fitness, I just threw a bunch big of computer-science books (like this bad boy) into plastic bags and stopped when they totaled about 30 pounds. Not a lot but you feel it after 10 or so reps of squats/lunges.

So who ever said being a computer nerd won't make you strong? I'll show them...

Gearing Up For Ramrod 2009

I was planning on doing the SiR Whidbey Island 200k today, but instead decided to sleep in a bit and watch a big mountain stage of the Tour de France. While I was looking forward to another brevet, I guess having already doing a 200k-600k this season has made me lazy. And I didn't want to spend 10+ hours on the bike, only to spend 4+ more hours watching bike stuff on TV. Well I wouldn't mind that too much, but I also want to maintain some sort of life outside of the two-wheeled world. Anyway I chose to just watch bike racing on TV instead of riding one; wow, some of those cols make local passes like Stevens or Cayuse kid's play.

So the "Ride Around Mt. Rainier in One Day", aka Ramrod is happening this Thursday, I can't wait. Last year's edition was fun, even with the 76 extra miles thrown in. Signed up for a breakfast ticket, so that will be a nice treat after the 3-3.5 hour ride to the ride.

The course has been changed a bit this year due to a washout, so we'll be skipping the Paradise climb and instead heading south towards Packwood, where we'll turn back up north and head up Cayuse, this time doing the full length of it. Oh, and they added the Crystal Mountain climb to the mix just to make sure nobody says this year's edition was too easy.

Training, or lack thereof

I haven't done a ride over 60 or so miles since the big 600k + 80k ride last month. Not the best training for a big ride like this, but hopefully my butt hasn't forgotten how to get to know a saddle..

Since that 600k I've done about four races or so, so the fitness is still there if not better. On that note I recently held 32.x km/h (20 mph) average for one full hour (while solo) for the first time evar. The route was from Capitol Hill down Lake Wa Blvd, through Renton, up and over the plateau to Issaquah, e.g. not exactly flat - of course from there to Redmond, Bothell, and back to Seattle the average went down to about 29.9 km/h.

One thing I'm doing differently than last year is to avoid wearing my SiR wool jersey. Even though I'm a sucker for that blue jersey I remember baking on Cayuse last year, and this year might even be hotter. Back to a simple jersey for me.

I'll probably need to head out of the house by at least 2 AM this year in order to get there in time for breakfast and rolling out around the 5 AM start time. But it sounds like a few others might ride to the ride this year as well, so maybe I won't be doing that part alone.

See you on the road!

8/1/2009 update: I made it!

Pre-Pre-Ride & A Training Century, Mixed Together

On Saturday Robert, Chris, and I set off to do scout out our preliminary route for the June 100k Populaire we're putting on. Robert has done a great job of organizing this, under the experienced wing (fin?) of Dr. Codfish.

The route goes roughly from South Park through West Seattle, then snakes along the west edge of Seattle along the sound, offering amazing views only for the small price of a few steep inclines. In Dash Point we visit familiar roads & inclines, then go back north via some backroads.

A few photos from the ride

Leaving downtown, heading to South Park via 4th Ave:

Climbing up one of the pitches along the way:
A little dog we met in Dash Point:
After finishing the route in roughly 6 hours, I had 120 km under my belt for the day. Since I'm doing a 400km brevet next weekend, I wanted to squeeze in some extra miles for training. I rarely do an actual "century" these days; most of my rides are either less than 80 miles, or more than 125...

But adding 40km to this wouldn't be hard, and it was only about 2 PM so I had time. I decided to try out a new road and cut across Graham St. to hit Lake Wa Blvd. Ended up taking on the extra 40km by doing the south end of the Lake Wa Loop.

Below is a raccoon(!) I spotted during a climb on Graham St in Seattle. Usually don't see these critters just sitting around in broad daylight.. maybe it had rabies? Well, I didn't stick around to find out. And hopefully the kid on a PowerWheel a few driveways down didn't find out either.
On Graham St, facing east. That's Lake Wa back there. Some good climbs on that road.

Full photo set (100+ pics) on flickr.

All told I did 165 km, or 102.5 miles. It was a great day for it! Thanks to Robert & Chris for riding with me, always fun riding with them.

On Sunday I did a "recovery" ride, 25 miles around Mercer Island with a friend new to cycling. Luckily our pace was slow enough (11 mph avg) that it was an actual recovery ride, not one where I go out looking for recovery but end up chasing a rabit.

I'm feeling good for the 400k coming up, and from Geoff's pre-ride report it sounds like a wonderful route. Can't wait.

Wet Mercer Island Saturday Loop

It was about 44 degrees (F), and raining today. Perfect almost-spring riding weather, and a good warmup for tomorrow's 100km Populaire.

So I went out in the mid afternoon rain, decked out in wool knickers, two underlayer t-shirts, and my long sleeve SIR jersey. Even in the light rain it felt great. So far, I'm loving the fact that most of the terrible weather is over. Well, at least that's what I'm hoping. Last year it seems like it was cold all the way up until May/June..

An extra layer between my shoes & the semi-waterproof booties (plastic bag pieces):


The Ciocc on Lake Wa Blvd.


I think this was 19th Ave, somewhere around there heading up Capitol Hill. I took Crescent Ave off of 23rd (which sucks to ride up), which was a decent climb.
This was a "short but hard" ride - 44 km or so, 28 km/h average speed. I actually averaged 30 km/h for the first hour or so (from the hill around Mercer), which was the highest I've done in a while. But that was no accident, as I used the heart rate monitor to keep the BPMs around 180 or so (90% of max HR, or the upper edge of zone 4). Like they say, I'm trying to "make the hard rides harder, and the easy rides easier."

It was probably best that this was a solo ride, considering the drool/snot that riding hard seemed to generate.

But I think the (semi-structured) training has been paying off. My Functional Threshold has risen to a new level as of today, 3.25 w/kg (228 watts / 69.5 kg).

It's a decent improvement over my last best of 3.10 w/kg, a 4% increase. Nothing major, but something! I'll take it.

Seattle-Woodinville-Carnation-Issaquah Saturday Loop

We were supposed to be doing the Carol's Greater Seattle century today, but instead Robert and I followed the route for a while (until Carnation), but then broke off and headed home. So we ended up doing what I'll call an "88-mile century".

He needed to be home earlier rather than later, and I did a century+ last week, so I was in no real rush to actually do the whole ride anyway. And when the ride is unofficial it's soo much easier to bail. I guess we wanted to get all of the the "I want to quit" feelings out of our systems. And hopefully we did.

Before rolling, we had coffee and more at Vivace on Broadway.

Cue sheet for the day:

Once in the U-district it was already time for the ride to start (9 AM), and we were still on the BG Trail. So we just continued north on it, hoping to run into the back of the pack, or be passed by the front of it at some point. But we never saw the pack!

Instead, we just rode on, pedaling over roads new and old - even if most of them do look exactly the same!

Great views on Snoqualmie Valley Road:
A nice winding road:

Old structure in "downtown" Carnation:

After Carnation, we decided to break off the official route and start heading back to the I-90 bridge. But not to be lazy about it, we were sure to include the 8-13% Tolt Hill Road, as well as 244th Ave leading to Sammamish. On the way down Inglewood Drive I think we hit close to 50 mph, but that damn stop light at the bottom meant we never got a chance to really push it there. Oh well.

We made our way south on E. Lake Sammamish Blvd, a road that both of us remarked seems to always slog on forever. I think the problem with that road is that each part of it looks about the same as the last, so there aren't any punctuations that tell you where you are along it.

In Issaquah we headed for Newport Way, stilll heading back to Seattle. We passed a rider in a yellow jacket, who ended up catching up to us and chatting a bit. Turns out he was on the WTS ride as well, but felt it was too "competitive" so he dropped out. We tried to explain that the WTS rides were jointly run by Cascade & SIR, and that it was probably the Cascade riders that were getting competitive. (Then again, some randos do this from time to time... but we made sure not to scare the guy away!)

Lucky for him, we were headed back to Seattle as well so he bike-pooled it back with us.

In the I-90 Tunnel, Robert and our new friend (Allen, I think):

Full photo set on flickr. Hopefully Robert will post a "snot-rocket" shot he got of me, that should be a good one!

Here's a graph of elevation (orange) and speed (blue) from the 141 km ride - we paced really well!

In fact we paced so well that our "peak 60 minutes" (based on speed in this case) was actually towards the end of the ride.

And here's a map of the route we ended up doing. We just about got lost up north in the Woodinville area, but eventually found our way back on course.


Entire workout:
Duration: 5:53:13 (6:33:57) (~40 minutes not rolling)
Distance: 141.617 km (~88 miles)
Elevation Gain: 2291 m (7,516 ft? That's what WKO reports. Garmin Training Center reports 5,200 feet)

Min Max Avg
Speed: 0 75 24.7 kph (15.3 mph)

Unofficial 200k - Seattle To North Bend Loop

The forecast called for a great day, and it was right - 50-something degrees, and light wind in Seattle. Oh, and the forecast for North Bend said 20 mph winds from the SSE - man was that ever correct..

I left the house at 7:30-ish, headed for Marymoor park where this week's training ride started.

The view east over I-90 and Mercer Island couldn't have been better - I was headed somewhere towards those mountains in the background:

It took a little longer to get up to Marymoor (via W Lake Sammamish), and I got there at about 9:10 - the ride started at 9:00! Oops, my plan of getting a cuesheet at the start was out the window too. Luckily I knew the first parts of the route, and had seen the map. Just needed to get to Novelty Hill road, and I at least knew the general direction to it.

And soon after I started out I saw the group of brightly-colored jackets - lots of them, like 50 or so, telling me these must be the group I'm looking for. I rode through a wooded area, partially unpaved, to get onto the road they were on. I kept my eye on a few stragglers who were also catching up, and just followed their turns.

And by the time we actually got to the Novelty Hill climb, I saw a snaking paceline of at least 50 riders!

And this is when I made a mistake in the ride - I took off towards the front, passing many other riders. Briefly saw John & a friend of his, and dropped them (temporarily) by accident. For every group I would catch up to, there seemed to be another group about 100m up the road.

After passing what seemed to be most of the ride, I reached the limit of how far "forward" I could get. It looked like the head group in front of us, so I broke off and tried to bridge the gap, only to leave myself in "no man's land" - not fast enough to drop the group I was trying to drop, and not fast enough to actually catch up to the group ahead of me. Battling the wind alone. Not a good tactic on what will be a 100+ mile day.

So after the group behind me swallowed me up again, I settled in with them (at a 22mph pace) and we cruised towards Carnation. After about an hour of this, I had burned one too many "matches", and had to drop out of the paceline. A drop from 22 mph to 18 was just what I needed. I knew I had to pace it, since it was gonna be a decently-long day.

After dropping from the paceline, I was left alone to enjoy the scenery, and take some pictures, like this one of the Ciocc & what I believe is the Snoqualmie River:

Soon after, a group of riders showed up behind me:

After riding with that group into Carnation, I stopped to get more water and some fuel. I'd brought an Ensure, a banana, and a cookie, but I knew it wasn't enough for the whole day. Was hoping for some fresh doughnuts, but alas all they had were crappy pastries. But those did just fine.

At this point I saw John (along with many others) pass me, and I soon got back on the bike to catch up to someone. It ended up taking a few hours to catch up to anyone, and it was really bad timing for that too: the predicted headwinds in North Bend actually started just south of Carnation. And I was riding right into it.

Not afraid to take a break now and then, I stopped on Fish Hatchery Road for another shot of the great scenery around here:

After the climb up to Snoqualmie Falls, I just kept on pedaling as I passed the gift shop with its water and ice-cream. In an effort to save time, I skipped it - and I had plenty of water anyway.

Since I still didn't have a cuesheet, I was mostly patching the ride together from previous expeditions and a loose memorization of the route. After a turn, and a climb, up Tokul Road, I was presented with a great little road, Reinert(?):

Soon after that I was presented with the foothills we'd been heading towards all day. I used to think it would take a camping trip to bike out this far!

Mount Si: The River:

The headwinds were still grueling at this point, about 60 miles into the ride. I eventually latched on to a small group, and we pacelined/slogged (at 15 mph) through "downtown" North Bend, into the winds.

At the turnaround point in the Tanner area, I stopped for a short break and met up with John again. Robert was supposed to show up on the ride, but we never saw him. There was some residual snow out there, just like last year:

After turning around, we were all looking forward to getting on the open road and enjoying the tailwind we'd been thinking about for the last few hours. And indeed, it was nice! After we passed that hotel we started one of last year's 400ks at, I was cruising at a good 27-30 mph pace! After I took this picture I realized I'd ridden away from the paceline:

An old structure somewhere on the outskirts of North Bend:

Foothills:

Issaquah-Fall City Road, I think:

After getting up Issaquah-Fall City road, I was alone and wondering exactly what the route was back to Marymoor. I knew to take a right, and that I needed to get onto E Lake Sammamish Blvd, but I wasn't sure how. I kept looking for Duthie Hill Road but I think I was on it.. After riding a few miles and hitting that big downhill near 202, I turned around and headed back. Saw some riders turning down this one non-descript road, good thing I saw them! It was quite the adventure running around sans-cuesheet.

After that turn my adventures off-route weren't over, as I ended up on 266th (or something), a slightly-hellish road with big hills and even bigger SUVs. I plowed over the hills, knowing Inglewood Drive wasn't too far away, and that it would take me to where I wanted to go.

The 12% grade sign on Inglewood: After a screaming descent on Inglewood, I hit E. Lake Sammamish and sped off towards Marymoor. Well, not sped off, since I was really tired at this point. Not "done", but tired.

After about 6 hours of riding and 100 miles covered, I was back in Marymoor. A few minutes of chatting and then I was off for the ride home. I took 40th Ave NE (uphill) towards the MS campus, and then hit Bel-Red road to get to Bellevue. Stopped at Wendy's for some grub, it was time for real food!

Sunset on the way back:

You can see Rainier from Yesler?! Apparently:


Ciocc back in the city, on Yesler:


Cityscape:


More photos on flickr. Ride stats for the day:

Entire workout (161 watts):
Duration: 7:31:09 (9:03:59)
Work: 4501 kJ
TSS: 355.1 (intensity factor 0.687)
Norm Power: 199
VI: 1.2
Pw:HR: 14.85%
Pa:HR: -0.64%
Distance: 127.067 mi
Elevation Gain: 11859 ft
Elevation Loss: 11885 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-27 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 866 166 watts
Heart Rate: 92 185 149 bpm
Cadence: 15 147 72 rpm
Speed: 0 54.4 16.1 mph
Altitude: 16 834 277 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1752 196 lb-in

From looking at the workout in WKO, the graphs tell the story of falling energy (and therefore power) levels. Splitting the entire ride up into two parts, you can see hte difference between them - this half's Normalized Power is 214 watts.

1st half:
Duration: 4:16:08 (4:29:36)
Work: 2826 kJ
TSS: 232.3 (intensity factor 0.738)
Norm Power: 214
VI: 1.16
Pw:HR: 15.88%
Pa:HR: 5.47%
Distance: 69.852 mi
Elevation Gain: 6691 ft
Elevation Loss: 6394 ft
Grade: 0.1 % (297 ft)

Min Max Avg
Power: 0 866 184 watts
Heart Rate: 94 185 155 bpm
Cadence: 15 120 75 rpm
Speed: 0 54.8 16.5 mph
Pace 1:06 0:00 3:38 min/mi
Altitude: -24 663 221 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1747 210 lb-in


And here's the 2nd half of the ride - Normalized Power is 173 watts.

2nd half:
Duration: 3:13:30 (4:32:52)
Work: 1659 kJ
TSS: 114.9 (intensity factor 0.597)
Norm Power: 173
VI: 1.21
Pw:HR: -7.79%
Pa:HR: 8.87%
Distance: 56.918 mi
Elevation Gain: 5116 ft
Elevation Loss: 5472 ft
Grade: -0.1 % (-355 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 799 143 watts
Heart Rate: 98 168 141 bpm
Cadence: 15 147 67 rpm
Speed: 0 90.4 15.6 mph
Pace 0:40 0:00 3:50 min/mi
Altitude: 8 834 350 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1752 179 lb-in

Here's a graph of the ride from WKO+:

• red = heart rate


• yellow = power


• orange = elevation


• I also added some estimated markers

While I already know the story of the ride, the data here tells the details. You can see the downward slope of the red & yellow lines - meaning at some point I hit a wall and had to back off. That's normal for a longer ride, the question is when does it happen, and how hard do you have to push it to get there?