training update

I'm enjoying my recovery week in Breckenridge right now.  I haven't ridden in a few days, but I did get a chance to go tele-skiing today.  Great weather and had a blast with my sister snowboarding and wife tele-skiing also.  Last week, I had planned for a heavy session, but I spent a full week in Atlanta and managed to only fit in riding every other day.  I took my bike and trainer down south, but it's hard to fit it all in with the holidays.

Starting next week, I'll be in my last strength (or base) block.  I have planned 3 strength blocks (base), 3 speed blocks (build), and 3 sprint blocks (peak).  The blocks are all 3 weeks of 12-15 hours, and 1 week of 4-7 hours.  At the end of my 3rd speed block is the Tour of the Gila which I am gearing up for.  I have bought a time trial bike and have a TT helmet and skinsuit.  I am looking forward to the new year and I plan on putting all my eggs in one basket for the home stretch.

baseline power levels

I did a power test this past weekend.  I did an all-out 5 minute maximum effort time trial.  I finished with a 436W average, and a max heart rate of 191 bpm.  I'm pretty satisfied with that effort since it's the highest I've ever recorded for that test.  That puts me at around 5.34 W/kg for that test, which is around mid-upper level CAT 2 and bottom of barrel CAT 1 which is pretty much where I am.

This is a pretty crude test to determine VO2max, but I don't want to go into a lab, so this is what I'm using.  I generated the graph above based on a percentage of VO2max.  My heart rates are always higher than the associated power level, so I must be doing something wrong.  Either way, it's pretty easy to tell if you've got the power levels too high because you can't maintain the effort.  A 1 hour temp ride at 318W gets pretty dang hard towards the end, but I can definitely manage it.

New Team for 2010

The Rocky Mountain Bikes team folded at the end of this year, so most of us on the team scrambled to find new homes.  I found my home with the BRE Real Estate Team.  We don't have a homepage yet (I don't think), but we've got some great riders and I'm looking forward to developing that cohesive bond that is vital to having a successful and fun season.  Our P12 team consists of 9 riders, and we have a 3s group and 4s group with 15-20 riders each (I think).  Anyway, it should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the upcoming season.

80:20

I read a paper recently by Stephen Seiler and Espen Tonnessen called "Intervals, Threshold, and Long Slow Distance:  the Role of Intensity and Duration in Endurance Training".  This was a very well researched and thorough article that helps give insight to how the best athletes in the world train.

There were some important things to take away from the article.

1. Elite cyclists train 25-30 hours a week.
2. 80% of their training consists of low-intensity cycling.  This is classified as below 2mM blood lactate (or below 73% VO2Max, or below 80% max heart rate, or power levels that can be maintained for 1-6 hours continuously).  Example workouts are continuous exercise without breaks or intervals.
   
3. 20% of their training consists of high-intensity cycling.  This is classified as above 4mM blood lactate (or 90-100% VO2Max, 90-100% max heart rate, or power levels that can be maintained for 1-8 minutes continuously).  Example workouts include multiple sets 5-40 sets of 1min-5min intervals.

 Here's a link to the article.  I'll probably write more once I've assimilated all the information in my new training plan.

Looking good for states

(photo credit:  Kris Thompson)

Today I raced the Alpha Cross #2 cyclocross race south of Denver.  We had a pretty good field of around 45 riders and since I haven't done much BCR/BCT races, I started on the back row.  The course was just what I like.  Smoooooooth grass.  It was mostly grass with a little pavement and some a couple sand sections.  It was really windy too.

Anyway, I settled into around 8th after the first lap.  I was picking off a rider or two every lap and with 4 laps to go, I pulled in behind 3rd, Damien Fraser.  I was within a couple seconds of him for two full laps until he made a handling error in a switchback and hit the grass.  I got around him without slowing too much and he got back on his bike, but stayed about 5-6 seconds behind me for the rest of the race.  I finished in 3rd -- best result at a Colorado cyclocross race ever!  The two in front had a huge gap on me, so I wasn't in the hunt for 1st, but my legs felt good and I stayed on the gas throughout the whole race without the fatigue that usually sets in.  I really didn't expect to do well since my last few weeks of training have just been steady workouts (no intervals), but it is what it is.

Here's the results from my 60min, 310W workouts recently:

It looks like my HR is on the downslope for the most part.  My last tempo workout was on Thursday and I took yesterday off.  I'll increase my watts to 318W and try doing tempo workouts from there starting on Dec. 7th.  Next week is my "rest and recovery" week with some 30-40min tempo rides and reduced volume to hopefully prepare as best as possible for the state champs on Dec. 5th.  I also have to travel to Phoenix, AZ for work, so I don't know how much that is going to affect things.

Tempo Workouts

Since I got sick from my race on Nov 7th, I spent a week of trying to recover.  This week I felt pretty good.  Unfortunately, I didn't feel well enough to race last week and this weekend I'm going skiing instead of racing, so I'm pretty much writing off the end of the cx season.  I'll probably do the Nov. 28th race and state champs race if it's not snowing.  If it is snowing, it's absolutely miserable starting from mid-pack to try and move up.  I did that last year.

That said, reviewing the last couple weeks of training reveal some insight on how my body was recovering.  Last week I did two 60min, 310W Tempo efforts and my average heart rate was up around 175bpm and 174bpm.  Then, this week, I did three Tempo workouts (70min each at 310W) and my heart rate was in the upper 160s.  I think that shows that either I'm getting stronger (which I doubt after just two weeks of tempo workouts), or I'm recovered from that sickness.  Here's the trend if just using the first 60min of data.

Clearly, I can't expect my HR to decrease with a linear trendline, but it is going down as I do more of these workouts which is a good sign.  I'll update this spreadsheet again once I have some more data.

Anyway, the plan is to do another 70min effort Saturday, then do two 80 min efforts next week, then take a week to recover and adjust power levels.  I'm not a fan of long miles in the base period.  I don't have the stamina to toil on the trainer for 2 or more hours at a time at a mindless pace.  I'd rather do tempo workouts every other day to build my fitness.  Here's the schedule/journal for the rest of November (gray areas are days completed).

Note to self: Don't race when you're sick

I did two races this weekend.  The first was called School Yard Cross and was in Lafayette, CO, about 20 min from my house.  This race was put on by my previous team, Rocky Mounts, and they did a great job.  The course was pretty flat, had several low-speed switch backs, and was relatively smooth.  There was also a mud pit.

I was feeling frisky from the start and they said there was a sunglasses prime for the first lap leader, so I decided to bury myself from the gun.  I started from the 2nd row, but because the start was a fairly long chute, I was able to move up and take the holeshot into the first turn.  My legs and lungs felt great, and I had a very slight gap for the whole first lap and most of the 2nd lap.  Then, I started to fade a little bit and moved back to about 8th position before clawing my way back towards the end of the race and picking off a couple riders on the final laps to finish 6th.

Sunday was a whole different story.  I had the race cough after Saturday's race and was feeling sick on Sunday, but there weren't many races left, so I decided to give it a go.  That was a bad decision.  As I pre-rode the course, I was having trouble breathing and I was coughing a bit.  I had already signed up though, so I gave it a shot.  Well, I crashed on the first lap (totally my fault for taking a bad line on a tight switchback), then moved up a few spots to about 8th by the 2nd lap, but on the 4th lap, my body checked out and I went from around 8th to around 20th in one lap.  I pulled off after the next lap and went home.  I shouldn't have raced anyway, but now I know what my body feels like when I shouldn't race!  Lesson learned.

November training plan

Here's the plan for November.  I skipped racing the last few weeks for various reasons and am ready to hit the 2nd half of the cx season now.  I've got races every weekend now until December, so I'm hoping to get some good results with the high intensity training I'm doing now.

The plan for this month is full-on high intensity training.  I'm doing what I call "Speed Intervals" and "Crit Intervals".  The speed intervals consist of high power intervals (aiming for 439W) with equal rest, decreasing in interval length.  A set would consist of 2 minutes hard (439), 2 min easy (recover), 105sec hard, 105 easy, 90 hard, 90 easy, 75 hard, 75 easy, 1 min hard, 1 min easy, 45sec hard, 45 easy, 30 hard.  8 minutes rest between sets.  I'm aiming for 3 sets, but am usually wasted after two sets.  total workout time with warmup is about 1hr 20min.

The Crit intervals consist of 30 seconds as hard as possible, 30 seconds recover, repeat for 10 minutes.  5 minutes rest between sets.  Aiming for 4 sets each.  total workout time with 10min warmup is 1hr 10min.

Next race is this Saturday.  here we go again..

P90Fail

I think the P90X is a good program, but I just don't have the time for it.  It's only an hour a day, but I just don't have the motivation to do weights or plyometrics after my high intensity training.  I may start it up after the cx season is over though.

P90X week 1 review

My friend, Greg Harris, gave me a chance to try out his P90x videos.  Last Saturday (10/17/09) I started the program.  The first day is a chest, back, and abs workout.  I set up everything in my garage and went to work.  The people in the videos are freakin' strong.  Waaaay stronger than I am.  I did gymnastics competitively when I was younger and competed in rock climbing in highschool and college, so I've got some pretty decent upper body strength.  However, these guys took me to the cleaner.  It's not that they are doing a lot of heavy weight.  It's more like a lot of reps with very little rest between.  Think multiple sets of 30 push-ups and 20 pull-ups.

Anyway, my chest and back too sore to workout those muscles again for an entire week.  I mean, I couldn't do a pushup for a whole week after the workout.  Anyway, the other workouts weren't as taxing.  Basically, the program works like this.  You do a 1-hour workout 6 days a week based on a prescriptive schedule.  Every day is a different muscle group.  You need minimal equipment (floor mat, pull-up bar, some barbells) and not a LOT of space, but probably about 10' x 10' at the bare minimum.

What I like about P90X:
-lots of variety on the workout exercises
-little rest between exercises means the hr stays elevated
-minimal equipment required
-I can do it at home, right after a bike workout in the garage making it very time-efficient
-the guys who leads the routines has a lot of energy and is motivational (If he gets irritating, I can just play music and mute the video)

What I don't like about P90X:
-nothing so far.  The plan makes sense to me.  The workouts are quick and fun.

I'm a little worried that my upperbody will start bulking up, but we'll see what happens.  It's low-weight, high-reps stuff, so it shouldn't happen.  I am psyched for my core muscles to get stronger though.  I'm modifying the P90X plan for my cycling workouts so that I'm doing the leg workouts on hard training days and cycling through the upper body workouts on my easy days.

back at it

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last report, so he's the brief recap.  I raced both of the Frisco cx races on 10/3 and 10/4.  I double-flatted in the first race and flatted in the second race.  That resulted in me running a LOT and finishing at the back of the pack in both races.  great.  I didn't race the following weekend because I was feeling a little sick and it was really, really cold.  Last weekend, I intended to do the Valmont Park race, but I didn't pay attention to the flyer and I thought the race went off at 3:30pm (like every cx race this year), but instead the put our race at 11:00, so I showed up to the site and realized I missed it.

Other than that, I've been doing some interval training pretty much every other day.  I feel like I'm getting stronger.  I did day 1 and day 2 of the P90X program this weekend and my chest, back, legs, and abs are still sore today.  I may or may not do that program, but I realized that my body is pretty imbalanced with only cycling all the time, so I need to mix it up to prevent injury.  Of course, I can't lift my arm above my head right now as I write this because of the muscle soreness, so what do I know.

I'm going to try to get in a bike workout on the trainer this evening and hope to race this weekend.  We shall see..

good days and bad days

With high intensity training, you've got your good days and bad days.  On my easy days, I go pretty easy.  Usually I'm averaging less than 210 watts and never higher than 240 watts or so.  It's a comfortable pace for me.  On my hard days, I'm doing what I call "Race Intervals".  This consists of riding 5 minutes at the lower limit of your functional threshold, then 2 minutes at the upper limit, then repeat two more times for a total set of 21 minutes.  For me, I'm riding at 329W for 5 minutes, then 383W for 2 minutes.  This is a really hard workout because you never get to recover.  I think it's good for 'cross because it's pretty realistic of the racing.

I did one set on Wednesday, but couldn't make the second.  This morning, I made my two sets and felt like I could do at least part of another.  Here's a graph of my heart rate for the sets on Wednesday and today.

The red line is my heart rate from the first set of Wednesday's workout.  As you can see, my heart rate had already spiked to 190+ on my second 2 minute interval and at the end of the workout I was near my max.  There's no second set data because I was wasted.  The green line is my first set from today's workout.  As you can see, I was recovering better (hr lower during 5 minute portions) and my hr didn't spike as high for the second and third 2 minute intervals.  The purple is the second set and, as expected, my hr is pretty high right from the start, but again, I didn't get as high of a hr on the last 2 minute portion.

This is telling me that I was recovered, rested, and motivated for this morning's workout.  I think this is a good example of how you can have a bad race or training day and not know what went wrong.  If I look back at the days proceeding these days, it helps give me an idea of things to try and things to avoid during my easy days.  (Incidentally, last night, I had pasta and acorn squash for dinner and the night before Wednesday's workout, I had Chick-fil-a fast food.  That may or may not have had something to do with it).

Overtrained?

The last few weeks I've had some difficulty with the workouts.  I'm usually able to make the first and sometimes the second interval power level, but after that I can't make anything.  This morning I made the first interval, but couldn't do the second, so I just did a tempo ride for 30 minutes.  The interesting thing was that during the tempo ride, my HR was really high and I almost couldn't even ride at the power level for 30 minutes.  It may be that my power levels are too high, that I'm stressed, overtrained, or just still recovering from the weekend. 

However, I don't have much stress at all right now and I felt very recovered when I started the workout.  I'm going to take an easy day tomorrow and try again on Friday.  If I fail again, then I'm going to just do tempo workouts on my hard days for a couple weeks and hope that fixes it.  If that fails, then I need to take a week or two off, and forget the cross season and start up slow and easy for the '10 road season.

Trainer

In 2004, I got a job as a HVAC design engineer in Vail, Colorado.  I moved there and decided to get back into bike racing.  I did a mountain bike race in high-school and remember getting creamed by "roadies" who were mountain bike racers, but did most of their training on the road.  So, I decided to buy a trainer and train for the upcoming 2005 mountain bike season.

I wanted a good trainer, so I did some research and bought a reputable, brand-name, fluid trainer.  I bought the Fluid2 CycleOps trainer by Saris.   Since that purchase, I have been supremely happy with the product.  It's got a ton of resistance (I've put out 1500W on it before) and at around 300-350W, the wheel speed is around 19mph, so that equates to about a 53x18 or so.  Plenty of room for low-cadence, high-power work.  Anyway, a couple years ago, the part that tightens the resistance drum to the tire finally stripped out.  It's this aluminum cyclinder thing.  I called Saris and they sent a replacement part for free and I received it within a week.


Well, this morning, the part stripped out again.  I use my trainer a lot, so I wasn't too surprised.  I called Saris up again and told them the part was stripped and they're sending me another part again for free.  Awesome customer support!

Boulder Cyclocross Series Race #1 - Louisville CX

Saturday was the Louisville cyclocross race of the Boulder Cyclocross Series.  This is not a BCR/BCT race, but usually gets a very large turnout and although I had been traveling in San Jose the whole week, I had to do this race since it's local (even though I kinda hate it because it's so freakin' bumpy).  Anyway the brief course description goes something like this.  There is a long gravel straight at the start to organize the riders before heading uphill on a bike path to a sand pit.  Through the sand pit, then down an off-camber bumpy hill to a quick right hander and climb in the granny gear.  Then it's through more bumpy open-space type ground, down a sketchy and super bumpy descent to a lap around the inner field where it's a little smoother.  Through some barriers, then up a run-up.  The laps after the first use more of the bumpy open-space type ground after the gravel straight.

I got a call-up and was slotted in the 2nd row at the start.  There were probably 30-40ish riders in our cat 3 race.  Anyway, I slotted into about 6th through the first lap, but wrecked on the off-camber turn.  My front wheel washed out and I went down.  I got up quickly, but I bent my derailleur hanger and it took a little time to assess the damage and continue riding.

I couldn't get the chain into the smallest gear or biggest two gears and there was a lot of friction and noise from pedaling.  Unfortunately, I had to deal with this for the remaining 40 minutes of the race.  After I started going again, I was in around 12th or 13th.  I started feeling really good after a couple laps and worked my way up to probably 5th.  Then, with 3 laps to go, my legs decided to quit and just like last race, I proceeded to make my way backwards through the pack.  On the last lap, I hopped on my bike after the barriers and heard air leaving my rear wheel.  I took the last few turns gingerly and got passed by more guys.  I finished in 11th.  Here's a photo of my rear wheel.

I actually got a small rock lodged between the rim and the tire bead.  I was amazed that I didn't go flat.  I'm running the tubeless setup which consists of a normal non-tubeless tire with non-tubeless wheels and going with the Stan's kit.  Amazingly, the tire held on and I finished the race and even rode home with this rock in my rim.  The Stan's kit is a proven winner in my book!

Photos of the race course:

Barriers near the finish line.

The off-camber climb where I crashed on the first lap.

The short steep run-up near the start.

The chicane with barriers before the run-up.

Training while Traveling

Sometimes I have to travel for work.  I'm in San Jose, CA right now.  I don't mind traveling.  I actually really like traveling, but the problem is that I lose training time and training quality when I leave home.  It's the downside of trying to maintain top form all the time.  Here are the things I do when I have to travel for work and I want to maintain my training plan.

1- I book a hotel that I've reviewed online that has photos of the workout facilities.  I always try to find a hotel that has stationary bikes if possible, elipticals second.  If there are no hotels with a good workout room, then I'll locate a 24hr fitness or whatever and see if they have daily passes.  I hate running and I don't think it provides much of any benefit to cycling.

2- I arrange the dinner meal with coworkers at either 6pm or 8pm.  If 8pm, then that gives me enough time to change, workout for an hour or so, shower and be ready by 8pm.  If 6pm, then I've got time afterwards for a workout.

3- I try to arrange travel early in the morning on the 1st day so that I can have a hard workout the day before, then an easy spin at the hotel gym on the first evening travel day.

4- I bring powerbars and/or sports drink mix with me while traveling.  If I forget, then I try to stop at a grocery store on the first day of traveling.

That's about it.

Brecktobercross

Awesome conditions today for the race in Breckenridge (if you like standing in the 40F rain with only shorts and a T-shirt on).  I got a call up to the 2nd row and slotted into about 7th after the initial straightaway.  It was raining pretty consistently through the day and the temps were in the 40s I'm guessing, so it was freakin' cold and sloppy.  I didn't bring my mud tires because I'm an idiot, so I stuck with my all-arounders at around 40psi front and rear.  I felt pretty good for the first few laps and even made it up to 3rd or 4th after the 2nd lap.  However, I think I pushed too hard because I got passed, then passed again....   then again... and faded to 9th.  I eventually recovered, but it was too late and nearly pipped 8th place at the line.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the course because my hands were ice cubes.  Regardless, the course conditions were super muddy and I improved my mud skills as the day, so that was good.  I'm glad it's over now since I was shivering for a couple hours after the race, but I think I'd do it again.  "Classic" cyclocross conditions.

cyclocross goal setting

I usually don't know what's going to happen at the first 'cross race of the year.  I'm usually excited and hopeful of my form, but the past two years I've been disappointed with my initial results.  I am a decent criterium and road racer and can hide in the pack, but cyclocross is a bit like a time trial obstacle course.  There's no hiding in the pack and tactics are pretty obsolete, so you're really got to be the strongest to win cyclocross races.  This year I decided to take the first race without any expectations and make goals afterwards.

I finished the Velocross CAT3 race in 12th place, so I'm going to focus my efforts this year on competing in the Best Cyclocross Rider competition.  Points are given out to the top 20 riders at each BCR race.  I know I'm going to miss at least 20% of the 19 BCR races this fall, so I won't make the top tier, but it should be fun nonetheless.  If I had finished in the top 7, I'd make it a point to race every cyclocross race on the calendar to get upgrade points, but I'm probably out of the hunt with the form I have now.  Next race is Sunday in Breckenridge.

Velocross

First race for me is in the books and it went ok.  I totally blew the start and arrived at the start/finish with about 45 seconds before the gun.  That meant I lined up at the back of a 40-50 person field.  The start went down a 50 meter straight, then of course, a 180 hairpin.

I moved up a little on the start, then got clogged on the 180 turn and had to dismount.  I settled into about 20-25th for the first frantic lap.  There were bottlenecks at certain parts of the course and I was staying tight with the front two groups, but gradually I started dropping off the pace and got passed by a couple riders in the last few laps. Overall, I finished in the top 15 I think.  My teammate, Marty, was killing it, but flatted towards the end of the race and had to pull off.  He was in 2nd at the time.  Anyway.  Good start to the season.  Here are some photos of the course.

I hate how this blogger website works with photos. 

Mental Toughness

Today is the first 'cross race of the season, but unfortunately it is 95 miles away, so I still got a hard workout on the trainer this morning while watching the latest World Superbike Races from Germany.  Hard workouts are hard for everybody.  It doesn't matter if your a top European professional or a CAT 4 racer.  Everyone goes through the same pain and mental hardships when doing a hard workout.

Case in point, this morning I attempted my 4x14min interval workout and had a breakdown on the 4th interval.  After reviewing the power data, I can see exactly when I get mentally broken.  Here's my workout data from Thursday of this week.  I thought I was recovered enough, but you can see that 10 minutes into the 3rd interval I crack and struggle to maintain my power for the rest of the interval.  I rested 5 minutes, then tried the 4th interval, but I was mentally broken and gave up.

Today, I did the same workout and met the same mental breakdown in the 4th interval at about the 8th minute.  You can't see very well in the screenshot because the data is smoothed out, but I stopped pedalling for about 10 seconds, then got my head back into it and finished it off.  My heart rate was 187bpm when I cracked on both workouts. 

This kind of mental and physical breakdown happens all the time during bike races.  Typically, it happens during the critical points of the race.  There is usually a good 5-15 minutes in the middle of the race that you're at your absolute maximum and struggling to keep the pace and if you back off for just a second, you can lose a wheel, slip back, and get dropped from the pack.  It takes the mental toughness you develop from doing really hard workouts in training that will help you push just that little bit longer to keep stay with it during the critical points in a bike race.  Of course, there are also times when no matter what you do, you get dropped, but these training experiences will then help limit your damages on the GC.

I've heard that the pros can ride at their absolute maximum for over an hour while most amateurs can only last 10-15 minutes before breaking down mentally and back off the pace.  That's mental toughness.

CYCLOCROSS

IT'S COMING.....

Steamboat stage 3 - criterium

The last day of this stage race was on a 1 kilometer criterium course downtown.  It consisted of a short steep hill and a long steady downhill.  It was a nice, fun, safe course.  I attacked about 15 minutes into the race and tried to bridge to a group of 4.  I was away for a few laps before I was brought back by Ben Day and the rest of the peloton.  Shortly after I got caught, my teammate Tom Roba attacked and bridged to the group.  He stayed away for about 40 minutes until close to the end when he was caught.  The main break stayed away the whole race.  I felt good on the finishing sprint, but got boxed in and really didn't get a chance to wind it up.  Still finished 16th on the stage and 27th overall.  Better form next year I hope.

Here's an article on the stage with video.
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/photos/2009/sep/08/22951/

Stage 1 and 2 recap

Stage 1 - Circuit Race and Stage 2 Road Race in the books.

Yesterday's 45 mile Circuit Race went pretty much as I expected.  10 laps of the TT course with ~500ft climbing per 4.5 mile lap.  The first lap was ok.  I hung with the pack on the climb, but it was hard.  2nd lap, I got popped off the back of the pack about 200 meters from the finish of the main climb.  I caught back on after the descent.  3rd lap, I got popped early on the climb and my teammate, Tom, and I stayed together for the rest of the race behind the pack.  We ended up getting lapped by the winner Ben Day on his last lap, but we never caught or got passed by the field.  Results aren't posted online, but I think we finished about 14 minutes or so behind the winner.  I'll update this with results when they are available.

Today was longer (70 miles), but the climbs weren't as steep, so I did ok.  3-4 miles after the start is a hard, steep 600 ft climb that popped my teammate, Tim, and a couple others.  The next 35-40 miles were pretty steady.  Climbs were mostly a few minutes or less and I didn't have any trouble keeping up with the pace.  About 40 miles into the race is the main climb of over 1000ft.  This climb is broken into three steep climbs.  I kept with the main climb over the first, then got popped off the back on the second.  Chased on the descent and came within 50 meters before the final climb and never caught.  The rest of the race, I was riding alone chasing the main pack for about 10-15 miles to the finish.  I think if I was 5 pounds lighter or could put out a tiny bit more power, I would have been able to keep with the group.  Regardless, the finish of the race was on some pretty steep short climbs and I would have been popped there anyway.  So, I finished about 6-10 minutes behind the field.  One more race (the criterium) tomorrow.  I expect to do ok since it has very little climbing, is only 60 minutes, and is more of my style of race.  We'll see.

Steamboat Prologue TT

Today was the 4.5 mile time trial.  We were pretty rushed and showed up to the race site late, so I only got a 12-13 minute warm-up in.  I went easy for a few minutes, then few minutes hard, then 1/2 minute really hard, then easy for the rest of the warm up and felt ok.  This course was actually really technical and had a pretty significant climb.  The race included a short start sprint, a 1/4 mile uphill, then 1/2 mile climb, then a 2 mile or so descent, then a mile on the flat, then a 1/4 mile finish climb.

I went super hard on the initial part of the TT and I hit the climb already very anaerobic.  I stood up on the bike through most of the climb and felt good, but at the same time, I felt like there was a ball of lava in my throat.  At the top of the climb, I picked up the speed for the descent, but the descent was far more technical than I expected and I almost overcooked one of the sweeping corners.  I recovered and felt ok on the flat and the rest of the race.  I finished in 11:15, approx 1:28 behind the leader, at 34th of 43.  I gotta say that I'm disappointed in the result as I felt good in the race, but it is what it is.  This is the last road race of the year, so I was expecting to be in good form for the 'cross season, but it looks like I need some more work.

Tomorrow's race is the same course, just backwards, and we'll do 9 laps.  It's going to be very, VERY hard.  We'll see how it goes.

September plan

 

 Here's the plan for september.  I'm pretty much half-way through my 2nd training cycle.  This is my rest week before the Steamboat Stage Race.  Next week, I'll take another rest week to recover from 3 hard effort days and to help prepare for the first weekend of cross.  This year, I really want to improve and move out of the 3s.  Last year, I had great success in Portland (I was there during most of September), but when I returned I had a terrible first outing and the remaining races weren't that great.  The basic plan is to keep up the 10-20minute efforts during the week with a over-under workout thrown in as well.  Over-unders are workouts above FT for a few minutes, then below FT for several minutes, then repeat a couple times per set.  I honestly don't know the best way to train for 'cross, so this year I'm using the same plan I used for the road season and am hoping for success.

Steamboat Springs Road Race

This weekend is the last road racing event of the year.  The Steamboat Springs Stage Race.  This will be a four-day event with a 4.5mile prologue on Friday evening, a 10 lap, 45mile circuit race on Saturday, a 70mile road race on Sunday, and a 60 minute criterium on Monday.  Chris, Tim S. and I will be representing the team this weekend.  I'll be blogging "live" every night to keep you posted on how things are shaping up.

Recovery and Training Stress

I think one of the biggest challenges for every cyclist is knowing when to train hard and when to take it easy.  Here is a good example of how monitoring heart rate and power for your hard workouts can indicate if you are rested enough to do the workout or if you need to take a break and come back the next day.  I did this workout on Saturday, 8/25/09:

For this workout, I did four intervals maintaining an average around 350 watts for each 18 minute interval (5 minute rest between intervals).  My heart rate averages were 168, 173, 176, 177 bpm.  The following day, I raced the HART criterium in Denver, CO.  On Monday, I rode easy for an hour, then on Tuesday I attempted the same 4x18min workout.  This time, however, I was not rested enough to do the workout and it was evident in my heart rate. 
 

My average heart rate for the first two intervals were 171bpm, then 180bpm.  I attempted a third interval, but was too tired to complete the effort.  My heart rate was much higher indicating I was stressed and not recovered enough to do the workout.  I use this data for planning my future workouts.  If I do two hard workouts or races in a row, then I will most often need two days of rest before I can do another hard workout.  Everyone is different though, and you may recover quicker or slower than others.  The best way to determine if you are rested (in my opinion), is to monitor heart rate with power.  I structure my training plan completely around power, but I monitor heart rate to see how I felt and as a gauge for fitness.

Koppenberg Casualty

 As with the Paris-Roubaix and Ronde von Vlaanderen, it takes luck, skill, fitness, and smarts to with a "classic".  I fell victim to the Koppenberg course today.  The quick recap goes like this.  I did my usual, start at the back thing, thinking that nothing eventful would relly happen until mid-way through the race and I didn't want to get caught up in the carnage of the first-lap fireworks.  The first lap was straight awesome.  We hit the dirt and it's single/double file full-gas all the way to the climb.  When I get within sight of the climb, it's a plume of dirt-smoke all the way and the leaders are already heading up it.  When I get to it, some guys already struggled in the middle and most everyone is off the bike running with the bike.  My cyclocross skills came in handy here as I was off and running at the start of the climb.  I passed several riders running, then had a picture-perfect remount and was off motoring again. 




I rode with several guys and eventually our group was about 10-12 riders all working pretty well.  We were catching other riders and making progress on the main pack.  Well, 3 laps go by and halfway through the dirt section, my rear wheel washes out on the gravel.  It was more like a power slide as I didn't go down or slow really, but all of a sudden my bike is riding like it doesn't have a tire.  I look down and I'm completely flat.  Race over at 45 minutes, 3 1/2 laps out of 8.  Later I realize that it was indeed a pinch flat.  I guess 100psi was too low for my 180 lb. body.  Also, the guys in my group ended up finishing around the 10-15th place in the race, so that lines up with how my prior results were going.




I'm coming away from this race feeling both good and bad.  Bad, because well, I DNF'd.  Good though because I felt pretty good, my legs were responding well, I felt very comfortable in the group I was in and that's a good indication of how I may perform at the last race of the year, the Steamboat Springs Stage Race.  I also felt great running with the bike, so that's good for cyclocross.  I ran for 30 minutes after getting home.  This week is a low-intensity, low-miles week to prep for the Steamboat Springs race.

Koppenberg Preview

My favorite race of the year is this Sunday.  The Koppenberg Circuit race in Superior, CO.  This course is just down the road from me and the race is usually held in spring around the time of the best single day classic races (Ronde von Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix) in Europe.  Unfortunately, this year we had terrible weather on the days preceeding this race and the course was unridable.

1/2 of this course is on a gravel/dirt road.  It can be very loose and bumpy and there is a small 60 meter or so section of 18+% grade.  The race is named after the famous Koppenberg climb that is typically included in the Ronde von Vlaanderen race.  This section is usually pretty trenched out and when it rains, the terrain turns to mud and is unridable.  Well, this third attempt to hold the race this year is going to happen regardless of the weather.  If it snows, hails, rains, etc., then the race will still go on and everyone will be running up the hill.

We're doing 8 laps of the 5.5 mile course.  Last year I raced this as a CAT 3 and broke away from the pack about two miles from the finish and held on for 4th place I think.  This year will be much tougher in the P/1/2 category.  Either way, this race will be sweet and I won't even have to drive to the course.  excellent.