Oracle Road Race: Race Report and Week 4 Recap

It's been an interesting week. Monday morning, while getting dressed, standing still mind you, no gyrations, walking down stairs or summersaults...nope, standing still, pulling on a sweater, I tore an intercostal muscle beneath my left arm pit. Those are the muscles that keep your ribs together ... when you injure them, it's quite painful.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I tried, without success, getting myself dressed without my stupid rib yelling at me. Friday morning I was successful! I felt proud of myself, this was an accomplishment. When I arrived at work, though, I realized I had forgotten to zip up my pants. DOH! (Luckily I had a long jacket on that I believed spared any innocence from permanent ocular damage.)

Today was the Oracle Road Race, a course that suits me well. I believed, hoped, that those guys that could match me in the criterium could not hang with me on the climbs. This scale told me I was 206 pounds this morning, yikes, but I can still climb pretty well, provided it's not too long or steep or too punchy.

Course Profile, about 54 miles, 4,000 feet of climbing.

I had a couple of teammates with me in the race, Gene, Rich S. For the omnium I was in 2nd place, behind by 7 points. So, if I won the road race, no matter what happened, I won the omnium, too. Winning came with some merchandise, and I like stuff.

The course was 2 laps, down the hill a back up. The day was windy and started pretty cold, even a small patch of ice on the road!

Down the hill was without event but our group was pretty large. Going down hill that fast with gusty cross winds in cold weather in a cat 4/5 and collegiate b/c kids is unsettling! But, we made it.

First shot up the hill was punchy. This is my first attempt at matching anything in a road race in almost 3 years and I was in trouble near the top. I decided to ease off and catch back on down the hill.

As soon as I did, I saw the cattle guard, marking the top. There's still climbing after that but it's more my style. I could see them but couldn't catch back on. They started attacking each other and were soon out of sight.

I wasn't sure, but I thought there were 2 guys in that group that were in my race. I sat up and waited for a big strong dude that got dropped before me and we worked together through town, picked up a college kid on the way down.

Here's a video of the big dude, (Scott Thompson), and I working our way through town. There were nice crowds watching the race yesterday.



I kept thinking how pissed I'd be for sitting up there if it cost me the race. But, even on the long downhill where you could see a long way ahead we couldn't see that lead group. We just weren't closing in. The headwind made it tough and they were obviously working together.

So, about half way down I stopped taking normal pulls and just went full gas for 2 minutes. Then, I saw the group ... way ahead still. I redoubled my efforts and worked hard for another 2 minutes and at the bottom of the hill we were just 25 yards behind. We caught them easily then.



I joined the pace line, there were about 10 total, including the two I brought down the hill. As I examined the two masters riders in the group I saw they were NOT in my race. All I needed to do to win was sit in and not crash.

That's what I did. Back up the hill, the two older guys worked over all of the kids. I just rode tempo up the hill and dropped everybody but the one kid I brought down the hill. Turned out he had a chance to win his race so I worked for him, well tried too. On the downhill section coming into town he lost my wheel ... I was going 53 in a 25, not sure what happened there. Anyhow, he won his race too.



So I won a cool pocket sized blue tooth speaker so I can jam tunes without ear buds when training, some Skratch labs recovery mix, some socks and a few boxes of Girl Scout Cookies! BOOM!

Some race and training notes:

1. I tried straight maple syrup as fuel during the race. I used it and water for the first half and then caffeine and a sugary electrolyte drink for the second half. My gut didn't complain and my energy felt good throughout.
2. Every time I race on hills I get at least one person that says, almost the same words regardless of the person, "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're a big dude ... how do you climb like that?"
3. I need more road racing experience. Unlike crits, I know what to do, but my body isn't used to it. Responding to the punchy stuff on the climb was very hard for me, even though I was well within what I could do. The second time up the hill, just doing tempo, was faster, yet way easier, than the first trip up the hill.
4. I could barely walk after the race. I have neurological issues with the muscles in my feet still, from my back injury. Hamstrings get cranky, too, but they were fine yesterday. If I suffer like that after every race, it's still worth it. :D
5. My normalized power for the whole race was 309 watts. I'm very happy with where my power is and was concerned after last week's time trial. But, a week of rest goes a long way.

This coming week I will be increasing my volume of training and doing some FTP testing. I'm curious if I'll have any growth in that 20 minute range. I know I'm way stronger in short term power, so regardless of the results, I feel I'm headed the right direction. Still, I have a long way to go, which is what motivates me.

Thank you again for reading, I hope it's been entertaining and perhaps informative.

PS: I will create a video of GoPro footage to go along with the race, but it'll take a few days.

Historic University of Arizona Criterium: Race Report

It was a bit nipply, as Clark Griswold would say!  Twenty one degrees at my house when I left for the race this morning, and in the low 30's at race time.  Still, the sun was out, the course was pretty interesting, and, well, it's race day!

I always want to win, and am working on developing some instincts for racing criteriums that may help me win, but that's just it ... right now I'm trying different things.  Today my #1 goal was, do not crash.  In the first race on the day there were 7 separate crashes on the one tricky corner.  In my race, just one.  As the day went on and the road warmed up, the paint on that corner got less slippery, so that helped.

The second goal was to try some different break aways using features of the course and see if one sticks.  I felt good and believe that if I could've gotten away I had a good chance of staying away.

Thank you John Hays for the great pics!

 Spoiler, I didn't get away.  In fact, nobody did.  There were just a few guys shutting everything down.

The course:  0.8 miles long and starts slightly down hill headed east with a very fast pair of turns (numbers 1 and 2) that send you slightly back up the hill then a bend to the right and a very pinched and technical 150 degree turn.  This is where everybody crashed when it was cold.

The venue was very cool, on the UofA's campus.  The streets were pretty nice, grass everywhere, and palm trees.  There were a lot of spectators, making it a lot of fun.

When the race started I just wanted to stay in the front 1/3 of the pack, stay safe, do zero work.  My garmin ended up getting wonky on me, but from the data I collected, I did a good job not working at all when I didn't need to.

I am also happy to report that on the fast pair of turns on the east end of the race, I was faster than the other riders.  I guess because I could carry my momentum through the turn.  That same inertia hurt me more than it helped on the tricky, dog-legged turn.  I popped off over 1,100 watts twice, and over 1,000 repeatedly in the short 11 minutes interrupted data I collected.  All in that one corner, all just coming back to speed, not attacking.

It became very quickly apparent that whoever went into the last turn (the tricky one) first, would be the first to the finish line, provided they didn't slide out in the turn itself.  For one of the prime laps I was 3rd wheel in the corner and had no chance.  Each prime and the race itself was won by whoever was first in that corner.

If I had a time out during the race, or was smarter, I'd have changed my plan from a late break away to just getting on the front on the back half and pulling the whole field to that turn and gunning it out of the corner!  DOH!

During the race several guys tried to get away and none did.  I tried three separate times, and never got very far at all.  On the last lap I just tried to stay in front of the people in that were in the omnium competition.  I ended up coming in 4th in my category and 7th over all, and I did let one of the omnium competitors slip away, I didn't see him.  So, after day 1, I'm sitting in second place.

Here's the footage from my GoPro from today's race.  It was a lot of fun.  It was also nice seeing Rich Horn out there cheering me on!  What a teammate!

Tomorrow's race has a lot of climbing, twice ascending a long category 2 climb.  Who knows what surprises the day will hold!  I'm built for crits, not hills...but I ride hills not flats, so I'm comfortable when we go up and down.  I might surprise a few folks tomorrow.  Then again, I might get spit out the back right away.  We shall see!

Power Zones, Physical Adaptations and Purpose of Training

One of the things that I really enjoy about cycling has little to do with being on the bike.  No, it's not the stretchy pants and plastic hats!  I love trying to find optimal nutrition and training plans.  To find optimization, learning about mechanisms that occur is important.   One of the things I've really been learning about this week is the purpose, the intended physiological adaptations sought, from each workout.

Tom Danielson kicked it off with some feedback on Facebook and with this article where he discusses how chasing an increased FTP doesn't promote winning races.  Here's the article:  FTP is not Functional.

In a similar theme this week's episode of VeloNews' Fast-Talk Podcast the discussion revolved around dispelling training myths.  They did an excellent job, but in many ways muddied the waters more than cleared them.  Like nutrition, training protocol is highly variable.  I believe this is to the individual genetic responses, psychological responses, drive and desire and potential of individual athletes, but also how specific practices fit within the whole of a coach's plan.  You know, the old, many ways to skin a cat thing ...

The biggest take-away for me was that I should know the intended training adaptations to be brought from each workout I perform. How do I know if training has been successful if I don't know where I should see improvements?

What is the purpose of each training zone (most of my workouts are done in a specific training zone that is a percentage of my FTP).  I have a general idea, but with a few simple questions, my level of understanding is exposed as surface level and flimsy.  Coach Chad does an excellent job describing the purpose of each workout on its own and how it fits into the week's objectives (from the Trainer Road programs), but I've been a poor student.

A quick google search showed me how to calculate each zone and many websites give the purpose of each zone with a one word, well, essentially name, like Endurance or Tempo.  Here is the basic gist of the zone calculation, along with their names:

Zone 1 <55% (active recovery)

Zone 2 56-75% of FTP (endurance)Zone 3 76-90% of FTP (tempo)Zone 4 91-105% of FTP (lactate threshold)Zone 5 106-120% of FTP (VO2max)Zone 6 121-150% of FTP (anaerobic capacity)Zone 7 >150% of FTP (neuromuscular power)

Sweet Spot 88% - 92% of FTP


Training Peaks had a great article on the topic, like they often do.  However, while they do a great job describing how each zone should feel (which is important to helping you understand if you're really in that zone), they don't describe the purpose of each zone.  If you, like me, are trying to more accurately understand if you're targeting appropriate zones to reap the adaptations intended, then these descriptions are very important to know!  Yes, a powermeter will inform you, but the more ways you have to know if you're right, the better.  I'll summarize below:

Zone	How it Should Feel
1 – Active Recovery	This is an easy spin, minimal sensation of fatigue in the legs and no concentration required to maintain the effort.
2 – Endurance	Generally easy, but should feel like it could be maintained all day.  Minimal concentration is required during difficult portions of a route, like up a hill.  You should not be too aware of your breathing in zone 2.
3 – Tempo	Requires attention to maintain when riding alone with deeper and more rhythmic breathing than in zone 2.
4 – Lactate Threshold	Duration exacerbates these signals, but the level of breathing required should make continuous conversation difficult, however, you should be able to talk.  This is mentally taxing and intervals of 10 to 30 minutes should feel difficult.
5 – V02 Max	This should produce severe fatigue in the legs and you will not be able to carry on a conversation during these efforts.
6 – Anaerobic Capacity	These will last 30 seconds to 3 minutes and much like V02Max, you will not be able to talk and you will experience severe leg fatigue and pain.
7 – Neuromuscular Power	Very short and intense, max efforts like sprints.

Finding the purpose of each training zone is a little trickier.  I did find this page on WattBike, which was useful, but I wanted a bit more.  Below I'll summarize what I've come to understand.  Keep in mind, I do not have a background in exercise science, and these are the rough interpretations after my blunt tool of a mind has fumbled through the information.  Also, my understanding is evolving, but I hope you find this useful as a start.  Even if I were an expert in the field, there'd be plenty of people that disagree. All that aside, here you go:

Zone 1:  The purpose of zone one is to promote recovery from taxing efforts without inducing further damage.  Sometimes resting for a day is better, depending on the level of fatigue, but even after a short rest, zone 1 work is important because it helps "clear" the damage.  (Clear, I suspect, is a word that is misused here, but it's the word I see and hear often in this context.)

Zone 2:  Zone 2 promotes mitochondrial growth, which has two big upsides for cyclists.  (The slow twitch fibers have the highest mitochondrial density and is the muscle type used and developed here.) First, it promotes fat utilization for fuel during your efforts.  If your body is dependent on using glycogen for fuel at lower intensity levels when it could use fat, you will run out of fuel when the race gets harder and fat cannot be used.  In other words, working in zone 2 helps you save your Go-Juice for when it's really time to go!

The second upshot of developing the systems used in zone 2 is actually improved lactate clearance.  Lactate is created when the body uses glycogen for energy (at higher intensity levels).  By mechanisms beyond me, but sound fancy enough where I read them that they must be true, the slow twitch muscles are responsible for clearing the lactate.  (Read this page for the real expert's advice on zone 2.)

The purpose of zone 2 is two-fold.  It should make you more fat-dependent (fueling during easier efforts) and promote the capacity to better process lactate at higher efforts.

Zone 3:  I've heard zone 3 called "No Man's Land," implying that it has little purpose and should be avoided.  From what I've read it is a cross-over zone between where the body uses primarily fat to using primarily carbohydrate for fuel.  Perhaps in this zone the point at which your body switches from fat to carbohydrate will be delayed (fat is an essentially infinite fuel source, but we can only carry and process so much glycogen).  That said, Zone 3's purpose is building muscular endurance with the intent of limiting fatigue over time, like in a longer race. (Zone 3)

Zone 4:  In zone 4 the body will not be using fat as this is where the fast twitch muscles take over the work.  Now, there are two types of fast twitch muscles, and they fire sequentially depending on the workload.  In zone 4 the first type of fast twitch muscle fibers are firing.  The purpose of zone 4 is to improve their efficiency, the body's efficiency at using carbohydrate and flushing lactate.

All that aside, one way to think of the purpose of Zone 4 work is to raise the ceiling; the ceiling being the limiting factor to how much power you can sustain over an extended period of time.  The better adapted your body is to working in zone 4, the longer your body will be able to sustain high efforts.

Zone 5:  In Zone 5 you are working to increase your cardiovascular efficiency and the body's ability to flush waste products.  In zone 5 the body starts switching from using the first type of fast twitch fibers to the second type.  The later the onset of that switch occurs, the better off you'll be.  Zone 5 work seeks to delay this switch.

One way to think of the purpose of the work here is raising the roof.  If your roof is higher, your ceiling can be higher.  Again, the ceiling is your lactate threshold.

Zone 6:  The purpose of Zone 6 is to increase your maximum, short term power.  This is where you start exclusively working the second type of fast twitch fibers.   Training here helps you drop the hammer, bring the thunder ... create separation on race day.

Zone 7: The difference between zones 6 and 7 is that zone 7 has a greater element of neuromuscular control.  The purpose of training in zone 7 is to increase maximum, short term power, but is at the very limits of what you can do.

Sweet Spot:  Sweet spot is the upper portion of zone 3 and the lower part of zone 4, right where the body switches from slow to fast twitch muscle recruitment.  So, my simple mind has put together the idea that by increasing efficiency in sweet spot you delay the recruitment of fast twitch fibers, which only use glycogen for fuel, thus making you a more efficient rider.

Regardless of the exact mechanism, the purpose of sweet spot is to increase the amount of power you can maintain for extended periods of time.  Also, while sweet spot work hurts, the recovery time is significantly less than work done in Zone 4.  So, more training can be done.

I hope this has proven useful in shedding some light on why we do certain efforts in specific zones, what the results should be, and so on.

Now the next piece will be how much of what to do when and why!

New Technology, Best Bike Split Review

I'd like to do a quick, preliminary review of Best Bike Split's power course used with a Garmin 520.   For those who don't know, Best Bike Split (from here on called BBS), is software that will calculate your fastest pacing strategy for a time trial or something similar once you provide a GPS course, your bike information and your FTP.  It will even compensate for weather based on historical data or weather predictions (your choice).

I uploaded a loop course that I often ride for active recovery.  I set the intensity at 0.70 of my FTP, which means it was fairly easy.  I did not have time to update the weather to my race plan, which came into play slightly.  The historical weather was 5 mph, but yesterday was 12 mph and gusty.  BBS created a strategy to fit my desired course intensity and predicted a time of 17:33, with an average power of 256 and a speed of 21.57 (as seen in the picture below).

I did not follow the plan specifically because on one corner I've been practicing cornering and sprinting out of the corner.  But otherwise I tried to hit the target power suggested as it showed on my Garmin.  I finished the route in exactly 18 minutes (pretty close), with an average power of 272 watts (higher because of my two sprints you can see in the graph below), and an average speed of 21.1 mph.  I think that for a preliminary test, this is pretty good!

Many cyclists have already been using BBS for pacing strategies in time trials and from this little experiment, I believe it's going to be a very helpful tool for me come race day!

All that said, I'd also like to see if I could use it as a training tool.  The training program I've been following is designed by TrainerRoad.  I love their product and their podcast.  The issue is, of course, doing all of my work, or most of it, on the trainer, indoors.  I live in southern Arizona.  I can always ride outdoors.  And while riding on the trainer offers something lost when being outside, namely no coasting, cannot get distracted and wander off your power targets as easily, and the shorter amount of required time, there are somethings missed indoors.  For example, indoors you never really sprint, handle wind, terrain, picking lines in corners, and bike handling in general.

So, what I'm going to try to do is use the power parameters for given workouts in TrainerRoad and apply them to courses I create in Best Bike Split.  I'll then export the BBS power course to my Garmin and still be able to track my TSS, IF and what-not out on the road.

Now, I am only doing this for easy recovery rides for now, like Pettit.  For those that don't use TrainerRoad, Pettit is a very easy spin, 0.63 intensity factor and an hour long.  For things like V02 Max intervals, Sweet Spot or Over-Under work, I'll have to get a little more specific in BBS.

The idea I like here is that I can possibly create specific workouts for specific outdoor routes.  This is particularly engaging because I could get the best of both worlds.  I could get some very structured work outdoors!  I could manage my TSS so I don't over-do things, and experience what 14% feels like when you're trying to maintain a cadence of 80 RPM with a 39-28 gear set up.

Here's how to do a simple workout.  First, in Strava, create a course and export it as a GPX file.  To the right is a short loop near my house with a little bit of climbing that I like to ride.  I've done three laps as this typically takes about an hour with moderate effort.

Once you've downloaded the GPX file from Strava, open up BBS and create a new course.  Drag the GPX file and trim it as you like.  I picked a start and stop point where I know there's little traffic, and the terrain is flat.  I did so because I can easily monitor my Garmin here to see if I loaded the software correctly and that I have the display screen I want.  This is all new, so I'm trying to account for my learning curve.

After trimming the course in BBS, set up your power parameters.  I wanted an IF (intensity factor) of 0.63 as it's a recovery ride.  When I saved the course the BBS software calculated the TSS (training stress score, which is used to track and gradually increase your training load over time), as 38 and the total time of 58-ish minutes.  The indoor workout is an hour with an IF of 0.63 and a TSS of 39.  So, I'd say this is pretty good.

Now you may wonder, why not just go out and tool around if it's just a recovery ride?  For me the answer is simple ... when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail!  In other words, I often have difficulty riding easy when I'm supposed to.  I often go too hard, even when I know no good will come of it. Also, if I can make these work well then I believe I can create interval work that is linked to the terrain features that I'll be racing on.  I believe this might be a big training tool for me.

Week 3: A Time Trial and a Drugged Pug

This was a tough week of training.  It was supposed to be, being the last week of a block and what-not.  Next week is all about recovery and absorbing the physical stresses I've doled out on myself.  I'd like to say that I know I've trained correctly because of how fatigued I am, but I think I'm losing some gains because of nutrition.  I'm not eating low quality food (as a rule), just too little.

This past weekend I planned on crushing a 20K time trial using some new software from Best Bike Split on my new Garmin 520.  Then, I had high hopes for placing well in two criteriums on Sunday.  But as plans go, these went...

A shot of me after the time trial.  The beard IS aero!

Balancing how I have felt with what I've seen on the scale, and what little I know about developing fitness while losing weight, I will try to eat more the follow few weeks.  I'll start with adding some source of lean protein (100 - 200 calories) shortly before bed.  I'll also increase my protein with breakfast. I'm borrowing some ideas I got from the Velo News Fast-Talk podcast.  Eventually I'll write up what I've learned about nutrition, weight loss and performance, but I need a little distance and perspective to make it meaningful.

That said, I did hit my lowest weight as a cyclist this week, 201.2 pounds.  I started the week at 206 (but I always start the week very high due to inflammatory responses to the stresses of the weekend's rides). I think I can drop 20 pounds still, but that'll have to come slowly over the next year or so.

For the time trial I used some software from Best Bike Split that calculates the fastest pacing plan given your information like FTP, weather, your weight and bike configuration.  I didn't have an accurate route loaded into the software so it was a little funky on the race, and it was just my second try at it (golden rule: Don't try new stuff on race day), but regardless, I was sore before the race and just could NOT hit my numbers.  It was frustrating at first because they were power numbers I hit regularly.  But, again, with the lack of fuel, three weeks' fatigue and what not ...  All told, I still had a good time, 28:46 for the 20K, which was one of the better times on the day, but far from what I'd hoped.  (I think there's a lot of promising things with the BBS (Best Bike Split) for me, but I'll have to spend more time on it and do a write-up later.)

Here's a video my wife shot of me leaving the line.  (They didn't have anyone holding bikes!)

What you might not realize is that packing the car for a bike race is a chore.  I'm working on streamlining the process, getting duplicate materials like tools, tubes, air pumps and such so I can just have a "Go-Bag" I throw in the car with my bike before races.  Being more efficient with this will make me a better racer because it will reduce stress and trips up and down the stairs in my house (I store all my bike stuff in my man-cave upstairs).

Friday night I spent a few hours working on these go-bag ideas, along with setting up the time trial bike and tuning it for Saturday, as well as getting my road bike ready for Sunday.  After Saturday's race I was SPENT.  Still, I had to unload the time trial stuff from the car and load up the criterium stuff.  I wasn't looking forward to the races Sunday, getting up at 4 AM to make the first start time and the driving, 3 hours each way.  But, I knew it would all help prepare me for Tour of the Gila in April.

At 3:30 AM I was wide awake, emotionally ready to go.  I got up, started getting ready.  I convinced my #1 fan (my wife), to sleep in and enjoy a relaxing day, so I was trying to prepare in quiet.  She got up anyway and we noticed that her dog, I call him Chuggies, wasn't right.  He was unbelievably hyper, couldn't walk or hold still and was very bloated.  Eventually he was in a lot of physical distress, and certainly acting out of character.

After calling our local vets and finding that our go-to guy is out of town and the others ... well, they don't even have emergency numbers posted, we ended up rushing him to Tucson.  The best guess, right now, is that he consumed something toxic, perhaps a mold of some sort.  He's not in good shape.  He's staying overnight at the vet-hospital, and we will see how things are in the morning.  In the mean time, nothing can be done for him other than to keep him hydrated.  He's displaying severe neurological impairment, so they can't give him any medications (luckily he's not in pain from his stomach anymore), or perform surgery, if a blockage or something was discovered.

Here he is watching me get race stuff ready, I think.  He looks everywhere, all at once.

I'm pulling for Chuggies, he's a little dog with a super engaging personality. I've thought about making him a service dog because when crossing the street, he can look both ways for safety!  Seriously though, we are very worried and concerned, but all that can be done is being done, so we wait.

As for next week:  I am looking forward to some recovery rides, rest and eating a bit more.  Next weekend I will be participating in the Santa Catalina Omnium.  The criterium on Saturday is a bit technical, and I will have a lot to learn.  The road race is defined by a climb.  Climbs can be tricky.  If it's the right distance I'm strong enough to shell the climbers and sprinters and usually those that are left I'll be faster than on the finish.  So, it will be a lot of fun.

Until then, thanks for following along.

Week 2 Review: A Race Report and An AWESOME Group Ride

This is picture was taken on MLK day, towards the end of a long training ride.  I was joined by 12 other wonderful and dedicated cyclists, several of whom are teammates.  It was a blast.  Truly, the long training ride was the highlight of my week, as exercise goes.

I had hoped the highlight would be yesterday.  Yesterday was my brother-in-law's (Gene) birthday.  He joined Team Aggress two years ago so we could race together ... but as luck would have it, I got injured and this was our first race.

The venue was new, Verrado Criterium, out in the middle of NOWHERE west of Phoenix.  The setting was nice, but I was not happy with the course as it was super narrow and technical, and very short, just 0.4 of a mile.  I'm not sure how the course got approved by USAC at that distance, but I don't know a lot of things!  That will be the extent of my complaining about the race.  Here's what went down.

We showed up at the start 10 minutes early but the entire field was already lined up.  I believe there were 42 people.  The widest part of the race was at the start line, it was a single car lane wide, without shoulder and barriers on each side.  In the 4/10ths of a mile there were 5 turns, including a 180 degree turn.  I knew as soon as I lined up that my race was likely over.

I mean, if I were lined up front on this race, I'd fight like hell to be first man in turn one.  Whoever could match my accelerations out of the turns would be who I had to race for the day.  That's exactly what happened.

The first lap was "neutral," so I'll call it lap zero.  The first racing lap had two crashes in front of me (caught them on my GoPro though).  By the time I was on the "long" straight away, the front of the field was taking turn one.  I was 15 seconds down on a course laps were around 1:05 each and making up time was tough.

In the end I was wrongfully pulled from the race and marked down as finished last.  I yelled, literally, at the poor race director.  I didn't cuss at him, but I explained in a very direct and brisk manner how he was wrong, why he was wrong and what I thought about it. I'll apologize to him next time I see him.  I was right in my claims, wrong in my behavior.  That's not how I want to be.

And not only did I get pulled, that's what Gene got for his birthday, too!  DOH!!

Here's the video from the race.  I sped up a few parts, but you can see my pathetically short race in its entirety.  The race director was right in trying to keep everybody safe and it was total chaos on the course.  He had too many things to keep track of.  With a group that had more tightly grouped competitors it might be a safe course, but for the cat4/5 men's group, it was a horror show.
Still, I got a very intense 15 minute work out, doing the whole thing solo.  I practiced cornering, a lot.  I got faster on the course while doing less work, by myself.  That's a big win!

I also tried a new warm up routine, based on what Team Sky does before their races.  Being just 20 minutes long makes my pre-race ritual much less hectic.  Here it is:

 Standard Time Trial Warm-Up

• 5 min light
• 8 min progressive to Zone 5
• 2 min easy
• 2 min to include - 3 x 6s accelerations to activate
• 3 mins easy

Notes:

1. Progressive means building to the power zone over the 8 minutes.  Only in the last 1 min do you get to Z5
2. 6 second accelerations are sprints & for a whole 6 seconds!

There was a team meeting Saturday, a party really.  It was cool to hang out and talk racing.  During that brief weekend I went from having zero disc wheels for time trials to having two loaners!  I also scored a set of new shoes from a teammate (I'll have to make a donation to El Grupo, a youth cycling program in Tucson), but still, what a deal.

During the long training ride I raced Tim Scott and Rich Stevens up and down the hills of Santa Cruz County, AZ.  We amassed just over 5,000 feet of climbing and I was happy to be able to hold my own.  Tim is an awesome climber and for me, at just over 200 pounds still, to be able to mix it up on the uphills, was a good sign.  (Tim and I are racing Tour of the Gila together this year.  We always hurt each other a lot when riding together ... much pain in the future, I see!)

This past week was a grind.  I've not been sleeping well and that's important when doing hard training.  This coming week I have a couple of V02 Max workouts, a time trial on Saturday (first of the year) and I might race two criteriums on Sunday.

Anyhow, no crazy stories this week, but thanks for following along.  Here are few more pictures of the ride today:

Training Week 1: Where's the f'n Cholula, a Call-Out, and a Shootout

Sometimes, when you're training hard, you get a little hangry.  Yesterday afternoon I was home alone after a pretty tough day on the bike and a long day in Tucson.  I was making some chicken burritos, had been wanting them all day.  Problem was ... the salsa was all gone.  No biggie really, I can always drown chicken burritos in Cholula.

I open the cabinet where the Cholula lives and did not immediately see it.  I looked for, I don't know, 75 to 80 seconds, at least before dropping an F-bomb.

Where's the effin cholu ...

and then I saw it.  My tone changed and I said, sweetly, "Oh, there you are," happy as can be.

This week I learned a couple of things.

1. Learn from your experiences and adjust
2. Stick to the plan

Clear?

This week was supposed to start off with a fitness assessment, an FTP test.  The tests come after a recovery week, an easy weekend and a day off.  The past few times I've done this I just couldn't complete the test.  My body just wouldn't respond.  So, the past few times, I'd abort the test and try again the next day or perhaps the day after that.  The retest would go smoothly.

This round went just like the others.  I set out to do a 20 minute effort, but only got around 8:30 done before I just couldn't do anymore.  I rested a bit and tried again.  Same thing happened.  Between the two efforts I was trashed.  The next day I was having some nerve issues (from my back injury, causes random cramps), and was tired from these tests.  Instead of listening to my body and taking an easy ride, I decided to try an FTP test again.  It went worse, even though I was more conservative.  

Even so, I was able to use the first eight minute effort to come up with an FTP of 370 watts.  That's a lot of juice, but I really think it's too low for my current level of fitness.  But, I'll roll with it until the next test comes around in a month.

The following day, Thursday, was my first day back at work after winter break and a "sweet spot" interval workout in the afternoon, which followed the early morning session at the gym.  Three intervals, ten minutes each at 310 watts average, separated by four minute rest intervals.  They were hard, but appropriately so.  So I know for sure that 370 isn't too high.  But, I was so shot from the previous two FTP tests that I feel my performance that day and on the easy ride Friday suffered.  So, adjust the plan based on experience, then stick to it!

Saturday I rode my first Shootout, the Early Version.  I called it the Old Man variety and was corrected ... there aren't many old men in it, I was told.  It's just earlier than the Big Boy Shootout.

Anyhow, I went and wanted to push myself, a lot.  I wanted to blow up, recover, blow up and recover and repeat that throughout the day.  I did just that.  I went off of the front, frequently, chased down breakaways, tried to win the sprints even though I'd been working hard all day, and had a great time doing it all.

I took some video of the day with my GoPro.

Sunday I went for the first long endurance ride.  It was right at 4.5 hours and I managed to stay in zone 2 pretty consistently throughout the day.

In all, I had a successful week of training and my nutrition was spot-on as well.  I'm not sure how much weight I'll have lost, but I'm focusing on strength and letting the weight take care of itself.  I'm heavier than other riders, even when I'm thin.  But I'm strong, so I'll play to the hand I'm dealt!

The chalk taped to the whiskey ... the KOM Kill List in the background

In the title I mentioned a call-out ... and I have to say, I've never been called out with such style before!

See, I created a KOM Kill List ... wrote it out on my chalk board.  The KOMs I wish to reclaim are written in white chalk and when I take one back, I cross it out in red.  My friend Cedric has many of these KOMs and does not like when I take them back.  He often will go out immediately and try to get them back.  Sometimes he's successful.

So, he gave me a bottle of whiskey yesterday.  Taped to the bottle of whiskey is a brand new piece of white chalk.  "You're going to need it," he said.  That of course means that he's going to get a lot of KOMs from me, so I'll need to do a lot of writing on my board.

As fun as Strava-battles are, especially with Cedric, I have to stick to my training plan.  I cannot go out and wreck myself and then ruin the subsequent days of training so that I can get the pleasure of using the red chalk.

Until next time...and thanks for reading.

What's Ahead

The purpose of this blog is to share what happens as I prepare for the Tour of the Gila in April.  The majority of racing is preparation and the majority of preparation is training.  So today I'll briefly touch on some of that.

Here we are on a New Year's Eve hike.

I'm new to racing, a couple of years removed from just a few months of experience, and completely new to structured training.  I started following a program a few months ago and learned that the grind is difficult! My days get filled with stuff even if I'm planning on sitting on my duff all day.  But try to throw in training 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day and things get crammed.  Luckily for me I have a supportive wife who allows me the space and time. I often feel bad when I'm spending so much time training and then the rest of the time I'm exhausted, but she is behind me 100%!

My training will largely follow programs set in TrainerRoad (an online company that designs training programs for time-crunched cyclists). TrainerRoad is awesome because provides me with a major component of preparation that I won't fret over. I trust Coach Chad's design and so I just need to monitor my nutrition and recovery.

Netflix on one screen, TR on the other.

TrainerRoad is designed to be done indoors, largely anyway.  When I first heard about it I thought, no I swore, there would be no way I'd conduct regular training on an indoor trainer.  I mean, I can ride outside every day of the year here.  There's very little traffic and amazing routes and scenery.  But once I tried it and experienced the quality of the workouts I could get indoors, I was sold on it.  And, sometimes the simplicity of just hopping on the bike that's already on the trainer is just nice.  Nothing to take out, put away, and the duration is short. Anyhow ... enough of my plug for TrainerRoad.



The over-all structure of my training will go like this:

• Three weeks of increasing workload, followed by a week of active recovery.  Repeat until late April. (It's a little more complicated than that, but generally that's how it works.)
• Each three week block will begin with an FTP test.
• Mondays are rest day.
• I will liberally swap one of my Tuesday/Thursday intense training sessions for a hard ride to Pena Blanca Lake as the combination of punchy and sustained climbs, technical descents and lack of traffic make this an ideal training spot.
• Every Friday will be spent on an easy ride, outdoors if possible, on my time trial bike (getting comfortable as possible on that bike is huge).
• Weekends will be spent outside (not on the indoor trainer if possible).  I have some neuro-muscular issues that respond best to outdoor riding.    
• At least one gym session a week.  One run, long walk or hike a week as well.
• Race often to practice for the big event.  

(The other two components of training, recovery and nutrition, I'll discuss in a future post.)

This coming week I have an FTP test and I'm very curious to see what gains I've made since the last one, which was 2 months ago.  I'll be doing an outdoor, twenty minute test on the Whipple Observatory Climb.  

FTP is an acronym for Functional Threshold Power.  That just means the amount of power that a cyclist could maintain for an hour.  There are many tests but I like the 20 minute test.  The way that works is you warm up thoroughly and then for 20 minutes you ride as hard as you can.  You then take 95% of the average power for that twenty minute period and you'll have a great approximation of your FTP.  

Tomorrow, when I take the test, I'll be shooting to hold 400 watts for the twenty minutes.  That is an insane number, to me, but my last FTP test I held just under 380 watts, so I think I have a good goal. 

Until next time ...