Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Echo Red to Red Race Report 3/3/12


The sun poked out (and the wind) for the 4th annual Echo “Red to Red” Mountain Bike Race. The Pro / Cat 1 field had about 120 racers (see the roll out picture), and we all knew that when the roll-out hit the dirt road there would be a mad dash to get a good position into the single track. I managed to hang in there with the hard-cores and hit the single track in around 10th position, definitely a great start.

After a few minutes I found myself in an ideal spot, or so I thought. The leaders were stretching out off the front and there was a sizeable gap behind me, leaving me all alone to pace the course and make the most of my energy… what I failed to factor was the giant headwind I had to tangle with for the next 30min. I might have been better off in the string of riders behind me where I could have drafted a bit on the way out. Oh well, I had a great position (and worked hard for it) so I put my head down and chugged along.

For the first hour I really rode great, I was rocking up the hills, holding good speed across the flats and keeping my position. Around 1hr15min “back burn” set in and I could feel myself getting more and more open to the idea of not defending my position. By 1hr30min I was pretty much just fine with letting a few chasers come around! My legs were good but my back wasn’t interested in any more sustained efforts… at the top of every climb I was cracking, going down in flames and admitting defeat! I continued to slog it out though, crossing the line @ 2hr24min.

I finished 2nd in 45+, definitely a great ride for the first race back. My time was good enough to have placed in the top half of the Pro’s, and the guy who beat me in the 45+ (Bruce Rogers, Bend) had the overall 5th fastest time of the day (awesome!). It was cool to have Bruce at the race, as Bruce finshed 5th @ Marathon Nationals last year. Marathon Nationals (Sept) is the event where I want to get a top 5, now I know what I’ll be up against, ugh!

CTL= 84
Goal Sept 2012: 155lbs 4.5w/kg
Date..Weight..1hr Power...Power/Weight
3/5....156.......310w......4.37w/kg
2/26...157.......310w......4.34w/kg
2/5....160.......300w......4.13w/kg
1/23...162.......290w......3.94w/kg
1/9....163.......290w......3.91w/kg
1/2....164.......265w......3.55w/kg
12/19..165.......265w......3.53w/kg
12/5...166.......245w......3.25w/kg
11/28..167.......225w......2.96w/kg
11/14..169.......225w......2.93w/kg
11/7...170.......225w......2.91w/kg

Sunday, February 26, 2012


For the last 3 months I’ve been scouring the local roads and trails for bits and pieces of my long lost fitness. A little piece here, a little piece there, I’ve managed to about fill my shoe box! I’ve definitely found enough to post a respectable showing at the first race of the season, Mar 5 Echo Oregon’s “Red 2 Red”.

My power is real good, I’ve developed a real good ability to hold power for 20minutes, twice. But racing is weird, I can have great power yet still feel like a slug on the course. MTB racing requires the ability to repeatedly drill it over short climbs, and sustain a high power output on the longer climbs. Both types of efforts are very intense, and unless you’ve been working on those skills, that first race will likely have your legs, chest and back on fire! Let’s not forget the inevitable fatigue that settles in after the first hour, so a good dose of motivation will be needed to grind through the suffering. Saturdays race (Pro/Cat-1) will be 2hr15min or so, a fairly long MTB race to kick the year off.

Both my power and weight are near my goal, which really amazes me, I was thinking it would be May before I reached my current level. For whatever reason, February really kicked everything into gear as my power came on and the weight fell off. Maybe I’m peaking! I’m just out there having fun. I still plan to settle into more structure come May, for now I’ll just ride, do some races and keep it fun.

CTL= 87
Goal Sept 2012: 155lbs 4.5w/kg
Date....Weight...1hr Power......Power/Weight
2/26....157..........310w.........4.34w/kg
2/5.....160..........300w.........4.13w/kg
1/23....162..........290w.........3.94w/kg
1/9.....163..........290w.........3.91w/kg
1/2.....164..........265w.........3.55w/kg
12/19...165..........265w.........3.53w/kg
12/5....166..........245w.........3.25w/kg
11/28...167..........225w.........2.96w/kg
11/14...169..........225w.........2.93w/kg
11/7....170..........225w.........2.91w/kg

Monday, February 6, 2012

300




Gifted route wizard Chuck has been instrumental in progressively raising the workload for Chinook Cycle Club hammerheads as we pound our pedals towards spring. As we get fit, we need to keep notching up the amount of work to make sure our fitness keeps growing. We also need to “mix it up” with different lengths and grades of climbs so we can develop the muscle and systems needed for a variety of conditions. Not necessarily searching for intensity at this time of year, but a good foundation does involve variety, and our recent Saturday rides have had plenty of that!

3months ago I figured 300+ watts was about 6months away. Due to genius routes and abusive buddies 300 landed early. It feels great, never would have expected to bounce back this fast. I even managed to clock a respectable time on our local Monster MTB loop “The Three Towers”, a 50mile 5500’ off-road beast of a ride. The one thing that did raise its ugly head was my “out of tune” MTB skills. Our Three Towers ride features plenty of single track, and I wasn’t so graceful :^)

Always something to work on, but all in all, the arrows are pointed north.

CTL= 86
Goal Sept 2012: 155lbs 4.5w/kg
Date....Weight...1hr Power......Power/Weight
2/5.....160..........300w.........4.13w/kg
1/23....162..........290w.........3.94w/kg
1/9.....163..........290w.........3.91w/kg
1/2.....164..........265w.........3.55w/kg
12/19...165..........265w.........3.53w/kg
12/5....166..........245w.........3.25w/kg
11/28...167..........225w.........2.96w/kg
11/14...169..........225w.........2.93w/kg
11/7....170..........225w.........2.91w/kg

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Forced Rest


Snowmageddon blew in and blew apart all our great ride plans for last week. The hammer heads were scrambling to mount studded tires, find a clear road or succumb to the dreaded indoor trainer. I fall in the camp that would rather ride in freezing rain than set-up the indoor trainer, but I must confess, I did about 1.5hr of riding in my garage. I also had a ride on the studded tires! Overall, it was a pretty sad training week.

The good news is these periods of “forced rest” can actually have high yields. Many of us train and ride too frequently, too long and too hard in an effort to get stronger. We basically just end up “too tired” even though we may believe we are handling it just fine. It takes a flu or change in our schedule to pull us away from our routine to let some good rest soak in. Everyone has stories of how strong they felt a few weeks after recovering from a good flu! Forced rest can be good.

For me, the worst part of forced rest is dealing with the sudden decline in calorie expenditure. Suddenly I’m sedentary! If I’m sick, oh well… but if not, then I need to find something to do, something that doesn’t involve eating!

CTL= 73
Goal Sept 2012: 155lbs 4.5w/kg
Date....Weight...1hr Power......Power/Weight
1/23....162..........290w.........3.94w/kg
1/9.....163..........290w.........3.91w/kg
1/2.....164..........265w.........3.55w/kg
12/19...165..........265w.........3.53w/kg
12/5....166..........245w.........3.25w/kg
11/28...167..........225w.........2.96w/kg
11/14...169..........225w.........2.93w/kg
11/7....170..........225w.........2.91w/kg

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Feel The Boost



Jan 7, after an EZ 5-days to freshen up, I decided it was time to do some more formal testing to measure my sustainable power output. The only way to know what you can do is to go out and do as much as you can do. All’s you can do is all you can do! What I’m trying to say is, if you want to measure your limit, you will need to perform at your limit… and that can be distasteful.

To measure sustainable power the best test is a full on 1hr effort. That is brutal. A less brutal experience would be to do the 2nd best method, a full tilt 20min effort. Take the results of the 20min and figure 1hr power would be somewhere between 90 and 95% of your 20min Best.

I clocked 315 for 20min, and based on my ability to hold pace for an hour (not so good right now) I used a factor of 92%, which sets my FTP (Functional Threshold Power (Lactate threshold)) at 290watts. 290watts, I’ll take it! Better than expected and within 10% of where I was mid-season 2010.

For the weeks ahead I’ll bring back the weekly 2x20min interval workout and continue enjoying the local group rides. Overall volume will stay moderate… and try to squeeze in some bigger rides when the weather is nice. Basically “training to train” mode. As far as weight loss, well the lbs are coming off a little quicker than planned, so I’ll continue to modulate the calorie debt with Burgers and Ice Cream. Enjoy it while I can!

CTL= 70
Goal Sept 2012: 155lbs 4.5w/kg
Date....Weight...1hr Power......Power/Weight
1/9.....163..........290w.........3.91w/kg
1/2.....164..........265w.........3.55w/kg
12/19...165..........265w.........3.53w/kg
12/5....166..........245w.........3.25w/kg
11/28...167..........225w.........2.96w/kg
11/14...169..........225w.........2.93w/kg
11/7....170..........225w.........2.91w/kg

Friday, January 6, 2012

Lactate Threshold & 2x20min



First let’s establish how important “Power at Lactate Threshold” is to cycling performance:

*** For more than 30 years, exercise physiologists have known that the exercise intensity at which lactate begins to accumulate in a person's blood - that is, their lactate threshold (LT) - is a powerful predictor of their endurance performance ability. This is because although an individual's cardiovascular fitness, i.e., their maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) sets the upper limit to their rate of aerobic energy production, it is their metabolic fitness, i.e., their LT, that determines the percentage or fraction of their VO2max that can they can utilize for any given period of time. The physiological factors determining LT are complex, but in this context blood lactate levels essentially serve as an indirect marker for biochemical events within exercising muscle. More specifically, a person's LT reflects the ability of their muscles to match energy supply to energy demand, which in turn determines the fuel "mix" (i.e., carbohydrate vs. fat) used and the development of muscle fatigue. Consequently, LT - especially when expressed as a power output, which also takes into account cycling efficiency - is the single most important physiological determinant of performance in events ranging from as short as a 3 km pursuit to as long as a 3 week stage race. – Andy Coggan ***

OK, if that seems complex, well it is. But what’s most important is the very last sentence: “LT - especially when expressed as a power output, which also takes into account cycling efficiency - is the single most important physiological determinant of performance in events ranging from as short as a 3 km pursuit to as long as a 3 week stage race.” That is a crazy strong statement. Andy states that power @ LT is the single most important physiological determinant of performance in basically any event lasting more than 3-minutes! That would include Group Rides & The Tour de France :^)

Here’s the good news, Lactate Threshold is HIGHLY TRAINABLE. The body will respond and adapt for years as LT improves (few ever truly reach their potential power @ LT). Riding hard, riding long and riding frequently will promote year over year improvement in LT. We see it all the time, riders who ride a lot keep getting stronger for years. But there reaches a point where the gains start coming more slowly, we plateau. We continue to ride hard, long and frequent but the gains just aren’t as noticeable. We may be getting stronger, but the gains are much smaller. To get off this plateau we will need to focus in and target specifically what truly is most important… Lactate Threshold. We need to pound on LT squarely in the nose. Forget everything else, if we want some real improvement in LT we will need to hammer on it… hard!

Here’s the deal, its complicated. But basically, to demand that the body beef up its power supply (increase power @ LT) we will need to send a strong message… repeatedly. We need to make it absolutely clear what we want. We need to prove to our legs that the current LT is not working for us, and that we are insistent that the body do something about it. We need to hammer on LT… A LOT. If the message is loud, clear and repeated, the body will respond and we will get what we want.

LT is kinda funny though, you have to peel back a few layers before you can really get to it and start to work on it specifically. It takes about 8min of steady hard effort to blow through all the anaerobic energies and pedal our body into a state of sustained metabolic metabolism… that’s where we need to go if we want to speak directly to Mr LT. If we want to send LT a message, we’ll have to work hard for 8minutes before LT starts to listen. That means in a 20min interval, the last 12 minutes will be our opportunity to speak clearly as to what we demand. We get to preach from our soapbox for 12min… make it count and do not forget the 8min cost to buy the box.

For interval 2, same deal.. though if you keep the rest short you may hit that sweet spot a bit quicker. The body reloads fast, so don’t rest too long if possible. Most people use a 5min rest, but if you can get back on it in 1 or 2 min, good for you… you’ll have more time on your soapbox.

OK, this is getting wordy and I apologize, but it’s a wordy situation. Group rides are great, they are a great way to train and build fitness and to generally destroy yourself if that’s in order. But group rides really don’t target any specific system. Group rides hit all the systems from parked to 100% anaerobic bliss. This is the problem, by spending energies across all systems we never really send a clear message as to what we want (specifically), we don’t spend enough time speaking to any individual system (Neuromuscular, Anaerobic capacity, VO2max, Lactate threshold, Tempo & Endurance). The message we send is “I want more of everything”, and that is too broad and vague to expect significant improvements from any 1 specific system. To truly stress a specific system, we need to accumulate time at an intensity that approaches our limits for that specific system. This is best done with interval training.

This is where getting strong and getting stronger are two different things. If we want to be strong, the “I want more of everything” approach will work just fine (with sufficient volume). If we want to get stronger (off the plateau), then we need to be more specific and planned in our approach. The getting stronger approach can range from a highly complex training plan, to something as simple as “let’s just focus on what really matters most”. If one were to choose the “let’s just focus on what really matters most” approach, then for certain the plan would focus on improving LT. If that be the case, there is no simpler (yet effective) routine than the 2x20min LT workout once or twice per week (mixed in with group rides etc) for several consecutive weeks.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Powered By Fudge

Thankfully the weather has been quite ride friendly, otherwise the calorie over load would have likely put my weight loss ambitions in reverse. Strange as it may seem, I am really glad that all my wife’s Christmas goodies are gone and I can get back to eating real food!

The last 3 weeks have provided some great ride opportunities with a handful of 4hr rides, and 1 monster 5hr slog that covered 90 miles on the Mountain Bike. That’s a long way to push knobbie tires! I managed to log 750 miles for December, which is more or less a volume of riding that I would like to get comfortable with for the next 3 months. The last 2 weeks have been unstructured endurance miles with no specific workouts… just lots of miles, but it feels good to have been able to rack em up.

For January I’d like to log a similar volume of riding (to December), and also mix in a weekly interval session of 2x20min Sub LT workouts. This is 2 intervals, each 20 minutes in length at an intensity just under Lactate Threshold. Great workouts for improving sustainable power, and that is specifically what I need to work on if I want the numbers to keep climbing.


My weight is 164, which was my goal for Jan 1. I’m loosing 3lbs per month which seems to be a real good pace, hopefully that will have me at 158 by Mar 1. It should be a little easier without the plates of holiday food!

Goal Sept 2012: 155lbs 4.5w/kg
Date....Weight...1hr Power......Power/Weight
1/2.....164..........265w.........3.55w/kg
12/19...165..........265w.........3.53w/kg
12/5....166..........245w.........3.25w/kg
11/28...167..........225w.........2.96w/kg
11/14...169..........225w.........2.93w/kg
11/7....170..........225w.........2.91w/kg