Threshold and the Last 28 days

Today I did 3x15(10) in the threshold zone (271-317 watts), or what I think is the zone since I have not tested since 7/25. I hope it is higher by now but I don't have time to test and I am a bit fatigued so the the numbers would suck anyway.

Tuesday I did 7x4(4) at VO2 max which hurt a bit but I got through it.

Here is an example of speed and power for a threshold interval (notice the poor turnaound due to traffic):

Here is a shot of one of the VO2 max intervals:

The last 28 days I have been doing some intensity work and the cyclocross workouts started as well. In the graph below you can see the effect of the rest week.

I have about a week left in my 12 week program I started in June. I am down to 171 pounds now and feel fitter than when I began. The Oxmoor cyclocross race is next weekend and I am looking forward to racing that. I still have a ways to go but it looks like the hot days may be coming to an end and fall is in the air.

This Week's Planned Fun

I am planning on a nice easy day today followed by...

Tuesday: 7x4(4) VO2 max
Wednesday: 30 minutes tempo, 1x15(5) threshold
Thursday: 2x15(5) threshold
Friday: 30 easy, 30 tempo, 2 sprints @ 39x17 and 4 @53x16
Saturday: 60 easy
Sunday: CX Practice

With only 2 weeks left until Oxmoor CX it will be important to have discipline and do these workouts correctly. I will do the A race if I can and probably will enter into that race somewhat fatigued so it will be more of a training race.

CX Practice

Today we had a nice cyclocross practice in Auburn, GA. Here is a short audio version of the goings on. The focus today was 2x20 efforts at race pace. Here are also a few photos.

Gabcast! Bobs Spot Blog #1

Off The Front

Jeff (aka "Endo") Welp successfully bridging back

Grant Entering the "Pain Cave"

Thanks Dan for organizing Another Great Practice!

The Group

Thanks for taking the great pictures Kathy Halgat!!

The Fair is Here!

Yesterday we did our last CX practice at Marietta for the month since the state fair is in town.

Actually, you can practice there but you have to park near the softball field, go by the softball field, up the hill, take a right (bypassing the run-up if you want)down through the woods, take the dirt road instead of the twisty part through the woods, turn left up the steep hill, do the twisty woods section, a right back on the gravel road, down the big hill, once at the bottom go left along the softball complex fence to the front entrance, take a hard left and lap around the parking lot to the start.

On our lap practice yesterday we did 4x5(5) VO2 max intervals which along with Tuesday brought mine up to 8 for the week. I feel OK today despite back to back efforts like that. The road efforts were a little harder because they were flat with no recovery.

Today I am going to attempt 2x20(10) threshold intervals but we will see what the body allows.

I am debating a long road ride for the weekend instead of the CX practice Sunday(?).

New Book on Power Training for the Road

This new online book is a collection of material from various sources but so far looks to be a great companion to the Allen/Coggan book.

http://www.freewebs.com/velodynamics2/rcgtp1.pdf

No 'Tap

I had some separation anxiety today when I sent my PowerTap off for service. It worked on Friday, not so on Sunday. I did all the troubleshooting I could so it is back to the mothership for a make-over.

The good thing is that I basically get an upgrade and they said they will turn it around in 8-10 days which is really wonderful. So, whomever buys it after I am finished with it will get a newer system.

So now it is back to the old days with a HR monitor and PE. Sigh.

Today should be nice riding--74 degrees.

STL CX Loop Variation #1

This is the harder of the two ways. It may be off just a little.

30th but probably 40th

I tried all the tricks but was only able to manage 30th starting position for Nationals. Better than my first try 2 years ago but I was hoping for top 10. It will probably end up being 40th with all the call ups but if they go 20 across I will be second row.

My registration sheet did not come alive until 1:02:30 for some reason so others may have had a nice 2:30 minute jump on the action.

The race before the race has begun and I am pretty happy with 30th position. It is a long way between here and there. I hope for the best.

Jim Miller CX Practice

The first few cyclocross practices of the season are always hot and folks are just getting intense laps under their belt. There are always a handful of A riders, masters, a core group of women, and some beginners. The course is run two ways. the first way includes a nice unrideable climb that requires carrying. The second way is faster and just has a few dismounts. It is about 1.5 miles long and laps usually take around 5.5 minutes.

After about 3 weeks the laps are screaming as the A's take no prisoners, the weather cools, and more folks come out. There is no race there this year but the location is still great for practice.

4 More Weeks

Only 4 more weeks of dedicated training before the CX season starts and more CX focused workouts begin. Next week is a rest week and my CTL is 70 right now. No where near the 80 I wanted before the season, but it may climb to 72 before the season if I am lucky.

This was a tiring week combining tough workouts and life-related stress.

Today's CX workout was below my expectations. I felt great last Sunday but not so much today. I felt tired today and was able to get 1 out of 3 of the 10 minute intervals at race pace. I am not sure I could have held that for 45 minutes.

But, even though rest is hard it will pay off considering the next 4 weeks will also be pretty tough.

My new Swiss Top Rat brake pads are fantastic.

Pre-Cyclocross Warm-Up

10x2's

I had some major shifting problems this week and happened to be in the vicinity of two bike shops. The first shop took the bike and did some adjustments, charged me $14 and the shifting still sucked. The other shop told me the derallieur was bent and totally f'ed up the shifting even more. I took it home, adjusted the limit screws and it works better than either service--and I have no skill. Maybe I just got lucky.

Today I have to yet again try to tire my legs out and I was successful. I did 10x2(2) at VO2 max (318-363 watts). These were hard for me and I did not take a break and did all 10 back to back with 2 minutes rest in between. Really good guys can do these but at 3-5 minutes at a time. Here is a peek...

Tomorrow I'll do some tempo and then hopefully Sunday a good CX practice.

8x45's

Today I had the pleasure of doing 2 sets of 8x45 second anaerobic intervals (>400 watts) with 1 minute rest in between. These were tough but not as tough for me at VO2 max efforts which are supposed to be less intense (but done for longer intervals).

I was able to get in all 16 intervals and I took a 5 minute break in between sets. Here is a snapshot:

I won't make tomorrow's cx practice and my next hard workout will be Thursday where I'll try and do 10x2 minute VO2 max efforts (316-368watts).

'Cross Workouts and the Summer Workout Breakdown

Just as a way to keep track, below is a copy of my training power zones and time spent in them from Memorial Day to Labor Day (summer). I have also added a performance chart showing ATL, CTL and training stress balance.

Today was the second cyclocross workout at the STL and we had a nice big crowd in the cool temperatures and drizzle. There were a few A racers and a good mix of abilities as well. I think today's efforts were hard but not as hard as last week when the course had a little uphill tilt to it. I felt pretty strong but two of the A riders were not trying as hard as they could and one of them was having mechanicals on his new bike so it is hard to gauge. No photos or anything and I have no power data since it was raining. My PE for the interval sessions felt to be in the threshold zone. I have to work on my remounts since today they were really sloppy.

The new HUP kit stuff should get here early this week so that will be fun.

Comparison of the performance chart from summer 2006 (left) and summer 2007 (right):










Training zone breakdown from this summer:

The maximal power chart from summer 2007:

More Intervals

After taking it easy yesterday on the trainer watching Nys and Gadret take it to them in Kalmthout last year, I had some intervals to do today. As thunderstorms threatened I was able to get them all in. I did 8x3(3) @ VO2 max and did them back to back without a break. It was hard and my wattage was lower than I wanted but still in the zone for each interval. Here is a peak...

I am getting excited about the weekly cross workouts on Wednesdays and Sundays and last year I saw a big drop off in CTL in September which I hope to avoid this year. As the weeks go on and the cross workouts turn into race simulations I hope to see some of this training start to translate.

8x30 Seconds Over 450 Watts

Today I had a physical exam which included the usual poking and prodding. Once finished, I was informed in the waiting room that a lady had hit my car in the lot. She lost control in the parking lot, jumped the curb and skidded into my car and a small tree. My front driver side light and bumper took a bump and now the real hassle of getting it fixed begins.

I headed on down to do 8x.30(.30) intervals over 450watts. I warmed up for about 20 minutes and then set the watch for 30 seconds. I did them on/off and although it was not as painful as the 1 minute intervals last week, it was still hard. My best 30 second interval was around 490w. These were not all out efforts and I tried not to go over 500w for the interval. My best mean maximal power for 30 seconds was 993watts back on July 27th. My best speed today for 30 seconds was 26.6 mph.

The rest of the ride was spent doing either tempo or easy pace.

Riding on my normal route near the Chattahoochee is great. It is very scenic, quiet, and every now and then you get a nice cool breeze off of the water which is about 5-10 degrees colder than the air.

This Week's Plan

The first CX practice was last Sunday at the STL in Auburn, GA. We had around 10 guys and we did skills, tempo laps and 2 hard intervals. We also warmed up for about an hour before hand. Next week will be similar but we should have many more riders. I did not feel as if I had very good form but it was only the first practice. Jeff Welp looked good though so watch out!

This week:

Monday -- 30 minutes tempo and 30 easy

Tuesday -- 8x30sec >450 watts ( 30 sec rest) in a 1.5 hour ride

Wednesday -- 1 hour easy tempo

Thursday -- 8x3(3) VO2 max intervals

Friday -- 60 minutes hard tempo

Sunday -- 2-2.5 hours CX practice

Now that school has started it will be hard to raise my CTL very quickly since most of my rides will be between 1-1.5 hours. But, if I can hang on in the 70's until October I will be ahead of last year.

The new HUP Noir kits should be coming next week as well as my new blue skinsuit! It has been too hot for a black uniform so maybe I'll save this for awhile.

I watched the Falcons tonight and had mixed feelings about the team. D'Angelo Hall needs to stop getting his jock handed to him. Vick needs to figure out what kind of human he wants to be now and get working on that. Atlantan's and sports talk call in guests need to be less invested in high paid sports stars and live their own lives.

I was not impressed with 2 Urban Licks Saturday, but their spicy Cesar was very good.

Week So Far and New Bike

Wednesday I tried to do the 7x4 VO2 max intervals but the heat really bothered me so I bagged it after 1x4 because I felt like shit and rode easy back to school. Thursday I did the GTC Thursday Night World Champs and it rained(!) which cooled things off. We were able to do 22 mph over the rolling course and I averaged 268w for the ride and had a nice accumulation of time in VO2 max and anaerobic zones. The efforts were good and I felt strong throughout. Friday I did 45 minutes of hard tempo riding.

My CTL is right around 70 and my TSB is only slightly negative at -5.

Sunday is the first cross practice around here and everyone is looking forward to it. I rode yesterday on my Cannondale cx bike and I think the bottom bracket needs help. I'll give it a try and if it is bad I have the back up.

Here are my two bikes for the fall:

I have not ridden a 1x9 before so I am looking forward to seeing what that is like.

I am also looking forward to eating at Two Urban Licks tonight!

8x1 The Fun

Either I am a wuss or JBV is trying to kill me. This 4 week block was the one I cringed at when I saw the training plan. Mainly more anerobic efforts with some tempo on the easier days. The 8x1 minute set with power over 400W and with 1 minute rest in between efforts almost killed me yesterday in the 96 degree heat.

I set my watch countdown timer to 1 minute and after warm up I set it off and started the workout. By the 4th effort I was pretty baked but my power looked good. At that point in the heat I decided to take 2 minutes off and then do a second set of 4. I realize the whole set was supposed to be 8 back to back but with the environmental conditions that hot (heat index around 103) I rested another minute.

After the 8th interval I was sufficiently fatigued and did some tempo back to school. This is a pretty standard workout but I hardly ever do it so it was really hard.

Today is a nice easy tempo workout and tomorrow will be 7x4 (4) at VO2 max which will also hurt. I am going to try and make the Thursday GTC ride and make a second group if possible, focusing on hard tempo. The weekend will bring the first CX workout so that will be fun too.

It is Hard to rest Correctly

With the heat and increased motivation, taking a rest week is difficult.

So far this week I have done two workouts of easy riding (~180watts) and two of tempo riding (45 minutes of tempo at around 236watts). However, in the 100+ degree heat while the effort is easy, the heat makes it much harder so I was wondering if I was resting at all. Also, my CTL (chronic training load) was in the -27 area on Monday as a result of a hard training week last week. I was wondering as I do these easier workouts, what would be the ideal CTL loss and TSB (training stress balance) for the rest week without getting "too fresh" or going back into the next hard training week having gone too hard in the rest week.

My coach was easily able to tell me what to look for in my daily data record. He said that as my training week went on I should see a gradual loss of CTL and gain of TSB so that my TSB would be zero or positive for 1-3 days. This would indicate freshness and that I rested properly. My CTL will drop but it is better than trying to keep it high and enter the "over-training" phase.

It is hard to see that CTL drop because of the work put in, but trust is the issue, trusting your training plan, and your discipline.

One of the neat things about training with power is the ability to use spreadsheets to predict what efforts you have to do in order to bring a statistic like TSB up/down to a specific level. I can simply enter in my predicted TSS (taining stress scores) into the spreadsheet and watch what will happen to my CTL and TSB. So, I can create a ride(s) with the intensity and length that will allow me to get to the desired TSB level without going too far either way. While not a 100% accurate measure of what is really going on physiologically in my body, it will be closer than any other measurement tool available.

It is the same technique one would use for tapering for an event.

Lastly, I asked about a "magic number" for CTL to climb to in order to have enough physiological adaptation and be "fit" and competetive this fall. It seems like 80-100 tss/d is the range for CTL for optimum performance in many riders. That is probably ideal for those with unlimited training time. I think I will be lucky to get it to 76 tss/d before October.

Everyone always says that the best performances are built by good rest weeks and using the power meter is is clearer to me why this is the case.

10 Days Over 90

So far we have had 10 days over 90 degrees and with the heat index, many of those have felt like over 100 degrees. There is little relief out of the 90's for about 2 weeks. Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be 101 degrees. It has not rained in 10 days at least.

I have ridden every day for the past 2 weeks and every time I feel I have gotten used to it, I feel just as hot the next day. Being in air conditioning does not help. In fact, if I were to work outside for 7 days I would be acclimated. The indoor/outdoor fluxuation (even in the car) really screws up your sweating systems. The air conditioning feels damn good though.

Sunday I did a group ride that was pretty challenging and for awhile I was just hanging on (especially up the hills). The pace was high and we caught a break in that it was cloudy most of the ride.

This week is a rest week and the highest I will go is doing some tempo work. If I can keep my CTL around 70, I hope to be able to ramp it up to the mid-70's by the first part of September.

I have bought my plane tickets to nationals. That will be the last, final race.

Today at school I had a 14 year old try to kill himself by putting a paper clip into the wall socket. There was flames, and smoke but he was able to let go without going into cardiac arrest. He had wrapped paper around the paper clip where he held it as if this would be a brilliant adaptation. I asked him if he knew that electricity could kill him and he said "no". I don't know what to think anymore.

Anyway, if it is going to be 101 tomorrow and I have to ride easy, I may opt for the trainer. It was nice being the only rider out today in the heat. It made me feel totally stupid and superior at the same time.

Ramping Up Before Rest

I was able to get in 2 good VO2 max workouts this week and I have decided that although the 5 minute efforts will eventually help me in 'cross, they are harder for me to do than the 3 minute efforts. But, they have gotten easier over the last 4 weeks. Here is an example of what the power graph looks like for 2 5 minute efforts and a 3 minute effort.

It is not much to look at really but shows that if you concentrate on a flat road you can maintain good wattage for the interval.

I also had the pleasure of doing 8, 12 second sprints today. They were done as follows: 2 in 39x17 (standing start to mimic 'cross starts), 4 in 53x17 rolling at 14mph, and 2 in 53x15, also rolling at 14 mph. They all went pretty well and I rested for about 2.5 minutes in between. Here is the data and what the power graph looks like:













In August 2006, my sprint power was much greater than right now. I was averaging over 1000W for 12 seconds and over 1300W for max power in the sprint. So, I still have some work to do there.

I recovered from the century better than I thought considering the heat that day. But, next week school starts and my overall numbers will take a hit because it is a rest week and also my training time will be cut significantly.

A year ago my CTL was about the same as it is now, and peaked at 72 tss/d on the 13th. But, I was not training as hard after that and it only decreased from there which i do not anticipate happening at the same rate this year. I would like to get it to 80 tss/d by the middle of September, but that remains to be seen. Here is a picture of what my last 28 days looks like (I had two days totally off because of a virus with fever).
Ideally I would like to get my CTL as high as possible before late October but it will be hard with reduced training time, school and other things of greater priority. I understand how to raise it better now and what to avoid.

I got my new 'cross bike built and it is light at 17 lbs. Not sure of the ride yet but it looks nice and I'll give it a try in a few weeks. The better thing is that it only cost me $350 for the bike.

On Tap This Week

I took it easy today since yesterday was pretty tough on me. I'll bet many folks who did the century feel the same way.

This week I will do two interval sessions concentrating on VO2 max. Tuesday will be 6x5(4) and Thursday will be 7x3(3). The 4 minute rest intervals tomorrow will be tough. I normally need 5 minutes recovery in between. The 3 minute intervals are more manageable and I can do all 7 back to back, taking each on/off with no rest.

Wednesday will be a recovery day. Friday I will commute to school and work in 60 minutes at tempo power unless I melt in the heat. I will also work in 2, 39x17 sprints; 4, 53x17 sprints; and 2, 53x15 sprints (all sprints are 12 seconds).

Sunday I will try and either find a group ride over 2.5 hours, or I will ride by myself for the same length, concentrating on as much tempo as possible.

In a few weeks cyclocross workouts will start on Sundays but it is really too early for that. I understand the need to do them since it is really fun. I will try to do some but will probably ride from another location to the practice and back since I have a lot more to get done then just the CX workout.

The Marietta practices will start right around Labor Day and I cannot wait for those.

Everything gets more specific now and weeks 7-12 will be very, very tough.

Covington Century Week

After being a bit sick last weekend I rebounded this week with the most miles/time I have done all season. In the last "free" week before school starts again I was able to get in 13 hours and 238 miles.

I took it easy Monday-Thursday and mostly did endurance pace or tempo pace. On Friday I did 7x3(3) blocks at VO2 max. These were a bit sluggish but I was able to do all 7 intervals in the proper power zone.

Sunday was the Covington Century which is pretty flat and usually pretty fast. I was going to do 50/50 with the group and solo. It was actually pretty stupid since at mile 50 I was feeling good in the lead group and after 10 solo miles later I was dying like a dog. The main culprit was the heat. The heat index today according to the Weather Channel was 105 degrees. I went through 15 bottles in 50 miles and some of these were ice bath bottles.

I ended up finishing in 4 hours 50 minutes but I hit every sag in the last 50 miles, even the one at 90 miles! In fact, I had a seat for about 10 minutes and the last 10 miles were pretty rough.

In terms of statistics, the entire ride was 20 mph and an average power of 180 watts. I burned 3300 calories.

In terms of CTL, I am now approaching 70 tss/d and maybe I can get it to 80 by October. I am back in the negative in terms of training stress balance and would have still been there if not for the illness.

This week I will go back to the VO2 max workouts I need to do and work on some sprinting as well. If all goes well I will hit 70 tss/d next weekend and hopefully my top end is getting ready to adapt.

My new bike will be done this week as well.

New 'Cross Bike in the Works

I have a new back up bike being built up.

Motobecane Fantom Frame and Carbon Fork
Cyclocrossworld.com front single ring (42 tooth)
Mixed Sram and Shimano drive train
Avid Shorty 6 brakes
Thompson Masterpiece seatpost
Ritchey Stem
Deda Handlebar
Flite seat
Various wheels and Tufo tires

It will be fun to finally ride a 1x9 'cross bike and see what others have enjoyed. It will be nothing spectacular but it should be fun to try.

Pictures when finished.

VO2 Max Intervals

One of the components for estimating FTP was an all out 5 minute efforts which I was able to do at 360W (top riders are in the 400-500's). So, to build upon the base I have been doing it is now time to throw in some intervals to help build up this system.

My VO2 max range is between 318W and 368W and over the next 4 weeks I will be doing 2 workouts each weeks with varying intervals times.

Yesterday I started out with 5x5 minute efforts (4 min recover) and Thursday (in lieu of racing) I will do 6x3 minute efforts (3 minutes recovery). It would be ideal to have a nice 5 minute climb on which to do these but doing them on flat ground is fine too.

Next week the intervals times change to 6x5 and 7x3 and stay that way for two weeks. There are still other workouts to do that include tempo and sprints on other days.

It will be really important to watch TSS and ATL so that I am not overextended.

The 5x5 efforts were hard and left me pretty tired. But I felt that way at the beginning of threshold intervals and by the end I felt much better.

Weeks 7-12 are going to be interesting and include workouts I have never done before. I'll mention them later.

Still no mention of the 'cross schedule although I do know of 2 races on the docket. Hopefully the planning is coming along smoothly.

Body Mass Analysis

I got dunked today to see how my body mass was distributed. The test is pretty cheap at $35 and takes about 15 minutes.

In 2005 I had my first analysis and weighed 179.5 pounds at 68". My body was 82.3% lean and 17.7% fat (~32 fat lbs). For my age I was only 60th percentile and was considered "good".

In contrast, today I weighed in at 175 lbs and still 68" (darn, no growth). My body was 84.4% lean and 15.6% fat (27.2 lbs). For my age I was 85th percentile and considered "healthy". Since I moved up in age bracket, by the 30-39 standard I was 75% percentile and still considered "healthy".

In terms of where I'd like to be, it would be great to get down to 170lbs without losing muscle mass, thus preserving power. That would take me down to 13% body fat. Five pounds is not a lot to lose so I'll give it a shot by reducing 1lb per week. I already use a food log each day and my resting metabolic rate (as determined by the test) is 1950 calories per day.

So, on workout days it is about eating right and going for a 500 calorie deficiet. On rest days or non-workout days, it is just a matter of not overeating and keeping the junk out of my mouth.

The Passing of a Naturalist

I discovered Big Trees Forest Preserve back in 1998 when I was looking to get my marriage license at the Fulton County Annex building in (now) Sandy Springs. It is an unassuming urban forest fragment that was cared for passionately by one guy--Charlie Cochrane.

I was there today with my daughter, walking the secluded trails as eagle scout prospects implemented their projects nearby. I assumed that Charlie was where he always was, in the park building coordinating the project and answering any questions preserve users might have. I was shocked to learn that he had in fact passed away on preserve grounds last week at the age of 60.

Charlie always allowed me free reign at Big Trees as I took students there to examine the streams each year as a class project. We had talked about starting various long-term study projects there and he was always nice, accommodating and fiercely protective of the preserve. He would always ask "How many kids?" and "How will they impact the preserve?" he would then tell me he trusted me to uphold the rules and mission of the preserve and allow us to come.

I always admired his dedication to the preserve and his long hours of finding volunteers, guarding it against development, and adding more land to the land trust. I can't imagine Big Trees without him.

If you ever get a chance to go to Big Trees, take a walk on the trails and get away maybe for lunch or take your kids. About the only thing you can do is walk there and enjoy nature, no running, cycling, etc. Those are the rules. But you will get a feel for why it was so important to him and why it needs to continue to be protected.

Obituary

Big Tree Forest Preserve

Threshold Test Results

The last time I tested in April my functional threshold (FTP) was determined to be 285 watts. This was determined by doing an all out 20 minute effort and another all out 5 minute effort (CP20 and CP5) and then using a Critical Power spreadsheet to determine FTP. My 20 minute average power was 300W and my average 5 minute power was 370W. Once plugged into the spreadsheet I ended up with a FTP of 285 watts.

Today's test was painful but yielded better overall results. I was able to go extend my 20 minute test to 316 W and my 5 minute test dropped to 360 W, yielding a FTP of 300W, an increase of 15 watts.

I have not been training my 3-5 minute VO2 max power but will be over the next 4 weeks, so I should see a little improvement there.

My CTL is around 63 tss/d after the rest week and I hope to get it into the upper 70's before 'cross season.

Hopefully I'll test again in 6 weeks.

Right now I am a fat 79.5kg so the power I am generating is not real impressive at 3.8 w/kg at threshold. If I lost 5 lbs I could increase that to 3.9 w/kg and at a 10 lb loss (not that feesible in 6-8 weeks), my power to weight ratio would climb to 4.02 w/kg at threshold. That means everything being equal, for a 5 lb reduction my threshold would only climb by 1 watt but my predicted 45 minute power would climb to 307W which would be nice.

The funny thing about all the discipline with HR monitors, power meters and training plans, the hardest thing to do is to keep food out of the mouth!

My biggest consistent indulgence is wine at dinner. At 90 calories per 4 oz, or for me 180 calories per 8 oz (2 glasses), that is 1080 calories per week. If 3500 calories per week equals a pound I would be about a third of the way there by dropping the wine alone.

Focused Base Numbers 6/1 to 7/9

After doing a lot of easy riding this spring and some doubts/decisions to whether or not to do any focused training this summer, I decided after a nice visit to Nebraska to try it and see what happened. I had already arranged to work with John Verheul at JBV Coaching earlier in the spring so I had a specific training plan .

The focused base developed nicely and compared to last year, I did not have to go through a muscle learning curve with the power meter. Last year it took about 6 weeks for my body to transition from using HR to power.

In terms of numbers, I did about 850 miles and 53 hours of riding in base (Figure 1). There was little "fat" in the base period, meaning I stuck specifically to what was supposed to be done that day. The only exception was during group rides where I did not worry about numbers. So, most of the time every ride had a specific goal or purpose and I found that to be very motivating. This is reflected in the base period mean maximal power curve (mmpc) (Figure 4). The numbers don't look that impressive, but in context of specific workouts I met most major goals. The mmpc shows your "bests" in power for each time duration. Overall in your training year(s), it is a record of your best power, sort of like your portfolio of performance. But in a training period where you are not really trying for "bests" but merely doing the power required for each workout.

Figure 1: Time/Distance

This was the most disciplined base period I have ever done, focused on the numbers I had to do. The training zone distribution (Figure 2) shows exactly what I did during the entire period but not daily durations in each zone. Most time was spent in tempo and I did a lot of threshold work as well in various blocks of 15-20 minutes twice a week.

Figure 2: Percent of Time in Each Training Zone

I did not take a traditional rest week after the 4th week due to a vacation so the base period lasted 5 weeks and 2 days. However, I feel good and am motivated for the next step which will focus on VO2 max efforts and more tempo before transitioning into cyclocross specific workouts in September.

Figure 3: Power Distribution in Base

Figure 4: Mean Maximal Power Curve 6/1 to 7/9

Figure 5: Training Stress/Intensity Factor per 7 days During Base

In terms of high end power, I started doing sprints in base both in 39x17 and 53x19. All sprints in the 39 were done from 10mph and in the 53, from 14 mph. My sprint power has never been great and my max sprint 1-second power has never been above 1350 watts. More importantly, I am lucky if I can hold 1000 watts for 12 seconds. In the figure below my sprint power is variable but as my CTL increases, TSB (freshness) decreases and this has an effect on my sprint power. Today for example my legs were pretty tired and I could only muster 905 watts for 12 seconds and I was very un-fresh at -16.6 tss/d. In contrast, I had a nice result on 3/5/07 at 1038 watts and my TSB was positive. I have not tapered for anything because my CTL is never high enough but if I take a day off or do sprints after a recovery day my results are better. In comparison, on 5/15/2006 I was at 15.6 TSB and managed to hold 1053 watts for 12 seconds. This was right before my daughter was born so I was not riding as much and therefore fresher. The bottom line is if I was expecting a good sprint result in a race this week, it would behoove me to take a day or two off in order for TSB to rise and fatigue to dissipate.

BIke Stuff for Sale

Dura Ace 36 hole rear hub (used) ($10)

2 Michelin Mud CX tires (new) ($40)

Pair of Rapid Fire 7 speed MTB shifters (new) ($12)

Titec "Hell Bent" aluminum black riser bar (new) ($10)

Planet Bike HC Freddy Fender Set - 60mm (new but no rubber band hardware) ($10)

email me at bobkuhn3@netzero.com

(shipping not included if not local)

What I Did this Week

I did 203 miles and 11.1 hours this week. My TSS is way up at 660 for the week and my CTL is up around 67 TSS/d.

Road Atlanta Circut Race

On July 26th the Gwinnett Bike Festival will have its first stage of 4 at the Road Atlanta race course. This course is used for both car and motorcycle races and is home to the Atlanta Petite Lemond rally race.

I think it will be a very cool race course and I have never raced on a car track before. The loop is around 2.5 miles and it does have hills (see profile below). The race is 28 miles long (11 laps) and I will probably get shelled around lap 3. I expect the pace to be between 24-25 mph in the 40+ and I am not sure I can manage that. But, I'll give it a try and for me it will be a fun experience doubling as a training race.

Here are maps and profile (the start/finish is in the lower right bend and goes clockwise. North is to the bottom of the picture):

Road Atlanta Race Course

LIfe Span of a Shimano XT Seatpost Bolt?

I got my Klein in 1990 with the Deore XT seatpost so that bolt lasted 17 years. It went through MTB racing in the 1990's, a Great Divide MTB tour in the late 90's, various UGA campus excursions, some giant hill jumping in Athens, a muddy 24 hours of Cannan, lots of night riding, and some MTB racing (SS and otherwise) since 2005. It even outlasted the frame which cracked back in 1996.

Today it sheared off amongst the roots of the Ft. Yargo MTB trails in Winder. It left me 4 miles from my car.

I bet today's bolts would not last 17 years. Could be my fat ass.

(see seatpost in the picture to the left)

How I Got Popped for $70 By Big Brother

On the 19th I was .33 seconds late on a traffic light at the intersection of Lenox/Peachtree Rds and got my picture taken by the cops. A nice sequence of me entering the intersection and then in the middle with the light clearly...red , but yellow as I crossed the line. It wasn't even close and I remember at the time thinking "Dumbass, that was red." Guilty as charged and luckily nothing stupid happened.

My daughter was not in the car but I was on my way to buy her some sheets for her new bed.

Seventy dollars!!! I will definitely be stopping at the yellow for now on.

This is going to do wonders for my "street cred" though! It was eroded by the car seat in the back. Now I am back!

Distance Differences Between Men and Women

I am naive about this subject but i have never understood why women's race distances in cycling are shorter than men's. I have seen in the various national championships differences up to 10 or 20km in the TT and the women's world cup races are often shorter as well. For example, the women's Ronde only incorporates 11 bergs while the men's race 18 and only 120km instead of 260km in the men's race.

Other sports have men and women doing similar distances (marathon, track, swimming, etc.). I just don;t get it. Women are totally capable of going the distance. Even in local races distances are different.

Someone clue me in.

Sopranos Thesis

Washington Post writer Bob Harris wrote 19 pages on the last 5 minutes of the Sopranos. I hope you people who are so obsessed with this show will finally get a life!

Thesis

Wierd TV Transition

I have been catching up with the third season of Deadwood and its anticlimatic, pre-mature ending. I have always liked this show because of the language and their effort to make the show like a play. The language is hard to get back into after a year (we don't have HBO so I wait for the DVDs), and once you get to the third disk or so you are in full stride and can decipher almost everything.

Enter, The Wire. After I finished the last of the Deadwood episodes from season 3, I loaded up the third season of The Wire (which I also really like) and the language transition was really interesting. It took me about 15 minutes to adjust but there were many similarities between the two shows. In Deadwood, the use of "fuck" amongst the flowery language has been seen as a way for old west characters to seem both educated and tough at the same time. In The Wire it is mainly used as a way to express toughness and as a substitute for a lack of language. If characters in Deadwood need to be descriptive they can do it without the "F word", but in modern day, the characters in The Wire (and many teen to twenty somethings today) cannot express themselves with word substitutions so the use curse words and the word "like". It is not an occasional insertion to maintain toughness, but a complete lack of vocabulary and creativeness.

I see this everyday in high school, and if the kids swore like Deadwood, occasionally to maintain dominance, I would be better with it. But I see it everyday as a lazy way at communication that takes no effort, no application, and no creativeness.

The violence in both shows is based on reality. The old western town of Deadwood's violence is well documented, and The Wire is based on real accounts from Baltimore just like the show (and book) Homicide: Life on the Streets.

Great TV in my opinion and they keep me waiting for the next season's DVDs.

The Last 28 Days

CTL Goals

I had a couple of down weeks this spring when I was off the bike due to illness. My chronic training load (CTL) had dropped down into the low 50's. Last year before 'cross season it had climbed into the high 60's and this summer my goal is to get it into the 80's.

CTL is the measure of how the accumulated workouts in the past 3-6 weeks are affecting your fitness. The idea is to get CTL as high as possible (without your body rebelling) leading up to your goal event, taper and then you should be fresh and peaked.

Normally, elite and pro cyclists CTL is way above 70 and in fact, unless it gets beyond this there is pretty much no reason to taper at all since you have not been accumulating enough stress over time for a taper to help you.

In last year's snapshot of my Performance Manager leading up to and during 'cross season you can see how CTL dropped during the season as I was racing and recovering, using the fitness I had gained over the summer.

[You can see how the summer training raised CTL (blue line) and depressed training stress balance (TSB) during the summer. TSB can be considered a measure of "freshness" derived from the interrelation of CTL and ATL. You can also see how illness affected me at the end of 'cross season by the big plunge in CTL (blue line) and acute training load (ATL/red line).]

Having a goal to raise it into the 80's this summer should leave me with good fitness going into the fall.

The fine line is not doing too much and making yourself sick or injured. This is where the Cycling Peaks software and a daily log really helps.

Riding in Nebraska

I was lucky enough to find Blue's Bikes in Lincoln. I was able to rent a Trek Pilot for $80/7 days which was a lot less than flying my bike. I had most of my own accessories and all it took was a little adjusting and off I went.

Monday: Met up with Chet Henry who is living in Lincoln and is a UNL cycling team member and Cat 3 on the road. He was there for the weekly easy ride with a few friends. one of the best things about lincoln is the bike paths. They are straight, wide and get you out of town fast. We started out of town when an enormous thunderstorm dumped on us for about a half hour. Wind, rain, and cool temps sent us scrambling for a shelter.

Tuesday: I decided to head south of town for what is know as the "Denton Loop" The ride goes to Denton and back and traverses some pretty rolling hills which surprised me. It was 26 miles and i fought the wind and traffic a little to get back. Traffic is a little sketchy because most of the roads are dirt/gravel which funnels traffic along any paved road.

Wednesday: Today there was 35 mph sustained winds and gusts up to 50 mph. The local hammerfest left at 5pm and I was still at work so I went east of town on the crushed limestone "Mopac Rail Trail". I figured it would be a little more buffered from the wind. I rode about 1.5 hours and the wind was intense! I never did get the 34 mph tail wind but the group ride did and they were spun out in the 53x11.

Thursday: I met Chet and some others for their Thursday interval session at Pioneers Park south of Lincoln. They have a 3 mile loop and two hills. On the first hill someone attacks and then the race is on and finished at the top of the second, steeper hill. These were tough after sitting on my ass for 5 days but they were fun and I even was able to win one. Of course a local Cat 2 rider came and destroyed us on the 4th interval.

Friday: I did the Denton Loop again and dropped the bike back at the shop and took a taxi back to the dorm.

It was a fun week riding in some beautiful country. I would be willing to bet you could ride almost across the state only on dirt roads.

Why I Love HUP United

I sent an email about my health and perhaps taking it easier this summer instead of killing myself training for the fall. This was the response...

Bob! No worries, man. Hup isn’t about results. I hope all is well with you. Share as much as you feel comfortable. You are most definitely still Hup and Hup always. ZD

This team is the absolute best!

2007 GTC Championships

It was a really nice day to race. The temperature was low, the sky was blue, and pretty much everyone showed up. This included 3 previous state champions, an ex-pro, and many cat 1-3 riders. The race would be really tough for me and my goal was to simply hang on and see what happened. Predicably, there were a lot of initial accelerations and testing of the legs. Eventually a group of 5 or so made off the front and in the group were 2 former state time trial champions and a tri-athlete. The group of 16 or so just let them go. The eventual winner had the brains to bridge the gap while it was still 10-15 seconds and the rest was history as 12 riders tried unsuccessfully to chase them down. After many pulls at the front, I joined the 3-4 guys who did no work at the back and ended up enjoying a nice, fast group ride.

Eventually our club's star Cat 1 decided to stretch his legs a little and I gave up. This was after 50 miles and a 23 mph average. I enjoyed my nice cool down ride back to the finish where I saw a group of 15-20 riders waiting on the side of the road. None of them decided to finish the race since they were behind, so the only 3 left were on the finishing loop. In the end a very experienced racer and former TT champion took 3rd, the tri-athlete took 2nd, and the Cat 3 road racer took first. They worked hard and worked together and their ride was exceptional. In looking at the data, for the race (before the drop), here are the stats:

RACE (before the drop at mile 50):

Duration: 2:11:21

Work: 1767 kJ

TSS: 196.1 (intensity factor 0.946)

Norm Power: 270

VI: 1.2

Distance: 50.03 mi

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 938 224 watts

Heart rate: 82 179 156 bpm

Cadence: 32 141 97 rpm

Speed: 2.8 36.7 22.9 mph

Pace 1:38 21:27 2:38 min/mi

Once I was dropped my averages came down a bit. In looking at the power distribution and the training zone information, the conclusion is that this race was way too hard for me. I was anerobic for about 28 minutes which is a stupid place to be right now.

And here is the power line graph for the whole race-drop period. You can see my threshold (285watts) by the red line.

The ex-pro in the group complained at one point that we were riding like a bunch of Cat 4's, which is basically true since that is what most of us were. The biggest lesson from this race is this:

1. Pay attention to who goes off the front in a break. (2 state champion TT and 1 tri-athelete should have garnered an immediate response).

It was fun but I think that will be my last one as a racer. Although I like the concept, the race is a bit loose. It will be fun to watch the others try their luck though.

Base 1 Week 1

The new plan is together. Might as well start now.

Week 1...

Monday: 45-60 minutes easy (200W)
Tuesday: 2x15 threshold in a 1-2 hour ride (260-301W)
Wednesday: 45-60 minutes easy
Thursday: 2x15 threshold in a 1-2 hour ride
Friday: 2x23 minutes tempo (217-258), 4 sprints in the 39x17, warm up and cool down
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: GTC Championship Race

Ronde Van d'Appalachee

The GTC version of the Tour of Flanders is a fun, hard ride. It has sections of dirt road and steep climbs as well as 3 sprints along the way. For me, all of the sprints are hard. The first is a steep wall on a road called Harmony Grove. It is short and the tough part is that you turn left onto it from a gravel road and a stop sign so momentum is lost. I suck on this sprint because I can't climb. My average wattage up the climb yesterday was 386W and my max was 585W. It took about 50 seconds.
The second sprint occurs at the top of a ~1 km hill on Jack Pittman St. It used to be broken up tarmac but now is paved and easier than back then. It has two pitches that get pretty steep and I always peeter out near the top and end up losing places in the sprint. But, this time no one cared to sprint so I went up solo and got the mercy win. It took me 3 minutes to do and I averaged 376W and 647W maximum.
The last sprint is at the top of a really steep hill on Brooks Rd. It comes after a long paved downhill and a right turn where you lose your momentum. The hill starts out pretty easy and then gets very steep for about 20 seconds but then you still have 400m or so to the sprint. In the past, many guys have gone a bloc on the hill only to die at the top. I did not try for this one because i had just done a big pull to get someone else caught back up to a solo break. But for about 45 seconds or so i hit it hard and managed to do 411W average which is no big deal.

We did do a little attack on a long hill on Indian Shoals Rd and that was tough. The initial pop was 1047W on the hill and then sustained for about 23 seconds or so was 750W. After that I did a nice bridge to the solo leader (I mentioned before) at 300W foir about 5 minutes until we caught him.
I had been sick for about 12 days on and off so it was encouraging to see I could do little efforts with some power. I did manage to sit in 20% of the ride which was beneficial.

Next week is the GTC club championship and I will have a detailed breakdown for the race and where/how I got dropped.

GCS #3: Ft. Yargo MTB Race

The race was 20 miles over familiar trails from a month ago when they had the SS championships although this race was run in reverse. It was warm, dry and dusty and I felt pretty crumby from coming down with some sort of intestinal virus the night before. I was surprised by how many people attended the race and there were 16 guys in the SS class.



The start to the race took you through two narrow trees and then a nasty, powdered right hand turn. I did not notice this so I lined up on the outside left and after the gun I was way back in the field. I tried to get back up there but lost contact with the leaders on the first significant climb. There are no legs after 5 miles and soon I realized that I was no longer in a race but a fast paced training ride. I felt horrible and each small hill was hard to climb, especially with 1 gear. To make matters worse I had decided to wear the state championship jersey in this race, further embarassing myself.



After 1 lap I was ready to end it but figured what else did I have to do, so I went along for the second lap. I finished 11th out of 16, the race category was "open" and there were some young, fast guys on the single-speeds. The winner was doing 44.5 minute laps while I was doing 52 minute laps.



I spent last night and most of today sweating, shivering and nauseating my way through and hopefully I can get back on the bike tomorrow.



Here is a picture to commemorate the whole ordeal (notice the bloated gut!)

Power Test

After 4 days of 6 hour plus riding from Pittsburgh to DC in early April and nursing an injury after wards, I was skeptical about my power test results would be this week. I did a 15, 30 and 60 second all out effort and then a 5 minute and 20 minute all out effort. My 15 second number was lower than I had hoped but having not sprinted in about 2 months a 1190 watt max and a 990 15 second average was not too bad. The 5 minute effort was about what I expected at 380W and I was happy to get 300W for the 20 minute effort. My FTP would therefore be around 285W and I will have to raise this at least 15-20 points for the fall if I expect to be competitive.

The Pitts-DC trip was about a 7 out of 10. I found the riding to be pretty monotonous actually. The first 130 miles or so was nice because a helmet was not needed. But, I did not mesh well with the group which did not help. The C&O canal leg was not really that fun. The surface was full of holes, roots and sticks and it was not really possible to enjoy the scenery. There was a lot I liked but I probably would not do the trip again. The Belgium trip was a 10 out of 10 in 2004 and that was a hard standard to meet.

I hope I can do well this weekend in the SS MTB race at Ft. Yargo. I will get to wear the state championship jersey in the race which will be fun. I most likely will not do the GTC club championships since I am not any where near ready for it. Too bad because I have always done pretty well. I would like to do the Ranger 34K but it is mother's day weekend.

The end of school is 3 weeks away and then it is off to Nebraska for a week to earn some money.