Right when I start to get disappointed...

I looked back over some other data from this season versus last season. For those that dont know, I have no faith that my power meter is measuring wattage precisely, but I am certain that it does measure accurately... I think that is right... I mean that it measures correctly high around 15 Watts everytime... it is repeatably high the same amount. Therefore, all of my graphs show data as a percentage of FTP (threshold power), thereby canceling out this problem and allowing me to view this offseason and last offseason in the same light...

Last Season

This Season

Here is a table with the exact numbers. I plotted my time in each of the training zones from October to the end of the year for 2007 and 2008. I thought the numbers were very promising. I know that my threshold has increased this offseason... and I have spent a lot more time training overall (16 hours) and have spent much more time in the areas that I wanted to... I nearly doubled my time in TE/L3, TH/L4, and VM/L5 (a little surprised at this... may be due to the change in threshold from week to week) while holding anaerobic work constant and going down on active recovery time. Surprisingly, I actually added a true recovery ride into my training this season each week instead of taking it completely off. Still, with my focus on constantly working when training, it has resulted it decreasing this number overall.

Even with my setbacks as of late, I should expect to be in better overall condition this season than last... no reason to be overly dramatic just yet... sometimes I have got to remind myself...

THE Woman! (As opposed to "The Other Woman")

So, in my last post, I detailed the demise of my Christmas Cycling Dream... huge fitness gains over the holidays is a must for a hard working, father of two... I had 5 days off in a row... big cycling holiday... big cycling disappointment. What salvaged if from complete disaster? My incredible wife....

No serious cyclist who lacks a wife and kids can ever understand the commitment that the "race team" must make to get daddy to the start line in the spring. I saw a pro quoted one time who said it is analogous to having another child for the wife of a cyclist... he (the cyclist) is constantly needing to eat and always needing to sleep... doesn't want to walk anywhere... is crabby if he gets hungry or sleepy... whines all the time... is incredibly scheduled...in general, is a complete pain in the ass.

We have been doing this for a while... my wife understands the commitment I am making and has adjusted to think it is actually normal. I had a colleague say to me the other day, "dude, are so engrossed in cycling culture that you don't realize how gay your outfit looks?" He has no idea... I actually thought he was joking... I think I am so engrossed that I think he is the fool to think I look gay... I actually think he should consider wearing Lycra to work. That is how my wife is now... she cannot conceive of anything else...

Here is the story...

I am in bed the third day... trust me, I am not feeling sorry for myself... I am hurting and she knows it- not throwing-up still, but not feeling right by a long shot... BUT... instead of bothering me with motherly BS and telling me that there is no way I need to think about riding today (she knows that I have now been off the bike for two days), she comes in and asks me what time I am riding. I loved her more in that moment then I did the day we got married. It said so much... she understands...

Then the very next day, she is sick... I mean really sick. Mine was mostly coming from the backend... she threw up all night and morning. I had been up with the kids since 5:30 AM and had been up a lot of the night listening to her retch. I was not moping around, either... I had realized that my chances of riding this day were long gone and had excepted it. I walk in the bedroom to see if I could bring her anything and she is on the phone...

She had called her mom and asked her to babysit the kids so that I could get in my ride. I am tearing up as I write this... I don't know what else to say really. She understands... and supports... and loves... and is the absolute best wife and mother I could have ever dreamed of...

BONK?????

I had planned a major cycling holiday, but the fitness gods did not cooperate with me. There is precious little that will keep me from achieving my goal rides... a tornado watch, major lightning, any natural disaster, I guess... to name the first ones that come to mind. Sickness? Usually not.

I have ridden through many a cold without so much as a thought and looking back at last winters ride notes, I only had one cold last season and I didn't miss a watt of one workout... I cannot say the same for this off season. Already I have had a horrible cold/upper respiratory thing that lasted a month. I trained through it until I had to take a break... I slept for two solid days and woke up the second day as if I had never been sick.

This time was a little different. I entered this very important week of training with a CTL of 80.3 and had planned to make a major jump this week... maybe as much as 7 points based on the way the week was working out. I went out relatively easy on Tuesday... still got over 100 TSS points since I went for almost two hours... I had rides planned for Wednesday through Sunday. Instead a got the stomach flu and only got out of bed on Wednesday to run to the toilet and felt bad all day Thursday with horrible stomach cramps. I finally crawled out of my hole on Friday and cranked out an eye-popping 60 TSS ride. This was all I could muster...

Saturday and Sunday is where it gets interesting. Leslie ends up getting the virus on Friday night... even though I am finally feeling better, I see any chance of riding go out the window... I will be babysitting. I end up working out a time slot to ride (through a miracle- see later blog)... a 3-4 hour time slot if need be. I decide to do my typical TSS fest... I try to go at 90% FTP all day long... I end up see-sawing quite a bit but can always get 70-75 TSS points per hour doing this type of workout. Leslie gets better and I get a 3-4 hour time slot on Sunday, too... here is how the rides workout...

I cramped on both rides and after throughout the night (have not done that ever)... I bonked on both rides (have not done that in 3-4 years)... I could not put out FTP wattage on either ride for more than a minute or so... I ended both rides (and Fridays for that matter) at 0.75 intensity factor which basically means that I sucked. I have been working for 4-5 hours on long rides for the past two months and have been at an average intensity factor of 0.82 without bonking or getting dehydrated at all. I brought more food and more water with me on these past two rides than I ever have on those others. Obviously, my system has taken a hit from the virus, but when will I recover? What is actually going on from a biophysical standpoint?

Guess what else? I also skipped my FTP and sprint work last week... could it get worse? Yes, because of my 158 TSS effort on Saturday and 202 TSS effort Sunday, I salvaged a CTL of 80.3... I stayed right where I was coming in... and the Build Phase of my training plan kick in this coming week...

I will push ahead and try to hit 100 CTL by the end of the build phase (5 weeks)... that will require a steady diet of 4 CTL points per week from here on. I don't think I can do it without blowing up or getting a divorce, but we will see...

Comparing the Peach Peloton...

I really have got to make the time to blog. I have a lot that I am thinking about right now from a cycling standpoint and I would like to be able to read this stuff later since it will directly effect the outcome of this coming season and how I decide to train next year.

Here are some thoughts:

• The race season for me next year sets up perfect for my general plan... 5-6 weeks of racing followed by 5-6 weeks off racing followed by 5-6 weeks of racing. This allows a two peak season with a rest and rebuild section between.


• The way the schedule breaks down is that racing will start in early March and end for the season in mid June. That is a short season compared to other years...


• The main thought going through my head... how should I be training now based on that race schedule...

Most people agree that going too hard right now will lead to burn out during next season. But most of what I read threatens that you will burn out in mid-July... if that is true, then what am I worried about? I don't need to stay sharp until August this coming season...

The main reason this question comes up right now is the Peach Peloton (PP) rides. This is an organized system of rides put on by a local 1/2 guy... the rides have been relatively low impact in the past with a few scheduled attack zones. This year, the rides seem to be a little more aggressive throughout the ride and the attack zones are very fast indeed. I was reviewing data from rides over the last two weekends... one of them was the PP and one was by myself. The terrain on both rides was similar... the main difference is that the one I did by myself was 85 miles and the PP was 75 miles...

Here is the Peach Peloton...

Here is the solo effort...

The graphs show an obvious difference in the way the "flow of the ride" turns out. What is not obvious (the type seems to small) is the numbers... below will clear that up...

The first column is AR or Active Recovery... you can pretty well call these trash miles. This zone is what you might ride if you are riding on a day you should be taking off... just moving the legs a little and this could be replaced with a walk in the park.

The next column is E or Endurance... these are good for building... you guessed it... endurance.

The next column is TE for Tempo... this is known as L3 and where I would like to spend all my time this winter when I am not doing threshold rides (FTP). This zone maximizes aerobic system building while minimizing recovery time needed for the work done.

Next column is TH for Threshold... this is the highest aerobic effort possible with crossing the line... you are close, right at, or slightly over your lactic threshold in this zone.

Last is AC for anaerobic... I also consider these trash miles for winter. The anaerobic system only takes around 3-4 weeks to build to capacity... the aerobic system takes years. The higher the aerobic system is operating, the more power can be put out in the anaerobic system. Any time spent here in the offseason compromises the additional aerobic capacity that could be built during that time and requires more recovery time which further delays additional aerobic workouts.

Unfortunately I got dropped as soon as the attack zone started on this particular Peach Peloton ride so I used the information from before I dropped. I think it is more applicable anyway... I will not take into account what is most certainly an anaerobic feast for 15 minutes... the attack zones are pretty tough...

Even with an additional 1.5 hours spent on the solo ride, I have less trash miles (AR and AC). Total wasted miles in time for PP ride was an hour and thirty-one minutes and a whopping 47 percent of the ride! Compare that with only 24% wasted on the solo effort. The time spent in my target zone... TE and TH was considerably different also. Compare PP at 27% to solo ride at 48%... that was particularly shocking to me.

With these numbers, there is no question in my mind where I will find the best winter workout... the question is whether I have the fortitude to ride alone when the PP rides are so much more fun...

Time off is good...

It has been a while... I have a lot that has happened over the last month or so... I will jot it all down in a haphazard method below and follow with blogs talking about things that are more interesting to me right now...

• 6 gap was a disaster for me... went out to hard, rode the first 2 hours trying to keep up with some friends while my back brake pad was rubbing pretty good and burned myself out. I tried to turn around to cut the course and rode for a long time in the wrong direction. Ended up riding 85 miles and 5 gaps I guess (one more than once) and was glad to get back to the parking lot in one piece... not my finest day...
• took my typical week and some change off the bike
• Started my winter ramp with a FTP test
• Test came in way too high... put out 315 Watts over 40 minutes and did not feel like I had worked all that hard. My speed seemed slow... I think it was 21 mph or so and seemed slow for that much wattage.
• Went out the next week on my FTP... halfway through it finally occurred to me... my right leg was not working! I could feel it suddenly... I have been overcompensating with my left leg... the one that was injured. I could see an immediate difference in wattage and inversely speed when I concentrated on using my right leg... wattage goes down and speed goes up.
• I immediately scheduled a meeting with Kevorkian Jordan in the cave of pain to test my ergomo, test my leg balance and stroke, and test my FTP...
• I did a 1 hour cross ride with Robert and then went into the cave for the testing. The ergomo looked like it was reading accurately, my left leg was clearly putting out more wattage, and the FTP was an unbelievable sufferfest... I put out 312 hard earned watts over a 45 minute effort and proved that the road power was not a fluke... I also proved that my left leg was throwing my numbers a little, but not more than 10-15 watts at worst...
• I learned that the cave of pain is a very special place. Kevorkian Jordan was skulking around, drinking a beer, and grinning with every whimper that left my lips. He really is sadistic, but knowing he was there, and knowing that many a legend had ripped their legs to pieces in that same place, makes you go harder than you could or maybe should. If you don't throw up or slump over your handle bars or piss your pants or something major, he doesn't have a story to tell and you feel like a chump.
• I don't know if Jordan has a story from my cave trip... I need to ask him. I have blocked most of the event out of my mind.
• Cross didn't work out the way I thought... I liked the bike and the idea, but I am infatuated with power and my winter training and not getting hurt... the cross bike is collecting dust... whatever... it is still cool and I really like it and will one day pick it back up...
• So I did a perfectly paced FTP the next week... 323 Watts over 40 minutes and 23 mph on the hoods... got the right leg working hard... increased power and speed considerably. I would be better off with a powertap, but I don't care right now... keep pressing...
• Did another one the next week... 325 Watts...
• Lost 8 lbs... back to 182... not bad for this time of year...

I guess that gets us up to speed...

Burned out...

Cycling is going great... blogging is not... I have a lot going on... I just dont feel like writing about it. I will be back soon... the chart above shows my max wattage outputs before and after the broken hip. The dotted one is before the wreck. They are very similar and I am very pleased to see good proof that I am back on form from that injury... plus 10 lbs...

For the time being... think about this...

I am building up a cyclocross bike and am incredibly excited. I am trying to do it really cheap, but still build a quality rig. The picture is below... once I finish it, I will probably start back blogging...

Cowboy up!

I am not ashamed to admit that I thought I was a cowboy when I was in high school. I wore a cowboy hat... wore cowboy boots... listened to country music (I still know more old country than you do... and still love it... the new stuff is not nearly the same... and by "new", I mean anything from the last two to three decades). I even built a 50 gallon drum bull for me and my buddies to ride in my backyard. My parents tolerated it, but could never understand it.

I saw the movie "8 seconds" last night and had to laugh because it used to be one of my favorite movies. The movie is about a great, young bull rider, Lane Frost... the movie is about his life and early death by a bull. The parallels of bull riding and bike racing are surprising and really made me sit back and think.

One of the guys that traveled with Lane that was always writing poems... he read one to his buddies right before they went out to ride at the rodeo national championships and right before Lane Frost's last ride (I think this was probably souped up for the movie, but still). Since I have a DVR, I was able to stop it and rewind it and get most of the lines... if it is copyrighted, I hope no one will mind... I filled in a couple spots with cycling references but showed the other... enjoy...

There is a hundred years of history
And a hundred before that
All gathered in the thinkin’
Goin on beneath this cap (hat).

The cold flame burns within him
‘Til his skin’s as cold as ice
And the dues he paid to get here
Are worth every sacrifice.

All the miles spend sleepy drivin’
All the money down the drain,
All the “if I’s” and “nearly’s”
All the bandages and pain,

All the female tears left dryin’,
All the fever and the fight
Are just a small down payment
On the ride he makes tonight

It’s guts and love and glory,
One mortal’s chance at fame.
His legacy is cycling (rodeo)
And racer (cowboy) is his name.

THE END

-If you race bikes(I don't care what level), you just got chills...
-if you race, but didn't get chills, you may want to ask yourself why...

Click the image above to see it a little larger...

I was looking at this today... it is really an awesome thing to look back over your year of cycling. A lot of sweat and pain goes into racing a bike and it is rare that you can sit back and view it on one graph... thank God for power meters. I am going to jot down the first thoughts that come to mind when I look at this... no particular order and most of them will come off as inconsequential ramblings... either way, thank God for the power meter...

First some definitions...
FTP- my threshold power for an hour. This is the max wattage output I can put out over an hour time. I measure this often and it is the backbone of my entire training plan.
NP- normalized power- this is average power, but with a twist. Basically, the peaks and valleys the ride are factored in less and it gives a better approximation of the true stress on your body.
TSS- total stress score- this is a stress score that is assigned to each ride. An all out 1 hour effort at FTP receives a score of 100.
CTL- chronic training load- this is basically a measure of how hard I am riding overall for the past while... it is pulling from a 45 day rolling average of workouts to determine a chronic load of training. To quote from elsewhere... FTP is how fast you can go... CTL is how long you can go fast.
TSB- Training Stress Balance- this takes into account your ATL- acute training load (the past 5-7 days of workouts) and compares your current short term load to your chronic load (long term load) to give you a stress balance. The numbers are irrelevant other than a positive TSB means I am rested and a negative means I am tired. A +10 is usually good for racing...

• My first workout with my power meter was a 5 hour ride on 7-28-07... it came up as a 376 TSS workout... wow... what a beast. I don't remember what this was, but it must have been tough.
• I took two weeks off in October... I did not want my CTL to drop too far... looks like it went from some where around 77 to around 63... not too bad
• My ramp over the winter was around 4 CTL points per week... I started to push up on that number and got over 90 on CTL and got injured... not saying that the increase caused it but who knows...
• I level off for the anaerobic part of the winter training program
• I break my hip
• I had not looked at this since I broke my hip.
• All of the belly aching about not getting my form back... look at this graph... my CTL did not start an upward movement for almost two months and that CTL is lower than number I have had in a year... even lower for way longer than last years offseason.
• I am proud that I toughed out those rides when I was still on my crutches and a cane... it made my comeback better than if I would have been sitting on my tail for 2 months...
• My ramp coming back was steeper than my ramp last winter... I did not notice it while it was happening... I was just happy to be back riding...
• The month of July sucked...
• Look at the last ramp at the far right... I am coming back, but this time with my anaerobic system along with me...
• I love cycling

Work in progress...

Yes, my cycling is certainly a work in progress... in more ways than one. In one way, cycling form is always coming and going, building and retracting, racing and resting... a constant work in progress. That is not the topic of this blog. The "work in progress" that I am thinking of is the work of self coaching.

I self coach mainly because I don't know a coach that I would trust and don't want to pay the money that a guy I would trust would want to charge me for his services. I am convinced that I have a pretty good idea of what I am doing (the power meter helps a lot), but there are two major factors I must face. One, as I get closer and closer to my genetic potential as a cyclist, through hard training and racing, the more important a good coaching is... with a full time job and family, there is only so much time to train... I have got to train very smart (with my limited potential) to be a good racing cyclist. One day, maybe I will realize that I need help to get a little more out of my time.

Two, I am quick to abandon a plan if I don't see immediate results. A coach would help I think. The blog has helped for sure. I have looked back over my blog since my injury... I have set a number of training strategies that would bring me back to form... I have followed none of them more than a week. I realize now that my strategies I set forth in late June would have worked. I wanted to raise my FTP to a peak with 5x5s and max my anaerobic system over the following 3 weeks. That would have put me at a peak right around now. What happened? I looked at my charts the other night and I had ramped up my CTL at a steady 4 points a week for 6 weeks after my injury and had rebuilt it to around 80 when I went to the beach. The ramp rate was steeper than what I did this past winter... which left me with a low TSB around the first of July. My legs were tired, I wanted to ride competitively again and keep the excitement I felt from the rebuilding process. I went out hard with a low TSB and an unbuilt anaerobic system while in Florida and started to get frustrated.

I got dropped a few times... I realized that my anaerobic system was to blame and started some 1x1s... then I quit the plan. I don't know why I did. I think I got frustrated by the intensity of my cycling friends this time of year and the fact that I couldn't hold on. Anyway... I quit the plan. Last week, I checked my FTP... good ride... 303Watts. Good enough. I now realize that the work I did a month ago actually worked to raise my FTP to a reasonable number. I am now kicking myself for not sticking to my plan... a coach would have been yelling at me for sure.

Good news... it doesn't really matter. Normally a one month set back would be frustrating if I were going into a season and I had a certain race in mind. That is not the case now. I am looking forward in my schedule to Augusta... no matter the form.

How do I know my anaerobic system sucks? Good question. I get dropped... you know that, but still...

I went out this weekend to do 1 minute intervals. I did 5 (instead of 10) and could barely hold 440 Watts across the board. My usual is around 490 Watts and has gone to 520 Watts (repeatable) on good days, but never below 450 Watts on average. The system is gone for sure... the good news again... easy come, easy go with that system... it takes 2-3 weeks to build it and 2-3 weeks to lose it...

The First FTP...

I guess I have watched too many reruns lately. I have no trust of electronics. I think it is well documented... my distrust of the ergomo. I have not written about it lately... it is way overkill at this point and no one can relate. Matrix and The Terminator... two constant reruns that still interest me... I watch them and my distrust grows and grows... stay tuned... now I think the HR monitor is conspiring with the power meter to drive me crazy... they are trying to take over the world, I think...


Both movies deal with humans demise due to machines/electronics. I must be buying the hype. Today was my first FTP since before the injury. Actually, it is my first one since February, I guess. I felt good, but a little timid starting out. I used heart rate to pace myself... I did not want to go out too hard and not be able to finish the workout. My old LT heartrate (tested 1.5 years ago) was 168 bpm and I still use that for pacing. For this 40 minute effort, I decided to conservatively lay out a 165 average on the way out and a 170-172 on the way back. When I got really good at these over the winter, I could average over my supposed LT HR by 4 or 5 beats for 40 minutes, but it was uncomfortable. That was not really what I was trying to do with this first one.

I got to the parking lot and had right at an hour before the sky fell in (rain). I jumped on my bike and realized that my tire had a weird hump in it. Of course, it was the back tire and it was beat... bulging out the side... never seen it before. I happened (thanks Robert) to have two new tires in the back of the Tahoe and I switched them up right fast. Off I go... the first 10 minutes, I kept it around 165 bpm... it actually felt bad for a while and I was wondering how bad this would be. My power was overperforming... around 310W average at this point, but I felt bad. I trusted the HR and kept pluggin along. By 15-20 minutes in, my avg power had come down to around 305W and my HR had crept up to around 166-167. I kept it there to the turn around... lost 2 watts there... and started my way home. I stopped looking at the power meter for a while... when I looked back, I was still at 303W and at 178 bpm. This really is weird. I don't want to freak anyone out, but I have got to question whether my HR monitor is working correctly. I started watching over the last 10 minutes of the ride and I was steadily in the mid to high 170s. I was not really breathing any harder than at 165 bpm, yet I was well over threshold. Usually, I would know it if I were nearing 180 bpm.

I finished with an average wattage (new threshold power) of 303 Watts. I had estimated my threshold at 302 W from some NP efforts I had a few weeks ago. That was pretty impressive. My average speed was 22.7 mph over the 40 minute effort... right about where it was in the fall and winter for FTP rides along the same route... I ride on the hoods and tops the entire time. The numbers make some sense. My cadence was slower than ever before... 91 rpm versus 95 rpm before the wreck. I have noticed this during training rides... it is a problem and I think it goes back to me trying to overcompensate for my bad side... my spin is not what it used to be and it has cost me power during critical moments. My average HR was 168 bpm, but was very variable during the ride.

What does this mean? Well, I don't trust the power meter and I don't know that I trust the HR monitor. It does not matter anymore... I will go with these numbers regardless. If I believe the numbers, then I am not far from where I was this spring as far as aerobic capacity goes (off by 10-15 Watts). I have put on 8 lbs. Three options... either my teammates are freakishly strong after a great season racing... or... my anaerobic system is still not where it should be and it gets me dropped on Tuesdays. The last option... I am a headcase and my total lack of confidence since my injury has led to me getting dropped on Tuesday rides.

What are the facts?

1. I have raced twice since my injury. In both races, I raced near the front and finished with the pack. Is there any reason to think I am that far off form from this info?
2. My FTP is 303 Watts. Even at my fattened up 187 lbs, I am still at 3.6 W/kg... a fringe Cat 3/4 type guy... that is very realistic considering my abilities in races.
3. The Tuesday Worlds are a real slugfest... if my anaerobic system is off, those guys will expose it. We have a Pro 1 guy, a Cat 2/European racing, U23 guy, a guy about to upgrade to Pro 2, a master racer/Pro 2 guy, two Cat 3 guys that will be upgrading next year probably, and a good group of Cat 4 guys that are all the antagonists in any race... someone out of that group will be on the podium in every race it seems. Is it that bad to get wasted by these guys?

Whatever... today gave me some confidence that was sorely needed. At least I know that my aerobic system is OK. I have said it before, but now I mean it. I am scrapping the Plan from a few days ago. I am going to work on my anaerobic system from here until Augusta and I am coming out guns-a-blazing for that race... no base building... no excuses... it is time to get back in the ring... the guys were right telling me to race back into form... I just didn't believe it...

Now I do...

The Plan...

You can probably read my blog and realize that I have not been myself since I broke my hip. Yes... there was some uncertainty about my form in February (bad training camp), but after that, I really came into form, raced some, and had a blast. I was two weeks from peak when I broke my hip. I had a lot of positive energy for a few months after the injury... I was out on the bike in a few weeks... pedaling mostly with the opposite leg. I started working back little by little.

I had been increasing mileage very quickly after the injury and got the intensity going immediately. I worked a hard training block at the end of June and hoped that it would be my ticket to form by the end of July. I have not felt good since that block. I felt bad on vacation (July 4th week) and I have never felt right since. There is generally a lack of desire to suffer. I dont know what to say... after 3 years of enjoying every second I spend on my bike and forever craving the next ride, the last 2 months have been tough. I am still riding, but I am not working as hard. I am content to lose... content to quit... content to be weak. I am not the guy that always has to win, or he quits... I have been at the back of the B group many times in years past, barely hanging on... I had more fight in me then I think.

Anyway, I wonder... is this overtrained? Is this what it feels like? This is the way it is described, but still... could I be overtrained after 2 months off from an injury and starting back too fast? I decided two weeks ago that I didnt care. I decided that since I had planned these adventure races anyway, I would use these two weeks as my "time off this year" two weeks. This is usually planned for October, but why not now? I suck... that is for sure. I may need rest... who knows. I dont really have a big race that I am thinking about on the road bike and I dont want to race when my form is so gone. Could I start base building in August for the next season? Would it be too long? I decided that is what I should do.

I talked to a coach when I first broke my hip. He told me to scrap the season and start base building for next year. I didnt believe him at all. I thought I could tough it out and beat the odds. I thought my base through last winter could sustain me through a May layoff. I found that it could not.

This week, I will start back my FTPs and Sprint workouts from last winter. I will step up CTL 4-6 points per week with a drop back week every fourth. I will build up my long ride on Saturday to around 5 hours. I am actually really excited. My program lately has been to get my tail kicked by my teammates on Tuesday nights and mope about it all week. No more! Now I will do my FTP ride (45 minute- all out effort) on Tuesdays and ride for miles on Tuesday night.

This shift in training might be just what I need to get my head and body right over the next few months. If my legs come around, this strategy should work very well for some cyclocross workouts this November/December...

Adventure Races

I competed in two adventure races over the last two weekends...

The first was in Macon and was a 4 hour sprint race. I raced with a friend from work... it was his first adventure race... we had a great time and finished 2nd in our division and 4th overall. Not bad...

The next one was the Goldrush 24... a twenty four hour ball buster of a race starting in Woodstock, Ga. I don't feel like doing a long description of this race, but I will give it a go... the race was too exhausting to truly capture in print...
We started in downtown Woodstock at 8:00 pm. We had been busy all day... plotting maps... strategizing... driving to Woodstock (through Atlanta and of course sitting in traffic for an hour)... dropping off all of our gear (canoe, bikes, etc)... 1 hour bus ride to the start of the race... prerace meeting... on and on and on... by the time the race started, I was ready for a nap.

We started with a 4 mile road run before the real trekking leg began. This beat my long run from training by a little under a mile... I only did one training run... not the way to start a 24 hour race. We bushwacked, creekwacked, and side hill stomped for the next 5 hours to the canoe leg. The route was exhausting... wet feet... large grain sand in our shoes and socks... and mostly the entire route was side hill trekking on a left to right slope... the slope was probably close to a 1 to 1 slope (a 45 degree angle to the horizon- non technical writing... strange). The grinding in our shoes would not be good later in the race. We found all the checkpoints... got messed up on our route due to a subdivision, but arrived at the canoe in good spirits. The canoe leg was cake... awesome night on the water (we started at around 1:00am)... it was chilly which was a welcome change to the heat of Macon. We knocked out the 15 mile paddle leg in around 4 hours.

Another trek/swim leg followed and never ended. We were in and out of the water... swimming for a while... then trekking over a little island... then swimming again... this went on for the next 10 hours. You could never get the sand out of your shoes... no matter what. It continued grinding for the entire 24 hours. The rest of the team had some bad chaffing problems (the descriptions of pain by these guys led to some cracking up by all team members that can only be appreciated if you are on no sleep or smoking pot (I hear). We got all the checkpoints on this section and arrived at the bike section just in time to head for the finish line...

We finished 3rd in our division and 21st out of 56 teams. We were really happy about this finish. There were a lot of teams who have a lot of experience and many of them had raced this terrain before. Not enough can be said for how much of an advantage that is from a strategy standpoint alone...

Anyway... back to the bike... it was a fun interlude...

Pretty Good Week...

Got shelled on the Tuesday night ride. Went out Wednesday at lunch for an allout hour. It was a hard ride after a hard ride on Tuesday... NP = 297 Watts for an hour. Not too far from my guess at my FTP right now. Took off Thursday- family responsibility. Went out Friday with what was planned to be an easy effort, but wound up riding harder than I thought I would... NP = 280 Watts for an hour.

I went out with some guys from the team this morning and did a laid back effort for 3 hours. Worked through some rotations on the home stretch and those worked me over pretty quick, but the overall ride was good.

I noticed this past week that my seat had fallen around a half inch. I expect it happened on the trip to or from Florida (unweighted vibration on the rack causes it to fall... it has happened before) and I didn't notice it until this week. Maybe this could be some of the reason my legs have felt so strange. When I raised my seat up, it felt like heaven... I couldn't believe the difference. Maybe it will help... who knows...

Either way, I am having fun on the bike again... I am encouraged to work harder and cut weight and try to get back on task. I have porked up to 187 lbs... from around 179 earlier in this season... and I was on the way down then. Diet starts back Monday...

Racer's Edge...

Yes, I have lost it. I cant remember the last time my legs felt good. Actually, I can... it was the first day of the hard training block I embarked on prior to vacation... the one where I pulled my back out. Since then, I have been on dead legs... either tired from a hard workout, or lethargic from a day off, or something else...

When I wrecked out and fractured my femur, I decided to schedule a few adventure races with my team at work. Even though I had started an Adventure Racing Team with the guys at work before we ever dreamed up a local cycling team, I had decided coming into this year to only race on my bike. I wanted to be 100% focused on a great inaugural season with our newly formed race team... 100% focused on riding the road bike as well as I could.

Coming into the best form of my life, I wreck and killed my form... I didn't decide to abandon the bike... I jumped back on it while still on crutches and worked my tail off trying to keep up with whoever I could find. I did, whoever, decide that maybe an adventure race or two toward the end of the race season would be a good fallback plan if my cycling form did not rage back.

Whether the form is here or not remains to be seen... I am participating in two adventure races coming up... a four hour adventure race in Macon followed a week later by a twenty-four hour adventure race in Woodstock, Ga. I have gone out on the mountain bike (first time in 8 months) and on my feet (running- first time in 14 months), and it has been a weird run. I was sore for 5 days after a 3.4 mile run... not exactly normal. My mountain bike skills were very rusty, but I held my own out there.

I rested today and will go out for Tuesday Worlds tomorrow. I hope that the training I did one month ago will kick in tomorrow and give me strong, fresh legs. If not, I will not despair... I will look forward to the races I have upcoming and get ready to compete.

New Finding...

Latest theory on why I continue to get dropped on group rides...

The facts:

• My aerobic system is not far from where it was prior to the wreck. I am probably 10 watts off of my best FTP performance prior to the injury... I suspect continued work on 45 minute FTP workouts and 5x5s would put me where I was in 2-3 weeks.
• My anaerobic system is where it was prior to the injury... I am putting out large anaerobic efforts of equal wattage and duration to my prior-to-injury self

WRONG!!!!! Well not quite, but wrong all the same. I decided as I came back from injury that I would use Tuesday Worlds to train both systems as I slowly increased workload through the weeks. I now realize that this RR format is training my aerobic system (I usually have a pretty good hour effort (NP close to FTP)), but not my anaerobic system.

This came to me as I worked through 8- 1 min intervals this past week. I have not done these since the late winter. I actually had just finished my last week of these when I broke my hip. I found that the first interval was higher than I expected. With almost no work, I went well above my goal wattage with no real effort. I immediately decided that my ergomo was screwed again. Rather than freaking out, I decided to ram through the rest and see if I could sustain the wattage.

The second interval was shocking... a major drop in power... the third was worse... forth, worse... and so on until I finished at what I do my 5 minute intervals at.

So, here is the finding. I seem to be able to light a match as hot as I did before the injury. The wattage output is relatively equal and the duration is equal. The problem is that I seem to have drastically dropped the number of matches in my box. Rather than 8-10 of these type of matches, I have one to two. Why? Because the guys I ride with are strong enough to burn my match through with one major effort... especially when I am trying to work on the front (which I have been trying the past few weeks prior to vacation). I then get dropped and my workout has only consisted of one or two really high intervals... no more...

The good news is that this system is highly trainable with very drastic and quick results in 3-4 weeks time. If I don't get 6-8 of these efforts tomorrow night at Worlds (meaning that first attack forces me to a wattage where I burn through all I got) then I will do 1 minute intervals on Thursday to try to hone in this system ASAP... it may be the key to the whats left of this season...

Return from vacation...

I am now back in Macon. The following is an update on the last week of training...

Ate and drank way too much... gained 10 lbs of water weight from fried food and booze. Both kids got sick so I also didn't get much sleep. I stumbled out to all the group rides that I went on with the dazed look of a college student on spring break who had to meet his parents for a midweek breakfast.

• The actual training was OK, though. My legs were a little tired from the hard training block... I decreased distance/duration over the past week and a half, but added 1 minute intervals and did a few 5 minute interval sessions. All of them were productive...
• I got worked by a few of the flatlanders I ran into. I think they were working against me... I am certain that the pro guy was working against me. Everytime I would come off a big pull, he found his way quickly to the front and blasted the pace up over 30 mph, then the group would tighten up and no one would let me in as I went back through the line of 7-8 riders... even though only 3 of them planned on doing any work... it was weird and it hurt. I was forced to jump on the tail end and then work back up in the wind when I wanted to work again.
• I think the new bike and racing kit is working against me... I always enjoyed being underestimated on my crappy bike and solid jerseys... they never saw me coming and when I rode well... they didn't mind so much. Now, I am afraid, it is the exact opposite. I look the part, but I really suck...

"Race" Update

I went out to the Cat 1 rodeo today. Of course it was not as described, but I did get a heck of a workout. As is the case in most places, there was one "head of state"... there was only one "pro" (that was the way he was described to me). I saw the guy when I rolled up... there was no mistaking that he was the head guy... it was written all over him...

The truth is that there are a lot of good riders down here that are very comfortable killing it at high speeds in wind. There is an art to riding in the wind for long periods of time... these guys have figured it out. They stay relatively aero, even when they are on their tops... they conserve energy and stay off the front if they don't have the energy... they know not to trade pulls with that guy...

I, of course, did not know. For the first 10 minutes we rolled at a ridiculously slow pace... My ergomo was showing a NP of 120 Watts at the end of warmup. I have never seen such a low number. As luck would have it, I end up on the pro's wheel when he decides that the warmup is over. He starts adding on the wattage... slow and steady... at some point, I look down and I see 500 Watts... he keeps on... at some point, I look down and I see 700 Watts... he keeps on... at some point I see 850 Watts... he finally comes off. I cant see anymore, but I manage to come around him and turn around as if I am not hurting... the group is way back... no one else is stupid enough to get pulled out on this suicide effort with this guy... 5 miles into a 55 mile ride... no warmup... and big surprise, I ate fried food and drank a lot last night... so much for the racer's edge....

It took me a solid 20 miles to recover from the efforts I made in the first 10 miles. This guy kept shooting off and I kept following and no one else was bothering. Next thing I know, I can barely hold on the group. I recovered and started working again... I had a dehydration headache when I woke up (from booze and oysters) and it was worse now (give me a break... it is vacation)... later on in the ride and ended up with a great workout for the day. Not what was advertised, but I got all I could handle... especially on vacation...

SURPRISE!!!

I am sure you are very excited... I actually have a wireless connection in my condo down here, so there will be plenty of blogging time...

I found a way to make 5x5s feel longer. Do them on completely flat roads with no wind.

I did five yesterday... the numbers were actually pretty good... all five between 340 Watts and 360 Watts. My legs were a little numb from the workload of the past week, but good overall. It is a long five minutes when you are doing intervals at 25 mph on your hoods... I think the distance covered in each interval makes it feel long. Either way, it was a good effort.

OK... a fun story...

As always when I travel, I call the local bike shop to see if there are any local rides to join. I have ridden these rides down here (Cocoa Beach- we have been coming down here for 25 years as a family) and there are some good riders and good rides. The local shop tells me that there are some rides BUT... the big question comes out... "but, what kind of rider are you?"...

Here is the conversation...

Me: I ride hard... an experienced rider... the longer and harder, the better (we are talking cycling for those that have trashy thoughts)...

Him: Well we have a 25 miler that leaves the shop on Saturday... A good mix of riders...

Me: Anything longer on the weekends?

Him: There is also a 30 miler that goes off from the Sonic on Sunday...

Me: I saw on a blog that there was a ride that goes out of Palm Bay...

Him: Dude, are you a Cat 1? Those guys are wicked fast... and they go for 50-60 miles...

Me: No, I am not, but I might like to give that one a go... I mean, is the entire group nothing but Cat 1s?

Him: Look, man, those guys average over 30 miles an hour... let that one alone...

Me: Tell me where it is...

Him: Hey... Greg (I guess Greg is the other mechanic)... this guy on the phone is thinking he wants to go out with the Palm Bay guys...

Him (to me): Greg says that you do not want to go with those guys unless you are a Cat 1 racer... are you?

Me (reluctantly): No, but I am a 190 lb Cat 4 that does OK on hills and should be better in the flats...

Him: No, no, no... Cat 4? This is not the ride for you...

Me: Tell me where it starts...

Him: Palm Bay Hospital parking lot... at least you will be able to ask directions back... from the ambulance that picks you up...

The End...

OK... the guy was maybe not as witty as I made him out, but that play-by-play is pretty close. Needless to say, I can hardly wait until Saturday. I did intervals yesterday, but will take today off to prepare for tomorrow... no booze... no bad food...

I am racing tomorrow... and it will evidently be my first Cat 1 race...

Out of Here...

Finished the block... not as long as I wanted but it was still good. Put in 10.5 hours in 4 days... not amazing, but more than I have done since the injury in a 4 day stint.

Finished the block with a very hard hour effort last night. The newly installed ergomo tells me that I put out 318 Watts normalized for on hour... I dont think that is right still...

Either way, I am going to Florida for a week and a half... I will be training but probably not blogging...

Ride lots...

Keep Pushing...

Took Friday off... mostly due to time constraints and since the TT bike was not set up for riding. Went out Saturday and ripped off 65 miles or so. Mostly easy pace, but with a few big efforts and a few semi-attacks. It was cold and it rained the entire ride. My lower back tightened up around 55 miles in and I thought I had pulled a muscle. I stetched and could not put pressure on the pedals for around 5 miles and then it loosened back up... I babied it the rest of Saturday and got on some Motrin.

I woke up this morning and it felt great... I warmed up once we got to La Grange... agian, it felt great. I raced for 65 miles and it still felt great. Who knows! I was really glad to be racing considering the way it felt when it tightened down. I took 15th in the RR today and didnt really try to contest the final sprint... we had shed the rest of the riders throughout the route and on the last uphill section to the finish. Of course, there was also a wreck in the final stretch that took some folks out...

Legs feel really good and I am excited about finishing the final two days of this power block of training I am pushing through. I would like to put in a 3 hour ride on the next two days to complete 12 hours in 4 days. Tuesday will be a racing format for Tuesday Worlds. I wonder what will happen in that ride with shredded legs. I have a guess...

5x5s...

Painful is really all you can say about a 5 minute interval. At three minutes you think it has been six already and now you have two minutes left... and you remember how long your 1 minute intervals feel and realize that you have two times that left to put this interval in the past.

I started today on the same hill that I always do 5 minute intervals. It is really steep for the first 45 seconds of the route and then flattens to around 1-2% and holds it there the rest of the way. I start from a standstill at the base of the hill so that I can get as much time as possible out of the steep. In the past, I always finish the 5 minutes right at the gas station... right at the end of the road. I think there was one day where I had to stop 3 seconds early to keep from having to make the turn. It was a good day that day and maybe the wind was favorable...

Now, my ergomo sucks... we all know that by now and I cant trust anything it says (what a horrible existence)... I guess that it is registering 15-30 Watts high right now. I rip off the first interval at 385 Watts... way to high but I am not surprised... but wait! I get to the gas station, look down... I have 15 seconds left of the interval! There was a tail wind, but it is still the fastest I have ever climbed that hill and I am trying to let myself think that I am getting very strong. I know that is not really the case, but it does make me feel better. I repeated again and hit 380 Watts. The following three went downward quickly... I hit the first two too hard and really paid for it. I ended up with a 365W, a 355W, and a 340 Watt to finish the day. The normalized power for the total workout was 297 Watts.

It was a good workout and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a problem with the ergomo. On my best day this spring, I could only muster a 345 Watt effort (my fourth... I built up to that from 325 Watts that day). I know I was stronger then than I am now. No way I put out 35 Watts more today on two. The good news... I scheduled an appointment with the ergomo doctor today... All3Sports in Atlanta is the real deal... those guys really know ergomo and said that they would work me in on Monday... AWESOME!!!! The thoughts of no power for my entire vacation... I don't think I could relax...

I have a Plan...

Here is the plan for the short term future...

Monday- I took off
Tuesday- Got killed but put in some big efforts and a hard 2 hour ride
Wednesday- 1 Hr at hard tempo... borderline FTP
Thursday- 5x5 min at VO2 Max effort
Friday- hour long workout on TT bike- Tempo- Level 3
Saturday- 65 mile tempo- Level 3
Sunday- La Grange Road Race- 68 miles
Monday- Group ride- 2 hours- Tempo plus
Tuesday- Group ride- 3 hours- road race simulation

This long block of training will hopefully start to build my form for next month. I am going to hit it as hard as I can for as long as I can and see if I can break something free. It is time to decide if I will base build through the rest of the race season, or start racing now and not look back. I will be out of town for a couple of weeks after this block and will be riding group rides all the while in Florida. I hope to come back to Macon on form or getting close...

If I see August coming close, and I am still off form, I will realize that the best way to spend training time is to take off a few weeks and start ramping up the winter base a few months early. Maybe that will put me ahead of the game in spring... guarantee two peaks next season or maybe the elusive tri-peak season... who knows...

Another day... Another Theory...

Tuesday Worlds...

I really felt good last night even though it didn’t show. I don't like the position excuse, but I put out big efforts a couple of times when I didn't need to and it cost me. Generally, I got dropped because I am out of shape... or at least out of shape compared to my old teammates. A few things I realized last night...

My big gear power is definitely not what it used to be. There are times when someone will surge on the front and I feel as though I don’t have the horsepower to hold. That just doesn’t happen to me when I am in shape especially in the flats (I have pretty good power but high weight, therefore I seldom have trouble on flat roads) and that is where it is happening... in the flats… I don’t know what that is but I don’t like it… I think that the FTP testing really help me garner power throughout my entire stroke coming into this season. I think I lost a lot of that when I got hurt… I think my stroke changed a lot trying to compensate for my injury… bad stuff that may take the winter to fix …

I have a theory…

I wrecked at the end of March (29th)… on April 23rd, I, for the first time, said that I had a decent day on the bike. That is pretty much a month off. For the next month, I built my FTP up to 270 Watts… that is 40 Watts lower than where I was. Then I switched the ergomo and things have been haywire ever since… no way to count on any numbers. By the way, the BB shifted for sure and started creaking like it did on my old bike. Now the wattage has fallen way down… I really have got to work to get it over 300 Watts… I think it may actually be right now… if so, I was at 270 when I dropped last night… seems low really but we took it really easy on the way out and I dropped really quick… I will test soon...

UPDATE... I went out for a ride today at lunch. I did an offset prior to the ride and it dropped down 8 points... that brought my wattage right back up where it has been and put me into a 305 Watt hour effort today... I don't think this is right so my dilemma continues. Those of you who did not understand the albatross reference will hopefully understand it now....

My theory is this. Even though I like to think that I was only off the bike for 2 weeks, I was still on crutches when I got back on and could not put out any effort. Then, when I think that I was really only off the bike for 1 month, I look back and realize that at 1 month I was excited to be able to pedal without pain up to 300 Watts. Then when I think that I was really only off the bike for 2 months, I look back and realize that I still had done no true aerobic nor anaerobic work due to my limitations from the injury and high wattage efforts…

Said a different way, even while I have been on the bike “training” for the last two to three months since my injury, I have not been challenging my cardiovascular/respiratory systems at all. My legs have been rebuilding, but I have really been losing cardio fitness. How could I not? The vast system I built up through the winter and early spring has seen a 2-3 month layoff from the workload it had become accustomed to. Even two months after my injury, I was still could only work hard for two hours without drastic failure of all systems with fatigue.

So... what does this all mean... I think I have actually lost fitness (cardio/resp) over the last month and gained power… this may sound strange but I think it has happened. They met in the middle. Where I might could power through a painful stretch without HR and respiratory rate going crazy... only hip pain... now that my legs and hip feel better, I am left without any big power (which I really count on to race) and with no big engine or gas tank. Everything has been trained to mediocrity. Don't get me wrong... I can go out to any group ride and fool someone into thinking I can ride a bike... but I cant race and I cant race within my teammates, even... I can sit on, but who wants that!

Away from cycling...

My wife gave me an early Father's Day Present tonight. The below link is a slide show that she put together for me to remind me that I have a life away from cycling... just kidding. My wife is an amazing woman... she finds the time to take care of me and the kids, allows me to live this lifestyle of training and racing while she chases around babies, and all the while takes thousands of pictures and keeps up with her crazy life on her own blog. If anyone ever wants to see the other side of our lives with a three year old healthy daughter and an 8 month old son with Down Syndrome, my wife's blog is http://lifewithelizaandjack.blogspot.com/. It is an amazing story to read in print... she is an amazing person...

If you are not into watching family photos, you can at least watch to get a laugh at how chubby I was especially in the early photos. I was probably 30 lbs heavier than I am now and had already shed 15 lbs by the first of these pictures...


To Daddy - Happy Father's Day!!

Charts...

So I decided to take my best weekly normalized power output for every week this year and plot it versus time. I was curious what I would predict as my future 1 hour power at some future date if certain trends that established were continued throughout the year.

The arbitrary date I chose was July 1st, 2008. The chart to the right shows my max normalized power each week prior to my injury. The trendline shows that if I continued along the route I was on, by July 1st I would have an FTP around 327 Watts. While I recognize that my FTP development during the race season would not likely look like this trend, I wanted to start with this as a baseline. I don't really think it is that unrealistic. I had hit 317 Watts for 57 minutes in a race in late March. I think 10 more Watts would have been expected since I had not yet peaked according to my training schedule...

The chart to the left is data after the injury, but before I started feeling good. This is the same date as my ergomo swap from old bike to new bike. I wanted to view this one because I was curious what the trendline would look like across that time period and where it would take me. This trend has me hitting out on July 1 at around 312 Watts.

The last chart (below) shows all post injury data up to my latest download. This trendline predicts a raise in FTP to around 322 Watts by July 1st.

So, what does all this mean? Not that much really. The most interesting thing to me is that there is not a whole lot of difference between any of them. They predict a range from 312 W to 327 W and I would be happy to fall anywhere in that range. I mainly wanted to see where things could have been had I not gotten hurt. Maybe things are not as bad as I thought. I also wanted to see how crazy the trend looked when I take into account the data post bike switch over. I have had trouble believing in some of the ergomo data, but as of late I have started to think it is right. I think the trending shows that this might be true. The jumps and drops seem to match very well to the trend and this makes me feel better.

Anyway, it was nice to see it all in one place. I would like to think that I could drop 5-10 lbs in the next month and raise my FTP over 320 Watts. This would get my pump primed for the late season race and make me feel like all the winter hours were worthwhile.

5 Minutes of Pain

I did some 5 minute intervals today. I did 4 repeats on a long hill in Macon... it has a few false flats that make it hard to hold the wattage, but it works better than anything else I have found.

I averaged 340 Watts, 342 Watts, 333 Watts, and 330 Watts in the four intervals. This is very near where I was the last time I did these things in February (I think it was Feb). I was pleased with the effort, but recognized something very real from the workout...

I am not used to suffering. This winter, I did FTP and sprint workout all winter and then moved into 5 minute and 1 minute intervals. There was never a week that I did not have a really tough workout (mentally and physically). I now realize that for the last 8 weeks, I have been very satisfied sitting in and making excuses. The burn I felt today was different and woke me up to the weak outputs over the last few weeks. Mentally, I am using my injury as a scapegoat to keep from working over the edge...

I must keep these intervals going... even if they don't raise my threshold, they will raise my mental toughness and we all know that will make me faster than threshold...

So Many Thoughts... So little time...

Here is a quick run down of what is going on in my cycling world...

• My new bike is up and running. It is fast, corners on rails (good for a guy with a broken hip), looks incredible, is lighter than my old bike, and is the first bike I have ever owned that I can really be proud of.
• My current form makes me feel like I don't deserve the bike... but who does... besides Boonen and he is a coke-head...
• My ergomo has come back with some weird readings since the switch to the new bike... I got a freaky high reading in the Union City race for one. We are talking 297 Watts for 3 hours with a 1 hour max of 325 Watts. This is not likely... actually it is impossible. I calibrated it right before that ride... it was only my second time on the bike.
• My theory is that three things happened. 1) my leg got a lot better just prior to switching bikes. This makes a lot of sense if you look back through my blog... the first really good ride where my power came back was actually the day before I shot the albatross. 2) the ergomo BB must have "shifted" during the race and started measuring high. When I rode after that, I did a new offset and it has been correct since then. The offset is well stabilized and I think the numbers are more realistic. I will talk specifics on the numbers in the blog to follow. I did throw out that race from my data... surprisingly I hardly set any records with that race for my all time best power curve. I think I moved up my 1:30 a little and that was it... 3) I have been overcompensating with my left leg... yes, the bad leg. Maybe once it healed, I started using it more and have thrown my numbers off on the high side... long shot, but a theory all the same...
• Back to the leg/hip... no pain... at all... none... I can do no movement that will cause me pain. There is occasional tightness when it rains... but it never rains so who cares. I am 100% and am no longer limited by my leg.
• Regardless of my leg issues, I am not as fast as I was. I am guessing my new FTP to be around 302 Watts based on a few NP returns. At a fat arsed 187 lbs, I have some work to do to get back up to speed... such as lose 15 lbs and increase my FTP by 25 Watts or so...
• I cut off my Euro Mullet. I was growing it in support of Christian's European Campaign and told him so. I wanted to take a picture of it... it was beautiful... like Iban Mayo's from a few years ago, but with less curl and looking very much like a coon pelt... it is gone now and I am slower for it...

Charts to follow...

First Race Back...

I raced in Union City on Sunday. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision. My main goal for the 68 mile State Championship RR was to finish with the pack. The terrain was rolling with a couple of decent hills but nothing too tough. The whole team was up there with just me and Drew racing in the Cat 4/5 under 35 years old race. My longest ride since the injury has been a couple of metric centuries that I have done at a moderate to hard pace... could I go at race pace for longer than that at this point in my training... would my race pace even keep me on the back of the pack for 70 miles? These were the questions in my head going into Sunday...

I raced hard. I felt like I could throw up from the effort for most of the 2 hour and 50 minutes that we were on the course... but that did not keep me from attacking once and spending a fair amount of time on the front. At around 40 miles into the ride, I had convinced myself that I could win the race. By 60 miles in, I had realized that I may need a ride from the wheel truck back to my car. My legs went, but I never quit fighting and achieved my goal... I finished with the pack (which had dwindled from 75 folks to around 25-30 folks by the end) and no breakaways stayed out.

I felt very excited about this race but I was worked over. I was sore all day yesterday (the race was Sunday) and felt a little tired at Tuesday Worlds tonight. It felt great to be back with the team and back competing again, but it is strange to ride in a race that you don't think you have the chops to win. I hope that my goals will be different in a few weeks when we head to La Grange (don't let the "La" fool you... we are not talking about Italy)...

I SHOT THE ALBATROSS!

Rime of the Ancient Mariner... This is an old poem that we read in highschool. The poem has always stuck with me even though I have not seen it in 15 years. It is a story of an aged mariner that tells his story to a groom prior to his wedding. The mariner, while traveling to the south pole, and in tough times, has an albatross join him on his journey. He and his crew celebrate the omen for a while, and then, to his crew's chagrin, he shoots the albatross with a crossbow.

Suffice to say that a lot of weird stuff happens to the mariner as the albatross is avenged... the crew hangs a dead bird around his neck... a ship with a dead crew arrives... his crew dies and is brought back to life by the Holy Mother...

I have forsaken my power meter! It is gone to be moved to my new racing steed and will not be used for the next 5-6 days while my horse is built up. I am still riding every day on the old bike, but the ergomo is sitting in a box before boarding my new frame. The power meter was working in my favour over the last few days, and I hope that this move does not work against me or my crew (Security Bank) over the next few weeks. The last thing I need is the team to hang a dead ergomo around my neck (no support in the US... haven't you heard!), and drop dead waiting for the Holy Mother to save them! Most of those guys are Protestants anyway!!!!!

Good ride... Much better...

I rode Tuesday Worlds last night... most of the guys from our team were taking it easy or were not riding due to the Tour of Atlanta... the racing starts on Thursday. The ride was uneventful and I really did not feel quite right.

I went out today at lunch and really felt pretty good at the start... my legs were a little slow to wake up after last nights effort, but that was expected. My left leg felt strong without thought. Five minutes into the ride, I looked down at my power meter when I was pulling and my power meter said 345 Watts... I thought it would say 270 Watts or so. This kept happening over and over. I started pulling while watching my power meter and was averaging 325 Watts for a few minutes and didn't feel bad. At around 20 minutes in, I look down to see that my NP for the effort so far was 285 Watts. Why not go for a new FTP? Today is as good a day as any...

So I worked hard. It dropped steadily throughout the rest of the ride and ended up at 272 Watts... up 7 Watts in a week. I will settle for no less improvement than that each week from now until I race at the end of June!

Summary of Facts...

Here it is... I have not blogged in a while. The following is a summary of facts/items of interest that have presented themselves since I last blogged...

1. My FTP is 265 Watts. I did a 30 minute test and that is what I came up with. My pacing was bad again, so I think this number would be OK for an hour effort. Once you get used to these efforts (I did one a week through the winter), it is pretty easy to tell what it will end up at for a full hour.


2. Number one really sucks. That is 50 Watts or more less than my FTP prior to my injury and I have gained weight and lost muscle since then. Long road to recovery (see picture to the right)...


3. I bailed out of the Tour of Atlanta... the reasons follow...

• I have found that my TT position is not powerful due to the tightness in my hip... I can't push over the top of the stroke the way I used to


• My sprint is down over 200 Watts for a 15 second effort


• My fitness seems to only allow around an hour at a high level of effort... I die after an hour and cant put pressure on the pedals. Prior to the injury, I was at around three hours...


• My doc says that I don't need to take a hit on my hip right now. It is not fully fused so it would be very bad to fall on it.

So, the first item above takes me out of time trials... the second takes me out of the sprint stage and any chance for a field sprint... the third kills the RR... and the forth kills the crits...

No reason to race at the back of the pack where the risk of a wreck goes up and there is no chance of winning... so I bailed out of the Tour. It breaks my heart... I trained all winter with that race in mind and it was the race of the year for me and our team. If I go out and kill it on Tuesday Night Worlds next week, I will of course rethink the whole thing, but with the FTP I put out today, I am pretty certain that the outcome will be the same.

I have planned to train my FTP for the next four weeks... like I described before... a FTP workout on Tuesday and 5 min VO2 max workouts on Thursday. I now know where I am and lets see how quick I can bring it upward. The amazing thing is that a 210 Watt NP effort is no a L3 workout for me. That was a sleep on the bike type workout for me pre injury... now it is sweet spot training... or close to it. I will, of course, be pushing the upper end of L3 for all workouts between my FTP, 5 min, and long ride workouts. I will be growing my weakassed CTL of 59 by 4-8 CTL points per week to a more respectable number while growing my FTP.

Lightbulb On!

It just occurred to me after posting the below post, that I am being a little too hard on myself (not much, but a little). I have been so disappointed in my power numbers in comparison to my old numbers, but I did not think of the mathematics of the issue...

My old threshold was around 314 Watts. My new left leg threshold as reported by the ergomo is maybe around 255 or 260 Watts. I had told myself that this is a 60-70 watt difference in what my left leg is able to produce, but it really is not. Since ergomo takes your left leg wattage and doubles it, the numbers are closer than they appear since only half that number is produced by the left leg anyway.

If my threshold measures at 260 Watts on my screen, than my left leg is putting out 130 Watts. My right leg only had a 2.5 week break and has been working really hard ever since I got back on the bike. I would not be surprised to find that my right leg is putting out 300 Watts for FTP or 150 Watts with a right leg only measurement tool. Add those together and my actual FTP is closer to 280 Watts in a race... not good, but not too bad.

I know this will be obvious to everyone, but for some reason I was using the double number in my mind when thinking of how bad my left leg sucks... I don't have to make up 60-70 watts, only 30-35 Watts... that sounds much better...

Normalized Power Pothole

Click the graph to enlarge... if you want to see why a grown man will cry...

This is what my mean maximal normalized power chart looks like from before and after the injury. It is pretty ugly and I cant seem to change it. Yes, there is a 70-80 Watt difference in my performance across the board... and that is the good part of the graph. If you want to see something really ugly, you should see the MMP graph for average power. It shows clearly that of all the things that are lost, my sprint is by far the worst. My 5 second has gone from 1250 Watts to 830 Watts and my 15 second has gone from 1046 Watts to 572 Watts. I don't mind telling the competition my weakness because there are so many weaknesses and I don't really have competition anymore because I cant race...

The poor sprinting does not bother me as much. High power output has been difficult on my bad hip. When I move above 500 Watts, I can feel that it puts pressure on my hip in a bad way. My main frustration is with my threshold power. I went out this week to do an FTP workout. I had set a goal to hit 300 Watts for 18 minutes and build from there... longer and harder each week. I held 270 Watts for 5 minutes before I crumbled. Of course, I went out way, way too hard. I told myself that I felt great in the first minute when I averaged 320 Watts... and you know where it went from there. I guess the thing that bothers me is that I don't feel that I am challenging my cardio/resp. systems right now. They are falling back to meet my hip with every passing week without stress. Then I have the weird left leg injury thing going with the ergomo. God knows what that means in reference to FTP. Should I set a new FTP for myself based off of left leg only? I think so. Should I sell the ergomo and buy a powertap so I don't have to worry about my left leg anymore? Yes, I think so, but then again, that might be the worst thing to do. Then I wont know how bad my left leg is and I might overcompensate with my right forever.

I abandoned my previous training program because I just could not get it together to complete the effort. It all based on FTP and my FTP is yet to nailed down. I plan to determine my left leg FTP this week and will use that for all of my retraining workouts from hereforward. I will do an all out 30 minute effort and use my HR monitor as a guide for the first 10 minutes and then go as hard as I can after that. That will be my new FTP and I will possibly quit being a crybaby and start working toward a solution to this problem... such as getting better. Since my fitness must run through the bad leg, that is how I will train... I think I have convinced myself that I will stick with my ergomo... If I can fight through FTP workouts again now like I did during the winter, I can track my progress and use that for inspiration. The first one is the hard one... setting the baseline at such a low number is painful and discouraging and difficult to pace... all at the same time. I will do it Tuesday... just like over the winter... I will track my speed, too... that will help me to relate my left leg to overall output and keep up with those efforts...

The doc says that my femur will be clinically healed at around 12 weeks from the injury. It has been 6 weeks. He said that in 3 weeks, it should feel back to normal. I am walking without the cane now and really can walk without limping if I am not too tired.

I love to ride, and thank God that I am able to do that... but I miss the thrill of the race. Will I be ready for the Tour of Atlanta in three weeks? It looks like a long shot, but one I have to work towards...

My First Good Day...

In a minute...

I measured my quads last night, because my left leg looks shriveled to me. It turns out that I lost 1.5 inches (circumference) of girth off of my left quad during the last 4 weeks (two of which I have been riding... or something like riding). This is in comparison to the right quad (measured along my cycling short tan line), which also lost some muscle for sure. I thought that was a lot... no wonder I can see a difference and it really looks a lot better than it did a week ago.

I knew it was bound to happen and it finally did. I felt weak all weekend, but still managed a 3 hour ride... the NP result? A measly 210 watts and I felt like I was really working. Both legs were fried after the effort, which was my main goal for the workout... I want to make sure that my left leg is getting a hard workout regardless of what else happens. I know I am overcompensating with my right leg to keep up with whoever I am riding with, but the power meter results are horrible (left leg measurement only on ergomo- that is the leg I fractured). Obviously, this shows my left leg is not putting out.

After two weeks of 150W to 205W efforts, I went out for the Tuesday night group ride. Within ten turns of the cranks and I new that I had turned the corner. My power meter lit up in front of me and showed 220 Watts while I was warming up. I cant explain it really, but it seemed more like I had purchased a new meter that was now working. The perceived effort was the same as throughout the last two weeks, but my left leg was putting out.

It was great... every additional watt that my lefty will put out is obviously needed. I went out with the race team and held through several hills. I broke off before I got dropped and did some work on my own while waiting for the slower group to catch me. After 20 minutes, I had a NP of 260Watts or so and wound up with an hour and a half at 230 Watts I think. I spent some time over 500 Watts for the first time since the injury and even sprinted up to 700 Watts for a spell.

This is the first week of my retraining program. The program will be separated into two sections... aerobic and anaerobic. The 4-5 week aerobic program will consist of two key workouts per week... Tuesday will consist of VO2 max intervals (increasing from 3 to 5 intervals, in duration from 3 to 6 minutes, and in intensity from 1.1 % to 1.13% FTP) and Thursday will consist of FTP workouts (working toward 2 intervals of 20 min and 98% FTP). The prescribed VO2 intervals seem too tough and if they are, I will adjust as I go.