Stressing the system

Saturday's ride was 3:12:52 and covered 55 miles
Sunday's ride was 3:35:38 and covered 61 miles
Tendon is still problematic, but much less so than a month ago.
Didn't have to nurse it this weekend and it wasn't a limiting factor, but the inflammation could be felt. It's actually much worse after the ride is over, especially walking down a flight of stairs.
I got a taste of this tonight at the PPAC. My son and I were seated upstairs to watch the "Go Diego Go!" performance. Coming down the stairs I was grabbing the handrail. WTF? Am I going to need one of these before I'm 40?

REI Clearance Sale

Out of pity for those of you who pay $7-12 for a single pair of cycling socks, go to REI this weekend. The sale ends Sunday (call to verify- I went to the Cranston RI store and don't know if the sale applies at all stores). 50% clearance on all items ending in "83" cents. I bought 6 pairs of Pearlizumi socks last night for $1.83 each. Can't beat that. Go buy some before I go and get em all.

Yeah this makes the $55 haircut seem ever more idiotic.

Introductions: Brendan and Scott

In case you didn't already know, Murat has been a busy little bee- securing sponsors, designing apparel and scouting good people to populate my new team.. Millwork One Racing
Two of the riders who have agreed to team up with me have also recently begun to write blogs of their own. I salute their decision to put themselves out there:
Scott Sullivan
Brendan Hanrahan
Pay a visit and spread the love.

New comment on Field Test "Do-Over" result

Ge, take a pill dude.. The increase is not in the 300 watt range (actually I improved much more in the anaerobic zone this time- 308 to 330) the data I refer to is from 239 watts to 251 watts, which represents a 5% improvement.. and YES, for all I know the margin or error for the device and for the variables you list could very well be 5% +/- However, I believe that the factors affecting output are MINIMIZED in a controlled environment like my dining room. (No wind, no hills, steady temperature, not propelling my own weight, bike has been inside for a week and is completely acclimated, torque zeroed etc)

But I'm optimistic about these matters, and I also know my legs and body very well. I know what speeds I can hold on the trainer, and what cadence is required and in what gears. Compared against the test I took a month ago, consider this additional data:

CP20 on 1/9: 239 watts, 21.8 mph, 7.273 miles covered
CP20 on 2/12: 251 watts, 24.5 mph, 8.191 miles covered

No it's not as scientific as you want it to be, but it's evidence that the numbers are compatible with and proportionate to, the output.

Is it my improved form which you're disputing? or the accuracy of the PT? or the necessity of the device? It's working for me.. Not the PT, the training program WITH the PT is working for me. No need to take the wind out of my sails, I do enough of that on my own, to myself, thank you very much.

As a matter of fact, dinner sat in my gut like a brick during last night's test. Conditions weren't optimal. I almost puked.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not interested in indoctrinating you- that's a lost cause. I'm just engaging you on this topic because you're my friend. That and the readers here deserve to be entertained.. 

 

gewilli wrote:

gewilli has left a new comment on your post "Field Test "Do-Over" result":
what is your margin of error?
statistically what does 12 watts mean?
what is the variance?
you want science?
you can't HANDLE science.
You want to USE science?
USE science, don't just use numbers.
Is 12 a meaningful difference indoors?
IS it from a 1-2 PSI difference in your tires on the trainer?
Is it from a 2-4°F difference in ambient temperature?
Is it from a 1-2 hour extra sleep differential over the last 3 days?
Is it due to eating better the 24 hours leading up to the test?
Is it due to being better hydrated?
better music?
better mentality?
or
is it the legs...
12 watts.
out of something around 300.
what % increase is that?
You say you want to use the science. But. Are you actually using science?
(hard tough questions - you may know the answers to them all - i'm still just trying to help you understand why i feel these are rather pointless toys)

Field Test "Do-Over" result

I did it. Completed the full indoor test. (Remember Saturday's attempt was aborted)
I'm happy to report that I added 12 watts to my functional threshold, relative to the last indoor field test I did on Jan 9th. When you train hard and see measurable improvement, it really fires you up.

Please visit my sponsors

It costs you nothing and it puts some loose change into my account. I'm saving up for my next haircut so.. click away. Oh and by the way, this is my new favorite song.

Field Test result

I wish I could say that it went perfectly but it didn't. By Saturday morning I had taken enough rest that I felt like a million bucks. I slept in a couple of extra hours and woke up feeling good. Had four waffles for breakfast, took a little more rest, lubed up the bike and got to work warming up. As it turns out, I forgot one very important element.. Anyway. the first 5 minute "all-out" block went GREAT. Only four watts off of my 2007 personal best CP5. This value has been steadily increasing for the past three months. I tried in December and hit 308, tried January and hit 318. Saturday I did 330. The speed and heart rate checks out too, so there's no doubt about erroneous readings. The five minutes averaged at 30.1 mph. In contrast, my CP5 at the Bob Beal time trail was only 310.. but of course that was after a miserable and crampy road race in the rain.. The verdict: my zone 5a/b power is doing very well.. it's well ahead of schedule, relative to 2007's progression.

After the 5 minute ice breaker, I get 10 minutes to recover... and this is when it dawns on me that I screwed up. Back in December I had two aborted field tests- both were indoors and both times it was because of overheating. Then I wised up and did the test out in the garage and had no such problems. For whatever reason, I forgot all about this and found myself unable to recover from the 5 minute test. Still I began the 20 minute time trial expecting to crush my previous test result from Jan 9th. About 5 minutes into it I'm suffering way more than I expected to. Not only did I start out too hard, I was just plain hot and it was affecting my heart rate big time. I had a window open and I had positioned myself in front of a door cracked 1/2 open, but this wasn't enough relief. After the 7th minute I started to fade.. avg watts ticking down one watt at a time.. when soon I was at the last tests average and before long, under it by a few watts. "This suck balls.. if I'm going to do worse in the 20 min TT than I did a month ago, I'd rather try a 'do-over' in a few days, in the garage". So I sat up in the 8th minute, cooled down for 20 minutes.. happy about my 5 minute result, but angry at myself for setting up the test indoors where it's just too hot to perform and put out big efforts. A new test is scheduled for tomorrow night. Yes, I still have to do the five minute portion! The 20 minute data is useless if you don't start out with 40 minutes of simulated tiredness in your legs. I need to keep reminding myself: The point of the Field Test isn't to look at the result and feel satisfaction about improving the numbers. The objective is to establish today's FT and make sure that workouts are performed at the correct intensity.

Sticker Shock and Awe

My barber passed away about a year ago.. He was 90+ years old, hunched over with shaking hands and a scrunched up face with an almost comically large chin. Loved the guy. When I discovered he was gone, I went into a zombie like trance in search of a person who could fill his shoes. It's hasn't been fruitful. I've been to about 4 different barber shops in the past year, sat down and patiently waited my turn, when suddenly something about the place- it's cleanliness, it's clientele, it's smell, it's chairs, someone's poor grammar.. something.. made me get up and walk out, un-clipped. I've had two haircuts in the past year: once by my former barber's son, who did a piss poor job, and again while in Turkey last July, where they always do excellent work. So it's been about 6 months.

Today I had enough of trying to manage and control  and fight with my curly lion's mane and I went to my wife's downtown salon. Got an appointment with her stylist. Expected to pay through the nose and be treated a little bit special. Even though those two expectations were met, it was still a disappointment. The guy struggled for over an hour to cut my hair with scissors (I would have been happy with a quality clipper job), left me looking kind of like a little kid and they ended up charging me FIFTY FIVE MO FO DOLLARS.. I wanted to get out of there so bad that I didn't argue. I paid my bill, left a $10 tip, and screwed. They had told my wife on the phone that it would be $29.. not sure why I paid double.. must have something to do with taking so long.. I guess I'm all caught up in terms of my annual "haircut budget". I can afford to go there once a year.. Not.. Never again. That was a dumb move. As I've always believed and now confirm: Men should go to barbers. No exceptions. If you let a woman or a "stylist" cut your hair, you either like eating your corn the long way or you still live with your mom. 

Stomach Flu

After two days of uncontrollable evacuations, fevers, chills, muscle pains and headaches, I feel 1000% better and even put in a nice ride last night on the trainer. Saturday there's a field test. Weather forecast indicates that I may be doing this one on the windtrainer like the last time. Dang.. That means that Normalized power will be pretty much equal to Average power.. It's okay if you don't know what that means.. Anyway, one good thing has become of the bug which made my whole family ill last weekend: I've dropped four pounds!... but more importantly, one full day of nausea-inspired-fasting has shrunk my appetite. and my stomach capacity. Plus, two full days without any coffee, and I didn't really miss it.

To give ya an idear of what that means for me right now.. I now weigh about 17 pounds less than I did on this date one year ago. Even after returning from San Diego at the end of February last year, I was an astonishing 188 pounds. I'm now 173.. and my race weight of last July was a svelte 165. Not too far off the mark. Oh yeah.. base miles are useless, who needs 'em. P-f-f-f-f-f-t-t ! At this rate, getting myself under 160 pounds doesn't seem unrealistic.  

Try this without a power meter..

..better yet, don't waste your time. If you don't have a power meter, your functional threshold is probably a mystery to you anyway, so doing FT intervals as I've done here will be impossible.. (let me add that it is possible to own a power meter, not know what to do with it, never establish your FT value and hence never do workouts designed to boost it (FT) and then end up giving your power meter away or selling it because you judge it to be a useless toy..) Furthermore, if you are using a heart rate monitor for such a work out, then you're going to be way off the mark.. The three intervals pictured are all pegged at 241 watts average (5 min, 10 min and 10 min), but lo and behold- the heart rates for the three intervals average at 152, 164 and 170 respectively. If I "believed" my FT was 160 beats per minute.. interval No 1 would have been higher than my FT watts. Interval No 2 would have been lower and interval No 3 would have been lower still. So.. using a HRM I would have ended up blowing my wad on the first interval because it would have been anaerobic, and then I would have done a couple of zone 3 tempo intervals when I'm trying to be on the edge of zones 4/5... Useless. The chart speaks for itself though. Look at the slow reaction of the heart rate. It takes a full 30 seconds for the HR to reach a level which is compatible with the output.
I realize that not everyone can afford to pay a coach.. but make no mistake: I sacrificed something else in order to free up the money for coaching. If there's a will, there's a way.

Presidential Tour of Turkey 13-20 April 2008

On deck is the 44th version of The Presidential Tour of Turkey. A prestigious stage race which attracts a large number of Middle Eastern and Eastern European talent.. Word on the street is that it's going to be televised on TRT in 2008. Yours truly is working hard in the coming weeks to establish communications with the Turkish Federation and with the race organizers so that I can compete. I either need to put my own team together or be invited as a guest on another team. If I had to make an informed guess, this race is at least as difficult to win as the Pro-Am at Fitchburg or Green Mountain, which even being optimistic, relegates me to pack fodder. But it's one of those things where simply participating is a once in a lifetime opportunity, not to be passed up in my eyes.. and I'm not getting any younger! Who wants to go? Check the official website for some stage info. Seems this page is still developing- they just slapped something together for now.

Comparing two of my three hour rides

On the left is last Saturday's ride on very flat roads in Western New York. On that day it was 24 degrees and very windy.

On the right is today's ride on the back roads of Coventry, Scituate and Cranston. 30 degrees out and man I couldn't wait to get this one over with.. Lots of rolling hills, unlike last week's flat ride.. Thought about taking the B-line straight home a few times, many times. Just couldn't adapt to the cold for some reason, and didn't start to feel really comfortable until the 3rd hour. I also had to double back after the first 6 minutes because I could tell that the Powertap reading was off.. I haven't memorized how to zero the torque so I went home and found the instruction and took care of it. (It was reading 7 watts high) In the end, we see that I worked a lot harder today, which is good because I still seem to have some issues with the strain in my left knee area. Last Saturday i had to be a lot more careful and hold back a lot more.. I thought the pain was gone during the indoor rides I've done all week, obviously because it feels great when it's kept warm.. But apparently I forgotten one very important fact: This is the first time in a very long time, perhaps ever, that I've done so many rides in such cold weather. I need to apply the neoprene Ace bandages to both knees when I ride outside to make it through the next couple of months. I'm typically a hermit until the first robin is spotted, but since I'm planning to really make my mark in 2008, I'm doing everything "by the book" for a change. My knees and I really hate the cold.. It took all of my willpower to get out of my warm bed, suit up, open the door this morning and throw my leg over the bike. I dreaded it.. but it's going to make those upcoming 40+ and 50+ degree days feel like a heat wave. In the end, it's always a euphoric feeling to have forced yourself to do what you know what must be done. Happiness and self respect is guaranteed when the strength of mind and character prevails. Thanks for reading..

Tendonitis has abated

I did an indoor program last night which included 15 one minute efforts at threshold and I'm happy to report that the weakness of the left knee has dissipated 98%. It's healed nicely. Wrapping it with an Ace neoprene wrap kept it nice and warm.. I took lots of Glucosamine chondroitin just for good measure, and resisted testing it with hard efforts for the past week. No crutches for me..

:)

 

TTFU

I gave myself a healthy dose of it today when I went out riding in the 12 degree temps and gusting winds of Monroe County. Only for an hour though.. Not sure.. The Powertap stopped recording in the 50th minute.. And went completely blank about 5 minutes later. I think I'll have a new appreciation for New England's mild 30 degree temps when we return. Left knee is better, but right IT Band hurts in sympathy.. From nursing the left..
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Murat's in Ra-cha-cha!

We're visiting my mother and my brother in Rochester, NY this weekend. Threw the road bike up on the new bike rack and made the trip last night, arriving at 1:30 am. Today the temperature reached a pathetic 24 degrees F and with the gusting winds, I swear I was going 11 miles an hour on certain stretches of flat road in Webster NY. Ended up doing two big laps and finished at just over three hours at about 155 watts. It had to be 0-10 degrees with the wind chill.. Tomorrow's high temp will be in the teens. Good thing I brought the wind trainer. I might venture out for an hour and then follow up with another hour of spinning indoors.

Last weekend I sure did some damage it seems. The knee feels better- today's ride it felt like someone was just pinching the left side of my knee. My guess is that it's a tendon that's part of Vastus Lateralis. Whatever I did last Saturday caused a low grade strain of the tendon I think.. Puzzling- I didn't do any sprinting.. only some hard stomping at the tops of some small climbs.. nothing out of the ordinary for me.. It had more to do with the duration (four hours) than the intensity I think.

Lucky for me, my mother happens to have a gigantic bottle of Glucosamine Chondroitin in the house- 480 tablets! So I'll be horking down three of those a day for the next few weeks... I may also go to the drugstore and pick up a compression wrap.. Not sure what purpose they serve, but it seems like the right thing to do- hold everything tightly together and aid in cell migration during the healing. I don't know for sure. Maybe some more googling will help. I'm still ina bit of denial..

Rochester is C-COLD!! It's also the place where I first began to race a bike and a place where I know all the roads better than I know the roads of New England.. Rochester always feels like home to us..

Blood work results

Hematocrit level was 43 in last week's blood testing. Seems kind of low (?)

Combined cholestrol 252 (Yikes!)

Triglyceride 42 (Low?? What IS this?)

HDL Cholestrol 63 (Good Cholestrol is good)

LDL Cholestrol 181 (Bad cholestrol is high)

No more Johnny Rockets for me!

Scion Xb versus Chevy HHR

Which one is better? Both start around $16,000.. but only the Scion has ABS, side curtain airbags and traction control, standard.. The HHR has a nice and durable plastic clad trunk area and fold flat rear seats (Xb has chintzy fabric covering and flimsy trunk cover flap)

Both vehicles are good on gas- 28 and 30 mpg respectively. The Xb has more standard horsepower and is more fun to drive than the HHR. The HHR is styled like an old 1940's milk truck whereas the Xb is styled very high tech modern.. Maybe these vehicles both suck.. but please consider that we are looking for an affordable and roomy "novelty" vehicle with lots of curb appeal, one we can decorate with graphics and make it into a "WeeBIKE.com-mobile". It will also receive some graphics of the new M1 Racing Team. Thoughts? Opinions? Alternatives?

Big weekend of base

In the span of two days, I rode for 7 hours and 35 minutes, all outdoors. Wasn't easy, even with the mild weather, and my left knee was protesting a little bit today. Overuse. May it pass quickly.. Above is Saturday. Below is Sunday. I am quite tired from this. The good news is that I didn't feel any cramping during either of these long rides. Body has adapted nicely to these 3+ hour weekend rides I've been doing for the past month. Today's ride was noticably lower output because my left knee had some nuisance pain and I nursed it for the whole three hours and held back.

It's going to be a long week of cold weather and indoor training!

Bad Hair on a Bike: The Smiths

Via fellow Turkish blogger Finduk.. I don't believe I've seen this video since the time it first came out! Compared to all the junk on MTV these days, this is pretty cool to listen to, it's nostalgic and it's full of depressed teenagers on bikes. What more do you want?

Field Test Day

If you want to call it that.. that is.. if you consider the garage to be a "field".. I have done two previous attempts at this stationary field test in the past six weeks, both aborted.. The first time, was on the rollers. Big mistake. Not enough resistance to do the one minute blow-outs.. though I managed 318 watts for the 5 minute interval. Couple of weeks later, I tried again, this time on the wind trainer.. Had to abort again after the 5 minute interval (309 watts this time) because I just felt sick and weak- didn't eat enough and had a tough day in the field on my feet for 8 hours.. Tonight was different. I set up in the garage with the door open, nice cool breeze.. Did the 5 minute interval real conservatively.. and here's how it all compares:

My first field test of 2007, my second field test of 2007, my CP5 and CP20 of 2007, and tonight:

5 min: 304 watts on 5/12/07, 315 watts on 6/13/07, 334 watts on 6/23/07, 301 watts on 1/9/08

20 min: 234 watts on 5/12/07, 256 watts on 6/13/07, 265 watts on 9/4/07, 239 watts on 1/9/08

Let me just say that doing anything super high intensity for five minutes straight, on a wind trainer, with the knowledge that you're going to do a 20 minute time trial afterwards, is very tough mentally to get through.. [for me] Maybe the reason my previous two indoor attempts were aborted is because I blew too much on the 5 minute portion.. Tonight, I reigned myself in on the 5 minutes.. pegged it at 295 or so for the first four minutes, and then really pounded in the last minute, but only got it up to 301.. By keeping something in reserve, I managed a better result on the 20 minute TT portion of the test- I FINISHED IT, for one!.. What I'm happy to see is that I averaged higher tonight than I did on May 12th of last season (even though my Normalized Power on that test was higher: 262 versus 241) There's nowhere to hide on a wind trainer! No descents where you can coast for a few seconds.. This is what makes time trialing on a stationary bike so hard.. especially for a weenie like me who sucks at time trialing in the first place! At any rate, my 239 tonight is still a better result than my "easier" field test of May 12 of last year.. However.. these numbers are NOT good! Especially considering my current weight of 79 kg! (Yes, you're not the only one who has added 5-10 pounds this winter.. Quit looking at my gut!!! I'm working on it!!! SNL skit..Hehe.) My overall wattage picture is pretty bleak, especially when my watts/kg are plugged into a Coggan Power Profile.. It tells me I'm at a cat 4 level for all durations [except for 5 min.. where I'm rated a cat 3 for some reason..] Sometimes I think that it's a small miracle that I race against and finish all of these New England Masters crits which are stacked with Masters talent.. I must be very lucky.. Either that or very crafty about when to save energy and when to open the throttle.. and whose wheel to follow.. and whose to avoid..
Now it's time to use the data from tonight's test and apply it to the next three weeks of intensity. We can now estimate that my Functional Threshold is "X", and I'll be directed to do all kinds of different percentages of FT for all kinds of different durations.. No need to try and figure it out. Paying someone who understands my fitness better than I myself understand it, to help me force my body to adapt and get stronger/faster.. is just fine with me.. One less thing. Wish I had done it ten years ago. Thanks for reading.