Performance Management Chart

Here it is: The Holy Grail of Peaks WKO+ Software.

The pink line indicates ATL- Acute Training Load. This is the rolling average of TSS for the past 7 days. (default is 7 days- can be changed to a different duration)

The blue line is the CTL- Chronic Training Load. This is the rolling average of TSS for the past 42 days. (again- default setting is 42 days- can be user controlled too)

The golden bars represent TSB- Training Stress Balance. It is also referred to as "form". When ATL and CTL are down and criss crossing each other on the chart, notice that form goes up. When the golden bars are at their peak, those are good days to be competing in important races. From the look of my chart, I will pretty much serve as pack fodder at Chris Hinds this weekend.. or maybe I'll be a force to be dealt with- I'm unpredictable.. and I'm feeling fatigued right now and in theory I won't be ripping anyone's legs off until I have a solid week of restful active recovery behind me.. which won't be until the weekend of 4/19..

FYI, this chart is dated from the time I started training for 2008- November 18th 2007. Since that first day, I've done 2858 miles in 172 hours, and the Powertap odometer reads 6500 miles since I first used it on May 12th of 2007. That toal doesn't include any of the fixed gear or off roading I did earlier in the winter. Thanks for reading.

Thursday's program, Tuesday's feedback

**********************************
20:00 WU
15 x 30 seconds at CP6 with 30-second spin recoveries. Stop if power drops below CP6 zone. Rolling starts, standing, big gear. Get to top end quickly.
15 min tempo
10 min spin
**********************************
Sounds simple enough! I love workouts with sub 3:00 minute intervals. 30 seconds? Piece of cake. My normalized FTP of last season was established to be 304 watts by doing a very similar one hour workout.
Here's Tuesday's planned workout, followed by some back and forth with Coach Scheske..
***********************************
20:00 WU
Do 4 minutes at CP10 (Z5a), with 4 minutes RI x2
3 sets.
5:00 between each set.
15:00 Spin recovery/endurance
************************************

Well they are YOUR numbers so it is as hard as YOU go! These workouts are hard no doubt about it.

Yeah weekend looks crap for weather.

---

From: Murat Altinbasak
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 8:55 AM
To: Todd Scheske
Subject: RE: CP10? Charts Mon Tues

I tought it was a pretty hard workout! 329 is my present CP5- doing it six times in succession and I would have been curled up in the gutter- fetal position- before the end.

I am stronger- I tell myself every day.

The right knee is better too btw.

I'm racing twice Saturday- Pro-Am and 35+. It's looks like it might be cold, wet and miserable- small fields.

Todd Scheske wrote:

below

---

From: Murat Altinbasak
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 11:21 PM
To: Todd Scheske
Subject: RE: CP10? Charts Mon Tues

Todd,

I checked when I got home and CP10 at NP would be 329 watts! I'm glad I didn't know this because I would have surely ridden to failure somewhere during the 2nd interval.

[Scheske] yeah, and that would just mean that you are training hard and getting better…. Going easy is nicer and secures a place at the back of pack or back at the car and home early on a Sunday. ;)

I figured zone 5a would be about 300 watts, so that's what I aimed for, on all six intervals, missing the mark by a little bit, but pretty close. Had to skip the 5 min RI in between sets 2 and 3- I was running out of daylight. You'll find that intervals 5 and 6 were solid though.

[Scheske] don't worry about the number of intervals – do them on target and make them GOOD ones. I'd rather see 4 good intervals than 3 "so-so" ones and 3 lousy ones. (I did not look at the file yet)

I didn't feel 100% tonight. Long days at work with travel up to Boston are wearing me down.

[Scheske] work can be a detractor!

Am I going to have good legs this Saturday at Chris Hinds? I got 20th last year and want to be top five.. Looks like I'm pushing hard on Thursday again, and I already feel tired..

[Scheske] Saturday is not a priority race for you from what I remember, so I don't expect to see you on top form. We are working to build up right now. I'm not saying you won't be top 5 though since you are ahead of fitness from last year – but then again the race depends on who is there!

Monday's chart was copied from Tuesday's ride home, btw. I had forgotten my PT when I went to work with all my gear.

ttyl

Comparing Apples to Apples

One week ago, I did a solo ride which covered 57 miles in 3:10:40. Yesterday (Saturday 4/5/08), I set out to repeat this same route- one which criss crosses itself many times and keeps me reasonably close to home- one with relentless climbing and rolling hills. I really love this ride because it zig zags across West Warwick, Coventry, Scituate and Craston.. and it's just plain challenging. One day I'll ride it with my Polar S710i and show you the profile.. Okay long story short- I did the ride today in 2:59:55 and averaged 19 miles an hour. That is not all. The really interesting thing about today's ride is that the PowerTap gives an average watt reading of 210 watts today- last week it was 211! How is this possible? How can a ride which is almost 11 minutes faster have average power that is lower? Well for one, the Powertap is known to have a margin of error that is up to 5%.. which is why there's no reason to celebrate when we up our FTP by a few watts. At any rate, the key is in the normalized power! Yes, today's normalized power was about 5 watts higher than last week. What does this mean exactly? I think it means that when I was climbing, I dug deeper and produced more watts- which is easily proven by the 11 minutes I saved completing today's ride. But, for the average watts to be a touch lower, it also means that I required more recovery in between climbs. In the end, today's ride as fully one mile an hour faster than last Saturday- 19 mph. All things considered, I'm happy to see that I had it in me to do that. When I first started out, I did not feel very strong.. but heck if I was any good at training and racing 'by feel' I wouldn't have any need for a power meter, would I?
Now for some very cool charts:

Above is last Saturday, below is yesterday- one week apart, same exact ride. As I suspected, the low end and the top end power ranges (zone 1 active recovery, and zone 5b anaerobic capacity) are both a lot higher in the second ride, the one which was completed in 11 fewer minutes. To wit, the zone 1 changed from 37 minutes to 48 minutes, and the zone 5b changed from 13 minutes to 18 minutes.. Which goes to show you that for every extra 1 minute I spent in zone 5b, I needed an extra 2 minutes in zone 1.

Another chart:

This one is called the Mean Maximal Power Curve. It plots a multitude of durations against the corresponding maximum number of watts I did. Here, I've plotted both last Saturday's ride (in yellow) and yesterday's ride (dashed). It's hard to tell by looking so let me give you the wattage differences (last week vs this week) for CP1 (340:381), CP2 (307:324), CP5 (280:272), CP10 (255:246), CP20 (237:234), CP30 (same) and CP60 (same). Here again, we can see that I drilled it harder on the climbs- none of which were over a mile- most were 1/4 to 1/2 mile rollers. Here's what I get out of this (and it really comes as no surprise): I perform better when there is a lot of variability. I can wind it up into zone 5 -repeatedly- and recover from it quickly. which also explains why I suffer and perform poorly in situations where a steady zone 4 grind is required. I do a lousy job of "time trialing" and a lousy job of being in a break, especially on a flat course. I'm working on this weakness, of course, and that means I need to get into as many breaks as possible. I need to tough it out to the end just once and break the spell.

Another interesting nugget: Last week's CP60 occured between 90 and 150 minutes. Yesterday, it was minute 1 thru 60 of my ride. Both averaged 226 watts, but normalized watts (243:252) and cadence (86:90) were higher in the 2nd ride's CP60.

Lastly, overall average cadence of both rides was exactly the same: 87. That's not something I plan, it just happens.

Mean Maximal Power Curve

The above chart graphs two sets of data. On the bottom: duration. On the left: Maximal Power. This represents the best level of sustained power, ever, for the corresponding duration. The reason there are two graphs is because one of them represents my 2007 season (in dashed lines) and the other represents 2008 year to date. The very best data comes from racing of course, and since racing thus far has been limited, there is a large disparity, especially in the durations under 5 minutes. In Peaks software, if I drag the cursor over the graph, it gives the peak watts for that duration, along with the date when it was achieved. I've given an example up there. Pretty slick if you ask me..

HRM [can] = Under-training

The great thing about commuting (and my boss is perfectly aware of this): It makes me jump out of bed earlier (with vigor and vim) and I actually arrive at the office earlier than when I drive in, and more awake too.

The no so great thing (in my boss' eyes) is that I tend to leave the office a little earlier too, on those day that I ride home. It's hard to resist.. I want to leave right now and it's only 4:37..

Gonna make it a nice 90 minute endurance ride. I did miserable FTP intervals of 10 and 20 minutes last night..indoors.. especially hard because we just recently upped my FTP by many many watts. See that's the great thing about training with a power meter! You are required to adjust your intensity periodically. As much as I respect the HRM, you can't do that without a power meter and without Peaks software. If I used a HRM, I'd be at the same "LT" threshhold heart rate all season, even after the legs have adapted and gotten stronger and zones have shifted. For example, back in January, my tempo zone was 175 to 210 watts. Today, it's 205 to 245. Big difference. How hard would I be pushing myself after this much adaptation, if I followed my HRM?  

If you're not careful, using only a HRM can mean you are under-training. Not pushing hard enough, not stressing systems enough (especially after a steep curve of adaptation).. next thing you know, you're performance is flat-lining. Thoughts? Discuss.

Stop

I'm going 1 million miles an hour at work lately and I need to just stop for a moment and remind myself that I'm human.. A few deep breaths.. A pause for reflection.. Lots of FTP work awaits me tonight on the trainer. I can't wait.. Outside would have been swell, but look out there- it's warm but raining sideways! As predicted, I really felt the stress of Saturday's ride at Wells Ave on Sunday. A break of six formed and held a 20-30 second gap on us until the end. I contributed to the chase most every lap but blockers were doing a very good job.. We had them in our sights the whole time! Frustrating that I didn't have it in me to just bridge across solo. Saturday took a lot out of me though.. Found myself third across the line in the field sprint. Great to see team mates Joe B. and Michael S. there by my side. Good times were had by all.

3+ hours.. again

I don't think I've ridden as many 3+ hour rides in the past three years, as I have in these past three months. Weird.. Today was no exception. Yeah it took some willpower to get out there today- the cold temp and wind was not attractive- but the sunny weather made it bearable. I often do a huge 60 mile loop on such days- that is, on the days when I don't quite have my heart into freezing my kahunas off for three hours. When you pick a big route, there's no way weenie out of it. Today I decided to play it close to home, so I guess in the back of my mind, I trusted myself to do exactly what I'm supposed to do: 3-1/2 hours of hilly endurance- riding FT on all the climbs. I did a familiar ride which criss crosses all over the climbs of Coventry and Scituate and ends with a high speed descent into Cranston and back into West Warwick on the bike path.
I did the ride a little differently today: insead of displaying avg watts, I wanted to see current watts- how else will I meter my FT efforts on the climbs? Long story short, without seeing the average watts, I dug a little too deep in between climbing, and ended up with an average power for the 3+ hours, of 212 (normalized about 240). Meaningless to you, I know.. until I tell you that my zone 3 tempo range begins at 204.. so this was no endurance ride. I don't usually pay much attention to average speeds, but today's was a little over 18 mph, so I noticed.. Adaptation! Who's happier than me? Of course the legs are a little bit thrashed, so I'll feel this tomorrow at Wells Ave. Thanks.

He's going the distance.. he's going for speed..

Funny song.. Long week, but it went by fast! Here we are on Friday.. and with rain threatening all week, it's a surprise that I managed to commute to work by bike every singe day (including today!) I am very happy about that. Happiness for me usually involves doing things I don't feel like doing, but which I know I must do.. Discipline. Keeping promises to myself. 

All tricked out in my new bike uniforms, I feel pretty good. The whole team looks great. Looking good is a part of feeling good, no denying that.. or at least that the reverse is true.

Selling kid's bikes! We're going to grow this business if it kills us. Lots of incredible ideas and plans have been developing behind the scenes between dear wife and I. The "blogsite was updated recently, mainly to announce the arrival of new colors of the LikeaBike Jumper- red, white and blue. See for yourself. We sold a few bikes this past week and that's always great. I love it when the Crackberry goes off to announce that someone bought a bike out of our inventory from our Ebay store. Lately, with the dollar so weak, most bikes are being sold to outside of the US.. Fine and dandy. I shipped a bike to Canada yesterday.

Training program has been different this week- primarily because it was all performed outside for a change! I was apprehensive at first, because of the cold and wind, which I hate. Suffering through intervals is bad enough without fighting the cold and wind and traffic.. Plus with my newly rated Functional Threshold Power, I was worried that I was going to blow my wad and ride to failure on Tues and Thurs. Turns out I am a lot stronger than I give myself credit for. On Tuesday I trounced through my three ten minute intervals at FTP (271 with 10 min recovery in between) - actually I held back a few watts on the first two and then nailed it on the third one. Then last night a series of ten FT+10% (300w) intervals 1 min on 1 min off, followed by three more 3 min intervals at FT+5% (285w), 3 min recovery in between. This looks to be the first week in 2008 where I break 200 miles. The bike commuting helps. The pounds will now really begin to melt away! Thanks for reading.

New FTP established

These e-mails sure put a spring in my step!:

 

From: "Todd Scheske"

To: "'Murat Altinbasak'"
Subject: RE: charts Sat Sun
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:13:03 -0400

Look at your MMP chart with NP and then look at what the 1:00 NP is.  271.  I notice that you like to grab the "peak 60 minutes", but that isn't necessarily and often is NOT the CP60 you want.  The peak 60 minutes is the best ave watts for an hour.

 

I also noticed that you coasted 18% of the time in the race – so it looks like you were not out there just pulling the field around.  And no surprise then that you got something in the end too.

 

---

From: Murat Altinbasak
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 8:02 AM
To: Todd Scheske
Subject: RE: charts Sat Sun

 

Please tell me where you see such a nice FTP..

I look at CP60 for yesterday- it's 220 I think. Normalized CP60 is 258 or 264. (I'm at work- going by memory)

Do you see something which I don't see?

I mean.. you made my day, really.. I'm psyched.. but I need to buy into it a little more.

Help me understand!

Nice ride and now you have a GOOD measure of your CP60.  I bumped your FTP to 271 starting Saturday based on Sunday's race numbers.

 

TTYL...

 

Todd

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Murat Altinbasak

Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 2:27 PM
To: Todd Scheske
Subject: charts Sat Sun

 

Raced today up at Wells. Huge field!

Lucky break of 12 got away early and lapped the field.

I took 8th in the final field sprint, which included the guys in the break. Felt good, just some soreness and acidity left over from yesterday. Getting better at accelerating.

ttyl. 

Week No 4: Wells Avenue No 2

The Reader's Digest version goes like this:
Well attended race included Brendan and Murat of the Millwork One Racing team. Someone sat up and deliberately let a gap open early on, 12 guys rode away unfettered never to be seen again.. until they lapped/re-joined us about 50 minutes later.. Sickening. Brendan and Murat spent untold laps at the front pulling/chasing/fighting to close said gap, along with other frustrated guys like Matt K., Kyle G., Eric M.. Final sprint included everyone and their brother with two watts left to rub together. Yours Truly is 8th in the field sprint.. meaning I wasted at least five of those who were in the break.. probably more. Brendan hot on my heels and looking as solid as ever after a tough day of racing Saturday at Charge Pond. In our new uniforms we looked pretty slick too. Power Meter numbers tell a promising story- my form today is very close towhat it was in July 2007, based upon today's CP20 and CP60 values. Yesterday's ride was 270 TSS- so the legs were pretty thrashed even before racing started today. Thanks for reading.

Tour of Turkey boosted by five ProTour teams

by Jean-François Quénet

While cycling in the sport's traditional European countries has been complicated this year by political battles, there are big ambitions for the sport in new areas of development. The Presidential Tour of Turkey is one race which has gained more attention with an upgrade to the 2.1 category, luring five ProTour teams for its 44th edition from April 13 to 20. The event was won last year by Bulgarian Ivailo Gabrovski when it was still a 2.2 race.

The Tour of Turkey will feature 25 teams, among them five ProTour teams: Milram, Lampre, Saunier Duval, Silence-Lotto and Astana. The Kazakh team is expected to line up Andreas Klöden, Vladimir Gusev and Tomas Vaitkus. The biggest name on the start list should be Alessandro Petacchi who used to take part – and win most of the stages – in the Niedersachsen Rundfahrt but the historical German race is cancelled this year due to a lack of funds.

The Presidential Tour of Turkey will start on the same day as Paris-Roubaix with a 79km criterium in Istanbul. The riders will then fly to Izmir and ride along the Mediterranean coastal side to Alanya. An extremely scenic route will welcome to the stars of cycling.

The participants:
ProTour Teams: Milram (Ger), Lampre (Ita), Saunier Duval (Spa), Silence-Lotto (Bel), Astana (Lux)
Professional Continental teams: Benfica (Por), Karpin-Galicia (Spa), Mitsubishi-Jartazi (Est), Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni (Ven), CSF Group-Navigare (Ita), NGC Medical (Swi), PSK Whirlpool (Cze)
Continental teams: Bourgas (Bul), Team Ista (Ger), Cosmote Kastro (Gre), Atlas-Römers (Swi), Liberty Seguros (Por), Tyrol-Team Radland (Aut), Sparta Praha (Cze), Partizan (Ser), Stegcomputer-CKT (Swi); 4 national teams: Netherlands, Ireland, Turkey, Brisa

The route.
April 13: Criterium Istanbul, 79.2km.
April 14: Izmir-Kusadasi, 132.7km
April 15: Kusadasi-Bodrum, 165.9km
April 16: Bodrum-Marmaris, 166.8km
April 17: Marmaris-Oludeniz, 177.7km
April 18: Kalkan-Finike, 100.1km
April 19: Finike-Antalya, 115.8km
April 20: Antalya-Alanya, 136.6km

Official Tour of Turkey website.

 

Looks like Murat's hopes are dashed! In years past, the overall purse was only about 15,000 Euros. This year, it's ten fold.. and has attracted the ProTour teams to prove it. I've chatted with Joe Papp who won stages there a few years ago.. I reached out to him because I wanted to make a good call about trying to get my ass in there. He said it would be the hardest thing I've ever done but that I'd regret it forever if I didn't try. I agreed.. but that was before I discovered that the 44th edition would include real pro teams. It used to be a bunch of Eastern European and Middle Eastern teams that I believe I could survive racing with..I've raced with the elites and National Team members in Turkey before- kicked all their asses back in 1989 when I was a junior in fact.. Not anymore! They've evolved into quite a force.. or at least they better have if they want to make the time cuts.. Maybe I should just go to Turkey in June for Masters Nationals where I actually have a realistic chance at the podium.

Word of the Day: "Expeleration"

For the past two Saturdays, I've trained indoors to avoid the terrible climate outside. This means that an otherwise three hour endurance ride has to be modified for indoor duration and intensity. So what I do is repeat Tuesday night's workout and add 30 minutes of zone 2 to the end. Tuesday's program goes like this:
20 minute warm up
3 minutes FT+10% (for me this is about 270 watts, right now)
3 minutes Recovery
Repeat 2 more times
10 minute Recovery
3 minutes FT+10%
Repeat 1 more time
5 minutes recovery
Let me give you a visual of the meat and potatoes of this workout:

I applied 30 second smoothing so the data isn't so choppy. Please bear in mind that during the intervals, my PT display is set to show average watts, so I don't know when I've spiked or dropped wattage, I'm just aiming to manipulate the average as I go. Also notice the heart rate and how it increases during the interval, peaking at the last second. Not for nothing, but I believe that trying to do this workout with a HRM would attain a much different result in output- not necessarily a bad thing- just different. But that's coming from an admitted sufferer of OCD.. which will explain my infatuation with power data.. Anywho.. As you can see, I'm already tired going into this session. Each interval starts out strong and there's some weakness in the middle and then a strong finish at the end. It so happens that this past weekend was the final two days of a pretty stressful 4 week build, which the chart at the top will attest to.

Long story short, this means that I was not prepared to be a strong contender at either Bethel last Sunday, or at Ninigret yesterday. Fresh legs were needed, and mine were over-cooked. What I seem to have built up over the past 2000+ miles which began on Nov 18th is: cruising speed. Yesterday I can go at a pretty good clip and make average Joe suffer and wince in my wake- so long as the tempo didn't change.. but as soon as someone jumped and the speed of the pack went up 5 mph in an instant, I experienced something I will call "Expeleration™".. which is defined as "an acceleration which causes one to have sensations of riding their bike in reverse and getting spit out the back of a pack of bike racers." So yes, much like it happened at Bethel last Sunday, a certain expeleration™ in minute 10 of Ninigret required me to sit up and question whether I should regret not suffering through the episode or whether I was wise to catch my breath and try again. I soft pedaled to the start finish and cut across the course, taking what amounted to a half lap breather. From then on though, it was game-on. I rode with some [former] AFD and NBX folks- 6 or 7 of us total, and we did a nice rotation for the remaining 40 minutes of our race. I tended to take my pull from the fifth left hander out in back, all the way to the finish. Felt strong. People remarked to me that I was strong, but "what happened in the beginning there?" Seemed to me that Jim Peters, Mike M of AFD (riding a pristine 90's CONCORDE made rom STEEL) and myself did the lion's share of work while others skipped pulls repeatedly. In the end, we were lapped of course.. and I even sprinted for the line just because I felt like sprinting.. and almost took the "field sprint" if you can call it that- the field was shattered all over the course- with no telling who was in what position or who was lapped 3 times.. anyway, one guy came around me at the end.. but it felt good to finally accelerate on my own terms, at my own personal zone 5b.. Afterwards, team mate Brendan and I did a 60 minute tour of Charlestown, rode the old Bob Beal course in reverse.. after that my OCD kicked in again and I resolved to complete 3 full hours of riding so I did another 15 laps on the Ninigret couse by myself, which was more meditative than beneficial to my form.. Brendan was in the lead break for the first 15 minutes of racing and I was so happy to see him up there with Amos and Adam S and other big engines. He had to ease off later on but did a fine job of finishing somewhere in the top 6-8 guys. Bravo.
Today marks the beginning of a rest week- just a few active recovery zone 1/2 rides until Saturday- when a Field Test is scheduled to check my FT level. Weather permitting, this will be done on the road, as it should be. Future 08 training will be mostly outside, so establishing the new FT outside is kind of important.
Thanks for reading. Please spare me the "I-am-a-purist-and-ride-by-feel-and-you-suck-because-you're-a-slave-to-an-overpriced-toy" rhetoric. I don't need it. I don't appreciate it. Tongue-in-cheek one-liners are okay..

Must be nice..

..to debate a topic without an opponent.. When I'm at work, I can't get into Blogger to reply to comments on anyone's blog- I can only do this from home. So I then need to resort to using my own blog as a venue, just to get a word in. To answer the latest comments:

1. You're putting words in my mouth. I do not dismiss the effectiveness of training without a power meter. As you point out, I myself did it for 20 years. FOR ME, it's a lot more fun to use one!.. and effective too!, especially when training time is limited and you want/need to optimize your workouts for maximum benefit. I do not train hard because it's fun and enjoyable. That's why I race (for fun). Successful training makes racing a lot more fun.. Do the math.  

2. When I took my first 20 minute TT (as part of my first Field Test) I did not even know what the numbers meant, or how to record intervals or how to even view the average power on the readout. It was the first day I ever used the thing and I just let it run like a flight data recorder while I did the best 20 minutes I possibly could.

3. I have never aspired to be a runner or a skier.

4. I do not belilttle those who train without a power meter. If I come off that way, it's just reciprocation 'in-kind' of the attitude towards power meters, which prevails.

5. There's no shame in being dropped by you, SB. PT or organic training.. no shame. 

And Ge: Not all 3 minute intervals are alike. Needless to say, you can take FT and add/subtract whatever percentage is necessary to get the desired stress/workout.

"Pain is pain. Suffer for three minutes." says a lot about your approach to training!  

It might be fine and dandy for you to just hit the broad side of a barn.. for me personally, I want to hit a much smaller target because I'm looking for a very specific result from the training.

Franz Wright's words of wisdom

"Letter" January 1998

I am not acquainted with anyone there,

if they spoke to me

I would not know what to do.

But so far nobody has, I know

I certainly wouldn't.

I don't participate, I'm not allowed;

I just listen, and every morning

have a moment of such happiness, I breathe

and breathe until the terror returns. About the time

when they are supposed to greet one another

two people actually look into each other's eyes

and hold hands a moment, but

the church is so big and the few who are there

are seated far apart. So this presents no real problem.

I keep my eyes fixed on the great naked corpse, the vertical corpse

who is said to be love

and who spoke the world

into being, before coming here

to be tortured and executed by it.

I don't know what I am doing there. I do notice the more I lose touch

with what I previously saw as my life

the more real my spot in the dark winter pew becomesâ€"it is infinite. What we experience

as space, the sky

that is, the sun, the stars

is intimate and rather small by comparison.

When I step outside the ugliness is so shattering

it has become dear to me, like a retarded

child, precious to me.

If only I could tell someone.

The humiliation I go through

when I think of my past

can only be described as grace.

We are created by being destroyed.

-Franz Wright

..and now.. you know the rest of the story. I listened to Franz read this piece during an interview on NPR one day, and those last few lines made me want to pull over on the side of the road and put my head in my hands and cry. Those last six words continue to ring in my head and there isn't a day which passes that they don't cross my mind or my lips- albeit silently- to myself like a prayer or a national anthem where your voice is silent but your mouth wants people to think otherwise. As with the poisonous chemotherapy which my dear father is enduring these days as he fights the cancers in his body, so too does the phrase apply to the sport I love, in which stressing and breaking down the body systems causes adaptations which make them stronger and better. So I applied these words to my two blogs, and to the new uniforms of my bike racing team- on the back of the collar. It's hard to make out, but you can see it here, bottom center. To listen or read exerpts of the show which I believe I caught on NPR that day.. click here.

Yeah I love crunching the numbers..

..but the last thing I will do is tell anyone else how to "get faster" (except for having a PLAN to follow- aim for nothing and you'll hit it every time- there should be a plan, even if it resides only in your head)

To each his own.. I don't do periodic brain dumps here in order to draw criticism to myself or to criticize others. I do what I do.. the way I want to do it, the way in which I most enjoy it and the way which fires me up the most. My way won't work for everyone, or even many, or even a few. It might be completely incompatible with your ideals, beliefs, principles and values. I like sharing my experiences and hearing feedback- that's cool.

I do not pretend to have 'figured it all out'. But I do believe that I'm stressing my systems and forcing them to adapt using proven methods and techniques. Even so, I know that there's a coin flip of a chance between success and failure. I believe in chance and luck and karma and having a bad day and having a great day, and chaos, and having little or no control over things like crashes, Illness, tendonitis, IT bands, Saddle sores, the weather, a flat tire, gravel in a corner..

The one thing I can control is the frequency, duration and intensity of my training, when all of the above is favorable, that is..

If I choose to do a sloppy job of managing the few things I AM able to control, then I have no business being on a podium anywhere, and I have no excuse to piss and moan about missing the podium either.

Ride and train with a purpose. If this is too hard for you, then refrain from professing about how to train.. unless you enjoy indoctrinating an audience on matters which you yourself don't take very seriously. 

Ass was handed to me!

Nothing I could do.. It's the end of my third week into this build period. Been working very hard.. Yesterday's workout was intense.. Today I had to sit up after 7 laps... Took a one lap breather.. Tried again for another 7 or so laps.. Didn't have it.. Not today. The Pro field was inspired today.. 60+ strong and loaded with 20-something horsepower... One more hard week and it's a rest week beginning on 3/10. I look forward to the recovery. I'll be back.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Okay now I'm home.. and I don't feel so bad now that I know that the first ten minutes of the race were harder than the best ten minutes of my best race result of 2007- where I was 12th at New Britain. (Being 12th doesn't sound so great until you consider that I emptied the tank up to the final corner, making it through first, and I held on for dear life while 11 guys managed to pass me on that long sprint- I repeated this in the 30+ race which followed- first through the corner and 12th in the sprint)
At any rate:
Today's first 10 minutes: 228 avg watts, 322 watts normalized
New Britain 35+ 2007: 227 avg watts, 286 watts normalized
So all things considered.. I'm happy about today. I know that I was a little bit shell shocked with the accelerations and a little bit intimidated too, having not really raced since September 16th, where I crashed badly at Bob Beal.. Afterward, I rode down route 53 and 107 and route 7 to get some more saddle time in. Wifey leapfrogged me periodically in the car and then picked me up before we got on the Merrit Parkway.
Before I forget, let me salute my friend Ted S. for doing the 40+ and later also doing the P-1-2-3 with me. He looked as cool as a cucumber and seems poised to have a great year in 2008.

Nerves

I am stoked with adrenaline for this Sunday's event. Although.. It suck balls racing in the cold, even if it's a mild 38-40 degrees. To those who wondered, yes I've been stretching very carefully before my big effort rides, for a few weeks now. I've always stretched before racing. Stretching before a 3 hour endurance ride is new to me though. I always thought it was more important to stretch after such a ride, than beforehand. The insoles I installed recently seem to be helping too, though I don't like that my shoes are now kind of snug. I am due for a new pair I think.. I've had my blue DMTs since summer of 2005. They're a little tired, and on their fourth set of Speedplay cleats.

Sunday.. I can't wait. How many days before cross season begins?.. Not nearly enough, I'm afraid..  

Ronde de Bethel

After much painful contemplation, I decided to test my legs at Bethel this weekend instead of at Ninigret. My reasoning was pretty simple- Bethel isn't a training race. It has actual USAC "race value". Not to say I don't love thrashing myself on the 'ol airstrip with the coarse grained glass impregnated chip/seal of Ninigret Park.. But seeing that I can take the family out to CT, visit with some old freinds of ours after the race and such, it was a no-brainer. One thing I notice about Ninigret in the winter- it's awfully depressing and desolate. Oh well.. Bethel here I come! I'll be joined by team mate Scotty Sullivan. We don't have our new uniforms yet- those are still two weeks out, but I'm hopeful that we can both make our mark this weekend. I have 120 hours and 1800 miles of base under my belt since mid November.. and while it's true I'm in the middle of a four week build, I'm just dying to test the legs in 'combat'. I expect to build confidence from a strong performance Sunday, but anything can happen.

A Clue! A Clue!

"We are gonna play blue's clues, cuz it's a really great game! Yeah!" Get out your handy dandy notebooks because I might have figured out why my left knee is being such a pussy lately. But first, lest we forget.. Keep the barf bag handy before clicking. Lots of this stuff over there:
Below are exhibits 'A' and 'B'.

Above, notice the damage which was done in the Bob Beal Criterium crash of 2007. The pain I feel [on rides over 3 hours] occurs between 3 and 6 o'clock relative to the scar's position. Sometimes it feels like I can put my finger right on the spot that's injured or overused.

Below, left cleat of my shoe with a suspiciously extended float limiter. With the screw extended so far towards center, my heel's movement to the outside is quite limited. In contrast, the right cleat has quite a bit more float in it, in both directions. As you can see the crash has shredded the cleat a little bit and possibly spun that limit screw to where it shouldn't be. I never noticed it until tonight.. that my left foot had such a small amount of float, that is..

So what are the odds that my crash injury and my cleat abnormality have been contributing to this knee pain and weakness? Why is my right knee fine and dandy.. even though I sometimes nurse the left and lean harder on the right? Maybe it has nothing to do with miles or intensity or hours or cadence. Maybe there's simply something out of whack in there because of the crash, and maybe it's compounded by the limited float of the left cleat- which is something I should have noticed- dang. I'd never put the two shoes side by side until tonight, when I noticed the odd position of the limit screw.. Hmmm....

Tonight I installed some new insoles- the kind you heat up in the oven. Made the shoes feel a little tighter, but the arch support is wonderful. My arches have been floating in mid air for a long time and I think it's been a real drain on my leg strength. These insoles have a "Tempurpedic effect" meaning that every square centimeter of my foot feels like it's supported equally. They also gave me something close to what I would have achieved with LeWedge. Let's see how it goes with tomorrow night's intervals..

Changed the Powertap hub batteries tonight and did a little 45 minute spin. Good times.

Funny new catchphrase overheard on Sunday's smackdown: "ten-speeding". Makes you LOL don't it? How about the old term "English Racer"? which in the 70s.. meant any bike with giant 27" wheels and drop handlebars. The epitome of coolness in the eyes of a 12 year old.. Having an English racer made you the shit in my neighborhood (which was College Point- a part of Queens, NY) An older friend of mine gave me his old yellow Atala when I was 13.. and as Paul Harvey would say, "now you know the rest of the story.."

Have a GREAT day.

3:40 and time to replace the 357s

No reference to marijuana or firearms in that title..
3:40 is the duration of Sunday's ride.. which also included team mates Joe, Scott, and Michael plus the "older Adam" and Kip. All good men and a pleasure to ride with. I rode to Prov Bike for a 9:45 intercept and we took off from there into western RI. A nice tempo ride for much of the time.. we took it easy on occasion and other times we throttled it full gas up some of the rollers.. Good times were had by all.. No crashes and no flats.. and we rode over lots of ice and snow!
The batteries used by the Powertap hub are No 357s- two of them are in there, both dead, which makes sense since they're rated to last 2500 miles and I just turned 5300. It did record data intermittently but was kaput by the time I got home. Yeah the knee hurt some more after I completed the 3rd hour. Was also tight for the first 20 minutes.. It's quite vexing to NOT KNOW what the fuck the exact problem is in there. I need to see a specialist and don't know where to begin. Maybe I should ring my PCP and get a referral. Otherwise I'm going to try seeing an A.R.T. (active release technician) That and I also need a root canal, for a tooth that supports my bridge.. again. Last time the surgeaon drilled right through the bridge and patched it back up. Yeah, when-it-rains-it-pours. Have a fine Monday!