No Rest for the Weary

As much as I wanted to sleep-in late on Sunday morning, I knew that this would have been incompatible with my goals. A shorter and less intense ride was needed to keep the legs feeling loose and so I ventured north on 116 to meet some of the other RI locals at the infamous Gazebo between routes 6 and 6A. Timing my departure perfectly, I got there with a few minutes to spare in just under 40 minutes. Lucky for me, the ten of us meandered back towards the roads I know and love, and where route 14 crossed 117, I said my farewells and headed back east towards home. It was a wet and warm ride punctuated with some stiff winds and even some rain towards the end. All the snow runoff made for a messy ride though. The bike is in very sad shape.. Here's the data which you have come to expect: I adjusted the Polar pickup on the fork so it holds the signal better. I also repaired the Powertap- the two were off by only about 1/4 mile of distance. Thanks for reading.

First Century of 2009 in 5:12:30

Funny thing about today's ride. The Powertap quit working at the 4:20 mark (he-he) The question is, how long ago did the wire snap? Since I look down at it pretty often it was a minute at the most.. You might recall my very ugly but effective repair job I did two months ago. Well it's the first place I looked when I noticed the speed and watts readouts went blank. The purple wire was separated again. Your quick thinking hero had a back up plan, of course. His Polar heart rate monitor was busy recording speed, distance, heart rate, elevation and so forth, so he immediately hit the lap button to at least get good data for the rest of the ride. The Powertap was kaput, but it was reading 4:20 and 84 miles ridden- that's 19.4 miles per hour. Being so ticklishly close to the century mark, I decided then and there that I must do at least another 16 miles or else regret it until I die. Expecting to do the same average speed for the rest of the ride home, I did all kinds of math in my head in terms of how much longer I would need to ride. (One sucky thing about the Polar 720i- it refuses to give you the mileage of a ride, while you're recording data) With the Polar now recording a new lap for me, it seemed like a sure bet that one more hour would cinch the century, no problem. In fact, I got to my neighborhood a little bit early and just kept riding- went up Seven Mile Hill Road and back down it, adding 1:07 to the 4:20 I clocked on the PT. Surely this meant that my total would be around 105 miles or so. Unfortunately, I doubt if I'll ever know the true mileage- it turns out that the Polar was losing signal all throughout the ride and it only recorded 80 miles at the 4:20 point, where the Powertap recorded 84 (these two are usually dead nuts even) Oh well. I just wanted to know one thing- the exact duration of my 100 miles. Well it's anybody's guess, but I'm going with a conservative 19.2 mph average (the first 4:20 was 19.4) and going with 5 hours and 12.5 minutes to complete the first 100 miles. (16 miles in 52:30 makes sense) Sounds like a safe bet. Of this, I rode solo for one hour to meet the group, I rode 2:30 with the group, and then I rode 2 hours solo to get home. Please use the comments section to congratulate me and heap praise upon me for my accomplishment.
Overall ride time: 5 hours 28 minutes
Overall distance: 105 miles
Average speed: 19.2 mph

Above, the Powertap data is more reliable than the Polar, at least until wires break. The purple speed graph below shows a lot of 'zero' speed, when in reality we stopped only twice to pee, once for food and I stopped once to check out the PT.

Never forget your hard hat!

One of my jobsites has a good way of deterring visitors from forgetting to bring their own hard hats.. Below, we spy the 80 ton crane that I have to rent in order to hoist Premium grade woodwork in through the window of a Penthouse on Beacon Street. Why does the name of a local racing team come to mind? Interestingly, I have a team of carpenters working on all levels of this 11 story building, for the past year, and one of them is a former racer who was probably better known as "Big Dig". He has an open invitation to join my team, as his employer and mine are both owned by the same person, but I understand completely when the "life requirements" of a 20-something make it necessary to hang the bike up for a while. Been there, Derek. Your place is reserved, whenever you're ready.

Successful Resting

Let me reiterate, it's a "rest week", not a "rest weekend"..
This week: A grand total of 3 hours logged in four sessons on the trainer, none exceeding 130 watts average. I've been good. I'll do another hour tonight with a few 60 second spin-ups to 140 rpm in a small gear. The legs always feel "funny" after a rest week, and gently reminding them that they will be required to do very hard work after said rest, is probably a good idea.
It will be a good weekend to pound out a couple of solid 4 hours rides, and I will refrain from doing them with a hangover this time!

Frederiek Nolf found dead in hotel room at Tour of Qatar

Exerpt from VN article:
"The Topsport Vlaanderen team quit the tour Thursday morning and race organizers were making arrangements to return riders and staff to Belgium. Other riders on the team have also withdrawn from the Etoile de Bessèges in southern France, said team director Walter Planckaert.
According to Merckx Thursday's fifth stage — from the Camel Race Track to the Doha Foundation — will be shortened to 40 kilometers and neutralized in remembrance of the young Belgian.
"Out of respect for Frederiek Nolf, the riders will form a cortege throughout the stage," said Merckx."

Catching up with last week

I didn't post much last week because of a nasty sinus infection which developed on Sunday, the day after my epic 87 mile ride (talking about 10 days ago here) In spite of my head feeling like a drum, I went to YMCA and did my weightlifting Sunday night. Monday I was kaput- could barely get out of bed- I called in sick.. this didn't stop me from going to my spin class at 6:00 though. I felt horrible in the beginning, but at the end I was better. Tuesday I dragged myself to work and put in a double shift until 11:00 pm, leaving the office only for lunch and to do the Pilates class at 6:30. Feeling a little better at this point. Wednesday was awful in terms of what I went through at work. People generally need to exploit weakness (if/when they can find one) in order to get the best of me.. and a handful of different people decided to throw me under the bus on Monday while I was out sick and still answering calls and e-mails with my Blackberry. This made for a highly stressful and depressing week overall, but all the more reason to stick to the training program- I did indeed go to the SPIN class at the Y on Wed after work. Thursday I rested- no bike, no workouts or Pilates or anything. Just rest. In fact, I went to bed at 8:00 and slept until 7:00 am. I really needed that. Friday was business as usual, though thoughts of a different career path were very strong and at the end of the day, I was almost surprised that I wasn't packing my things into a cardboard box. Friday night I did a highly challenging 75 minute ride which averaged 225 watts- I drilled a large number of 1-3 minute intervals with 1-2 minutes of rest in between. Much of the week's frustrations were driven into the pedals I think. Saturday an easier indoor ride with three FT intervals of 5:00 a piece- not leg breaking, but it felt hard after the previous workout. Saturday night your hero went out drinking and shooting pool with good friend and former co-worker Kaan Duru. We went to Snookers where I easily won all but two games in a three hour period. I used to play for money. My cue stick was purchased when I was 16, about 22 years ago. I'm a little better than average right now because I hardly ever play, but with a little practice, I'd have no fear of entering a local 9 ball tournament.. So Saturday night I pretty much had a good time and drowned my sorrows with six Sam Adams Light beers and a Mojito for good measure. In bed at 1:30 with a spinning head, meant that I was in rare form Sunday morning for the LBL ride, which you've already read all about. Sunday night I did not go and lift weights- too tired and cramped up. I did my Nautilus last night though, and wow, I looked in the mirror after all that lifting and couldn't help noticing the torso taking on a very distinctive V shape. That fires me up. This morning I did a 20 minute recovery spin and tonight there's Pilates, so.. yeah the beat goes on. This is a rest week so I will be reigning myself in on the SPIN class and the intervals. I'll save myself for a nice long hard ride on Saturday when it's predicted to be over 40 degrees out. Thanks for reading.

Sunday's LBL ArcenCiel Ride

The ArcenCiel team has an annual ride that's called the "LBL" and I was fortunate to be a part of it this Sunday. Your hero had a terrible day of cramping and low energy, but the good people in today's ride got me to the end of the 66 miles with lots of generous pacing, pushing and encouragement. I think the total TSS of Friday and Saturday was more than I realized, and that the six or so beers I uncharacteristically consumed late into Friday night did me no favors. (It was a very rare guy's night out- and such nights are not to be wasted on sobriety) Anyway, it was a hilly and scenic ride where I had no idea where we were most of the time, and I never knew when the next hill would appear, or how far it was to the top. This is never an advantage. The first hill where I cramped hard was in CT- actually on the Stonington RR course, heading up to the winery in reverse. I was doing A-ok up until about 2/3 the way up, then I fell apart very hard and very suddenly when the cramps attacked. Then we hit a steep pitch not long afterward where I was cramped so badly I thought the legs were going to just lock up and send me to the ground. The profile chart below shows two similar hills in succession- these are the ones which hurt me, and ironically on the really big hump afterwards I was able to hold it together without too much difficulty. Humor me as I make my excuses- it's the fourth week of a strong and gradual build-up of TSS- to wit, I've gone from 50 to 70 in the span of 31 days. (Same period last year I went from 43 to 53) Check it:
The next chart tells the story in detail. I also pasted in the values of todays CP60- which gives a very encouraging 255 watts of normalized power. On this date last year, my best Norm CP60 was 243 watts, and I was 7-8 pounds heavier too. Need to look for the positive in today's poor performance, and there it is. Even on an off day, at the end of a challenging 4 weeks, the data proves that I'm way ahead of the curve relative to 2008.Thanks for reading. Here's the profile of today's ride:

M1 Racing is growing

Our budget for fuel is the same in 2009 as it was in 2008. This means that with gas prices under $2 (instead of over $3) we can afford to support some more racers. Reach out to me if you are interested using reiscotools@yahoo.com. There are some requirements for those of you who want to be considered for the "A" team. If you are as fanatical about training and racing as I am, it's obviously a big plus.
M1 Racing are also in the process of developing a package of benefits for prospective members of our new "B" team. This program is going to be an attractive way for new racers to be in an environment which nurtures, develops and teaches the things which can't be found in any book about bike racing. It's also a smart way to shoe-horn yourself into a pretty darn good New England team, one that is attached to one of the finest racing clubs in the country, the Genesee Valley Cycling Club.
You can learn more about Millwork One Racing as well as the new "B" Team by writing me an e-mail or by attending the Providence Bicycle Introduction to Bicycle Racing Night on February 19th. I will be there along with Mark McCormack and Matt Bodzione of NBX Bikes to help people find their way into New England's strong local racing scene. This event requires you to RSVP to either joe@providencebicycle.com or to me at reiscotools@yahoo.com
See you there!

Bananas in the tailpipes

You know the scene- Beverly Hills Cop- Eddy Murphy stuffs Taggart's tailpipes full of bananas. That's what it feels like to have a nasty sinus infection, I think. I'm miserable- all yesterday, all night, and so far today. To add insult to injury, our heating oil company "forgot" to fill us up and we ran out of oil Saturday night. House was 50 degrees- thank goodness for the propane fireplace in our mester bedroom. They came and filled us up on Sunday, but now our hot water heater is not working, probably from sucking down blockage from the bottom of the oil tank.. Oil company is back here today, working on it.. I hope they realize that this is a problem which they themselves created. At any rate, I'm home sick today- caught myself a bad head cold this weekend- though I suspect that it's been incubating for at least a week. Saturday your hero did the unthinkable and went out again for 5 hours- 4:45 of it actually riding. Saturday morning at the 8:00 am ArcenCiel ride, our large group had the pleasure of including FUJI team members Mark M. and Tobi S. I rode down from my house with a nice tailwind, then I rode with the group for 2 hours, then I broke off right after we passed Ninigret Park and headed solo up Route 2 all the way home in 1:45, just like last weekend. This time it was a little tougher, with winds gusting to 30 mph, it was slow going on some of the flat stretches. So 4:45 of ride time overall, 87 miles. It was not terribly cold out, but I can tell you that the temp was highest when I left the house- a balmy 39 degrees. It dropped throughout the morning. I had some cramping issues! It was an occasional ping here and there, mostly in the hamstrings, mostly in the 5th hour. My left hamstring is still a little tight and has some soreness.

Last night, I felt lousy but I forced myself to stick to the Nautilus program.. went to the YMCA to do my double set of weightlifting. Did a 15:00 run on the treadmill first (1.5 miles) and hopefully this was not a mistake. My hamstring feels worse than it did after the ride Saturday. Tonight's spin class was full as of last night, so I'm on the waiting list.

This speaks for itself

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Rest: Thursday or Friday?

I'm not sure if this will carry into the racing season, but so far it's felt pretty good to let the spring unwind a little on Thursday instead of Friday. Last night I did YOGA at the YMCA, which was not too challenging. It was more like 75 minutes of non-stop stretching, going from one pose to the next. I'm pretty good at the more difficult balance poses. Definitely a good way to test for weakness in the feet and ankles. Tonight I'm going to play it by ear on the indoor trainer, but definitely plan to include 2-4 varied durations of FT. I'm getting ready for a fitness test which should take place in about 10-14 days. My expectation is an FT in the 250-255w range.

SPIN data

I surprised myself tonight- the computers on the SPIN bikes do not display average watts, you only see current watts. The average is displayed only at the end when you stop pedaling. After last week going from 200w to 184 w average between Mon and Wed, I expected something similar tonight, but instead the numbers went up: 231 watts, 87 rpm, 156 bpm, 62:14 duration. I was feeling pretty good tonight, and with dear wife at my side this time, I must have been trying to impress her or something. She did a great job, though she would enjoy it more if she used the new Shimano spinning shoes I bought her a few weeks ago! So my numbers are looking strong and I'm encouraged. Some will opine that I'm going to burn out in May.. I say to them: What's wrong with having excellent form in early spring- nothing wrong with being the fastest mofo in March and April- and Success breeds Success. Having a crappy and out-of-form spring where you're struggling to race your way into shape, is not the recipe for a good season, it's the training plan of a procrastinator. I've done it myself enough times to know that it leads only to mediocrity. I'm tired of being 'best of the worst' or 'worst of the best'.. No thanks, not this season thank you very much..
The plan is to rest tomorrow- maybe a recovery spin if time permits.

DO try this at home

Change of plans Tuesday- A conflict of schedules required me to skip Pilates last night, so instead, I did Individual Leg Training, later on. (This is the poor man's Powercrank) It goes like this:
20:00 Warm-up
3:00 right leg in 39x16 (other leg is unclipped and resting back by the rear skewer)
1:00 spin both legs
3:00 repeat with left leg in 39x16
1:00 spin both legs
Repeat 2 more times
5:00 Tempo
5:00 Cool down
When I first did these a few weeks ago, I had trouble turning the 39x19 for 1:30, and only one or two sets at that. Now I'm doing three sets of 3:00 in the 39x16. The last 15-30 seconds should hurt but still have good form- no chain slap.

Monday Recap- 172 pounds

Here we go again?? Well, sort of.. This may well be a repeat of last week in all ways except one: that is, your hero will demonstrate certain feats of strength, relative to last week. Tonight's proof of adaptation came in the form of a 67 minute long SPIN class- last Monday's data is found in last Monday's post, below. Tonight I added 25 watts to the average, in comparison:
225 watts, 92 rpm, 166 bpm. This is partly because our instructor had us up and out of the saddle a lot more this time. I also believe that Saturday's long ride combined with Sunday night's Active Recovery paid some dividends. I hope to be up early to do a light spin, and then a Pilates class tomorrow night.
It may seem as though I'm doing too much too soon, but relative to the goal I'm trying to reach, I'm just doing what's required. I can honestly report that as of this date, my weight is lower than it was at the peak of my form in late June/early July of 2008. A lighter Murat is a faster [more powerful] Murat. I've enhanced my training plan to include work on my core (Pilates), upper body (Nautilus), flexibility (Yoga) and regular bursts of FT level intensity (SPIN class). It's a lot of work, but the variety has made me into a very engaged participant. I'd rather not be fretting about the need to lose weight and the need to add "structural fitness" come April and May, when I can instead focus on getting some good results. Propelling 15-16 fewer pounds down the road is going to make a huge difference in 2009. I'm committed.

Late Night Spin

I worked hard yesterday, and I can feel some stiffness coming on, especially in my right hamstring. Just before dinner, I went to the Y and worked out. First I did a 15 minute run on the treadmill to warm up- 1.4 miles to be exact. Then I did the Nautilus circuit (skipping over all leg machines) I hit all the upper body machines twice in one circuit. Pushed myself a little. The weights I'm now using are about mid way down the stack- though I continue to do between 15 and 25 reps. I felt pretty stiff and pumped after this workout, but I believe this is still better than being a flexible weakling. After dinner I took a 20 minute power nap, awoke to the smell of fresh coffee and indulged in a cup with dear wife while Reis took in an episode of Bob the Builder. They headed up for bed at 10:00 and I opted to do a recovery spin before bed. So I'm now turning 90 rpm in my 39x19- only 130 watts. This has helped me to pass 10 minutes already, not bad.. Recovery rides are boring.. And blog posts about recovery rides are especially lame... But I think it's important to do something light with the legs on the day following a 70 mile ride.. If you've followed me along all this past week to see what I'm up to- many thanks for showing interest. I'm not trying to impress anyone- this journal is more for my benefit than it is yours.. But if it serves to inspire you or other readers to get off their tookus and get going with a proper 2009 training program, beginning NOW, then that's Fantastic. If 2008 was a disappointment for you, then please refrain from repeating the training program which failed you in 2008. I'm not a coach (at present) but that's fundamental common sense advice. Thanks for reading.

Ninigret?!?!

It was inevitable. My entire ride today was on Route 2. Not the most exciting place to be.. Short punchy rollers, flats in between windswept turf farms, and some rough patches which require one to ride center lane. Made it to the Arcenciel meetup point in 1:05 - into a mild but vexing headwind. We had 10 of us at the beginning but lost one.. Meaning we always had a lone tailgunner at the back. I used Route 2 to get down there, and our group continued down Route 2 all the way to Charlestown.. All the way to Ninigret.. Where it was time for me to stop pressing my luck and take the B-Line home, which happened to be a u-turn and back up Route 2 the entire way. It's a good thing I reversed when I did. My ride ended up being 4 hours, and towards the end I was daydreaming of food. Both bottles were frozen- even though I added powerade to one and the other was insulated. In fact, I think I was a bit dehydrated. In the 3rd and 4th hours I had some cramps zap me in the quads and hamstrings. 173 pounds when I left the house. When I got home I raided the kitchen: two fruit yogurts, an orange, a 16 oz Shaklee milkshake, and some other stuff I can't even remember. Even after all the replenishment, I was still 171 pounds after this ride. PT says 70 miles, and I noticed that some data was cut out maybe due to the cold maybe power lines.. Probably did more than 4 hours and 70 miles. The temp when I left was about 14 degrees. It was 23 when I returned. Thanks for reading.

Thursday: Rest, Friday: ILT

Thursday after work I was pretty much cooked, so I napped on the couch after eating some home made pizza.. went to bed at 11:00 and had an extremely restless night of sleep, sprinkled with 3 or 4 instances of becoming awake. Woke up tired.. Today (Friday) was an especially challenging day at work. For the first time in perhaps years, I had to skip lunch and surprisingly, I did not turn into a four headed dragon. After work though.. I went to Chipotle with a vengeance and helped myself to a burrito bowl, which is basically the contents of a burrito minus the pasty tortilla- mainly rice and steak with some chili sauce, peppers, onions, sour cream, and grated cheese. There are worse things a person can eat. So I'm looking at my 42 day TSS constant and trying to increase it very gradually week over week. From the latest four weeks of data, I see that the past four Fridays go like this: 45.0 49.3 52.7 54.8
I'm thinking that a monthly increase of between 12 and 15 is going to be both manageable and fruitful for now through March, though I can change course pretty swiftly if it's necessary. Having all this data at my fingertips feels like cheating.. Of course there are times when I need to say screw the charts and the TSS- you're tired- take a day off.. Like some of you very self-aware train-by-feel au-naturel under-trained types, I don't need a Powertap or a HRM to tell me that I'm tired either, BSPVD.. Anywho, here's the chart telling you the story of tonight's workout: 20:00 warm-up, then 2:30 individual leg training in the 39x17, 1:00 breaks in between, 3 total sets, followed by 20:00 of tempo with some high cadence (105-120, depending on what's playing on 95.5 WBRU) followed by some slower work. I'm starting to really like The Killers.

S.tart P.edaling I.ndoors N.ow

Spin class after work was a hoot. Some of the things they make you do are just nuts- I skip what I don't like.. such as when the instructor has 100 pound women turning 5-6 watts/kilo at 45 RPM.. I'm not letting the watts go higher than I can comfortably do for 5 minutes at 70 rpm. Foolishness if you ask me. So yeah- S.P.I.N. could stand for a lot of things.. but some instructors want to rename it G.R.I.N.D. I think.. My vitals for last night, not as impressive as Monday: 87 RPM, 184 watts, 162 bpm, in 60 minutes of duration. I was on a different bike, who knows how accurate these things are, but I felt tired, no doubt about that. After the SPIN class, I hopped onto a treadmill for 15 minutes. 3 minutes walking 4 mph, 9 minutes jogging at 6 mph, then another 3 minutes walking at 4 mph. Trying to ease myself into better running form, which is extremely easy to do when you're starting from a baseline that equals "untrained". All I want to do in 2009 [for running] is to get used to how it feels, so that I'm not so blown away during cross season.
I'm taking it easy tonight. There's a "YOGA Flow" class at 6:30 which I may try to do.. Thanks for reading.

Tuesday Recap +

Don't worry, I will tire of this eventually. Slept a little better last night, and got to the Y after work in time for the Pilates class- man was it full tonight. And two other guys in there this time. This did not make it any less embarrassing when your hero, during a more strenuous maneuver involving his very weak trunk/abdominal muscles, let one rip in all it's audible glory. Fortunately, it had a bark but no bite. I've been in there other times and witnessed some silent yet deadly emissions from some of the women. Made my nose hairs curl.. After getting home I was not content to got o bed without a proper turn of the pedals so I did a light spin for one hour while opening mail, reading stuff, even wrote an e-mail.. After uploading some data from the PT I decided to take a look at the past 40 or so days of training and compare to the year before period. Below, we have Dec 1 to the present. Farther down below, we have the same period one year ago.
Looking at one year ago, it's very easy to see why my knees were shot after Jan 13- I did two epic rides that weekend- 4+ hours on Sat and 3+ hours on Sunday. You can see the huge spike there in the pink ATL. I have avoided such Tom Foolery this winter, and I'm increasing training load in much more metered doses, as you can see in the above chart showing you how my CTL (42 day constant in Blue) is moving up a lot more gradually this year. Year before, CTL jumped 11-12 points in two days, from an already low TSS of 45/day. It's little wonder I needed to get the Active Release therapy to my knees. No such problems in 2009.

Monday Recap

40 minute spin in the morning, after an extremely restless 6 hours of sleep. After work, I bolted over to the Y for spin class with my wife. A challenging 61:41 at 200w average, 94 rpm and 159 bpm. The new shoes feel weird but gave me no discomfort.- my old DMTs have the DIY heat molded insoles and I didn't realize how well they conform to me, til tonight.