Off Road Assault on Mount Mitchell

Raced Off Road Assault on Mount Mitchell(ORAMM) Sunday. ORAMM is a 64 mile bicycle race with 11,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain. The race takes places on mostly a combination of forest roads and singletrack with some paved sections thrown in to connect the dots.

After watching Landis ride his way into the yellow jersey Saturday, my girlfriend and I packed up the car and headed up to Marion, NC. We booked a room at the lovely Super 8 motel overlooking the Sagehouse Steakhouse and Saloon.

My instincts were to walk over to the Sagehouse for dinner, but we were swayed by the recommendation of the hotel clerk to try this cool cafe in downtown Marion. Turns out the cafe was just an Applebee's-esque chain restaurant. The food was pretty bland and uninspired but maybe that was best kind of meal considering my pre-race bathroom rituals.

I don't want to get into too many details here since it is pretty gross but let's just say I usually have to make frequents trips to bathroom before any race or other similarly stressful event like public speaking or a job interview. To be clear it is not the quick kind of bathroom trip where I can remain standing. Usually though these trips only start the day before the race. However this race must have really scared me, because my trips started on Friday night.

Any ways enough dirty talk. We woke up at 5:30 am on Sunday, made several bathroom trips (actually this part I did alone), put on my BCVelo kit, packed up my crap, grabbed some continental breakfast, and headed to Old Fort. The race starts at Gateway Museum in downtown Old Fort. We grabbed a nice parking spot and headed to the registration line. The line moved quick and I got my number plate and a cool t-shirt that I am currently wearing as I type this report. The back of the t-shirt has the elevation profile for the race. This makes it really easy to explain to my coworkers what I did this weekend. My girlfriend packed up my drop bags(thank you!) and I got busy prepping my bike.

All 360 racers lined up at the start



and after a short speech from the organizer we were off. It felt really cool to be riding with so many riders. The hum of the tires sounded like a million bees swarming out of the city into the mountains. I looked around a lot and noticed all the smiles on people's faces.

As soon as the road turned up the crowds started to thin out. I slowly moved from the front of the pack to close to the back. I kept a close eye on my heart rate monitor. I knew if I went too fast now I would pay for it later. The first climb turned out to be fairly long and all on a paved road that was now closed to traffic. The road was lined rhododendron and the pavement was starting to crack and disappear in places. It looked like the forest was trying to reclaim something it lost.

We topped out of the first climb swung a hard left, blew through a parking lot, and onto our first patch of dirt. When we got to the start of the Kitsuma climb, everyone jumped off their bikes and started hiking. I saw a line of bikers pushing their bikes as far as the eye could see. It reminded of the stories I have read about climbing Everest and the crowds they get there on the days where there is good weather.

The trail was slick as snot, steep, and the switchbacks were tight and rutted. They switchback were also filled with big ole rocks and roots thrown in to keep things interesting. There were so many people hiking and moving so slow that it was impossible to ride your bike even if you were a good enough rider to clean those switchbacks. Many riders were complaining about the crowds that forced them to walk. Secretly I was happy I had to walk, because I knew I couldn't have made those switchbacks even if I had wanted to.

After more hike a biking up, some hiking a biking down, and more hike a biking up the crowds finally thinned out enough that you could actually ride your bike. Well at least some people could ride their bike. I was having major difficulties. The trail was so rooty, slippery, and steep that I was all over the place. I am positive I wrecked more than times than I pedaled on the descent down Kitsuma (I thought of that line while I was in the race, it sounded bad ass at the time). None of the training I had done previously prepared me for this trail. I kept thinking about the speech that the organizer gave and how he said the next section was the really hard one. I was thinking to myself how much harder can this get. I saw all kinds of people fly off the side of the trail. People were as far as 20 feet over the side hiking their bikes back up to the trail. You could hear the thuds and screams in front and behind you. I must admit though some people had no troubles and rode this descent like it was nothing. Hats off to those people is all I can say.

At the bottom of the hill you pop out in a nice little campground and ride a short paved section to the first rest stop. I grabbed my drop bag and filled my bottles. My last race I had some nutrition problems. The energy drink I use really gives me a huge amount of energy and leaves me feeling mostly human even after riding all day long. The only problem is that it also sometimes makes me nauseous which makes it hard to keep riding. I tried everything I can think of in the last couple months to come up with a better system. Nothing really worked though. A couple days before the race, I got an idea though. I decided to bring two 30 oz bottles. One I would fill up with water and the other I would mix water with enough energy drink for two hours (two hours is the maximum time I thought it would take me between rest stops). My plan was drink the energy mix until I would just start to feel gross (burping with bloated feeling) then switch to my plain water bottle. When I felt better I would switch back to my energy drink. My way of looking at it was to eat till I was full then just switch over to water. Then eat again as soon as I felt like I could. This plan worked out really well and I had no problems with my fueling.

After the first rest stop, you go through another incredibly steep section (see star gap above) with even tighter switchbacks that almost everyone walked. We would ride for 30 feet get off our bikes, push our bike through a switchback, remount your bike on a steep hill, ride 30 feet, get off and so on and so on. On this section and the Kitsuma hiking section I noticed my heart rate was 15-20 BPM higher than I wanted it to be. After a while I was having a hard time remounting my bike because the fatigue was affecting my balance and coordination. I decided then to do whatever I could to force my heart rate back down. I walked slower. I breathed more and concentrated on not blowing up. It helped and finally I made it over that wall and started a really fun fast descent. This descent was much more like what I was used to. The trail was dry and I could actually feel myself starting to relax and recover. I may have even smiled once or twice.

After the fun singletrack descent we did a long rolling forest road, followed by an even longer doubletrack descent to the second rest stop. My girlfriend was there to greet me. She helped me with my bottles and I started up the famous Curtis Creek forest road climb.



This climb is 9 miles long and it looks like it gains somewhere around 2500 feet. Pretty much everywhere on the course I was getting passed like I was going backwards. At the bottom of the climb where the grade was still gentle, things were no different. Finally when the road got steep and the real climbing started, I got to see the benefits of my training (thanks coach). I was able to reel in most of the people that passed me and then some. As I climbed I imagined what it would be like if I had started this sport when I was young. I pictured myself leading out my team on one of those big climbs in the Tour de France knowing that I was hurting people as they dropped off the back.

At the top of the climb was the third rest stop. I was feeling a little dehydrated so I filled up a water bottle half way and chugged the whole thing (this seemed to help so I decided to do it at every rest stop from then on out). Then we started another long forest road descent. I read in Ashwinearl's blog about a trick for cornering while descending. Basically he said to keep your bike perpendicular to the road and lean your body. This felt awkward at first but it really made a huge difference in traction. I was reeling in people that were flying by me on previous descents. The descent was short lived, and we hit the second big forest road climb. This one was not as long as the previous one, but it was hard because we just did the previous climb.

At the top of the climb the fourth rest stop awaited. I refilled my bottles and watered the bushes (woohoo no longer dehydrated). The started on another climb up the Blue Ridge Parkway. As soon as I started climbing I noticed my tire going flat. So I stopped and added some air to the tire hoping the sealant inside would do it's job and keep me from having to change the tire. Luckily it worked. I got back on the bike and finished the climb up the road. After the road there was another short hike a bike and then we hit the single descent on Heartbreak Ridge. The descent was fast, fun, tight, and super long. My whole body hurt after a while and I was glad every time the trail went flat for minute so I could relax my muscles.

At the bottom of the hill was rest stop 5. My girlfriend was there to help me, and we refilled my bottles. I checked my rear tire and it still felt fully inflated. Foolishly I decided to borrow a floor pump just to check to make sure that the tire really was still fully inflated. I added maybe 2 pounds of air and took off. I looked down at the clock, and I was at about 7 hours. I got really excited thinking I could finish in under 9 hours. 15 minutes later my tire was flat.

Pumping more air in the tire must have dislodged whatever had sealed my tire. I tried to see if the same trick would work twice so I used my mini pump to reinflate my tire. After about 1000 strokes from my tiny pump, I was back on my way. 15 minutes later my tire was flat again. This time I bit the bullet and put a tube in my tubeless tires. The process took awhile from the combination of trying to clean the sealant out enough so that I could check for thorns and the 1000 strokes with my mini-pump. I watched as all those people that I worked so hard on the climbs to pass rode by me. I felt bad for a little while. Then one of the guys that I rode with earlier came by and said look what happened to me. He turned his head and showed me this scrape on his cheek that had swollen up to the size of grapefuit. Then I didn't feel so bad about my flat tire. I will take a couple flats any day over a grapefruit head.

I finally got back on my bike. I started up Kitsuma again. I cleaned a couple switchbacks. I still had to push some. The trail had dried by now and there was no traffic so it was a little easier. The descent was still hard but much much easier now that it was dry. I popped back onto the road and hammered all the way to finish. I think my time was like 9 hours and 15ish minutes. Not great but I was happy to be back and safe. I felt like I put in really good hard effort.

Afterwards I sat on the grass and ate some excellent spaghetti and meatballs and had some delicious Highland Ale. This was the best post-ride meal I have eaten. Thank you to the organizers. It was a great race. Everything ran smoothly. Course was well marked. Also thanks to the all the volunteers. It was so nice of you guys to help us out. Thanks to all the riders for being so cool and keeping it fun. Finally I want to thank my girlfriend for being there and supporting me (not just this weekend but also all during my training).

Feeling Tired

I think the training is starting to catch up with me. The last couple weeks I have been tired and flat. This week was a little bit better. Here are the comments I sent to my coach.

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Better week than last week. Not great but better.

Yesterday's ride went okay. I started off probably 85%. Legs didn't
feel snappy but not dead either. The first couple hours I tried to go
harder than I needed to like the workout called for. It felt good to
work hard even though I didn't feel like I was going very fast.

The third hour started with an hour plus climb. This hurt. It felt
more like it was attacking me than I was attacking it. It was pretty
much all I could do to keep my legs spinning. It got better after
maybe 30 minutes. I noticed my heart rate monitor was displaying
average heart rate instead of current heart rate. Once I switched the
display I noticed I was doing 165 instead of 150 and that made me feel
better. Then at the top I was in the sun most of the time and that
made things harder. As soon as I saw the top though my energy came
back and I picked up the pace for the last part.

After the long descent it was hard to get revved back up. I felt like
I hit bottom a couple times over the next 30 minutes. I started
thinking about how long I had left (45 minutes) and imagined myself
slowing letting out all my energy so at the end I would be completely
drained. Kinda like slowly letting the air out of a balloon. It
still hurt but this imagery helped me keep going without feeling like
I was empty.

I got back to my car about 20 minutes early. I had parked in the
middle of a huge forest road climb. So I took off up the climb. I
tried to go as fast as I could. I kept hearing this voice in my head
about you are going to crack, this is crazy, you are too tired, etc...
I wanted to see what would give out first so I kept pushing with
everything I had. Everything did hurt legs, lungs, back, hands,
shoulders, etc ... But none of those things hurt so bad that it would
make me stop and none of those things were making me feel as bad as
that voice in my head. I finally decided to turn that voice off. For
the last 10 minutes I just climbed without the voice. Everything
still hurt but I wasn't scared of it. It just was it was.

I need to work on that voice. Instead of it being my biggest weakness
I need to make it my biggest strength.

You asked me earlier what my biggest pressures were. I think the
biggest pressure on me is feeling the need to always be getting
better. I felt so much better 4 weeks ago at the end of our last 3
week block. These last 4 weeks I have felt flat and weak. Not
knowing whether I am getting better or worse really stresses me out.
I wish we did some kind of regular test so I could see if I am getting
faster. Maybe something like a 30 minute time trial on the Silver
Comet or a timed climb on a forest service road every couple months.
I could then compare my times to see how I am doing and I would know
one way or other if I am getting stronger or weaker.

Knee Pain

Been having some pain in my knees.

The pain is mostly around the kneecap. Especially on the front of the
kneecap and on the top. It hurts when I walk up stairs or squat. It
is mostly a dull ache but the kneecap is sore to the touch if I push
hard.

I noticed it last Tues for the first time while I was doing a push
interval. I had it in a really hard gear and I was pulling up
forcefully on my pedals to maintain cadence. It felt kinda like
weight lifting where you tear your muscles slightly to get stronger.

I don't remember any pain on Thurs or Sunday. This tues morning I
noticed it was a little sore when I was riding my bike to work. I
rode monday and don't remember any problems.

It isn't terribly painful. Just feels not right if that makes sense.

All of the muscles in my legs are tight as steel cables. When I
stretch my hamstrings a little it takes pressure off my knee.

Coach recommended I get one of those foam rollers. I have been using it and it helps.

Dirty Spokes - 12 hours at Fort Yargo

Raced 12 hours at Fort Yargo Saturday.

Weather turned out better than I expected. The rain held off and it was sunny and warm all day. The course was a little slippery from rain earlier in the week but not too bad.

It was really cool to see Tinker Juarez there. Before the race people were taking pictures with him and shaking his hand. I really enjoyed being passed by Tinker. He was always really nice and said something encouraging. I want a jersey that says "I got passed by Tinker Juarez".



The race started with a parade lap on a dirt road through the campground. I started in the middle of the pack and rode conservatively.

Everything was going good till we hit the singletrack. I didn't feel very comfortable on my bike. I almost fell down 10 times. I was sliding out in turns and skidding over roots. I wasn't really going that fast, I think I was just nervous. I tried to talk to myself and calm myself down. It helped a little bit but not completely.

There were so many riders on the trail. It was asses and elbows for the first hour. The pace was probably a little faster than I wanted to go. Whenever there is group of people riding my wheel, I have a hard time going my own pace. I don't like holding all those people up.



Finally we got to the big hill and people really started to spread out. I was relieved to finally get some breathing room, but I also started thinking about having to climb this hill multiple times.

My girlfriend and my best friend were waiting for me at the start/finish line. They handed me a new bottle, and I was able to keep riding without stopping. I think this saved me a ton of time. I was very lucky to have them with me.

The course started to dry out on the second lap, and I started to feel more comfortable. I also think being a little tired from the first lap helped. I focused on keeping a good tension in my legs. I reminding myself over and over again and forced out any other thoughts that would distract me.

After about 4 hours I started to get nauseous. My stomach felt like it was the verge of cramping. When I was going downhill the bumps would cause my stomach to shake and make me feel like I was going to throw up. I ended up braking on the downhills so that it wasn't so bumpy. This wasn't great for my time but I was just hoping to finish at this point.

I did a lot of research and trial and error and decided the best way to fuel for this race was to use a food replacement drink made by Hammer Nutrition. The one drawback I found with using this drink is that in training I found it would make my stomach hurt every once in awhile. The first time it happened I thought it was because I had gulped down too much drink at once. When it started to hurt I tried to remember if I gulped any drink but I don't remember doing that so I decided it must being something else causing the stomach problems.

I decided to make my drink a little thinner thinking maybe my stomach was getting too much food and not enough water. Luckily my friend had run down the trail to see if I needed anything. I told him to thin out my drink. He took a short cut back to the start finish line, and my thinned out drink was waiting for me at the start/finish line. Now that is service.

The thinned out drink helped a little but not enough. The next time around I told my friend to give me a bottle of water and a bottle of drink. I drank the whole bottle of water before I started on the drink. By the end of my 5th lap I started to feel a little better. I asked my pit crew to keep giving me both water and drink bottles for the rest of the race.

By the time I hit my seventh lap I was feeling really good. I thought I had licked the nutrition problem. My stomach felt great. My energy felt great. My legs felt great. I turned in one of my fastest laps.

Coming into the pits for the start of my 8th lap, I had planned to put on my lights, put on my vest, and oil my chain. I talked about this with my team before the race and I thought we were on the same page. As I rode across the line, I couldn't find my pit crew. Finally I spotted my girlfriend, and I rode around the barrier to try and get to her.

Once I rode around the barrier I noticed she was on the other side of this huge mound of dirt that I could not ride across. She took off running to try and bring my light to me. Once she got there, she handed me my helmet with the light attached, but the battery was missing. So she ran back across the mound to get it while I put my helmet and vest on. When she got back, I hooked up my battery and off I went.

I didn't get to oil my chain, but all in all it really wasn't a huge loss in time. I was only in the pits a couple minutes. At the time though it seemed like an eternity. I kept going over and over in my head what went wrong. Even though I know now it wasn't fair of me to feel this way, at the time I was pretty pissed. It took me about 45 minutes to calm myself down.

Finally I realized how lucky I was to have a pit crew at all. I thought about how many minutes they saved me on all the other pit stops, and how they adjusted my drink concentration and saved me by giving me water as well as drink. I felt better after that and went back to focusing on the race.

While I was busy over analyzing my last pit stop, my bike developed a problem. Turns out my rear brake line got wrapped around my suspension linkage. This caused my rear brake to compress and drag against my rotor. The whole time I could feel like that it was much harder to pedal. I thought I was hitting one of those false walls I had in training. So I just tried to focus and power through it. I blamed my lack of focus on my pit stop.

Well turns out it wasn't a false wall, I was actually riding with my rear brake 75% engaged for at least half of lap. I am also not sure my training false wall were real either since I learned last week that my trainer is malfunctioning and needs to be sent back for repairs. Finally I got off my bike and spent several minutes figuring out what was wrong and adjusting the cables so it wouldn't happen again.

The eighth lap was definitely my slowest/hardest lap. I am not sure what caused it. It could have been that I let myself get so upset over my pit stop. It could have been that I was drinking more water and less energy drink and I just ran low on calories. It could have been that I rode for more than a half a lap with my rear brake on. It could have been that it was getting dark and harder to see. It could have been a mental let down since I had set a goal for 8 laps and I was quickly approaching that goal. Or it could be something simple like I just got tired. I don't know for sure.

Finally I got to the last lap, my pit crew did a great job of motivating me to finish strong. I rode the best I could but my legs had trouble on the climbs. I ended up walking at least 4 times. I kept telling myself that if I could just get to this section by this time then I will make the cutoff.

Somehow I kept it together and as I made my way to the final climb, I saw this girl talking on her cell phone. I couldn't imagine how anyone could have the energy or time to stop and take phone calls at this point in this race. So I slowed down and listened to what she was saying.

Apparently her light malfunctioned and she was calling her husband to come get her. I turned back around and offered her my handlebar light. After some back and forth with her husband she accepted. I took off my light and put it on her bike.

The handle bar light is really small light that was meant to be used for a commuter but doesn't really give enough light to ride on a trail. If she would follow close enough to someone to share their light though, she would probably have just enough light to get her back. She seemed to understand this without me telling her, and she followed me half way up the big climb. At this point, another rider passed. I told her she should probably follow him because I was tired and would be walking the rest of this hill.

She took off after him, and I had a nice walk. 5-10 minutes later I see her talking on her cell phone again. I slow down and look at her, but she keeps talking. So I keep pedaling slowly waiting to see if she will latch back on. 30 seconds later she is back on and asks if she can ride the rest of the way with me. I say sure as long as she doesn't mind going slow. She happily agrees.

Besides one minor fall on the last section she had no problems keeping up with me and I rode my normal pace. Having her talk to me and just having someone behind me probably actually helped me go faster. I think the time I gained by riding with her more than made up for the time I spent swapping the light onto her handlebars. Plus it made me feel good that I wasn't so wrapped up in the race that I wouldn't stop to help someone.

Finally I saw the finish line, and I did my best to sprint it out. My pit crew was there to congratulate me and refuel me with recovery drink and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I got a little award for third place in my class and had lots of people cheer for me. It felt really good.

Pedal Stroke

Discovered some new things with my pedal stroke last night. By concentrating on where the pressure is applied in my pedal stroke I found it easier to hold my core interval. Here are the comments I sent to my coach.

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I had a great workout tonight. Kept my heart rate up for all three
intervals. The best part is that I was playing around with pedal
stroke a little and found something that made me feel a little more
comfortable and smooth. I normally press my toes down into my shoe.
At the end of my rides my big toe is raw on one foot. Tonight I
lifted my toes up a little. I focused on feeling my heel press into
my shoe as I pulled back. I felt the tops of my toes push into my
shoe on my upstroke, and I felt the balls of feet press into my shoe
on my downstroke. I also noticed that it was easier to maintain my
cadence if I paid more attention to the tension in my hips and shins
on my upstroke. I think the push intervals really helped me focus on
keeping tension in my hamstrings and tonight I was able to maintain
that tension even though I was really focusing on the tension in my
hips and shins. When I started doing this I noticed I didn't hit as
many false walls. When I did hit one it was much less severe and only
made a minor change in my cadence 5-7 RPM instead of 10-15 RPMs.
Also it was much easier to maintain my heart rate. I didn't feel like
I was pedaling straight up in hill in BR 12. It felt more like I was
hauling ass on some rolling singletrack in my middle ring.

Attitude and Shifting

Had some revelations on the bike about attitude and shifting my front chainring. I learned if I act like I am tired I will tired. I also learned it feels much more efficient to ride in my middle ring unless I am climbing something really steep. Here are the comments I sent to my coach.

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My workout yesterday was more laid back. I didn't pay too much
attention to my heart rate. I glanced down every once in a while to
make sure I wasn't slacking too much or using too much gas on the
hills. I tried to be as smooth as possible and not waste any
momentum.

After about 4 hours I started having a little pity party in my head.
Telling myself how hard this was. Thinking about how I was tired.
Then 30 minutes later this little kid sees me go by for another lap
and comes flying up the trail after me. I let him go by then take off
after him to see how fast he is. Turns it out he was fast. I stayed
behind for about 10 minutes. I glanced down and noticed my heart rate
was about 180 and I could feel how much this was taking out of me so I
let up. It was a lot of fun trying to keep up with him though. I
also noticed as soon as I heard coming after me I was no longer tired.
All those bad thoughts were instantly pushed out of my head. Even
after I let up I felt a whole lot better than I did 30 minutes before
I saw the little kid.

I thought about one of my bad habits yesterday. I hardly ever use my
front derailleur. I normally keep my bike in my granny gear and only
shift in the back. I think I started doing this because my front
derailleur would never shift. Plus when it did there was about 50
percent chance that it would throw my chain off onto the frame or I
would get chainsuck. Only using my granny gear makes my riding pretty
inefficient though. I mostly coast on the downhills and spin out on
the flats. Then on the climbs, I probably go harder than I need to
make up for being slow everywhere else.

I tried yesterday to use my front derailleur. I did feel faster and
more efficient in the flats. I ended up not downshifting though. I
started climbing everything in my middle ring. After awhile this
started making my back hurt because I lost my form and posture. After
that I switched back to my granny gear and only shifted back to the
middle ring a handful of times. I will keep working on this in future
rides. Plus I think I will buy a new front derailleur. Mine is 7
years old. Probably hardly used though. :)

First Core Interval

Did my first core interval. It was much easier for me hold this pace than the push pace which is weird because the core interval is at a higher intensity. Made a mistake and gulped this Hammer Nutrition stuff between intervals. It ended up giving me a stomach cramp and forced me off the bike. Here are the comments I sent to my coach.

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Here is my summary from last week. Sorry I took so long to get it to you.

The workout tonight didn't go so well. It started off pretty good. I
bumped my EM heart rate up to 135-140. I didn't hold 140 the whole
workout but it was better then it had been. I also did the 3 x 2 core
interval warmups. I found a gear where I could hold 90 RPMs and still
get my heart rate up. After a couple core warmup intervals I noticed
it was much easier to spin in my EM gear. I was able to hold 95 to
100 RPMs where before the core warmups I was probably only pedaling 75
- 80 RPMs. Also the false walls went away.

Then I did my first 8 minute core interval. I was able to get my
heart rate up in a couple minutes and I was holding around 95 RPMs.
My heart rate was staying around 163-165. I felt good the whole
interval. It was much easier for me to hold this pace than the push
pace. The push pace always feels like I am bouncing in and out of
working hard. This pace I was able to just dive in and relax. It
felt normal and familiar. After my interval was over I sat up and
pedaled with my arms off the bars. After a minute or so my stomach
cramped. It was really high up almost in my chest. I couldn't take a
deep breath or bend over and hold my bars. I kept slow pedaling for 5
minutes hoping it would go away but it didn't. So I got off and layed
on the ground for 10 minutes until I felt better. Then I got back on
warmed back up and did my last two intervals. My RPMs dived with each
interval. It went from 90-95 to 80-85 to 70-75 RPMs. I was able to
keep my heart rate up for all three intervals. It wasn't overly
painful. I felt like I had plenty left but I could tell from the RPMs
dipping that I wasn't as fresh as my first interval.

First time feeling fast

Sunday I felt fast for the first time. I could really feel the effects of my training on the trail. It was a huge motivator for me to keep working hard. I pasted my comments to my coach below.

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Sunday I rode my mountain bike. I felt a little run down before I got
on the bike. My legs were snappy but I think mentally I was just
tired. I couldn't really ride at 120 AHR. I was in the granny gear
the whole time. I basically tried to it in the smallest gear possible
that I could still keep a smooth pedal stroke. Every time I looked
down though I was doing at least 150 AHR (unless I was coasting
downhill). I kept working on it the whole day. I think it is just a
matter of me keeping a more constant effort instead of my rapid
acceleration/decacceleration thing that I normally do.

My pedal stroke seemed choppier than I expected. Also the back of my
leg above the knee was sore after Saturday's recovery ride on the
mountain bike. I wondered if I should lower my seat a little. Felt
like I couldn't pull my pedal stroke all the way back. When I got to
the back of my stroke (after pulling through the bottom) my leg would
be pulled up back to the handlebar. Didn't mess with the height
though because I wasn't sure if this was the way it supposed to be or
not.

I did the Snap Intervals in my big ring. Man it was fun to go that
fast. I am not sure I have every gone that fast on flats and up hills
before. I was catching air going uphill. Pretty cool.

I broke my training on the second interval. This guy was annoying me.
Riding my wheel and skidding all over the place. He claimed he lost
his riding buddies on wanted me to pace him. So I messed with him a
little. Every time he would get on my wheel I would speed up and ride
him off my wheel. After I gapped him a couple hundred yards, I would
slow down and let him catch up. I did this 3-4 times before he
finally popped. I probably wasted about 15 minutes and I saw my heart
rate go as high as 180. Not good for training but fun none the less.
I was surprised at how calm I was when cranking up hills. I knew I
was working but I never felt out of control and sloppy.

After my little racing session, I went back to doing my snap
intervals. For some reason I thought I was supposed to do 5 sets of
snap intervals instead of 3. Once I got on to my fourth set, my mind
started to get a little hazy. My handling was degrading as well. My
legs never felt tired. Again I think it was all mental.

When I got home I felt spent, I just layed around for a little while
and sipped recovery drink and ate some pasta. It took a couple hours
but finally I snapped out of it. I feel fine today.

Mental break through with push interval

I think I had a mental break through. I have been fighting the pain caused by the push intervals for the last couple weeks. Last night I just accepted it for what it is and that made all the difference. I pasted the comments to my coach below.

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Had a really good experience with my workout last night. Just thought
I would let you know about it.

On my first push interval I did not get my cadence up to 70. It was
like I was avoiding the pain caused by getting out of my comfort zone.
My heart rate was also staying low. Most of the time it was around
140. Sometimes dipping down even lower. Finally in the last 10
minutes I just decided to go for it. I ramped up my cadence. When my
legs started to burn I just held it there. Heart rate went up but
never really got above 155. After my legs burned for awhile my heart
rate came back down in the 150-152 range. My average heart rate for
the whole interval was 141.

On the second interval I pushed it right up to 150 AHR and held it
there pretty much the whole time. It was my best push interval yet. I
pushed my candence past 185 and held 182 for several minutes. I did
this in the same gear I was fighting to hold 65 RPMs in the first push
interval. My average heart rate for the second interval was 147.

In the second push interval, I was able to move my heart rate up and
down. I did this by paying attention to the the burn in my legs. If I
wanted a higher heart rate, I focused on my pedal stroke until it
burned a little more. If I wanted less heart rate, I would ease the
burn up a little.

It was like a mental game to accept the pain and hold cadence. Almost
like holding your hand over a candle. There is a certain distance
that you can hold your hand over a lit candle where it is
uncomfortable but it is not really burning/damaging your hand. Last
night I felt like I was trying to hold that distance on my bike by
trying to find the effort level that would burn my legs a little but
not so much that I felt like I had to quit.

I also was able to predict my heart rate moving up or down before it
happened. If I was riding along and noticed my legs were not burning,
then I would look down and sure enough in 20 seconds my heart rate
would start to drop. If I picked my effort back up, 20 seconds later
my heart rate would go back up.

I still could not hold my heart rate constant for a long period
though. My heart rate did stay between 147-152 for the whole interval
with only a handful a very brief exceptions. Even though I couldn't
hold my heart rate at exactly 151 the whole time, only varying 5 beats
is huge improvement over any previous push interval I have done.

I also noticed weird changes in resistance. I would be pedaling along
like there was barely a chain in then all of sudden I would hit a
wall. I am not sure if it was a change in my position or pedal stroke
that caused the change in resistance or if it was just all in my mind.
It was strange though. I am used to these changes when I am on the
road. I always assumed it was the hills. On the trainer though with
the same gear and same cadence I wouldn't expect to feel a huge
difference in resistance all of a sudden.

First applied push interval

This weekend I think I actually applied a push interval to real life situation. I was just riding along on the road started to climb up this big hill and felt myself fall into that push sensation without even trying. Here is comments I sent to my coach.


------------------------------


Sunday's ride went well. I was less imitated by the
cars after the beating I took on the trainer this week. I had my
doubts on whether getting clipped by car would actually hurt worse. I
guess everything is relative. I found a nice long flat spot to do the
circle intervals. I probably looked like Dorothy on the Wizard of Oz
because I was pedaling so fast and not really moving. The other
roadies must have thought my chain had fallen off or something. I
noticed soreness on the back of my leg just above the knee area
(especially when doing the circle intervals). I must be working some
new muscles. I also noticed something new while climbing this long
intermediate grade hill. I started off in my typical quad only
erractic pedaling. I must have had a flashback to my push interval
because all of sudden my hamstrings decided to take over and I felt
the smooth push interval rhythm I had the other day. It felt like
someone had attached a rope to the front of my bike and was gently
pulling me up the hill. Cool feeling.

Thanks for the explanation. Even before I started working with you I
noticed that the more I tried to be efficient by focusing on my pedal
stroke and breathing the more my heart rate climbed even though I
couldn't really notice a huge change in cadence or gearing. I think
this quote from you describes best what I was noticing.

"your heart rate will usually increase because you are being more
consistent and not giving it the mini breaks usually that occur when
we are being inefficient"

Even though I didn't see an increase in instaneous speed, I bet I
would see an increase in average speed if i had sustained my focus for
30 minutes to 1 hour. I also bet I would see less deviation between
average and instaneous if I maintain my focus.

Putting all my energy into the pedals instead of most of my energy in
the pedals and the rest in clenching the upper body makes sense too.

First time in zone

I actually felt what a push interval is supposed to feel like tonight. Instead of being so spastic and jumping around all over the place, I actually got in a groove for a little while. I hope I can recreate the feeling in the future. Here are the comments I sent to my coach.

--------------------------------

ust wanted to give you an update on my workout tonight.

55 min @ 95 RPM @ 111 AHR in BR/21

Actually had to start in 23 and spin a little while to get my legs
warmed up. Still having problems with my saddle I checked it with a
level and checked the distance from my pedals to the top of the
saddle. It is set up just like my mountain bike. Feet and
unmentionables would go numb after 10 minutes. Had to stand up and
keep adjusting my position front to back on the saddle.

40 min @ 75 RPM @ 137 AHR in BR/15

Took a long time to get heart rate up to 150 maybe 25 minutes. First
I tried to watch my cadence and picture my heartrate going up but that
wasn't working for me. Heartrate stayed below 120. Next I tried to
focus on my pedalstoke and find a pressure that would just start to
make my legs burn. I ignored my heartrate and would only glance at my
cadence every couple minutes. This worked better. I could feel the
tension slowing building with each pedal stroke being a tiny bit more
difficult. After awhile my heartrate plateaued at about 135. So I
focused more on pedalstroke. I tried imagining rolling a log like you
suggested. I pictured this big log that would take lots of power to
budge. I imagined that I had to keep the momentum of the log rolling
by keeping a steady rhythm and not cheating any of my pedal stokes.
It made think about rowing a boat where you can't just make spastic
powerful strokes you have to have well timed fluid stokes. After
awhile my hamstrings relaxed a little and I dropped my heels a little
and it felt much more natural. My head went in a different place. I
would glance down every couple minutes and my heartrate had fallen
right at 150 and stayed there for maybe 10 minutes. After awhile I
lost my focus. My feet went numb from my saddle. I had to stand up
for few seconds. Never got back in the same rhythm but it was still
more consistent then Tuesday.

55 min @ 95 RPM @ 111 AHR in BR/21

My mind start to wander on this last part. It was hard to stay
motivated. My saddle was annoying the crap out of me. Was happy when
this last part was over.

First Workout With Coach

Did my first workout with my coach. Pasted my comments I sent to him below. This was the first time I rode with a cadence meter. It was also the first time I tried to hold my heart rate in that range. My coach calls it a push interval. Not sure how that relates to other people's terms.

-------------------

I got a late start but did get my workout in.

46 min @ 118 AHR @ 90-95 RPM in BR/18

First 10 min was in BR/21. Heart rate topped out at 114. Tried to
shift to BR/18 but legs started to burn a little at this resistance.
Switched back to BR/21 for 10 minutes at 95 RPM. After 10 minutes
switched back to BR/18 and legs felt much better.

25 min @ 146 AHR @ 72-74 RPM in BR/15

First 5 min heartrate topped out at 138. Switched to BR/14. Legs
started to burn heartrate went up to 152. Held this for maybe 5
minutes. Then heart rate headed up to 158. Switched back to BR/15.
Could not really keep heartrate fixed. Would bouce around from 143 to
155.

8 min @ 123 AHR @ 90-95 RPM in BR/18

Took about two minutes for heartrate to come down to 120. Easy spin
to hold 120.

25 min @ 144 AHR @ 72-74 RPM in BR/15

Kept tighter control on heartrate. Still bounced around from 146-154.
Found that at 147 I didn't really feel like I was working. If I
tried to just nudge my heartrate up a little bit, my mouth would open
and my breathing would increase. In addition my legs would just start
to burn and resist. A couple times I was able to hold this "just
barely uncomfortable" intensity for maybe 2 minutes and my heartrate
would be 150 or 151. Most times though I would overshoot or back off
too soon and my heartrate would jump around.

46 min @ 120 AHR @ 90-95 RPM in BR/18

Heartrate came down in two minutes. Pretty much easy spin to finish workout.

Legs were not wobbly when I got off bike. Energy level felt fine.
Butt felt sore/raw. Also would go numb if I didn't stand up every 5
minutes for a couple seconds. I have been playing with my seat angle
but I guess I haven't found where I am comfortable. I have the same
saddle on my mountain bike with no problems.