Blankets

Amy and I rode the dwelling loop at Blankets Creek yesterday. I didn't plan very well. First I meant to bring the camera but I forgot. Second we left the house a little too late. By the time we got there it was pretty hot. Like 85 degrees hot. Amy was smart enough to bring extra water. With the extra water and frequent stops, luckily we avoided any dehydration or heat stroke problems.

This was Amy's first time riding the infamous dwelling loop. The loop is a little under 4 miles. Most of the trail winds around the banks of a large lake. There are lots of short steep ups and downs. It is the most popular trail in Georgia. It is also the subject of much heated debate on the SORBA forum. People get very angry when even the slightest change is made to trail. I think most of time people are just bored at work and looking to stir up a little trouble. Most of the volunteers that maintain the trail do not enjoy the criticism however.

We had a good ride, and even made jokes about posting on the forum another controversial blanket's topic as we rode. I found this thread today on the forum of some friends who rode blankets yesterday as well. The pictures might give you an idea of what the trail looked like.

Ellijay

Amy and I took a fun trip to Ellijay yesterday. I love the trails in Ellijay. The scenery is beautiful. Plus there are so many different options to choose from. Dirt roads to ride on during the rain. Painful sustained climbs to test your meddle like Tibbs. Fun rolling singletrack like the second Pinhoti section. Super steep and exposed switchbacks like the third Pinhoti section. Super fast rocky descents with huge berms and waterbars like Windy Gap. Crazy slick wet descents with unending creek crossings like Mountaintown. Fun fast descents with great jumps like Bear Creek. I could ride there everyday without getting bored.

Amy and I rode the Pinhoti 2 and took Shakerag road back to the trailhead. I love the Pinhoti 2 section. It is my favorite trail. It starts off with a little bit of climbing, and then you are treated to a really fast and fun descent. While I had ridden the Pinhoti 2 many times, I had never ridden on Shakerag Rd. I was expecting Shakerag Rd to be just a convenient way back to the car, but I was pleasantly suprised with how nice it was. Shakerag has a beautiful little stream that runs along the road. Mountain laurel covers the hills on both sides of the road. You can hear the sound of the stream falling through the rocks as you ride along taking in the views.

We had a really good ride. I think this is the most challenging ride Amy has ever done. She did awesome. I was wondering how I would like riding without gears and suspension. I had a great time. I really like riding this bike.

We went to the pink pig afterwards in Cherry Log. It was pretty good. Better than Col. Pooles but not as good as some other places I have been to.

Amy and I have been talking about going to Tanasi next weekend. I have never been there so it should be a really fun trip. I will bring the camera this time so I can take some pictures to post.

Lazy Days

This is the fourth day in a row where I haven't ridden my bike. After reading a bunch of posts about the Old Pueblo race and the Susitna 100 race I feel guilty about not riding. I don't understand this line of thinking. Riding should be a fun pastime. I don't understand why I have to make it a required chore.

I stopped training because I didn't think I really enjoyed racing. Today I was reading some posts about the upcoming Dirty Spokes race, and I felt sad that I am going to miss the race. The weird thing is that I don't really feel like I want to race. I just want to be a part of it somehow. Kinda like I want to have my cake without all the strenuous chewing. :)

Maybe I just don't want to ride solo. Maybe I would have more fun riding on a team. Or if I rode solo, just ride a couple laps for fun. If I want to take a break and hang out that is okay.

I don't know.

I think I will wait to see if any of the upcoming 12 hour races have good weather. If a couple days before the race things look good then I will just register and show up with no training or preparation. Then ride till I have had enough. When I am through riding, I can drink beer and cheer on all the hard core dudes.

Ft Yargo

Saturday I went on super fun group ride at Ft Yargo. The ride was organized by one of the number one posters on the SORBA forum. He also happens to be a member of the BOD group. So I shouldn't have been surprised when I pulled into the parking lot and saw the huge turnout.



It was great hanging out in the parking lot. Everyone was telling jokes and laughing. I rode around and checked out all the cool bikes. I saw some really nice Ventanas, an El Mariachi, and a really nice Niner. I even got a couple compliments on the fork and cranks on my bike.

Finally someone decided we should go for a bike ride. The YABA group recently changed the trail design to switch the direction of travel daily. Luckily Saturday the trails was running in the reverse direction of the way I rode it in the Dirty Spokes race. I had never ridden it in this direction, and it was a lot of fun.

The rock garden was just as tough.



Plus the big climb was a lot more fun going down instead of up.



I had a great day with a great bunch of people. I hope I get to go on many more group rides in the future.

Sunday Amy and I rode from the house to Big Creek and did a couple laps. It was a beautiful day, and it felt great to get out of the house.

Icy Weather

I had planned to go on Al's birthday ride on Saturday. Originally the ride was going to be held on one of my favorite trails Bear Creek/Pinhoti. I haven't ridden these trails since I switched to my Fred Flinstone bike so I was excited to try them out with a bunch of people to laugh at me. After the "wintry mix" we received on Thursday the ride was switched from fun singletrack to the forest service roads of Winding Stair so my excitement level declined dramatically.

I woke up early on Saturday morning all snug in my warm bed and quickly decided I would have more fun rolling over and going back to sleep instead of getting up and driving to Dahlonega and riding my bike on the forest service roads in the cold.

At the crack of 2:30 pm I finally got enough motivation to get out bed and ended up doing a fun ride with Amy through our neighborhood. I showed her my secret trail that links the Alpharetta Greenway to the Big Creek Greenway. I also showed her the strange road they added that connects Cranberry Trail to Cranberry Creek.

I discovered this new road one night when I was looking for a piece of flat road to do sprint intervals. It connects two roads that were already connected by a different road so I couldn't figure out why anyone would go to the trouble of building this new road. My best guess is that they plan to eventually build some new houses there. I saw some cast iron pipes sticking up out of the ground at approximate house width intervals. Plus we saw one of those mobile office trailers parked there so it is probably not a bad guess.

After checking out my new road, we headed down to the Big Creek Greenway and did a quick lap. On the Greenway, we ran into some dirt jumpers. One of them had a cool looking wolf dog.

The dog was pulling him like a sled back to his car. I would love to have one of these dogs if I could live some place where it was cold enough for them to be happy.

After the Greenway, we looped back to the house. It was a cold ride, but it was nice to get out for a little while. Amy made me a big mug of cocoa and I crawled back under my blanket and spent the rest of the day relaxing. It was nice.

Yellow River

Amy and I rode at Yellow River yesterday.

The last time we rode there the "improvements" to the creek side were still going on so we just rode the river side. I put the words "improvements" in quotes because many people feel that the word "improvements" is not the right noun to use to describe what Gwinnett County did to Yellow River.

Gwinnett County came in with their bulldozers and turned the fun scenic twisty singletrack of the river side into a confusing network of intersecting golf cart paths. Where you used to feel like you could get away in an almost back country like experience, you now feel like you are in Disney world or something. There are trail intersections with confusing signs every 50 feet. Trails overlap so you can see other people at all times. The land looks raped like a new housing development instead of an old worn beaten down path that barely disturbed the natural feel of the forest.

Since the creek side destruction is now completed we decided to ride over there and check out the damage. It was more of the same. Trail intersections everywhere. There is no longer a clear path. Bikes intersecting with horses every 2 minutes. Signs with arrows pointing in the wrong direction. Spur trails everywhere. The official trail removed all the fun and challenge of the old trail. With all the intersections and signs the relaxing ride in the woods has been spoiled.

Yellow River was the first trail I ever rode. My friend Mike took me there more than 10 years ago. Maybe I am too sentimental about the old trail to give an unbiased opinion of the new trail. After all change is good, I should be more appreciative of the money spent and hard work that went into revamping Yellow River. I have ridden my local trail so many times that I am bored with it. Maybe the Yellow River locals are glad to have something new to ride.

Amy and I still had a good time despite my personal feelings about the new trail. Plus our dinner afterwards at Taqueria was delicious.

Central Park

Only got to ride my bike to work twice last week, but I enjoyed those two days. The water level at Big Creek finally went down enough that the Alpharetta Greenway was open, and I could take the multi-use path to work. It was much nicer and quieter than riding on the sidewalk. Too bad the path doesn't lead right up to my door.

Saturday Amy and I went on an anniversary adventure at Central Park in Cumming. It has been a while since we have been there and the trail is still doing pretty good. A couple places the tractors have run over the trail but otherwise it is holding up really well. It is nice to see something you helped build stand up to the winter weather.

Amy rode really strong Saturday. I think taking her to trails other than Big Creek has really helped her. After her first time ever doing the full lap, she still had enough zip to go out for more so we did an extra half lap. After our bonus half lap, I blocked my need to train feelings and packed it in. Besides it was almost 3 o'clock and I hadn't eaten any lunch or snacks. We solved that problem by stopping off at LutherD's BBQ on the way home.

I saw a post about LutherD's on the SORBA forum awhile ago and have been meaning to try it out. We tried to find it one time before thinking it was either on McFarland or on 141 but it turns out it is on Atlanta Hwy. I checked the map before we left and discovered I had ridden by it on my road bike at least 100 times.

LutherD's is on the Webb bridge road ride route than I do on Sunday's sometimes. It is on that short stretch of Atlanta Hwy before you get to Campground Rd. I guess I hadn't noticed it before because it is the Chevron gas station. There is a sign in front of the gas station, but I guess I never paid attention. I do remember smelling the BBQ several times on my way back to the house. It always smelled really good after drinking Hammer mix for 4 hours.

We made it to the LutherD's this time no problem. Amy loved the BBQ. It was the vinegar based BBQ that is her favorite. I thought my pork was pretty good. I didn't like the ribs too much. I think they might have been beef ribs or something. They weren't log and skinny like the pork ribs I am used to. The they were these short fat curled bones with very little meat. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't my thing.

It was a great day. Sunday was bad either. Amy asked me to move my trainer into the living room so she could do some Spinervals videos. So I took apart my road bike, cleaned it, and put it back together. Then moved my bike and trainer into the living room. I didn't feel like changing pedals so I ordered her some shoes and cleats so she can use my Time pedals.

I even tested out the trainer for a little over an hour while I watched the Bears whip the Saints. I took it easy the rest of the day watching more football and eating Amy's delicious blue cheese chicken dinner. Mmmm chicken leftovers. I can't wait till 5 pm so I get on my bike and go home and get some more chicken dinner.

Changing Things

I woke up at 5am last Saturday to do the Snake Creek Gap race. I turned off my alarm and laid back down in bed. I had been dreading doing the race all week. I decided right then to blow off the race. I didn't go back to sleep. I spent the rest of the week deciding if I want to ever do a race again.

The way I was going about this hobby has been making me miserable. I don't want to think I have to do blah blah blah today. I want to think man I can't wait to go ride my bike today. Hobbies should be fun right?

I haven't made any decisions. I didn't do any training this week though.

I did ride my bike to work all week. That felt great. The day went by much faster and I still have much more energy when I get home from work. I am going to ride my bike to work from now on whenever I feel like it.

I am through with watching what I eat. Life is too short.

I am also thinking about selling my geared full suspension bikes. I go on these really long rides to try and make riding more challenging. Why not go on a shorter ride with a rigid singlespeed? Just as hard but saves you time. My Fred Flintstone bike is also much easier to maintain. Not a lot crap to break.

I also stopped reading so many biking blogs and forums. I think they make me want to buy more crap or make me feel like the races I am doing are too easy.

Other than that I don't know what I am going to do. Maybe a 6 or 12 hour race on my Flintstone bike? Who knows?

Christmas

Spent Christmas in Virginia with my girlfriend's family. Her dad has a farm outside of Orange. It is beautiful there. I was able to ride out his back door on country roads with very little traffic. Seeing all the grass and the hills was a nice change from the pine trees of Georgia.

I am back in Georgia now and I am getting ready for my first attempt at the Snake. The Snake is either a 17 mile or 34 mile point to point time trial. 34 miles doesn't sound like much but apparently the trail is very rocky and steep. I checked out some peoples times from last year and I think it will probably take me between 5 and 6 hours. The cool thing about it is that the promoters give you three attempts at the trail (one in jan, one in feb, and one in march) all for one price of $55.

I thought about just doing the 17 mile version in January to get a feel for the trail then moving on to the 34 mile version in February and March. For some reason the promoters don't want you to switch mid way through. They make you pay twice if you want to switch. My cheapness overrode my wimpyness and I signed up for the 34 miler. It should be good practice for my attempt at the Cohutta in April.

4 more weeks on my winter plan

Did my performance test on Saturday. I planned to do an hour, but I quit after 20 minutes. I was just not having fun. My average watts for those 20 minutes was 1 Watt higher than the test I did 8 weeks ago before I started training and 15 watts lower than the test I did 4 weeks ago.

Not sure what happened. I did the first two tests on the road and I did this one on my trainer. Some people say you get higher numbers on the road.

The second test I did I went out really hard and faded the last 10 minutes. That might have artificially bumped my numbers up on the second test.

Who knows? I am not going to think about it too much.

I have four more weeks of training before my winter plan is up. I figure the best thing I can do is concentrate on that and execute the next 4 weeks to best of my ability.

Adventures

Amy and I went on another one of our "adventure's" yesterday. An adventure consists of

• a long drive to a bike trail with lots of conversation and bonding between Amy and I


• a bike ride with both party members lasting approximately 1 hour on a fun trail


• the ride should be peppered with frequent words of encouragement and praise


• after the ride there is more bonding with hugs and kisses before the party members separate for a short period


• Amy will take the car and find a local restaurant for some lunch. After lunch she will spend the remainder of her time exploring local cities looking at shops, neighborhoods, and tourist attractions. At the end of explorations, she will return to the trail and her read a book.


• I will take his bike and finish off his workout for the day. Riding his bike at whatever pace his workout calls for hoping to get enough endurance to finish his next race.


• After James finishes his ride, the party members will reunite at the car. I will stretch and eat any goodies Amy purchased for him on her exploration.


• After the leaving the trail the party members will start the drive back home and stop along the way for dinner. Both party members will share any fun stories from their time apart.

Our first adventure was at Chicopee Woods in Gainesville, Ga.



We rode down to the waterfall and back to the parking lot with a little exploring along the way. After our joint ride Amy went for lunch and learned her way around Gainesville finding a cool "Old Town" district. I rode the red trail, zig zag, outer loop (twice), some new trail I found that I probably shouldn't have been, and the lake loop. We tried to find a barbecue place off exit 13 on 400 on the way home but couldn't find it. So we ended up at our favorite Mexican place on exit 7.

Yesterday we went to the Dauset Nature Trails in Jackson, Ga.



We rode the entire 3.3 mile beginner loop together. Yay Amy! I think this was Amy's longest ride to date. She rode really well and didn't have to dismount for any of the tricky sections. At the end the ride, I asked her if she was tired and she said not at all. Next time she suggested we add in some more sections. The trail is kept up really well and it is very scenic especially with all the fallen leaves. We stopped several times picking up nicely shaped pine cones for Amy's home decorations. After we separated Amy drove to Jackson and Locust grove and explored those towns. She found a really good barbecue place called Fresh Air Barbecue.



I rode the expert loop. Then I finished off with a repeat of a Pine Mountain and backwards up Huff N Puff. We stopped at the Cracker Barrel on the way home. Great day!

Yesterday also ended my three week block of tempo rides. I have a performance test this weekend. I think I am going to skip my 20 minute time trial on the Silver Comet and do an hour time trial on my trainer. I know I would get higher numbers on the road, but I can't justify driving 3 hours to do a 20 minute time trial. Plus an hour long time trial would be better for estimating my functional threshold. Maybe this is dumb idea, but it wouldn't be my first.

Birthday

Tried to make a cake for my girlfriend's birthday like the cake mama made for her birthday last Saturday.





Mama was nice enough to give me a recipe for the ganache and the mousse, and my girlfriend gave me a recipe for the cake.

I am not much of a baker, but I tried to follow the instructions the best I could.

I think the icing and the mousse came out pretty well. However the Droste cocoa



I used for the cake made it taste a little funny. It was almost hot and spicy instead of milky and creamy. I had never used the cocoa before but it looked fancy and was expensive so I thought it would have been good. Oops.

Plus the cake was a little dry. Not sure how I messed that part up. Next time I think I will just be safe and use one of the mixes from the baking aisle.



Betty Crocker knows her stuff.

Stanley Gap, Flat Creek

Went on a fun ride this weekend. We rode the Stanley Gap and Flat Creek trails. This was my first time on either trail. The trails were tough but fun. The climbs were long and sustained. A couple of the climbs had some good technical sections. The descents were brutal though. I did my best to try and keep up with the other riders, but they were too fast.

I ended up taking a pretty good header on really steep downhill with a log crossing. Tweaked my knee and shoulder. Broke my rear shifter. Had to do three quarters of the ride with only my front derailleur. Luckily the chain was in the 26 tooth rear cog when my shifter broke, and the chain stayed there for the rest of the ride. I had just enough gear for the climbs and the downhills were so steep I didn't really need to pedal anyway.

The ride was organized by a local bike goddess named mama. She is famous for taking regular joe schmoes like me on these long epic rides. She rushes ahead with her super human strength, gets out her camera, takes pictures of you suffering, gets back on her bike, and catches back up to you in a blink of the eye. Later she writes up these really funny ride reports for everyone to enjoy. Here is her report from this weekend. I really like this picture.



It really shows the steepness of the trail.

The ride was little longer and much more difficult than my training plan called for but I am so glad I went. Mama and her husband raja are awesome people. They have a huge group of friends and it is always fun and to meet and hang out with their group.

Since Saturday was so tough, I knocked a couple hours off my Sunday ride to try and get my total TSS for the weekend to what the training plan called for originally. Other than my weekend deviations the rest of the training for my week went really well.

My girlfriend let me put her stereo in the basement where I do my trainer rides. I downloaded some new music from itunes, and I have been rocking out while I ride. The music really helps me get pumped and angry. My intervals are so much easier when I am in this state of mind. I can't wait for tomorrow to do my last three day block of tempo rides.

Angry tempo

I guessed TSS values for all the ride data that was lost last week. Here is my current PMC.



I made a lot of progress those first three weeks. Notice the blue line (CTL) sloping upwards. This line indicates how fit I am.

During my rest week you can see CTL dipping back down. This is a necessary evil. Yes you lose fitness, but your body needs to rest. Notice the yellow line TSB slope upwards during this same period. This yellow line indicates how fresh I am.

I lost 7 points off my CTL, but I gained 44 points on my TSB. I lost some fitness, but I gained a ton of freshness. Besides my total CTL for the 4 week period was still up almost 13 points.

I started my next 4 week block on Monday. Instead of suicide sprints straight up a hill like the first 3 weeks, I am now doing tempo intervals. I tried to think of way to describe a tempo interval.

Imagine holding you hand above a candle. What you want to do is find a height above the candle where the flame hurts your hand but doesn't actually do any permanent damage. You want to feel pain, but you don't want to burn your flesh. Yes it hurts and your brain is telling you have to stop but as long as you don't actually burn yourself there is no real reason why you have to stop. After about 30 minutes, you can take move you hand away from the candle, let it rest for 10 minutes, then put it right back at that same height. This is a lot like a tempo interval.

Basically you find a speed or power level where your legs are burning but your aren't going so fast that you blow through all your energy and can no longer turn the pedals. Your mind begs you to stop, but you have to stay tough and keep pedaling.

I think having the right mental attitude is the key to these workouts. I like to psych myself up and get mad. It seems silly but it really works for me.

The day my data died

I had dreams of posting this cool Performance Manager Chart showing off all the hard work I did in my first three weeks of training. Unfortunately I opened up WKO and my data was no longer there. I have no idea what happened. I contacted cyclingpeaks but they were not able to help me either.

I know it is stupid to get upset, but I am really bummed about losing the data. If you read any of my previous posts you know that I was really excited about using this data to help me track whether I am improving or not. Now I don't know what to do.

The good news is that I did bump up my average power on 20 min TT from 242 to 258. The 258 number might not be a good estimate of my functional threshold power however. I have been doing some reading and it turns out that using a 20 min TT to estimate a 60 min TT is not really a great idea. Especially if you over inflate the number by going out really hard then fading at the end. Saturday my first 10 minutes averaged 279 watts and the last 10 minutes I only averaged 239.

To get a better estimate for function threshold power, I can either do a 60 min TT or a series of TTs over multiple days ranging from 3 to 30 min. Then plot the results and do a linear curve fit to extrapolate a number for 60 minutes.

Right now this is all talk because I have been sitting on my butt doing absolutely nothing since I lost all my data. Gotta pick myself up and keep going. D Wade says it not how many times you get knocked down, it is how many times you get back up.

Recovery Week

The 12 week training plan I am following is split up in 3 week blocks. First you do three really hard weeks. Then you get one week to rest and recover. Next you perform two more three week build one week rest cycles to complete the plan.

At the beginning of the 12 weeks and at the end of every rest week, you perform a 20 minute time trial to estimate your functional threshold power (geek speak for see how fast you are). The idea is to test yourself at the beginning to see where you stand. Then after each three week build you want to test yourself again to see how you improved. The reason you test yourself at the end of the rest week is to make sure you are not tired while you are testing.

Today I started my first rest week, and my test is coming up Saturday. I hope to see some improvement from the test I did three weeks ago. I feel like I have worked really hard. I did my best to follow the workouts in my plan exactly as they are described.

However I did blow off one workout. Mentally I just couldn't force myself to do it that day. The workout I missed was a pedaling drills workout. I don't think that particular workout would have made or broke my training goals so I still feel good about the work I did.

One good thing about my power meter purchase is that I will know for sure if I have improved. For the test I did three weeks ago, I calculated 230 Watts as my threshold power. Seeing how I weigh 75 kg that is really not a very big number. Looking at the cyclingpeaks power profile, it looks like I am either a pretty good Cat 5 or a really poor Cat 4.

The Cat numbers are really road racer categories. Cat 5: Beginner, Cat 4: Novice, Cat 3: Sport, Cat 2: Expert, Cat 1: Elite. Above the Cat 1 category are domestic professionals and above those are World Class Professionals (think Lance and all those guys that routinely lose to Lance).

I never plan to race road, but I would like to be able to finish a 100 mile off road race in a reasonable amount of time. I compared my time at ORAMM to another rider's time that has raced both ORAMM and the Cohutta 100, and I think it will take me a little over 12 hours to complete the Cohutta 100. I want to shave an hour off this time. A time of 11 hours and change would at least get me listed on the results page of last year's race. :)

Anyways I will retest myself Saturday and compare my numbers. I know that even the tiniest bit of improvement will really help motivate me. If I don't improve or get worse, I think that will be good to know as well. Last year it sucked not knowing if all that hard work was helping. At least now I will know before the race that I really need to step it up.

I am starting to think a lot of this training process is mental. If I really want to I can move my pain threshold and get better. If I start feeling sorry for myself and feeling like I am working too hard as it is then I may never get better.

What I learned last week

Well I got pretty good response about the high cadence and one leg drills. Seems like most people think they are a pretty good idea. It looks like I will have to continue suffering through those things. I did get some pretty good advice with the responses though.

I have been spinning too fast. I shouldn't be bouncing all over the saddle out of control when I do my high cadence drills. If I am bouncing I am not using the proper form. Proper form is essential for improving my spin at normal cadence. I bet if I stop bouncing my saddle sores won't be so bad. Slowing my cadence is a win win for me.

My power question on the wattage list was not as successful. Seems like the consensus was that the charts will look different due to the relative slowness with which heart rate responds to changes in actual exercise intensity. I got this response from one of the authors of the power training bible which was pretty cool.

The reason I created those two graphs was to try and find a way to estimate TSS for days I don't have a power meter. Many of the rides I do are mountain bike rides, and I don't have a power meter on my mountain bike.

I was hoping to keep my performance manager chart up to date with TSS scores for every ride to try and help me learn how to predict when I am training too much. I have had a problem with over training in the last two seasons.

My plan for estimating TSS on my mountain bike was to record how long I spent in each heart rate zone. Then guess an intensity factor for each zone and use that IF to calculate TSS using this formula.

TSS = IF^2 x duration (hours) x 100

After calculating a TSS value for each zone, I would sum them up to calculate a TSS score for the entire ride.

I assumed it would be better to estimate an IF value for each zone that it would be to estimate an IF for the entire ride. My reasoning was if it would be better to estimate an IF for a single ride than estimating an IF for an entire week or for an entire month, it should be more accurate to break a ride up into many parts and estimate an IF for each part.

To try and test the accuracy of this assumption I created the graph for a ride where I had both heart rate and power data. What I found though is that the graphs are entirely different. I don't think the heart rate graph is very useful for predicting the duration I spent in each power zone.

I tried posting these comments back to the Wattage list, but I didn't get any responses. I did start a new debate on over training versus over reaching. I have no idea which category I fell into last year.

It would be so much easier to just buy a power meter for my mountain bike though. I wish there was a good option out there.

First week in the bag

I completed my first week of training with a power meter. I really enjoy downloading my data and analyzing it.

One of the cool things I found you can do with WKO is graph your power data by your training zones. Here is a graph of my ride from Saturday.



This lets you see exactly how much time you spend in each zone.

You can also graph you heart rate data the same way. Here is a graph of my heart rate from the same ride.



It is interesting that my heart rate graph is nothing like my power graph. I can think of a couple reasons why this would happen

1) I have the wrong value set for my lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR)
2) My power changes instantly when I stop pedaling but heart rate takes much more time to change
3) The graphs just show that heart rate is not a good metric to use to determine which training zones your efforts occurred in.

It is very possible I don't have my LTHR set properly. I forgot my heart rate strap when I did my 20 minute time trial to determine my functional threshold power. I do the test again in 3 weeks though. I will make sure I bring my heart rate strap this time. The number I am using now for LTHR is slightly higher than my average heart rate on a previous 2 hour max effort group road ride.

I think I will post this question to the Wattage list and see what the experts say.

I also posted a question on mtbr about high cadence and one leg drills. I don't like these workouts. They give me terrible saddle sores. I read this article that said they are not even beneficial. I think the workouts would be more tolerable if I knew for sure what I was doing was helping me get faster.

Training with Power

When I first started training two years ago, it was pretty easy to see that I was getting faster each month. I made huge changes in my fitness those first couple months. However as the length of time I have been training grows longer, the increases in my fitness have grown smaller. The changes seem so small now that I wonder if I am actually making improvements. Wondering whether I am improving by killing myself on a threshold interval makes it really hard to stay motivated.

I feel like I started a new adventure yesterday. I did my first functional threshold power (FTP) test. This is a hard number that basically tells me how fit I am. I can repeat this test every month and compare the number to previous months to see if I am getting faster or slower. I can also compare my number to a chart of rider profiles to see how I compare to other riders.

You might not just ask why don't you go ride the same loop every month and time yourself? That is much cheaper and simpler way of doing it I guess. It doesn't take into account though things like changes in the wind or rain or tires or temperature or etc... I think if I had been timing myself every month for the last two years it would have been better than what I have been doing which was nothing.

The power meter also buys me some other things.

I can track how hard and how fast I have to pedal on different types of rides using a techinique called Quadrant Analysis.



This is important because it not just how long you train but how close your training matches your actual races. They call this specifity. Basically it just means if all your training rides were long slow flat rides and your race was a short fast hilly ride then you probably won't do very well.

I can also use my functional threshold power results to create Power levels. These levels will help me make sure I actually resting on my recovery rides or make sure I am actually over my threshold on my high intensity rides.

I can also track how much power I can produce at different intervals using the Mean Maximal Power Curve.



This will tell me what my strengths and weaknesses are. For example a very good sprinter can go for 15 seconds or longer without a significant slope change on their MMPC. Someone with excellent VO2 power(3-6minute power) will have a slight 'rise' in the curve during that time period. For a Time trialist, the curve will have very little slope change throughout the entire curve.

I can see after a ride where I went over my limit and how that affected my power afterwards. The WKO software will quickly highlight where I went over my threshold power.



Cylists call this burning a match. The idea is that when you start a ride you only have so many matches in your matchbook. Everytime you go over your threshold you burn one or matches. Once you use up all your matches then you run out of energy and either quit or limp home.

While I am riding I can see how much effort I have expended and at what intensity. My ergomo pro power meter will track Total Stress Score and Intensity Factor. Total Stress Score can be seen as the total amount of energy I have expended. The Intensity Factor is basically the rate at which I am expending my energy. As my IF goes up, the duration I can ride goes down.

I can also track my training loads through a season to make sure I am not overtraining or undertraining using the performance manager chart.



This chart will show me both my long term and short term training loads. It will also give me a numerical value to tell me how rested I am. It is up to me to find through trial and error how much stress I can handle before I need to rest and how much rest I need before I can race, but once I figure these numbers out I can use the chart to repeat those same numbers in the future.

So considering all these things I think it was smart to get the power meter. I have a mathematical brain and having hard numbers makes sense to me.

Gene Hamilton's Betterride

I went to Gene Hamilton's Betterride clinic this weekend in Fruita. I have always wanted to go to Fruita so the clinic gave me a great excuse to fly out there.

We flew to Salt Lake City then to Grand Junction. The views from the plane were amazing. I always thought Google earth looked fake but after flying over those mountains I stand corrected.



The mountains really do look cartoonish once you get to a certain height. How the land can be perfectly flat in one section then rise up into the crazy folds and peaks in another is incredible.

After we got off the plane we stopped at a pretty good coffee/sandwich place called La Paninoteca. The sandwiches were actually paninis. Now I not would call myself a panini man per se, but as far as paninis goes these weren't too bad. I got some spicey sausage that tasted pretty good. All of the ingredients were very fresh and of high quality.

After lunch we drove to Fruita and found a great place to stay for $45 bucks a night. The Balanced Rock motel looked a little sketchy on the outside, but the inside was really nice and clean. Our view overlooked the interstate and railroad tracks. The noise from the trucks and trains reminded me of home. :)

I picked up my bike at Over the Edge Bike shop. The guys there were great, and the shop is really nice. They did their best to get my 7 year old bent front derailleur adjusted properly. I think next time I will just rent one of their high end bikes. Shipping your bike to and from somewhere is a hassle.

Friday morning I got up early and rode my bike over to Reed park for the clinic.



Gene went over bike setup, body placement, vision, and wheelies. We did drills in the parking lot so we would feel comfortable while learning new stuff. If we had started on the trail then we would have probably been paying more attention to the trail than the skills we were learning.

I had a hard time looking up. I guess I normally look a couple feet in front of my wheel. I usually clear the first obstacle I am staring at, but if there is another obstacle immediately after the first obstacle then I just crash into the second obstacle and fall over. If I can force myself to keep my head up, then I am sure I will be more prepared for the things ahead of me.

Later that afternoon we drove over to Rustler's Loop and practiced the skills we learned on the trail. It was great having Gene giving you advice as we rode. He also stopped several times and had us play around on some interesting trail features.

Friday night all the campers went to Fiesta Guadalajara for some Mexican food. It was nice sitting around talking getting to know each other off the bike. The food was excellent and the margaritas were even better.

Saturday the rains came down. We ended up in small covered parking pad in Grand Junction. It was freezing but it was better than sitting around in my hotel. Gene taught us about cornering, step ups, bunny hops, and switchbacks. My cornering has gotten really crappy lately so I was really happy to learn how to corner correctly.

We practiced cornering by setting up a figure 8 out of orange plastic cones. Gene showed us how to weight our outside foot, lean the bike not the rider, apply counter pressure to the inside grip, lean forward with elbows out to weight the front tire, and most importantly look up and through the corner. It is hard to do all those things at one time so we practiced each piece at a time. I will need to do this drill a couple times a week for as long as I ride my bike.

Sunday we met again at Reed park.



The rain had stopped but the trails were still soaked. We spent a couple hours reviewing what we had learned the previous days and did some fun slalom runs in the parking lot. Again Gene showed us how much easier things are by keeping our head up and looking past the cones. I admit it was almost comical how much easier the slalom was when I stopped looking right in front of wheel.

Then we headed over to Rustler's again and practiced our cornering skills. We did repeats on this one long downhill. Gene would ride in front of and behind us giving us tips as we rode. It really helped solidify the things he taught us the day before.

Monday I woke up and didn't feel really good. I ended up taking my bike back to the bike shop early and spend the day exploring the Colorado National Monument with Amy.



It was a good decision and I had a great time.

I didn't get to ride any of the trails I wanted to but the clinic was better than I expected. I learned a bunch of drills that I can use to improve as a cyclist. It is going to be tough because I have so many bad habits to break. I feel confident that I can do it though now that I have the knowledge Gene gave me.