What a difference a year makes

I was fiddling around in Wko+ the other day and I was curious to compare my Mean Maximal Avg Power numbers from Jan 1- March 11 of 2008 vs. 2009. I'm very happy about the year over year progression. Wko+ is such a powerful tool to evaluate and monitor the progress I'm making. It adds a whole different dynamic to be able to quantify the increases you make. Now, this doesn't mean diddly if I can't transfer these gains into actual races.

Tradezone Crit #3- March 8...A win :-)

First off, what a beautiful day to be on the bike. Picture perfect weather hovering right around 65. What a nice change!

I woke up this morning a little sore from yesterday morning's stomp around Arlington. Saturday's ride turned out to be my hardest ride in about 2 1/2 months (2.75 hrs, TSS-250,IF-.96,NP-322, along with setting my best 1min power #). Lots of hard race intervals worked in during the ride. Basically, sprint HARD for 30 secs, settle in slightly above threshold for ~4 minutes and then sprint for 10-15 secs. It's a very different type of effort than I'm used to doing for triathlon.

On the drive over to the Tradezone C (cat 4/5) race, I was contemplating strategy. Hmmm, what to do? I finally decided to just take it easy in the pack and go for the sprint win. Once I arrived, I registered (good to see Jenn Brown again) and went out for a good 25 minute warm-up. This is weird. After about 15 minutes, my legs felt really good. I worked in a couple of hard sprints...and still pretty good. Maybe it had to do with the fact that we had "Fajita Night" at the Warner household last night. Igda makes some tasty fajitas. Cool. I was flying the DC Tri Club kit today (Sean said they were comfy bibs and he was right).

The race was ready to start. I made it to the line about 3/4 of the way back. Race number pinned on correctly. Saddle bag removed. What could possibly go wrong this time? For the first time, I wasn't called out before the race started! Also, note to self, starting in the back really sucks. The yo-yo effect is ridiculous. Lap 1 & 2 were uneventful. I was sitting at the back chilling, but getting pissed about the yo-yo'ing.

At the start of the third lap, I worked up toward the front. A guy came by my left, so I jumped on his wheel and he pulled me all the way to the front. Ok, do I stick to the plan or go to plan B. Ummm, there is no plan B. Take a wild guess at what I did next? Yep, got on the front and decided to drill it for a bit and see what happens. Amazingly, after about 30 seconds I looked back and there was only an NCVC rider (Chris) on my wheel, and we had about a 5 second gap. I told him to hang on because I'm going to hit it hard for a bit. After roughly 2 more laps, we had 20 seconds. I looked at Chris at that point and said, "ok, hard 30-45 second pulls. Let's work this!"


I knew Chris was young, but I didn't find out until after the race while we were talking that he's in high school. He made a comment that one of his teacher's is in the DC Tri Club. A really good kid. I'm not sure he said a word the entire break, but he at least had the guts to stick with me. I just made sure to keep giving him encouragement and cheer him on. I could tell he was getting tired after being off the front for about 5 laps. I started making my pulls longer and using his pulls as a quick recovery for me. I needed him with me as long as possible, but I also hadn't planned on being where I was right now. I was feeling great.


We got the gap up to 30 seconds before it started to come down with 7 to go. I was still feeling really good. I could tell Chris was closing in on running out of gas, but I couldn't bring myself to leaving him. The good lesson I feel I gained from this is that I need to prepare for those situations where you need to decide, "Do I attempt to keep going by myself? Or do I hope he can recover, but risk being gobbled up by the field all for not?" With 6 to go, I told Chris we needed to give it everything this lap. The gap was down to around 10 seconds. I was hoping the chase group might relax a bit once they saw us in spitting distance. Well, right toward the end of 5 to go, I looked back and Chris gave the goodbye waive. He was done. I drove on for another half a lap and then realized I should just try and hang in for the sprint.

On laps 4, 3 & 2, I just stayed in the top 8. I got some nice recovery in during this break. We had to slow down on the back side each of these laps anyhow since there was a pretty serious crash in the women's race (caused by pothole I'd imagine).


On the bell lap, a Bike Rack dude gassed it at the start. I was right next to him since I wanted to be very near the front going into the first turn. I'm still not sure, but I think he was trying to give his boy's a good lead out by stretching out the field for the final lap, but they let a gap form and I jumped on his wheel. I just sat second wheel going into the final turn. I was a little nervous he was going to let up and then I'd be stuck at the front. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Right after the final turn, I'd say roughly 4 guys came around the sides of me. I jumped and hit it hard. I saw the ABRT rider pulling the WWVC rider just ahead. I latched onto the WWVC wheel for about 5 seconds. I saw him going left of ABRT, so I decided to go right of ABRT. With about 30 feet to go, I was like, "holy cow! I think I'm going to win this thing!" It was close. I believe I nipped the WWVC rider by a half a wheel at the line. Wow, that felt good! To be away in a 2 man break for 65% of the race and still have enough in the tank to take the sprint was a great feeling. I even managed to win a big ol' can of Finish Line Citrus Degreaser!

I got some good confidence from this race, but I'm not letting this go to my head.

Quick power #'s:



Break:
Duration: 27:26
Work: 561 kJ
TSS: 52 (intensity factor 1.066)
Norm Power: 356
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 11.184 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 831 341 watts
Cadence: 30 131 93 rpm
Speed: 19.9 30.6 24.5 mph


race:
Duration: 50:01
Work: 905 kJ
TSS: 87 (intensity factor 1.021)
Norm Power: 341
VI: 1.13
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 20.229 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 950 302 watts
Cadence: 22 141 91 rpm
Speed: 14.6 38 24.3 mph

Final Sprint:
Duration: 0:40
Work: 26 kJ
TSS: 4.6 (intensity factor 2.018)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 0.335 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 132 926 633 watts
Cadence: 60 111 92 rpm
Speed: 22.9 38 30.0 mph

Here's a good series of shots of the finish (and not so smart move of taking the gutter by some guy):






Photos courtesy of Amy Jones (thank you!)

Interesting FTP test...good news

After a good 4 week block of training, I figured now would be a good week to do some testing and recharge the battery.   For me, testing inside on the rollers generally takes some serious motivation and a whole lot of mental tenacity.  It just freaking hurts, and when you know that going in, it can almost feel dreadful.   As added motivation, I wrote a sign up and placed it on my TV which read, “Winners Block The PAIN! Winners Don’t QUIT! SUCK IT UP!”  I also had the pre-requisite IPOD shuffle on full blast along with the 2003 Tour of Flanders DVD on the tube.

 

I just rode easy Monday & Tuesday for about an hour to get in some recovery.  Wednesday was going to be D-Day.  TSB would be rising to right about “0” by then.  I got home Wednesday evening and prepared for the pain.   I did something a little different.  I raised my fan on a chair so it was about 3 ft in front of me, hitting me squarely in the face.  I opened the sliding glass door to get some cool air in.   Headband on, sweat towels laid out, DZNUTS chamois cream applied…I’m ready to rock.

 

Went through my usual warm-up (real ez for the first few minutes and then start ramping up by 10-20 watts every minute for a total of 10 minutes.   Then went into 3x1:30 at 100% w/30 second recovery followed by 3x30 seconds at 430+ to really get the blood flowing.  Soft pedaled for a few minutes and began the self motivating talk.  “You can do this!  Legs are good!  You need to validate training progress!  This is where the rubber meets the road!” 

 

After a few minutes of this, I fired up the nerves to launch an all out 5 minute effort.  It took a few seconds more of anxiety and curse words before I finally punched the interval start button.  GO TIME! 

 

My best cp5 avg power (388w) was back at the beginning of January going up Naked Mountain.   Before the test, I thought a goal of 400w+ would be a good target.   I told myself to not look at the power reading until about 30 seconds in and start based on feel.   After 30 seconds I was sitting on 425w average.  Cool.  Naturally, it felt hard but not too hard that I would blow up after 3 or 4 minutes.  After about 3 minutes, my avg had dropped to about  419w.   The grim reaper was approaching, so I told myself to NOT let it drop lower than that and give it all for the last 30-45 seconds.  I was able to get avg power back up a bit to 422 by the end of the interval.   It f-ing hurt but I was really happy with the number!   Wow, a 34 watt (~8.5%) improvement in 2 months and I haven’t really even been doing that much V02 work.   My goal at the beginning the year was to get a cp5 of 425w.  I guess I’ll be updating that goal now.

 

And then something unexplainable happened.  As I was doing my 10 minute recovery, I started to cough.  Not the good kind of cough.  More of a cough like I had just seared my lungs.  I was having trouble breathing.  What the heck?  I originally chalked it up to the hard effort, but in hindsight I think a couple of things didn’t help.  I had moved the fan so it was blowing directly into my face on high about 3 feet away.  It was a little colder outside than I thought and I may have opened the door more than necessary.  I’ve had slight problems in the past with asthma, but it didn’t occur to me at the time that this may be the culprit.   Overheated body and cold air blowing directly in my face may not have been the best idea.

 

Regardless, I was still going to attempt a hard 20 minute effort to approximate FTP.  My goal was to be 350w+.  This was going hurt.  After some more self motivating talk, I hit the go button and I was off.  I was holding a steady 351-352w for the first 9 minutes.  Legs felt pretty good, but my breathing was all screwed up.  I was coughing about every 15 seconds.  WTH?!  It’s at this point where I lost total motivation.  I just couldn’t do it any longer.  Yep, I stopped.  Shame on me, but something was going on with my cough.  I rode for about another 20 minutes and then just bagged it.  I continued coughing off and on for the rest of the evening.  I finally remembered that I had inhaler in my bag before bed.  I took a couple of pulls before going to sleep.

 

Flash forward to the Thursday morning.   I woke up a little pissed off at having stopped the 20 min effort.  I wanted redemption.  My cough was gone.  I was feeling pretty good.   I was planning on riding anyway, so I told myself to get back in the saddle and prove yourself today.  I didn’t want to go all day kicking myself about last night’s test.  So, I hopped on the rollers and started my typical warm-up.  I added a 5min chunk at 100% and some hard 30’s.  Legs were good enough to give it a go.  I told myself I wouldn’t quit no matter what!

 

My plan was to hold 345w avg for the first 10 minutes and start building power to the end.  After 5 minutes, I felt good and steady, really focused on breathing and smooth pedaling.  At the 10 minute mark I was still in good shape.  Time to start ramping it up.  At the 15 minute mark I had slowly increased my avg to 348,  I could smell the finish.  It’s all heart now.  With two minutes to go, I started to really pick it up.  I wanted the last minute to be close to max.  Bam, the finish line.  352 avg.  Very nice.  I’d pretty much emptied the tank…I think.  My last 20 minute test (338w) was up Mt Weather back in January as well.  So, I was happy with the 352 today (14 watt improvement, ~4%).   Puts my FTP at ~334. 

 

Now that the misery is over, it’s time to increase training loads.  There’s no hiding.  Things are on track.  It’s time to put the hard work in and get back to training.

 

 

 

 

GETTING MY DUNK ON!

Wow! Great time this past weekend! Igda and I traveled up to Kyle and Laura's lake house in Deep Creek Maryland to take part in The Dunk. Basically, jumping into the freezing cold lake with a lot of nutty folks just for the hell of it. It was a fundraiser for Special Olympics. We took Leo with us and I think he drove Riley crazy the entire time.

Really, a great trip overall and nice to get away for a weekend. Too many stories to tell, but thought I'd share the highlight video of us on Saturday doing the dunk along with some pics.



PICS (ok, captions aren't matching photos, but I think you can figure out my little game here):
Post Dunk Drinks:

Igda & Leo:

A nice view of the lake from the house...tranquility:

Kyle, Laura & I:

Kyle & I getting ready to leap:



Breaking out the Mardi Gras Hat

Leo's new BFF...Riley



Kyle...post Dunk!

Tradezone Crit #2…I think I need an 11-23

I was a little skeptical that the race would go since the weather was calling for rain/snow mix. It was pretty chilly (~37) when I last checked the car thermometer before starting warm-up. The slight drizzle continued for the entire morning.

During warm up, they were putting down some of that gravel which soaks up oil (I don’t know the proper name) on turn #2. Holy cow, it was a really slick corner. I think I fishtailed about every time through that corner. On the 3rd lap, a rider in front of me slid out on that turn. I managed to swerve around him safely. From that point forward, everyone went through #2 with serious caution.

Since this is still a training race, I decided to just get some good solid work in during the race. Mistake #1. I forgot to remove my saddle bag. So, while at the very front of the start line, I get called out again to remove my saddle bag and kindly hand over to some lady standing at the start/finish…ooops. I’ll pick that up after the race. Hey, my race number was pinned on right, though!

I threw caution to the wind starting out and just rode hard from the whistle. I pulled the bunch for the first couple of laps (5mins @380w). I dragged back a few minor attacks during the 3rd lap. I think I discouraged anymore attacks because only one other guy went the rest of the day (besides me with 3 to go). During the race, that “other” guy and I started talking a bit of strategy. His name was Aaron. Nice guy. He’s from Baltimore and rides for BBC (more leisure than a race group he said). Cool, I may have somebody to strategize with in future races. Aaron and I were really the only one’s trying to animate the race. The rest were pack fodder.

Aaron went on a break around lap 6 or 7? I was near the back trying to open the vents on my jacket…I was getting hot…when he went. I was like “crap!” There’s my chance to work a break with him. By the time I got to the front the gap was only around 3-4 seconds to Aaron. I was finally at the front when I passed him, but everyone else was on my wheel. Aaron asked, “What took you so long?” I said, “Sorry, man. I was at the back when you took off.” Basically, Aaron and I just drove the pack around for the rest of the race, keeping the pace up. I took a flyer with 3 to go (~ 7 minutes 363avg/384np), but Aaron couldn’t bridge.

I hopped Aaron’s wheel going into the last lap. We were sitting about 5th. He goosed it after turn 1, so now I was sitting 2nd wheel going into slippery turn 2. Aaron pulled off and now I was sitting first wheel…not exactly where I wanted to be. I needed a little recovery. I slowed to let the pack roll through and jumped back on around 10-15.

We hit the last turn and started down the slight downhill to the finish. I gritted my teeth and hit it. I was passing riders all the way to the line, but I got beat by a bike length from the top 3-4 riders that were bunched together. I think I was 4th or 5th. The big problem I realized while bombing to the finish line at 35mph is that I need an 11-23 cassette. A 12 is not low enough. I stayed seated the entire sprint because I was spinning at 120+rpm’s and thought if I stood up I would fly off the bike. I was actually pretty happy and surprised that I made it that close to leader without a true standup sprint.

Overall, I’m pleased with how training is coming along. My power numbers keep increasing nicely week over week which is my goal at this time of the year. Next weekend is “The Dunk”! And then a few more of these races in March.

Race Power Summary:
Duration: 49:56
Work: 858 kJ
TSS: 80.7 (intensity factor 0.985)
Norm Power: 325
VI: 1.13
Distance: 18.977 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1011 286 watts
Cadence: 26 141 94 rpm
Speed: 8 36.4 22.8 mph
Hub Torque: 0 338 85 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1095 257 lb-in

I highlighted all of the matches I burned (30sec+ efforts over 400watts).

Tradezone Criterium Race Feb 15, 2009

Well, here it goes. I ventured out to Upper Marlboro, MD this morning for my first ever cycling race. The course is approximately a 1.3 mile loop in an industrial park. I was entered in the C race (cat 4/5). It’s the only race I can enter since you have to complete 10 mass start races before you can upgrade to cat 4. Bottom line, you want to upgrade as quickly as possible. The cat 5 races are a real crapshoot. You have a mix of strong riders (getting into cycling), beginners and one time racers, all age ranges.

Course (click to enlarge):


As I was registering, I hear, “Hey, Pete”. What the heck? It’s Jenn Brown! She was managing the registration tent for the Bike Dr crew. It was great to catch up with her after the race

I really didn’t have any expectations. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t crash. Do some hard pushes, get some experience riding in the pack and build some fitness. My legs felt pretty good (good sign) even after doing a solid 1.75 hr threshold workout Saturday morning. I was able to get in a quick warm-up while doing 3 loops on the course before we started. With a NNW wind on the backstretch up a slight incline, I sort of figured that this may be the best place to start a break. It would be very, very difficult to get out of sight from the group (40-50 riders) on this course. There are only 3 turns on the loop. None of which are a big deal to carry speed through. After the third turn, you head down a slight downhill where it flattens at the finish. I think there were at least 3 or 4 times where guys attacked right before the downhill. I couldn’t quite figure that one out. A lot of work for nothing. You can’t outrun the group going downhill.

The cool thing about getting outside your comfort zone is that you get to put yourself in some innocent, unaware and occasionally ignorant positions. You see, I pinned my number on in the car and I knew it went on the back, slightly on the right so someone counting #’s at the finish line can read your number. Well, stupid me. I pinned the number upside down and right before the race started I hear, “hold on. I need to fix a number!” That would be the race official as he’s standing behind me fixing my number. Hey everyone, look at the NOOB! So, everyone had to wait about a minute until he re-pinned my number. I don’t know what is going on in my head today. I went to the grocery store today and realized as I was walking into the store that I had my slippers on!


Once the race started, I just decided I’d stay in the top 10-15 for the entire race. It really wasn’t all that difficult to hold my position. There were a few guys riding erratic. I made a mental note to steer clear of those. I definitely need to get used to surging for 5-20 seconds at a time, but that fitness will come.

After 3 laps, I thought I’d test the legs and take a flyer on the slightly uphill backstretch into the wind (Power: ~5 mins at 350avg/392np). Maybe someone would come with me? That didn’t happen. I opened up about a 75 yard gap to the group, but I knew I wasn’t going to go for 10+ laps solo, so I coasted the downhill section to the finish line and got back to my position in the top 10-15. It was fairly uneventful after that. The big teams (ncvc, dcvelo, etc.) with numbers, didn’t really seem to have any strategy. They were all spread out. I decided I would just buy my time, stay smooth and relaxed. It became evident that nobody was going to go for a real break. A few riders would attack and gain a couple of seconds, but nobody attacked with any conviction.

I did find myself in one awkward position. I was sitting maybe 15 when a guy came by on my left pulling up on the backstretch. I jumped on his wheel only to get out of the wind a bit more. I’m not really sure what he was thinking. He proceeded to try and ride away from the group without an initial attack. Hmm, pretty tough to ride the whole group off your wheel. When I looked back, the pack was only a few seconds behind. He started flicking his elbow to pull through, but I wasn’t going to rocket by him. He’d totally blown. I wasn’t about to go on a break with this guy.

Here it is; the final lap. I had already convinced myself I was going to punch it hard shortly after the first turn on the backstretch. What the hell!? I’d dropped back to about 15 or 20. The wind was coming slightly from the front left, so I planned to ride up the right side. I gradually built my speed and once I got close to the lead guy, I hit it hard. I gave a quick peek back after 20 seconds and I was all alone. Cool, I guess? I just tried to drill it as hard as I could until the finish (2.5 minutes @ 436w avg). I definitely wanted to test myself. Sadly, I was caught about 150 feet from the line by 4-6 riders, just nipping me at the line. I knew I needed some time going into the downhill stretch. I just didn’t have enough today. I think I sort of screwed up. Once they caught me, I grabbed a wheel, but they all sort of let up at the same time. I thought, holy crap! Do we have another lap to go? I remember Flanagan mentioning that he did that one time and I thought I’d just done it. Nope that was it. Dang! I think those guys were gassed trying to catch me. I should have sprinted as hard as I could right when they caught me.

As we were coasting along afterward doing a warm down loop, it made me feel a little better when a few guys rolled by and said that it was a really good shot. An evo rider came up and we chatted for a bit. Nice, guy. I can’t remember his name. He said he tried to bridge solo but he couldn’t catch me and was swallowed up. I imagine he pulled that train close to me. I guess this is where cycling tactics can get a little tricky. It appears everyone was strung out. The group never did catch me. I think I finished 6 or 7? I couldn’t really tell where the line was since it was just a piece of tape across the road.


That’s a wrap. Good time. I learned some good things and gained some experience. I’ll be hitting it again next Sunday.

Power #’s:
Race:
Duration: 48:28
Work: 756 kJ
TSS: 70.4 (intensity factor 0.933)
Norm Power: 308
VI: 1.19
Distance: 18.98 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 958 260 watts
Heart Rate: 12 192 156 bpm
Cadence: 36 141 92 rpm
Speed: 8.1 33.1 23.5 mph
Pace 1:49 7:26 2:33 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 388 75 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1352 238 lb-in

What's happening

I have my blog set up so that I can now send updates via email. No more having to log in all of the time to update. You will just have to forgive spelling errors. So, I'm using this opportunity while waiting for the subway to take me home.



We survived inaguration. We didn't make it down to the Mall. I think we've become a bit desynthesized to washington politics. Quite honestly, it sort of depressing how politics work around here. I don't know. Maybe I need to pay more attention and be more active. Just don't have time. Oops at my exit. Sign off