Food Park Training Ride

I had a good day on the bike. The last half of August and September is about intensity as I peak for Furnace Creek 508. I did Food Park for the first time. There were a few sketchy riders and they ran a few stops signs in the residential area. In my opinion, the right turns on red were questionable as well. I do have concerns about the overall safety of this ride. I am a huge proponent of safety on the bike. When riding alone I stop at EVERY stop sign and every light. I have an internal conflict with the way groups ride in urban areas. On one hand, I don't want to be unsafe and on the other I don't want to get dropped or cause a crash if I'm the only one stopping at a traffic control. I guess that's why most weekends you can find me riding solo in the mountains.

As an Ultra cyclist I don't ride in packs. Many of my races break up pretty early and the other races are non-drafting. I felt my pack riding skills were fine. In other words I felt comfortable and not the sketchy rider people had to yell at -- "hold your line!". My sixth sense for the flow of the pack was spot-on. I didn't miss a thing. I ignored many attacks that I sensed wouldn't amount to much but wasted energy.

What helped the most was marking Jason Bausch the whole ride. His experience helped me make efforts at the right times and conserve at others. Even when attacks went up the road he was steady. I learned a lot from him today.

JB was gracious enough to take a picture with me. I took the picture for my son. My not quite 5 year old son has been watching the Hard Road DVD for about 1 1/2 years. He loves the soundtrack and always remembers the roll call of the teams-- Mercury seems to stick out for some reason.

After my shower and my recovery meal it was time to put on my Skins Travel and Recovery tights. I'm planning on doing Como Street tomorrow. A fast recovery and fresh legs will be necessary to keep up with those boys.











TRAINING PEAKS SCREEN SHOT OF MY POWER TAP DOWNLOAD-- 534 WATTS FOR ONE MINUTE

149LBS OR 67.59 kg my

7.90 w/kg for one minute a new PR.

After looking at the graph I am quite sure that my 1 min number would actually be higher than 534 depending on the situation. I remember distinctly what happened. There was an attack which I didn't follow so I surged but backed off. Then I saw JB go and that was the right time to go. As you can see there was

an initial surge to 672 watts

then a pull back down to 240 watts

then another surge up to 885 watts with 10 sec avg at 743 watts

then the last 30 secs (when I should've been fading) I still put out a 553 avg.

ALSO HAD A MAX SPRINT OF 1077 WATTS OR 15.93 w/kg and a 5 sec of 995 watts or 14.72 w/kg good for mid cat four on the Power Profile chart.

Newport Coast Dr Hill Repeats

Sunday morning was an easy and mellow morning. Brandy and I spent some quiet time together while the kids were out playing. We walked the dog and then made and ate brunch together. A very nice morning indeed.

I didn't get on the road until 2pm but still put in a good days work. Hill repeats on a local hill that starts with a 1.5 mile 6% then a flat spot with a slight downhill as you transition to Vista Ridge which pitches up 10-12% before it flattens out for a short stretch and then two more steep pitches.









As you can see above 6000 feet of gain in 43 miles.

Below you will find a detail blowout of one repeat which incidentally was best for the day. It helps to have a rabbit to chase. All part of the plan the month of August and September is about increasing the intensity and reducing the volume.






SCREEN SHOT FROM TRAININGPEAKS

NORMALIZED POWER 280 WATTS FOR A 4.14 W/KG for 21 minutes not bad considering all the flat spots on the climb. And that 983 watt power spike was a weak attempt to sprint the last steep pitch but I didn't make it.

Glendora Mountain Road (GMR) Personal Record

64 MILES WITH 10,000 FEET OF CLIMBING


Since I don't really have a PR for GMR I going to use 45:50 from the gate to the crest on GMR (which is .2 of a mile past the little shack that everyone stops at).




SCREEN SHOT FROM TRAINING PEAKS

NORMALIZED POWER WAS 247 WATTS WEIGHT WAS 149 LBS OR 67.5 KG

3.65 W/KG FOR 46 MINUTES


The graph below is the descent from the top of GMR to the Gate. I was curious what my time and average speed would be. For the locals I included the small roller

AVG SPEED 31.3 MPH
TIME 15:33




216 miles with 13,500 feet of gain

New 5 Min Numbers

I was feeling pretty good last night during my commute--amazing what two days off the bike will do for your recovery. During my 69 mile commute I sometimes take a detour and climb a 1.5 mile 6% hill named Newport Coast Dr. Last night I wanted to see if my 5 min number had improved since my last "field test" over a month ago.




HERE IS A SCREEN SHOT FROM TRAINING PEAKS

I weighed 150lbs or 68 kg

my NORMALIZED POWER was 340


340/68 = 5 w/kg

Not bad for an amateur. According to the Coggan power profile chart it is in the grey area between Cat 3 and Cat 2.






source

Weekend of climbing

On Saturday I did 13,400 feet of gain in 114 miles. The hardest part of the ride had over 12,500 feet of gain in 80 miles. The heat and time in the saddle made the Baldy Road climb very difficult. I was struggling to maintain my speed above 5 mph on the last 2 miles of Baldy Rd.



On the bright side I PR'd the little GMR climb. It is a 5 mile climb in the 6% range. My time was 28:13 Normalized Power of 263 (3.87 w/kg). I'm really proud of that even though pros climb at over 6 w/kg. BUT, I'm not a pro and that's good enough for me.



Here is a screen shot from Training Peaks software on my PR.

On Sunday I did a shorter route than I had planned. I didn't recover well enough from Saturday's efforts. I wanted to stay close to the car so I only did 57 miles with 7,300 feet of climbing.

oops found another one for Little GMR

Found another one where I am 28 seconds faster on Little GMR. So I think my goal is to beat 29 minutes at first and then work from there.

Could be my Little GMR PR?

I need to look at my older files but I think this is my PR on little GMR.






HERE IS A SCREEN SHOT FROM TRAINING PEAKS.

Notice I put a powerband between 240-260 watts. My goal was to climb at 3.5 w/kg I did well in keeping at my goal with an actual of 3.6 w/kg.

20 min peak power on my commute this morning...

^^SCREEN SHOT JUNE 11, 2009^^


20 minute Peak Power from my morning commute. Weight 152 lbs or 69 kg

Average Power 244 watts / 69 kg 3.53 w/kg

Normalized Power 254 watts / 69 kg 3.68 w/kg


Look at my wattage from last night's commute. What I would like for you to notice is that my Average Power was up a whopping 24 watts but my Normalized Power was only up 5 watts from 249 to 254 watts. Why is that?

Let's look at Normalized Power :

TrainingPeaks uses a special algorithm to calculate an adjusted or normalized power for each ride or segment of a ride (longer than 30 seconds) that you analyze. This algorithm is somewhat complicated, but importantly it incorporates two key pieces of information: 1) the physiological responses to rapid changes in exercise intensity are not instantaneous, but follow a predictable time course, and 2) many critical physiological responses (e.g., glycogen utilization, lactate production, stress hormone levels) are curvilinearly, rather than linearly, related to exercise intensity, By taking these factors into account, normalized power provides a better measure of the true physiological demands of a given training session - in essence, it is an estimate of the power that you could have maintained for the same physiological "cost" if your power output had been perfectly constant (e.g., as on a stationary cycle ergometer), rather than variable. Keeping track of normalized power is therefore a more accurate way of quantifying the actual intensity of training sessions, or even races.


Source

In other words, when you apply power to the pedals it takes time for your body to react and when it does it reacts on a curve not in a straight line. Normalized Power takes this into account.

Or like my friend Sushi Joe says it "NP = the power you could have put out if you kept the effort as steady as possible. "

So back to my ride from last night. Notice how the POWER line is more erratic with rollers and traffic signals.



^^SCREEN SHOT JUNE 10, 2009^^

Compare it to this morning's ride was not as variable the power was more consistent so the Normalized Power only increased by 5 watts from 249 watts to 254 watts.

20 minute number from my commute

On my commute tonight I did a 20 minute interval. My weight was 152lbs or 69 kg

Here is a screen shot from Training Peaks.



Power: YELLOW
Heart Rate: RED
Speed: BLUE
Cadence: GREEN

My Average Power was 221 watts / 69 kg = 3.20 w/kg
My Normalized Power was 249 watts / 69 kg = 3.60 w/kg

I felt good during the interval but after it I was spent for nearly 10 minutes. The interval was through a section that had traffic signals and a couple of rollers hence the spikes in power.

60 min Peak Power Number

Screen shot from Training Peaks.

Yellow- Watts
Red - Heart Rate
Green - Cadence


I only had 1.5 hours to ride this morning. I did a 25 mile loop that took me on fairly flat terrain before and after a 1.5 mile hill (Newport Coast Dr) that gains 472 feet with an average grade of 6% grade. After the crest there is a 5.2 mile (San Joaquin Hills) rolling descent. It requires a lot of work to keep the watts up on the descent which in the end hurts your 60 minute number. But it's a good little game to play trying to keep the power up on the descent.


My Normalized Power was 233 watts for 60 mins. My weight was 150lb or 68.04 kg.

233/68.04 = 3.42

My 60 min peak number was 3.42 w/kg.

Average Power was 211 watts

211/68.04= 3.10 w/kg

Based on the Power Profile Chart that is right between the top range of Cat 4 (3.38 w/kg) and the low range (3.47 w/kg) of Cat 3.

New 30 sec Peak Power Number

I have a little competition going with my friend in Omaha, Nebraska SushiJoe.


Last night on my commute I asked him what his 30 second and 1 minute numbers were in absolute wattage and w/kg. I needed a carrot. I needed something to motivate me because the headwinds were demoralizing me. Have I mentioned how much I hate headwinds? I beat his 30 second number in absolute watts and in watts per kg (w/kg)as well. When reading power data it is important to not focus on the absolute numbers so much.



Here is an example. Two cyclists are comparing their wattage output on a local hill of 1.5 miles 6% grade.

John says: "I can hold 275 watts on that climb"

Mary says: "Really? I can only hold 225 watts on that climb"

Who is the stronger cyclist on this climb? Let's take a look at body weights for these two riders.

John weighs 165 lbs or 78.84 kg

Mary weighs 125 lbs or 56.70 kg



So John's w/kg is 275 watts divided by 78.84 kg = 3.67 w/kg

Mary's w/g is 225 watts divided by 56.70 kg = 3.96 w/kg

On this particular climb, based on their weight and power output, Mary is the stronger cyclist because her w/kg for this climb is 3.96 w/kg.

An important concept to remember is that w/kg is a power to weight ratio. As you lose or gain weight your w/kg will change that seems obvious right? But far too many people try to buy their way into better climbing. If you want to improve your climbing lose weight. Typically you will continue to hold your absolute wattage output if you are shedding fat pounds and retaining lean muscle.





Above is a screen shot from Training Peaks. You will see on the left a small frame that shows a time frame and corresponding wattage. The only thing missing to make the data quantifiable is my weight. I weighed 150 lbs yesterday which is 68.04 kg.

My 30 sec peak power was 721 watts or 10.6 w/kg Sushijoe's number was 7.91 w/kg. Ok Sushijoe there is your carrot. You have to beat 10.6 w/kg.

Being an Ultra cyclist, I am a slow twitch type of rider. I rarely do group rides. It is especially important for me to work on my fast twitch muscle so as not to lose that snap in my legs.