On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

I had a really solid sprint workout today, extending my maximum recorded power to 749 watts on sprint #4. Then 737 watts on sprint #5 was my second best. So maybe my recent series of sprint workouts is paying off. With this ride, I closed off what's been a very mixed month. On the surface, with the exception of today's ride, it's been discouraging. I was 73rd in the Menlo Grand Prix, never a factor. I've never once this month felt strong on climbs. I got dumped from my one and only Spectrum Ride (okay, I ran 12.3 miles the day before). I did manage to hang with the main group over Canada College on a Thursday Noon Ride, but on a Tue Nooner, I was overwhelmed before I dropped off to do my assigned sprints (I'd done a long run two days before). I've not done a single ride this month much over 45 miles. So when things don't seem to be going so well, it's nice to look at some data. Here's my maximal power curves for the month (before and after t...

Last Friday, I needed a break. I decided to work from home, but I honestly wasn't getting much work done. Burning it at three ends. I was tired. Tyler Phinney was going to be riding the kilometer at Worlds . I checked CyclingFans for on-line coverage, and found a link to Justin.tv . Bingo. I tuned in to some French coverage just a few riders before Phinney clipped in. The best time so far: an insane 1:00.666 by German Stefan Nimke. Mini-Phinney riding the kilometer like a mini-pursuit ( VeloNews ) Phinney was behind his pace at 200 meters. These guys generally rip out killer standing 200's at the start of a kilo, but Tyler's just not that sort of a rider, especially at 18 years old. But once he was up to speed.... he lost a small bit of time next check, then actually began to gain some back. He crossed the finish in an amazing 1:01:611. Wow! Second place! One rider after another came to the start, bettered Nimke's opening 200 meter time, but then faded badl...

Today's workout was a recovery ride with two high cadence drills, each consisting of the following: 5 min @ 100 rpm 4 min @ 105 rpm 3 min @ 110 rpm 2 min @ 115 rpm 1 min @ 120 rpm Obviously this suggests the need for a cadence monitor. As I mentioned in my last post, the Powertap does make an attempt at cadence by monitoring the periodicity of the torque measured at the rear hub, expecting to see torque fluctuate as first one foot then the other foot moves between the downstroke. However this doesn't work as nicely as a good old-fashioned magnetic reed switch mounted to a chainstay to pick up the field from a magnet taped to a crank arm, and Saris will even sell you one for $50. For moderate cadence, the Powertap's scheme works okay, but for spinning drills, it tends to get confused and underestimate. But even at moderate cadence, the number fluctuates, such that trying to maintain cadence by watching the number isn't very productive. Smoothing helps reduce the fl...

This week, an embellishment on last week's Z3 climbing: Z3 with 30 seconds at Z4 every two minutes, to get my body accustomed to being in Z4. A better approach to my noon ride "Z4 and blow" paradigm of a few weeks ago. Here's the plot. The intervals on the climbs are fairly obvious. The bottom of Alpine is a gradual grade to flat, so for the first 8 minutes of that climb I tried to just keep it Z3, introducing the Z4 component when the climb proper kicked in. Power over time for the ride. I focus on on the climbs in the next plot. Here instead of ride time, the x-axis is the time within the interval. I did a fairly good job, it seems, of boosting the power up into Z4 during the final 30 seconds of each. There's no smoothing on these values, and point-to-point powertap samples jump around a lot due to differences in pedal stroke phase. Power over interval time for the major climbs. At Old La Honda Road, Coach Dan recommended doing that climb big gear, low ca...

A friend was visiting town and wanted to do yoga yesterday in lieu of our planned hike in the Marin Headlands. Too windy, she said, which I'd thought was a bit strange from someone who lives in Seattle. But yoga was fine. It'd been months since I'd attended my previous class, at World Gym at 16th and De Haro. The classes at World Gym are surprisingly good considering its reputation for a muscle-bound clientèle, but I wanted to take her to the a place with more of that distinctive yoga ambiance. I had a long-neglected gift certificate to Yoga Tree , so it was time to check it out. As our 11 am Vinyasa session was about to begin, the instructor declared we had "the perfect number" of students. "Plenty of room to walk up and down the aisles," he gleefully observed. I glanced around; the place was packed -- it had to be close to its 60-student capacity. Hopefully I wouldn't topple over on any of the balancings, initiating a domino-like chain...

Friday's Noon Ride seemed fast to me. The nice thing about power data is they allow one to put a quantitative validation on such qualitative assessments. One of my favorite ways of looking at ride data are maximal power curves. These are the maximum average power recorded during the ride over intervals of various duration. Here I compare average powers over four rides: three noon rides and the Menlo Park Grand Prix criterium, for durations from 0.05 minutes (3 seconds) up to an hour: Maximal power curves for two Friday Noon Rides, a Thursday Noon Ride, and the Menlo Park Grand Prix. FTP estimated from the Menlo Park Grand Prix normalized power is also shown, along with a curve using the Critical Power model for AWC/CP = 40 seconds with this FTP value. On the plot, I point out a key feature of that Thursday ride: the hard effort of the Canadã College loop , which is a pair of climbs separated by the descent. Note the peak average power increases with increasing time for a bi...

Two good things today.... One, I got in an 11.6 mile run, my first serious run since the trail run two weeks ago. The descent through Huddart Park took its toll, and I spent two weeks focused on cycling, stretching, and core strength work. It's important to me to maintain some running fitness through the summer. This will give me a big head start in my goal of qualifying for Boston , maybe at Sacramento in December, right before IEDM , which I often attend. But additionally I think running is good cross-training for riding, improving muscular balance, bone strength, and core integrity. Running also increases my focus on relaxation and posture, focuses which can be beneficially translated to riding. For example, relaxing my shoulders on the bike drops my head, which lowers wind resistance. And I think the body just works better when it's relaxed than when it's tense. Running has helped me realize just how much I tend to tense up my shoulders and neck. As if that w...