Training Misfire

Rain again today. I'm tired of cleaning bikes! I wait it out, and around 7:30P it stops. I get dressed. Make my bottles. And it starts pouring again. I decide tho make the ultimate sacrifice. I'm going to ride the trainer. But before that, I must change the rear tire to a trainer tire.

This tire is hard to mount. But eventually... I get it. Hit it with the air, and... I've got a puncture. Probably from the mounting fight.

Off with the tire, patch the hole, remount the tire, pump it up, put it on the trainer. As I'm looking up my training plan I hear.... Piiizzzzzzttttt. Tire is now flat. Again. Oh boy.

Off with the tire. Bad patch job. Repatch the hole. Remount the tire. Pump it up. Put it on the trainer. I jump on the trainer and get through my plan's warm up.

The effort seems to be getting lighter all the time. I'm shift down several times to keep the same wattage... As I start my first power interval the tire slips on the roller. I'm not that strong, but the tire is that flat. Again.

Off with the tire. There were actually two holes and the second patch didn't quite cover it. Explains the first bad patch job. Patch the new hole. Remount the tire. Pump it up. Put it on the trainer.

Less than 5min into my "ride"... another flat.

Enough! It's rapidly getting late. I put a new tube in. Mount the road tire. This wasn't meant to be tonight. Off to bed. Somedays...

Drink Mmmmoore!

Today a coworker and I were chatting. He lamented not being able to exercise very much, because it made him feel so bad, and the following days. His description was classic signs of dehydration. I asked if he was a heavy sweater. He responded "how did you know?". I gave him some info that I've kept for reference.

With this conversation in my mind; I'm checking my sweat rate tonight. The process is simple weigh before ride. Ride. Keep track of how much you drink. Weigh when done. Add your weight change to what you drank, divide by the time, and you have your sweat rate.

Today is abnormally cool. Rain showers have sideswiped my side of town. I drink about what I usually do. Never feeling thirsty. With the cooler weather maybe I'm overdoing it? I'm home and run the numbers to a shocking result. I'm not drinking near enough. American College of Sports Medicine guidelines are no more than 2% body weight loss during exercise. I was right on the border of that -with lower temperatures. Remember - I never felt parched. It's true what the physio people say. Thirst is a poor indicator of hydration need. I need to take my own advice!

The ride was good. Three sets of 30-30 intervals. Well, sort of. Just as was wrapping up the last rest period, a rider passes. Then another. Then about four. I've been caught by a group ride. Been a looong time since I've ridden with a pack. So I jumped on. Man I love pack riding! Takes concentration. The distration from burning legs, plus the desire to stay with the a pack make for fun and speed. A great day!

Most Events Aren't Planned

Traveled to Muleshoe Bend on Saturday. As I approach the park, a long line of cars is stacked up. I get in que and awaited entry to the park. This happened last time I tried to ride here. That day I turned around and went to Pace Bend. But today, partly out of curiosity, I decide to wait it out.

The line doesn't move at all. It's not as if there's a delay at the fee station. It simply isn't moving. I wait nearly twenty minutes. The line begins to move, very quickly. Like there's no one ahead is stopping to pay. Confused. As I get a bit further I realize that the long line of cars isn't for the Muleshoe Bend park, but for a nearby camp. I've been waiting unnecessarily in the wrong que of cars. I will remember this next time!

I arrive at the park, I discover there is an adventure race going on. Their competitors are using the trails for the mountain bike portion of the race. But they are riding the trail backwards from the normal direction. This presents a problem because they aren't using the entire trail. Can't make a loop. And there are lots of people to pass on the trail. I really don't want to interrupt someone's race.

None of this is conducive to what I want to do today, work out some technical skills by repeating some challenging sections of trail. In the end, I decide to swap today's plan with tomorrow's plan - and do some hill repeats off the trail on the fire roads. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow? Or ride a short road route tomorrow? Or, or, or... so many good cycling options around Austin... I'll ponder this later. Off I go and shred the legs on the hills.

Sunday arrives. My appetite for riding isn't there. The legs are cracked more than I'd intended. And I've got some things to attend to. I don't ride this day, and that's the only pratical option for the day.

Between the weekend on-the-fly plan changes and being off the bike with a sore neck earlier in the week, this week's training metrics look more like a rest week than the build week intended. But sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

B.O.B

Back on Bike. Last night's ride was late, but successful. A couple of blow out intervals, followed by 1h30min at tempo pace with maximal 20s sprint every 5min. A great ride for evaluating fitness. One of the things I look at is how fast my HR falls after the sprint efforts. Recovery was extremely fast. Being fresh helps, but compared to when I rode this plan earlier in the season... my fitness is clearly improving.

Some neck twinces but nothing serious. Giving it a bit more time before I pull the trigger on an imaging work up.

I'm itching for dirt. It's not pica, just want to get out of the traffic and the forrest!

Tilt and Pan

Head now tilts and pans without winces of pain. Not quite 100% but well on the way. Kinda like the feeling after too much lift. Training returns tomorrow. With some dedication I can salvage a good week.

Felt good enough to wash the rain grit off the bike. After four straight days of riding in the rain, a prodigious amount of grit and grime have accumulated. My drivetrain could best be described as "crunchy" sounding. It's a fine sandy grit. Hazmat for moving objects. Way worse for the mechanics than large globular mud.

Unfortunately, my water hose is out of service for some on going construction. So...

... should be on one of those "you know you're a cyclist when..." lists.

Ouch!

I've done something terrible to my neck. Not sure what. It started like most neck pain. Like I slept on it crooked or something. No big deal. But Thursday to Sunday thing got steadily worse. Sunday morning... I could barely get up to pee. Some pain meds and treatment from a physician friend have helped. Still not right. Call to my ortho clinic tomorrow. Off the bike until something happens.

Rain Grit and Grime

Rainy evening. With a long ride on the menu, and a forecast of rain until Friday... riding in the rain is the only option. Even resigned to getting wet, I delay my start until well after dark waiting for the flooding to recede and lightening to move on. As I roll out I remember about three things I was supposed to do this evening. They won't get done. It will be after 11pm before I'm done tonight. Leaving time for only shower and bed upon my return.

As I ride I ponder a question. Does one need to take a shower after riding in the rain? The question is answered upon my return. I'm covered in grit and grime flung from the wet roadway by the tyres. Ah-ha! It's a productive ride. Near three hours of tempo-threshold crossovers. Sleep comes easily tonight.

Another rainy day tomorrow. It's a two-ride day. It's starting to take toll. Rain riding is hard on the hardware. Some serious bike maintenance and cleaning are in order. After the tropical storm passes.

Weight Diagnosis - Or, Why It Pays to Be a Nerd

Small amount of panic last night, as I set a high-water mark on the scale. Haven't been this heavy in a looong time. Yet at the same time I've felt like I've been losing weight. What the heck is going on here? How can I be gaining and losing weight at the same time?

I track my weight daily, mostly. Sometimes I skip a day or two, but just interpolate between. It goes into my training log and spits out a graph. The graph tells the tail...

Seems like there is a strong periodic function at work here. A strong peak followed by a decline, denoted with the red arrows. Roughly correlating to a week in period. There's no denying it. I know exactly what it is. Weekend eating.

You can see how it starts. Went off the training plan and saw a rise on the scale, but it (mostly) went away. "I got away with it". Repeat the next week. Since the spike seems to go away during the week... I'm tricking myself into believing I'm losing weight. Fresh off a perceived "weight loss", I think "I can have this ____, I'm losing weight and did a long ride today." The problem is... I'm not losing as much as I'm gaining as the blue trend line clearly shows.

This is how weight creeps up over a period of weeks, months, years. Insidious.

This is advantage of a detailed training log. It's not about numbers -it's about understanding. Spotting changes and trends in you body, and develop plans to address the changes if negative, or celebrate them if positive. I sometimes question the need for it. I often don't pay any attention to the detailed graphs, etc. But this is the perfect example of why I keep the info...

I'm a lot less panicked than last night. Now that I know what's going on... it's clear what changes I need to make to arrest the gain. I was thinking I needed some sort of draconian change to reverse this. A crash diet or something? But I really don't. Only need to be more careful with my weekend nutrition. Rather than creating a drastic panic-inspired swing, I can make a small modification to my lifestyle that pays off over time. Much healthier than doing crash dieting.

Tropical Training

Tropical weather on the Gulf Coast. The humidity is near 100%. Rain daily for over a week. Today wind has stuck. 30+mph gusts on todays' ride. In true tropic form each gust was from a different direction. Swirly. When behind it felt like a push. From the front like someone squeezed my brake in a sprint. From the side... excitment!

I finish the threshold crossover ride deep into the darkness on windswept and rain soaked streets.

Been a tough week working around the wx. Requiring a flexible schedule. But I'm getting most of it in. Tomorrow and Friday are going to be a challange. The planned rides are too long to do on the trainer. Chance of rain =80% both days... looks like I'll be getting wet.

A Review

Trying something new is always fun. Leaving the zone of known quantities leads to discovery of good and bad. As I alluded in my last post... I'm trying out new tires. I've mounted up Continental Race King 2.2's front and back. I've been using Kenda SmallBlock 8's for almost two years as my all purpose tire. Only going to Kenda Nevagals in rainy or muddy conditions. Why Conti Race Kings?

I desired a more open tread pattern. But I didn't want to go to large lugs.

... they fit this criteria perfectly. As always... smaller lugs = better rollers!I like the small lugs over rocks because they tend not to get bounced around as much. My theory is small lugs drift more predicatably at the cost of the maximum amount of grip. I always tend to more predictable wash over maximum grip. Just my perference, but looking to challange habits.

Here's a side-by-side with the a worn SmallBlock 8 2.1.

... the Conti 2.2 size is about the same as the SB8 2.1. Maybe a bit smaller. They run small. The 2.0 size must be really small, so select it carefully. Larger lugs, but not chunkier. They are about the same "height" as the SB8 lugs. My thought when mounting is they sould be fast rollers.

Mounting, was totally easy. Easiest tubeless tire I've ever mounted. They fit onto my NoTubes Olympic rims with no problems, and the bead poped onto the rim right off the bat with the first blast of air from the compressor. Piece of cake.

I took the tires for a flogging at Pace Bend...

The verdict is *drumroll*... I have a new favorite tire! Keep in mind that I'm comparing NEW Race Kings against OLD SmallBlock 8s.... but my back-to-back comparison found these tire to have more ultimate grip, predictable drifting, and really damped over loose rocks. They hold their lines well over breaks. They didn't balloon and bounce like a basketball in the rock gardens as I was used to. Neat phenomenon. They really shine in breaking power over the SB8s. Enough to force me to readjust my braking points, and nearly pitch-pole me a few times on descents. The RaceKings don't have as much predictability as the SB8s, but it's still quite good.

They are super-fast rollers.

I'd have no problem going back to SB8s when it's time to retire these tires, but for now I'm totally satisfied with what I've got. Pretty much a toss up. Curious to see how these hold up over the long-term....

Pace Bend Again

Is it possible to tire of riding single track as nice as this? Nope. Back for a second engagement at Pace Bend... The pics say it better than I can...

That last shot is of a hammerhead turn I didn't qutie clean. Kept running out of speed on the whooptie-whoos setting it up. Next time. Also got lost. Running out of water, it was time to place my trust in the GPS and follow the virtual breadcrumbs. There was supposed to be a bail route. Never found it, and had to go the looong way out... oops.

Rest Weeks Are For Maintenance

The concept of a rest week is maintenance of the body. Just like a motor needs an oil change, the body must be cared for properly. Bikes need maintenance too. That was today's mission...

Like me, the bike has accumulated effects of the preceeding weeks of training. For the bike... it's mostly in the form of dirt! Gently spray it down...

Apply the suds...

Use the high-tech super-duper chain cleaning tool...

There a ton of contraptions for chian cleaning. I've even tried two of them. Most end up creating a bigger mess trying to add and dump the degreaser. And the chian never comes out very clean it seems. I've since wised up. And use a jar filled with citrus degreaser. SHAKE! The result.... clean chain! No fuss no mess.

I made a couple of changes to the bike over the last few weeks. Switched to the Ergon GX2 Leithbrau grips. I like the shape of the hand portion. Not sure I like the bar end part. I don't use it much. But... I'm not used to having it, so maybe I'll acclimate to it? I can certainly see the usefulness on long slogs. Nice to have another hand position, and they weight next to nothing (they're carbon). I also worried about them snagging in tight spots, but they are small enough to cause no worries. I've ordered another set sans bar end to keep on hand...

Also added a longer stem. Did the same to my road bike a few weeks ago. I think my desire for more reach is related to the change to my right elbow. Whatever reason, it's helped. Less front end wander on climbs and negligible penalty on descents. I'm really comfortable on the bike right now.

One final thing this before I wrap up this eve... mount up new tires.

More to come on these. Rested and prepared for a weekend of Texas hill country riding!

Austin Wrapup and Respite

Three successive weeks of quality training. Time for some R&R and a cycle wrap-up ride.

I traveled to Austin for the weekend. Friday night I saw Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears at the KUT fundraiser with Jane. Having never seen them before, this was Jane's idea. And a good idea it was! Thoroughly enjoyed the show. Nice blues/soulful rock vibe but still having a raw cutting edge you can only get with a local talent playing a great venue. Even the white folks got up and shook themselves.

Saturday saw my hide at Pace Bend Park for a tempo-paced ride to capstone the weeks' training. After the recent TMBRA race I heard lots of bemoaning about the difficult of riding here. I start out a bit initimidated. But I ride a couple of rock garden descents and feel quite comfortable. Turns out those descents were the hardest thing out here. Total confidence boost. Great place to ride!

I don't know what the race route was. I can envision a really super connect-teh-dot path through the network of trails that would be absolute torture. But.. I can also envision one that would be really trivial. I'm sure race day was some of both. And not as difficult to ride as some made it out to be.

I'm riding strong right now. Possibly as strong or stronger than ever. The motor is running good. I do OK with the heat. I tackle the techy stuff adeptly. I don't baby the elbow -at all. In fact, I actually try to wheelie hop and beat the arm up as much as I can today. It's the only way it's going to get stronger. These trails require a lot more upper body effort than I'm used to. By the end... its getting tender, and clear I need to cut the 3-1/2 hour goal a bit short.

Sunday began a recovery cycle. To kick it off... a Gordough's donut.

This was a Funky Monkey. Brazed bananas with brown sugar and cream cheese icing on top of a large, warm, freshly made donut. Masterpiece! I wish I could make donuts like this at home. I'd never leave. Some heavy-duty napping and a return home completed the weekend.

The upcoming week includes a recovery cycle. I'm starting to get that snippy streak that accompanies a heavy training regimine. And the last few days of last week had my mind wondering about all the other things I could be doing besides training. Truthfully, there are a lot of domestic tasks and errands that I've been neglecting. It's time to step away for a few days. I ran myself into the ground in last summer's heat. Easy to do in the Gulf Coast heat. (Today's HI=105°F).

Falling Flat

The run is over... today I awoke feeling flat, and the theme continued throughout the day. No specific pains or anything. Just general tiredness. As it came time for my evening ride... I debated hard. "I'm going". "I'm not going". After about 20min of this... the decision. "I'm not going". And a wash of relief came upon me. There's a fine line between being consistant in training and being a slave to the plan.

No Man's Land

Training is in no man's land. I'm a tweener. One can ride long and slow. Or short and hard. But how to do a little of both?

Entering a unique part of the season. Until now training sessions are pretty non-intensive. My focus has been sub-threshold to threshold work to develop the aerobic system and endurance. Thus sessions are longer. Duration has been king. Now I'm starting to add intensity. Because the body hasn't adapted to this yet, I'm slowly adding in the intensity. This shortens my workouts significantly.

Right now, I am limited by my above-threshold endurance, I can't get enough volume into one session a day. Two straight hours of VO2 intervals isn't an option. But two one-hour long VO2 interval sessions are. Thus, I can get in two hours of intervals without running myself completely aground. I also have the option of doing intensity for one workout, and tempo for the other.

Splitting my efforts into two daily sessions helps tremendously. I ride a short VO2, neuromuscular, or skill-based session either before work, or during my lunch period. Leaving my evening free to do longer rides and build volume. Today was a perfect example. I did 15s VO2 intervals at lunch, followed by a 3-hour endurance-level ride in the evening.

Eventually the intensity will be rise to replace volume in the training program. That's a few weeks away...

Good Service from Saris

I forgot to post a thank you to Saris for a quick return on my PowerTap. I received my wheel back last Thursday. Turn around time -including shipping- was only six days after they received it. Assuming the same delivery time as I had getting it up there, the turn around time was one day.

That's a great turnaround, Beat my expectations. I was expecting it to take a week, with another week for shipping. I'm pleased with the timing. Great service. The PowerTap hub is completely rebuilt. That's the only level of service Saris offers for an out-of-warranty hub. It's not cheap at $300. But other than the outer shell, it's all new parts. Nothing is reused. Good thing as I needed a new freehub anyway. At first I was disappointed that the hub crapped out on me. Until une copine pointed out that it died after the rim bending garage episode. I'm thinking it was damaged in the hit, rather than a random failure.

Glad to have it back in action. I've been on the mountain bike, which feels awefully oafish on the street.

Training Works

Sunday brings me to Double Lake. I was here six weeks ago, for my first real dirt ride since being injured. Two goals for the day. First a 3hour tempo ride. Second a check to see how I'm progressing.

The legs feel marvelous today. They feel "right" today. Everything just works. Like it's supposed to. I'm riding strong. The bike's going where I want it. And the pace is OK for this early in the season.

The comparision to where I was six weeks ago... is WOW! All of the elements missing last time are in place today. Tangible proof that training works! I'm pleased with the bike handling progress and the fitness progress -so far. The season's off to a good start.

I start running out of daylight before my legs are empty! Don't want to stop! I'm feeling bullet proof today! But I must. Still plenty in the tank for next week. Looking forward to another strong week, more weekend trail riding, and some careful eating.

New Favorite Workout

I have a new favorite ride plan. Here's the plan...

Set power meter for interval average display. Ride for 2min at 100%FTP then "coast" until average watts drop to 95%FTP. Then SPRINT! the watts back up until FTP returns to average. Coast down. repeat for 10min. The rest 5min. And repeat the 10min bout two more times.

Two great aspects to this plan. First, the pedal like hell, then coast closely mimics mountain biking.

Second, I can see this really helping me with pacing. Unlike a time trial, mountain biking requires many efforts above and beyond FTP. You can't simply aim to ride at your FTP, which would be the theoretical ideal pace. Yet I always seem to end up way below my FTP on MTB rides even during races.

I learned a bit today about how to go hard on the hard parts, and easy on the easy parts. Does the learning ever stop with this sport?

Threshold for Monday

Monday... usually a rest day. But this weekend brings travel and no training. I felt recovered enough from Saturday's ride to do some threshold work today. Simple plan two (2x) 20min intervals right at FTP. Recover 10min between. All's well. The legs feel great. Actually the second interval feels easier than the first. Good indicator of fitness gained.

Saturday Endurance

Saturday's are for distance! Today's route leads to Lake Houston. This time I've got the route correct. I'm joined today by my Jane. As you can see, at this point she's probably thinking "dang I wish he'd speed up!" :) Just for the record... I did get chicked on every overpass. I'm not ashamed. Jane is a strong rider. The ride goes well. Weather's great, though a bit warm. Later, I was wishing we'd rolled out earlier. Traffic's pretty heavy on parts of this route...

About 45miles in I got overheated. And almost side swiped by a Houston Police car! Ugg. Time for an unplanned break. I felt overheated. Not bonky, not dehydrated. Just not right. Is it the heat?

Nearing home clouds rolled in, a breeze kicked up, and the temp dropped. I felt way better. Indeed it was the heat. Back home, time to cool off and eat some dinner.

My lack of heat tolerance is a bit concerning. I've got a long road of training ahead this summer. How can I improve my heat tolerance? Better figure it out!