Cold, Wind, Rain, and… Snoring???

Well, the trip down to Fredericksburg hasn’t gone quite the way we wanted it to, but it hasn’t been all for naught.

We drove down Christmas Day, in pretty good weather, but in a pretty heavy headwind that continued through on Friday. Saturday was even worse. Winds in the 20’s with gusts in the 30’s. It would’ve been h e double hockey sticks to have climbs, AND wind, AND medium-cold for a still-recovering Wifey to deal with on one 36 mile ride.

SO, we walked the dog up & down Main Street, I went to the Pacific Museum, and we read some fun books. Dinner was at the Hill Top Cafe, which was really fun, and got to hear one of the guys from “Asleep at the Wheel”. The night was crisp. clear, no moon, bright stars, and we headed to sleep to try and catch up for a little less sleep from the night before (rich dinners).

Well. Little did we know that Shadow had other plans. The night before, she’d been up all night, wanting to play, excited about the new surroundings, and generally thinking that the fun was centered around her. Call it vacation stimulus. Tonight, we ended up crashing around 10pm, in the hopes that we’d be able to get up and actually ride some, but once again, we were foiled.

Shadow was thrown in to the other room around 3am, because her snoring was louder than… than… than the RAINSTORM ON THE ALUMINUM ROOF? Good God, that wasn’t in the books, was it? Was there any prediction of rain in the forecast?

DAMN!

So, here we sit. Letting it dry out a bit before we go out and try again. We’ll walk the dog, but honestly, 3 nights in a row of little sleep hasn’t helped my attitude much. Next time, we’ll ship Shadow off at Vick & Betty’s, and let them deal with her echoing cranium. Some camp this has turned out to be…. Still, it is fun sharing it with Amy and showing this neat little town off.

Nailed it! Finally!

Remember how I was talking about windows of Opportunity? Well, Wednesday afternoon, I had one, and I took it.

The day was getting short, and while the weather was gorgeous, I had really wanted to get out and ride with a friend and teammate. But that wasn’t in the stars whatsoever, so I dealt with it the only way I knew how – I headed over to the Cycling Center, threw my #1 outdoor Soloist on the CT, paired up the ptap and the Ergomo, and started warming up for a 20minute Threshold Test.

I allowed myself 10 extra minutes, and it seemed to work. For the record, the Ptap recorded a 297, the Ergomo a 288, and the CT was low, at like a 277. About 20 seconds after the effort was done, left calf went in to a serious cramp. So I definitely gave it my all.

The bad news is that my threshold seems to have stalled. The good news is that it’s still up there, and depending on which meter you believe, then 300 is definitely achievable. I’m going to have to put in some more volume, though, if I’m going to get there. The RaceDay prediction, btw, said 288, and per the Ergomo, I nailed it. As soon as I switch over to the Quarq on this bike (sending one unit back for firmware upgrade), I’ll be pumped to see what it says. Right now, though, the Ergomo is still my favorite screen.

We’re headed off to Fredericksburg today, so I’ll do a mini-camp there, get some good miles in, and see what goes from there. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or a great Festival of Lights.

Windows of opportunity

I was feeling pretty good around 2pm, and thought it might be an okay idea to head out to the Cycling Center and attempt a 20-minute TT, just so I could continue to attempt to raise my RaceDay probability indicator. It’d also be nice to see if a few days off yielded some benefits to the effort to get to 300w.

Well, by the time I finished up all the chores and driving duties, it was 4pm, and with holiday traffic being what it was, I didn’t get there ’till 4:40. Load up the bike, load the software, try desperately to make sure everything is right (bottle, towel, gloves, dog), and by the time you start, you’re cutting it desperately close to the start of SPIN class. Go through the warmup (god, I wish I could cut that thing short), start the test, and you notice that your Ergomo is now about 30 watts high (messin’ with the K factor again). Then, a newbie walks in to class, while you’re sitting there pumping enough watts to power an auditorium full of old folks watching “South Pacific” and you start thinking about how you’re going to help her in the 3 minutes you will have between the time you fall off your bike, and crawl over to the ipod to start the evening show.

At 7 minutes, you notice that your HR is in the high 180’s, and your wattage average on the CT (the only one you trust right now), once at 182, is now slipping below 180. Then it hits. Responsibility overwhelms desire and lust and greed.

You stop pedaling, bring yourself under control, wipe down everything, and walk over to the nube and start teaching.

NUTS.

The second workout goes well enough, but you’ve missed your metabolic peak. You stagger through some hill intervals, do well enough, but you’re still miffed about that 20mmp effort.

Manana man, manana.

January 17th beckons.

Thoughts on a Post-Workout Meal with Friends

Friends.

Thank you for your time this evening. Thank you for participating in my world. Thank you for accepting my offer, and thank you for making an offer of your own. It meant so much, to be offered a place in your company.

We share a bond, some invisible, indivisible connection that shares a common ground and direction, and allows for lateral leeway, but also plugs in to a shared desire to succeed and be more than what we are. To take control. To pull instead of push. To love the act, but hate the extrinsic necessity called ‘result. Gender and age don’t matter in this world. What matters is what we share, in spirit and in soul.

This bond – it’s about brotherhood. It’s about fraternity in the fire of competitiveness. It’s about being proud when your colleague succeeds, but continuing to feel frustration when he or she surpasses you and you can’t catch up, for myriad reasons. It’s about love, and passion, and the bitterness of “maror” and the promise of “karpas”. It’s about the salt of tears, paying the price, not counting the cost, and straining against strain itself in order to surpass your previous best and achieve “arete”. It’s about cramping your calf 3 laps from the line. It’s about having purple delusions under the heat of the summer, and living to tell about it. It’s also about death, and fear, and insecurity, and the rotating circumference of the wheel that is the metaphor for the Loop of life – each point still at one moment each revolution, but that same point traveling twice as fast as the rest of you at the apex of the loop.

Thank you for tonight. The words, the thoughts, the smiles, the smirks, the tales, the truth.

It meant more to me than you think.

I am truly, truly grateful to count you as my Friends.

27 60-60’s later, and

I blew a 91 TSS score in 60 minutes, and came just on the edge of a mondo cramping session in the legs. Didn’t have a heart rate monitor on, but I know it must’ve been pretty high.

Those have GOT to be seriously powerful intervals. Best of all, I think the Ergomo was working, so the numbers are valid. Cool!

Hmmm.

Looks like Madoff victimized some (well, a lot) folks to the tune of $50 billion dollars. Surfing around, I got this quote.

Boca is jokingly referred to, by locals, as the “White Crime” capital of the world.

Someone I know just relocated there. Ulterior motive? How delicious and appropreaux.

Eggnog & Chunks December Crit

Okay – considering that I had not raced a true crit in about 6 months (June?), I decided to enter this because I was feeling fairly strong after some good performances in some rallies in the past few months. I also wanted to use the opportunity to race against some seriously good local cyclists, and finally, to test the Power-Tap against itself, via the Garmin. Apparently, there’s a lot of averaging going on in the Garmin, but the good news is that the Power-Tap is now recording in 1-second intervals.

I’ll go through the race first, then go over the PM comparisons. Needless to say, there’s probably a lot to cover.

I have to preface the event start with what turned out to be a really weird morning. We went to the Bikemart Christmas Party on Saturday evening, got some sleep, and then I got up real early, about 6:30, to go and pick up a Power-Tap wheel from a client who was running the 1/2 marathon at WRL. Now, American Airlines Center is about 2 miles from my house, but I decided to drive down about half way, and then take the Katy Trail, because I didn’t know how bulky the wheel would be, and if I were riding, it’d be risky. I also didn’t know if they’d shut the trail down. I got the wheel, but getting back to the house turned out to be an exercise in incredible frustration. EVERY. SINGLE. F’ING. TURN that I tried to take to get home was blocked, and the cops COULD HAVE CARED LESS. This was the ONE TIME, I wish I’d had my bike, because it would’ve been a 1000% more convenient. I finally got home about 8:30, after driving on to the Expressway, then taking my exit and driving back on a side street.

Ugh. I’d wanted to get back to sleep for a bit, but that wasn’t going to happen, and now I was going to be late if I didn’t get my bike in the car and haul out to Denton.

So, I put the head units on the bike, tested everything, and then threw the bike in the car and drove 45 miles North to Denton, and the race location. The event was .6 miles per lap, and the goal was 50 laps, or 30 miles, whichever came first. I got out of the car and braved essentially 25kt winds from the South, to go pick up my number. The course was really gentle. Flat as a pancake, run around a football stadium, with two 90 degree corners and a gentle sweeper. I’d describe it like a u-bar lock.

I warmed up, said a few hello’s, though no one really responded too much (that was weird, but thank you Troy!), and right around 11, we started the race.

I have a tendency to pop off and attack too early, and since I was among some of the giants of the N. Texas Peloton, I decided to just sit in and try to hold a position mid-pack, for at least 20 minutes. Well, that’s almost exactly what happened. I sat in, covered a few breaks, stayed low to the wind, and generally tried to figure out how the course would play, but right at roughly 20 minutes, I launched a semi-attack to try and take a prime, failed on that (3rd), and sort of ended up launching the winning break of Brett Crosby and Collin Davis, though they were all playing games on the tailwind side of the course. The winds were gusting and stronger on the far side of the course, and were amplified by the buffeting off of the stadium itself, so breaking away or trying to catch a break was really, really, really difficult. Heart rate was stuck in the 180’s and 190’s for the entire event, and even as I tried to catch a break or merge in to one, and then, finally, to just stay on the lead lap (Brett and Collin lapped the field, and another four may have as well), it sort of became an exercise in futility. I then made it my goal to last 60 minutes, and finally, to try and finish without getting pulled. I made the 60, made it to within 3 lapsof the finish before my right calf unexpectedly seized up in a cramp. I cried out, and waved the guys following me through, and then gingerly step-pedaled at a crawl (into the wind nonetheless – I was NOT going to fall over or get off that bike), until the damned part came back to sort of normal. But I was out of any running or Top 10. I rode the next three laps by myself, still pushing, but aware of the calf and the chances of a re-cramp. I came across, exhausted, but happy to have not been pulled.

Later, I learned that I finished freakin’ 12th! 12th? WOW! COOL! You know, if you think about what MIGHT HAVE BEEN…. maybe, just maybe, I would have finished in the Top 10. I mean, there were some animals in there. Wow. And it’s December. Against mostly 1’s and 2’s…. Man, that’s COOL!

Now, I know exactly what caused that cramp, so I know exactly what I need to do to fix that. Ride more and stay more hydrated. Let’s keep on keepin’ on with the intervals, and try to stay off the sodas. Sodas and beer. Sodas and beer and shakes. Oh my. Gotta work on that nutrition side of things. A lot.

Now, let’s play with the numbers….

The Ptap data was recorded on both the Garmin as well as the Ptap head unit, and I still have an Ergomo hooked up to this bike, so I used it as well. I will say that in the whole race, there was NO WAY I could look at the power data coming out of the ergometers. It was too tight, too windy, and I was working too hard. Give me a road race where I can have a look, and I’ll be smarter.

Here are the MMP60’s, 20’s, 5’s, and 1’s for the three meters.

MMP        Ptap/Ptap          Ptap/Garmin       Ergomo

60              264w                  259w                      244w

20              275w                  269w                      253w

5                308w                  296w                      277w

1                 422w                  405w                      375w

5sec          793w                   774w                       764w

BTW – all of the MMP’s in all three files actually looked to be in approximately the same position. So that’s a good sign.

So – what the heck does all of this mean?

Well, for one thing, I’m still convinced that the stinkin’ Ergomo still reads low. K factor was at 198, so if we assume that each K equals 2.5 to 3.5w, then to get it about 2% above the Ptap, I need to raise it, oh, 8 to 9 points. Geez’m crow. Will this ever end? Must. Keep. Reminding self. Ergomo will be gone soon. Ergomo will be gone soon. BUT, it gets worse…. The Garmin is getting the exact same data as the Ptap head unit, yet it’s figuring things wayyyyy differently. Oh boy. Can o’ worms here. I guess the next thing would be to figure out how the Cinqo runs with this, and compare the Cinqo to the Ptap.

If only we could get a more customizable screen on the 705. Hey, that’s what the Qranium is for, right? Oh well.

All in all, it was a good day. I matched some Pr’s in the 20-60mmp range, I finished a race with some strong riders, I did some animating, and generally I grabbed some good data on an easy course that had surprisingly tough conditions.

One more thing – It was pretty neat to watch the three best-represented teams, Metro Volkswagen and Matrix, and a little of TxTough, play the chess game. Not having any teammates, I was left to my own efforts to bridge and recover. I never had the speed or strength to get away, though, and that’s definitely something I need to work on. I was also a bit timid. Gotta work on that as well.  The teams, though, were pretty good at blocking and making other riders work for it. I know I certainly did, and if I hadn’t cramped, I think I would’ve cracked the Top 10, which would have been the icing on the cake.

I better go. I need to drum up some workouts for clients, and get them back on track. I won’t race again until January 17th, and I will be among 3’s only, I’m certain, so that will be a more true indicator of performance among peers.

Well, for one

Missed it by how much?

Did a 20 MMP Threshold Test today, and though I felt strong, the RaceDay predictions were in the realm of 291, I smacked a 284 on the CT, and the Ergomo dropped to a precipitous 270, which was way weird. 3% below expectation… This after I thought I had the CT/Ergomo nailed on consistency and regression. Oh well, it felt like a 284. I sent the 20mmp data off to Stuart Lynne for analysis. Sometimes the Ergomo just does that.The CT file showed steady progression, while the Ergomo showed steady regression. They crossed in the first 5 minutes or so, then their tracks continued to diverge over the course of the 20. RRC for the CT was 2.07 and 2.06. Tight.

This may all be a moot issue, however, since the Quarq arrived today, and I have another one coming, so the Ergomo’s days are numbered….

Wednesday night intervals

Oh, SO CLOSE!

I decided to have the crew repeat the intervals that we did on Monday night. I mean, after all, they were SO MUCH FUN! Essentially, everything was the same, but instead of starting at 275 and just blowing up like “Huey Duey and the Luey Kabluey” every time, I told everyone to back off on their wattage by at least 10% for the first 3 2-minute intervals, and the first 1 or 2 4.5 minute intervals. It seemed to work pretty darned well.

Intervals 1 & 2 were fine. Well, fine as in I was able to complete them, and was able to get some pretty high wattage averages. HR, however, went through the Nimbus, as I was routinely humming along in the 190’s, peaking out at the end of each interval in the 195-198 range. Finally, on Interval 3, I had a mental distraction that caused me to cut at 3 minutes. I rallied after a short 20-second recovery, but it still blew the rhythm. The 4th interval went great, but the 5th was interrrupted by Jim insisting that his tire was slipping…. Turns out it was flat, but as ride leader, I had to dismount and check everything.

I’m considering making another mondo investment in some abandoned wheels and attaching some Conti Indoor Trainer tires to them, just like I have for a lot of other bikes and owners. But the incentive there is to put EVERYONE on an indoor trainer tire. That’ll be a logistical PITA, but it may reduce our flats and slips.

The group this morning and tonight changed plans, however, and I put them through 8 separate 45 second intervals at some ungodly wattage value, like 140%. Gary and Michael did great, and I made it my task to get Dorothy through them. She did great. I’ll tackle them myself next week some time. Tomorrow, however, I want to do a 20-minute TT. See what the tea leaves read. See if the RaceDay predictor is accurate.

There’s also some racing this weekend… I’m actually looking forward to it. W/KG!

Message to the one person who will know what this means

“Character is Destiny” per Heraclitus. YOU. HAVE. NEITHER.