Racing - June 19, 2012 @TuesdayTheRent

The last time I was here I got shelled in two quick laps. Quick in the sense that, yes, the field was going fast, and quick in the sense that I got shelled quickly.

I knew I hadn't been training but this was pretty bad. The Missus even said that I should train a bit more. She knows me well enough that although I don't berate myself too much when I get shelled I still feel disappointed that I wasn't in the mix. For me racing is about being in the mix, whether it means helping a teammate or going for a place myself.

Since that last race I trained a bit more. I took the approach that this was the beginning of my season. I have no base so I figured I should work on that - when I start cramping 20 miles into a ride I know that I'm lacking something serious.

I also had some mechanical issues that I never fixed. In the past, through 2011, I worked on my bikes a lot while I was in SoCal at my annual 2004-2011 training camps. Although the long days wiped me out  the short days gave me a lot of time to fiddle with the bike - spend an hour or two on the bike and I'm left with 5 or 6 hours before the host family returns home.

This year not only did I not go to SoCal. I didn't train that much. I didn't work on my bike. I had this weird problem where my bike would shift out of the big ring spontaneously - I discovered my big ring had a bunch of bent teeth, teeth that would try to dump the chain into the small ring on every pedal stroke.

With that fixed, the brakes tightened up a bit, and some other miscellaneous maintenance stuff done, my bike felt a lot better.

I also trained a bit more. Instead of riding once a week I could ride twice, even three times a week. I managed to do two races at the Nutmeg State Games, going on the attack in the M45s and hanging tough in the Cat 3s.

I've also gotten a bit better with my schedule at home with Junior. I can get more things done, I'm better at focusing at a task, and a lot of stuff comes to be automatically that didn't before. Amazing how a little tyke can do all that to an adult.

All this meant that Tuesday June 19th would be better. Before we left for the race I had the bike packed, my number pinned, and even an entry form filled printed and filled out. Ironic on the last bit - I had a bunch of forms left from the 2012 Bethel Spring Series but gave them away because "I didn't need them anymore". Now I have to print them to get more.

At any rate after the Missus got home we packed up Junior and headed out. We practically flew along until we got to the entrance to I291, when traffic ground to a standstill. Apparently an accident closed the left lane of I291, backing up traffic for miles.

Instead of arriving with 45 minutes in hand we got there with just a few laps left in the B race. All my prep came in handy as all I had to do was present my release, pay, slip on the jersey (and helmet and gloves and Sportsiiiis and start Strava), pee (in the portapottie) and line up.

With this type of warm up my SOP in Bethel I figured it would be okay. The race went fine for about 30 minutes, although I was hurting the whole time. About halfway in the field splintered chasing a prime.

I was already dangling dangerously near the back of the reasonably sized field (30 or 35 racers I think). I saw friend Laura S struggling, trying to close a gap that really someone else should have closed. I gave her a good push to get her to the next wheel, but then that guy left a gap. She went around again and I knew that that was the move that would blow her up.

I couldn't even stay on her wheel so that was that for me. The last few guys rolled around me and then I was clear to sit up completely.

My heartrate, every time I had looked down, read 158 or 159. I know that I can hold the mid 160s when I'm working really hard, so not breaking 160 seemed a bit low. I figured I was having an off day, where I couldn't rev the engine very hard.

After downloading the SRM I learned that I was looking down when my heartrate dropped a bit (which makes sense). I didn't see the 160-164 stuff, but I was there. So it wasn't as off an off day as I thought, and that's actually worse. It means I can't go much faster than what we did there.

Curiously enough, at the end of my lap off the back, my heartrate had dropped to about 130. I recovered quickly, it seemed.

I don't look too cooked, do I?

Photo by David Wells

I know that at my best I'd make huge efforts, really suffer for a bit, recover, then go again. I was never good at long continuous efforts, like climbing rock steady for 5 minutes. I did better when I had to surge a couple times to stay on wheels then sprinted over the top of said climb.

My heartrate curve seems to show that my recovery is starting to come around. I need this to happen since I use big efforts sporadically and rely on some off periods to try and recover quickly. The choppier the pace the more I can recover.

Tuesday, though, the pace felt relentless. I never had more than a few seconds of soft pedaling per lap and that wasn't enough to allow me to recover. After running an aerobic deficit for most of the race I finally popped.

For now I'll be working on just getting on the bike. Pedaling certainly beats not pedaling, that's for sure. I'll also try and get some exercise in while in the house looking after Junior, stuff I can do without getting on the bike.

Sunday is the Keith Berger Crit. I'll see what happens there.

Racing - May 29, 2012 @TuesdayTheRent

I put "Racing" because technically I raced. I paid an entry fee. I presented my license. I received a number. I pinned it on. I lined up with a bunch of other racers. I started.

And that was about it.

Two laps in I was done, shelled, finito, OTB.

Not much of a race report because there wasn't much to report.

Oh, sure, it was windy. There was a stiff headwind, stiff crosswind, and when it got strung out I had to push my own way through the molasses-like wind. I was one of the only ones to drop out, at least I was the first one, so that illustrates my level of overall form.

Ultimately though I wasn't totally shocked. On the way over to the race I told the Missus that because I really hadn't trained much this year I was treating "now" as the beginning of the season.

In other words I'd done a few hundred miles this year, I don't know how many hours but I'm guessing in the 40-50 hour range. This isn't hardly enough to be a reasonable Cat 3 racer, even for a sort of non-racer like me.

Let me clarify. Of course I love racing. I love criteriums. I love duking it out on the last lap or two of a crit. However, in the sense of a "true" racer, I'm not really that. I don't train like mad. I've given up on trying to significantly improve my climbing (making a terrible climber much much better results in a not-quite-terrible climber). I don't do 15-20 hours a week. Okay, I don't do 8-12 hours a week. I did a huge week last week and it was about 6.5 hours (meaning from Tuesday through Monday).

What this all means is that I haven't been training much. I haven't focused on diet much either, so I've gained weight. I've done all the things that a person can do to make their bike racing worse.

This, then, would be the beginning of the 2012 season for me.

I've been focusing on cadence, among other things. Back to the basics if you will. I haven't yet blocked out my gearing, relying instead on my discipline and my Sportsiiiis to remind me that I'm bogging down. If I feel the need I'll block out my gearing, maybe go down as far as the 53x15 I used as a Junior. I have some smaller track chainrings. This means I could run a 46x39 set up, as an example, or maybe a 48x39.

I want to get some hours on my legs. I simply don't have any kind of aerobic base. In the race Tuesday I was absolutely redlined at 160 bpm. At that point I started not being able to hold a good line so I eased up and dropped out of the group. As soon as I was alone and my heart rate dropped just a few beats I felt fine on the bike. I need to work on my base so that 160 bpm isn't a headspinning effort.

I need to lose weight. I had a short physical Tuesday (for which I had to fast for a bit, but that's not a valid reason for my paltry ride later that evening), and my weight is now... 178 lbs. I think I weigh more than Ryder Hesjedal and he's something like a half foot and change taller than me. I haven't focused much on diet but I am working on that.

I need to maintain my bike. It's in poor shape now, with last year's drivetrain still on there (old chain and cassettes). The bar tape, which I have to review, is a comet type tape - brillant but fading quickly. I could see a full time rider (one that trains 8-12 hours a week) replacing the tape every few weeks. I've gone over two months and the tape is played.

So what are my plans?

Cadence: I feel like I've lost my smooth pedal stroke. I haven't been riding much so my body hasn't felt the need to become more efficient. It lets me pedal squares it's so happy when I ride. I need to ride at a higher cadence in training to build suppleness. I'll work on it by riding rollers more (I want to do a 120 rpm 60 minute ride, just to prove to myself I still can). I'll use the Sportsiiiis to remind me to stay in my zone (currently set at 92-100 rpm). I'll try and spin instead of push in races.

Hours: I'll be riding the trainer more indoors while Junior is sleeping. The Missus, who really wants me to train more, is trying to allot the nice evenings for training rides. For example, Thursday evening is supposed to be nice, so she's blocked off that time so I can go ride after she comes home from work. She also pointed out that even if I get dropped in a race I ought to keep riding until I get pulled. Training is training, and if I can do a hard effort for 20 minutes, it beats not making a hard 20 minute effort.

Weight: I need to press a bit in the diet front. Losing weight is easy on paper, a simple equation:

Intake < Output

Easier said than done. When I lost 30 pounds over the 2009-2010 winter I was militant in my diet. I don't think it was the healthiest thing, but it got me to a healthier state. I flew that year, in part because of my lower weight. Granted, I did three training trips before May, but still, without the light weight I'd have been riding poorly. My average power was down 20%, my max power about 7%-8%, but I was riding stronger and better than ever.

So, yeah, Tuesday sucked. I jumped back on a couple times, got sawed off within a lap. I rolled around though, trying to keep the legs going. They felt really fatigued, really tired. Whatever I did to them in the first couple laps they didn't like, and they let me know.

I need to gather my forces. We won't make the next Tuesday so the next race we'll be at will be the Nutmeg State Games on Saturday June 9th. After that it'll be Tuesday Night Worlds on the 12th.

I've hit the Reboot button. Time to start over.

Training - Cadence

I've had the chance to watch some of the Giro in the last week or so. One thing that impresses me is how the pros can pedal so fluidly and make it seem so effortlessly.

I know it's not effortless and that's the point. Pedaling efficiently while putting down massive watts takes a lot of practice, a lot of good pedal strokes. When I learned to play various pieces on the violin, I have to focus on good habits/technique, practice things slowly at first, then faster and faster. Likewise on the bike I have to have a good, smooth pedal stroke, and then I need to bump it up in speed.

I'm nowhere near as fluid as a pro, even when I'm going relatively easy. I know there are two ways to work on pedal stroke.

1. Ride the rollers. A lot. And keep a high cadence while you're on them.
2. Spin a lot while riding outside.

Rollers really helped me with my pedal stroke. I used to try and average (average!) 120 rpm for an hour on rollers. It's quite hard because as soon as I dropped down to 110 rpm or something my average would drop and I'd have to go really fast for a while to bring the average back up. If any of you have average speed on your car computer you know what I mean - to average 50-55 mph means you're constantly driving 65+ mph on the highway because as soon as you hit the secondary roads your average speed plummets.

Likewise, if you allow your cadence to drop just a bit it will take a lot of work to bring the average back up.

Rollers are difficult for me. I can't stand well, even with the motion rollers I made (maybe my well ingrained habits are working against me there), so my crotch area goes numb in about 30 minutes. Standing is okay, it resets the numb clock, but then my average cadence drops. Doing 120 rpm for an hour is hard, hard work, but after a couple rides like that I'm pretty smooth again.

The other way of working on smooth pedal stroke is to ride outside in lower gears. In the old days everyone said that you had to do 1000 miles in the 42x18 on flat roads. If you were serious about the season then you were supposed to do 2000 miles, or maybe even 3000 miles.

Although a current coach may laugh at this concept there was some validity to the idea. If you were gear limited to a 42x18 (a 39x17 nowadays), on a flat road, it meant that you were limited by your max cadence, not your strength. You automatically worked on pedal form, on spinning, on being smooth.

Once you "graduated" from the 42x18 then you could start using bigger gears.

This concept still applies on the track. Racers will start off on an easier gear, like an 84" gear, and slowly work their way up to an 86", 88", and maybe even a 90" gear. It teaches pedal fluidity, speed, and gives you great snap.

The only problem with the "1000 miles in a 42x18" was that you spent a lot of time riding 1000 miles in a low gear. Although you worked on your pedal stroke, you didn't gain a lot of strength.

Greg Lemond was one of the first riders to go against this idea, at least in public. He advocated working on power, with the understanding that the rider had already honed their pedal stroke. This meant that after 5 or 10 years of doing the "1000 miles in a 42x18" and after the following 5 to 10 seasons of racing, a racer really didn't need to work on pedal form that much. A little bit of work would do just fine.

He advocated rolling bigger gears in the winter and doing a sprint day every week (adjusting training levels by increasing or decreasing the number of sprints). This seemed sacrilegious to the Euro pros, but then again they also avoided Coke, didn't believe in non-cycling activities (including staying away from sex for weeks before big races), and "fit" meant dropping the saddle and slamming your cleats all the way back on the shoes.

So why am I writing about cadence?

Because normally I work on my pedal form after a break on the bike by riding rollers. This usually happens in the dead of winter, after I get sick or something. By late January I start working on power, doing longer rides, and, from 2004 to 2011, going to SoCal to do multi week training camps (typically heading into the mountains for power work).

This year it didn't happen. With Junior on the way I curtailed my training. Instead we were prepping the house for his arrival, and I decided not to go chasing form for the racing season since I had no idea what to expect from this 2012 season.

I took a huge short cut and basically started racing on virtually untrained legs. It went reasonably well I guess, but even 29 years of base didn't really help my pedaling form.

Combine this with the absolutely incredible fluidity of the pros and I decided that, okay, I had to get my pedaling form back in gear before I did anything else.

My post on motorpacing kind of alluded to this. I wanted to get that pro power fluid pedal stroke right away, and motorpacing is a great way of doing that. It assumes that you have the resources to motorpace (i.e. a moto and a driver). Since I don't I figured I'd do my rollers thing.

One minor problem - I don't want to ride rollers right now. I don't know why but I just don't feel like it.

Therefore I had to take my training outside, on the road. I tried to raise my cadence on my own, keeping an eye on the SRM. I found that I kept dropping down into more a comfortable cadence (a sure sign that my pedal form is bad).

I started focusing on the Sportsiiiis that I have. I set my target cadence to 92-100 rpm. Although my training averages don't reflect it well (due to the coasting down hills and pauses at stop signs and such), I've been really good about keeping my cadence in the low-mid 90s. I regularly find myself in the 105-110 rpm range, one that on shorter 170mm cranks I would consider "normal", but on the 175mm cranks I've been using for a while I'd consider that cadence high.

For the last few training rides I've been diligently charging all my gadgets, the SRM, the Sportsiiiis, the helmet cam. I've gone out and focused on spinning, spending the majority of my ride in the small ring (okay, it's a 44T, but I'm using the lower gears in the back).

I've been working on a fluid pedal stroke. I try and spin up rises (no real hills), even if it means I'm in my bottom gear. I've been avoiding pushing big gears to gain speed, instead relying on spinning up.

I think about my 39T Rent race, where I ended up unable to use my big ring. Despite this handicap I won the sprint from our little group at the end.

I think about the pros, spinning their gears up monster climbs and in 30 mph time trials.

I think of a saying that the boys told each other back in the day: "Spin to win."

I spin my time away on my bike, trying to weave the tapestry of form that will let me race respectably this year.

If the weather holds, I'll be racing at the Rent tomorrow. When I line up all this stuff becomes secondary. If I race well, great. If not, well, then I have to figure out the best way to improve the fastest.

We'll see what happens.