E’s Rock

Yesterday I bolted out of work, jumped in my 150-degree car, ran through every single yellow (red) light and manged to make it home (alive) in record time ~1hr, without speeding. Not bad considering I’m going from Princeton to Wall.

The idea was to catch-up with the local sprint ride that leaves Allenwood school ~6pm. What better way to practice sprinting then with a group. Though the sprints are no where as crazy as in a race, they come pretty darn close minus the hostility. There must have been a good 12 or so riders, and mid-way though the Wendy’s/Metra/Ideal gang (2 or 3 of them) jump on, just to speed things up. (I think his name is Jonathan, used to ride for Jelly Belly, he the quick one from the Wendy’s/Metra/Ideal team.)

At any rate, there are about 7 or 8 “designated” sprint zones on this ride, with their respective 1-mile markers before said zones. For the “most” part, we keep a rotating paceline until a mile before the line.

The goal was to contend in each of the sprints. I wanted to experience the pain, lack of breathing and handling required to contest in a sprint. With that being said, not every sprint ends up in all-out attacking. Many people tire and do every-other sprint. Others like to jump/TT from a mile out (myself included) and see if they can hold the ensuing pack. And yes, others just drag race, side by side from the mile marker to the end. It’s somewhat random at times, but you can always count on putting out some nice watts for a good 12-45 seconds, even more, depending on how far it starts.

If anything, I learn how to sit on people’s wheels (patiently), handle in groups and time the jump. Interesting how just getting behind the wrong (i.e. slow) wheel can completely ruin a good sprint. You then have to work thrice as hard to go around and by that time forget it.

Of particular interest, to me at least:

1.) Sprint #3, which was supposed to be a lead-out. Problem was, the lead-out, by accident, was a mile from the line. All of a sudden I hear “GO E!” and boom I’m out the gates, hard, for 30 seconds (#3a). I look down, and look, and don’t see the 400M marker. Wonderful! I then jump again thinking its right up the road, for another 30 seconds (#3b). “Ok anytime now!” Still no line! Then it’s just tt-mode for the next 45 seconds (#3c).

2.) HR numbers. Weeks ago I was worried about what I thought to be a suppressed HR and what to conclude. During the NJ State TT I was only running at 171bpm (83% of max), when I usually run TT’s closer to 180-185bpm (88-90% of max). Either I was making gains in fitness, or needed a break. Who knows? Either way, having no problem touching the 180+ bpm range now and feel confident going into the next few weeks stage races.

3.) Though I felt great after the first few sprints and even better near the end, not sure how a 2.5hr ride, with cool-down, could have a TSS of 192 and IF of 0.938 (which is close to 1). Maybe my threshold numbers are off? Or gaining fitness? Hmm…

As always, comments welcome: erock139@yahoo.com

Wind-Up:
Duration: 8:27 (8:29)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 981 262 watts
Heart rate: 160 185 171 bpm

Sprint #1:
Duration: 0:16
Min Max Avg
Power: 654 815 725 watts
Heart rate: 176 182 180 bpm
Cadence: 95 108 102 rpm

Sprint #2:
Duration: 0:28
Min Max Avg
Power: 141 751 510 watts
Heart rate: 178 183 180 bpm
Cadence: 50 102 95 rpm

Sprint #3a:
Duration: 0:29
Min Max Avg
Power: 119 723 438 watts
Heart rate: 180 183 182 bpm
Cadence: 93 106 98 rpm

Sprint #3b:
Duration: 0:34
Min Max Avg
Power: 23 817 617 watts
Heart rate: 185 185 185 bpm
Cadence: 46 105 90 rpm

Sprint #3c:
Duration: 0:47
Min Max Avg
Power: 62 501 324 watts
Heart rate: 183 188 185 bpm
Cadence: 49 83 78 rpm

Sprint #4:
Duration: 0:23
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 905 630 watts
Heart rate: 181 184 182 bpm
Cadence: 40 108 85 rpm

Sprint #5:
Duration: 0:45
Min Max Avg
Power: 230 789 582 watts
Heart rate: 173 184 178 bpm
Cadence: 77 116 100 rpm

Sprint #6:
Duration: 0:28
Min Max Avg
Power: 141 845 668 watts
Heart rate: 170 181 177 bpm
Cadence: 52 103 91 rpm

Sprint #7:
Duration: 1:28
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 873 429 watts
Heart rate: 164 183 177 bpm
Cadence: 55 105 89 rpm

Wind-Down:
Duration: 5:00
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 899 277 watts
Heart rate: 146 181 171 bpm
Cadence: 31 109 86 rpm

Cool-Down:
Duration: 28:40 (28:48)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 330 111 watts
Heart rate: 86 152 128 bpm
Cadence: 20 141 85 rpm

Entire workout (173 watts):
Duration: 2:13:42 (2:24:10)
Work: 1355 kJ
TSS: 191.9 (intensity factor 0.938)
Norm Power: 260
VI: 1.51
Distance: 42.366 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 981 173 watts
Heart rate: 86 188 152 bpm
Cadence: 20 141 85 rpm

Actually there was zero pimpin’ today…but…it was a very nice day and everyone was in their beach “attire” to say the least. Said attire keeps the ride interesting, forces you to recover when you really want to fly 30mph, weaving in and out of Ocean Ave traffic. Who says you can’t do both?

Though the legs felt smokin’, on fire and well recovered after yesterday’s Corner House rendezvous, decided to play it smart (for once) and not be a khazer. Plan was to double-up and hit the Velocity Sports Grand Prix down in Marlton. (Sheesh what is it with the “Grand Prix” names these days?) I am sort of in build slash tune-up slash warm-up what-have-you for my two stage races the 2nd and 3rd weekend in July (Dutch County and Owasco Stage races, respectively.) I figured 2 races back-to-back would get me ready for said races. Truth is, a.)I’ve raced plenty of back-to-back races this season, b.)didn’t feel like waking up at 5am to race a course with no selection and and c.) I felt a 3-hr steady, tempo-esque ride would provide more benefit than aforementioned race.

LJ and I left my place around 930am and headed towards Rumson. The plan was to hit the rollers/hills in Rumson, a little climbing in the Highands and then a strong tempo effort down Ocean Ave back to the house.

Overall pretty non-eventful ride. Managed to get in a nice 10-minute interval after the 30-min warm-up just to make sure all was ok. Threw in a few climbs and then cranked it down Ocean Ave. Other than getting honked-ed at a few by the Benny’s and the occasional glance/waves from the honeys, pretty chill ride.

Nice thing about riding with someone at/near/above your level is that one another’s strengths check/balance the others’. LJ has a monster sprint, yet I can catch him on the climbs when he sneaks up on me. And when he jumps, also forces me to jump on fast or it’s over.

The 2200 calories I burned keep me well under my magical 150lb mark. The 200+ TSS points also bump my Acute Load slightly higher.

Tomorrow rest and back at it Tuesday. Per Facas next week’s a tough one.

Interval #1:
Duration: 10:15
Power: 274 watts

Climb #1:
Duration: 1:13
Power: 360 watts

#2:
Duration: 3:20 (3:20)
Power: 269 watts

#3:
Duration: 5:01 (5:01)
Power: 317 watts

#4:
Duration: 1:22
Power: 385 watts

#5:
Duration: 3:24
Power: 260 watts

#6:
Duration: 6:52 (6:52)
Power: 276 watts

#7:
Duration: 1:26
Power: 380 watts

Entire workout (191 watts):
Duration: 2:57:08 (3:01:58)
Work: 1998 kJ
TSS: 221.2 (intensity factor 0.873)
Norm Power: 242
VI: 1.27
Distance: 55.377 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 923 191 watts
Heart rate: 93 181 147 bpm
Cadence: 23 141 87 rpm
Speed: 2.3 33.4 19.0 mph
Pace 1:48 26:06 3:09 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 278 66 lb-in

Lesson #1: Start at the front.

Lesson #2: Be patient.

Those are the two lessons I came away with this Saturday at the Cornerhouse Grand Prix in Princeton. Regardless of my placing, time, effort, wattage numbers, etc, I always assure myself that for the $30 I drop on a race, I take something in return. Hell, it’s cheap compared to college costs nowadays.

Who cares Eric, get to the race.

Arrived about an early before the race and everything as usual. Same routine. Blast the music, pull out the trainer, setup and start warming up. Cool no problem, except outta nowhere my left calf slash quad slash back of leg (again, I majored in computers not Physiology) decided to say “what’s up”. As if I hadn’t stretched it, drank enough or warmed-up long enough. Not sure what it was and simply told myself it was all mental. Almost like a cramp but for no apparent reason, as the race hadn’t even began. Oh well Eric deal with it.

2.4 mile laps, small climb on the back. 8 laps. No problem.

Race began and there were a TON of us, or what looked like a ton of us. Westwood had maybe 5 or 6 and spread throughout the pack. Back to Lesson #1, start at the front. Nope…I started dead last. A few seconds in and we’re flying ~37+mph downhill. Mind you, at high speeds I’m a girl scout, might as well pull out the table and start selling cookies. High speeds and too many people don’t sit well. (Just because I drive a fast car
doesn’t mean I enjoy going fast. I’m the guy you see on the highway doing 60 in the left lane.) When I’m ALONE, different story. This being the case, I sat in the back nice and tucked. No pedaling and just a few bike lengths from the pack. No problem. Rinse and repeat, 4 times.

Don’t get me wrong, sitting at the back has some advantages (or maybe I’m just rationalizing.) For one, I can hit the corners MUCH faster than if I was in the middle of the pack yo-yo’ing back/forth. Secondly, there’s a “chance” of dodging crashes as opposed to finding yourself on the ground asking what happened. Thirdly, it’s somewhat entertaining (in an evil sort of way) watching people get dropped. On the flip, I’ve also learned you have to REALLY pay attention in the back. If you don’t you could find yourself on a slower wheel and unable to latch back on. Not good. Finally, you have to be in MUCH better shape (and equally as stupid) to hang off the back, no draft, 300+ watts.

I sat in the back for the first half of the race, making a few attempts to get to the front. It just wasn’t happening. Riders would sit up, chill, relax, struggle on the climb and simply take up the whole climb from side-to-side. I’d make it half-way through the pack, even punched it through the corners, but no go. For a second I got depressed. “Damm Eric, not the the same thing that happened at the last Branchbrook race.” I was bummed, yet physically intact. (I know that doesn’t make sense who cares.) For the first time in weeks my HR spiked up to the 180-ish range and 450 watts on the climb felt easy. Breathing…steady. Not sure if it’s because I went to the small ring, high cadence, but somehow I felt good.

Sit tight Eric, you’re chance will come…patience amigo.

All of a sudden, the same cycling gods that had sent a monsoon on thursday’s recovery ride, opened up a path from the base of the climb to the top. I punched it hard (39 seconds, 536 watts to be exact, put my head down and yelled mtn-bike style “on your right!”. Before I knew it I was at the top, pulling the pack up and over. SWEET!

Now let me tell you…the guys at the front (WBI and a few others) are in a totally different (perhaps smarter) mindset. They don’t like intruders. Furthermore and much to my dismay, they actually rotated, taking small pulls. The idea was to keep the pace high and the sprinters away from the front. Us little climbers don’t like sprinters!

2 laps to go and I’m sitting nicely in 2nd, with the occasional pull just to be nice. Somehow, not sure when or how, a rider was gone and out of site. It must have happened before I got to the front. BOOM! 1 lap left, we hit the hill and there goes Ralph (Westwood) up the right. Hard. He opens a gap and pegs it. Totally caught by surprise I’m not quite sure how to react.

Do I jump? No wait, then if I bring some riders I’d screw up his 2nd place. I sit…Damm! What now? I hit the 2 final corners hard and a guy jumps as we hit the rise towards the finish. I get on his wheel but he slows down. I go around the left, thinking I could hold it to the line, but I’m simply pulling everyone along. I glide to the right and hold what I have. Out of nowhere 3 guys jump and they get me at the line. 6th place. An upgrade point.

Should I have jumped with/after Ralph? Not sure. I still wonder. Regardless, my goal for the race was not to place, but to practice staying near the front. I sort of guagued the situation from the back, but I learned (from the P123 race) that on other courses, with other riders with different motives, I might not be as fortunate. If a strait-up TT’er had sat on the front and punched it hard, I would have been toast before it even started.

Anyways, good riding.

Here’s the data. 2 graphs. One with “Fast Find” enabled and labeled. This one shows 8 times, from 12-40 secs, where I hit more than 444 watts. Interesting, as it coincides with the number of laps.

The other graph with HR and watt thresholds.

Race:
Duration: 50:00 (59:31)
Work: 714 kJ
TSS: 92.5 (intensity factor 1.073)
Norm Power: 297
VI: 1.2
Distance: 18.677 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1001 247 watts
Heart rate: 136 186 174 bpm
Cadence: 23 141 91 rpm
Speed: 0 38.8 22.4 mph
Pace 1:33 0:00 2:41 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 306 78 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1111 229 lb-in

Hello all.
I am selling my 2006 Litespeed Vortex Compact, size medium, with Easton fork.

Bike was purchased last year and built as a winter project. Only ridden a handful of times.

Reason for selling: Frame might be a bit large and shopping for new frame.

Asking $2750 OBO, INCLUDES 2007 Easton SLX fork.

Frame retails for ~$3700.
Fork retails for $400.

Please email for additional information: erock139@yahoo.com

CdA-Crr.xls

Dave. Check this out when you get a chance.

Per yesterday’s lesson and my corresponding (lack of) power profile, the training calls for sprint workouts. (A6 Hill Reps, Zone 5C, 106%+ of LTHR. Ouch!) Continue until further notice. I am seriously lacking in the 1min department. The goal is to be up to speed for my July stage races. This gives me approximately 3 weeks of practice and a clear goal.

The plan was to do about 6 of these bad-boys. 90 seconds each, with the first 60 seconds seated and the final 30 seconds standing all-out-sprinting. HR should be around 106% of LTHR which for me would equate to 190bpm (give or take 2 or 3). Then complete rest for 4 mins. Not sure what the watts numbers would be but I might have figured it out. (~400 watts.)

I found a nice hill out in Princeton and to work I went. Only problem with riding in Princeton (if you haven’t before) is that the hills are not ’short’. So I’d have to find the base of a hill, climb up 90 seconds, come back down and find a ’somewhat’ level place to rest on. Zion Road would be perfect, I thought. (Zion Road is actually in Hillsborough.) Problem was, due to lack of flatness in terrain, not sure I totally recovered for the 4 minutes as planned.

Moving along…these have got to be the most painful intervals to accomplish. Not only are you going hard and trying to maintain for a minute, you’re then supposed to jump/attack/sprint for an additional 30 seconds (as if you weren’t already going hard to begin with). If you don’t pace yourself (as I so eloquently did not), you’ll find yourself decreasing in power as the number of intervals increases. (Is this supposed to happen?) I was not sure where to begin and how hard to go. Lesson learned: pace yourself.
At any rate, here are the numbers and graph. I only managed 5 intervals.
Notice how there was a nasty drop in watt averages from Interval 1 to 2, 2 to 3, and so on. 11%, 6%, 9%, 2%, respectively. Not good. Definitely room for improvement.

Comments are welcomed.

Interval #1:
Duration: 1:28
TSS: 7.9 (intensity factor 1.796)
Distance: 0.36 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 94 609 505 watts
Heart rate: 112 179 164 bpm
Hub Torque: 55 325 228 lb-in

Interval #2:
Duration: 1:29
TSS: 6.1 (intensity factor 1.573)
Distance: 0.373 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 212 636 449 watts
Heart rate: 149 179 169 bpm
Hub Torque: 127 275 200 lb-in

Interval #3:
Duration: 1:31
TSS: 5.4 (intensity factor 1.469)
Norm Power: n/a
Distance: 0.388 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 121 565 422 watts
Heart rate: 154 180 171 bpm
Hub Torque: 75 310 181 lb-in

Interval #4:
Duration: 1:31
TSS: 4.7 (intensity factor 1.362)
Distance: 0.389 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 112 520 381 watts
Heart rate: 148 179 168 bpm
Hub Torque: 49 233 164 lb-in

Interval #5:
Duration: 1:31
TSS: 4.3 (intensity factor 1.301)
Distance: 0.3 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 41 502 372 watts
Heart rate: 160 182 174 bpm
Hub Torque: 16 338 216 lb-in

Entire workout (149 watts):
Duration: 1:39:53 (1:41:23)
Work: 874 kJ
TSS: 117.7 (intensity factor 0.852)
Norm Power: 243
VI: 1.62
Distance: 24.818 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 636 149 watts
Heart rate: 44 182 141 bpm
Cadence: 25 141 79 rpm
Speed: 2.8 29.6 15.3 mph
Pace 2:01 21:27 3:56 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 343 71 lb-in

After much deliberating, waiting and excuse-making, I finally decided to purchase CyclingPeaks software. Waited over a year since training with power began. Almost like training in the dark with no lights. What was I thinking?

So after the evening’s ride, I sat down, downloaded the program and started saving past .srm and then converting/saving to .wko files. For those that haven’t used it before (I might be the only one), it takes all your files over a specified range and determines ANYTHING you could possibly want over said range - HR values, wattage over different time ranges, TSS (Training Stress Scores) and IF (Intensity Factors), you name it. It then produces these fancy graphs, which I still have to figure out. (One thing at a time.)

If there’s one thing I have a knack for it’s figuring things out. I might not figure it out immediately, but with patience and repeated trial-and-error, very few things are out of grasp. Anyways, after loading all my saved SRM files, the first thing I noticed was the little Power Profile button. Let me tell you, if you’re in denial about your strengths and weaknesses, this will put it right out there for all to see. Right in perspective. No hiding. Though the categories (Untrained, Fair, Moderate, etc) could be argued, if you compare past results in all the events (flat, hilly, and all tt courses) you’ll clearly see deficiencies (which is what I am worried about.) It’s these deficiencies that you should be training. Hence..train the weaknesses, stupid.

I say stupid because after looking at the profile and look back at the seasons results, it’s clearly my 1-minute (i.e. sprint) that needs some serious work. Furthermore, I have NOT been training this. Totally my fault. But this doesn’t mean I can’t start working on it.

This was all figured out last night, after the ride. So while I’m out there training my 5-minute power numbers, which I clearly need not worry about, it was pretty much a wasted ride.

So here it is, for ALL to see - my power profile. Laugh and comment all you want. I just want it known that I WILL improve these numbers, and will use this blog as additional incentive. Hmm…maybe I can launch 1-minute attacks, followed by 5min tt efforts to the line? Sound familiar?

Finally, the workout results. SRM was acting funny and intervals were not saving properly. I was supposed to be doing 4×6min intervals.

SRM #1:
Duration: 6:45
Work: 123 kJ
TSS: 12.6 (intensity factor 1.058)
Norm Power: 302
VI: 0.99
Distance: 2.827 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 578 304 watts
Heart rate: 126 181 175 bpm
Cadence: 52 105 97 rpm
Speed: 14.6 27.2 25.1 mph
Pace 2:12 4:07 2:23 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 858 268 lb-in

SRM #2:
Duration: 5:01
Work: 92 kJ
TSS: 9.5 (intensity factor 1.067)
Norm Power: 304
VI: 1
Distance: 2.066 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 547 305 watts
Heart rate: 113 183 173 bpm
Cadence: 57 102 94 rpm
Speed: 10.5 28.7 24.7 mph
Pace 2:05 5:43 2:26 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 642 275 lb-in

SRM #3:
Duration: 6:52
Work: 97 kJ
TSS: 9 (intensity factor 0.888)
Norm Power: 253
VI: 1.07
Distance: 2.75 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 355 236 watts
Heart rate: 92 179 160 bpm
Cadence: 49 79 70 rpm
Speed: 12.2 27.3 24.0 mph
Pace 2:12 4:54 2:30 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 411 283 lb-in

SRM #4:
Duration: 1:01
Work: 22 kJ
TSS: 3.1 (intensity factor 1.36)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Distance: 0.292 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 474 357 watts
Heart rate: 0 170 121 bpm
Cadence: 49 81 71 rpm
Speed: 14.2 21.6 17.2 mph
Pace 2:46 4:13 3:29 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 566 427 lb-in

Entire workout (145 watts):
Duration: 1:52:40 (1:53:33)
Work: 979 kJ
TSS: 96.2 (intensity factor 0.716)
Norm Power: 204
VI: 1.41
Distance: 34.13 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 578 145 watts
Heart rate: 0 249 114 bpm
Cadence: 29 124 82 rpm
Speed: 0 29.8 18.2 mph
Pace 2:01 0:00 3:18 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 858 158 lb-in

Not sure what I was thinking about selling this. Good thing it never happened.

Eric