A lot of stuff going on since last Friday has kept me from posting. Here's a recap:
Saturday- Strasburg RR. 39 miles over a rolling 5.5 mile circuit. The pace was easy for the first 10 miles (I spent the first 2 of those miles solo off the front just to try to warm myself up). Then it got hard--really hard. I hung on, though. With about 10 miles to go, I saw a pretty serious solo break attempt with about 20 seconds advantage and decided to move to the front. Once there, a 2-man chase had gone with about 5 seconds on the field. I attempted to bridge, got within about two bike-lengths and blew to shreds. At that point I was right near the start/finish and decided not to finish the last circuit. I drove back to the HP and quickly unpacked, showered and got pretty so I could hop the train into NYC to meet two of my best friends for dinner and after-dinner. My best friend Matty came back with me on the last train out (so technically, this should fall under 'Sunday').
Sunday- We realized Matty had left all his bathroom/toiletries stuff in NYC so we drove back in to get it (cheaper than the train). That took up about half the day and resulted in me not riding. Boo.
Monday- Work turned out OK, and the Monday night recovery ride turned out fun, fun, fun. Matty and I went to dinner at Makeda and his company paid for it. Ethiopian is soooo good.
Tuesday- Work again turned out OK. DTTH on the Watermelon Crit course was fun, again. This time a bunch of folks showed up, maybe 15 or so. In the end, Will took the win by about 5cm. No excuses, play like a champion! Dinner at Seven Hills in the HP, again courtesy of Matty's company.
Wednesday- Woke up not feeling so hot and work made it worse. Took some Naproxen around 3:30PM, went to get my car down in Princeton (it's fast now!) and did some excellent training with Craig.
Thursday (today)- Work was most excellent today. In the 8.5 hours I was there, I think I honestly did about 7.5 solid hours of work (0.5 hours for lunch, 0.5 hours for reading Cyclingnews and Slashdot--nerd alert!) and felt fantastic the whole day. Rest days are quite nice and I'm looking forward to my second consecutive night of 9+ hours of sleep so I can not only tear people's legs off on Sunday at Pinecone, but also beat them with their own legs, too. Also, today I'm going to give my bike some non-riding love. She has been crying out (quite audibly) for some chain grease and other such things. This is one date I intend to keep.
Unfortunately, as I've said before, I can abuse myself with the bike or I can abuse myself with the bottle. I cannot do both. So until next Thursday, the bike it is!
Much love to all my blogfabulous fans, though you number in the billions, know that you are special to me, each and every one (Especially Mandy Lozano).
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Worst. Post. Evar.
I can no longer afford to go to karaoke before race weekends. My sincerest and deepest apologies.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
For All You Wattage Whores
Here are some interesting numbers from my ride today:
0.
Yep. Today was a rest day.
0.
Yep. Today was a rest day.
Chickity-Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself
Big holes in yo' jeans is--ok, maybe not bad for your health, but it looks silly.
Let me explain:
Approximately two weeks ago, the engine malfunction light illuminated in my car. (Background information: my car is a 2006 with ~17000 miles on it. It has a 2.0L, turbocharged direct-injection engine. With this information you can neither peg me as a snobby yuppy nor as a poorass piece of trash so we'll leave it at that). It took about 3 miles to get home and after that, I didn't drive the car at all until the following Friday (16 March 2007) when I took it to the dealer, about thirty minutes away. The roads were pretty bad that day. I sat in the waiting room for two and a half hours and then they finally told me my car was ready. Apparently 'ready' is a relative term. They had done absolutely nothing to the car except clear the error codes (one for low catalytic efficience and one for turbo boost under threshold, neither condition calls for complete cessation of driving). Replacing the catalytic converter would take more time than I wanted to spend there (though I think they just didn't want to replace it because they had fuxored up their schedule and had too many cars/not enough mechanics). The test for the boost code required extensive road testing and, since the roads were crap, they didn't do them. So I took the car back with me to work.
I got to work just in time for lunch and got back from lunch just in time to find out my sister's flight out of EWR to ROC (she came from Spring Break in FL) was cancelled and she and her friend Elyse would probably be staying with me that night. Shortly after becoming privy to this information, I also found out our site would be closed at 2:30PM due to weather conditions. I picked up my sister and Elyse at EWR and drove home. I don't think I ever went faster than 40MPH due to the weather. We decided that I'd drive them to Scranton, PA and Elyse's parents would pick them up there, it's about halfway between us.
Saturday morning I started to scrape off the ice and saw that the driver's side wiper blade was all borked out. So I took it off and decided to go to Wally World to get a new one. Then I spent thirty minutes digging the car out of the ice/snow. On Rte 1 it became apparent that the car had NO boost, NO power, NO torque whatsoever. Bad news. Whatever. We got a new wiper blade but it didn't fit (stupid proprietary lock-in bullshit post to follow) so I went back in and got some duct tape (should've gone with the obvious solution from the outset) and fixed the wiper blade.
Once out on the road, it took--and I'm not exaggerating in the least--thirty seconds to accelerate from 0-62MPH (it normally takes 6.2 seconds). Bad news. So I drove the car to Tannersville, PA and we hung out at the outlet mall there until Elyse's parents got there. Then I drove my car straight back to the dealer and dropped it off.
Now we get to the point of this entire post: commuting on bicycle.
Most of last week and all of this week, since I was sans-car (last week by choice, this week, not), I rode my CX bike to work and back. My apparel generally consisted of Bottom: wool socks, bike shorts covered with tights covered with jeans and Top: t-shirt or UnderArmor covered with Hermes thermal jacket. I put my work clothes in my messenger bag and off I went.
Commuting on a bicycle is incredibly fun. I think having the messenger bag and the cycling cap make me take my life in my hands more readily than I normally would, weaving, dodging, swerving. It's quite exhilirating. Flying past all the fatasses in their SUVs during the evening commute through downtown New Brunswick is doubly exhilirating.
The other great thing about riding the bike to work is that I am, at minimum, two to two-and-a-half times happier at work than when I drive. Man I love the bike. (The bike loves me, too).
Unfortunately, my jeans started to get worn a bit by the saddle and I noticed a quarter-sized hole in the ass. I thought I'd take it to the Italian tailor in HP who did a magnificent job on my Hermes bib shorts. Not so fast, when I threw my leg over the saddle this morning, my heart sank as I heard a loud RRRRRRRRIP! Upon inspection, I had torn from near the waist to near the knee (yeah, I'm that swoll). Oh Gap jeans, how I'll miss thee.
The end.
Let me explain:
Approximately two weeks ago, the engine malfunction light illuminated in my car. (Background information: my car is a 2006 with ~17000 miles on it. It has a 2.0L, turbocharged direct-injection engine. With this information you can neither peg me as a snobby yuppy nor as a poorass piece of trash so we'll leave it at that). It took about 3 miles to get home and after that, I didn't drive the car at all until the following Friday (16 March 2007) when I took it to the dealer, about thirty minutes away. The roads were pretty bad that day. I sat in the waiting room for two and a half hours and then they finally told me my car was ready. Apparently 'ready' is a relative term. They had done absolutely nothing to the car except clear the error codes (one for low catalytic efficience and one for turbo boost under threshold, neither condition calls for complete cessation of driving). Replacing the catalytic converter would take more time than I wanted to spend there (though I think they just didn't want to replace it because they had fuxored up their schedule and had too many cars/not enough mechanics). The test for the boost code required extensive road testing and, since the roads were crap, they didn't do them. So I took the car back with me to work.
I got to work just in time for lunch and got back from lunch just in time to find out my sister's flight out of EWR to ROC (she came from Spring Break in FL) was cancelled and she and her friend Elyse would probably be staying with me that night. Shortly after becoming privy to this information, I also found out our site would be closed at 2:30PM due to weather conditions. I picked up my sister and Elyse at EWR and drove home. I don't think I ever went faster than 40MPH due to the weather. We decided that I'd drive them to Scranton, PA and Elyse's parents would pick them up there, it's about halfway between us.
Saturday morning I started to scrape off the ice and saw that the driver's side wiper blade was all borked out. So I took it off and decided to go to Wally World to get a new one. Then I spent thirty minutes digging the car out of the ice/snow. On Rte 1 it became apparent that the car had NO boost, NO power, NO torque whatsoever. Bad news. Whatever. We got a new wiper blade but it didn't fit (stupid proprietary lock-in bullshit post to follow) so I went back in and got some duct tape (should've gone with the obvious solution from the outset) and fixed the wiper blade.
Once out on the road, it took--and I'm not exaggerating in the least--thirty seconds to accelerate from 0-62MPH (it normally takes 6.2 seconds). Bad news. So I drove the car to Tannersville, PA and we hung out at the outlet mall there until Elyse's parents got there. Then I drove my car straight back to the dealer and dropped it off.
Now we get to the point of this entire post: commuting on bicycle.
Most of last week and all of this week, since I was sans-car (last week by choice, this week, not), I rode my CX bike to work and back. My apparel generally consisted of Bottom: wool socks, bike shorts covered with tights covered with jeans and Top: t-shirt or UnderArmor covered with Hermes thermal jacket. I put my work clothes in my messenger bag and off I went.
Commuting on a bicycle is incredibly fun. I think having the messenger bag and the cycling cap make me take my life in my hands more readily than I normally would, weaving, dodging, swerving. It's quite exhilirating. Flying past all the fatasses in their SUVs during the evening commute through downtown New Brunswick is doubly exhilirating.
The other great thing about riding the bike to work is that I am, at minimum, two to two-and-a-half times happier at work than when I drive. Man I love the bike. (The bike loves me, too).
Unfortunately, my jeans started to get worn a bit by the saddle and I noticed a quarter-sized hole in the ass. I thought I'd take it to the Italian tailor in HP who did a magnificent job on my Hermes bib shorts. Not so fast, when I threw my leg over the saddle this morning, my heart sank as I heard a loud RRRRRRRRIP! Upon inspection, I had torn from near the waist to near the knee (yeah, I'm that swoll). Oh Gap jeans, how I'll miss thee.
The end.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Sprinting, Huzzah!
"It's every man for himself and let the Devil take the hindmost."
Miss and Out a.k.a. Devil Take the Hindmost is one of my favorite track events. Actually, almost all track events are my favorite, except TT-style ones like pursuit, kilo, hour-record-attempts, etc. DTTH is usually run on a velodrome (250m or 333m, but NOT the port-a-track 143.2742 or whatever variety). In DTTH, every few laps, the official rings the bell indicating a sprint lap. The last person to cross the line is pulled from the field. The race continues this way until only two riders are left and, on the final sprint lap, the two race each other man-up. It's great fun to watch and to see who just squeaks by and who just gets pipped at the end. It's not important to be the fastest, just fast enough -- at least until the end.
So we played a little DTTH on the Watermelon Crit course on Livingston campus today, though we rode the course in reverse for safety's sake, all right-hand turns. What I discovered was that having a PowerTap for these occasions is pretty friggin' awesome. Here are some interesting figures (p.s. I won, so that means I did a total of six sprints):
Max Instant Power:
Sprint 1- 872 Watts
Sprint 2- 1023 Watts
Sprint 3- 1062 Watts
Sprint 4- 991 Watts
Sprint 5- 1082 Watts
Sprint 6- 1206 Watts
I led out Sprint 1 for 35 seconds averaging 350 Watts. In Sprint 3, my 20second power was 890 Watts, the longest extended period of high power output of the session. My optimal sprint cadence seems to be around 130-140 rpm. Not sure what that means but I like it.
I also like that I did 1200 Watts in the cold during mid-March. Sprinting is awesome squared!
Miss and Out a.k.a. Devil Take the Hindmost is one of my favorite track events. Actually, almost all track events are my favorite, except TT-style ones like pursuit, kilo, hour-record-attempts, etc. DTTH is usually run on a velodrome (250m or 333m, but NOT the port-a-track 143.2742 or whatever variety). In DTTH, every few laps, the official rings the bell indicating a sprint lap. The last person to cross the line is pulled from the field. The race continues this way until only two riders are left and, on the final sprint lap, the two race each other man-up. It's great fun to watch and to see who just squeaks by and who just gets pipped at the end. It's not important to be the fastest, just fast enough -- at least until the end.
So we played a little DTTH on the Watermelon Crit course on Livingston campus today, though we rode the course in reverse for safety's sake, all right-hand turns. What I discovered was that having a PowerTap for these occasions is pretty friggin' awesome. Here are some interesting figures (p.s. I won, so that means I did a total of six sprints):
Max Instant Power:
Sprint 1- 872 Watts
Sprint 2- 1023 Watts
Sprint 3- 1062 Watts
Sprint 4- 991 Watts
Sprint 5- 1082 Watts
Sprint 6- 1206 Watts
I led out Sprint 1 for 35 seconds averaging 350 Watts. In Sprint 3, my 20second power was 890 Watts, the longest extended period of high power output of the session. My optimal sprint cadence seems to be around 130-140 rpm. Not sure what that means but I like it.
I also like that I did 1200 Watts in the cold during mid-March. Sprinting is awesome squared!
Sunday, March 18, 2007
What's Wrong With You?
Go harder!
Today, what was wrong with me was that I hate wind. Why is it that 200 watts with no wind feels incredibly easier than 200 watts in a headwind? You may think it's because in the headwind, my cadence drops. You would be wrong.
Despite the wind, I rode today. The initial plan was for about 3 hours. Then I got to River Road and the plan changed to about 20 minutes. Then I thought about the difference between 20 minutes and 3 hours. The plan changed to First Bridge (about 1.5 hours). When I got to First Bridge, the plan changed again -- to Second Bridge. The change in plan was brought about by my hopes to avoid wind, i.e. by running into the Red Train on their ride back from Princeton. I got to Second Bridge without passing the thundering Red Train so the plan changed again, this time to Third Bridge (we have a lot of bridges). I never ran into them. Once I got within sight of Third Bridge, I decided that, rather than turning around and riding the same road I had just come down, I'd do one of my favorite hills, Coppermine. But I was already past Coppermine and hadn't gone up Old Georgetown Road since last year (Old Georgetown is the descent I take from Coppermine). That hill has two awesome sections. The very first 100 meters or so are super steep (a.k.a. fun). Then there is a bit of a downhill for a ways. The road turns back up, slightly, for a few hundred meters then curves to the right and kicks up, steep again (again, fun). It tops out at a smelly horse farm. There was no wind on the climb. I liked it.
Then I descended Coppermine. There was a lot of wind. I did not like it.
Wind sucks. But I got good miles in today. Oh well, at least Strasburg got moved to next Saturday instead of being cancelled altogether. I'm looking forward to seeing how my sprinting prowess comes out of hibernation.
Today, what was wrong with me was that I hate wind. Why is it that 200 watts with no wind feels incredibly easier than 200 watts in a headwind? You may think it's because in the headwind, my cadence drops. You would be wrong.
Despite the wind, I rode today. The initial plan was for about 3 hours. Then I got to River Road and the plan changed to about 20 minutes. Then I thought about the difference between 20 minutes and 3 hours. The plan changed to First Bridge (about 1.5 hours). When I got to First Bridge, the plan changed again -- to Second Bridge. The change in plan was brought about by my hopes to avoid wind, i.e. by running into the Red Train on their ride back from Princeton. I got to Second Bridge without passing the thundering Red Train so the plan changed again, this time to Third Bridge (we have a lot of bridges). I never ran into them. Once I got within sight of Third Bridge, I decided that, rather than turning around and riding the same road I had just come down, I'd do one of my favorite hills, Coppermine. But I was already past Coppermine and hadn't gone up Old Georgetown Road since last year (Old Georgetown is the descent I take from Coppermine). That hill has two awesome sections. The very first 100 meters or so are super steep (a.k.a. fun). Then there is a bit of a downhill for a ways. The road turns back up, slightly, for a few hundred meters then curves to the right and kicks up, steep again (again, fun). It tops out at a smelly horse farm. There was no wind on the climb. I liked it.
Then I descended Coppermine. There was a lot of wind. I did not like it.
Wind sucks. But I got good miles in today. Oh well, at least Strasburg got moved to next Saturday instead of being cancelled altogether. I'm looking forward to seeing how my sprinting prowess comes out of hibernation.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Man-Crushes
Man-crushes are stoopid. NinjaDon and AngryMark both admit to multiple man-crushes. What a bunch of weirdos.
I only have one man-crush. And it's on myself. I'm so awesome that my awesomeness drowns out anything anyone else could offer. No one can even tickle my toes from where I stand on an ornate white marble Corinthian pedestal. My aura of awesome (it is generated by my two, yes, count 'em, two, awesome glands) is just too powerful.
I could clench my teeth when winding up for a sprint and make an angry face but my jaw is so powerful it might emit a sonic boom, endangering the lives of all of those around me (mostly the lives of all the riders behind me--and they're ALL behind me). I could create so much torque that I break my rear hub but I don't want to hurt my bike (we have a very close and intimate relationship). Sure, I could take silver at 'Cross worlds but then Page would be out of a job.
Yes, I love myself. If you feel like having a crush on me, I'll be the guy in the corner staring at the pool of water . . .
I only have one man-crush. And it's on myself. I'm so awesome that my awesomeness drowns out anything anyone else could offer. No one can even tickle my toes from where I stand on an ornate white marble Corinthian pedestal. My aura of awesome (it is generated by my two, yes, count 'em, two, awesome glands) is just too powerful.
I could clench my teeth when winding up for a sprint and make an angry face but my jaw is so powerful it might emit a sonic boom, endangering the lives of all of those around me (mostly the lives of all the riders behind me--and they're ALL behind me). I could create so much torque that I break my rear hub but I don't want to hurt my bike (we have a very close and intimate relationship). Sure, I could take silver at 'Cross worlds but then Page would be out of a job.
Yes, I love myself. If you feel like having a crush on me, I'll be the guy in the corner staring at the pool of water . . .
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Nothing to Say
After 7.5 hours of riding between Saturday and today, I have nothing to say except, "foooooooood."
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Recovery
Today is a day off. Thursdays will remain a day off for the entirety of the season. Mondays will transition from passive recovery (i.e. doing nothing) to active recovery (i.e. hooray Monday night circus loops with the weeemens!!!!) possibly starting as early as next week.
I was thinking I'd not do any racing until April -- or March 31st at the earliest. However, I committed to Craig to being a Cat 3 by Somerville, so I'm thinking maybe I will do a few of the Branch Brook Spring Series races. They're only about 15 miles early on Saturday morning. I can always do a long group ride afterwards.
Who's in?
I was thinking I'd not do any racing until April -- or March 31st at the earliest. However, I committed to Craig to being a Cat 3 by Somerville, so I'm thinking maybe I will do a few of the Branch Brook Spring Series races. They're only about 15 miles early on Saturday morning. I can always do a long group ride afterwards.
Who's in?
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
R.P.E.
I rode light on Monday. I did some non-base stuff yesterday. Today, I just wasn't in it. After 20 minutes on the trainer, I was ready to be done.
How did I know I was ready to be done? The PowerTap didn't flash a message up saying, "What's wrong with you, go harder!" or, "Stop. This workout is worthless." No, good ol' fashioned RPE told me that today was just not going to happen as far as riding on the trainer. I banged out 35 minutes and called it quits.
RPE stands for (depending on who the author is) Rating of Perceived Exertion. When my heart rate monitor gave out sometime mid-Spring last year, RPE was my lone training device. It worked out really well. I was in great form when I wanted to be (from mid-July to early September: 1st at Freedom Tour, 10th at 'Toona Circuit race, 2nd at Medford, 2nd at BHOF Labor Day Classic--would've been top-3 at 'Toona Crit and Basking Ridge had I kept the rubber side down). I trained how I felt after laying down about two months of base (real base, the very boring kind). I had a plan, designating certain days for sprint work, some for threshold, others for recovery or endurance. No training aid necessary other than what my body told me.
Then I got a PowerTap. I started becoming a slave to the numbers again. Well that's over and done with. Starting about three weeks ago, I set the PowerTap computer to display Max Power only in the Power field. It freed me from staring at the instantaneous readings, judging where I was at all the time. This is how I plan to continue training for the rest of the year. Sure, I still eagerly plug the computer in and download my data, going over it for about 10 or 15 minutes after each ride. But it's more of a validation tool to indicate that my plan and training via RPE is heading in the right direction.
So, kiddies, the moral of the story is: Don't buy expensive equipment, be it frames, wheels, power meters, whatever. Your body is the best training device you could need.*
*-If, like me, you have money to burn, go ahead and buy all the useless garbage you want.
How did I know I was ready to be done? The PowerTap didn't flash a message up saying, "What's wrong with you, go harder!" or, "Stop. This workout is worthless." No, good ol' fashioned RPE told me that today was just not going to happen as far as riding on the trainer. I banged out 35 minutes and called it quits.
RPE stands for (depending on who the author is) Rating of Perceived Exertion. When my heart rate monitor gave out sometime mid-Spring last year, RPE was my lone training device. It worked out really well. I was in great form when I wanted to be (from mid-July to early September: 1st at Freedom Tour, 10th at 'Toona Circuit race, 2nd at Medford, 2nd at BHOF Labor Day Classic--would've been top-3 at 'Toona Crit and Basking Ridge had I kept the rubber side down). I trained how I felt after laying down about two months of base (real base, the very boring kind). I had a plan, designating certain days for sprint work, some for threshold, others for recovery or endurance. No training aid necessary other than what my body told me.
Then I got a PowerTap. I started becoming a slave to the numbers again. Well that's over and done with. Starting about three weeks ago, I set the PowerTap computer to display Max Power only in the Power field. It freed me from staring at the instantaneous readings, judging where I was at all the time. This is how I plan to continue training for the rest of the year. Sure, I still eagerly plug the computer in and download my data, going over it for about 10 or 15 minutes after each ride. But it's more of a validation tool to indicate that my plan and training via RPE is heading in the right direction.
So, kiddies, the moral of the story is: Don't buy expensive equipment, be it frames, wheels, power meters, whatever. Your body is the best training device you could need.*
*-If, like me, you have money to burn, go ahead and buy all the useless garbage you want.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Color Me Impressed
Nice work RU. NinjaDon and AngryMark have Saturday race coverage. Good result from Chris Redmond today with multiple teammates in tow.
All very inspiring. I can't wait to tear all your legs off in May (kidding--but not really).
Seriously, though, RU's performance and results this weekend really motivated me and got me excited to race again this season, as if I needed more motivation and excitement. A lot of things have lost priority to cycling already (as it should be, of course).
Early season form is coming along well as a result of two 3 hour Saturday rides, the most recent of which I completed yesterday (Washington Ave, come straight back down Morning Glory then down to Coppermine) with a ride average of 199 watts. I had many realizations on this ride. One of which was that power measurement is certainly a good tool but I still believe that RPE is a better way to train. In the same vein, I am really frustrated by the apparent epidemic I've seen on the Rutgers email list. It seems that a few of the 'experienced' riders have been doling out training opinions that I fear the 'inexperienced' riders may be taking as gospel, i.e. L4 and L5 training and tons of it. Apart from the inappropriateness of this type of training for those new to the sport, there is another problem with this "Coggan-style" training approach: it doesn't win you races. Sure, it can make you go fast like Todd, but ask Todd how many races he's won in his whole career in any category (this is left as an exercise for the reader).
As AngryMark has so aptly pointed out (too lazy to get a link), the best way to race your bike is to spend the least amount of energy possible until you absolutely have to. A Category 3, 4 or 5 race generally unfolds thusly: sit in, field sprint. Therefore, if you want to win these races, your training should consist of teaching your body how to cover miles in an efficient way, as if you were sitting in, conserving the most energy. The way to do that is by doing long endurance/tempo rides in your early preparation (pre-season to early season). The benefit of these rides is two-fold: 1) your body learns (or hopefully re-learns) how to burn fat before using glycogen and 2) you learn how to be biomechanically efficient during long efforts in the saddle. Once the season is underway it's good to mix in sprint and supra-threshold work because that is definitely important.
Next time you are doing intervals, ask yourself this question, "How many times in a race I've done have I had to go hard for 5 minutes/10 minutes/20 minutes" or however long your interval may be.
This can all be summed up by: If you want to go fast, train like Todd. If you want to win races, don't.
P.S. Feel free to have as much disdain for my training advice as I most assuredly have for yours.
All very inspiring. I can't wait to tear all your legs off in May (kidding--but not really).
Seriously, though, RU's performance and results this weekend really motivated me and got me excited to race again this season, as if I needed more motivation and excitement. A lot of things have lost priority to cycling already (as it should be, of course).
Early season form is coming along well as a result of two 3 hour Saturday rides, the most recent of which I completed yesterday (Washington Ave, come straight back down Morning Glory then down to Coppermine) with a ride average of 199 watts. I had many realizations on this ride. One of which was that power measurement is certainly a good tool but I still believe that RPE is a better way to train. In the same vein, I am really frustrated by the apparent epidemic I've seen on the Rutgers email list. It seems that a few of the 'experienced' riders have been doling out training opinions that I fear the 'inexperienced' riders may be taking as gospel, i.e. L4 and L5 training and tons of it. Apart from the inappropriateness of this type of training for those new to the sport, there is another problem with this "Coggan-style" training approach: it doesn't win you races. Sure, it can make you go fast like Todd, but ask Todd how many races he's won in his whole career in any category (this is left as an exercise for the reader).
As AngryMark has so aptly pointed out (too lazy to get a link), the best way to race your bike is to spend the least amount of energy possible until you absolutely have to. A Category 3, 4 or 5 race generally unfolds thusly: sit in, field sprint. Therefore, if you want to win these races, your training should consist of teaching your body how to cover miles in an efficient way, as if you were sitting in, conserving the most energy. The way to do that is by doing long endurance/tempo rides in your early preparation (pre-season to early season). The benefit of these rides is two-fold: 1) your body learns (or hopefully re-learns) how to burn fat before using glycogen and 2) you learn how to be biomechanically efficient during long efforts in the saddle. Once the season is underway it's good to mix in sprint and supra-threshold work because that is definitely important.
Next time you are doing intervals, ask yourself this question, "How many times in a race I've done have I had to go hard for 5 minutes/10 minutes/20 minutes" or however long your interval may be.
This can all be summed up by: If you want to go fast, train like Todd. If you want to win races, don't.
P.S. Feel free to have as much disdain for my training advice as I most assuredly have for yours.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
