Roan Mtn. Breakdown

Not the race I was hoping for.

But, the best race I could manage, yesterday. Tapered and rested, but the legs just weren't there -- I felt better on Monday when I did my last Caesar's Head workout. Then, altitude and cold hammer hit me when we made the turn to the summit, and I lost 7 places in a mile and a half. I've never tried to race a bike at 6000ft. It's a hell of a lot different than the 2000ft I'm used to at the top of South Carolina climbs. Looking over the power file, I see that I had my first drop in output at 5000ft, when I dropped down to 300w, and the second came at 5500 feet before the final turn, when I dropped to 280. That's a 20-watt drop each time. When I caught Gordon Whittaker with about 2.5mi to go, I remarked "the air is pretty thin, this is tough." He nodded. Then his bigger, more muscular time trialist butt dropped me like a rock with a mile to go.

He wasn't the only one. At the old finish, with 1.5 miles to go, I was in 12th overall and 9th in the 40+. Then I cracked and lost seven places overall and one in the 40+ in the last mile. In terms of time, I lost 90 seconds to the group of three that I had caught and then steadily, comfortably, staying-within-myself-feeling-good pulled to the old finish. The final quantifying of the quantum leap back was that my friend Peter Kay finished a few seconds ahead of me even though I climbed the first section of the mountain 38 seconds faster (and Peter, you know I was joking when I said "Peter, you bastard" when you sprinted past me at the finish, right? I was smiling in this friendly way when I said it, but I was kind of, you know, behind you at the time so you couldn't see it). Ouch.

What happened? I made a tiny little effort in the red as we came to the old finish, 25 seconds at 360w, and the altitude, I couldn't recover. My low anaerobic capacity, once again. I train it, but nothing happens. In races, it send me rearward. At the finish of a Hors Category climb, anaerobic capacity can make a huge difference. The air is thin, and a surge in the red, however brief, is going to really cost you. I noticed that the seven guys ahead of me each had only one or two short efforts in them -- the rest was just steady rhythm. Simply, those were one or two efforts I didn't, and won't have. Next year, I just need to keep tempo until the top, and then lose my ground in the last 100m, not the last 1600. I'd never tried going into the red at that altitude.

Also, there is a big difference between climbing at 4.4 w/kg after an hour of riding zone 2-3 on my own in training, vs. climbing at 4.4 w/kg after an hour of racing. The first hour was easy -- 218w avg. power, but pretty variable. One long surge in repsonse to a breakaway attempt, took something out of me. Then, I put myself out of position as the Industry none and Team Ville guys lined it out going into the final climb. I was trying to stay on a wheel and not lose position, but the wheel I took was that of an Industry Nine ride who was going to the front, which left me in the wind for a bit; one of the Team Ville guys working for Eric Lee looked over at me and said "are you working or racing? Get out of the wind." My foolish brain figured it out and tucked in two riders behind him. Next year, stay sheltered. And next year, those Caesar's Head workouts need to have more intensity before hitting the climb for the first time. In the race 258NP, for the hour before the climb. In training, 232NP. Next year, I need to hit the same wattage range as in this year's race, or higher, before the first Caesar's Head climb. Train like you race.

I was pretty bummed out about the ass kicking I found myself on the wrong end of, until I was able to look at the Strava data Yes, I said it. My 10th place and epic blow up was what it was. But, my VAM over the first 40 minutes of the climb was better than I'd ever done on practice climbs, and I still managed top 10.

The first race that showed me I might be more than pack filler was the 2009 French Broad RR, where I was 9th. I see know that's about my level -- somewhere in the 8-10 range in a tough race with a good climbing field. I'm not likely to get much better, although riding the way I usually do might get me just a bit more, though not enough to be up with the really good guys. Getting better at being good but not very good is better than getting worse. Time for another round of long rides and climbing for this year's French Broad.

10th, here I come (please note the irony there, folks).

Lowered Goals, Power Testing, Rear Brake Problem

Watching the Roan Groan 40+ field fill up with a half-dozen guys who can kick my ass in their sleep, I have to say that I'll be pretty happy with something between 6th and 9th. With the existing field, plus some guys I know who are coming, that would be a pretty good result for me. I'll see on Saturday.

On the plus side, I was able to almost match my 5-minute power best from September 2010. That month, I hit 405w for 5 minutes on the rollers, at 164 pounds. At 162 now, I managed 401w for 5 minutes on the Maw Bridge Road climb and a chunk of flat that followed it. As I've suspected, it looks like VO2 power is my real strength -- more so than threshold, though I've always thought of myself as a steady-state, long grind rider.

I had considered racing tomorrow night, but I dodgy rear brake lever, or dodgy cable, has put those thoughts to rest. For whatever reason, whenever I close the rear brake, it stays closed until I hand-loosen the brake or yutz with the cable. So, there'll be a trip to Sunshine Cycles in Greenville after school tomorrow, and hopefully it's something they can straighten out in an hour or two, like a new cable and not something that prevents me from racing on Saturday, like a busted lever.

Last Caesar's Head Check

Depending on whether I trust Strava's GPS data, or the data from my Power Tap hub, I did the ol Head in 32:17 or 32:08. Obeying the "lowest number rules" rule, I'll take 32:08 -- that's 30 seconds faster than the Powertap data from a month ago (the Strava time was 32:41 -- I suspect everyone's Strava times on Caesar's Head are all a bit slow, because the trees can interfere with the GPS signal).

Power was the same as five weeks ago, which makes me think I must have lost some weight in that last big cycle. One problem I noticed was that I couldn't find a good rhythm with my gears. On the rollers or on a Computrainer, I've had no problem getting 335w for 30 minutes, holding a steady 90 rpm. In the real world of gravity, I find I'm struggling to get over 320-325w with my 19-21-23-25 gear cluster. I found myself spinning up sections of the climb at 93-95rpm in one cog, but shifting down to the next I'd drop to 88rpm and start to feel bogged down. Simply, I just don't have the strength to push a gear up long climbs, and I can't pick up my leg speed enough to get the power out with a smaller one.

Also, I'm starting to think that my strength might be VO2 power more than FTP. I've been able to put out good power and good VAM on the short, 3-5 minute climbs around Pickens County, but as I mentioned earlier, I might be standing up for 50-60% of the climb, which helps me stay on top of a bigger gear and just churn over the hill. Obviously, you can't do that on a 6-mile climb. Now, I just need to find a 40-mile Masters RR with 5 or 6 Cat 4 climbs on it.... Nope, not on the menu.... Drat.

Some heavy hitters are registered for Roan this time around. My best VAM on a 30-minute plus climb in training this Spring would put me around 5th or 6th in last year's field, but with some bigger motors lined up, it might be a rough day....

Taper Halfway, Positives and Negatives

The first somewhat rested day of this taper was Thursday. After a day of easy recovery spinning, I managed bests on my usual VO2 hills -- setting bests for 2min-4min power, and beating previous times by 2-4 seconds on 1 mile hills. I was pleased to see 408w for 4 minutes -- that's the best I've ever done over that duration.

Friday was another easy day, with an hour of low zone 2 spinning on the rollers -- which may have been a notch too much, given that I had stiff legs today, still sore from doing the one-legged squats that are part of my physical therapy routine for keeping the muscles that pronate my feet strong. As a result, I just didn't have any power today on Caesars Head.

On the plus side, I beat my time from five weeks ago by 22 seconds, at a decent but not particularly special 32:20. Anything under 32 minutes gets you into the fast club, and anything under 31 puts you solidly in Cat 1 territory. Although I was happy to see the PR, I only managed 319w up the climb, well off the best 30min power that I've seen. Five weeks ago, I pushed 327w up the climb. The puzzle is that my weight hasn't changed a bit in five weeks, and I put out almost 10w less but go over 3 sec faster per mile. Go figure. Faster is faster, bottom line -- but I'd be a lot more comfortable going into Roan Groan if I put out 330+ on the climb and came closer to 22min flat.

Easy zone 1 recovery tomorrow, then two trips of Caesars Head Monday. Then, nothing -- nada -- but recovery and some openers before Roan. I hope that this week sheds the fatigue from the months of training and yields a good day in Tennessee.

Tapering With a Real Life -- Be Flexible!

My taper plan has already had to adapt to my life -- no surprise, eh?

I need to cut the grass tonight, hopefully before the rain hits. As a result, the VO2 workout was going to be on the rollers. At 4:30 AM, in a 90% humidity garage, I couldn't find my legs while warming up -- a few 30-30s to get loose didn't work, and I knew I didn't have good 4-minute intervals in my legs or my head. I decided to go with a single 20-minute effort instead, followed by 10 30-30s.

The Garmin said 343, but the Powertap computer I'd checked the hub torque with said 344. I'll take that one more watt, thank you, because that matches my best ever 20min power. In December of 2010, when I was getting 335w for an hour, I did 344 for 20min. I'll take that as a sign I need to up FTP in WKO+ to 335 (those TSS points will get harder now...dang it).

More importantly, I haven't really started to rest enough to see fitness gains from a taper -- I'm now excited about what I can do with rested legs in ten more days!

I may not be able to do Caesars Head on Saturday -- Delana may be planning a trip with our German visitors for that day, so I may have to be flexible again....

Taper Time

Train hard, rest harder. I have no problem with the first part -- like most cyclists, I am scared of the second. Surely, I have to keep piling on, right? Wrong. Surely, I have to back off -- by a lot.

What physiology I've read on the time frame for stimulus and adaptation shows that it takes a week to 10 days for a workout to produce a training effect. So, any work you do within that time frame for your goal event isn't going to result in further adaptation. Does that mean you just sit around, or do easy rides? No -- cutting volume and intensity results in decreased performance. Tapering only works when you cut volume and maintain intensity. My guess would be (I haven't had time to read the literature) that you have to keep the metabolic pathways open to keep the engine firing, otherwise it shuts down and on race day you're blocked. So, just enough intensity to keep the central nervous system, threshold power, VO2 power, and neuro-muscular power active, but enough rest to bring about supercompensation from the months of training that led up to the peak. From swimming eons ago, I recall that the intensity was never failure -- you should feel like you could do another rep or two. So, instead of 6 4-minute VO2s, do 4. Instead of 3 x 30, do 2 x 30 or just 1. Sharpen, don't blunt.

Studies say to cut the volume by 40-60%. I'll drive down the middle with 50. Since the last three weeks have seen an average of 17 hours/week, That means 8 1/5, maybe 8 hours, and that's it. Joe Friel says to have a race-level workout every 72 hours during the taper that targets the primary energy system for your race, with the possible exception of the last 48 hours prior to your goal race. For me, that means climbing a mountain at threshold, and a some VO2 work. So, the next two weeks look like this:

Mon 21 May -- rest
Tues 22 May -- 1.5 hours, VO2 -- the "Iron Triangle" hills. 4 or 5 hill repeats.
Wed 23 May -- 1 hour easy recovery
Thurs 24 May -- 1.5 hours, 1 climb of Caesars Head
Fri 25 May -- rest
Sat 26 May -- 3 hours, 2 climbs of Ceasars Head
Sun 27 May -- 1 hour easy recovery

Mon 28 May -- 1 hour easy recovery
Tues 29 May -- 1.5 hours, VO2. "Iron Triangle," 3-4 hill repeats.
Wed 30 May -- 1 hour easy recovery

At that point, it's a tough call. I could go with option A, which is:

Thurs 31 May -- 1 hour easy recovery
Fri 1 June -- 1 hour easy with 4 leg openers

"By the book," this would leave me primed for Roan Groan on June 2. However, the St. Francis Sports Medicine summer series crit at BMW is on Thursday night. I dig the Piedmont Orthopedic team guys, and it's been a long time since I've raced -- some pack time a few days before Roan Groan would get me back in that mindset. However, an easy day the day before a race is usually a formula for dead legs. However, I've also gone pretty well after hard Thurs, rest Fri, race Saturday. I've also tanked that way. Welcome to the human body -- its kind of predictable, and kind of adaptable, and kind of variable. At best, the taper is an informed roll of the dice.

Plan B is:

Thurs 31 May -- St. Francis crit
Fri 1 June -- a hour easy with 1-2 openers, or just easy.

I've actually picked the brains of a couple of guys I trust for the call on racing that Thursday. I want to, but if the wiser choice is to hold back, then I could just do the Tuesday Night Worlds in Pendleton as my pack time and intensity for the week.

Rest, rest, rest. Work will not work from this point on. Time to get fresh!

Build Cycle Finished: How To Ride Way Too Much For An Old Guy

I haven't posted in the last week because I've had time to work, ride, help take care of Oskar after his surgery, and that's it.

We finished the literary magazine Tuesday night -- after a couple of 7AM to 7PM days at school to complete layouts, convert to .pdf, and to upload to Keys Innovative Solutions's server (many thanks to Keys for printing our school's magazine and working with us on the price). Oskar had his surgery Wednesday -- the veterinarian removed one large mass, which is off for biopsy, and Oskar's entire right lower mandible. If it's the "right" cancer, he'll live out his full lifespan. If it's melanoma or the nasty sarcoma, the big guy will only be around for another 12-18 months. Delana and I are keeping our fingers crossed on this one.

In between school trips and vet trips, I squeezed in workouts whenever I could. Two were 4AM roller rides, two were after school, and then this weekend things were really flexible, so I got in two good rides.

CTL is at an absurd 132 after today. Now, that might be a little high, since I haven't retested threshold since starting this big block of training a month ago. If it's 325, then 4.4 w/kg, and I must recover pretty well to do 4100TSS in a month. If it's 335w, then I'm at 4.5 w/kg again, and probably as fit as I'll be.

The dashboard for WKO+ says it all. I spend too much time riding my bike. I probably need another hobby...or...no I don't, I just need to ride my bike some more! Borders on pure nutter, but like I wrote last week, high volume is the only way to get 100% out of whatever genetics gave you. The good part has been that I've seen power bests for every duration from 2:00 to 8:00 each week, since starting VO2 work 4 weeks ago. That would seem to indicate that the sledgehammer volume approach has been working -- the numbers have been going up and up. I haven't seen good numbers for 20 minutes+, primarily because any long climb has come after 4-5 VO2 hills and a couple hours of riding, because there is no 20-minute stretch of flat road around here, and because the 2 x 20 days on the rollers all came after hard VO2+Endurance days. I'm hoping that with some rest this week, I'll see a best 20min number as well.

Saturday was a good ride -- 6 VO2 hills, then a 15min Cat 3 climb, then roling tempo until attempting two sets of 10 25sec bursts at the 4:00:00 mark. The power on the climbs was great, but the power on the microburst set was predictably low. Still, being able to repeat the efforts that I did after that much riding was reasonable. The overall good part was that I felt fresh at the end of the ride -- like I could do another hour. Also, I only ate two Clif Bars, but never bonked and still felt good at the end, which I'll take as a sign that my aerobic, fat-burning metabolism is in good shape now.

Today was two climbs of Caesars Head. Both power and heart rate were low -- climb 1 was 318w, 145 HR, and climb 2 was 305w, 139 HR. Since my max HR is 170 (which I have not seen in a long time), and my threshold HR is around 154, I'll take today as a sign that first, I'm fatigued at the end of the training cycle, and second, that maybe, maybe, my FTP has crept up a bit. If 305w is tempo, I'll take that!

This week will see some rest, some intensity, and one long ride. There are different philosophies on peaking. Hunter Allen has advocated taking a full rest week and then doing the sharpening up week as you lead in to the goal event. In 2009, my friend Chad Andrews at Total Cyclist put together a taper for me that was a mix of rest and intensity that took two weeks to lead to the peak. I responded well to Chad's plan, so I'm going to take a similar approach this time around.