Biscotti Madness

It has reached LA:

June 27, 2009
14:33- Arrived at DHL facility in Los Angeles-Gateway, CA - USA
14:57 - Clearance processing complete at Los Angeles-Gateway, CA - USA
20:36 - Processed at Los Angeles-Gateway, CA - USA

June 28, 2009
01:53 - Departed from DHL facility in Los Angeles-Gateway, CA - USA
 
Yesterday met up with some teammies for a 4.5 hour road ride:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8536636

Good ride, no particular aim. I did want to try and not challenge every single hill like I tend to try to do, but that sort of fell by the wayside as the ride got longer. We worked on some paceline stuff for a while which is neat but makes my hands and ass numb in short order. Everyone seems to have similar issues as your mind is often elsewhere when in a real paceline.

Today I am off the bike, back in Brooklyn, and fairly tired right now.

Tomorrow I hope to hit LM for 2 laps or so. I'm hoping to get an assessment on the geared bike. Jay just got back from Utah so hopefully today I at least get an idea what it's going to shake out as. If I don't have gears, I'm undecided.

The new GPS has left Elizabeth, NJ. It's actually not even 2 business days. That's just crazy.

The old GPS has not been spoken for. I'm not chasing the guy.

The next 2 weeks I will be trying to form some form of taper/peak without becoming too flat. I'm not entirely sure how to do this, but I'm thinking roughly to aim for 8-10 hours this week and maybe 5-6 next week. The thing that sucks is that I'm on-call next week which would usually mean a lot of riding. I may get impatient and say screw the taper and ride whatever I feel like.
 
Just got a text from the wife. The GPS has been delivered. Not even 2 business days from New Zealand is impressive. This compared to 12 business days from "NY, NY" to my house in NJ.
 
First ride with the 705:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7754426

This thing is great! I love the additional information and the Garmin Connect website is so much better than motionbased.com. I love the splits page as well:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/7754426

Interesting stuff. My 2 laps today, much better than last week:

1: 28:54
2: 29:31

Interesting that the average HR was 166 and 172 respectively. I suppose I was just warming up still on lap 1. You can also get times in HR zones through Training Center, but that's TMI I'm sure. Again, 157 average HR which includes an 18 minute warmup and 6.5 cooldown. I find my HR off road is way above what I average on the road.

Race

After today I'm pretty confident I can do the race sub 1:30. I would have needed to pull a 31:30 lap which I think is possible. I was going to bring the geared bike to see what I can do with that but I don't know if it matters. Right now I still don't have it. Last year I was able to ride the same 3 lap pace by myself as in the race. This course has a lot of climbing to start the first lap and if you don't pace yourself it will just burn you in the later laps. If I turn a 28 minute first lap on Sunday I know I'm in trouble.

I don't love this race, and I'm only sorta looking forward to it. I like seeing all the team at the races. But this isn't my favorite course. My aim in this one is a podium, like all the races. The Marty's former pro will very possibly be here. And I think the guy who has beaten me in the last 2 H2H races will be here. So it will be a tough field. That doesn't even mention standard LM pro roadies who show up, which they do at this race.

Taper

I'm in my 2 week taper now. Normally today would have been 3-4 laps at a brisk pace. But I'm in the 2/3 mode right now. Tomorrow I'm going to take off then ride Thu/Fri. I may take Saturday off the bike. I seem to have very good days on Tuesdays, and I almost always ride hard Sunday and off Monday. So that suggests hard Friday rides and off Saturday works well for a Sunday race. Thinking 2x20 on Thursday and maybe 2-3 tempo on Friday. That would add up to 7 hours for the week which is light, though it does fit nicely in with a 50% then 25% 2 week taper cycle.

Less Fat, More Fast

Woke up with an all-time low of 173 today. My 7 day average is now under 176, another all-time low. Ben drilled it into my head at the end of last year that I need to lose weight and just get in saddle time. I don't think there's any coincidence that the day I hit the lowest weight since 7th grade is the same day I pull a sub-29 minute race lap.

Sorry Ben

The GPS guy didn't let it go, and yesterday I worked out a deal for Fred. It's a reasonable price but just a little more than $100. So I currently have 2 705s, 1 of which will belong to Fred before long. You can try to swipe the 305 from him now.
 
Today I drank beer all morning:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7858138

The aim was to down 6 beers before the family woke up. Unfortunately, my wife was tired last night and went to bed earlier than normal. So when I got back from my bender she had been awake almost an hour.

I totally dig this new Beer Tracking Widget, check out my graph:

picture.php


It's nice because it shows that first 20 minutes, my BR (beer rate) goes up steadily with some spikes. That's a nice primer warmup. I was doing some Maddog 20/20 and Boone's to prep. I then took a 5 minute breather and had a smoke from 20-25 minutes in there. Then I did my hammering.

You can see the nice flat 15 minutue funnel sessions I did there, with a 5 minute break in between for another smoke. Normally I would do 60 minutes of this but this being a taper week, I dialed it back and did 30 total minutues of Threshold Funneling. Garmin Beer Center tells me I spent 30:24 in zone 4, which is perfect.

My 2 beer sets were an average BR of 163 and 165. In theory my LTBR is 163, so those are good numbers. I think I need another LTBR test though, as the effort today wasn't as difficult to complete as normal.

The erratic part of the graph was when I was in turns, which is tough because it's hard to keep the funnel still and still drive. If you check out the player tab you can see where I could easily drive the car off the road while funneling so it's pretty hard to maintain that flat-line, but I tried.

Tomorrow I was supposed to go do whip-its with Kush at LM, but it pissed down all night so the trails will probably suck hog now. The sun has come out, so it may be ok. But, I guess we'll see. I'm pretty sick of this rain. I may go buy an 8 ball later.
 
RNG1 said:
Love the fresh new approach! We are riding in the morning....
Click to expand...

Ok, Rob as well, and possibly also Jake? I guess I better bring at least double the whipped cream containers, because I'm going to need to do something while Rob tries out his 18 different bikes.
 
Norm said:
My 2 beer sets were an average BR of 163 and 165. In theory my LTBR is 163, so those are good numbers. I think I need another LTBR test though, as the effort today wasn't as difficult to complete as normal.
Click to expand...

I think your LTHR estimation is off...maybe by as much as ten BPM. You are not 50 years old. Do the test.

You are improving 4 fold; lower weight, improved fitness, lower perceived exertion, increased motivation. You HR estimates are lagging behind.

The statement that "it felt easier" is the key indicator. If your workout is based on LTHR or PE, it should never feel easier. That indicates that your LTHR has increased and/or your ability to withstand punishment has improved therefore lowering your PE.

LeMond: "It doesn't get easier. You just go faster"
There is a reason stuff like this is considered biblical.
 
I must be getting stronger too, when my wife nags me it doesn't bother me nearly as much.
 
BiknBen said:
I think your LTHR estimation is off...maybe by as much as ten BPM. You are not 50 years old. Do the test.

You are improving 4 fold; lower weight, improved fitness, lower perceived exertion, increased motivation. You HR estimates are lagging behind.

The statement that "it felt easier" is the key indicator. If your workout is based on LTHR or PE, it should never feel easier. That indicates that your LTHR has increased and/or your ability to withstand punishment has improved therefore lowering your PE.

LeMond: "It doesn't get easier. You just go faster"
There is a reason stuff like this is considered biblical.
Click to expand...

All good thoughts.

This is kind of left field and I have no data to back it, but it seems like since I went to the 705 the HR numbers are different. The Polar I was using is old, as in really old. It has trouble picking up my HR some days until I really get going, sometimes 20+ minutes. Also it was prone to interference so it would not be abnormal for it to ready 265 for a minute at a time, or for me to look down some days and have it just reading 0. I'm wondering if the data I accumulated was considerably skewed because of that.

One data point I do have to support that is the intervals we did. I was absolutely laying it out there and I think 187 was the highest I saw. At LM this week I was working, but not killing myself like that. I was able to get to 186-188 a few times. The old HRM may simply have been missing any number of BPM on a regular basis. If I cared enough I would strap them both on. But that's like RNG territory 😉

Either way, I need a new baseline and a new LTHR test. The swamp is great but it requires 180 degree turnarounds. Probably not enough to make that much of a difference.
 
I think the test is supposed to be an out and back. Well if your talking about the test im thinking of.:hmmm:
 
ArmyOfNone said:
I think the test is supposed to be an out and back. Well if your talking about the test im thinking of.:hmmm:
Click to expand...

Ideally the test would be 1 hour flat straight road with no break. Pin your HR at LT for a full hour. That's pretty hard to do though. Everything else is an approximation of sorts. I'll have to read up on it.
 
I read up a little about it just now. Friel and Coggan have a bit of a different approach to this test. Coggin is power based, so refers to FTP, which is your 1 hour power. So I was basically basing LTHR off that - what you can do for 1 hour. Friel is HR based, and uses the estimate that your average in the last 20 minutues of a 30 minute TT is your LTHR. Conversely, your 1 hour HR in a TT can be used but you add 5%, which doesn't make much sense to me.

I had done a straight 20 minute test, which yielded a 171 average HR. The test I did was meant to measure HR at FTP, not necessarily LTHR. The Coggan zones, which I've been using, are based on that. I'll have to look at the Frield zones and see how they compare, and go from there. I'll worry about that after KVSP.
 
Norm said:
Ideally the test would be 1 hour flat straight road with no break. Pin your HR at LT for a full hour. That's pretty hard to do though. Everything else is an approximation of sorts. I'll have to read up on it.
Click to expand...

Maybe for a pro. 🙄 I've never heard of anyone doing an hour-long test in training. The one hour reference is made because it coincides with the 40km time trial event. A time trial of any distance is basically a LTHR test. State and national championships always have a 40km TT. Every TT rider shoots for the 40km in under one hour. That is 25mph average and is the benchmark that everyone is measured.

It doesn't matter what length LTHR test you do. If too short, you could falsely increase the average HR due to adrenaline and whatnot. It has to be long enough to cause fatigue and keep you honest. That is why you record the AVERAGE HR in the test. You will be above average in the beginning and struggle to maintain it the rest of the way.

After Sunday's race, record the average heart rate and time of exercise. Assuming you race hard the entire way, that will be your LTHR for that time span. You could use that for training and in future races.

The problem with using the LTHR from an MTB event is that it is not repeatable. The distances, terrain, conditions always vary. In order to gauge fitness improvement, you have to have a test that is repeatable; exactly the same each time.

Ideally, the LTHR test should be done on as flat a road as you can find. It has to have a turn-around. By turning around half-way through the test, you cancel the effect of wind.
 
Friel's test doesn't mention a turn around, though in the swamp there will be several. I don't think it matters ideally.

I haven't worn the HRM in a race yet. But I probably will this weekend. My HR from my Tuesday ride there was insanely erratic. Certainly not much of a good measure in terms of consistency.

I'll need to look at this more and figure out a plan for the summer.
 
Sometime this month im up to do that test on rt 29. May be we can work that out so we all can do it together.
 
Norm said:
First ride with the 705:


Interesting stuff. My 2 laps today, much better than last week:

1: 28:54
2: 29:31

Interesting that the average HR was 166 and 172 respectively. I suppose I was just warming up still on lap 1. You can also get times in HR zones through Training Center, but that's TMI I'm sure. Again, 157 average HR which includes an 18 minute warmup and 6.5 cooldown. I find my HR off road is way above what I average on the road.

Race

After today I'm pretty confident I can do the race sub 1:30. I would have needed to pull a 31:30 lap which I think is possible. I was going to bring the geared bike to see what I can do with that but I don't know if it matters. Right now I still don't have it. Last year I was able to ride the same 3 lap pace by myself as in the race. This course has a lot of climbing to start the first lap and if you don't pace yourself it will just burn you in the later laps. If I turn a 28 minute first lap on Sunday I know I'm in trouble.

I don't love this race, and I'm only sorta looking forward to it. I like seeing all the team at the races. But this isn't my favorite course. My aim in this one is a podium, like all the races. The Marty's former pro will very possibly be here. And I think the guy who has beaten me in the last 2 H2H races will be here. So it will be a tough field. That doesn't even mention standard LM pro roadies who show up, which they do at this race.
Click to expand...

After doing a couple laps yesterday I realized why this race is so hard. There is not one section of the course you can rest. I counted in my head and the highest I got to was 8 seconds of coasting without flat out pedaling. I was able to run my fasest lap to date on my paragon yesterday, 30:10sec having to stop and remove a stick from my wheel. However, like you, if I run that pace during the race, I will be screwed for the other two laps. In my case, probably asleep in the pavillion.

Oh and when I stopped by martys tonight, word on the street is that the pro guy will be racing this weekend.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom