Wham! I'm back over here.
I can't believe I haven't posted here since before I moved out of Japan. But as the season finishes off this year in Washington, D.C., I'm refocusing and reworking.
I would say a lot has changed, but really - very little changed. I raced a lot more this year than I did in two years in Japan. I won absolutely none of the events I raced in, placed top 10 once or twice, top 15 a bunch, and a lot of unmentionable finishes.
Racing in the states has been a whole new world of experiences. The talent pool is significantly more diverse. The sheer addition of people at the top end of the fitness scale changes the odds. Added to that is a much larger employment of team tactics and I've had a lot to learn.
All that said, the racing season was what it was. I don't intend to re-hash any of it here or attempt to sum up how each race went. They'll get mentioned as I roll into the next year and race many of the same events again. My intention is to pick up essentially as if I hadn't stopped writing here at all.
So, with that: August was a good month of training. I rode a lot of hours this month. 75 hours on the bike with two taper weeks in the mix for the two races in Page Valley. I wrapped up this weekend with 5 hours on the bike yesterday and 4 hours today.
Based on the power files from this weekend and the work on the Wakefield group rides this past week, I might need to re-evaluate what I am calling threshold power. I still have it set @ 345 in Cyclingpeaks. After a two hour "warm up" of endurance time on Tuesday, I still rode 55 minutes in the group ride @ 351 - with some left in the bank even. This would be logical difference between where I was at last year, as I'm sitting 2 kg heavier, so it's just about the same W/kg.
I have three more races in two weekends this month. Turkey Day race has two events, M30+ and the Cat 3/4. The following weekend is the inaugural Capital Criterium in downtown D.C. racing the M35+.
In the next month, a few changes will take place for me.
First, after a quick transition week following the races, I'm going to make a concerted focus shift to time trial training. I hope to have a dedicated TT frame by then and for every two days of threshold training through the winter, one of those days will be on that TT bike.
Second, a team change. I raced with Westwood Velo - a fantastic team out of Northern NJ. But the reality of gas and travel will probably keep me racing the primary MABRA schedule instead of the PA, NJ, NY road races next year. So, after some good riding at the Wakefield rides with Whole Wheel Velo Club guys over the last two months, I'm heading in their direction. I'll ride these last two weekends with the Westwood Velo jersey and then hang that one up next year for the WWVC jersey.
I'm holding my highest training load since about last October and feel great on the bike, around the bike, and thinking about the bike. Even with tomorrow's scheduled day off I'm already looking forward to getting back on the bike Tuesday.
Ride safe, ride often.
VW
I'm back
August 31, 2008, 8:45 pm2007 and Japan coming to an end
December 31, 2007, 7:03 am
I've ridden my last ride of 2007. It's been a fantastic year. It has surely marked my longest stretch of training for a sport in my life. It concludes 2 1/2 years of road biking and sets me looking forward to racing a strong 2008 in the U.S.
With my season over a few months ago, most of what I learned this year was already in my head by that point. But even these last couple months of the 2007 calendar year, I've learned more and more about training, cycling, and my body, motivation and physical abilities. I thought it would be a waste of a blog to not at least post a quick note - though I think this won't be so quick - about what I learned over the last year of riding.
- Training requires motivation. Too much training will takes away motivation. In my job, most of my peers (and I) live under the notion that you "just do it" if you have to. There's no excuses, no room for lack of motivation. If you lack motivation, tough. Well, that might work if you're heading to a combat zone at the direction of the Commander-in-Chief. But in a world that is completely optional (like training for a sport that you aren't making a living doing), motivation is critical. Every time I get on the bike, there has to be something that makes me want to complete the workout. If one trains too much, it's entirely possible to train yourself right out of your motivation. Once you stop wanting to get on the bike, it's nearing the point of diminishing returns. You have to know this point (which means you have to get pretty darn close to it to find it)
- Listen to your body. It wasn't until the end of the year that I really breached the injury line. Some time during the Okayama Circuit race I pulled a muscle in my left leg. I ignored it and pushed through the next month keeping the training volume high. Then one day I strained my left knee climbing a steep mountain while compensating for the other hurt muscle. It took two weeks to recovery from that injury. Coming back from that injury I attempted to push right back onto my high training load and blew up within a week. It took another two weeks to go through a transition recovery period before I could start ramping training load again. So, October, November and half December were recovery from an injury that I should have recovered from by the end of October.
- Transition periods are necessary. I hate these periods in the training cycle. Transition periods typically come right at the end of a peak. It's a time after you've trained/raced yourself into the best shape you can be in hopefully before you blow through into crud riding. There's nothing to them really except for taking a week or two of easy riding to let your body recover from the beating it took getting into race shape. Inevitably, you exit the transition "off form" from what you were two weeks prior. You get on the first workout after a transition thinking you're in such great condition, but it takes 2-3 weeks of workouts to get yourself going again, all the while you're staring at the numbers begging to be as good as you were before the break. The good news is, once you've come off the slump, you're quickly back in the shape from before the break and climbing to new heights. That's where I find myself today as we enter the new year.
- Some days, no matter what everything else says... some days are just "off days." Over the course of the year of training I've had a lot of great workouts. I've also had a select handful of workouts that just stunk. A lot of times those happened on days that I thought I was going to have a fantastic day. I thought I was eating right, sleeping right, resting, the works. Then I got on the bike, started an interval and thought, "This is just not right." I've had to bail out of interval workouts because I can't keep the numbers in zone, perplexed for the next week only to find out the following workout go great. So, I've learned that it's okay for a workout to go like crud. The world doesn't come to an end. The next week you attack the workout again and go from there. Every day is not going to be the perfect workout, and you're not going to improve every week on the bike. Patience.
- Finally, biking is fun. If you're reading this, and you ride bikes, remember it. If you don't ride bikes, I'm sorry for it. It's a great sport, easy on your health and joints. You don't have to race to enjoy it, there are many that don't race.
2007 was a good year for riding for me. Here's the stats, parentheticals for 2006 values.
Rides: 322 (241)
Total Distance: 26,248 km (15,073)
Total Hours: 842 hrs 24 min (520 hrs 14 min)
Calories Burned: 669,587 (469,072)
Raced: 12 (3)
Won: 4 (1)
Podium: 6 (2)
In closing, Jan 1st will be my final ride in Japan for the foreseeable future. I'll get a blustery, windy day riding around 90-100 km up the Nishiki River. I was going to do Zenitsuboyama for one final time, but I've opted to change it to get some extra distance. My schedule, my riding, races available and everything else will change pretty dramatically with the move to Washington D.C. area. I look forward to riding and racing with a whole new group of people, a whole different style of racing and learning a whole new set of lessons in 2008. Here's hoping we all have at least as good a year in 2008 as we did in 2007 - and hoping it's even better.
Ride safe and ride often,
VW
With my season over a few months ago, most of what I learned this year was already in my head by that point. But even these last couple months of the 2007 calendar year, I've learned more and more about training, cycling, and my body, motivation and physical abilities. I thought it would be a waste of a blog to not at least post a quick note - though I think this won't be so quick - about what I learned over the last year of riding.
- Training requires motivation. Too much training will takes away motivation. In my job, most of my peers (and I) live under the notion that you "just do it" if you have to. There's no excuses, no room for lack of motivation. If you lack motivation, tough. Well, that might work if you're heading to a combat zone at the direction of the Commander-in-Chief. But in a world that is completely optional (like training for a sport that you aren't making a living doing), motivation is critical. Every time I get on the bike, there has to be something that makes me want to complete the workout. If one trains too much, it's entirely possible to train yourself right out of your motivation. Once you stop wanting to get on the bike, it's nearing the point of diminishing returns. You have to know this point (which means you have to get pretty darn close to it to find it)
- Listen to your body. It wasn't until the end of the year that I really breached the injury line. Some time during the Okayama Circuit race I pulled a muscle in my left leg. I ignored it and pushed through the next month keeping the training volume high. Then one day I strained my left knee climbing a steep mountain while compensating for the other hurt muscle. It took two weeks to recovery from that injury. Coming back from that injury I attempted to push right back onto my high training load and blew up within a week. It took another two weeks to go through a transition recovery period before I could start ramping training load again. So, October, November and half December were recovery from an injury that I should have recovered from by the end of October.
- Transition periods are necessary. I hate these periods in the training cycle. Transition periods typically come right at the end of a peak. It's a time after you've trained/raced yourself into the best shape you can be in hopefully before you blow through into crud riding. There's nothing to them really except for taking a week or two of easy riding to let your body recover from the beating it took getting into race shape. Inevitably, you exit the transition "off form" from what you were two weeks prior. You get on the first workout after a transition thinking you're in such great condition, but it takes 2-3 weeks of workouts to get yourself going again, all the while you're staring at the numbers begging to be as good as you were before the break. The good news is, once you've come off the slump, you're quickly back in the shape from before the break and climbing to new heights. That's where I find myself today as we enter the new year.
- Some days, no matter what everything else says... some days are just "off days." Over the course of the year of training I've had a lot of great workouts. I've also had a select handful of workouts that just stunk. A lot of times those happened on days that I thought I was going to have a fantastic day. I thought I was eating right, sleeping right, resting, the works. Then I got on the bike, started an interval and thought, "This is just not right." I've had to bail out of interval workouts because I can't keep the numbers in zone, perplexed for the next week only to find out the following workout go great. So, I've learned that it's okay for a workout to go like crud. The world doesn't come to an end. The next week you attack the workout again and go from there. Every day is not going to be the perfect workout, and you're not going to improve every week on the bike. Patience.
- Finally, biking is fun. If you're reading this, and you ride bikes, remember it. If you don't ride bikes, I'm sorry for it. It's a great sport, easy on your health and joints. You don't have to race to enjoy it, there are many that don't race.
2007 was a good year for riding for me. Here's the stats, parentheticals for 2006 values.
Rides: 322 (241)
Total Distance: 26,248 km (15,073)
Total Hours: 842 hrs 24 min (520 hrs 14 min)
Calories Burned: 669,587 (469,072)
Raced: 12 (3)
Won: 4 (1)
Podium: 6 (2)
In closing, Jan 1st will be my final ride in Japan for the foreseeable future. I'll get a blustery, windy day riding around 90-100 km up the Nishiki River. I was going to do Zenitsuboyama for one final time, but I've opted to change it to get some extra distance. My schedule, my riding, races available and everything else will change pretty dramatically with the move to Washington D.C. area. I look forward to riding and racing with a whole new group of people, a whole different style of racing and learning a whole new set of lessons in 2008. Here's hoping we all have at least as good a year in 2008 as we did in 2007 - and hoping it's even better.
Ride safe and ride often,
VW
Filler, but fun
December 16, 2007, 8:03 am
It's been a long couple weeks. Imagine me sitting in my house every day with arms crossed thinking, "This just isn't right." That's the picture of me every time I download power data from a ride, whether good or bad. I've tried to put weight on this month and am eating like crazy to do it. The holidays are giving me plenty of opportunity to do this, but of course not in any sort of nutritional sort of way. All that and I'm still not putting on weight.
I can hear folks that read this thinking, "Oh poor you." Well, to be honest - I'm not particularly heartbroken, but any time you try to get something done and it doesn't happen it gets frustrating. So weight is just one of those things.
Add to that my workouts have been up down and all around and you get a picture of a rider in frustration. I took some sort of "transition" break in my training to get the dead feeling out of my legs. Unfortunately, one of the things I've come to expect from any transition break in training is dead legs for a week or so coming out of that period. So, I back off on the volume and intensity a little. I come back and my first set of APIs are great. My first sweet spot training for 90 minutes blew. My next API set stunk and the following sweet spot day for 90 minutes was great. Finish off the week at just below 75 kg after thinking I'd finally gained weight up to 76ish. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow after the day off today. I'm just miserable because it's around 16 days till we move and there are a thousand things to do and few things we can actually get done. So, I ride.
But, enough about me.
About two weeks ago, we received a package in the mail from family. Knowing our Christmas tree and decorations were in a box on their way to the US, they sent us a "Flat Tree" and some "Flat Friends" to carry around with us and have fun with (More about the "Flats" Here: http://www.flatstanley.com/). It's really great to have them with us. There are so many things I would have loved to share with the real people while we were here and we just never got the opportunity so it is the next best t hing to having them here with us. It's just not nearly as close as I would like.
I think about Denny a lot when I ride. I'll see a mountain I've been on top of, or a really special place I like to ride to, or sometimes I stop and stare off the edge of a high mountain road down on to the river valley or ocean and think about sharing that spot with him. On this one day I got to do it just a little.
Today's adventure is to head up to Seven Falls, down the river valley to Nishiki and back to Iwakuni. It's a 125 km round trip (~77 miles). It's one of my standard 4 hr training rides up into the mountains, 2 hours of climbing and then a steady ride back home.
We started at the Kintai Bridge. I don't take this road very often anymore but Denny hadn't seen the Kintai yet, so we stopped by there to get a snapshot of him with the Kintai and the Iwakuni Castle on the mountains behind him.
We hopped back on our bikes onto Route 2 and started our climbing to Yasaka Lake. It's some good climbing here but we weren't out to punish ourselves today. We kept a good steady tempo up the climb and after clearing the tunnel before the Yasaka Dam, we pulled over to pull off some of our morning layers. We tried to get some pictures of Denny with the giant Yasaka Dam behind him, but with a gusty breeze blowing I was a tad nervous about him taking a 100 foot plunge into the lake, so we played it safe and you'll have to take our word for it.
The trip along Yasaka Lake and the river that flows into it is scenic, but on this day it was frigid. In and out of the shade and it wasn't long before hands were numb and it was time to take a break for a coffee. When I move back to the states, I'll miss having these hot coffees in cans. I hope I can find something similar somewhere. We chugged a hot coffee (my favorite is Cafe Espresso) before we started the long steady climb to the top of the mountain range.
The trip up the mountains was still pretty cold. On the way we got a flat - first one on a training ride in months. After manipulating the CO2 inflater and getting the new tube in, we kept the climbing going. We were going to get some shots of Denny fixing the flat tire, but we got consumed with the actual fixing and forgot the pictures and the tire was changed before we remembered. Neither of us really wanted to get another flat just for photo ops, so we waited to get more pictures until we got to the top of the mountain. The top of the mountain has a neat little sweets shop but also a hot drinks machine outside where we grabbed some hot cocoa in a can while chewing down the rock hard Harvest Bar.
On the way down the mountain we ran into one of the Club Athlete members going the opposite direction on the same loop we were on. I rarely go the opposite direction because of the 15% climb and the lack of desire to change out my gearing to do that climbing. The other club member and I stopped and shared greetings. We commiserated on the cold weather and compared warming layers. I gave him my respect for climbing the loop on the steep direction and with a handshake, a dozen bows and smiles we separated. Denny and I finished the decent to the Nishiki River stop to grap some candy at the store and some more hot liquids.
We met a friend at the river stop that wanted to get in my pictures. Actually, I think he (I'm most certain it was a he!) was more interested in food and Denny than pictures. I tried to get him to pose, but you can see getting a local cat to pose for pictures with a Flat Denny is no easy feat.
Once separated from our friendly cat, we hopped back on and finished the trip into Iwakuni. Neither of us were in the mood for more pictures at the end - but just in renourishing after the trip. It was a much longer ride than it should have been - with gusty winds, a flat tire and a few more stops to share some of the scenery. I was glad to have Denny along.
Denny didn't come with me in person, but he was with me for the ride this last weekend. Another cold day, but it was a nice ride and good to get some long saddle time in.
Thinking of Denny,
VW
I can hear folks that read this thinking, "Oh poor you." Well, to be honest - I'm not particularly heartbroken, but any time you try to get something done and it doesn't happen it gets frustrating. So weight is just one of those things.
Add to that my workouts have been up down and all around and you get a picture of a rider in frustration. I took some sort of "transition" break in my training to get the dead feeling out of my legs. Unfortunately, one of the things I've come to expect from any transition break in training is dead legs for a week or so coming out of that period. So, I back off on the volume and intensity a little. I come back and my first set of APIs are great. My first sweet spot training for 90 minutes blew. My next API set stunk and the following sweet spot day for 90 minutes was great. Finish off the week at just below 75 kg after thinking I'd finally gained weight up to 76ish. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow after the day off today. I'm just miserable because it's around 16 days till we move and there are a thousand things to do and few things we can actually get done. So, I ride.
But, enough about me.
About two weeks ago, we received a package in the mail from family. Knowing our Christmas tree and decorations were in a box on their way to the US, they sent us a "Flat Tree" and some "Flat Friends" to carry around with us and have fun with (More about the "Flats" Here: http://www.flatstanley.com/). It's really great to have them with us. There are so many things I would have loved to share with the real people while we were here and we just never got the opportunity so it is the next best t hing to having them here with us. It's just not nearly as close as I would like.
I think about Denny a lot when I ride. I'll see a mountain I've been on top of, or a really special place I like to ride to, or sometimes I stop and stare off the edge of a high mountain road down on to the river valley or ocean and think about sharing that spot with him. On this one day I got to do it just a little.
Today's adventure is to head up to Seven Falls, down the river valley to Nishiki and back to Iwakuni. It's a 125 km round trip (~77 miles). It's one of my standard 4 hr training rides up into the mountains, 2 hours of climbing and then a steady ride back home.
We started at the Kintai Bridge. I don't take this road very often anymore but Denny hadn't seen the Kintai yet, so we stopped by there to get a snapshot of him with the Kintai and the Iwakuni Castle on the mountains behind him.
We hopped back on our bikes onto Route 2 and started our climbing to Yasaka Lake. It's some good climbing here but we weren't out to punish ourselves today. We kept a good steady tempo up the climb and after clearing the tunnel before the Yasaka Dam, we pulled over to pull off some of our morning layers. We tried to get some pictures of Denny with the giant Yasaka Dam behind him, but with a gusty breeze blowing I was a tad nervous about him taking a 100 foot plunge into the lake, so we played it safe and you'll have to take our word for it.
The trip along Yasaka Lake and the river that flows into it is scenic, but on this day it was frigid. In and out of the shade and it wasn't long before hands were numb and it was time to take a break for a coffee. When I move back to the states, I'll miss having these hot coffees in cans. I hope I can find something similar somewhere. We chugged a hot coffee (my favorite is Cafe Espresso) before we started the long steady climb to the top of the mountain range.
The trip up the mountains was still pretty cold. On the way we got a flat - first one on a training ride in months. After manipulating the CO2 inflater and getting the new tube in, we kept the climbing going. We were going to get some shots of Denny fixing the flat tire, but we got consumed with the actual fixing and forgot the pictures and the tire was changed before we remembered. Neither of us really wanted to get another flat just for photo ops, so we waited to get more pictures until we got to the top of the mountain. The top of the mountain has a neat little sweets shop but also a hot drinks machine outside where we grabbed some hot cocoa in a can while chewing down the rock hard Harvest Bar.
On the way down the mountain we ran into one of the Club Athlete members going the opposite direction on the same loop we were on. I rarely go the opposite direction because of the 15% climb and the lack of desire to change out my gearing to do that climbing. The other club member and I stopped and shared greetings. We commiserated on the cold weather and compared warming layers. I gave him my respect for climbing the loop on the steep direction and with a handshake, a dozen bows and smiles we separated. Denny and I finished the decent to the Nishiki River stop to grap some candy at the store and some more hot liquids.
We met a friend at the river stop that wanted to get in my pictures. Actually, I think he (I'm most certain it was a he!) was more interested in food and Denny than pictures. I tried to get him to pose, but you can see getting a local cat to pose for pictures with a Flat Denny is no easy feat.
Once separated from our friendly cat, we hopped back on and finished the trip into Iwakuni. Neither of us were in the mood for more pictures at the end - but just in renourishing after the trip. It was a much longer ride than it should have been - with gusty winds, a flat tire and a few more stops to share some of the scenery. I was glad to have Denny along.
Denny didn't come with me in person, but he was with me for the ride this last weekend. Another cold day, but it was a nice ride and good to get some long saddle time in.
Thinking of Denny,
VW
Confessional....
November 28, 2007, 7:49 pm
Readers, forgive me... it's been 2 weeks since my last confessional.. er.. blog entry.
So, one would think there has been loads of things going on, right? RIGHT! The house was in chaos, the body was in chaos, the kids were in chaos... it was all.. well. It was all a mess.
Over the last two weeks my riding has been all over the place. I've had good days and bad days, and then the bad days started to string themselves together and I just plummeted on my riding. We're in the process of moving, and the last week or so has been all about getting the house organized for moving trucks to come and take all our stuff to the other side of the world again. Top that off with children who are still learning how to time manage and get large homework projects done, and a semi-busy work schedule. You can quickly find out that performance on the bike is dependent on more than just the numbers of a performance management chart, or the scheduled workout for the day. Mental stress, life stress, and all the rest of the things that go into a mood make a huge impact.
Long story short, I pulled back on my training load and gave myself a break. It had to be done for my sanity if not for my body. The amazing thing is, I was cruising along in workouts like it was cool. My log entries for my rides were consistently:
Then... WHAM, the next day it was like I woke up on someone else's legs. I bailed the next day's workout at 45 minutes into a 2 hr hammer session, spun easy on the way home. The day after that was scheduled to be 3 hrs with API's, and I ended up riding a total of 1 hour. So, I made the decision that now was the time to transition. Finished off last week with all easy riding so I could concentrate on things at home. Felt better mentally and physically.
I took the week off from really tracking any numbers. I stopped weighing all the foods and micromanaging the diet. I flipped the powertap over to overall avg watts when riding and stopped chasing that power number so much. A week later and I feel worlds better. This week already started off with two great rides. I get to race what will probably be my last race in Japan on Sunday. AND... to top it all off. I'm on vacation until the end of December when I get ready to fly back to the states. One month of stress free riding and family time. Gotta love it!
Ride safe, ride often, ride fun.
VW
So, one would think there has been loads of things going on, right? RIGHT! The house was in chaos, the body was in chaos, the kids were in chaos... it was all.. well. It was all a mess.
Over the last two weeks my riding has been all over the place. I've had good days and bad days, and then the bad days started to string themselves together and I just plummeted on my riding. We're in the process of moving, and the last week or so has been all about getting the house organized for moving trucks to come and take all our stuff to the other side of the world again. Top that off with children who are still learning how to time manage and get large homework projects done, and a semi-busy work schedule. You can quickly find out that performance on the bike is dependent on more than just the numbers of a performance management chart, or the scheduled workout for the day. Mental stress, life stress, and all the rest of the things that go into a mood make a huge impact.
Long story short, I pulled back on my training load and gave myself a break. It had to be done for my sanity if not for my body. The amazing thing is, I was cruising along in workouts like it was cool. My log entries for my rides were consistently:
QUOTE:
Nov 12th
Wow. Positive TSB after a pretty soft week last week. Must be a semi-peak physically because this did not feel at all like a 267 Pnorm workout. The legs felt great all day. Rocked a good soild endurance day, holding steady watts on the flats but not climbing much out of zone 4 ( a little into zone 5 on some of the steeper climbs ).
Nov 12th
Wow. Positive TSB after a pretty soft week last week. Must be a semi-peak physically because this did not feel at all like a 267 Pnorm workout. The legs felt great all day. Rocked a good soild endurance day, holding steady watts on the flats but not climbing much out of zone 4 ( a little into zone 5 on some of the steeper climbs ).
QUOTE:
Nov 16th
Expected this route to take me quite a bit longer than it did, but weather was cooperative and a great ride was in the making. Legs felt great and for the first time in a couple weeks the knee felt no pain throughout the ride. I never really stretched it out very hard, but I did get a little tractor trailer motorpacing toward the end of the ride.
Nov 16th
Expected this route to take me quite a bit longer than it did, but weather was cooperative and a great ride was in the making. Legs felt great and for the first time in a couple weeks the knee felt no pain throughout the ride. I never really stretched it out very hard, but I did get a little tractor trailer motorpacing toward the end of the ride.
QUOTE:
Nov 19th
Good push today. Felt like I biked all over creation to get this ride in today. Up/down all around the area on different roads than I would normally do this. Trying to keep it a little bit lower knowing I have an MIET session tomorrow, so mainly sticking to flat roads.
Nov 19th
Good push today. Felt like I biked all over creation to get this ride in today. Up/down all around the area on different roads than I would normally do this. Trying to keep it a little bit lower knowing I have an MIET session tomorrow, so mainly sticking to flat roads.
Then... WHAM, the next day it was like I woke up on someone else's legs. I bailed the next day's workout at 45 minutes into a 2 hr hammer session, spun easy on the way home. The day after that was scheduled to be 3 hrs with API's, and I ended up riding a total of 1 hour. So, I made the decision that now was the time to transition. Finished off last week with all easy riding so I could concentrate on things at home. Felt better mentally and physically.
I took the week off from really tracking any numbers. I stopped weighing all the foods and micromanaging the diet. I flipped the powertap over to overall avg watts when riding and stopped chasing that power number so much. A week later and I feel worlds better. This week already started off with two great rides. I get to race what will probably be my last race in Japan on Sunday. AND... to top it all off. I'm on vacation until the end of December when I get ready to fly back to the states. One month of stress free riding and family time. Gotta love it!
Ride safe, ride often, ride fun.
VW
Base miles can be fun!
November 14, 2007, 7:19 am
It's November, right? For those like me who don't have the option (or necessarily the desire - like me) to race cyclocross in November, what does that leave us? Base miles.
For readers that may not be familiar with what "base miles" are, let me introduce you to what "base season" is generally considered. Let it be known that "base" may be called different things by different people. Endurance, Aerobic, LSD (not the drug, but the training style). They're all really the same in intent.
A person's physiology is typically geared toward certain levels of fitness. For cycling, what will typically makes a "great cyclist" great (if not drugs!), is their body's natural/genetic and trained aerobic fitness. Road cycling is an aerobic sport - there's just no getting around it. Even the best sprinters in road racing have to have a "base" of aerobic fitness. After all, if the sprinter can't get to the end of the 100 mile race, their fast twitch muscle fibers won't win them any races.
So, all cyclists start with establishing an aerobic base to build their training program around. Building this aerobic takes the most time of any of the physiological adaptations. Aerobic base is a person's ability to pedal, pedal, pedal for long periods of time without tapping into muscle fibers that are going to take a long time to recover. Aerobic base is the ability to recover the cardiovascular system after extended efforts so that you can do it all over again. Aerobic base, plain and simple, is staying power.
So... two questions:
1. How does one get an aerobic base?
2. How does one know if they're building an aerobic base properly?
The answer to question one is battled around all over the internet forums, mailing lists, and volumes of books for cyclists to decipher at this time of year. What I've come to believe is that you build your aerobic base all year long just by riding a lot of miles at a STEADY intensity which allows you enough recovery to continue riding at those intensities on a day-to-day basis. During racing season, it's an intensity that allows you to recover well enough to ride race level intensity. This time of year for most everyone, it can be a bit higher. That's because you're not going to be doing those 1-2 minute intervals day in/day out that require a completely fresh body.
So, the simple answer... "ride lots!" (Thanks Eddy) That works if you have lots of time to ride. Fact is, if you don't have lots of time to ride, then as the available riding time reduces, your intensity should increase slightly (and still steady riding) to compensate as well as possible for the reduced time.
The answer to question 2? Well, you may/may not find out that answer until spring time when racing starts again. But for those of us training with power, there are things that I've come to look for that help me know how my aerobic base is doing. This happens to be one area where you can actually use that heart rate data you're getting.
I think this year, I've done pretty well at building a substantial aerobic base. I can set my legs into endurance zone pedaling and ride for hours upon hours. Drop me into a paceline and I can last virtually indefinitely (food, water, and saddle sores not withstanding).
My aerobic recovery has really come around. I finished a hill climb yesterday after 30 minutes up hill. Tempo pace ~ 310 watts, 10 minute ~335 with a "climb topper" of 1 minute just below 400 watts. I capped off the climb at around 174 bpm on the heart rate monitor. Just under 2 minutes into the descent my heart rate was below 110 bpm - which is essentially a "complete recovery" aerobically.
So... at the end of my dissertation and self-congratulations, the question still remains from the post title. Why are base miles fun? They are fun, because you can get out on the roads and cover some fun distances at a solid, steady speed - and if the winds are just right, fly along quite nicely.
Entire workout (260 watts):
Duration: 2:23:38 (2:27:04)
Work: 2218 kJ
TSS: 152.7 (intensity factor 0.802)
Norm Power: 277
VI: 1.07
Distance: 83.366 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 470 260 watts
Heart rate: 56 164 152 bpm
Cadence: 20 102 85 rpm
Speed: 3.6 57.6 35.1 kph
Main session of the workout was just above 36 kph for a little over 2 hours, avg 270ish watts. Great day in the saddle. Great, great day.
With 320 km to go by Saturday for this week's road time, all I can say is: Base miles are FUN!
For readers that may not be familiar with what "base miles" are, let me introduce you to what "base season" is generally considered. Let it be known that "base" may be called different things by different people. Endurance, Aerobic, LSD (not the drug, but the training style). They're all really the same in intent.
A person's physiology is typically geared toward certain levels of fitness. For cycling, what will typically makes a "great cyclist" great (if not drugs!), is their body's natural/genetic and trained aerobic fitness. Road cycling is an aerobic sport - there's just no getting around it. Even the best sprinters in road racing have to have a "base" of aerobic fitness. After all, if the sprinter can't get to the end of the 100 mile race, their fast twitch muscle fibers won't win them any races.
So, all cyclists start with establishing an aerobic base to build their training program around. Building this aerobic takes the most time of any of the physiological adaptations. Aerobic base is a person's ability to pedal, pedal, pedal for long periods of time without tapping into muscle fibers that are going to take a long time to recover. Aerobic base is the ability to recover the cardiovascular system after extended efforts so that you can do it all over again. Aerobic base, plain and simple, is staying power.
So... two questions:
1. How does one get an aerobic base?
2. How does one know if they're building an aerobic base properly?
The answer to question one is battled around all over the internet forums, mailing lists, and volumes of books for cyclists to decipher at this time of year. What I've come to believe is that you build your aerobic base all year long just by riding a lot of miles at a STEADY intensity which allows you enough recovery to continue riding at those intensities on a day-to-day basis. During racing season, it's an intensity that allows you to recover well enough to ride race level intensity. This time of year for most everyone, it can be a bit higher. That's because you're not going to be doing those 1-2 minute intervals day in/day out that require a completely fresh body.
So, the simple answer... "ride lots!" (Thanks Eddy) That works if you have lots of time to ride. Fact is, if you don't have lots of time to ride, then as the available riding time reduces, your intensity should increase slightly (and still steady riding) to compensate as well as possible for the reduced time.
The answer to question 2? Well, you may/may not find out that answer until spring time when racing starts again. But for those of us training with power, there are things that I've come to look for that help me know how my aerobic base is doing. This happens to be one area where you can actually use that heart rate data you're getting.
I think this year, I've done pretty well at building a substantial aerobic base. I can set my legs into endurance zone pedaling and ride for hours upon hours. Drop me into a paceline and I can last virtually indefinitely (food, water, and saddle sores not withstanding).
My aerobic recovery has really come around. I finished a hill climb yesterday after 30 minutes up hill. Tempo pace ~ 310 watts, 10 minute ~335 with a "climb topper" of 1 minute just below 400 watts. I capped off the climb at around 174 bpm on the heart rate monitor. Just under 2 minutes into the descent my heart rate was below 110 bpm - which is essentially a "complete recovery" aerobically.
So... at the end of my dissertation and self-congratulations, the question still remains from the post title. Why are base miles fun? They are fun, because you can get out on the roads and cover some fun distances at a solid, steady speed - and if the winds are just right, fly along quite nicely.
Entire workout (260 watts):
Duration: 2:23:38 (2:27:04)
Work: 2218 kJ
TSS: 152.7 (intensity factor 0.802)
Norm Power: 277
VI: 1.07
Distance: 83.366 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 470 260 watts
Heart rate: 56 164 152 bpm
Cadence: 20 102 85 rpm
Speed: 3.6 57.6 35.1 kph
Main session of the workout was just above 36 kph for a little over 2 hours, avg 270ish watts. Great day in the saddle. Great, great day.
With 320 km to go by Saturday for this week's road time, all I can say is: Base miles are FUN!