Happy 232nd Birthday to the US Marine Corps!

After a week of riding, it appears my knee is back to around 95% capable now. It's still a bit sore if I try to work it too hard, and climbing stairs can be a little painful. Fortunately, I'm addicted to about the only sport other than swimming that lets me keep training without real impact to the joint.

I backed off the training week a little and got some easy riding in this week to recover the knee and that seemed to work well. I still rounded out at just over 16 hrs of riding and 550 kilometers:

- Tuesday I was very sore, and I only got about 1 hr 30 min of spinning done, a real low IF of .67.

- Wednesday I stuck to the flats on the coastline, did a little bit of SST and then kept endurance/tempo on the return trip. IF .785 and ended the ride early at 1hr 50 min. The knee was feeling better, but I couldn't stand on the pedals.

- Thursday by the time I got on the bike, the knee was loads better and it felt good to get a workout in. I did 1 solid hour of SST (around IF .89), and followed it with another hour of low Zone 2 riding (IF .77)

- Friday I thought I'd try to get the API/VO2max workout in that I missed earlier in the week. I dropped over to a new hill that I hadn't done intervals on before. It's a good steady 7-8% climb, but it only lasts around 3 1/2 minutes. I only got 4 intervals done @ 1:1 recovery before my legs said it was over. I finished off with just over 2 hrs of Zone1 riding with a bit of climbing for fun.

- Saturday: Today was a great ride in fantastic weather. Temps were a chilly 10C on the way out of the house, but the sun warmed it up nicely and by the time I was done I'd stripped the arm warmers (woulda stripped the leg warmers but was running out of pockets). Great 4 hours in the saddle with only a hint of stiffness in the knee as a reminder to SPIN! DON'T MASH!

Tomorrow is a complete day off, and I figure by Monday I should have no remnants of the knee pains. It's probably also better to have a day off tomorrow after we attend the US Marine Corps Ball tonight. Riding hard after a night at the ball is a recipe for a very long, torturous ride.

I'm also working on putting on a bit of weight. The weight had settled into the 74kg range, and it just started to feel "tapped out." I'm going to try to creep the weight back to around 76kg and slowly bring it back down to 75 again. We'll see how that goes.

Semper Fi and Safe Riding,
VW

First, a note. My previous post "Let's take a ride" mentioned leaving the base and driving through "locust fields." I was apparently not thinking about what I was writing, as the fields of vegetation south of the Iwakuni Base are not covered with locust. Locust would be a swarming type of grasshopper featured in the 10 plagues of Egypt (specifically number 8) in Exodus Chap 10.



The fields would actually be filled with LOTUS. The lotus flower is a plant which is almost entirely edible. To learn more about the lotus flower, readers (and I!) can wander over to http://www.khandro.net/nature_plants_lotus.htm



And now... some quick training updates:

The 3rd of November is the "28 day" mark of the new season's training plan. My average TSS/day for the first 28 days is around 146 right now. My CTL has nudged it's way into the 140's a couple times, and Sunday it peaked out at 142.03 - my all time high. I'm certainly gaining some PE changes in my efforts in all ranges.

My L1 work feels almost "recovery like" when riding in the 240s at the lop of L1, so I tend to ride 250-260 for most of that time.

My "L2" riding used to be normalized in the upper 260's-low 270's for 2-3 hours of tempo riding. I use normalized here as a comparison because I usually take the L2 chance to get short/steep rollers into the workout and the ups and downs really throw average power around. I'm normalizing in the 280's pretty consistently now.

My MIET/SST workouts have been feeling fantastic. I'm seeing a good slide in power distribution on that as well into the 310-320 range. This week's main session was 2 hours right at 90% of threshold and it was definitely not "all out" at the end of 2 hours to get it done.

This week's VO2max workout was a complete mess, but that doesn't discourage me much. My 4-5 minute interval power has gone from 380-400 6 months ago up to 420 now when I'm fresh enough to get them done. I'm actually learning to love the pain in 4 minute intervals.

On to the injury part. Last week I took a route I don't normally ride because of some crazy steep sections of climbing. Well, the leaves were gorgeous and it was a fantastic weather day for riding into the mountains so I took the chance to head up the side that I would normally go down. Climb, climb, climb and as I round a corner I realize I'm staring at a "wall of a climb" so I push hard to get through. Sign on the down hill side showed 19%, and me on my 39x23 jammed up it in the cadence of 45-46 rpm standing and mashing to move forward:



I rode the rest of the day with a bit of an ache right around the left knee, but nothing major I thought. Thursday was up/down on rollers and the knee had stiffened up. Friday was recovery spinning with sprints and it was stiff, but workable. Saturday, still a bit stiff but I worked through a 3 hour tempo session and thought, "Few, feeling better today." Sunday's schedule had 4 hours of long ride time and I woke up still stiff in the knee. I turned around at 2 hours in and out of pain - sometimes excruciating. The pain comes in the area on the knee in the picture as I push through the top of the pedal stroke and downward. (Yeah, I know - the legs aren't shaved. It's the offseason, I haven't had a good massage in 3 months and I'm riding in leg warmers almost every ride now, give me a break!)



Today is a completely off day, so I'm resting hard with ibuprofen and liniment. Tomorrow was supposed to be a SST training day but if it's still sore, it'll be a second completely off day. If not sore, I'll do some low Z1/recovery time for 90 minutes-2 hrs. Officially this is the first "injury day off" I've had since last December, so I've certainly been blessed. That doesn't make it any less frustrating to be staring at 2 off days in a row, but that's what I get for being an addict.

Finally... the insult. Really, it's not an insult, but it made the title fit. My lack of grasp of the Japanese language prevented me from catching that registration for Tour de Yuu (AKA Zenitsuboyama Hill Climb TT) had already opened with an October 25th deadline. I missed the cut off and hoped that I could get the LBS to sign me up for it using his contacts, but that was unsuccessful as well. So, my plans to compete in the Zenitsuboyama Hill Climb next week are gone. I'll be going up the climb on my own maybe the day before or day after, or.. maybe in December. It's a great chance to get a 20 minute power test in. I'm not really disappointed because I can't physically beat the lightweights up the mountain, but it would have been fun to get a chance to compete there after last year's got cancelled.

For the power trainers: http://www.cycleiwakuni.com/blog/files/tom_DraffenTom10242007.wko

One of the nice things about this time of year is the fantastic weather. Another nice thing about my work in Japan is the schedule that allows me a lot of ride time while the kids are in school during good daytime hours. Combine these and you get a lot of great mid-day riding in fantastic weather. I thought I'd take the camera along with me today on a 4 hour training ride and let folks see some of the roads and narrate a training ride.

So... let's go for a ride.


After getting set up in the house and dressed we head out the door and grab our trusty steed. Well... not so trusty yet, with 4 rides under the frame. (483 km after today) This time of year we're only taking one full water bottle. The other water bottle holder is carrying tube/tools/rag/CO2. Nice for the temps to be able to go up to 2 hours on one water bottle again.


Out the gate we head. Today the plan was to head southbound and wrap around Oshima Island. This will total 135 km once I've added a little distance to wrap up the 4 hours.


The first thing we ride through are the locust fields just south of the base. In the late summer months, the locust field plants are covered with locust flowers and are quite a sight. This time of year, the plants are dying and the fields are starting to get cleaned out. In spring time, the fields are vast empty mud plots. When the locust plants start to grow, they explode from small stems to full blown plants in about 3 weeks.



Before heading out, I figure we should stop and grab some coffee and snacks for the ride. A quick swing through the Yamazaki Conveenie and we're stocked up. The Pure gummy packs are about 175 calories each, all carbs/sugar. They're easy to munch on and cheap. I think most would prefer the Cafe Espresso from Georgia Coffee, but it seems to be in short supply around the shops I've been heading to lately. So, we'll grab some of the normal cold coffee in a can.


Traffic is miserable today getting out of the city. It's not so bad that I'm not jamming with the iPod, but others might rather not. We'll head through Minami-Iwakuni (South Iwakuni) and get on the coast line.


Riding in Japan you're guaranteed to see a lot of two things. Pachinko parlors and convenience stores. 7-11's, Lawsons, Yamazaki's, and a good half dozen stores are marked on published maps and most people tell directions based on them (since streets aren't named, if they're not numbered highways) The third thing you'll see a WHOLE lot of is road work. Interestingly, for a country with as much road work as Japan has, the roads are pretty miserable. The coast road (Rte 188) is constantly under construction but there always seem to be kilometers on top of kilometers of horribly seamed roads.


After 10 minutes of cruising along at 41 kph average with a strong tailwind, it's time to opt out of the Oshima Island loop. With strong north winds, it's inevitable that the last 2 hours of the ride would be into a horrendous headwind. No thanks. So a cut down a side road and time to head northwest.


Only difference with heading inland, is now we head up hill. There's no where you can go inland on Japan and not go uphill. Even when you want to go downhill, somehow Japan will find ways to make it go uphill. Think you're heading down a river valley? Nah, Japan roads will go up the mountain along the river valley for 10 kilometers and then go 1 kilometer downhill back to the river.



The views in the inland valley between the coast and Kuga are great. Winds kicked up a bit, but we made a smart move by taking this particular road. It heads north west, and the winds are coming from the north east. That means a cross wind or generally following cross wind. Cruising we go. Since we're heading back north bound, we'll need to cut over to Yanai to add some time and distance. Again, we made a good decision based on the stiff winds and heading westbound to Yanai, even the climbing moves along at around 30kph.


The drop into the north end of Nishiki is a fun ride. Descents run up to 7-8% and we can normally top out up to 60kph in the short drop. Today there's an accident keeping us from going full out. Police have traffic stopped, but once through the accident scene, we're down at the base of the valley.



At the north end of Yanai, there are two ways to get to Kuga. One way takes you the route that the Cannonball Race takes you. It climbs like a madman up to 12% for 2 kilometers of suffering. We'll take a pass on that today. The other way climbs a little more subtle like, grades never head over 7-8%, so we'll take that way on Rte 7. The roads are nicer this way anyway. Today's climbing is easy, so we take our time getting up the ridgeline before dropping into Shuto, west of Kuga.





Once again, we need to keep heading further inland to keep the distance/time rolling. After wall, we're only an hour and a half into the ride. Off to Mikawa we head, which means... yes... that's right. Uphill again.


The climb to just above Mikawa is pretty nice. It's a little rougher on the Felt frame than it was on the plush Roubaix, but today my legs just seem to be rolling along so we're moving along at a pretty good clip to get to the top of the climb. 11 kilometers to the top at 28 kph. The road only pulls up at 3-4% at most until the very top, so it's a nice easy climb.


The descent is usually really rough because the roads are pretty poorly maintained. Today was quite a surprise will very well maintained and cleaned roads. Gravel had been cleared, bushes were pushed back. It makes for a fast descent today topping out around 50kph on the narrow roads. At Mikawa we'll take a break, eat up some of the gummies we have stuffed in our pocket, refill the water bottle and down a can of cola. After we hit the flats we'll see how far we have to go.



Once down on Rte 187, it's clear we're going to keep adding distance if we want to round out 4 hours of riding, so we'll go back UP into Yasaka. Surely that will take us over the 4 hour mark, and probably around 4 1/2 hrs. That's okay, it's nice weather and we have extra time on our hands.


The roads along Yasaka River and Yasaka Lake are fantastic and in great condition for Japanese roads. By the time we get across the bridge that spans Yasaka Lake, it's time to find out that we're only about 30 minutes from the house at 3 hrs 15 minutes on the ride clock. Dropping into the town of Waki, we hit the 5th stint of road work for the day.


The ride from here back to Iwakuni is city traffic and more of what we started with. We roll on base with 20 minutes to spare so it's time to do a lap of the base. I needed to stop by the gym today and sign up for Kirarahama Criterium at the beginning of December. Tomorrow will be a slow day on the bike as a semi-taper day for the weekend's 40km road race on the base. All in all, the day's ride was a nice, comfy easy pace. The pictures were mostly snapped on the move on the bike, so focus was probably not the best. No handed riding is still a little twitchy on the new bike.

Ride safe, Ride often!

VW

Here she is, in all (almost) her glory.





Specs:

Name: Felt F55
Height - 58CM
Weight - 18.3 lbs (8.3 kg)

Shimano Ultegra Cranks, BB, 11x23 cassette
Shimano Duraace Front/Rear Derailleurs and shifters/cables/chains
Shimano Dual Pivot SL Brakes
Stock Saddle - soon to be changed to the Selle Italia SLK to match the Roubaix's
Felt Alloy Handlebars, we'll see how those go.
After the pics were taken, I changed to a Specialized 120mm -16 deg stem (bit on the heavy side until I can find a better one, had this one in the parts box)
Wheels as pictured - Velocity Aerohead's with the Powertap SL on the rear, 28H rear/24H front

Will change the bar tape to red this weekend.

Last year when "the off season had begun" I set some goals. Let's quickly review those:

1. Zenitsubo Hill Climb in under 30 minutes - I pretty much shattered this goal. In November I rode 29:54. In the course of the year, my new best time is 27:06. (other times are 28:10 and 27:15) I expect to be sub 27 for sure when the 2007 Zenitsuboyama Hill Climb event happens at the end of the coming November.

2. Solo century in under 5 hours - I've done two sub-5 hour solo centuries in the last 10 months. I've done two other rides 170+ km that the first 160km were under 5 hours. This would now be "the norm" for distances going out that far when I'm alone.

3. Tour de Kunisaki in under 4 hours 45 minutes - The idea was to make the top 10 for my spring peak event. I placed 5th/4th. Great ride, great race, great vacation.

4. Sub 1 hr 40km TT - While I can do this on my own, the course selection from MCAS Iwakuni is pretty poor for this event. I still maintained the fastest bike time of the day on the course for 2007, but fell short of this goal by 2 1/2 minutes on "Team The Big Kahuna."

5. Podium @ Okayama Int'l Circuit - Crushed it! Top of the podium. Veni, Vidi, Vici!

Other goals sat out there, and I'm on them all.
1. Weight - I wanted to break the 77 kg mark. I've done that by making 75kg, and am holding steady there now.

2. Functional Threshold Power - 350 was my goal. I haven't tested in a while, but perceived exertion tells me I've probably made this. I started training with power last October sitting @ 315 watts / 83 kg. A year later, if I've flattened @ 345 and 75 kg, that's a huge improvement for one year.

3. Category upgrade - I worked it out with a US Cycling rep to upgrade through Cat 5 to Cat 4. This isn't a big deal for most, but since I'm in Japan, my races aren't USCF sanctioned. But, based on the results and competition I'm riding against, they were gracious enough to count my races as mass start events.

The year has gone great for me. My overall strength on the bike has gone through the roof. Measures that don't tell the whole story, but certainly can be looked at are things like dropping 1 minute off my 3 mile run time. My resting heart rate has gone from 45-46 to 38-39. My body fat % dropped from 10% to 6%. I've gone from putting 8-10 hours per week on the bike to 17-18 hours per week on the bike. At 8-10 hours per week, I was averaging 30 kph over a month of training, all rides included. I'm averaging 32.5 kph for the month of October so far.

Better indicators of fitness might be:
Hiro Road Race - 8th
Kirarahama TT - 6th
Kirarahama Crit - 7th
Kunisaki - 5th
Mominoki - 1st
Cannonball - 1st
Kyushu - 4th overall, 2nd in Category
Nakayama - 2nd
Iwakuni TT - 1st
Okayama - 1st

More indicators of improved fitness:

5 min power - 400 to 435 ( 4.8 w/kg to 5.8 w/kg )
Functional Threshold Power - 315 to 345 (low side) (3.79 w/kg to 4.6)

Of course, can't not go into the graphs that have become such a huge part of my existence from day to day.

So, here's the year's performance manager chart.


I started the year with an estimated CTL of 72. I took my data out from last year and did some fuzzy math to come up with the general estimate. After a couple weeks off last October, CTL was 72 and ATL of 56. November kicked off with 10-11 hour weeks as I learned how to ride with the power meter, while preparing for Zenitsuboyama (eventually cancelled due to weather). I really ramped up the training and time in December, 14-15 hour weeks as I really laid in some foundational base mileage and learned how to ride in the threshold zones. In January, my 2007 calendar was set and it was on to 15 hour weeks. CTL was growing pretty rapidly, but if I were honest, I should have adjusted my FTP and it would have slowed the growth down.

In February, my training was completely restructured and with the help of Ric, Alex and a WHOLE lot more research, reading and studying, I set off full speed toward Kunisaki. With an adjustment of my FTP, my CTL appeared to flatten, though it was probably more like a "true adjustment" of what it should have been all along. I showed up to race at Hiroshima and Kirarahama, not expecting much. Both times I made the winning break, but both times I played some tactical mistakes and walked away from those races as learning experiences.

April saw my heaviest training volume I'd ever done with some massive intensity - just over 72 hours on the bike. By the end of the buildup for Kunisaki, I was really suffering as I got ready to peak. Once I started to taper though, the legs told me it was ready and Kunisaki came with a bang. I was very pleased with the results of Kunisaki. But the rest of the month just helped it out as I followed it up with two victories. May was my first real experience in a racing season where you live from day to day "on form." You get to just get on the bike and fly everywhere you want to go. What fun!

Transition month was June, a taper down to MAP testing and some other fitness testing. Numbers were definitely not what I wanted, but my weight was going all over the place, and my body was not taking to the transition period well. It's one of those reason's I'm avoiding it right now. It was a miserable experience to feel completely gunked up on the bike in June.

After getting over that gunk, the 3 hour enduro in Kyushu confirmed I was still okay for fitness as I placed 2nd in category, and 4th overall where the winner was a Japanese continental pro. July and August were returns to building that huge training load and my typical training week went from 15 to 18 hours. My average 7 day TSS climbed out of the 120's into the 140's. My exercise diet went from VO2max to 2x20's and SST time.

I rolled through the Nakayama Circuit almost as if it didn't happen. I went, rode hard for 45 minutes, placed second against Japan's professional MTB rider for Team Giant where only he and I completed the full 15 laps. Got up the next day and rode on. I was running just barely sub 15 minute laps on the 4 lap TT course and pretty confident that a sub 1 hr was possible.

By the middle of September, my CTL peaked out at 141.78 before getting ready for the TT. Unfortunately, wind and course conditions prevented me from making my sub 1 hr time. But, I bested my time from last year by 3 minutes and still beat the next closest rider by just under 3 minutes. Meanwhile, my team trounced the other teams in that competition. Fortunately for everyone else, my whole team will have moved by this time next year, so someone else will get their shot.

I wasn't too confident rolling into a short taper for my October peak event. I only took enough of a taper to put me with enough +TSB that at the end of the day, I'd be just above 0. By the time I got to my pre-race day workout, my legs were in fantastic form. It all came together. I can't get over how good my legs and cardio system felt in that race, which ended with me taking the 1st place spot.

So, now I reset goals and start looking forward. There are a lot of races on the calendar for next year and choosing where to peak will be a little more interesting. In the next week I'll sit down and write out my goals for next season. Some of them are already easy to look at:

1. Cat 3 by June

2. FTP/MAP improvement in the next year by 10% w/kg. - This one is a little bold - putting me just over 5 w/kg, but one can reach. In the last year, FTP has improved by ~ 20%, mostly due to weight loss, but partially due to a focused training plan. Well, this year weight loss isn't an option, so training plan will have to do.

3. Jefferson Cup Road Race - March 30th, "A" priority race. We'll talk other races once we get to the states.

Goals, goals, goals. Lots of changes in the coming year. Next week or so I'll be posting up a "tentative" calendar, my goals, and this past year's "Gear in Review." I've definitely gone through some gear this year.

Ride lots and ride safe,

VW