Bier en modder

Seems like we’re heading into the thick of summer here. The lawns are all drying out. The garlic is harvested. Tomatoes are just shifting from dark to pale green. And the Oregon Brewers Festival was last weekend.

Also, August is just around the corner. Shit…August? Really? Like every other year, I wonder where the hell my summer went. What *have* I been doing? Riding? Check. Camping? Check. BBQs? Check.

While I’m trying to enjoy the moment, I’ve tried to make time to look ahead. The garden is planned out for the fall and winter. Plantings have already started for the fall stuff like cauliflower, spinach, lettuce & carrots. The winter stuff is going in over the next couple weeks. The new hot tub has been deep-cleaned and is full and ready for the cooler late summer and fall evenings that, realistically, aren’t all that far away.

Cycling, well, more specifically ‘cross, got me thinking about the fall way further in advance than I have in year’s past. I’m very thankful for it. I remember very clearly the past couple fall’s where I’d be starting at some empty raised beds, wishing for something – anything – to pick and eat. Or shaking my head at the teeny little seedlings that weren’t planted soon enough going dormant in the alternating crisp/wet October weather. I’m ready for it this year which feels good.

The catalyst for all of that was that I’ve been thinking about and approaching the fall race season with far more respect, planning, and discipline than I ever have. The races will be longer. The field will be much faster. I figure if I repeat last year’s training effort, it’ll be good for somewhere in the middle of the A35+ group. Unfortunately I want more than that. I simply don’t have enough miles on my legs over my short 2 year career to just show up and do well. So while I’ve put in fairly solid tempo at first and gradually added lactate work over the past few months, I feel it’s been rewarding work.

A big part of it was splurging on the used power tap wheel this spring. You can pooh-pooh them all you want but when you start seeing numbers go up and see yourself respond to training with more strength and endurance…well, I’m just saying it’s a huge carrot to stick in front of yourself as you ride. I like to consider myself somewhat of a nerd (engineer) and a motivated athlete so interpreting the data has been pretty easy. Needless to say, I’ve been drinking the Power Tap Kool-Aid.

With that, I’m ready to make a strong run at OUCH this weekend. I’m also feeling more charged up for the next phase which starts after this week’s rest week. No matter how you sugar-coat it, setting out on a ride to do anaerobic or VO2 max work – whether it’s 85°F & sunny out –50°F and raining – or pitch black and you’re indoors on a trainer - is suckalicious. It’s ugly but oh so very necessary. I’ve been talking about it for a couple weeks now but. Just. Haven’t. Done it.

Summer, at least for me, is starting to hit full-stride.  Spent the past couple weeks doing an all-out sprint to finish some projects that have been ginormous albatrosses around my neck; chicken coop, new (used) hot tub install, cleaning the landfill I call a garage, and rental house stuff.  We have a bunch of weekend fun stuff planned starting last weekend that I wanted to go into with a clear head.

Started running last week.  20 minutes to start and then hit the gym for some maintenance lifting.  That took a few days to wear off.  It felt strange.  I’ve played ultimate for years and then ran marathons, the last being in ‘02.  I used to run, well, sprint actually, for a full weekend.  Haven’t run for any length of time on purpose since.  It was mildly uncomfortable then and it’s slightly more so now.  Ah, the joys of being in your 20’s.

One other exciting tidbit is that I joined up with Presto Velo last week.  I’m excited as I’d something I’ve been looking to do for about a year or so, although I admit it was a pretty passive search.  Last fall I went on a group ride with Ironclad but that went nowhere.  This spring I’d throw out a few e-mails, talk to a few people, and then let it go.

Part of me felt that, given my current lifestyle (dad…full time job…other things, hobbies, etc going on) that I’d have a hard time making team rides and perhaps racing enough to justify it.  I wonder if that was subconsciously holding me back.  I’m obviously not the only person in this situation but trying to fit racing into my life is still a work in progress.  I guess it always will be.  I find I need to be extremely creative in how and where I squeeze training in to stay competitive.

I guess the breaking point was that as much as I like riding alone, I missed the team aspect of sports.  In the back of my mind I wasn’t looking forward to going through another ‘cross season solo.  I like teammates that you can help, work with, learn from, motivate, and support in races, and vice versa.  I’m really looking forward to that.

I’ve only started racing competitively over the past couple years and I’ve ridden by myself in that time.  I’ve been feeling that it was time to expand my community a bit.  But having joined this sport in my mid 30’s, I’ve found cycling to be, well, not entirely accessible to new riders.  This isn’t anyone’s fault and I don’t think anyone has to do anything about it.  Part of it is my personality (slightly introverted) but also that it just is what it is.  Granted, Cat 4/5 riders in their mid 30’s who also race ‘cross aren’t exactly an endangered species either.  However, I’ve noticed that riders generally tend to stick with and around their team.  This isn’t surprising nor should it be.  For someone on the outside looking in, I resigned myself to it after a while.

Anyway, I’m real happy about it.  New team kits just got ordered from Castelli.  Should be in hopefully by September.  I’m also very excited to represent a team, particularly this fall in ‘cross, but also next year in mtb and road.

Lastly, training is proceeding on schedule as I’ve been getting solid work in lately, particularly in the 2 hour rides I take on the way into work.  It’s hard work but it feels good.  I need to give a little love to the bike this week: derailleur tuning, general lubing & tuning, stuff like that.  Everything seems on track for my next race (OUCH) in early August.

So I’m finally getting around to taking a closer look at the data from last weeks (7/2) Cat 4 Tabor race.  The graph above is just a snapshot of the race itself and is smoothed by 5 seconds.  The raw data is pretty noisy and I think the 5 sec. is a little easier to interpret here.

7 laps, each of them lasting about 3 minutes making a 21minute race (give or take).  I don’t bother hitting the lap button anymore usually because I can never remember to be consistent in doing it.  So I’m ballparking from the peaks.

For reference, I have a threshold power of 355w (the dashed line).  Granted, I’m just under 90 kg so the 355w is nothing earth-shattering here.

The nice thing about this race is that it’s pretty clear where the uphill and downhill is.  Each uphill portion seems to last just under 2 minutes.  I was peaking just shy of 700 watts and averaged about 400-450w for the full effort.  Based on the limited anaerobic work I’ve been monitoring, I’m confidant that I was in the match-burning range.

The uphill of lap 4 (around the 48:00 mark) was where I tried for a break.  I didn’t peak as high, not because I was tired but from keeping a very strong but steady pace up the hill.  It was a between-prime lap and the pack wasn’t going that hard, which was primarily why I went for it.  I hammered it down the hill, skipping the 30 sec rest in an attempt to open up a gap.

The next uphill (51:00), I had maybe a 3-5 sec gap so I thought that if I dropped power output a bit to something more sustainable over the rest of the race, it would work.  I felt 450 watts or so could possibly do it.

Well, it didn’t.  There’s a teeny little sag around 51:30 where I got sucked up.  Going by the flat at the start line, I let it sag a bit more (52:00) and absolutely struggled up the hill to keep up with the pack.  There’s a little blip at 53:00 where I needed to put some effort in on the downhill to hang on, hitting almost 37 mph.

The 6th lap at 54:00 was about hanging on.  The bell rang and I was fairly well cooked at this point.  HR was at or neat 180 which is a few beats shy of my max.  I stayed with the pack around the reservoir until the pace picked up.  I made a very, very brief attempt at keeping with the front group but gave it up pretty quickly and just coasted in.

So what did I learn from this…

• Excelling at Tabor is an exercise in anaerobic endurance.  Any training plan to do well here needs multiple 1-2 minute intervals well above threshold power.
• From the first few laps where I was fresh, it took about 450 watts to stay near the front of the pack.  That’s about 5 w/kg average.  Surges in the ballpark of 700 watts (7.75-8 w/kg) are close to what’s needed to win some of the sprints.  I didn’t seriously challenge many of the sprints so I’d plan for even more.
• Right now, I’ve got a pretty lean matchbook when it comes to hard efforts.  Granted, I haven’t done a shred of consistent VO2 max or anaerobic work since last fall.  So we’ll just make a note in the training log [Needs Improvement: anaerobic endurance] and call it good.
• I don’t think I have enough info on what it would take to make a break and stay away.  A better way to look at it would be to look what I did…and not do it.

Looking back, despite concentrating mostly on tempo and a little bit of LT interval work so far, I managed to stay competitive.  I stayed with the main pack, did not get dropped, and even managed to push the pace a bit.  I knew full well that I’d done no training to date that was relative to this type of race.  But I went for it anyway and got some good info on what my current limitations are.

Rest week this week. Need to fight the urge to ride harder. After this week I’ll be adding some anaerobic work in. I’m excited in an S & M sort of way. I feel very fit and healthy right now. A brisk 2-4 hour ride feels pretty easy. But it isn’t until I start some of the shorter intervals that I begin to feel fast. That’s the fun part.
Managed to get some nice rides in over the 4th weekend. Out to Beaver Creek on the 4th. It was a last minute call and I forgot to take the head unit for the PowerTap. It was nice to unplug and just ride. I headed out 212-224 to Carver and then over to Ridge Road where it just rolled up and down for a while until I got to Cherie & Dan’s (Rachel’s mom’s place). The only drag was that it was mostly chipseal roads. Took a while to get sensation back in some body parts.
Took Saturday off. Family stuff. Rental house stuff. I needed a break.
Zipped out to Sauvies for my usual 6 am Sunday morning ride. Just a couple hours.
Overall, everything seems to be right on track. Start the harder stuff next week. LT intervals are inching up. Easy running starts around the end of the month.
No races scheduled for a little bit. Track development next Wednesday. OUCH at the beginning of August. Depending on how track development goes, I would be into some of the Fast Twitch Fridays. They seem like they’re geared towards beginning Cat 5′ers.

That low rumbling sound you heard around 7:25 was my legs spontaneously combusting on lap 5.

Tabor was great last night. I didn’t win. Didn’t even come flippin’ close. I’m not even sure I’ll get an “honorable mention” in the standings. But it didn’t matter. I went out, fooled around a bit, tried for a break, and finished out. Good fun.

So let’s recap. We had a 7 lap race. My thought was to see what sort of pace the pack was keeping and feel out if I could go on a break and make it stick. I thought attacking right after a prime could work so I figured somewhere on lap 2-4 could conceivably work. I needed to make sure I was close enough to the sprinters to draft without burning a match just to keep up.

The first prime came and went and I got cold feet. I got caught a row or two back and didn’t want to sprint through. I then had a brain-fart and pushed up to the front of the pack for no reason. Great job Mike. Actually ‘dumbass’ was the more accurate term.

Lap 3 came up and the pack held a fairly steady pace up the hill. The prime bell rang and I kept accelerating past the playground and briefly saw that we were pretty strung out. It didn’t seem ideal but I took it and went for the break.

I pushed it down the hill and around the corner to the reservoir. I peeked back and had a 3-5 second gap. I set a strong and what I thought was a sustainable pace up the hill.

I had a millisecond vision of making it stick, of all the glory, the crowd cheering a successful break, and more importantly, a delicious bacon and mushroom pizza from Hot Lips that was up for grabs on the prime.

Ohh, how I loves the bacon.

This would be about where you heard the pop.

The pack picked me up, chewed me around a bit like a warm piece of cud, and efficiently pooped me out the back over the rest of the hill. 25 meters short. Crap.

I spent a fair portion of the next lap trying to sit in and recover. My head was down, solely focusing on staying with the lead pack. The final bell rang and I sort of knew that I’d probably not be challenging for the final sprint. Heading up the hill as the pace picked up significantly, I backed off and eased it in. 20th…25th…something like that. Didn’t really matter.

What did matter was heading out for a beer. I met up with Bob Jacobs and we went down to Belmont Station for a couple post-race beers. Bear Republic Racer X (ridiculously hoppy) and Stone Oaked Bastard (good…not too oak-ey).

Beer never tasted so good.

Today’s horoscope:

If you become a wallflower, you will wilt.  Time to put your best foot forward.

Excellent advice for Tabor tonight.

I could easily show up, grab someones wheel and ride in the warm collective bosom of the pack for 8 hill interval laps.

Or, I could go out and have fun.  Maybe try to make a break.  Who knows.  I may pop after a couple laps.  Then again, I may not.

I’m liking Option B.  I’m also liking the fact that Belmont Station is just down the hill and happens to have a whole slew of beer on tap.  Sounds like a good way to celebrate Option B.

I’ll update tomorrow on how it went.