Those Arduous First Miles

I've finally crossed the mythical 1000 miles threshold for 2009. Yep, 1140 as of yesterday. I'm 'happy' about it - honestly I thought I had about 50 hours, but it turns out its more like 66! Hold that praise a second, here are the numbers from the first four months of the year:

Month Duration Distance TSS kJ 1'w 5'w 20'w 60'w
Apr-2009 14:36:31 276.14 931 9914 454 310 265 237
Mar-2009 18:53:17 324.13 1242 12153 446 330 306 228
Feb-2009 15:24:12 257.49 789 10187 374 301 232 210
Jan-2009 17:34:07 284.32 866 10998 406 316 271 219

Not exactly tearing it up, but maintaining I guess. This past week was my best training since December - all 9 hours and ~178 miles of it. Rather than look at the time/miles as unrewarding I'm choosing to see it as a foundation upon which to continue my transition back to some fitness.



Saturday I jumped on the local 'race-ride' aka The Spectrum Ride. It starts near my house and is a good test-piece to see where you're at. There are a couple of 'ouch' sections - Arastradero, Alpine, and a couple of spots on Canada - but generally the ride is easy enough that getting dropped isn't a worry. Despite that fact, this was still the hardest sustained ride I've done this year. My peak 60min effort was 273Watts normalized and we averaged 23.5mph for the 40'ish mile ride. A solid Level 3 workout. Friday I'd done the 'noon ride' and knocked off a 20min effort at 293Wnorm - so the combination made for a nice couple of rides. One thing I did notice was that I just didn't have the leg strength to close a gap on a small, hard, rise one time. It's never fun to have the guys on your wheel give you a push to close the gap, it's embarassing, but I deserved it and was really trying (sorry guys). I've got a ways to go, but I can start to see some progress in my ability to push a bigger gear and sustain the effort. I'm optimistic enough to consider racing Cats Hill in two weeks in the M35+ 1/2/3's...though I should just continue training instead!

Training Theory Applied - A Preamble

To me, one of the points of coaching is to develop and elucidate a performance vision. The background for that vision must be based on science and an ability to understand the complex series of relationships that coalesce in cycling. From aerodynamics, biomechanics, tactics, psychology, and nutrition, to the deep intracacies of exercise physiology and it's relationship to performance, a coach has to Know, Live and Love all the elements. Certainly every coach has particular strenghths, and good ones tap outside resources as often as possible when they reach an impasse or need assistance (let's hear it for message boards and google groups!), but the essence of the vision must be your own. My own...

This year I am in the fortunate position of getting to put my vision to the test - on myself. I've been lucky enough over time to be reasonably fit and reasonably competitive on a mostly unstructured program. If I ride quite a bit, say 10-12 hours a week, I get in a modicum of shape and feel competitive in races and strong on rides. Don't get me wrong, I know what I've done and can do. I'm very diligent with my powermeter, I download most every ride and have 3+ years of good data to review. I can easily tell you my Mean Maximal Power values or recite my tactical or psychological strengths and weaknesses. Still, I don't think I've done more than a handful of structured VO2/MAP workouts over the past three years, haven't worked on my sprint much, motorpaced, improved my climbing or even been that focused on my nutrition. I've just kinda gotten by on a modest amount of ability and a lot of years on the bike. Which begs the question (or questions) what can I do on a structured program and don't I owe it to myself and my athletes to try that which I've prescribed? This must be the year to find out...

What Out of Shape Looks Like

I have been doing about nothing on the personal cycilng front. As a point of validation let's look at my Performance Management chart over the past few years. It is both inspiring and depressing! Anyway, here it is (explanations below the image):



So let's review some data...
1. Trends - clearly I'm all over the place on consistency! From a low of 24.3 TSS/CTL points at the end of January 2007, to a maximum of 83.3 in Mid May of 2008. There have been 4 or 5 serious interuptions in training since January of 2007.
Typically they are periods of low activity lasting approximately 10 days to 3 weeks. Most training is between 55 - 80 TSS/day. The December 2007 Training block is the most substantial break from regular cycling I've takn in the last 5 or so years. It was a legitimate 4-weeks off the bike. It really set me up for a good 2008...but I had some hills to climb in the fitness arena.

2. Racing During This Period - despite my lack of sustained fitness, I did do some quality racing. Among the results I'm happy about:
- 3rd State Championships Masters Track Sprints, July 2007
- 3rd Masters Miss-n-Out American Velodrome Challenge, June 2008
- 4th State Championships Masters Points Race, July 2007
- 4th Single Speed CX NCNCA Cup, September 2008
- 5th State Championships Masters Kilo, July 2007
- 5th Masters Keirin American Velodrome Challenge, June 2008
- 5th Masters Scratch Race American Velodrom Challenge, June 2008
- Completed Elkhorn SR Pro/1/2 - 4 stages, ~230miles, June 2007
- Hit a personal best FTP of 340 Watts in November of 2008

3. So Now What? Well, I guess it's time to get back on the bike and start building some fitness. Currently my CTL is at a world class 30 TSS/Day - which I think is the equivalent of getting up and walking to the refrigerator. My body weight is at 170.6, body fat at a hair over 12.5% according to my Tanita (but really I think it's probably closer to 15%!). I'll do some testing this week and get a 'true' baseline of my fitness. If I were to guess, I'd say my:
- FTP ~280W
- 5s Power - ~1200W (best of 1380W)
- 1m Power - ~500W (best of 600W)
- 5m Power - ~350W (best of 420W)
My lack of riding is most visible to me in my 5min efforts - I just can't go very hard for very long! That and my pedal stroke is just crap rigth now! Well, all this lack of fitness does allow me to test some theories for training load and specificity over the next few months. Stay tuned, we'll see what we can come up with...

2009 Fired Up!

Every year, for the past 20 or so, I get increasingly jazzed for the start of the cycling season. Some years it's because of my own aspirations, most years it's the return of european pro's to competition. In the 80's it was events like the Ruta del Sol and Tirreno Adriatico that kicked off the seaon for me. Of course in '88 we had to wait for Winning to come out, but the pictures of the field riding along some warm coastline always enticed. La Primavera, Paris-Nice, Vuelta Andalucia (Ruta's new name), Tirreno, these are Spring. By the late 90's the season started moving earlier with the arrival of the Tour de Langkawi and Tour Down Under. With the rise of the internet it became easy to get immediate results for a road season that now lasts the better part of 10 months. Add cyclocross or track racing and there is great racing somewhere year round. Still, the return of pro road racing is it's own special beast. New teams, new colors, the chance to see how your favorites are doing. Sweet!

So, we're quickly coming up on the start of the 09 season and the excitement is building for the Tour Down Under. Say whatever you want about Lance - he may be a jerk, an ego-maniac, a doper, but he's certainly compelling! I've never been a big 'fan', but i'll give the dude his due....Lance is a bad-ass when he wants to be. Of course there are plenty of other story lines to follow besides that, thank goodness. I'm curious about Columbia and Garmin of course, but also interested to see which new Belgian rises in April, how the 100th Giro will play out, and what team will be a revelation. BMC in europe? Katusha? Liquigas or Silence-Loto? We'll know soon.

I'm not more psyched for this year than others...just about the same I guess. But it builds slowly and next thing I know I'm sitting in front of a computer screen trying to discern the action at Tour of California via video-feed! Last year I sat and watched nearly every stage in real time (it helps to have a job where you work real early). Throw in the local racing scene...Snelling, Cherry Pie, Merced, and it tends to keep me busy.

Typically I'm 'preparing' for one of them, trying to squeeze in miles and intensity to be ready for Merco, or riding old la honda looking for better numbers before Pilarcitos. Not this year. Instead I'm trying to enjoy a slow build towards a different kind of season. Different means less worry about continually chasing race fitness or some abstract idea of what being an active racer means. Different means putting in some fun races on the track and aiming for top 20 finishes in the big crits like San Rafael, SF Twilight, Cats Hill and maybe a few others. Different means putting the time and effort into a full cyclocross season. That sounds fun to me.