Beginner Power-Based Training, Day 1 & Day 2: Break-In Period

Day 1:

So, the bike shop installed the power meter within half and hour. Right after I left the bike shop, I made my way to a Barnes & Nobles to pick up a copy of "Training and Racing with a Power Meter" by hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan. 

I got home, ate a little, and got ready for my first ride with it...well kind of. I got home late around 5, plus there was a chance of rain, so I attached it to the trainer, read how to do the easy calibration, zeroed it, and was ready to see my first data of power. 

Before I got on my bike I modified the data fields on my Garmin to include 3s power. I have different pages...like one is committed to showing me interval values. But anyways, I made 3s power the most dominant field.

I got to ride for 40 minutes before I had to leave the house and didn't upload the file that night so the data itself is useless apart from helping me get used to this new foreign language. 

Day 2: 

This morning I read the first 3 Chapters of Allen and Coggan. I feel like other chapters would make more sense the more I train but I want to read it anyways so I can be ready. My perspective? There sure are lots of data and lots of testing to do. I'll be lucky if I can get the hang of training with power by the end of the season. In reality, I know the more I train with power the more it will make sense and the more easier the data will be to determine what needs to be determined, and I know that will take longer than just a season. But I'll be patient I think.

Also, the book talks a lot about V02max as compared to Friel's training bible.

I read 80 pages in less than 2 hours. I didn't even know I could do that. A homework assignment with 8 pages of reading is already enough for me. 

I started a ride on the trainer at around 5 because it was raining. It was another recovery ride with some higher aerobic stuff. Soon I'll be able to accurately gauge intensity rather than just adding an adjective to the word "aerobic."

Anyways, it was a 1 hour ride with more useless data I don't know how to interpret, yet! I'm planning to do the 20-minute power test for FTP next week, which is a recovery week, so I'll be fresh and have a number of rides with the PM already. That will give me a better idea of how to use the PM more effectively.

Right now I'm a noob but I'm motivated to get the gist of it by myself (ok..maybe some external help at times).

-- DB

Two Before & After Pictures Representing Growth

I'll be honest--when I first started cycling I thought I was going to be the best. I was obviously unaware that there were other Juniors who we're doing things like...uh I don't know...racing in National championships and doing some races in Europe. I definitely needed to know that or else I would've continued being cocky and egotistical. After doing poorly in CAT5 races, I finally figured out that I'm not "the best." But I didn't quit, because I knew I could improve and improve and improve.

It didn't happen right away though. For 2 seasons I didn't take my training seriously. I also got sick and crashed a couple times. I seriously thought that I could get away with skipping some rides every week, but the reality was that I couldn't. 

Today, I'm already expecting 2014 to be a breakthrough season, because I'm finally seeing characteristics I've always wanted when I first started. The UC Santa Cruz Road Race is going to be memorable, because it was my first sustained solo breakaway and it lasted around 1 hour. That's something I never knew I could do, but it was something I've always wanted to do, even though I couldn't hold it until the end of the race.

I have two comparison photos that show what how I'm feeling. The first one is from 2010 when I was a Cat 5 at my 2nd Criterium, when I tried to attack at the end of the race on the bell lap. I ended up getting 2nd to last because I was overconfident and didn't know my limit. The picture below it is me at the UCSC crit Cat4 race, where the pack was actually on its way to swallow me up. I never even knew I could create a gap that big! 

                                       

Notice how my form is almost exactly the same? Hehe.

The next photo is me at the UCSC Road Race. I'm going to paste what I wrote on Facebook instead of re-explaining it:

"Identify & address your weaknesses... The TOP photo is me getting dropped from the Mens' B UC Santa Cruz Road Race in 2013. The BOTTOM photo is me a year later at the 2014 UC Santa Cruz Road Race (Mens' B) where I attacked 2 laps in and held it solo for 8.5 laps (1 hour) and had a 2-minute lead at one point."

                                     

I'm finally improving! This is my first time in all my years of riding where I can actually feel improvements, and these improvements are marginally huge.

I guess this is the right time to say that, in order to track my progress in even more detail and precision, I'm expecting an arrival of a certain bicycle part/tool that has changed the way people train.

That's right, I finally got one. 

-- DB

UCSC Slugfest Criterium (Men's B & E4)

This race report was made possible by Noli B. at Putnam Toyota in Burlingame.

I've never done a stage race and I don't know how I feel about them, because Collegiate racing demands that you can race hard one day and race hard again the following day. Make that 5 or 6 days in a row, then you've got a decent stage race. Make that 21 days, and I'll shoot myself.

This is what makes me glad that I don't have the genes to be that good. Racing at a low volume is really fun at my ability, but this weekend my racing volume was really high and I went hard for each of the races because I was so excited to be back (and surprised).

Men's B Race Start
How the heck do you spell "Men's B?" Uhh anyways I'm glad I'm not doing this as a school paper or something.

Our race started fairly on time, but we got there early when it was cold foggy and slightly wet. To make matters worse, the Porta Potties didn't arrive on time. Thankfully they arrived well enough before our race. The sun was coming out as the fog burned away, and I did a slightly-okay warm-up of about 20 minutes with one threshold interval and one 10 second sprint. My warm-up ended perfectly, right when the awaiting B riders were allowed to get on the field to warm up.

I got right into the moment when we started, despite not having our teammate Yao with us because he missed the start (he still took awesome photos & did the E4 race). The pace was comfortable, lots of chit-chat again. I was wondering when I should make a move. There were little attacks here and there, but not much response from the pack.

When you notice that pack isn't responding to attacks and moves, you should use it to your advantage. However, I stayed with the pack for a good amount of time in the start. There was a prime bell on the second lap! Hmm...was the official trying to summon me out already? Nope. I finally joined an attack, when a rider who I marked as a strong rider went off the front alone.

The Peloton is a Scary Place
The course is actually fairly safe--at least to me. Very good pavement, minimal bot dots that were easy to avoid with a clean line, and wide roads to accommodate the squirrely guys. With that said, this race was not very sketchy, but when the attack that I wanted to join went off, I didn't know much after that because for the majority of the race I was spending time in a bunch of different breaks.

Photo taken by Yao Saeturn

I joined the UC Irvine rider and we gave each other the "I don't know you, you don't know me, but let's work together" look and so we did. Half a lap later, a UC Davis rider who I also understood as a really strong rider joined the break, and finally a UCSB rider who I didn't know also joined.

At this point I actually thought the break would stay, mainly because these guys were strong, and also because I knew there were a lot of UCSB riders and Davis riders, and I thought they'd block the pack. But they didn't, and for around 4 laps we had a decent-sized gap and we were trading pulls evenly. Eventually the UC Irvine rider lost faith in us and retreated back into the pack so I was only working with the UC Davis Guy and I forgot what happened to the UCSB guy.

Next a UCSC guy attacked and bridged up to me and the Davis guy, and we traded pulls again for a couple of laps. THEN a UCSB guy bridges and does a bunch of long pulls and drops the other two guys. I was rotating with him and he was really pushing me, saying that we had a good gap and he was telling me to go faster. Ah man. He had a lot of legs in him so he attacked me and went off solo.

The Race End
Toward the middle of the race when I was up front, there was a rider lying on the side who stayed in that position for a long time. It turns out he was okay but the EMTs were called out and the race was neutralized.

This gave the UCSB rider, who was 15 seconds ahead, a great advantage because I knew nobody in the pack wanted to work before the field sprint. At first I was debating whether I should bridge up but I decided against it, slightly because my legs didn't really want to do that.

So I went ahead and contested the field sprint, the UCSB rider won 3 seconds ahead of us. I ended up taking 5th in the field sprint for 6th place, and that was a surprise after spending plenty of time in breaks and what not! Looks like my criterium fitness is pretty established, so I can't wait to expand on it!

Mens E4 Race

About 2 hours later Yao, Eric, and I did the Men's E4 race. This race was pretty uneventful, apart from a few attacks that Yao made. I used this race to learn a little more about myself, but the pace was so easy that it didn't even seem like a race. The wind direction had also changed, there was now a tailwind on the backside and a headwind on the finish line side and the final corner. For most of this race, I stayed in the very back where I was comfortable and actually safe. There was a lot of braking in the corners and even in the headwind, because I guess people up at the front didn't want to pull hard so they feathered their cadence a bit.

This race was also more sketchier than the Men's B race because a lot of riders were making out-of-line shifts and sudden jerks. Luckily, people must have been paying plenty of attention to avoid a crash.

I looked at my time and it was approaching 20 minutes. I decided that I would make a move soon. Our race was 40 minutes and I knew that I could decently hold a 10 minute effort. Or well I at least estimated that I could, so I attacked when it hit 28 minutes which was the 6-laps-to go point.

I had a decent gap but they caught me with 3-to-go, and I sat in before the final sprint. I actually had enough energy to move up for the final sprint, but I took a bad line before the final corner, and when the final corner hit, the headwind was so strong that I couldn't firmly choose a gear to sprint with.

After all that, I ended up 16th, which wasn't too bad despite yesterday and today's race.

Racing 3 races sure made me tired though. I'm taking two days off because I have a lot of fatigue and also an irritated throat, probably due to all of the heavy breathing I did haha. I'm hoping I don't need to take 3 days off but I'm way over my planned training hours (about 3 hours ahead) so I have a cushion, but I don't want to lose 3 days of training or else I'd have to re-do my training plan.

Stay tuned for the Stanford Race Reports which will be my next race(s).

-DB

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” 
― Mother Teresa

2014 UCSC Slugfest RR (University Road Race Course)

This race report was made possible by Noli B. from Putnam Toyota in Burlingame.

If I wanted to do hill intervals, I'd have a lot of nice gradients to choose from in Daly City...from short, steep sections that only take a few seconds to power through to moderate, steady inclines that help you find a sweet spot climbing rhythm. Normally, 5 to 6 repeats of a hill or section is good enough for me.

When you tell me to do 15, that's when I'll start calling you...and maybe myself... crazy. But that's not the case at the Santa Cruz University Road Race, because this is one heck of a course for a road race...and a bike race in general...but it's inexplicably enjoyable. The course is literally a Hill Interval/Repeat festival, and it doesn't only demand well-established fitness, but also a focused mentality that will keep you from going insane before, during, and after the race.

If you've looked at this blog before, you might already know that I did this race last year in the Mens' B category, and was so traumatized that I downgraded to the Mens' C because I knew that the challenge of the B's with my state of fitness at that time would have possibly drained my motivation down to nothing. With that being said, my performance gave me an opportunity to reassess my training and address some of the gaps that I've been ignoring for over two seasons.

Well, after attempting to set a good foundation for my 2014 season, I finally got serious with making and strictly completing my training plan/hours. This was my first road race for this season ever since I've overhauled my training, so I didn't really know what to expect and was ready to be surprised.

The Start-

Like last year, we started fairly late off-schedule. The benefit from that was that I was able to get in a lengthy yet effective warm-up around the reverse way of the course. The warm-up lasted about 40 minutes and was kept in my endurance zone aside from a short tempo interval and a shorter threshold period. However, because of the late start we were only to do 14 laps instead of 15.

I started in the back but I was okay with it because I knew that nobody would really gun it out right away anyways. I wasn't feeling nervous or anything, just a little excited to start after waiting half an hour from the normal scheduled time. When we started everything was normal and people were actually joking around as if they were in a high school class that was about to start. Us young people would call it a "chill" pace, even when we got to the climb. I glanced at my heart rate and it was still low, unlike last year where it was already beating over 180bpm before the climb.

This "chill" pace was maintained for 2 laps in and after that I can't really tell you what the pace was like because I attacked.

Going Solo-

Maybe I was enjoying the conversations in the pack, similar to hearing people talk during lunch period at a high school. But this wasn't the lunch period, nor was it high school. This was a bike race, so in an attempt to remind people that it was, I went ahead and surged up a bit--it wasn't even a full-on super threshold effort. Thinking that the pack would respond, I looked back and saw that they were still maintaing their lunchtime pace, as if I was invisible.

Now this course's 1-mile climb has a fairly flat section, and I knew I could use momentum from that part to go up to the 13ish % kicker which turns right into a descent. So, I "big-ringed" the flat part and did exactly what I thought, and went hard on the descent just in case they were coming. At this point, I didn't see them until I got to the bottom of the climb again. Since this course is circuit-like, you can see across from the opposite side of the course. But I didn't look back yet, I used my momentum going into the bottom of the climb and big ringed until I saw a road sign, which was a trait I learned from my training routes which had road signs every 200 meters.

I finally looked back during the climb before the view to the feed zone, and saw that they were behind me and not too far back. I was partly excited and partly crazy so I just went and held the effort all the way up, and did this for about 4 laps--I'd big ring the flat part and there was also a part on the descent which could be sprinted for a boost downhill before the wind slowed you down.

After being alone for about 2 laps, the official yelled "10 laps to go" and it only hit me then that that almost seemed impossible, considering my performance from last year. That was a mistake though, because it wasn't 2013, and I shouldn't have been thinking about the past at that time. I got into focus, into the now and asked myself if I should try to hold it off as long as I could. I didn't know how long I could stay off the front solo, so I went on to find out myself.

Photo taken by Yao Saeturn

What was possibly going through my head?
I had felt good because I organized that week's training into a block of hard-easy days. So maybe I tapered just a little for a race that was of C-Priority...hehe. Normally I don't look back when I attack off the front, but I was so confused and surprised (there's that word again) that I was holding a gap on a course that I got dropped on and finished almost last a year ago. Well, there I went thinking about the past again! But I couldn't help it because I was already noticing what a difference it had been!

So looking back, I couldn't see them...even on the base of the climb where you could see the other side of the course! All of the spectators and course marshals were saying "Good job, keep going, why are you so fast," but nobody ever told me my gap, so I just kept on going *almost* as hard as I could. I kept the intensity down a notch from "all-out" due to me doubting myself. During the beginning of my break I looked down at my Garmin and remembered it hitting the 1:00:00 mark, meaning I'd need about another hour of the intensity I was going...yikes!

The cramps came just when I hit the 1hour mark, and I actually stopped significantly to make it go away. 3 laps later from the 1 hour point, (about 1hour and 24 minutes in) my teammate Yao who was spectating told me I had a 2-minute gap and that fueled me pretty good, so I tried to maintain my comfortable yet hard pace, but at that point my legs wanted to give up. They did me a favor and kept on going, but only enough to finish the race.

Caught!
I wasn't sure if anyone in the pack was actually trying to catch me, because in the end the others were saying that some people didn't know. Also a possibility was that some people knew they would catch me anyway. But after 8 and a half laps of going solo (and also looking really cool in front of all the spectators) I was caught on the bottom of the climb when the lap cards was about to turn to 3 from 4. At first, I was able to hang on to the group of 3 for half a lap, including the whole climb. I got dropped from that group when we started to climb again, and half a lap later another chase group caught up with me and I couldn't hang on. At that point, I only had 1 lap to go, and took it fairly cautiously before my legs would eat themselves.

In the end, I finished 12th out of 25th, but I didn't care too much about the result--which was MUCH better than my placing last year anyways. I was more happy at the fact that I did something I didn't know I could, and I was happy that I found out that I could do it! Sometimes, you have to take risks like that, so that in the next race, you'll know what's possible and what isn't possible.

My teammates Christian and Eric fought hard as well! And Ray and Eric Fong fought hard in the D's race. And my peers from SFSU Triathlon and Cycling club came to support too. Thanks a bunch!

Stay tuned for my Criterium report, I participated in the Mens' B and the Elite 4 as well! Spoiler Alert: I was off the front at one point in each of the races :)

--DB

Summary:

- 14 Laps @ 2.7 miles each lap with 350' elevation gain

- 2 hour race

- 1mile climb, 2-3% on bottom, 5-6% average, 13% kicker then the long descent.

- Attacked on 2nd lap

- Surprised that I stayed away for 8.5 laps, caught with 3 laps to go

- Finished 12th/25

“My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.” 
― Michael Jordan

Racing is full of fun and surprises!

Note: I had planned to post this the day that I wrote it but I ran out of relevant things to say, but I'm posting it now because it makes more sense after I did the UCSC race weekend.

With less than three days to go before the kick-off of NorCal Collegiate racing in the WCCC, I think it's an appropriate time to remind ourselves that racing is exciting, challenging, and ultimately fun.

I've had a lot of "bad" races, meaning that I've finished almost dead last. Obviously, the result of that would most likely be poorer self-confidence or developing insecurity. But whenever I do bad in a race, I never think that way--I never put myself down or feel bad about myself--at least to an extent. First off, I always know that there is a legitimate reason why I did bad, whether that was lack of training, poor nutrition/hydration during the race, or other circumstances that I couldn't avoid. But even when knowing that, I still don't ever think of a race as a waste of time or waste at all!

And that's because bike racing is fun. I don't know about others, but for me, there is always a unique feeling when racing that is different from a hard group ride. There's something about being with people who share the same passion as you, because it's a relief from the ignorant people at my college, it's a relief from the ignorant drivers on the road, and pretty much just a relief from people who don't love cycling.

This interaction with people who have the same interest as you, is especially valuable after training alone and interacting with the non-cycling population.

According to Joe Friel, training alone is a positive characteristic of highly motivated individuals. There was a time when I didn't like riding alone--something was scary about it...something was lonely and depressing about it. However, when I tried a training plan for the first time and eventually started racing, my perspective on riding alone completely changed. Riding alone helped me focus and pay attention only to me. So what does this have to do with racing being fun?

The key word is anticipation. Anticipation builds up when you notice an increase in fitness...such as PR's, lower HR's but higher efforts, faster speed, etc. When you train alone you kind of get lost as to how well you can actually perform in a race since you only know that you're better than yourself. But that's the main idea! When you increase your fitness, your confidence builds, so when you get to the start line you're thinking "wow I wonder how well I'm going to perform..." then you start getting mixed feelings of excitement and nervousness because of adrenaline.

And that leads to another factor which makes racing fun--surprises. You might be thinking that only the miracle surprises are worthy, for example, taking a podium spot without expecting it, or bridging a gap and thinking "wow where did that come from?." But what the mentality should be is that ALL surprises are pretty awesome, even the...well, disappointing ones. For instance, i'll give a personal example of last year's race at UCSC. It was a surprise to me that I got dropped so early in the race and that I pretty much had no legs to finish, but I legally did. So what is so cool about the surprise...?

All "surprises" give you a direction toward becoming a better cyclist. In this case, this surprise simply informed me that I needed to work on my climbing and endurance. In the case of a bridging the gap surprise, maybe that can be a good indicator to include more, time-trial-like threshold efforts in the training plan to make it a more consistent thing. Whatever the reason, surprises allow cyclists to funnel attributes they never knew they had OR they should have, into their training. 

It simply starts all over again. After improving what you learned from your last surprise, you go back into a race and surprise yourself again, and again, and again.

This is primarily the pattern I've seen in my racing at least. Racing essentially guides my training the same way training guides my racing. It's a dualistic thing and one can't really exist without the other.

(end)

Little Update

I'm mentally preparing for the first WCCC NorCal race this weekend hosted by UCSC, so I thought I'd pop this open and take it for a spin to get the gears in my head rolling. Wow where the heck did that come from?

I'm happy to say that from the time I last posted (a day before school started) to the present day, I am still consistent and motivated! Actually, I'm beginning to lose count of the weeks I've completed all workouts, but I believe this is the 13th week. Anyways, I'm feeling good but unfortunately UCSC's race is not an A race so I'm looking forward to some pure fun regardless of placing...and a good workout! However, I don't think it hurts to aim for some Cat3 upgrade points. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

I've been balancing training and studying pretty well. The only downside is that I haven't seen any of my non-cyclists friends. It seems they're busy too, so I guess it's okay to not fix what isn't broken haha! Anyways, I'm juggling 19 units with my training, but my training plan was perfected to get around that!

It's getting harder to get into the higher heart rate zones, which is a flaw when your fitness increases and you're stuck without a power meter, but some times ignore HR and just go with my RPE. However, using both HR and RPE is pretty valuable and I feel like I'm still making gains.

Anyways that's all for now!