Update: 1-week Crash Follow-up & Training Plan Changes

Staying Positive!

One week ago, I crashed for the first time ever at a bike race (Criterium) due to some protruding asphalt that was camouflaged in the shade. Currently, one week later, I still am not able to get on the bike. Today I went to the doctor today to get my injuries--some scrapes, road rash, and a muscle strain--checked out, and I heard mostly positive things. The worse was that I'd have to take 1-2 weeks off or at a very low intensity or 25% of what I normally do, which would be somewhere under 4 hours a week. Of course, the lost of fitness and the training setback sure bums me out, especially since I was really on a roll for 15 weeks straight (almost as long as a semester of school!).

However, I found that it's easy to get through this and stay positive, and that's because 1) it's very early in the season and 2) there's a always a brighter side to bad things. In this case, I have more time to learn how to train with power before a target race and I could probably manage performance better over time toward a peak. There are also later races in the year where I was like "aw man I wish I could peak for that," and these races seem fitting for a peak considering the re-structuring I need to do!

My Injuries

So what are the implications resulting from crashing in a crit? Well first off, let me mention that the part I crashed  at was the uphill part coming out of an uphill corner, so our speed & momentum was reducing. Thus, I really only crashed in the low 20's MPH.

The main reason I'm still off the bike is probably my fault. I love lots of tension in the pedals, and I think my pedals--especially on the right, had a bit too much tension, so during the crash the leg was pretty much fixed or stuck. This meant it required a great amount of force--probably a pulling force--for the foot to leave the cleat vertically, instead of the normal twisting motion. Combine that with the way I landed upon impact, then you get the idea. I pretty much strained the muscle groups in my groin due to the high tension in the pedal:cleat. Other than that, I have healing scrapes and bruises.

The picture I put is actually mostly all of the items that I use for my first-aid. Some of these are extras from my crash last year, but some are new like the Walgreens Saline spray (which can actually be flowed similar to how wringing water from a cotton ball works). 

My favorite wound dressing is any Silver microbial ointment. It has worked wonders for me and it still does! In fact, I favor it over tegaderm but just because of the fact I'm not riding. If I were riding, tegaderm would still be the applicable dressing due to the fact that it's easier to ride with. Bug anyways, the Curad microbial dressing is sold over the counter and it's $6 at Rite-Aid for a 0.5 oz tube.

Finally, the Curad non-stick pads are a must if you do choose to dress the wounds up. They are like 98% non-stick, and 98.99% ouchless. Other people would probably say they are 100% non-stick/ouchless though. I only remove the 1.5% because any draining fluid will stick and you will feel some sensation when taking it off! but it's like a less than a 1/10 in terms of pain. I've been using Curad non-stick pads since 2011 and have never used anything else after that.

Anyways, I definitely can't wait to ride again, but at the same time I am also enjoying the time off the bike. I'm not saying I am overtrained or burnt out, but this is the first time I've been training straight and consistently instead of trying to get away with inconsistent training. Thus, my head needs to calibrate with my motivation. With that said, I'm looking forward to spending time with family and spending time on other non-cycling related hobbies. 

But like I said, I can't wait to ride again!!!

- DB

2014 UC Berkeley Men's B Criterium

Hold on! I will mention what happened! =p

Running cold water down my legs the night before helped with my acidic legs for UC Berkeley's crit. I was running a little short on sleep but my legs felt pretty good. On my trainer warm-up, I was feeling pretty meh and agreed with Christian when he said "I hope my legs feel better during the race" because sometimes, that does happen especially when the adrenaline kicks in.

When the race started I was probably at 90% of my max effort already. I didn't have a HRM because 1) I was too lazy to put it on and 2) I thought power would be enough for 40 mins. However, during the race, it would've been nice to see the relativity because I was hitting really high numbers on the uphill S/F section on Durant.

For most of the time, I was struggling to maintain 2 or 3 bike lengths from the last person in the actual pack, but there were a few guys tailing off of me as well. The beginning was really hard for me, and for about the first 10 laps I was finding it hard to drink. The best place would be thee corner after the uphill but that really limited how I took the corner, and I had to stay away for safety.

My handling was really sloppy in this race. Last year, I was able to consistently find the best line. For some reason, my lines--especially in the 3rd corner, were inconsistent and inefficient, most likely because I was afraid of hitting the potholes which actually weren't really clear to me.

Toward 3/4 of the race I was feeling better or the pack was getting tired. I was finally able to move up and drink a little more. I moved up high but they still weren't showing lap cards which would come up with 9 laps to go, or about 10 minutes to go. Before I knew it, they were showing it. My lines through corner 3 were getting better, but still not the best! But moving up was getting easier on the uphill.

With 4 to go, I told myself to stay and fight the position I was in until the sprint. I was able to until people started to come up on the outside with 3 to go. I knew that I would have to go harder, and the best place to do it would be on the uphill. I knew I needed to take full advantage of the uphill to secure a leading spot in the pack.

At this point my mental focus was optimal and we entering the 3rd corner, where I took a good line. I exited the corner hard and fast to hold a good position for the uphill, and I was able to hear the Bell lap bell.

But I took the corner way too wide especially since there were people in my inside, so an optimal apex line was out of the question. The line I took would've actually been fine, had it not been for an awkward groove in the road that I didn't see! most likely since it was in a dark shaded area. The groove itself wasn't much, but the problem was that upon exiting, I stood up and dialed in some power, about 582w to be exact, and the groove facilitated in shifting my inertia to the front when my rear wheel lifted due to my jump.

The whole thing happened slowly (visually). I felt an awkward change in the road, but it was a smooth change, not like hitting a pothole. It was like going on a small ramp. Needless to say, when I was already going over my bars, I was already wondering what was going on. Nobody was really to my side and I didn't run over the boundary pole bases.

I was actually slightly able to brace for impact due to having almost full situational awareness. So I ducked into a fetal position, arms in front of my chest and braced for the impact on the ground. When I was on the ground, someone ran over me which was actually the part that hurt more. It turned out to be my teammate Christian, who went over and asked me if I was okay. I had a little sensation of the air being knocked out of me, but my lower back was hurting so I didn't move or say anything. 

After the EMT's came, I gave them all solid answers to the questions so they ruled out major injuries. I also checked myself and I had small scrapes and minor road rash. The real pain was my lower back but it was caused from landing on a plastic tube repair box which housed my catholic rosary. It must have caused some trauma from its edges but nonetheless I was okay.

The worst result was walking with a limp but other than that I'm fine. Christian was okay too, and he was able to do the E4/5 race, but I wasn't. The post crash morning was a bummer but I got through it, and I took multiple rides on the school shuttle on my university. However, I think I'll be okay for the most part of my recovery which I'm hoping will be short and sweet.

Today, only the neck whiplash, some trauma areas, and my left pelvic joint area are my injuries preventing me from riding, but I can already feel that I'm recovering quick.

After 4 years of racing that was actually my first crash during a race. I'm glad it was nothing serious, I'm bummed that it caused a small chain reaction. My bike is fine--it has a few cosmetic scars on the shifters but it still functions and my decision in choosing an aluminum frame (CAAD) was rational yet again. 

I had no race plans in the next few weeks so that's a relief, and my hours are cutting down (due to harder weeks in training) and I have a cushion for missing hours. Overall I don't think this will set me back significantly.

Anyways, it was a fun race and I was looking forward to doing well, even with bad form. Even so, I'm still greatly happy I was finally able to get some upgrade points the day before and am looking forward to coming back to the races in a few weeks!

--DB

"Wear a helmet."

-- Anonymous

2014 UC Berkeley (Crockett) Mens B Road Race Report

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

*Thanks to Craig Huffman for shooting all of these awesome photos across almost all categories at this Race! Be sure to check out & support his work at www.craighuffman.com!*

I just changed my bandages from the aftermath of the UC Berkeley Criterium, but I'm feeling really good! This past weekend was a bit bizarre. I'll say the good news, which was that I've earned some more upgrade points making me one-fourth Cat 3. My result at the road race helped me stay positive throughout the weekend despite all the incidences. I also had a wonderful time seeing other SFSU Cyclists compete for their first time or improve upon last year. We are such a great team :)

The Cal, Crockett Road Race is tied as my favorite with UCSC's. I did fairly well last year and was looking forward to repeating that. However, my form was very bad--after coming from hard consecutive workouts integrated with 3-race weekends. I was definitely fatigued during the week, and so I took two easy days and did an unstructured ride with some hills to tune up for the race.

Eric, Christian, and I warmed up by going up & down Cummings Skyway and turning around before it descended. I felt pretty good during the warm-up so I was looking even more forward to how things would turn out.

Lap 1
We left the start line and within 30 seconds someone had flatted! Yikes! We went up Cummings Skyway, which isn't much of a climb compared to McEwen, but it was fun. The descent was great! I forgot to mention, I put on a new Cassette with 11-28T for a) descending and b) climbing (with high RPMs!). I had no problem keeping up on the descent unlike in previous races. We cruised through the really short climb after the descent, then we made our way to the twisty Paradise-Loop like rollers. Yada yada yada we arrived at McEwen, made the right turn and I was already grinding the 34t-28t!!! Although I was able to spin over 90rpm, it was still a grind! I was also in the back, which made me work harder to not lost contact with the lead group. From the back, I could already see that someone had attacked. Like most people, I predicted that he wouldn't stay away (we had 4 laps to do), so nobody responded. I was already maxed out, and due to my form I couldn't do anything. After the climb, everything was fine. I was feeling good, and I moved up almost effortlessly to the front of the pack, and we can see the soloist, who had about 30 seconds on us.

Lap 2
The second time around was pretty much the same. The soloist was still in our view so we felt like we had no reason to go too hard. Felt okay on the rollers, terrible on McEwen. I was afraid I wasn't going to keep up by the 3rd or even the 4th lap, but I fought hard. Moved up again on Franklin Canyon, but we couldn't see the guy from UCSB off the front anymore. The feed zone told us he had over 1 minute on us!

Lap 3
Lap 3 would've had to be the determining lap, but nobody really wanted to work. Mark from UCSC had surged up a few times but no one wanted to rotate. This was especially annoying because a teammate from the UCSB would always get the front when nobody worked (good tactic on his part.) I tried to attack on Cummings Skyway, but I only got the group to surge along with me. I dropped back and noticed that it was again the UCSB guy behind me. On the descent, I was moving pretty quicker than others even without pedaling, so I was able to get to the front effortlessly to trade off with Christian. Next thing I know, Eric comes around me and tells me not to work so he takes a pull leading into the right turn.

Thank you to Craig Huffman for this photo.

We did go a little harder on the rolling sections, and even harder on McEwen. In fact, this was the race determining moment because the strong UCSB guy (not the one in the break) and a UCLA guy attacked and went off together. The field had exploded and the chase group consisted of 5 guys including me and Christian, but Eric had gotten dropped on McEwen. We went through the rollers of McEwen pretty hard to chase the break fighting for 2nd.

Lap 4
On the final lap my mental game which had been missing at Stanford had kicked in! My goal was to settle for 4th if it came down to that; ie. not catching the two guys and the guy OTF (we didn't). In the group of 5, Christian and Mark were working the most. I tried working too but I knew I if I went too hard, there'd be a high chance I'd get dropped on McEwen. So, I stayed in the back of the group for most of the time.

Me behind Christian, thank you again to Craig Huffman.

On McEwen, I had to do a lot just to stay in the group. I didn't want to be the one who got dropped from the chase group...yikes! During the climb, I was hoping nobody would attack. We actually saw the two guys off of the front, so I was expecting it. However, I told the group we were going at a good pace (according to my power numbers =p) and that would've enabled us (or me) to go harder at the end of the climb where it would matter most. If Christian did (like last year) that would've been awesome, but even he was working just enough to maintain a good position. With nobody attacking, I was able to focus on potentially taking the small field (uphill) sprint.

It was very awkward since it would be my first time contesting a high-placing (considering there were upgrade points for grabs still) in such a small group, but my seasonal goal depended on this, and so it was a good time to truly test if the hard work I put in to training would pay off!

The finishing effort started early in the flat-ish part. Uphill finishes were something I practiced quite a bit back when training neuromuscular power, but I felt confident so I went along with an early move, not quite at max, but hard enough! There was enough road for all 5 of us to contest it, so I went hard once I felt good enough and didn't look back. Once I saw SFSU cheering I dialed to a maximum effort & was completely exhausted just short of the finish line, but was indeed able to grab 4th place!

My overall performance wasn't the best, due to the regression in my form, but thanks to my hard work, I was able to maintain a baseline fitness which allowed me to stay on the climbs and win the uphill field sprint. I am getting closer to my peak fitness so I am definitely looking forward to seeing how I'll be then, but first I need to take care of some minor crash aftermath for a few days. Hopefully it doesn't push me back by too far, but either way I'm really satisfied with this present season.

-- DB

2014 Stanford Race Weekend Report (Men's B Road Race & Criterium, E3/4 Criterium)

Road Race

The road race course is shared with the NCNCA's Panoche Valley Road Race. Compared to last year's Men's C race, this one went quite further and also had more punchy climbs. It was a 55-mile race that lasted 2 hours and half. My goal was to finish in the lead group, which seemed pretty realistic. I raced with Christian, Eric, and Yao.

The course does not have the smoothest roads. It also gets twisty at times at the road width isn't consistent--it gets narrow and wide at times. With that said, it's easy to get locked into a position in the pack, especially in the back. Once you're there, you're there, unless the pack strings out. But for our race, our pack was bunched up for around 70% of the race.

Like I said, the climbs are punchy and can be big-ringed. For this race, I wanted to see how conservative I could be, so I either used the little ring or if it was like a 4% grade I'd just use the big ring and cross chain. For the most part, I felt I had an optimal cadence on all the small climbs. I think at one point I was spinning 110-120RPM but 100RPM was quite common on the climbs.

The race was pretty boring in the beginning. Other than the climbs, I was mostly in low zone 2 or lower. The first half of the race was also uneventful. My horrible descending skills were tested on a narrow descent that was twisty, but I didn't get dropped.

After the turn around everyone was anticipating the climb back, which was the reverse of the twisty descent I just mentioned. At the bottom, it surged and I knew this would be he perfect time to finally move up as I had spent all this time in the back. So, I shifted into the little ring and the chain had fallen.

Thankfully, I didn't need to get off my bike and was able to just use the shifter to bring it back. I probably lost like 5 seconds so I had to use more energy that I would've liked, but I was still passing people left and right, and I felt good. At this point, the field had been split up and Eric maintained staying in the 2nd group. Christian was up in the lead group.

The end of the climb was the transition to the long descending rollers. This is where I was chasing the lead group. A chase group of 4 or 5 formed and they were digging deep. I rode with them for a while, but they were going too hard, even though they didn't need to. I figured that I could just pace myself there without burning too many matches. At first it yo-yo'd but they slowed down so I caught on and stayed there until the end.

From here until the end, the pack was cruising at tempo. A few people tried to attack, including Christian and I, but the headwind (which wasn't even as strong as last year) prevented anyone from getting away. As a result, my fear of a bunch sprint was coming closer, because the road was narrow and I knew I'd get locked in, which did in fact, happen. My mistake was purely as a result of my mentality because I was focusing too much on the end instead of the now. In other words, I should've focused on moving up instead of being worried about getting locked in a bunch sprint.

I ended up finishing 14th, with Christian at 10th. We both expressed our disappointment because we both had the legs to put out a good sprint, but we both got locked behind guys who couldn't. Regardless of that, I still enjoyed the race and it was a great workout! Overall, I had good performance but bad positioning, so that is something I need to focus on.

Criteriums

The Men's B Criterium started an hour late due to a crash in the C's. I had a pretty good warm-up, but we started hard, which was a relief from the crit in Salinas and yesterday's RR. It finally felt like a race!

For the most part, I stayed in the pack, mostly in the pack, but I managed to move up some times when I felt good. I attacked at one point but couldn't get away, probably because I didn't want to make the mistake of racing too hard, like I did in the UC Santa Cruz weekend. My goal was to save everything for the sprint.

When the end did come, I couldn't move up in time. My mental game was truly off, most likely because I didn't have a specific plan or goal other than saving it up for the sprint? This is something I definitely need to address for my next races.

I ended up finishing 15th but had a lot of fun, and finally had the feeling I was racing, instead of being impatient and attacking all the time.

This feeling was amplified during my 2nd race of the day in the E3/4. This race started hard and fast. THIS was the feeling of a race. I started off in the front but pulled back into the pack after people kept attacking. There were plenty of surges because of this, but it wasn't hard enough to drop people.

I knew from my last race that I needed to move up so I used a line I was familiar with after the chicane to move up on the outside. My mental game was better, but still not good enough. I at least knew to stay on a wheel, and shift my lines safely on the straights. Of course if there was someone next to me, it would've been impossible to come from the outside on one corner and shift to the inside. This was especially true in the last two corners and the chicane.

I didn't move up to the front in time, and the pack was crowded during the sprint. I ended up 13th but was happy with my moderately better mentality that last time. 

The whole weekend was a great way to remind myself of the mental aspect of racing which includes the technique needed to move up in time for an optimal position in the end.

I'm looking forward to next weekend due to the hilly nature of both the road races and criterium :).

-- DB

Power Based-Training, Day 8 & 9: First Races with the Power Meter

On Day 8 I did a 55-mile Road Race and on Day 9 I did a Criterium in two different categories.

Day 8

Racing with a power meter is different because it gives you another thing to pay attention to. Another thing it does is that it takes a lot of attention away from heart rate. With all that said, at least 94% of my attention is devoted to the actual race, so having a power meter is not a distraction whatsoever.

The numbers I saw during the road race were low in the beginning half of the race and that's because the pack was going easy. It wasn't until the 2nd half of the race where I was actually able to use my power meter to pace myself, especially up a steady climb and during a moment where I needed to bridge up to the lead group because I had dropped my chain at the beginning of the climb.

My chain didn't drop significantly, but the group surged so losing the 4 or 5 seconds it took to put it back on was pretty significant especially since I was in the back of the pack. However, I was able to keep the lead group in sight, so when it came to rolling sections, I paced myself with the power meter to avoid a thrashing chase group that was burning matches. Thus, I caught on without the panicky group and saved a lot of energy. I also glanced at my heart rate which was a little high...close to max, but my power numbers or RPE weren't too close to maximal, so I felt the need to hydrate well since it was also a little hot.

I knew that I could catch the lead group because 1) The power numbers I were putting out were right under my best 5-min power effort and 2) because I knew the pack would slow down eventually, based on the racing pattern I observed throughout the race. So with that said, it can be said that my judgment on bridging to the lead group was based on integrating the power-based pacing and reading the race.

One of my race goals was to not work and to pedal as least as possible. After the race, I looked at a power distribution chart and found that out of the two and a half hours of racing, I only pedaled for an hour 50ish minutes. Seemed pretty cool to me!

Day 9

The power meter wasn't too much of a help during the crits unlike in the road race. It was only interesting to look at the numbers and see its relativity to hearts rate. But since criteriums require more focus than road races (ie to stay safe) then that's totally okay. The real analyzing happens after the race, but I've only used Garmin Connect and Strava to do that. With that said, I really had nothing to do with the data except look at how much I didn't pedal again which was 25% of the Men's B race.

My Garmin lagged in starting before the E3/4 race, so I only have 18 minutes worth of data which includes the end, so I need to look at that set more.

Beginner Power-Based Training, Day 7: First Actual Structured Workout with Power

On the 7th ride with the Power Meter, I went and did a structured workout that I normally do with the Heart Rate Monitor and the training zones based on Friel's training bible.

Known as Cruise Intervals, they are my favorite workout in terms of developing Muscular Endurance. With this said, the workout consists of steady intervals at the threshold level. This day, I was doing 5 sets of 8 minutes with 2.5 minute recoveries at zone 2. With the power meter, I was now able to train at the threshold level in terms of power, and there is a little difference in terms of how harder the workout became. The workout did feel harder in terms of RPE, but I took into account that the first 2 intervals will feel harder than anything after the 3rd one, which should be repeated with little to no loss in power. Overall, I lost about nothing more than 7% which seemed appropriate for the workout since I still stayed in the target power zones and heart zones which is actually a huge margin.

One thing I noticed, especially toward the ending intervals, was that I couldn't raise my heart rate even though I was still hitting high power numbers. Right away I knew this wasn't good because it is a sign of overtraining. However, since I knew the following day would be a rest day, I went ahead and finished the workout especially since my heart rate was still in the prescribed zone.

Training with the power meter also helps in starting intervals too hard. Here is a power curve which well-represents the nature of the workout, due to the slightly horizontal characteristic of the curve, which portrays steady efforts and consistent maintenance of wattage. Riding on the trainer the first few days with the power meter truly helped in teaching myself how to pace.

Beginner Power-Based Training, Day 4, 5, & 6: Getting the numbers!

Day 4

On the fourth day of having the power meter I did another indoor two hour ride which was a little harder than the day before. The following day was a recovery day and I felt a tad sore but it was barely unnoticeable in a static position. On this ride, I was paying particular attention to pacing again and holding a given range of power, at least in terms of the 3s power average. With that said, I held what I believed was my high-end aerobic endurance pace, using my heart rate as a reference, which is about 84% of my Lactate Threshold. There seemed to be a positive relationship with the watts I was holding which was 190w up to 200w. 

Day 5

After 5 days of having the power meter, I finally tested my FTP. I used the testing protocol from Coggan & Allen's book (2nd ed.), right down to the 20-min warm-up, the 3 high cadence intervals, the 5-minute recovery, 5-minute all-out effort, 10 minute easy, and the 20 minute time-trial.

Since I didn't have any power zones and it was also my first ride outdoors within a week, and it was also relatively humid, and because of a bunch of other factors, I know that this won't be repeatable in terms of test conditions, so I'm already anticipating the next test which will be more accurate and repeatable. 

On my 5-minute all-out effort, I didn't feel like I was going "all-out." I paced myself (based on RPE) so that I wouldn't blow up in the end, but in the end I felt like I had been going 90-95% in anticipation of the 20-minute time trial. So for the next test, maybe I'll be able to go harder.

During the 20-minute trial, I think I paced myself well. I didn't start out too hard, but again I had a lot of kick left in the final 3 minutes. This is pretty evident in my HR, which shows a gradual rise then a quick rise in the end! This pattern can also be in my 5-minute effort. For the next test, I'll try to keep a reserve for a longer time...maybe about 5 minutes-7minutes, instead of 3.

When I analyzed my data I got an FTP Power:weight ratio of 4.42, which according to Hunter & Coggan's chart, falls in the middle of Cat 2 power. Pretty cool, but I know these values are probably underestimated in accordance with the Categories. I'll have to see if this is actually accurate, by racing smart. My 5-minute power, although not fully established, fell exactly next to the FTP value in the chart, which was pretty cool but I know it is higher than the effort I did before the TT.

Day 6

The day following the FTP test, I did an active recovery spin on the trainer. Nothing really new here, except with my training zones established, I knew what would've been too hard, so I didn't need to wear an HRM. 

However, I did see the effects of yesterday catabolic test, it was really hard to get the power up without leaving "recovery" in terms of RPE. In other words, if I had spun up to 55% of FTP, I could Lactic Acid. Therefore I stayed at around 90-100w. Interestingly, for the 6th day with the power meter, my low intensity pacing has been pretty decent. My speed on today's ride kind of shows this, as it is pretty constant after the initial warm-up period, which is quite obvious in the graph,

Sorry these are Strava mobile graphs haha...

Beginner Power-Based Training, Day 3:HR & RPE Relativity on the Trainer

I was about to do my first outdoor ride with power but after I put my contact lenses on, I checked the sky and it had some darker spots than what I had seen a little earlier. Even with a little blue sky poking out, I retreated and went back onto the trainer.

I did a two hour ride with no intervals...just some efforts into my endurance zone and on the border of tempo. I'm getting an idea that my FTP could fall in the 240's? Which would be a little over 4 w/kg. That's a rough guess so it's useless plus it's on the trainer. But it doesn't hurt to play the guessing game to see how far off I am!

In addition I'm also seeing some relative power numbers with HR even without knowing my FTP. I mostly get this from practicing pacing, holding a range of wattage for 5 or 10 minutes. For instance, I told myself to hold 180w for some time, I think around 10 min. Then went up to 200w. Those two wattages were definitely aerobic endurance intensity. My HR was at 146bpm which is still Z1 but probably because I was on a trainer.

Overall, on my 3rd day of seeing power numbers without testing FTP yet, I've been able to get a basic glimpse of the relativity with HR in terms of my Aerobic Endurance intensity, and I've also practiced wattage-based pacing to learn how accurate my RPE is. So far, it's pretty close but most of the times that it's wrong, my RPE stays the same but wattage drops about 30w or more.

I'm referring to Low-Z2 intensity, by the way.

Trying to do my first outdoor ride with power, tomorrow.

-- DB