Throwback Thursday: Training Status Style

What was I doing in 2012 that made me hate cycling so much? 

...Okay I've never officially hated cycling...for more than a week at least. But looking back, it's not hard to tell that the motivational aspect in training spiraled down for a good period of time in 2012.

Now that it's June, it is a good time to reflect on my current annual volume. I should probably mention that it's a pseudo annual volume since I don't follow calendar years when it comes to the periodical training numbers, but it's still a good way for me to see the relativity to past years. 

What I found when comparing my numbers was that I had just surpasses my 2012 volume. I can't believe how short my months were. November's volume is practically a weeks worth, and October is looking awkward with the 3 hours over there. July and December is reasonable because of my trips to the Philippines. 

But what I got from seeing this was that I didn't really take cycling serious, and that's because I didn't have well-defined goals. So if there's one thing I'm really glad about, it's that I didn't continue my non-directional cycling habit--nor did I quit. I realized my mistake(s) and now I'm surpassing myself!

No goals = nowhere.

Apart from cycling, my main goal right now is to graduate college on time, which is supposed to be next Spring. I've been filling up my class schedules with many units, and have been taking summer classes. This summer I'm taking a Human Physiology Lab, as well as a Human Anatomy Course & Lab, which are really demanding. But I'm doing whatever it takes to graduate on time because that's my goal. And graduating on time is something that needs to be done in order for me to achieve an even higher goal. (Goals need to be flexible, so of course I always have potential events in mind that would require me to adapt to such changes.)

With that said I'll briefly say that I can still maintain an adequate training volume. Monitoring performance from power data really helps--I can see the effects of my off-days on the two days I have school for 7.5 hours and adjust accordingly. 

Right now I have high fitness relative to my past and low fatigue. With no races available, I'll be able to use this form to do challenging, high quality workouts!

- DB

Mt. Diablo Hill Climb ITT Report

This weekend had my favorite Criterium, the Burligame Criterium, but I had established that I'd be doing the MT.Diablo Hill Climb this year, just to try it out. A big reason why I had strongly chosen to the hill climb instead of the crit is because my crash had left me a little traumatized. Crashing hurts--no doubt--but the real reason I'd like to avoid situations where crashing is of a high probability is not because of the pain (which actually isn't that bad after you've more than enough time) but it is the forced time off the bike which is really difficult to deal with.

With that being said, I had decided indefinitely to not participate in any criteriums. What his meant was that I can focus my training to building my Aerobic engine, and naturally I've been really inclined to focus on climbing. Thus, it was appropriate to do this race in order to see how well my climbing has improved since my transition back to hard workouts.

Pre-Race

I'm in the midst of taking summer school, and I'll say right away that I haven't been getting enough sleep. This race was relying on 5 hours of sleep but I wasn't really tired until after the race. I warmed up for a good 25 minutes or so and got to the start line. I was a bit nervous when I was being held up on the ramp because my bike was leaning left but I was leaning right.

Start

I was the first person in the E4/5 to go, so I didn't have a 30 second man, so I did constantly check if anyone was behind me, and it actually helped me perform better, by giving me encouragement. But going down the ramp, my gear was too heavy which probably costed me like 7 seconds. I told myself to not go hard on the rolling section in the beginning, but for some reason I was going really hard, my legs weren't listening to me.

The hardest part of the race, before the 1000ft sign, actually wasn't too bad compared to climbs that I regularly do. I was surprised at how gradual the inclines were. Compared to the climbing I've been doing, it wasn't too steep. In fact, the climb is very predictable--it's pretty much just a steady incline then a switchback or a kicker. So holding a rhythm was easy.

I knew the race wouldn't last more than 30 minutes. I also knew the E4 winning time would be in the 28min interval. So my goal was to get below 28 min. Once I hit the 12 minute mark, I assumed I could just imagine I was doing the San Bruno Hill Climb since it would've taken me a little over 16 minutes. I increased my pace and was definitely digging, but I had a reserve. I couldn't look at my power correctly, since technically I was riding in my 5-minute power at times. But whenever I dropped down to my 20-minute power, I did kick it up a little.

At 21 minutes I pressed the lap button just to check my average power, which was at 4.9 w/kg...way above my critical power, meaning I'd just set a record in these zones. I didn't know how many more minutes were left, it could have been 6 or it could've been 10. But since I was so sure I wouldn't go past 30 min I went really hard, any harder would've been a sprint effort (which I was able to save until the end!)

(Thanks to Craig Huffman for this amazing shot!)

Finish

After seeing Craig, I only had a couple of more switchbacks left. I didn't know this during the race, so I kept holding back...just right at 4.7 w/kg. Then I saw a sign on a cone that said "200m", which was surprising because I didn't pass the little white house--it turns out the finish line was over here and not at the junction like I had thought! I was able to finish strong, but if I knew the finish was over here, I definitely could've gone harder the last 5 minutes.

I ended up being only 23 seconds away from 1st, and 8 seconds away from 2nd. Both guys were Cat5's too! I wasn't too stoked about my result. I still believe the time is just "mehh" and I didn't pace correctly, Like always, I still had a fun time out here and definitely plan to do it again. I'm hoping I can shave off at least a minute and a half. That would be a good indicator of my focus toward climbing better!

Thanks for reading!

- DB

Pescadero Road Race - Summary

The Pescadero Road Race was my first road race as an Elite 4, but too bad it wasn't my last =p

The race would be the first race since my crash in the 2nd week of March. I didn't know how much fitness I had relative to my last period of racing, but I did an FTP test and ended up with the same FTP as I had in March. Therefore, I was looking forward to a challenging race yet I was confident that I could stay in the main field and hang around through every climb.

However, I knew my critical point was during the descents, and I did get left behind and used energy on the climbs to catch up. I knew that this was okay since the Stage Rd. Descent was really the only sketchy descent, and the fact that the descent had a few climbs in between them would make it possible for me to regain loss time. (The other descent was straight down then flat).

The biggest factor that had probably costed my race was me forgetting my water bottles at home. I thought I could be fine waiting for the feed zone, and even though I did hang on by the time we reached the feed zone, I ended up getting dropped on Haskins. What made it worse was that I didn't have an electrolyte drink...just water. It didn't hit me that I was bonking until the 2nd lap during the Stage Rd. Descent (I caught the main field with some other guys after Haskins). With that in place, I did my best to roll to the finish and rolling to my car was even harder.

Like always, I still had fun! Yes it was a disappointment that I couldn't race at my best effort but it's always a blast doing a local race. It didn't bother me at all after the race especially since it's happened to me at Wente Vineyards (another favorite course). I guess I haven't learned my lesson yet!

Now the interesting thing is I placed 44th which is exactly my placing when I did it a couple of years ago! 

- DB

Power Meter Reflection - How has it changed my training/racing so far?

So it has been over three months since I started training power, and there are a few things that I'd like to mention, especially to those people who haven't trained with power yet. I think everyone responds to the tool a little differently--some people will understand it right away, some people will have to play around with it for a while, and some people will just hire a coach.

I'd like to figure things out myself with the power meter because that's just the way I am, although it might have a lot to do with my exercise physiology-based curriculum for my Kinesiology degree. I really do enjoy learning about power-based training myself, and I'd feel spoiled if all the information were handled by someone else--for now at least.

When I crashed in March (just over 3 weeks after getting the power meter) I took a full week off and it took about four weeks before I actually started riding at an endurance or tempo pace again. This definitely threw my consistency off, especially since I didn't have the motivation to update my training plan. I also returned to my habit of skipping workouts or replacing them without thinking twice. While I was able to train with high volume, this also meant the quality of my workouts were quite low. And the way I knew that was with my power data, which told me the amount of stress I was responding to as a result of these workouts.

Being able to visually track stress allows me to view important things I wouldn't be able to tell with heart rate or RPE. I only started using a performance manager chart 3 days ago (despite having the power meter for 3 months--since I only recently returned to full training).

Right away I was able to see these things:

- The effect (on training stress) of skipping a workout

- The effect of a recovery ride on training stress (...they do have a purpose!)

- The effect on training stress & form as a result of an extended recovery period

- The effect on form as a result of missing workouts due to a crash

- The effect on race freshness as a result of a taper period

- The effect on training stress & form as a result of doing a longer than usual ride (75-mile hilly ride out of the blue)

But what really provoked me to write this reflection was when I analyzed today's data. Actually, I didn't really need to do much analyzing since the data was shown right away to my face. For today's workout, I had to ride 35 minutes at Tempo, but from the data it only showed that I had rode 20 minutes in Tempo! 

However, my RPE definitely felt Tempo-ish, and my heart rate was at tempo too. It turned out that I spent 28 minutes in HR tempo zone.

But that still means that I didn't complete the workout! Which means that I wasted a little of my time, which will ultimately affect how my fitness progresses. Seeing this data allows me to fix the mistakes that I assumed were the problems during my workout, such as riding in a route with stop lights and some long negative grades.

The bottom line is, training with a power meter will tell you if you are training right/wrong, or hard/not hard enough! It takes a lot of guessing out, which is mostly represented by heart rate or RPE for most non-power users.

It does not automatically make improvements though. To get the most of it, I'd definitely agree that you'd need to work with a coach because there's a ton of stuff to learn and most people with full-time jobs don't have the time to learn it themselves.

So that's all for this reflection. People have asked me how different my training has been since I started training with power, and this is pretty much what I have noticed so far, and I know that there's still a whole lot to discover still!

- Dom