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

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