Sweat.

You think heart rate tells the whole story?  If I looked at this ride from Friday with HR only, I’d be missing the big picture:

It looks like it was mostly a Tempo ride, but it wasn’t.  The stress on my heart may be tempo but the stress to my body wasn’t close.  It was Tempo + vo2 + everything else.  The momentary spikes of power that wear you out but don’t raise your heart rate fast enough show up with a power meter but don’t with heart rate.  Invest in your progression as an athlete, train with power.

Not bad for a guy who was on blood pressure meds 8 months ago.  Ride your bike!

Crocodile Rock was yesterday.  I had raced at Perry Lake once before several years ago on a really gnarfest course.  This year Lyle completely rerouted it so it was fast and uber swoopy.  The course felt like you rode downhill 3x as much as you rode uphill.  Impossible, but that’s how it felt.  It was beautiful.  Everyone loves going fast.

I got up at 5:30 and griped loudly all the way to Warrensburg to pick up Kevin.  We hauled the mail to get to the race in time.  I gotta get faster/thinner so I can race sport and quit with these early start times.  It was already hot at the start but not unbearable.  I felt a little queasy - I think I had some iffy jelly on my sammich the day before - but it didn’t bother me during the race.  I tried some new stuff, Amino Vital, in my waterbottles. Ebby swears it’s the best stuff evar.  I had a bottle of that and a bottle of accelerade before the race.  My bottle on the bike was full of Amino Vital too although I only slowed down during the race long enough to take a couple of quick gulps.  I never seem to have a spot where I can lay off the gas long enough to get a drink.  I don’t really want to go back to racing with a camelbak on these shorter races but I gotta figure out how to drink while cruising through rockgardens or something.

The start was fast, there were 2 guys ahead of me and immediately my bike starts this shifting stuf again.  I had done this before and I thought I had found the problem, a stiff link, but no such luck.  I was giving me fits again.  Kevin passed me right off as I figured he would and then I got into a gear that wasn’t skipping and accelerated hard.  Peter was right on my wheel for about a quarter mile and then called to pass and went by with two other guys who I didn’t think were in our class.  I settled in for a long grunt in the saddle at LT.  The course was really fast, very buff with lots of passing room and some rocks thrown in for good measure.  I am running new tires in an attempt to cut down rolling resistance a little - Kenda Karmas - they did great.  I was running them at 28 psi in the front and 30 in the rear.  I was a little worried in some corners there was a lot of loose gravel over hardpack and I expected to slide but they hooked up fine.  The shifting problems continued all race.  At least one, possibly 2 cogs in back caused it to skip up or down when shifting, I think I’ve bent something back there and will find out tonight.  It forced me to use a heavier gear than I would have otherwise and since I’ve been worried about knee problems I was double worried during the race, but not worried enough to lay off the gas.

I was flying along pretty fast on the first lap and I could hear this guy behind me, his chain banging against his frame like mad and I was getting worried so I yelled back asking what class.  He replied, “30-39”.  DOH! I lit the afterburners and took off like a madman trying to gap him off on some climbs.  I finally got far enough ahead that I couldn’t hear him anymore but I couldn’t slack the pace.  After a while I could hear him back there again, bang bang bang.  Dang, up the pace again on some climbs to try to gap him off (Allen effect).  This went on about 10 times over the course of the 2 laps and so I held the pace pretty frantic trying to keep him from closing during the last 2 rocky climbs.  As I headed to the finish there was a guy in front of me, I wasn’t sure what class he was in so I sprinted it out at the end trying to catch him. We banged together a little at the finish but it was all good, we didn’t crash, just a little argy-bargy. Turns out he wasn’t in my class so the sprint wasn’t really necessary but like a dog on the hunt I’m fastest when I’m chasing.  

I cruised over to where Kevin and Peter were waiting and watched the other guys coming in, expecting the other 30-39 guy to be right behind me but it wasn’t.  It was a 50+ guy, and another one, and another one!  Turns out I had gapped that guy off hard and then he got passed by a few other guys so the person I was hearing behind me wasn’t ever the same guy.  It was good though because it forced me to keep the pace as high as I could.  The guy who was chasing me said the same thing. 

I made it to the podium, 5th, but still, it’s a podium.  This work is starting to pay off.

Garmin file: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42775203

Ha!

I’ve bought a Powertap and Garmin 500 in an attempt to make myself faster.  5 years ago, the last time I was really serious about racing I tried like mad to make the bike lighter in an attempt to be faster.  I was an idiot.  

Someone once posted on mtbr about how to look at bike weight.  Bike weight (if you’re not racing up the Tourmalet in the Tour de France) is immaterial because you have to look at system weight. Say my mountain bike weighs 23 lbs.  I could spend several thousand dollars and get it to 21 lbs.  2 lbs! Wow, that’s a lot.  However, looking at system weight:  I weigh 206 (right now) and the bike weighs 23.  That’s 229 lbs system weight.  Shaving 2 lbs off the bike is 0.9%.  Big wup.  According to last night’s numbers, my FTP is 243 watts.  That means my watts per kilogram of the whole system is about 2.33 watts per kilogram.  Shaving 2 lbs off the bike would get me to 2.34 watts per kilogram.  Not enough to make a difference to me.  If I eat right and take care of myself though, I can shave 20-30 lbs off my frame.  That will make a HUGE difference (2.85w/kg), and it costs me nothing except good health.  No brainer here.

So instead of decreasing bicycle weight, I am trying to make the engine faster.  The easiest way to make myself faster is to lose weight.  Plain and simple, at the same power, the lighter person will always be faster.  I’ve been at it about a year.  Last year on my birthday I got my new license and the picture on it is the picture of a fat, middle-aged, dork.  I hate it.  It says 275 on my license, I’m pretty sure I was closer to 285 at that point.  You don’t weigh yourself a lot when you’re pushing 300 lbs.  I’ve lost around 80 lbs, depending on which scale you ask.  I figure I could stand to lose 20 more, although I’d love to lose 40 more and be at 165, I’m not sure my body can maintain that weight.  Either way, skinnier is faster, so skinnier is what I’m trying to be.

I’m also trying to increase the power I put out through the right kinds of exercise and training.  Without a power meter it’s tough to know what exactly you’re doing.  My heart rate in a one-minute interval never even gets to max.  It’s still rising when I finish. Power output doesn’t lie.  You can see exactly what you’re doing, regardless of how your heart is responding or how you feel.  So I drank the koolaid, I’m using it to be faster.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

I have a lot of cycling friends locally who are usually much faster than me when we go out and ride.  Tonight there’s an informal 20k time trial in Sedalia and I ask these fast friends of mine to go and they, to a man, hem and haw and say, “Oh I dunno maybe” and generally make excuses.  Man, it’s free.  Why is everyone so scared to throw their ego down on the line?  I guess the difference is my ego isn’t fragile.  I know I’m not the fastest guy out there but that doesn’t stop me. I suppose if you are afraid of finding out you can’t keep up, you shouldn’t go race.  But you better stay inside, away from windows.  Avoid loud noises. Be sure to put padding on everything.  Must be rough to go through life that way.