The Cyclist formerly known as the Artist.

Just a small update.

2009-02-18T22:15:00.002-07:00

Yeah, I'm alive.

2008-12-11T12:57:00.003-07:00

Between work and putting in a decent base this winter I've not much time or motivation for blogging. Here's a little look into my daily toils:

Always tapping that power... Get it, get it? Powertap? Oh, never mind.

Why I don't do cross.

2008-11-08T22:51:00.004-07:00

I'm a clean rider.

Breaking news...

2008-11-03T11:50:00.005-07:00

This election coverage brought to you by City Creek Bike Sprint 2008 (pictures pending). I was surprised to see quite a few souls show up. This was truly a "tour of the leaves" as we plowed up through the yellow fragrant mass on the moist road.

Though he came short of the record, Chase Pinkham nevertheless schooled everybody. After the first little hill it was clear that him and Stormin' (our record holder on his first serious ride in weeks) were in a class of their own. I was basically riding for third. And I would've been 3rd were it not for somehow spending my entire anaerobic capacity in its pursuit. I tried to accelerate but could not match my rival whoosh for whoosh. Anyways, I was a bit below my PB, but better than last year so that's good.

This was also my wife's first race ever! I was really impressed by her 37'38". That's some 2-3 min better than she's done recently in training. If she'd ride more than once or twice a week who knows how good she could get. Good job hun!

Blackouts-a-comin'.

2008-10-31T17:40:00.003-06:00

I was so wrong. I thought we the people would instigate a spike in energy costs through our misguided efforts at conserving energy (which we're not running out of) and saving the planet, but I was wrong. We won't have to make an effort after all. Take a listen:

"It is important for us to send some price signals to change behavior."

Boy, I just can't wait till I change my behavior. I'm trembling with anticipation... I think.

Winds of change?

2008-10-29T21:29:00.005-06:00

I think the last couple of months have been just a preview of "change". God help us!

There is but one solution to our economic woes.

2008-10-22T16:29:00.006-06:00

End of message.

Emigration canyon comparison.

2008-10-21T13:03:00.007-06:00

I decided the make the best of our weather last weekend and headed out to Emigration canyon again. Since I don't like to warm-up for 20 miles for no reason, I decided to punch it to the top of Little Mountain. As opposed to my PB ride from August, this time the wind was not all too helpful. Under these circumstances I didn't expect to surpass my previous best, but to my surprise I came only 15 seconds short. To my even bigger surprise I was 10 Watts up from last time. So at 271 W average it is a PB for that ride strictly speaking. To counteract the unfriendly winds I spent a considerable time, perhaps as much as 50%, in an aero position (you know, the forearms on handlebars kind).

I thought it would be interesting to show the two rides as recorded by my Powertap next to each other for pacing comparison.

Here's the PB ride from a few weeks ago:

And the more recent attempt:

The speed curve doesn't line up due to different top speeds reached during each ride. I feel like my second ride was a bit better paced. I find it curious that both rides have a dip in power towards the end followed by a triple spike. I wonder what that's all about.

Season summary.

2008-10-13T20:41:00.003-06:00

Well, I like to finish my season with the City Creek hillclimb, but this year the inclement weather forced a postponement, so it comes to a close without any kind of a bang.

Despite all, it was a good season - a lot of hard work early on, nice build up, some early successes, and then a crash. Though I was on the stationary after some four weeks, it wasn't until 3 months later that I was able to ride outside again. That was probably the worst best time of the year ever. But you already knew that since you're obviously one of my two readers. Here's how the PMC recorded it:

The black connected dots are my best 60 minute power results. They can say what they want about tough races, but it's hard to attain your true FTP without riding an actual 1 hr TT. I finally got enough courage to do it indoors in September. And I was pleased.

For another interesting graph, here's my 2008 power distribution chart. It clearly illustrates my insistance on spending most riding time on the Tempo (L3) and sub-threshold zones (the so called Sweet Spot). I don't intend to change that approach for the next season as it has served me well.

Anyways, so here are some stats:

Miles ridden: 6953
kiloJoules burned: 240,000
TSS accumulated: 24,500

Best Power - (vs. last year)
5 sec: 1008 W (989 W)
1 min: 522 W (506 W)
5 min: 345 W (315 W)
60 min: 267 W (not tested, but assumed 250 W)

Race highlights:
1st (unofficial) - RMR B's
1st (M35+) - Sundance HC
5th - M35+ RR Championships
2nd (M35+) - Climber's Cup (33'04")
1st (31-40) - Bikes For Kids TT (18'02")

Training highlights:
Emigration canyon - 25'17"
City Creek canyon - 22'48"
Snowbird - unfortunately at 41'16" this was the only PB I wasn't able to surpass vs. last year (40'52"). I made only 3 attempts this year, but despite being generally stronger I couldn't produce power nor were the elements on my side.

Edit: Ah yes, how could I forget, Clark's TT - 10'43", my only MTB ride this year (so far).

You know what they say.

2008-10-13T16:26:00.003-06:00

Que Sera CERA. I'm so not a fan of professional cycling that I check Velonudes maybe only once a week anymore. Rare as my visits to cycling pubs may be, I can always count on some good dirt. Last week it was Schumacher, now Kohl, next week Andy Shleck, then who knows, Cavendish? Come next July I hope they have a whole new season of Ice Road Truckers to keep me entertained (though I'll go for the reruns).

MTB'ing day.

2008-09-26T23:32:00.005-06:00

I finally gave the Clark's TT a try. It sure is a strange beast, that mountain biking stuff. Since I've been setting some decent PB's on the road lately, I hoped for a bit better result than 10:43. Well, considering that I go off-road once a year, this being the first time this year and probably only the third ever, I shouldn't complain. Plus it never hurts to be more humble, so I'll start tomorrow.

What I learned is that those isopower efforts that I so like indoors are not something than can easily be transfered to off-road, if at all. I made two attempts with the second being the faster. It made me realize how crucial proper execution and pacing is on such a relentlessly undulating terrain. I was breathing pretty hard, but my legs felt fresh. I think I'm seeing another attempt in my future, but I need more practice. And what a beautiful Indian summer it is for a little cross training.

Bikes for Kids.

2008-09-22T14:32:00.002-06:00

For those who couldn't make it, here's a short summary:

Team winner (top 10 riders) - UofU ($1000 scholarship)
Best average time (all riders) - BYU (O.C. Tanner trophy)

Best time: 16:02 (Rob Squire)
My time : 18:02 - good enough for 6th overall and a 31-40 win.
And more.

Oh, and my wife and I went up City Creek on Sunday. Yeah, it was an under 23' PB ride for me. I'm looking forward to this year's race to cap off my season. Norm said he's gonna skip it, so maybe I won't get whipped.

Do this.

2008-09-15T17:53:00.001-06:00

Bikes for kids. Come on, it's only 3 miles, it's in Salt Lake valley, and it's this Saturday. Entry fee is tax deductible.

Climber's Cup, etc.

2008-09-15T12:02:00.003-06:00

'Twas a fairly successful day. The goal was to be top 5 in Masters. IOW, to get paid. Mission accomplished. My 4th paid enough to cover the entry fee and gas, and then some. And since the top 2 were 45+, I became the M35+ Hillclimb Vice-Champion. Yes, it's a real title and no one will spoil it for me. So there. Congrats to my teammate Scott for taking the trophy.

The plan was to be fairly conservative up the first climb. Considering the length of this time trial I expected to push a bit harder than my FTP, but that never seems to work like that. Except for very short efforts and still can't seem to attain my indoor wattages when climbing. Pacing issues? Altitude? Heat? Dunno. Having started 4th in line I was the first man to the top, and surprisingly I caught 2 of my minute men even before the final climb to the top. I cringed into a ball on the flat/downhill sections trying to save as much energy as possible to save myself for the crucial pushes uphill. As you can see from the graph below, I even coasted at one point. I guess I didn't ease off enough, because later I really couldn't produce the kind of power I expected except at the end when I was just anaerobic.

I don't have any hindsight regrets. When I crossed the line I knew I went as hard as a could on that day. In fact, I could barely breathe. That seemed to be the limitation. My legs felt OK, but my lungs just weren't keeping up. Where you see those dips in power is when I'm easing off to prevent getting a side-stitch, which I could sense lurking in my gut.

On Sunday, I finally went up American Fork canyon with a warm-up over Suncrest. 20 minutes is my new PB up the north side. I think that's pretty good.

More PB's.

2008-09-04T10:00:00.005-06:00

OK, so my Tuesday VO2max session didn't go as planned. I had to bail after only three 5 minute intervals. I was encouraged by my new 5 min personal best, so I tried them at higher power. That was a mistake. What I probably should have done was to use the same power but over 6 minutes or so, extending the time spent at VO2max. That's OK. I think last week took a lot out of me.

It may be that I'm a bit slow in accepting the reality of fatigue, but despite Tueday's failures, I felt like doing an all out FTP test the following day. If you don't feel like clicking on the link, I'll just say that it's a 1 hr TT. Now, doing that outdoors presents logistical challenges so I did it on my indoor trainer. I got my industrial strength fan on the highest setting, took the pictures off the walls so they wouldn't get blown off, put my race face on, and proceeded with the masochistic exercise.

It didn't seem as hard as I remembered it. I started out conservatively, but soon found out that I may be stronger than anticipated and kept on accelerating throughout:

It appears that my Functional Threshold Power has improved by some 10 W over last spring, so here's my updated profile:

1 min: 9.5 W/kg
5 min: 6.1 W/kg
60 min: 4.85 W/kg

A true FTP is defined as the best 1 hr power on a well rested day while very motivated. Despite the fact that I had only motivation to go on, it was considerably faster than anything I've done outside, including hillclimbs. I think it may be due to the fact that outdoor rides present a certain additional pacing challenge for me. Besides, since I do a lot of isopower riding indoors, it may simply be that I've just gotten good at riding indoors. Either way it should translate to some good race results... eventually. Shouldn't it?

Just passing along.

2008-09-02T22:30:00.000-06:00

http://www.maxvo2themovie.com/

Check it out.

Tough week.

2008-09-01T14:01:00.008-06:00

This week I accumulated the most Training Stress Score of my whole season (so far). Saturday was a nice team ride. For the first time in my life I went all the way up Butterfield Canyon. Ouch! Can you tell where the 20% grade section is?

It's been a long time since I was forced to ride at 4 MPH. We started out fairly easy and I didn't press my interval button so I'm not even sure if the chart starts right at the bottom or elsewhere or how long it took. I just know that it hurt.

Sunday was another first. Believe it or not it was the first time this season that I went up Emigration Canyon. Yup, I figured I better get 'er done before it starts snowing. Despite the fatigue from the previous day I was able to set a new 1 min PB as well as a new PB up Emigration, which now stands at a cool 25'16" at a cool 17.9 MPH average. The wind was quite favorable, but it usually is for new PB's anyways. This time I shaved some 2 minutes off my old best despite starting conservatively. My average power was likewise improved over last year. It's also easy to tell (by the amplitude of the power curve) that I pace a lot better when the road goes up.

Oh yeah, on Friday I also set a new PB over 5 minutes. What's with all these PB's?! That 1 month off I took in April/May must've done me some good or something. The only thing that has declined is the sprint. I haven't been doing a lot of those. I'm mostly concentrating on improving sustained aerobic power and doing sprints takes time away from that endeavor. Sprints are fun so I'll be getting back them in the fall during the easy rides. Here's how things stand as of this weekend:

1 min: 9.5 W/kg
5 min: 6.1 W/kg
25 min: 4.7 W/kg (Emigration)

60 min: 4.7 W/kg (tested indoors in March)

At my measly 55 kg of weight those numbers may exaggerate my actual ability, but it's all about improvement and when comparing it to last year (when I weighed 1 kg less), I'm seeing improvement. I guess it's possible to nudge that genetic limit a bit higher after all. :-)

Famous last words.

2008-08-25T15:03:00.004-06:00

"Don't worry, we'll catch 'em", says Sean. I'm not saying that words of encouragement are bad, but it just wasn't enough at Sanpete.

How I got left behind is a bit blurry now. There were four guys off the front and we kept a good eye on them. As we got closer people were starting to jump across. Some made it, others didn't. Anyway, Hoov and I ended up chasing the group of 5-6 leaders for about an hour. There was another guy with us, but he was just dead weight. Not a single pull out of him. I think he was planning on attacking and bridging when we got close enough. But we had other plans. We never got close enough. Haha! In your face wheelsucker! OK, so he did attack finally, but I doubt he ever caught on. By then we could hardly see the front group anymore. At a certain point we decided that we had enough threshold training for the day and focused on just finishing the ride.

When the really old guys caught up to us at the bottom of the hill, they dragged some guy with them who got dropped from our group earlier on. The climb towards the end turned out to be fairly flat and by then I had found enough left in my legs to try to finish with style. The aforementioned rider still kept sucking wheels from the other group, and when I led out my teammate in the last 1k, he actually contested the sprint. He didn't beat my teammate, but he did finish ahead of me. Well, not that I lost any prize money or points, but I'm nevertheless baffled when people do that. Regardless of the significance of the game, you come to expect at least appearance of fairness. A big "L" for him.

On the other side of the spectrum is our UCA leader Scott, who having already clinched the title dropped back to help us catch on. For that, Scott gets a big "W". Andre came away with the race win, while B-horn had a bit of bad luck with a blown tire and had to hitch a ride. All in all, there were some small victories along the way for me as well. Hey, I didn't cramp, so that's good.

So much stuff, so little time.

2008-08-15T10:46:00.008-06:00

Since I have no writing skills I'll just do a Billy Joel version:

Saturday, waking up, still dark and cold out, meet Canyon team,
Packin' up, heading out, arriving in PC, still cold, setting up,
Breakfasting on cookies, driving to Feed 1, 11 am a break goes by,
Handing out bottles, jumping in the car, following the pack,
Enjoying amazing views of professional racing,
Tony and Phil fill in for Graham Watson.

Feed cars redirected, damn! Scrambling to Feed 3, where to park?
Everyone is in the middle of the road, here they come,
Water? EFS? Coke? Is that everybody? No, here's more,
OK, let's go up Suncrest, Here's Fast Freddie... pretty slow.
"Hey man, need any help?", "Yeah, they could close the road",
"Sorry dude, by this time it's already open", Freddie's cool.

Calling wife to shoot some pics when they ride by the house,
Can't, she just got out of the shower getting ready for work, bummer,
Shooting up the left side of the road, over speed limit,
Waving at cops as we pass, they just smile back, cool!
Redneck in a truck trying to pass the caravan like us,
Cops pull him over, what a heavenly day! Someone pinch me.

Down Suncrest at... well fast, movin' up the pack through Draper,
Ref tells us to get behind (again), but they let some cars through,
We're a car, so we go through too, up Little Cottonwood canyon,
Guy in a green jersey gets a tow, no refs around now,
Throwing freebies to kids, there's suffering Tyler Hamilton,
He's just smiles, no bad blood, looks ready to retire.

Pull up to Garmin/Chipotle car, hey that's Frishkorn in the back.
"Where's Pate?". "He's here too". Jokes and laughs,
Danielson's up the road, we pull up, "Need some water?",
"Put some on my back", we comply, some team car pulls up,
"You guys cut that shit out!", party poopers,
Didn't they just tow the guy in green?

Two guys in briefs dancing around, that's just wrong,
Here's the TofU devil, and there's whippin' Julie,
300 Warriors started 4 hrs before the race, some still on course,
Tanner's flat is not flat, more people, cheering, bells,
Finish! We park, mingle, listen in to interviews, hand out flyers,
What our local guys did was heroic, Nate's a stud.

"We didn't start the fire, it was always burning..."
(I doubt it'll fit the song, but you can try)

P.S. I also watched Stage 3, and supported on Stage 5. Zirbel's a monster TT-ist, but J-Lo's the man of the week.

P.P.S. 9 hr hikes are not good for training. They're mostly good for building fatigue, but awesome for the soul.

What's wrong with this picture?

2008-08-07T16:29:00.005-06:00

I mean really.

Does this fellow think he's gonna get lost in the baggage compartment? Something particularly wrong with "I [heart] NY" or "Made proudly in the USA"? I hope the other side of his t-shirt doesn't say "Fragile" or "This side up".

I know there's a story there, but the media ain't too keen.

But wait! There's more.

2008-08-06T15:17:00.006-06:00

Make your own and report back.

Stay demotivated.

2008-07-31T15:43:00.003-06:00

Now go here to make your own cycling demotivator poster. Shall we have a contest?

Digging a hole.

2008-07-29T18:01:00.004-06:00

Man, that took a lot out of me. The weekend that is. At 250 TSS, the Saturday's race was the hardest training day of the year for me. Sunday I went for an easy stroll with the hun... almost 4 hours of it. I wouldn't call it a recovery day. Even after taking Monday off, my legs were a bit shaky today. Of course that didn't stop me from going over Suncrest for a total of 1 north side, and 3 south sides. I was surprised to find that the ride totaled 175 TSS. But when you think about it that was a solid 1 hr 20 min of threshold riding. Good for me! I wonder if I should dig me a bigger hole tomorrow.

The Masters Champs.

2008-07-27T19:27:00.004-06:00

Well, Chalk Creek RR delivered the usual scorching temps, dehydration, and resulting cramps. I entered this, my first road race as an M35+, with the hope of helping a teammate to a podium finish. A few miles into it I wasn't sure I would even be able to finish. Since my injury I've been mostly riding a lot of tempo and threshold, but no short intervals. I quickly learned that my recovery was not up to par with that of folks who may have been racing the weekly crits. I did my best to react to the threatening moves, but at some point I realized that I'd have to be more frugal with my energies to finish the race. My teammates were a bit more ambitious.

As we turned onto the Chalk Creek road proper Andre, just back from the Alps and probably suffering from jet lag, took a flier after a lone escapee. The one and only B-Horn was soon to join him, but as luck would have it both of them were stopped by a herd of cows, which then carefreely let the chasing pack right through. Soon after, the Hoov (also a recent transplant from the French Alps) would have his chance. This was probably the most promising move of the day. At one point together with his breakaway companion Sean had some 2 minutes on the pack. I was a bit upset at the ref for giving us time splits. WTF? Is there some non-neutrality rule that I'm not aware of? Did someone pay him for that? Every time he'd shout out the split time, someone would either attack or start chasing hard. Was he, the referee particularly keen on seeing the break reeled in? FYI, I don't have a problem with teammates or family members on sidelines trying to assist that way, but it's not the ref's job to interfere or assist in race tactics.

Anyway, Sean was back in the pack after the turnaround point and looking a bit dehydrated. Scott, our UCA points leader had a bit of bad luck when he flatted some 15 miles from the finish. Unbelievably, he was back in the pack after a few minutes though I think that effort probably took a lot out of him. Coincidentally, I started to feel better as the race headed home. Not only was I going to survive, I was going to contend. There were a few more attacks which I was able to cover, but a pack finish seemed inevitable. I wasn't sure if I wanted to follow the first wheel up the finishing straight or stay back and hope that everyone will blow before the finish line. I sort of went hard from the bottom and it earned me a 5th place. I think I was limping in the small chainring by the 200 m mark. That was the longest 200 meters that I've ever ridden! The water that was handed to me right after the finish must have soaked right through my hand, because I don't remember drinking it. Anyways, I consider 7/26/2008 to have been a good day. I wasn't terribly dehydrated when I got home and I peed soon after. ;-)

A special lady.

2008-07-22T16:33:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday Mom!