Training with power, 2010 season

So I took the big plunge and got a Powertap (Pro+ hub, still not sure which computer to use). This means several things:

- I'm broke(er)
- I no longer have excuses for sucking
- I'm going to be forced to train hard

This is part of a larger plan not to suck as much next year. In order to have a more concrete goal than "not suck next year" my goal will be to upgrade to Cat 3 next year. Once I'm a Cat 3 I will again suck, but then I'll have a plan for the next year. Upgrading to Cat 3, according to USAC, means:

20 points in any 12-month period; or experience in 25 races with a minimum of 10 top ten finishes with fields of 30 riders or more, or 20 pack finishes with fields over 50. 30 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade

Assuming criterium/circuit race fields of 21-50, upgrade points are awarded as follows:

1st - 8
2nd - 6
3rd - 5
4th - 4
5th - 3
6th - 2
7th - 1

Of course, I've heard I can put in for an upgrade with fewer points, but again, this gives me concrete goals, and allows me a season of (hopefully) not sucking before I have to race against Cat 3s.

Naturally a power meter is not going to make me faster. In fact, I got a power meter because most training plans and coaches almost require them. The plan is to use Chris Carmichael's The Time-Crunched Cyclist for a plan. Not so much because I'm time-crunched, but because it's interval-heavy, which is my weakness. Putting in a lot of miles is not going to win races; getting faster is going to win races. Intervals suck, but with this plan they're over pretty quickly with plenty of recovery time.

So that's my plan. Some base-building in Texas for Hell Week and then hitting the plan. I'll have my first peak for the last couple of Opus races and Snake Alley, then another peak for early cyclocross season. I won't completely suck in between, but this plan won't have me winning races during that time either, so I'll just enjoy riding the bike for a while before I start torturing myself again.

VeloCross race report

As usual, this was a pretty neat course given the flat venue. A little extra was added here and there to make it more interesting. The best part was absolutely gorgeous weather - sunny and 60s! The regular skinsuit was perfect. It was a great event with a beer tent, massages and other vendors. LGR did a great job!!

My race was typical of my 'cross season this year. Not wanting to get in anyone's way, I lined up at the back again. The start was a little longer than before, but still too short, and everyone got massively bunched up at the first corner. There were a lot more asphalt sections than in the past, so I had my tires inflated to 35 front and back. This proved to be too much. Right away there was a crash in the first lap ahead of my on one of the asphalt sections; not sure what happened there but apparently Frye hit a tree. Ouch!

In the velodrome there was a lot of crossing over the asphalt inner track, and there was a tight corner into some asphalt, and my bike slid right out from under me. The guy behind me plowed into me, but other than that it wasn't too bad. I apologized, and we both got up and going (after losing a few slots of course). I was pretty much off the back at that point, and the rest of the race would be a matter of picking off a few people. I moved up a bit so as not to be last, but not by much.

After the adrenaline wore off after the race, the nasty road rash on my leg started hurting. Fortunately there was free beer from Rush River Brewing to numb the pain. They had a really good Scotch Ale; yum! I wish I could have stuck around longer, but I was starting to scab over the grit and I needed to get it cleaned up properly. Thanks to Nate for having a bottle of water and a wash rag handy to help a bit.

Got home, made some hot chocolate with the espresso steamer, took a bath and cleaned out the leg, put on some Tegaderm and took a couple of Advil. Should be good as new before the State Championship next week!

My Review of Shimano MT60 Gore-Tex Bike Shoes - Men's

Originally submitted at REI

Power through wet and nasty conditions with the mid-cut Shimano MT60 Gore-Tex® bike shoes. They're built for durable comfort and support.

Shimano MT60 Gore-Tex Bike Shoes - Men's

Winter shoes

By fsgray from Minneapolis, MN on 11/5/2009

 

4out of 5

Gift: No

Sizing: Feels half size too small

Width: Feels true to width

Pros: Good Traction, Good for Walking

Cons: Finicky Closures

Best Uses: Commuter shoes, Everyday riding

Describe Yourself: Competitive Cyclist

I bought these for winter commuting. Although temps haven't been much below freezing yet, I already notice they're warmer than regular shoes. I bought a size too large to accomodate chemical warmers and thicker socks, but that didn't gain me as much room as expected. The Gore-Tex works great in the rain for about 1/2 hour before it gets overwhelmed. Soles are quite squishy, but great for walking around in. The laces look nice, but I sure hope I don't have to futz with them in the cold! There's a little elastic band to tuck the laces into so they don't get in the way. More fussy than velcro straps, but they look stealthy; not at all like dorky cycling shoes. Quite satisfied so far, and much cheaper than dedicated winter shoes.

(legalese)

A Violinist in the Metro

(This is verified at UrbanLegends.com)
Original Washington Post story.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk..

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

Green Acres cyclocross race report

This was easily my favorite course of the year so far. It had a monster climb that you could barely ride up, lots of off camber, some 180s, a nice downhill, some evil-ly spaced barriers, a couple of nice little runups, just enough recovery stretches, and the weather cooperated to bring along some muddy cyclocross condititons. The promoter did a great job of making it an event, with brats, beer, a nice fire to warm up by while watching the race, and some sweet swag to keep everyone around for a while. Good turnout, lots of spectators, lots of people to catch up with, and some great racing action. Chip timing made for quick and accurate results.

Crossniacs were well represented with CJ, Jared, Nate, Ladric, Guy, Erik, FPA and more. CJ was 1st and Jared 2nd in the 35+ race and Ladric was 2nd in the 45+ race. This was a tough course, but the best time I've had on the 'cross bike so far this year! Crossniacs can be proud.

New Chris King road hubs and bottom bracket

Want.

Cyclocross Diaries Part 1: Alpenrose

Alpenrose Cross Crusade report

I was very fortunate to be able to score a bike to race instead of just watching the legendary Cross Crusade while visiting Portland. Thanks to ErikV for the hook-up! From our rental in northwest I biked up and over the west slope, which made a perfect warm-up. A bit of a feat with a singlespeed actually.

The venue, as expected, was huge. There were 1400 racers, and even more fans, family and friends of all ages and species. A huge expo with Belgian style pommes frites, coffee, pastries, etc. either as part of various fund-raisers or given away by sponsors. Absolutely a huge event.

Sascha and I met up with some of my friends who had set up, along with many others, the night before with a big tent, a grill, some outlaw beer, etc. I finally queued up with the B and singlespeed racers.

With such massive fields, the call-ups for the first race of the series was randomly by the last number of your race number. Unfortunately I was second to last to queue up. The very last group to be called up had the consolation of free Bridgeport beer! Alas. Good thing I wasn't taking it seriously. The course was over 2 miles long, which is good considering the number of people. The singlespeeders started first, then the rest of the B racers. From then it was a matter of working my way up through the field.

The course was similar to when I raced it when it was part of the USGP series a few years ago. The runup was shorter, and there was no peanut butter mud like there was then, and they added the famous stair climb out of the velodrome. The singlespeed was the weapon of choice, as I passed many people dropping chains on the bumpy parts. Other than runups the course was fairly flat. In the end, I worked my way up to pretty much exactly in the middle of the 127 singlespeed racers.

Cross Crusade races are a lot of fun. People enjoying themselves, making mayhem (but always respectful), always family-friendly, some fun outfits, big name racers (Trebon and Wicks as well as Erik Tonkin, Molly Cameron and Shannon Skerritt). Interestingly, the dollar handups seems to be a midwest thing, as that wasn't happening on the runup. There was plenty of cheering and heckling though.

Pork Chop Challenge (St. Cloud) race report

This race always seems like the hardest race of the year. Whether that's because it's the first brutal reminder of how hard cyclocross is, or because it really is that hard, is difficult to say. This year is no different though. Like previous years, it was a technically easy peasy grassy crit. Unlike last year, though, they changed it up a bit more. Gone was the long snaking around the grass at the beginning, and we pretty much headed straight for the river via the tennis courts. The downhill to the river is fun, of course, but what goes down must come up! Basically we went up and down to the river twice, each time with a set of barriers at the bottom. The second ascent was such that you could ride up, and the first ascent had the barriers at the top, so two times up the bluff on the bike. Ouch! Good thing I didn't switch to a single-ring setup like I was considering.

Lots of people were in Wisconsin for the USGP race, but fellow Crossniac FPA was there, and we yo-yo'ed for the whole race. It was fast, but I avoided getting lapped (they were pulling lapped riders) until the very end, and no crashes or mechanicals. As always, it's good to hang out with fellow MN racers again.

Henderson TTT

Today was the Henderson team time trial. I've been feeling strong late in the season from all the TTs, duathlons and misc. racing, so this sounded like a good chance to make use of the late season fitness. Amy was feeling frisky and came out of retirement to do this two-person team time trial. She's stronger at TTs than I am, but I've been getting stronger and she'd been taking it easy lately, so we were hoping to be more evenly matched.

Never having done a team time trial, I was a bit nervous. We've commuted and done tuff rides with pacelining and Russel rides, so we figured we'd do fine, even with no actual practice on the TT bikes.

I don't think I've worked that hard all year! My legs have never felt like they did after this race. On the way out, we were trading pretty even pulls at a pretty even speed, but on the way back I was really struggling and taking shorter pulls at lower speeds. The last mile Amy practically pulled me into Henderson. Although we were only third out of four, we ripped an average of 24.7mph, and smoked Amy's time from last year! First place was Jay and Kristy Henderson, and second was Paula Plant and her partner, a triathlete apparently. Stiff competition.

Anyway, it was quite the experience flying along at up to 30+ mph, working very well together and maximizing the combined horsepower available to us. Zoom zoom!

For sale: Alex A-Class ALX300 wheel set for Campy

Alex A-Class ALX300 paired spoke wheels with Campy freehub. 24/28 spokes. 740/1030 grams. Rim tape and skewers are included, lockring is not. More info here. Very good condition, true. $100 for the pair, plus shipping as needed. Would be perfect for cyclocross or daily wheels. Email if interested.

Treadman Duathlon

Last year's Treadman was my first multi-sport event ever, and doing well there encouraged me to continue. Getting back into high-adrenaline bike racing put that on the back burner for a while, but the gap between the end of road season and the start of 'cross season made some room.

The event was almnost cancelled this year, but an outcry from the community made it happen. In the end, despite the Minneapolis Duathlon last weekend (doubtless the reason for initial low number this year), a strong field showed up to race. So strong, in face, that despite doing quite a bit better than last year, I was a step down on the podium (3rd place in my age group). Nevertheless, I can't be too displeased: 6:50 min/mile for the first 5K, 21.1mph for the 21.6 mile TT, and 7:20 min/mile for the last 5K. That compares to 6:57/19.3/7:38 last year. Can you tell I was off the bike most of last year?? My transitions were slow enough to make the difference between 3rd and 2nd - need to work on that! I was fumbling with my shoes for a full minute in T1, but you can't bike with a folded over tongue!

I know I'm a bike racer at heart, because I really struggled to push myself once I passed a clump of riders during the bike, and the 2nd run was motivated by someone I thought was in my age group coming up behind me. I always have to be racing someone to get my best performance, and I always want to conserve energy otherwise!

It was a gorgeous day, and I'm glad the race happened in the end. Looking forward to next year!

Minneapolis Duathlon

After doing the Apple Duathlon, the Minneapolis Duathlon was a very different experience. In its first year, it's already the largest duathlon in America. Nevertheless, it was very well organized, and a pleasure to do.

It all started downtown on the river at the Plymouth Ave. bridge, so I biked down there with my stuff in the messenger pack that they gave away instead of a T-shirt or something. This pack is going to be very useful actually. The plan was to throttle it back more on the first run and the bike to leave something in the tank for the second run. This plan seems to have worked well. I fell back into maybe top 20 on the first run, but didn't let it bother me.

The bike was a very different experience from the Apple Duathlon, which was a qualifier for nationals or something. It was something like a sprint triathlon, with every level of cyclist out there. Fortunately we had the whole West River Parkway to ourselves, so there was plenty of room for passing. It was scenic and cool, and very enjoyable to bike! Very safe too, and Dan Casper was out in fireman gear keeping us safe.

The second run was much better than at the Apple Duathlon; I felt great and strong for the run! Unlike the first run, I didn't get passed except twice, so I pretty much held all the gains I made on the bike. With numbers on the front and no body markings, it was hard to tell who was in my age group. I have no clue how I did, but I felt strong and learned that holding back a bit at first is a good strategy.

Results and pictures should be out later tonight. I highly recommend this race to anyone considering multi-sport and is not into swimming! I only wish it wasn't on the same day as the state championship road race.

Results:
8/73 age group
22:05 (7:07) Run 1
51:13 (21.1) TT
23:39 (7:37) Run 2
1:41:16 total

Tuff Ride

Wow, this blog is lame isn't it? Pretty much anything I have to say fits in 140 characters.

Did the tuff ride yesterday. I've lived in fear of how "tuff" this ride would be for a long time. With late season fitness coming around, I thought I'd finally give it a try two Tuesdays ago. There was more chit chat than a Birchwood Betty ride, and it was pretty mellow for quite a while. Once we got to "exurbia" it ramped up a bit, but with twenty or so guys pulling you along in a well-orchestrated paceline, it's amazingly easy to cruise at 25-30 mph. That week I ended up getting caught between a split, and after struggling to catch on to the lead group, I tried falling back, but that group was too far back or had turned somewhere. I got a lovely tour of the north side trying to find my way back (including some kind of bust going down). Nevertheless, it was a nice ride, good to see and talk to so many people, and I ended up averaging over 20 mph without it feeling very tuff at all.

So yesterday was a bit different. Birchwood Amy was also afraid of the tuff ride, so I encouraged her to come along, and if we got dropped we could figure out a way home together. Again, a nice mellow roll out past Wayzata, and like the other week, we stopped for flats. But then the Grandstay boys jumped on, and when things ramped up, they really ramped up! Living in fear of getting lost, I held on, as did Amy. The paceline was pretty disorganized this time, so cruising along at those speeds was harder than before. It was certainly "tuffer" than before, but a great workout. Just when I thought I'd pop, the pace mellowed rolling back into Wayzata, and stayed mellow the rest of the way home.

At one point, because the paceline was so chaotic, we all had to slow suddenly, which of course transmits down the line to someone in the back having to slam on the brakes, which ended up being Amy. As we were lollygagging through Wayzata, her tire blew. Interestingly, it wasn't where the tread was worn through to the casing from the skid, but on the sidewall from a bit of glass. I stopped along with a couple others and we got her going again with a tube and an empty packet of Sport Beans! We took the south branch LRT back, which was closed at one point for bridge construction, so we did a little cyclocross-y adventuring.

Unfortunately the head unit for my Cateye V3 popped off somewhere on the route, but as expected Amy's computer showed well over 20 mph, which included all the lollygagging. Zoom zoom!

Again, awesome to chat with so many people I otherwise only see at races, and a great workout riding with mostly category 1, 2 and 3 racers. Tuff, but just shy of the edge of too tuff.

Oh, found out Matt Muyres had a head-on collision on the way back on the Greenway. He got checked out and is okay fortunately!