Mid-Race Fade - Comments & Discussion

My tendency to fade mid-race this season raises a few questions worthy of discussion.

1. Did I mis-manage my pre-race nutrition? This is a question raised by an experienced coach after reading my blog entry. It is an interesting insight, particularly because we typically do not think that there is any risk of "bonking" in a 'cross race that is only 45 minutes long. But 'cross racing places demands on your body that are vastly disproportionate to the length of the race. Just think of the energy used in pre-riding the course (particularly if you arrive at 8 a.m. or earlier for a 10 a.m. race), preparing your gear, staying warm in cold or wet weather, and in warming up for the race itself. On some mornings I would eat as early as 5:30 a.m. before driving to the race and then not eat at all in the hours leading up to the race. That was undoubtedly a mistake. Was it the cause of my fade? Probably not the only cause, but certainly a contributing factor.
   
2. Was it a strategic error to start really hard? Is it better to start conservatively and attempt to ride through the field during the race, or start fast and risk blowing up? I tend to favor the latter approach for several reasons: (1) People are closer together at the beginning, so you can make up places more quickly; (2) starting fast puts you in front of most crash-induced traffic jams; (3) everyone else will start fast and fade some, so the key is to fade less than them. The fast start brings the risk, however, that you'll blow up and be passed by dozens of racers, all of which will become hard to re-pass as the race goes on and gets strung out.
   
3. Did my training over-emphasize VO2max and under-emphasize threshold power? I think the answer is certainly "yes." I alluded to this in my previous post in my off-hand comment about doing only two laps of our 5-minute practice course. Early in the 'cross season I was pretty diligent in doing threshold intervals on the 'cross bike, including a couple of good rides out the C&O Canal Towpath. But as the season went on, I more often defaulted to using our Wednesday 'cross practice as my main workout of the week. These practices, while good for many things, cannot be considered threshold training. I should add that, by relying on cross practices, I was not exactly following the advice of my coach! If I had been more diligent in following his weekly plans, I very likely would have preserved more of my threshold power during the season. Next year, I'll make it a priority to keep up with some longer threshold rides and I'll encourage my teammates to vary our efforts at 'cross practice.
   

Reflections on 2008 Cyclocross Season

Reflections on 2008 Cyclocross Season
Successes

• JeanBean: Perhaps the most fun I had all season was watching Jean race. She’s fearless through the corners and a relentless competitor. She won several races and upgraded from Cat 4 to Cat 3, and then rode well in the Elite races. She’ll be a podium finisher in the Elites next year if she follows her current trajectory!

• Got the bikes dialed in. Both the pit bike and the race bike performed well this year. I also managed to dial in Jean’s bike pretty well. Jean had NO significant mechanical issues this season, and I suffered only two, neither of which were race-ending. Admittedly, we missed both local mud races this year because were out of town (Lilypons and Taneytown).

• Learned more about gluing and maintaining tubular tires. My new favorite tire is the Challenge Fango. I even was paid (in Belgian beer, of course) to glue tires for friends.

• Learned to dial in air pressure. I’m still fine-tuning pressure and learning to ride on less, but this year I seemed to find a sweet spot for many races.

• Had GREAT starts in almost every race, despite starting most of my races from the third row. With a few exceptions, I worked my way into the top 10 to 15 by the end of the first lap, usually within striking distance of the leaders. But see BIG FADE, below.

• Technical skills increased a lot this year – rode cleanly 95% of the time in every race. Only one crash, if you can believe it, and no injuries of significance.

• Dialed in the pre-race prep. This is a big one. With two racers, 3 bikes, spare wheels, a trainer, and other paraphernalia, it is quite a chore to get out the door, much less make it to the races with enough time to prepare properly. But this year we really dialed it in, making the pre-race time much less stressful than before.

• Friends. The ‘cross scene just keeps getting more fun as our circle of ‘cross-addicted friends increases. A two-day trip racing trip to Wisconsin, two racing days in Richmond, a full plate of local races, plus hosting friends from Pittsburgh and Virginia Beach made for a fun few months.
  

• Successful Tacchino Ciclocross. Putting on the Tacchino was exhausting, but it brought together our team and deepened our friendships within the community. Receiving complements from racers on the course and from the officials on the race-day organization was especially gratifying.

Problems

• BIG FADE in mid-race in nearly every race this season. In many races I’d be running in the top 10 after the first lap and would subsequently fade to the 20's. I’m still puzzling it out, but likely causes are a lack of endurance fitness as well as chronic low-back pain, perhaps related to my bike-fit. Or maybe we just need to do more than two laps of our 5-minute practice course at a time during ‘cross practice . . . .

• Inadequate fitness base (Chronic Training Load or CTL) coming into ‘cross season. By early September, I felt like I needed a break, but this was precisely when I needed to be raising my CTL coming into cross season. In hindsight, I think I tried to hold too high a level for the entire road season and ended up a little burned out at the end, which made it impossible to hit ‘cross season with enough training in the bank.

Tacchino Ciclocross Announces New Sponsors!

Come on out to the Tacchino Ciclocross race in Leesburg, VA on Sunday November 23! The annual race, part of the MABRACross Series, promises a new “fast and hard” course, BBQ that induces nirvana, and an Italian guy running around in a turkey suit. Fun is a given under those conditions, so come out and enjoy the last weekend before your in-laws and drama-inducing aunt Kathy arrive.

Ida Lee Park is a great venue for families and we of course will have a Lil’ Belgians race. There's a great playground right next to the registration pavilion to keep the kids busy after their race. And if the weather is less than optimal, the park has a really nice recreation center with showers and a hot tub that you can warm up in for a small fee. If the hot tub doesn’t warm you up, Big Buddha BBQ’s brisket sandwiches and pulled pork sandwiches will.

We’ve also got some great prizes lined up for those that are in it to win it, thanks to our lovely sponsors. Resource Dynamics Corporation is sponsoring the Elite Men and Women’s races which both have $600 purses, paid out six places deep. Prizes for the other categories are sponsored by:

• Conte’s Bicycles in Arlington: The Squadra’s local bike shop of choice and sponsor. Hands down, the best mechanics in the area and the best selection of bikes.
• Sette Bello: which graciously hosts the Squadra’s monthly team dinner, has great food and fantastic service.
• Java Shack: where the Squadra starts and ends most of our rides. This locally owed coffee shop (aka “The Shack”) serves up fair trade, organic coffee in eco-friendly cups. Stop in and pick up a pound of the Costa Rican beans–they brew a great cup of espresso.
• Sheila Moon: the Coppi women are big fans of her cycling clothes, especially the beanies and arm/leg warmers.
• Hammer Nutrition: which produces some of the most popular fuels and supplements for athletes–without any artificial colors or sweeteners.
• CX Magazine: every ‘crossers bathroom magazine of choice (or coffee table magazine if you’ve got space for furniture amongst your bikes.)
• Faccia Luna: another great local Arlington restaurant.

Other sponsors include: Glaceau (makers of VitaminWater and SmartWater) which will be providing refreshments to racers and FastSigns (for your all signs, banners and other graphics needs).

In addition to the traditional prizes, we'll be offering some crazy mid-race primes, including some Belgian beer for Masters categories and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pick from the Suitcase of Sausage.

For those of you who are curious about the new course or might want to pre-ride it this weekend, here's a JPG showing a preliminary version of the course. We very likely will change the prologue start to be closer to registration, but otherwise this is close to the final course.

We’re hoping to get over 300 racers registered, so Hup! Hup! your way over to BikeReg if you haven’t already and support local racing!

Richmond Festival of Cross

Jean and I went down to Richmond for the 2-day omnium event at the Richmond Festival of Cross. We had a great time and strongly recommend it to you guys for next year. The fields were much smaller than what we're used to in the MABRA and MAC, but races were spirited and full of "Hupitude." The races were structured as a 2-day omnium consisting of races at two venues and a one-lap time trial on Saturday’s course.

The Venues

- The Chimborazo Park venue was fantastic. Lots of elevation change and a great mixture of grass, pavement, dirt, stairs, and long stretches of real cobblestones -- all with a great view of the James River and downtown Richmond.

- The Bryan Park venue was unlike any 'cross race I've done: flat, fast, and not terribly technical, kind of like a road crit with a few dirt and grass sections and two sets of barriers. I did the entire race in my 48-tooth big ring and actually spent the road sections drafting other riders (at least until I popped from the lead group).

- The Omnium consisted of two races plus a one-lap time trial of Saturday's course. Each event was weighted evenly, so it really paid to race all three and do well in the TT. Unfortunately, prizes went only one deep for the omnium and 3 deep for each of the races.

The Races

- I signed up for the 35+ Omnium. Unlike MABRA, VACX still uses the old-school A, B, and C designations. Masters, however, get their own category. We had about 21 guys in the 35+ group and a smaller group of 45+ guys that started one minute later. I had a decent start and slotted into the top 5 for the first two laps. That's when I started to fade -- losing several spots until I found a second wind and made back a spot or two to finish 6th. Technically and mechanically it was a smooth race.

- After recovering, and after meeting up with George, who had come down for the B race, I got a wild hare and decided to sign up for the B's. The field was much bigger, about 41 guys. I had a decent start and slotted into the top 10. The speeds were higher than the 35+ race the field was a little out-of-control going through the opening grass turns, but things settled down mid-lap. My legs were cooked from the earlier race and I allowed George and a few other guys to come by. On the second lap I clocked a cobblestone with my rear tire and was convinced I’d flatted [I’m calling it a “mental flat”]. I attempted a bike change in the “pit,” but I had neglected to check the air pressure on the pit bike before the race (my Grifo’s tend to leak air rather quickly). So I tossed the pit bike and jumped back on the A bike, losing several more spots. During the next lap Jean pumped up the pit bike tires and I took it the next time around to finish the race. By the end I was 22nd and completely wasted from the heat, adrenaline, and constant elevation change of the course.

- Less than 30 minutes later, I did the one-lap time trial. All those laps on the course really helped here: I rode cleanly and gutted out a 6:20 lap, good enough for 3rd place in the Masters.

- Sunday’s race was completely different. I had a great start on the road, making the turn onto the gravel in 3rd place. I got crossed up with a guy in an early turn and had to close a 20 foot gap but came back out onto the road sitting on the back of a five-person lead group. Somewhere in lap 2 or 3 I made a small mistake and lost contact with the lead group. Losing contact was trouble, because the road sections were long enough that drafting was critical for a few minutes recovery. Scott T. did well to hang with that lead group after I popped off. After that, I started my now-common fade and lost several spots. I made two or three back in the waning laps and finished 8th on the day, good enough for 4th overall in the omnium.

I strongly recommend going down to Richmond for these races. They were low-key events but the races were hard-fought and fast. We especially need more ladies to race, because Jean’s A field had only 3 riders each day – not enough for her second-place finishes to qualify for upgrade points. But she did win some $$ – enough to fund a fantastic dinner at small Italian restaurant on VCU’s campus downtown.

Links to some great pics here and here.

Squeal Like a Pig

Getting Rid of Brake Squeal and Chatter From My TRP EuroX Brakes

I wanted to share my two week odyssey to get rid of excessive squeal from my 2007 TRP EuroX brakes on my carbon rims. The 2007 TRP EuroX brakes do not have any kind of toe-in adjustment. [Note: the newer magnesium models do]. On my old bike, this was not a problem because I was running aluminum rims and the brakes did not squeal or chatter. This year, however, I have a new "A" bike set up with carbon rims (older model Zipp 340 wheels). With these wheels, the squealing on the rear brake is simply unbearable and the fork chatter was harrowing.

I tried a variety of fixes:

- Bending the arms of the brake shoes to create toe-in (clamp the shoe in a vise and grip the arm with a open-end wrench)

- Replacing stock cork carbon-specific pads with yellow SwissStop pads. SwissStops can be used with both carbon and aluminum rims, as long as you’re careful to remove any aluminum shavings from the pad before using them with carbon rims.

- Increasing the yoke angle (by raising the straddle cable carrier), but at the price of decreased mechanical advantage.

Finally, I replaced the brake shoes with after-market shoes from Velo-Orange with adjustable toe-in. With these you need to adjust the toe-in first and then install the shoe into the brake arm. This turned out to be the magic bullet. I was able to dramatically increase the toe-in with these shoes and completely eliminate both squeal and chatter, even under hard braking conditions.

With renewed confidence in my brakes, I’m able to carry more speed into turns and hit the brakes at the last possible minute, rather than scrubbing speed all the way up to the turn. My speed through technical sections has increased noticeably as a result.

- I also ran across this helpful video on adjusting cantilever brakes. A little simplistic, but one helpful tip was to wrap a rubber band around the back of the brake pad in order to adjust toe-in.
I know everyone says that "brakes are overrated, because they just slow you down," but in 'cross, better braking = more speed.

Cool Stuff on the Interweb!

I've run across some really cool cyclocross-related stuff recently on the amazing Interweb.

First up are some great video sites with excellent cyclocross and bike racing video content:

www.cyclofile.com (hat tip to Tim Johnson for this link)
www.vimeo.com (Great HD content here)
www.crosstube.net

Google, in honor of its 10th anniversary, put up a vintage search index from 2001, complete with archived web pages from the same timeframe (at least to the extent possible). A quick search on cyclocross turned up some real gems:

Napa Valley Velo's Index of Mud
(who knew that mud was classified into 8 different categories?)

The registration site for the 2001 USCF Cyclocross Nationals in Overland Park, Kansas.

The 2001 UCI Cyclocross Rankings

I'm sure there's a ton of other cool stuff out there - so check it out!

Victim of Anticipatory Regulation

Last Sunday during the Civil War Century, I was eagerly anticipating a certain climb that I remembered from riding the event 2 years ago. The climb was relatively long (10 minutes or more) on an open two-lane road with wide shoulders at a steady gradient of less than 8 percent. I remembered it as a great climb for testing purposes, in that you could pace yourself without regard to changing gradients or other distractions. You could also see up the climb far enough to target riders to pick off as you climbed. Basically, I was planning on hitting the climb as hard as I could to test myself, hoping to get a solid 20-minute effort out of it.

With this in mind, I hit the base of the climb hard. The gradient was not as steep as I remembered, so I found myself in the big chainring rolling comfortably at 315 to 340 watts. Probably too high for a 20-minute effort, but the pace felt manageable. Mentally, I was prepared for a 20-minute effort at this pace.

But the course designers played a trick on me – about 5 minutes into the climb, the route turned off the main road and went up a steeper, more narrow climb to the left. I had to slow down for the turn due to oncoming car traffic and then attempt to recalibrate my effort for a steeper climb of unknown duration. Needless to say, my pacing strategy was thrown for a loop. I stayed on the gas, but my power dropped a few times as the road leveled off and then resumed at the same or steeper gradient. Dealing with the steeper gradients wrecked my carefully calibrated effort and took me over the edge, forcing me to back off more than I wanted. Eventually I could see the end of the climb and a host of riders clumped together. Summoning a final burst of energy I picked up the pace and rode past everyone by the summit.

Given the variability of the terrain, the gap between average and normalized power was fairly wide. NP was a solid (but not great) 304 watts for the 20-minute effort. I was hoping for something above 315-320.

The climb is perfect illustration of a concept I’ve been reading about recently: anticipatory regulation. In a nutshell, anticipatory regulation is a model for explaining the onset of fatigue in endurance sports. According to the model, the brain regulates the distribution of effort during exercise by continuously calculating the maximum level of muscle activation that can be sustained until the anticipated end of the task without harming yourself. In an event of known duration, it allows for an “endspurt” of higher effort – that sprint at the end of race or that extra burst of energy at the top of the climb. According to the theory, your mind automatically slows you down before you harm yourself, regardless of whether your muscles could have continued working at the same rate.

Anticipatory regulation is one of two competing theories of fatigue, the other being peripheral fatigue. Peripheral fatigue is a totally involuntary and is the function of biological processes in the working muscles. A distinction can be drawn between prudent self-pacing from experience (voluntary), vs. anticipatory regulation (partially voluntary) and peripheral fatigue (involuntary).

Problems arise with the anticipatory regulation, however, when the anticipated effort turns out not to be true – when the hill is longer than you thought or the amount of time required to maintain the effort is greater. This situation is what separates the theory of anticipatory regulation from voluntary pacing strategy. According to the theory, the mental regulation of effort is partially involuntary and happens at a subconscious level. When confronted with an effort of unknown duration, your body automatically backs off to a sustainable level. While certain physiological barriers remain (maximum safe core temperature, etc.), the primary effect of incorrect distance/time feedback is on your perceived exertion rather than your performance. In other words, you won’t be able to ride or run faster, but your misery level will increase or decline according to the feedback.

Could I have stuck with my ambitious pace had the route not been changed? I don’t know, but I do know that it would have been less miserable!

Race To Train, Or Train To Race?

I’d like to throw this out for discussion. What is better: race often, because racing is the best training, or race rarely, and specifically train for each race to get a result? Is there a happy medium between these two points? I realize that your answer will depend to a great extent on whether your personal life situation allows you to race frequently, but assuming that it does, which side of the spectrum do you advocate and why?

On a similar note: when is it appropriate to "train through" a race? Or is this really an [pre]-excuse for poor performance?

As BikeSnobNYC puts it:

Despite the fact we're still in the middle of the Tour, the fact is that road racing season's basically over anyway. The astute rider has already written it off and begun focusing his or her attention on cyclocross. The key to a successful racing season is to always live a minimum of four months in the future, mentally-speaking. That way you can dismiss your poor performances as simple preparation. Sure, you may not get anywhere near the front of the pack in a road race this summer, but you're just trying to get some intense mileage in so you'll be ready for cyclocross season. Poor mountain bike racing is even easier to rationalize--you're just doing that to improve your bike-handling. And of course once 'cross season does begin, you're still under no pressure to get results because, really, you're just doing it to maintain your form during the off-season. With the right attitude, you can surf an entire year of racing like a great big wave of mediocrity. Winning is for dopers and sandbaggers.

Without discounting the few remaining road races this season, I’m already thinking about my approach for next season. Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Kinetic Half-Iron Triathlon Relay

On Saturday, I took a little break from road racing to do a 56-mile time trial as part of a half-iron triathlon relay team. The race was the Kinetic Half-Iron Triathlon, held at Lake Anna State Park near Fredericksburg, VA. Jean did this race last year as part of her build-up to the Louisville Ironman, but this year she was the “sponsor” of our relay team.

“Jean’s Boys” consisted of David Glover (swim), me (bike leg), and Rob Bell (run).

It was a blast, and our team took first place among 8 relay teams.

I was pretty nervous at the start of this event, even though it was strictly for fun. I’ve never done a time trial longer than 25 miles, and I had not ridden any of the course. David Glover, Jean’s triathlon coach, took fourth place overall last year and assured me that the course was mostly flat with a few big chainring hills.

How did it go? Pretty well. The legs felt good the whole time. I really had to hold back for most of the ride. Toward the end of the first lap I had a couple cramping type twinges, but I sucked down some endurolytes and the cramps stayed away. My basic strategy was to hold 75 to 80% of my threshold power on the flat, but push hard on any hills. I focused on riding the rolling hills with momentum by gathering speed on the descents and pushing a larger-than-usual gear at the base of the climb to hold onto the speed gained from the descent, then shifting down a gear at a time to keep the cadence in the sweet spot up the climb. This technique worked like a charm on every sequence of hills. I went ahead and let the power drift up on the climbs (beyond any specific target), reasoning that time gained on the uphills is worth more than time gained on the flats.

Credit for this hill-climbing technique goes to the Unholy Rouleur, who recently wrote about the “Fat Guy’s Zen of Hillclimbing.”

Looking at the power data, I'd say that the effort was paced almost perfectly. The peak 60 minutes was at the beginning, when I was passing tons of people, but the peak 10 minutes occurred an hour and 37 minutes into the ride. NP for the ride was 262 watts (IF of .87). Cadence was perfectly distributed as well, with the bulk of the time between 90-100 rpms and virtually no time below 80. My HR stayed between 155-165 bpm the entire race, until the final 2 miles, where I let it go to up to and beyond my threshold (168). In hindsight, I suspect I could have gone a little harder on the flats, but I was right to be conservative, given that I had never ridden the course and had never ridden a TT of this duration.

Some numbers:

Among the relays, our team was ranked first in swim, bike, and run -- for a sub-five hour finish.

Relay Results

My bike split of 2:31:04 would have been good enough for 13th place overall, out of 288 total participants.

Here are Jean’s pictures from the event.

Official pictures will eventually be here.

A special shoutout goes to fellow Squadra Coppi member, Adrianne Kroepsch, who WON the women’s event overall with an incredible time of 4:52:05 – breaking the significant 5-hour barrier.

She completed the bike in 2:39:06, a time that would have beat most men. Her run was even better: 1:33:54, which equates to a sub-7:15 mile pace. She was ranked first in the run among women and second in the bike.

She is READY for Ironman Brazil.

Jeff Cup 2008 - A Coppi Rider's Perspective

I was more nervous going into this race than I have been in a long time. It was my first road race of the season and likely the first race of the year for most of the 120 other guys in the Cat 4 field. My training had been going well and I was more fit than I have been in the last two seasons, so I was putting some serious pressure on myself to perform well. Finally, my driving companions for the trip to Charlottesville, Jean and Lindsey, were admittedly nervous for their race.
Despite the nerves, the massive field was well-behaved and pretty safe for the most part. I was on the brakes more than necessary at first, but eventually became more comfortable and was able to move forward within the field without difficulty. The first lap went by so quickly that I lost track of where we were, and asked Jason whether we’d gone up the hill. About that time I saw the 1k sign, so it was obvious that we’d passed the hill long ago. I guess I jammed up it with the rest of field without recognizing it as the “big” hill.
The second lap was more of the same. There were some small attempts at breaks, but nothing got more than a few meters gap. Joaquin caused some pain by jamming it up the hill on the second lap. I hit 1100 watts – my highest wattage of the race – in the first five seconds of the climb, re-accelerating after slowing down for the turn at the base of the hill. If you can carry your speed into that turn, like Joaquin did, you can save a match and put the hurt on the field.
I started getting these little cramping spasms in my quads during the third lap. I’m sure I was dehydrated and underfed. I just hoped that the race would end before I succumbed to full lockup. Other than that, the third lap went by smoothly and I was able to move up on the hill without much effort.
The final lap was faster and a little more nervous. The race had not been hard enough to seriously shrink the field (75 finishers were given the same time out of 99 starters). So a lot guys had pent-up energy to burn, but no one was willing to risk trying to get away. The final lap also featured some scary moments with no fewer than 4 cars barely pulled off the road and a rider down on the side of the ride covered in a blanket and a moto-ref, on foot, frantically waving for us to slow down. Not what you want to see a few miles before the finish. Miraculously, the field rolled through these obstacles without mishap. I managed to move into the top 20 before the final turn into the finishing road (the turn is about 1 mile before the finish), along with all of the Coppi boys. But we all paid the price of having to re-accelerate coming out of the turn. It was basically a power-eating drag race from the turn – trying to find wheels, accelerate around exploding riders, and find a way to continue accelerating to the line. I’m still trying analyze where I went wrong, but my current thinking is that I used most of my remaining matches getting back up to speed after the turn and was never able to latch onto a good wheel to carry me forward. Once I was in the wind, I ran out of steam and became one of the exploding riders that everyone had to pass. I probably lost 20 spots by the time the line finally came.
Bottom line: 39th in field of 75 finishers, 99 starters.

Tubular Tire Follow-Up

Call me a hide-bound traditionalist, but I am big fan of tubular tires for racing. After a half-season of ‘cross on clinchers, I switched to tubulars and will never go back. For the road, I’ve always been a tubular man and will likely stay that way.

My experience gluing tubulars for ‘cross, however, has completely changed the way I glue my road tubulars. Flatting one of my tubular race wheels in February and discovering that it had been held on by a woefully inadequate quantity of 3M Fastak, further convinced me to re-glue my race wheels this year.

I recently posted a question about tubular tires on the blog of Ben Oliver, chief race mechanic of Team Bissell. Ben’s blog is a great first-hand report of the “best practices” of pro race mechanic, done in a cool Q&A format.

I asked him: What type of glue do you use, and how do you remove excess glue from the braking surface of carbon rims? I’m just looking for some “best practices” among pro mechanics.

His answer was comprehensive and really helpful. Best of all, he pointed me to one of the few (maybe only) independent scientific studies on the performance of tubular glue on carbon rims.

[The relevant section of the study is found in Part 7 in the online bicycle research articles]

The bottom line? Vittoria Mastik One. That’s nice to hear, especially since it’s consistent with my own research and with the practices of the best mechanic in the DC area, Greg Thomas over at Conte’s in Arlington.

In gluing up my race wheels for this year, I followed the same practices described in my earlier post about gluing ‘cross tubulars. If its’ good enough for ‘cross, with low pressures and lots of shear forces, it’s more than good for road riding, where the tire is held onto the rim predominantly by air pressure.

Drop me a note in the comments, and I’ll send you a copy of the tubular tire study.

Stick of Dynamite! Stick of Dynamite!

Stick of Dynamite! Stick of Dynamite!

This is what General Petraeus yells to exhort his colleagues to push harder during exercise. I like it – it would definitely light a stick under my a$$ if someone yelled that at me during a ‘cross race. Or it might just make me slow down and give them a “WTF” look.

The Runner's World interview of General Petraeus is pretty motivational, particularly the way he looks at athletic competition as a test for certain character traits, including perseverance, resilience, flexibility, and general toughness.

Sex With An Electrocardiogram

From BSNYC on Training With Power

Training With Power

In case you didn’t know, training with power is all the rage. In fact, Joe Friel likens getting a power meter to a person with weak eyesight donning his first pair of glasses. Of course, the reality is that riding with a power meter is more like having sex with an electrocardiogram, in that it takes the fun out of the whole enterprise and buffets you with data you don’t really need. Physical sensation will guide you through your ride the same way it guides you through sex, and if you can’t do either without electronics it’s possible you have a problem that technology by itself may be insufficient to address.

“Sex with an electrocardiogram.” Priceless.

The 80 Kilo Club

I’ve never thought of myself as a big guy. All through high school, college, and law school I thought of myself as skinny, even scrawny – although I stand 6' 3" and weigh ~ 82 kilos. It wasn’t until I started racing bikes that I discovered that I am a big guy, at least by the standards of most successful bike racers and endurance athletes. My relative size became even more apparent when I started training with power. Suddenly everything is expressed in terms of watts/kg – such as the benchmarks for a rider’s VO2max power and functional threshold power in the power profile chart. Clearly, the higher your power/weight ratio is, the better you’ll be at climbing. But the chart neglects an important point for us bigger riders – that on the flats, it’s your power-to-drag ratio that’s much more important. Overcoming air resistance is critical on the flats (and, for that matter, any time you’re going more than about 15 mph), so anytime you can increase your power relative to your coefficient of drag, you’ll have an advantage over a smaller rider with less power relative to their frontal area. And because the differences in frontal area between smaller and larger riders is less than their relative differences in weight, it is possible for a large rider to crush a smaller rider in a headwind or crosswind situation. Just ask Tom Danielson or local rider Bryan Vaughan (who complains about little guys not providing any significant draft in a breakaway).

Given the reality of my situation, I thought it would be fun to start compiling a list of riders - pro and local amateurs - who belong to The 80 Kilo Club. Maybe this list will inspire you big guys to increase that power, get more aero, and crush the little guys. Feel free to add to the list in the comments!

European Pros:
Magnus Backstedt (94 kg)
Tom Boonen (82 kg)

Domestic Pros:
Tom Zirbel (88 kg)

Local Hardmen:
Bryan Vaughan (86kg)
The Unholy Rouleur

Endurance Exercise - Does it makes us older, or younger?

These two articles seem to contradict one-another.

The first, by Mark Sisson, was published on Slowtwitch.com. It suggests that aerobic endurance exercise (running, cycling, triathlon) accelerates aging, as opposed to intense anaerobic exercise (weight lifting, sprinting), which allegedly slows down the aging process.

Training Is No Guarantee of Health

The second appeared on the front page of today's Washington Post.

Exercise Slows Down Aging

It reports on a study of 2,400 British twins, the results of which suggest that exercise slows down the aging process, and that the more you exercise the younger your cells appear.

I'm inclined to believe the King's College study over Sisson's half-baked theories, but that could just be me wanting to justify my lifestyle.

What do you think?

P.S. -- I won't get into Sisson's provactive statements regarding testosterone therapy, or its implications for amateur age-group athletes.

Addendum: I recently ran across a more comprehensive article on exercise and aging, courtesy of Havard Men's Health Watch.

Exercise and aging: Can you walk away from Father Time?

The bottom line is that endurance exercise, resistance exercise, flexibility training, and balance exercises all play a roll in staving off many of the effects of aging.

Remember: 40 is the new 30, and, as Mark Twain put it:

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. ~Mark Twain