Tour of Washington County Stage Race – Cat. 4

From 2009-6-21 Tour of Washington County SR

This was the second running of the Tour of Washington County and the first year that the race was run as a true stage race with a general classification based upon time, rather than points. Overall, the race was a story of attrition. We started the RR on Saturday with 75 guys, but only 50 were given finishing times. Only 49 guys showed up for the TT the next day and only 30 guys finished the crit. I ended up 25th in the RR, 20th in the TT, and 27th in the pack finish of the crit. In GC, I was 20th overall -- an improvement from last year, but not what I was hoping for.

Weather: Weekend conditions were windy and warm – approximately 80 degrees with high winds from a storm that blew through the area on Saturday morning. We fought a nasty wind throughout the road race. During the TT on Sunday I had to get out of the aero position once to steady the bike after a gusting crosswind. The wind was even a factor in the crit, dictating the best spot to be in the pack during certain legs of the course.

Smithsburg RR. This race seemed harder than it did last year, when I stayed with the main field until the penultimate hill and rolled in for 26th a few seconds after the finishers. This year the race was converted to a true stage with a time-based general classification. I’m not sure if the new format changed the racing or if the extremely windy conditions made the difference, but the race certainly seemed much harder.

I don’t look at my power meter during a road race, except perhaps to take a peek at my HR. But downloading the data later tells the story pretty well. According to my power meter, the race lasted almost exactly two hours – all of which were spent at a normalized power (NP) within a few watts of my functional threshold power (FTP). My 20-min NP was 20 watts beyond my FTP. Despite that effort level, I still missed the field split on lap 5 of 6. Once the split occurred, the group I was in disintegrated and everyone was left more-or-less on their own. I stayed on the gas the best I could and rode mostly solo to the end. Strangely, I was only 3:49 behind the winner despite riding solo for 1.5 laps! I started cramping a little in my calves in lap 3 and was cramping in lap 5 when I was dropped.

From 2009-6-21 Tour of Washington County SR

Boonsboro TT (20k). Finished 20th in a time of 30:03, an improvement of more than two minutes over last year’s time. I struggled a bit during the ride and my HR never really came up to threshold until the very end. For some reason I wasn't able to hold my threshold power and I didn’t climb much beyond threshold. I think the problem was lack of freshness and perhaps inadequate recovery from Saturday's RR. Perhaps I should have stayed out of the sun while waiting for Jean to finish! But it was cool to see my teammate, Christian, win the Cat 4 women’s race with a huge margin.

From 2009-6-21 Tour of Washington County SR

Williamsport Crit. Hung on by the skin of my teeth in this crit. Pace was high from the beginning with 3 time-bonus premes up for grabs and some tight GC races going on, including with my two teammates, Tom and Nate. Unfortunately, I was hanging on for dear life the entire race and couldn't do much to help them. I think we shed at least half the field by the end. 28 laps and more than 28 600-watt spikes in power. Ouch.

From 2009-6-21 Tour of Washington County SR

Bakers Dozen CRP

Bakers Dozen CRP

Scott Thompson and I did the Leesburg Bakers Dozen on Saturday. We finished 9th in a stacked field of 25 Male Duo teams. We had signed up for Geezer Duo (combined age of 80+), but the promoter eliminated our category when a couple of teams dropped out.

My goal was to push myself as hard as I could without going over the edge and to have a much fun as possible. Racing as a duo team was strange – I only saw Scott at the beginning and end of the race and for less than a minute during lap transitions.


Quick Summary: I managed 10 laps, 6.5 hours ride time, and nearly 70 miles.

Now, two days later, my legs are tired, but the lower back, hands, and shoulders are really sore. I snuck in a nap on Saturday but could have used another one on Monday!

Nutrition:
I opted for real food for the race – my aim was for “comfort” foods that would satisfy cravings for either salt or sugar. I reasoned that the high exertion levels would suppress my appetite, so rather than struggle to choke down unappetizing conventional “race” foods (gels, Perpetuem, carbo drinks, etc.), I would have some of my favorite foods available.

JeanBean – the queen of cuisine – prepared everything and fed me during the breaks between laps.

- GORP (Good Ol’ Raisins and Peanuts, with M&M’s thrown in for good measure).
- Turkey and cheese sandwiches on natural whole-wheat bread
- Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches
- ProBars (400 calories of concentrated natural goodness from Whole Foods)
- Small 10 oz. Cokes
- Water and Nuun in the Camelbak
- Endurolytes and Motrin (a.k.a. Vitamin M)

Lap by lap report:

First two laps. These may been the quickest, but they're weren't the smoothest. The first one was particularly choppy because I was really trying to "force" it. The flow was a little better the second time, but not much. I ended up doing 10 laps on the day; I think my teammate Scott did 9, for a total of 19. I haven't seen the results, but I guess the winners did 25.

Laps 3 & 4. These were pretty solid. I started to get the course dialed and was picking up some good flow through most sections.

My laps 5 & 6. These may have been my best laps on the day. I was feeling some twinging cramping during the break, but the legs were great during the laps. I also had the course dialed in and was starting to really experience “flow.” Quickness, not speed, was my mantra.

After doing double laps, we switched to singles. We were finding that our second lap was a few minutes slower than the first (Scott described it as a “death march”), so we switched to singles to keep the speeds up. It worked, until Scott’s stomach went nuclear on him.

Lap 7. I struggled with an over-full stomach this lap. Feeling low on calories, I ate way too much in the 35 minute break between laps. About 2/3 of the way through I got sideways and I “burped” some air from my front tire, leaving me with about 20 lbs of pressure instead of 30. I was forced to slow down a bit through the turns. Combined with the stomach, this lap was a few minutes off the pace.

My eighth lap. Much better lap this time. My stomach settled nicely and the legs were pretty good. I didn’t force any of the uphills - I just shifted down a gear or two and kept the momentum going.

Final two laps, both at night. The first lap was at dusk and I crashed hard on a bermed right-hand corner in the second set of woods. I was unhurt, but it killed my rhythm. The second lap really sucked. I stacked it into a rock and bloodied my elbow, and then I crashed in the exact same place as the previous lap, despite slowing down. This time it burped air out of the front tire, again leaving me with no more than 20 lbs of air in the front and forcing me to slow down through all of the corners. I was getting really tired and making stupid little mistakes (and some bigger ones). If I’d gone out again I would have really hurt myself.

We ended up calling it quits at about 9:20 pm with 19 laps in the bank.

Race Notes:

• Scott’s first lap time of 33 minutes was our fastest on the day. I correctly predicted that he would be 2 to 3 minutes faster than me on average. I hope I made up for it with consistency.
• The course reminded me of a cyclocross course. It definitely rewarded smoothness and quickness over brute force. My lap time for my later laps were comparable to my early laps, but my heartrate was 10 beats lower on average.
• Judd Milne and Mel Swartz were in a heated race in the Coed Duo category with Terri Spanogle and Jeff Dickey of NCVC. Both teams ended up with 22 laps and Terri & Jeff edged out J & M by only 23 minutes at the end. If weren’t for Judd & Mel having to disrupt their riding schedule to deal with an issue at home, it might been even closer. Judd had his warrior face on every time he went by our tent – but he and Mel still cheered whenever I went by on my laps.
• We received a lot of friendly (and unexpected) Coppi support during the day from Meg, Adrianne, Jon, and George – all of whom came out to cheer, buy food, hang out, and support us. That was seriously cool.
  

More photos here.

Cherry Blossom 10-Miler

Finally! Gorgeous weather for a race. After slogging through a marathon in 45 degrees and constant rain, it was great fun to race in bright sun and 55 degrees.

This is the first time I've done the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, although it is viewed as a traditional "right of Spring" for local runners. I now see why. It was huge (13,000 finishers), well-organized, and featured a great course through the monuments and out Hains Point. Along with the good weather, the cherry blossoms were at their peak, making Hains Point especially beautiful.

JeanBean and I parked the car in Clarendon and took the crowded Metro to the Smithsonian stop. It was a short walk to the start at the base of the Washington Monument. We arrived early enough to wait through the porta-john lines and get to the start with plenty of time to spare (unlike our past experiences of being in the porta-john when the gun went off).

I started in the red wave, right behind the yellow wave of the elites. Each wave started 3 minutes apart. Being at the front portion of the red wave was the perfect place. Despite there being 12,000 runners, I never felt cramped, nor did I have to clip my stride or run laterally to pass people. But we did start faster than I had wanted, mostly because of adrenaline and a slight downhill in the first mile. I ended up doing the first mile in 7:15 instead of my goal pace of 7:45 to 7:50. (My overall goal was to come in under 80 minutes). Oh well - I felt great.

During the next few miles I consciously tried to throttle back, but my pace didn't slow that much: 7:21, 7:19: 7:10. I just kept reeling off the sub-7:30 miles, waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. It never did. I consciously held back until I hit the eastern end of Hains Point (about mile 7:75) and then started to speed up. I did miles 8 and 9 in 7:08 and the final mile in 6:54. I finished in 1:12 and change (72 minutes), beating my goal by almost 8 minutes. I also accomplished my other goal of running negative splits, a goal I set for myself because I typically go out too fast. I am pretty happy about the race, both in terms of pacing and the result.

JeanBean had a great race too, beating her goal of 80 minutes for a sub-8:00 mile average. Strong!

Napa Valley Marathon – A Coppi Rider’s (?) Perspective

I completed my first marathon on March 1 at the Napa Valley Marathon.

Training

Jean and I started training in December, immediately after the end of ‘cross season. We did our first significant training run in December – a 13-miler in North Carolina with Jean’s brother-in-law Markus. In hindsight, starting in December may have been a little late for a March 1 marathon, but we were both banking on carry-over fitness from the full season of cyclocross. For a training plan, we generally followed an online plan on TrainingPeaks written by Matt Fitzgerald, a prolific author and contributor to Triathlete, Runners World, and other publications. The plan is based on pace zones that are specific to each runner and is designed to be done with a GPS watch or other pace/distance device.

We did all of our long training runs together and naturally fell into a comfortable pace. For me, the pace was a little slower than my goal pace, but for Jean, it was slightly quicker. For both of us, though, the pace was within the training zone for longer-distance runs. We did our faster week-day runs separately, with me doing speed work at my threshold pace (close to goal pace for a 10k). By the end of the program, we did four training runs of at least 18 miles plus a 10k and a half-marathon for time. It was kind of cool knowing that each weekly long run was the longest run of my life. Both of us experienced knee pain during our long runs, probably due to patellar tendinitis (runner’s knee). Mine never got worse than a 3 or 4 on a 10-point pain scale, so I kept on training.

The Race

The weather forecast in the days leading up to the race was dismal: 45 degrees, rain, and a headwind for the entire route. For once, the weather forecasts were completely accurate. Race day dawned at 7:00 am with steady rain, mild winds, and an air temp of about 45 degrees. The rain would continue to fall throughout the race (and indeed, for the next 3 days of our vacation).

I had no idea what to wear. In the end I decided on compression shorts, a Craft sleeveless liner, and a long-sleeve technical shirt. I also wore lightweight gloves, a race belt to hold my GU’s, and a hat. In hindsight, I was probably overdressed, but at least I was not cold. Even though I did look like a complete dork!

Based on my experience with my long training runs (three 18-milers and one 20-miler), I expected that my joints would be the weakest link on race day. Surprisingly, the joints never bothered me. Instead, it was my quads that slowed me down.

I started the race with an "A" goal of 3:30 (8:00 pace) and a "B" goal of 3:45 (8:30 pace). I felt good and fresh at the beginning despite the cold rain, so I started out with the A plan in mind. I held onto the 8:00 average until about mile 20, when the wheels started to come off.

Beginning at mile 15, I started feeling serious muscle soreness in my quads. The muscle pain got worse from mile 15 onward. Eventually, I had to slow down. Coming down a slight gradient at mile 21, when I would normally speed up to take advantage of the descent, I was unable to quicken my pace. I also felt both legs starting to go numb. I had to let the two runners I had been chatting with go and I retreated into my pain cave. I basically shifted into autopilot and gutted out the final 6 miles. Somewhere between mile 20 and 21 I accidentally stopped my Garmin, so I don't know how much I slowed down, but I know I was running between and 9:00 and 9:30 for most of the final miles. Although I dropped off my goal pace, the 20 miles I had in the bank at 8:00 or better kept the overall average at 8:30. I ended up passing one of the two girls in the final mile for a strong finish.

I could barely stand afterwards and was shivering while I wandered around the finish line area looking for JeanBean. We finally found each other and got some hot soup before returning to our B&B for a hot shower. She had a solid race, coming in just a few seconds under 4:00, which had been her "B" goal. My quads were incredibly sore, to the point where I have to back down stairs and pull myself up to get out of chairs. Ouch.

Now, more than a week later, my legs are still trashed. The acute soreness is gone, but replaced with deep soreness. I still cannot put serious pressure on the pedals, so I’ve been spinning higher cadences to try to flush the badnesss out of the muscles.

Ever Again?

Will I do another marathon? That's tough to say. As an athlete, there is always a desire to improve upon a result. You ask yourself: "Could I have met my A goal under better conditions?" "With the value of experience and better training, could I improve enough to qualify for Boston with a 3:20 marathon?" The desire to answer these questions is balanced against the physical toll of the marathon and the time required for training, not to mention the time away from my first love of bike racing. For now, I confidently can say that I won't be doing another marathon this year. As for the future, never say never!

How to Find the Sweet Spot

How to Find the Sweet Spot

No, I’m not talking about finding your partner’s erogenous zone!

As the graphic below illustrates, sweet spot training refers to a steady-state effort level that balances gains in fitness with fatigue. At higher effort levels, fatigue accumulates more quickly and requires more recovery, thereby preventing you from achieving an equal effort level the next day. Sweet spot workouts, in contrast, can be repeated two or three times per week without overloading yourself.


Graphic courtesy of A. Coggan.

It is important to remember that your sweet spot is defined by your functional threshold power (FTP). FTP is – by definition – the average power you can sustain for a one-hour effort.

The sweet spot is an effort level between 75 and 90 percent of your FTP.

Therefore, your sweet spot is relative to you – and to your fitness at a particular point in time. As your FTP goes up over the course of the season, your sweet spot will go up as well. So, if your current FTP is 290 watts, your sweet spot would fall between 220 watts and 261 watts.

If you’re not using a power meter, or haven’t yet determined your FTP, then the sweet spot can generally be described as a tempo or high tempo effort. In HR terms, it falls between zones 3 and 4 on a 5-zone scale. If you do the efforts at the high end of the range, they will be uncomfortable but not unbearable.

The ubiquitous “2 x 20 minute” workout is specifically targeted at the sweet spot. By breaking the effort into chunks, with a short (less than 5 minute) recovery in between, you avoid boredom and still achieve a high-quality workout.

More on sweet spot training can be found in Allen & Coggan’s book Training and Racing With a Powermeter and on the TrainingPeaks website.

Training the Brain

Training the Brain
I’ve been following a fascinating series of posts on the Science of Sport blog regarding the question of “mind vs. matter” – specifically, whether physiology or psychology is the key difference between good and great athletes.

The basic point made by the authors is that “the brain is ultimately in control of exercise, and that fatigue, or the decision to slow down during exercise is not taken because the muscles are failing, but rather because the brain is regulating the degree of muscle activation so that we are protected from physiological harm.”

This should not be oversimplified to mean that you can “will” yourself to a better performance than you can manage physiologically. Instead, it means the opposite: that your mind can hinder you from performing up to your physiological potential.

The key to putting this hypothesis to work is by training both the brain and body simultaneously, or “Brain Training,” as Matt Fitzgerald puts it.

I’ll excerpt a key section of the blog here:

Linking in training - mental and psychological factors are forged in training

And then very importantly, perhaps most crucially of all, is that your mental approach to racing, your confidence, your belief, are not simply mental tricks. This is not about just hypnotizing yourself into running faster, into suffering a little more. It's an approach to training. Once again, in the words of Jamie from yesterday's post: "Training responses are initiated, determined, and dictated by the brain. Without attention to the control of thought processes...or attention to the encoding of exact movement patterns, many athletes will be trained inappropriately." So the point is, training is an act of physiology, but it's also an act of psychology, and it's in training that the thought patterns, the elusive concept of mental strength, the belief and the ability to regulate pace, are laid down. So let me end with another bit of information about Bannister and Landy. Roger Bannister would go on to become a decorated neuroscientist - he was studying medicine when he ran his 4-minute mile, and specialized in understanding the very organ that may have provided his edge - the brain. Part of his training included a session of 10 x 400 m repeats, run at race pace (59 seconds), with a 1:30 recovery. He was preparing his brain, and his body, and his mind (for the brain is not simply a mind - it's an organ of physiology!), for the effort it would take. Of course, I can't account for Landy's training, but Bannister's career focused on understanding the physiology of the brain. I dare say he did the same in his training. The result? 3:59.4, and a place in history.

The “burst” workouts that I’ve been doing recently are a great example of “brain” training. They involve steady-state riding at tempo wattage (just below threshold) with frequent “bursts” to power at or above threshold, followed immediately by recovery to the previous wattage. Physiologically, this trains you the same way that riding at threshold would. Psychologically, however, it trains you to go hard without blowing up and convinces you that you can recover from a hard effort while still maintaining a strong pace. These workouts are very race-specific, because they mimic the types of efforts that you must use to go with surges during races. If you keep doing these workouts, eventually you’ll be able to maintain a higher base wattage AND go harder during each burst. Best of all, they will begin to SEEM easier – which is the sign that you have successfully trained your brain and your body.