SAMI racing and other Off Season News

It's been a long time since my last post. Since then I've gotten a cyclocross bike, trained through the off season, and switched teams to SAMI racing.

SAMI racing is a new team for 2010 based in Michigan. It is an elite junior team that currently has 3 riders-Alexey Vermeulen, Rudy Peterson, and myself. If you've never heard of them before, I'm sure you will soon, but here is a little bit about them.

Alexey Vermeulen-Racing age 16 in 2010, Alexey is the favorite for Junior Nationals this season. Some of his results include 3rd place overall in the 15-18 category at the Green Mountain Stage Race, a cat. 3 race victory and many other cat. 3 podium finishes, and 5th in the TT at Nationals in 2008. Unfortunatley Alexey couldn't make it to Nationals this season, but he was invited to the National Development camp in Colorado Springs this past October.

Rudy Peterson- Racing age 15 in 2010, Rudy placed 8th in two of the three events at Nationals last season, and crashed in the other, which he had a great chance of a top 3 finish in. He upgraded to a cat. 3 after Nationals, which is incredibly rare for the racing age 14 year old he was at the time. In addition to this, he won a big LAJRS race, the Chicago Criterium, last July--in the 10-18 category.

Given the talent of my teammates, I think that 2010 will be a very good season for us. I think we have the potential to dominate the 15-16 category this year. Regardless of how I race though, I want to put my 2010 season in God's hands. If I do good, I want to give Him the glory for it.

Another thing that's new is that one of my Birthday gifts was a cyclocross bike. My Dad and I built it up ourselves, and since then I have been riding it a lot. I think it is better training than a mountain bike and is more fun, too. It puts you into the position of a regular road bike, and is much harder to handle than a mountain bike, which hones your bike handling skills.

I also want to thank the Raleigh Allstars cycling team for being a great team for me in the past 3 seasons. I have gotten much better as a bike racer under them, and they have also helped many other juniors improve in all aspects of cycling since I joined. Thank you.

Tour De Moore Photos and TrainingPeaks WKO

Here are some Tour De Moore Pictures:

A couple days ago I did The Airport Road Time Trial, a 2.2 mile long TT that's mainly uphill for the 1st mile, flat for almost half a mile, then downhill, then flat again for another half a mile. Overall, the course is net uphill. I hadn't done this TT all-out for a while, so I was expecting to beat my record time of 5:30 or so, as well as my old 5 min. record of 249 watts, which I set in may.

During the TT I just felt OK but could tell my speed was faster than usual on nearly all parts of the course. I would just have to wait until I could download my Powermeter on WKO. Using the Training Peaks WKO Software I can track my performance easily and see if my form is increasing or decreasing.

5:10, breaking my previous record by 20 seconds!
2.2 miles

25.4 miles per hour

102 avg. cadence

281 avg. watts, breaking my old 5 minute record by 32 watts!
IF: 1.21

VI: 1

6.05 watts per kilogram

Sadly, my 2009 cycling season is now over. I was going to end it with the Greenville Classic, October 11th and probably another race this month, but I couldn''t do the race this month and the Greenville race was cancelled. So now I 'm just being thankful for a fun 2009 season and looking forward to 2010, when lord willing my season will start all over again with January Nats.

2009 Tour De Moore Century Ride

Last Monday I did the 2009 Tour De Moore Century. This was my first year doing the hundred mile ride, before I had only done the 50 mile route, and in 2005, the 28 mile. Before Monday, I hadn't ever rode more than 80 miles, so I didn't know how I would feel after 100.


I lined up to the start of the Ride with about 150 other people. Most of them weren't racers, but about 20 of them were. Of the 20, there was 1 0r more cat. 1's, at least 3 cat. 2's, and the rest were 3's or 4's 0r 5's. The ride started easy and was never very hard for the 1st 50 miles, although it was pretty fast. At mile 50 the pack was down to less than 50 people, and I was staying in the top 20, not the top 10 because position wasn't as important as it would be in a race. Pretty soon there was a 3 person breakaway, and a cat. 2 named Sam bridged up to them. It was a pretty serious move, and I started helping in a paceline to pull them back. We cam close to catching them at maybe mile 60, but then we sat up. I really wanted to catch the break already, so I went to the front, but nobody would even get on my wheel to follow me, so I was just dangling out in front for a while.


Due to the lack of chasing the break got a minute and a half advantage by mile 70, when more serious attacks came. There would be attack after attack, and I followed nearly all of them. At mile 90, Some riders attacked through dangerous parts of the course, and I was tempted to follow them but didn't. One of them bridged up to the break, which was just Sam at this point, and held it to the end. In the field, we were continuing to watch eachother, and I was really wishing that we had worked together better and could have caught the break. After a while, we reached the bottom of the Conneticut Road hill, the biggest in the area at 270 feet. The first half was steady but the last half there was an attack, and I just couldn't follow it after 100 miles of accelerations, which wasn't really suprising given I had never done nearly 100 miles ever before. I got 6th, 3rd out of the pack in the end.

Here are the statistics of the ride:

103 miles
4:36:30
22.6 average speed
No wattage data; I didn't use my powermeter.

So, that was the 2009 Tour De Moore. In my next post, I'll put up pictures of the ride.

Southeastern Regional Developement camp: Day 5 results

Last Thursday night I went down to lectures at 8 o' clock where we got a chance to see both that days' and the whole camp's GC results. Turns out I got 8th that day in the flat short TT's, only losing a total of 10 seconds to Matthew Spinks, a cat. 2, in 4 efforts! The guys behind me made up some time, but not enough to pass me on GC meaning I held on to my 2nd place (3rd 15-18)!

I was really pleased with my results and the camp as a whole. I came into it not expecting more than a top 8 or so, but performed well and learned a lot. Stay tuned for a description of the June 15th NC RR championships.

2009 Southeastern Regional Developement Camp: Days 5 and 6

DAY 5: Thursday, June 11th, 2009

I went down to the ride assembly area trying not to think about the flat TT's that awaited me. I was expecting to lose huge chunks of time to Matt Spinks and pretty much everybody else, but I was thinking, at least I did good on Monday.

We rode out to the start of the repeats, lined up, and started them. On the first one my foot clipped out. I got to restart it, but noticed my cleat was chipped on the back. From then on I was careful not to pull up on it that hard, but still gave a maximum effort.

After 2 of the intervals I was dead. After three I was really dead. As I lined up for the last one I was just looking forward to being done with these things.

I started the last one fast and just tried to power through it. I hammered to the finish, turned around, and went to a park were we ate lunch. I tried to eat but couldn't because I was so nauseous, but that was probably a good thing because I knew I went hard enough.

After lunch we took the long way to a "big ring", but long climb near Saluda. We started the climb and raced to the summit. I moved up to the top 10 pretty quickly, but when the climb was steep enough to create a gap I was tired and still warming up. It was all I could do to stay with the front 7 riders for the first half of the climb. There were numerous attacks, and pretty soon I launched one myself, but didn't get a gap. Another flurry of attacks, and then I got to the front and really went hard. I pulled off only to have Jacob Arnold counter-attack me. I was too tired to go with him. Only Travis, one of the camp staff/coaches, a cat. 1, could follow him the whole way up.

Near the top I took a hard pull hoping to catch them, but all of a sudden I saw the finish line. Will Richter sprinted past me, and I tried to pass him, but it was too late. We rode over the top and descended to Saluda.

We regrouped at the Wildflower bakery for a long stop. From there we descended from Saluda, and got back down to the bottom of the climb just before it started raining. Then we rode about 1.5 or 2 hours back to campus.

DAY 6: Friday, June 12th, 2009

I rode down to the start of a really fun, optional easy ride at 8:00 a.m., got back, packed up my stuff, and left. That ended a great week in Greenville. Hopefully I'll come back next year. An NC State Championship post is coming soon.

2009 Southeastern Regional Developement Camp: Days 3 and 4

Coming into Tuesday, I was pretty nervous. I had done great on the mountainous Time Trials, but now I would have to prove myself against a field of 100 in the A race. After that, another decisive day on Thursday that would likely reshape the GC awaited.

DAY 3: Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Tuesday was the A Race, but first we had to get there. We did a 13 mile route to the Donaldson center on roads I wouldn't ride on by myself, but in a big pack it wasn't bad at all. Once we got there we rested for a while, then warmed up.

I lined up for the start of the A race in a huge pack of almost 100 riders, including 25 juniors from the camp, easily distinguishable because we were all wearing USA cycling Jerseys.

The race started slowly thanks to a neutral first couple of miles. When the real racing started, it started fast and didn't slow down. I think the first 7 mile lap (out of 6 laps) was done at an average of almost 29 miles per hour. The next couple of laps blew by, and with 2 laps to go I was trying to move up. In the last lap I was in 2 short-lived breakaways. With 3 or so miles left I was fighting for the top 10 spot. There were some very hard pulls, with people trying to catch a breakaway 10 or 15 seconds up the road. With 1 K to go I was in 8th. I started my sprint a little too late, but still got 4th in the field sprint (the 2-man break stayed away), for 6th or 7th place. Will Richter and another camp Junior did great too, getting 4th and 5th. Not to mention Jacob Arnold, who was in almost every breakaway there was in the whole race.

As we rode back to campus, I was yet again so thankful for my results. I couldn't relax yet though--Wednesday was an easy day, but Thursday was where the GC will be cemented.

DAY 4: Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Wednesday was a day to relax after 2 long, hard rides. We did a 1.5 hr ride earlier in the day were we worked on sprinting and braking, then another 1 and a half ride after lunch practicing cornering.

2009 Southeastern Regional Development Camp: Days 1 and 2

Last Sunday was the first day of the 2009 SE Regional Camp, held June 7th-12th. This was my first year I could do the camp because of my age (you have to be 14 by the 1st day). For those of you who have never been to a USA cycling Development Camp, I highly recommend going. Here is some information about it.

Every year from June to late July there are Regional cycling camps put on by USA cycling. During the camps, you get in some great training (and this year racing, too), learn a ton of stuff, and do field tests. Perhaps the most important thing that you do during the camp is the field tests, because if you do well in the tests you have the chance to go to the National camp in Colorado Springs, and then from there to being a member of the National Team, and from there to Izegem, Belgium.

This year, the riding schedule for the Southeastern camp is as follows: arrive Sunday, June 7th, at Furmann University (in Greenville, South Carolina) and do an easy 2 hr. ride. Monday gets a lot harder, with an 80 mile ride including 5 minute and roughly 15 minute long field tests up Cesar's Head. Tuesday isn't any less difficult, a 3.5 hr. day with the Donaldson Center Tuesday Night Training race halfway through. Wednesday is a rest day; two easy 1.5 hr. rides with drills on cornering and sprinting. Then comes Thursday, which is an epic 80 mile ride, with 4 1.5 mile long Time Trials. Friday, the riders leave camp before noon, but not before an optional 40 minute easy ride.

DAY ONE:

We got to the camp at 11:20, and my parents helped me unpack. After they left I waited for the start of that days ride, feeling a little nervous. I got down to were we met on time, and saw a lot of riders I knew, including guys from Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia; nearly the whole East Coast and then some.

The ride started faster than I expected (I like to go super easy on easy days), and I realized I wasn't feeling strong. Despite that, it was different and really fun training with Juniors that I'm only used to racing with.

We stopped for a water break after a little more than an hour, then rode back to Furmann. Later that day we had lectures, then did field games, which are where you go out on a field, and practicing bumping shoulders, track standing, braking really fast, and other fun stuff. Then we got to back to our dorms, and had an hour before lights out.

DAY TWO:

I went down to the ride start with plenty of time to spare, thinking about the upcoming field tests. I wasn't that optimistic, mainly because I didn't feel good Sunday and it seemed like there were a bunch of strong guys there.

I didn't feel great riding out to Cesar's Head, but would get some confidence soon enough. We took a right turn to the start of the climb, and people automatically started sprinting up it (the field tests started later on the climb, after a short slightly downhill section, the beginning of which we were racing to). I started the climb at the back half of the field, but when it started I found myself moving up. All of the sudden I was bridging up to the front group of less than 8 riders. I crested the hill with them, while Jacob Arnold was about 8 seconds in front of us. Although some guys weren't going all out to save some energy for the field tests, I was a little more confident about how I would do after that.

I started the first 5 minute field test 20 minutes later. It was hard to get going at first, but I was holding 12+ m.p.h on all but the steepest grades. I rounded the last bend, and sprinted for the line, expecting a top 10.

After that I rode back down the mountain and got back in line for the 2nd, longer field test. I started it a lot easier than the first one, and soon found a rhythm up the climb. I tried to go a little harder after about 8 minutes, but couldn't hold it and backed off a little. I rounded some very steep hairpin turns, went through the last corner and sprinted for the line.

After that all the riders attempted to go another kilometer up the hill to a regrouping site. We waited there for 20 minutes, then rode the remaining roughly 4 miles of the climb at a tempo pace.

During the climb the field split into two groups, with about 18 riders and myself in it. Once we got to the top we ate lunch at the park there, then went down the descent in groups of 4.

At the bottom we met up again and rode back to campus. The results were posted around 9 0' clock, and before I could see them someone said I had gotten 2nd in the long field test. I looked at the results and saw that I got 5th in the short test and 2nd in the long one (out of everybody, 15-18), which shattered my expectations. In the 15-16's, I got 4th for short one and 1st in the 3 mile one, meaning I was 3rd on GC! (2nd 15-16's).

So, after the first day of field test, I was only 3 seonds behind Matt Spinks, a category 2, on 15-16 GC. Although I was extremely happy with the results, I was hoping no 15-16 yr. olds would be able to pass me on GC in the coming days, especially on Thursday's endless flat repeats. I also had to prove myself in Tuesday's A Race, competing against Pros, 1's, 2's, 3's and other 4's, but I'll write about that later.

Friday Training Ride

This Friday my family and I went to Charlotte. My Dad and I were going to ride the course of the recent May 2nd Dilworth crit, a race I couldn't go to, while the rest of my family were at a park in the center of the race course.

While we were at the course, we did a 45 minute long crit simulation workout around it, racing the last 15 minutes of the workout. Although we had to stop a couple of times because of an intersection on the course, we got in a good workout and I barely beat my Dad at the end.

After that I rode a while longer to get in 2 hours. I went hard a couple more times, then cooled down.

Today I downloaded my Powermeter on the Cycling Peaks WKO software. I am really liking the software and recommend it to anyone who has a power meter. On the software you can highlight any given section of the ride with ease and view your peak power output for any length of time.

Entire workout (131 watts):
Duration: 2:01:19 (2:03:31)
Work: 948 kJ
TSS: 139.8 (intensity factor 0.835)
Norm Power: 174
VI: 1.32
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 35.132 mi

The Norm Power Item is probably my favorite feature of WKO. It is a great training tool because it shows exactly how intense your workout is, no matter how steady or sporadic it was. When used in conjunction with the length of your workout, it creates a precise guage of how hard you worked, called training stress score (TSS). TSS is a much more exact way to measure work than Kilojoules (KJ), mainly because it uses NP * time instead of Average power * time. TSS is based on doing an hour long TT at threshold, which is worth 100 TSS points. For me, a TSS score of more than 110 is usually hard work.

Here is a 30 minute section of the crit sim workout. Look at all the lower power outputs and even complete stops because of traffic and other varibles. Notice the relatively low average wattage (178 watts). Thanks to Cycling Peaks WKO's N.P. feature, however, I can clearly see the normalized power of 196 watts and know that I put in a good workout and am riding well.

Peak 30min (178 watts):
Duration: 30:04 (30:12)
Work: 320 kJ
TSS: 44.4 (intensity factor 0.942)
Norm Power: 196
VI: 1.1
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 10.401 mi

Training Peaks WKO

About a week ago I downloaded the WKO power meter software. I wanted to try it because it seemed to be much more detailed than the Saris Poweragent software I was using before. Although the downloading process was pretty complicated, the system is very detailed. You can look at things like Normalized Power, Training Stress score (TSS), Intensity Factor (IF), and your mean maximal power curve. It took a little while for me to actually understand these things, but on the Training Peaks website it describes various features of WKO in great detail. Another good reference is the book Training and Racing with a Powermeter.

I tried to copy and paste some of the graphs from WKO, but it won't let me. Below are the numbers from my ride yesterday, and a 2 minute (and 4 second) long interval I did during it.

Here is the data from the entire ride. Look at the huge difference between the avg. watts (101) and the Normalized power(179 watts). Basically normalized power is the power you could have maintained for the same amount of time, for the same physiological cost if you had maintained a steady wattage. If the difference between the avg. watts and NP is big, it indicates that you rode at a really varied pace.


Entire workout (101 watts):
Duration: 1:07:18 (1:27:13)
Work: 403 kJ
TSS: 83.8 (intensity factor 0.87)
Norm Power: 179
VI: 1.77
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 17.309 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 641 101 watts
Cadence: 29 141 73 rpm
Speed: 2.3 117.4 15.8 mph
Pace 0:31 26:06 3:48 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 217 42 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 703 112 lb-inPeak 2min (281 watts):

Here is the interval.

Duration: 2:01
Work: 34 kJ
TSS: 6.2 (intensity factor 1.36)
Norm Power: n/a
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 0.812 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 113 368 281 watts
Cadence: 68 141 89 rpm
Speed: 20.3 28.1 24.2 mph
Pace 2:08 2:58 2:29 min/mi
Hub Torque: 37 111 77 lb-in
Crank Torque: 67 396 270 lb-in

I haven't got a chance to post any pictures from the race on Sunday yet but I'll try to post them pretty soon.

A couple days ago I did the Tuesday Group Ride. I have been writing a lot about the weekend group rides recently, but this was my first Tuesday one of the season.

The Tuesday Group ride is traditionally the hardest one, and is nearly always harder than a cat. 4 race. When I got there , I saw a great group of about 15 people. Among others, there was Alexander, a cat. 3, Sam, a cat. 3, Mike, a cat. 3, Mac, a strong masters rider, and Jarret, also a cat. 3. My Dad couldn't take me to it nor ride with me, so I biked the 40 minutes there and back, plus the hour and 40 minutes long ride, for a great 2 hours 52 minutes, on a school day.

The ride started with a shorter than usual warmup. Mac attacked, the group got strung out, and when we caught him we started a paceline. The paceline went from 10 people pulling down to 5 every time, with me being one of them. We took a left hand turn and when the group eased up Mac pointed for me to get on his wheel. I did so and when he attacked, I was right in the draft. We had been going for maybe a minute when Alexander bridged, as did Sam. After that, Mike and another rider bridged, followed by three more, then the 10 of us were altogether again.

We kept doing the paceline until Mac attacked again, followed by Alexander and I. We were caught right before a hill that is known to split the field. Jarret attacked, Alexander, Mac, Sam and I followed. The rest of the pack managed to keep up, and we resumed our paceline.

When we got about 1 mile away from the town-limit finish, Jarret attacked up the decisive hill. The regulars followed him. Sam got to the front and sprinted, Jarret and Alexander fell back, leaving Sam, Mac and I. We sprinted for the line, with Sam winning, Mac second, and me 3 bike lengths back for 3rd.

Our computer isn't working so I can't download my powermeter, but I did ride 55 miles, 2 hours 52 minutes, at an avg. speed of 19mph.

Group Ride

A lot of stuff has happened since my last post. I missed the Out Like a Lion Road Race and the City Park crit a week ago, and missed the races in Greenville, NC yesterday, and am now trying to get back into shape for my next race, which unfortunately is not until April 19th at the earliest.

On my last post I talked about the races in Blythewood, 2 weeks ago. During the next couple of days, I was training more intensely and was feeling good, although my cold, which never really went away, got a little worse. Then, I woke up Friday morning with a fever and feeling really congested. I was hoping that I would feel better, but I missed my race preparation ride and still had a fever Saturday. I felt a little better Saturday night, but not really ready to race.

Sunday I got a little better, but I didn't ride again until Wednesday. Having taken 6 days off, I could only hope that I could get back into shape quickly and not miss my next race. I felt pretty good on my ride Thursday, but felt bad on Friday. That and the fact that the weather in Greenville was forecasting thunderstorms and hail was enough for us to decide not to go, much to my dissapointment.

Well, today I did the Group Ride. The first half of the ride was in a rotating echolon because of the strong crosswinds. After about an hour and a half, one rider took a long pull and dropped everyone except three of us. We waited for the others, and then resumed our paceline. We got onto the longest climb of the route after 2 hours, not very steep but one of the longest climbs in the area. I had just finished my pull when a rider, the same one who had taken that long turn on the front, pulled away from the group. I was a little boxed in and was 10 bike lengths behind him when I started chasing. I caught him right before a short downhill, and pulled the next time the road went up. We traded pulls a couple of times, until I got onto the front near the crest and pulled until the road finally leveled out. 220 to 250 to 280 to 300 watts for as long as I could hold it.

After that I rode back to the bike shop, then turned around and rode home. I'll download the powermeter when I get the chance

Group Ride

The last couple of days here in North Carolina have been really nice, with weather in the mid 70's and even 80's. Out riding in just a short sleeve jersey and shorts, it is hard to believe we got a couple inches of snow just a week ago. The nice weather and daylight savings time has made for great cycling, and it seems the season is really getting started.

Yesterday, I did the Group ride. I rode the 30 minutes it takes to get there, and was glad to see that there was a great turnout. About 25 people were there due to the perfect conditions, including Alexander, a strong cat. 3 and Todd, a strong cat. 1 and masters rider, and many other good cyclists. Once we got out of the busy Southern Pines / Pinehurst area, we went up a hill that traditionally marks the end of the warm up and the start of the fun. More than half the pack was dropped up the hill, and we circled around waiting at the top until 9 of us had regrouped. After that we went up a couple more hills, and I took a pretty hard pull, which whittled it down to 6. Other riders also pushed the pace, which distanced the dropped riders.
Maybe 30 minutes later, the six of us sat up, but then the pace increased and again the group was back down to the 6 of us..

Up one of the next hills, I took a short but hard pull, trying to sustain a fast pace. After a little while, I pulled of and saw only Alexander and Todd behind me. All of us took very hard turns on the front for what seemed like a long time, until it seemed that all of us, or at least me, were hurting. We went a little easier after that, stopped at a gas station to refuel, and rode back to the bike shop.

I was feeling very good after the ride, and had a little ways more to go until I had went 4 hours, so I took a longer way home. I was going to do a couple of intervals, but decided not to as I have plenty of form for this time of the season. Instead, I just went hard, but not all out, a couple of times before cooling down. I went for 3 hours 5o minutes, and did about 70 miles, but I'll post the stats after I can download my powermeter.

Youngs Road TT #2

Today I did the Young's Road TT for the second time this season. The Young's Road TT is a 10 k out and back course with a slight downhill going there and a slight uphill coming back. A couple of posts ago I described it in more detail.

Anyways, last time I did the YRTT, January 1st, I did it in 17:24, although that wasn't an accurate gauge of my form because it was cold. Luckily, though, I have a power meter so I can do accurate power tests outdoors regardless of wind conditions or air density. I ended up averaging 193 watts that time, with a power to weight of 4.82, and a Threshold of 4.64 wpk.

Today I was pretty confident of a good result as my form is much better than it was a month and a half ago. However, there was a crosswind this time, and although the temperature was perfect at 70 degrees I wasn't expecting an amazing time.

So I started the TT hard, got up to speed, went hard, reached the turnaround, went harder, then really pushed it up the last 3 hills and clocked a time of 15:56, which I was thrilled about because it was only 7 seconds slower than my record that I set at the end of last season.

When I got home I was expecting a new wattage record because I felt really good during the TT, and my watts seemed to be over 200 nearly all the time. But, I was shocked when I saw an average wattage of 217, 24 watts over my old record. In fact, I was so surprised that I would be worried about peaking too soon, but I am not doing a lot of very high intensity work yet so I don't have to be concerned about that.

After I downloaded the power meter, I got out the calculator to find out if I had broken the 5 wpk. at Threshold barrier:

217 ave. watts/(90 pounds/2.2)= 5.3 watts per kilogram, and times that by .95 to get 5.04 wpk at Threshold!

Hear are the numbers for the ride:

29.02 miles
1:33:12
18.68 avg. mph, 23.45 for the TT
129 avg. watts, 217 for the TT
724 Kilojoules

Peak Power Records:

1 min.: 240 watts
5 min.: 222 watts
10 min.: 217 watts, a new record!
30 min.: 171 watts, also a new record!

Stats from the Sunday Group Ride

In my last post I described the local Group ride, and I finally have gotten a chance to download my power meter. Here are the statistics:

59.63 miles
3 hours 32 minutes 9 seconds
16.86mph
121 avg. watts
1535 Kilojoules

Peak Power Records:

5 minutes: 195 watts
10 minutes: 175 watts
30 minutes: 158 watts
60 minutes: 152 watts
120 minutes: 144watts, tying my record I set on 1/08

Sunday Group ride

Today I did my local Sunday Group ride, a staple of my training year round, but especially at this time of the year because it is some of the only race simulation I get. Although the group is usually only 5 to 20 people, all the local hammers show up, including cat. 1's, 2's and 3's and a lot of other strong riders. Today, 11 people started out but after an hour or so 6 people had turned off or been dropped. That made a group of five left including: My Dad, a strong cat. 4, Greg Combs, a strong masters rider and cat. 1, Justin Beard, also a 1, and myself.

After warming up it became apparent that today wasn't going to be the hammer fest I had hoped for, but rather a steady, not-super-hard tempo ride. None of the remaining 5 got dropped until the cool down when me, my Dad, and another person chose to hold off warming down as we were going to ride for 20 more minutes than the other 2 were.

After my Dad and I got back to the bike shop where we started, we still had another 30 more minutes to go until we completed the goal of 3:45 total ride time, so we rode around for a while in downtown Southern Pines and then raced up the Connecticut Road Hill, the longest climb in my area at 260 feet of elevation gain. When my Dad pushed the pace at the base of the climb, I thought he had the win but somehow I stayed with him and attacked on the steepest section. Surprisingly I stayed away and won the race to the top.

After that we cooled down for 10 more minutes and then drove home, ending a nice long group ride. I don't have all the power stats yet since I haven't downloaded my Power meter but I do know we rode for 3 hours 35 minutes, and went 62 miles.

Youngs Road Time Trial

Today I did the Youngs Road Time Trial (YRTT), a 10k out and back TT that I do once every couple of months to gauge my fitness. The first half of the TT has an average grade of 1 or 2 percent, and then after you turn around you climb back up to where you started. I was pretty optimistic about putting out a pretty good time today mainly because I just set a 10 minute power record last Tuesday.

Once I started the TT I realized it wasn't going to be easy. I was hoping for a time of 16:30 or 17 minutes although I didn't know what to expect. I got a time of 17:24, which was a little dissapointing although it was a cold day here in North Carolina, 42 degrees, and cold air is more dense than warm air thus creating more resistance. Also, the actual measure of how good (or bad) I did would only come when I got back home and downloaded my Powermeter.

Suprisingly I averaged 193 watts, and even tied my 10 minute record I set just two days ago. I beat my old record of 187 watts too, but I weigh a little more now so the moment of truth would come when I calculate my watts per Kilogram (WPK). To find out your WPK you take your weight in pounds, divide it by 2.2 to find your weight in Kilograms, then take your average watts and divide them by your weight in Kilogams.

For me, that would be: 193 avg. watts/(87 lb./2.2)= 4.82 WPK .

But what you want to do is calculate your lactate threshold (LT or TH), which is pretty much the pace or power output you can sustain for 1 hour. If you've ever done a hour long Time Trial you know it isn't that fun, but fortunately there is an easier way to calculate LT: times your max ave. power output for 15 to 20 minutes by .95 to find LT power output.

For me that would be: (193 avg. watts x .95)/(87 lb./2.2)=4.64 WPK

Anyways, here are the numbers from the entire ride including the TT:

28.71 miles
1 hour 37 minutes 54 seconds
17.8 avg. mph
116 avg. watts
681 KJ

Peak Power Records:

5 minutes: 206 watts
10 minutes: 198 watts
17 minutes 24 seconds(YRTT time): 193 watts
30 minutes: 159 watts
60 minutes: 132 watts

Asheville

Last Tuesday, my family and I went to Asheville to meet some of our friends who came from Topeka, Kansas (where John Funk, current 13-14 yr. old national champion in the TT and criterium lives). After we were done visiting, we drove through downtown Asheville, and then drove to the top of a mountain with around 1600 feet of elevation gain. However we did not go all the way to the bottom. Where I live the biggest hill is about 300 feet high so it was great to have the chance to climb something much bigger.

After we got to the top we pulled into the parking lot of a nice hotel and my Dad and I changed into cycling clothes. We descended down the mountain and warmed up for about 15 minutes, then raced up the hill. It only took 10 minutes but was still really hard as my Dad and I attacked each other and were both pushed to our limits. In the end I was the first to the parking lot. Once we got to the top we realized we had a lot more time so we descended down the hill again, turned around, and raced back up. My Dad attacked right from the start but I let him get a small lead of around 5 seconds. A couple of minutes later, I caught back up, and started to push the pace. I went from 200 to 220 to 250 watts and held it for a little while, then focused in at a steady pace, about 200 watts. The hill seemed to go on forever but finally I reached the parking lot. We cooled down in the parking lot for a little while, then changed back into regular clothes and began the drive back to Pinehurst.

We got back at 9:45 and I was too tired to download my Powermeter. The next day when I downloaded it I was very happy with the results especially given it's still the off season. Here are the statistics:

13.01 miles
57 minutes, 58 seconds
402 KJ (Kilojoules)
13.44 ave. speed
116 ave. watts

Peak Power Values:

5 minutes: 207 watts
10 minutes: 198 watts, a new record, beating my old record of 197 that I set in April!
30 minutes:149 watts

PowerCranks!

A couple of weeks ago and after months of asking, I finally got the chance to try PowerCranks. Greg Combs, a local coach, let me borrow them for a couple of weeks. PowerCranks are huge gold crankarms that rotate independently of each other, forcing you to pedal smoothly, eliminating the dead spot in your pedal stroke.

As soon as I took my first pedal stroke on PowerCranks I realized that it was going to be difficult to manage even 30 minutes on them. Even clipping in is weird as you have to clip in with both pedals at the 6 o' clock position, and standing is also really different and takes some time getting used to. It turned out that I rode 1:10 and was really tired after that, but suprisingly I wasn't that sore the next day.

If you've ever implimented one legged pedaling into your training, PowerCranks are very similiar except you're doing it with both legs at once. Your first time with them you'll be able to ride 30 or so minutes at least, and it will probably take so much concentration to maintain a good stroke that you probably shouldn't ride on heavily trafficked roads.

According to PowerCranks you could see improvements in as little as 2 weeks. Unfortunately I've only used them a couple of times so I can't verify that claim. However, although there seems to be a lot of benefits of using them, PowerCranks are heavy (although I guess that would only make you stronger), and the cheapest model is worth $899.

You can go to http://www.powercranks.com/ for more info, including testimonials by pros, coaches and amateurs alike.

All in all, PowerCranks are pretty cool and I'm definitely looking forward to using them as an off season training tool.