Confessions of a Manic Cyclist

December 2007 - Posts

• Training camp #1

  Day 1 of 08's first training camp:  Yuri cruising the secret singletrack.  St George will never become the MTB destination that Moab is cause the real gems are hidden from view.  Unmapped, unpublished.  Local knowledge required.  That's where I come in.  LOL there was still some headscratching as the real local guide is in Scotland, but we still got'r done.  A Zen experience you could say. Yuri is sporting a new Marin 5" travel XC ready rig with the new XTR.  Sweeeeeet bike, it's like what everyone rides out here minus 10 pounds. 3 more days.  Trails are drying out nicely and a warming trend is coming.  Give a holler if you feel the need to join in the fun.      Posted Dec 27 2007, 06:53 PM by Dave

• Something old, something new

  Here's a view I never tire of. Christmas morning the family was fast asleep so I snuck out for a joyride in familiar terrain.  Not having been here for nearly 2 years, it was waaay better than expected.  On the SS, it was so new and fresh even though the trails are so familiar.  After the ride it just didn't matter how the rest of the day went, it was already a success.  But it got so much better. So that's about it for the obligatory cycling stuff.  The real Christmas gem this year came from Dixie.  Remember Dixie, the gal who announced her wedding a few days before the Moab 24 hour race?  Yes, that Dixie.  Really, how many Dixies could there be anyway? To make a long and personal story short, she put together a set of 8 stories about our childhood together, complete with pictures and all wrapped in a handmade leather booklet.  The stories are great, and what's even better I don't recall most of the details but she tells it like it was yesterday.  Things like "With you I learned that if you skip school enough the truant officer will come" and "if you toss a match on a mattress the house will burn down" jump right off the page.  And then there was the trick or treating session she just had to be part of, but unbeknownst to her I had mapped out the entire town and we went waaaay beyond the borders of our neighborhood and didn't stop until we had mountains of candy.  And all this time I'd been thinking my manic nature on the bike came on recently.  She taught me I've had it all along.  Cycling isn't the constant, manic is...  Here's the lucky guy.  Boyd, I hope you understand what a great gal you've got.  All you gotta do is be her best friend.  Get that right and the rest is easy.   Posted Dec 26 2007, 10:00 PM by Dave

• The path to enlightenment: manic or nibbling away?

  Ah, holiday time.  I always get a bit retrospective this time of year... Using all sorts of resources I've been trying to piece together that optimal picture of the perfect training and racing year.  No matter how many studies, theories, or blogs I read, it always comes back to my own training data.  There just isn't anything more convincing, powerful, enlightening that my own store of power file data over 3 years of ultra endurance training and racing. Hopefully I can say CTL without causing too much forehead wrinkling amongst y'all (got that, Rick?).  CTL = chronic training load, an analytical measure based on the daily TSS (training stress scores) calculated from power meter data.  I've actually got 7 years of the stuff, but the last 3 have been the enduro focus.  Here's how they've progressed.  Click for the big'n. It's hard to make sense of this picture for a few reasons, but there are some things that jump right out.  Such as: a CTL of 120-130 seems to be the comfy zone for racing and training. coupled with power meter data I know that the fastest power gains occurred with the slowest CTL ramp rate - early '05 in the fall of '06 I apparently developed the ability to dig enormous holes from a training stress standpoint the only 2 major cycling injuries in this lifetime have both come on the heels of PB CTL peaks, both in terms of absolute volume and ramp rates. The observations above that are most affecting my thoughts for '08 are the 2nd and 4th... There's been some talk on wattage about what sort of programs lead to better power gains - and would you know it?  The Cog presented a lot of data showing similar stuff as above for his wife who is a national champ pursuitist.  I've come to realize I have the ability to do massive training and get away with it most of the time (except when I don't) but that doesn't lead to power gains per se...it does lead to enormous endurance.  It was perfect for Grand Loop.  For anything shorter and more technical though, not the optimal plan by any standard.  So this year the plan is to "nibble away" and avoid huge training stress spikes for the most part, and spend more time doing quality work.  That pic above is proof positive of a massive 3 year base that is pretty much unshakable - no need for more. The corollary to the above point is what I refer to as "headroom."  You only have so much capacity for training adaptation, and if your CTL is too high there just isn't any room to do the quality work that increases power and improve from it.  To put the above values in perspective, it's been estimated that Le Tour cyclists hit a CTL in the 150s by the end of the race.  My peak this year was 173.  That's friggin manic! That 4th point...yep, no question, long deep builds are expensive.  They are now so alluring because I can get stronger as they progress, seemingly adapting just fine.  At some point the bottom drops out - but not until I rest.  I never know during the build how much is too much cause the body (or ma head?) says "more please."  What does it all mean?  Slower ramp rates (or even flat ramp rates) for '08.  More quality.  More SS.  More power.  More fun.  Save the big manic builds for the end of the season - which in StG means June and Nov.  It's all coming together. Posted Dec 14 2007, 08:46 AM by Dave

• Goat trail exorcised!

  If you've done any amount of technical mountain biking you've experienced the goat trail.  No, not that winding skinny high mountain trail that heads up to where the air is rare.  Those trails are for goats, yes... but I'm talking about the trail that *gets* your goat.  You know, the one that forces you to push beyond some mental or physical barrier or subject you to the dreaded walk of shame.  Or worse. There's this short loop near StG that has provided more than enough challenge since first putting tread to it.  LW was telling me about a trail that was smooth and buff so I had to check it out.  When I got there...geez I thought, this is no place like home.  Smooth in spots, sure - for 20 feet.  Other than that, plenty of rocky terrain and a few spots that required some scouting to find rideable lines (well for me anyway). I'm not a great technical rider.  Too much time with a NORBA license and not enough time with an EPIC license.  I'm working on it...and add to that the hesitancy that comes from not being able to clip out on demand cause of the July injury, and well I'm a trainwreck when it gets tech these days.  I'm far from Ed's consumate bike handling abilities... This trail has been my benchmark for a few months now, and it has had a strangehold on my goat for the duration.  Sept:  spd crash (which I've begun to call "tipovers", an important semantic difference), left side a mess and a quarter sized hematoma - volcanic rock is sharp.  Then the next round:  right in the same spot I get a flat.  Rythm gone, walking ensues.  And so it went.  I hadn't cleaned this trail yet as of 2 days ago. Then comes the magic.  Yesterday, for the first time since July 6, I clipped out intinctively, unplanned, with that left foot.  Pain free.  Unfettered.  Confidence soars.  With 3.5 hours and 5k' already done, I hit that goat trail up for a rematch.  Just as we got to "the spot", LWs chain comes off both the front and rear rings.  What is it with this trail?  Well, I just said I had a score to settle and kept on going.  Maybe it was the confidence of a working foot, the 3.5  hour warmup, the damp ground...but the trail seemed *easy*.  Those tech pitches just cruised under my wheels like butter.  There was hooting like those folks I used to guide down rivers in another life...embarrasing but no regrets :) Yesterday's goat trail becomes today's best friend, just like that, and on the 32.17 no less. Wanna ride it?  It'll be on the menu at camp Lynda, only I don't think she's gonna make you do that forever Blakes climb beforehand.  But I gotta warn you:  this trail is a lot like chocolate chip cookies.  one is never enough. Posted Dec 03 2007, 02:34 PM by Dave

• SS adaptations in QA

  A few weeks back I posted a this QA scatter plot.  I'd been riding the SS about 2-3 weeks at this point. Here's the latest.  Both rides were on the 2:1.  The "Blakes" data is from a ~ 2500' climb with sustained grades well over 10% while the other ride was just rippin around faster singletrack with a grin. See any differences?  The legs are changing.  Here's what I see in QA: - the left "edge" of the data points in the first file is at a cadence of about 50 while it's upper 30's in the second. - there are no cadence/force "holes" in the data. - power is up despite no structured training.  Free power?  Yea baby! - somewhat hidden in the second file...but there are several points popping up above the max AEPF/CPV line established by the standing start testing - this means max force at low cadence is increasing. Note to Ed:  see how the points on that left edge start to go straight up?  That's where it's getting really tough to maintain that minimal cadence and I'll go as hard as I have to to maintain it.  To hold a given power, force has to rise rapidly at low cadences, and that's the physics part I was tallking about in the comments.  It's power that gets us up a hill,  not force.  Dangit. I promise at some point there will be non-technical backway meanderings again...there would be today if I'd have had a camera yesterday!!!  Big rain event and mountain snowfall, flash floods rising 30 feet over bridges in slot canyons...just picture that in the most scenic spot on earth and you'd have the picture :)     Posted Dec 02 2007, 08:26 AM by Dave