goodbye lowracer, hello crankforward

I converted my FWD lowracer to a crankfoward.  It's singlespeed and compact at 38" in wheelbase.  I maintained the folding feature as well.  

I removed 12" of seat/main-frame, narrowed the FWD fork, widened the rear fork, cut off the boom and mounted it into the seat tube position.  Voilla, instant SSCFCFCF (single-speed, carbon fiber, compact, folding, crank-forward) or S2CF3.

I got the seat on sale at Nashbar.  It's 9" wide and very comfortable.  I don't care for the you-better-be-secure-with-your-manhood-pink color.  I'll soon cover it with some black lycra.  Another benefit of this type of seat is that a padded crotch isn't required.  

11-2-08

Short and sweet today. I did box squats for an easy ten reps with 300lbs. Contrary to the Olympic squats I placed the focus on the hips and hamstrings by sitting way back. Like before, I did these sitting completely relaxed on the box, thighs parallel with the ground and starting each rep from a dead stop. These are very much like doing deadlifts with the bar on your back.

I finished with hyper-extensions with 100lbs for fifteen reps and hanging leg raises, thirty reps with no added weight. This workout felt really good.

the new shed

I just finished my latest project. This shed replaced one of those little sheet-metal ones that was getting run down and was way too small.



My main concern building this was that there is a large family of cottontail rabbits living underneath the floorboards of the old shed and I didn't want to expose them in the process. I was able to bury the old floor within the new, saving some lumber in the process. Now the rabbits have more room to stretch out in.



The rabbits are a great source of entertainment when they're not trying to raid my garden. They're especialyl fun to watch in the springtime when the new batch of babies come out for sprint training. One of their exercises is for one to charge while another does a vertical leap as the charger passes underneath. It's like miniature bullfighting. Yes, they ate all of my strawberries this year but, all in all, I consider it a fair trade.

10-29-08

I decided to separate cycling and lifting because I need more time between lifting session to recover properly. I'm feeling too much like an old man in the knees when I squat down. Today was just sprints.

My first two sprints went 1238w and 1252w, the first in 40x16 then sencond in 40x14. I was a bit disappointed with this as it's only a ten watt increase over my best done almost a month ago. At this stage of the game I should be improving much faster than that.

I don't feel like I'm able to develop the leg speed and muscular contraction rate necessary to get the most out of the 140mm cranks I've been using so I decided to try 170s to see what happens. As soon as I started out I felt ridiculous, like I was high-steppin' in a marching band. I felt completely inefficient. Nonetheless, I was able to knock out a 1248w effort followed by a 1287w one, both in 53x18. I went 1.5mph faster as well. I guess that answers that question.

Hopefully my wattage will increase with improved pedaling efficiency alone and my power should increase with the extra recovery of the reducing the frequency of lifting. I need to get out of the lousy 1200s. I'd like at least to get to 1500w by next summer.

10-24-08

Deadlifts, 3 sets of 5 with 300lbs. My spinal discs weren't too happy with this weight selection but my muscles had no problem with it. I followed these with one-leg Bulgarian split-squats, 3 sets of 5 with 100lbs. These were easy but new so I didn't push very hard.

I did four sub-max sprints, standing in 40x16 (1194, 1216, 1191, 1215). I don't think it's a direct comparison of wattages in different gears. I definitely don't think wattage in itself is a good indicator of speed. I find it easier to develop peak wattage with smaller gears and highest speeds with bigger gears. In other words, I highly doubt I will put out anywhere near PR watts when I do a 200tt. My next exercise attests to this.

I finished with a new exercise which I'll call 0-t0-30s. In a big gear I'll start from 0-mph and accelerate to 30mph. I did two efforts in a 40x12. I accelerated moderately and smoothly on these and yielded 849 and 888 watts. I feel these are good for developing power throughout the stroke and for anaerobic endurance. For comparison, my usual sub-max sprints start from 13-15mph and rarely get up to 30mph. I focus mainly on acceleration for these.

I finished the weight workout with three easy sets of ten with 110lbs for situps.

10-17-08

I started off with Olympic squats, 250lbs for three sets of ten. I then did seven sub-max sprints, all seated in a 40x18 gear. They went: 1125, 1181, 1168, 1172, 1202, 1116, 1112 watts). I run a double 40-tooth chainring to better align the chain depending on which cog I'm in. On the last two I moved the chain to the outer ring. I wonder if that had any effect on my wattage. Then again, I did do squats this time instead of deadlifts so my quads were pre-exhausted.

One thing I don't like about squatting with the weights on my back is that they are as much about fighting spinal compression as they are about driving weights with the hips and legs. That kind of stress is not helpful for sprinting and cuts into recovery. There are other exercises that work around that like belt squats or hack squats but unfortunately they require equipment I don't have access to. There are one-legged squats or the step-ups I was doing. The step-ups are kind of unstable but Bulgarian one-legged squats are something I can look into.

I weighed 209lbs this morning in shorts and a T-shirt. Damn! I need to think about grabbing the reins. I don't mind weighing 209lbs but I'm at the limit of how much bodyfat I will allow myself to carry. I can still see my abs but I won't be able to for long at the pace I'm going.

I finished today's session with 3x20 of hanging leg raises and 3x20 of hyper extensions with no added weight.

10-12-08

Besides only having five days between sprint workouts I made a few other changes. I got rid of the easy rides. I had been doing three other rides per week and then cut that down to two. I decided to do away with them altogether this past week as I see no benefit of doing them. Since I'm dropping the intensity on the bike I decided to lift weights first.

I did speed deadlifts, 8 sets of 8 with 205lbs, one set per 1.5minutes. Each rep I did with as much speed as possible. They went easy but really got my heart going.

On the bike I did ten sub-max sprints with short rest periods. These were all done standing. I haven't done a standing sprint since day one and I was surprised how good my form was. I can feel the effect of the core work I've been doing.

I intended on working in the 75% range which is around 930 watts. My first effort was an easy 1058 watts so so much for that plan. That was my only effort under 1100 watts. They went 1058, 1144, 1122, 1181, 1125, 1192, NA (forgot to reset), 1181, 1149, 1185. These were a piece of cake and I never got winded or saw stars. They were done with the wind and it was quite windy so the effective gear was smaller than the 40x18 I actually used.

I finished up the workout with sit-ups. I did 3 sets of 15 with 100lbs on my chest. I also did sissy squats with no weight to work the quads through there full range of motion.