new bike

I'm waiting to do the finish work until I do some testing.

The vitals:

seat height:  20"

seat angle:  0 degrees

bottom bracket height:  27.2"

wheelbase:  50"

no crank interference

dual 700c

haven't weighed it yet

I made a flip-up old-man-bar to assist in getting up from the extreme seated position.

Training plan adjustments

Last months training cycle was relatively successful.  The flaw in it is that there isn't enough downtime between peaks.  Well, the flaw isn't in the plan, it's in me.  I'm unable to maintain the necessary hormonal high required to race once per month, month after month.  

I like building up the weekly intensity prior to the race instead of just juggling between 50-70% the whole time.  But 50-70% works too so my new plan will look something like this:

-8 to 12 weeks, 50% or less, three times per week, 45min. on trainer or 60min. on flat road.  This will be my quarter-annual off-season

-4 to 7 weeks,  alternate 50/70%, 45min. on trainer or 60min. on flat road, three days per week.  This is base training.

-three weeks,  80% (Saturday ride) 29miles on road w/some hills (performance course, 758 total feet of climbing)

-two weeks,  90%, otherwise same as previous week 

-one week,  70%,  1-1.25hr. on flat road

Race

During weeks 8-12 training will primarily be done on the trainer to reduce stress.  If I ride on the road it will be in the nearby residential area where rich people live.  They have very wide streets with almost no traffic and no parked cars.  There is a .9mile loop that I like to use.  It's like my own, personal flat track.  This low-stress period will allow me to work on weight control without fear of compromising fitness.

During weeks one through three before the race all other training (Mon. and Wed.) will be done at under 50% on the trainer for 45min.

the next day

My legs are still aching so it definitely isn't the poison I ate.  There are a couple of more signals that things aren't working optimally.  Even though my weight has stabilized at around 186lbs my bodyfat levels are higher, especially belly fat which I don't usually carry.  Also, while preparing to start last weeks road ride I felt a higher than normal anxiety at the prospect of being out on the road and facing high-speed traffic.  Those are both signs that my hormones are starting to shift in a not too fitness producing direction; my testosterone levels going down and my cortisol levels going up.  I know all too well the feeling of cortisol-induced pain and this is what I'm feeling.

The question is, what's causing it.  Is it the riding or the lifting.  The lifting has been so light that I find it hard to believe that it could be the cause, but you never know.  The riding, on the other hand...  I've had three races in a five week period plus one ride in the 90% range.  That's a far cry from my other viable training method of 50-70% and a race or 100% effort once every two months.  Based on my early season results from last year I believe the riding is the culprit.

I just went through my blog and it looks pretty obvious what is wrong.  A few forays into the over-70% realm was enough to send me into fitness decline.  I guess it's back to old faithful, Pussyfoot Training (tm) aka Empty Sack Training (EST).  It would be stupid for me to race in two weeks as that will just do more damage and screw up my long range plan.  I guess I will regroup then build up for Fiesta Island in February then do the same and hit it again in May.  That's the beauty of having a blog.  I can look back with 20/20 vision and see where I went wrong instead of looking ahead with my thumb up my ass wondering, "Gee, what is that?".  If the weather cooperates I fully expect to do 30mph in February.  That's all that matters in the end. 

Mid-cycle training assessment

Last week (week one) went typically.  This week (week two) was supposed to be higher intensity but my legs weren't having it so I adjusted accordingly and went easy again.  My quads were in an easy-to-pickle state and despite going easy my legs were hurting pretty good by the latter portions of the ride.  Mostly the pain was in the inner portion, not the quads.

There are numerous possibilities for the cause of this.  It could be that the racing is catching up with me or the new quad-centric position.  It might be the lifting I have started doing.  A few weeks ago I started doing some light deadlifts after the Saturday rides.  I initially was doing the Romanian version but was starting to feel too much stress in my hamstring tendons so last week I switched to the conventional style but only lowering the bar to my knees and using more leg drive.  Along with deadlifts I'm doing situps.  The situps actually work those muscles that were hurting today so maybe it was them.  I've had bad results every other time I've mixed lifting and cycling so I'm just going to ditch it now.

Another wild-card reason could be the giant plate of pancakes I ate last night.  Those things are instant poison in a box.  I ate them because I ran out of potatoes and raisins.  I had started an experiment eliminating raisins from my diet to see what would happen when I stopped eating them like candy (1000-2000 calories per day).  Last night I was getting some heavy carb cravings and was horrified to find that I was down to three puny potatoes so I resorted to the old, past-the-expiration-date pancake mix covered by that concoction of chemicals that passes for syrup these days (also expired).  Soon after eating them I felt pain shoot through both knees.  I'm rooting for them being the cause and this pain being transient.

On the bright side, I was wanting to try a lower intensity cycle, maybe this is just a psycho-somatic way of making it happen.  I wouldn't put it past my sub-conscious self.  I'll see how I feel next week.   I'm racing again in two weeks.

November Piru TT Comparison

I did the Piru TT yesterday.  I did it exactly three years ago as well.  The weather conditions were similar which was windy.  Three years ago I rode my Fogcom lowracer.  Yesterday I did a good job meting out power.  At no point did I ever push myself over the edge and I'm proud of myself for that.

The Piru TT is 20k with 471 feet of total climbing (130 out and 341 back).  Three years ago I did 28:52.  This time I knocked off 25 seconds doing 28:27.  I also got fastest time of the day while last time I was beat by one DFer by 15 seconds.  The next fastest yesterday was somewhere over 29 minutes.  

The most pleasing part of it all was the initial success of my new training plan.  Three years ago I built up my mileage for this race eventually ending up doing 245 miles per week for the last two weeks before my taper.  This time was vastly different.

My training for the last month has been:

Monday- 45 minutes easy on the trainer with a heartrate between 80-90bpm.

Wednesday- same as Monday

Saturday- 38 mile loop on the road at a steady pace.

I varied the intensity for the Saturday ride like this:

week one- 50-60% of aerobic capacity

week two- 70-80%

week three- ~90%

week four- race

I've tried abbreviated training twice before with mixed results; once with short-term success (28.28mph unfaired at the Fiesta Island TT in 2004) , the other was a complete disaster (HPRA Northbrook races in 2003).  Neither had long-term viability.  Prior to the 2004 Fiesta Island I trained only once every ten days but I kept the intensity at 90% or above.  After the TT I was cooked and I quit training altogether.

Hopefully, by reducing the intensity early in the cycle I can get away with the two harder efforts each month.  While my old plan of staying between 50-70% but with more volume worked okay it left me lacking in power I'm going to need to go 30mph and beyond unfaired;  I was only going to go so far pussy-footing my way around the track.

   

My first HPRA race from 2003

Then, and now.  Same wheels and rear derailleur.  No rake fork but drastically different headtube angle.  I was a much stronger person back then but I'm faster now.

Now I'm Aero!!!

After more chopping I think I finally have it how I want it.  I wasn't completely "feeling it" before so I cut back the upper back support a bit and raised the front of the seat .75".  Now, even though I'm more supine, my forward visibity has improved a great deal thanks to a more upright head angle even though the original neckrest position hasn't changed.

I got an aero helmet coming and when it does I plan on making a helmet tail support that attaches to the neckrest to keep it properly oriented to the air flow.