Sometimes life just catches up with you, and the past 7 days or so have been that way for me. Between school and work I haven't gotten much in the way of quality training and for the first time in a month my training stress balance is in the positive ranges. That means my short term training load is less than my long term.... ie I'm losing fitness. As dumb as it sounds I feel overweight (still at 70kg and 8% fat) and I get really antsy when I don't train hard.

Anyway, I'm off to Ouray Colorado to ice climb for six days. It will be a welcome break, I guess sometimes you really do need to come up for air! After that I'm back to training seriously and I'm eagerly anticipating the start of the racing season in March.

Cheers!
Justin

Its that time a year again folks! Time for.. a day in the life of your's truely!
Actually, I've had a really hard time writing blog posts recently. Maybe it is because I'm really busy with the combined school, work, training or because by the time my day is done is 10 or 11 pm and I just want to eat and go to bed. Alas, I will post soon about Europe this year (which I don't think is going to happen), my plans for next year , and the geekdom that is my training plan.

For those of you (ok, my Grandma is probably the only one but humor me) who are curious, here's a day in my life:

7:30ish- Wake up on futon, remember that air matress died and wish that I could get my sweet, sweet mattress that is in Missouri

8:30 (hahaha, more like 9)- Out the door, drive to work/school. Every day I wish it was warm enough to ride my bike because the traffic on 1300 E SUCKS. I blame such traffic for making me a very, very angry person.

9:10 to 10:30- Class time. I have Exploring Movement Science on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Psychology on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. More about Exploring Movement Science later.... oh do I have the greatest teacher in the world.

11:00am to 6:00pm- Work. Meh, I still like working in a bike shop most days. Check us out at www.cyclesmithslc.com. Hell, buy something! We just finished a renovation and need the money damnit.

7:00pm- On the trainer, avg. is about 90min a night and all of it is quality work. I've been doing two Hour of Power (HOP) sessions a week and filling in the rest with microbursts and some easy rides.

9:00pm- Eat, sleep, repeat

My lawyers have advised me to issue the following statement for my own personal safety:

In past posts I have used terms such as "I'll clean it up soon" in reference to my apartment what I really mean is "my girlfriend will clean it up soon as she inevitably get sick of the mess". From now on whenever such activites like cleaning or housekeeping are mentioned with "we" assume the credit goes to my girlfriend. Thank you, that is all.

Another day, another workout (see above), and my CTL and ATL creep a little bit higher. However, it isn't all about CTL, ATL, TSTWKT, Performance Manager, etc.... To me, its all just a means to an end. One part of that "end" is my power at threshold; the other, and the most important, part of that end is winning races. Winning is the overall goal, the power numbers are just a way to get there. Luckily, I believe there is a direct correlation between the numbers on my pretty little SRM screen and how well I'm doing in races. The performance manager has helped me to quantify that, and I really, really, really like numbers being the geek that I am.

Check out the workout above. I've been doing a lot of isopower workouts on the trainer where I'll hold a constant power for anywhere from 10-20minutes at 90-105% of my threshold power. Isopower workouts are great, but they do get a little bit boring. Plus, I think there is merit to what I call "bridge" workouts that span the difference between threshold and VO2 max (for me about 120% of my threshold). If the overall goal is to raise my threshold number then I have to spend some time above threshold (or above "ouch"; what ever have you). Today I did two ramp workouts where I raised my watts from 230-300 over about 20min. 230 watts being just below the low end of my threshold range and 300 being the begining of my VO2 max range.

Not to drag this wholey uncreative post on forever... but I've also been doing some work on my TT position. I think I've arrived at a place where I'm happy. Its a little bit lower (but my bars are still higher than they were in the begining of 2005) and a little bit more stretched out. Picture below... please note:


-The winter training beard, Zabriske is my hero- plus, I'm guessing its worth at least 30 seconds in the Valley TT when I shave it off)


-The cluter that is my apartment... ouch. I promise I'll clean it up soon mom! The kitchen is clean... for reals.


-No, dad, those are not your socks.... you wish! But, if you really want them back you can have them. Don't even start to think I'm going to wash them before they go in the mail though.


-My sweet, sweet John Deere hat, I bet ya'll wish you were sponsored by John Deere. Can anyone say motorpacing behind a tractor? Hmmmm, can ya?

My fellow comrades, it is I- your benevolent dictator. It has been long since we have talked but never fear! All is well in our small but powerful country. I long debated my next blog post as Greg has my blog linked through http://wattagetraining.com now. Should I become more professional? Should I, the great, merely document my training and coaching philosophies without dramatic interludes from interesting, if a little insane, characters like my foot or my benevolent dictator alter ego? Then I thought.... nah! Mi Tifosi*, they love me for who I am!

I hope that from now on my blogging can be as consistent as my training. I realize that I could have ridden my bike once in the last three months and that would be the case but fear not; for I have been training well. The only thing I've been struggling with since my return from Europe (other than getting Bernard to answer my emails... I hope he's reading this...) has been balancing the old school European training methods (lots of lllloooonnnngggg slow base miles, think 5-7 hours on the bike just spinning) with the current exercise physiology train of thought (super efficient rides with lots of time spent at or near threshold). Now, I realize that is a super over simplification of things so nobody get on my case.

The new Cycling Peaks WKO+ has really helped my training, mainly the performance manager chart (PMC) or as it has come to be known... TSTWKT (The "Stuff" That Will Kill Them). Basically, it tracks my daily TSS (training stress score) and averages it over two set periods of time. One is my long term training load and the other my short term training load. The magic is in the decay rate of those values (or so I'm told, I'm learning more every day). My goal is to steadily raise my long term training load (or CTL, chronic training load) to 100 TSS/d by Valley of the Sun- my first big stage race of the season. I can do this by making sure my short term training load (or ATL, acute training load) is always 5-15 TSS/day higher than my CTL.

I say 5-15 TSS/day because anything more is too much too soon and anything less won't get me to where I need to be in time. This is the true art of the PMC.... figuring out how much is just enough. I found that I could sustain 20-30 TSS/D of ATL over my CTL (which would give me a training stress balance of negative 20-30) for a few weeks at the most. Useful for overloading I'm sure, but not useful for this time a year when I need to consistently ride every week to build my aerobic "base"- more on that later.

Here's my ride from today, one of my favorite trainer rides:


Cheers, and thanks for reading!
Justin






*Tifosi are the rabid, italian cycling fans. They be C R A Z Y.

TSS and my life

Aren't those some pretty colored lines up above? Sure, pretty to you maybe, but they represent my life! My life man! Ok, that's a little* over the top but my SRM did arrive at the begining of this month (August for those of you who live in a basement on a computrainer and never see the light of day). This combined with a lovely bit of software called
Cycling Peaks (no, people, they are not paying me to say all this, I swear) has really helped me focus my training back to where it should be. Well, my SRM, CyclingPeaks, and the flipping hot weather.

I'm kind of a wuss and don't like to ride outside when its 100 degrees. Especially after the beautiful hole I dug for myself at the IL state TT. Hence, I've been doing a lot of work on the trainer. A few observations:

1. I get bored on the trainer
2. I need a bigger fan
3. If I'm riding so hard I can't see straight... the trainer is less boring

I'll never just get on the trainer and ride, that'll kill me. I will however do specific work... hell, I actually enjoy it. My typical workouts for the week:

1. Some sort of Neuro Muscular sprint workout, usually micro intervals (15 sec on/off). I decided my NM skills needed some work after Andy Coggan outsprinted me, Andy is strong as a flippin Ox, just not for 10sec.

2. Threshold work... Ah, the base of every cyclist's training plan (at least us endurance boys and girls, I can't speak for the match sprinters on the track). I've been doing at least one threshold day a week, sometimes 2. My favorite thus far has been a quasi hour of power workout. 10min at 100% of my threshold wattage followed by 30sec-1min of easy spinning just so I don't go insane (or my ass doesn't burn off, stupid saddle sores), repeated 4-6 times. The classic 2-3X20min workout is another favorite.

3. Criss Cross intervals. I love these, been doing them since I was a we lad of 16 and racing mountain bikes. 1min at 100% of threshold wattage, 1min at 120% of threshold wattage, repeated for 10min. I've been doing 3 blocks with 5min inbetween each, but I'm going to try and push it to four this week. This is a great bridge between VO2 max workouts and LT work.

4. VO2 Max work. These are fun, I love them (probably because my VO2 max wattage has always been porportionally higher than my LT wattage). The two versions of these I really like are 5 X 5min at 120% of my threshold wattage with 3-5min of recovery and 6 X 3min at 120-125% of threshold wattage with 3min of recovery, then 4X2min with 4min of recovery at 120% of threshold wattage. That last one is straight out of "Racing and Training With a Power Meter". I actually did these yesterday...tasty!

5. Long ride... Gotta get in a long ride every week. If nothing else, for my sanity. I still LOVE just going for a long bike ride.

6. Recovery day. I've actually been motorpacing behind the subaru on my recovery days. 60min of little chainring spinning.

Sorry, just geek talk today. More funny anecdotes to come...

"Never Stop Believing" -Floyd Landis

Once again, France weeps tonight. The Star Spangled Banner was played in Paris as another American stood on the top step of the final podium of the Tour de France. Most of the people reading this already knew this, but did anyone notice the changes in Landis' demeanor as the tour progressed? In the begining, on the podium, he looked cocky and confident. At the end, he appeared humble. And, dare I say, more deserving?

It annoys me when the race leaders in the Tour break out the yellow bike and the yellow shoes, helmet, socks, gloves, glasses, etc, etc, etc. I don't think that doing so is very respectfull towards what is the greatest cycling race in the world. Maybe because of this I didn't like Floyd at first. But, his courage (and dare I say panache? damnit, I sound french) changed my mind. I am very glad that Landis was forced to go on that long breakaway and forced to punch out a phenomincal time trial. He earned this tour victory more so than if he had not blown up on that mountain stage. Congradulations Landis, if it matters you have earned the respect of one more hack cat 3 wanabe.

I respect Lance for his perfection and preperation, and I respect Floyd for his courage and determination. I've had my doubts about my own cycling ability, yesterday's race was one of them, but I've never really stopped believing. Before I left Belgium I was told that my two greatest attributes were my dedication and determination. If that's what I have to work with then I'll get on the bike more than the other guy, work harder than the other guy, and be more willing to kill everyone around me in each race I do. Whatever it takes....

Thanks for reading,
justin