Weekend Mountain Biking Extravaganza

A thousand points of light came together this weekend. The training plan, the work schedule, the family activities, and the availability of a loaner Lefty fork. It was to be a weekend of rediscovering the joy of riding while soaking up some much needed family time.

Saturday I lead things off with a pretty relaxed ride around Elk Meadows in Bergen Park. The ride started off a little strange as I came across this accident as I was cutting across on the bike path. Ouch.


Once into Elk Meadows things cleared up and I was able to just ride. No training plan, just ride. Enjoyment. Clearing obstacles flowing down the trail. I road to the top and sat down to enjoy the view and a fantastic PB&J.
Elk Meadows really has some excellent trails, I would highly recommend a visit if you haven't been or if your like me and you'd forgotten.

Early Sunday morning the family took our "Altitude Tent" up to Winter Park. We figured we'd miss the weekend folks if we went up Sunday and stayed until Monday. We were right. It was so quite and relaxing. The family let me ride both Sunday and Monday. It was sad to see so many trees with beetle kill had been blown down over the winter. Some of the excellent single track was blocked or closed due to the downed trees. It was obvious they working to remove the dead trees but the extent of the kill is enormous. Again, it was great to get out and ride.


The family also got in some riding and adventure hikes. We ate our body weight in smores and slept like babies. We'll be repeating that trip soon.

Lefty Repair and Squaw Pass

Great news, the loaner Lefty fork for the Cannondale Flash 29er came in and I pickup the bike yesterday. So I'm back in action. After looking at the loaner fork I think my original fork always had a problem. When I originally got the bike it always had a little oil on top of the fork. I just assumed it was the way Lefty forks behaved. But the loaner is bone dry. So, I'm guessing the seal was always leaking and it was just a mater of time. The QA at the Lefty factory must have been off using his/her lefty for some personal gratification and missed the early 29er forks coming off the line. On the topic of Cannondale repair turn around time, the LBS apparently held on to my bike until the loaner fork showed up. So, for the past 10 days the bike was just getting ready to be worked on. The fork was finally shipped out this past Thursday, so we'll start the Cannondale clock then and leave the rest on the shop clock.

On the training side of things, Thursday morning (before I heard I was getting the 29er back) I went up to Squaw/Juniper pass. I need some hill and altitude time to get ready for the Mt Evan's race I'm going to do later this month. (I'm looking for a better time than my last race a few years ago). I can't even tell you the last time I road to the top of this pass. Years ago I remember getting to the top in about 1:45, this time I was at the top in 1:20. So, as long as my memory is good then I'm improving. I'm not sure if it was the altitude or my legs, but I road at 93% LTHR while only putting out 79% FTP. I'm guessing the recovery week next week is coming at a good time.

The top was magnificent! I was at the top around 8am. I was alone and it was nice and quiet, BEAUTIFUL. The photo just doesn't do it justice. I hung out for a while then slipped back down the mountain.

The Self-Trained Cyclist

In the past I've had a few opportunities to get a coach to help with my training plans and workout schedule. Each time I've taken time to consider the pro's and con's. Each time the pro has been the great fitness I should get by paying to have a knowledgeable coach. Each time I come to the same conclusion, this is my hobby and I'll feel much better accomplishing it as a self-coached cyclist. It's my activity, I want the sense of accomplishment I'll get by doing it myself.

Now I'm not above learning from others, I have some good books. Joe Friel's Cyclist Training Bible and Allen and Coggan Training and Racing with a Power Meter. Both of these are excellent sources of information and I continuously use them as references. Best of all, they make it sound easy!

I should provide you with some background on my athletic endeavorers so you know where I'm coming from. Way back I did some high school sports, nothing spectacular. Then I spent a few years in the Military. Once I got out, I pretty much retired from running, I took a few years to focus on College and got fat. Then I picked up cycling, more specifically mountain biking and have gotten into it a little more each year, road riding, centuries, tours, some racing then cyclocross. I've really only started working to get into race shape and improve my results just the last 3 years. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I not a former elite [or even good for that mater] athlete looking to re-find my form. I'm more of a nerd trying to get fast.

So why am I putting this together. I've been pretty frustrated with my fitness lately. Last year I didn't feel things went that well so I tried to make some changes. Sadly, as near as I can tell, things haven't improved much this year. I've lost some weight but the power numbers are about the same, which is really an improvement because my power to weight ratio has improved but it hasn't been enough.

I recently wrote about my FTP estimation test, since then I've been doing workouts to improve that number. Longer sustained efforts near that level to get my body to adapt. According to that last test I had an FTP around 304 (the test spiked a little at the end so with some analysis lets call it an FTP of 300W) lately I haven't been able to hold anything near that number. If I held 300W for an hour, I'd ride right into the grave. Of coarse I have a pretty good training block in the legs now and they're pretty tired. I'm going to re-test next week so I guess we'll see were I am then.

I'll be posting more on my training in the coming days and weeks leading up to cyclocross season. The summer solstice was this week, the days are getting shorter, CX season is coming! I really feel like I should be able to upgrade this year, as last year I was starting in the front row all season due to my BCR points. But, we'll see.

Loving the morning rides

Everything is so green!

Good Morning Denver

Got in a couple of runs up lookout.

Cannondale Flash 29er Lefty Blow Out

So last week I went mountain biking at Lookout and had a great time! The Flash 29er was outstanding. The now tubeless small block 8 tires had issues but we survived and now I have them fixed.

Last Thursday I was finally getting time to clean up the bike when I noticed the Lefty was leaking oil down the side of the fork from the top. I cleaned it up and started playing with the fork some more. The fork no longer locked out when I turn it to the locked out position. The best one was when I push down hard on the fork oil would shoot out the holes in the side of the dust cover boot. Just shooting over the brake rotor. oil + brake rotor = better not go too fast!

So, basically the Lefty's out of action. LBS says the seal is blown and they want to return it to Cannondale for warranty service. Also heard they had another 29er Lefty come in last week with a similar problem. From what I remember about the ride last week, I didn't hit anything big or in an awkward position. So, I'm without a mountain bike. Fortunately the Winter Park race I was going to do last week let me move my registration to a later race. I'll let you know how long it takes to get repaired. I hope it'll be soon we're getting into the mountain racing season and I want to get out and ride!

Raced CSP 30+ Open Crit Tonight

We averaged 26.6 mph for 52 minutes. People were getting lapped two
and three times. You had to be very careful the guy in front of you
didn't open a gap you couldn't close. The wind made the gaps I could
close small and I closed a lot of gaps. I survived with the lead group
but it was a big effort. I'm calling it a little win in the training
department, you can't get that kind of workout alone.

Sent from my iPhone

Beautiful Morning for a Ride

Mountain Biking Lookout Mountain

Last night I got out for a most excellent mountain bike ride with my friend, "The Burn" race director, Robert. I have no idea why I haven't done this ride before. It's fantastic! Great climbs fun descents and some good technical stuff to keep it interesting and make me want to come back and get it right. Thanks. The trail was Awesome!

Now I'm sitting here at work trying to figure out when I'll make it back to this loop. Oh man, I gotta get to work.

Photo's next time I go up!

Good Warning

That Baby's Done!

Need new tires. Glad this one got me home!

Is BP going to pollute the entire North Atlantic Hemisphere?

Sweet, if this is right BP will have screwed up not only the Gulf but the Atlantic as well. And if I read the model right, it's only for the top 20M of water. What about the plumes that have been reported at 3000 ft below the surface?

I wonder what our grandkids will think of us? "Grandpa, did fish really live in the sea? You ate seafood? Did birds live near the ocean? You could play on the beach? Wow, your lucky Grandpa."

The model is from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, part of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Functional Threshold Power (FTP) Estimation Test

The max power output you can hold for an hour is often referred to as your threshold power. This is the number used to determine all your power based training levels because it's kind of a magic number. If you stay below your threshold you remain aerobic and you can sustain the output for a long time. Go above it and you go anaerobic and your time is limited. The greater your threshold power to weight ratio, the longer you can go faster. The ratio is important because if your a big person you'll have to put out big power.

Many people believe a devastating sprint or short burst of speed allows people to win bike races, but if your not fast enough to hang with the group for the race, you'll never get to use your crushing short term speed. I believe this has been some of my problem in the last races. During my training this year I haven't see much improvement in my threshold power. I intend to change that and make it a priority.

As you can image, holding your max power for an hour is hard, so people have come up with a number of ways to estimate the value. This morning I used Joe Friel's FTP confirmation method. It wasn't too taxing and I'm hoping the results are accurate. Basically it's eight 4 minute repeats with one minute rest between them. Each interval is done at 10 watts higher than the previous one. Start about 70-80 watts below your believed threshold. When you see your LTHR during the interval, your done and the average for that four minute block is your FTP.

From the data it looks like I got a little carried away with the last interval because I knew it was my last one. I hit my LTHR (163) - this is my average HR during almost all races - and averaged 304W. This is my new reference point for the training going forward.


Over the next couple of weeks I'll be working on that. I would like to raise it up as high as possible before CX season where pushing a higher wattage at a lower heart rate will pay some dividends. This is the time to make adjustments, this is after all just pre-season!

Training

It's been a few days since the road race and I've had time to reflect on how I feel and my power data from the race. The good news is I feel pretty good, the legs aren't too sore and I actually feel motivated to ride. I'd actually like to go hit some hills but for some reason finding time to get there is holding me back.

The discouraging news, well kind of, is my power output from the race. I've never gotten my max powers while racing; you get tired as the race goes on and my power drops. But so does everyone else. The sad part is my power levels and outputs are the same or slightly lower than they were for my Deer Trail race, last year. I think Deer Trail is a much easier race compared to the Morgul-Bismark.

I need to spend some time re-evaluating my training plan and program. If there's no improvement since last year, I have a problem with that. I have power testing coming up this week, we'll have to see were I fall out. I'll let you know.