FTP Estimation

A while ago I wrote about trying to estimate my Funtional Threshold Power (FTP). This is the maximum power you can hold for one hour and is the basis for your cycling power levels. After that initial FTP test I tried again after a few weeks and found my power had dropped. So I started resting to make sure I was fully recovered. Each time I revisited the test, things looked worse. I was questioning everything, diet, workouts, fitness and finally the powermeter.

Just before the Mt Evans HC the powermeter was really reading my power low. I felt great and didn't believe it. So I sent it back to PowerTap to get recalibrated. It was off. The sad thing is how slowly the thing drifted lower. I would be fine if it just stopped working so I at least knew it wasn't working. But to die so gradually, 5%, 15%, 20% then 50% off is hard to catch until the end. Honestly, it makes me less trusting of my wireless powertap SL hub.

Anyway, after getting the hub back from the PowerTap folks I tried Joe Friel's FTP approximation test again.

I also made some modification on my LTHR. Previously, I was using data from shorter races and not correcting for the short duration or the fact that it was a race. The new result of ~156 - 158 is consistant with the longer races I done recently too. (WP races and Mt Evans HC).

From the test on 6/3/10 my LTHR of 157 was hit during an interval with a power of 286W. So my FTP at that time would have been around 286W. This past week I hit a LTHR of 156 during an interval with a power of 293W. This means things have improved some over the summer despite all the resting I tried because of the powertap loosing its calibration.

Now that things are back on track I've been loading up the training the past few weeks to get ready for CX. We'll see how things progress throughout the fall. Currently I'm estimating, based on last years power files, that I have similar fitness to what I had last year this time. My plan was to be faster, we'll see if I can make it happen.

Team Photo Shoot

Just recieved a first photo. We do get to ride in beautiful places!

Click on the picture for a closer look. What do you think?

The Balancing Act

What a weekend. So much going on! Too much. I needed more time to be at home. Next weekend.

Saturday morning was the last Winter Park Race, "King of the Rockies." It's by far their best race. It's plenty hard and has something for everyone. It starts down a relatively flat road then has a pretty good climb to break everything up. The pace down the road felt easier than last year. I knew I wanted to hit the single track climb near the front because it's a big bottle neck and quickly becomes hard to pass. The climb went ok but I wasn't flying past anyone. The descent of the backside was pretty fun and things went well. No one passed me and I stayed with the group I was in. We had a short tight single track section before another climb over chainsaw. Then the lower back started taking issue and I began to slow. In the end I was a little slower than last year but I sure felt technically stronger. There are a lot of things I still need to work on.

Oh and my friend and teammate Robert M. was flying! He wore parachute pants during the race then had enough energy to through a killer party for the team at the finish! Thanks man!

The photo is of the river crossing, obviously. The dude plowing into the water gave me quite a cold shower. The water was over peoples bottom brackets. Enjoy swapping out those barrings; like everyone else that tired to ride it, no one made it riding across the river.
Sunday, after replacing an attic fan motor, I was out for team photos. There are going to look sweet. We were up on sqaw pass getting great shots of the peleton rolling through the hills. Here we're waiting for the photographers to set up. My legs were pretty tired, but there was plenty of rest breaks.
During one of the photo's we had this sweet car drive by. We tried to flag him down for a photo with us but he didn't stop.
Good times, I can't wait to see what the photos will look like. I'll post some when we get them back.

CX is coming

So the ACA is changing the BCR/BCT to the Colorado Cross Cup.

The logo certainly looks better. Here's the schedule for the points races.

10/10/10 Cross at the River Buena Vista
10/17/10 Aspen Lodge Cyclocross Allenspark
10/23/10 Blue SkyCup at Xilinix Longmont
10/24/10 Boulder CX Series #3
10/30/10 NACT - Colorado Cross Boulder
10/31/10 NACT - Halloween Boulder Cup Broomfield
11/13/10 USGP - Day 1 Fort Collins
11/14/10 USGP - Day 2 Fort Collins
11/20/10 Rosalie Race to Educate Bailey
11/21/10 CycloX Boulder
12/04/10 Colorado CX Championships Boulder
12/05/10 Colorado CX Championships Boulder
01/08/11 Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross Colorado Springs
01/22/11 Cyclo X Longmont
01/29/11 Boulder CX Series Boulder

Looks interesting. I won't have to do too much driving, whick is great. I have no idea how they'll handle call-ups during September. I hope they just let people line up.

Last year I targeted the BCR/BCT races. I believe this year I'm just going to try and get on a podium at a race and not worry too much about points. If I'm fit enough it will happen. Saddly, I'm a little worried about that right now.

Update: ACA is now saying the USGP Fort Collins races have been removed from the Colorado Cyclocross Cup series. That's a big hole in the middle of November. We're down to 12 races (CO CX is counted as one).

Mt Evans HC Photo

I have no recollection of this photo being taken but I'm smiling so it must be low on the mountain.

The Cannondale SuperSix was such a good efficient ride. All the power from those bulging leg muscles was going straight to the road. I was also really impressed with the Shimano RS80 wheels, they're stiff, light and have a great ride feel.

Finding Time

I've been in a reactionary, "putting out fires" mode at work. It's kept me busy and unbalanced. It feels like I haven't sat down in the past week and a half.

Last Saturday I got out for the Winter Park Mary Jane race. It's a tuff little two laps around a circuit at the top of Mary Jane followed by a long descent back to the base of Winter Park. The race started out great, I was in about 5th place going into the single track at the top of the circuit. I had my friend and teammate Josh just in front of me. He's a lot better descender so I thought we were in good shape as I would be a good road block as he took off. He quickly opened a gap and I was feeling good about it. I was bombing down the path (that is to say, taking baby steps down the 'meat grinder') when I see a rider fixing a flat.... NOOO Josh was working quickly on his back tire. I kept up my pace onto the steep dirt road at the bottom of the circuit, but honestly I think I was a little blown from the start. After fixing his back tire, Josh came around me to chase that lead group. I made it back to the top in pretty good position and completed the first circuit lap about 4 minutes faster than last year.

On the descent starting the second loop, things came apart... literally. My back tire went flat. I stopped and could see the Stan's bubbling out of a small hole in the middle of the tire. I tried to spin the wheel and stop it so the hole was at the bottom and the Stan's could fill it. It seemed to stop and I pulled out my pump and got to work. The tire appeared to fill up and I went back down the trail only to have it flat again at the bottom of the circuit. I tried to pump it up 3 more times, each time failing a few hundred meters down the trail. So I stopped, pulled the tire off and put a tube in so I could finish the race. That was the goal, just finish. I ended up 20th and DFL. Just finishing was better than a lot of racer out there. I saw a lot of people on the side of the trail fixing flats. Time for new tires?

Photos

Scenic View

I'm Still Alive, Busy But Alive

The past few weeks have had me traveling for work and for a family vacation. A lot has been happening so I'll try to give you a quick update.

First off I raced the Mt Evans Hill Climb. I haven't done that race in three years and now I remember why. My race team puts on the race and last year I did a lot of volunteering. This year I found a couple of volunteers so I decided to give it a go. The week before the race I comfortably pre-road the coarse in 2:45. I was hoping I could get down to 2:30 come race day. After a week tapering at sea level in meetings for work, it didn't quite work out the way I wanted. To my surprise (not really), sitting around at sea level in no way prepares you for climbing to 14,000 ft. Come race day I almost killed myself for a finishing time of 2:41. Unimpressed with my result, I was comfortable with the fact that I couldn't have made it to the top any faster that day. When I got to the top I was seeing stars; in the thin air it takes a while to recover, as in whatever time it takes you to get back below 10,000 ft.

In other news my powertap crapped out. It totally lost its calibration. My guess is it was reading 150 or more watts low. Even reading zero while I was peddling at times. So it's been sent off for service and re-calibration. So perhaps this explains my "Power loss" ordeal of the past month. I guess that's what happens when you rely on technology, it lets you down. I bet that wont be in the marketing manual for powermeters anytime soon. Oh well, time to move forward.

My Cannondale Flash 29er Lefty fork finally came back from Cannondale Service. Their warranty repair took three and a half weeks to get the fork back to me. Fortunately I had a loner fork to ride. I haven't gotten out on the repaired fork yet but I'll let you know how that goes when it happens.

Now I'm thinking about cyclocross season. I got out for my first run this morning and have started drawing up CX specific training intervals to work on in the coming weeks. I am starting to get pumped for the fall.

Thanks for reading, I'll try to get back to a normal posting schedule.

Men's B Short Track Race, GMSV #2

This past Tuesday evening I raced in the Men's B category race. I've been threatening to do it and now it's done. The weather was hot and the traffic getting there was terrible. The coarse was a little different than last week. Shorter with a lot of the same elements as last week. Still pretty twisty with a few tricky steep descents with a sharp corner at the bottom, a good place to washout. I saw a number of racers crash, nothing serious but it did slow them down.

Mountain Moon Photography was out again and she took some fantastic photos. I have to offer a special thanks for allowing us to download her great images.... Thanks!

Once the race started there was a group of 4 that started to open things up. I made sure I was in there. The leader was never really in dispute but the last three positions swapped a couple of times. Wash out corner proved to be a problem for the two racers in front of me, which enabled me to make their race a little bit harder. In the end, I finished 4th in the race but 3rd in the Men's B category. Yes, the Cat 1 women was killing me in the sharp corners but she didn't beet me by much.
Love that Cannondale Flash 29er hard tail!
After the two racers in front of me crashed, I was in second and trying to hold them off.
Go Buddy Go!

Scotty, I need more power!!
Beautiful day, Fantastic race. Thanks GMSV! There are two more races on the next two Tuesdays, you should definitely go!

Power Loss Update

During my previous FTP estimation test things didn't look so good. I planned to have another recovery week. For the most part I've done that, except for my second place at the GMSV Short Track this past Tuesday. I'm not putting too much weight on that because I did race the C's and earlier this season I said I'd move up, but since my fitness appears to be falling on it's head I stayed in the slower group.

I did another FTP test on Thursday morning and basically saw the same results as last week, maybe a little worse. This past week I've been resting, going to bed early and tyring to do all the right things. It appears to be something else.

I've taken a step back to look at things, these are some possible causes I'm pursuing.

Option #1: Medical - Is there something wrong with me? For those of you that know me, there's obviously something wrong, but I wanted to know if it was something new. Blood work is all clean. Hell, my cholesterol is down 30 points from two years ago (I assume that's due to my vegetarian/vegan diet I switched to at the beginning of this year). Hematocrit is 46.1%. Everything looks good, all the numbers are within the appropriate ranges.

Option#2: PowerTap is out of Calibration - Maybe I'm fine but the powermeter is broke. I find it unlikely because my legs are actually sore after my rides, but I checked. My wife humored me to do some "stomp" testing. Basically you stand on the peddles and have the powertap tell you the torque at the hub. You can calculate what it should be and then you compare. It wasn't the most rigorous of tests but we tested different gears and with different weights. Results were always low, within 1-7%. I'd expect a low reading as the bike was tilting a little in the trainer and we had to hold on to each other a little to stay on the pedal, making the weight on the pedal a little lower than our body weight. Due to how the measurements were performed and the fact I've lost over 15% power, I'm going with the assumption the powermeter is fine.

Option #3: Diet - Since I made the switch to a vegetarian/vegan (when possible) diet this past December, things have been going well. However it's possible something is missing and when training the hardest I'm likely to figure that out. I'm most concerned with my protein intake. Some online references say that for an endurance athlete you should be in the 1.2 to 1.4 g per kg body weight protein each day. After tracking my diet for a few days, it looks like I'm a little short. So I'm going to try and bump it up and see if that helps.

I'll let you know how things workout. My plan for know is to keep riding, maybe start running for cyclocross and make some diet adjustments. The Mt Evans HC race is still a few weeks away, hopefully I'll at least feel like racing. If you have any good ideas I'm not considering, let me know.