End of season, working on new things

Don't worry, the new things are still very much cycling related! I realized I haven't posted up in a while. It has been a busy year that is for sure. I have been putting in a bunch of extra work recently on a new exciting project that I hope I will be able to share soon enough.

Asides from the usual, the fall means weights have started again. I usually use this blog to put out my perhaps controversial views on certain training ideas. I did a post last December on weight training (HERE)  and I still agree with most of what I wrote there. This year I have added lunges to work on a bit of a muscle imbalance issue I am having. I also took some time to investigate weight lifting a bit more, and how it could impact cycling.

First off, I know it feels like weight training doesn't do much for me in cycling. I usually stop early (January) as I find that it impairs my ability to get enough volume in on the bike. If you use google scholar to look up research, you can find quite a few studies that show that weight training can improve power, even if you do it during season! Outrageous. The one thing I noticed in these studies is that all power increases seemed to coincide with an increase in leg diameter (more muscle). So the goal then should be to increase muscle mass, which maybe is an obvious goal from weight training, but may be better when it is the sole focus.

With weight training you can go after strength and/or size. They aren't exclusive qualities, but are better trained in different ways. Everything is easiest to picture if you look to the extremes, so we will compare power lifters to body builders.

Power lifters don't necessarily care how much muscle they have as long as they can lift the heaviest weight. So the training they do is very high weight with low reps and low volume. The end target of this training is primarily neuromuscular, as your brain learns how to better activate your muscle fibers in order to perform certain movements more powerfully.

Body builders in contrast, do heavy weights still, but with much more volume (but not too much! That would mean you don't have enough weight on.). They aim to place their muscles under tremendous stress through this to induce muscle tearing and rebuilding. This results in the stereotypical Arnold look. So based on what I mentioned previously, this should be the goal.

When you understand the difference, it makes much more sense. In regards to the neuromusclar adaptions, here is an example why they are useless: You, Mr or Miss Super Fit Cyclist has to go rake the lawn for 30mins. Easy enough, you are active for 10+ hours a week at a solid intensity. How do you feel the next day? Like any workout you have ever done didn't prepare you one bit for that short bout of raking. So building neuromuscular strength for squatting is specific to squatting, and deadlifts for deadlifts etc. Just like all your hours of biking didn't help your raking ability. This is where if you find a workout that mimics cycling, you may potentially get gains from this.

Anyway to summarize, I believe the goal through weight lifting if you are aiming to increase power on the bike is to aim to increase your muscle mass (in your legs). Keep riding during this time as you can work to add neuromuscular strength to that new-found muscle!

Bike the Bruce: Provincial Time Trial and Road Race

The past weekend near Wiarton and Owen Sound were the Provincial Championships for the road race and time trial. Both had stellar courses, and you certainly missed out if you weren't able to make it. They were reasonably priced, very scenic route (if you were able to notice it), and the roads were wide and smooth. The road course had a demanding kicker each lap that I noticed my garmin say was 16%, and there were a couple nice corners and downhills. It had a bit of everything. The weather even held out for the elite race starts, although the rain and cooler air might have helped me.

For the TT, I wasn't feeling great. I have been coughing for over a week now, and slowly it feels like a cold is building. I got a nice warm up and my legs were feeling meh. Brought my bike to bike check at the start, and the sticklers that the OCA are, made me remove my aero bottle because it was 12cm long, 2 cm past the accepted range. I had no idea about the rule, but this just meant no water for me for the TT.

They had a nice little start ramp set up, and they counted me down and I was off! It felt like a great start. I got my speed up high, hit the first downhill and did a nice little tuck hoping to get a little extra speed. I hammered for another 4-5mins before checking my heart rate and watts to see how I was doing. Pain wise, it felt like I was at or above where I needed to be. My heart rate was 10 beats lower than I wanted, and I was missing about 30 watts... This wasn't good. I wasn't too concerned about the watts, as I noticed the stages powermeter I put on my TT bike has been low (it could be the powermeter, or my left side is incredibly weak). At this point I was around 172 heart rate and 340watts. I looked at my speed, and it was OK, so I told myself I could still do good just keep pushing.

I am paying money to feel this bad...

At the turn-around, I noticed my minute man was close, and so were a few others... It wasn't long before Robert caught me. Then Derek Gee (the eventual overall winner). I had to stay positive, and keep pushing to the end. My power kept dropping... 340, 335, 330, 320... I couldn't even get any more power out, no matter how hard I tried. Just before the hill Mark caught me, and I was able to use him as a pace guide for the hill. I ended up finishing just behind, with an average watts of 315. Pretty terrible showing from me considering in March I was able to do 358watts for 1hr up Palomar mountain. I do have an issue going on with my left side, so I was probably closer to 330W (Stages only measures left leg then doubles it). The TT overall was just under 40km, and I averaged 43.8km/h. Still a half decent speed, but I should have been at least a minute faster. Gaelan pulled a TT out of no where, finishing a few minutes ahead of me, just off the podium. Good to see his TT skills really improving.

iPhone has live pictures. Here is what happens when you screenshot a live picture!

I spent the rest of the day with my Bro, Sister and mom. We went to Sauble and I rested up in the cold lake in preparation for the next day's ass whooping.

To prevent this from getting too long, I will try and keep this shorter. The race started off fast, nothing was getting away with everyone wanting to be in the moves. On the second lap Gaelan and Peter Disera broke off the front, I believe around the hill and they were to stay away. At most I believe their gap got to 1:40 going into the final lap. As the race went on, the pace stayed high and it started to wear into my legs. Again I was missing a good anaerobic push to make it up the steep incline. On the third lap (of five) I ended up off the pack with a few Neworld guys that pulled us back on. The fourth lap, the peloton split on the climb. Larbi and Mark thought to tag team a chase on their own, while a group of about 8 of us rotated through an echelon and caught back on around the same time Larbi and Mark did, before hitting the main road. The fifth lap I started to cramp up. I never ran out of water, and I wasn't thirsty. Maybe I just needed more electrolytes. I just had to make it through the last lap. Up the climb it blew up. A few Neworld guys looked like they had nothing left at the bottom. At the top, I looked up and saw half the pack about 500m up the road and I was completely spent. There were a few of us together, Marc Freemantle, Peter Morse, Christian Ricci and Nigel. At first I couldn't stay with them, but after a little bit of easier spinning I caught back on. The group grew as people were dropping from the front group, but then some dropped from off. I had to skip a pull in the echelon here and there as I was dead. I gave it everything I had just to finish with that group and roll in with 12th in the elite men. I was completely spent physically and mentally. Word on the street is that a few riders in the front group were able to bridge up to Gaelan and Peter (Jeff Schiller, Derek Gee and Mark Brouwer) and mix it up in the sprint. You can see how that played out in the results.

Maybe bike racing would be easier if I was a smaller dude...

I finished this race wondering what the hell is going on. I have been training my ass off and the races here seem to keep getting harder. In the states the racing is much easier it seems. Racing here I feel like I am a brand new Cat 4 rider. I get it, racing is supposed to be tough, but I sat in and conserved the whole race and had absolutely nothing to give at the end. And by no means do I consider myself to be a weak rider. This off season I have some thinking and reworking to do, to see what needs to be done moving forwards.

Keeping up with the data sharing, here is my power data histogram for the road race (almost 4hrs). The bins are 10watts wide I believe. 

Time trial results: http://racetiming.ca/results/1643-1.htm
Road race results: http://racetiming.ca/results/1644-1.htm
If you want more pictures from races, there are a lot of great ones here: http://www.ivanrupes.com

Provincial Crit Champs -2nd!

I am starting to learn that in order to get results, I need to race with my head first, then my legs. Keeping this one short again, I was able to ride a bit smarter on Sunday than all other crits this year. There is still work to be done, that is certain, but at least I am heading into the right direction. The bigger news is I picked up a used stages power meter before the race, so I can now share power data from the races with you. That is the fun stuff! If you want to see specific kinds of data just out of curiosity, or to help with your training, leave a comment and I will try to include it in future posts!

I could talk about how the race went, but Canadian Cyclist has a beautiful gallery that should tell the story. You can find it HERE. And yes, I have been racing crits with a mouth guard. I don't feel like going through a whole bunch of dental work again if I can avoid it, plus it looks sort of menacing. 

Histogram of power. It includes my warm up and cool down so it might be shifted to the left a bit. My max 1min power was just about 500W. I wouldn't mind if it were closer to 700...

Cadence histogram. The peak is centred close to 100rpm. I am more of a spinner meaning my cardio is stronger than the musculature pushing the pedals. If you are new to cycling, it is typically the reverse, so you tend to ride with lower rpm (70-80). 

Up next for me is Provincial TT and road race this coming weekend, then the big Green Mountain Stage Race to finish off the season! I am also doing Tour de Hans for fun at the end of September. If you are around, I would suggest checking it out, a free* beer awaits at the finish! (*you technically paid for it when you signed up). Hope everyone has been able to enjoy their summer. Hopefully a beautiful autumn awaits!

Rochester Twilight Criterium

It has been a while since my last update. My racing has had it's up's and down's with a highlight 5th in Buffalo in the mens 1/2 field. I also finally pulled off a 45km/h time trial at the Hamilton cycling club's Indian trail 14.6km course. That has been a goal of mine for a few years, so it was amazing to finally check that off.

This past weekend I went to Rochester to race their Twilight Criterium in the 2/3 field. I went into this having not finished a crit this year. Every time I have been pulled, so I wanted to change that. There was forecasted thunderstorms for the day, and we could tell the weather network was right for a change as we drove into Rochester. When we got there, it was raining and we had time to pre-ride the course before the races started for the day. There was lots of crosswalks painted on the roads and sewer grates, which meant you had to be careful in the corners or be ready to slide out.

This was what the sky looked like about 10mins from Rochester. It was beautiful and sunny in the other direction...

Proof that I didn't spend the whole race at the back!

I am a poor starter, so I did a nice long warm up hoping it would help. Unfortunately it didn't do too much for me as once the race started, it took me a few minutes to have my legs fire on all cylinders. This doesn't go well for criteriums as it brought me to the back of the peloton, and I was doing too much work getting the back end of the accordion around the corners. People started to drop, and I was stuck behind them and wasn't able to bridge the gap. I chased hard for a couple laps and finally caught back on. I did the smart thing and moved up immediately. With the next surge in pace though I found myself back at the back of the peloton. The effort required to get back into the pack killed my legs.

I was also being a little too cautious perhaps in the painted, wet corners. The only time the paced slowed allowing for pacing would require a more sketchy line through the corners and I wasn't feeling brave enough to take on the challenge. In the last few laps, there were 2 crashes in the final corner before the start/finish line as I assume people were trying to take these sketchy lines to move up. At least being at the back has its perks, as I was able to ride through the crashes without being brought down. I hung on to the pack for the finish and ended up 16th of 43 starters. Teammate Tanner Cookson rode a great race, and finished 5th. One day I might be able to pull something like that off. At least I got a killer workout and built some more confidence moving forwards to Provincials and Green Mountain stage race coming up.

This was the first time I stayed and watched other races. The womens Pro1/2 and mens Pro1 races were after mine. Rochester sure knew how to put on a killer event. The course made for lots of exciting places to watch. The food truck rodeo was a great addition, providing lots of delicious food and provides something for visitors that maybe don't care about cycling to much (anyone got that special someone in their life that you drag to races? Here they too can be happy!). Both races provided lots of excitement, and it was crazy to watch the speeds the men were taking the corners at. I have some more confidence to build up before I can tackle that field!

Field trying to chase the early break. 

UHC rider driving the break. 

Finish for the field. Some tired looking riders!

Solo winner after sitting onto the UHC rider in the break for the race. 

The men were moving too fast. 

KW classic - found a black hole in my fitness

So this race was very disappointing for me. I got dropped on the second lap (of 13) and I am pretty sure I was the first one off the back. This is after finishing 5th! the week before in the OCUP TT. So what gives? It was a hard race (nearly half of the people dropped out), but I am a hard guy so I should have been right at home.

It all unfolded on the second lap as we came into the cross-tailwind on the way back to the finishing stretch road. As soon as we rounded the corner, people at the front punched it. I was sitting around mid-pack and was doing everything I could to hang on. People started to come around me as I wasn't able to hold the wheel in front. Then a gap opened, and still I was pushing as hard as I could for another 20secs when the last few people came around me and caught back on. I just couldn't get back. The pace was high and I went into time trial mode hoping they would ease up just the slightest so I could latch back on. No dice. 2 other people joined me off the back and we rode a couple laps together then I pulled out.

It felt like I must have had a parachute on. Something was dragging me backwards. 

When I got home I looked at other people's power numbers, because if I got dropped it must have been a pretty solid effort. I saw it was around 450w for 2mins. Now if you don't train much, that is incredibly high. But considering my threshold is around 360w, that is a small anaerobic jump that should have been easy for me to make. Which is why pretty much everyone else is the 40 rider field was able to do it.

So I did some reviewing of my training to see how could I have gone so wrong. Surely this must be linked to my terrible showing at the Mother's day Crit OCUP.  Basically I hadn't done any work SEATED and hard enough anaerobic to train this. If you don't use it you lose it I guess. I had a killer weight program during the winter and I must have kissed all of that goodbye by neglecting this section in my training. I turned too much into a numbers guy, and figured that as long as my watts were high, then I was fine. This meant finishing a lot of shorter intervals standing. That is no help to me when I need to go 50+km/h and be aero.

Continuing with the numbers, I love to use the watts/kg chart. I find it is actually very accurate. So I looked at what I could hold for about 3mins and it put me in cat4 range. Well no shit I am getting dropped when national team Ed Veal, or Ryan Roth show up. How can a cat 4 expect to hold onto guys like that? I figure based on my weight I need to add AT LEAST 100watts to my anaerobic ability for that duration. And that NEEDS to be seated.

incase you haven't seen the chart. See how you fare!  If you are world class in something, contact me first so I can sign you on and I will start an agency business. I won't charge too much commission ;) 

I have worked with my coach to revamp my training to take care of this major issue. All the races I have done fairly well in, have been ones that haven't required me to hit that 1-3min power zone. Bloomfield, Niagara Classic, any time trials. The threshold is decent (it can always go higher), but once I fix this short-term power burst, then I will be able to look in the mirror and call myself a Racer. I think some good results should follow that as it will help me to be able to make breaks/splits, bridge gaps, and put in a better kick at the end.

Dream of glory! This caliber of glory is well-beyond my ability, but shoot for the stars they say. Also Chris Froome did it, so I must be able to do something good. I have to live up to the "Chris" name! 

Moral of the story is to find your weaknesses and don't let them bring you down. See how much you are able to do without it, and then use your imagination to forecast what would be possible if you can make it a strength. Those visions will help push you through the long, hard road to greatness.

Niagara Classic and Grey County TT

I will try and shorten two reports into one. I am running behind with pretty much everything as my comprehensive exam date for my Ph.D. draws closer.

Anyway, both of these races were quite successful and very well run. Niagara Classic took on Steve Bauer's name and the organization was superb. Traffic was only allowed to run the direction of the course, allowing us to use the full road on the narrow roads. A great safety measure taken that made for a great day. Grey county TT had tons of signage and volunteers on course to make sure you could find your way through when you are pushing so hard that you can't tell left from right. Albeit the cost of the time trial was rather high, maybe to do with it being a UCI grand fondo qualifer, but it would be nice if sponsors came forward to subsidize costs as it would allow for bigger fields.

Back to the racing. Niagara classic featured a hill top finish on Effingham, and we had to do it 11 times (one time was "neutral"). The first 4 or so laps were relatively easy. A break of 3 was up the road and there was the occasional attack from someone trying to bridge. The next few laps, gaps started to open on the climb (wind wasn't a big factor today), and I should have moved up. On lap 7, we overtook the women's field on the climb, and with me at the back of the pack, it allowed for a nice gap to form between me and the leaders that had a clear shot through and hammered it. A group of 9 really strong riders made it over and down the road. The rest of us 25+ riders ended up together in one group by the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately no one wanted to work (ok maybe 5 people max were) and the group was still in sight. Frustrated I was helping to pull 20 people back to the lead group, I dropped back for a little rest. A few km's later I moved back up and put in a good pull, Phil Sheffield came through, and then no one came through on him. You could tell he wasn't happy. I came through again and put in a good pull. He just sat up, and when I looked back, no one came with me. The chase group was just up the road, but they had too much horsepower. I finished the race with a 30km TT, and held off the peloton, putting a minute into them, but lost 4-5mins to the winning group that caught the break. Those last few climbs were some of the hardest climbs I have done; going in pre-fatigued made it a survival climb. I was fairly happy with this race, but a better result was possible had I been better positioned on the climb.

A happy and sore Chris to have finished solo for 13th. 

Moving onto the TT. I had bought a new TT bike coming into this. And by new I mean a old Cervelo Dual aluminum bike. I have had stiffness issues with TT bikes, so I figured aluminum was a good way to fix that. It was a hot night, without much wind. I started off maybe a little too hard, with the excitement of going through all the city corners. As it went on, and I settled in, I sweat a lot. By the time I got to the top of the hill 20km in, I couldn't see with the sweat streaming into my eyes. To be safe, I ended up tucking on the big descents because I couldn't see the potholes. Just before the final descent with 3km to go, I passed my 2 minute man. He spun by me on the downhill, and once it flattened out I was able to put the hammer down and make up some time. I really need to get a crank or pedal power meter so I can use a disc and have power data. I can pace and push myself a lot better when I have that number in front of me.

Anyway, I ended up finishing the TT in 5th! I beat a couple people that had passed me last year. A great result for me. I knew I had the power for this result after a hard winter of training, and it was thoroughly satisfying to see the training paying off. 

Results for Steve Bauer Classic: here

Results for the Grey County TT: Here

If you want more pics, or faster updates on race results, check out the team's facebook page! : Here

Mid-spring reset after Mother's Day Criterium

My training was going great, I was approaching my rest week and then started to get super fatigued. At first it felt ok riding endurance pace, but then I wasn't able to hit the high end watts. Then on Thursday, my heart rate wasn't climbing as much as I expected when doing some Sydenham repeats for my watt output. This was made even more evident when we timed an all out effort and I was beat by a new teammate, and another member of the Hamilton cycling club. Both of these guys are strong, but I know I should have been at least 20 seconds faster.

Friday came and my legs felt like death. I took the day off asides from an easy half hour spin on the Hamilton SOBI bikes, hoping it would help speed the recovery. I just needed to feel good by Sunday.

Saturday came and I still felt sluggish. I decided to sleep in and ride easy with my brother. 170 watts felt like a struggle, despite a low heart rate of around 120bpm. I put in one, 2-minute effort over 400watts to test the legs and then I convinced myself that I would be good to go for the race. I finished the ride with a nice protein smoothie, and tried to eat good for the rest of the day. I also made sure I got to bed at a good time to allocate myself an extra hour of sleep. I usually don't put this much thought into recovery.

I got to the race super early as I wanted to get a long warmup in and some extra miles. I cruised for 45km at 210watts, and my heart rate was right where I expected it to be ~135bpm. I thought I had done everything right, and somehow I pulled off a great recovery.

The race started with attacks and I felt ok for the first 10km. I even put in a little attack myself that was quickly neutralized. But this whole time my heart rate was well above threshold. After a couple laps I wasn't able to keep up with the attacks, and drifted back, and then off the back. My heart rate got up to 190bpm by the time I got dropped (the highest I have seen this year is 192). I thought maybe they would sit up and I could catch back on, but no dice. After a while of hammering myself into the ground, the breakaway caught me and I was pulled 26km into the 60km race.

The next morning my resting heart rate was 47, compared to its usual 56. It was a very disappointing race, as I have been training like crazy and there was no reason for me to not have finished the race. With my big races still ahead of me, I decided to make sure I get extra rest this week so I don't suffer the same result in the races ahead. Physically I needed a reset, and definitely a mental one too. I am using the Giro to get amped up to race again, and this is helping me use up time that I would otherwise use riding. Also school has been pretty hectic, so it was good timing for a down week to stay on top of things.

So this post is more of me making a commitment to myself, that despite a terrible race, I WILL be back for more. I will leave you with a nice little quote that always gets me fired up. No idea who it came from originally.

Be the type of person that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit, they're up."

Springbank - First race of the year in Ontario

This was supposed to be a rainy day, but luckily it held off for the afternoon. I was mainly using this race to build fitness and to figure out things I need to work on. Having crashed here twice (no real injuries) I was a little hesitant coming here. Judging by the small field size, I wasn't the only one. Ryan Roth came back from his touring with Silber to do this race, and Jeff Schiller came with 5 teammates, so they were both going to be big factors in the race. I can't figure out why they call it a road race, but then run it like a criterium. One day maybe I will open a fortune cookie that will provide me this answer.

Pictures provided by my wonderful sister Kayla

Made sure to get a good warm up before the start

Things were moving fast!

The race started off quick. It took my legs the first 2 laps to warm back up. Nothing was getting away. Ontario racers love to race to not lose, so there were lots of people covering attacks, but only a few people willing to launch them. Lots of riders felt the need to be glued to Ryan and Jeff's wheels. I did manage to get myself to the front after about 10 laps and tried a small push off the front, but I was quickly latched on to.

Off the front or off the back? Lets go with the first option :) 

After another 5 laps, things slowed down and I found myself at the front again. After a little bit of work I dropped back. Bad idea. Shit hit the fan and the group started to break apart. I was on the wrong side of that split. There was a lot of fire power in that front group. At the very least, if I couldn't get back on, I wanted a good workout. At the most I believe we had 6 guys, but it got dwindled down to 4. Over another 6-7 laps we worked hard to stay in the race. We got lucky as the front group sat up. We were able to catch back on, but we were all pretty tired from that effort. The pace picked up again soon after and I struggled to stay in the group. The pace slowed just before the final lap. Oh yeah, Casey Roth was around 40 seconds up the road. Not sure exactly when he got away, probably when I was doing a nice breakaway off the back.

Larbi attacked going into the final lap and everyone just looked at each other. They let him go. I was stuck at the back, and my legs were dead. Halfway through the lap it started to pick up again. Just after the chicane, people started launching their attacks. It was too late, Casey got first, and Larbi was too far up the road. This split the field again, and Schiller finished off with what he knows best, a good sprint. I strolled into the line for 11th, amazed I managed to get back into the group to get that.

No crashes in our race on that devious corner

Lots to work on moving forwards. I need to learn my drops more. And as always, my high end needs some work, although it is much better this year. 11th I believe is my best OCUP result so far! Next weekend I will likely head to Markham to do a criterium before I switch over to finding some races with some hills. Having Rob Rice there today was great, as he was able to point out some things for me to work on. Now hopefully I can do something with this information!

Also thanks to my mom and sister for being great race support. Great to see Komar at the beginning, he is starting to heal up, a good sign!

Garmin data: here
Results: here

2016 season kickoff: Bloomfield Spring Classic

So after a long fall and winter of training, I was finally able to race again. This is my first full season with the PK-Express team. We are waiting for the new kit (which looks awesome), with Phi Hotels being the major backer of the team, helping us out a lot! 

This was a nice rolling course just south of Rochester NY. The roads were quiet, and no potholes or cracks in the roads to worry about. I would definitely recommend this to anyone within driving distance of the race. It also ended up being much closer than the only Ontario race in Calabogie.

 

All smiles rolling up to the start line. And yes that is a girl. No idea who she is, but she is strong!

Racing in a new area, you have no idea who anyone is. I knew which names to watch out for, but without knowing who was in each jersey, it wasn’t much help. I went up on the Saturday with my mom and sister and did a pre-ride of the course while they shopped. The first few km’s were mainly downhill, with the first real kickers coming about 7km into the lap (each lap was 18km). I figured there wouldn’t be a break that would get away on the first lap on the downhill, so I could sit in and start making a move after that.

Might look like a smile, but I am hurting here.

The race started and we had a 3km neutral start up to the start line from Bloomfield Elementary school. We had to tell the pace car where to turn… luckily he knew where he was going once we got to the course. Once we crossed the start line, the attacks started. I knew Nalgene was the team to watch with Brendan Housler who had won it previously. A break of 3 guys got away on the downhill while I was sitting back in the peloton. This was a big mistake as there was a ton of fire power in that break. I just had no clue.

No one really wanted to pull the peloton ahead to chase, but rather people were hoping to bridge across. There was no luck for anyone trying such a thing, that included me and my teammate Alex. I was thinking with no one from Nalgene in the break, there was no way it would stick.

Each lap, those 3 kept putting in around a minute into us. The race was 6 laps total, and after 3 laps they have 3.5mins on us. I started to move up here, realizing Nalgene didn’t have the firepower to bring it back, and one of their guys was starting to get dropped on the hills. A took a couple pulls, then on the fourth lap a put in a solid pace on one of the steep kickers. At the top I turned and they let a gap open up. I kept the hammer on. I rode a couple kilometers by myself until 4 others bridged up. Only one guy was helping at first. I got dropped and climbed back on. Then no one wanted to work. Brendan was too tired from chasing all day, and two of the guys had someone in the break. I figured it was better to lose to 4 guys in this chase group, than gamble it in the full pack knowing the finish didn’t suit me.

A quarter of the way into the last lap I put in another effort, and only one person came with me. We worked together for a short time until the chasing 3 caught back on. At this point no one else would work and I was stuck on the front. With two km’s to go, we hit the steep hill on Oakmount and they popped me. I tried to ‘sprint’ back up but I was too late. I ended up finishing 8^th.

 

Finishing! Nice quads though...

Overall I was happy with the experience. This is my best result so far in a Cat1/2 (/3) race! Bigger things will come as I figure out this whole racing strategy thing. Big thanks the GVCC for putting on the race. Great race venue, and the motos were super helpful giving us time splits. My mom was also helping with time splits in the feed zone. And I am thankful to my mom and sister for manning the feed zone for Alex and I, and being great race support.

My sister and I on the 'family' road post race.  

Next up for me is either Springbank or Hollenbeck on May 1^st. I don’t have a great track record at Springbank so I am leaning towards heading back to NY.

Results: Here
Garmin data: Here

If you want quicker updates, check out the teams facebook page! Here

Thanks again for checking in!

Exercise Physiology: A look at energy

Knowledge is power. Power is watts. Therefore knowledge is watts! Today I am going to try to help you get more watts with a bit of educational reading. I have found myself wondering while training, what the limiters are for different sorts of efforts. If you can strengthen these limiters, then you will be stronger at that level. Also, I find mentally it helps me on the hard training days to know what the biological focus of the workout is. That way I can make sure I put the best quality into those efforts.

Up until this point I have just assumed there were like 6 energy zones, because that is how you train (z1 = recovery up to z6 = sprint). In reality, no energy system is completely isolated (maybe anaerobic for the first instant of a sprint).  Therefore if I want to increase my 5 min power, what would be the best way to do that?

First off you need to know your own limiters. For me, I am a small, lean guy, so muscle and top end sprint power are lacking. For someone that has nice monstrous track legs, they will be short on their threshold ability (in comparison to their sprint, they probably still have a more-than-decent threshold). If you ride your bike a lot, you probably already know where your strengths lay. Taken right from Jones and Carter (2000), “Endurance can be crudely described through the generation of individual ‘velocity-time curves’ which relate a series of velocities (or power outputs) to the time for which these velocities or power outputs can be sustained”. As athletes, our goal is to increase the power we can sustain at any given duration.

You have 3 energy systems that work together to create energy (ATP) for your muscles so they can contract. You have the aerobic and anaerobic system which is split into two. The aerobic system needs oxygen, can produce high amounts of energy, but is relatively slow. The anaerobic system can produce a lot of energy quickly, but is highly unsustainable. This is done by splitting stored molecules for energy (ATP and phosphocreatine) [alactic] and the incomplete breakdown of glucose into energy producing lactate.

Pick your duration of power you want to improve, and see what system needs work. 

The alactic component is thought to produce 20-30% of anaerobic energy in a maximal effort lasting 2-3mins. The replenishment of creatine phosphate can take 5-15mins, so for sprint training or hard gym efforts, you need a few minutes between sets to maximize the output. The lactate component, which then produces the majority of the energy, is limited by the rate of glycolysis. This could be due to inhibition of enzymes that catalyze the reactions, or a lack of activation of the glycolysis process. A driving factor for this could be a decreasing pH due to the lactate (lactic acid if you will) being produced. Endurance training will cause alterations in metabolic demand, mechanical load, neuronal firing pattern, and hormonal levels. This causes the body to adapt to better handle these alterations. It does so by increasing the size and number of mitochondria, increase muscle glucose uptake and insulin sensitivity (which can combat insulin resistance found in type 2 diabetes), increases fat usage for energy, and formation of a greater blood flow network (more capillaries, increase in red blood cell count).

You body functions based on what it is used to. So train for circumstances that you will encounter on race day. From Gastin (2001)

So what are limiters in aerobic work? In sessions longer than 4hrs, increased fatigue is likely caused by psychological, nutritional, thermoregulatory or musculoskeletal factors. If you train frequently and your body has adapted you are able to exercise longer due to increased usage of fatty acids (to preserve glucose) and from increased glycogen storage in muscles. Essentially you have a bigger tank of gas to power your engine. VO2 max is limited by the oxygen supply to the muscle, not the ability of the muscle cell to pull oxygen from the blood.

Your VO2 max is usually considered to be the measure of your aerobic ability. But there are other factors that determine your aerobic performance on top of that.  You also have muscle economy and lactate threshold. Better muscle economy (less oxygen used for the same absolute power/speed) is typically seen in people who do high volume work. This is thought to be related to better muscle firing patterns that are developed through lots of repetition. So while everyone tries to push short HIIT training, there is something to be said about logging in some volume. Increases in lactate threshold could be explained by a reduction in the rate of lactate production or from an increase in the ability to exchange and remove lactate from the blood. Exercise above lactate threshold brings greater levels of fatigue either by using greater amounts of muscle glycogen, or from effects of metabolic acidosis on contractile function. So in a gross summary, VO2 max will tell you how much oxygen you can deliver, muscle economy tells you how efficient your system is with that oxygen, and lactate threshold is how well (or long) you muscles can work at the limit of aerobic ability.
The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, this is where glucose is broken down into energy. Endurance work increases the size and number of mitochondria in the muscle cells. This increases the oxidative capacity of the cells, essentially allowing you to do more work aerobically. Animal studies have found that exercise at 50% of VO2 max can be used to maximize mitochondrial density in type 1 (slow-twitch) muscle types, but much higher intensities are needed for type 2 muscles (fast twitch). Therefore in order to reach your full VO2 potential, you will need to work high and low intensities. It should also be noted that endurance work selectively grows type 1 muscle types. Some research suggests that the conversion from type 2 to type 1 muscle is possible through lots of endurance training.

A study by Spencer and Gastin (2001) looked at anaerobic vs aerobic system usage in runners. They picked well trained runners at 200m, 400m, 800m and the 1500m distances. They found out by testing for accumulated oxygen deficit that the aerobic system plays a big role in even these short sprint workouts. Their data suggested that the crossover to predominately the aerobic system(>50% of energy obtained for function) occurred after 15-30seconds. This result should seem intuitive if you have ever tried to sprint for longer that 30seconds, you just can’t. From this, you can see why track sprinters will benefit from spending more time in the gym to develop the anaerobic, where most battles on the road are much longer than that, so an aerobic engine will help immensely.  *Note, many older studies have suggested that this 50% split of energy systems occurs somewhere between 1-3mins of maximal exercise, which some are suggesting is an underestimation of the aerobic system.

taken from Gastin (2001)

An interesting study by Gomez-Carera et al. (2008) on vitamin C. So vitamin C is an antioxidant, which helps to prevent cellular damage from free radicals. In an exercise study, they found the group that a control group increased their fitness 6-7% compared to a group that took 1 gram of vitamin C/day that didn’t exhibit any increases. So first off, we need to acknowledge that vitC is a vital nutrient that we need (see scurvy), so we aren’t going to cut it out. Secondly, the recommended amount for adults is only 90mg, so this is a fair amount more, but actually quite an easy amount (1 gram) to consume if you eat lots of fruits. Their theory was that the vitC is preventing damage in the cells during exercise. Since there is no damage, the muscles cells see no reason to adapt. With no adaptation to the stresses, there is no increase in ability to handle more stress.

In conclusion, to get stronger is to increase your body’s ability to handle stress. It will only adapt if it constantly is overstressed. These changes are typically metabolically unfavoured, so if you stop exercising, they revert back to normal. So log your long easy miles. Hit your intervals hard. Allow rest to provide time for the body to change so you can hit the intervals harder next time. And give your body the nutrients it needs to make these changes. Without new stresses, there is no need for change. So if you find yourself stuck in a plateau, look at your training and find a way to throw your body a curveball.


References:
Gastin, Paul B. "Energy system interaction and relative contribution during maximal exercise." Sports medicine 31.10 (2001): 725-741.
Gomez-Cabrera, Mari-Carmen, et al. "Oral administration of vitamin C decreases muscle mitochondrial biogenesis and hampers training-induced adaptations in endurance performance." The American journal of clinical nutrition 87.1 (2008): 142-149.
Jones, Andrew M., and Helen Carter. "The effect of endurance training on parameters of aerobic fitness." Sports Medicine 29.6 (2000): 373-386.
Kiens, Bente, et al. "Skeletal muscle substrate utilization during submaximal exercise in man: effect of endurance training." The Journal of Physiology 469 (1993): 459.
Spencer, Matt R., and Paul B. Gastin. "Energy system contribution during 200-to 1500-m running in highly trained athletes." Medicine and science in sports and exercise 33.1 (2001): 157-162.
Westerblad, Håkan, Joseph D. Bruton, and Abram Katz. "Skeletal muscle: energy metabolism, fiber types, fatigue and adaptability." Experimental cell research 316.18 (2010): 3093-3099.

California by the numbers

After thinking about what I had shared, I realized it wasn't enough. Here are some numbers that got me through my first ever training camp.

Days spent riding = 16
Kilometres ridden= 1504 km
Time riding: 54hrs 30mins
Elevation gain = 20 933m
Number of flats = 4
Broken shifters = 1
Palomar ascents = 2
New max watts for 1hr = 358w
Best 9min effort = 412w (arbitrary length set by strava segment hunting)
Number of bananas consumed = 15
Bagels consumed = 17
Complete days off = 0

As far as food went, I had bagels with Reese spread for the first week. Then I ran out of reese spread :( So then peanut butter was substituted. I also ate lots of trail mix, mainly for the chocolate, but the fat in the nuts was probably a good source of energy. For dinner it was pretty much chicken most of the nights with pasta, rice or sweet potato fries. Lots of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce. I would love for them to sponsor me. And for days where I wanted to pat myself on the back for a good ride, I would indulge in a can of vanilla coke (my favourite!). I bought a 12 pack, and it turns out my first 12 rides I was feeling good about myself. Maybe I need to be harder on myself...

Overall I would give the trip a perfect 5/7 score!

And that's a wrap! Cali training camp in the books

After a bunch of riding, lots of miles and meters of elevation climbed, I must return home. It was awesome to do nothing but train, but it can get a little boring after a while so I am glad to go home. Pictures will say more than I can come up with to share so I will post them here. If you are interested in the rides I did, you can creep my strava and see what went down.

Of course it would rain when I am here. It is an El Nino year after all. We tried to plan our rest days to coincide with the rain, so it worked out nicely. 

If you are down here and looking for group ride, check out the Swami's rides. This picture was taken when I was enroute to try their legendary Wednesday morning ride, but then I ended up getting two flats. I just happened to be in front of this lovely shop while I waited for coach Komar to help out and drop off a wheel while dropping Emily off to the airport. 

Palomar looked pretty big, but it was always hard to get a good perspective of size. The only way I could do it was to use houses as scale bars. After trying to get a picture from many different areas, I think this best captures the height. I should have taken a picture after the above rain storm when it dumped a bunch of snow on top. 

18.7km at 7% avg gradient later, you can get to the top of Palomar. We climbed it twice while here. First round I went 1:02:27, round two I paced a bit better and dropped my time to 1:00:58. It was one hell of an effort. I have been told that the time was pretty good. I also think my body got a bit more used to the altitude over the time here as I felt more capable of getting out of the saddle and pushing on the second attempt. 

And after the first round we got a group picture at the summit by the Mothers restaurant/store. Lots of good riders here!

Unfortunately on my last ride, my front shifter broke. Damn shimano... I literally have been using the bike for just 2 weeks. Where is the quality control? Hopefully I can get it all fixed up in time for good friday. Can't let this fitness go to waste!

I have to thank some people that helped make this first training camp possible. My parents and grandparents who helped donate to the 'Feed Chris Foundation', and helped give me airport transportation. Sharon and Robbie for letting me stay at their beautiful house. My female teammates for helping to make the camp fun. And of course Coach Komar for the long list of things he helped with. I would list them, but then he might get mad that I missed something. So just know it was long.