Racetiming.ca Crit - Finally cracking the top 10!

As the title says, finally I was able to crack the top 10 in an E1/2 Ontario Cup. For some reason this race wasn't very well attended. It could be because of Killington Stage Race and Bristol Mountain Road Race being run the same day. But I also saw many fellow riders on strava that just opted to do their own ride, and they missed out on a great day of racing in beautiful weather!

So for this race it was just Aaron and I as we had two other riders at Bristol. It always takes me a bit to get into gear in a race, but Aaron was at the front right from the gun. I watched as he covered basically every move, potentially overworking, but always making sure we were represented. After things started to settle in a bit then I moved up and started to contribute. A break got away with Dan Doddy and Jordann Jones and I knew there would be no catching them as they were two of the strongest riders in the field. I saw Phil Sheffield attack and then thought I saw him panting at the side of the road about 1km later and it turns out he rolled a tubular. Ouch.

Shortly after that a chase group of 5 went up the road. I went to try to bridge across and Scott Elliot came with me. Peter Morse also bridged up but was just sitting on. The group of 5 was pulling away, and it didn't help that every time Morse did a pull, the speed would drop 3km/h. Stupidly, I always ended up pulling the entire headwind section, at 41-43km/h, maybe because I didn't trust the others to keep the speed high enough. With around 3 laps to go we somehow managed to catch the chase group. This is two races in a row that I have caught up to Veal's chase group because no one has wanted to work. Coming into the last lap, I had this idea in my head about attacking. I realized after that it was vivid in my head because I tried it last year and it failed horribly. Well this year was no different as they quickly caught on then let me pull the rest of the lap. They started to launch the sprint about 75m before the final right hand turn. I went to jump in but a couple riders were coming into me, so I ended up dropping back, not wanting to crash. I managed to come by Scott right at the line to finish 9th.

I don't have any good race pictures to share so I have some data to share! Note the following plots from Golden Cheetah software (free!) also contain my warmup and short cool down.

Garmin data: HERE

For cadence, you will see the peak is a little over 100rpm. I am not a big muscular rider, so I have to get the power out by turning over the legs faster. 

For heart rate, the peaks were around 175. Turns out I averaged 174bpm for the race, a number I didn't think I could do! My 1 hour threshold heart rate is 180, so I was pretty close. I had a bigger than expected taper into the race because of the bad weather, so that may have helped out. Max heart rate was 191. 

Power data! From garmin, my average for the race was 286w, and normalized 304w.  The histogram is hard to get a good idea of the upper intensity needed for a crit as the low values are filled up more from the warm up and cool down. 

Steve Bauer Classic - still trying to crack into the results with the Elite 1's

This is the well-known Niagara Classic race that has been re-branded with Steve Bauer helping to promote and grow the race. The Fitwin.com team came into it looking strong, we had 5 guys ready to go (still missing Rob though as he is recovering from the Good Friday crash). We thought the race would be a lot like last year with a few hard laps to start, but the real breaking up coming in the second half of the race. I now see that the Toronto Hustle team likes to shed extra riders as early as they can.

Trying to learn from the previous races, I started right on the line so I would be in the front. Unfortunately I couldn't clip in again, and ended back at the back. My foot also slipped off the pedal and managed the gash my achilles area, but adrenaline kept the pain away mostly until the end.

In lap 1 a small break got up the road, and Aaron managed to get into it. That wasn't to last long and the pack reeled them in. On the second lap, everything stayed together, but a hard effort up the hill started to see things spread out by the top of the climb at the end of the lap. On lap 3 a small break got away including Gaelen, and our new recruit Adam Bird was up there as well. I missed this because I lost a wheel in the crosswinds and was pushing to join back into the pack. The next lap, the peloton split again by the top of the hill and I ended up in the back group with Bryan and Tanner, and Aaron made the front group. The three of us worked well in our small group to keep the pace up as we could still see the group ahead, so we didn't want to give up. After a couple of laps, we managed to catch the group that had ditched us on the hill earlier, containing Aaron. No one really wanted to work in this group. We rode a lap with them, and I found I was on the front way to much for a group of about 15. I told my teammates that we should peg it up the hill which would get rid of the people not wanting to work, and maybe excite the pack to want to work. When we went on the hill, I heard something along the lines "they are all matching!" from a spectator. I looked around and it was only us! We had some people cheering for us at the top of the climb. We did a four person team time trial for a little over a lap before Ed Veal bridged up to us, bringing two other riders. At this point Aaron had dropped off because he was cramping up. About a quarter of a lap later, we unfortunately caught Adam, who had been dropped from the front group.  At this point we had just over a lap left. We knew we would have to send someone up the road with Veal wanting to sit in, and the 2 guys he brought with him looking fresh. Bryan did a flyer on the back stretch and no one followed. Shortly after, Tanner tried to go too, but the Toronto Hustle guy bridged over and tried to chase down Bryan. At this point I was spent, and was just sitting in, or taking a short pull. Bryan ended up finishing just behind the Toronto Hustle rider, Bradford. Adam, Tanner and I finished together, with our legs smashed.

Aaron sticking with the Veal group

Adam making his group work up the hill

Tanner, Bryan and I at the top of the hill. We seemed to do most of the pulling up to the hill, so we were the last up the hill. 

Adam with the big guns

Me suffering up the last part of the hill

We finished with a best placed rider 18th. Ideally would have liked to have someone in the top 10, but looking at the racer list, that still was a good result. Almost everyone on the results sheet above us was a category 1 racer (minus Jordann Jones and Dan Doddy, who both are super strong and should be). Most of the cat 2 racers didn't finish this race. So being a cat 2 team, I think we ended up doing good! Now we will look to find ways to sneak someone up there in that results sheet before seasons end!

Also, I have to give a big thanks to my brother Jesse for giving up his day to be in the feed zone for us!

Watch the STRAVA flybys here to see how/when things unfolded in the race: HERE
Results: here
Garmin data: here

GFRR - Kinks to iron out, but signs of a great season!

April 14th marked the Good Friday Road Race. It was cancelled last year due to the ice storm. This was my new team, Fitwin.com Cycling Team,  season debut. We had three guys racing the M3 race, and had the full elite squad out for the E1/2 race. The winds were high, and we knew going into it that Toronto Hustle was going to make the day tough. Before the race, everyone was excited to start with the team. We handed out kits, Bell helmets, The Outside Store bottles, took a few photos, everyone was looking good! The Nine-O kits came together nicely, and I will have a future post just on that.

We got to the line, with a relatively loose game plan, really waiting to see how things unfolded and hoping someone would be in a position to be able to capitalize on it. I was hoping to get into the break but couldn't get clipped in at the start, so I ended up in the back. The race was a fury from the start, making it very hard to move up with a bigger field than usual (59 guys on the start list!).

I bet if you looked at (or have already read) my previous race reports, nearly every one I mention that I need to work on positioning. Last year I was getting better, but I did not start this one off right. The break got away without me, before I was even able to get to the front. I did at one point make an attempt to go across but was quickly marked, and before I knew it, I found myself right back at the back.

There was this devilish right hander... Actually both right turns in the course were times were you had to think "ok, you better buckle in son, you are in for a ride!". Both of them, terrible at the back, 90 degree right hand turns into the gusting crosswinds where the peloton was guttered. At the back i'd come to a near stop before having to sprint back up to 50km/h and just hang on for dear life. Not for me!

What the guys at the front probably felt like...

Anyway, the rest of the race is pretty much a blur as my head shut down. A few laps in, there was a crash and we lost Rob Rice. We later found out he broke his collarbone so we are now down a good rider. We also lost Aaron in the race, as he said his brake seized up, so he was working extra hard and then blew up.

I ended up finishing the race, nearly 12mins back of the winners, with my other team mates Bryan and Tanner, who dragged me around the last lap. I was completely fried at that point. Actually well before that, and would have quit had it not been for them being there. Nearly half the field dropped out. It was one hell of a hard race. Keeping in mind the last lap or two, I really just sat in on my team mates as I had nothing left so my power numbers came down, but I was 288w avg, and 315w normalized for the 3 hours and 15mins. Looking at some of the other riders data, I have the power to be up in the mix, just not the smarts... some PhD student I am! So once the tactics get better sorted, and I am sure they will as the team gets better at knowing each other, we will be a force to contend with.

Leaving this race, I am very sad to have lost Rob. It sucks to bust your ass all winter, just to have it ruined right at the beginning of the season. I know the feeling, as it wasn't too long ago where my season was majorly set back from my P2A crash. He is a tough guy, and I am sure will heal quickly.

On the plus side, I am very happy with how my numbers are coming about. Numbers that just a few years ago, I thought there would be no way I could do them. I have to thank Cyclepath Oakville for helping outfit my new ride with a power meter so I have data to share with you! I have used Golden Cheetah software to make two plots for you lucky viewers to check out what it takes to shotgun a race with mega crosswinds. The first is a heart rate plot. Most of the time I am in a tempo zone, as that is really the max your body could sustain for 3hrs. The second one shows the cumulative time I spent in each power zone. The zones are rough as I haven't done an FTP test recently, but good enough to look at anyway!

Heart rate histogram. Note this also includes my warm up which was easy...

Time spent in different watt zones. Yes 8 mins above 540watts... If I told my spin class participants to do that, they would either kill me, or leave...

So I leave for Hawaii this week for a school conference, then I will be back to race in May! 

Also, if you want to know how the race unfolded before I get to sharing, or want to see more race photos, check out the team facebook page here.

Celebrate a new team with workout songs!

So usually around this time I post my favourite songs I have collected from the past year for teaching spin class. Last year someone said I should put them into a YouTube playlist to make it easier to listen to, so this year I have done just that! I have also posted the song names at the bottom of the post.

But with that, I am very excited to finally say that I am on a new team this year, one that I am spearheading the running of, called FITWIN.com. We have a great group of guys to do the Ontario circuit, and an awesome sponsor that is very passionate about fitness, and all the achievements that come along with it. We have been working with Nine-O, a clothing company based out of Hamilton, to design a great new kit for this year. I am very excited to share, and will do when it is finished... Almost there!

To hold you over, if the music wasn't enough, here is a picture of my new bike build for the season. Yes I went above and beyond in taking the picture (probably spent close to 20mins setting everything up...). Cyclepath in Oakville is going to help me outfit this bad boy with a power meter so I will have lots of great data to share over the racing season!

And here are the songs, thanks for waiting (in no particular order) :

Kygo & Selena Gomez- It Ain't Me (Codeko Remix)

USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker)- Work Shoes

Tom Swoon Ft. Ruby Prophet - Savior

Breathe Carolina & Bassjackers feat. CADE-Can't Take It

X Ambassadors & Jamie N Commons-Jungle (KDrew Extended Remix)

Suyano & RIVERO-Otherside

Ryos, Wasback, & Teseo feat. KARRA-I'll Be Gone

Jakoban X Bulgang-Sin City (ft. Wynn)

Chad Brownlee-I Hate You For It

Ryos ft. Karra-Where We Are

Jenaux Ft. Pia Toscano-Renegades (Shanahan Remix)

Early Training in Burbank

This year has been very busy already, and it is only January! I have some bigger (not super big, but nonetheless exciting!) news to share, but still waiting on it to be official. To hold you over until then, I wanted to share some of my relive -rides from my trip to Burbank. I got a great opportunity to go, and I couldn't refuse. Lots of climbing north of LA, and lots of scenic, breath-taking views. I would highly recommend the area for riding! Last year near Palomar, the riding was good, but the views weren't quite like this (I will share some pictures in the post, so you don't think I am just making this all up).

So here are three cool videos of rides I did. They are cool to watch, but also to help you find places to ride if you are in the area. I am always surprised when I leave Ontario, how friendly traffic is to cyclists. Ontario seems to have an attitude problem!

My first hill ride that left me exhausted: https://www.relive.cc/view/825872630

A ride that brought us to Griffith Observatory, where you can see the Hollywood sign. A road that we just happen to stumble upon! https://www.relive.cc/view/836674244

And my final ride. Mt. Wilson was closed from snow and ice, so I hunted down 3000m of climbing by finishing with a few steep hill repeats. https://www.relive.cc/view/839887111

Angeles Crest Hwy ~1100m

Angeles Crest Hwy ~1800m

Angeles Crest Hwy ~ 1900m elevation

Leaving Oxnard along the coast

Heading into the mountains on Big Tujunga

Starting to get a feel for the height, seeing the clouds roll over the peaks.

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