Category Archives: Endurance Rides

Day Two- 6.5 hour Training Ride Today in the Rain!

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Today it rained on me for 5 plus hours of the ride.  Quick Stats 6:25 pedal time, 112 miles, 4100 kjs, 5,000 feet of gain, Normalized Power 202 or 3.0 w/kg and 17.4 Avg moving speed.  And this is the day after a 6 hour training ride the day before of over 100 miles.  The rest of the data is displayed below. Now let’s talk about clothing.  I knew it was going to rain today so I made sure I wore wool from head to toe! See below for my clothing choices.   Why so many hours/miles?  I have a Double Century in Death Valley on Feb 26 and wanted to see where I was in my fitness.  I will make another blog post on the Death Valley Double Century in the next couple of days.

UPDATE 02/22/11– Death Valley Double pre ride info.

Rain for the previous 24 hours

I find it amazing the disparity between ride time and total time.  I only stopped twice on today’s ride.  Both stops were to refill my water bottles at a fast food joint with soda fountains in the dining area.  I was in and out in less than two minutes.  The rest of the stopped time is traffic controls! I really thought my ride time and total time would be much closer to each other.

What are the graphs above?  Well I wanted to set the Garmin 310XT to Auto Lap every hour.  Unfortunately you can only Auto Lap by Distance or Location.  So I said well I want to do 17 mph average speed on the training ride and set it for distance but I would rather do it by time.  Yes I could always hit the lap button but why not use technology right?

In Corona looking up to the mountain range I need to pass through.

For my clothing I wore wool items from  Woolistic I wore a long sleeve thin wool base layer 100% Merino wool, Cinzano Long Sleeve Jersey 100% Merino wool, and wool cycling shorts.  From Swiftwick I wore the Merino 7″ sock.  When riding in rainy conditions PLEASE wear wool.  Your synthetics will make you even more miserable than you have to be.  While I was wet, thoroughly wet, I was never cold.  I felt the elements but I didn’t feel the constant overheating and chilling that happens when I wear synthetics in particular on climbs and descents.  Take it from someone that spends a lot of time on the road in all weather conditions get yourself some wool and ignore the naysayers that think you’re not cool because you aren’t wearing the latest and greatest technologically wonderful whizz bang new fabric that “…waterproof and breathes….” nonsense!  The Woolistic stuff is the best on the market– go get some!

 

And now for something completely off topic.  Can you imagine telling your friends at a dinner party who you work for?

Six Hour Training Ride Today

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Six hours pedal time yielded almost 109 miles, almost 18mph moving average, with a paltry 3,000 feet of gain.  It took a long time to warm-up today I don’t know why.  But once I was warmed up I had a great day on the bike.  The weather was perfect for riding around 65F.  Tomorrow another six-hour ride is scheduled with a little climbing.  One thing I would like to point out is that my Garmin calculated 6,225 Calories while my SRM Power Control 7 has only 3,711 kjs. Of course I trust my SRM more than the Garmin 😉

Newport Beach to Oceanside then back past Newport Beach to Huntington Beach and then finishing in Newport Beach

 

Bike Religion Shop Ride

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Today I helped lead the first Bike Religion Shop Ride.  It was an easy paced 50 mile ride.  A good ride with new friends.  Stay tuned for additional Bike Religion Shop Rides.

Garmin Connect – http://connect.garmin.com/activity/58100272

Ride with GPS – http://ridewithgps.com/routes/233316

Ride with GPS Player http://ridewithgps.com/trips/140828— Choose satellite in Playback mode

Wednesday Ride Comparison

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For the last three weeks I have been slowly increasing the amount of effort I put out at the weekly endurance ride.  What I do is sit in front for the first hour of the ride and pull.  I do this so I get one hour unsheltered .  Most of my events I ride/race in I don’t have the benefit of drafting behind other riders. It’s important for me to get time in the wind whenever I ride with groups.  You will notice my Normalized Power increases from 220, 235, 241 watts or 3.23 w/kg, 3.45 w/kg and 3.54 w/kg, respectively, for a 60 minute period.  The first hour of ride is generally uphill.

Canyon Velo 90 miles and 96 miles Solo- 186 Miles Total

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kj- 5625 — a huge day of calorie burn

TSS- 518  –It will take days to recover fully from this effort

Notice on the screenshot from Training Peaks WKO 3.o how the first 90 miles the power (yellow lines) is all over the place.  After finishing the group ride notice how my power is much more steady.  Also notice the last 15 miles how the power is much higher than the previous section.  I wanted to finish the ride strong and I DID!!  I am pleased with that effort and it is very promising sign that my fitness is progressing.  After 170 ish miles the last 15 miles were done at a higher intensity!

Garmin Player Download Here

Garmin Data Here

I had a good day on the bike today.  I started off with a 90 mile group ride — the  Canyon Velo ride.  But I didn’t feel satisfied with the amount of work I had done so I rode some more afterwards.  Riding in packs doesn’t really prepare me for my races.  The group rides are frustrating for me.  They stop to regroup, they stop too long, and the effort is very dynamic.  They ride at an easy to medium pace until they hit the hills.  When they are in hills they go balls out and it’s an anaerobic effort.   All the things that don’t translate well to in Ultra riding. Ultra racing in its purest state is a more akin to a time trial– a very long time trial.  For example the Furnace Creek 508 is raced as a 508 mile time trial!!

Ultra Cyclists shouldn’t or at least not often do the following things:

1. Stop

2. Get off their bike

3. Go anaerobic

4. Ride with their power or effort all over the map

I guess that’s why I prefer to train alone.  Just my SRM Power Meter and I going out for a 13 hour training ride. And on race day I guess that’s why Ultra Cycling appeals to me– it’s all about individual effort!  Just you and your bike against Mother Nature’s choice of weather and Planet Earth’s topography.

Ok all for now…thank you for reading my blog.  Please pass my blog along to your friends.

Century Day- Two rides today

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SUMMARY

In the morning I did the Wednesday Ride and then added the Warner Loop on the back-end.  I had a good hard ride of 80 miles.  Then after work I did the Warner Loop again just to keep the legs loose which added another 20 miles.  Total miles for the day was 100 miles Total time was just over 5 hours.

The first 5 miles of my evening ride were really a challenge.  I had been on my feet for 9 hours at work after riding the hard 80 in the morning.  I wore my Skins leg tights which helped but they were still stiff.  After the first 5 miles or so my legs loosened up and I had a very nice enjoyable ride.

THE MORNING RIDE

Garmin Download Here

I was 11 minutes late to the meet.  I chased for 1:12 and caught the group on Glenn Ranch as they were about to enter Santiago Canyon.  I felt good on that first hour, pushing harder than normal on a Wednesday ride.  Once I was riding with the group my pace was lighter for the next 20 miles or so.  There is a lot of energy savings while drafting …it can’t be overstated.

A few things positive things I notice in the data provided above:

1. 2600 kjs in a 4 hour ride that’s an average of 650 kj/hr.  Pretty high for me on a training ride and I like the data based on my perceived effort.

2.  Intensity Factor was (802) or 80% for 4 hours

3. PwHR:  3.63%– This is outstanding!  The goal should be around 5% and I am below that.  This means my HR and Power were consistent throughout the 4 hours, much more complicated than that but we will leave it there.

4.  Normalized Power was 220 watts which was 3.3 w/kg for 4 hours that’s also good for me anyway.

THE EVENING RIDE

Active Recovery

Today’s Training Tip

The power meter is essential for recovery rides.  I hear cyclists often say they don’t use their power meter because they’re not going hard.  WRONG! If you are on a recovery ride you need to ride nice and easy.  The Active Recovery is designed to promote blood flow and help in the healing process.  Going out too hard on a recovery ride will add more training stress and actually slow your recovery process.  I submit if you are not using a power meter during your recovery rides then chances are YOU ARE RIDING YOUR RECOVERY RIDES MUCH HARDER THAN YOU SHOULD.  Notice below 63% of this ride was spent at Active Recovery Zone about 36% at Endurance, most of that 36% was at the lowest levels of Endurance zone since my average power was 136 watts for the ride.

All for now…thank you for reading my blog.  Please pass it on to you cycling friends.

Steady Effort in the Aerobars

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After work I did a little over an hour at a steady effort.  It was not an Hour of Power.  The goal for the session was to stay in the aero bars as long as possible.  I think I did ok with it but I need more and more time to feel comfortable in the position.  As always, the head-cross wind was a factor.

The sunset was amazing. I really wish I could capture it for you but alas no pictures.

In other news, I am maintaining my weight below 149 lbs which is my goal.  If I raced the Furnace Creek 508 at sub 150 lbs that would be the lightest I have ever raced it.  It’s a shame I don’t have the fitness I have had in previous years.  Today’s weight is 148 lbs or 67.1 kg.

Wednesday Ride

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On today’s Wednesday Endurance ride,  I sat out front, in the wind, for the first portion of the ride.  I wanted to hold above 3.0 w/kg for the entire ride. The second portion of the ride has a lot of paceline and drafting which lowers my overall average.   I ended up with 2.9 w/kg in average power.  Normalized Power was 238 watts or 3.5 w/kg — exactly where I wanted to end up for 2 hours.

In the last three Wednesday rides I have lowered the time spent in Active Recovery mode from over 50% down to today’s 34%.

Notice the difference of these three Wednesday Rides.  Notice the Average and Normalized Power increasing.  The main reason for the increase in wattage is because I am spending less and less time in the bunch and getting out in the wind.  The goal is to start getting used to riding solo again.  There is no drafting on the Furnace Creek 508.

Wednesday Ride

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GARMIN PLAYER CLICK HERE 

 

June 02 on the left June 16 on the right

 

Wednesday ride today was a little quicker than usual.  Group dynamics, it’s an interesting thing.  Group rides have established and for the most part unwritten rules.  But then depending on who shows up the set ride format can change drastically.  You can see from the comparison of the two ride summaries above that today was a bit harder.  I didn’t find the ride difficult but I know there were people getting dropped here and there. 

A few key points: 

Average power UP from 137 to 151 watts 

Normalized Power UP from 197 to 206 watts 

Intensity Factor is UP from 71.5% to 74.8% 

All for now and thank you for reading my blog.