Ride Prep – Just As Important When Going Short

My friend Aaron West over at the Steep Climbs blog complains that he was ill-prepared for a major training ride the other day. He didn’t hydrate properly, didn’t eat right the night before the ride, and didn’t eat the morning of the ride. So he only managed to cover 100 miles with 9,300 feet of climbing in 6 hours, 39 minutes.

Well, Aaron is in a different league than I am. But I had much the same experience as he did that day. And what happened to me is a reminder that we all must attend to the necessities of prepping ourselves for our rides, no matter how tough or modest they might be.

I had ridden a brisk ride Saturday morning, and even added some bonus miles to my regular Saturday route. I felt great. Legs were strong, plenty of air in my lungs. I looked forward to a Sunday morning ride in the Hill Country with friends.

But at about 1 a.m. Sunday, a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder right over head jolted me out of my sleep. Lord knows we need rain around here. We thought we were recovering from last year’s drought, with decent rain in February and March, but April saw the dryness return. They’re already going to stringent watering restrictions in some areas around here, so we’re happy to get the rain.

Only trouble was, the lightning and thunder kept up their pyrotechnics show all night long, and I had trouble getting back to sleep again. I’m not sure if I ever did, really. Finally, at about 5 a.m., I couldn’t stand staring at the ceiling anymore, so I got up and made some coffee.

It was clear I wouldn’t be riding that morning. I emailed my friends to cancel. They were apparently up early, too, because I soon got a reply that they weren’t going out, either. I read the morning paper, watched a little TV, and finally decided to get something to eat.

Two pieces of toast with jelly took care of breakfast. I had a second cup of coffee and started surfing websites on the iPad. Eventually, the storm passed to the east, and I could think about riding again.

I hit the road at about 11 a.m. The streets were almost dry, the sun was out, and the air was so humid you could wring it out. I thought I’d do a modified version of my Friday night route, which keeps me on neighborhood streets, and can cover anywhere from 19-25 miles.

At about six miles into the ride, I do a couple of hill repeats on a residential street that’s really not much of a challenge. But this time, I knew I was in trouble. I couldn’t maintain the cadence I wanted, and found myself downshifting more than usual on this little hill. The second time around, I couldn’t even maintain a decent cadence one gear lower than the first time. I was huffing and puffing at the top, glad for the break.

I did a lap of the Veloway, which is mostly flat except for one short steep hill. But I decided I’d ridden the Veloway enough that week, and I headed out to add more mileage.

I had plenty of water. The night before, I’d put two 24-ounce water bottles in the freezer. I only brought one on the ride, but that’s fine for a two-hour neighborhood ride, and I could always fill up at the water jugs at the Veloway entrance. I was drinking regularly, even a little more often than my usual three-mile drink intervals.

Water wasn’t the problem. Nourishment was. On Sunday mornings before club rides, I tend to make myself a hearty breakfast. Today, as I said, just toast. I don’t carry energy bars or Shot Bloks or anything like that when I’m riding in the neighborhood, and I could feel the energy drain from my body. By the time I reached the 20-mile mark, I was done in. But you can’t (I can’t, anyway) ride less than 20 miles on my long mileage day of the week. I took a couple of turns that put me farther from home.

But it was no good. I checked the bike computer and calculated that I’d have 24-25 miles under my belt if I turned around and headed back at this point. It was a slog. I was in a bike lane on a decent asphalt road, but struggled to keep up a steady pace. Have you ever felt relief when you pull up to your house after a ride? I did that morning.

What’s the takeaway? Prep for your routine rides much as you would your tougher ones. I should have had the same kind of breakfast I would have had if I’d done the Hill Country ride. Adequate sleep is important, although I did go back to bed and grab a catnap before I got into my bike clothes. I’ve stopped carrying any kind of electrolyte stuff on most rides. The right kind of stuff does help, I’ve found.

I’ve got a little time off over the next two weeks, and I’ll be riding more than usual. You can bet I’ll get ready for each ride with more diligence than I employed last weekend.

Functional Power Threshold – Part 2

In part 2 of his account of his FTP test, guest poster Don Blount explains how it works.

 Completing the functional threshold power (FTP) test opened a new world of cycling to me. I used to think of cycling as an endurance activity akin to running a marathon. I had worked at building my endurance through time in the saddle and not through specific effort.

I learned that cycling is a power activity more like running a series of short to long repeat sprints with easy to hard recovery efforts in between.

Instead of focusing on endurance I needed to focus on building power and while building power, I would build endurance.

The FTP test provided me with a base number to work with of 162 beats per minute.

So I went to work on building power through interval training at just below or above FTP. From what I could find that would be an effective way to train.

I rode four to five days a week. Two of those rides would be some type of interval workout. I did efforts as short as 3 minutes with 3 minutes rest and as long as 20 minutes with five to 10 minutes rest. I also did fartlek (random change of speed), hard rides into the wind and high gear, low cadence and low gear, high cadence rides.

I could tell I was making progress as the weeks went by but knew I was making significant inroads when I was capable of doing intervals as part of a 40-mile ride.

These workouts were hard and challenging but the variety kept it interesting and gave me more purpose instead of riding for fitness or to keep up with a group. I was riding against myself. Since most of my riding is alone, that was perfect for focus.

After a few rides I noticed that I was getting stronger. After a few weeks I held my own on a group ride of 45-miles with 2,600 feet of climbing. Four days later, held my own again on a 40-mile group ride with just under 2,800 feet of climbing. I was not the fastest up any hill but I made it up them all without that: “What am I doing out here?” feeling.

The best validation I received was when someone who I ridden with before said to me “You sure are riding strong today.” He remembered my struggles.

And 10 days later on a 57-mile ride with 3,200 feet of climbing a different rider said the same thing to me.

I was obviously more fit and more confident in the hills.

At the end of the six weeks, I did another FTP test. My heart rate was the same, which surprised me as I thought it would be lower, but my speed was much higher. My guess is a power meter would show that I was producing more power at that same effort level.

Next I did a recovery week of moderately-paced rides but no intervals.

My disclaimer is I put my program together through books, talking to a few cycling people and scouring the Internet. I don’t know if it is correct for you but it is working for me and I am having fun. That is good enough for me for now.

And all because I took a test.

Functional Power Threshold – Part 1

Guest poster Don Blount tackles some heavy-duty training. In the first of two posts, he explains what it’s all about.

It was an offer that was hard to refuse. It was a test to determine my functional threshold power.

It would only take 10 minutes and it was free.

In short, functional threshold power, known as FTP, is a benchmark of the body’s overall efficiency. It is the effort a rider can sustain for about an hour before too much lactate accumulates in their system and their body begins to break down.

There are a number of ways to test it but Graeme Street, owner of Cyclo-Core and “Recognized Cycling Expert,” according to his video, was offering an opportunity to coach me through a 10-minute indoor test to determine my FTP.

You need a few things to do the test with the video: 1) bike trainer or rollers 2) power meter or heart rate monitor 3) speed/cadence sensor.

I used rollers and a Garmin Edge 305 bike computer with heart rate monitor and speed/cadence sensor.

I was ready. But the problem was that no matter what I did I could not get the video to play completely on any of the three computers in my home. Not a one. The video would begin and play for a bit, but after about 15 minutes, it would stop. I even emailed Street for advice but it still would not work. So I viewed the video on a computer away from my home network. I watched it several times and I took copious notes.

And then I tried it again.

I set up my laptop and rollers in my garage, let the video buffer and launched it again. This time it played, for a short time. The video went as far as the warm up before it froze again.

But by this time I was familiar enough with video’s content to finish on my own. It would have been more effective with Street helping me through it as I had too much left in the tank at the end. This was not a max test but still, I did not ride hard enough.

That test showed a FTP heart rate of 156 beats per minute. I used that in my workouts and it just seemed too easy. So a few days later I did it again and calculated an FTP heart rate of 162 beats per minute. I now use that figure for my riding.

If you are interested in testing yourself and have not done so before, let me warn you this test hurts! It hurts physically and it hurts mentally.

Click here if you would like to see this Graeme Street video. The site says you can take the test anytime within the next five days but the link has been up for about two months. The test itself is free but it also serves as a promo to Street’s training systems.

Regardless of whether you use this video or decide to do it on your own, an FTP test is well worth doing. I’ll elaborate in a future post on how it impacted my riding.

A Fatal Rear-End Collision

Like the rest of the Austin cycling community, I am saddened by the death of cyclist Verter Ginestra, 55, over the weekend. He was riding on the shoulder of Loop 360, a major highway on the west side of Austin. The shoulders on 360 are very generous.

Television news stories of the crash show the car in the shoulder. Sound bites from police did not lay blame on the cyclist; in fact, they urged motorists to watch out for them because 360 is such a popular cycling road. It features long hills and few stoplights. The worst part about riding 360 is having to cross exit and entrance ramps, and being on the outlook for fast-moving cars in those spaces.

Verter Ginestra (From KVUE Television website)

Crash scene (From KVUE Television website)

Ginestra apparently was not crossing an entrance or exit ramp. He appears to be the victim of a type of collision that is fairly rare — the daytime rear-ender. One statistic I saw (and cannot vouch for) says that only three percent of car-bike collisions are daytime rear-enders.

On top of it, the driver of the car is 85 years old. So you’ve got a bike on a wide shoulder, in bright daylight, and still he gets hit.

What can a cyclist do?

Not much, apparently. Cyclists should always be aware of what’s happening around them. “Scanning” — looking behind — is a riding technique everyone needs to learn. But if you’re riding with traffic, and you’re on the shoulder, you’re not likely to spend a lot of time looking behind you. The most common advice for avoiding rear-enders I’ve been able to dig up is to wear a rear-view mirror. That idea has its pros and cons. It might have alerted Ginestra to the car moving onto the shoulder, but since traffic on 360 is fast, it might not have given him enough time to react.

I didn’t know Verter Ginestra, but Dan Colvin, who joined me on my birthday ride, rode with him often. Dan says Verter was the kind of cyclist you’d want to ride with: “He was strong enough to ride with most A groups, but was not one to force the pace if others weren’t as strong. Interesting conversationalist. Helpful with mechanicals. The whole nine yards.”

Cyclists plan to converge on Austin City Hall Thursday evening to urge tougher enforcement against drivers who hit cyclists. As I write this, the 85-year-old driver has not been charged in the crash.

The KVUE story about the crash can be seen here.