Head cold

Don't ask me why but...I haven't been on the bike since the Slama. General fatigue and lack of desire to suffer. Then, a few days ago, I woke with that pain in the back of my throat each time I swallowed. Immediately, I started gargleing Listorine. I would have gargled gasoline if I thought it would have helped. Unfortunately, it didn't work. The head cold arrived yesterday.

At this point, I'm feeling a bit better. I was able to get some additional sleep this afternoon.

I'm ready to start riding again. Next season will be here before we know it.

Alabama Slama!

I figured out one thing. I'm a roadie!

But, know this. I won't miss another Alabama Slama. It was a blast. Roadie or mountain biker, it was worth the trip.

We arrived around noon on Friday afternoon. After hanging out for a while, we did a night ride up the fire road to the top of Oak Mountain. I thought I was doing pretty good at first. I took off like I knew what I was doing. It got steeper and steeper. I suffered up one of the first pitches. After that, I was done. I was looking for more gears but I had "1FG". I was walking man!

I was so glad to see the top! The ride down was fantastic.

Saturday morning, it's time for the Slama. It's a one lap free for all. I heard it was a great race. I ended up walking up the steep pitches again. Most of the crowd rode away. I made it to the top. Several things went through my mind. 1) I could turn around and go back to the camp or 2) I could press on. Press on I did!

At this point, it was your basic solo MTB ride. Most of the time, I rode like an 80 year old grandma. Other times, I walked.

Just when I was starting to get comfortable, I broke a chain. Not only did I break a chain, I was about as far away from the camp as I could get.

Hey, it was a great day for a walk. I ended up walking about 4 miles. Luckily, one of the guys rode back to camp to get his truck.

Over the course of my walk, almost every bike rider that passed by offered to help. It was great to see how much bike riders are willing to lend a helping hand.

I'll be back. Next year I plan to complete the course!

Objective evidence of improvement

The Computrainer has a great feature call Spinscan. The Spinscan takes every single pedal stroke and breaks it down into 24 segments. (If you want to take a look at a Spinscan graphic, go to the analysis page on the www.gccyclefit.com webpage. ) Each segment represents the power that you are producing for that portion of the pedal stroke.

Based on how you pedal, the Computrainer gives you a Spinscan number. This number is calculated by dividing the average wattage over the course of a pedal stroke by the peak wattage. If you are a masher, your peaks will be high and your overall average wattage will rather low. This will give you a low Spinscan number

If you are able to apply force to the pedals all the way around the pedal stoke, you will have relatively low peaks but high overall average force. This will give you a high Spinscan score.

Here's my story: When I first purchased the Computrainer, my Spinscan was 52. It was horrible. There were four segments of the pedal stroke where I wasn't even applying force to the pedals(That's really bad). More on that in a future post.

With concerted effort, I was able to improve my Spinscan number to a 72. I changed my bike fit so that I was able to apply force to the pedal more effectively. Then I started doing pedaling drills. Each ride, I worked on pedaling. However, I couldn't break the 72 point threshold. I would periodically retest on the Computrainer. But each time, I would end up between 70 and 72. If I tried harder, my Spinscan number would actually get worse.

Where am I going with this you ask...
Enter the ROLLERS! As you know, I've worked out on the rollers several times a week over the last several months.

Last night, I used the Computrainer to workout. I started out by warming up with the Spinscan. Without additional effort, my Spinscan number was 79-80. That is a huge improvement. 85 is my goal.

I offer Spinscan testing. If you want to get tested, let me know. Then you can go out and train. After you have trained, come back and retest to make sure that you are on the right track.

Working on smoothness

I guess this is another "Roller boy" post. But, I can't express enough about the improvements that can be made by using rollers for regular training.

I would guess that I have about 10 hours on the rollers over the last 2-3 weeks. In addition to quantity, I really want to focus on quality. On the rollers, there are gross errors which alter your position on the cylinders(to the point of being ejected) and there are fine errors. The gross errors resolve themselves pretty quickly as you learn to pedal circles. Within, just a few rides, you can maintain a position within a 5" space for short periods of time. This is a good thing because, your general safety improves as well.

Fine errors are harder to percieve and harder to correct. These errors don't necessarily change your position on the cylinders. They aren't caused by weight shifts that result for poor pedaling mechanics. Fine errors are caused by alterations of pedaling speed within the cadence. It is possible to pedal circles, yet still apply peak forces to the pedals.

How do you diagnose fine errors?
Place a marker(piece of paper, kids toy etc) on the floor in front of the rollers. You want it to be far enough in front of you that it lines up with the horizon of the front wheel. As you ride, watch the relationship between the tire and the marker. If you see the tire surge forward, you are appling a peak force that should be controled. This is caused by an acceleration of the bike on the rollers as the bike tries to climb the cylinders. The goal here is high average force all the way around the pedal circle.

This should be diagnosed at all speeds. It may be that you are able to ride effectively at slow or moderate speeds but you have problems at high speeds. It's also good to evaluate this at a variety of cadences within a set gear combination.

30mph intervals

There's nothing like the feeling that you are flying.

To break up the trainer boredom, I've been adding in some speed work on the rollers. Last night I did 30mph intervals. It feels like you are flying. I would stay at that speed until I couldn't maintain it any longer. Then, I would gear down and recover. The hour went by much faster with the variable intensity. I intend to continue to include intervals of variable length. Some as long as 20 minutes. Others as short as 1 min. I still like the computrainer. It's the best tool to offer dosed workout intensities. On the other hand, rollers stimulate technique.

Other things to break up the routine:
One of my roller goals is to ride at 50mph for 3 seconds. I tried it last night but only made it to 49mph. I began to freak out a bit because I was all over the rollers.
Also, I worked on riding no hands. Man, it's been while. I was seriously shakey! It's one thing to ride no hands in a door frame where you can grab hold in the event of emergency. Last night, I was in the middle of the living room. Nothing around to grab except air. It was a facing your fears moment.

Size-o-matic

I forgot....the Size-o-matic arrived Saturday!

It's a great tool for handlebar placement. I put it on my bike to re-look at my handlebar position. I ended up going back to the 110mm stem. I've been riding a 100mm for the last couple months.

I'm looking forward to using it on future fits. I still have a collection of test stems if I need them as backup.

Good week so far

Well, let's see.

Friday night was late and Saturday morning became a "sleep-in". I always tell myself that I needed the rest. It's a way to justify missed training time.

Saturday afternoon, I managed to make a 30 minute bike project last 2 1/2 hours. I'll spare you the details. It was just like any project at home. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you planned them.

I took the day off Monday and had a great training ride. It was the first time that used the ibike as a training tool. To date, I've just used it record ride data. If you remember some of my posts from the Spring, I was doing critical power workouts. That's what I did Monday, but I used the ibike to monitor my effort.

Warm up 15 min
250+ watts for 25 min
rest 10 min
260+ watts for 10 min
rest 15 min
270+ watts for 10 min
rest 20 min
280+ watts for 10 min

The ibike allows me to maintain consistent power regardless uphill or downhill.

It was a great workout.

Tuesday evening, I was back on the rollers. I wasn't real motivated to suffer, so the workout ended up shorter than planned. My roller workouts are heart rate based. Last night, I ended up doing 15 min at 150-160 bpm followed by a 15 min set at 170-175bpm. It's kind of cool to cruise along at 27-28mph on the rollers.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do tonight.