I officially declare myself injured.

One week later my right knee is again quite unhappy. The plan was to recover during the week by avoiding the bike and all other hard effort until Thursday. Then I felt I had to at least get a warm up ride for the upcoming race to properly set up my bike and loosen up. Leading up to Thursday was promising to the point I barely felt anything in my knee during the day. That evening's ride started out nicely but 20 minutes into it turned ugly in the form of sharp pains inside my knee every pedal stroke, where the sharpness increased relative to the effort.

After a 40 minute ride I had to come to the conclusion I would not race East Canyon. I tried to rationalize: maybe the adrenaline would deaden the pain. Maybe I could suffer through it. Maybe it would only be a few moments of suffering with enough recovery. I don't feel pain when I stand, I'll just stand everytime there is a surge in speed.

I had East Canyon as a goal this year; I wanted to see great improvements over last year's race. Now I'm sitting here staring at my race number and chip wondering "what if". Could I have stuck with the pack this year? Could I have sprinted that killer uphill finish? Could I have gotten away during the last climb? Would they have caught me?

The hope is to recover for Bear Lake. I F@#$@$ better. Not a happy camper right now. If I had a mood ring it would be a pile of ashes at this moment.

VO2 tested - I passed

Last night I was tested by Hakenya at their portable testing facility in Bountiful. First impression: Nice rig. This portable testing facility takes the form of a 40 ish foot fifth wheel travel trailer, totally [pimped] customized with Hakenya logos. I have to add I was lucky enough to get tested after being 45 minutes late due to a crash on the freeway in Draper.

After changing into bike clothes a blood pressure test is taken, and apparently I needed to take a seat to relax before starting as my pressure was high. Another test is taken a few minutes later and things are better so the test can start. I get fitted to the stationary bike to start warming up for 10 minutes or so then we discuss test details, measurements, the mask, the visual displays, and how the test will end once I puke. Of course if I go to completion of the software, I get a free dinner anywhere I want. Yeah.

So the VO2 test is a ramp test where the difficulty increases approximately every two minutes. I get to point to a piece of paper to describe my percieved exertion, from easy to hard to something meaning I'm about dead.

Oh, by the way, I made a verbal agreement that I won't sue if I die as a result of this test. Funny. I won't sue after I'm dead, promise.

Here's one great customer service moment: I am asked what music I like. I finally say "if you want results let's put some Metallica on." 117 Metallica songs were available. Nice.

The test gets going; easy at first and increasing in difficulty until I give up. Within 30 seconds I say I could have lasted longer. I remember having my head down working damn hard and hearing some "you can do it, you got it, keep it up" from the testers but I just stopped, no puking, no passing out, no death. I am pretty sure that makes me a whimp.

I also remember a few blood pressure tests during the event. And trying to keep a 90 rpm cadence. That is interesting because I find I increase my cadence to overcome hard efforts at times, but sticking to 90 instead of moving to 95-100 was tough. After awhile sticking to 90 was tough enough.

After I gave up I had a few minutes of easy spinning to get my heart rate down as we discussed the results. And I get upsold on a power analysis. But my legs are still shaking from the last effort. But I'm already warmed up. But I'm shaking. Let's just do it.

Power analysis: 2 minutes of warmup, 1 minute sprint - as hard as I can - 2 to 4 minutes of recovery, 1 mile TT - keeping a consistent as hard as possible output, 4 minutes of recovery, 4 mile TT also keeping a consistent as hard as possible output. That hurt. Lots.

I received some data and will receive more data later. It was worthwhile at least to confirm my measurement tools are working and the data I have captured in the last year is accurate. It is also interesting to hear feedback from a Cat 1/2 racer that seems quite knowledgeable. Lots of good information to apply. I recommend it.

Unhappy body

I enjoyed an excellent 100 mile ride yesterday but my body tells me it did not enjoy it so much. At mile 98 my calves cramped badly in a pulsating manner that I hadn't experienced before. Today my left achille's tendon is popping as I walk down stairs but most importantly my right knee is extremely sore to the point I cannot put pressure on it.

I met up a few team members at the East Canyon Resort earlier today, geared up, rode around the parking lot, rode up the road approximately 1/4 mile, and decided it was best to not ride. That was a HARD decision.

What caused it? Seat too high? Maybe. I recently moved it up after changing my saddle cover. Stephen H. mentioned I didn't cover my knees yesterday and the temperature may have been under the magic 55 degrees. That may have done it too. It sucks either way.

Sucks to get old.

A weekend in Tooele - part 3

Stage 3 - 49 miles in 2 hours and 6 minutes with 24 of my newest friends. Average speed 23.5 miles per hour, and yes, a sufferfest for me. After the race I talked to one of the Ski Utah guys that has been Cat 4 for a year, and he said this was a pretty relaxed pace.

I like neutral racing. We spent two miles in town going through a few traffic signals at a nice friendly pace. I really wanted to stick to that pace for much longer but my new buddies didn't agree. As soon as the flag person passed by at the end of the neutral zone the pack took off like a bullet. The stats show a jump from 12 to 22 mph right at the 2 mile point. Soon after we averaged over 30 mph for over 5 miles as we were racing a train. Fun.

This portion of the race was interesting. As I was moving up the pack to avoid getting dropped I ended up right up front and did a pull at ridiculous speeds. I pulled for 30 seconds or so and moved off, which started an actual structured rotation with the 5-10 front guys. We did a few minutes of this and it broke down because the majority of the group wasn't participating.

I had over 8 "match burning" events just trying to stick to the group including hitting over 40 miles per hour twice. End result: the whole group, I mean everyone, together at the end for a 40 mph bunch sprint. Serious fun.

A weekend in Tooele - part 2

The second part of the day includes a 25 mile circuit race over a 5 mile circuit. One word: Brutal.

Of course the first lap everyone is just trying to get rid of the weaker riders. It worked; I believe approximately 1/3 of the group went away. Second lap and third laps are just as tough, with the fourth and fifth laps turning out to be a bit more relaxed. What that means in power is the first three laps I hit 335-355 watts to stick to the group, where the last two I got away with under 233-282. Heart rate wise that translates to hitting the 190s vs staying under 184. See pretty graphs at Garmin Connect.

The finish was nuts. I reached 41.7 miles per hour which earned me a 13th place. Yeah, I can see why so many people like sprinting, what a rush!

I still don't know the difference between a circuit and a criterium, but I'm about to look it up. Effort wise there is simply no difference.

A weekend in Tooele - part 1

My first stage race ever starts with a nine mile individual time trial. I was excited due to my desire to get into stage racing and time trialing.

The excitement had me at heart rate zone 2 - 2.5 as I was waiting to start my time trial. The start box was way cool; it is a great help to start down that ramp and get going immediately. Power output at the start: 597 watts.

The excitement ended at approximately 1.3 miles when I got passed by the 30 second person behind me. I hadn't reached the F@#$# climb yet, damn. That's ok, maybe that one guy is just ridiculously strong. I still see my 30 second guy, maybe I can catch him. I didn't.

I got passed by 3 or 4 people before it was over. I averaged 21.6 mph, 218 watts for 24 minutes. That yielded me nearly last place, 4 minutes behind the leader. Ouch.

Gory details are on Garmin Connect.

2009 Cholla challenge

This last weekend I participated in my third mountain bike race of the year. Really the second serious race.

The stats show a serious effort with an average heart rate of 186 bpm, spending 1:10:41 of 1:14:56 in zone 5. One hour spent disregarding my body yelling and screaming at me to stop. It was quite the exercise in suffering but it didn't kill me so it had to make me stronger.

Coming out of the sandstone

The dog likes it

Here's what I want to remember about this event:

I worked as hard as I could therefore I am happy with my result of 9th place in my group.

It was a gorgeous day with temperatures around 57 to 65 degrees.

This is a high speed course with many passing opportunities. This translates to a course with very few rest opportunities. This also means someone can power through the complete race without impediments.

Pre riding a race course is highly valuable.

There are actually drafting benefits in mountain biking. I saw two teams take advantage of drafting. Nice job to those teams.

My crew chief is awesome. She takes great care of me.

53

What is 53? My resting heart rate. Why is that important? It's not.

But since I'm a geek and learning a bunch about bicycle racing that number is good to me. Earlier this year I checked my resting heart rate and it was at 67. As I understand it a lower resting heart rate means a wider range to work with. So, if my max heart rate remains 199, starting from 53 provides a larger working range for me.

Did I achieve this number by improving my fitness? Is it because I reduced my soda / caffeine / sugar intake? Did I simply do a better job at measuring my resting heart rate? Who knows.