My Bad Day

The crash happened so fast that my first sensation was hitting the ground. I will never forget the instantaneous thought, Wow. I just hit the road really effing hard.

It was loud and violent. At the same instant I felt my head hit the ground, I also had the thought, Damn, these helmets actually work!

In this pic, you can see the left rear of the helmet crushed in. If you could see inside, the material is fractured and broken all the way to the front.

I have road rash, bruises and a snapped collarbone. Surgery is next week on 9/18, the day I was planning on driving up to register for the race. In the olden days (when we were kids) these were left to heal as-is, and it ended up a nasty mess. Plates and screws are an option, but leave a different kind of mess -- a big zipper scar and plates+screws visible through the skin.

I am fortunate to have an ortho surgeon in my town that does a newer procedure where a flexible rod is run down inside the two pieces (well, three in my case) of bone, then locked into a stiff state. Couple small incisions and quicker recovery. This will cost me a bit more out of pocket -- I have a high deductible health plan. But I'm an active guy and I want to be 100% when this is over.

Besides, I didn't repair the ACL in my right knee when it blew out, so I'll spend that money now.

This mishap occurred as I was coming down Pinehurst Road on the backside of the Oakland Hills. On a gentle downgrade, I was in my biggest gear. After slowing a bit around a sweeping curve, I stood up to regain speed. As soon as I stomped down, the chain came off the big ring. It's like walking down stairs carrying a heavy weight and then suddenly one step is missing.

My body weight slammed down onto the bars; I started to lose control; hit the brakes to slow down and found myself hitting the ground. Don't know if I went down on my own, or ... did I get hit?

Unfortunately, a guy had come up to draft off me a moment earlier. He went right over top of me, and I understand that he has an AC separation. Every cyclist knows the risk of drafting at high speed. Well...should know the risk. This guy seems to think I should be responsible for his medical costs. Not in a million years.

So, my season and quest is over. But, if you've read much of this blog, you know how much I got out of it. My health, my confidence, my entire well-being. This is just the start of the rest of my life, and I will carry on.

I'm Done

Details to come, but I did this last night on my bike. Surgery today or tomorrow.

Race Bike Testing

I've been riding my road bike -- a classic geometry steel Holland frame that I had made in 1990. It's just so nice to ride that I didn't want to switch over to the race bike till I had to. Well, I have to.

Took the TT bike out last night for a shakedown ride after completing the build. I have the 11sp Shimano drivetrain with bar-end shifters. Chainrings are 50/34 compact-style, with the big ring being one of those oval-ish Q-Rings. I like the Q-Rings since the crank speeds up very slightly coming over the top. When riding in a tuck, it makes the pedal circle feel smoother to me. I don't believe that the ring does anything for my power output, but I like the feel of it. The inner ring is a stock round 34. Largest rear cog is 32. That will allow me to stay in a nice cadence rhythm on the climbs, while keeping power down in the <180w range where I need it to be.

The biggest adaptation moving over to the race bike is the low front end. I ride the road bike with the bars about an inch below the saddle. On the race bike, the bars are a good 9 inches down. The armpads on the bar extensions are 7.5 inches down. In addition, the saddle moves from 8cm behind the bottom bracket on the road bike to 5cm in front on the race bike.

Initially, it feels horrible. Like I'm falling on my face over the front wheel. My head is in front of the steering tube; I have to look backwards and down to see my bike computer. But, once I got into a little rhythm, I remembered why I like this setup so much.

It's FAST. It's both aerodynamically fast, and it's power-output fast. I have to consciously back off to keep from riding too hard. The forward tucked position just invites aggressive riding. Cruising along at my goal 155w power level feels like hardly pedaling -- just keep the foot circles going and let the legs fall down. Of course, it does take effort and fatigue will build the same as riding the road bike. But, it takes no mental focus to keep the pedals going. Very easy to ride like this.

The downside to the setup is that I can't see up the road very far. It's unnerving and not entirely safe. My neck started getting sore after an hour, and my deltoid muscles hurt a bit from having my weight on my elbows, with the elbows close together. The safety problem is why I don't ride like this all the time. In races, the roads are closed, it's not pack riding, and it's not an issue. But in real life, I limit riding like this to the final few weeks before an event.

I'll get in 4-5 rides the next two weeks and will have adapted my neck and shoulder muscles just fine. I'm excited to be back on this bike. Saturday's ride in the wind up at Tahoe would have been a lot easier on this bike than on the road bike with the more upright position.

Weekend in Tahoe

I went up to Tahoe for a couple of days to do some swimming, riding and running. Mainly to do a shakeout of gear and to get a feel for effort levels at altitude.

I've been insisting on the forums that the altitude is a non-issue if you're pacing properly. IOW -- you don't "feel" the altitude. You're not out of breath or light headed or any of that...provided that you pace properly. That means to go roughly 5% slower than at sea level. The 5% figure is what the NCAA uses to adjust qualifying times for events at altitude. They didn't just make that number up -- it was derived based on actual athlete performances. USA swimming adjusts swim times by about 3%.

And that's about exactly what I found. I swam, I rode and I ran. In all three disciplines, I just went a little slower/easier than at sea level and felt no effect of altitude. For swim, I kept turnover slightly slower than in the pool. Just a split-second extra glide each half stroke and I could just cruise. On the bike, I sat on my goal power (155w on flats; 175w uphill; 140w downhill up to 30mph). Never felt pressured or out of breath. I didn't clock my run splits, but went on feel and felt smooth and comfortable. Based on past experience, I was probably running 20-30 sec/mile slower than down here.

The other goal was a gear shakeout. I rented a wetsuit from Sports Basement, and it fit and performed as expected. I have the right size and it does what it is supposed to do.

I didn't get my race bike built up in time to take with me, but I altered the road bike to mimic the race bike body position, just slightly more upright. That all worked out great except for the saddle. I had an Adamo TT race saddle lying around so I put it on the bike. The Tower of London guards couldn't have come up with a more tortuous saddle. That thing is going in the trash and I'm putting my old trusty Specialized 2001-era saddle back on the bike.

The good news is that I felt smooth and comfortable riding in the aero bars for a couple hours, something I've not done in several years. I have two weeks of riding the race bike before the event, and I'll be adapted just fine.

All in all, things are on track. My fitness remains woefully meager. After riding the bike course, I've reassessed my estimated split. I'm now thinking more like 3:20 or so. It's an awful lot of climbing and I am a relatively weak climber (low power/weight ratio).

Swim easy, ride easy and don't walk on the run leg. That's my race plan and I think I can do it. Best guess right now is...

Swim 35-40
Bike 3:15-3:25
Run 2:06-2:15

Total: 6:15-6:30

That should be roughly in the middle of the 60-70 guys in my age group (50-54).

Swim Benchmarking

I finally have enough masters sessions under my Speedo to get a feel for fitness. I will still improve my stamina between now and September 21, but I am very happy with where I am right now.

Today's main set included 6x200y, on 3:30 for my lane. This was after the kicking sets and pulling sets. I was able to comfortably finish that swim set, touching in 3:00 to 3:05 each 200. That is a great pace for me, about as quick as I've ever done a set like that. If I can hold steady 1:30 per 100y in the pool on a little rest, I should be able to hold 1:30 with a wetsuit on.

At least, I have in the past. But that wasn't at altitude and I was 8 years younger.

But, I'm going into the swim pretty confident. I'll hit the masters swims 2x per week each of the next three weeks. I will also have a chance to swim at Lake Tahoe this weekend. Planning on 3x 15 minutes open water, with wetsuit. Should give me a good feel for the appropriate effort level at altitude.

Right now, I'm mostly worried about my bike fitness. My goal of riding at 165 to 170 watts is, I think, overly optimistic at this point. I'll probably dial my expectations back to 155w. Ride all the way to the Rte. 267 climb under 150w, and then stay under 170w on the long climb. Finish at steady 150-155. I'll get a feel for what kind of bike split that will produce this weekend by riding one lap of the course.

I don't normally think riding a course ahead of time is very worthwhile. I wouldn't go much out of my way to do it. But I have a chance to meet some friends up there this weekend, so I'm going to do it.

A bike ride is a bike ride. The course doesn't matter. You're going to sit on a power number all day anyway (+/- 5%). Who cares if the road goes up or down or left or right? I'm doing it simply out of curiosity -- a game I play where I try to predict my finishing time.

Swim Update

I've done four masters sessions since my last swim update. It always amazes me how fast basic swim fitness can come around. I've already moved over one lane (to the 2800-2900y lane) and can keep up with everyone. Yesterday's session felt strong. I'm going again tomorrow morning, then a long ride.

Another advantage to masters is that you can get some actual instruction. The instructor gave me some very good tips on my arm positions and how to use a two-beat kick better. I immediately felt faster and smoother in the water.

At this rate, maybe I can be optimistic about swimming around 35 minutes at altitude. I'm not going to push it certainly...I will go out very slow and easy and see how it feels. But I should be able to be under 40 minutes without hardly trying.

Thoughts on Weight

Over on the tri forums, questions about weight come up a lot. First, what is the "right" weight?

I'll paraphrase Dan Empfield:

When your family and friends start asking if you've lost weight, you're not even getting started.

When they ask if you've been sick, you're within maybe 10 pounds.

If they start whispering to your spouse/partner and asking if you have AIDS or cancer, you're within 5 pounds.

If they actually stage an intervention, you're about done.

I am merely at Stage I of this cycle. Dropping to 170 pounds leaves me with ample love handles, and I won't be posting any beach pictures of myself on my Facebook page. But, a few people have noticed I lost weight.

I've been down another 10 pounds -- to 160. At that weight, people thought maybe I was sick, and a few even asked my wife if I was OK. But I still did not have a "six pack" and had plenty of healthy body fat. I was simply smaller than I used to be. Not even what I would consider "lean." When I think of "lean" I think of a rock climber or gymnast or ultra runner. Those folks are lean. At 160lbs, my 5'11" frame is not even close to lean. Simply healthy.

Is there a tipping point? Of course there is, and my suggestion is to get familiar with your own body and be realistic about how much body fat you can drop. Pinch at your waist. If it's just skin, you're pretty lean. If there's a half inch or more of fat pinched in there, you could still go a little lower. The limits of race weight are far lower than what the modern developed-world adult holds as the "norm" for healthy weight. Only you can decide if you want to go really low.

Now, how to do it...

No matter what you read or hear or think, it always and everywhere comes down to caloric balance. If you take in less than you burn, you will lose body fat. Period. No other rules apply. At all. Ever.

But, what about cutting sugar, or wheat, or eating "paleo"...? Those are strategies to accomplish caloric deficit. The simplest steps are to cut out foods that are calorically dense. And...that means processed foods that contain a lot of added sugar, as a starting point. So, does cutting sugar help lose weight? Yes as an initial step. But it's not because sugar is some special force of the apocalypse...it's because foods with added sugar are engineered to get you to eat a lot of it.

Rather than cover all the detail here, I'll keep it simple. Eat food you have to prepare. Vegetables, lean meats in their natural form, some legumes and grains. If you eat grains, stick to the whole versions that you cook yourself. Nothing wrong with bread -- just get whole grain.

A great resource is the website, books and blogs of James Fell. His main website is www.bodyforwife.com.

I like his stuff because he really gets it, and he gets it right. Funny, irreverent and well-researched. Probably the best popular-media guy active when it comes to diet and exercise. No shortcuts, no bullshit, no marketing lies.

Remember, so long as you stay above the "intervention" level of race weight, losing body fat is the best and most cost-effective way of racing faster. People spend multiple thousands of dollars to lose a pound off their bike (which barely makes any difference) when they won't take an extra 10 minutes a day to eat right and lose 10-15 pounds over the course of a few months. Those 10-15 pounds make a heck of a big difference in your run split -- far more than any expensive bike parts will make on your bike split.

Half Marathon Test

Saturday I ran my first timed event in almost 7 years. The inaugural half marathon in Oakland. Course had slight hills...not much really. Maybe a minute or so added to the time, at most.

Anyway, goal time was 1:53 in order to have some confidence I could run 2:00 off the bike in Tahoe. I've since made an adjustment to that goal time in order to account for altitude. I've run at Tahoe a lot, and I never really "feel" the altitude in terms of shortness of breath or anything. However, at any give perceived effort, I've found that I'm running ~20sec per mile slower than I think I am.

This is consistent with the ~5% adjustments to qualifying times the NCAA uses for distance running events at altitude. The data backing that adjustment was arrived at with some careful work, so it makes sense to expect that 5% slower pace.

So, my goal time is 2:06, provided that I can run an open half marathon in 1:53. Drum roll....

I ran 1:54:30. Missed it by a bit.

But...I did not push the pace at all. Just didn't feel like suffering, so I didn't. I left at least a minute or two out there. My HR stayed in the 142-148 range the whole first half (my "all-day" running HR is 145). I picked up the effort a little bit in the second half into the 155-160 range (I've done half marathons averaging 165).

I honestly feel I could have carried on another hour at that pace.

So, I'm going to call the test a success.

I have a lot of work to do in the next 4 weeks. Athletes doing big volume can start their tapers somewhat early. Since I'm doing barely enough volume to warrant even driving up there, I have to keep my training rolling right up to 5-7 days out.

On another subject, I tried on my Size 4 DeSoto wetsuit yesterday. The one I bought when I weighed 160 pounds. Yes, that is correct. It does not fit.

So I went down to Sports Basement and reserved a rental Blue Seventy for the event.

Getting old and fat suuuuucks.

Race Weight

When I registered for the Tahoe half, I weighed in around 184 lbs. I'd been as high as 192lbs last December (oof). I felt fat; I looked fat. Wore size 36 pants. Ugh.

With regular exercise and a sharpened focus on eating well, I'm now down to 170lbs. My guess is that I'll be at 167 or so by race day. I'm now wearing all my old size 32 pants. :-)

More importantly, I feel like "me" again.

I've also taken up weight training in the gym. Haven't really done that since college. Wow, what a difference it makes in how I feel. I'm not doing leg work in the gym at this time; after the half is done I'll probably start light squat work. But the upper body lifting really complements all the healthy improvements from running and cycling. I feel like my whole body is working together now, instead of having a scrawny weak torso carried around by nice fit legs.

But the real goal of this gym work is simple and age-old: My sons mocked me for not being able to do more than one pull-up. They can do them till I'm bored of watching. I can do 8 now. Working my way up to 10 and maybe they'll respect their old man.

5 Weeks Out: Assessment

The training window is rapidly closing. By that I mean training that can actually improve my finish time. Once we're inside about 15-20 days, training shifts from "get better" to "don't eff this up." I'm not there yet, so I can still do workouts that can improve my time. So, what are those workouts?

Swim
I have done a grand total of 6,000 yards of swimming. No, I did not leave a zero off. I don't like swimming, and so I haven't gone very much. That, obviously, has to change and I've got 2-1/2 weeks to change. I will, I SWEAR, go to masters swim twice each in the next two weeks. That will be 5 masters workouts at about 2500y each (I swim in the slowest, easiest lane). Throw in a couple more during the taper weeks and I'll be fine. I'm not trying to break 30 minutes; just have a smooth and easy time of it and get into T1 at around 40 minutes.

But, time is running out and I really need to commit and get to the pool. What type workouts? It doesn't matter -- unless you're gunning for the top of your age group, just show up and do whatever the masters coach tells you to do.

Bike
My power benchmarks are good. My goal was to get 60min power up to 200w, and I'm comfortable in saying I'm at around 225w. I've had some good hard 30-40 minute efforts at that power level in the middle of longer rides. That would put my race goal at 78% of that figure, or 175w. So, I went out last weekend to do a 3hr ride at 175w as a race-rehearsal test.

No friggin way I can do that. I was toast after 2.5 hours. I have not built the stamina to stay "on the curve" and carry my short-term power predictably out to longer durations. So I will bear down and do several 4 hour steady rides over the next three weeks. I have only been riding once a week, and I'll add a mid-week ride as well.

Running
This has worked out the best. I've had several very solid 12-15 mile steady runs, and have gotten in 2-3 other runs almost every week. Once a week, I've worked in a run with 30-40 minutes of threshold pace running.

I do a half marathon this weekend that will be my true test of target race pace.

All in all, the running is great; the bike is OK; my swim fitness doesn't even exist yet.

5 weeks to go. Time to focus up.

Benchmark Run, Again

Saturday run: My favorite 13.4 mi circuit. Mild amount of hills, a little trails, and a 4 mile stretch home on a paved bike path, very slightly uphill.

Running smooth and steady, staying in the "endurance" HR zones: 9:06 pace.

That is rocking for me. Yes, real runners think that is slow, but it's nearly the best I've ever gotten. This puts me very much on pace to run 9's in the half IM. If I execute right on the bike and swim, I should be able to do it. The altitude at Tahoe is a bit of a wildcard. From what I have read, I should expect a 5% dropoff in pace.

Still...I'm very happy with how the run training has worked out. Still behind on bike and swim. Due to pending family vacation, I'll get no swim or bike time for the next week. But I can still do a solid block of those next week, still 5 weeks out from race day.

I'll run a half marathon in Oakland on the 16th. Goal race time is ~1:53 in order to be on <2 hr pace in a half IM. So, I'll try to click off 8:40 miles and see if I can hold that the whole way.

It's Definitely the Shoes

In my third post on this blog, I talked a bit about the new shoes I was trying. The Hoka shoes were a new experiment at the time and I was encouraged by the results. I had quit running regularly in 2009, with occasional attempts to return. But chronic plantar fasciitis stopped me in my tracks every time.

I tried all the known cures and palliatives, short of surgery. You name it, I tried it. But if I ran as much as a single mile, my feet would hurt for days. In fact, they hurt every morning whether I ran or not. But they started feeling consistently good this past winter, so I decided to try running again. Instead of returning to my trusty flat, minimalist training shoes, I got a pair of Hoka Bondi3 shoes.

After almost 3 months and a few hundred miles in these shoes, I can say unequivocally that they have been a miracle for me. Not only did the PF not return, but all the aches and pains I'd become used to have not returned. I get tired on long runs (like we're supposed to), but not achy and sore. My conditioning is the limiter now, not my joints and bones. Which is as it should be.

For you, *ahem*, mature athletes, consider a pair of these shoes if the aches and pains of regular running have you skipping runs or cutting your volume more than you'd like.

Bad Run Plan -- What Not to Do

Don't ever try this...

I had a long-ish run planned for this past Tuesday. So I decided to run the 4.5 miles to my son's high school and watch him play in a 7-on-7 football passing league game. I was running a little late, so I picked up the tempo a bit for the last two miles. Sat and watched the game for an hour, and then ran home.

The run home was painful and awful, every single step. Never found a rhythm. Felt sore and worn out all evening.

Bad idea to sit for an hour in the middle of a run.

The Long(er) Ride

I finally made the time and mental commitment to do a proper long ride. I've done lots of 1, 2  and even a 3-hour ride. But 4+ is where the fatigue can really set in, and you separate the man in you from the...not man.

4:10 last Saturday, including an ascent of Mt. Diablo here in the SF East Bay. The plan was to sit just under goal half IM bike power for most of it, and push +10% or so on the climbs. Try to bring the whole ride in around 155 watts or so.

But I got a little carried away; just couldn't help it. At 2:15 I was most of the way up the mountain, sitting at 168 watts (NP average). And then power just started dropping. By the summit, I was at 165. After the descent, at 160. During the last hour home on mostly flats, I drifted all the way back to 152 average for the ride.

So, lessons learned.

Lessons:

• Remember to eat. I need calories on these longer rides.

• Stop to refill water. I was impatient and skipped a water stop on the way up. Was mildly dehydrated the rest of the day.

• Pace more carefully. Have a plan; stick to the plan. It would have been a better workout if I had kept the first half under 160w, then picked it up for the last hour going home.

• Finally...I do not yet possess the long-ride stamina for the event. My 60min power is on track -- I think I'm at about 210w, and my goal was to get to 200w. Based on that, my plan is to race at 160w. But I have to still do the longer rides to build stamina to hold that power and still run.

But, it's all going in the right direction.

Benchmark Ride

I set out Sunday to do a 3-hour ride, with a target IF of .80, or a TSS of at least 190. The half IM ride will require a similar TSS load, so I need to execute many of these rides in training. I can't just "finish" them...they have to be comfortable and repeatable.

I got it done. I'm estimating my 60min Power at 190w right now. My ride of 158w (NP) for 3:05 brought the TSS in at 214, the highest TSS I've gotten done in over 5 years. The ride was tiring...too tiring to go out an run a sub-2 hour half marathon. But...it's only the first one. I'll hit these at least once a week going forward.

Didn't get a long run in this weekend. I'll have time to do that mid-week early in the morning one day.

I gotta get my lazy ass to master's swim...

Trouble with the Calendar

Just checking in here to confess to a lack of structure in my training. Running is going good -- really good. I feel great and the miles just float by. Speed is coming around, and I think running 2 hours is going to be within reach by September 21.

I have done four rides in 3 weeks. Not good; not at all. That's barely enough to maintain a steady low level of fitness; I'm certainly not going to get better. Going to redouble my commitment to riding starting this weekend with a long ride on Sunday. Goal is to hold an appropriate steady effort and see how the power numbers come out. I'm really hoping to end up around 150w without pushing too hard. Race goal is 160w, again without pushing too hard.

I've been getting in the pool once a week for an easy 1k yards. Still a little intimidated to show up at masters. Going to have to get over that and just get it done.

All in all, I feel good and I know I could improve quickly. But life conspires to interfere with my plans and I'm just not getting the work done.

Weight is good -- I started this escapade weighing about 184. I'm down to 174 and I think 165-168 is definitely reachable without any overt calorie restriction. Just stick to fruits, veggies and quality proteins+fats and I'll be fine.

One good bit of news -- I pulled down a stack of pants hidden away on the top shelf of my closet. You know the deal -- pants you bought in a bout of optimism that never really fit?

They all fit now! :-)

Turning a Corner...?

I hear a lot that it takes six weeks of training after a long time off to even begin to feel like an athlete again. Well, once again, I have learned that bit of wisdom is spot-on.

My long run on Sunday finally felt normal. While I'd been doing them, it was more through grit and stubbornness that through actual athletic grace. Pound it out; keep saying, "I need to finish this."

But this Sunday, I went 2 hours and it felt like...just running. No drama. Outbound leg at a smooth 10:30 pace, with HR a full 20bpm below where I would normally expect to do a half IM run. Return leg at a picked-up 9:35, still below target half IM heart rate. Really smooth...great feeling.

And so it goes...onward and upward. This old body ain't done yet.

Riding Strategy

Among the most asked (and argued) questions on tri forums (ie, Slowtwitch) regards the best strategy for riding a hilly triathlon course. Most answers are of the sort where people just post their own anecdotal experience, and then they finish with stating how great their approach has worked. Guys with lots of road racing experience will usually advise hammering up the hills, and then tucking and coast down. Others will advise a steady effort.

None of this is meaningful without a methodical approach that takes the right issues into account. We start with a few basic premises:

First: We are to adopt here (as I've made clear throughout this blog) the notion that increasing physical effort (power output) has an even more-rapidly increasing effect on physical stress. It has been shown that, as power output increases, various markers of metabolic stress increase to the fourth power of increases in power output. In other words, 5% more power -- or 1.05 times what you were doing before -- increases your metabolic stress by 22%, which is (1.05^4) - 1.

This relationship is at the core of the "normalized power" construct that has proved to be enormously useful and reliable for planning racing and training. By "normalizing" we mean that, rather than use the simple average power output for a given ride, we weight the averaging by this fourth power calculation. In a simple average, 100w for 10 minutes, then 200w for 10 minutes produces an average of 150w for 20 minutes.

When normalizing the power output for the exponentially higher physical cost of the higher effort, the average NP = 171w. This is higher than the 150w simple average, and reflects the much higher cost of the harder second half of the ride. The stress of the ride was *as if* we had ridden the whole thing at 171w.

When we ride a triathlon bike course, we need to decide ahead of time what power output we could hold *if* the course was flat and we could ride at a dead-steady effort. Let's say I decide to ride a course at a goal of 175w. *If* the course was flat, I would just sit on that power output the whole way. But, my course is hilly and I need to know if I should ride harder uphill, and by how much.

I set up a program to ask this question. It's a straightforward objective/constraint analysis, with fixed inputs.

Objective: Ride the course segment in the minimum amount of time.
Constraint: Do not exceed 175w, normalized average.
Fixed inputs: Rider+bike weight; CdA; tire Crr; gravity.
(CdA = Coefficient of drag x Frontal Area; Crr = rolling resistance of tires).

To look at the question, we can ignore the flat parts of the ride (simple answer: sit on 175w), and analyze just a few stylized hill sections. We'll look at three: Steep, short up and longer shallow down. Long shallow up and shorter steeper down. Equal going up and down.

Results...
4% up; 2% down twice as far.
Ride up at 196w and down at 130 watts.
This means it's OK to lift power by 12% going up, and soft-pedal coming down.

2% up; 4% down half as far
183w going up; 109w coming down.
The longer ride up requires keeping the power bump lower (just +5%!); the steeper descent means soft pedal even less.

3% up; 3% down
188w up; 117w down.

Note that the actual distance doesn't matter. Results are the same for any actual distance; it's the relative distances that matter.

The gist of all this is that there is no single best strategy. But, some rules of thumb are apparent:

In all cases, do not spike your power much more than about 10%, and that's only if it's a short climb relative to the descent. It's not worth the little extra speed -- you'll just tire out faster, ride slower and, of course, run slower.

The longer the hill, the more you need to back off the temptation to ride harder.

I won't go into the details for a strategy with wind. Suffice to say...the optimal strategy for dealing with headwinds and tailwinds is very close to just riding steady and ignoring the wind. So close in fact that you should just ignore wind and ride at your target power as if there was no wind.

Raising the Roof

As I get deeper into my "comeback" I can't help but benchmark to prior levels of fitness and performance. As I've said repeatedly, I am painfully slow. But, it's only been a month and I haven't really had a chance to adapt to the main training load.

Nonetheless, a particular thing struck me the past two weeks as I added some harder segments within rides and runs. My heart rate just doesn't go very high.

In the past, my HR sat around 160-165 for an entire half IM. A 40k time trial I did in spring 2006 saw a sustained HR of around 170. I could easily hit 175-180 if doing intervals or charging up a hill to stay with a riding group. My all-day steady ride/run HR was 148-152. This is higher than the average person, but that's why there are bell curves.

This past Saturday, I pushed a 2:15 ride pretty hard...harder than I would ride a half IM. And my HR never got over 155. I had trouble keeping it at 150.

Doing some T pace mile repeats running, HR peaked out at 156. Those should have been above 165.

What this tells me is that I am sitting significantly below my VO2max potential. In long-course racing, there is little need for an AG athlete like me to attempt to fully maximize my genetic limit of VO2max. But...as Phil Skiba terms it..."raising the roof" a little can't hurt. I decided to do one VO2max working on the run this week; will do one on the bike next week. Then back to normal training for a month and re-evaluate.

My favorite running workout for lifting VO2max is a set of 30/30's. Warm up with easy running for 10-15 minutes, then run 30 seconds at about the pace you could hold for 3 laps (if you're slow) or 4 laps (if you're fast) of a track. Again...you're running just 30 seconds at a pace you could hold for 4-6 minutes. Take it easy...it's tempting to go too hard.

After 30 seconds of that, run at easy/jogging pace for 30 seconds, then go back to the fast pace for 30 seconds. Repeat. I did a set of 12 of these, with a brief walking break halfway through. Done once a month, you might do as many as 20. 12 was plenty for now.

The idea here is to get the metabolic stress (stimulus) of the fast effort, while minimizing the physical/mechanical stress of doing longer intervals.

Next week, I'll hit a local hill on the bike that takes about 3.5 minutes to climb at a hard effort. I'll do 4 repeats of that at VO2max effort.

In a week or two, I should see a modest improvement in my ability to get my HR higher on tempo efforts. Higher HR (all else equal) can mean more oxygen to the muscles, which is where the action takes place.

Data Details

As mentioned earlier, I use power data in my bike training, and I think everyone should. It allows precision and repeat-ability in workouts, and provides unerring pacing feedback in races.

I'm shooting for a critical power (or one-hour power, or threshold power...) of 200 watts for the Tahoe half IM. That will allow me to race at 160w or so and, hopefully, get off the bike inside 3 hours. I've been encouraged by my Powertap powermeter head unit -- I've had some 2+ hour rides at 160 +/- watts, and this morning's 1.5 hour workout came in at 168 watts (normalized).

But then I loaded the power file into the Apollo Raceday software (sold by Phil Skiba) and the NP came in at only 156 watts for that ride. What the heck...?

It turns out the Powertap head unit ("Joule") computes average power and normalized power by dropping out any periods where power is zero. So, in effect, the NP = 168 figure was what I was doing while pedaling, without taking into account not-pedaling. Why does this matter?

Because the whole point of NP is to take into account hard and easy riding segments, and the fact that harder segments are A LOT harder than easy segments. But the easy segments must still be accounted for since they serve to pull down the average -- and they serve to help us not be so tired. We need to include the zero segments in order for NP to work.

After a long phone call with Powertap tech support, the Powertap folks acknowledged that no, the basic Joule head unit does not have the "include zeros or not" switch that most powermeter head units have. That won't work for me...I need the accurate figures.

So, the company agreed to let me return my basic unit and pay a discounted upgrade cost for the more advanced Joule GPS unit that has the required setup switch. Plus -- it has GPS. I don't why I might need GPS on a bike computer, but I guess I'll find some use for it.

So, anyway...if you have a powermeter that includes the NP computation, set it so that it includes zeros.

But...here's a tip...if your computer does NOT have NP calculations, set the average power display to leave out the zeros. Am I contradicting myself? No...based on long experience, the average power on a rolling or hilly course without zeros ends up being pretty close to the actual NP computation. You can use that no-zeros AP on your display to approximate the actual NP of your ride, in real time. I did it for several years and had great results with that little trick.