Uh-oh..NO Power this winter and other ramblings..

One great thing about being a psychotic bike racer is learning more and more about how your body responds to training and racing stress. After while you can say-that feels like Z2 heart rate or that feels like L2 power and most times you would be correct or close or close enough.

Well, the next challenge is Cyclocross or as Noel calls it Psycho cross. All of my testing in Time Trialing has proven to me that I dont need a power meter to go fast anymore. Actually for short duration I may be quicker without it. But speed and wattage is not the only thing that is gained by faithfully downloading data after every ride. Cycling Peaks software has a whole arsenal of graphs and numbers that it talies for you and turns them into more data and more acronyms like TSB, TSS, CTL, ATL and on and on.

Whats this have to do with cross? Well i am not comfy about using my mega buck rear wheel in cross and thats my only way to get this lovely data. So heres the dilemma for me now (its always something). How do I keep tracking all my acronyms throughout the winter without a power meter? Well the initial answer is simple, like time trialing, you dont worry about it anymore. Train with power and race without it.

But what will I do with all those innacurately tallied acronyms?

On another note, lovely construction has ruined our usual routes. Fairmont between Richmond and Brainard one lane each way and Mayfield construction has put massive traffic on all our favorite and usually car free roads and hills.


For example at 7:20am this morning I got passed by more cars up Old Mill in 2 minutes than all the cars who passed me the previous 12 months combined. All in a mad rush to get to work too. Luckily most moved pretty far over to pass. In fact the only guy who buzzed me today was, you guessed it a white haired gent in his Mercedes convertible. Up a blind hill no less. Just shows theres really little correlation of income level and morality or intelligence. I'd say more on the subject, but then you might not like what you read.

And last today, I am publicly saying I am not doing enough Green things to save this planet. I have started to save more electricity and am encouraging my wife to do so as well. I turn off just about everything I can find when not in use. but I keep trading better and more effective training for commuting and I just have to stop doing that! The seasons about over so no more excuses!! Must commute more.

A Dream Come True

I got my start into competitive cycling in college at Ohio State Universityin the late 80's. I was always on a team of some sort and with Mike Orwick (now Michael David) we also formed our own small team.

But the team that we all dreamed of being on was simply called Team Columbus. Looking good and unique for the time in there yellow and black kits on Trek Carbon fiber and aluminum bikes. Those guys were amazing with names like Braumberger, Doc Savage, Carelson they went up against the big dogs at crits and stage races and stole a lot of primes and wins from the pro teams of the day.

So fast forward to the now. I am racing hard and getting in breaks and working hard in them. I am sure in the back of my mind I am hoping someone is noticing the work I am doing.

At the conclusion of a Westlake Training race I am shooting the breeze with racers and out of the blue Brian Batke and Tris Hopkins pop me a question that blows my socks off. of course nothing as mundane as what tires I run or what cranks I like, but would I like to ride for Team Columbus (2008 edition) next season? I think I smiled from ear to ear and said "sure".

So now I am on what I truly think is the best local team. They race with aggressive tactics that always seem to end in one of the team landing in the top 3 and many times winning. They are a small team (this season only 3 riders) and yet always seem to put numbers in the break and can control the outcome of the events with smart racing.

As if I need any help in this area, but I will be even more motivated in 2008. I will be the least experienced and weakest rider in the team, but they believe and I do too that I can contribute.

I would like to thank my old team first for giving me a team to race on this summer (Snake Bite Racing) and now to Brian Batke, Tris Hopkins, Tom Frueh http://www.cvalleyvelo.com/ and Tym Tyler and Torelli Imports for taking a chance on me and without realising it fulfilling a bike racer's dream!!


Thanks!!

In John's Words

Maybe this is a great example of why its good to wait a day or two to write your blog entries!! An excellent recounting of the Fall Challenge: http://ehrlinger.blogspot.com/2007/09/summit-freewheelers-fall-challenge.html

I especially like the bit at the end about being philosophical. All true!!

Fall Challenge, Dead Legs Fred

This could be one long post, but I'll keep it as short as I can. A lot happened in the space of 50 miles today and thats why it could bloat. Its 8pm now and my legs are fried. It hurts to walk and my internals are all scrwed up. Fun-eh? Yes it is. I love bike racing!!

Rain it did and the start was brisk. I was near the back which is odd for me and I was getting nervous as I missed Batke going after an RGF and Thom Domonic bridging. I wanted to go in that move, but I was completely boxed in. But with Quinlan and so many others in the field, the race was far from over.

Up Quick the first time I went around Tris and Brent Evans (my coach) and set a comfortable tempo. The first lap is a bit of a blur, but I recall team tactics being played out as Color Me Safe and Torelli and RGF didnt have to chase. It was a bit early, but John E, myself and Dan would take some turns on the front. SOme other teams were near the front, but not really aiding the effort.

At some point Kirk Albers attacked and I took off with Brent, Tris, Jeremy and Dan Quinlan in tow. Maybe someone else-but those were the main guys. Again I was psyched as this was a solid move with race long potential. The RGF guy popped ahead while Brian and Thom kept a gap. Mostly it was up to Dan and I to do all the work in the split so we did. I was pretty active and when he hit Quick again I noticed Chernosky (the fastets sprinter in the race) had soloed up to us. Dan went up Quick fast and I got popped. I was really mad at myself, but calm. I new race over, but I wasnt going to give up. I dont know why my legs wouldnt respond then, but they didnt. They were onfire and there was no more rpm in them.

So back in the mainfield I dropped and we chased for the entire lap. My Snake Bite teammate John Ehrlinger really shined. He was teling me to draft and recover and I would and he was pulling and encouraging other riders to help. he in a word was impressive! His form is coming on strong and Ive never seen him ride like he did today. Against his well I would recover, pull hard and recover. I know that catching a break is hard and even more so when only 3 guys are doing the work so I kept working.

The next lap (maybe 4th of 5) we got slowed bigtime by the wheel truck helping Jeremy Grimm who had flatted. the guy parked it in the middle of the road!! brent told me the split (which had now come back together) also got slowed twice. Once as Dan fell and another behind slow traffic. Regardless thats racing and it was unfortunate for them, but good for us. Also I was chasing hard as were some other guys (a guy form Spin, John E, Jeremy,Josh Halvax) so we put ourselves in a position to capitolize on some luck and I am proud of that. Usually the pack gives up and loses minutes, but we never did.

Up Quick I almost bridged that lap as I attacked onto Akron Peninsula to close the final meters. But we kept them close the whole way up Quick this time and when we got around to Steels Corners road Jeremy kicked it hard and brought us across-FINALLY. We slowed and cat and mouse ensued. Up Quick for the last time and no one attacked. I set tempo over the top hoping to thwart any attacks. As we neared the line I tried to remember landmarks and with 3/4 of a mile to go I put in my hail mary pass.

I drilled it over a short rise and down. But alas there was still one longer roller to the school and I blew up hardcore on it. Stick a knife in my legs-they are Done!! First came Jeremy and Josh then everyone else. I looked back and no stragglers were going to come by so I just rolled in and got a suprise 10th for my efforts.

A quick note, the emotions today was the real action for me. Excitement, aggravation, feeling proud of John, the high of chasing, chasing and more chasing and the
never ending battle of telling yourself that "you can DO it", keep pushing. I wish I could touch on that more than the physical action, but maybe tonight I am just too tired.


It was another race played out well by the teams. Torelli and Color Me Safe and RGF got guys up the road early so they got to sit in. That left MVC, SBR to do the brunt of the chasing and we did. I had a blast in the rain today. Not optimal to get dropped out of a winning split, but hey, it happens. And what a way to bring to close the road racing calender for 2007 with an exciting and action packed rainy race!!

Leroy TT 09/06/07 New Max heart rate

Brent and I discussed last week some changes to experiment for Leroy this week. I also had some theories I wanted ot try too. I am sure some think and rightly so I am only going there to try and break the course record, but thats only a small part of it. I am there to test and improve first and foremost. Rudy loaned me a Zipp dimpled disc wheel to try, I lowered my stem 1 full cm and would be running off of percieved exertion alone. NO Power tap this time.

The wheel required a lot of tinkering with cable tension and end stops and even during warm-up I was still not able to drop it into the 11 cog without soft pedaling for a secnd till I heard it drop. Quickly the wheel is fast and I DO think its faster than my wheel covers. It seems to accelerate quicker and its easier to chnage speed during th run too. The rest is purely subjective, but it realy feels like its just not there.

Brent gave me a new warm-up to try and I was able to get 75% of it done pre-race. Jim Behren had me go first and when he said go I sprinted harder than normal, but shorter, got on the clip-ons and really started to hammer. My HR was higher (and so was the temperature, but less humidity) all the way out and my speed seemed quicker than last time too. After the turn I think I was into a headwind where last week it was a tailwind. Percieved exerion (PE) was still high, but speed seemed down. I pushed hard up the rise and hard up the hill to the turnaround, but again not as high of speed as last week. I also now am comfy in the corner here so I nailed it fast and on the bars this time. I experimented last training ride with hauling ass in the corners on the bike and its paying off now. Its like the bikes push and need ot be manhandled to the apex with a lot of lean.

This time knowing last week I lost alll my time around the turnaround I sprinted out of the turnaround and down the hill. I saw 37mph down the hill and watched the speed drop to 34, 32, 30 as I approached the corner. I Went through hard and leaned way over and did a hard 2 second outof the saddle sprint and was 2.5mph faster than last week!!

The last two miles proved to be a mental and physical hell that truly made me want to stop pedaling and give up. I wouldnt and didnt, but let me tell you I was in agony and it was so bad I couldnt even push over a small rise. I had to wait till it was over and will myself to push on the slight downsides to pick speed back up. What was an easy 31mph at tempo on warm-up was everything I had now and not only that, my heart rate was pinned 4beats below max for 14 minutes straight. I honestly couldnt have gone much harder. I went 2bpm higher than ever before and my average HR for the ride was 96% of my new max HR.

I drove it home past Jim in a new personal best time of 16:52 at 27.4mph (7.72 miles)!!! I am sure that everythng we did this last week paid off and constant time trialing as painful as it is has really helped. Its like doing intervals or climbing. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. OK, in this case it never gets any easier, it gets a lot harder, but you do get faster.

How much faster?? Well my first time ever on the course was 17:15 which was good. With the exception of Matt Weeks (who by the way is a friend, not an adversary!) that was a record time by 20 or more seconds I think. The next time I put my disc covers on my rear wheel, but paced myself on what I thought weather conditions had dealt the course. I ended up going 17:05. This time I went with no power tap, dimpled disc, lowered my frontal area and a modified warm-up and a go for broke pacing strategy. Alright there was no pacing strategy!! It was go hard on the out and bring it home with anything I had left in the tank. I'd love to know what my average watts were tonight!!

I think I am done at Leroy for the year. I am fearful another run like tonight will zapp my mental reserves for Presque Isle to push that hard again. I would like to thank Jim Behren for doing this course for so many years. Theres probably three more events so maybe I'll go to the last one for fun....haha..did you hear that I called Time Trials fun....

Wobble-naught

Talking about things that have made an improvement and how its people that always bring everythng together. Over a year ago Brent advised me to get a Wobble-naught (Wn) bike fit www.wobblenaught.com which was fantastic and without a doubt some of the best spent cycling cash a rooonie. Mike Vanucci did it for me at where else? Bike Authority.

Chris Bilowich and Pete Scacheri with the purchase of their new bikes also did the Wobble-naught and they too are believers.

Due to an odd pedal stroke in my right leg John Reade asked me who did my bike fit and I told him it was Mike. He went on to say that the entire Abercrombie and Fitch cycling team are WN fitted. A quick trip to the website shows a whos who in the pro cycling world who have had fittings.

Now I like technology and to be on the cutting edge as it were. I believe in some old school things too though, but let me get back on topic!! So John tells me all about the technology that is available to riders who travel to see Tom Coleman the founder of Wn in Boise, Idaho. EMG to track when muscles fire and www.dartfish.com video technology to see the leg in motion. They bring it all together to make sure you are getting the most out of your body.

John did a great job explaining it all and here I am screwing it all up. I'll need to have that conversation with him again sometime. Suffice it to say for now that the technology available is incredible. So in a nutshell what does this mean? More power to the pedals. How did this all come about?? Listening to those around me. Should I thank some more people? I hope I already have.

Thank You

Mark and I were riding home from hill repeats of a sort last night and got to talking about why some riders move from Cat.5 to Cat.2 in one season and why some riders with the same coaches stay Cat. 4 or 3 forever. Some coaches I guess got together to discuss what the difference is and one thing that riders who excelled quicker and reached a higher level was how closely they followed their coaches plans. It doesnt matter f the plan worked or failed for them as long as the rider did exactly what their coaches asked of them. I find that interesting because for me I have followed what my coach and others have told me to do almost without exception and lets face it, Ive had a great first year of cycling.

I call it a first year of cycling because after a 15+ year break I was happily getting dropped on every club ride within the first 5 to 8 miles. So thats like starting over from scratch to me. Why was I happy? Because I dont let that stuff discourage me-it just adds fire to my belly to improve. I knew that being dropped is only a mark of my current fitness level, not what my potential could be.

I also try and actively surround myself with people who can help me. sounds terrible?? But I dont think I am ever the guys who responds to advice with "I already knew that". I have a thirst for anything that may help me improve and I am not afraid to ask for it too. Let me be clear on that statement that that does not involve any drugs. I mean knowledge, software or equipment and training, nutritional tips.

So I feel like saying again Thank you to all those who help me to improve as a cyclist. I dont dare try to name everyone for fear of leaving out someone, but today I must shout out to those guys at Bike Authority who today helped me on almost all those fronts (technology, equipment, knowledge, training tips.....).

Thank you, thank you and thank you again!!