Ride Across Indiana - Training Evaluation

I felt that I was well prepared for RAIN this year, and I think my time bears that out. It is no easy task to average 21 mph over 165 miles. True, I did get help from drafting, but so did everyone else out there. The event was tough, but I was trained for it. What follows is a list of the high points of my training and an evaluation of what I did.

Total Amount of Miles
I had 3250 miles before leaving for Indiana for the year. A big part of the preparation for these sorts of events is that you need a large bulk of miles, and I had that. In these 3200 miles, I had a well established endurance base. When I got up around 1800 miles for the year, I could feel my speed increase, telling me that my legs had accumulated enough miles so I could work on strength and power, and not just endurance. One of the things about these rides is that there is no substitute for time in the saddle, and I had this. It is hard for me to say I could have done more miles, as 3200 in half a year is a significant amount.

Long Rides
To do an event that is a long ride you need to train by doing long rides. It would seem natural that if you have 3200 miles in half a year, this is the case. In my case, it was. Before RAIN, I had completed 6 rides of 100 or more miles. And I wasn't just hitting the century mark and calling it quits. 4 of those rides were over 127 miles and another was 109 miles. Further, I had two rides that just missed the century mark, a 97.5 and 95 miler. So I didn't just have a lot of time on the bike, I was accustomed to being on the bike for a full day at a time. If I had only been doing 75 or even 100 mile rides, doing 165 in a day is quite a jump. But I had been used to doing 130+, so RAIN wasn't a big jump for me.

Finally, on these long rides, I varied my routes quite a bit. I rode to Madison. I was in the Navarino area a lot, but all of these routes were different in some way. One went to Waupaca. One went to Tigerton. One of the rides was the GLR 200 km brevet. So I got accustomed to doing long rides on different routes, which is also important.

Weather
When an event is your main goal for a season, you have to be prepared to ride no matter what the weather. Normally we associate this to getting some riding in while it is rainy (no pun intended), and I did that. Not many, but enough that I still knew all my equipment worked and I kept my familiarity up with wet conditions.

As it turned out, it was a blistering hot and humid day. But I had done similar training rides. The ride to Madison was a hot humid day. So was the ride on July 4th. And both of those were rides over 100 miles. So yes, the heat and humidity was hard during RAIN, but I'd been there before. On those training rides, I had probably not hydrated enough, so I was prepared to hydrate adequately on the day of my event. This is always important. On event day, I had no problem because I had seen similar conditions in training. And any mistakes I had made in training, I had corrected by event day.

Taper
Two weeks before RAIN, I started to taper so I could peak for the event. The first week of tapering, I still did 174 miles (down from 266 the previous week). I was still feeling a little tired though. Part of this was due to all the miles from previous weeks and still a lot in the taper week. Part was probably due to the heat and humidity we had that week. The week directly in front of RAIN I did just 62 miles before heading down to Terre Haute. As it turned out, this was perfect. I was rested and ready to go the day of the event. So a two week taper realy seemed to work out well.

Other
I have done only a couple group rides this year. Part of it is my schedule, part of it is lack of interest in riding with a group, part of it is a hard time finding others with similar goals. The downside of this is that riding in the pack at RAIN, I didn't have a lot of recent experience riding in the peleton. But I've done enough of this before to get by. The upside though, was I was used to being out front all by myself. So getting into a pack, things were much easier because now I had people to draft off of. I didn't have any cheap miles in my training where I sucked wheels all day. Just the reverse. I was used to doing all the work, so getting some help in the pack was a refreshing change.

A lot of the roads I train on in Wisconsin are very rural roads. These have what one would call slow pavement. It is rough, hard to go fast on and takes a lot of energy. Much of RAIN is on US Highway 40, a road with a smooth asphalt surface. So once again, my training on bad roads helped me, because in this way, my training conditions were harder than the event conditions.

What Could I Have Done Better?
It is hard to improve on a 21+ mph average, but one can always improve. First, a little more speed work in terms of intervals would have been nice when riding with the pack. The pack tends to accelerate and decelerate quite a bit. Not supposed to be this way, but it happens. I could always close gaps down, but I was more like a diesel engine doing it. Some speed work would have helped my be a little more nimble for those quick burst of acceleration one needs.

The other area I could improve on is core strength. This is always a weakness of mine that I never seem to get motivated to work on. There were a couple times my back was a little sore. That happens on a long ride. But some better core strength would help this.

Overall though, I have to say I am pleased. I trained a lot, and that training paid off. I think my time proves that what I did in training was effective. Could you do RAIN by riding less miles. Sure. You wouldn't go as fast, but you could. But part of training is to make sure you are prepared for whatever comes at you on the day of the event, and in this way, I felt like my training had prepared me in every way.

Sometimes Your Body Says Stop

And that's what mine did this weekend.

I've been battling a cold for a couple weeks. Nothing too bad, but its there. And you don't really feel like pressing it. I've followed the old rule, since its only in my head and not my chest, I've kept riding. I have better and worse days, but its hanging on and just won't go away.

When I woke up Saturday, I felt awful. I felt like I was breathing through a straw there was so much crud in my throat. Whatever I did, I couldn't clear up my sinuses. For whatever reason, I'd taken a turn for the worse. Riding Saturday was out. And I decided not to go to Marinette to do the Menominee River ride. I needed to rest and get better.

To me, its clear what my body was saying. I needed rest. I've put in a lot of miles the last 3 months. 2850 of them. And that was really starting from no on road riding (my winter work had been all CompuTrainer). I did the 200, 300 and 400 km brevets. I have 7 total rides over 100 miles. While I have accomplished a lot, I've probably pushed myself a little harder and further than what I could handle. My body needed a break, to get well and to offload some fatigue.

I felt better Sunday, but still didn't ride. Winds were crazy in Appleton, and I think I needed a couple days off.

Sometimes its easy to focus on ride, ride ride, train, train, train. Sometimes though, all you need is rest. And if you miss it, your body will let you know.

Springtime Base Training

I now have almost 900 miles for the year. Given the late arrival of spring in NE Wisconsin along with a bunch of questionable weather days, I am pleased with that total at this point. Included in there are some long rides--102 miles to Shawano, the 91 miles around Winnebago and an 85 mile ride this weekend. So base training and endurance building are proceeding.

And that is what makes training right now hard. One of the most important rules for training is to build your endurance base first. It is so tempting right now to start doing speed work (and by that, I mean training to get faster, not the speed work that improves pedaling speed and efficiency). I've read an article on Joe Friel's blog about how important intervals are at improving Time Trial times. I have a book on riding faster that strongly advocates intervals. There is a monthly time trial starting outside of Oshkosh. You do the group ride and want to be in the "fast" group. And you remember what it was like to go out and do a ride and average 20 mph. And oh so much do I want to work on going faster.

And I will, in time. But for now my goal must be and will continue to be base building. I have long events I am preparing for. I need that strong endurance base. I am getting much closer now, but I need to work through the next couple of weeks to finish building my endurance base. By that time, I'll probably have about 1300 miles. And then I need to take a recovery week and let my body digest all of the training I've done so I can move on to the next step and start doing some faster rides. But I need to finish the endurance base first.

How many base miles are enough? I think that depends on a lot of factors, like what are your goals for the season, how well did you maintain your fitness over the winter and how consistent you have been in building your endurance base. Joe Friel advocates a 12 week base program consisting of three distinct base periods, each one consisting of 3 harder weeks and one recovery week. I think that is a great plan and I've used this type of approach before very successfully.

Unfortunately, spring got here late in Wisconsin, so I feel like I'm trying to catch up a little. While I didn't start riding outside until mid-March, I did have something of a base built up from the CompuTrainer. An old rule of thumb is 1000 base miles. For me, that seems to be pretty accurate. Personally, I'm going to do more than that this year because all of my goals are focused on long distance, endurance type events. So I feel like I need a little bit bigger base.

I should note that once the base period is over, that doesn't mean you stop doing endurance rides. It just means that you mix in more types of training. But you always maintain and enhance that endurance base.

From what I have seen, a lot of riders neglect base training. Doing group rides 3-4 times a week will certainly get you fast--to a point. But it will also put you on a plateau without the necessary base training to reach higher peaks. Would I like to be faster now--Sure. But I also remind myself, I'll be ready to go fast when its important for me to go fast. And this is the way for me to get there.

Of Magic Elixers and "Go Fast=Yes" Potions

Joe Friel has a great post over at his blog everyone should read.

http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/03/marketing-and-sport.html

When I was just starting out years ago, I bought some new tires. The shop mechanic said these were the best tires out there and would probably add 2 mph to my average speed. I was a little suspicious about this claim. Guess what? They didn't. In fact, they turned out to be some of the worst tires I ever owned. They were impossible to get on and off of the rim and handled like something out of the Flintstones,. Further, two of them split open and those that didn't wore out quickly. The only blessing was that I learned my lesson and got them off of my bike shortly after that.

A lot of people think their bike makes all the difference. I'm faster because I'm on a Trek or Specialized or Giant or whatever. I've got to get this bike because rider X rode it to victory in race Y. Guess what? Last year, when rider X was with another team, he rode a different brand of bike, and he probably was still 10 mph faster than you. The differences between frames, components, sports drinks, its all minuscule. Now maybe there is a particular brand of frame that fits you a little better than the next one, maybe there is a sports drink that tastes a little better to you than the next one so you hydrate better, but there is no universal go fast solution. If there was, everyone would be riding it.

There is no legal product out there that is going to add 2 mph to your speed. Period. End of discussion. No matter who is endorsing the product or what company is behind it. Lance Armstrong didn't win all those Yellow Jersey's because he was on that Fatigue reduction drink. He didn't win them because he rode a Trek with Shimano components. He won them because he trained smarter and harder than the next guy, because he was more focused on his training and his goals, because he scouted key stages multiple times in the months leading up to the tour and because when the critical time arrived in the race, he was mentally tougher than all the other riders. If Armstrong would have been riding a Colnago with Record, he would have still won the same number of races. If US Postal/Discovery Channel gets sponsored by Pearl Izumi and not Nike, doesn't matter. If Armstrong wears Rudy Project shades rather than Oakley's, he still has the same number of Yellow Jerseys hanging in his closet.

So as a consumer, when one of your buddies or someone at the bike shop tells you that you have to buy product X because it will make you go faster, remember two things:

1. The only thing that is guaranteed to make you go faster is training. Better training, more structured training, harder training. There is simply no substitute for hard work.
2. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is

Evaluate what works for you. If a certain brand of bike fits well and is comfortable, buy that one. If you like the ride of a certain set of tires, ride those. If a sports drink or gel tastes good for you, use that one. Chances are, if you are comfortable on your bike and have confidence in your equipment, you will feel better about riding, you will want to ride more and indeed be a little bit faster. Just figure out what works for you rather than jumping on the latest craze.

In the long run, if you evaluate things with a skeptical eye, you'll save yourself a lot of money and time.

Evaluation of the CompuTrainer

This last off-season I rode on a CompuTrainer extensively. It was the first time I had done so and was really my only off-season fitness activity since I decided not to join a gym and didn't go Nordic skiing. I wanted to write a comprehensive review of my experiences so others who are curious about the CompuTrainer have another opinion to evaluate.

The CompuTrainer I was riding on was at the Recyclist bike shop here in Appleton. So 2-3 times a week, I would head down to the shop and ride. During the week, I would try to get 2 one hour sessions in, and then try to get a two hour session in on Saturday. Because of the overhead of life, sometimes I wouldn't get all the sessions in I wanted to. But that was the plan and I was pretty successful staying with it. All told, I ended up with a little over 600 "CompuTrainer" miles for the three months of winter.

As I have described in other posts, the setup at Recyclist is very good. They have their computer plugged into a projector, so the image projects onto a wall and is probably 8-10 feet in size. So this gives you more of a feel that you are riding on a course rather than looking at a computer monitor.

Positives
Ability to Maintain Fitness - I've been riding outdoors for about 3 1/2 weeks now. I've already done rides of 60, 65 and 90 miles. As I said, the only activity I was doing this off-season was the CompuTrainer, so clearly, this helped me maintain some on-bike fitness. I have some early season goals (a brevet on April 25th), so its important that I'm not "starting from zero". But the fact that I've already been able to do some long rides I think has to be attributed to the CompuTrainer.

You Are Riding Your Own Bike - It seems the rest of the world is finally figuring out what Ben Serotta had figured out a couple decades ago. Fit matters. Now you have all kinds of fit systems out there. So if you set up your bike, why do you want to go ride a stationary bike that is "one size fits none". Yes, you will get a workout. but you will not be using muscles at the same angle or the same plane as you would on your road bike. This is a tremendous advantage of the CompuTrainer over stationary bikes at the gym or spinning classes. You are riding your bike. So the fitness you are developing is directly applicable to when you take your bike out on the road come spring. If you are a tall or short rider, have custom cranks, have custom anything, this is even more applicable. There is no need for the muscles to re-learn a different position come spring, because you have been training in the position you are going to use them.

The CompuTrainer Makes You Work - If you go to the RacerMate website, they say every 1 CompuTrainer is equivalent to 2 road miles. I do not fully buy that. But, I will say that for a given distance or time interval, you do seem to work harder on the CompuTrainer than on an outside ride (unless that outside ride is a fast, aggressive group ride, then its about the same). And this is good in the winter that the CompuTrainer makes you work, so you can get as much out of your workout in as short of time as possible. I attribute this to two factors. One, you can't really coast on the CompuTrainer, so you have to keep pedaling. Two, you have your power number right in front of you, so you tend to keep pushing so your power numbers stay up. So maybe the ration is 1.5 to 1 in terms of difficulty or even 1.3 to 1, but you are working hard, and that is a positive.

Analysis Tools in the Software - I had never ridden with a power meter before. But you have one on the CompuTrainer. And this is great to get an idea of where you are at and to measure improvement. It can also tell you where you need to improve. If your power drops significantly over a period of an hour, you probably need to improve your endurance. If your power is low overall, maybe you want to improve your strength.

The other analysis tool that is included is the Spin Scan software to analyze your pedal stroke. Joe Friel, who knows way more about these things than I do, says that fastest ways riders can improve is by making their pedal stroke more efficient. But how does one analyze their pedals stroke? The SpinScan software will do just that, so then you can do drills to improve your pedal stroke efficiency and measure that improvement over time.

Courses and Course Selection - One of the problems with normal trainers or stationary bikes is how resistance adjusts (or doesn't adjust). You are either riding at the same resistance level for a very long time or the resistance adjusts very abruptly. Neither is like a real road ride, where there are subtle changes throughout. Simply put, you should have to shift during a ride, up and down, to account for the little ups and downs you face. Since the courses in the CompuTrainer are real courses, you feel these little ups and downs and have to adjust and shift, just like on the road.

Course selection is also very good. There are literally hundreds of courses on RacerMate's website, so you never have to ride the same course twice. And there are all varieties, from flat time trial courses, mountain courses, rollers, intervals and everything in between. So once again, a big advantage over the stationary bike with its 8 preset courses.

Real Course Videos - We only had one real course video in the show, the UK Ironman. But it was great. The video quality is very good and it really gives you the impression of riding through the English countryside. The computer generated graphics get a little boring after a while, but as time goes on and there are more and more real course videos, I think these will become the primary option. Its not as good as being outside, but its a huge step up from just riding on a trainer.

Negatives
Cost - A CompuTrainer goes for $1649 retail (on sale now for $1449). Then you need a computer (figure $400) and some sort of monitor. I guess if you have an LCD TV, you could hook the graphics up there, but if you want a setup like Recyclist, a projector will run you about another $700. So that is about $2700 to get in the game with a CompuTrainer at home. That is a lot of coin. Maybe if you have an older PC, you can just put in a good 3D graphics card and save some money there. Maybe you can use an existing LCD TV and save some dollars there (though if you don't want to dedicate a TV, you will be setting up and tearing down all the time). Still though, its a lot of money for most people.

The Computer Graphics Get Repetitive - Don't get me wrong, the computer generated graphics are a big step up from looking at nothing on a trainer. But if you ride enough, they do get repetitive. I think here is where the Real Course Videos really shine, because they are 'ever changing'. I think put another way, going on a 5 hour road ride, no problem. Riding for 5 hours on the CompuTrainer with 3D graphics, it going to be pretty boring those last 2-3 hours. Riding on a normal trainer for 5 hours, well. I'd be brain dead 20 minutes into it.

You Don't Have to Turn - There is no steering on the CompuTrainer. I'm not really sure how there would be. This isn't so much of a knock on the CompuTrainer, just realize that it is going to train your legs and your heart. Its not going to improve your bike handling. That is OK, just realize what the equipment can and can't do.

Overall Thoughts


I am pretty positive on the CompuTrainer overall. It is a good option to maintain and develop fitness over the winter months. It also gives you tools like power measurement and pedal stroke analysis to take a very analytical approach to your training. While nothing will ever compare to being out on the road, it is a big step up from things like trainers, stationary bikes and spin classes because it is continuously adjusting resistance based on a real course, and there is a far greater selection of courses available.

Would I buy one to have at home? If money was no object, yes. It would be nice to not be on someone else's schedule, and I would probably be able to get more training in during the winter. I would also be able to work on some specific drills to improve my pedal stroke. But money does matter, and there just isn't $2700 in my budget for a CompuTrainer. But there also doesn't need to be. I have access to a CompuTrainer at my bike shop. If I ride 3 times a week for 3 months, I've still spent less than $300.

Still, I think the CompuTrainer is a major step forward for training in the off-season. There is finally a good option to maintain cycling specific fitness when you can't cycle outside. Next winter, I do want to Nordic ski to better build my endurance. But I will plan on being on the CompuTrainer 2-3 times a week so I'm ready to go once the cycling season starts.

Why Ride When its (Cold, Rainy, Windy, Hot, Crappy) Out

As I posted yesterday, despite pretty cold weather conditions in Appleton (windchills in the low 20's), I was able to get a 34.6 mile ride in. Could I have toughed out a few more miles--probably. But almost 35 miles is nothing to complain about on a day like yesterday. Yes, it would have been easier and warmer to stay in and watch the NCAA tournament game, but this wouldn't have helped me get to my goals.

For me, the short answer to why did I ride yesterday was all about goals. The Great Lakes 200 km brevet is only 4 weeks away. With so few base miles in (285 miles total for the year at the start of the day), snow expected Saturday night eliminating Sunday as a riding option, I wanted to get some miles in. Over the course of a year, a 35 mile ride isn't a big deal. But I didn't want to take a zero for the weekend, especially since spring weather is so unpredictable. At least I got something in.

But I think there is another reason to try to ride on some days when the weather isn't exactly your friend. Most cyclists have some sort of goals. Maybe its doing your town's century ride, maybe its an MS 150, maybe its Ride the Rockies or Cycle Oregon. The fact is, on any event, there are no guarantees about the weather. Events are held rain or shine, warm or cold. If you have been planning and training to do an event for months, you don't want to have to sit out because of weather. So on some of the crummy days, you go out and train so you know how to deal with less than ideal conditions. Here are some examples:

• The year I did Ride the Rockies, one morning we started off and it was 34 degrees. People where complaining about the cold left and right. had been commuting to work on my bike all spring and spent a lot of cold mornings riding to work when it was in the 30's. I knew how to deal with cold. I knew how my body would react and to get myself warmed up, so while everyone else was being miserable, I was OK.
• I did a century ride in Pocatello, ID where 70 miles into the ride, the heavens opened with a rainstorm Noah would have been proud of. In addition to being wet, it cooled off considerably. The last 30 miles were honestly not a lot of fun, but I have ridden in the rain enough to know how my bike handles and how to cope with wet roads so I didn't put my safety at risk
• The next year on that same century in Pocatello, we had a tailwind the first 50 miles and straight into a headwind the last 50. Once again, I've ridden in enough wind to know how to pace myself and how to work my way through it. It is never enjoyable, but I get home.
• I can't even count how many long rides I've done when the temp has been over 100 degrees. But I know from experience how much I need to be drinking in that weather. And I know when my body is telling me that maybe a little longer break and some more fluids is in order, so I can address that before it becomes a problem.
  

The point is, on any ride you do, there is a very good probability that the weathr is going to play a part. If you have only trained when its 75 degrees, blue skies with light tailwinds, you won't have any experience to draw on to help you overcome these obstacles. When you train in less than optimal weather, you learn what problems you encounter and how to overcome them, so the next time you face that condition, you will be more prepared to handle it. Training is not only about sustained wattage and heart rate and calories burned. Its also about learning how to handle different situations on the bike.

Riding the CompuTrainer

One of the problems is always how to maintain cycling fitness during the winter months. Living in Virgina, I was able to pretty much ride year round. Sure, you would lose weekends to bad weather, but you could always get some miles in every month. In Wisconsin during the winter though, riding outdoors is not an option. I plan to resume cross country skiing this winter, but it would still be nice to get some cycling specific training in.

The Recyclist bike shop here in Appleton may have the answer. They have 3 CompuTrainers set up that you can use on an hourly basis for $8 an hour. You can also buy a 10 pack pass for $70. This link has all the details.

http://www.bicycledealer.net/indoorcycling.html

For those unfamiliar with a CompuTrainer, its a cycling trainer that is hooked up to the computer. The computer will change the resistance of the trainer based on the course you ride, so if you are going uphill, resistance will be harder and downhill resistance will be less. It also includes computer graphics that display on a monitor (or at the Recyclist, that they project onto a wall) so you see a little bit of the course you are riding. The trainer has a power meter in it, so you get instantaneous and average watts. You can ride against a friend on the CompuTrainer next to you or against a computer generated "pacer" who will ride at a constant wattage throughout the course. There are over 400 courses to choose from, everything from dead flats to rollers to climbing workouts. With these features, the CompuTrainer tries to overcome the limitations on indoor cycling--namely boredom and repetition. Anyone reading this who has ridden on a standard trainer for 30 minutes knows what I am talking about. But with the power meter and software to analyze your pedal stroke, they also provide a tool that can help you work on weaknesses--and who doesn't have weaknesses that they can't improve.

I had heard of the CompuTrainer before, but never ridden on one. And at $1600 to purchase my own, it was going to stay that way until I found this option at the Recyclist. So I made an appointment for Friday and headed over with the bike in the back of the car.

You want to arrive about 15 minutes early to get your bike set up. The first thing they do is calibrate your resistance on the trainer. Then they enter your information into the computer--your name, your weight including the bike and the average watts you want your pacer to ride at. From there, you select your course and you are off. The guys at the shop suggested a course called the Death Valley something or other, 15 miles of what looked like a rolling profile (or so they thought).

Let me tell you, it was HARD!. Several sections with grades of 13% and long sections of grades over 10% (the CompuTrainer tells you on screen what the simulated grade is). There were two hills, and when I got to the top of the first simulated hill, I was wasted. I recovered on the downhill and fought my way up the second. For the ride, my average watts turned out to be 175. Not sure if this is good or bad--but its where I'm at. I can ride this exact same course a month from now and tell if I improved. At the end of the ride, my jersey was soaked. They do have a fan blowing and towels, of which a couple were soaked too. It was a hard intensity workout. Not exactly what I was intending to do, but good in the sense that I had to work at it.

I think the intensity of the workout falls into the positive category for the CompuTrainer. In Appleton, we don't have long hard climbs like the simulated ones I was climbing. But the CompuTrainer forced me to climb those. Also, I can use the CompuTrainer in the winter to get in that hard workout once a week, so I can maintain some power through the winter. Riding the CompuTrainer isn't as good as being outside, but its better than the stationary bike or riding a normal trainer. Better than a stationary bike because you are riding your bike in the position you are normally riding in. Better than a trainer because there are some graphics to look at and because it will automatically adjust resistance throughout the course. Not as good as a real ride because nothing can compete with real scenery and because you don't have to worry about bike handling. But on Friday night when its 40 degrees and raining, it sure beats being outside and it beats riding the couch.

One of the most promising aspects of the CompuTrainer is the Real Course Videos they have released. Instead of computer generated graphics, these are actual videos of Ironman bike courses. This would make the CompuTrainer ride even more interesting because now you are looking at real scenery. I'll need to inquire at Recyclist if they have these available (they are a CompuTrainer dealer, so they may get them at a discount or included with their setup). If not, I may have to try to talk them into splitting the cost with me. Riding an actual Ironman course with actual video of the course--then I could see myself going in on a snowy Saturday and doing 50 miles. That would be great for maintaining on bike endurance through the winter.

So all in all, I'll be back, probably on Monday, toiling away on the CompuTrainer. I'm starting to put together my 2009 cycling goals, and they will include some long distance events. I'll need a strong base for that, and I'm sure the CompuTrainer will be a big part of that base.