Flickr + Lightroom plugin

I just stumbled on the Flickr apps page and found a Lightroom plugin that exports photos directly from my photo editor. It removes the fuss of exporting jpeg versions, then uploading them separately, plus has a bunch of automation features, like Twitter integration and triggering Flickr settings off of keywords. No doubt, I'll just use a small portion of the automation, but the export core feature (which took 2 minutes to get installed and setup) seems like a big time saver.

Pure awesome so far.

Link: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/flickr

Pilarcitos Golden Gate Park Photos

Pilarcitos Golden Gate Park - 1pm Men's race (As, SS As)
Originally uploaded by renroublard

Here are some photos from a couple of the events at Sunday's Pilarcitos cyclocross race in Golden Gate Park.

Summary of my 09 season

Summary of my 09 season

To wrap up my season (I can't plan ahead with the knee injury, so my season plans are done), here's my WKO+ Performance Management Chart for 2009.

Red is short-term load (7-day trend). Blue is 42-day trend. Yellow is fatigue relative to long-term load.

The training stress score / load is a measure of time and intensity, where 100 points is equal to one hour at 60-minute max sustainable pace. In 09, typical moderately brisk 3-4 weekend rides are 150-200 TSS, 1-2hr weekday rides are 40 to 120 TSS.

My program was quite structured from November to injury in late April, working with Whole Athlete. Monday and Thursday were rest days, off the bike. Tuesday was sprints/speedwork, Wednesday was tempo endurance/intervals, Friday cadence, Saturday hills, and Sunday base.

Hellyer Friday Night 5/8 Photos

Nole charging hard in the 1/2/3 Scratch

Given it was the first Friday night racing of the season, it's not surprising there was a big crowd on and off the track. A handful of mice went down to Hellyer on Friday to watch, including Tim, DanM, Mateo, and Bev. Racing for the Mouse were Jay, Jeff, Nole, Cathy, and Ashley.

Jeff loaned me his Canon 580 flash for the night, so I managed to get some decent photos even after it turned dark. It's so automatic and easy, it would have been helpful in the difficult light when the sun was setting, especially as fill light for the 3/4 Scratch finish, when I was shooting into the sun. With the light issues later and a lot of dupes of the 3/4 scratch (when the light was decent), this shoot had a particularly high discard rate. I only kept 25-30% of the photos.

Link to the full set of photos of Flickr.

Cat's Hill Criterium 2009 Photos

Nole and Ryan in Cat's Hill Cat 3

Drove down to Los Gatos with Nole to watch Cat's Hill starting with Cat 4. It was another race skipped for recovery time. In other words, a good photo opportunity.

The Cat 4 finish was surprisingly dramatic. After having gapped the lead group of 6 out of the corner, John Bennett (Whole Athlete) appeared to sit up near the line and got passed by Johannes Steffens (SJBC). There's a photo in the mix of him looking over to realize he'd just lost it in the final meters.

The Masters 1,2,3 race had a couple notable attacks by Chris Phipps, the second of which stuck. Dan Martin joined him after a couple laps and outsprinted him at the line. Steve Pelaez took the field sprint for 3rd.

On the Mouse front: Ryan 12th in E3, Bergen 7th and Emily 11th in W3/4.

Photos of the posted results are mixed in. Check the collection link for the photos broken out by category.

Wente Road Race 2009 Photos

Wente Road Race E4 Finish

I was in the feed zone and finishing area taking photos at Wente RR instead of racing due to a sore knee. Got shots of most of the second wave (11:45 and after) groups, including a good series on the E4 finish.

It's a major disappontment to not have been in the race, but I've got to take it easy. My top-end fitness has been on the upswing (best ever, I'd say), but the knee got sore at Copperopolis and after some ups and downs getting better, it took an unexpected turn for the worse on Friday after a relatively easy pre-race tune-up ride. I'll probably miss any race with the word hill in the name these next couple weeks (Cat's Hill and Berkeley Hills), but am setting my sights on the May 9 criterium in Pleasanton. If not, Modesto RR and crit.

Copperopolis Road Race Report

Mini-victory at Copperopolis RR yesterday: I didn't cramp and I'm tired but not wasted today, after lots of sleep. It was a very hard race: the 3 laps (65mi / 3h 15m) included 5500ft of climbing, with one main 10-min climb per lap. Set several personal power records. No actual victory tho: 23rd of 79. Missed selection at top of 2nd lap climb, on the 15% pitch. Settled for 2nd out of the 1st chase group of 9, with fun tactics @ finish.

Attrition rate: 80 to 40 on 1st climb by 5mi in. Then selection to 25, 21 by finish. chase grp up to 15, 9 on last lap flats. I got 2nd of 9.

Power numbers confirm it was a hard day. Biggest jumps over PBs: 10min avg: 342W, 2hr norm: 286W, 3hr norm: 276W. work: 2773kj / 296TSS. This was one of the first rides with a new PowerTap wheel (a heavy-duty training wheel, replacing PT carbon race wheel lost in theft), so in the back of my mind I'm wondering if it's calibrated/zeroed, but generally the RPE matched the power numbers (for both Saturday and Sunday).

I have to say that the first lap's climb was nearly as hard as the second lap's, but I was fresher and made the first selection. I grinned and bore it at the redline at the steep pitch, losing some position there, but grabbing on the back. The 2nd lap wasn't catastrophically weaker, but there were fewer guys to drift back through and while I kept digging to close the small gap, the power was still so high after the steep pitch that I couldn't quite grab the 2 wheels that came by that just made it back on (including Dan). I did grab onto a couple chasers but let them go since the pace was too hot. They didn't make it back by the top, and the leaders kept drilling it, so even strong chasing didn't make up time on the rollers and flats.

It felt like I got gapped on the steep section (the torque numbers reflect how my legs felt more than the power numbers), but where I got dropped was on the section after, when I apparently still needed to be doing 375W rather than 350W. Big numbers for me to reach for at the top of a 10 minute climb.

Wish I'd made it with the leaders, but the rest of the race was more fun because I didn't blow up chasing. Our group rolled up more than a handful of guys who'd blown up chasing or were spit out the back of the lead group, either on the rollers or in the wind.

The third lap was fun. I basically set the pace up the main climb, going at threshold to make it just hard enough to keep the group contained. A couple guys surged, but the steady pace rolled them up. Half the guys popped off. Then we had 9 who worked pretty nicely on the flats, smoothly rotating until the final climb was in sight.

I picked up the pace on the last climb too, got away just by setting threshold pace, but got hit with some wind gusts and let a couple guys catch me, then used their wheels until we were sheltered. It was a handful together at the top, then a series of small surges. Then two teammates did one-two. One was small, but the two was pretty explosive, and I responded big but didn't quite close. Thought the rest would come on the downhill, but he opened it up.

Behind him, it was three of us playing tactics, the teammate, who bombed down the hill, and a guy who just sat in. I pushed the 53x11 whenever I could and followed the teammate the rest of the time, since he wasn't obviously blocking for his guy up the road. When it flattened out, I surged and nearly closed with the guy off the front, the guy sitting in countered, but I got him in the last 200m. Interesting finish made it fun.


Power graphs for 3 main climbs and the finish:

Santa Cruz Crit Photos 2009

Santa Cruz Masters 123
Originally uploaded by renroublard

After I raced this morning, I took photos of the Masters 1/2/3, Women's Pro/1/2/3, and Men's Pro 1/2 races down in Santa Cruz.

The photo series of the Masters 1/2/3 is worth checking out. Steve Pelaez pulled out the winning sprint, but looked back only on one side, then celebrated early. Almost too early.

This pic is out of focus due to the moto passing in front... the others are crisp.

4th at Santa Cruz Criterium - Race Report

Scored 4th at Santa Cruz (of 73). Had great position in finale, 2nd up last hill, took a while to get sprint up to speed. Glad to finally place in 2009, since it's felt like a bit of a drought even if it's only been 6 race weekends (4 RRs, 4 crits, 1 TT).

Legs felt OK. Not tired from the relatively light day racing Napa yesterday (didn't do much post-race riding), but had trouble getting to sleep... a problem for a 5am wakeup and cause for feeling much more sluggish than yesterday's 5am, at least pre-coffee. Fortunately, I'd taken a good nap in the afternoon. And the chest / cough issue more or less went away overnight.

Spent most of the race in the top 5, but didn't work all that much, mostly just pulling through with the pace dropped and picking up the pace after primes. Got off the front in the middle of the race by following Metromint Anthony's attack, without having to work much for it. We had a small gap and I pulled through once or twice, but wasn't feeling it. After yesterday's late-race solo attack, the plan today was to be patient and trust my sprint.

For all that I was at the front, it surprised me when I realized with 5 to go that there was a guy off the front. I'd been misunderstanding the announcer and had taken the 2nd prime's hill and finish at a moderate pace so dropped 10 places that lap and didn't see the guy stay away. Realizing it woke me up a bit and I did slightly more work, then it became a non-issue when fellow-Mouse Paul attacked hard enough to get the pack to chase it down. (Thanks Paul!)

Throughout the race I thought it was easier than usual to maintain and gain position. There was a certain politeness about the hairpin and narrow bits, and most guys eased off at the crest at the finish line, so it places were super easy to gain there. More surprising was that it didn't get all that much harder to keep places in the last lap or two. Maybe it was just the contrast with the jump-up-the-inside-to-the-hairpin game of chicken I saw a few times at Napa yesterday and Brisbane last week. No crashes, so maybe politeness pays off. Or maybe it was the hill.

I think the last lap started with me moving up a few places at the line, to around 5th, then after the decent, I sensed the slowdown and looked for surging wheels and grabbed the right ones. I was 3rd through the 90 at the back, then the lead switched to Alex Blease (Chico Corsa), with me on his wheel. Not much extra effort on the lap, and I ended up in perfect position, 2nd through the final corner. Luck, I guess.

The tactics/luck set up the sprint win perfectly. But I didn't pull it off. Blease jumped halfway up the hill. I'd told myself not to go too early, so I hesitated or at least didn't give it 100% all-out-sprint gas, thinking that I had to hold a bit. I had one guy creeping up on each side of me. I probably should have gotten on a wheel (Blease was gone by the flat, but the others were real close), but kept standing and clicking up the gears. It was the drag race I've practiced for on Tuesday mornings for months, minus the good sprint form, but only really felt like I had the engine really turning from 150m to 25m to go. I gained significantly on 3rd place in the last 50m and thought I almost had it with a (weak) bike throw. If I didn't go full gas with Blease at 300m, I can't say I had anything left over after a 30 second effort at 700W average... way long, so not strictly a sprint, right? Was glad to see the line.

Pretty happy with 4th. Less surprised with the result than how easy it felt in comparison with the various leg-shredding disappointments of recent weeks. The race seemed under control, not pushing my fitness limits hard until the finale, yet I guess it was hard enough, since only 34 of 73 finished. By the numbers, I'm betting the easy impression came from spending the harder efforts below 173bpm--no biggie compared to all the 175+ time at Brisbane, closer to the red--with plenty of time breathing easy in the 160s for full recovery.

After the race I rode with Mike and Paul to UC Santa Cruz and did a few laps of the University Road Race course. I missed it last year, so it was good to recon.

Here's the last 15 minutes of the race:


Some numbers:

• 41m 32s for 15.7mi (20 laps)


• Avg speed: 22.8mph overall, 25.9 last lap


• Avg power: 271W overall, 287W for the last 15min, 367W last lap


• Norm power: 383W for 5min (PB), 350W for 10min, 313W overall


• 3 upgrade points puts me at 6 (this 4th plus 3rd at Lafayette last July)

Prelim Results: http://www.flickr.com/photos/swoo/3415856203/

Solo Attempt at Napa

If you don't try, you won't succeed. Yeah, my first legit solo attempt to win has me thinking in catch-phrase-philosophy. Despite some developing sickness (tightness in the chest and an occasional cough), I felt I had a good chance for a great result this morning in Napa.

In my favor:

• Good legs after light week, decent Friday prep ride, and OK warmup
  
• Technical course that I knew from last year (4 90s plus a P turn with a 90 + 130 threading back through a traffic island)
  
• Smallish field (~40) for less swarm, though probably not that important given the course and the fact I lined up at the front.
  
• Small field also meant that while I didn't have any teammates, no other teams were particularly well represented either. There were a couple flashes of teamwork in the middle, but basically it was a race of freelancers.
  

Course Map:

View Larger Map

I was comfortably near the front most of the race, happily following wheels 5 or so back when it was strung out, and moving to/off the front whenever the leaders sat up and we swarmed up. I worked a whole lot less than at Brisbane, but did put in a handful of good pulls. That said, pulling through on the finishing straight meant keeping the lead through the 4 90-degree turns that follow the straight before pulling off. The course is so short (less than 800m per lap) that this represents only a few hundred meters. A couple times I didn't do this and I got caught in some massive swarm, losing a lot of position as we blobbed.

So I felt like I was positioned well and knew that position was critical for the finish, with only the first few wheels able to win it in a sprint. But I also knew that position could be quickly lost. So when I wasn't occupied with turning and dodging fallen riders (a few did fall in the P turn), I was mulling over a couple tactical options that mainly boiled down to "Win the sprint before the sprint" so as not to lose position in the pre-sprint surge (like at Madera and Brisbane). By that I really meant "place" rather than win, since sitting 2nd or 3rd wheel into the final turn would have been ideal. And I'd also had the scenario from last year running through my head, where the winner took off with a few to go and I tried to follow but didn't have it. I told myself that an attack could work if the bunch slowed down in the last couple, the timing was right, and there was some confusion on who'd take up the chase. And I was feeling quite good, with the tempo in first 35 minutes warming me up, not wearing me out.

With the self-imposed mandate not to get caught too far behind to sprint for the win and the thought that I could do OK in a sprint, a break, or solo, I headed into the final few laps watching the group momentum. Things were moderately fast early on (avg 24), but some laps after the primes were done were quite slow (avg 21.5-22.5). 5 and 6 to go were slow/swarmy, then 3 and 4 to go got peppy and position was easier to manage. Approaching the line with 2-to-go, it felt like things slowed a bit with and so I carried my momentum from the surge out of the P turn and went off the front.

As I was moving up past the first 5 guys approaching turn 1, I had an out. I could have played it for position and to motivate the other leaders to work. But the switch flipped to "all out" and I drilled it through the corner and kept going. I had a lot of speed (30mph in the straight, 27mph through the corner), the group didn't react until I was passing them in the corner on a fast outside line, and I was pedaling through the left-hand 90s (the right was a bit tighter). So, yeah, there was a real gap by the time we hit the straight again.

I was flying. Did the lap in 58s (27.5mph) vs. 1m03s for the previous lap (23.7mph). Felt great. Then I hit the P turn again, took the surge out pretty hard but told myself to go steady. It was starting to hurt now, a minute in, and here's where I lost a lot of time. My speed was much too slow on the straight (25-26mph) and if I had some advantage over the group in the turns, the group had a big advantage in the straight. A little more juice here could have gone a long way, since the momentum was key to carry into the 90-degree turns. As it was, I was steadily pedaling through the turns, faster here than it had been in the pack most laps, but by the back-straight, the announcer was calling that I was going to get caught.

And I did get caught, just before the P turn. Two guys came past into the corner. I didn't have it to stay on their wheel coming out. Worse is that I didn't jump on any wheel, so while I had moderately OK power left (did 650W for 14s, half in the saddle), I wasn't in a draft, I didn't have a sprint, and I was fading fast. In the corner it was "hoping for top 5", then "hoping for top 10" with 100m to go, but a handful of guys past me in the last 50-100m.

Got 11th.

Here's the graph for the final 5 minutes:


Power numbers were solid but not exceptional. 60s and 120s power averages were brought down by the hard cornering (479W for 60 / 406W for 120). Between P turns, it was 510W avg on the first attacking lap, 410W avg on the 2nd. 5-min norm power: 370W.

Weighing the outcome, I feel better that there were a few ways this could have turned out, and I tried something new. The solo attempt was a risk for me, but a legit enough option given the course and pack dynamics of the day. Waiting for the sprint would have given me a good run at the podium or top-5, but if I got caught out of position I would have been not only out of the results, but wouldn't have had a chance to really throw down and test the legs.

A nice bonus would be if someone posted a good photo of my flyer. If it wasn't effective, I hope it at least was entertaining for the rather sparse crowd of 8am spectators. ;)

Not 100% on racing Santa Cruz tomorrow morning. Legs still feel great, but the chest felt super tight immediately after the race and had a cough for a bit. The chest-tightness symptom just showed up yesterday evening after being around someone with a cough on Thursday, so I'm watching to see if symptoms develop. Now I probably won't drive down until the morning, so at least I can watch and visit some family in SC as planned.

Brisbane and Zamora

Looking forward to this weekend. Two crits: Napa and Santa Cruz, both on the technical side, which should be good for me. Hoping to make up for some recent bad luck and tactical mistakes.

This photo sums up the Brisbane crit for me. I was very active early in the race, driving the pace up with a few other guys, which shredded the pack from 77 down to less than 40 in the final laps (33 finished). Used a bit too much energy really, but still had pretty good position at the end, good enough to sprint for an upgrade point. But I took the final corner slightly to the outside, looking to move up, but when the crash happened, the pileup was on the outside, so I just coasted over into the cones and checked out the guy who got the worst of it. Result: DNP.

The weekend prior, I missed the decisive move at the start of the second lap at the windy Zamora road race. This photo shows me near the front with Josh and Ryan on the climb at the end of lap 1, but I must have lost a bit of position right after. Then there was a classic windy RR move: attack at the front on the leeward side of the road, so there wasn't much room to echelon before hitting the edge of the gutter. That didn't stop us from riding through the grass in the gutter. But I was 10 back from where the gap was forming between the first group (of 8) and the second. Made it to the front of the second, wasted too much energy trying to get the 2nd group working, and got popped when fighting to get back in line. Huge training day nonetheless, and I stuck it out to put in PB 1 and 2 hour power numbers, including a break from my group in the last 3k. Ryan work hard to score 3rd and Josh top 10'd as well.

Madera Stage Race - Race Report

On the front near the end

Great experience at Madera stage race. Results: 12th in crit and 14th in road race, with mistakes to learn from. Ben won 3s GC. Bergen won W3 crit. Ryan top 10'd in both the crit (5th) and RR (7th).

Prep during the week wasn't ideal: From Tuesday night on, I felt like I was coming down with a cold. I took remedies suggested to me: Zicam to keep it at bay (thanks Steve P) and Ricola to open things up before the race (thanks Jeff). The cold didn't really materialize, just hung out in the background. So I'm thankful I was able to be out there racing at all.

I also have to say that this was a great weekend to be a Mouse. Not only was it fun to see the results and hang out (dinner at Azteca de Oro was a highlight), but in the 4s, we did a decent job of hanging out in the pack together and talking about the race's progress, even if we didn't really deploy much in the way of tactics (though Ed got a couple good pulls in for us).

Crit:

12th in the crit. Terrible choice in wheels in last lap made it a brake-fest in finale turn. This after sitting in top 10 for the whole race. Ryan: 5th.

By staying at the front, I thought I had a good sense of the right wheels. I picked some of it right, but made a bad choice when at the RR tracks on the last lap, I didn't close a gap to get up behind Ryan on the left (for outside line in final corner, which I'd told myself a few laps earlier was the one to take) but instead followed a closer marked wheel on the right (2 teammates). The guys didn't move up fast enough and we got squeezed hard in the corner and a guy in front of them hit the brakes. So I started the final stretch at 24mph, stood up and powered it out to the line dodging around popped guys.

This situation was set up by a lot of yo-yoing in the last 2 laps. The pace was strong from 7 to go,, but slowed down at the bell, prompting swarm. I made up some lost position, to sit 10th, then we ran into lapped guys in turn 2 that sketched it out. Definitely lost position between turn 1 and turn 3.

But the thing that kills me is not closing the gap to Ryan. It would have been the perfect leadout, and he thought I was there. I'd chalk it up to not following the plan and taking the easy way, which seems extra appealing above 175bpm. Gotta work on the mental part.

TT:

Took care to recover well after crit, eating soon after and got a 30m nap in. Power didn't come easy on the trainer warming up, but as soon as hit the road heading over to the start, I felt pretty good.

The original plan was to take it easy in the TT and go all out in the crit and RR, but after learning the RR was shorter than expected and botching crit finale, I decided to put more into the TT to make it a more representative effort. After the start, I quickly eased off to the target start range, but 270 felt much too easy, so was doing 280-300 to ease in. This was a very comfortable pace, but I was wondering how fast I should start and got the start house guidance mixed up on how long until the first turn, so was distracted and thinking I may have missed it. This didn't make much sense, since my minute man was visible (my 30s man I passed in the first few minutes, going very slow), so yeah, just a bit of rookie confusion. Averaged 292W on this leg (not incl start).

After the right turn into the tailwind, I saw I was nearly halfway there and picked up the pace, to 300-310. Passed the minute man and started closing in on next guy. This was a very fast, very short leg. 297W avg.

After turn 2, I picked it up a bit more, Here I played with pacing more, trying to sense where threshold was (seemed like @ 172bpm) and nudge above for a bit and recover at threshold. Avg 305W.

I picked it way up at the 1 mile sign, since I had plenty in the tank. Averaged 328W for the last mile (3m) and 337W over the last 90s / 1k. I dug deep here and was breathing very hard by 200m, but held to finish. Next two guys were around 100m ahead of me. Nice carrots.

Time was 25:34, which put me in the middle of the pack at 38th. The sweet spot with a super-dense set of finishing times was 24:19 (7th) to 25:11 (31th). The position on the road bike with clip-ons was very comfy, much higher and much less aero than on the TT bike I lost. But I can't say that I would have necessarily gotten as much power in the more aero position, since all my winter practice on that bike was at more moderate intensities.

Road Race:

Ryan and I after the finish

Easy race until the very end, only 3 laps according to race bible rather than race announcement's 4 laps. 23.2mph average speed. Rough section wasn't a big deal once I started making sure to keep tension on the chain in a bigger gear and not freewheel or spin, using the legs as suspension.

Hills were slowish the first lap. Second lap was a test and shook some guys out of the pack (incl a teammate). A difference was also that I lagged a bit on first lap climbs to save energy, but stayed at the front on the 2nd, keeping position through the feedzone to the fast stretch.

Last lap was plenty fast in the downhill stretch, with the pack completely strung out 1-wide for a good while. Following wheels 15-25 back was pretty low effort, though. Was super attentive on the rough section, following the GC leaders (and their teammates) as they moved up and worked. Ed and Ryan worked a bit at the front in the very rough section, and I rolled off the front for a short while here, just by moving up while the pack slowed down.

It got pretty slow in the last mile before the finale climb. I was around 5th wheel here, and kept it up the first climb until the steepest section at the very top. The second bump was hardest. I lost a few spots here, to 10-15, but made up much of this on the decents, scooting around the left side.

Problem on the final hill was that I didn't put the pedal down soon enough. By waiting until I was reacting, I also had a distracting amount of bumping and swerving to deal with. At least I wasn't in the middle, where a crash happened a bike length to the front and a couple guys to the right. Ed got caught behind this.

Got 14th of 66. Think I did a good job with position until the final 1k, but not real happy with how the final 200m turned out, both in terms of my timing to commit and the finishing power, though the effort really felt good. On a more positive note, it's the best I've felt in a power-hill finish.

Ryan got 7th. He hit the front at the top of the 2nd bump and went up the right side in the finale.

Merco Foothills Road Race - Race Report

Bergen won the Women's 3/4 sprint

Pretty good race prep, decent sleep, etc. Felt pretty good, though was a bit concerned the night before that I might be coming down with something. Sickness didn't materialize, thank goodness.

Did a much better job of staying protected and out of the wind, compared to Snelling. There were 11 Mice in the race, and we were out to race as a team, with the plan of everyone working to get Ryan, Josh, and I to the finale, then us working for Josh. We had some milestones set out for the race, so guys knew when to get organized. Ryan and I were calling out tactics on the road.

Given there were so many of us, when there were spots of concern, it was pretty easy to find a Mouse or two nearby and tell them to do something, like get Josh or I up front, or work to shut down the too-large break that was just gapping the pack at the start of lap 2. All in all, it helped me relax and do very little work until the last half lap.

We took control with 8 or 10 or so miles to go, pretty far out, but it was just to get the tempo up, since it was starting to be a sketch fest on the easy run East on Turlock Rd. It really helped make the left turn onto Cox Ferry safe and easy for our main guys. With the potholes and narrow road, I was worried that we'd have problems if we left it too late to get guys to move up on Cox Ferry.

The hill on Cox Ferry was the start of the hurt for the finale. Paul and Hank (Mice) got to the front and surged up it big time, taking some initiative and getting a gap that did make the front of the pack respond. That kept it nice and strung out, with me, Ryan, and Josh sitting near the front. But the pace dropped on the false flat after the steep pitch and chaos ensued.

From that point on out, I did do work here and there, taking a fair bit of wind when I couldn't find a decent wheel, but was mainly concerned about keeping our position. Had Josh on my wheel a fair bit, but we were all in a mix doing what we needed to do.

I was 6th or so heading into the left hander onto Keyes road. It was a hot turn, with the line strung out on the left side of the road going in, so we shouted to shift over, which we mostly did. 2 guys in the first 5 didn't make the corner.

I was real happy with the position, but we didn't have anyone set up to work, The pace kept up for a bit, then dropped. Uh oh. Swarm came around the left, then a touch of wheels and a huge crash, even with my left side around 15 feet, at the other gutter. The wave came over to me and there was a bit of shoulder rubbing before I got out and closed a smallish 20-30m gap. Josh was right in front of me.

Mice who made it past the crash into the lead group: Josh, Ryan, Isaias, Paul, and me. Pretty good news. Bad news was that 4 Mice went down: Nick, Hank, Ed, Mateo.

Right-left corner combo on Keyes was no problem and helped Josh and I move back up. I found Isaias and as we were ramping towards the final left-hand corner, I told him to go and he gave us a great pull in, really putting the hammer down, and pulling us at the front for a minute or more.

After the corner, a bit of chaos, as it our early leadout was spent and it was still a ways. Didn't see Ryan around. Some attacks at the base of the hill, plus a noisy a dropped chain and/or flat caused some confusion, and some guys chopped over on me, causing me to hit the brakes as we climbed. Went from 5th wheel at 1k to 15th at the top of the hill, with 700m.

I lost track of Josh here, so got off the leadout plan and wasn't thinking clearly. Ryan came by on the left on the hill, and it was a big mental error not to do what it do what was necessary to get on. I had enough in the legs that I should have been able to at this point. Instead, I followed more moderate wheels, then caught up to Ryan with around 300m to go. There was a wall of guys across the road, really the boundary for the top 10. I was edging left as Ryan starting left, and I realized I was headed into a camper/trailer parked half into the road, and stabbed the brakes, scrubbing a few mph. Got it it back to speed but just spun it out, never sprinted.

Results: Josh @ 9th, Ryan @ 11th, me @ 19th, Paul @ 26th, Isaias @ 32nd. Big step forward for Mouse Cat 4 teamwork.

48 miles in 1h 55m (25mph avg.)

Snelling RR Race Report

Paul on the front at the bell

Well, yesterday was the first race of the season: Snelling. Overall, it was a fun shock to the legs. I knew that however hard I was training, racing would be a couple notches harder. That definitely played out. I had good position in finale 1k and was around 10th at the last corner, but was fighting cramps and didn't stand up to sprint. Result: 16th of 94.

Race stats:
61.5 mi in 2h 38m (23.3mph)
212W avg / 256W norm / 158bpm avg
205TSS / 2009kj

Lap 1 stats:
12mi in 29m 46s (24.3mph)
214W avg / 255W norm / 778W max

162bpm avg / 176bpm max

Lap 3 stats:
12mi in 31m 13s (23.2mph)
228W avg / 267W norm / 752W max

160bpm avg / 174bpm max

Lap 5 stats:
12mi in 30m 39 (23.1mph)
187W avg / 236W norm / 971W max

154bpm avg / 182bpm max

My pre-race prep was worse than any road race lat year. I didn't get all that much sleep, between nerves and sleeping on the floor and being somewhat cold because I'd forgotten my sleeping bag. Woke up early (5am, after misreading my watch), went looking for coffee, and ended up having a large breakfast at Denny's with Cathy, Katy, and Tim S. Arrived at the race at 7am, but with the lines for the new chip system and fussing getting the right clothing mix, I wasn't left with much time for a warmup before lining up at 8:15. Literally just 2 minutes of spinning, then 6 minutes of promenade. Minor comedy of errors, but nothing significant.

The pace felt pretty hard on the rollers from the beginning. Took a while to get used to the large pack, since it was the largest bunch I'd been in since events like the Timpani crit and probably larger than any road race packs I was in last year. Used energy here and there to move up when I found myself too far back and spent about equal time near the front (1st 15-30) or mid pack (30-60), sitting up high to keep an eye out for gaps and moves off the front. There was a fair bit of attrition in the first couple laps, from what I heard, but only saw the back once, somewhere around lap 3. Was talking with someone, glanced behind, was surprised not to see more than a couple riders, and surged up the side to the front.

I could have done a better job conserving energy. I was somewhat paranoid about getting around any gaps that opened. And pretty careful about the wheels around me, watching for half-wheeling and sketchy riders, so sometimes added some buffer distance. I also realized a few times that I was probably taking more wind than I should, being on the windward side of the pack in a cross-wind section. With no one rotating intentionally behind the very front, there were some spots that were much more protected than others.

The power numbers show lap 3 was the hardest, and I felt it. There were a few serious attacks, including one by Ryan B on the hill on the back stretch.

The main problem of the day was cramps: Felt a twinge of cramps in my hamstrings and calves in lap 3, with a bit more on lap 4, including twinges in the quads, just above the knee. By lap 5, I was avoiding getting out of the saddle for fear of getting serious quad cramps. I only felt like eating and drinking modestly during the race (2 bottles of full-strength Accelerade, my usual mix, and 2 gels and banana out of much more food I'd had in my pockets) but had had a lot to eat and drink leading up to the race, so I'd point to fatigue more than dehydration or mineral deficiency. I mentioned it to Ryan in the last lap or so and he said he was also feeling the race wear on him. 

Fortunately for me, lap 5 was pretty mellow. It started with a good surge by Paul at the bell, which helped me keep front position heading into the sharp rollers at the start of the lap and drifted a bit, something I should have done more of. A few of the laps started harder than necessary because I'd slipped back too far at the end of the previous lap.

I marked a couple guys who'd talked nearby and heard one discuss the plan to lead the other one out. I stayed nearby on the back straight, in the first 10-30 of the pack. There was some work by a Metromint guy and a few other individuals leading into and after the last noticeable hill. I struggled there with poor legs, then spun up regained position after, following Paul and Liam forward. Liam went off the front for a bit with a couple guys, then got reeled in. Any coordination disappeared with 2-3 miles to go, and the pack was gutter to gutter for a while, surging on all sides. 

I was the Mouse nearest the front at that point, generally in the first 10-25 in the chaos. Got boxed in at the left gutter for a while, as I followed one of several wheels moving up on the sheltered side from the right-hand crosswind. I realized this was why my coach advised moving up on the right in the rough section, and found an opportunity to break out to the right side into the wind. Just in time to have plenty of room for a move before the corner, I surged around to the right of the mass of guys sitting 10-20, and slipped into the line around 10th wheel with 100m to go into the corner, so it was a pretty safe maneuver. I didn't carry as much speed as I could have through the corner and had a hard time standing up and sprinting out of the corner. 

Every second standing out of the saddle I thought might be my last, as my legs were actively cramping whenever I asked them to put out any real power. So I sat and spun it up. Lost a bit of ground on the leaders out of the corner. Followed a wheel or two where possible and picked my way around a few guys who sat up. Rather than standing up and powering up the final 150m uphill, I kept my pace and got passed by a handful of guys here, including Ryan. 

Then I tried to work the cramps out of my legs. I was pleasantly surprised that the legs didn't freeze up completely. But unhappy that I got cramps again, like in several road races last year. Gotta figure this out. 

I'll talk to my coach about it this week, but for now my theory is that it's because of the total time spent doing 1.5 - 2x threshold power. With only a handful of build weeks under my belt, I've done a few interval sessions sustaining those power levels for a minute at a time, on and off. But the race had lots of shorter spikes that added up to lots more time in those zones.

Of all the power stats, only the power distribution chart showed that Snelling was as hard as it felt. Compare Snelling with the Ford Ord RR and the core 2.5hrs of Mt. Tam interval workout a few weeks ago:

click for a larger view

Tour of California 2009 Stage 2 Photos from Legion of Honor and Tunitas Creek Rd.

ToC 2009 Stage 2 - Jens Voigt, Lance Armstrong, Andy Schleck rolling up Tunitas
Originally uploaded by renroublard

Here's one of a bunch of photos I took yesterday watching the ToC on two hills: Legion of Honor and Tunitas Creek Rd. I really like this photo of Jens Voigt, Lance Armstrong, and Andy Schleck climbing near the front of the bunch.

I also got photos of Steve Cozza (also coached by Whole Athlete) attacking up Legion of Honor, then leading the break up Tunitas. Cool to see the story evolve between two spots around 40 miles apart. Seeing real action at two spots on the road then getting home in time to see the finish live on TV was an exceptionally good spectator experience for a road race.

Team Roaring Mouse at Early Bird Road Race (Photos)

I couldn't make it out to this RR to do support or take photos, so I was glad to find some good pics of the team kicking off the road race season.

• Dan and Nick
• Hank
• John B
• Nick again
• DP

Thanks to Ammon (@skid) for the link, reposted from the NCNCA blog.

Training Log 1/25: Build 1 done

My first build block is complete, including a good pre-planned rest week this week. And rest I did, with 5 lower intensity rides this week. It took most of the week days to feel fully recovered from that hard ride last Sunday, so I was totally with the program of taking it easy.

Yesterday was more of a fun ride. I did a fairly brisk Paradise loop, at a steadily efficient zone 2. It's a good route for keeping the pace up without going hard. Did the same route today, but as an easy spin, averaging > 2mph slower.

I've been looking at my training stats for some sign of how my training has changed between training phases, apart from the obvious jumps in the Performance Management Chart (line graph thumbnail posted in right column). The volume numbers (hours, miles) generally don't show all that much difference and even the intensity tends to average out to similar levels over the course of a month.

The best way I've found is the HR distribution charts in WKO. The latest shows a much stronger concentration in the mid aerobic ranges, while all 3 of the recent months are much more focused than the racing months, with lots of time spread fairly evenly between low, medium, and high intensity.

Build 1 (last 28 days):

The last 4 weeks have had very little truly low-intensity time, but still plenty from mid-zone 1 (125-130) and the most concentrated zone 2 (135-149) I've done. Zone 3 and 4's been dosed in, especially on the hills. Sprint work was there but isn't going to be visible in these volumes (better seen in power #s).

Base 1 & 2 (December and November):

December was a bit lighter than November, mostly due to a nagging injury early in the month and the holidays later on

November was the kickoff of serious base time, but with a track race and Mt Ham hill climb mixed in for fun, creating some top-end time

Racing last summer (August, June, and May):

August was my hardest month of 2008 by the measure of time spent in zone 5 (170-180+), but overall volume was down due to getting hit by a car before San Ardo. Fort Ord RR and the San Rafael crit were pretty tough.

June a relatively hard month of racing (esp. Pesdadero, Napa crit, and Diablo hill climb), but I got a decent amount of non-race training in, too.

May was my biggest month in 2008 by intensity and volume (in terms of TSS, kj, miles, and hours), but was obviously pretty all over the place, looking at this chart.

Roaring Mouse team camp

The team camp was a great team-building success, I think, with some good off-bike time and great riding. Last year was supposed to be the first annual camp, but it got rained out. Our weather this weekend was excellent.

Mice after Saturday ride

18 of us arrived at the rental house on Discovery Bay on Friday night, trickling in around 8pm. It was a pretty big place on the bay, complete with dock and pontoon boat (which got some use, but that's a story for someone else to tell). The co-op-style food planning worked well. Friday dinner was simple, given the hour, but the breakfasts and afternoon grilling made for some quality ride chow Saturday and Sunday, thanks to DP, Ryan, Nick, and Dan. 

Saturday was a pretty mellow day for me. I hadn't felt like I had time to get the new Leopard bike fully ready Friday night (good call since it took much of Saturday afternoon), so rode the Waterford. When we hit the big hills through Patterson Pass, the pace really picked up. I dropped my chain at the right time, since that got me out of that group and let me settle me down to more of a tempo climbing pace. The group up front looked like it stayed together for most of it, but there were a few guys behind me so I didn't feel hurried. On Altamont, I set a fairly brisk tempo at the front at the start of the climb, and just let the group ride by when they wanted to go harder. I did get in a big attack later on the flats, but generally it was a good aerobic training day and good team fun. Terrence, our recent Cat 2 addition, drove over for the morning ride and hung out. 

I headed into Sunday with my new bike ready to ride and was pretty eager to test the bike and my legs. And after the Saturday night season-planning chat, I also felt like I probably needed to show a bit more strength, given that I've just been cruising along in most team rides (sprints excepted). That was a recipe for going harder than my coach had recommended for the weekend, especially on the Morgan Territory climb. The landscape there was inspiring. Coming up on Marsh Creek Rd we were treated to a beautiful view of Mt. Diablo in stark silouette, from the back side. Then we turned onto the narrow Morgan Territory road and got into the wooded Diablo foothills. The profile is "rollers" that mostly roll up, then it becomes a real hill with lots of pitch changes, some quite steep. 

After Ben did one of his test attacks, I was the one to bridge (@650W avg for 15s) and pulled a couple guys with me. Then a group of 5 formed (Ben, DP, Ryan B, Vlad, and I) and the hammerfest started. DP and Ryan would surge on every roller pointing up, I was maintaining that hard steady pace for my pulls (up and down), and Ben wasn't pulling so much as attacking from the back whenever things eased up a bit. 

After 12 minutes, I took a last pull and told Ryan at the back that I'd had my fun and sat up. I'd been able to recover under threshold here and there and wasn't breathing VO2max-hard at any point. But I knew I'd burned a match and that I'd enjoy the ride more if I took it down to tempo for the remaining climb. Those first 5 minutes were quite hard: 352W normalized power (339W avg). 10 minutes: 326W normalized (306W avg). I heard after that it just got harder, with Ryan attacking on a steep pitch to get away solo for the KOM, with DP and Ben chasing hard. Ryan's not a small guy (@ 6' 2", though relatively skinny for that height) but he can really climb.

Another highlight on Sunday was the rolling descent back on Altamont Pass. It was a bit messy on Saturday with 19, but our smaller 12-man group kept it neat. I was kicking up the pace whenever I could for fun, trying to take longer pulls, when the formation allowed. We kept it together pretty well, averaging 27.5mph over 10min. 

The most fun was taking a big pull on Byron Highway. The smooth pavement, flat terrain, and narrow shoulder makes it a good candidate for having just one or two guys do the pacemaking. Ammon took us to the intersection with the Hwy, then I took over, slowly easing the pace up to 22 over the first few minutes to settle us in after the left-turn crossing, then keeping it steady between 22 and 24 for the next 14 minutes. That pull felt great, nice and comfortable in mid-zone 4 HR. We had a light-to-moderate crosswind on the right shoulder. Averages for core 14 minutes: 23.7mph, 275W, 165bpm.

All in all a good end to a good training week. I took an extra day off (Friday, to pack), but the four workouts I did were pretty solid, medium to high intensity. That closes out the third week in this first build cycle. Next week will be a pretty easy rest week, then the intensity will step up another notch, to prep for racing late next month.

Training Log 1/11

This was a big week. Basically I took the workouts from last week's work-free "training camp" and compressed them into a normal working week. And with less volume came greater intensity. 

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday were breakthrough days, for different reasons. This was the first Tuesday workout where I really felt like I was digging deep in true sprint-like seated efforts. No more small gear stuff. The power numbers seem pretty good for seated efforts (averages mostly around 650W for 20s, with the first at 750W) and after 9 repeats, my legs felt a lot like I'd done an all-out sprint workout (ie. felt like lead). Doing them shorter than last week meant I went a lot harder. Looking forward to next week's, which starts the transition from seated to standing sprints.

Wednesday I got up extra early, at 5:30 (went to bed at 9:30) so I could do a longer tempo workout, adding longer lower-power 12min repeats to the shorter reps I've been building since November. The shorter reps now peak out with a middle interval at 95% of my threshold/MSS wattage as measured in early November, so I am starting to do a bit of subthreshold work. These Wednesday workouts are the best example of what I wouldn't be doing without the formal coaching that's great for raising my threshold power. Nice bonus was that I was going pretty quick on flat to rolling terrain, so covered 40mi in 2h 10m. Feels good to cover a respectable distance during the week.

This Saturday was a monster climbing day. My coach, Peter, suggested I move off the headlands and do my repeats on Panoramic instead. It's a great climb for it, and doing the 10m intervals in the middle of a 20-30m climb feels more meaningful, since the interval is book-ended by solid aerobic work that serves as warm-up and recovery between the descents back down the hill. Here again, I've now worked up to doing sections at 95% of MSS. 

And I can't say enough how beautiful the views were from Panoramic. Riding does mean more to me than the numbers, and doing the repeats actually let me enjoy the details of the scenery, coming down the hill looking at the Pacific and breathing in the moist air of the redwoods groves on the way up. Liam and I stopped on Hwy 1 on the way to Stinson to take a picture with my Blackberry, but the lens was fogged up and it didn't come out.

Long week, and I was somewhat tired today. A 3.5hr base ride served a bit as recovery.

Jeff's Early Bird Crit #1 Photos

Jeff took a bunch of good photos of yesterday's Early Bird criterium down in Fremont with his new 55-250mm IS lens. Check them out here. 

I'd thought of going down specifically to take pics, but didn't quite make it. For one, I didn't quite find a nearby ride route that sounded appealing, after looking around a bit on Bikely and MapMyRide. I was looking for something mostly flat to lightly rolling (and without the traffic of something like Niles or Crow Canyon) to do my Sunday base ride. If you know of a good route, let me know. Hoping to get down there next weekend.

Training Log 1/4

My vacation and training camp are done. It was a great way to end a solid year of cycling, my most consistent ever. 2008 totalled up to 7500 miles and 500 hours on the bike. Not a bad way to get back into things. If I keep on my current track, 2009 volume totals could be 20-30% higher.

The trip to Austin was a good time for a rest week. I got in four one-hour workouts, but a touch of sickness kept me away from the longer rides I'd planned for the weekend. But rest I did, and I came out of it feeling pretty well recovered from various aches and pains that surfaced during November and December training. This week's racing (San Bruno hill climb and Early Bird Criterium) reminded me that it's an excellent time to feel healthy.

I put my legs to the test this week, using much of my vacation time for extra training, setting a one-week personal record of 17.5hours and 260 miles on the bike. It was also my first real week for building mid-level intensity, so I'm happy that I came out of a jump in volume and intensity feeling fine. Looking forward to the additional mid-level intensity these next few weeks, evolving from the Tuesday (seated sprints), Wednesday (tempo), and Saturday (hills) workouts I did this week. 

San Bruno Hill Climb 2009 Photos

Josh Chauvet
Originally uploaded by renroublard

I got out of bed just in time to make it down to the San Bruno mountain hill climb this morning. It was extremely foggy and fairly cold. I'd been thinking of racing it, but since I have the week off work, I switched to doing a major training week (likely somewhat more than 16hrs / 250mi), which meant today was the best rest day between two 3-day training blocks.

So I went down to take photos and chat with the guys. I took a ton of photos, posted in two sets on Flickr (here and here). I parked at the park entrance and walked up the hill for 10 minutes, so was somewhere around two-thirds up the course.