Be the doughnut! (or, how I learned to stop worrying and enjoy mediocrity)

Power Down:

A couple weeks ago my Quarq started acting up. I finally got around to sending it in, and guess what? D-E-D, dead. Flux capacitor or some shit. It's the third one I've had in 3 years. They have a 2 year warranty and I think they are designed to last 2.1 years. Frankly I haven’t missed it. At this point, I know myself well enough that I could tell you my instantaneous wattage within 5% or so at any given time. But, I paid to have it replaced out of warranty because they are helpful for doing intervals and besides, I like data.

The first thing one is inclined to do after acquiring a power meter is go out and to some sort of functional threshold or FTP test. Next, one might be inclined to look up the formula to convert lbs to kgs and do some simple math to come up with the number: w/kg at FT (i.e. The Fred Index). One might next got to the internet to find a w/kg chart (google search term “how much do my watts suck?”) to see how your Fred Index stacks up.

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In case you haven’t heard, watts matter a great deal in bike racing, but the Fred Index isn’t like your IQ or the length of your uvula. It's not black and white. In cyclocross more-so than any other discipline, It’s not the size of your watts, it’s how you use them. .

Ryan Trebon announced his retirement from professional bike racing recently. Couldn’t get a ride for the upcoming season. I’ve always appreciated Trebon because he is a zero BS sort of guy even if personally he rubbed some people the wrong way. If I was a team owner I’d rather have Powers reppin’ the brand, but I’d much rather hang out and have beers with Trebon. He’s one of the few guys who I’m certain never even considered doping.

Anyway, I read an interview with Trebon and found myself golf clapping to myself when I read this: "I think people spend so much time to get fitter that they don’t learn how to ride faster and I think you can save so much more time technically than you can physically, especially in cyclocross…"

Amen.

Watts: Free to a good home
Free watts are like Pokemon--they are all over the place on a cross course. All you have to do is go out and grab them or drop your poke-balls on them or whatever it is that you do to the capture said pokeman. Every time you don’t brake, get on the gas a half second sooner, carry more speed through a section, pick a fast line, remount sooner, dismount later—free watts.

If you are really good at grabbing the free watts, I think you can move yourself up at most two categories on the Fred Index. i.e. A Total Fred in terms of w/kg could be competitive against dudes or ladies who are Sort of Fred-like. It goes the other way too. Guys who are Not At All Fred-Like who suck at bike handling can move down two categories. Of course it depends on the course--power courses discount the free watt stuff.

Thus, the Mediocre Training Tip™ of the week is: go drop your pokeman balls on some free watts, bro. The last couple weeks I've done a couple WW's and a bunch of cx bike singletrack riding and the free watts stuff seems to be coming back around again.

Week-in-Mediocre Training. By the numbers:
0: the number of intervals performed
1: the number of excellent six mile cross bike parties attended
4.6: the total number of hours ridden last week

1: the number bushes that came home with me


6.5: the number of miles i rode with inappropriate footwear.
 
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There's a cross course burned into the front lawn of Drew University on 124. Not sure I've heard anyone mentioning anything going on there before.
 
Could be the Drew XC running team. No Stava segments and doesnt look like the @MadisonDan fight club. Maybe well trained squirrels?
 
good entry, i have a screen on my garmin now that just has the map (still sort of get lost sometimes), cadence and time. always think in the back of my head if i've gotten fatter/slower. i will say that i am much happier/less stressed though. i will see how that feels going into october
 
gtluke said:
There's a cross course burned into the front lawn of Drew University on 124. Not sure I've heard anyone mentioning anything going on there before.
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Will investigate... Thought about going there in the past. Took the kids sledding there in the winter when they were littlerer..er
Students just got back this week. The front fields are used by some of the club teams like rugby and ultimate (is that still a thing?)

Wonder if I can find my old student ID......
 
One month in is where MTBNJ blogs start to lose their new car smell. So, in the spirit of something-is-better-than-nothing, I offer the following.

1: when life doesn't seem like it can get any more complicated, get a puppy. I still miss our old mutt but this little thing is keeping me too busy to think about anything else.
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2a: I registered for my first race since MTBNJ Mooch Madness.
2b:I have come to terms that I am now a masters racer for life.

3: Since Nittany is this weekend, I offer two short films from the MTBNJ archives, both Nittany CX and both starring our own @Norm

That's all I got time fo' Hope to have more interesting stories after Nittany!
 
@Mountain Bike Mike wants actual training information so here goes…

Mediocre Training Tip™: ABC. A always, B be, C Crushing.
Always, always, always high-end work...every ride (unless it’s a social ride but I almost never ride with people these days). Nearly every ride I do has some 100% efforts built in. I think I mentioned this in a previous post I will elaborate a bit more. My summer schedule has been:
  • Commute by bike 2-3 days a week (35-40 minutes each way).
  • Ride slowly on the way in—try not to sweat too much,
  • Do some sort of high-end work on the way home. Typically this involves either one 10-12 minute upper threshold set (a rarity), several 3-4 minute full gas sets, or sprint games (I’ll explain below).
  • Ride once or twice on the weekend for an hour or so—either MTB or road. Steady tempo/tempo+ pedaling and attack all the hills at 100%. The terrain around me is covered with 1-3m climbs so there are natural intervals built in. Make it hurt.
Sprint games.
“For Sale” sign sprints: 10s all out, out of the saddle sprint every time you pass a house/building with a “For Sale” sign.
Patriot sprints: 5s seated sprint every time you pass an American Flag

So what does that mean in terms of actual time spent in various zones (I’ll use HR because I don’t have a PM on my MTB and my Quarq was at the shop getting fixed). Let’s take a typical week--the week we did the CX bike 6 mile ride you missed:

· Mon: Off
· Tues: Off
· Wed: 60min ride time: (Commute) 60% @ <Tempo, 30%@Tempo, 10% @Threshold, 0% @Anaerobic
· Thurs: 90min ride time (CX Bikes at 6Mi) 25% @ <Tempo; 50% @Tempo; 25% @Threshold; 0% @Anaerobic
· Fri: Off
· Sat: 75min ride time (Road): 50%@ <Tempo, 30% @ Tempo, 15% @Threshold, 5% @Anaerobic
· Sun: 60min ride time (MTB): 37% @<Tempo, 10% @ Tempo, 50% @Threshold, 3% @Anaerobic

Grand Total for the week: 4.75hours ride time. 2h @ Sub-Tempo, 1.5h @ Tempo, 1.2h Threshold, 3-5min Anaerobic. Normally I’d try to run or do some plyo on either Mon or Tuesday because I can fit in 25-30 min late at night after the kids are asleep.

This is really counter to the idea of training to increase FTP where you would spend a ton of time training in the tempo or sub-threshold range or doing sweet spot” type intervals that last 8-10 minutes or longer 3x15 sets that are so commonly done. I’m almost never doing a sustained interval that lasts longer than 3-5 minutes these days. It’s not that they aren’t useful, it’s that I just don’t have time to fit them into my workouts. I don’t have time for Z1 or Z2 riding either. Recovery rides are stupid. Maybe recovery rides make sense if you ride 12+ hours a week. Recover at your desk. Work on your bike.

Making every ride hard takes mental and physical freshness. That’s why rest days are important. You have to be prepared to suffer a little on every single ride.

A couple of years ago I read about this guy Sami Inkinen, who is/was a full time Silicon Valley CEO (founder of Trulia) and had just won his age group at Kona or something like on training of about 12 hours a week. Normally IM contenders would be doing 20-30 hour weeks. Who has time for that shit? Link to that article HERE

His take is essentially that you do high intensity workouts, REST enough in between workouts to let the body supercompensate, then repeat with more speed & power. And that, he argues, is a better way to build fitness than slogging away for long hours. He uses data (restwise.com) to tell him when he is rested enough to hit it again. I use a much less scientific approach. If I feel like riding hard, I do and I try to make it count. If I don’t feel like getting out and suffering, I don’t ride.
 
@Delish - Thanks for the detail. I was wondering if all you were doing was high end.

I've read a bunch of stuff where time crunched people are leveraging more HIT specific training since they don't have time for those long Z2 rides. It seems more coaches and trainers are shifting in that direction.

Good Luck at the first race
 
Mountain Bike Mike said:
It seems more coaches and trainers are shifting in that direction when their client bases erode after 3 years of not making any progress.
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FTFY.

HIT is really edgy stuff. I am not commenting on EO's methods but these things are often true of that approach:

* burn out and injury is a big issue
* generally this works better on extremely seasoned cyclists who have tons of miles in the bank
 
Norm said:
FTFY.

HIT is really edgy stuff. I am not commenting on EO's methods but these things are often true of that approach:

* burn out and injury is a big issue
* generally this works better on extremely seasoned cyclists who have tons of miles in the bank
Click to expand...
The second comment is the big mystery piece of the puzzle and I assume at some point @Delish rode more than 4.75 hours per week. I think those seasoned people have been through the ups and downs of training and know all the warning signs if they are over-doing it. The same as when a training plan works for some people and not others, I always sorta wonder about the base each person as (and this is ignoring that person's natural ability or if they are actually sticking to the plan).
 
Not really. Last year I was "on a plan" and averaged perhaps 6-6.5 hours during the peak training period with a bunch of weeks around 3. That's the most I've ever ridden on average. I can probably count on two hands the number of weeks I've ever ridden more than 8 hours total in the past 20 years--mostly bike vacations to bend or KT. The actual plan called for probably 8 on average--45-60 min a day with a longer ride or two on the weekend.

But I think you are right about solid base I've built up over those years being a big contributor to making this approach work.

I considered trying an endurance mtb race this year just to experience it. My fitness is pretty specialized. I would probably struggle if I tried to bang out a century tomorrow.

Physiology is the other big factor that makes a plan like this work for me. I am extremely lucky compared to people like @UtahJoe or @Norm who need 8 hours just to keep from gaining weight. This plan certainly isn't for everybody.
 
Delish said:
Last year I was "on a plan" and averaged perhaps 6-6.5 hours during the peak training period
Click to expand...


That's pretty close to what I did for MTB season. Lots of short, intense intervals on the trainer. A lot of 5 hour weeks in the beginning, then some 7s.
 
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