It seems these days that everyone has some kind of cool climbing calculator - you've already read about my pretty cool Low Key Hill Climb Converter in a recent post (yeah - like my *last* post!).
Well it seems my beefed-up LKHC Converter spurred on others to see what they could cook up - and the top climber in this year's LKHC series, Tim Clark, came up with something pretty cool himself - what he calls his Climbing Power Calculator (version 0.1) - and here is what he says about it (I could paraphrase it, but Tim did a pretty good job of explaining it in an e-mail to the LKHC e-mail list - I hope you don't mind, Tim!) :
After seeing Steve Rosen's LKHC Climb Prediction page ... I got motivated to try to implement something in Adobe/Macromedia Flex.
Ultimately ... my goal is to have something which is capable of taking your 'Average Threshold Power' ... and applying it to the different (instantaneous) gradients throughout the climb ... hopefully giving you the best possible estimate of your time.
In order to do this ... I implemented the Power Profile spreadsheet that I found - which solves the quadratic equation for your climbing velocity based on a number of parameters (distance, grade, wind, rolling resistance, and POWER).
I also needed to be able to read the MotionBased (exported) XML files, so that I could get access to the Distance vs. Altitude data. I did this on the left 'pane' ... where it displays a plot of the MB data.
At present, it just pulls the (available) climb data for the climbs (I'm still missing a bunch), stuffs values into the Power Calc sheet, and allows you to Predict your Time based on the data. You can fool around with Rider Weight, Equip Weight, Head Wind, Power, etc ... and see how they would affect your times for the various climbs.
It's *FAR* from finished, but I thought I'd share it wit everybody, so that I can get feedback as I continue to fool around with it.
Well, I fooled around with Tim's new Climbing Power Calculator - and it's really pretty good. The main problem I see with his calculator is that it requires you to *know* your average power for a climb! Well, anyone with a power meter (like Tim and countless other more serious cyclists - especially the better racers) have access to this very important power information.
But others of us - me included - don't have power meters (yet!) - so with this in mind, I decided it would be useful to have YACC (Yet Another Climbing Calculator) - but I just call it The Climb Calculator.
So what's the big deal about this one?
Simple - I wanted a generic climb calculator, so I can play those "what if" games for *any* climb that I choose to do. And not just the LKHC climbs that most of us are so familiar with.
Also, what if *you* are convinced the elevation or distance info for one of the LKHC climbs is *wrong*?
Or, what if you think my choice of 50.0 watts of power needed to overcome tire pressure, wind resistance, extra cold weather, a bad hair day, etc. - is simply wrong and should really be 45.321 watts?
This Climb Calculator will feel familiar to you - except you can enter the *exact* height of a climb (in feet), and the *precise* distance (in miles) for that climb.
Then, do the usual - either enter time information (mins:secs) and/or weight information (and notice that you now enter the rider weight and the equipment weight as separate numbers - and it will automatically figure out the total weight - a good idea I saw in Tim Clark's cool calculator). You can also optionally enter in power information, if you have it!.
Note that if you enter in your average power information for a climb (and you don't have to - it will determine your power info from your weight and time, if you want), you can optionally enter in the "extra watts", i.e., that magic number (I use 50.0 for the LKHC Converter) that accounts for all the power you need to "move the bike", as Al Williams pointed out.
And, of course, this Climb Calculator let's you play all those fun "what if" games, by changing the rider weight (or, the equipment weight - or both!) and seeing the change in the climbing time. Or, you can change the average power output for your climb, and see the climbing time get re-calculated, etc.
I did this because I have good data for a lot of the climbs I do - dozens of major climbs, but also dozens of smaller climbs - some that are just a 1/2 mile long or so. Now I can see the effects of weight change or power change on all those climbs.
And, of course, for all those *big* climbs that we do, but have not been done by the LKHC (yet) - like Alba Rd - or Jamison Creek - or the San Bruno HC, etc. - you can now see what happens when you control yourself and stop having those second helpings of lasagna, that extra piece of apple pie, etc. - or do those extra hill repeats in the middle of winter and increase your power output by 2%, etc.
Have fun!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The LKHC Converter - first release now available
Most of you that read this blog regularly (yeah - both of us) know about a great hill climbing series that is quite, uh, low key - the Low Key Hill Climb series (LKHC) - you can read all about this year's festivities right here.
I wanted to participate in the series this year, but we all know what a disaster it's been for me the last few months - I totally lost the (little) climbing ability I had so carefully gained in the first half of the year, as I delved back into the exciting world of bike racing for the first time in 30 years, starting back in about July of this year.
But a number of my friends did the LKHC series this year - and I always followed the action, anxiously waiting to see the results published later that day or the next (each climb was done on a Saturday, except for the last one, which is traditionally done on Thanksgiving morning and goes up Mt Hamilton).
I sent out some e-mails to some biking buddies of mine, to let them know about a great set of conversion charts that one of the organizers of the LKHC series, Dan Connelly, had put together for the 1995 and 1996 editions of the series. The LKHC series was abandoned for about 10 years, but was resurrected in 2006, and was so popular, they did it again this year - and gained even *more* converts! I suspect it will be even bigger in 2008.
The 1995 conversion chart and the 1996 conversion chart provided you with these cool conversion factors, so that if you knew your time up one of the climbs, you could use the conversion factors for that climb to calculate (or, predict) your expected times for all the other climbs.
I've used those conversion charts a lot in the last few months - in fact, a previous blog entry I wrote explained Why I Want To Climb OLH in 19:10. But I always calculated my predicted times the old-fashioned way, with a calculator, of course... :)
But one of my cycling buddies, Rich Seiter, sent me an Excel spreadsheet that allowed you to enter in your climbing time for one of the climbs, and then it would automatically calculate all your predicted times for the other climbs done that year - how cool! I made a few minor tweaks of his Excel spreadsheet and sent it out to all the rest of my biking buddies, with Rich's blessings, of course (thanks, Rich!).
But then I got to thinking - wouldn't it be cool to have an online version of that same concept? And hence, the LKHC Converter project was born - and now you can see the results for yourself:
The LKHC Converter
After I put out the first version of this web page, I let Dan Connelly know about it, and encouraged him to create similar conversion charts for the 2006 LKHC and 2007 LKHC series - and he said he'd do just that. He also asked me to let the LKHC e-mail list know about it - and so I did.
Naturally, I got all kinds of feedback - and as different ideas and requests came in, it got fancier and fancier - with more features and more goodies. The current version you see now represents about the 10th iteration of that web page!
So have some fun and play around with it - and drop me a note if you have any comments/suggestions to make - I'd love to hear your ideas.
And when Dan gets me those new conversion charts for 2006 and 2007, I'll be sure to update the LKHC Converter, of course.
I'm also working on creating a version of that same web page for our local cycling group - it would have a lot of the other climbs that many of us do in the local Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz area - but I won't have as many data points to use to create the tables that drive it, so it will mostly be useful to just a few of us, I suspect.
But who knows? Maybe this will be the start of a whole new career... :)
I wanted to participate in the series this year, but we all know what a disaster it's been for me the last few months - I totally lost the (little) climbing ability I had so carefully gained in the first half of the year, as I delved back into the exciting world of bike racing for the first time in 30 years, starting back in about July of this year.
But a number of my friends did the LKHC series this year - and I always followed the action, anxiously waiting to see the results published later that day or the next (each climb was done on a Saturday, except for the last one, which is traditionally done on Thanksgiving morning and goes up Mt Hamilton).
I sent out some e-mails to some biking buddies of mine, to let them know about a great set of conversion charts that one of the organizers of the LKHC series, Dan Connelly, had put together for the 1995 and 1996 editions of the series. The LKHC series was abandoned for about 10 years, but was resurrected in 2006, and was so popular, they did it again this year - and gained even *more* converts! I suspect it will be even bigger in 2008.
The 1995 conversion chart and the 1996 conversion chart provided you with these cool conversion factors, so that if you knew your time up one of the climbs, you could use the conversion factors for that climb to calculate (or, predict) your expected times for all the other climbs.
I've used those conversion charts a lot in the last few months - in fact, a previous blog entry I wrote explained Why I Want To Climb OLH in 19:10. But I always calculated my predicted times the old-fashioned way, with a calculator, of course... :)
But one of my cycling buddies, Rich Seiter, sent me an Excel spreadsheet that allowed you to enter in your climbing time for one of the climbs, and then it would automatically calculate all your predicted times for the other climbs done that year - how cool! I made a few minor tweaks of his Excel spreadsheet and sent it out to all the rest of my biking buddies, with Rich's blessings, of course (thanks, Rich!).
But then I got to thinking - wouldn't it be cool to have an online version of that same concept? And hence, the LKHC Converter project was born - and now you can see the results for yourself:
The LKHC Converter
After I put out the first version of this web page, I let Dan Connelly know about it, and encouraged him to create similar conversion charts for the 2006 LKHC and 2007 LKHC series - and he said he'd do just that. He also asked me to let the LKHC e-mail list know about it - and so I did.
Naturally, I got all kinds of feedback - and as different ideas and requests came in, it got fancier and fancier - with more features and more goodies. The current version you see now represents about the 10th iteration of that web page!
So have some fun and play around with it - and drop me a note if you have any comments/suggestions to make - I'd love to hear your ideas.
And when Dan gets me those new conversion charts for 2006 and 2007, I'll be sure to update the LKHC Converter, of course.
I'm also working on creating a version of that same web page for our local cycling group - it would have a lot of the other climbs that many of us do in the local Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz area - but I won't have as many data points to use to create the tables that drive it, so it will mostly be useful to just a few of us, I suspect.
But who knows? Maybe this will be the start of a whole new career... :)
Sunday, December 9, 2007
My "Secret" Training Program
Well, I guess it won't be much of a secret, if I'm publishing it here on my blog - but there are only one or two of us that read my blog anyway, and we both know about my "secret" training program.
But I thought I'd put it out there for posterity's sake - who knows - it could be a valuable training tool for some poor sucker that used to be in pretty good shape, somehow lost their conditioning, and wants to get it back again. Gee - that could describe me this year! And hence, I've devised a new, "secret" training program to whip myself back into shape as soon as possible.
What's the rush, you might ask?
Well, for one thing, the first race of the season, the San Bruno Hillclimb, is on January 1st - just 3 weeks from now! It's only a 3.7 mile climb, gaining about 1400 feet of elevation - very similar to Old La Honda (which gains 1330 feet in 3.3 miles). In fact, your time up San Bruno should be not more than about 1 minute slower than your time up Old La Honda, mostly because of the slightly longer distance.
Another reason - the first road race of the season that I intend to ride is the Cantua Creek RR on February 16 - just 2 months from now.
And finally, the Tour of California will be happening February 17 through February 24, and a few of us will be taking a "sanity day" off on Wednesday, February 20, to ride up Sierra Rd in the morning, and watch the TOC roll up over the summit of Sierra towards the end of that day's stage race - and I want to be able to climb Sierra Rd in a good time (33 minutes would be real nice!) - and right now, I'd be lucky to do that climb in 43 minutes!
Well, to climb Sierra Rd in just 33 minutes, I'd have to be able to climb Old La Honda in record time (for me) - just 22:51 (my current PB from earlier this year was 23:18), or Kings Mtn Rd in just 28:55 - and I haven't even broken 30 minutes on Kings Mtn Rd yet!
So, I've got my work cut out for me! Oh, how do I know about those times for Old La Honda and Kings Mtn Rd? Simple - just check out my Low Key Hill Climb Converters web page - it has these cool calculators that allow you to enter in a known time for some climb (say, 33:00 for Sierra Rd on the 1995 Climbs converter) - and it will predict your climbing times on all the other climbs done that year in the Low Key Hill Climb series. Those converters were fun to do, based on the fine work (conversion charts) that Dan Connelly did on the 1995 and 1996 renditions of those hillclimb series.
So what does this all have to do with my "secret" training program? And just what IS the "secret" training program, anyway? And why is it such a "secret"?
Okay - all good questions. And, I have some answers. If you've read any of my earlier blogs, you know that I've had this problem recently - I inadvertently lost a lot of climbing conditioning as I got into road racing this year (in the second half of the year, starting in July). I was on a great training program in the first half of the year, doing lots of climbing - almost every day, in fact!
But once I discovered how much climbing ability I had lost a couple of months ago, I got quite depressed - and instead of starting to just climb again, I got more and more out of climbing shape - and also just lost conditioning, in general, as my riding volume decreased quite a bit! I started missing many days in a row - sometimes as much as a week without riding at all! What a mess...
But now I've hit upon a really good idea to get myself motivated again, in a way that will demand a lot of work, but will be fun at the same time, which I believe is one of the "secrets" to any training program - you have to design something that works for YOU - and not somebody else! That's been my mistake - I've been trying too hard to bounce back according to someone else's ideas about how to bounce back - and not due to anything that anyone else has told me - it's been completely created in my own head, where I'm looking for answers and asking questions from all kinds of people that I admire and respect - and listening to their answers and advice, but forgetting to listen to the one person that knows best - me!
So here's my "secret": You know best how to motivate yourself - so use whatever "tricks" it takes to motivate yourself, then apply those tricks and let nature take its course - how simple can that be?
And, here's my "trick": I'm going to ride from my work location every day (it's in San Mateo), climbing over some small hills to get to Canada Rd - then I'll do a very moderate 5.0-mile time trial along Canada Rd, heading for the base of Kings Mtn Rd. After doing the 5.0-mile time trial, I'll go nice and easy for a few miles to get to the start of the Kings Mtn climb, then climb it hard, starting at Tripp Rd, and going up exactly 1.4 miles (this will be about 10 minutes or so, which is 1/3 of the climb of Kings Mtn Rd). Then, I'll turn around and head back to work, doing another moderate-paced 5.0-mile time trial on Canada Rd. This will be day 1 (Monday, December 10). On day 2, I'll do the exact same ride, but add 0.1 miles to the hard climb - and "hard" means at a time-trial climbing pace, or zone 5.0+ (about 162 bpm for me). This extra 0.1 miles will be an extra 45 seconds of hard climbing or so. And, each day, I'll continue to add 0.1 miles to the climb - and by the end of 28 days, or on January 7, 2008 - I'll be able to do a hard time trial pace up Kings Mtn Rd, all the way to the top (which is 4.2 miles - or 1.4 miles plus the 2.8 miles that I will have added by then, in 0.1 mile increments).
Hopefully, this "secret" training program will result in me being able to climb Kings Mtn Rd in about 30 minutes, which would be a new PB for me. Then, all I have to do at that point is try and and take off another minute or so from my climbing time, but I will have a good 6 weeks to get that done, before the big day on Sierra Rd (on Wednesday, February 20).
Another benefit is that I will working on those 5.0-mile time trials on Canada Rd, which is where the Beat-the-Clock time trial series are held - and as I get in better conditioning, I'll mix in some days where I do those time trial segments at a harder and harder pace, until I am doing the 5.0-mile time trial segments at close to a true time-trial pace - so by the time the first Beat-the-Clock time trial comes along (which I believe will be in about the middle of February, like this year), I should be in good enough shape to do well for that 10.0-mile time trial, where I will try to match or beat my best time this year, which was 26:14, or 23 mph.
And, as an added plus, this "secret" training program should get me in good enough shape to be able to do the San Bruno Hill Climb on January 1st in a time of about 24:xx (under 25 minutes) - and I get this number by using a Kings Mtn climbing time of 30 minutes in that LKHC Converter page, and noting that the Old La Honda time would be about 23:42 - and as I said, your time up San Bruno should not be much more than one minute slower than your Old La Honda time.
Make sense? Well, it doesn't really matter if it makes sense to YOU - the key is, it makes sense to ME!
...And that is the big "secret"... :)
But I thought I'd put it out there for posterity's sake - who knows - it could be a valuable training tool for some poor sucker that used to be in pretty good shape, somehow lost their conditioning, and wants to get it back again. Gee - that could describe me this year! And hence, I've devised a new, "secret" training program to whip myself back into shape as soon as possible.
What's the rush, you might ask?
Well, for one thing, the first race of the season, the San Bruno Hillclimb, is on January 1st - just 3 weeks from now! It's only a 3.7 mile climb, gaining about 1400 feet of elevation - very similar to Old La Honda (which gains 1330 feet in 3.3 miles). In fact, your time up San Bruno should be not more than about 1 minute slower than your time up Old La Honda, mostly because of the slightly longer distance.
Another reason - the first road race of the season that I intend to ride is the Cantua Creek RR on February 16 - just 2 months from now.
And finally, the Tour of California will be happening February 17 through February 24, and a few of us will be taking a "sanity day" off on Wednesday, February 20, to ride up Sierra Rd in the morning, and watch the TOC roll up over the summit of Sierra towards the end of that day's stage race - and I want to be able to climb Sierra Rd in a good time (33 minutes would be real nice!) - and right now, I'd be lucky to do that climb in 43 minutes!
Well, to climb Sierra Rd in just 33 minutes, I'd have to be able to climb Old La Honda in record time (for me) - just 22:51 (my current PB from earlier this year was 23:18), or Kings Mtn Rd in just 28:55 - and I haven't even broken 30 minutes on Kings Mtn Rd yet!
So, I've got my work cut out for me! Oh, how do I know about those times for Old La Honda and Kings Mtn Rd? Simple - just check out my Low Key Hill Climb Converters web page - it has these cool calculators that allow you to enter in a known time for some climb (say, 33:00 for Sierra Rd on the 1995 Climbs converter) - and it will predict your climbing times on all the other climbs done that year in the Low Key Hill Climb series. Those converters were fun to do, based on the fine work (conversion charts) that Dan Connelly did on the 1995 and 1996 renditions of those hillclimb series.
So what does this all have to do with my "secret" training program? And just what IS the "secret" training program, anyway? And why is it such a "secret"?
Okay - all good questions. And, I have some answers. If you've read any of my earlier blogs, you know that I've had this problem recently - I inadvertently lost a lot of climbing conditioning as I got into road racing this year (in the second half of the year, starting in July). I was on a great training program in the first half of the year, doing lots of climbing - almost every day, in fact!
But once I discovered how much climbing ability I had lost a couple of months ago, I got quite depressed - and instead of starting to just climb again, I got more and more out of climbing shape - and also just lost conditioning, in general, as my riding volume decreased quite a bit! I started missing many days in a row - sometimes as much as a week without riding at all! What a mess...
But now I've hit upon a really good idea to get myself motivated again, in a way that will demand a lot of work, but will be fun at the same time, which I believe is one of the "secrets" to any training program - you have to design something that works for YOU - and not somebody else! That's been my mistake - I've been trying too hard to bounce back according to someone else's ideas about how to bounce back - and not due to anything that anyone else has told me - it's been completely created in my own head, where I'm looking for answers and asking questions from all kinds of people that I admire and respect - and listening to their answers and advice, but forgetting to listen to the one person that knows best - me!
So here's my "secret": You know best how to motivate yourself - so use whatever "tricks" it takes to motivate yourself, then apply those tricks and let nature take its course - how simple can that be?
And, here's my "trick": I'm going to ride from my work location every day (it's in San Mateo), climbing over some small hills to get to Canada Rd - then I'll do a very moderate 5.0-mile time trial along Canada Rd, heading for the base of Kings Mtn Rd. After doing the 5.0-mile time trial, I'll go nice and easy for a few miles to get to the start of the Kings Mtn climb, then climb it hard, starting at Tripp Rd, and going up exactly 1.4 miles (this will be about 10 minutes or so, which is 1/3 of the climb of Kings Mtn Rd). Then, I'll turn around and head back to work, doing another moderate-paced 5.0-mile time trial on Canada Rd. This will be day 1 (Monday, December 10). On day 2, I'll do the exact same ride, but add 0.1 miles to the hard climb - and "hard" means at a time-trial climbing pace, or zone 5.0+ (about 162 bpm for me). This extra 0.1 miles will be an extra 45 seconds of hard climbing or so. And, each day, I'll continue to add 0.1 miles to the climb - and by the end of 28 days, or on January 7, 2008 - I'll be able to do a hard time trial pace up Kings Mtn Rd, all the way to the top (which is 4.2 miles - or 1.4 miles plus the 2.8 miles that I will have added by then, in 0.1 mile increments).
Hopefully, this "secret" training program will result in me being able to climb Kings Mtn Rd in about 30 minutes, which would be a new PB for me. Then, all I have to do at that point is try and and take off another minute or so from my climbing time, but I will have a good 6 weeks to get that done, before the big day on Sierra Rd (on Wednesday, February 20).
Another benefit is that I will working on those 5.0-mile time trials on Canada Rd, which is where the Beat-the-Clock time trial series are held - and as I get in better conditioning, I'll mix in some days where I do those time trial segments at a harder and harder pace, until I am doing the 5.0-mile time trial segments at close to a true time-trial pace - so by the time the first Beat-the-Clock time trial comes along (which I believe will be in about the middle of February, like this year), I should be in good enough shape to do well for that 10.0-mile time trial, where I will try to match or beat my best time this year, which was 26:14, or 23 mph.
And, as an added plus, this "secret" training program should get me in good enough shape to be able to do the San Bruno Hill Climb on January 1st in a time of about 24:xx (under 25 minutes) - and I get this number by using a Kings Mtn climbing time of 30 minutes in that LKHC Converter page, and noting that the Old La Honda time would be about 23:42 - and as I said, your time up San Bruno should not be much more than one minute slower than your Old La Honda time.
Make sense? Well, it doesn't really matter if it makes sense to YOU - the key is, it makes sense to ME!
...And that is the big "secret"... :)
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
My Cycling Goals for 2008
Okay, it's time to put it all out there - what I want to achieve in 2008, at least for my cycling "hobby" (or, "infatuation", as my wife describes it!).
Looking at my strengths from 2007, it's clear that I should aim high for any time trials that don't go straight uphill. This would include unsanctioned things like the Beat-the-Clock time trials on Canada Rd, or the Swanton Rd time trials. Of course, there are also the sanctioned flatter time trials - Dunlap TT, TT Championships in Sattley, Esparto TT, etc.
Another strength I observed from 2007 (just based on 4 crits and 2 road races) is that I can do well in those flat crits and flatter road races. However, I'm not super crazy about the crits - they're okay, but obviously quite dangerous - I never got involved in any crashes in the 4 crits that I did, but I sure came close! I got to personally see 2 or 3 good crashes, including 1 or 2 that were very close to me - but that's just bike racing, for sure...
I've identified the flatter road races that I *should* do well in - Snelling, Merco Credit Union Foothills, and Bariani / Zamora for the early season, then Dunnigan Hills, San Ardo, and Henleyville for the later season (and maybe Warnerville, a new road race for 2008, near Oakdale - but there are no details about the course yet).
And my weaknesses that I saw in 2007? Well, climbing - obviously! Anytime the road goes up for more than about 1 mile, I will be at a disadvantage until I can lose a bunch of weight and/or improve my power output in watts. So here are my climbing goals for 2008:
Yes, the goals are a bit lofty, especially considering that most of my current PBs on those climbs were set earlier this year, when I actually had climbing legs, which is not the case today. But you gotta stretch, right?
What are the numbers in parentheses, you might be asking? Why, those are my lifetime goals for those climbs - something to shoot for before I die one day... :)
My racing goals are pretty realistic for next year - I'm going to focus mostly on the flatter road races (where I have a chance to place in the top 10) and the flatter time trials, plus some crits. But I'm also going to try my hand at some of the tougher road races and time trials (i.e., hillier) when I feel ready - whatever that means! So, my goals:
There are also some goals that are the traditional goals I've set each year for the last few years - they are all related to participating in some of the organized bike rides that many of us enjoy doing each year:
Finally, I have my more immediate goals - the most important of which is to get myself back to the same climbing conditioning I had about the middle of 2007 - and attempt to get there by the first real road race of the season on February 16, Cantua Creek, which I also consider to be one of my 4 tougher road races, since it occurs relatively early in the season - the climbing is not severe, but it will certainly feel like it to me!
Lastly, I want to do well enough in the first half of the season, to consider getting an invitation to join either the Bike Trip or the San Jose Bicycle Club team for the last part of the year, where I can help them in the flatter road races and some crits. My current team, SCCCC, just doesn't have enough serious road racers that want to work as a team - and I've seen that both Bike Trip and San Jose Bicycle Club have road riders with that kind of dedication and teamwork ethics.
That's about it for 2008 - now it's time to get on my bike and start training seriously!
Looking at my strengths from 2007, it's clear that I should aim high for any time trials that don't go straight uphill. This would include unsanctioned things like the Beat-the-Clock time trials on Canada Rd, or the Swanton Rd time trials. Of course, there are also the sanctioned flatter time trials - Dunlap TT, TT Championships in Sattley, Esparto TT, etc.
Another strength I observed from 2007 (just based on 4 crits and 2 road races) is that I can do well in those flat crits and flatter road races. However, I'm not super crazy about the crits - they're okay, but obviously quite dangerous - I never got involved in any crashes in the 4 crits that I did, but I sure came close! I got to personally see 2 or 3 good crashes, including 1 or 2 that were very close to me - but that's just bike racing, for sure...
I've identified the flatter road races that I *should* do well in - Snelling, Merco Credit Union Foothills, and Bariani / Zamora for the early season, then Dunnigan Hills, San Ardo, and Henleyville for the later season (and maybe Warnerville, a new road race for 2008, near Oakdale - but there are no details about the course yet).
And my weaknesses that I saw in 2007? Well, climbing - obviously! Anytime the road goes up for more than about 1 mile, I will be at a disadvantage until I can lose a bunch of weight and/or improve my power output in watts. So here are my climbing goals for 2008:
- San Bruno HC - 22:59 (18:59)
- Mt Diablo - 1:08:59 (59:59)
- Old La Honda - 21:59 (18:59)
- Kings Mtn - 27:59 (24:59)
- E Hwy 9 - 39:59 (34:59)
- Mt Hamilton - 1:39:59 (1:29:59)
- Sierra Rd - 31:59 (27:59)
- Page Mill Rd - 45:59 (39:59)
Yes, the goals are a bit lofty, especially considering that most of my current PBs on those climbs were set earlier this year, when I actually had climbing legs, which is not the case today. But you gotta stretch, right?
What are the numbers in parentheses, you might be asking? Why, those are my lifetime goals for those climbs - something to shoot for before I die one day... :)
My racing goals are pretty realistic for next year - I'm going to focus mostly on the flatter road races (where I have a chance to place in the top 10) and the flatter time trials, plus some crits. But I'm also going to try my hand at some of the tougher road races and time trials (i.e., hillier) when I feel ready - whatever that means! So, my goals:
- Enter 6 of the flatter road races, placing in the top 10 for 3
- Enter 3 of the flatter time trials, placing in the top 15 for all
- Enter 4 of the tougher road races, finishing at least 2
- Enter 2 of the tougher time trials, finishing them both
- Enter at least 6 crits, including 2 hillier ones
- Enter all Swanton TT races, breaking 33 minutes every time
- Enter all Beat-the-Clock TT races, finishing in the top 15 for all
- Earn at least half the upgrade points needed to get into Cat 3
There are also some goals that are the traditional goals I've set each year for the last few years - they are all related to participating in some of the organized bike rides that many of us enjoy doing each year:
- Death Ride - finish in under 10 hours
- Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge - finish in under 7 hours
- Mt Diablo Challenge - finish in under 1:09
- Enter all the LKHC series climbs and average 100 pts for each
Finally, I have my more immediate goals - the most important of which is to get myself back to the same climbing conditioning I had about the middle of 2007 - and attempt to get there by the first real road race of the season on February 16, Cantua Creek, which I also consider to be one of my 4 tougher road races, since it occurs relatively early in the season - the climbing is not severe, but it will certainly feel like it to me!
Lastly, I want to do well enough in the first half of the season, to consider getting an invitation to join either the Bike Trip or the San Jose Bicycle Club team for the last part of the year, where I can help them in the flatter road races and some crits. My current team, SCCCC, just doesn't have enough serious road racers that want to work as a team - and I've seen that both Bike Trip and San Jose Bicycle Club have road riders with that kind of dedication and teamwork ethics.
That's about it for 2008 - now it's time to get on my bike and start training seriously!
The Year (2007) in Review
Yep, it's that time of year - gotta figure out what I want to accomplish for next year, at least from a cycling perspective (is there any other?)... :)
But before I try to figure that out, I need to do a quick review of what I did - right and wrong - for this year. I didn't plan on getting back into racing for 2007 - it just sorta happened! One of my cycling buddies had talked about doing some racing this year - and I thought it would be cool to try it again, myself. I mean, I had raced - way back when (in my college days) - so why not try it again? Ironically, the guy that initially motivated me about racing again turned out not to race this year - maybe he'll get into it for 2008!
Before I got into the serious racing stuff, I thought I'd start out with some easy things - like the Swanton Time Trial series - informal, needs no racing license - not too long (11 miles, 5.5 miles out and back, with a solid, one-mile climb just before the turnaround point) - you can read all about it right here. I also heard about this cool (and again, informal) time-trial series called Beat-the-Clock, which had the extra benefit of being a great charity cause, with all the proceeds going to the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) - read all about that great series right here.
Well, I did (finally!) do one of the Swanton Time Trial races, but not until it was near the end of the season (see the results of that race here). As you can see from the results, I did pretty good for my first Swanton TT - 34:14 - almost 20 mph (I was shooting for 33:00, which is exactly 20 mph).
And, I did 2 of the Beat-the-Clock time trials, both 10-mile TTs on a rolling course (Canada Rd in Woodside/San Mateo) - one in May, where I did 26:14, or just about 23 mph - wooohooo!! I did the second one in September, slipping a bit to 26:42 - but followed that ITT just 5 minutes later with a 2-man TT - we did 26:07, which was mostly my partner, who had done a better ITT (he was my 30-second man in the ITT), with an excellent time of 25:00.
After I did my first Beat-the-Clock TT, I decided it was time to get serious and get an official racing license, which I did in May - and promptly joined a local cycling club, the Santa Cruz County Cycling Club (SCCCC) - too many 'C's in our acronym! Then, with my fresh new racing license (#264162), I looked around to figure out what I'd do for my first race in 30 years! I decided to sign up for the Watsonville criterium - a few people I knew had said that it was a fun crit - and since it would only last 30 minutes or so, it couldn't be *that* bad, right? Well, it turned out to be a blast - and I even managed to get 8th place, after forming a breakaway with 7 other guys (yeah - I got last in the sprint finish, but that's not 'cause I'm a bad sprinter - I was just, uh, rusty - it was my first race in 30 years).
With that first race under my belt, I was hooked again - and totally motivated to do more races - a few more crits (although I never liked crits as much as I liked the regular road races) - and I had a couple of road races singled out - they were not too hilly, and not too long - good test cases for my re-entry into the cool world of bike racing!
And, I continued training - I had been doing a LOT of climbing in those first 6 months of the year, getting more PBs in May and June, as I continued to get stronger and faster.
Then I made a strategic error - I didn't realize it at the time, but it turned out to have some dramatic effects on my conditioning. I decided to start doing a lot of the 'Noon Goon' rides, as I affectionately called them. They are great training rides - leaving at noon every weekday from Palo Alto and, after a 10 to 15 minute warmup, going at a race-type pace for the next hour or so. My strategic error? I started limiting my training mostly to these shorter, faster rides on the weekdays (instead of the climbing routes I had been doing by myself) - and the weekends consisted of either doing races or more of those same shorter and faster routes - but not too much climbing.
Well - that strategy paid of well for the crits and flatter road races that I chose to race (4 crits and 2 road races) - but when I went to get ready for the Mt Diablo Challenge race in early October, I found out I had lost a lot of my climbing ability!
It turns out that I'm one of those types of riders that needs to climb all the time to keep myself in climbing shape - I'm not a natural climber, so when I start to get in better climbing shape (from climbing, of course!), I need to keep climbing - a lot - just to not go backwards!
It was depressing to see how bad I was on the longer, harder climbs in September and October - and I continued to beat myself up the last couple of months, bemoaning how much conditioning I had lost. I noticed that when I tried to push it on the climbs, I was a LONG way from any of my PBs that I had established earlier this year.
So it was fun getting back into racing, but I paid a dear price for my training strategy - and now I have to figure out how to re-capture the motivation - I'm terribly de-motivated right now, as I've seen other cycling friends of mine get better and stronger (especially on the climbs), while I've been pedaling backwards at an alarming rate!
So, how do I stop the carnage and start moving forwards again? That, my friends, is the crux of my dilemma these days.
Fortunately, I have a secret game plan that I'm putting into action - and if it works, I'll have a very interesting blog entry to create in about one month! I won't reveal the secrets right now, as I want to get some more feedback before I announce to the world (uh, yeah - all two of you!) a very interesting idea I had that can be used to 'get back into the game', so to speak...
Next up will be a blog entry about my cycling goals for next year - I've been putting a lot of thought into it - and I have some very definite things I want to do for next year - and they don't all involve winning races...
Stay tuned!
But before I try to figure that out, I need to do a quick review of what I did - right and wrong - for this year. I didn't plan on getting back into racing for 2007 - it just sorta happened! One of my cycling buddies had talked about doing some racing this year - and I thought it would be cool to try it again, myself. I mean, I had raced - way back when (in my college days) - so why not try it again? Ironically, the guy that initially motivated me about racing again turned out not to race this year - maybe he'll get into it for 2008!
Before I got into the serious racing stuff, I thought I'd start out with some easy things - like the Swanton Time Trial series - informal, needs no racing license - not too long (11 miles, 5.5 miles out and back, with a solid, one-mile climb just before the turnaround point) - you can read all about it right here. I also heard about this cool (and again, informal) time-trial series called Beat-the-Clock, which had the extra benefit of being a great charity cause, with all the proceeds going to the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) - read all about that great series right here.
Well, I did (finally!) do one of the Swanton Time Trial races, but not until it was near the end of the season (see the results of that race here). As you can see from the results, I did pretty good for my first Swanton TT - 34:14 - almost 20 mph (I was shooting for 33:00, which is exactly 20 mph).
And, I did 2 of the Beat-the-Clock time trials, both 10-mile TTs on a rolling course (Canada Rd in Woodside/San Mateo) - one in May, where I did 26:14, or just about 23 mph - wooohooo!! I did the second one in September, slipping a bit to 26:42 - but followed that ITT just 5 minutes later with a 2-man TT - we did 26:07, which was mostly my partner, who had done a better ITT (he was my 30-second man in the ITT), with an excellent time of 25:00.
After I did my first Beat-the-Clock TT, I decided it was time to get serious and get an official racing license, which I did in May - and promptly joined a local cycling club, the Santa Cruz County Cycling Club (SCCCC) - too many 'C's in our acronym! Then, with my fresh new racing license (#264162), I looked around to figure out what I'd do for my first race in 30 years! I decided to sign up for the Watsonville criterium - a few people I knew had said that it was a fun crit - and since it would only last 30 minutes or so, it couldn't be *that* bad, right? Well, it turned out to be a blast - and I even managed to get 8th place, after forming a breakaway with 7 other guys (yeah - I got last in the sprint finish, but that's not 'cause I'm a bad sprinter - I was just, uh, rusty - it was my first race in 30 years).
With that first race under my belt, I was hooked again - and totally motivated to do more races - a few more crits (although I never liked crits as much as I liked the regular road races) - and I had a couple of road races singled out - they were not too hilly, and not too long - good test cases for my re-entry into the cool world of bike racing!
And, I continued training - I had been doing a LOT of climbing in those first 6 months of the year, getting more PBs in May and June, as I continued to get stronger and faster.
Then I made a strategic error - I didn't realize it at the time, but it turned out to have some dramatic effects on my conditioning. I decided to start doing a lot of the 'Noon Goon' rides, as I affectionately called them. They are great training rides - leaving at noon every weekday from Palo Alto and, after a 10 to 15 minute warmup, going at a race-type pace for the next hour or so. My strategic error? I started limiting my training mostly to these shorter, faster rides on the weekdays (instead of the climbing routes I had been doing by myself) - and the weekends consisted of either doing races or more of those same shorter and faster routes - but not too much climbing.
Well - that strategy paid of well for the crits and flatter road races that I chose to race (4 crits and 2 road races) - but when I went to get ready for the Mt Diablo Challenge race in early October, I found out I had lost a lot of my climbing ability!
It turns out that I'm one of those types of riders that needs to climb all the time to keep myself in climbing shape - I'm not a natural climber, so when I start to get in better climbing shape (from climbing, of course!), I need to keep climbing - a lot - just to not go backwards!
It was depressing to see how bad I was on the longer, harder climbs in September and October - and I continued to beat myself up the last couple of months, bemoaning how much conditioning I had lost. I noticed that when I tried to push it on the climbs, I was a LONG way from any of my PBs that I had established earlier this year.
So it was fun getting back into racing, but I paid a dear price for my training strategy - and now I have to figure out how to re-capture the motivation - I'm terribly de-motivated right now, as I've seen other cycling friends of mine get better and stronger (especially on the climbs), while I've been pedaling backwards at an alarming rate!
So, how do I stop the carnage and start moving forwards again? That, my friends, is the crux of my dilemma these days.
Fortunately, I have a secret game plan that I'm putting into action - and if it works, I'll have a very interesting blog entry to create in about one month! I won't reveal the secrets right now, as I want to get some more feedback before I announce to the world (uh, yeah - all two of you!) a very interesting idea I had that can be used to 'get back into the game', so to speak...
Next up will be a blog entry about my cycling goals for next year - I've been putting a lot of thought into it - and I have some very definite things I want to do for next year - and they don't all involve winning races...
Stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
