PASSION: REIGNITED

Having spent the past year chasing threshold power numbers, cycling has become a wee bit of a chore of late, a little stale, a little mind-numbing.  Same old, same old.  Because time is precious these days, the routine has been the same for the past 12 or 13 months; either jump on the trainer, dial up 340w and sit there for as along as possible, or, if the weather is conducive (we've had an amazing fall), suit up, and ride hard for the window that you have available.  Hopefully, when you get back and shove everything to the side to  download your Garmin, you'll see a big, fat IF number and a weighty TSS to boot.  That routine gets old in a hurry towards the end of a season.

With an amazing streak of weather, I've turned my focus on enjoyment.  Screw power, forget HR.  Get out

there and enjoy the sunshine, camaraderie, the views from high above, and the wind in your face.  I think I've climbed Cypress more in September and October than I have all year (20 times in the last two months!).  I'm amazed at the consistency too.  Riding by feel at a fairly sedate pace - without any data whatsoever -, times range from 34 to 37 minutes - I'll take that!

With the dip in temperature, Cypress is a no go, so what to do?  My brain can't take a session on the trainer just yet, not at the moment, not this early. I'm thinking TRAIL RUNNING!  Back in the day, I would run for hours. The constant undulations, uneven footing, and stride variety engaged your mind, the seconds would turn to minutes, the minutes to hours, and 3 or 4 hours would slip by without noticing. I remember the freedom I felt gliding up and down the trails, feet happily dancing around, over and on top of any rocks. I need to feel that again!

WHERE'S YOUR START LINE?

It's been a while since I last updated my blog. With a 3 year old tearing the house up, it seems like there's always so much to do, yet so little time to do it! Let's wind the clock a bit. From the off-season, where I delved back into trail running, literally starting from zero (I haven't ran in.....a decade?), and with the magic of reasonably good aerobic - but not run specific - fitness, I started.  Off I went. The first run-walk was a 3 hour adventure through the enchanted forest, way up above the British Properties. I felt suspiciously good, so I piled on the speed. Why walk when you can run, right? And then I threw in heaps of elevation,  but, being compulsive and competitive against myself (a dangerous combination), I kept the speed up. And that's where it all went to pot. I ran up Cypress on a weekly basis, no base run fitness and promptly fractured my ankle. Ding dong, I should have known. With running over,  I hit the gym instead. Meh, it's  closer than driving all that way to the trailhead anyway, and there's no mud at the gym....

From there, an annual visit to Maui, logging a few sun-soaked kilometers amid blue skies and swinging palm trees. I'm always surprised at the number of Vancouverites visiting Maui in any one year; almost every ride had me bumping into another familiar cyclist escaping the greyness of Vancouver. Spending a few weeks on that magical island had me at the desk, frantically working the numbers trying to figure out how I can possibly spend the winter months doing nothing but eating bananas and coconuts and riding my bike. Alas, I'm still making the numbers work in my favour. Rest assured, the moment I can lever my meager net worth for a regular, extended stay, my bags will be packed.

Back in Vancouver, the good folks at MEC arrange a phone interview between myself and neo-pro and all around great gal, Alison Jackson.  Walking us through their vision of the 2015 cycling campaign, we answered a variety of personal, soul-searching questions about what cycling means to us, and how that might differ from one rider to another. The overarching theme of the campaign was "Start lines are everywhere." I immediately understood their take; regardless of your ability, your destination, or the confines of a particular route or group, each ride has it's own destination. How will you react to an attack? Are you driving the train, or just a passenger on the bus? What a great concept. 

A few days after our initial discussion, we gathered for a quick photo shoot and some voice-over work and....the collective geniuses over at MEC, and the ultra-talented Matt Dennison, created an incredible video to kickstart MEC's 2015 cycling season!   

Roll on, 2015, roll on!

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

As an aging, decrepit, crusty old geezer, I take solace from helping cyclists find their inner performance.  Regardless of whether it's a new racer, or a seasoned elite competitor, it's always a joy to help a new athlete reach a level of fitness never before imagined.


This past year, I was very fortunate to work with an extremely hard working individual that was taking on the Haute Route - Alps, a seven day timed race up and over the Alps.  After 8 months of hard training and quantifiable fitness improvements, it was off to Europe.  Senior Living Magazine even wrote an article on this exceptionally talented man!

I've pasted an email below that put a big smile on my grizzled old face!

Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2014 10:22 AM
To: Allan P
Subject: Week of Aug 23

Al

I've had a semi relaxing day with my wife wondering the streets and water front of Nice. When I

packed up my bike and stuffed all the bits and pieces of the past week into the spaces around the frame, the bike ride had officially ended. 

I want to thank you for your time and expertise in making what turned out to be a over the top dream of mine come true. One year ago when I decided this was to be the year to take on this adventure I had no idea of what a multi-day stage race would be like. I had only done small local day rides and few races which gave me limited skills and insight into what lay beyond. If it had not been for your professional knowledge and your friendship I know I would have cracked more than a few times, and that was on the first day.            

I kept thinking of the work we did on Westport when the grade was more than 15%. It kept ringing through my head as I pushed myself up Ventoux. I was worried that I hadn't done a lot of climbing in preparation for the Alps and didn't know if the threshold work had done anything to keep me from blowing up after a few long hard kms. But just as you had planned I was strong and most of the time able to come back and go hard and stronger time and time again. I grew to have faith in my fitness and ability to go the distance as I did on a tough climb over col de Madeleine and the Glandon. The letter you sent us about mental toughness was huge, day after day, it allowed me to focus on the support I had back home and not allow me to let anyone down, more importantly I didn't let myself down.

 I started out  thinking I would be just riding along with the pack while the other GS guys were racing far ahead, it turned out that once I got over the first timing mat I was going as hard as I could and as long as I could, always wanting to move up in the GC as well as my age class. It was a real race for me and that will always be one of the highlights of the week.

On the morning of the last day I was 54 sec behind 4th place ( in my age class), I had been down over 5 min the day before and didn't feel good about my dropping in the standings. At breakfast the TNA boys talked up the potential for a 4th place finish and that I needed some domestiques to shepherd me to the line. I was entertained by their support and joking around. On the third hill of the day I had gone way too hard and was floundering on the flats just before the top. I was loosing time and needed to get over the top to recover, I was dying.  Up comes the 4 lads behind me and Wilf starts to push me along several times till I have enough gas to reach the top, get a running bottle change and drive down into the next valley. Those guys were life savers and I really appreciated their help. That was a pivotal point in the day.

Now it's holiday time and later time to start thinking what we can do next year with my new fitness and experience. 

A lot of people helped me but I want to let you know that I may have done the pedalling but you contributed in an immeasurable way help me reach my goal.

Thanks,

7 LAYER CAKE (OR, HOW TO PREPARE FOR YOUR FIRST CYCLING EVENT)

You’ve been swept up into the hoopla of the Tour De France back in July, bought your first road bike earlier in the year, and even have a fancy, colorful, form fitting (yikes) cycling kit that screams ‘I’m a Racer!’  But wait, you’ve never ridden in a peloton, haven’t cycled more than double digit mileage, and really don’t know where to start or what to do, short of diving into one of the many Fondo’s throughout the province.

Luckily, our good friends over at MEC host all kinds of events; trail running, triathlons, stand up paddling, and yes, you guess it, cycling events!  These low-key, inexpensive events are ideal for athletes at any level looking to have a fun time stretching their fitness and meeting new faces.

On August 24^th, MEC’s Vancouver Summer Century offers a choice between a 50km or 100km ride that takes cyclists through the scenic countryside of Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge – think flat, fast and scenic.  Starting and ending at the Pinetree Community Center in Coquitlam, the $35 entry fee includes refreshments before and after the ride, as well as offering many amazing draw prizes!

Whether you opt to ride the 50km or go whole hog and ride the full 100km course, one thing’s for sure – you need to train, and train in the right way. What are a few standout essentials for a successful ride?   Glad you asked!

GOAL SETTING

First, choose your distance. Be realistic; if you bought a shiny new road bike last week, don’t enter the 100km ride unless you have plenty of previous aerobic conditioning. From here, consider your goals. Are you completing, competing or conquering? Be reasonable. Once you’ve identified your objective, write it down, and work backwards from your there.  What do you need to be successful in your journey?

LONG RIDES

Long rides are at the heart of a cyclist’s aerobic conditioning.  They are the foundation to your tower. A cyclist with a weak aerobic base soon develops limiters in further fitness building.  Get out there, and start cracking off long, controlled rides.  Using a heart rate monitor?  Keep a narrow operating window: 65 – 72%MHR for these rides.  Try to keep constant pressure on the pedals and try to minimize stops.  Aim for an extended duration of activity, fueling and hydrating as you go.  As you develop fitness, start to stretch the duration of your rides out, from an initial 90 minutes, try for 2 hours.  Once you feel comfortable rolling for 2 hours, push your limits, can you finish 3 or even 4 hours of cycling without stopping?  I bet you can!

INTERVALS

Becoming a good cyclist is much like baking a cake; it’s easy if you have the right recipe!  As you’ve learned, long rides are essential, they are the flour and the eggs in your cake. From there, we need to add the special ‘go fast’ ingredients.  Think of intervals as the chocolate and jam between the layers.

LONG SETS

Find a long, constant grade hill; a favorite is the road up to the First Lookout on Cypress.  From the 2km marker, just passed the Works Yard, settle into a reasonably hard rhythm, perhaps an 8 on a scale of 10; hard but repeatable. Time yourself to the first lookout.  Ride back and….yep, you guessed it, ride back up again!  Your time should be consistent, aim for a variance of less than 2minutes.  Once you’ve crushed two repeats, add an additional climb, until you can do 4 climbs back to back to back.

SHORT SETS

Your recipe is growing!  Aerobic foundation, check!  Long, threshold sets, check!  Next up, short, high intensity sets – OUCH!  Find a quiet, flat piece of road, Iona Island is great for this workout. From a pre-selected landmark, ride as hard as you can for 90 seconds.  Now, you might be thinking, “C’maaan, 90s?  That’s so short!”  Trust me on this one, if you go as hard as you can for 90 seconds, your eyeballs will be screaming mercy.  Because these efforts are so hard, you’ll need a longer recovery.  Triple your ‘work’ time (3 x 90s = 4minutes, 30s) for your recovery.  Now, blast these 90s maximal efforts and call it a night! Initially, aim for 3 sets – yep, that’s all!  Grow your numbers from there, until you can comfortably complete 3 sets of 3!  You'll be screaming for mercy.

RECOVERY

You don’t get fitter when you are riding, you get fitter when you sleep and recover!  Gone are the days when cyclists needed to ride six days a week. With the advent of power meters and heart rate monitors, quantifiable benefits can be had with a fraction of training time of years past.  Rest up!

PACING

Pacing is crucial in training and on the big day. The trick is to ride at an intensity that won’t shatter your legs and leave you gasping for air. This comes with experience, but if you’ve trained using heart rate or power, you will have a good idea of what output you can sustain. If you don’t know how hard you should be working, don’t exceed 85% of your max heart rate.  If you’re oldschool and ride by feel – keep a cap of 8/10 on any hard efforts, reducing intensity to a 6/5 or 7 (out of 10) for the duration of the ride.

Pace yourself, feed regularly and enjoy the ride!

(Proviso: Allan is not a cake baker, but a certified road coach.)

30 MINUTES

It's always fun climbing Cypress.  Regardless of whether you choose to noodle the mountain at a sedate pace, slowing to enjoy the vistas from each switchback, or ride the mountain angry, looking for a time to beat up on, Cypress is a magical place.  

The near constant 5% to 6% pitch allows you to lock into a trance-like, cathartic rhythm.  Depending on the nature and speed of the climb, mental focus can be broad, or pin-point narrow.  Last Thursday's climb was a little more narrow in scope than other rides - to beat the 30minute mark from the 2km sign.  FUN!  (Not really).

What does it take to ride sub-30 on Cypress?  A bit of determination and a heckuva lot of focus. More than anything though, it requires a constant power output, with little to no yo-yo'ing in pace.  I don't typically like to share ride data, but the graph below, indicating speed, power, heart rate and cadence, shows the complete story, from the start at the 2km marker all the way to the mountain-top finish, just underneath the powerlines.

A screen capture from Strava, the first line of data shows speed, averaging just over 20km/h, with a peak of 36.7km/h on the exit of the 2nd Lookout switchback. You can see the speed increases as the grade of the road levels, yet the power remains constant, evident in each of the three switchbacks.  On the next line, you can see power, expressed in watts.  I was looking to hold 360w for the climb, but fell just short of my objective - 359w avg - that just means another angry visit to the mountain is imminent.   The small spikes and valleys in the power output are indicative of shifts, as I momentarily lift off the gas, shift to a different gear, then stand to accelerate back up to the target load (360w).  In the first half of the climb, my aerobic fitness allows for fewer shifts and a higher cadence, as fatigue slowly creeps in, just past the 2nd Lookout, shifts increase in frequency, moving from a higher cadence to a lower cadence, recruiting more muscle groups in an effort to maintain power output.  Heart rate, as expected, is a smooth, linear line, increasing to 97% MHR as I cross the timing line.  An important note about HR is the narrow window, averaging 170, and peaking at 180bpm.  The frantic cadence data couples well with power output, reasonably smooth at first, then half way up the mountain, I start to struggle to keep pace, shifting more often, trying to find a quick rhythm. 

Strava shows an elapsed time of 30:17, measured from the Shed or Works Yard.  I typically (actually, I ALWAYS) time my efforts from the 2km marker, about 24 seconds past the Works Yard. By my rudimentary calculations, I think I cracked the elusive 30minute barrier, which at my advanced, decrepit old age, I'm very happy with!

LEAVING THE STATION

Quick post today.  After several months trying to explain the fine details of a leadout to a few of the guys I'm coaching, I think it's finally starting to click!  Tuesday Night's example was close to text book.  

Watch Geoff bring up the speed in a smooth, linear fashion, negotiate the corner carefully, but keeping a high speed through the apex, then snaps open the throttle and starts moving us up the peloton.  I'm on his wheel, while our sprinter (Colin) is sitting on, looking pretty, glued to my wheel, ready to unleash his explosive power in the final 50 meters.

Unfortunately, our group came up on a slower category in the final stretch, and we were asked to do several more 'final laps.'  In doing so, chaos ensued.  Is this the final lap?  No, this one.  This one?  NO.

Regardless, stoked on the power these guys laid down.

WELL, HELLO THERE, RIDLEY HELIUM SL

Having spent most of 2013 training and racing aboard the fantastic Ghost Race Lector, a carbon steed draped with SRAM’s top-shelf Red group and rolling on high-end Easton EC90 carbon wheels, I was really eager to jump on the Ridley Helium SL to see how it would fare against the German Ghost.  How would this flyweight compare to the Ghost, a bike that up until now, managed to do very little wrong, and so many things, so, so right!


With its oversize tubing and massive chainstays, the Ghost was sure-footed, reasonably light and felt as if it were attached to the pavement; planted, stable, very predictable, an incredible joy to ride.  The Helium SL, Ridley’s flagship light weight race bike, would need to be very special indeed to run up against the Bavarian-sourced Ghost.

A quick walk around shows Shimano’s venerable Ultegra 6800 11 speed groupset.  Not

quite the top drawer, hardcore race-oriented Dura-Ace group, but the next best thing.  Being a Shimano pilot since forever, I felt right at home with this mechanical group; light, good looking, crisp-shifting and simple to adjust and maintain.  Click-Click-Click, nothing but smooth, trouble-free shifting up and down the cogs.  Touch points on the Helium included housebrand 4ZA bars, stem, post and saddle, high quality carbon goodies designed in the heart of the cycling country, Belgium.  Wheels are Fulcrum Racing 5’s, mid-depth, great for varying conditions, though if you spend an inordinate amount of time in the mountains, you might consider a special climbing wheelset.

The carbon frame is touted to be one of the lightest on the market, at just over 700g, throw in the fork and the scale tips a feathery 1,000g, thanks to a special carbon layup and new resin.  That’s really light folks. 

The immediate difference from the Ghost is the size of the tubing.  Svelte! Where the panzer-like Ghost has a massive bottom bracket area and equally large chainstays and

downtube, the Ridley is blessed with small diameter tubes, particularly the gossamer-like seatstays; very contemporary design features. The Helium also sports asymmetrical chainstays - beefier on the right side with the left being thinner and lighter due to the reduced forces on non-drive side of the bike. Cable routing is internal, making for a cleaner looking bike, and perfect for any riders contemplating an electronic upgrade in the future.

So, swing and leg over the machine from Belgium, give it some stick, and….how does it ride? As you would expect from a bike with a Tour de France pedigree; light and lively, with tremendous feedback.  The weight (or more appropriately, lack of) provides instant response, jump out of the saddle, stomp on the pedals and feel immediate response.  Attack a corner, lean the bike over, and the sure-footed nature provides pin-point accuracy, without any nervousness, inspiring riders to push harder and harder.  The slim seatsays offer a surprisingly smooth ride from such a stiff race bike.  Climbing out of the saddle was a joy, with little to no apparent flex out of the bottombracket. Wow, the evolution of frame design and material is amazing.  Could the Helium SL be the new standard in the stable? 

Hands down, a superb bike.  Light, lively, predictable and comfortable. I am really looking forward spending quality saddle time on board the Ridley Helium SL!