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What a lovely weekend for riding! Saturday, Roy Yates and I previewed the middle section of this year’s Princeton 200k. We did a 52-mile loop out of Frenchtown, climbed the 15-20 percent grades of Adamic Hill Road, and generally enjoyed morning sunshine and temperatures quickly rising from the low 30s through the 40s into the low 50s. Adamic was first big climb I’d attempted since doing Dutchtown Zion back in late November so it had been more than three months. My numbers of 299/308 were decent, though well below last summer when I was 323/348. Today I rode 20 miles in the morning with the Cyclepaths before church, then could not resist going off on my own to the canal and back for another 36 miles this afternoon. The 108 miles is the most for a weekend since I did that 200k in mid-January. One down note: My left knee has been acting up a little bit on and off the last couple of months, nothing serious yet, but I have to watch it.
Too much spring fever may not be a good thing.
WEEK: 11 hrs 14 min
GOAL: 7 hrs
Jud
Shane and I rode Sunday. The temperature got near 40 and we went out to the lake at Jamesburg, which was still iced over and also to Cranbury. It was about 36 miles for me. I was using the 1983 Fuji with fenders. No power meter. I wore my Polar E6 heartrate monitor. You wear it on your wrist like a watch. It has a chest strap. You have to moisten the chest strap when you put it on or you won’t get a reading.
During the ride I would check my heart rate to see where I was. Zone 2, which is my target for a regular ride, is 137 bpm to 148 bpm. That’s 75-80 percent of maximum (185). My threshold rate, or red zone, is about 167 bpm. That’s zone 5 or 90 percent of maximum. Zone 4 is 85-90 percent, zone 3 is 80-85. I stayed mostly in zone 2, some zone three when I was pushing the pace a little.
When I use a heart rate monitor, just as when I use a power meter, I like to target certain zones. I will stay in zone one, below 75 percent, when I am doing a recovery ride. When I am trying to intensity intervals, I stay in zones 4-5. Sometimes if I’m with a fast group I’ll target tempo zone 3. But zone 2 is my bread and butter most of the year.
WEEK 6 hours 52 minutes
GOAL 7 hrs
Jud
I rode for 42 miles with my friends Neil and Cameron yesterday (Sat.) and another 33 miles alone this afternoon. Both days the temperature reached the low 40s and the roads were wet but passable, with the snows of the past two weeks finally melting. For the past couple of months, I have been fighting a kind of low-grade case of the blues. Today, after back-to-back bike rides outside for the first time in more than a month, I finally feel my low mood lifting. I know that exercise is supposed to raise one’s spirits, but this is more than just the exercise. I have been working out a fair amount in the gym and it has not had nearly the effect the outside riding has.
I suspect there are at least two reasons: First, the outside rides are simply longer. While an hour workout in the gym is long for me, my bike rides even in the off-season are two hours or more. This weekend I spent a total of 5 hours on the bike outside. Second, I like to be outside. Neil and I discussed a couple of months ago why we enjoyed doing long rides (centuries, double centuries, etc.) We both agreed we simply enjoyed being outside. Maybe it’s the exposure to sunlight, breathing fresh air. I don’t know. It works on my mood like a drug.
The Saturday ride was mostly zone 1, with some higher zone work mixed in. Today I stayed right in zone 2 almost all the way, averaging 152/171 watts. I did the climb of Coppermine Rd at 242/246 watts for five minutes and I wasn’t pushing too hard. My best on that climb is 321W for five minutes back in September 2007. Working in the gym in zone 2 for an hour at a time has helped me feel more comfortable in that zone outside. This is part of the early season endurance work.
Jud
WEEK: 9 hrs 40 min
GOAL: 7 hrs
For the past 15 days, I have visited the gym 12 times. I hadn’t been outside on a bike since January 31st. Finally, the temperatures broke 40 this afternoon and I was able to get some time off from work. So I went out for 15 miles on the 1983 Fuji. It was great. That’s the longest stretch off the outside bike in about a year.
WEEK ending Sunday: 7 hrs 45 min
GOAL: 7 hrs.
Haven’t been on a bike outside in two weeks, due to snow, cold and work. However, I have during that time worked out 10 times in the gym, running, lifting and spinning. I also spent three hours shoveling snow, which I find is a good whole body workout and form of cross training.
I can usually stand only about an hour on the spinner, so I try to make the most of it. This time of year I am trying to maintain some endurance, so I keep mostly to zone 2. Let me briefly explain heart rate training zones. I’ll get to power zones later.
Experts like Joe Friel, Fred Matheny and others divide workouts into training zones. Different rides require different zones. Not everybody uses five zones, but that is a common number. Zone one is typically recovery. Zone two is your aerobic or endurance pace. Zone three is tempo work, pushing the pace. Zone four is just below threshold or “red zone” and zone 5 is above threshold. My maximum heartrate is 185 beats per minute. My threshold heart rate, or the beginning of my “red zone”, is 167 bpm. My zones are as follows, according to the Joe Friel system I use:
Zone 1 - up to 136 bpm (recovery) This feels easy and stress free. No problem.
Zone 2 - 137 to 148 bpm (aerobic) This is my long-distance endurance pace. If I’m in a group and riding this heartrate zone, I know I probably won’t get dropped.
Zone 3 - 149 to 156 bpm (tempo) This feels like work, but not overwhelming. I might do a turn at the front of a paceline and do tempo, then fall back to aerobic when I leave the front.
Zone 4 - 157 to 166 bpm (sub-threshold) This is hard. My breathing gets a lot heavier and it takes motivation to maintain this for very long. But this is very effective for intensity training and intervals. Riding at this pace makes you faster. But if I’m consistently at this heartrate for long periods during a group ride, I’m probably in trouble or hanging on for dear life.
Zone 5 - 167 to 185 bpm (super threshold) This is very to extremely painful. On a steep one-hour hillclimb race I might average over 170 bpm, but that’s extreme. That’s more than 90 percent of maximum heart rate.
Today I spent most of the workout in zone 2, which is to help build my endurance pace. This is my priority during the transition period, which I am in now and will continue to be a priority in my base period, which begins in March. In June and July during my build period I will focus more on intensity and interval work.
The zone 2 work will help me on club rides to maintain my usual consistent pace. I’m not doing much intensity work this time of year but I do like to include some. So the last 10 minutes of an hour workout I push at a threshold or super threshold level. For what it’s worth, I use a watch-style Polar F6 heart rate monitor. It has a chest strap. The stationary bike I use at the Y has readouts for time, distance, rpm, heart rate, power, speed and cadence. Here’s a breakdown of the actual workout:
Minutes 1-5 - Light warmup in zone 1. At level 7 on the stationary bike spinning at 100 rpm. I usually aim for a cadence of 80-90 rpm on outdoor rides. It feels like an easy spin. My heart rate starts at about 80 bpm and gradually rises to about 115 bpm. I’m thinking about keeping my pedal stroke smooth.
Minutes 6-10 - Slightly more effort, still warmup in zone 1 - At level 8 and 100 rpm. Heart rate climbs to about 130 bpm. Heartrate has a tendency to lag behind effort.
Minutes 11-15 - Entering zone 2 phase - Now at level 9 (these levels don’t have any meaning beyond this particular machine) and about 95 rpm. Heartrate stays in low to mid 130s.
Minutes 16 - 50 - Zone 2 endurance phase - This is the heart of the workout. I just keep my heartrate in the 140s, which at level 9 means about 95 rpm on this machine for me today. Your mileage may vary. After about minute 40 I start “decoupling,” which means my heart rate starts to rise for the same effort. This is a sign of lack of endurance conditioning. If I’m in the right shape I should be able to avoid decoupling for the whole hour. But this is not unusual this time of year so I’m not too worried.
Minutes 51-60 - Zones 4-5 threshold phase - This is where motivation is key. I ratchet up the pace substantially. I’m in pain but it’s a good pain. The rpms go up to 105 to 110 and the heart rate, which lags effort level, slowly creeps through the 150s and 160s. By the finish, I’m panting heavily at 174 rpm, well over my threshold.
All in all, a good effort, considering.
Jud
Last week I spent six of the seven days indoors at the gym. I missed Saturday because I was snowed in. As I usually max out at about an hour indoors, that makes it hard to get my goal of seven hours of exercise in a week. Last week I got five and a half. An hour of it was running (total of 5.5 miles), a hour and a half lifting and three hours spinning. Most of the spinning is in zone 2 of my heart rate zones, which I will explain in a future post.
WEEK: 5 hrs 30 minutes
GOAL: 7 hrs
Last time on a bike outdoors: 9 days ago.
The scale is a scary place right now. I tipped it at 175 this morning, the highest in about a year. Super Bowl Sunday is this Sunday and it traditionally marks the end of what I call “The Eating Season.” It begins for me on Halloween and lasts all November, December and January. It is a struggle not to gain more than a few pounds. I’ll eat my traditional Ruffles chips and Lipton onion dip while watching the game (the only time I eat either all year) and then it will be time to slowly shed the 8-9 extra pounds (or so I hope). This week I got out on the bike only once, for an afternoon 40-mile ride to the canal and Kingston. Temperatures got to about 30. My fingers and toes were stinging at the end.
WEEK: 6 hours 3 minutes
GOAL: 7 hours
MILES FOR JANUARY: 295
I am a litigation lawyer. There are more stressful and time-consuming jobs in the world, but my job can really drain what feels like every last ounce of energy from me. I don’t feel like writing blogs. I don’t feel like taking care of errands. I don’t feel like exercising. Due to a trial I haven’t had a day off in two weeks and I have routinely been working in the wee hours of the morning. I even missed my usual Sunday morning ride with the Cyclepaths and I missed a party yesterday afternoon with some other cycling friends. I did get out three times this past week, for a total of about two hours, compared with my goal of 7 hours during the off-season. Twice I did a 45-minute running and lifting workout, then yesterday I made one meager foray outside on the bike, riding all of eight miles. During that 36-minute ride, I spent a minute sprinting up White Pine Hill. My power nunber was 448 watts, quite good for me at this time of year. My highest last year was 478W and highest ever was 497W. At least I had that small bright spot. And the trial is supposed to end this Thursday.
Oh well. The 12 hours last week balances out the two hours this week.
WEEK: 2 hrs 6 min
GOAL: 7 hours
MILEAGE FOR MONTH: 255
Jud
So I broke my usual rule of no rides of more than 70 miles during the winter. Shane and Roy wanted to work on their R-12 medal, which means a 200k for 12 consecutive calendar months. The Saturday forecast was in the mid-40s, about 20 degrees warmer than last week. How bad could 125 miles be? Well, I finished at 147 watts and 170 normalized power for 136 miles (we did some extra mileage). That ranked 10th and last among the 200k’s I have measured in the four years I’ve had a power meter. It really wasn’t that much off last year’s first PA 200k, which was 148/178, and that was early April, not mid-February, so it was about what I should have expected. We averaged 16.1 mph, but that was mostly me drafting Shane and Roy. We rode long enough in the dark at the end to make me realize my lights were substandard.
The ride basically broke down into two parts for me. For the first 65 miles or so, I was hanging in pretty good, mostly drafting but not feeling too beaten down. Then I bonked pretty badly, to the point where I was getting dizzy and had to stop to eat a Clif Bar and drink some Accelerade. I was able to continue, but at a reduced pace. I was in what I call save mode. I can usually slog through most long rides that way, even if feel lousy, which I pretty much did the last half of Saturday.
This week I did my usual two 45-minute run-lift workouts and rode outside for 15 miles on Sunday at a moderate pace. I’m still two months before the base period begins.
WEEK 11:12
GOAL 10:00
MILES 247
Jud
When I was younger, I had various bouts of depression, some pretty debilitating. I began to regularly ride my bike and exercise in other ways about 15 years ago and have not had a serious episode since. I don’t say that the riding was completely responsible, but I believe it had a significant impact. One of the reasons I believe this is because every winter I more or less go through mini-episodes of the blues, as my exercising decreases and so does my time outside.
It’s happening right now. The temperatures hover well below freezing, even in the middle of the day. I struggle to find the time in the morning due to work commitments. When I can exercise, it’s either overheat on the trainer or freeze outside.
This week I did my two usual 45-minute run and lift workouts Wednesday and Friday, leaving me with 5 1/2 hours to fill during the weekend. On Saturday I spent an hour on the trainer doing a zone 2 workout then I met Roy for another 2 hours outside. I rode another 2 hours early this afternoon (Sunday). I don’t like the cold, but it was the best alternative.
If I can just make it to March, things will start warming up and my mood will brighten. It’s worked every time.
MILES: 60
MONTH: 96
YEAR: 96
WEEK: 6 hours 50 minutes
GOAL: 7 hours
Jud
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