Baselining - he said "log" huh-huh

Besides over twenty years worth of scribbled notes regarding the who, whats and whens of my training adventures, I now possess almost four years worth of workouts downloaded out of my Polar HRMs. When the bikes have sensors mounted, and these things are working correctly (which is only about 80% of the time, or so it seems), these devices ensure the capture and archiving of at least the basic stats for my training. In addition to this, I sometimes use the notes function to provide myself with a little more subjective and descriptive information. One of the things likely to make it into these notes is the inclusion of a trip or two up the Big Blue Hill access road during the ride.

Loyal readers already know that I use my Big Blue times as the primary gauge of my cycling fitness. Now that we also have analyticcycling.com, a hill this steep can function as a poor man's power meter. If you look at the math, on this hill, almost 80% of the power requirement comes from raising your weight up the slope. That's good, because we can measure the slope and our weight. The stuff that is not so easy to determine, rolling and wind resistance, are an almost inconsequential part of the total. We can use the ranges provided on Compton's calculator and be reasonably comfortable. Furthermore, I have validated the model by testing with the Cronoman's power tap, so I know it's pretty accurate.

Twenty years in the future, we'll have riders who are young and using power meters now with comprehensive, accurate logs tracking the rise or decline in fitness over their lifetimes, at least as measured by power output on the bike. Someone who is 30 years old now and in their cycling prime will be able at 50 to precisely analyze how aging and changes in their training affected their abilities. As an aside, there was an article published in The Washington Post yesterday about the inevitable declines in athletic performance that come with aging, and ways of staving them off. I know it is possible, as there are some ass-kicking mofos out there in the 50+ ranks.

What's this got to do with me? Well, you kids today have got your PM's, but I've got twenty years of riding Big Blue (actually it's more like 35 years, but when I was a kid we used to ride over from Stoughton, and had to walk the bikes up in order to make the banzai trip down). I had a seven year break from racing in the middle of all this, but I'm still fortunate to know that even when I was in my prime fifteen years ago, sub 5 minutes was a good time. Obviously I was thrilled to go under 5 a few times last year, at age 45. Yes, my bike is now about four pounds lighter, the wheels are better, the gearing is more appropriate (in the 7 speed days I rode with a 42x20 low gear), and the pavement on the access road is a thousand times better than the pave in days of old, but still, not losing any time is pretty damn encouraging. The problem is, all of medical science indicates the next fifteen years will not be so kind. I'm supposed to be right on the cusp of the big decline. One more reason why I might not want a power meter - Do I really need concrete data documenting my impending demise?

Now that we have that little bit of morning sunshine out of the way, on to the meat of this discussion. This winter was different for me, with all the running. I've hardly ridden outside at all. How is this going to affect me? Well, Big Blue to the rescue. Since this hill is reportedly the birthplace of snowmaking, no matter what kind of winter we have, it always seems to be too icy to ride during the cold months. Along with the obvious lack of fitness, it's easy to avoid the climb even if I'm out riding the area during January and February. Yesterday though, was my first outdoor after work ride of the season. Now that I work literally in the shadow of the hill, I was changed up and on the bike at 5:45 pm. The Blue Hills Reservation ain't what it used to be. These parkways were originally set aside for conservation and "pleasure use," but since Chickatawbut Road runs parallel to the congested route 128 (that's I-93 for you clueless out of staters), lots of impatient jackasses clog the parkway in a senseless effort to "beat the traffic" out on the highway. Never mind that the speed limit in Blue Hills is 40 MPH and even on a bad day the highway still rolls along at better than that. Moron commuters who are used to going 80 all the time just have to "keep moving" and instead choose to sit in line thirty deep at the stop signs on the parkway. Of course they can't keep toward the center so I can get by, because they're too busy dicking with their radios and cell phones...

Still though, I shouldn't complain. Last night the traffic wasn't too bad in there, but still I got off (huh-huh) Unquity Road and instead warmed up by riding the loop that will make up the course for the Blue Hills Circuit Race in May. This little 3.2 mile loop was also used way back in the day for the "Milton-Roubaix" stage of the now defunct Dedham Stage Race one year (that's right JB, we had a road stage from Dedham to the Rhode Island border and back. We went right down through Norwood on 1A, and it was a rolling enclosure with over 30 police motorcycles leapfrogging and blocking traffic. This was the only race I ever did with no yellow line rule. We returned right up Rt 109 through Westwood and sprinted in front of the courthouse. It was epic;,those were the days). At that time, Hillside Street was a pothole-strewn mess. The 1-2-3 field did 18 laps in the rain, and since the race was on points, we had sprints every lap. I got in a break with Sean Linehan and Fetus Head, who were teammates on the powerhouse Broadway Kitchens squadra. Eventually they ripped my legs off and sent me back to the peloton, but not before I'd accumulated enough points to end up scoring in the overall. Well anyway, this year the Master's field will race a paltry eight laps, and the formerly rugged "pave" is now smooth new pavement. It' good to see racing back in the Blue Hills, and it was kinda nice to have a smooth, quiet hill loop to ride on right next to work too. I imagine I'll end up logging quite a few laps there this summer.

After a couple of laps, where I felt better than expected, even big-ringing it up the hill at a GeWilliesque (the Gewilli of old) cadence of around 60, I headed backwards up Canton Ave and took on Big Blue. The gate was closed and I had to squeeze through and fumble to start my timer. The lower portion of the road, from Coon Hollow trail on down was virtually a stream, with snow melt rushing down, almost an inch deep in places. That surely didn't help my time, and neither did the nice lesbian couple who were too busy groping each other in the middle of the road to curb their two unleashed dogs, whom I had to practically stop for at the flattest and fastest part. No big deal, I felt better than expected and stayed in the 41x24 the entire way, seated much of the time. My HR was sky high, but it didn't feel too bad. Maybe the running really has paid off. I felt like I could have accelerated at any time, but I also knew that if I did I'd blow for sure before too long. The timer read 6:30 when I got to the top.

Here's a brief rundown of each year's first trip up Big Blue, along with a summary of the winter's training:

2007 running and barely riding outdoors at all
March 23 6:30

2006 - Lots of outdoor riding
March 30 5:57 and 5:19

2005 - Three Days of da 'Pan (that's Mattapan bro)
March 31 6:58 and 6:43

2004 - consistently riding all winter
April 3rd 6:00

Since this post isn't long enough already, I'll continue on with some analysis. JB was asking about Big Blue times just a week or so ago, so I know at least one reader will find this interesting. Originally I was really psyched to clock a 6:30 with so few miles in my legs, and I'm still not too disappointed, but reviewing last year's mark brought home a reality check. Right now I weigh about 80 kilos (probably more like 81). The Slim Chance with a pump and two full bottles weighs close to 11 kg. Add in my kit, spare, helmet, etc and the total nut was conservatively 92 kg. Plug this into analyticcycling.com along with appropriate rolling resistance and drag numbers and the calculator will tell you that maintaining my speed of 3.58 m/s on an average grade of 8.9% will require about 320 watts, putting my current CP5 at ~4w/kg, 13 on a scale of 40 over on Coggan's charts. This contrasts with my best ever efforts of ~5.1 w/kg, using my best times of 4:48 and appropriate adjustments in weight. Just for giggles, I played with the numbers to see what someone with a "world class" 40 out of 40 CP5 of 7.6 w/kg would clock on this hill. Seeing as this kind of rider would also have a lighter and more slippery bike/physique than me, I made adjustments to those numbers as well. I came up with a time of around 3:20. This seems to match up pretty well to Markie Mark's best of something like 3:40 (because for people this fast, we're closer to their CP3 than their CP5 at this point). So there you have it, when I'm going well, I'm only 31% slower than Bettini or Armstrong! Thanks for reading.