Too rich or too thin

Did someone say girly-man?

Zencycle asks why in the world would I want to do 100 pushups in 5 minutes. He notes it "won't help my running or cycling" and may be a misuse of training time, and might add some "muscle mass." I'm paraphrasing here, because I'm too lazy to go back and read his comment again.

The "to gym train or not to gym train" question has come up a lot this year. Just to be clear, we'll primarily talk about bike racers here. More accurately, people who race bikes. We'll leave the handful of pro and former pro bike racers who occasionally drop in here out of this, because, well I don't think they come here for training advice. And, since I'm distracted by my yogurt with frozen berries and Midnight Moo chocolate sauce, I'll be brief, disjointed, and not exactly to the point here.

Even the experts disagree on this subject. Exhibit A. Compare and contrast the first two letters and expert responses on the linked page, Metabolism rate in training, answered by Scott Saifer, and Resistance training and fat burning, response by Pam Hinton. From my perspective, Saifer seems to be from the school of thought that thinks everyone who ever swings a leg over a racing bike is going to the Tour. This is part of the Lance effect. Never mind that only 190 riders in the freaking world race it, and that only about a dozen of those serious contest the ridiculous mountain stages.

   

It also appears to me like Ms. Hinton is politely saying her co-contributor doesn't know what he is talking about. But for my feelings on this, besides me just wanting to be a better athlete, her summary is quite strong:

In summary, resistance training facilitates fat loss because it increases energy expenditure - both directly and indirectly. In addition, resistance training protects against loss of skeletal muscle mass when energy intake is limited. Recent studies have shown that resistance training has additional metabolic benefits, such as decreased blood lipids and improved insulin sensitivity.

Especially the "both directly and indirectly" part. This concludes the science words portion of the post. Now we'll get to the normal masters racing solobreak bs that you come here for. Why wouldn't I strength train? Gyms have a downside, but there's a certain appeal to going to a brightly lit, warm, high-ceilinged building full of people and blaring music where I can wear shorts in the dead of winter. We may not have an indoor velodrome around here, but we have plenty of gyms. It's almost like being outside in the summertime. Then there is the whole bike racing-running endurance sports benefits thing. Lately all sorts of studies get done and published and they all want to tell us how to make our training more "effective" and "efficient," as if people who spend their entire summer riding bicycles around circles in an abandoned industrial park need to worry about efficiency. Training should be fun. (I won't get into "training" technically being teaching your body to do stuff that it's not already capable of doing versus the more common usage which is applied to doing the same stuff you always do and expecting to get better at it). I have fun doing this stuff. You wondering why I like this is like your sedentary relatives wondering why you like to ride your bike up giant hills.

Exhibit B - Bike racers comes in all shapes and sizes.


See, it's not just skinny fucks riding up huge mountains.


It helps to have a strong core too. (not to mention enough "muscle mass" to hold your arm in the socket when you fly over the bars and Superman into the pavement)

So yeah, back to the beginning. We're not going to the tour here. So don't play the know-nothing who thinks all bike racers have to be just like Lance Armstrong. Take a look around the New England masters scene. Look and see who wins. Skinny guys? Not usually. Then we have my personal reasons. For one, lack of training time isn't why I'm not pounding out hours on the trainer every day. Fear of running out of fortitude, or as the Automaton called it, "training enthusiasm" before the cold, rainy days of March and April when I'm really going to need it is more like it. And of all the kinds of mass we have to worry about, muscle mass is the least concern. And I'm one of those people who doesn't develop much anyway, no matter how much time I spend in the gym. Pushups aren't going to turn me into a 'roid-douche. If I bump into LVG in a dark alley, at least I'm a decent runner.

So there you have it. I warned you that it was disjointed. I'm sure there are mistakes and points missing. Maybe we'll hit them in the comments tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

70 down, 30 to go

I continue to fail in my quest to do 100 pushups in 5 minutes. But, on a dare from the 'rat, and because it looks like I've not posted in a week, here is a video of my failure for your viewing and listening pleasure. Thanks for visiting.

Winter Sports

I don't know how you guys do it. Ok, maybe I do, but personally I'm not feeling the love for winter this year. I don't even enjoy shoveling like I used to; I caved this past weekend and used a snowblower instead. It smelled like unburned gas and I swear it took just as long, but I don't care. If it snows more I'll use it again.

My snowshoes are just hanging in the basement. Cold and wet simply doesn't sound good. There are skis down there too, a beginner classical set. Under "perfect" conditions I can barely manage to stay upright enough to get a decent workout. I lost a basket from one of my good poles (huh-huh) last year and I haven't made the effort to replace it. I guess it's just not for me.

The streets are a mess, so I'm not motivated to run on my gimpy foot. It's been pretty cold for riding, but we're getting to the point where I'll need to do some soon, indoors or out, like it or not. Speaking of indoors, there's always the structural fitness stuff. I have still not managed to do 100 pushups in under 5 minutes. Murat claims he can do it no problem, but with those hairy man-boobs of his he probably doesn't have to bend his arms past 45 degrees before bottoming out. As for Colin's 15 pullup challenge, I can do that, the only caveat being it takes me about a week and a half. He never specified a time limit...

They won't let me in the studio room at the gym this year, I guess they haven't forgotten last year's sand-all-over-the-place from smashing open a 30 pound plyoball incident. Oops. I haven't even swung the sledgehammer that much lately because my rebounder (an old portable speedbump made of rubber that they use to drag the horse track at work) is buried under the snow.

And how does XC skiing work without a power meter anyway? Thanks for reading.

Update! for the ilbrucie comment on the zencycle saga

Get Real

Just in case you haven't noticed, there hasn't been a whole lot of bloggin' goin' on. Nor training. Perhaps there's some relationship there. But not much. It's been just over a month since Ice Weasels, coincidentally the last time I rode a bike outdoors. Don't worry; you can rest assured I haven't been killing it on the trainer either. As proud as I am of all of you who've been out there slogging through the slush of the worst winter for riding in recent memory, personally I've been quite grateful that the cold and snow has come in January when it's supposed to. I needed an off season, for several reasons. Grateful to be gainfully employed, and fully aware that I spend most of the summer primarily concerned with getting out the door in time to get to Wompatuck or Londonderry, there's no time like winter to put work on the front burner. And I'm actually enjoying it. Because I needed the break from cycling. I'm remembering why I stopped racing cyclocross in years past. Sure, it makes the fall fly by, which is great, but it makes the fall fly by. I'm not exactly itching to get back on the bike right now.

Last year at this time, I was doing a lot of running, and had already raced a few times. Hell, the Raynham Frostbite 15k is this week. With all the snow and ice, running conditions this year haven't been so good either. Neither has my foot. I've run on it a few times, nothing far or intense, and at first it seemed OK, but last Saturday I ran just 7 miles and it was pretty much back to where it was in November. Which makes sense, as I didn't really do anything to find and correct the original cause of the issue. Rest and cortisone made the pain go away, but I've come to the conclusion that my foot is simply not strong enough to do what I've been asking it to do. Sure, an orthotic might help keep the foot from flattening out on impact, and may be necessary if I wish to continue higher-mileage running, but for now I'm focused on strengthening the muscles that support the foot. And I can do that indoors.

All that said, January 15 has always been the traditional start of my road training season. This used to be considered "early," but now they've moved the race calendar up by over a month, so it's not so. But I'm still not into it. I did climb on the trainer last night, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch, but that's about it. And no, I'm not dumb enough to take the bait and start going on group rides with those of you who've been out there riding four hours every Sunday. We don't call you January National Champions for nothing. I know you'd love the opportunity to slay my ass while the gettin' is good, but it won't happen. I know better. And I also know in June when I ask you to do six hours, you'll say you "don't need to," or "you're resting for a race." That's fine. I enjoy riding alone anyway.

I know that was weak, but it beats a "Best of Solobreak" post, doesn't it? Well, you're in for a treat anyway, as I'm cleaning out the drafts folder. Sometimes posts are conceived, but never make it past the embryo stage. As a special mid-winter feature, I'm just putting up the snippets here.

Originally drafted on July 18, 2008

Here's my entry that goes where the Workingman's Stage Race race report would normally go. You see, for a couple of reasons, one being that I'm a racing member of the host club, and two, this race suits my "talents" well, the WMSR has been my "A" event for the past few seasons. As far as we know, this is the only night time stage race in the world. This was the 21st annual, a tenure that only a handful of New England races can match or better. Running midweek each July, we start with a time trial on Tuesday evenings, followed by a circuit road race on Wednesday, and a points race under the lights at a local speedway on Thursday night. The latter is run under track racing rules, but with road bikes. The overall is scored based on a points omnium type format based on placing from each of the three stages. Got it?

This year I wasn't as psyched about peaking for this race, so I didn't. I'd adjusted my seasonal training in order to be more competitive in the spring races, therefore July finds me still in a bit of a summer lull as I ramp up for some more tough racing late in the summer. We (Team BOB) had a plea for more volunteers to help with the event, and I thus planned to just ride the TT, then drop out and drive a pace car or marshall or something on Wednesday night. It was the right thing to do. Some clubs don't even permit any of their riders to race in the club event, as it's all hands on deck to make the show happen. We might have to do that sometime too, but not this year.

I usually ride a decent TT at this race. This year, the entry numbers were a bit light, and I had a better than average ride, ending up with the 3rd best time in the masters field, albeit only 1/100th of a second better than the poor 4th place guy. This was surprising to me, about six seconds faster than last year's time, even though I eschewed my TT bike for my every day road bike with clipons and medium dish rims. I did wear the aero helmet. Short version, I had great legs, pushed a bigger gear than usual (52x13 on the flat, 14 and 15 on the rollers, 16 on the climb, 12 on the descent), and paced it close to perfect, hit all the corners nicely, just a few little mistakes misjudging a roller or two. Good job.

Wednesday I had the day off, and the weather was gorgeous, just as it was all week. I went for a nice 2.5 hour ride, mostly with the Cronoman. We then watched the tour stage on tv, then headed over to the race venue, where Captain Duano informed me I was officially drafted into racing for the team. He'd strongarmed his brother into taking over my pacecar duties. Ok, kit up...

This wasn't supposed to be a race report,

You might remember, Wednesday night ended up pretty decent too, although I blew the field sprint for 5th. Finished up a 100 mile total for the day though.

Over the Hill - originally drafted September 9, 2008

This year, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't hurt people at Wompatuck. So I stopped going. Then this past Sunday, I went to Wells Ave, where the bottom feeders of the bike racing world go to, uhh, feed. I'm pretty sure that half the riders in the combined A/B field only own one kit. Either that or it's their Sunday best, as I can recognize the Wells Warriors

That had the makings of a great post. Too bad.

Il Brucie on triathletes

Last but not least, but needing some explanation. This was just a note about the highlight of the winter, and I never got to do it justice. A few weeks back, just after taking in the Pats final game of the season at the BBC, Fox 25 news interviewed Il Bruce about how it felt to be rooting for the Jets (who of course would have had to win the evening game in order for the Patsies to advance to the playoffs). Brucie gave some pretty dry and boring answers to the series of questions, and I doubt that it made the air. Too bad the camera crew was elsewhere later that night, when after several more pints of England's finest ales, our esteemed commentator gave us his bike shop employee's view of the "life journey of the wannabee triathletes." You had to be there, but take my word that it's truly a shame the camera wasn't rolling. Thanks for reading.

Real Vintage Cross

1975 CX Nats Photos

They're trying to kill us again...

Ugly Bike Contest

No, this one isn't a nominee. Personally, I think this bike looks very cool, enough so that I'd like to own one. But then we have, from the same company, this masterpiece:



I'm not trying to turn this into a low-rent BSNYC, but I don't have anything else, so bring on your selections. Be a sport and just link to an image whenever possible. Thanks for participating.

More Divine Intervention

The Daily Show got off to a weak start for the year Monday, put made up for it Tuesday night...

Burris:

"the Lord put his hand on the Governor, and said this is the man who has to go to Washington."

The scene as depicted on the roof of the Burris Mausoleum:

The Road

"Being able to make it hurt for the others.

I miss that a lot."

-Bjarne Riis, on being retired as a rider, from the documentary Overcoming.

It's always best to start at the beginning. This new year I find myself lacking direction with respect to sports, goals, and plans. Not that there's any huge need or rush to come up with them, but there are a few good reasons for me to at least give the matter some thought, chief among them being that since I can't spend the same money more than once, whatever I decide to do needs to fit roughly into some kind of budget. It's hard to make a budget without plans.

Here comes the inevitable and painful look back into the rear-view mirror. 2008. Doug beat me to the punch with not only a review of his training hours and activities, but also his comments about bike trips and epic rides being more memorable than his races. When I think back about 2008, I feel much the same. The racing season was interesting and there were some bright spots and nice people along the way, but my trip to Virginia, the Six-Gaps ride, and D2R2 stand out as way more fun than any of the races. I'm also learning to live with the fact that at places like Wompatuck, dominated by riders half my age, I'm no longer able to "make it hurt for the others" so much. There are reasons why the old guys give up going. Throughout my years as a bike racer, I've always had Wompatuck to fall back on, a place I could go and have fun while getting fit to race "real" races on the weekends. Going forward, life will change without that, and this is something I'm considering as I weigh my options for the upcoming year.

That doesn't mean the racing season was a total bust. Riding with the team at WMSR was a blast as usual, and this year the points race didn't get rained out, and once again I ended up 3rd, my best finish of the year (in a mass start race). It's funny because as someone who can't sprint to save his life, I've still put up my most consistently high finishes on this stage, with a second and two thirds over five (?) attempts since it moved to Star Speedway. Two of these came from making the split that lapped the field, and this year we damn near made it as well. Having it all happen in the foggy darkness of summer nights at a backwater New Hampshire bullring speedway makes it all the more fun and special.

I also did a bunch of running races this year and set PR times for distances of 5K, 5 miles, and 10 miles. Then there were my attempts at multi-sport, specifically duathlon, as I do not swim well (at all). With my years of bike racing experience and newfound running prowess, this looked like a natural fit and maybe a lot of fun. However, while I found the experiences challenging, and maybe they also raised my overall fitness level, in a sense they were a letdown. At Carrboro the competition was very strong, and at the Pinnacle Challenge my rustiness and general lack of MTB skills got me spanked badly, but overall the depth of the fields at duathlons isn't close to what I find at bike and running races. In fact, I even managed my only overall win at the Rye event, mostly because all the faster people were not there. That's ok though, as unless you win every race then you shouldn't be complaining about a lack of competition, but it was the pacing at these events that kind of left me uninspired. At the longer races in particular, you simply cannot go all out; they're more like a zone three 85% effort time trial. Physically challenging, yes. As exciting as a hilltop finish or as intense as a 5k, not even close.

Then there was the track. I had a lot of fun up there this summer. I want to go back some this year and maybe even branch out to T-Town or some other "real" velodrome. Therein lies part of my problem. Cycling trips, "epics," more of the same striving for results against the New England 45+ plus road animals, a new track bike, or even... cyclocross? Like I said at the top of the post, I can't spend the same money three times, or even twice. And my desires are clearly pulling me in multiple directions. Prepping myself for a strong, aggressive second half of D2R2 would require
a vastly different training protocol from working toward respectable kilo and pursuit times, now wouldn't it?

All this has me thinking, but really it won't be much different than this year. I hate the logistics of traveling (specifically the two days before leaving and the two days after coming home...), so I know I won't do too much of that. I'd rather ride my bikes. And I'm process-driven, not results driven, so it's ok for me to wing it and do events without some insanely scientific preparation methodology. I keep what I call a "training log" but "activity log" would be a more accurate description. I took the liberty of looking up training and found this on Wikipedia:

Sports training refers to specialized strategies and methods of exercise used in various sports to develop athletes and prepare them for performing in sporting events.

I can hardly call what I do "strategic preparation." My goals and plans are specifically un-specific. I want to be healthy. I want to be a better overall athlete. I want to have fun. I don't want to get hurt. Now you know. This post ended up pretty un-specific too. Here's the obligatory (everyone else used the word, so so will I) rundown on 2008 stats. I don't track miles or power or elevation, just counts and hours. This doesn't include the 100 or so hours I spent in the gym. These are as accurate as can be expected from a clown like me.

Cycling time, 385 hours. (up ~20% from the past few years, 15 hours short of goal)
Running time, 81 hours. (by far my highest ever annual total)
Biggest month total volume, 60 hours (August)
Smallest month total volume, 11 hours (December)
Total heartbeats during all this ~3.4 million (116 bpm average)

62 competitive events:

• 16 running races


• 4 duathlons


• 7 cyclocross races


• 10 road races


• 3 criteriums


• 2 time trials


• 1 (3) stage race (WMSR)


• 7 track events (NE Velodrome)


• 5 Wells Ave training crits


• 5 Wompatuck training crits

Other notables:

• 2 epics (D2R2 (10 hours) and 6 gaps (9 hours))


• 7 other 5+ hour training days

Thanks for reading. Publish post...

GHW Bush

On skydiving at age 85:

"Just because you're an old guy, you don't need to sit around sucking your thumb drooling in the corner," he said. "Old guys can still do stuff, and that's the main reason."