Mtnracer

Hi, I know it’s been a while since I’ve put something new up, but with work and training, there’s little time to annotate it all… So, I thought I would share one of my staple workouts this time of year. I call it the”Hour of Power!”

Indoors

For the indoors version, I do my workout at the Timberhill Athletic Club using their Expresso stationary bikes. Here’s a breakdown of the workout:

• Jog to the gym to get blood flowing to the legs (5 mins)
• Warmup on easy or medium course, until sweat beads on my forehead (10 mins)
• Real hard, hilly course, jamming the hills at max from 400-600 watts, keeping my cadence under 95 (25-50 mins 1 or 2 laps)
• Cool-down on flat course, aiming to keep blood flowing in the legs, but also lower my heart rate and respiration rate (10 mins)
• Jog limp home (5 mins)

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Only 15lbs (6.8 kg for you Euro-folk) to go, until I reach my race goal weight of 156lbs! Yay!
I have been stable at between 170 and 172 for 5 days now, and this morning was at an even 171. So, I’m proud…6 percent, here we come!

Here’s some pictures of me with my off season weight *haha*:

With a head this big, it’s a surprise any helmet will fit.

No, I didn’t play football…

Damn trees always hit me from the left.

Feed me!

Jumping right into it – I’ve outlined my goals for the racing season, both macro and micro, in Goals Outline. I discussed my methods of self-promotion and the emphasis on winning key races throughout the season. My next step is to discuss how I will achieve the form and fitness required to win.

“Form”-ula

Recently in an article on VeloNews.com, Dirk Friel astutely pointed out that form is the difference between fitness and fatigue. He provided this crazy algorithm. Try and keep up!:

Fitness – fatigue = form.

Assuming we cannot get negative fatigue, our best chance of achieving optimal form, relative to our fitness, is to bring fatigue to its absolute minimum – zero.
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For a decent training plan in any sport, you need to know your overall goals. We’ll start at the macro level and work our way towards the micro.

Macro goal: Become a professional cyclist.

Yeah, yeah. It’s the focus of this whole dang site. But, what does it mean? Well, to some it means to get paid to compete (aka. profession -Al). To others it means competing at the highest level of your sport, whether you get paid or not. For me, it is all about competing at the highest level, and since the former does not usually come without the latter anyway, I will aim for the latter (Competing at the highest levels – Pro category Mtn, US Pro license on the road).

I will be focusing on peaking for key mountain bike races this year. However, I will still be racing on the road. I am a category 2 road racer, and find that the experience and fitness gained from racing on the road unparalleled. If I get picked up on a road team, or find that my desire for road outshines my desire for mountain, I can always switch my emphasis (I’m ambidextrous like that).
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A couple of months ago my local gym (Timberhill Athletic Club) brought in a few new stationary trainers with graphical interfaces. I’ve used these products in the past with dismal results, but figured I would give it a shot and try these new ones out.

I’ve been using them for a few months now, and so far they’re awesome! Aside from the fact that the handlebar is way too upright for good extension, the interactivity of the machine is great. It tells me my current/average power, heart rate, speed, cadence, the gradient of the hill, and the course profile. Plus, it also has a decent selection of songs across 8 or so different music stations.

Since I’m aiming to stick to a pretty focused training schedule, working on increasing my overall power, I often find my stationary trainer lacking (only so much resistance can be created with those things). And, when it’s raining out (or snowing, lately), I still need to get in a good power workout. So, I go to the gym and use the awesome trainers made by Expresso. I can’t recommend them enough for winter power training. (Cheap if your gym pays for it)

I sit here late tonight writing this, because if I don’t write it now, I’ll never do it. I’m lazy like that. So, I’m going to write a couple of ways I’m going to improve my fitness immediately.

Know my daily caloric requirements.

This can be estimated a number of ways. Cordianet.com provides a couple of nice calculators that use a few different formulas. Since I know my lean body mass (LBM) from having body composition tests within the last year, I can calculate my current body fat percentage pretty easily. I just take my LBM (148lbs) and divide by my current weight (178lbs), subtract it from 1, and multiply by 100: 16.85%! A nice average web designer’s body fat percentage…Only about 11-13% higher than the average professional cyclist. But, that’s ok – it gives me room to improve!
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