Mike's Bike Blog

On the plate today for my morning ride was intervals, seven of them to be exact. The goal was to be at my threshold power level for 3 minutes and then 2 minutes at 50% threshold power. I went out to the hill behind Twin Creeks to perform the intervals. The hill isn't big, only a 1/2 mile in length, I wouldn't consider it a leg buster. I thought it would be a good way to achieve my training goal for the day though. There were spots where it was impossible to keep my power at my threshold power due to the steepness. I did shift all the way down to the triple to stay in the power range.

On the 4th effort as I was going down the hill there were 3 cyclists going up. On my way up for my 5th interval I passed 2 of them the 3rd was reaching the top as I was at my 3 minute mark and turning around just short of the top. The 3 person group came back down the hill and went back up. I passed them again on my 6th effort. I finished up with my last interval and headed home. Just past the Twin Creeks Country Club I caught up to the group again and flew by at around 24 mph. Each time I passed them I thought of BikeNoob and his smoke'n the old guy posts. It topped off a good workout to still have enough juice in the legs to smoke somebody let alone smoke them twice up a hill.

Tonight after dinner I headed out for another ride. I headed out on Cypress Creek to Parmer. I was warned by another cyclist that there was a strong wind coming from the South. Of course heading North on Parmer towards Leander I was hitting speeds of 28 - 30 mph on the flats. I usually turn around or head over to Georgetown on 2243. This time the road construction on Parmer heading North was open so I kept going. I was running out of daylight so I didn't get to explore the entire length of Parmer, I'll have to come back another day.

Once I turned around it was a strong wind. My speeds dropped from 28 down to 18 - 20 mph heading back.

 

On Sunday morning we played the 481 Smurfs from Houston for the Artic Wolf 4th of July championship. I got a good night of sleep, which I was worried about with my ribs, but I slept well and woke up refreshed. The ribs were sore, but I was able to take deep breaths with low pain and moving around wasn't a problem.

On the ice during warm ups I felt good but still couldn't shoot without pain. We jumped out to 2-0 lead. The smurfs closed the gap with a goal of their own, but it was our day. We ended up winning 3-1. It was a fun weekend, but it's good to be home. Now back to the bike content for another year.

I picked up my bike on Sunday night from the bike shop. I dropped it off to get it's yearly check up. They also took the bottom bracket apart and lubed it back up. So far there is no knocking from the cranks! This morning I went out for a ride before work. I felt good, but I won't be able to push it for a few days with my ribs. Whenever I would get out of the saddle to sprint it would hurt a bit.

Game 2

On my second shift of game 2 I was scrambling for the puck in front of our net with another player from the other team. He was slightly ahead of me. I lifted my left arm up over him as I went past him when he butt-ended right in the ribs. For those here for a bike blog a butt-end is when a player uses the shaft of the stick above the upper hand to jab an opponent. I don't think the other player meant to hit me, but I went down like a ton of bricks with the wind knocked out of me. I'm not sure if my rib is cracked or just bruised, no way of knowing without an X-ray. From past rib injuries this is by far the worse I've had, no sense in going to the doctor, even with broken ribs they don't do anything for you.

I continued to play, not well. I did have a break away and as I was coming in on the goal the other defense man slid from behind me as I slowed to put a move on the goalie. The defense man took me legs out from under me sending me into the air only to return on my back and head. The impact of course was on my left side which I took the stick into the ribs. Needless to say I had the wind knocked out of me again and the impact with my head didn't feel too good either, but that's why I wear a mouth piece. But hey I scored. I guess when the defense man took me out they also took the goalie into the back of the net. I think the final score was 7-4 for the win.

Game 3

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to play this game the way my ribs were feeling, but I figured if I couldn't get my skates tied that would be the sign. I got them tied albeit a little loose. I had a few good shifts, but for the most part it hurt a bit, luckily nobody ran into me or took me out. I did have 1 chance where I was off to the right side of the net, I was too far behind the goal to have an angle so I tried to bounce it off the goalie, but it scooted across the crease. Nobody from my team could knock it home for an easy goal. We won the game 7-3, so that puts us in the championship game on Sunday. We'll be playing the team we played in Game 3. Once again if I can get my skates tied I'll play.

I'm in College Station this weekend playing hockey, I'm playing with weremonkeys, a team from Houston. Last night we had our first game, it was against the home town College Station team. I'm a bit rusty, I guess that's what happens when you play a couple times a year for the past 10 years.  The line I centered got 1 goal.

The goal came in the 2nd period, I got the puck in the corner. I had a College Station defenseman on me as I took the puck behind the net. I did one of my favorite moves, as we are going behind the net I pull the puck behind my back and dump it back out front. The beauty of this move is it typically gets the goalie to move to the other side of the net as he expects me to try a wrap around. With the goalie moving to his right the goal was wide open and my right winger had a wide open shot. He didn't dissapoint and bearied the puck home!

I didn't have too many of my own attempts at scoring, my best possibility was in the 1st period. I got the puck at center ice and as I brought it into the zone I put a move on the defense. I beat the defense with a move and had a clear breakaway. As I was going around the Texas A&M player tripped me. I was surprised there wasn't a penalty called as it seemed pretty clear. In the end we won the game 4 - 1.

 

I've wanted a power meter for my training for quite some time. However a new PowerTap is $1,500, well out of my bike budget. I had been cruising eBay for a used PowerTap, even placing a few bids on a few. All the auctions went well past my limit. Until one fateful day I played it cool, waited for the last 15 seconds and placed my bid. Low and behold I won and well within my budget!

I received my new training device last week, it included everything I needed, the PowerTap hub was already built on a wheel. I do find it funny that I have a piece of equipment that retails new for more than I paid for my bike. The only draw back to this PowerTap is that it is an older model and the download cradle is serial based. I've been PC free for a couple years now, so it's taken me awhile to find a PC with a serial port that still works (I'm Mac based). The first system I hooked it up to is in the final stages of a hard drive meltdown, I couldn't get the Link software to recognize the device. I did try a serial to USB cable but couldn't get that to work. Today I finally found an old laptop that had a serial port that everything works on. Now I can download and analyze my workouts while I wait for my USB cradle to come in.

There are several different tests you do to gauge your power levels that is the basis for your training. One of the tests that the Chris Charmichael system uses is a Field Test. This is a 3 mile time trail that is performed on a relatively flat course. Finding a flat 3 miles that does not have stop lights or stop signs is somewhat tricky to find, at least near my house. I have carved out a 3 mile course that I use to for this purpose, there is 1 small hill and there are some sharp turns. In the past I've only been able to test with Heart Rate.

The full training session includes:

WarmUp 10:00

PowerInterval 01:00
Recovery 01:00
PowerInterval 01:00
Recovery 04:00
Field Test Effort 08:00
Recovery 10:00
Field Test Effort 08:00
Cool Down 10:00

This morning I set out to test my power, the conditions were perfect. After the warm ups and the intervals I started my field test. I was flying, I turned in my best time yet (8:51). I rode back to the start for recovery, I didn't look at my power readings, I went to set the computer to another interval which is a press of the 2 buttons on the computer. Here's where my day went south, the PowerTap computer only has 2 buttons, to clear the unit you press and hold the 2 buttons until CLR is displayed on the screen. In the process of trying to get a new interval I pressed and held to long and the CLR showed up on the screen. At this point I panicked and released the buttons. It cleared my data. I stood there dumbfounded, I hoped that the device would have an internal storage that would keep the ride data until I download it, like my Garmin. No chance, when the PowerTap clears its memory it doesn't mess around as I later found out when I got home and didn't have any data except the recovery ride home. So all I can report back is my max power on the recovery ride was 801 watts.

I'm not sure if the newer models are a little more user friendly or if they have onboard storage so more than 1 ride can be stored on the computer. Anybody with a newer PowerTap know?

Other Miscellaneous Stuff

I won't be riding this weekend, I took my bike in for it's yearly tune-up. Hopefully the knocking in the bottom bracket will be fixed as well. I know Jared will appreciate that. This is also the weekend I'm heading over to College Station and playing hockey.