Mike's Bike Blog

On Sunday I had a slight change of plans. I was scheduled to partake in the Super Squadra Advanced Race Tactics and Skills Clinics. But with a change in employment status I backed out at the last minute. Dave Wenger was understanding and quickly refunded my money.

My plan now was to ride over to City Park Road for the fitness testing that Team Austin Cycle Camp (AC2) was putting on. I'm having some serious car problems, check engine light has come on and it sputters and chunks along. However, not getting up in time put the kabash on that and I was lucky to get to the start in time driving.

The fitness test comprised of a weight in, body fat composition and VO2 testing. I've determined my VO2 by a 5 minute power test and plugging it into a formula so I was expecting this type of test. AC2 was not performing this kind, instead it was using Polar watches and heart rate straps. I guess this is a sub VO2 max test, I opted out of it and only did the body composition. In hindsight I wish I had so I could have compared my VO2 testing to the Polar watch method. I must say using the Polar method looked a lot easier, all it involved was pushing buttons on the watch and sitting and relaxing for 5 minutes. When I did my VO2 test I had to ride as hard as I could for 5 minutes!

I did opt to do the body composition test to see if the number I get on my home scale would be consistent with the commercial grade scale. You might recall one of my 2010 goals is to get my body fat down from 16% as weighed on my scale to 12%. The number returned on the AC2 scale was 6.5%! Woot! I've already beat my goal! I'll keep at it to drop down to 12% on my scale and that should see a drop on the AC2 scale the next time I weigh in. I think they said the next Fitness test would be April.

Up next on the Fitness test was a 3 mile ride up City Park Road. We all parked in the free parking before the Ranger Station so we rode down to the Ranger Station and up 3 miles to Pearce Road. This first time up was at a leisurely pace to get warmed up and to get accustomed to the course. The second time up was going to be a mass start but timed. The 3rd time up we'd do a time trial start with 15 second gaps between and the order would be close to how the placing was in the mass start, but reversed. Meaning whoever came in first in the mass start would get to go last.

As we started the mass start we stayed together for a little bit, but Zach Horne (Team AC2) and Trey Steele (Team AC2/Hotel San Jose) started to push the pace and get a little gap. Soon there after the pack started to string out. I wanted to maintain a consistent power output going up the slight grade (1.8% for the 3.03 miles) and was shooting for holding 315-320 watts the entire 3 miles. Before the 2 mile mark I caught up and passed Trey. Right at the 2 mile mark I passed Zach, that meant I was on my own the last mile with nobody to chase down. Interesting on this effort the 1st 1.5 miles I had a higher wattage then the second 1/2.  Here's my numbers for the Mass Start effort:

Time: 9:59:00
Avg Power: 318 watts
Normalized Power: 334 watts
Max Watts: 791 watts
Avg Heart Rate: 171 bpm
Avg Speed: 18.2 mph
Max Speed: 36.9 mph
Cadence: 85 rpm

We coasted back down to the Ranger Station, I stopped at the parking lot to drop off my second bottle. Since I wasn't drinking on the way up at all I didn't need to carry the extra weight, I should have left the other one there too. Since I won the mass start I had the luxury of going last. About .4 mile to the finish I caught up to the main string of riders and unfortunately there was a mini van trying to pass. The van passed me but they were stuck behind the string of riders on the winding road. I had to slow down a little to negotiate around the van and riders as well. With the finish in my sights so was my 15 second guy, Zach. I stepped on the gas for the last minute to catch Zach. I averaged 411 watts in the last minute and caught him at the line. This last effort was done properly with a negative split, so my 2nd half had a higher wattage then the first, part of that could be because of the 1 minute sprint to the finish. I didn't do that on the 1st effort. Numbers from the Time Trial Start effort:

Time: 9:57:00
Avg. Power: 321 watts
Normalized Power: 336 watts
Max Watts: 674 watts
Avg. Heart Rate: 168 bpm
Avg Speed: 18.3 mph
Max Speed: 36.4 mph

Next time I'll be shooting to ride the 3 miles under 9 minutes. Yes that's correct I want to shave almost a  full minute off my time. To do it I'll need to average 2 miles per hour faster and go 20.3 mph. To achieve this I'll need to weight 160 pounds and I'll need to average 335 watts. That plays right into my progression plan for the season. Also for next time I'll do a little bit more warming up and only do 1 real effort and leave nothing in the tank and approach it as a true all out effort.

Here's my ride file at TrainingPeaks.com