Registration season

Funny how the next 2 weeks will define a lot of what my bike season looks like even though right now it's 24 degrees, there's fresh snow on the ground, and the only riding I'm doing today is a spin class at the Sports Club. But we're well into event registration season.

Registration for Iceman and Lumberjack 100 open on  March 1st and 2nd (and both sell out in minutes) for events in June and November. I'm hoping to get into Iceman, if I don't I'll try to pick up a transfer as people drop out later in the season. Lumberjack, I don't know... I have to admit 100 miles on a mountain bike in June (or any time) is pretty intimidating, so if I don't get in I'll just go out and support the Greyhounds and maybe do a bandit lap (33 miles, no problem) to check out the course for next year.

DALMAC and Peak2Peak opened their registration this week, for events in September and October. Those don't fill up as fast -  currently only 14 signed up for Peak2Peak, including me and Ann. This will be my 4th Peak2Peak - it's a fun race even in the bad weather we had last year, although last year's expert/elite riders might disagree since their race got shortened due to bad weather.

Derek and I have successfully registered for our 4th DALMAC. A nice ride, except for the one day every year when it's cold and wet.

And I'm doing something I've never done before on a bike - raising money. I'll be registering for the Komen Ride for the Cure as soon as there's a Greyhounds team registered with them to sign up with. That's really goiung out on a limb for me - ride 100 miles, no problem. Raise $500? Not really in my comfort zone. But I'll give it a try, and it's a good cause so it shouldn't be too difficult.

August is shaping up to be pretty busy - Komen on 8/3, Maybury TT on 8/17, X100 on 8/24, DALMAC starts on 8/29 in Lansing and ends on 9/1 in Mackinaw City.

Numbers don't lie

Interesting event with the team Sunday - 1km on a CompuTrainer to get your average power for 1 minute, then onto a scale to determine watts/kg. The bottom line - 418 watts, 214 pounds/97 kg, 4.3 watts/kg, 38th of 39 Greyhounds.

The top Greyhound was at 8.5 watts/kg - to get there at my current weight I'd have to average 827 watts, just under 2x my output. Not likely. Or drop my weight to 108 lbs. That one, I'm willing to say is impossible. I probably haven't weighed 108 pounds since I was about 10 - let's just say as a kid I shopped in the extra-Husky section at Sears and Roebucks...

So, what's realistic for me? I know I can get to 185-190 pounds, I was there the spring before I broke my collarbone, and that was my racing weight when I was racing karts. With no change to power output, that's 4.8 to 5.0 w/kg. 11% to 16% improvement. I can also get stronger, maybe 10%, I know from weight training that I'm down by at least that much from a couple of years ago. Assuming that translates directly to power output, that puts me at 460 watts, 5.3 to 5.6 w/kg.

Another area to work on is endurance. The CompuTrainer output shows my max power was around 10 seconds into the trial, max average was at about 15 seconds. After that it was all downhill for the next 45 seconds.

The big drop between 15 and 20 second is probably a transition from sitting to standing. Or standing to sitting. I was already seeing stars at that point.

The other people doing this also seemed to peak early and trail off, but I only have my data so I can't say if my drop off was more or not. I think I'm safe saying it probably was.

So, what to do with this information? The obvious thing is to get serious about losing weight - I'm probably down 10 pounds in the last 6 months, but I need to lose about 15-20 more ASAP. People keep telling me it's harder to lose weight as you get older - I don't know about that. Your metabolism slows down a bit so it's probably easier to gain weight if you don't adjust your eating and activity to match, but weight loss is always more calories out than in. Not being able to lose weight as you age just sounds like an easy out. I know how to do it, I just need to step up my game.

Strength training and yoga are obvious, too. Maybe yoga isn't as obvious, but more flexibility will help me get more power to the pedals, especially on my right side.

Intervals should help the short term power output. I've never been a great sprinter, but I can do better.

And an electronics project - my old Tacx CycleForce trainer has everything it needs to be a discount CompuTrainer except a brain - 7 resistance levels and a published table of power vs mph for each level. Replace the manual level selection lever with a stepper; add speed and cadence pickups (multiple points/revolution to improve accuracy; Polar receiver for HRM strap; add an Arduino to handle sensor input and data output to a PC; some PC software to handle display, analysis, programmed training sessions - done! Not 100% accurate for watts, but consistent so you could chart your progress anyway. Probably less than $100 in hardware (big costs are the Polar receiver and stepper motor from SparkFun). Certainly less than the $1600 or so that a CompuTrainers goes for. Useful for my teammates, a great Instructable, and an overall interesting project. And a bleed over to my other blog, Black Dog Blog.

Stay tuned....

I never thought about that...

This month's (Feb 2013) VeloNews has a very interesting article by Caley Fretz and Friction Facts about the efficiency of chain lubes, or lack thereof. Maybe 'interesting' is overstating the case for non-engineering nerds, but certainly useful. I always just cleaned the chain and put on some more White Lightning (probably subliminally influenced by 'Lighting' - must be fast, right?). Turns out the trick setup is melting a block of paraffin wax and throwing the chain in. Clean, fast, repels dirt, what more could you ask for. I'll have to try it - I need all the watts I can get! - but I hope it doesn't turn into XC skiing:

XC ski wax chart

"No honey, I have NO idea why the slow cooker is covered in bike grease!"

Turns out there's a LOT of discussion about bike chain lubes on the internet (try Googling 'bike chain paraffin wax') - some people think about this stuff a lot more than I do, which is pretty amazing.

Nice ride at Island Lake in the snow this afternoon - not fast, but very pretty with the big snow flakes falling in the pines, and much better than another ride in the basement watching 'Breaking Away' for the millionth time. You start to notice stuff like this:

Dave, you'd be faster if you didn't stop to reverse your drivetrain all the time

Eventually, you start making up your own dialog...

"Mama Mia, the Greyhounds, they are coming soon! Like the wind they fly! Like the birds they sing!"

I guess I'll find out about that last part at the team party next month when the karaoke machine comes out.

Still a great movie. OK, not 'Citizen Kane' great, but neither is 'Citizen Kane'.  But maybe if Rosebud where a bicycle instead of a sled I'd understand the fixation better...