This video explains how to change the battery in your G3 Powertap hub:
Barbara Gross has decided that riding farther is better. Barbara started riding her bike in law school to and from classes. Riding was a great way to stay in shape and an easy way to get around on campus during the school year. Barbara’s boyfriend and eventual husband, Jay, was also a cyclist.
After graduating law school and entering the workforce, Barbara and Jay continued to cycle together for fun. In the summer of 2007, Jay and Barbara did there first tour, RAGBRAI. A tour company carried their gear for them, so they just had to ride 80 or so miles from town to town each day for seven days.
Barbara and Jay’s 2nd tour experience in 2010 was self contained and took them through the Grand Tetons.
Their experience touring has been so rewarding that they decided at the end of 2010 to ride across America, self contained. Barbara has been working with Coach Jesse Eisner for the last year to prepare for this tout. Barbara and Jay started their tour across America on April 15th from San Diego, California. They are scheduled to arrive at the Washington Monument in D.C., sometime the week of June 17th
If you would like to follow Barbara and Jay’s progress, you can track them on their blog or twitter feed, http://www.slaam.net/Home.php
https://twitter.com/#!/SlaamNet
Before Barbara and Jay left, I sat down with Barbara and asked her some questions.
Q: So what is your favorite power food to eat when riding?
A: “If I’m eating correctly, Cashew Cookie LaraBar or Peanut Chocolate Chip Clif Bar. If I let too much time go by without eating and then all of a sudden I think I’m gonna die, I stop for a Cucumber Lime Gatorade and potato chips.”
Q: What are you most excited to see on your trip?
A: “I’m looking forward to the 18-mile bike path along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque. And I kinda hope we see a tornado or bad thunderstorm in Kansas or Missouri. Not from too close, though.”
Q: What do you love most about cycling and riding your bike?
A: “I love that, at the end of the day, you can look back at what you’ve accomplished–either long miles or steep hills or battling a headwind. I also love the unexpected stuff you run across like turtles, ostriches, bear carcasses, and things you’d never notice in a car. Or maybe you’d notice them but wouldn’t stop. Overall I just like how it’s you on a bike dealing with whatever the world throws at you that day.”
Q: What bike are you currently riding?
A: “Surly Long Haul Trucker from 2007.”
Q: What is your favorite bike you’ve ever had?
A: “Don’t tell the Surly, but it’s my Litespeed Sportiv”
Q: What is your most memorable ride and why?
A: “That would be the 2011 Palm Springs Century, which I finished in 6:37 despite going 12 mph for the first 25 miles. I had trained for it thinking Jay would do it too, then he got sick, so I had to do it by myself. At first I was all mopey and sad and then I’m all “come on, you can do this,” and I bore down and started cranking and started passing people like I was getting paid for it. I was going so fast and so effortlessly that other riders (guys in their 30′s!) said things to me like “nice job.”. I felt soooo great when I was done.”
Q: What is your primary goal as a cyclist?
A: “Well, when I’m touring it’s to go slow and see things. When I’m not touring I would of course like to go as fast as possible and make other cyclists fear me. HA!”
If you need help preparing for your next big ride or tour let us know. We work with all types of cyclists across all disciplines.
Cheers,
Coach Jesse Eisner
What is VAM? Cyclists, even riders that don’t necessarily consider themselves climbers, almost always love a good hill. The other things that cyclists love are gear and data. As power meters and GPS units have become cheaper and more ubiquitous, a typical cyclist has more data available to them than ever. This article will discuss one particular metric that can be measured using a GPS: VAM VAM was a term first popularized by Italian cycling trainer Michele Ferrari. VAM is the Italian acronym for “ velocità ascensionale media” which basically translates as “average ascent speed” . Just think of VAM as vertical meters climbed per hour. VAM is typically measured in meters per hour ( M/H), but you could theoretically use feet per hour as well. What makes this metric so useful is the fact that when climbing, most of the power the cyclist applies to the pedals goes to pushing the cyclist upwards, rather than forwards. So VAM can be used as a proxy for power to weight, as well as to compare performance on say an 8% grade, to that of a 10% grade. If an athlete is climbing at a VAM of 100 (M/H), it will take the athlete 1 hour to get to the top of an 8%, 10% , or even a 15% climb of 1000M . The VAM metric can therefore be used to compare different climbs to each other. You can tell if a performance is a good one or a bad one based on the VAM you achieved on the climb In the absence of a power meter, VAM can be an excellent way to gauge an effort, or even a great tool to build a workout. For example: If a rider has a powermeter, I might have him do a 20 minute time trial, and then take 95% of his average power as his threshold power. If the riders doesn’t have a powermeter, I can have him do a 20 minute hill, and record the VAM. If he does a VAM of 1000, I can assume that at threshold power, he climbs at 95% of 1000, or 950 M/H! So if I want this athlete to do 4 X 10 minute intervals at threshold power but he doesn’t have a power meter, I can tell him to do 4 X10 minute hill shooting for an average VAM of 950! There are plenty of online tools out there such as Garmin Connect and Strava that allow you to upload your rides, and look at your VAM along with other metrics., and most GPS computers will allow you to view your VAM as you ride. So there you go: VAM is a great tool to compare climbs of with similar vertical ascent, and can also be used as an inexpensive alternative to a powermeter.
The time trial has been dubbed “The race of truth” due to what is considered its purity. This race is not a mass start race. There is no drafting off of other riders. It is only you and the clock. Time trials are a true test of your physical fitness and mental discipline.
The Start of a time trial is usually set under a tent with multiple officials, a clock, and what is known as a holder. Each rider is given a specific start time and each rider starts in 30-60 second intervals. Riders should roll to the start gate a few minutes early and line up according to start times.
When it is a riders turn to start the holder straddles his or her rear wheel and hangs onto there seat post. The rider than steps over the top tube of his or her bike and clips into there pedals. The chief official counts down to your start time (just like a space shuttle launch) and the holder releases the riders seat post.
It is now you against the clock. As you catch riders on the course or are being caught by riders you are not allowed to draft and must ride along side or pass them. One of the keys to success when riding a time trial is pacing. It is important to go as hard as you possibly can for the entire duration. One way to pace yourself is to start slightly below what seams as hard possible. As the duration of your time trial goes on you will start to feel like you are going all out. Another way to pace yourself and one that us coaches prefer is to try and hit a specific power target or lap time for your event.
As technology has caught up with cycling there have been many advances in time trialing gear and accessories. One of those first advances was the change in types of handle bars used for time trials. Time trial bars over the years have become more and more aggressive in there design. The very simplest of these bars can be clipped onto your existing handlebars. These clip-on bars are usually to long extensions that go on both sides of you stem with padding for your elbows to rest on. The goal with time trial bars is to extend and flatten out your back so that the frontal area of your body is smaller and lower and creating less drag in the wind. This technique is called becoming more Aerodynamic (or aero for short).
Some of the other advances have been in frame design to accommodate aggressive positioning and wheel construction in the pursuit aerodynamic superiority. Some other accessories for time trials include clothing and shoe covers that are seamless and helmets that reduce drag and direct wind.
Time Trials started in the UK in the late 1800s and were kept secret as racing had been made illegal. These time trials were held at kilometer marks on the road with everyone wearing black to be inconspicuous.
“In 1890, the banned racing on public roads in fear of a ban not just on racing cyclists but all cycling. The legal position of cyclists was not secure. The cycling historian Bernard Thompson said: “Events organised by clubs in the 1880s, although taking place on quiet country roads, were constantly interrupted by the police. Often horse-mounted policemen charged at racers and threw sticks into their wheels.”
The NCU asked clubs to run races on closed tracks, known now as velodromes. But few existed and so a rebel organisation began, under the influence of men such as Frederick Thomas Bidlake, to continue racing on the road but in a way they believed need not bring police attention.
Riders would start at intervals, usually a minute, and race against the clock. Riders meeting on the road were not allowed to race against each other. Unsure of the legal situation, riders dressed from neck to ankle in black to make themselves less conspicuous, never wore numbers but always carried a bell. Races started in the countryside at dawn on courses referred to only in code. Even the cycling press was asked not to say where a race was taking place and details to competitors were headed “private and confidential” up to the 1960s. 1″
The coaches at crank cycling work with a lot of Time Trialists at all levels. If you would like to try a time trial and need help with training strategies or even want to purchase a power meter let us know.
Next up Coach Daggs talks about pursiuts on the Velodrome and how to warmup for time trials and pursuits
See you on the road
Coach Jesse Eisner
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_Time_Trials
Crank Cycling is happy to announce that we have added a new member to our team. Richard La China started off ( and still is) a Crank Cycling coached athlete working with Jesse Eisner. Richard has nearly 20 years of cycling experience, has had excellent results, and possess an excellent understanding of training principles and training plan design. Richard is an active mountain bike racer and and is familiar with most of the mountain bike race courses in the region. When we decided to look for a mountain bike specialist to work with us, Richard was an obvious choice. Richard not only understands how to train, his enthusiasm for the bike and his competitive nature can help any athlete step up their game. Want to check out Richard’s coach bio? Head on over to his coaching page.
-Sean
In 2010, I wrote about how it costs, $10,000 to put on a relatively small, simple, industrial park criterium. In 2011, I wrote about why it costs $11,000 to put on an industrial park criterium and now I am writing about how it costs $13,500 to put on an industrial park criterium. When this race first started, costs were around $8K, so that is a 70% increase in expenses over 9 years. That is why we unfortunately had to raise entry fees by a few bucks this year. It is also why we are limited to categories that can fill. I am risking a significant amount of money, and if the weather s great, I should make it all back, and have a little bit to put back in my pocket for all the time expense and risk, as well as put some into the coffers of the SDSU cycling team. If I am unlucky and it rains all day ( as in 2008), I could lose several thousands dollars and have the privilege of standing outside in the rain all day. I really want to thanks all the racers that came out and supported the event, everyone that worked and volunteered at the event. Head official Greg Aden is an easy guy to work with and his crew did a great job. I would especially like to thank Spy for steeping forward as title sponsor for the event.
Wanna know the cost breakdown? Here it is highest expense first, some are rounded to the nearest hundred, and a few are estimated as the final invoices have not come in.
Prize money: $2500
USAC Insurance: $1924
USAC Officials: $1830
Traffic Control required by City of SD: $1800
Ambulance Required by City of SD: $1650
Announcer Ralph Elliot $800 and worth every penny
Toilets: $525
Safety Equip: $500
Race numbers and supplies: $300
USAC Permit Fee $225
Other supplies: $200
Food for officials and race crew $160
Kinkos: $130
City Permit Fee $100
See the 2010 posts for why some of the expenses are so high, and why it is difficult to reduce them. The costs that have gone up the most in recent years: Traffic control has gone up by $1500, and USAC insurance has tripled in cost over the last 10 years or so ( a product of an increasingly litigious society?).
Those are the expenses that have gone up the most. The others have all slowly creeped up and brought us from the $8K mark, to near $14K.
-Sean
Recently, on a ride, I was told that “it is hard to mimic race efforts in training”. When it comes to mimicking speed-work , many find this to be true. However, there are ways produce speed-work training but you need to have the resources. The easiest way to practice going fast without racing is motor-pacing, or just the right kind of group ride. . Motor-pacing is drafting behind a motorcycle or scooter to mimic racing speeds, its hard, and its fun, but it frequently requires a velodrome to do it safely and may be difficult to do on open roads.
As far as mimicking non speed-work efforts, you just have to fin the right terrain. The right hill can help you accomplish most if not all of your training goals. In a race, you should only be pedaling, working hard, or going hard when the time is right. Working in the correct break, working for a teammate, jockeying for position before the field sprin, or making sure you arr int he right spot before the big climb so that you don’t get caught out when the field splits. The rest of the time you should not be pedaling or going hard. You should be drafting, sucking wheel, hiding in the field, and conserving energy.
In training, it is frequently the opposite. You should be going hard! This is not to say you shouldn’t have rest days. But if it’s not a rest day, then HTFU and do the workout. If you are training for a race with 10,000 feet of climbing, you’d better get your butt up some hills. If you need to hit 400 watts repeatedly over a 30 minute period, you’d better find a way to make it happen!
Personally, I’m trying to race more competitively this season. This means on days when “I’m just not feeling it”, I need to suck it up, and make it happen. Cycling is a hard sport and on the days I decide not to do my training, there are 80 peers of mine that chose more wisely. Like coach Chris Daggs always says, “There is no try, only do”.
Below is a video of my repeat climbs.
If you need help to get motivated contact us
See you on the road,
Coach Jesse Eisner
What: Crank Cycling Century, limited to 50 participants this is no huge granfondo ride.
When: Saturday February 25th Rolling out at 10:00 AM
Where: Leaving from Christmas Circle in Borrego Springs
How Much: Entry fee is only $20 per rider
How do I register: At the Crank Cycling Registration Page
On February 25th, Crank Cycling will be doing our first annual Crank Cycling Century. This will be a supported ride, and all the Crank Cycling coaches will be there . We’ll have a follow vehicle as well as refreshment stations stocked with tasty vittles, water, and energy drinks. We will start in Borrego Springs, ride to the Salton Sea, and then back to Borrego Springs. Those that want to make it only a metric century can stop here, while the rest of us will keep pedaling for 40 odd more miles. The ride will be fast, fun and friendly…mostly. There will be 5 sprint points along the way with prizes given to the winners of each sprint. About 2 miles before each sprint point, all hell will break loose. No worries, the weak will not be left to die in the desert. We’ll regroup after each sprint point and have a quick refreshment stop. You don’t need to be a lightweight, shiny legged racer to to the ride. But you should be comfortable riding in a large group on the flats at 20 miles an hour or more. The strong will take extra pulls and the weak will suck wheel!
What is TSS? TSS stands for training stress score. If you use Training Peaks or own a copy of WKO for your PC you will see a the TSS acronym with a correlating number in the summery of your workout TSS:239.04
“While exercise intensity is clearly an important factor in determining the type and magnitude of physiological adaptations to training, exercise frequency and duration – which together determine the overall training volume – are important factors as well. However, there is obviously an interaction between training intensity and volume-that is, at some point as intensity goes up volume must come down, and vice-versa, or else you will become over-trained. To quantify the overall training load and hopefully help avoid such a situation, The authors developed training stress score (TSS) for every workout, that provides a graphical summary of your recent TSS” Training and Racing with a Power Meter ~Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggen~
Physical exertion leads to training stress. The quote above talks about training stress and how it is accounted for when using a power meter. Power meters are one of the easiest ways to quantify training load and the stress that comes from said training.
Although Stress from training becomes more easily quantifiable because we can measure power, (intensity, volume, and workload) these metrics do not take into account all factors of stress, physical and mental fatigue.
When you lift weights you create physical training stress. If I lift 450 lbs 40 times I have lifted the equivalent of 18000 lbs or 9 tons. This type of workout done 2 to 3 times a week can end up averaging out to 27 tons of weight lifted in a week. This adds obvious training stress to our overall workload as an athlete. These conclusions can apply to all of the differing workouts that you do i.e. running, kettlebell, swimming, or even yoga.
It is also important to remember that there are other forms of physical exertion that would not be categorized as working out, but will cause stress. For example, have you recently done a home improvement project that involved manual labor? From 2005 to 2009, I spent part of my time working in the construction industry. On some days, I used a Jack hammer for four or more hours at a time. I would say that those days were as hard or harder than a 40k time trial or 90 minute criterium.
The final type of stress (I’ll talk about) to account for is mental fatigue. It is easy to forget the stress that is created by our minds or by what are minds are working on. Especially, when correlating those mental efforts to working out.
As athletes it takes quite a bit of mental discipline to train our body’s day in and day out to achieve goals that are beyond our immediate abilities.
If you receive a promotion at your job, work on a big project, or have a deadline to meet, stress will be increased. Having a child, becoming the head of an estate, or other life change also will increase your stress. Changes like these will most likely have added and new responsibilities that can even effect sleep patterns. These new responsibilities will take more of your mental discipline and focus. These responsibilities should be considered when thinking about your training and stress.
Knowing that there are other factors of stress is important, but what do we do with that information?
One of the major things you can do is account for all your stress. If you lift weights, cross-train, or don’t ride with your power meter on a specific day, add your own TSS Score to your workout.
In Training Peaks Software, for your TSS score to be accurate your threshold power must be input correctly into the software . A TSS Score of 100 is considered to be one hour of all out effort or equivalent to a 40k time trial. If your threshold power is input accurately Training Peaks will tell you what your TSS is on any given ride.
One way to calculate your own TSS is to use similar duration, terrain, and fatigue as a model. When it comes to weight lifting or cross training you can judge/estimate by how you feel. For example, how did your effort without a power meter (non cycling) compare to workouts with a power meter? Are you less, equally, or more fatigued? When building an annual training program, more information is better. Your best guess, even if it is subjective, is good enough.
In conclusion, share with your coach any life changes that are effecting your training, sleep patterns, or performance. Coaches are here to help you objectively balance your training so you can accomplish peak performance.
See you on the road
Coach Jesse Eisner
Would you like to rent a power meter? Do you need coach? Contact us. We can help.
We’ve all been sidelined with an illness or injury and getting back to a good level of fitness can be tough. Don’t despair, you’ll get back to peak fitness, but it takes hard work, discipline, and, above all, a plan. Here’s some tips on how to make your comeback successful.
- Have a plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail; it sounds cliche, but it’s true. Talk to your coach or hire a coach. If you don’t have a coach; reach out to a trusted training partner for some ideas.
- Select a target event. Pick an event or race 4-8 weeks out that suits your ability. A goal event gives you purpose and provides extra motivation.
- Put your comeback training schedule up where you can see it everyday. Put it someplace like your bathroom mirror or your refrigerator.
- Get disciplined. Schedule your rides in advance so there are no excuses or conflicts.
- Clean up your diet. You probably gained a few pounds (or 15…) and dropping the weight is part of getting back to peak fitness.
- Spend some extra time on recovery. It’s going to take a few weeks for your post workout recovery time to improve so devote some extra time to your recovery routine.
- Document your comeback! Post your progress on your Facebook, Twitter, blog, or website. Sharing your training with others will keep you accountable.
- BE PATIENT! It’s tough getting back in the saddle, and the first few weeks will be difficult and you’ll question your choices. After a few weeks you’ll feel better and your legs will come around. Keep the faith; good results are around the corner!
On a personal note: I am coming back from a long layoff due to injury and illness. In late August I suffered a broken finger and hand during a training crash and soon after I was forced off the bike for months due to an illness. I’m following my own tips and I’ll be documenting my progress on Crank Cycling’s blog. Check back for more updates, and don’t hesitate to share your own comeback stories with us!
Coach Chris Daggs
