Crank Cycling

A key component to having a good race is having a tried and tested routine that you stick to. You will have some pressure and stress while trying to accomplish your goals. So it is important to feel comfortable leading into the day of your race. You already must be a disciplined individual to prepare physically and mentally for your race. Taking that discipline and utilizing it for your race day prep is important.

Pick a routine that you know works. Try to sleep the amount of time you normally when training. If your race is on a Sunday don’t add tons of extra chores around the house Saturday. You and your coach have done efforts that should mimic your event. Pick foods that you have eaten before these hard efforts and that you know sit well in your stomach. All testing of new foods should be done during training, months before your event. Give yourself extra time during preparation. Plan for everything to take longer and expect that you will need that extra time.

Because competition is stressful physically and mentally it is important to not add any extra stress. Make sure you are comfortable. Plan your meals ahead of time. What will you eat the day before and the day of (pre and post event). Choose the clothing you will wear to your event, during your event, and after your event. Make sure your equipment is the way you want it. Do you always use red TT bars at a time trial. Make sure they are on your bike not your workbench.

Just like discipline in training discipline in preparation is very important. Practice your preparation. You will most likely have similar events leading up to your peak event. Try new things months in advance. Repeat what works, and right it down to review later. Repetition is key to dialing in your routine. Finally if its not broke don’t fix it.

It is always important to remember life is not perfect. Things can go wrong. We all have had mechanical at inopportune moments or forgotten a helmet. If your are having a challenges here are a couple things you can do. Take a deep breath, ask for help. If it can’t be helped let out your frustration out and than let it go. It is very important as an athlete to have multiple goals. Pick two or three races you want to do well at. Then choose multiple metrics to measure your success. There is almost always a success in your performance.

If you want to take your training to the next level, let the coaches at Crank Cycling know. We can help you meet whatever training goals you have!
See you on the road,
Coach Jesse Eisner

Crank Cycling Athletes and freinds. We are planning on doing a Crank Cycling road ride on Decmber 3rd at 9am. We will be leaving from the Performance Bike Shop in Sorrento Valley. The ride will be lead by Coach Jesse Eisner.
This riding is aproprieate for all crank cycling athletes. It is an endurance paced ride. There will be no hammering on the ride. Hope to see you all out there.

Cheers Coach Jesse

Performance Bike Shop
11675 Sorrento Valley Rd., Suite A
1/4 Mile South of Carmel Mountain Road
Sorrento, CA 92121

Crank route

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/59080432

So it is the end of your season and it has been a long one. You just finished the Everest Challenge which has 30,000 feet of climbing. Or maybe you just did a five day UCI stage race in the Caribbean. For some of the riders I coach, this is the way their season ended. When your season has ended with such lofty goals, you can be left with a lack of drive to continue training.

Some riders force themselves through periods where they lack motivation. This can, and usually does, lead to overreaching and eventually burnout or over training.

It is important to give ourselves time to relax from the rigors of training and racing even if you have come off a stellar season, accomplished your goals, and have a new level of fitness. It is important to remember that even if you are not physically overreaching or over trained, that you may be mentally tired. Our minds need just as much care as our bodies when it comes to recovery.

There are always alternative training methods to maintain and rebuild a high level of fitness. These alternatives can give us a break from a rigorous training schedule and still be fun. One method that some cyclists use is Cyclo-cross. Cyclo-Cross is like mountain biking and running mixed into the same workout on road style bicycles. Cylco-cross race courses are run on road, grass, and single track trails with minimal technical sections, but have areas where the rider must dismount and carry his or her bike while hurdling barriers.

Mountain biking is also another good alternative of riding. At the end of a long season, our training and competing can become only a means to an end. Sometimes this leads us to forget about the fun aspects of riding bicycles. Most of us started riding bicycles because it was fun and our competitive natures pushed us to compete on our bikes. Mountain biking leads us back to trails, keeps our brains engaged picking good lines on technical sections of these trails, and usually leads us to mud; and everyone knows that getting muddy is fun.

If you want to be as functional as possible in your off season, lifting weights is also a good thing to take up at the end of your season. Weight lifting is something you should talk with your coach or trainer about as you can very easily injure yourself lifting. Lifting weights should also incorporate the same movements that your cycling discipline does.

When starting to rebuild your overall fitness and transitioning into the off season, it is important to break up the rhythm of your training to include cross training and conditioning in a fun environment. Allowing your body to rest and recover from anaerobic efforts is important. Allowing your mind to rest from pushing yourself to accomplish your workouts is also very important. Training comes in building cycles. All building cycles whether weekly, monthly, or yearly should include rest periods.

Our long term goals as athletes should include rest, recovery, and relaxation at the end of a long season and taking that time will renew our inner drive. I am writing this blog post from Monterey, California, where I just took a few days off to relax, read books, and ride a mountain bike on beautiful Fort Ord, and believe me, I got muddy.

If you want to take your training to the next level, let the coaches at Crank Cycling know. We can help you meet whatever training goals you have!
See you on the road,
Coach Jesse Eisner

About 2/3 of the athletes I coach  use power meters to train, and the majority of them use heart rate monitors as well.  But even with athletes that use all of this fancy equipment, sometimes a  “Rate of Perceived  Exertion” (RPE) scale  is the best way to explain  the subjective  intensity of the workout.       This a basically  how hard  you are going on your own personal 1-10 scale.   While  the scale is 100% subjective, it winds up being quite reliable, and has been validated in multiple scientific  studies. ( you can do a Google Scholar search for GAV Borg or Gunnar Borg)

The scale is typically given like this:

• 0 – Nothing at all
• 1 – Very light
• 2 – Fairly light
• 3 – Moderate
• 4 – Some what hard
• 5 – Hard
• 6
• 7 – Very hard
• 8
• 9
• 10 – Very, very hard

But I also sometimes explain it like this:

• 0 – Nothing at all
• 1-2  Super easy, like a slow walk
• 3-4 Moderate effort, you  aren’t going easy anymore, but you can hold this for a long time
• 5-6 Hard  holding this for an extended period is difficult,  at or just below   race pace
• 7 -8 Very hard     race pace, as  you can only hold this for a couple of minutes
• 9 Almost as hard as you could possibly go
• 10 – This is as hard as you’ve ever gone your entire life, like someone is chasing you with a cattle prod.

This is  useful for large groups of people such as stationary  cycling classes ( such as the classes I teach at the  Navy and VA hospitals), or situations where athletes don’t have have access to, or don’t want to use devices such as power meters  or heart rate monitors.  It is also     frequently  use the RPE scale even with athletes that DO use these training devices.   The fact is, that an athlete needs to know  how to go off of feel,  to gauge their own physiological  responses,  just get a  handle on  what they can do,  and when they need to do it.      Don’t get me wrong.  I love training, coaching, and racing with power.   But if you you don’t know and  understand what  your boy is doing at the moment, and what you are capable of on a purely primal level.   You’ll never really reach your maximum potential.

Crank Indoor Cycling opened  in August 2009.   After 2 years, we have decided that the original  concept  location are  not the best for us, and it is better for us to concentrate primarily on coaching individual  athletes  The  last class   at our downtown location was  on July 14th 2011.       We truly enjoy teaching the classes, interacting with the athletes, and helping them meet their goals.    We intend to have some sort of cycling classes beginning again in the fall of 2011, but the exact location, time, are format are still to be determined.

Crank Cycling as a coaching and training organization is going strong.  Sean, Jesse, and Chris are here to help you meet your training, racing and fitness goals.  You can visit us at the Crank Cycling web page for more information.

Thank you for your patronage,

Sean

It is essential to know your strengths and weaknesses before adding specificity to your training plan. There are two common approaches, 1) further develop your strengths, and 2) focus on your weaknesses. Riders training to their strengths dedicate time and energy where their skills and abilities already lie; others, focus on their weaknesses in order to develop a well-rounded set of abilities. The Crank Cycling Climbing Camp can help both types of riders.
The Crank Cycling Spring Climbing Camp is where a dedicated rider can harness the power of specificity in order to achieve new levels of performance. After determining a focus area and attaining a base-level of cycling fitness, adding training specificity complementing and stretching your abilities is the next step. If you are a climber, more climbing and specific gradients that mimic upcoming events, including appropriate duration and intensity, is essential. Planning on competing in a century race with a 3-mile climb? If so, then you will want to reflect that exact effort in your training. Do you have upcoming touring century rides? The first goal for specific training is to start with duration barely exceeding your existing limits. To maximize your training, the goal is to incrementally extend that duration until reaching the desired effort level for a given event. Accurately answering the following questions will effectively shape your training program:
1) Does the event have repeated efforts such as a circuit race?
2) Is the event a point-to-point event with continuously rolling terrain?
3) Are there repeated climbs?

After these efforts are added into your training plan you can take specificity a step further
by adding continuous blocks of the chosen discipline to stimulate further adaptation—a training camp is a perfect opportunity for this. Training camps can be as simple as a long weekend with multiple days of riding, or as intricate as choosing multiple specific climbs over 3 to 5 days while maintaining specific power or heart rate output.
Crank Cycling just completed a spring climbing camp in some of the most challenging and beautiful terrain in Southern California. For three days riders enjoyed a FULLY-SUPPORTED experience including a follow-vehicle, food, drinks, spare clothing, mechanical support, expert coaching, and evaluation. Riders climbed over 21,000 feet, sped down winding descents, and pushed themselves to new levels—all developing their riding skills and pushing their physical limits.

“It felt like I was on a 3 day vacation, except I was never more than an hour away from home. I got to push my body over some of the most beautiful climbs San Diego has to offer, while feeling very “pro” the entire time. There is nothing more relaxing than knowing you have a support vehicle near you at all times. A raise of your hand gets you anything you need, water , food, a jacket, a wheel change, sometimes just a word of support, or the directions to your next turn. I will be the first to sign up to Crank Cycling’s next climbing camp!” ~Jose Cepeda~

Summer Climbing camp

Jose and Coach Jesse

Coached athlete Justin Farrar

If you want to take your training to the next level, let the coaches at Crank Cycling know. We can help meet whatever training goals you have!

See you on the road,
Coach Jesse Eisner

The  Retul Fit Part  -2  Part one can be found HERE.

When I  arrived at Studeo DNA’s   fit studio in Carlsbad, Chris was just finishing up with another rider, so I got into my cycling kit and had a seat.  The first thing  Chris had me do was walk back  and forth across the room in bare feet while Chris watched to look for signs of excessive eversion/inversion ( toes out or toes in)  as well as excessive pronation or supination ( inward or outward rolling of the heel).   The idea here is that someone will walk with a gait that is natural for them and that this foot position may need to be replicated on the bike.   This is where cleat shims and similar tool are often utilized.  My walking position was generally neutral, so that made this part relatively simple.

The next step was to run me through a few strength and flexibility tests to ascertain how these things may affect my bike fit.     I never thought of myself as particularly flexible,  nor do I have 6 pack abs, but I was rated as “ high” to “medium” on all flexibility metrics and “high” on the core strength test.    Next, Chris verified that my cleats were evenly placed on my shoes, and he put me on  the bike on a trainer that was on a level platform.   While on the bike, Chris checked the cleat placement to ensure that the balls of my feet where at the center of the pedal axles.   Once that was done, he began placing small Velcro dots on anatomical points on my feet, legs, torso, shoulders, arms and hands.   This was done on both the right side, as the motion capture measures both sides of your body.   The proper placement of these dots is important, as all measurements are taken from the points.    Once the dots where properly placed Chris attached the  Retul Motion capture sensors  to the  Velcro dots, and  turned on the motion capture camera.  He then had me pedal at my own preferred cadence at an easy, moderate and “ a little bit hard” effort level using  an electronically controlled trainer  that allowed him to control the watts.  While I  pedaled, the motion capture camera took data samples for 15 seconds at each effort level, and this was repeated for both the left and right sides.    It is important to   take data samples at  these different effort levels, as you may well pedal differently when you are noodling along the coast vs when you are getting on the pedals hard during a race or other hard effort.

When the data capture was done, we looked at many different joint angles,   at different points in space, and how they changed while I pedaled.    The 3 aperture setup of the Retul system allows the the  system to measure your movement in 3 dimensions.  So while the camera is on one side, it measure not only up and down, left and right, but  backwards and forwards as well.    All of these angles are then compared to a set of norms developed by  Retul after measuring many, many riders.   My   angles position, and movements   were all well within the norms given by  Retul,  but we did notice that one my right side that  my knee was moving a  tiny bit more forward of the pedal spindle than what was expected.    In an attempt to remedy this, we moved by saddle up, by just a tiny bit (3.5mm) and forward just a bit (5mm).     Then we went through the motion capture process again, and looked at the data.  There was very little change in my joint angles or the way my knee moved forward of the pedal spindle, but neither Chris nor I found this to be much of a big deal in the first place,  and I had no pain or discomfort, so we decided to leave the bike as it was.      We finished up and I got back into my street clothes while Chris used the Retul system to take measurements on my bike, and prepared a report on my bike and my fit.

Retul isn’t really a “fit system”, I would describe it more accurately as a “dynamic position measuring system.”    The advantage of the Retul system is that it gives completely objective measurements, and catches things that they naked eye may not see.  Once the data are collected, it is up to the  fitter to use  that information to help him determine   your position and what, if anything,  should change.     Relying on an actual person to use all the information possible   is, in my opinion, the best way to go about fitting someone on the bike.   Some “fit systems” attempt to measure all of your segment lengths  and then plug it into an algorithm to tell the fitter where to put your contact points.  But  as I’ve said previously,  the experience  of the fitter,  the personal observations, and quite simply the “gut” of the fitter are just as important as anything else.     So the Retul system  does not fit you too the bike, it  gives the fitter information that can be used  to help fit you and your bike.

There was no “Eureka!” moment for me.  We made very minor changes ( 3.5 mm  is almost as minor as it can get)  that I may or may not keep.   But I  went into Studeo DNA  with no major issues,  and a comfortable bike  position that  works  well for me.    Someone that has    issues with tightness, pain, discomfort, etc,    may make more significant changes to their fit, and could potentially get much more from I bike fit than I did.     My only criticism of the whole process is that it is done one a trainer, and you simply don’t pedal the exact same way on a trainer, as you do outdoors.        Doing bike fits on a trainer is fairly standard these days though, and the stationary trainer offers a level of measurement and observation that would be very difficult to replicate when you are hammering along on your group ride.

After we finished the whole fit, and made the minor changes to my bike, Chris went about what he called “zinning” my bike.   He used the  Retul system to measure  my to precise location of my wheels, saddle, handlebars, my bike geometry and more.    These measurements were all part of the report that he gave  when we were done, and proved to be quite valuable.     A few days after  the   appointment at Studeo DNA,  a custom Kirklee   carbon fiber frame that I had  been waiting for arrived on  my doorstep.   My mechanic was able to use the information, and the precise measurements made by the Retul system to replicate all  of my contact points so that they were exactly the same as on my Time.   Chris later told me that  a some of his customers told him that  bike setup report alone was worth the trip to see him.  Another bonus is that Chris will see you again within two weeks  with no additional charge.  That way you get to try out any changes in the real world, and then come back if they aren’t working for you.    A “free” return  visit is an absolutely essential part of a high end bike fit, and I would guard against working any fitter that won’t follow up on his work.

If you want to check out  Studeo DNA and the Retul system yourself, Chris told me that they are having an open house this Saturday June 25th.  You can just drop in and check the place out, or you can bring you bike and gear so that they can put you on the trainer and take some measurements.  Getting those measurements will be only $25,  and you can apply that to a full bike fit if you wish.   There is an Evite HERE.  and a Facebook invitation HERE.

Below a some of the documents Studeo DNA provided me after the fit:

My Retul  Bicycle Setup Report

My Retul Bike Fit Report ( left side)

I saw this story on Velonews today:   Upcoming from CycleOps: Heart-rate-based power meters and superlight carbon wheelset

I am going to say this as clearly and simply as I possibly can.  There is no way to measure power using heart rate.   It just isn’t possible.   Heart rate is to dynamic.  It changes due to factors such as fed state, level of fatigue, how long you have been exercising, hyrdation level and more.      Power measured via strain gauges is instantaneous,  and any effort put into the pedals can be measured right then and there, but but  heart rate may take several minutes to catch up.    So heart rate is a reasonable proxy  for effort level on long efforts, but  is practically useless for long efforts.

Like I said, I love my powertap,   I have one on my bike, and I have a studio full of powertap stationary trainers.   But don’t tell us you are measuring power when you aren’t.    What PT is trying to do is measure training stress using heart rate, and make it applicable across different types of exercise.   This is nothing new and it can be useful.    You can read a good article on TRIMP HERE.    But there is absolutely  no no way that TRIMP equals power measurement.

-Sean

I had a Retul bike fit done with Chris Bennet at Studeo DNA in Carlsbad last month, this is Part 1 of a 2 part entry on my experience with Studeo DNA and the Retul System.

I’d like to start off with my  thoughts on bike fits, and fitters in general.  A good bike fit is can be one of the most elusive parts of a cyclists training and fitness regime. Fitting an athlete and a bicycle is equal parts science, rider feedback, personal experience, black magic and voodoo. I’ve always been skeptical of expensive bike fits that use lasers, smoke machines, and other fancy equipment. After all, the most important part of a quality bike fit is the fitter himself. You often see shop mechanics doing bicycle fits, but this never made much sense to me. I don’t go to TP Automotive for my shoulder pain, so why would I go to a bike mechanic to help me with a bike fit. Even a week at some bike fit school, and a certificate on the wall doesn’t necessarily impress me. I’m not saying that all bicycle mechanics are bad bike fitters, I’ve met many excellent fitters who also know how to turn a wrench. My point is that working in a bike shop does not necessarily qualify someone to do a good bike fit. In my opinion, the most important aspects of a bike fitter are( in no particular order) are:

1) Experience on the bike:
A good bike fitter should have logged literally thousands of hours on the bike. This means that they have several years of experience riding bikes themselves, and simply know what it means to pedal a bike for mile after mile, hour after hour… and how to pedal a bike hard. Their understanding of how a bike and a rider fit together needs to be more than academic, it needs to be experiential.

2) Experience watching others:
Ok, this mostly comes with logging the miles themselves. But spending all those hours riding with others riders allows a good bike fitter to instantly sense when something isn’t right, to recognize the “suplesse” of a a bike and a rider working in perfect harmony, and to try and help you replicate that yourself.

3) An understanding of biomechanics and physiology:
A good bike fitter has to have a fundamental understanding of how our muscles and bones work together to put the power to the pedals. This is where some good old fashioned book learning comes in. Fitters can be self taught, take college classes, go to weekend or week long bike fit classes, or combination of these things to learn and understand the biomechanics of pedaling a bike.  A good background in biomechaincs  allows an experienced fitter understand how parts of the body are related, and adjusting one part effects the rest.

4) Experience doing actual bike fits:
Practice makes perfect.   That is not to say that all new bike fitters give poor bike fits,  simply that experience counts.

Each of these things is equally important and helps a bike fitter make you more comfortable, faster, and injury free on your bike. What you sometimes find in a bike shop employee is someone who has some background and understanding of biomchanics because they went to a “fit school”, yet I assure you that all of these things cannot be learned in a weekend. Many bike shop employees loves bikes, and love to ride them but don’t get all that , much saddle time. If a fitter has not had long hours riding the bike and watching others, a good understanding of biomechanics, and actual experience doing bike fits, then approach with caution.*

Studeo DNA in Carlsbad specializes in doing bike fits only.     Chris is an experienced masters racer, with many miles on under his belt, and one look at Chris clues you in to the the fact that he is a former bodybuilder.   As a bodybuiler and cyclists, Chris  has spent  years   studying and absorbing information about the human body and biomehanics and is as well versed  as anyone how all of those muscles, bones,  ligaments and joints work together.    Chris would be using the Retul Fit System to  help examine my current bike fit, and  possibly recommend any changes in my bike fit.   People usually get a bike fit because they are either new to cycling, have pain or discomfort, or simply want to find a more aerodynamic or  improved biomechanical position.     I had no particular reason to change or  alter my current fit, but I figured I would see what these guys have to offer.

Coming next…the actual fit process:

* I don’t want to seem as if I am bashing bike shop employees here, I’m just trying to drive home the point that being a good mechanic  and  being a good bike fitter are not the same thing!   I have also seen non bike shop  bike fitters that posses all of the attributes I’ve mentioned, at yet still give terrible bike fits!

Chris Harrison is an avid cyclist and  chemist at San Diego State University, and he needs your help.    Dr Harrison recently received a grant from WADA to  develop a technique to detect autologous blood doping .  This is when an athlete removes, stores, and then later re-injects his own blood( think Operation Puerto).   The methods for detecting  blood doping using  another individual’s blood are well proven, but a good test for detecting autologous doping has proven more elusive.   What Dr Harrison does is take a very small sample of blood, measured in microliters,  and uses a tool called capillary eletrophoresis (CE) to determine the age of the red blood cells.    As you probably know, you renew  all of your red blood cells every 120 days or so.   CE allows Dr Harrison to determine the age of of the blood cells in the sample.  Now the thing about blood that Johnny Doper stores in a bag in his refrigerator  is that the cells essentially keep aging even though they are outside of the body.    Therefore, an individual who has used autologous blood doping has a much higher percentage of old  blood cells than does a non-doped athlete.   The graph below helps illustrate this point:

So here is where Chris Harrison needs your help ( assuming your are not blood doping).  He needs some small (very) small samples of blood from trained cyclists, so that he can further develop this test for detecting autlogous blood transfusions.  The blood collection happens in his lab at SDSU, and he is willing to work around your schedule.   The collection just involves a little finger prick and a few drops of blood.   I don’t believe that there is any compensation, other than the satisfaction that you are helping fight the good fight.       I’ll be scheduling my visit to see Dr Harrison at SDSU next week. If you would like to help fight the dopers, you can contact Dr Harrison via Email:harrison@sciences.sdsu.edu Phone: 619-594-1609

Here is a video that explains a little more about the whole thing, including the collection of the sample.