Planning to Gain

It's no surprise to those who know me that once something bugs me, I kind of obsess over it. This time around, it's that body fat/muscle thing that I mentioned last week.

To put this in perspective, here are the numbers:

	Total Weight	Percentage	Lean Mass	Fat Mass
9/17/05	172.0	12.0%	151.4	20.6
8/23/14	171.0	17.5%	141.1	29.9

I'm a pound lighter than I was 9 years ago, but the real shock comes from the body composition numbers.

I have lost 10.3 pounds of lean mass. That's not necessarily just muscle. It could also be bone and connective tissue, which are also things I don't want to lose. It's hard to say exactly where that muscle was lost since I only have sporadic measurements going back that far (to be honest, I only have the one body fat measurement from a threshold test that I did at Breakaway until I started tracking body fat in 2010). I know that my thighs were 26" then and are down to 24" now, so at least some of it came off my legs.

I also gained  9.3 pounds of fat. That's just fat. There's no good way to look at it. There is definitely more around my waist. I wear a size 34 waist now and I wore a 32 back in 2005. The 34 is snug; the 32 was loose in the waist but was required to fit my legs in them.

This winter, I'm going to start reversing that. I realize that getting more muscle won't directly make me a faster rider, but this is more of a long-term fitness and health concern.

Let me assure you, gaining muscle take a lot of hard work. It's not something that just helping your friends move one weekend or lifting small dumbbells once in a while will accomplish. A lot of people think they gained muscle because they lost some fat and exposed the muscle underneath. Believe me, they didn't. It takes a lot of very focused effort at pretty hard intensities to gain even a little muscle... and at the age of 40, it won't be any easier.

There's another funny thing to know about muscle. You can gain strength and endurance in a muscle without growing more muscle. The difference is not in size, which is what makes it all more confusing. You can gain huge amounts of strength without the muscles getting larger.

This won't be an easy process. In addition to lifting heavy, I also need a calorie surplus. Of course, it needs to be enough to build muscle but not so much that my body starts storing the extra as fat.

I can realistically gain 1/4 to 1/2 pound per week. I'll spend about 10 weeks working on gaining. During that time, I should gain substantial strength and need to maintain my aerobic fitness.

After Christmas, I'll switch back to focusing on losing fat for 12 weeks, aiming for  0.8 to 1.0 pounds per week. There's a good chance I will lose a tiny bit of muscle during that time. As long as I keep lifting, I should be able to minimize it but I still have to be careful. During that time, I'll be focused on building the strength and endurance of the new muscle while trying to build my aerobic fitness.

If I hit those numbers, I should be able to lose about 11 pounds of fat and gain 4 pounds of muscle (for a total loss of 7 pounds), putting me around 12% body fat by March.

If I can pull that off, I'll be pretty happy. It's not quite enough to replace all that I've lost, but it's certainly a step in the right direction and sets the stage for next winter (2015-2016) to continue the same process.

2014 Wrap Up

With the 2014 season over, it's a good time for  a look back at the season:

The Overall Results
In the end, out of 12 races, I had:

• 2 wins
• 3 second places
• 2 third places

The Goal Achieved:
My goal for the year was to finish Top 2 in the NJ Time Trial Cup. I intentionally made it "top 2" because there was a major variable I could not control: the fitness of other riders. I knew there was always the possibility that someone could beat me. I just didn't expect it to be someone I already knew.

The Competition:
Probably the greatest thing about this season was my competition with Anthony. He and his fiance, Cary, were at every race. We saw them more than pretty much anyone else we know, even going out to brunch and dinner with them on a couple of the trips.

It's hard to say we were "in competition" when Anthony beat me in 10 out of 12 races. The only times I beat him were days that I won, but I'd say the year was really defined by us racing against each other.

At our last race, it hit me that if either one of us had not been there, it would have been a really boring year for the other. We had a significant lead over the other riders in the series: Anthony finished 10 points ahead of me and I finished 22 points ahead of the next rider. I spent every week worrying about how to beat him. He spent every week worrying that I might.

This is the kind of duel that really makes the year more fun.

The Highlight:
This year I won the Long Beach Island time trial. It was the highlight of the year for me because of my experience there last year, summed up nicely in a previous post:

http://fat2fast.blogspot.com/2013/04/two-in-one.html

" I finished in 5th place, about 30 seconds behind the next rider and a full 2 minutes behind the winner. I'm thrilled with another strong result... and starting to think about what it will take to climb to the top next year."

Apparently I managed to climb to the top for that event! It was a great result, doing 10 miles at 26.3 mph and 283 watts.

The Logistics:
One of the hardest things this year was the travel and planning. The closest race was a 50-minute drive. Almost every trip included major traffic in at least one direction. Most of the drives were in the 2 to 2 1/2 hour range. The worst was the 5 1/2 hour drive back from Silvermine.

The opening sequence of 7 races in 8 weeks was really rough (it would have been 8 in a row but one was canceled... and there was great rejoicing. Yay!). It felt like we never had a weekend to ourselves, which is really draining.

With the races so far away, we got hotels for most of them. It was nice to get away a little and not to worry about racing after driving for 2 hours, but it also made for an expensive summer.

The Training:
For the 2012-2013 season, I structured my training differently than I ever had before. It worked spectacularly. Like any tinkerer, I tried something different from that for the 2013-2014 season and it did not work nearly as well. I hit the start of racing season about 20 watts lower than I was at the same time last year. It was not a good start and I was playing catch-up all year.

I was really proud of the fact that I planned out the 2012-2013 season myself and I'd really wanted to do the same this year, but I just didn't know how to do 8 straight weeks of racing, when I needed to be well rested for each race but also needed to keep the fitness I had. Since I started the season behind in my training, I needed outside help even more.

I started working with Hunter Allen, cycling coach and author of multiple books on training for cycling using power data. He helped me enormously, analyzing my past training and helping me plan how to keep my fitness through that opening series and how to build fitness throughout the summer. I made huge gains under his guidance. I will definitely be working with him in the future.

The Training 2:
One of my great successes this year (under Hunter's guidance) was my increase in fitness during the month break between end of the beginning group of races and the Blueberry race. I trained myself completely into the ground until 8 days before the race, then spent the last days resting and sharpening my fitness. I did amazingly well in that race, exceeding all my expectations, matching my best 60-minute power from last year.

My Weight
I never really got my weight as low as I wanted, so I was a bit annoyed by that.

On the plus side, my weight stayed in a tight band this year, ranging from 168 pounds to 175 pounds. While I would have liked to have been lighter, I was really happy to be so consistent.

I also made a not-so-great discovery this week: my body fat percentage. Right now I'm 170 pounds at 17%. I found in my old training records that 10 years ago I was at also 170 pounds but at 12%. That basically means that in the last 10 years, I've lost 10 pounds of muscle and replaced it with 10 pounds of fat. That definitely gives me something to work on this winter.

The Weather:
The first race was very cold and raining. It was a miserable start. The second race was freezing cold to the point I could not feel my hands and feet by the finish.

The rest of them were great. None of them were burning hot like last year and there were not monster winds at any of them.

My Equipment:
I almost can't believe I'm typing these words: I used the same equipment all year long. The same bike, same wheels, same bike computer, same helmet, same skinsuit, same shoes, same shoe covers, even the same gear bag. I spent the 2013 season changing things constantly and I think I finally got it right.

None of my gear was bugging me this year and nothing new stood out to me as a worthwhile replacement for what I'm already using.

Looking ahead at 2015:
I'm already thinking about next year.

As I already mentioned, I've got some body composition issues to work on. It takes a lot of work to gain muscle and it grows slowly, requiring highly intense weight lifting and enough excess calories to fuel growth but not so many that I gain fat. That's one goal I'll be aiming for before the end of the calendar year... which means getting back into the gym for the first time in a few years.

I know that I don't want to do the TT Cup as a goal again. The requirement to be both fast and rested for most of the summer just didn't work for me. By the end, I just didn't care. I do better with a few specific targets than I do with one large, prolonged one. 

I don't know how many events I'll be doing. I did 11 last year and it didn't feel too bad. I did 12 this year and I was ready for the end after about 10. I think the difference is that last year I picked the events myself and I always had the option to say "I'm not in the mood this week." Compare that to this year when I had to do the ones prescribed in the series (letting someone else's decisions impact my goals). The events were also more spaced out last year, so I got a break once in a while.

I also think the singular goal of "win" was a little too much. It depended largely on who else was there and what their fitness was like. Even if I had been fitter than last year, there was no guarantee that it would lead to a win. 

Instead I'll be looking for two to three races in which I want to hit a certain goal. I think last year's goal of "do a 40K race in under an hour" worked really well for me because it gave me a very specific goal which was dependent on my own performance, not on other people's. It also gave me something that I could measure progress towards. Maybe the next goal will be to get an even lower time or a higher power. My best was 57:45 at 260 watts, so maybe I could look to improve upon those.

Of course, now that I've gotten the taste of winning, I'll certainly be looking for something to win. I've always wanted to win a PA State Championship but the Lake Nockamixon course used this year would never work for me. With so many climbs, it favors a much smaller rider than I could ever be. I can only hope that next year will be a different course that suits me better.... or I'll have to find some other race to aim to win.

In Closing:
Overall, I am not satisfied with the season. I had some great results and, if not for last year, it would have been my best year ever.  Still, it was a step down from the year before and that's not something I'm ready to accept just yet (maybe when I'm older).


One last assessment for the year:

What I did right:
Got some great results
Achieved the single major goal for the year
Got outside help when I needed it
Made changes in my training when I needed to
Didn't panic when things were not going as well as I wanted

What could have been better: 
My off-season training did not yield the fitness I needed to improve upon 2013
My weight and body composition
My motivation fell apart at the end, probably due to my performance being lower and not getting the results I wanted. Yes, it got to me.
My confidence and bike handling skills in high-speed descents

The Parade to Paris

When you watch the Tour de France on TV, the last stage is largely ceremonial, with the overall standings pretty much determined and riders who aren't in contention for the overall trying for the final victory.

That's pretty much what today was like. The top 3 finishers had never done any of the series time trials this year. The series leader finished 8th. I finished 16th.

I hadn't planned on giving this race my all. I had enough of a lead in the series that I didn't even have to show up to keep my 2nd place and, given our relative performances in recent weeks, I was unlikely to beat Anthony.

The course started out flat on rough, cracked, pot-holed pavement. After a mile or so, it turns on to a slight incline that leads up to a monster 1.1 mile climb which averaged 8%. In reality, it had three steep sections around 13% and was about 5 to 6% the rest of the time. After that, it was about 4 miles of rolling terrain and then a 3.5-mile descent to the finish with several spots of cracked pavement along the way. 

When I drove the course and saw the pavement, my plan to just have fun and ride the course just to say I did all 12 races really cemented itself. I was not going to take any risks for the last race for no real benefit.

The race had a slightly strange rule: it only allowed road bikes. We could still wear skinsuits and aero helmets, but were not allowed time trial frames, disk wheels, or aero bars.

All told, I'd say I achieved my goal for the day. It was fun.  Most of the time, anyway.

The first mile sucked. I was swerving all over the road trying to avoid cracks and bumps (trying to avoid flat tires or crashes).

The lead-up to the hill was psychologically harder than anything else. You could see the pavement disappearing up into the trees as it goes almost vertical up ahead and you had about a half-mile gradual climb to get to it.

The climb itself was hard but my research and planning really helped. I knew that there were three very steep sections and two other not-quite-as-steep sections plus how long each one was. I got to the top and gradually got back up to speed.

The rolling sections in the middle kind of flew by. Again, there were random potholes and rough sections all over (almost always on a downhill when I was already doing 30 mph and had to avoid them).

The long downhill to the finish was mostly smooth pavement but the occasional major rough section gets you paranoid and I didn't really push the pace too hard. I was holding 30 mph for most of it (except for a couple of short climbs along the way that slowed me down).

I saw the finish line and did a sort-of-half-effort sprint for it. I was just happy to make it through the course and be done.

In a rare move, I hadn't really paid much attention to my power meter during the race. At the end, I was shocked at just how easily I had taken the race. I was probably 30 watts lower than I would have wanted if I was really trying for a race this length.

So ends the 2014 season. It's a far cry from last year, which ended with 3 wins in a row. Still, I finished the series in second place which is a major accomplishment. I raced in all 12 series events, even if two of them (today and the High Point Hill climb) had such poor results that I didn't get any points for my efforts.

With the racing season over I get to relax and decompress a bit... and start to think about goals for next year.


What I did right:
I did well enough this season that my results didn't matter today.
I didn't crash.

What could have been better:
My motivation is pretty much gone for racing this year.

The Numbers:
Distance: 10.8 miles
Time: 32:05
Speed: 20.0 mph
Avg Power: 220 watts (247 watts normalized)
Avg Heart Rate: 163 bpm

A Little Scattered

This is one of those days where I pretty much got out of it what I put into it.

I've thought a couple of times about skipping this race. It's a pretty long drive and it's really not a course that suits me. Being only one point behind in the series, I really had to go. With two races left in the series, I was all but guaranteed to be in the top 2 and I am kind of settling into being 2nd. I know it's not a great place to be mentally but I'm more than ready for the season to be over.

The course is 10.8 miles long on an out-and-back course with the turnaround on a traffic circle, which is big enough to take at full speed.

The terrain is the tricky part. It's about 2.2 miles uphill, 1.5 miles flat, and then 2.2 miles downhill... then turn around and do it the other way.

I was able to power up the hills pretty well. I held a really decent power on each one, at about 105% to 110% of threshold (about 280 to 285 watts). The flat section on the way out was just a hair belod threshold, at 250 watts. On the way back, I was kind of losing focus and only averaged 225 watts (25 watts below target).

The downhills just were not a good place for me... I'm not an aggressive descender. Some guys have no problem descending at 40 mph. I'm not one of them. While I was going 30 to 35 for long sections, I was just coasting and not pushing the pace to go harder. I was just not willing to take the risk.

My only big problem of the day came in the turnaround. I lost track of the exits to the circle and, despite the course marshal telling me where to go, I started heading for the wrong road. Once I realized my mistake I panicked a little and jammed on the brakes. My back wheel locked up and I started to skid out at 25 mph. I let go of the brakes and got control back, but I'd dropped to 10 mph. I was now in a very large gear and had to force the bike back up to speed. I probably lost 10 or 15 seconds... but in reality it didn't matter.

I finished in 7th at 28:41, 2:20 behind the winner (who really does not belong in the Cat 4 category). The guys in 2nd - 6th were all clustered closely together from 27:26 to 27:37. Then there was my big 1:04 gap. I could have been a minute faster and still been in 7th.

Anthony finished 6th, now putting him 2 points ahead of me in the series. After conceding a minute to him today, it's not likely that I'll beat him next weekend and get the 3 points over him that I need to win. However there are only 20 points available next weekend and I have a 35-point lead over the guy in 3rd, so I don't even have to show up to get 2nd in the series.

I'm planning to go and give it a little more effort than I did this weekend, but it is nice to take a little pressure off.

What I did right:
Recovered in the skid and didn't crash

What could have been better:
My motivation
My whole approach to the day
Make sure I'm heading to the right street in the turnaround
Not panic and lock up the brakes

The Numbers:
Distance: 10.8 miles
Time: 28:41 
Speed: 22.5 mph
Avg Power: 245 watts (263 watts normalized)
Avg Heart Rate: 163 bpm