Bookends

As I start preparing to ride outside, I was looking back to find the last time I rode outside at all... rather shockingly, it was September 2017. I haven't ridden outside in over 2 1/2 years!

The bigger shock was that I only rode outside 8 times in 2017.

The last time I was riding seriously and consistently outside was in 2016... which came to an end when I had my first collapsed lung.

It's amazing to me that basically the first time I had it, it broke me as an outdoor cyclist. None of my training numbers since then have been anything to note.

Now, after the second one, I am back at training seriously and making decent progress in my fitness, but it's all been on the trainer. I am geared up and ready to go for riding outside, I'm just waiting for the weather to cooperate.

Of course, only time will tell if I continue to make progress and stay focused on it, but I lovethe symmetry of the situation!

Changing bike tech

In the few years I was away, pretty much everything about cycling technology changed. The last time I rode seriously was 2014, and it's stunning how much has changed in just a few years.

Power meters cost half what they did, and you can choose between cranks, pedals, and chainrings. Almost no one is using hub-based systems anymore.

Brakes are all disc now. Caliper brakes are almost unheard of anymore. They are supposed to stop way better, but none of my old wheel collection will work with them.

The wheels are carbon all the way through now. Before, they were an aluminum rim with carbon farings on them. 

Drive trains are all 11-speed now. I can't even find new bikes with a 10 anymore. On the plus side, more gears but on the bad side, they seem more spread out.

There is radar for bikes now, so you get a little warning when cars are approaching from behind and you get more of a warning if it's coming fast... I guess so if you are about to get hit, you know.

Sunglasses just all got hideous. They look more like facemasks than sunglasses, and that was before the pandemic started. They are just not my style.

Helmets have crash sensors and can text your location to your loved ones if you are in an accident.

Heart rate training is now being supplemented with heart rate variability training. 

The one tech change I am totally loving is the improvement in power data analysis. WKO3 was nice, but WKO5 is a whole other world. To start, it recommends power and duration for interval training, helping you be more efficient in your training. Then it gets crazy with analysis, telling you things like "how much does my 20-minute power drop on a long ride, after the first hour and after the second hour" to help you find strengths and weaknesses for the events that you're training for. It's completely insane.

I know, I sound like a grumpy old man yelling for the damned kids to get off my lawn.

It will mean a little bit of a learning curve as I come back, and I'm excited for all the new options to help me get fitter and faster again. 

Prep Work

This week was focused on getting ready.

I am still not quite healed enough to ride outside much, so I drove the roads I want to start training on. I wanted to see how much traffic was on them, what condition they were in, and get a rough idea of where I was going.

I've started gearing back up. Little things like my saddle bag that was wearing thin, replacing spare tubes that had dry rotted a bit, and upgrading firmware in my electronics. I got a new helmet with crash detection so my wife knows if anything happens (and where to find me) and a new rear radar unit to help me know when cars are coming up behind me.

I've been watching WKO tutorial videos to make sure I'm getting the most out of my training data so I can plan workouts as effectively as possible.

My major pride and joy this week was the "Training Goal Graphic Equalizer". I realized that when people asked me how training was going or how recovery was going, it really wasn't a simple answer and there's far more to it than how long I'm riding each day.

I listed out all of the goals that I believe I will need to reach in order to hit the performance I will need by September 2021.

The timed sections and times I'm aiming for are:

•  5.7 mile climb with 1278' of climbing, starting 3.4 miles into the event in about 22:00
•  11.4 miles over rolling terrain with 1200' of climbing and 650' of descent, starting 35 miles into the event in about 36:00.

Each column represents a performance measurement that I will need to hit in training or in a test event, including weight, body fat, VO2 max, longest ride, most Kj burned on a ride, and multiple maximum power durations. I expect I'll need to hit most or all of them in order to be competitive (and perhaps win). As I reach each goal, I'll fill in that box. As I get better, the colors change from red, to yellow, to green.

For reference, I listed my previous best values, both to give me a comparison and to remind me that this is possible.

 

Hopefully this helps keep me on track and focused on the right things. 

Starting point

Test Day

Let's be honest... any fitness I have at all is a miracle or purely genetic.

After so long off training and a major surgery, I really should expect much. I put in 6 1/2 hours of trainer time last week, which is way more than I thought I could handle. Since I was doing so well, I decided to be daring and try a 20-minute FTP test to get a better idea of where my fitness really is. 

I averaged 175 watts for the test, and I'm absolutely sure I can do better because my pacing was AWFUL. I shouldn't beat myself up for that... I really had no idea where I was starting from, so I was guessing the whole time.

I started out at what I thought was a safe bet, at 165 watts. I suspected my threshold was at least 150, so I should be able to hold 165 pretty safely. Ten minutes in, I my legs were on fire, but my heart rate was only at 145 bpm. I was breathing deeply, but not struggling.

I gradually increased the power output, 175, then 185, then 195. My heart rate climbed a gradually with the increase, but no major spike. Once again it was my legs that really hurt.

For the last minute I floored it, giving it all I had, holding about 240 watts to the finish.

For a test where the goal is to hold a steady or very gradually increasing power throughout, that was awful, but it also gave me some idea of where I'm at.... which really isn't awful (for comparison, my best 20-minute test when I was racing was 309 watts, so I have some way to go!!).

Goals:

I know we're still in a pandemic and any events this year are questionable, but I'm looking at two right now: The Farm to Fork Dutch Fondo 30-mile and Maryland Gran Fondo 30-mile, which are 15 and 19 weeks away. 

My only goal is to finish both rides, but that requires abilities I used to take for granted:

• ride outside for 2 to 2 1/2 hours
• tolerate road vibration without pain (well, in the surgical areas anyway!)
• tolerate steep climbs without pain

Don't worry, I'm not insane. I know that my recovery progress will determine whether I am able to do one or both rides. If nothing else, having those goals will help keep me motivated to work harder on my recovery. 

My reason to do those events is to scout them out so I can come back next year and be competitive in the longer versions (probably the 70-mile option).

They are nothing like the events I've done before, so I'll be learning the whole time.

Picking up where I left off

It's fitting, really.

My last post from 2016 was about being in the hospital after a spontaneously collapsed lung. In March, the same thing happened again and I had a pleurodesis surgery to correct it. I am now recovered enough from that surgery to start something resembling exercise... but I'm not in great shape right now.

I haven't seriously trained or raced in quite a while. I dabbled in short track speedskating in 2018, but it really just wasn't for me. 

In January, I developed a bulging disc in my neck. That had me off training for a while.

In February, I had a bad flu with a high fever that had me laid up for a few weeks.

In March, I had my next lung collapse and surgery. My surgeon told me to only do my rehab until the 6 week mark, then I could start light exercises, with no weight lifting that required the valsalva maneuver (holding your beath when you lift heavier weights).

So, here I am starting out again.

I'm looking for new performance goals to help motivate me. Probably a Gran Fondo here and there, with a metric century or two thrown in for preparation. I won't be the same rider I was before, I know that.

I'm starting out rough:
Body Weight: 196 pounds
Body Fat: 23%
Estimated Threshold Power: 150 watts

It's a far cry from the 164 pounds and 280 watts I was doing at my peak.

Here we go!