Here is my final blog post for the Dirty Dozen.  CAUTION, data abounds!  Data geeks should not operate heavy machinery after reading

Part of why I didn’t update my blog for 4 weeks since the event had past was the frenzy of activity in launching Cycling Fusion™. The other part of the problem was due to wanting to do a more thorough analysis of the final day’s data as well as reviewing the process as a whole (this blog alone required over 6 hours of data analysis & review). So, for all you statistic freaks and data geeks out there, you’ve come to the right blog spot today. However, if you wanted to read more about the drama at race day, my last post focused on that.

Why spend so much time on looking at the data? It’s simple. First of all, I have a lot of clients that are neither experienced or inclined to look at the data, they just want to train and ride. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t want to make the most of their time and energy. They know the value of training smarter, not harder. Nothing is worse than spending 6, 7, 10, or more hours training in a week only to find out the type of training you were doing would not produce the results you want. It’s one of the reasons personal trainers are hired; to provide the right exercise for the desired result.

So, that means I spend the time, so you don’t have to. Not only that, but it provides the basis for a lot of the classes and training methods we use at Cycling Fusion™.

Focus on Muscle Relaxation & Time Above Threshold
If you read my last post, you will know that my strategy for training was focused on two things: First, I needed to keep my legs very relaxed while climbing due to the enormous muscular requirements of climbing the grades above 15%. These grades would put my muscles in cramping land very quickly if I did not learn to keep them as loose as possible regardless of the pitch of the hill or my cadence. Secondly and directly related, I needed to get dialed in to my fueling and electrolyte replenishment for the same cramping prevention purposes. These were objectives more specific to my personal situation than would be applicable to the average rider.

The second focus and more universally applicable tactic however, was to focus on efficiency and not pure power. Since I knew I did not have the power to actually be a contender in this race (those guys were pushing more than 3 watts a pound on some of the hills), my focus was on minimizing the cumulative fatigue on my muscles so that I could last to the end of what would be a very long day going uphill. Another way to put it, my focus was on efficiency, and not on speed or power. I needed to generate the maximum Watts/Lb with the least amount of stress and damage to the body.

Each training session added more Dirty Dozen Hills

Efficiency work always comes back to Heart Zones®. Heart rate training allows me to reduce the impact of my limiters (VO2 and Anaerobic Threshold), thereby reducing the stress on my body while producing the same amount of energy. In this case, that same amount of energy would be equivalent to the power required to get to the top of each hill without stopping or touching down in any way.

More specifically, I needed to zero in on my Threshold work, and my body’s ability to tolerate greater amounts of lactate that would result from grinding out very low cadences during very steep climbs. This was almost opposite training I did for the Giretto. That preparation focused more on being able to handle 400 miles in 4 days for someone who had never done their first century. That was more about endurance and enlarging my VO2 so I could keep a steady pace for long eriods of time. The efforts of the Dirty Dozen though are short when we are climbing, and all the between hills riding amounted to simple recovery.

Heart rate analysis - shows the price you pay for the power you produce

The DD training rides were done about every 2 weeks, and they would serve to both validate the training I was doing in between sessions as well help me ramp up to the number that would be required to complete on race day.

Notice the average and max heart rate increased for the first 2 months of training. I was effectively increasing my ceiling. Even though I made it up each of the 4 and 5 hills in the early training rides, I knew how I felt in my body, and the stress my legs were under to complete those. I knew that if I didn’t reduce the price (whatever it takes for one to generate power, is what I call the “price” of that power – it costs you something to generate it), I would run out of currency before the final hills on race day. So all training rides between Dirty Dozen days I spent climbing as fast as I could, to stay as long as I could over threshold. Then, all rides done on the Dirty Dozen hills (every 2 weeks) were done at the least energy expenditure possible, to continue to develop efficiency and body awareness and relaxation of the leg muscles.

Notice how things changed dramatically half way through the training rides. This is about as good a visual explanation of the body’s response to training as I could ask for. I hit a new fitness level, which resulted in me being able to complete more hills, at lower average and maximum heart rates This is exactly the type of result I needed. My highest efficiency came at the final training ride, with efficiency gains as much as 30%, and the resulting power gains approaching 40%.

However, the most telling statistic of all when looking at the final training ride is the percent time spent over threshold. On 11-15-10, I spent only 37% of each climb above threshold, while I spent an average of 72% of my climbs over threshold in the early rides. What makes this even more impressive is that this reduction was also done in the face of double the amount of hills as well – 9 compared to 4. I say impressive not to pat myself on the back (well, maybe a little), but as an impressive training method for improving climbing, or anything that would otherwise peg your heart rate. The method was simple but intense: focus on % of time over threshold, or the time spent in Zone 5 more than just training load.

This is what Nina and I focused on almost exclusively. Yes, we also tracked training points, but it was more important that our percentages for the weeks showed us increasing our portion of all training in that zone, than it was a function of the higher points in and of itself. It was nevertheless easy to increase training load since Zone 5 garners the most points anyway.

Six hrs and 14 hills of cumulative fatigue eats into power and efficiency gains

At Canton avenue (the dream killer for Kristen, and dream maker for Nina), something really interesting happens. While power was about equal (notice 0% improvement line) cardiac efficiency is still being enjoyed and even more than in previous hills. Ultimately it was this efficiency that bought me enough time to hold on till the end.

Given the fact that I did ultimately cramp on the last hill, well into hour 6, and had to repeat that hill in its entirety, made me realize I left nothing on the table that day. Will I do it again… probably not, but that would be due to one and only one reason – the torque put on my two artificial hips is certainly not what the doctor ordered

If you aren’t woozy from all that data, click on the thumbnail below and you can see the summary spreadsheet that these few graphs were produced from (I had more, but in the interest of public safety I did not include them).

Click to download a pdf of all the gory details...data geeks in glory!

This day was made extra special by so many factors as well: It would be my first attempt, and Nina’s quest for revenge (she had to bail at hill #7 last year). Together, we were the first Father-Daughter team to finish the Dirty Dozen. Pretty cool considering they’ve done it for 27 years. We started training together and were both determined to not be denied. Tom Scotto also flew in from Boston with his top rider Kristen Gohr to introduce Stage5 Cycling to Pittsburgh, and to see what all the hype was about. Local TV Station WQED was covering the race for an upcoming special, set to be aired on January 26th at 7pm.

Gino & Tomasso climb the first of many

I learned first hand and in painful detail, the effect of poor fueling and hydration on my cramping prone leg muscles as I trained for the Giretto in 2009. I followed that up with first hand experience of cumulative fatigue as we completed that challenge with Lance and the boys. Both of these aspects would also have to be managed if I were to complete the Dirty Dozen.

With that as a backdrop, I knew my focus had to be on relaxation through the hardest efforts and efficiency across the entire day. I believe the training employed to pull this off, as the first double hip replacement rider to ever complete the Dirty Dozen, was due to the combination of both power training and Heart Zones® training in the context of a focus on body awareness and efficiency.

No Shortage of Drama
Despite never doing more than 9 hills during my 5 training rides on the course, by the time we got to the most famous of all 13 climbs, Canton Avenue, I was feeling quite good. Up to this point, Kristen was amassing significant points on each hill, winning 5 out of 8 climbs outright; not bad for someone who never rode on cobbles before the day of the race, nor had never pre-rode the course.

Kristen Gohr weaving her way to the top.

After watching one person after another fall and fail, our team Captain Chris had the best save of the day, not stopping or falling despite a rider going down in front of him. Next I got my shot, and had my strongest climb of the day with a no worries straight ascent. Tom was only there as support, so he did not attempt the climb at all. Kristen however, needed to get up the hill, even if it wasn’t for points, as the rules state that unless every hill be completed without a touchdown, the rider is disqualified, and can not claim to have completed The Dirty Dozen. Despite 4 attempts, she was not able to get much past half way. While it is a very short hill (.2 miles), the 37 to 42 percent grade make it unlike anything you’ve ever attempted. The good news is that we will undoubtedly get to see Kristen in Pittsburgh again next year, as she will be out for revenge.

Painful & Punishing Finish
As we approached official hill #13 (14 if you count the unofficial one as well), I was on cloud nine. We were hitting the 6 hour mark, and I had survived every hill with no touchdowns, no circling or side street recovery (actually considered cheating on race day) which was a necessary evil when I first started training. Even though I had never climbed Flowers Avenue before, and even though it is the longest of all 13 climbs, it was feeling like a victory lap more than the final leg of the race.

Nina, Chris, Kristen and I were attempting to finish the last hill together when it happened. My left quad and hamstring were beginning to cramp. This unfortunately happened in the first 20% of the climb, and so I had to basically pedal with one leg, with as high an RPM as possible, in order to try and keep my left leg from going into an absolute siezure and thus drop me in my tracks.

For a while this worked, but the last section is north of 24% and I could no longer go straight up the hill. The one leg (the one that had the hip replacement 11 years ago instead of just 3) was not able to pull the entire load by itself, so I had to zig zag to try and give it a little relief every few seconds. However, with as many riders that were still trying to finish, this was a lot harder than you might think. The bottom line was that the cramp and my imbalanced pedaling caused me to crash in the middle of one of my “zags”, and only about 15 feet from the top.

Gene cramps & crashes 15 feet from the finish... but repeats it for victory!

I did make it up without stopping or touching down. I didn’t care how much it hurt, or how spent I was, I was one happy cyclist. After another 20 minute ride back to the parking lot, it was capped off with watching Nina take her 3rd place prize.

The next blog will cover the review and analysis of the training and race day performance data.

First Father-Daughter team to finish the Dirty Dozen!

But wait – look below at the summary of grades for each climb according to Google Earth (and verified by my Garmin 705), looks like 16% is indeed worthy. Personally, I think the traditional “Bakers Dozen” that equates to 13 has just been upstaged by the “Pittsburgh Dozen” that now represents 14. Way to go Danny, you’ve just added to the Pittsburghese language!

The “Plus Two” also refers to my 2 training buddies pictured above also – my daughter Nina to my left, and her husband Paul on the other side of Danny. It was a perfect final training ride since it was completely unplanned. As we approached our first climb of what would be the most attempted since training started almost 3 months ago (10 hills was our target for the day), we see two others on bikes starting their ascent about 2 blocks ahead of us. In all the training rides we’ve done so far, we’ve only seen one other person training on these inclines of insanity, so we were keen to catch up and see who it was – it was Danny and Laura who happens to be on the cover of the DVD just released from last year’s race. We knew at that point, it was going to be a good day.

I’m thrilled to report that I had no cramping through all 10 hills by the time we finished almost 4 hours later. This has been the number one concern for me throughout this entire training. This brings me to my third “Plus Two” reference. My two artificial hips have given me new life, allowing me to do everything and more than I did when I was in college. However, with my recent attempts at road racing, and now training for the Dirty Dozen I’ve finally come face to face with some of the real fallout or limitations that result when you take two of your most vital joints and “modify them”.

I’ve tried to research the topic, but both time and expertise have kept me from confirming my suspicions definitively. I suspect that the weakness developed in my abductors and glutes as a result of the 10 years of favoring one side over the other, in combination with the damage done by an “L” incision that cut across both of those areas in about a 12 inch span, is to blame for my quad, hamstring and calve cramping tendencies. I believe my continued over-dependence on these three muscles have created a level of muscular stress that is not normal, and thus the tendency to seize up.

Grade taken from Google Earth and power based on Avg. 5mph speed

The Plus Two I really want to emphasize though, is that this training was done in two environments – in keeping with the mission of Cycling Fusion; to wit – the bringing together of indoor and outdoor cycling. What lots of outdoor cyclists may find even more unusual though, is that I did 75% of my training INDOORS for this event. I rode one day per week outside on the steepest hills I could find around my house and the office, and 3 days indoors. Once every two weeks my two training buddies and I did a few of the actual climbs of the Dirty Dozen (starting with just 4 hills and working up to 10 by the end). After all, that was part of why I did it – to continue to demonstrate, under real world situations, that indoor training can be incredibly effective and efficient to the outdoor rider.

Finally, the Plus Two that has become a central driving concept in all my training, is the value of Heart Zones® Training as a part of the overall plan. At first blush, when you look at the range of grades and required Wattage numbers to just get up these punishing Pittsburgh hills, you would think of how power training would be top of mind. Of course, it was very power specific training, with regular 3X3 Climbing Power tests performed on the Keiser m3 power bike. However, without getting into several volumes of discourse on how your cardiovascular system is your chief limiter for all power generation, let’s just suffice it to say that I simultaneously was working on cardiac efficiency along with increased power generation.

The table below shows how both increased throughout the training. However, particularly noteworthy is the comparison to the overall numbers and comparing those to hills that I did early in the sequence and those that come later. Danny is famous for harping on how every hill is different if you put them/climb them in a different order. This is due to the significant effect of fatigue on both the muscles involved, as well as the depletion of glycogen stores and the increased dependence on the anaerobic energy system at the continued and repeated time being spent over threshold (high or L2 threshold).

Top line summarizes training rides comprised of 50% or less of DD

But notice how that while power decreased by almost 10% (9.93), my efficiency decreased by only 2% (1.95). Consequently, it will be the Heart Zones® training that will save my ass at the end of the day… literally. As I try to complete 4 more climbs than the most I have ever done, it will not be my new bike (yes, I was “forced” to buy one), my improved power, or my shrewd cunning (as substantial as it is ) that will get me to the end. It will be the cardiac efficiency and my concentration on increasing my time spent over threshold during training, that will be responsible, right behind the prayers offered up, at the bottom of each hill.

One of the unexpected treasures I discovered about Road Riding is that I can do it alone (something I don’t do on single track for lots of good reasons). Don’t get me wrong, I love riding in big and small groups, but riding alone on my Road bike offers something MTB can’t – the ability to think without being distracted. When I MTB, I am constantly engaged every second; the terrain, the obstacles, the trail itself demands full attention. On the road however, provided you are not in an urban area or where there is a lot of traffic, you can get a rhythm going and you can sort of put your body on automatic pilot.

My ride today should have been awful. I woke up after a restless night, in a bit of a panic. Having concluded two company acquisitions in a span of just 2 weeks, with November right around the corner, my sense of “put up or shut up” was quite palpable. I had a flood of negative emotions, something quite rare for me. I felt fear, disbelief, frustration, confusion, even a sense of hopelessness. I also had fallen behind in training due to the nature of these deals, and expected one horrendous training ride. This was especially anticipated because I configured a route with the most number of hills with the steepest grades in my area.

What happened though was completely unexpected, yet not surprising. Even though I set the music on “shuffle”, it was within my “inspirational” playlist. The music mood of the first song quickly set a FAST pace, with the heart rate hitting threshold right from the start. I matched that feel, and went out pretty hard, looking for a supernatural break through, to get me out of this “stinkin thinkin” that was plaguing my mind.

After about 20 minutes of high Zone 4 and over threshold work, I figured I was going to blow up and be forced to cut the ride well short of the 30 miles I had planned. I wasn’t warming up properly, and I had planned a route that would find the worst, steepest hills within reach of those 30 miles. Instead I got stronger and stronger. My spirit was finding peace, while my legs were at war, and my heart was running its race.

At about 45 minutes in, I figured that my little “run” at this was going to be over, and the inevitable need to recover was going to overwhelm me like an Outer Banks head wind that wouldn’t quit. It didn’t happen, and the frequency of climbing did not let up. I decided that my normal refuel and electrolyte replenishment schedule had to be adjusted if I was going to keep up this pace, so I did some Hammer gel and 3 more Endurolytes 15 minutes earlier than my norm, and I pressed on.

I continued to stay in Zone 4 and felt the legs in a constant state of burn. I found myself continually working on keeping them relaxed and loose while engaging more hamstrings whenever possible to keep from overtaxing my quads. I focused on some technique thrown my way earlier in the week by my new partner Tom Scotto, and allowed the body to find it’s limits while I continued to maintain the gap I had put on my doubts and insecurities that I left the starting line with just 90 minutes ago. I was in the home stretch and I was not about to let them make “the catch”.

By the time I finished, my legs, heart, lungs and spirit were all put to the test in multiple ways. They all performed above and beyond what I could ask or think, and I dismounted my bike with an incredible sense of confidence in the future. After downloading my numbers, it was confirmed. I had the highest average heart rate for that amount of climbing for the entire year. The only set of data that was close was the last road race I wrote about where I spent almost an hour in Zone 5, but even that day I climbed 1500 feet less than I did today.

Riding has always represented much more to me than just staying fit and having fun. It has acted like a symbolic window into my soul. I’ve found the intangible but powerful components of honesty, integrity, discipline, peace, joy, and even ones perspective on life itself to be represented there. Like strands of a rope intertwined, the physical and spiritual each support and strengthen the other.

I’m clearly out of my funk now and ready to take on the world. Will it be any easier? Not a chance. Will I respond and experience it differently… with that there is no doubt.

This table shows that I can. I’ve been able to reproduce the same Watts when I set the gear at the right level, and turn the pedals at the same RPM as I am averaging outside. In fact, I did 1 minute intervals at the same average cadence and power required for the average grade for each of the minutes in two of the Dirty Dozen hills I trained on. I wanted to feel it in my legs to see how similar it felt, and I wanted to see what my Heart Rate would do under those conditions. I needed to know if the Keiser m3 bike was indeed putting the same stress on my body as my outdoor ride. I knew I could verify this with my heart rate monitor (provided I was not going through some big emotional crisis, and that the temperature was under control). The resulting experience indoors should have been reasonably close. What can I say? I’m a serious data geek, and always loved research studies in college, so I couldn’t resist.

The good news… no, the GREAT news is that it appears the Keiser m3 is able to simulate the conditions almost exactly – as it relates to power required for climbing. At the wattage levels appropriate for the steepness of the hill, at the same average cadence that my Garmin recorded, I hit very similar heart rates and my legs screamed in similar pain. The “anomalies” were at the beginning and the end of the test. My gut feeling is that if I was able to do an interval with the Keiser computer without having to stop it and reset it (a current limitation of the Keiser computer), I would have matched up almost exactly with my Garmin numbers recorded during my training ride.

SO… the conclusion here is that I can do very specific and reliable training with the Keiser m3! I knew this when I first studied them while writing the eBook on Power Training, but at that time the guinea pigs – er voluntary human subjects – were mostly “deconditioned individuals” just learning how to climb. This data represents testing Watts at double or triple the grades with myself as the rider, and the results continue to reflect that the feeling and work indoors can well approximate what is required outdoors. This is huge for those who are looking to pull a high quality and specific training plan together for the Indoor Cycling season.

One more preface before I begin… maybe more of a confession. My greatest personal fear in life (aside from anything happening bad to my children or family) is the fear of being average. I don’t want to end up like Salieri in the movie Amadeus; the patron saint of mediocrity. While I’m no Mozart, I want my life to make beautiful music, at least to my own ears. So, it’s why I race. Actually it’s why I enter races.

This leads me finally to our post of the week – this notion that when we enter races, it’s for as many different reasons as there are riders. There are those who are what I call “contenders”. These guys and gals have the genetics and the will to push ahead of everyone else. They are willing to train, sacrifice and in their case, they have the God given talent and “equipment” to actually win or place in races. These are the rarest of all because they have that something special that the average person could train with absolute perfection, to the maximum balance of quantity and quality and they will never catch them. This group typically races to win.

Next we move on to the group that typically have been athletes all their life. They have something in their blood that just loves to compete. In their mind, they don’t really need a race per se, since all of life is a competition. You know them, they’re the ones that make every club ride something more than just a club ride. They’re the adrenaline junkies who do shots of endorphins as they chase their cocktail of sports. They compete at all costs, train till they drop, and find recovery days the hardest ones in the week. Without the God given talent of the first group, they convince themselves they have to train this hard to be a bona fide competitor. The satisfaction of finishing in the middle of the pack keeps them coming back for more. If they can place in their age group, all the better… it serves to fuel the fire.

Finally we get to the “Finisher”. Remember, this is in the context of a race, not a charity ride. We can find all three types of riders in charity events too, but that’s another matter all together. The Finisher who enters a race is not speeding to the finish line, they’re running away from the last rider. If at all possible, they want to “not be that guy”… the last guy. Having been that guy on more occasions than I’d like to admit, I completely understand. Yet, having been that guy also allowed me to see the enormous value in just finishing. There are at least two things worse than being last; being a DNF (Did Not Finish), or not entering. This is where I find myself protecting myself from that big fear of being average.

I look at this in the context of both the general population, and the cycling community. Naturally, as cyclists we are a small sub-population group within the U.S. However, if we then take that entire cycling population and count the percentage who race, the numbers in the U.S. get down right tiny. The act alone of entering and finishing just put me in an “elite” category. Most of life is relative that way. It helps a lot.

After all, how else could I share the numbers in the above table. Actually, I never thought it possible to go below 4 mph on a bike, and yet I averaged 3.7 on Berry Hill road. However, I also saw 26% come up on my Garmin for the grade of what I was climbing. Top percent I saw prior to that… 18%. So, yes, it was like doing a moving track stand. You can walk your dog faster than that – uphill!

Nevertheless, I’m undaunted and even feeling very good about it. My total objective on this first Dirty Dozen training ride was to stay out of Zone 5 as long as I could. I was managing my effort in a way that would allow me to survive for 13 of those bad boys when race day comes.

If you’ve read my previous 2 blogs however, you’ll recall that I am training for the “unrace” – the Dirty Dozen where just finishing will be counted as something I didn’t think possible – thus this new training focus. So the race wouldn’t be consistent with this plan, except for one thing. I am on a mission to raise my Threshold to give me more ceiling and expand my VO2 in the process – thereby raising the two biggest limiters of power, and climbing hills that average 18% and higher will be ALL ABOUT power.

From that perspective, I guess I accomplished my objectives, but I’m just not sure getting all of the required time in Zone 5 (the real work that has to be done to raise ones Threshold) in the first hour of riding was actually the best way to go about it. What WAS I thinking!?!

I will say this, the thrill of riding in the front with my Team Captain, Chris and “the big boys” for the first 15 minutes was worth the remaining suffering that ensued. For those 15 minutes I was pace lining at 25 to 28 mph, on a road that I normally do 18 to 21 by myself. I even pulled for a short while with Chris telling me to pick up the pace. So it was a little “fantasy” racing for those brief moments… ah, it was so good… and then reality set in.

If you look at my heart rate graph, you’ll see it was in those early minutes that hit 177 BPM, which is 5 beats above the highest number I have ever seen since I started wearing a HR monitor about 8 years ago. I started training with my normal, deconditioned threshold of 150, and raised it last week to 155 as I saw it creeping through my first month of training. I will take a New Leaf test tomorrow to confirm exactly where it is, and set my zones for the remaining 9 weeks or so of training. Anyway… I digress.

When I saw how much above Threshold I was riding, and knowing that our biggest climb was coming up in a few miles, I decided I better save what matches were left in my book to make sure I could finish. The rest of my ride and thought process is listed in the graphic. I finished with a personal best of 16.6 mph average over the 37 miles. But clearly my PB is not good enough to even hang with the slowest riders in that group.

That brings me to a great lead in for my next post… riding to win, riding to compete, riding to finish… what’s the point. Stay tuned.

When I put a training plan together for myself or a student, I’ve gotta’ work backwards. Where do we want to end up, and then back it up to where we are, and the rest will fill in by measured and deliberate progression. As an endurance rider, and someone who helps people do their first epic ride or century, we have the luxury of focusing on a slow periodized program from start to finish with more and more time in the saddle.

However, this total event is only about 50 miles in length, with 3 food breaks. Endurance is not what I need to train for. My focus needs to be on producing the required power for each grade of hill I will encounter, sustaining heart rates above threshold for varying amounts of time, and keeping the legs from seizing up in the process.

Consequently, instead of a 6 day a week riding schedule with rides between 1 and 3 hours long, I’ll be training 3 to 4 days per week where all but one of those days each week will be fairly intense; very little time in Zone 1 & 2, about 50% in Zone 4, and a progressive increase of time above threshold. In most cases, I will want a day off or active recovery after each day of training.

I will be focusing on improving lactate buffering, and increasing my threshold. Starting my “pre-training” routine a couple weeks ago, I’ve already begun to feel an increase in my threshold, but I will do a New Leaf metabolic test this week to establish a true baseline.

While at first blush this doesn’t seem like a lot of training, the intensity creates a significant challenge. In fact, I’ve averaged over 1000 points per week just for the pre-training weeks. So, I’ll be using 1150 training load points as my starting baseline, and shoot for a 5% increase each week to keep the body honest. This will get to about 1800 points at the week I will begin to taper. I need to get fitter, stronger and more tolerant of the inevitable pain, and this seems to be the right approach.

So here’s the outline of the training plan:

3 days intense training: 2 days outside, 1 day inside
1 day of active recovery riding inside
1150 starting points, and % splits: Zones 1: 0%, 2:10%, 3:30%, 4:50%, 5:10%
Ending targets 1800 points, 20% in Zone 5, Threshold increase of 10 – 15 BPM

Way back in January when our annual Winter Training Program kicked off, each participant was required to have a goal to train for. Goals ranged from doing a 50 mile charity ride to having 2 separate peaks during the race season. For me however, having just finished filming the Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen as a charity project for Livestrong, and watching some of the strongest riders I know struggle just to finish, that event seemed to be the logical choice. So I said it, I would train to complete – NOT COMPETE – in the Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen Race.

Starting this weekend, September 4th, I will have exactly 12 weeks to prepare for The Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen. I’m going to post my training plan (both Heart Zones® as well as Power Training), and pre-ride schedule on this blog for others in the Pittsburgh area who would like to train along with me. The training plan will provide some structure to follow even though we will train in different areas. Every 2 weeks I will take on at least 2 (or more) of the 13 climbs as part of the overall training plan as well. Exact times and dates will also be posted here so riders who want to share the pain can join me if they like.

Point of fact is: this IS a race. Point of reality is: only about 10 to 15 of the 180 riders that rode last year were strong enough to garner any points at all. The format of this “race” is that the entire field is together at the bottom of every hill, and then the organizer, Danny Chew blows the whistle (by the way, someone needs to buy him a new whistle this year, it was sketchy at best last year), and the first 5 riders to the top get points.

While a few supermen and wonder women surge to the top like they have hidden motors in their bikes, the rest of the field climb at varying speeds, with an inevitable group on every hill pushing their way if they can’t maintain at least 4 to 5 mph. In surveying the group last year, it was clear that a lot of the field were experienced amateur racers, and that this was not bringing out the average casual rider. So when I say people were pushing, and there are always people pushing, it does not mean they were weak or inexperienced riders.

The graphic above is from the training DVD we created (Global Ride Productions) from last year’s race. It is slated to be released in 2 to 3 weeks, just in time to mix up some great indoor cycling with the outdoor application. Stay tuned, as I will endeavor to keep this updated once per week as we head towards this epic event.

So, I flew to New York to discover it for myself – the only reasonable way to get the straight poop right? While their numbers do not really measure the metrics we understand as Power in the cycling world, they have accomplished an amazing feat – they’ve created training tools they retrofit to older Red Knob bikes! I started out quite skeptical, but ended up quite impressed. Come follow this journey.

Their little display that is attached to the side of the flywheel does indeed say “Power”, and there is a number that displays, but it is not Power in Watts as you and I (and anyone interested in real cycling power) currently understand it. It is an attempt to measure the combination of resistance applied from the red tension knob, and the estimated cadence or RPM of the flywheel, and report on that combination. First of all, yes, power in its simplest terms is a mathematical function of RPM and torque or force applied, in this case to the flywheel. So, it’s good that it is this combination they focused on. However, the question is how are they measuring these two critical components, and what is the result. Let’s break it down.

Torque
Their display spells it “Torq” for branding purposes I’m sure. This number simply reflects how much resistance you are putting on the fly wheel. I suspect they have something that is measuring the number of turns of the red knob, or somehow measuring the amount of brake put on the flywheel. As you turn the red knob, you see the power go up – even if you are not pedaling the bike. Hence, it clearly is not power. In fact, when I came into the empty cycling room early, each bike had a different power number showing on their custom display. I was ready to call the ghost busters, but instead I asked the Flywheel attendant what it meant, and he told me it was simply how much the red knob was turned or how much resistance the rider last used. While they could have called it “gear” or “resistance level”, I guess it was more chic to call it “torq”… hey, it’s NY city.

RPM
The “measured” RPM however is another story. I saw what looked like a magnet on the side of the flywheel (but I’m not sure it was), so I hoped that they were measuring this much like outdoor bikes measure RPM – with the circumference of the wheel and the number of times the magnet gets passed over. However, that may not be the case, since the numbers seemed a bit low to what my body was telling me. After having a cadence meter on my outdoor bike for 6 years, and teaching with RPM on my indoor stationary bikes for 3+ years, I am pretty in tune with my spinning speed. So I did some manual validation tests:

First, I established a steady number on their meter of 60 RPM, with a steady, smooth pedal stroke. The number held pretty consistent, never varying more than 1 RPM more or less. Once it was steady, I counted the number of revolutions (each time the knee comes up, or the foot hits the bottom of the pedal stroke can easily account for the number of pedaling revolutions), for 10 seconds (using a stop watch) and multiplying the number of revolutions by 6, giving me the RPM or Revolutions Per Minute. I also counted them for 15 seconds, and multiplied by 4 – just to vary the method a bit and see if there would be variations. While the two measurement periods (10 and 15 seconds) did not produce differences, it was difficult to get exact counts at the higher pedal rates. At 60 RPM I was a consistent 10 RPM higher in my manual test than what was showing on the meter. However, when I tested it at a steady 80 RPM those numbers seemed to produce estimates 15 to 25 RPM higher.

Consequently the cadence reported is low by a minimum of 10 RPM and a maximum of 25 RPM. This variation is likely due to this testing in a “manual” way without a mechanical device, but I can assure you, those stated RPM are definitely too low. My gut tells me that if they were validated in a controlled environment with mechanical devices, they would average about 15 RPM or more too LOW.

OK, so we have a torque number that we know is a measure of resistance, and we have an RPM reading that we know is low, but likely consistently so. The big question is where does the number under the heading of “Power” come from?

Power
I had to slow my RPM down to as little as 60 to test the following theory, but any of you who go to FlyWheel can test this for yourself and tell me if you agree or not. As I pedaled at 60 RPM, and set my “torque” or resistance knob to a torq of 15, I saw the power number of 9 come up. So I increased my RPM to 70, and I saw power numbers jumping between 10 and 11. So I increased my torq to 20 and dropped my cadence back to 60, and I saw a power number of 12. Are you beginning to see the pattern? It is simply the multiplication of torq and RPM divided by 100: (torq X RPM) / 100. I further tested this theory by watching and pausing the Channel 7 report they so conveniently supplied on their website. Each combination of torq and rpm shown on the TorqBoard (if you pause each number combination) can be proved out by this formula, But reader beware – this is not cycling power by any stretch – it is simply a number.

Total Power
This is the number that intrigued me the most. What in the world is total power? It’s sort of like asking, how many RPM did you do today. It doesn’t even make sense. But here’s the very cool part. While I did not take the time to figure out their formula on this one (I assume it adds the average power for each minute on a cumulative basis), I found this number to be completely captivating and motivating. WOW, was this a surprise! Here I am, looking down my nose at a completely false set of numbers in absolutely every category and indicator, and yet, the weirdest one of all; Total Power, was driving me on… pushing me to get to 400, then to 450 before the cool down, then I was bummed that I couldn’t hit 500 before the end of class. What just happened there!?!?

Bad Data Is Better Than No Data
At first blush, this heading may seem, well, sacrilegious… maybe even dangerous. Couldn’t bad data lead to terrible conclusions and even worse decisions? In life yes, but when it comes to Indoor Cycling the answer is maybe not.

At the end of the class, it was clear to me what Flywheel had done. They created a way to put tools on the bike, that measure your effort, hopefully in a consistent way. Forget about the purity of each measurement – the fact remains, as I’ve stated in previous blog posts; to wit – if you can measure it, you can improve it. Having some mechanism to measure how I’m doing today, I can subsequently measure how I’m doing next week, and next month, and see if I’m getting stronger, weaker, better or worse. Best of all though, in the moment, it provides some tools for the instructor and immediate feedback for the student. As weird as this sounds coming out of my own mouth… or keyboard… it’s all good!

Rock On Flywheel!
While I won’t even comment on the custom weight holders attached to each bike, and my disdain for contraindicated movements and activities on the bike, I must commend Flywheel for bringing tools into the Indoor Cycling environment – and doing it by retrofitting older bikes. If you can get by all the numbers being mislabeled, inaccurate and in some cases just silly, you may just find yourself working harder than you thought possible, just to get to that next level. Well done Flywheel, keep on flying!