Rutgers and Princeton

The 2009 ECCC Collegiate Race Season will open on 2009-03-07 in New Jersey. There are three courses this weekend: an ITT, a criterium, and a circuit race. (Blog posts become more frequent during the race season.)

The time trial (see below) is just over four miles on a flat, but not straight, course. Two turnarounds will probably be where time can be gained or lost. No aero equipment means that I'll be riding my road bike with 404s. The turnarounds and the shortness of the course may make lighter wheels faster than more aero wheels. This is a track sprinter's race.

The criterium course (below) features four right turns, making those of us who ride on the track uncomfortable. Saving energy through the corners will be a key strategy - I just hope I don't roll a tubular while doing so. Phinney describes a fast cornering technique that involves pedaling through a hard corner, pushing the bike upright periodically to avoid scraping your inside pedal. A flat finish will make the sprinters happy, but that 10% grade "wall" right after Turn One will be the site of many attacks, as riders debate standing on a 53-23 or shifting to the small chainring. The course is barely over a kilometer long.

The circuit race features plenty of sharp corners, but no steep climbs - it's certainly a big ring race. With that said, there are plenty of short climbs, so this will favor "bursty" riders more than time trialists.

My race rig is almost complete, with a few minor component changes to be announced. Stay tuned.

Jane

Jane pulled 7:03.9 at CRASH-Bs this Sunday. http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N7/graphics/rowing.html. She was able to pull ahead at the end of the race and place 10th overall for women. If you can parse Concept2's data format (not hard), you can see her second-by-second progress.

I'm so proud.

Pedal Fail

So, I've had cranks, handlebars, forks, chains, chainrings, saddles, seatposts, headsets, spokes, hubs, derailleurs, brakes, and shifters catastrophically fail in the past, but never a pedal. This takes the prize for inconvenience and frustration. To improve matters, I had to go to the machine shop to remove the Look cleats from the shoes I used with these pedals, as they were stuck in place with years of sweat.

I'm replacing these with Speedplay Zeros, meaning that all of my bicycles now have those pedals, or SPDs. Finally. Good riddance.

1000

Today is my 1000 day anniversary with Jane! We were thinking of going out to a fancy expensive restaurant, but that's not really our style.

:-)

Bicycle Ten Project: Sizing

When I used my Fuji Aloha CF2 frame to build a road bike, I was left without a time trial bike. The Aloha CF2 geometry did not let me get forward enough (doing so would require a $150 seatpost), and the head tube did not let me get low enough. It does make a brilliant road frame. To fill the gap, I purchased a used "Motobecane Nemesis" frame. It's the same exact frame as the older 2006 Fuji Aloha. It's aluminum, fairly stiff, and not particularly light at about 1680 grams. It gets the job done. I was able to use many parts from the old TT rig, and spares for everything I didn't have. The only new part that I needed was a front derailleur, since this bike uses a braze-on attachment.

The bike was filthy when I got it in the mail, and the spacers were cold welded to the aluminum steerer! It's amazing how corrosive human perspiration can be. A star nut setting tool was the correct tool to force the steerer and spacers apart.

Anyway. The frame uses a 27.2mm seatpost, meaning I can use existing seatposts to get the geometry I want. The top tube length is 560mm, the seat angle is 76 deg, and the head tube is 112mm long (I think). By lowering the aero bars, and dropping the pads to the lowest possible position, I get what looks like a good time trial fit! My back is flat, the angle of bend in my arms is about 110 degrees, and the saddle is the correct height (slightly too high if anything, but my hips don't rock at all, and I'm used to a high-saddle position).

I even took a short video of a sprint on the stationary trainer. I discovered that using a disc wheel on the trainer is a bad idea: the wheel acts as a huge resonating chamber, and finds every single harmonic through the frame. It was unbelievably loud.

The Secret Weapon

Identify this product...

The product in question costs about $2.25 for ten servings, making it roughly one-tenth the cost of energy gels such as Clif Shot or GU. I'd like to experiment with this in hard efforts, and if it agrees with my stomach, I'll make my own energy gels! It's vegetarian (but not vegan) and delicious. I'm guessing that it may be too sweet and/or fatty for use in production, but we'll see.

Have you guessed what the secret weapon is?

So I've Been Busy...

If you know me, you know of my legendary hatred of cold weather. That's right, ladies and gentlemen: just because I've spent almost all of my life in New York or New England, does not mean that I like the weather! I've been spending many hours, on my Kreitler 2.25" rollers, and my PowerCranks, watching the miles tick away while not going anywhere.

Writing about base training is difficult due to the inherent lack of glamor it involves. I'm riding, 1-2 hours a day, at an even pace, with some variation. Sometimes I ride with team mates, other times I ride alone. I go to the supermarket more often in an effort to eat enough food and recover properly every day. Two hours on PowerCranks still feels like a really long time.

There is some excitement in the works! My first race of the season will be an indoor 10km time trial on a Computrainer. It's at 10am at Landry's Bikes in Boston, MA.

I'm working on piecing together a time trial bike out of an old Motobecane Nemesis frame that I got for a song. It addresses all of the fit issues with the Fuji Aloha CF2: the seat tube is more vertical (76 deg versus 73.5 - it matters!), it accepts standard seatposts (so I can use my Thomson set-forward post), and the head tube is much shorter (for a lower position in the front). With longer cranks, time trial rings, and a disc wheel in the rear, this bike is purpose-built for going very fast. That Fuji frame did not go to waste: it makes an excellent race bike, and will be even better once a couple of parts arrive in the mail. Stay tuned...

#7: New Racing Bicycle (kinda sorta)

The ECCC recently decided to ban aero equipment for non-A riders this season. A professional fitting reveals that my TT bike should be about one size smaller. The Fuji Aloha CF2 frame has great road geometry, and poor TT geometry. Hm. This sounds like a death sentence for a bicycle! Or, an opportunity!

You see, in my stash of parts that I have lying around, I have handlebars, bar tape, aero wheels, an extra stem, a spare cassette, a spare chain, and an extra set of pedals. All I needed was a new crankset (FSA SL-K, $200) and some new shifters (Shimano Dura-Ace ST-7801, $200) to make myself a superb race bike!

Back when Ivan Dominguez raced Fuji bikes, he chose to ride a converted Aloha frame. Why? Well, it's stiffer than any other Fuji frame! It's also way more aero. Fuji realized this, and both replaced the Aloha CF series with the DS-1 TT bike, and used the same frame in their SST bike!

So, for not all that much (especially considering the resale value of all of the components I removed from the bike), I was able to build an absolutely top-flight race bike, weighing in at under 17 lbs with fairly ordinary components in a 56cm size.

Specifically, the bike has: Ritchey WCS aluminum bars, Dura-Ace ST-7801 shifters, a Thomson stem, a Specialized Toupe Gel saddle, stainless steel Speedplay Zero pedals, Zipp 404 clincher wheels, FSA SL-K cranks, a Dura-Ace rear derailleur, and Cane Creek SCR-5 brakes.

I'm looking forward to doing some serious damage in the ECCC ranks with this machine.

#6: Cyclocross and Commuter Bike

This is the bike that I took to Nationals. The frame is a no-name aluminum cross frame, with a carbon fork and aluminum steerer. The bars are Specialized Zertz bars, the pedals are Shimano M520s, and the drivetrain is Ultegra and Dura-Ace. A single 39-tooth chainring with a Salsa Crossing Guard gets the job done.

This is the special race configuration; in its normal life, the bike has a Brooks B17 saddle and DT Swiss RR 1.2 rims laced to Chris King hubs.

Race Report: Cyclocross National Championships, Kansas City, MO

With my relatively strong performance in my first season of cyclocross racing, the MIT Cycling Team decided that it would be a reasonable idea to not just field a team for nationals, but to send me as well! I was pleased to get the news, and promptly bought a plane ticket to Kansas City (which the team would reimburse).

Getting to an away race like this is quite a work of logistics. The five of us MIT riders had to buy plane tickets, pack our bicycles, and work out rental cars. We, fortunately, had housing in Lawrence, KS, courtesy of a teammate's family. We arrived Friday evening, and had plenty of food.

On Saturday, we explored the race course. There was some time in the afternoon between races when the course was open for pre-riding. It was one heck of a course. It was long, quite long, though perhaps not as long as Warwick's course. The entire race was situated on a hillside, which meant a long climb (which worked to my benefit) and a long, technical downhill (which worked against me). With fans everywhere and lots of racing, it was a good time for all.

I competed in the men's collegiate division II race on Sunday morning, with the other MIT riders. (A school is Division I or II based on its size.) I was seeded about two-thirds of the way back in the starting group of about 50 riders. There were some very strong riders there. With the temperatures in the high 50s, I was able to finish the entire race in my skinsuit. I had a mediocre start, and worked my way through the field, finding my place in the competition. I lost lots of time on the runup and the off-camber S turns on the descent. Wet conditions left the dirt with a velcro-like texture, and there were lots of ruts in all of the turns. When all was said and done, I finished a respectable 21st place. This is not as well as I would have liked to do, of course, but it's respectable, and at least I finished the race!

In a freakish bout of midwest weather, the temperatures dropped about 30 degrees Fahrenheit immediately after the end of our race. Poor Kate!

Nick Loomis took a number of photos at this race; I'll post a few here that have me in them. Click for larger versions.

Race report: Warwick, RI (overdue!)

On December 7th, I raced in a cyclocross race in Warwick, RI. Equipped with a set of Zipp 404 clincher wheels, a new Dura-Ace rear derailleur, a single 39-tooth chainring, and a lighter saddle, my cyclocross bike was ready to race. I had damaged the bicycle two weeks earlier in a race in Northampton, MA, when I got a flat tire and tangled my chain after a run-up. The changes made my ride easier to shift, and at 20.5 lbs, as light as it was going to get.

The course was substantially longer than any cross course I had done to date. Off the start, two tight U-turns on road caused delays. Following that was a beach sand run and a run-up. Some twists through the woods led to barriers, and some more twisty riding led to an unusually long road section. After the road, an off-camber turn and more dirt riding led to another sand pit and run-up, and finally, the downhill road finish. It was a fast course, which I used to my benefit. My number was 466. This meant that I started almost at the back. I spent the 45 minutes of race time fighting my way back to the front- successfully! The long road section really let me pick up speed.

I finished in 9th place, and was the 1st collegiate finisher in the Cat 4 / Cat D race. I'll need to move up soon.

I was supposed to race the following morning, but we were advised to stay in on account of snow. The snow was not that bad, and the race went on without me. Oh well.

Cheat the wind, flatten the grass.

Last weekend was an exciting weekend in a few respects. With wind tunnel testing, bike fitting, and a cyclocross race in Easthampton, MA, I was certainly busy.

Last weekend, the MIT Cycling team was able to use the MIT Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel for many hours. Wind tunnels are few and far between, and getting time on them is neither cheap or easy, so we appreciated the 30-minute wind tunnel time slots as the unique opportunity they were. The test protocol was fairly straightfoward: with the wind tunnel running at 30 MPH, we mounted the bicycle (via modified quick-release skewers) on a force-sensitive platform, got a baseline drag reading, and got subsequent drag readings for a rider pedaling in different positions.

I used my wind tunnel time to tweak my position on my time trial bike. My time in the wind tunnel taught me a few things:

• a 30 MPH, 30 degree F wind is quite cold for any period of time.
• once you're already wearing a skinsuit and an aero helmet, body positioning makes the most substantial difference in aerodynamics. Being narrower and lower is ideal.
• lowering the handlebars as much as is feasible is the easiest way to gain an aero advantage.
  
• keeping your hands flat (by using flat or R/S-bend aero bars) is much more advantageous than keeping your hands raised (using ski-tip aero bars).

As I don't currently have a functional digital camera, we didn't get any pictures of me in the wind tunnel. Mike Garrett, a team mate, chronicled our time in the wind tunnel at http://www.triplepointstudios.com/MIT_Aero.html.

After our time in the wind tunnel, I was able to get a bicycle sizing by Todd of ttbikefit.com. Todd was nice enough to come all the way to MIT on a Saturday morning to assist our team with bicycle fitting. He has an effective system for consistently reviewing bicycle positioning. Todd will have you ride on a stationary bike trainer. He'll use a camcorder on a tripod mount to record your pedal stroke for a minute or two. Then, he'll use what amounts to a glorified image editing program to analyze your positioning on the bicycle. The most brilliant part of this system is the repeatability: since neither the trainer, your bike, or your camera moves between sessions, he can easily compare your position from one tweak to the next.

Todd seems to favor a very aggressively triathlon-biased aero position. He tries to put riders almost over the bottom bracket, with a 140 degree leg angle at the bottom of the pedal stroke. Compared to my road position, he put my saddle much lower and more forward than I would typically ride it. This allowed me to open my hip angle, and assume a lower position on the aero bars. Some experimentation with my road bikes taught me that this was NOT a good road position. Nevertheless, for triathlon positioning, Todd has a workable system and plenty of experience, and I would not hesitate contacting him if you have any triathlon-related questions.

As an important aside, I'm wondering just how useful this TT bike fitting and aero analysis was. Recently, the powers-that-be at USA Cycling decided to ban aero equipment, or specifically, not mass start legal equipment, for race categories below A in the collegiate race season; A-category racers will be able to use aero equipment only if it will be allowed at the National Championships. As I'll be starting the season racing in the B category, with a hopeful upgrade to A, I'm unsure that I'll be able to use a full aero position. (For details, see http://collegiatecycling.org/eccc/wiki/index.php?n=Events.FallMeeting2008.)

What is certain is that my Fuji Aloha CF2's frame, the same that Fuji uses to build their current SST road bike, is a very aerodynamic frame and would make a superb road bike. I have all the parts I need to make it into a great road racing bike, one that may be superior to my Specialized Roubaix, so that may be the way to go. The CF2 road bike, already Ivan Dominguez's choice, would be stiffer and more aerodynamic than the Roubaix, but likely heavier. I'll need a Jtek Shiftmate to allow me to use my spare Campagnolo Veloce shifters with an otherwise Dura-Ace equipped ride, and I wonder if the longer 175mm cranks will be more or less helpful in road races. We'll see.



With all of the thoughts about aerodynamics behind me, I went to the place where aerodynamics hardly matter at all: a cyclocross race. With some residual fitness from the summer and plenty of training this fall, I've been doing well at the local cyclocross races. What I lack in bicycle handling skills, I can compensate with power. So far, I've done reasonably well at the three cyclocross races I've done, well enough to convince me to go to the Collegiate Cyclocross National Championships in Kansas City this December. My race experience this weekend was far from ideal, due to a number of mechanical disasters. I'm just glad that this all happened before Nationals.

What happened, exactly? I was doing well in my race, moving up through the field and maintaining a top-20 position, when I got two simultaneous pinch flats after running over a concrete curb at speed. I rode half a lap on flat tired to the service area. The pit crew was nice enough to loan me a set of Zipp 404 clincher wheels, which served me well until my chain fell off of the chainrings at the major run-up of the course. While struggling to get the chain back on quickly, I managed to twist my derailleur backwards, ripping apart the derailleur cage and bending a derailleur hanger. I ran to the pit, where they gave me a spare bike (an Orbea) with flat pedals, which at least allowed me to finish the race a lap behind.

That was not the first time I had chain issues on the cross bike that I built myself. Using a triple crankset was a stupid idea, but that's all I had. With substantial modification, I was able to replace the three chainrings with a 39-tooth chainring and a chain guard. I hope that works better next weekend. I'd like to race the new configuration at least once before Nationals.

Cyclocross is fun, but I miss the warm weather that makes enjoyable road riding possible.

Max Power!

Dieting and training are both going well. I've lost about five pounds since my last power-related posting of about a month ago, making me stronger. I also had an exceptional workout this morning, on account of my brand-new Kreitler 2.25" alloy roller drums. These are roughly 15-20% more resistive than my old 3" drums, so I'm able to push harder in a lower gear without spinning out. I can't wait to see how the new rollers push my training limits. I find that I'm most efficient around 88 RPM on the PowerCranks.

Most of the MIT Cycling team started with base training yesterday morning. I'm still in the middle of my cyclocross race season, so building the sustained power and maintaining my carefully calibrated routine of daily morning indoor workouts is my priority at the moment. Come January, I'll be doing longer roller workouts, perhaps double workouts to gain the correct number of hours, at a lower intensity. I just hope to avoid injury and burnout before the race season even begins!

Averaging over 400W today, this workout represents a massive gain of 14% of my power for an hour. Using a fan while riding, adjusting my saddle position to be higher and more forward, and eating and sleeping properly, all help greatly. My strength is still long-term power. Hopefully, some speed work closer to the start of the racing season will give me a sprint to back my staying power.

Today's morning weight: 176.6 lbs / 80.1 kg.

Time	Wattage	W/kg	Comments
5s	1147	14.31	Moderate (Cat 4)
30s	620	7.74
1m	526	6.56	Fair (Cat 5)
5m*	429	5.35	Very Good (Cat 2)
10m*	414	5.17
30m*	408	5.09
60m*	403	5.03	Excellent (Cat 1)
120m	277	3.46

* denotes power record set today.

Today's "all-out" workout was quite difficult for me, and approaching my limit. My average heart rate was 165, and my max heart rate was 180. As an aside, while I was sitting at my desk doing some preparation for the ride, I saw my heart rate creep down to 45, which means that my resting heart rate has gotten even lower. I'll need to measure that sometime soon.

Race Report: Northampton Cyclocross Weekend

This weekend, I participated in my fifth and sixth post-summer races. The MIT Cycling Team participated in the Northampton cyclocross races in western Massachusetts this weekend. With three car loads of people, we had a strong showing.

These were my second and third cyclocross races ever, the first being the Canton Cup race of two weeks ago. Cyclocross is a very different kind of racing than road or track. It requires more technical skills (though not as many as mountain biking), with many intermeditate intervals (like a road criterium). Sand pits, run-ups, and barricades pose obstacles that require one to get off the bicycle and run for a short period of time.

Both races this weekend were USCF Category 4 races, 40 minutes long, at 0830 on the course. Though at physically the same location, the organizers made substantial changes to the course between Saturday and Sunday.

I was less well prepared for Saturday's race. I was sick, did not get enough rest, and did not eat enough. Saturday's course, the more challenging of the two, offered one impossible and one very difficult run, a long sand pit with a corner, and a barricade. My early registration gave me a good starting position, but a lack of agression made me lose many places quickly. I faded with lack of food in the cold weather, becoming less and less able to handle the bike. I finished, painfully, in 34th place out of roughly 95 starters.

Including some cooldown: 11.02 miles in 52:56. 12.48 MPH avg, 30.27 MPH max. Avg HR 154, max HR 175. Avg power 193W, max power 1119W. 613 kJ of work.
Today's course was substantially easier. Many of the corners were replaced with long, straight sections. The sand pit was straight, and therefore, rideable. The runup was also rideable, though I had limited success doing so. I again made the mistake of not being aggressive enough off the start, and was bumped back pretty quickly. With more rest and more fuel, I stayed strong, working through the entire race. I finished a respectable 21st out of roughly 96 starters.

Race statistics: 10.21 miles in 44:21. 13.8 MPH avg, 26.9 MPH max. Avg HR 166, max HR 177. Avg power 266 W, max power 1048 W. 708 kJ of work.
What a great way to enjoy the cold weather.

Indoor Training

I've been quietly but consistently riding six days a week. Unless there is a race or a major event, my plan is as follows:

Mon, Wed, Fri - 60 min "easy" indoors on the rollers riding PowerCranks.
Tue, Thu - 60 min "hard" indoors on the rollers riding PowerCranks.
Sat - 120 min "moderate" indoors on the rollers riding PowerCranks.

It's not very glamorous or interesting, but it's dependable, and it's building a really strong base. At 181 lbs (82.2 kg), I have the following power profile. The "ratings" come from "Training and Racing with a Power Meter" by Allen and Coggan. (I set a new one hour personal record this morning!)

Time	Watts	W/kg	Comments
5s	1147	13.9	"Moderate" (e.g. cat 4)
30s	620	7.5
1m	526	6.4	"Fair" (e.g. cat 5)
5m	422	5.1	"Very good" (e.g. cat 2)
10m	398	4.8
30m	369	4.5
1h (FTP)	334	4.1	"Very good" (e.g. cat 2)
2h	277	3.4

What does this mean in real life? I recently did very well at the MIT team's Wachusett hill climb time trial, and did reasonably well in my first cyclocross race. I have some real long-term power, but need to work in my sprint if I want to compete at a national level this spring.