[JEP Coaching Scholarship] Report for Week 02 (ending 2011-12-25)

Hello everyone. I've been fighting off illness for most of the week. There is a balance between doing training and recovering from a cold, even a minor one. A minor head cold is not a dealbreaker for many training rides. Of course, training too hard in cold weather can divert energy away from the immune system, complicating a simple cold. I do not enjoy being sick.

Workouts:

12-19 Monday
Prescribed: 45-60 minute recovery ride.
Actual: Easy spin to work, along the usual Central Expressway route.

12-20 Tuesday
Prescribed: Crossfit workout in the morning, followed by on-bike sprints session.
Actual: As prescribed. Crossfit was good, with a challenging workout of the day (WOD) involving box jumps and kettle bell swings. Dan sometimes prescribes sprints just after Crossfit to take advantage of neuromuscular training. The sprints were the best I've done in a while, with a max wattage of just over 1400W. Someone my size ought to generate more wattage than that in a sprint; this is one of my training goals.

12-21 Wednesday
Prescribed: Unstructured ~60 minute ride with stretching session.
Actual: I woke up with a sore throat this morning. I did a loop ride (defined as a ride on Alpine, Portola, and Sand Hill roads) around lunchtime, which may not have been a great idea. I cannot recall if I managed to get the stretching in, which means I likely did not.

12-22 Thursday
Prescribed: Crossfit workout in the morning, plus 1 hour ride with some tempo efforts.
Actual: No workout. Woke up feeling less well. Stayed off the bike and ended up leaving work early due to not feeling well. Tried to do some stretching in the evening, but decided against since I really was not feeling well.

12-23 Friday
Prescribed: 2-3h tempo combo ride with stretching session.
Actual: As prescribed. I was feeling a little better this morning. I waited until the warmest part of the day to ride. The ride itself was very good: I felt stronger than I have in a while. Stretched after the ride.

12-24 Saturday
Prescribed: 3h30m ride with two 20+min climbs, doing 90min sitting 60sec standing on climbs, plus stretching session.
Actual: No workout. I woke up this morning to green mucus, signs of a possible chest cold. Blech. Tried to recover as best as I could.

12-25 Sunday
Prescribed: 90 minute endurance ride with some 10min Z3 efforts, plus stretching session.
Actual: As prescribed. I was feeling somewhat better today. I rode up and down Canada Road once the weather got "warm" (around 8C, or 48F). Merry Christmas!

Weekly summary:
Time: 8h16m
Distance: 103.73 mi
TSS: 462.4

(Distance and TSS only incorporate rides for which I have power data.)

I've copied this report to my blog at http://bikefleet.blogspot.com/, where you can also find past updates, race reports, and more!

Thanks for reading.

--Jose

[JEP Coaching Scholarship] Report for Week 01 (ending 2012-12-18)

Hello everyone. My name is Jose Soltren. I was fortunate to receive a JEP Coaching Scholarship this year! In the coming weeks, you'll hear more about the training and racing I am doing.

For those who don't know, the JEP Coaching Scholarship is named in honor of John Peckham, who was an Alto Velo (altovelo.org) member and an original scholarship recipient in 2005. John was struck by a car and killed in 2006 while out training.

About me: I'm a Cat 2 road racer, racing age 27 in 2012, who joined Alto Velo in early 2011. I've been racing in the NCNCA district since 2010, previously with Los Gatos. I moved to the area in 2009, after getting my Cat 2 upgrade on the East Coast and graduating from MIT with a Master's in Computer Science. Apart from cycling, I enjoy working at NVIDIA as a software engineer, mentoring a young man named Kevin through the Big Brothers program, and studying to become a private pilot. I live with my fiancee, Jane Wolcott, in Menlo Park.

Season Goals:
- Be competitive in district races
- Learn to work as part of a team
- Get a starting spot at the Hellyer Velodrome Challenge

Training Objectives:
- Race weight of 175 lbs
- Develop and maintain sprint and attack power
- Improve pack handling

Weekly Overview:

Workouts:
12-12 Monday
Prescribed: Meet with Coach Dan Smith (sportvelo.com) to establish annual plan.
Actual: Dan and I sat down and discussed my aforementioned season goals and training objectives. I left the meeting with an annual race plan completed, which also highlighted which races I am planning to target more seriously. My 2012 race calendar is on my blog at http://bikefleet.blogspot.com/2011/12/2012-racing-calendar.html .

12-13 Tuesday
Prescribed: Morning workout at Defiance Crossfit, plus commute to work with a few 5 minute Z3 tempo efforts.
Actual: I felt great during the Crossfit workout but wanted to throw up afterwards!

12-14 Wednesday
Prescribed: Z2-3 commute to work, 1h on rollers with 10min Z3 efforts, plus 30 minutes stretching.
Actual: Rode to work, and rode the rollers after. Felt pretty good. I've taken over the living room to do stretching exercises.

12-15 Thursday
Prescribed: Morning workout at Defiance Crossfit, plus Z2-3 commute to work.
Actual: As prescribed. I discovered that I can jump on a fairly tall box, and can swing a heavy kettle bell. The ride in was good, cold, but good.

12-16 Friday
Prescribed: 2-3h flat-rolling ride with some 10min Z3 efforts before work.
Actual: Rode 2h45m before work. Discovered that home, to Canada and 92, to work takes about 2h45m in Z2-Z3. Solid ride.

12-17 Saturday
Prescribed: 3h road ride, with two 20+min climbing efforts, during which alternating between 1.5min seated, 1min standing (I call these "90-60s"), plus stretching afterward.
Actual: Long ride up Kings and West Alpine, doing sitting-standing efforts. Felt better than I thought I would out of the saddle. Did stretching when I got home.

12-18 Sunday
Prescribed: Day off. Be lazy.
Actual: As prescribed.

Weekly summary:
Time: 13 h 15 min
Distance: 150 miles
TSS: 626

(Distance and TSS only incorporate rides for which I have power data.)

I've copied this report to my blog at http://bikefleet.blogspot.com/, where you can also find past updates, race reports, and more!

Thanks for reading.

--Jose

2012 Racing Calendar

I recently met with Dan Smith (sportvelo.com) to establish my 2012 racing calendar.

Some considerations were:

* Preference for local races over out of district races (minimize travel).
* Preference for later season start.
* Getting married in August, and ensuing travel, effectively ends my season.
* Realistic race schedule, avoid burnout.
* Hope to compete in the Hellyer Velodrome Challenge this July.

As a result, my race season begins in mid March, and ends in late July.

I am planning to start the following races:

Mar 18 Bariani Road Race

Mar 25 Regalado (Warnerville) Road Race

Apr 14 Chico Stage Race
Apr 15 Chico Stage Race

Apr 22 El Dorado Hills Criterium

Apr 28 Wente Road Race

May 05 Cat's Hill Criterium

May 13 Panoche Valley Road Race

May 20 Scotts Valley Grand Prix

May 28 Memorial Day Criterium

June 03 Dunlap Time Trial

June 09 Campbell Criterium

June 17 Nevada City Classic

June 23 Pescadero Coastal Classic Road Race
June 24 Burlingame Crierium

July 06 Hellyer Velodrome Challenge
July 07 Hellyer Velodrome Challenge
July 08 Hellyer Velodrome Challenge

July 22 Menlo Park Grand Prix Criterium

July 29 Spring Hill Road Race

(Race dates are tentative, and based on the NCNCA 2012 Race Calendar: https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=g533udgvcn6d0o6drp8ubatcuo%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles )

"Big Brothers" Fundraising

I am a "big brother" mentor to a young man in East Palo Alto named Kevin. When I was his age, I was, myself, a "little brother". Having a mentor was one of the most positive experiences of my childhood. It helped show me that there was a world larger than the one I lived in.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area (and related and similar agencies) pair adult "bigs" with young "littles" in mentoring relationships. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit http://www.bbbsba.org/ (SF Bay Area), http://www.bbbs.org (US), or http://www.bbbsi.org/ (International).

Like most any nonprofit, BBBSBA is accepting much needed donations. If you feel so compelled, please consider visiting my Donation Link.

Thanks for reading.

We're getting married!

Jane and I are getting married! Hooray! For more details, please head to our shiny-new wedding Web page.

Dead transmission on our Subaru (1999; 130k mi). $2300 to fix. Thoughts?

On Thursday, en route to have dinner with Jane, the Subaru's transmission died. I had to get towed off of 101. A local repair shop quotes $2300 to rebuild the transmission. This is the same place that did a tune-up on the car a month ago. They claim this transmission failure is internal and due to a broken pawl, gear, or other. This is independent of the work they did and may have happened regardless. (Another place quoted $3500 for a rebuild.)

So, what now? Fix the transmission? Sell the car as-is and get something else? (Learn how to rebuild transmissions?)

The car is a 1999 Subaru Legacy Outback with 130k miles. We, unfortunately, need it for getting to bike races.

New track bike!

My new Tiemeyer track frame arrived yesterday! Hooray! It's red!

Last August, I decided that a new track frame was in order. After exploring all possible options, I determined that the Tiemeyer was the only high end track frame that could fit me well, was durable and serviceable, and also readily available. I began discussing the bike with Dave Tiemeyer back in February.

We determined that a stock-geometry large frame would allow me to use my deep track drops in a mass start position, while also enabling a pursuit position with aero bars and a more forward saddle. The large, with seatpost and chainring removed, just barely fits in my hard travel case.

Hopefully I'll get to race it tonight, if the weather holds!

Anyone need a developer?

So today was my last day at Stanford. I enjoyed my time with the research group I was with, but ultimately, it was not the right fit. We parted on good terms.

I'm now in a transition period, thinking about where I want to go and what I want to do next. If you have any ideas, please drop me a line!

(Are there any awesome jobs in the bike industry?)

San Dimas Stage 2: Solid Race, No Points, Pack Finish

So my plan to win the green jersey was destroyed at the start of Lap 3, when a two-man break took off. It was perfect: right after a KOM uphill sprint, good team representation, attacking right before a corner that slows the pack. If I had the legs, I would have been part of that break.

So, instead, with the break gone and only one points-winning spot open, I could only sit in. My fitness is not where it was last year, which is frustrating since I remember feeling so strong for this race, but I also remember it being warm, so, there. I felt way more comfortable out of the saddle than ever before, which is good, because I have some real power when I stand.

I finished with the main group at the end of 8 laps of racing. Am I the only one who thinks these itty-bitty 7 mile laps feel like racing in Central Park in NYC? Anyway, this means I made the time cut and can start the crit tomorrow.

Speaking of power, I said "forget the power meter" today. (Well, I really said something else, but it was not rated for general audiences.) I'm not sure it helps. Besides, with crazy winds today, I wanted a more aero setup; enter the Soloist with 404s, one of the fastest road bikes available. Guys who have slower TTs than me still finish ahead of me, so, clearly, racing with the power meter isn't the trick.

Homework for me: learn to be more (physically) relaxed once the race gets hard. I tend to get tense and lock my arms, which only adds to fatigue. Maybe I'll make a sensor-embedded goniometer, connect it to a buzzer, and tape it to my forearm. Then, whenever I lock my arms, it can yell at me. If only.*

* noise making devices, i.e. Garmin GPS units with the beeping turned on, loosely bolted bottle cages, and loudmouths, are in poor taste. For an example of good taste, please see the Official Rules of the Euro Cyclist.

San Dimas HCTT: Disappointing

I made it up Glendora Mountain Road yesterday in 15:16.22, slotting me
into 31st place in the GC. It's not a terrible time per se, and if I
throw in some excuses (i.e. "I've been sick", "I've been stressed at
work", "the weather has been cold and miserable", "conditions were cold
and windy for SoCal", "TT helmet is 200g heavier", etc.) it seems better.

Still, the simple facts are:
- my time last year was 10 seconds faster.
- I was 5 pounds lighter when I did this race last year
- my average power, 394W, was 25W lower than my Old La Honda record two
months ago
- I was 7 pounds lighter when I went up Old La Honda
- I was hoping for a time that was 30 seconds faster, which seemed
perfectly reasonable given my OLH performance
- the field this year is stronger, due to greater interest from the
NorCal peloton

So, unless I get into a break that puts a minute into the field, I'm not
a GC contender. Guess I just need to win the road race...

The organizers are being amazing about results. Check them out here:
http://www.scvelo.com/san-dimas-stage-race/san-dimas-stage-race-results/cat_view/92-results/55-san-dimas-stage-race/137-2011-results

Race Report: Madera Criterium and Road Race

With the weekend off to a solid start in two time trials, there were two
more stages in the Madera stage race.

The criterium was nothing spectacular, just a garden variety four corner
course, albeit a super wide one with railroad tracks on the last leg. An
early break took off. Wohlberg won. I learned, once again, that pack
position is a natural filter for pack skills, and the further back I
get, the worse it gets. Really need to work on that...

The road race was brutal. There was a strong crosswind on the two
longest stretches of road, one of which had Paris-Roubaix quality
pavement (almost cobblestones, though not worse than Friday's TT!). I
felt great for the first two laps, though I spent too much time in the
drops (and put too much stress on my back). On the third lap, I had to
pee, but was unable to do so. This, along with being on the wrong side
of the wind on the "cobblestones" and riding in the hoods for comfort,
meant that I just expended a ton of energy. With Cal Giant driving the
pace on the front and guttering everyone else, I was cooked once the
rollers came up. This is unusual for me.

So, after three laps, I pulled myself. At least I had a chance to hand
my wheels to Jane. Those Dura Ace tubeless wheels work wonders on the
worst pavement - super comfy (relatively speaking) and no flat tires!

Thanks to Nils of the Bicycle Trip team, and all the Webcor guys, for
being good teammates through the weekend.

Not sure what races I'm doing this weekend, but I'm already looking
forward to San Dimas in two weeks...

Race Report: Madera Stage Race, Sharon Time Trial

My time was 22:31 according to my computer, for the first time out on Madera's pan flat 10.38 mile course. The course highlights included crosswinds, bad (but better!) pavement, and bees, the stinging kind! It was, otherwise, a beautiful sunny day, and a good day for an ITT.

After a good warmup up and down a road near the course, I got to the start without my shoe covers! Crap. I blame my lack of shoe covers for at least 5 minutes (okay, really maybe 10 seconds). The P3C, with a newly verified position and a tri spoke, looked and sounded fast. I felt strong, and certainly stronger toward the end, since it sometimes takes me time to warm up to full capacity. I passed three guys, which was fun, but can mean anything.

We'll see if things in the GC shake up at all. Ben's time last year was 20:39, and my time would have put me in 13th. Not sure how this year's conditions compare to last, and I'm too lazy to figure out how much the GC changed after this TT last year.

Flat, long TTs are my specialty. I just wish we had more of them up by Menlo Park. As my power data tells me, I clearly need the practice!

Madera Stage Race - Day 1 Results

Self explanatory: results from the TT stage...

Race Report: Madera Stage Race, Ben Hur Hill Climb TT

35:24 - 30th in GC, 3 minutes behind race leader

This is my first time racing the Madera stage race. As a Pro/1/2 rider, I get to do an extra stage: the Ben Hur hill climb time trial. The course is just brutal. Six miles of steep, unrelenting rolling hills and the worst pavement I've ever seen (even by New York standards) leads to 3 miles up a 6-7% grade with no improvement in pavement quality. To top it of, conditions were windy, and the sun gave way to clouds right before the start.

The course is a tradeoff. A powerful climber is probably the best rider, and a super light road bike with clip on aerobars is probably the best setup. I rode my Cervelo P3C TT bike with Zipp 303 wheels, and it was fairly light at 17 lbs, but not the ideal position for climbing.

A course like this just makes it so hard to find and settle into a rhythm. There is always something going on: potholes, patches in the road, a power climb, a slight leveling off. Perhaps I can do better next year. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's pan flat time trial!

Garmin Edge 800: An upgrade, but just barely, over the 705

I purchased a Garmin Edge 800 [1] over the holidays. As an avid 705 user, I was excited to see what the 800 was all about. Overall, it is a solid unit and will stay on my race bike. For many 705 users, though, I don't think the upgrade is worthwhile.

The Edge 800 is a top-end GPS equipped bicycle computer. My Edge 800 shows 1051 miles of use over the course of 65 hours in a month since purchase (Menu > History > Totals). In that time, I've become more familiar with the unit. My overall impression is that it is more pleasant to use than the 705, but not always more functional. I've noted some highs and lows, as follows.

Improvements:

- Vastly easier to calibrate a power meter.

- Larger screen, lighter weight (110 grams to 97 grams), very slightly wider and shorter.

- Vastly improved mounting system, using quarter turn lock (same as Edge 500).

- Touchscreen may be more durable. My Edge 705 has cracked seals on the buttons due to years of use. Some have joysticks that fail, too.

- Much faster processor: faster routing, faster power on time, usable map screen!

- Actually usable with topographic maps, like Garmin US Topo 24k

- Temperature support.

- Vertical speed field.

- Up to 10 data fields per page, up from 8.

- 3 data pages, up from 2.

- USB port is at bottom of unit - sits flat on desk

- Much easier to type thanks to touch screen.

- Unit is more streamlined and less likely to snag in a bag due to lack of touch stick.

- Ability to save workout files directly to external storage device.

- Able to copy custom workouts from 705 easily.

- Activities stored in more efficient .fit format - no need to regularly purge and compress bloated .tcx, faster uploads.

- Files are named according to local time zone setting, not UTC.

- "startup.txt" file allows me to put my name and phone number in while powering on the device in case it gets lost.

Regressions:

- Possible dealbreaker: No way to route using .GPX files. They all appear as courses, not routes. See https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=14186&page=3 .

- Screen is really hard to read in daylight due to reflective finish. Backlight helps, but unit drains battery really quickly with the backlight on high.

- On the power meter screen, the "Calibrate" and "Rescan" buttons are right next to one another. If you have fat fingers and hit the wrong one at the start line, well, no race data for you.

- No file transfer feature. With the 705 I could wirelessly send routes to other users. Not so anymore.

- Software automatically goes in "bicycle" mode when calculating a route. If I have a .TCX route that intentionally routes me on an Interstate (i.e. in places where the Interstate is the only possible route), bad things happen. What if I actually want the GPS to calculate a route using the car/motorcycle preference? I need to change the routing mode manually, every time.

- Still only reports as a USB 1.1 device with slow transfer speeds. There is absolutely no need for this. I have to pull the SD card to transfer map files, lest it take an entire day.

- Workflow is partially designed around Training Center, which is not good for Linux users. Uncompressed XML is bad for ride data but really good for creating content.

- Not compatible with .TCX courses or workouts. Requires an additional step through Training Center.

- No workouts included. I ported some from my 705.

- Garmin logo when viewed from the front is huge!

- Less internal memory: 128 MB (105 MB available) instead of 512 MB. Stingy.

- Garmin Training Center does not allow a user to directly import a .FIT file from a location on disk. The API is to ask the device for a .FIT file, which in turn, means that files have to be saved to internal memory and not an SD card. Seriously? Sure, .FIT files are smaller than .TCX files (uncompressed XML), but with less memory, it looks like manual management is needed still. This is a known issue, see https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=14537.

- The .FIT format is more prone to corruption, and less fixable. A developer API offers some Java tools to help fix files, but it is not perfect. I have already lost some important ride data due to a crash. For the investment involved in an Edge 800 plus a power meter, the acceptable amount of data loss should be "zero".

- Where did the date display go? With the 705, you can press the Power key and it will tell you the current day, month, and year. The Edge 800 has no date related fields.

- It takes more "key presses" to get to some features on the Edge 800, and since it is a touch screen, there is no tactile feedback. Of course, being able to quickly get back to the home screen by holding the lower left "cancel" button is a huge help.

- Keys are no longer backlit. That was a nice touch on the 705.

- Seal for micro SD card feels less robust.

- Seal for USB port actually IS less robust. I noticed some corrosion (blue-white stuff) after a rainy ride.

Notes:

- common firmware with Oregon series GPS. 705 was common to ETrex Vista series, 305 was common to other GPS.

- USB Mass Storage API like the 705.

- weird API for importing GPX and TCX routes using the "NewFiles" folder.

I hope that Garmin will address some of these shortcomings with future firmware fixes. The company does a decent job of getting products to market, but often lets them languish thereafter. For the cost of the Edge 800, us owners should be first-class citizens.

[1] https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=69043