PIR TT - First win of the season

This past Sunday was the PIR TT ... it's about 11.5 miles in distance (6 laps around the PIR auto race track). I love racing this course because it has great pavement, no traffic and some technical aspects with corners but you can stay in your aero bars during the whole race.

I wasn't sure what to expect this year from my legs since I've been working on losing weight more than anything recently and have now dropped about 26 pounds since the 2nd week of February, down to 190 this week. I've been doing one hard day of commuting intervals per week where I'm doing threshold work almost the entire way in and home on my commute ... the only time I'm not at threshold is slowing down for lights. Most of the time I average 280-290 watts for the commute and it gives me 2.5 hours of hard riding time early/mid week. The other commutes are at recovery or endurance pace.

Leading up to the race I basically had a rest week other than commuting intervals on Wednesday and a moderate ride on Thursday ... Monday/Tuesday/Friday/Saturday were spent off the bike. So my legs could either be well rested or not respond from lack of riding.

Thankfully my legs responded fairly well. I started off pretty hot, but was able to settle into a good pace. I was a little leary through the first two corners because I crashed last year on the hairpin turn during a wet weather race. After the 2nd lap, I had my cornering confidence back remembering to lean my body, not the bike in the tighter corners and was taking them at high speed.

The wind was light, but not from a consistent direction, swirling more than anything and temps were pretty warm in the mid 60's.

Watching my HR it was the first race in a year where my HR stayed above 160 BPM for the entire race with an average of 163 BPM.

Coming around the final turn I could see my time and was close to a PR, so I pushed it pretty hard crossing the line at 24:22 ... which was a PR on the course for me by 6 seconds. I wasn't sure how I would fare position wise since results wouldn't be posted until later.

This was also my first race on my Flo disc wheel ... which I like a lot. It feels comfortable, accelerated well, held speed well and felt a little more confident in the corners than my old RENN disc. No complaints from the wheel at all and was expected based on my experience with other Flo wheels.

In the end ... I ended up winning the 40-49 Masters field.

Then I followed up the race competing in the "Eddie" category ... basically no aero gear at all and completed on my road bike. I was able to finish 3rd in this class but could tell my legs were tired and a little dead. I finished this race in 27:05 with an average wattage of 328 watts, which is below what I can normally put out, but with my forearms on the bars my hip angle was closed off and I had just done an all out effort 20 minutes before.

Overall ... a good weekend and my first win of the season.

Next up ... As the Raven Flies, only longer ... it's the first early season 40k Time Trial. I've heard the roads are so-so and there is a fair amount of climbing at around 1400-1500 feet over 24.8 miles.

Kings Valley Road Race

Had my first road race in two years yesterday ... Kings Valley Road Race.

I've had success there in the past with a 3rd place finish, but also got crashed out two years ago when I lost my custom Tsunami. Last week at the group ride a teammate told me If I go race, he'd go race ... so, I figured what the heck, at a minimum a good training race with some intensity.

I've actually gained a lot of fitness over the last 6 weeks gaining most of my power back (though still down on FTP and 20 minute power) and dropping my weight by 20 pounds since mid February ... weighed in at 194 pounds yesterday morning ... So, I thought I might have a chance to at least do moderately well.

Going in, I knew the only way I would do well was with a break away since the race ends with a 1.8 mile hill climb, most of which isn't too bad but the last 1k or so is really tough with grades of 8% - 9% for a about 400 meters, then levels out a bit over the last 200 meters ... And I struggle between 6% and 12% grades, over or under that and I can do OK for some reason.

I was a little stressed out beginning the race due to crashing there the last time I raced, and some of the riding was pretty sketchy, but overall made it through safe.

Knowing I needed a break, I jumped in everything that went and tried to start about 6 of my own. The one time I almost got away was on a two man break with a former winner of the race, but after about 5 minutes out front he got a flat and I was quickly reeled back in at that point.

The race had a ton of people at the start because it was a combined Masters 40/50/60 field and at the start had 80+ racers in it. I started at the front, looked back and could see the long line, so I tried to get things separated and thinned out to keep it a bit safer ... but there was a core group that just wouldn't let things go. In a lot of ways I felt like I was racing CAT 5 again, because the group would chase down EVERYTHING ... quickly, never letting anything get more than about 10-15 seconds up the road. The teams with a good climber were only there to chase down every break and sprint for the finish, which is what was accomplished in the end. Kinda sucks when you are for the most part racing solo (had one teammate, but never saw him until the end).

With all the accelerations and solo attempts, I didn't have much in my legs to accelerate at the end and finished 31st out of about 50 riders (in my field) ... but was only about 12 seconds off the winner. I had one teammate in the race who I saw at the start and at the end ... nowhere in-between. He weighs about 10 - 15 pounds more than I do and when comparing power numbers I averaged 21 more watts overall and 36 watts more on my Normalized Power ... So, I did a fair amount more work than he being stuck in the pack.

Overall ... A good race, good effort and back to TT's next week :) I have a 20K next weekend and a 40k the following weekend ... then  the TTT a couple weeks after that.

Anyway ... a little road racing every now and then can be a good thing :)

New Flo Disc

Since my crash at Revenge of the Disc #2 last year, I've been riding on a damaged disc and knew I couldn't use it any longer when the crack started getting bigger.

Knowing another Flo wheel order was coming up I thought I'd take my chances for a disc. I emailed the owners to see how many "Clydesdale" discs they would have in this order and they let me know they had 17 of those and 100 total discs.


I figured since I'd be going for the Clydesdale version (28 spoke instead of 24) I had a fighting chance to get one in this order since most would be going for the non-clyde version


The day came to order, I logged on for the "Race for Wheels" and was able to secure a new disc. They are very aero wheels and for the price ... unbeatable.

No less than one week later ... the disc was at my door. A couple minutes later, tire on it, cassette on it and on the bike it went for a "Tour de Neighborhood".

I can't wait to race it next weekend :)

Jack Frost 2014 ... The race season starts again

Let the race season for 2014 start!!!

So, this year, given that I've missed 35 days of riding over the last 3 months ... I was really considering skipping this race. I knew my fitness wasn't great, my weight was a good 6+ pounds over where I was last season and I was without a rear disc wheel.

With that said, the weather turned out to be excellent with temps in the low 50's, no rain and almost "Zero" wind, so I figured I'd go out and see what I could do, just for the fun of it.

I didn't put a ton of work into the warm up and had some good miles earlier in the week ... but nothing really "Prep Worthy" for the race. Overall, my legs felt OK though heading out to the start line.

Being the first race of the year, I of course got excited at the start and went out too hard hitting around 30 mph by the end of the first straight and my HR in the high 160's almost 170 BPM. Thankfully, I caught it early and backed off a little until the next tight turn not far away from there.

From there, I had a good run on the outbound section of the course catching slower riders ... but gaining no ground on my 30 second man ... being the winner of the TT cup last season, I was the last one off in the 40+ Masters group.

I went very cautiously through the three tighter corners and the turn around, not wanting to screw up my season in the first race ... and I'm sure I lost more than a few seconds through those corners.

On the way back, I still felt pretty good ... but looking at my HR data, I had a 5 minute section where I can see I didn't push it hard enough with my HR dropping down to the low 150 BPM range, but picking up over the last 2-3 miles of the race.

In the end, I had a good sprint to the line and broke 28 minutes ... barely ... with a time of 27:59.2 which is my third fastest time on the course (and only missed my second fastest by a few seconds) ... but was 34 seconds slower than last season.

I'm in weight loss mode since our "Snowpocalypse" took place in early February where I weighed in at 216 pounds. As it stands I'm down to 203 - 204 pounds right now and want to be low 190's by the end of March in time for the next TT ... As the Raven Flies. I know I can put power on by then, but I really need to shed some weight, so that's my focus now.

Next week is training camp ... if all goes well, I'll have a solid 320+ mile week of training and really get things back on track. Should be a great weekend, just hoping the weather holds out :)

Winter is getting in the way

So ... Winter appears to be a frustrating time for training this season. I finished November strong and the first part of December was going well, then some really cold weather hit. I don't mind riding in the cold, it was the freezing fog I was more worried about and black ice on the road. Considering the end of my commute to work has some 10% + downhill grades, I didn't want to risk riding into work.

As soon as I was able to start commuting into work again, I caught the nasty flu going around and was off the bike again, and it took a while to recover enough that I started feeling good again.

In between those two issues, work has got in the way a couple of times.

In the end ... I've missed about 25 days of riding over the last 6 weeks, put on 10 pounds and am in likely the worst shape I've been in over the past 6 years.

I would have rode my trainer, but I was lazy and didn't want to change a flat tire so I could ride it. Looking at the math, if I had ridden it just 1 hour per day over those missed 25 days I could have kept 4+ of those 10 pounds off.

With all of that said ... I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about it. I had a great base leading up to the time off having ridden over 10,700 miles last year. I'm also kind of hoping this delay in training will move my traditional peak back from May into August when the championship races are ... which is really more paying attention to what I'm doing than when I take time off ... but it's part of trying to stay positive.

I was able to get a "Mini" training camp in this weekend with 177.4 miles ridden over 10 hours and 10 minutes ... Thank you 3 day weekend.

I'm also looking forward to our team training camp in March, which should help even more. It was a great time last season and it should be a lot of fun and riding again. Many of my teammates are currently training for training camp :) ... It seems we/everybody else hits it pretty hard on the climbs and nobody wants to be last up.

Hopefully with the new year I'll be able to get back on track, drop the pounds and get my FTP back on track for the TT season. I need to hit a couple of road races again this season just to get my fitness up, but I'm not sure which, if any I'll actually ride in.

The first race of the season is just 5 weeks away ... if my training is still screwed up, I may choose not to race it, but that's fairly unlikely since it's a 12 mile ITT. I should be able to deal with 28 minutes (+/- 30 seconds to a minute) of pain.

Hopefully anybody that reads this blog is having a better winter/off season than I am at this point.

Stages Power meter and brake pads

I was finally able to complete my winter/commuter bike with the addition of a Stages Power meter. I picked it up through Upper Echelon Fitness through a team deal and so far, for the price, it's a great little power meter.

It was super easy to set up ... basically just pull the left side crank arm off, put the ANT+ numbers in your computer and you are ready to go. To zero the power meter out, just put the Garmin to Calibrate with the left crank arm pointing to the 6 o'clock position and that's all there is too it.

When comparing it to my Powertap, the numbers match up pretty well overall ... within 1% or so. With that in mind, other measuring areas match up pretty well ... TSS, FTP, IF, etc. Overall consistency has been good day to day as well.

The big question will be durability ... There are reports out there of the actual power meter falling off due to adhesive failure as well as a few reports of water getting in and causing electronic failure. The winters can be pretty harsh in the Pacific NW, so it will be interesting to see how well it holds up.

With that said, all reports point to good warranty service by Stages ... so if it does fail, getting it fixed should be easy.

I also wanted to post a follow up on my TRP Spyre brakes.

So far the brakes are great. There is no disc rubbing on the pads, they have good power, good modulation and great lever feel. In the wet, they continue to have good braking, though there is a noticeable drop off in power compared to the dry, but it's still way above rim brake power in the wet.

The one issue I've noticed is brake pad wear. The pads are almost worn down after about 600 miles of riding. Granted, I have a long downhill on my way to work that's pretty steep and requires hard braking down most of it, but the pads shouldn't wear out this quickly.

I ordered a new set today that should be here by the weekend and hopefully as the brakes get more use by more riders, they will address the pad wear issue. Either that or other pad manufactures (Kool Stop, etc.) will make better pads for the Spyres.

For reference, my Avid BB7 pads lasted approximately 2000 miles before wearing out.

Other than the pad wear issue ... the TRP Spyre brakes are a great alternative to BB7's and are actually a better brake overall in my opinion.

Udate FYI ... For those considering the TRP Spyre brakes, it appears that Shimano Deore disc brake pads will work with the Spyre brakes since they use the same backing, so Kool Stop D620 and D620S (if you want Sintered pads) will work as an alternative to the stock pads.

TRP Spyre review

Since seeing their release in magazines sometime last year I have been very interested in the dual caliper cable pull design. I rode all last winter on a set of Avid BB7's which are seen as the standard for road disc brakes at this point (though with hydraulic and new cable pull calipers coming out, that may change).

With this in mind, I picked up a set of TRP disc brake calipers and I've have had a chance to put around 400 miles on them and a couple of wet commutes to work.

The brakes themselves:

Overall, they appear to be a quality build. They are solid in design, look good and feel solid overall. The polished aluminum should hold up over time with just some easy cleaning, but I wonder how well the bearings on the pulley will hold up over the winter.

They are smaller and lighter than the BB7's with little to no caliper sticking out past the frame/fork ... with the BB7's there was always at least 1 cm of caliper sticking out from the frame/fork. Basically they are svelt and look good on the bike.

Installation:

This was both super easy and somewhat hard at the same time. With the Avids, you have the ability to move laterally with the set up to get the pads centered, but also the ability to tilt the caliper a little to make sure it's straight from the beginning.

With the TRP, they have a flat mounting surface that connects directly to the fork or extension on the chain stay. The caliper has plenty of room to move laterally to center the pads, but there is no ability to tilt the caliper. This may cause some problems with set up if your rear end is out of alignment. I had to mess with mine a little and it never set up perfectly to begin with as there was just a little brake rub initially.

With that said, after a ride or two, the pads wore down enough that the rotors are perfectly centered in the caliper and the wheel spins as smoothly as it would with rim brakes and there is no rotor rub even under hard acceleration or out of the saddle climbing.

Performance:

The first thing I noticed was a much better lever feel. The Avid's were always mushy feeling and under hard braking you could pull the levers (Tiagra 10 speed) all the way back to the bars. With the TRP's they feel like regular road brakes, levers. When set up with zero rotor rub they have minimal brake pull before engagement and at full braking are only about 1/2 - 3/4 of of the way to the bar. This is a huge improvement and that alone makes the change worth if for me.

The brakes work very well in the rain or dry. They have good power that is pretty equivalent to the BB7's in dry weather, however they feel a little weaker in the rain. Modulation is very good and one finger braking is all that's need in dry weather. Due to their slightly weaker performance in the rain, on very steep declines you may need two fingers for hard stopping (10% grades or steeper).

The main concern I have at this time with the brakes is pad wear. I've only had a couple of rain rides, but even with minimal braking needed (other than one long, steep, 1000 foot downhill with several hard stops) I have noticeable pad wear after each ride. Granted, with rim brakes I would have similar wear, but the disc pads are more expensive and look to need replacing after 600-1000 miles in the rain ... or one good, muddy Cyclocross race. I was able to get around 2000 miles on a set of BB7 pads (and still have a little pad left over).

Overall:

A quality product, the eliminates rotor rub, provides good but not great braking, looks good and is easy to set up.

One primary advantage to the TRP's over the BB7's if you are racing Cyclocross is that you can put a cable adjuster near the bars and adjust the brakes on the fly with even pad wear.

With the Avid brakes, you could put a barrel adjuster near the bars, but since only one pad moves, you have decreased braking as a race goes along because of the increased distance between one pad and the rotor.