Tuesday, May 15, 2007

I’ve written about how great the Reno Wheelmen races are before, and I’ll probably write about them again. Last Tuesday’s featured Reno’s hometown hero Bobby Julich (3rd place in the Tour de France 1998), who was home for a few weeks taking a break from his European race schedule. As we were taking warmup laps on the race course, I saw Bobby ride up on his Cervelo Soloist wearing his CSC team kit, and on my next lap, I saw him pinning a number on his jersey at the registration table. That’s him, 2nd from the left in the photo:

A few of us rode a lap or so with him during warmup, and talked about where he does his training rides in the area. He told us that because 1) he doesn’t like to drive his car to ride his bike and 2) he’s usually in town with his family, and only wants to be gone the minimum amount of time, he doesn’t ride anywhere outside of Reno. Amazing to think that one of the best riders in the world hasn’t experienced some of the best riding in Tahoe area.

The race itself was relatively uneventful. It was fun to watch the comfort with which Bobby rode through the peloton, and the ease with which he increased his speed. When there’s a need for a sudden increase in speed, most riders will shift down a few gears and stomp on the pedals. Bobby would instead ramp up his cadence on each gear before shifting down, minimizing the load on his legs; something I’m going to work on.

While I finished somewhere mid-pack, 30th or so, my big news is that I beat the UCI pro. With three laps to go, Bobby took the lead and poured on the speed. It’s always thrilling to go through corners at 30 mph with the group stretched way out in one big line. Just before the final turn, Bobby pulled off and let the local hammerheads battle it out for the win. Somehow I too snuck over the line before he did.

A jokester on the sidelines yelled to Bobby as he crossed the finish line at the back of the pack “Better luck next time Bobby!”

Seconds per 100 that is… The BlueSeventy PointZero3 name actually refers to the frictional coefficient of the swimskin, which is 0.03, compared to ~0.10 for something like a Speedo Fastskin, or 0.50 for human skin. But who really cares about all that? How does that number translate into a number we really care about, namely how fast we go in the pool.

In order to try to answer this question, which I’d heard rumored was as much as five seconds per 100, I headed off the pool. The suit, which works in two ways - reducing the friction over your body AND increasing your buoyancy slightly - is very comfortable, and swimming in it requires no changes to your stroke, unlike swimming in a wetsuit, where you really should change your stroke a bit to take maximal advantage of the suit. In the PZ3, you just swim, and, *hopefully*, go faster.

So I wanted to test a few things - maximal speed, cruising speed, and then consistency over a steady interval set. Maximal speed is a bit flaky, since warm-up, turn-quality, etc. plays such a large role. But I can pretty consistently bang out 31 second 100’s when swimming fast. In the PZ3? 29.5 at what I perceived to be the same exertion level. So far, so good. I also did a cruising 200 just to see how it did for steady, which I can normally nail at 2:35-2:40, and I was 2:28. Again, so far, so good.

But this was all one-off stuff. How about a workout where consistency is key? So I had a good set - 30 x 100 as 10×100 swim on 1:30, 10×100 pull-buoy only on 1:25, 10×100 pull paddles on 1:20. The swim 100’s were really good, and I was consistently 2-3 seconds faster than when I had done the workout the week before. The pulling sets were harder to compare since the pull buoy slipped down so easily on the smooth skin of the suit, so I would call those basically useless for comparison.
So, after my basically unscientific study, I have concluded that I like this swim skin an awful lot. Thanks guys… To give a reference point about this suit, a good wetsuit will save you 8-10 seconds per 100, so to have just a swim skin save you 2-3 seconds is pretty darn fast. As with all these sort of things, I’ll offer the disclaimer “your mileage may vary.” Or rather, I should say “your timeage may vary.” Of course, timeage isn’t a word, but never mind…

RIP Jon “Blazeman” Blais August 30, 1971 - May 27, 2007
He Leaves The World A Better Place Because He Was A Part Of It…
(posted on http://www.alswarriorpoet.com/)

Emerson wrote, “To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.  This is to have succeeded!”  

Thank you, Blazeman, for your enduring inspiration to myself and numerous others.

Well, it sounds funnier if you imagine some guy from NYC saying it, phonetically, “Wat’s a wat?” Anyway… I digress. The point is, what exactly is “a watt”? Technically speaking, it is a unit of power. Depending on how strict you are in terms of units, it is THE unit of power. Sorry America, horsepower is only for cars… It is named in honor of scientist James Watt, and it is equivalent to one joule/second, or the power required to generate one joule of energy every second. For those who don’t like joules, it is one kg*meter/second^3 (a joule is one kg*m/s^2), which is to say it is the power required to accelerate a one kg object one m/s^2 every second. Which is to say you need to increase an objects speed one meter/second every second every second. Make sense? Good…

Now that we have all that out of the way, let’s discuss what a watt really means. For you, as a triathlete, it is relevant to your cycling. It is relevant to swimming and running too, but in a more abstract way, since you can’t measure it directly. Well, you can’t measure it outside a lab. Fortunately, on the bike, you can measure it directly, and you can measure it with something that comes with you on every ride. There are three basic systems for measuring power out there: the SRM (the first real on-bike powermeter), the PowerTap, and the Ergomo. By all accounts, the SRM and PowerTap are the best, with the Ergomo receiving mixed reviews, usually dependent, it seems, on who installed it. All three systems measure the same thing, our friend the WATT. If you are considering a powermeter that is not one of the above three, STOP. I won’t name names, but you don’t want it.

Now, forgetting all that mumbo jumbo in the first paragraph, a watt is the power you, as a cyclist to overcome three things - air resistance, rolling resistance, and gravity. That’s it. Those are the only things slowing you down. Sure, it might be hot (or cold) or humid (or dry) or raining (or snowing). But none of that matters to the watt. Power is the same regardless of these things. Which makes power the only way to really gauge power on the bike.

BUT, and this is a big but (as opposed to butt, like wat and watt, only wat is not a word), you can’t forget about the other stuff, since that stuff does affect, to some extent, how many watts it takes your body to apply X watts to the pedals. They are not the same, which is why you get hot and sweaty when you exercise. But, generally speaking, a watt is a watt is a watt. And this means if you suddenly see someone flying away up a hill during a race, it is often a matter of seconds (if you are pacing with power) before you reel him back in because he doubled his power output to do so, and now his legs are toast. Of course, he doesn’t know this, because he doesn’t have a powermeter, so he is attacking the climb “old skool.” Which is fine, because then seconds later I pass him “new skool” style - with steady power.

Watts are also good because all those roads you thought were slightly uphill (or downhill) or slightly into a headwind (or tailwind) can be confirmed as such. Speed ceases to be relevant (not that it ever really was), and power is your new guide. It’s like the Force, only since power is ~force^3, we shoudl really call it THE POWER, since it is that much more hardcore than “the force.” For reference, if you want to be a super geek, which we know triathletes do, the unit of force is the Newton. So if you have buddies with Newton shoes, you can say your powermeter is tres cooler, even though tres is three times and we are talking cubed. But so watt? I mean, so what?

Alright, aside from the fact that you may be thinking I am crazy, how does this really affect you. The simple answer, it means you should get a powermeter. Specifically, one of the three I mentioned. Team CSC uses the SRM. Team Phonak used the Powertap. So either one is good enough to train to win a Grand Tour. Bjorn Andersson uses the Ergomo, so it’s good enough to set a multitude of fastest bike splits in triathlon.

Once you have said powermeter, you will begin training WITH power. This means that you will go out and ride and see what your power is. After you have done this for a while, you will then be able to start training BY power. And this is where you get real gains. Because you can set minimum effort levels for your workouts (and occassionally maximums for those rare recovery rides). So suddenly, you can be assured of a base level of quality on your long rides. And you can also make sure you don’t coast that road that really is slightly downhill and that you don’t toast your legs on that road that is slightly (or even more than slightly) uphill. And once you know how to train by power, you can also choose to race by power, which is the best way to ensure that you run well off the bike. Since that guy that drilled the uphill X seconds before you passed him, he probably isn’t going to run so well either courtesy of said toasted legs.

If you have ever said this (and most triathletes have), “I felt so good on the bike, but then I just died on the run,” the pacing by power is going to help you.

So what is a watt, really? It is the thing that is going to help you take your training (and racing) to the next level…

So while I write up my belated Florida 70.3 race report a couple of things come to mind…

First thing: I’m not a Starbucks junky, but I do go there occasionally as I find some of their drinks quite tasty.  As I was wasting time in the Atlanta airport on Friday I noticed a new drink which sounded yummy, the Orange Mocha.  So while I was at Harris Teeter (grocery store) yesterday I decided to treat myself.  Let me say, it was marvelous.  I didnt get to see them make it but I’m pretty sure its just their regular Mocha with some orange zest in it.  Anyway, very good stuff.  The orange + chocolate flavor worked wonderfully.

Second thought: Watching Apollo 13 after interviewing for a job at NASA really makes you want to take the job.  Anyone have any comments about Huntsville?