Weight Frustrations

So today I got my body composition analyzed by the cool kids over in the physiology lab and wow do I feel like a fatty. The measurement device was the bod pod, basically it's a combination of fancy formulas, air displacement, lung volume, weight, and height. The testing protocol requires subjects to abstain from eating and exercise for 2 hours prior to the testing protocol. The devices is considered to have a standard deviation of approximately 2% body fat, which is about half what calipers provide, and a little greater then hydrostatic weighing.

On to the numbers:

• Height 6' 2" – No surprise here..
• At 10:45 AM I weighted in at 175.5 lbs ( last meal/fluid was dinner the night before)
• Calculated Total Lean Weight – 147.1 lbs - 83.8%
• Calculated Fat Weight - 28.4 lbs - 16.2%

One standard deviation for the measurement device is 2% body fat so with a 68% confidence my true % body fat falls some where between 14.2% and 18.2%. Aka I'm a fatty.

In all seriousness I've been feeling good about my power and weight, but, after this I'm not so sure. Ideally I'd like my body fat to be somewhere between 12 and 10%. I would feel much better if my bod pod results had come back 4% lower.

Training Update and Misc Thoughts..

Too many things to do today.
- Lifted Tuesday.
- Rollers last night 1 hr. Right now I feel like a sloth.
- Plan on doing another hour on the rollers today, with exam's that’s unfortunately all I have time for.

- Oh well. Only 2 weeks till a Spring Break, at this point it can't come fast enough. I'm debating on going down to CA for some training and good weather. Anyone out there have any multiday 100+ mile day route suggestion's that would bounce between motels?

- In the good news department! Outlined my program of study yesterday with my masters advisor and if everything goes perfect I'll graduate with my masters at the end of next academic year! My last quarter is designed to be as light as possible. But we will have to see how this complicates RAAM. Right now my last quarter consists of one real class finishing my master’s thesis and two other token courses.

Ideally if all the cycling camps keep there present dates and if RAAM’s a reality next year for me, I really want to make it out to another AZ PAC tour, the Brevet PAC, and at least one of the RAO camps.

Life’s always complicated, but that’s ok cause,

It’s Tartan Time!

Photo Blog: Jack Frost TT

(click on the photo to enlarge)

Photo courtesy of Alex Johnson
Pacific Sports Photography

Alsea and Back - Sun 3/12/2006

Woke up feeling sorta tired today, feeling like I'm bordering on overtraining, I strongly debated taking the day off. But by 2:00 PM the sun streaming in was just too much and soon the spandex was on and I was out the door. The plan today was simple out and back to Alsea, nothing too long, just lots of climbing. Heading up HWY 34 the mid week snow was still clearly visible on the sides of the road, but the road surface was thankfully clear. Up over to Alsea and back, then it was back in via Decker Road on the OSU TT course. Heading back in I ran into Mark Newsom, of RAO Total Carnage fame, and we road back in together ultra shop. Today I didn't feel as good as the previous day and I think the next week will be a little mellower ala recovery week.

Long over due training update

Last week, 3/4/2006 – Didn’t get out till late in the afternoon ended up doing the Decker Loop, ~1.5 hrs. Then later in the evening jumped on the rollers and power cranks putting in another 2 hrs while watching a movie.

3/5/2006 – Felt like I wanted to get some serious miles in, got out on the road a little after 10 AM, took Kings Valley down to Dallas, then took HWY 22 to Salem, from Salem I went out to Silverton, then stopped off at my parents place to refill the water bottles before riding back to Corvallis. Riding Time 7-8 hrs, 131.58 miles. On getting back I grabbed a pizza and passed out.

3/6/2006 – Sunny Chilly afternoon, road out to Marry’s Peak, got 2 miles from the summit before hitting impassible snow. Turned around and started down. As I decended Marry’s the weather changed, the wind kicked up and it began to snow. The decent was utterly miserable. Returned back to Corvallis via the Decker loop. Ride time 3 - 4 hrs.

3/7/2006 – Took a day off, and just lifted.

3/8/2006 – Recovery day

3/9/2006 – Got on the rollers and power cranks in the evening for another 2 hr stint.

3/10/2006 – Didn’t get back from the lab till late, after dinner even later, got on the rollers and power cranks for 1.5 hrs.

3/11/2006 – Didn’t get out till a little after noon, went out and back to Dallas on the kings valley loop. Ride Time 4.5 hrs, mileage just a tad over 80. On getting back, downed a recovery smoothie, passed out, woke up 2.5 hrs later and ate a late dinner. I’m a tad frustrated with my fitness as is. I keep thinking about last June when I had un-ending endurance. Oh well, thank goodness the big events are all a little later this year.

First TT of the Season: The Jack Frost 20KM

The Plan
Going into my races I like to have a plan. The Jack Frost plan was simple, to not take the TT to seriously. While it’s nice to win races there just wasn't time in the training schedule to do anything special for the Jack Frost TT. So Friday was a 3 hr training ride, then Saturday UO/OSU team ride was as long as it was intense, and then Sunday was going to be the first TT of the season, tapering is for wimps. In some ways I figured all the pre-TT riding, and total lack of any thought of a taper was good it would better reflect the nth day of a stage race or nth pull of a team ultra.

The Prep
My training Saturday, day before the TT, was to do the OSU/UO team ride. The team ride was super fun, but also super intense. I made a extra effort to eat all day long to attempt to keep the glycogen topped off. Then before driving to my parents place in the evening for dinner I had a Hammer Pro Whey recovery smoothie, then dinner a few hours later and final TT prep. I was really worried I'd spent too much time anaerobic so after dinner I spent much of the remaining evening lying on the rug with the Compex buzzing away on the legs.

Race Day
Normally I don't like to eat much before a TT. The general plan is to eat a full dinner the night before then eat a minimal breakfast consisting of mostly liquids the morning of the TT. Well, this plan works great until your dad wakes up before you do and makes a special breakfast especially for you. Can't exactly say no that can you. So with thoughts in my head that, well, I'm not exactly going for a win, I ate two poached egg's, one English Muffin, a yogurt, and drank a glass of OJ before hitting the road to drive north with four hours to go. Driving north I stopped off part way for a coffee too.

Arriving at the Race
The Jack Frost race course was just over the boarder in Vancouver, WA. Pulling into the staging grounds I was blown away. There were so, so, many people. I like to park as close to the start as it makes it relatively easy to make last minute adjustments, driving in the closest spot I could find was way, way back in the back of the lot buy the guy with the banjo. Still no worries, today’s plan is to just get the feet wet TTing on the new bike. Once out, it was time to get ready. On went the sport kilt, pants off, warming gel on, shorts on, Heart Rate Monitor, TT Top, Rudy Project Aero helmet, socks, knee warmers, shoes, shoe covers, helmet, glasses, a friendly competitor to pin my number on, bike off the top, and on the road ready to go..

Riding out I stopped by the starting gate to double check my start time,1hr 30 minutes till party time. Out on the road behind the starting gate, I did a few quick starting/cruising efforts. Everything felt good, the tire pressure seemed right. Then it was back in to find a friendly trainer to sit on. Riding back in, I kept running into people I knew, Jay, Dave, Fish, etc.. It was quite cool and I ended up doing my final warm-up on a friend’s trainer right next to the official "Head Hunters" van, talking RAO shop. The time flew by and soon I had to go. With 10 minutes left I rolled up to the starting line for some stretching.

Into the Starting Gate
With my first carrot out, I rolled into the starting gate, one of the starters held my bike. I clipped in. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! For the first 100 feet, I was out of the aero bars, and just hammered and then slid down into the aero bars and just started to initiate cruising speed.

Party Time
My starting game plan was simple. Heart rate lags power, especially at the start so without a power meter the best way to gauge efforts is with estimated speedometer speeds. Well that’s all good if your bike computers functioning, but mine had decided to quit on me some where between my warm up and the starting gate. Maybe the receiver had moved. Either way, now was definitely not the time to try and fix it. With out the computer I was left to rely solely on my polar heart rate monitor for any feedback. My heart rate settled into ~177 BMP, a little on the low end. The first corner came went, and I was soon catching my first carrot. Then the next, and the next, eventually I lost count of how many I passed.

The Results
The finish sorta snuck up on me. Crossing the finish line I felt good, I didn't know how fast, I'd gone, but I felt like I'd ridden it well, and the new Co-Motion TT bike had been nothing short of phenomenal. No bottom bracket flex period. Rolling back to the car, I stopped to talk with the Sharks from RAO and then it was time to return home..

Well, I must admit I was anxious to see the results from the TT. The bike had felt great, I'd felt good, and I thought I had to be in the top 10. Well it turns out I logged a personal TT PR. Doing 20KM in 27 min 41.12sec and just snagging first place in the cat 4/5's by a little over half a second, beating all the cat 3's, and placing 16^th over all.

I have to admit, that I have to contribute much of my "new" performance to the TT bike Co-Motion built for me, it raised my average speed 2 MPH! I guess the guy who said "It's Not About the Bike", never TTed on a Co-Motion..

Keeping it Real
Ok so I did great, nuff said. But other people also logged phenomenal times to, Jeff Teder, AKA the 4 man RAO shark captain road to commanding 3rd in the 4/5's. Lito & Bill Nicolai from Head Hunter fame both posted impressive times too. Its a few years out, but can you say Father & Son RAO redux!! Anyway, in all seriousness Terri & George you might need to set up the camera for this years RAO cause I think it might be just that tight..

View the full Results

It's Tartan Time

OSU/OU - Team Ride

Two weeks or so ago (2/25/2006) UO trucked up here for a good ole fashion meet the team ride. The plan for the day had been to rendezvous at the Bean, Corvallis, and then ride the OSU road course. Normally we depart around 10, but noon had been settled upon as it would make the duck migration a little more relaxed. Well, the beavers were all at the bean at noon, but the ducks they were over an hour late! Was it the migration, or are they just lazy, I don’t know but come race day we won’t be waiting.

Team UO, while punctuality might not be a strong suit was impressive in size and support. Team UO arrived fully decked out in their new race kits looking very impressive, the OSU kits are still in the process of production. I'd thought the OSU team was fairly strong in size but compared to the quacks we are tiny. UO team has a full woman’s team and men's A, B, and C squad. In addition to riders, UO arrived with support! Yes support, a wheel wagon driven by the official UO race mom.

With the late departure, the ride plans were modified, instead of doing 3+ laps of the Decker loop race course the plan was changed, 2-laps. The plan was to chill out to Decker, once at Decker it would be a hammer fest up the climb then the group would re-group at the summit and rinse lather and repeat. For me, the intensity of the ride out to the base of Decker was chill to light tempo, then the assault up the climb left me gasping as the real climbers spun their cranks. Once the re-grouped at the summit the tune for the second lap was much the same as the first. Not wanting to completely shatter my legs, I fell off the lead groups while spinning up the climb on lap two. At the top and we again re-grouped and then the respective teams split up. Some of the UO riders dropped down to repeat the climb again, the rest of us and the majority of the UO team just turned around to head back in.

Descending back down Decker, I decided to open the legs up a bit. As our resident team beef cake, 6'2" 177 lbs, I lead the decent. Flying down Decker we caught, passed, and shelled the returning UO riders, before dropping our pace to a more reasonable rate. Once back the plan was for the OSU A-Team, Murdock, BA, and Face, to switch into TT gear and regroup at the cycling pad. In TT gear on TT bikes we road out for what will hopefully be the first of many team TT practices. Team TT's are tricky and very different from individual TTs. The speed and intensity of team TT’s can be higher due to drafing, but drafting also adds a whole host of complications. Our initial pass at the course was very promising but also indicated there is work to be done here too. So much training so little time.

Once back in for the day, I downed a Hammer Pro Whey recovery smoothie, drove up to my parents place for dinner and final preparation for the following days adventure the Jack Frost-TT.

Overall Day Rating: Hard
Intenisty: High
Road dace training length: Medium
Ultra Distance training length: Low

Coming Attractions:
- Jack Frost TT
- Training Update