You should watch this

Jaime Oliver's TED Prize wish:

My wish is for you to help a strong sustainable movement to educate every child about food, to inspire families to cook again, and to empower people everywhere to fight obesity.

Listen to him. It's important for everyone.

Heart Rate Zone / LTHR Zone Worksheet

Well I've been messing around with heart rate training zones. For years and years I used a basic zone setup (ie 50-60% of heart rate reserve = Zone1, 60-70% = Zone2, etc). It worked great. Easy to set up, and I just tried to stay away from Zone3 (70-80%) as it leads to faster fatigue, with low gains.

Well as I read books like The Cyclist's Training Bible and The Time Crunched Cyclist, it makes more sense to move away from the basic zone structure to one close to lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) based zones. Now actually getting tested for the lactate threshold point is not something everybody has access to. But researchers have found different ways of estimating lactate threshold. Mostly (for cyclists) by way of doing a time trial.

So if you follow this link to the google doc of the worksheet, on the first page you can calculate basic heart rate zones using the age adjusted method (220 minus your age) or your actual maximum heart rate recorded. Just enter the numbers where it asks and it'll do the rest.

Also on the first page is what I've called the Aerobic Exercise Zones. I'm not sure where I got it from or what ever, maybe it's worth something, maybe not. I don't think I ever used it for anything.

On the second page (Named LTHR Calculator) do the event you want.Or maybe you did a race last year that fits one of the listed events.You can use that or those. Easiest to do at home indoors during winter on a trainer is the 2x 8 minute time trial. Make sure you warm up well before, then go all out for 8 minutes. Recover and easy spin for about 10 minutes, then go all out again. Use the higher of the two values. I did a time trial that lasted about an hour, so I used that score. Whatever you use, enter in the Avg HR column, and the sheet will figure out your approximate LTHR.

If you've done more then one type of event you can enter as many as you've done and see how similar the values are. If they are pretty close use the highest value to figure out the zones. However if some seem really different then the rest, throw those out.

Then just set your heart rate monitor to these zones. Now most monitors, or at least the Edge 305 that I have only let you have 5 zones programmed into it. This presents a problem for the LTHR zones because there are 7. I have 2 workarounds.


1- Combine Sub with Super Threshold into one threshold zone, and combine Aerobic with Anerobic Capicity zones and you're set.

2- Set the five from Aerobic to Aerobic Capicity zones, anything below Aerobic is Recovery and anything above Aerobic Capicity is Anerobic Capicity.

Make sense? If not too bad. I'm no coach or doctor. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I just know what (sorta) works for me. And I just recently switched from the basic heart rate zone over to LTHR zones. But I'm still tweaking it the value I use for LTHR to work a bit better for my perceived exertion.

The carrot rides a fixedgear bike

I don't care for match-dot-com, or most advertising, but his cartoon by FriendsWithYou is very well done. And the carrot must be a fixedgear hipster as he has a white 3Rensho leaning up against his wall by the window. Watch for it.

"Better Together" for Match.com from FriendsWithYou on Vimeo.
Fun!

Gravel Worlds?

Not sure how I could pull this off, but this jersey makes me want to enter.

Gravel Worlds Champion Jersey

If you're interested in racing for this fine jersey, visit this site for instructions on where to send a postcard.

NYC Critical Mass needs a parade permit.

Can you say stupid? Read this article (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/judge-rules-against-cyclists/?partner=rss&emc=rss). Ok, if you don't want to here's the funny quote:

After the courts said the rules were too vague, the Police Department then sought to change rules, arguing that smaller groups of cyclists were safer and disrupted less traffic.

Hmmmm.... Well by that reasoning, smaller groups of cars are even safer. What constitutes a group? Because they are near each other? Never been there but isn't NYC almost bumper to bumper cars most of the time, shouldn't someone have to apply for a parade permit for all those cars on the road at the same time? Part of the point of critical mass is to make the statement that enough riders on the road at the same time is traffic. So how can traffic disrupt itself?

I don't always agree with individuals who participate in CM events, though I don't have anything against CM itself. I think it's crazy to have to apply for a parade permit to loosely gather and ride together. I don't care how much auto traffic it disrupts. (Unless I happen to be driving in that traffic.) ;-)

A letter to Charge Bikes

So I figure I need a more awesome bike to compete more awesomely in the Almanzo 100. Charge Bikes is prototyping a CX rig that I think would be just awesome enough for me to pilot in this event. So I wrote them a letter. It's as follows.

-----------------------------------


Hi,

I like bikes. And I like to race bikes. So I'm looking for hand outs. But before you toss this email away, please know that I am awesome. I'm sure you are now wondering just how awesome I am. Well wonder no more. Just think of the most awesome thing you know of, and then imagine that thing going fast and doing wheelies. That would only be about half as awesome as me.

Now you are wondering what someone as awesome as I am is capable of. I created the George Forman grill and let him take the credit so his kids can eat. A number of years ago I raced mountain bikes in the tropical wonderland known as Oahu, Hawaii. That is being awesome in itself, but I restrained from crushing the competition by consistently placing in the top 5 in the expert division. From there I switched to road racing and saved Lance Armstrong’s career by remaining an amateur cat-3 racer, and again took pity on the local competition by holding back during most races.

I then wrote the script for the original Star Wars. It was really only supposed to be a one-off movie. But after I let Lucas have it, he decided to add 2 more after, and then 3 more before in the story line.

Now I live in Rochester, Minnesota, anonymously as a web production artist for a world renowned medical institution. Kind of like how Superman works at the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, except I'm real. And much more awesome.

The other day, I figured out the meaning of life, but I realize that if I told anyone the worlds economy would crash because everyone would stop being productive. I also know all the secrets in LOST. All I can tell you is that Ben is misunderstood.

So right now in the Midwest, there's huge growth in free (as in $0. entry fee) gravel road races. Examples of such are the Almanzo 100 (with over 400 riders registered), Trans Iowa, Dirty Benjamin, The Heck of the North, and others. In fact a number of these races have banded together and have an overall series. Pretty cool huh?

Being as awesome as I am, I competed in the Almanzo 100 the past 2 years on a fixed gear rig. Mainly so that I wouldn't devastate everyone with my awesomeness by winning the overall title. Now I'm at a point where I would like to show the world a little more of my awesomeness.

To do this I need a hand out. This is where an awesome bike company like Charge comes in. See as awesome as I am, I do not have a proper machine to do as awesome as I am capable of. The rig I used the last two years is an old late early 90's Specialized Allez, road bike conversion. It is almost awesome enough, except I need wider tires and possibly some gears to truly be supreme awesome.

I saw your Tweet about the prototype of the Freezer and figured that it is truly an awesome machine. So how about letting me ride one, at least for the Almanzo 100 (where more then 400 losing potential customers) will be witness to complete awesomeness of our combination. It'll be like when Prince Adam of Eternia, raises his power sword, yelling "By the power of Grayskull, I HAVE THE POWER!" and becomes He Man. Except even more awesome, and without the stupid Cringer/Battle Cat cramping my style.

In addition to Almanzo, I may unleash my awesomeness at some other races in the series, as well as a number of un-sanctioned grass roots CX races in the fall. Of course I don't want to completely dominate and destroy other riders, so I will restrain from winning everything. But I will display the awesomeness of Charge bikes in a completely awesome way.

So be awesome and let me ride one of your bikes.

Your awesome pal,
Gun

-----------------------------------

So I don't know, I figure it's worth a shot. Nothing like telling the truth right?

Can you have a 40 hour work week and be an athlete?

I started this post as a comment to this post by another Rochester blogging cyclist. In his post he recount how some of his coworkers claimed that it was impossible to train for an Ironman triathlon and work a 40 hour week.

I stupidly (but pretty quietly) opened my mouth and said "yes you can", only to be totally shot down... "you don't know, you don't have to swim first". At first I was angry at the slight, but then it shifted to just angry... Angry that 'our' culture has become one where anything athletic is impossible. Everything is possible! 

What does it take to make others believe? How much would it improve their lives (and the world) if they just realized they can do whatever they f---king want to if they just do it?

The best thing you can do for people like that is to lead by example. Just keep doing what your doing, and it may (hopefully-eventually) open their eyes to the possibilities of what they can accomplish.

It's like bike commuting, maybe just by doing it day in and day out, others will realize that they can do it.

As for the time, most people don't realize the amount of time they really have. It's all about priorities. Training vs playing video games? Training vs watching TV? Enjoy your kids vs going for a swim. I'm not saying ones right or wrong, because I think I watch too much TV myself. You figure if I watch 2 hrs of TV a night, that's 14 hours of week I've prioritized above training or spending directly with my kids or spouse. I say directly because they are usually in the room watching TV with me. But we're doing a passive activity, vs playing a game, studying  or interacting together.

I'm not saying it's easy to be an athlete with a family and full time job. But it is possible. In fact most Ironman athletes do just that. Many professional mountain bikers (and US based road racers too) work full time jobs to supplement their 'career' as a bike racer.

Franco Ballerini

It saddened me to hear that Franco Ballerini died after a crash racing rally cars yesterday (today?).

I remember reading about his race with, and loss to Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle in the 1993 Paris-Roubaix, after some dramatic moments under pretty bad conditions. He also led the Italian national team as manager, to a number of world championship wins. He was only 45 (only 5 years older then myself) and leaves behind a wife and 2 children.

Ultralight bits for your bike?

5lbs... 2 thousand 2 hundred and something something grams. That's a lot of weight in bike stuff. I mean we pay a lot of money to lose just a hundred or so grams off a part. Take a look at the price difference from stainless steel Speedplay pedals to the Ti spindle versions. And people have no problem with paying that.

But here's the thing. Many of us, myself included, could stand to loose 5lbs off our own bodies, without sacraficing power or endurance, and gain a larger benefit then going to lightweight parts.

So, I'm looking to shed some pounds prior to the spring season. How about you?

Color Palette

Me likey this one:

http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/36223/Etruscan_alley

Nice?

Training is hard...

and it seems like I'm hungry all the time. Seriously, today was day one of "real" training again after I wasn't able to ride the rollers for three weeks.

And now I feel like laying around, eating and watching TV. And this is day one! With almost no intensity. I mean an hour on the rollers, and an hour at the gym isn't really that much. I didn't increase the weights this week, and the roller session is gonna be light for a couple of days.

I felt more energized at work today, but now I'm wiped. Maybe I'll go to bed early so I can rise early and do it again tomorrow.

Gotta love Craigslist

It reads:

mongoose bike - $80100 (Spring valley MN)

its white fast new only road twice need money to pay parents back for everything this year 

I don't know, 80 grand is a lot, even for a mongoose.

Rollers working again.

So when I got home from work, Mr. UPS Man left something at the door.

End caps for my rollers. And guess what. Fits perfectly. I only needed the non-belt side, so I only installed that one, saving the other, for if a belt side breaks.

So considering I can wake up, I'll be hitting the rollers on the fixed gear, spinning the 42x17 for about an hour. Intensity shouldn't be too high, although I'll be trying to average the cadence at about 100.

Almanzo 100 has over 400 entries

From the Facebook Fan page comes this note:

Registration has closed. I will be putting the final roster up on the blog in a couple of days. With over 400 entrants, it's going take me some time to duoble and triple check everything. More knews at eleven.

Over four hundred people are committed to riding 100 miles on gravel in Southeast Minnesota. Nice!

I'm just sittin', waitin', wishin'...

to be able to get back to ridin'. I told you about how I thought I'd have the parts for my rollers in soon, well I made the bonehead mistake of not really looking at the current date, and expected arrival date well enough. Seems like I won't get them till the middle of this week. Err...

On another topic, I'm trying out a couple of apps to track calorie intake. These apps usually also have a website that you can do much of the same stuff to enter the food you eat, to track nutrition. The one thing I'm surprised about (though I shouldn't be) is how much I actually overeat. I'm sure this is a big reason why I tend to add weight in the winter. Don't get me wrong, I'm not surprised at that I'm doing it, I'm surprised at how quickly the quantity adds up.

The apps I'm trying are DailyBurn, MyFitnessPal, and MyNetDiary. So far I think I'll go with DailyBurn or MyNetDiary. I actually like MyFitnessPal, but it has to be online to work. Not always convenient. So the other two let you log offline, and sync later. All also have exercise trackers, but I already use FitnessLogApp to track gym workouts, and a Garmin Edge 305+HR/Cadence and SportTracks to track cycling workouts, so I don't know how much use that will get. If you're using any of these apps, or even other good ones, leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Anyway, I'm planning strength training for the next 5 days. Starting mid tempo roller sessions on Thursday for an hour a day. And then backing off the strength a little while ramping up intensity on the rollers (maybe even a couple 2 a days) to get my CTL/ATL up to where I wanted to be at.