Late this afternoon I headed out for a climb up Squaw Peak with the plan of doing some interval training during the climb.  It is a bit under 4 miles with little climbing up the Provo River Trail, then part on the Highway, to reach to road up Squaw Peak.  From there it is nearly a 1,800 feet climb over 4.2 miles.  With a rather constant grade, it is a great place to do some hill intervals.  I decided to ride as hard as I could while climbing 400 feet, then do a recovery for 200 more feet of climbing.  I would be able to repeat this for a total our three intervals before reaching the summit.

For a year now I have been on a beta-blocker for blood pressure.  It has been like a year in cycling prison because this stuff really lowers your heart rate, really slowing you down.  I was also taking another medication in addition, and had to cut both doses down to keep from going too low on my blood pressure.  During my 4 month follow-up visit to the Cardiologist last week, she decided to take me off one of the medications and offered a chance to decide.  That was an easy decision, so I finally stopped taking the beta blocker.

One of the reasons why I was originally put on the beta blocker was that my blood pressure went very high during a stress test.  Everyone’s blood pressure rises during a stress test, but mine went much higher than usual.  So after stopping the beta blocker I wanted to get some blood pressure readings during intense climbing so I took a wrist blood pressure monitor with me.

Here is the data from the average of the hill repeats I have done.   On my latest workout I wanted to get my blood pressure, so I had to come to a stop and stand on the ground, otherwise I would get an error on the blood pressure monitor.  I was able to get stopped rather quickly at the end of the interval.  The reading should be fairly indicative because you can see the heart rate on the blood pressure monitor was close to my my maximum heart rate during the interval.  It has been along time since I was able to take my heart rate up above 170 bpm.  I was happy that the blood pressure readings were so reasonable during these intervals.  I pulled out my data from 3 years ago when I did a similar hill interval workouts up Squaw Peak and Thomas Grade.  You can see my climbing speed declined since then, even though I was pushing my heart rate higher.  However in 2008 I was in top form and was training for both the Everest Challenge and the Furnace Creek 508.

This shows graphically the vertical climbing speed (VAM) for each of the hill repeats I have done.  The vertical climbing speed is measured in meters per hour.  It will change depending on the grade and typically for every one percent increase in average gradient increases VAM by 50.  Since Thomas Grade and Squaw Peak average grade is within 1%, they can be compared directly.  Improvements would show an increasing VAM and a decreasing average heart rate.  My data shows the opposite.

The photo shows the intervals up along Squaw Peak.

Categories: Training Log
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Although we are on our third visit to our Utah home this year, today was only the 2nd time we were able to ride with the Utah  Velo Club.  The prior two visits were geared around something other than the weather so we did not do much biking.  But today it was going to be sunny and looked like a great day for a bike ride.   The Utah Velo club rides are fast so we decided to take the tandem.  We have not been on the tandem much in the past year so we took it out for a 15 mile spin yesterday, and today we met the club ride at 8:00 am.  We finished the 55 mile ride before noon, because we were averaging 17.1 mph.  It has been awhile since we biked so fast.

The route headed out to Springville then up Hobble Creek Canyon.  Upon return home, I got on my single bike and biked up South Fork with a couple of the guys on the Utah Velo ride for a total of 80 miles.  It was great weather, a fun route, and a fast pace.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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One of the advantages of the weather where we live in is the ability to travel a short distance and get to a different climate.  When it is hot in the valley, in less than 20 miles we can be cooler near the coast and when it is a colder day, that is a good time to bike in the valley.  When you restrict your cycling to biking only with a bike club like ACTC you lose all that advantage because the rides are schedule weeks in advance, long before the weather is predictable.  That is why I prefer to bike where my heart takes me, sometimes with a bike club, most often with just Anne, sometimes with my other cycling friends, and at times by myself.

Today could have been on of those days when the ACTC ride was well matched for the heat wave we were having because it much of it was near the coast, going over to Pescadero.  It would have been a 67 mile ride with a lot of climbing that I was planning to join.  Something came up and it looked like we had a conflict so this morning Anne and I got up and ran, all that we thought we had time for.  It was only late in the morning that the conflict didn’t materialize, too late to join the club ride.  Anne does not like biking in the heat and it was now nearing triple digits.  What to do?

I made a check with some friends but they thought it was too hot to ride.  Around 2 pm, I finally could not resit the desire to get on the bike so I headed out from home, not sure where to go.  Wow, was it warm.  The tree lined road of Redwood Retreat beckoned me so after a short climb over Mantelli I made my way over there.  Nearing  the end of Redwood Retreat the thought came to me that I could ride over closer to the coast by going up Mt. Madona road, which intersects near the end of Redwood Retreat.  This road is a steep climb and mostly paved, but there is a 1.2 mile section at the top that is dirt.

When I reached the intersection, I noticed a sign that said Mt Madona road was closed.  I could see that it was open to residents.  Hum, I thought.  I am a resident of Gilroy and a cyclist too boot so I figure it was okay to bike up the road.

Leaving the shade, I headed up Mt. Madona.  The asphalt was really radiating heat now.  The heat is a bit easier to deal with when you are biking at a good clip on a flat road and getting that wind in your face. But when when you start to climb a steep hill, you not only are working hard but you have no wind to cool you off.  I kept going knowing that nearer the top there would be shade.

Part way up the hill I saw the reason why the road was closed.  The asphalt was caving in.

I finally made it to the dirt section, which is always tricky.  The grade is too steep to stand because if you do, you will lose traction and your rear wheel will slip, same as when riding a mountain bike while climbing.  But unlike my mountain bike, I do not have as low of gearing on my road bike. So it required powering up the hill while sitting and keeping the speed up enough to not need to stop as you bike along the bumps in the dirt road.  I had just changed to a new saddle on my bike and I guess I had not tightened things enough because when going through one of the bumps, I came down on my seat which cocked back considerable, with the nose pointing up.  I could not stop here because it was too steep to get going again in the dirt, so I had to just deal with it until I reached a less steep section where I readjusted the seat.  I finally made it to the top at the intersection with Pole Line, at 2,000 feet elevation.

I could already feel it was a cooler so I headed down the other side, where Mt. Madona road is all paved, but quite steep.  From there I took Hazel Dell over to Corralitos.   Whereas the temperature on my GPS was reading 108 early in the valley, it was now down to 78 and it was a lovely ride up the gentle climb over Hazel Dell.  When I reached Corralitos market, I say Jeff and Mike who were biking to Mt Madona Park to meet their wives for camping for the weekend.

Unlike some others who plan their route well in advanced, I had not quite decided the entire route.  I had thought of going up Eureka Canyon, but when I started to add up the miles to get back home that way it would be a 80 miles ride, a bit much in the heat, with such a late start and after running this morning.  So I decided to go back the way I came and rode with Jeff and Mike as they made their way to Mt Madona Park.

Going back of Hazel Dell was even more pleasant now, with the temperature in the mid 70s.  Even the very steep climb back up Mt. Madona was not overly hot, nothing like the heat I had experienced climbing up from the Gilroy side early in the afternoon.

I regrouped with Jeff and Mike at the top and showed them the direction to the camping areas.  I thought about heading that way with them, along Pole Line, but that would then require that I go down Highway 152, which I find too risky with no shoulder, blind turns and cars that go way to fast.  So I headed back down the dirt section of Mt Madona road.  Even though was now late afternoon, I could feel the heat coming back as I went down to the valley.  This chart shows what my GPS was recording for temperature during the ride.

I finally made it back home just past 6:30 pm.  The ride was only 45 miles but with 4,500 feet of climbing.  It might be one of the only rides I have ridden from my house where I was able to get in 100 feet of climbing for every mile!

Categories: Solo Ride
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For many years I used a Polar heart rate monitor for both running and later for cycling. Starting with the Polar 720i, then the 625X, with footpod, it seemed like an ideal way to keep track of my speed and distance on both the bike and running. However I had become progressively disenchanted with Polar as a company. Even to this day they do not support their products on the Mac operating system, something that Garmin now does with all their products. They also seem to have lost the technology advantage they once had by letting Garmin move ahead with the use of GPS technology. Garmin’s early GPS units were bulky and seemed quite impractical but with each new generation they have continued to advance and their GPS units now have become quite small.

I previously wrote about the Garmin Edge 500 compared with the Polar 625X for cycling. It turned out that the Garmin Edge 500, which was primarily built for cycling weights no more than the Polar 625X. See my previous post for the detail comparison.

One of the nice features of the Garmin Edge 500 was the quick quarter turn mount. The new Garmin Forerunner 310X, has an optional “Quick release mounting kit” that is designed to convert their Forerunner running watches to use the same quarter turn mount, allowing you to use it on both your wrist and on the bike.

I ordered the kit for about $25 from Amazon and received it today. It comes with a wrist stap (the part I was interested in) as well as a bike mounting kit and a back for the 310XT to convert it to the quarter turn mount. Using only the strap I was able to attach the Garmin Edge 500 directly to my wrist. The orientation on your wrist may not be the idea way, but it is workable.

It might look a bit geeky, but not as much as the early Garmin Forerunner running watches.

So how much does the strap add to the 2 oz. weight of the Garmin Edge 500? Turns out not much, bringing the total weight from 2.0 to 2.6 oz. The difference is less than the weight of the footpod I use with the Polar 625X. It is almost the same as the 2.5 oz weight of the Garmin 310XT.

Is this combination the same as using the Garmin Forerunner 310XT?

Garmin Forerunner 310XT

If one is primarily focused on running, or on tri sports, then getting the Garmin 310XT might well be worth the price. For those who are mostly focused on cycling and do some running, then the Edge 500 does work as a workable solution if you want a GPS to use on your runs. It will not show your pace in any readout. Even using the speed, in mph, is not very useful because it seems to be erratic. But I found the pace readout on the Polar 625X to also be useless and ended up using the average speed over the course the of the run, which the Garmin Edge 500 will do. So if you own a Garmin 500 and want to have some type of GPS unit for running, you can get there with a small investment. Even without a footpod, it seems to be quite accurate and unlike the Polar 625X, the distance measurement does not seem to be greatly influenced by the pace being run. After the run, I can download the data to my Mac computer and see my average pace, and a map of the run. It makes it much easier later on to remember where you actual ran.

You also get some features that the Garmin Forerunner 310XT lack, including barometric pressure altimeter and temperature readout, although I am not sure that the temperature reading on the Garmin Edge 500 is very accurate. I realize that Polar has some newer running and cycling devices than the Polar 625X, but their unwillingness to embrace both the Mac and the standard Ant+ communication with their components, has kept me from spending any more money on Polar products. They seem to have a lot of different products, too many in my opinion. Try to pick out from the Polar offering and it is way too confusing.

Of course if you have no Garmin device now, you could go with the Garmin Forerunner 310XT, and use the Quick release kit to mount it on your bike or your wrist. But I primarily bike and the Garmin Edge 500 is well suited for that. You might also read my other post on using course on the Edge 500.

Categories: Cycling Equipment, Running
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I previously talked about getting back to doing interval training on the bike.  Today I did another set of intervals, abotu 7 minutes hard and 3 minute recover, with four repeats. It is a relatively flat course that included a couple miles of warm-up from our house and then a straight shot, with no need for stop signs or traffic lights during each of the 7 minute intervals. The blue sections on the map are the intervals done at speed and the red sections the recovery portions.

Using a circular course allows me to average the 4 segments so as to somewhat cancel the effect of the wind. This allows a comparison between different dates. I have data from eleven workouts, the first in March 2008 and the 11th today. The last three were done while on a beta blocker and you can see the significant reduction in average heart rate and average speed.  Overall I am happy because I have my average speed back up to 20.5 mph, the same as a year ago.  What is interesting is that to achieve this speed, my average heart rate during the intervals segments was 143 bpm, while a year ago, for the same average speed, my heart rate averaged 155 bpm.

So although I am not going to be as fast, I need to get back to doing some speed workouts to improve my conditioning. Next up will be some hill repeats.

Categories: Speed Workout
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It has been an unusual spring, I guess because it has not really been spring but more like March weather going on for month after month.  The weather was finally starting to get better this past week. Anne and I started to bike sometimes in short sleeves, sometimes with our arm warmers.  However that meant we left to go bike around 11:30 am, after the typical California overcast has burned off and the sun has started to warm up things.

We have been biking quite a bit this past week, trying to get ready for the Sierra to the Sea bicycle tour, which we are on the staff for.  After 5 consecutive days of biking through Friday, it was time for Anne to take a day off and do some recovery, but I wanted to still bike.  I checked out the ACTC club rides and the only one that looked interesting was the Long Distance Training ride.  It was 110 miles and about 7,300 feet of climbing.  I was not too worried about the climbing but I had not biked over 100 miles so far this year.  Nevertheless I decided to give it a try.

The ride started at 7:30 am, at the Lexington School, which is up the the canyon from San Jose.  About 12 riders showed up.  Despite the forecast of overcast until afternoon, the sun was shining early in the morning and the temperature was already up to 60.  It seemed just taking arm warmers and a vest would be sufficient.

We start at about 750 feet elevation first going up the Old Santa Cruz Highway, not really a highway, but a wonderful back-road with little traffic.

Photo by Lane Parker

I was riding with Lane Parker.  We were suppose to take the shortcut up Mt. Charlie but we missed it, but soon got back on course.  We rode along Summit road, then up Bear Creek to Skyline.   Even after reaching Skyline you have a lot more climbing until you reach Castle Rock at over 3,100 feet.  With all the climbing I was plenty warm enough.  Then it was some descent and rollers along Skyline.  As we were approaching the intersection of Highway 9, it started to get very foggy, and there was so much humidity in the air that I could not see out of my glasses, left only to look over the top rim.  The road was wet in sections from the fog and the temperature was dropping.  As the temperature plunged to the mid 40′s it was too cold for my liking, especially how I was dressed.

The route was headed to Highway 84, then down to the coast, and back along Highway 1 to Santa Cruz.  I could see the coast from some parts of Skyline and it looked very cold down there, even though it was already June 11th.  Lane started to take about heading inland instead and it took no effort to convince me to join him.  When we reached Page Mill Road, we decided that was a good road to take back down to the valley.

I was shivering as I started the descend but could feel the temperate increase as we went back closer to sea level.  We rode together along Foothill and made our way back to Saratoga.  Lane had ridden from home but I needed to get back up to the car, so I decided the best way would be to take Highway 9 back up to Skyline, then backtrack the course taken earlier in the morning back to the car.  So when we reached Saratoga I said goodbye to Lane as he snapped another photo.

Photo by Lane Parker

The climb up Highway 9 is not real steep, but it is a long climb, about 3,000 feet of climbing counting the section on Skyline up to Castle Rock.  I had setup a KOM section on Highway 9 from Pierce to Skyline, which people can record their times on my Ultra Cycling Website.  I had done that section in under 35 minutes in 2008.  But today I was climbing like as slug, my usual now days.  I barely made the climb in under 50 minutes!

By the time I ended back at the car I had biked 74 miles and climbed 7,700 feet.  It turned out to be the right amount and a fun ride.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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I am one very lucky guy.  Many people I know need to find someone to bike or run with and often rely on a cycling or running club, or some personal friend, or they may ride or run alone.  I bike with 3 different cycling clubs and some buddies and sometimes bike and run by myself, but most of my biking and running is with family members, general my wife, Anne.  Since our kids are all grown we have the luxury of biking and running together.  Sometimes I get a chance to bike and run with my kids, but since they live away it is not as often as we would like.  It lets my sports often be a family affair, instead of something that always takes me away from the family.

I have a rather detailed training log and have revised it so I have real data on who I bike and run with, or when I am solo.  These charts tell it all.  The family percentage is even higher than it appears because when Anne and I bike together with a bike club, I record it as miles with that club.

Categories: Training Log
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Last year I did interval training on the bicycle several times but the last time was last September.  On that occasion I was then on a beta blocker and was clearly slower.  I guess that was enough to discourage me from doing speedwork but today I decided to get going again.  I repeated the same course I have done in the past so I could compare with my past workouts.

It is a relatively flat course that included a couple miles of warm-up from our house and then a straight shot, with no need for stop signs or traffic lights during each of the 7 minute intervals. The blue sections on the map are the intervals done at speed and the red sections the recovery portions. From the map it would as if I could fit in a 5th interval at the end, but there are too many stop lights and I am way too tired to try a 5th one. It seems as if all I can do is ride the 4.5 miles back home.

You can see the four intervals, followed by the recovery period from this heart rate curve. During the 7  minute interval I push as hard as I can and still hold the pace for 7 minutes.   This was my heart rate curve for today’s workout.

Ignoring the false reading during the warmup section, you can see in the above curve the four periods where I did the 7 minute speedwork.  The affects of the beta block are significant when you look at the same curve below from only one year ago, when I was not yet taking the beta blocker.  There is a much more pronounced heart rate buildup during the 7 minute interval sections.

Using a circular course allows me to average the 4 segments so as to somewhat cancel the effect of the wind. This allows a comparison between different dates.  I have data from ten workouts, the first in March 2008 and the 10th today.  The last two were done while on a beta blocker and you can see the significant reduction in average heart rate and average speed.

So although I am not going to be as fast, I need to get back to doing some speed workouts to improve my conditioning.  Next up will be some hill repeats.

Categories: Training Log
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Although many people keep track of the miles on their car and know when to take it in for an oil change, they often neglect keeping track of components on their bicycle, or they rely on a local bike shop to check it out.

For years I have kept a detailed log of all my training.  Even after writing an article about online training logs, I still keep up my Excel spreadsheet.   Today I upload my GPS data a couple of websites (Strava and Garmin Connect) and to a local computer based program (Ascent).  One might think that a website like Strava.com should be more than enough, and might be for most people, for me personally I want to do more, including:

• Chart cycling and running miles separately
• Track how I am doing compared with prior years at this same time
• Track for both my wife and I together since mostly bike and run together
• Track details on mileage on various bike components on various bikes
• Track which club or non-club miles I cycle.

So I take the time to enter into my Excel based training log, which is setup so it also keeps track of which bikes were ridden by myself and my wife.  Using formulas in Excel, as I enter a daily workout rather quickly, it then computes a lot of data

Bike Component Wear

Using data from when I have had to replace components in the past, I can estimate the percent wear on each item.  This is what it looks like.

I check this periodically and noted I had better check the chain wear on my wife’s Trek Madone 5.1.  Sure enough the chain checker tool showed wear to 0.75, which I use as a time to replace, so as soon as I finish this blog entry, I will go do that.

For the tear wear, I keep track of how many miles the tire has been on the front and on the rear so I can estimate wear.  I use a factor of 2X for rear wear compared with wear while on the front.

Who I Bike Wtih

It all might seem a big complicated, but after creating the training log, it is very easy to enter the daily workouts.  Selecting a single drop down will allow me to choose that it was something my wife and I did together, only I did or only she did, and all the other numbers are automatically calculated from that.

One other feature I added for this year was tracking which group I bike with, one of the 3 bike clubs I belong to, solo, or with someone in my family.  This is what it looks like so far this year.  Note that if my wife and I join a club ride together, that is where I count the miles so the “Family” category is just with someone in the family.

Our time in Utah is more during the summer so that will change.  Biking with ACTC is not so common as it once was.

These two examples are the type of information you can get if you keep your own training log.  In my case it is really a training log for both myself and my wife and since most of our workouts are together, that makes things easy to track and also makes life a lot of fun.

How is My Training Going

I can easily see how my running and cycling are doing compared with prior years. This shows how I did in 2010 compared with the prior years.

I have friends who don’t even use a cyclometer to cycle with and have no idea how many miles they have ridden.  But I also notice these same guys are always having some issue with cassette wear because they didn’t change their chain until it was too late.  It might be the engineer in me that loves to see the data so I know how I am doing and how my bikes are doing.

Categories: Training Log
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After looking at my training log at the end of last year, I wrote a blog post More Running and Less Biking. It was clear when I compared 2011 again prior years that I was pickup up more of the running I use to do and at the same time cutting back on cycling.

After going through 4 months of 2011 the trend is continuing. My running so far this year is about as high as prior years, except 2007 when I was training for the Boston Marathon, which took place in April. Compared with 2009, my running is up significantly because 2009 was the year better characterized as “more cycling and less running”

We have traveled twice this year so far.  In March we went to Utah where it was too cold to do much biking.  Then in April we went back to Utah, and then a trip to Virginia and Atlanta.  This type of travel, especially when the weather in Utah is cold, points out clearly the advantage of being able to run and not just cycle.

Still the total amount of exercise is down and at the same time I seem to be going slower.  There is no easy way to come up with an equivalent between sports, but I have developed a simple formula that attempts to convert all exercise I do into equivalent miles of running.  I have use other formulas that are based on calories consumed or time exercising, and they have similar results.  My goal has been to exercise the equivalent of 50 miles of running each week.  After 19 weeks into the year that comes out to 950 miles.  I was above that on prior years, but a bit short right now, averaging only 42 miles a week (equivalent running).  As I do more running and less cycling, it is harder to get up to my goal, but I am still confident that I can get back on track.  I hope to get the cycling up soon since we will be doing a 7 day cycling tour, Sierra to the Sea, starting from mid June.

Categories: Training Log
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