Welcome to PowerCranks

Tahoe on PowerCranks

2011-12-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

I'm spending the last week of the year in Tahoe. Last year, I swore off writing anything this time of the year because I was playing in pow-pow up to my unmentionables, but this year, Tahoe is pathetically dry (so far). I knew the conditions were not ideal for skiing, so I brought two bikes: my cyclocross bike for some potential trail riding and my Jack Kane equipped with PowerCranks.

On Saturday and Sunday I went to do some skiing and finished off the days with an hour and half hour, respectively, on the trainer spinning PCs. The sets were really clicking and I hardly ever had to think about how my legs should be moving.

On Monday, I decided that I'd get bored very quickly if I continued to ski the same few open runs, so I deiced to make it a day on the bike. I mapped out a route on Strava and figured I'd hit Donner Pass summit first, and finish the day off with a near-seven-mile slog up Alder Creek/Skislope back home. Now I had to decide whether I wanted to ride PCs, or ride my CX bike. The difference between the smallest gears is one gearinch, so that wasn't really a factor. But I didn't want to ride 35s on the road because of how heavy they felt, so I decided to ride PCs.

I've previously never ridden this far on PCs or climbed that much, so I had no idea what would happen to me. I asked my usual question: "What's the worst that could happen?" I figured that if it really got to be too much, I'd just turn around and head back.

I rolled out of the house and headed toward Donner Pass summit through the first few flat miles. The first thing I noticed was how smooth my pedal stroke was. I didn't even have to think about what I had to do, my legs just knew it. I think having spent some trainer time on PCs the two previous days definitely helped.

Then I hit Donner Pass - a 3.2-mile climb that rises about 1000 feet - the pedal stroke remained smooth, but I definitely felt that I wasn't on my regular cranks. I didn't have any issues going up the climb, even when it pitched up, but I did notice that my legs were in a greater amount of pain than they should have been for the watts I was seeing. At the top, I flipped myself around and descended back down toward Donner Lake. I figured on the way back, I'd go around the lake on the other side, but for those of you trying that in the future, don't do that in December. There was about a 70-meter stretch of snow/ice that I had to hike my bike over, which could have been avoided had I gone back the same way I came.

My legs were feeling relatively good after coming down from Donner, so I decided to proceed to do the other major climb in the area - Alden Creek/Skislope. Strava has this at 6.8 miles (my Garmin measures it at 7.5 miles) and rising about 1500 feet; however, a good chunk of that elevation is gained in the last 2.5 miles, so if you feel like you're flying for the first four miles, don't worry, you'll pay for it soon enough.

That was roughly my experience, as the first four miles of the climb came and went relatively painlessly, but once I hit the last 2.5-mile stretch, the really hard climbing began and my legs were definitely in a lot of pain. The one good thing about reaching the summit of that climb was that from that point, it's a downhill shot back to the house, so I knew that once I was done with the climb, I was done!

Yesterday, I decided to go ride once again, and see if can better my time on Alder Creek. I rolled form the house up to Skislope and began climbing the road I descended earlier in the week. It's a 2.1-mile climb that goes up about 700 feet and it really hurts near the top as the pitches go higher and over 10%. It's especially unpleasant when you hit it 10 minutes into your ride without enough time to thoroughly warm-up. But once that was over, I knew I had a seven-mile descent down to the start of the main climb of the day.

I hit the climb hard and took about five minutes off Monday's time, though I managed to lose about 30 seconds when I dropped a bottle and stopped to pick it up.

Both rides above were done on Power Cranks. So how did they feel in comparison to riding regular cranks? There are at least three different aspects of riding you work while riding PCs. First and foremost, they force you to work on syncing your pedal stroke, otherwise you end up in a galop. Having never ridden PCs before September of this year, I've been on them for about three months now, and I no longer have syncing issues while riding them. From my experience, I feel that anyone who's willing to put in at least 2-3 hours a week riding PCs (on trainer first then outdoors), can get their legs consistently in sync in one to two months. Obviously, more time on PCs, yields faster results, but 2-3 hours is what I've been doing.

The second wrinkle PCs help iron out is leg power disparity. I don't suffer from this to a great extent, but traditionally my left leg has been stronger, and on some climbs, I have noticed that my right is in just a little more pain than the left. Hopefully, with time on PCs, that will even itself out.

The last, and in my opinion, largest issue is engaging muscles in your pedal stroke you never knew you had, or knew you had but didn't know you could use them to propel yourself on a bike. The need to engage the hip flexors and hamstrings definitely makes climbing harder - it almost feels like I'm riding with a heavy backpack. However, at the same time I realize that it's harder simply because those muscles were not developed enough in comparison to my glutes and quads which are likely more engaged when I'm on standard cranks. As the muscles strengthen, with time this third issue should go away, but in the meantime, I definitely feel it helping me when I jump back on my regular bike and head uphill.

[Originally published on www.cyclingmusings.com]

Powercranks training update

2011-12-14T15:10:00.000-08:00

I’ve been riding these more and more, and no longer on thetrainer. Nowadays, all the PC work is happening outdoors and I’m enjoying itquite a bit. As I’ve mentioned previously, it’s a challenge and makeseven the easy recovery rides interesting because while I’m pedaling lightly,I’m still training my muscle memory to fire the fibers in proper sequence, andI no longer have issues with the pedal stroke while on PCs. Now it’s all aboutbuilding up stamina to go long distance on them.

The most recent PC workout was on Tuesday, when I did one40-minutes set at tempo, averaging about 210 watts at HR of 159 (my zone 3 topsout at 162). The first five and the last 10 minutes were the hardest. For thefirst five minutes, my hip-flexors were telling me to go “F” myself due to someresidual soreness, but then the muscles got used to the motion and that wasn’tan issue at all. I went through the first 30 minutes without any issueswhatsoever, but as I crawled closer and closer to the 40-minute mark, I did hita few dead spots and heard the familiar clunk. This only happened three or fourtimes over the last 10 minutes, but it was still a sign of fatigue, whichsignals two things. First, more time on PCs is needed to build up stamina.Second, and most obvious, when I get tired, the pedal stroke gets sloppy.

The greatest benefit I feel I’m already getting fromriding on PCs is my climbing feels much more comfortable. I’m not making aclaim that I’m all of a sudden flying uphill. Given that I’m still in base, noserious hill training has yet taken place, but I am saying that my biomechanicsare working better. I’m having a much easier time relaxing most of my upperbody and just pedaling from the core. I’m very curious to see what will happenonce I get to the build phase and actually start doing hill repeats on PCs.

[Originally published on www.cyclingmusings.com]

Powercranks, first time outdoors

2011-11-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago, when I wrote out my training plan for thisweek, today was to be a day on Powercranks, and I was reallyhoping to make it a day outside. However, the forecast last night left much tobe desired, and I went to bed convinced I’d have to spend an hour in my garageon a trainer. But luck was on my side, and the rains passed in the night,leaving a clear, but rather cold, morning – so the opportunity was there.

Originally, I planned to drive out to the polo fields withmy bicycle and just do an hour of outdoor powercranking and drive back. Butwhen I got ready, the whole process of loading the bike, driving, parking,unloading and then doing the whole thing in reverse seemed a bit much for 6:45a.m. After looking at all the possibilities of what could go wrong if I rodefrom my house, and death or bodily injury having not popped up on my radar, Idecided to just roll and see what happens.

Pics or it didn’t happen, right? Here you go:

Along JFK drive on the way home.

I’ll start with descending because when I roll from my house(which is on top of a hill), that’s kind of what I have to do first. I’m gladthat the first time I got on PCs outdoors I was going downhill because clippingin with the crankarm down is a bit unusual, so the momentum gave me time tofind the pedal. I have to admit that going downhill with both legshanging down was a bit weird at first, but as I got used to the sensation, it actuallyfelt good – both of my legs could relax and neither had to stay in the flexedposition. I was afraid that balancing may be an issue, but it wasn’t, at leastnot today.

Then came the stop signs and the red lights. I quicklyfigured out that for stop signs - where I stop but don’t unclip because thestop is so brief - it’s best to pedal backward with one leg and then getstarted. The alternative is to come to the stop sign with one leg in the upposition, but why stress it when you don’t have to? A plus of PCs is that whenyou pedal backwards, the chainrings don’t move, so there’s no risk of chaindrop. Of course, there is a third option of starting with one leg and then picking up with the other when the first reaches 12 o'clock, but that's a lot of unnecessary pulling in what could be a high gear, or unnecessary shifting into a much lower gear than necessary.

For a red light, where I’d have to unclip, I made sure tostart in a very easy gear. As I mentioned above, clipping in with the crankarmdown is a bit tricky at first, and I wanted to make sure I could pedal with oneleg for at least a few strokes to gain forward momentum. Once I had thatfigured out, the rest was simply a matter of getting the muscles to fire inproper sequence and keep it upright – the latter was never an issue.

Riding PCs outdoors is definitely different than on atrainer. Probably an obvious statement, but just in case you were wondering. The road comes as is and theterrain slowed me down, sped me up and not necessarily in the most expectedways. It’s easy to keep a good pedal stroke on a trainer, where I know when Iwill shift, when resistance will vary and when my cadence will change. Not somuch outside. I had to pay attention to these changes and anticipate them tomake sure I was in the proper gear and could maintain constant cadence if thatwas my goal, or change my cadence if that’s what I wanted to do.

I messed up quite a few times, but never for longer thanjust a few seconds and I was always able to recover quickly and get back intorhythm. I found that slowing the cadence down and going into a higher gearhelped a lot to even out the pedal stroke, similar to how I started on thetrainer. Then I could gradually go into a lower gear and speed up the cadencewhile keeping in rhythm.

About half way out to the polo fields, I realized that I wasriding PCs like I was on a track bike – I always kept pedaling. “Why am I doingthis?” – I thought to myself. So when the next little downhill came, I just letboth legs down and coasted for a bit. It felt good! As I mentioned above, bothlegs relaxed and after five or so seconds of coasting, I was able to pick upthe pedal stroke again. This was also great practice for starting to pedal fromboth legs being down and picking it up in rhythm.

Once on the polo fields, I just went around in a loop forabout 20 minutes before turning around and heading back. It’s a flat .7-mile loop,so nothing exciting really happened, but given that the two longest stretchesrun east/west, the changes in tail/headwind meant I had to pay attention to myeffort. Otherwise, when the tailwind would hit, it would become easier to pedaland a few times one of my legs would go a little faster and caused me to loserhythm and gallop, but this was fairly easy to get used to and wasn’t an issue toward theend of my session.

One last item that I didn’t really have to deal withthis morning - because I was never really going that fast or leaning my bike that much - is unweighing the inside leg when making aturn. It’s important to unweigh the inside leg as to not hit the crank on theground. While my crank length is set to 145, the whole arm is about 190 (185being the maximum adjustment).

In case you’re curious, yes, I did do the dolphin kick. It’spretty neat, but better done in a low gear or on a downhill. In high gear,Newton’s second law of motion causes the bike to rock back and forth a bit –not very efficient. I also did it a number of times as I rolled back towardhome on JFK, always either in the presence of other cyclists or when passingcars stopped at a stop sign. I figured I may as well give people something totalk about. Strangely, no one asked me about how I can do that.

On the way home, all I could really think about was goingover Clayton on 17^th Street. It averages about 14% for .1 miles –not long, but I was afraid that if I screwed up my pedal stroke, I wouldn’t beable to recover and would fall over. But I figured the worst thing that wouldhappen is I would have to take the walk of shame up the hill with the bike –not a big deal.

As I began to climb up Stanyan to 17^th Street, Istarted to gain more confidence. In fact, I was very surprised that climbing asteeper pitch, pedaling PCs felt no different than my regular cranks, but Iknew that my muscles were not working in quite the same way. As I turned onto17^th, I had a bit of a downhill to let my legs hang – honestly, thisfeels so awesome, I think it was probably one of my favorite sensations of thewhole ride. Then it was just two short but very steep blocks, and all downhillfrom there.

This was a great first ride outdoors on PCs,and now that I know I can navigate short steep streets of San Francisco, I’llbe getting out on them more often – and by that I mean that unless it’s pouringoutside, I’m not getting on the trainer. Perhaps one of the days next week I’lltry to go a bit longer with a bit more climbing. By the time I hit my build phase, I hope to be training on them almost exclusively.

[Originally published on www.cyclingmusings.com]

More on Powercranks

2011-10-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year for me where long rides are few and far between and burritos are frequent and abundant. After all, I need some fat to burn during those long base miles that will start in less than two weeks. In addition to regular gym workouts, I've also started training on Powercranks. You may have seen the post about my first training session last week. Today was session number four, and boy do I have some stuff to tell you.

After the first three 30-minute sessions, I decided to take it up a bit and go for 45 minutes. One of the many things I love about the Powercranks (yes, I just used the "L" word), is that I'm actually looking forward to doing workouts on my trainer. I usually hate to sit on a trainer, alone, at home, creating a pool of sweat under my bike, but the challenge of turning PCs actually motivates me to do just that. I'm always curious as to how far I can push myself and how long I can go without screwing up my rhythm.

That notwithstanding, sitting in one place doing exactly the same thing, even a very challenging thing, can get a bit stale, so I made up a routine for myself to work on my pedaling stroke and to hopefully adopt faster to PCs.

I began with some steady pedaling under a moderate load for 10 minutes. My cadence was in the 80-90 range and my power was in the 150-200 (but I tried to stay closer to 150 as much as possible). Another element of difficulty I added to this workout was doing it in the small ring. If you think of a LT workout, that would seem counterintuitive, but PCs are actually easier to spin correctly (that being the key term) under a heavier load with very low cadence.

After 10 minutes, I went into progressive cadence increases, while keeping my power as constant as possible. I began with a heavier gear and cadence of 65, pushing about 180-200 watts. Then, each minute for five minutes, I would increase by five to seven RPMs and shift into a lighter gear to maintain approximately the same watts. This way I could focus entirely on cadence and pedaling technique and not have to worry so much about muscle failure or excessive fatigue (still in prep period). This followed by 5 minutes of rest at the same effort as the warmup.

Another thing I love about PCs is that while resting, I'm still doing the skills workout. Even when I'm pedaling easy, I have to pedal correctly, so while the training is not under any heavy load, or very difficult (coordination-wise), the pedaling skills are still being worked.

Then came time for some single-leg pedaling drills just to focus the mind on each leg independently. I did the following three sets. Three times with each leg for 30 seconds, followed by three minutes of rest. Then two times with each leg for one minute, again followed by three minutes of rest. And finally, I attempted once with each leg by two minutes, but this was at about minute 37 of the workout and I was starting to pedals squares by 1:20, so I cut it short to 90 seconds. Followed by another three minutes of recovery.

I was surprised to see that when I went from single-leg pedaling drills to active recovery, where I had to pedal with both legs, it was actually easier to keep my legs in sync, as if each one still remembered what to do from a moment ago.

I finished off with a few spinups, starting from a cadence of about 80 with load that's moderate (200 watts), taking my cadence up as high as possible until my legs started to gallop - I was able to hit 150 a few times.

I'm still in prep mode, so none of this was done under heavy load, as I'm still getting my brain trained to keep both my legs fully engaged and synced. My overall impression of tonight's workout was good. It felt much easier starting with PCs and getting in sync was much faster (within a couple revolutions), even in a much lighter gear. It is almost as if the body remembered what to do; that first moment of clipping in and starting to pedal was much more natural than the first time I tried PCs. I'm hoping that in a few more sessions, I'll be able to take the bike on the road with them and see how I do while in motion.

[Originally published on www.cyclingmusings.com on October 18, 2011]

Powercranks - the first workout.

2011-10-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

After some time off the bike, it’s now time to slowly move into the prep period before getting into some serious base miles down the line. This season, I’m introducing something completely new into my training routine, Powercranks. For those of you who never heard of them, they are cranks that hang neutrally (not opposite one another) and require both legs to make the “perfect” circle to get the crank around. If you’re not pedaling equally with both legs, you start to develop a gallop-type stroke or stall at a deadspot.

Today, was my first Powercranks workout, and after pedaling just for 30 minutes, I learned several things about my pedal stroke that I hope to improve in the months to come.

As I mentioned above, I’m in prep mode, so the workout I did today wasn’t as much about pushing a lot of watts or getting the legs worked, as it was about training my brain – something much harder. The plan was to pedal relatively easy for 30 minutes with some one-legged drills in between and see what happens during this virgin session.

Throughout the workout, I worked under the presumption that every pedaling error I made with Powercranks, I would have likewise made on regular cranks, but it would have gone unnoticed due to the other leg being able to compensate.

As recommended, I started with the shortest crank length possible on my Powercranks – 145 and began pedaling at a low cadence in a high gear just to get used to the motion of both legs moving independently. I was able to pedal relatively error free for the first six minutes. I did go out of sync a few times, and it was immediately noticeable as I felt one of my legs doing more work than the other because it was starting to do more work while waiting for the other leg to catch up. Or alternatively, it started turning too fast.

After six minutes, I did one 30-second drill with each leg, followed by a minute of regular pedaling and then another minute-long drill with each leg. Granted, considering I was on Powercranks, the whole workout was like one single-leg pedaling drill, but I found it helped to focus on each leg separately to get the motion correct and to get used to throwing my knee over the handlebars – a common way to describe a proper upstroke.

By the time I was done with the above, I found one weakness that I felt needed work. It was easy for me to start pedaling slowly and then pick up speed, but it was much more difficult to slow the cadence down, as my legs would slow down at different rates, resulting in an uneven pedal stroke and even causing me to stall at the top a few times.

Having discovered a weakness, I figured I’d work on that specific skill for the remainder of the workout. So I proceeded to pedal for several minutes, taking my cadence up 10-15 pedal strokes and then practicing bringing it down 10-15 strokes. After a few tries, it became easier to slow down the cadence without much break in the pedal stroke, but this is definitely a skill I that will require more work because if that’s how much stroke I’m losing each time cadence changes in a ride or a race, there is a lot of wasted motion and energy that can be put toward something better. Say, a winning sprint! It also required a lot of mental concentration when it was time to slow the legs down, something that cannot be wasted on pedaling in a race.

In the last few minutes of my 30-minute workout, I did another set of single-leg drills, which proved very informative, as my legs were now a bit fatigued. All of a sudden, I realized that having shorter cranks to start practicing with Powercranks was highly beneficial, as my stroke was short and I was able to turn a much smoother, efficient circle even at the end of the workout.

Additionally, as I went from pedaling with my left to pedaling with my right, I started hearing a lot of noise and clunks, which suggests that as in everything else, my left leg is the dominant one in cycling. This is likely an imbalance I’ve been riding with all these years, but now that I’ve been able to diagnose and have the tools to address it, getting equal output from both legs is something I can work on.

The plan going forward is to continue with 30-minute sessions for the next week or so, then go to 45-minute sessions, then hour-long sessions and finally be able to ride outside without stalling. Ideally, I’d like to be able to do most of my base training on Powercranks this season and continue using them for parts of my build phase.

Stay tuned for more!

[Originally published at www.cyclingmusings.com on Oct. 11, 2011]

size matters

2011-08-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

Common sense. The longest crank you can turn will maximize your leverage, or more accurately in this situation "torque" over a given gear ratio. This thinking has lead to the common 165-175mm crank length. Leverage and torque are easy to comprehend. What is more complex and challenging to fully wrap your head around is power, or, the amount of work done as a function of time. The utmost concern of the dedicated cyclist is to optimize power output at a given fitness level, while maintaining an efficient position. Torque, I've found, is irrelevant. Old fashioned thinking lead me to believe that riding the longest crank that didn't hurt my knees was going to be fastest, and certainly best when the road turns upward. I now know that at least for me, this is not the case.

Five years of cycling culminated in the ability to average 19.5 mph. Nothing to write home about. In 4 months 172.5mm powercranks built me up to average over 21 mph, but more importantly allowed me to train knee pain free for the first time ever. As a bike messenger, an overuse injury would put me out of work. After hearing about Courtney Ogden winning an ironman on 145mm cranks and subsequently shortening to 115mm, I couldn't resist the urge to try out shorter cranks.

A quick google search revealed that my initial experiment would cost me 30$ for a set of 145mm sinz juniors bmx racing cranks. I was a little worried that changing my position on the bike and pedaling a drastically smaller circle (intended for 10 year old kids on bmx bikes) in the middle of my buildup for the 204 mile seattle to portland classic would spell disaster for my knees. I was ready to scrap the idea at the first sign of knee pain, and maybe try again when my training volume is reduced.

The first trip around the block was interesting, pedal stroke felt buttery smooth, difficult to "spin out" and it didn't feel like I lost any power, but they did feel strange. The next day, I went out on my first ride. My standard fitness testing route, 25 miles of rollers with a 2 mile hill that maxes at 10%. What I noticed most was how much smoother the short cranks are, and how comfortable I was in the drops. for the first time, I felt like I could ride in the drops all day long. My best ride on 172.5's put me at 21.06 miles in one hour, and the hill in 8min 14 sec. Rough wattage estimate for the hill 260. First time out with the 145's put me at 22.5 miles in an hour and the hill in 7min 34sec. Rough wattage estimate 292! Knees felt fine, I ordered a pair for my work bike. The next ride was 120 miles, I was amazed by how fresh I still felt after the ride.

The Seattle to Portland is not a race, but more akin to a marathon where the majority of the 10,000 participants are just there to finish. I was hoping to be in the top 100. I ended up finishing 4th, 6 min behind a recumbent rider and two guys who were working together the whole way even though I was riding solo for about 90 of the last 100 miles! The guy behind me was 20 min back.

It has been about 10 weeks since my first ride on 145's and I am continuing to see gains that I mostly atribute to the adaptation to shorter cranks. My new best ride on my standard training route put me at 23.02 miles in an hour and the hill in 6min 44sec. wattage estimate for the hill is 349. The way I see it, the advantages of short cranks are least apparent in cx where aerodynamics plays less of a role than being able to repeatedly pull hard out of corners. The first cyclocross preseason race of the year was this week, and I won on my 145mm sinz. This was my first race in 3 years, with no off road training, and the first cross race I've ever even finished.

I belive strongly enough in my experience with shorter cranks and their superiority at least for my genetic stew, that I sent my powercranks in to be irreversibly shortened to 145mm. I plan on experimenting even shorter to find my perfect length after I hit a plateau on 145's.

Stay tuned for updates regarding short powercrank adaptation, and gearing discussion.

Trial on 145 cranks

2010-12-09T16:14:00.000-08:00

Well Frank was kind enough to get me a set of PC's to try that had a bit more adjust-ability for length. My PC's only went to 160 which I have been riding on for quite some time now. But I really wanted to start playing around with the shorter stuff and see how it felt. So as soon as I got them I hurried like it was Christmas and put them on to ride them and see how they felt. I actually had a chance to go and do some training on the IM St. George course. As soon as I got riding I felt an immediate difference with the 145's it was crazy. It felt easier I was able to get my seat higher due to the shorter crank, which is making me more aero on my bike due to the lower front end, which I am able to get lower than ever before. I never thought I'd be able to get as low as I am. But with the non impingement in my hips from having shorter cranks I am not as scrunched up in my hips which is making a world of difference in my breathing cause that was the other major thing that I noticed was my breathing was way easier in the aero position.
I am in the process of doing a real test and trial with different lengths on a computrainer to really see what length is good for me and to see what a difference in power I can and will have with shorter cranks. So we shall see shortly. But for now I am loving the 145's.

Heath

New Poster!

2010-08-31T04:38:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow Power Crankers! This is my first post on this blog and I thought I would share my background with using Power Cranks.

I was first introduced to Power Cranks via a professional cycling friend. I was retiring from cycling, took on a 'grown-up' job, and started into triathlon. Without a running background Power Cranks really assisted me with making a 'transition' to the triathlon world especially in regards to my running. I could keep run volume low to start and supplement with Power Cranks. To my surprise I was improving tremendously on the bike as well, especially sustained climbs which were never my specialty especially living in Minnesota.

One key element that I find Power Cranks to be extremely useful for, but is rarely discusses, is bike fit. So often I see people with extremely high saddle height especially in the triathlon world. The extension/ plantar flexion of the lower leg coupled with rocking hips leads to calve cramping and low back pain. I've used Power Cranks to demonstrate that you can't even pedal with independent legs in such a position. I've also had success dialing in cleat position with the Power Cranks. Just another use for this great tool.

Perhaps my biggest story is in regards to a brutal accident and recovery. In April of 2008 I was in great shape coming into the season. My main goal for the year was the Hawaii Ironman which I had qualified for at Ironman Wisconsin the previous September. I was commuting home from work on my motorcycle when a car swerved over 4 lanes of empty freeway (it was late evening) and took me out. The impact was on my left side and I shattered my tib/fib and pelvis. 5 surgeries and 10 weeks of training after getting off crutches almost exclusively on Power Cranks allowed me to finish the Hawaii Ironman. I continued religious use and baffled my doc in regards to the expedited rehab especially in regards to bilateral strength. In 2009 I came back strong winning a few local races and setting a course record on 1 occasion in which I averaged 28mph for an olympic distance, more than 2.5mph faster than the next fastest on the bike segment. I also had the fastest run time - I hate run training and only run 25 miles per week.

This past year my wife and I had our first child, a boy named Kai. My focus has been on him and 90% of my limited training has been on Power Cranks. Although I'm certainly not as fit as last year I am able to stay in relative shape with limited time. I plan to make another go next year with the main goal of getting back to Hawaii to actually race versus simply finishing.

My experience with Power Cranks has thus served many purposes: performance (both bike and run), rehabilitation, bike fit, and time crunched training. There are obviously many more uses out there and I'm excited to check this blog frequently to get more ideas.

Happy training!

Jeremy

5th in NS Provincials

2010-08-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I finished 5/12 in our 40km Prov ITT (B Ability Cat). Only 55sec separated me from the leader but it was my lower power:wt ratio that held me back on the two hill portions. The 7wk Chris Carmichael TT Program I followed had the desired effect as my Aug 17th lab test indicated I was pushing more wattage at threshold. Lab test - completed 3 min at 354 watts/85rpm. I did miss a couple of TT sessions due to the really high humidity in weeks 3 and 5, so only completed 80% of the program. I am happy with my placing. The P4 is a great bike!

My power to weight ratio for the lab test was 4.2 (354 watts at 84.3 kg for 3 min duration). In 4 months time I start riding with the Senior 2/3 riders in Halifax so my goal is to drop 10kg to get my p:wt over 5. I recently saw a chart displaying the average pwr:wt ratio for all cats with Senior 2/3 being 4.5 for 20 min duration. I am going to change my lab test procedure so instead of trying to continually hit a higher number I will hold 396 watts for as long as I can. I figure, as no race next season will have a climb of more than 15 min duration, at race pace a 15 min duration at 396 watts at 75kg computes to a 5.3 pwr:wt ratio. Now I only have to get to 75kg.

I have 5 rides planned per week til then including a 20K TT session, 2 hr climb workout, 2 hr race simulation, and a Sunday 120+ km EM ride. Except for the race sim w/o all sessions will be completed with PowerCranks and PowerTap unit. 2000 cals/per day and additional calories burned in the spinning classes and run workouts I complete a few times per week should do it.

I'll let you know how I did in Dec.

Hope everyone had a great summer.

TT WORKOUT 4/12

2010-07-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

Without a doubt a really bad workout. Warm-up 20 minutes with four 45 sec LT intervals to prep my system for the 7.5 km distances to come. Exact same conditions/start time as last Sat but just didn't have it today. I think I started out too hard as well.

Honestly, the PC's felt like they weighed 10lb s each. If I didn't stop pedaling on the downhills I would never have recovered as much as I did for the next roller.

Interval #1 - 6km only/9:46 min/36.41 avg (down 4km/hr)/77 rpm (down 8)/264 Avg Watts (down 50+wts avg since Tue)

Interval #2 - Completed first 2km with a 50.1 km/hr avg (strong tailwind) and was DONE. I'm not an extreme humidity/hot temp rider so the effort felt much harder than it really was I'm sure. The cranks felt like they weighed a ton on the second interval. So, I did 5 more really hard 1 min on 1 min off intervals on distance remaining and called it a day.

Next week are Tue/Fri 2x10km w/10min rest with Powercranks. For the remainder of the TT schedule Wk 4 10k/Wk 5 20k/Wk 6 25k with 5 min recovery between efforts I'm going to switch over to my regular cranks.

TT WORKOUT 3/12

2010-07-14T00:41:00.000-07:00

Tue, July 13th at 6:00 p.m.

Conditions: 25C feels like 35C/Sunny/15km steady headwind on 1st effort/Rolling course - Bishopville/Was extremely humid.

I was a bit off on distance because I didn't reset my PowerTap computer with each effort but choose the interval function instead. Distance was suppose to be 2x7.5km w/10 min recovery between efforts. 167.5mm crank length.

Effort 1 - 11:17/7.66 km /40.62 km/hr/avg / 85 avg rpm / 315 avg watt
Effort 2 - 10:48/6.9 km / 38.2 km/hr/avg / 85 avg rpm / 298 avg watt

Effort 1 perceived level of exertion was very high (18-19/20 BORG SCALE) so I wasn't surprised that the averages were lower on the second interval even with the tailwind.

Next entry on Fri or Sat. Three hour ride planned for tonite.

TT WORKOUT 2/12

2010-07-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

I did two 2.5 hr days back to back on Wed/Thur so when it came time to do my TT workout Fri nite my legs were already feeling kinda fatigued. (I guess I went harder Thur than I thought I did.) So, I moved my 2x5km TT session to this morning.

Results:

Conditions: 25C Feels like 35C/Overcast/25km steady headwind on first effort/Start time: 9:15 a.m./Course: Rolling course

Effort 1 - 5km - 41.08km/hr / Avg Watts - 334 / Time 7:14 / Avg Cadence: 84
Effort 2 - 5km - 39.46km/hr / Avg Watts - 313 / Time 7:34 / Avg Cadence: 86

Eventhough there was a tailwind with the second effort I was slower. Felt a higher than normal level of fatigue + the humidity is at 83%. Speed on one hill, at 2km mark, I dropped below 30km/hr. Wasn't happy about that.

Haven't spent any time standing on the PC's yet but, being a former bodybuilder, when I climb out of the saddle I feel like I'm standing a 4x8 sheet of plywood up into the wind. (probably not that bad but I am a lot wider than most cyclists thru the shoulders and with much larger lats)

I may have to stand on race day and if it turns out that I am faster with the PC's than without, I will have to perfect my standing effort in the next 6 weeks.

Next results on Tue.

Back on the CRANKS

2010-07-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't been using my power cranks for the last couple months since race season began. My lab testing though indicated a huge improvement in VO2 max from April to June test. VO2 increased from 58 to 67. Last nite I started my TT specific training for the Nova Scotia Provincials on Aug 22. I am using the power cranks in each session and a Chris Carmichael TT program from his first training book.

Tue/Fri workouts

Wk 1 - 2x5km w/10min recovery between efforts
Wk 2 - 2x7.5km w/10 min recovery
Wk 3 - 2x10km w/10 min recovery
Wk 4 - 2x10km w/5 min recovery
Wk 5 - 2x15km w/5 min recovery
Wk 6 - 2x20km w/5 min recovery
Wk 7 - Tue - 1x7.5 / Sun - Prov ITT

I will be substituting my final lab test for the Wk 7 Training session.

The first session went excellent. As I mentioned I haven't been using the cranks for about 10 weeks I guess but they felt really great. I shortened the length to 167.5 after reading some of the latest info on the PC website. I am currently 176lbs, using a Cervelo P4 with Easton Aero wheels equipped with a SLC+ Powertap unit. I was given a 3hr bike fit with the purchase and am not set-up in a overly aggressive position as my hams are tight and need some flexibility training.

First session data

Conditions: 22 degrees / overcast / no wind / 6:15 p.m. start / A-B rolling course - Bishopville

5km #1 - Avg Speed - 41.8km/hr / Avg Watts - 343 / Time: 7:08
5km #2 - Avg Speed - 40.8km/hr / Avg Watts - 334 / Time: 7:23 (a bit more uphill on return)

I would have easily broken 7:00 min on the first attempt but couldn't get into my 11 cog. I think its a limit screw issue.

I will continue to update twice a week for the duration of the program, shorten the cranks next Tue as well for the same course, and finish up with posting my final lab results on Aug 17th.

I am using the 40k Prov ITT course for my Fri session. By Wk 6 I will be completing the entire out and back with a 5 min recovery in between 20km efforts.

Keep the rubber side down

Alan

My Powercrank experience so far...

2010-05-31T10:57:00.000-07:00

After my 2 spinal fusion operations of my L5-S1 vertebrae I was seriously lacking core stability, an overcompensated right leg and a very weak and skinny left leg, and not much glute or hip strength! I started using Powercranks mainly to rehabilitate myself before doing any serious training.

In November and December I had a bit of difficulty getting used to Powercranks. This took a bit longer than usual but it was to be expected after the work I had to do initially to rebuild myself post surgery. I was doing 20-30 minute rides on the rollers to start off with. It was hard (to say the least!) trying to keep both legs pedalling for long periods of time so I had to use a range of different techniques to complete longer rides. These included pedalling with one leg for a few rpm’s, then the other for the same amount of rpm (in and out of the saddle). To help with my core that little bit extra I would do some 2 minute drills in a big ish gear (53×13-16) with both pedals going around at the same time. Towards the end of December I was able to do 50-60 minute rides on the rollers.

Going into January I was able to get out on the road to do some rides. These started off at 30 minutes partly due to the weather, but increased to 2 hours by mid March. This period was mainly the same as my roller riding, basically just getting used to riding, ensuring the muscle balance, and mostly getting used to riding outdoors. It was a major step up riding up hills, riding into headwinds from riding indoors. By March I was fairly confident in myself that I had recreated the balance in my legs muscles and also built up my core strength and hip flexors to enable me to do longer rides and more specific efforts.

Going into the later part of March I was able to do rides consistent of 1hr45 to 2hrs30. Many of these included doing sprint drills, one leg drills, hill efforts and tempo drills.

Along the way I learned more about Powercranks other benefits that I would not have expected beforehand. I have no doubt that my strength has increased from using the Powercranks. My pedalling overall is very efficient, especially on climbs where I now also have the combination of efficiency and strength that I did not have before. This was a good base for getting back into racing and longer training rides.

My first 2 races back were 50km handicap races. The first race was to test the waters after not racing for 2 and a half years. I have no idea where I finished but it was very near last. In the second race I was able to do turns on the front and be there in the final for a 5th place after leading the sprint out. A few days after that I did my first big road race which was the Welsh Road race champs. It was 130km completed in 3 hours, and I ended up finishing 9th! I was just hoping to finish… It was a lot easier for me to complete the harder and longer rides after coming off Powercranks; my legs were much stronger to be able to cope with the stresses of racing, and my breathing and heart rate was lower than it previously was. I have also noticed a huge improvement in my walking.

The most significant improvement is hip flexors and my left hamstring muscles which were previously non-existent on my left side. The one thing that did surprise me was my flexibility. Using the Powercranks combined with my home stretching and core stability routine, Powercranks have helped my flexibility to no end, which I did not expect. For someone who has had 2 spinal fusion operations, I should not be able to fit my head between my knees whilst being able to plant my hands flat on the floor! Once I have completed my racing season in 2010 I will be using my Powercranks to start off my winter training, and to do harder efforts and rides until the racing season starts in 2011.

I recommend Powercranks to anyone. Whether it be for rehabilitation purposes or for improving your cycling, running or walking. They are by far the best piece of cycling equipment I have ever purchased!

Killington SR

2010-05-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hey

Sat, May 29 and I'm here at Killington and 3 hrs away from start of Stage I. Last hard ride Tue, 50km ride yesterday checking out the TT and hill climb for Sun/Mon. Legs feel really great.

Stage I relatively flat for the sprinters (eventhough I'm a sprinter was advised not to get involved as these guys will be using 55x11 and I'll just get in the way) and will try to be with the pack and finish 10 sec same time leading into the 17km TT Sun afternoon. Looking forward to finally racing on my new P4.

I'm not in contention here but one of the guys I'm with is, so the rest of us (3 riders) will try to help him out on Sunday.

New personal long distance on PC's

2010-04-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

I finally went over 100 miles in one day on PC's last week during the Chico Wildflower Century ride. It was actually 115 miles at the end of the day after riding to the start from my house. My previous highest mileage was 75 about two weeks prior. Still training to get up to riding a double century on PC's by the end of the season.

Test results

2010-04-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

Back in the lab a couple of weeks ago for a 6mth retest. Performed a ramp-up test with increases every 3 min - 167/250/292/333/354 (90sec) watts @ 85RPM. The 354 watt level was an increase from Nov, 2009. Results: VO2 up from 5.5 to 6.6 and lactate levels dropped from 10 to 8.8. Techs said that results indicated my base training had the desired effect. Next retest in 8 weeks is scheduled 5 days before my first goal event, the Nova Scotia Provincial Road Race Championships.

Did a 1 hr TT the other day (road bike/regular cranks) producing the following numbers:
Averages: Watts 260 and 32 km/hr. When I got back to training last Sept I would have puked after five minutes at that intensity so I'm feeling really great about my conditioning going into my race season in three weeks.

Peak power records to date (PowerTap Pro+):
5sec - 1023 / 30sec - 507 / 60sec - 468 / 5min - 324 / 10min - 287 / 30min - 274 / 60min - 264 / 120min - 212. Love the PowerTap everyone should have one. Seeing a new PB after a hard ride only motivates me more to see how much I can improve.

This Friday I'll pick up my first TT bike, a Cervelo P4 equipped with an SLC+ Powertap with Easton EC90 Aero Tubulars. I'm placing my powercranks on the Cervelo for my 2nd season goal on Aug 22, our NS Prov ITT Championships. So, between now and then (16 weeks) I'll be doing ALL TT training with my PC's.

Safe riding everyone.

Oldies but Goodies

2010-04-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while we see some first generation PowerCranks being sent in for service. This particular set is about 11 years old and still going strong! Consider that the original clutches have seen about 80000 miles of use.
After a little cleaning and cosmetic upgrade they are back out the door ...

Happy Training,

Andrew

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

New SS Block

2010-03-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hey

Well the weather here in the Maritimes last week was just amazing, eventhough on the nicest day of the week at 18 degrees Celcius I didn't even get out on my bike. Last week finished tempo block with a 50 min 275W avg workout and 12 hours outdoors. It was a very nice week.

Today 30 mm rain! Just finished my first Steady State session - Two 8 min intervals with 15 min ramp up warm-up and 8 min rest period between intervals.

INT #1 - 85 AVG RPM / 265 AW
INT #2 - 86 AVG RPM / 275 AW (this is what I was aiming for)

Thur 2 x 10 / Sun 2 x 12 with 1:1 W/R Ratio / Week 3 doing 3 sets / Week 4 doing 4 sets

Goal is to get all intervals above 275 AW and 90 RPMS. We'll see how it goes.

But, it was a great but tough workout. I find the first one always is.

I know I'm suppose to take a week recup between training blocks but since I got lazy and started my Tempo block a week late, I think its better to take an easy week before I head on my three week vacation where I will be doing average 20 hrs per week + a few 5-10k runs. The goal there is climb/miles/weight loss of 5-7 lbs

I'll keep my total volume the same this week instead of adding an hour and a half as planned.

The result of the Rusko recovery test on Wed might indicate differently though.

Ciao

Much progress

2010-03-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hi

Training has been going great. Finally starting to feel one with the PC's on the road. New X-Lites are much lighter and feel much lighter. Definately feel a difference in picking less weight up over the top of the stroke.

Twelve hours last week with third/final week of Tempo block starting today. Started at 20 min two weeks ago tomorrow with PC's on CycleOps Alum rollers. A great workout! Much less boring and more challenging than on a trainer. Program consists of 3 Tempo workouts per week T/Th/Sun and added 5 min per session. Yesterday felt great with Tempo 45"/72Avg RPM/242 Avg Watts. Tomorrow 50 min (tempo all indoors) finishing with 60 on Sun and shooting for a 245 avg watts.

I'll have to cut back on the volume a couple of hours next week (14 hrs this week all outdoors as the weather is +10C most days) because Steady State training block begins and I want a good rest week before I leave for Umbria, IT for CR/EM Phase on April 17th for three weeks.

Hope everyone's training is going well and, even if you may not be interested, I'll keep you updated as to my Powercrank progress anyway. :-) If you're not familiar with terms such as tempo, steady-state, or EM, check out Chris Carmichaels book "The Ultimate Ride".

If you don't know who Chris Carmichael is, you really need to find out.

Alan

Rollers!

2010-02-18T17:20:00.000-08:00

After a couple of more outdoor rides on the basic cranks I am really seeing the importance of lots of time on the rollers with the product. I spent a few sessions on them in Jan then switched to the trainer exclusively. I found the rollers w/PC's just too difficult at the time. After a couple of weeks off the rollers however, I got back on them and was amazed at the efficiency I now had.

I can't explain this improvement. I wrote above that I see the importance of roller work. I say this because on the road I really feel the lack of efficiency between my left and right pedal strokes.

I have now started to do all indoor workouts on my rollers and outdoor rides to build endurance. Three hr outdoor ride before I leave for Italy in 8 wks is my goal. Starting next week is my Tempo phase building from 30 to 60 min over 3 wks (adding 5 min per session x 3x's/wk) and after a week recovery I will perform 3 weeks of Steady State building from 2-4 sets of 8 min intervals (1:1 W:R) in Wk 1 up to 2-4 sets of 12 min intervals in Week 3.

We'll see what happens. One thing is for sure, the concentration needed for the roller work makes the time spent inside a lot less boring than on the trainer. Oh, if you're going to invest in a set of rollers, don't cheap out. Buy the CycleOps w/aluminum rollers. Little to no vibration in the hands and smooth, smooth, smooth!

2nd Outdoor Ride

2010-02-11T04:04:00.000-08:00

Like I mentioned it has/had finally warmed up here. Took Mon off, got in 70 min on the trainer with an hour run on the snowshoes on Tue, and yesterday outdoors 40km on my heavy steel Marinoni with Powertap and PC's. Didn't feel as ackward as my first outdoor ride but the last 5km was brutal. Even on the small grades my hip flexors would fail to the point where just lifting the cranks was tough I had to stop pedaling to rest my flexors after I crested the hill (bump actually). I was very happy to be back home where I double-checked my distance. Turns out I hadn't finished a hard 100km ride that my legs were telling me I had.

Two sessions to put in today. One hr this morning on the snowshoes and then late this afternoon on the trainer for 75 min. I would go out again if it was only going to be -3 but the weather gods are saying gusts of 70k. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. Only 9 weeks to Italy!

Warmer in the East

2010-02-09T06:13:00.000-08:00

It has finally warmed up to normal temps here on the East Coast and rideable weather is here. Looking out my window the pavement is bare and no wind. Going snowshoeing for a couple of hours this afternoon though. (my 6 mth old border collie has been climbing the walls as we've only been doing short walks since the cold temps hit).

Just got off the trainer, 70 minutes --- 20 FM, 20 EM, 5min in SS avg 265wts, 5 min rest, 3min in SS (tough, planned to do 5, too early in the training season to start suffering much and I was suffering), finish with 12 min cooldown. Started getting really bored around 20 min. Outdoors this afternoon though and on the rollers tonite for 30min.

Superbowl Sunday

2010-02-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

Sixty-six min today. Thought I would do a 5km ITT test today but after a good 20 min warm-up my heartrate was much higher than I expected so I decided it was NOT a good day to attempt a PB. However, I did perform a one minute max wattage test averaging 347 watts and then, after 2 min recovery time, a 30 sec max wattage test averaging 468 watts. (both seated)

I'll repeat those tests a few days after my lab test on Mar 11 and see where I stand. My goal then will be 375 avg wts for one min test and 500 avg wts for 30 sec.

Must admit I've been slack on the PC roller workout this week. Only 10 weeks to Italy and 14 to my first race so its time to get it in. I believe that it will make a huge difference in my riding, control, and wattage numbers.

Anyone else attending the North American Masters RR in Sutton, QC and/or the GMSR in Vermont this season?

What a session!

2010-02-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

I have to say I wasn't looking forward to a boring 64 min on my trainer today (still -18 outdoors) but I can't remember the last time I had such a great workout. I teach group bootcamp classes so I was pretty warmed up by the time I got on the bike.

First 50 min was 85 rpm (53x19) and struggled to keep from checking the clock. I was amazed at my HR though because yesterday I averaged 154 but today 146! The first 50 min seemed effortless (leg wise) so I decided to do a 10 min tempo interval and then a 5 min cooldown to finish my session.

Tempo Zone HR - Avg 156, Watts Avg 225, 53/17 @ 85 RPM AVG, RPE - 6/10! Could have done twice that amount but I'm still in EM and only doing one Tempo interval/wk now to be ready for my three times/wk Tempo block starting in a couple of weeks.

-23C w/windchill Arrrrrg!

2010-02-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

Taking Andrew's advice I am doing one session per day on my trainer (-23C w/windchill so definately not venturing out) to build endurance. The other session on rollers for 30 min. I am up to 62 min today on my trainer and will be adding two min /day towards my goal of completing a 2hr ride in 5 weeks (before my next lab test).

I am so bored already riding indoors. If the winds diminished, and it warmed up to a respectable -5, and we had more snow, at least I could get out and snowshoe train. So, using TV, race dvd's, music to try to motivate myself but its pure willpower thats getting me through. And, to add insult to injury, most of the groundhogs in the world didn't help much the other day. Maybe in 5 weeks the weather will change.

To help alleviate the boredom, after 30 min at 85 rpm today I mixed it up with a 1 min work at 100+ rpm to 2 min rest period. I know a lot of PC'ers comment that they're feeling it in their glutes and hams but I find it hits my hip flexors so much that by the end of 60 minutes stick a fork in me I'm done! (Hence the only 2 min extra/day).

If anyone is visiting Nova Scotia, Canada this summer and would like to fit in a race or sportif check out my organizing site http://www.breakawaycycling.ca/ for race details.

8 weeks and counting

2010-02-02T17:52:00.000-08:00

Got my first set of Powercranks in Dec and using them about 4-6 times per week since. I'm a heavier rider, a sprinter, Master B 46yrs young with my long-term goal of competing and winning at the World's UCI Masters in Austria in 2013 in the 50-52 yr age group.

Started with the PC's as recommended on my indoor trainer at low rpm 60-65. After 8 weeks I'm averaging 85RPM, now using them on my rollers --- with new difficulty. Just when I thought I had made it through the 'learning curve'. Then I went outdoors. A big change going over bumps, around obstacles, braking, both feet at the bottom, and of course transitioning from flat, slowing into a corner to uphill --- thats going to take more work.

I would like to thank Andrew at Powercranks for all his advice and excellent customer service so far. I have my second set of lab testing in 6 weeks so I'm looking to seeing the effect the PC's have had on my training. I had not used them for my first test last Nov.

I did a ride the other day --- the temp had gone up to +, its cold here on the east coast of Canada --- on regular cranks with my training partner (a pure climber). A month ago he left me easily on a 500 m climb where he finished while I was still only two-thirds of the way up. Last week, I was in front of him and powered over the top. Did it seated and felt great.

I'm heading to Italy to train for three weeks in April and can't wait to see what the PC's will do for my cycling and running for this season.

Combination time!

2009-10-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

So just a little reminder of my situation and why I am using Power Cranks! Unfortunately like so many athletes (especially female but not exclusive to!) and have been cursed over the last year with the dreaded stress fracture. Roughly 2 1/2 of them! (one was a stress reaction and yes there is a slight difference!) So action needed to be taken number one to get me to a healthy place but number 2, I want to be back racing, back doing what I love most! Sure, you can water run but honestly I can only do so much of that! My doctor then recently suggested using Power Cranks not specifically for my cycling but as a substitute for my running! Why? Because there is an emphasis on your running running when using them (hamstrings!) as well as improving your efficiency on the bike. So, every other day I have been riding with my Power Cranks as a substitute for the pounding of running and so far so good!

This week I began a combination PC/run. It was time to increase my long run and rather than increasing the actually run time I am riding the PC's first then jumping off and finishing off with my run. Yesterday was a 30 min PC ride then a 45 min run for a 75 min total long run.

I know I have only been using them for 3-4 weeks but the theory will be put to the test next weekend when I compete in Longhorn in the 70.3. With only 3x30 min runs a week and the rest on the PC's it will be interesting to see how I go over 13 miles!

I am also trying to increase my cadence now to emulate my running cadence more. This has been the most difficult part so far and requires a little more work!

Another Pro to train on PowerCranks

2009-10-07T23:42:00.000-07:00

Sergio Marques will be starting his off season with a new training regime. In 2008 Sergio had the fastest run split in Kona. We hope that his new training regime will bring new found speed in his bike splits for 2010. We had the opportunity to meet with Sergio personally and to answer all his questions and share your stories with him.

Mahalo from Kona

Out on the Road!

2009-09-24T16:33:00.001-07:00

I have now officially ventured out onto the road with session number 3 using my power cranks. It is okay if I don't have to stop for any traffic lights, stop signs or cars while I am still getting used to clicking in with my feet at the bottom of the pedal stroke rather than at the top! My ride was only about 10 minutes to Jeff's house where I used the trainer to ride the PC's for 30 minutes then rode home again. I am definitely starting to feel a lot more coordinated after only a short amount of time and can really feel my hamstrings and gluts doing work they normally would not. In other words, I am working my running muscles while cycling! Yah! That is exactly what I was after!

I am still riding at a relatively low cadence as I feel this is easier at the moment but next week would like to increase the time as well as try and do a few intervals of a higher cadence to supplement my training.

Time for a good stretch of those tired muscles!

Limited movement Power Cranks

2009-09-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

This was my third and longest ride on the LM PC's. I went at least 80 miles in 5h and 22m and did two very long climbs(one 10 miles and one 6 miles) that varied between 6 percent grade up to about 10 percent grade with short stretches of 11-15 percent at times. I am finding that I can keep the click/clack to a minimum as long as I am in the proper gear. For me that is usually a lower cadence of about 60 but will know for sure when I get my cadence sensor for my new bike computer. Uphill is generally much better for keeping the click/clacking to a minimum and I usually get the feedback when going fast down hill or accelerating fast uphill. I am going to ride these cranks on the White Mt. Double Century on Sat, 26 Sept. even though they are killing my hip flexors. Currently I have about 130 miles on these cranks between three rides. Soon, I will be using both traditional PC's and LM PC's on back to back rides.

Alex Roberson

Session number 2!

2009-09-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was session number 2 using the power cranks and I was able to reach my target of 30 minutes on the trainer after only lasting 10min on Monday. I found that by increasing the resistance it made it a little bit easier to keep the momentum going and avoid my horrible single leg cycling action that was happening earlier.

I definitely under estimated what it would be like to use them and I am fascinated reading other peoples blogs and how much they use them. I will have to build up to that over time, but this week plan on sticking to the 4 x 30 minute sessions on alternate cycling days.

My quads get tired from the pushing action, but you are forced more than usual to actually "pull" so the hamstrings get a descent work out, like they would if your were running. It is muscular fatigue more than anything the I feel.

In my situation, yes, it would be fantastic to see improvements in my cycling, but my sole purpose is to assist my running, or the lack off, due to injury. I am using the power cranks on my alternate run days to continue to work those muscle with out the pounding of road running.

Tomorrow I will use them again for session number 3 and hopefully again see some slight improvements in my efficiency more than anything else, which in the end will allow me to use them for longer.

Ouch! That was tough!

2009-09-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

After not being able to complete Ironman Canada recently it was time to make some changes! I have unfortunately suffered from the dreaded stress fracture my fair share over the last year and was looking for another way of working those running muscles other than water running, x-trainer, you name it, I have tried it! What was going to work!!

After talking to a number of athletes who have used power cranks and my doctor I determined this may be the saviour I am looking for!

Not only to help improve my cycling, but aid in making me a more efficient runner and prevent that excess pounding when it seems at this point in time my body can't take it!

The truth is I have nothing to lose so why not!

So here I am day one, the bike was set up yesterday and today I attempted to ride with them on the trainer, just to be safe!

Oh my gosh! What a work out!

Thank god I had only set myself a target of 10 minutes!

I could feel muscles working that I never normally feel when I am cycling and I had built up a sweat after only 5 minutes.

This is going to be tough!

My plan is to use them on alternate days to when I am running and slowly build up the time.

It will be interesting to see how the legs feel tomorrow but it is obvious I have a lot of work to do on my pedal efficiency.

I am looking forward to the challenge!

77.6 miles on standard PC's today

2009-09-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I am new to blogging here about Powercranks. I am very exicted about using PC's and have recently gone greater distances than I had previous achieved last year at this time. I actually stopped using them for about 6 months while I was in Texas as I loaned my trainer bike to a friend and removed my PC's when I did it. I only took my "good bike" to Texas and did not install the PC's because I was intimated and was afraid I would not be able to get in the distances I wanted to go while there. I got my trainer bike back last month and put the PC's back on it and rode it frequently. I felt that it was time to do a major ride last month and did a climb with the local group up to the summit of Mt. Lassen in N. California. All told, I rode 73 miles and did at least 6000 feet of climbing on a bike that did not have a front deraileur so my easiest gear was compact 50 chainring paired with a 23 tooth on the rear. Two weeks ago I participated in a 25 mile, 4500 feet of climbing, circuit race with the same 80's Cannondale with a steel fork in the same configuration. I placed 6th out of about 9 or so local club racers.

Today, I did a double hill climb. One was up to Cohasset, East of Chico, Ca, and the other was back up to Paradise, CA where my ride originated. It was approximately 5000 feet of climbing involved for the whole day. I was really able to concentrate on pedal stroke and get up to the top of Cohasset fairly quickly without too much one legged pedaling if any at all. Of course, my climb up Honey Run to Paradise was considerably slower as I was getting very tired and my legs were feeling like jello. I did stop twice momentarliy but kept a fairly steady pace with some one legged pedaling as needed. I achieved a new maximum distance today of 77.6 miles on the PC's Overall, I feel the PC's have helped me tremendously even though I was not using them for six months. I was able to get right back on and ride them fairly comfortably and my current consistancy with them is really beginning to pay off.

Tomorrow, I will be riding hills with the limited movement prototype PC's. I will blog more about that after my ride.

Alex Roberson

PowerCranks Day 6 (8/19/09)

2009-08-19T06:20:00.001-07:00

Heart Rate Data from Day 6 PowerCranks Session on Stationary Bike
Energy System: Aerobic
3 Sets of 2 intervals each (forward and reverse pedaling)

Set #1- Warm up
Duration: 5 min. each Interval (Forward followed by Reverse pedaling)
Resistance: Same as day 2,3,4 and 5
Cadence: 60 rpm
Recovery: Passive (Seated)

Set #2- Steady High Cadence
Duration: 5 min each Interval (Forward followed by Reverse pedaling)
Resistance: Same " "
Cadence: 100 rpm
Recovery: Passive (seated)

Set #3- Descending High Cadence
Duration: 12 min. each Macro Interval (Forward followed by Reverse pedaling)
Resistance: Same " "
Cadence: 120 rpm descending 10rpm each minute with 1minute active recovery at 60 rpm between each Micro interval. 120-60, 110-60, 100-60,90-60,80-60,70-60
Recovery: 60 rpm Active
Goal:(Training the aerobic system to recover from accelerations)

PowerCranks Day 5 (8/18/09)

2009-08-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

Pre-fatigue session on an Expresso Bike
3 high wattage sets of 3minutes or less each:
Work duration: 6 minutes
Wattage Avg: approximately 350

PowerCrank Session:

Forward Single Leg independent intervals on Stationary Bike with PowerCranks
Duration: 2 minutes each leg, for 4 sets each. Total of 8 sets over 16 minutes
Resistance: Same as Day 2,3 and 4
Cadence: 50
Recovery Phase: 3 minutes seated

Reverse Single Leg independent intervals on Stationary Bike with PowerCranks.
Duration: Same as Forward
Resistance: Same as Forward
Cadence: 50
Recovery Phase: Same

Forward PowerCranking on Stationary bike
Duration: 10 minutes
Resistance: Same
Cadence: 90
Recovery Phase: 5 minutes seated

Reverse PowerCranking on Stationary Bike
Duration: 10 minutes
Resistance: Same
Cadence 90
Recovery Phase: 5 minutes

Joe

Joe Cardio

2009-08-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hi I'm Joe Keener aka "JoeCardio". I have been using PowerCranks since Jan. of 2007. I have been collecting/downloading/observing heart rates since 2001. I have been given the opportunity to share my current data and observations on this blog and for that I am grateful. I just stated my fall training season and I am reintegrating PowerCranks into my daily program. I will be posting the data from my daily workouts for others to observe and comment on.

Thank you,
Joe

PowerCranks Day 1 (8/13/09)
Training Device: Stationary Bikes fitted with PowerCranks.

Bike #1 Forward independent Pedaling
Duration: 10 minutes
Cadence: 90

Heart Rate Reactions: 145 Max Hr./ 129 Avg. Hr./ 1minute recovery average-125 bpm, 2mra-93, 3mra-80

Bike #2 Reverse independent Pedaling
Duration: 10 minutes
Cadence: 90

Heart Rate Reactions: 142 Max/ 131 Avg. 1mra-129, 2mra-94, 3mra-83

Note*1mra=1 minute recovery average heart rate

PowerCranks Day 2 (8/14/09)
Training Device: Stationary Bikes fitted with PowerCranks.

Bike #1 Forward independent Pedaling
Duration: 12 minutes
Cadence: 90

Heart Rate Reactions: 156 Max Hr./ 139 Avg. Hr./ 1minute recovery average-130 bpm, 2mra-99, 3mra-90

Bike #2 Reverse independent Pedaling
Duration: 12 minutes
Cadence: 90

Heart Rate Reactions: 163 Max/ 150 Avg. 1mra-139, 2mra-106, 3mra-96

PowerCranks Day 3 (8/15/09)
Training Device: Stationary Bikes fitted with PowerCranks. and an Expresso Bike with conventional crank arms.

Expresso Bike: Stormy Hollow Course - Followed my personal Best Ghost for 1/2 the course.
Duration 10 minutes
Avg Watts: 283
Cadence: 100 rpm (estimate)

Bike #1 Forward independent Pedaling (same tension as day 2)
Duration: 15 minutes
Cadence: 90

Heart Rate Reactions: 162 Max Hr./ 154 Avg. Hr./ 1mra-140, 2mra-118, 3mra-105, 4mra-100, 5mra-95

Bike #2 Reverse independent Pedaling (same tension as day 2)
Duration: 15 minutes
Cadence: 90

Heart Rate Reactions: 158 Max/ 149 Avg. 1mra-135, 2mra-113, 3mra-103, 4mra-97, 5mra-93

(8/16/09) Sunday-Rest Day

PowerCranks Day 4 (8/17/09)
Training Device: Stationary Bikes fitted with PowerCranks. and an Expresso Bike with conventional crank arms.

Expresso Bike: Coastal Run Course - Followed my personal Best Ghost for 1/2 the course.
Duration 5 minutes
Avg Watts: 310
Cadence: 80 rpm (estimate)

Bike #1 Forward independent Pedaling (same tension as day 2 & 3)
Duration: 15 minutes
Cadence: 70

Heart Rate Reactions: 142 Max. Hr./ 136 Avg Hr. 1mra-125, 2mra-101, 3mra-92

Bike #2 Reverse independent Pedaling (same tension as day 2 & 3)
Duration: 15 minutes
Cadence: 70

Heart Rate Reactions: 140 Max. Hr./ 134 Avg Hr. 1mra-113, 2mra-87, 3mra-87

Note*1mra=1 minute recovery average heart rate

Boulder Peak Triathlon Race Report 2009

2009-07-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

For the past 24 hours I've been trying to think about what I would tell my athletes if they had a race like I did at Boulder Peak and how they should react. After taking 8 months off from training, I found myself slow, out of shape, and overweight. Over the last 6 months I've worked hard at dropping the fat, adding muscle and getting my fitness back. I also told myself not to have any pressure on race goals this season. Of course that's complete BS b/c we always want to do our best and when we don't it's disappointing. My goals coming into BPT, and these are stretch goals - but a sub 2:20 race and a top 10 in the AG. I looked at the start list and trust me, I know who wasn't there. There are at least 4 guys I can think of off the top of my head that typically race this race and have gone to Kona, who weren't signed up. I knew the opportunity for a Top 10 was out there. It would take good execution on my part and maybe a 10k run that was a little better than my fitness indicated.

The swim: I started to the left of Dave Sheanin, who I knew would be in the lead pack. But, as it played out at Pelican Fest, he went out slower than me, and I had to look for another set of feet. The guy on my left took off and I jumped on his hip and he pulled me up to Dave's group, which came by a short time later. I only stayed on about 200m before backing off and swimming on my own. I had a train of people on my feet that I unsuccessfully tried to ditch time and again. The first turn buoy was tough to see and I did breast stroke twice to see where the heck I was going. Once I could see the tip of the triangular buoy I was good to go. I made the turn and sighting was easy from here on out. Once I got to the next turn buoy and looked to see how far the last turn buoy was, I knew the swim was long - oh well - that's to my advantage anyway so just keep plugging away. I swam as straight as possible and I made it to the buoy in no time. Once I made the final turn to the finish, I was moving pretty good and I finally ditched those guys on my feet. :) I think maybe one guy in my AG passed me on the swim but that was it. I was out of the water in 7th place in a time of 26:41.

I sprinted up the hill and into T1 -I did see Craig Wilson briefly but he he didn't see me. I got out of T1 quickly and my goal was to get to the top of Olde Stage as fast as I could and if I could make it to the top of Olde Stage without anyone in my AG passing me, I knew that I had a good chance of holding them off until late in the run. I worked the bike hard on the lead up to Olde Stage and I was feeling good. The hills were coming easy, I was staying down on the bars and no one in my AG has passed me yet. Once I crested the top I used the aero dynamics to my advantage and flew down Left Hand, up 36 very quickly and then ripped it down Nelson. At the bottom of Nelson was looking for places to rest and knew this was not a good sign. The hills were still coming easy as I was spinning up them, but my legs knew they were working. I had probably gone too hard at the beginning of the bike, and sometimes it's ok to take chances, and this was definitely one of those times. In order to reach a stretch goal, you have to stretch yourself.

The turn onto the Diagonal Highway was tight with the cones about 2 feet from the edge of the road, but I made it through there without crashing. I was looking forward to the run and seeing what I had left in my legs. Once again the turn onto Jay and then 51st was a demonstration in bike handling skills - but I safely navigated this once again and cruised back to the Res. I swam without a watch, biked without a watch, power meter, HRM, mph etc - I was free of all technology which was a good feeling. I was into the Res in no time cresting that last little bugger of a hill. I always look for signs that my legs are tired, like a lot of lactic acid building up when I stand. This wasn't the case, but my hip flexors were tight - and I knew this might be a problem on the run. My bike time ended up at 1:11:34, good enough for 14th AG and 21.8 mph.

I dismounted quickly and was out onto the run course in 45 seconds. I took the first hill easy and settled into a pace I thought I could maintain until 5k and then the plan was to pick it up. About 1.5 miles in, my legs had other ideas and they just didn't want to move. I wasn't breathing hard, but mentally and physically, I didn't have it. On some days, this is still good enough to reach your goals, but on this day, it wasn't. I chugged along, promising myself I would pick it up at the next aid station, the next hill, the next whatever, but in fact I probably slowed down. I was running a comfortable pace but I just didn't have the energy or ability to run faster than my current HIM Pace.

The last 1/2 mile I was just cruising, looking forward to stopping (!) - really that's all I wanted. Down the hill with 500m to go and two guys in my AG go by me. I don't care at this point - I'm in what 20th place (?) - so I just keep up my 'chug along' pace until the line and I am done, thankfully. My run ended up at 45:05. 7:15 pace and 19th in my AG. A total time of 2:24:54, easily my slowest BPT.

Looking at the results later I see that I am 12th in my AG, and a mere 12 seconds from 10th place. Apparently I was in 10th place coming into the last 1/2 mile, so, I guess letting off the gas wasn't such a good idea. What a knucklehead I am. Oh well. I ended up 70th overall, which may be my best placing at BPT. I know when I was 80th overall in 1999, when I was under 2:15, so either the course is getting longer, I am getting slower, or the competition was a little weak this year. Maybe a combination of all three? ;-)

Lessons learned:
1. Swimming straight is underrated! By swimming straight you can have a pretty good swim time relative to others.
2. Biking too hard is going to hurt your run more than you think, especially when your run fitness isn't what you want it to be.
3. Transitions in Oly and Sprint races MATTER! I had decent transitions (1:37 combined) and I know that helped my race placing.
4. Don't assume you are having a bad race ever. Keep the pedal to the metal and go hard until the finish.
5. If you miss your race goal be a few seconds, and you are really ticked off then do what I did: Take a nap, and then go ride your bike for an hour in a thunderstorm. You'll feel better when you get back!

Why I love triathlon and I am happy to be racing again in 2009:
You ALWAYS learn something new, every season, every race!

Onto the 5430 LC and maybe another HIM this year - I am not letting Sheanin off the hook that easy - I need him to get to 100% again so we can have a fair race :) - so maybe I'll race the Harvest Moon. Thanks for reading!

Races and more races!

2009-07-10T09:00:00.001-07:00

The last few weeks have been great in terms of weather in CO - it's been hot or it's been in the 70s - no real middle ground, but that's great for training if you can line it up so your hard workouts are during the cooler weather and your longer workouts are during the hotter weather.

After KS 70.3 I took some time to recover and absorb the race - my run legs came around quick, and my swimming has maintained but the bike legs have been a bit of a mystery. I can ride at threshold (240w) without breaking a sweat, but I can't get my legs to go faster - weird. Two weeks after KS I raced the Cheyenne Sprint in WY - the objective for this race was to 'blow myself up' - yeah - you read that correctly. :) My coach, Danny Suter, asked me a week before the race: "Have you ever blown up in a race?" My reply: "Nope, not really." Danny's reply was, "Well we need to find your limits!" Ugh, ok. Well I will give it my best! Danny told me to go so hard during the race that I want to go to sleep when the race ended. I think that's how I felt at mile 1 of the run, but I digress. The sprint was 600 swim, 12m bike, 5k run. I took the swim out hard, actually very hard, and maintained this effort until I stood up. I could barely run to T1. Oops, might have overdone it already! Cheyenne is located at 6200 feet - maybe not a big deal for most non-mortals coming from Boulder, but for me it might as well been 9500 feet. So, I staggered into T1, got my wettie off, and proceeded to crush myself on the bike. I stayed aero, kept the chain in the big ring, and went as hard as I possibly could. I didn't look at the clock, watts or anything else. I just went hard. I got passed by one guy- the guy who won the race - he started behind me and I thought I was having a great bike split until I had to look at the avg power in the final mile of the bike: 238 watts. WTF! It felt like 275. I was at a higher altitude so maybe that was a factor? I think so. :) Off the bike I go and onto the run - I am running hard, as hard as I can. First mile feels fast - 6:25 fast - maybe 6:20. I look at my watch 6:50! WTF again. Next mile I have a guy on my heels, he sounds fast, he's light - he wants to pass. I don't let him. I keep him at bay until 2.5 miles. Once he passes I push to keep him in sight. I do. I hit the 3 mile mark and he's still just ahead of me - but he's too far out of reach and he beats me to the tape and nabs 3rd overall (he started behind me too). So, my bike and run stunk - I was probably still tired, but I definitely went as hard as I could. I ended up 8th overall, and won my AG by 4-5 minutes. It was a small race. Don't get me wrong, it feels good anytime you win your AG, but when you don't perform up to your own standards, it's not easy to swallow.

Fast forward to July 4th in Crested Butte (CB). CO. I am on my way up to the town of Gothic (elevation of 9500 feet) on a school bus with 50 other runners - there are about 6 buses in all and we are all going to run the Gothic to CB 8.7m mini-marathon. I get to the start and see some friends from Boulder who are also running - they are all studs, having biked for hours on their mountian bikes. One of my friends, Cathy, even ran UP to the race start - 5 miles uphill! She is training for IMC and I'm sure she'll kill it this year.

The race course rolls for about 3 miles, plummets down for a bit, has a few rollers and then finishes on a slight uphill for the last mile. it starts at 9600 feet and ends at 8500 feet. I ran this race once before back in 2002 - I had biked 7 days across CO that year - and I was pretty trashed but still managed a top 10 overall. We'll see what this race brings today. The gun goes off and I slide over to the left where there is a huge gap and I go. I am running fast and I ignore my Garmin, my HR, and other runners. I take the hills super easy, work the downhill and flat sections and maintain effort, not wanting to spike my HR. Once we hit the downhill I am just going flat out as fast I can can. I go through 4 miles in 29:00, right on 7:15 pace. 'Not bad' I think and I keep it rolling. After mile 4 we hit the bike path which is a biatch and there is no other way to say it. It's all cement, it's steep, it's down, it's back up, it's twisty and it's anything but easy. At about 7 miles, I get passed by two females, one of who I had passed in the beginning of the race. They go by me pretty strong, but I decide to hang on, and just push the effort up a notch. We hit the 8 mile mark and now we are back in town on the streets - thankfully. Solid, straight ground. I push hard to stay with the two women and as we turn the last corner about 200m from the finish, I pass one of the girls and work hard to catch the 2nd girl. I am pushing to my absolute max, but just couldn't get her. She beats me by about 4 secs. Ugh. Overall, I end up 20th and my time is 1:01:47 - 7:02 pace. Once I get home, I look up my 2002 time - oy - 58:40 and 6:40 pace. Looks like I have some work to do! After the race I am sore for days and days. I swim, bike and I run very easy to loosen up. Finally a good whirlpool and massage make me feel normal again. So...

On the 9th of July, I jump into the Boulder Stroke and Stride race - 750m swim / 5k run. My only objective is to correct my swim navigation problems that plagued me at the KS and WY races. I do a short swim warm up since I won't be running hard tonight - my plan is to cap the HR at 140. The gun goes off and I start out fast, pull up next to a guy, get on his hip and then he falls off pace. I push on, sighting, pulling, staying on course and working my way through the wave of swimmers in front of me. Finally I break free of the crowd at the 2nd turn buoy and head back to shore - except - except I cant' see anything! The run has pretty much made everything one big bright glare frosted donut - ugh. I swim in the general vicinity of the finish and eventually I can make out an orange flag on the beach. Phew I am on course. :) I stand up and look at my watch - 12:31 WTF? - I figure I am top 10 out of the water -I walk up to transition - and take off my wettie and put on my shoes and Garmin - it turns out I am in about 3rd or 4th place. I start the run easy - my HRM says my HR is 154, so I back it off. I run easy to the top of the hill and then focus on keeping the HR down, under 140. I can tell 140 isn't going to happen so my goal is 150 - that's 10-12 beats below LT and keep it there. This takes discipline, especially as people pass me on the run. Ugh. I go through mile 1 at 7:22 and half way in 11:27. I keep the HR in check and end up running 23:19 overall - avg HR 152 (right on the money!) and I end up 8th overall. I did a 2 mile cool down with Melissa, ate some pizza and went home. Good day of training.

Up NEXT: Boulder Peak Triathlon - July 12th

After that: 5430LC and then some time to get back on the Power Cranks and more running.

Thanks to all my supporters:
Craig at Max Muscle Boulder, Danny Suter at BPN, and Infinit Nutrition!

Until next time,
Mike

Kansas 70.3 Race Report 2009

2009-06-17T11:02:00.001-07:00

Kansas 70.3 Race Report

The Kansas 70.3 Half Ironman marked my first long distance race since August 2007, when I had raced at the 5430 Long Course. I took eight months off from swimming and cycling from April 2008 to January 1st 2009. I probably ran about 20 miles a week for a few months, but then going some months with no training whatsoever. I was trying to get healed from a bike/car accident in March 2008, and hopefully I am close to 100% at this point. I still have some reminders of the accident, like a stiff back every couple days, but for the most part I feel as good as a 40+ year old male can. Or should I say a 40+ year old male who chases a soon to be 2 year old around on a daily basis. This activity wears me out more than training ever will. ;-)

Going into this Half Ironman I was being conservative in my estimate of my expectations, and honestly, I had no idea what to expect! My swimming had been going well, but I had only done a handful of hard workouts. My running was going well, but I was averaging about 20 miles a week of running, so really, I had no idea what I could run. The bike miles have been pathetic and I changed up how I trained over the winter to see if I could offset the lack of training. This past winter I added in some power crank workouts on the bike, Tabata Intervals, and dead lifts. I don’t know if any one thing made a difference but something allowed me to bike post a decent bike split with limited cycling mileage. Since Jan 1st my averages were as follows: 8 hours per week of training broken down into 5300 swim yards per week, 49 miles per week on the bike, and 20 miles per week on the run. I also average 1 hour per week for weight training. This was going to be interesting indeed.

Race morning was pretty normal but I did wake up with a different attitude than I went to bed with. Of course the pre-race meal of pizza, coke and ice cream helped me load up calorie wise and enjoying dinner with Grant, Matt, Nick, Ashley and Todd made me very relaxed.
Per usual I was into and out of T1 early. I had the pleasure of having 5-time World Champion Simon Lessing zip up my wetsuit. How cool was that? When our wave was called I moved out to the start line and lined up with the inside buoys. When the gun went off I took off easy and was 3rd in my AG to the first buoy, but I soon swam to the right and was off course. This was a problem I would repeat over and over. UGH. I don’t start my watch on the swim anymore – it just doesn’t matter and it causes way too much stress. I swam what I swam and why worry about it. I was out of T2 quickly, held up briefly by the 45 year old who wanted to walk his bike in front of me, when I kept shouting, ‘Can I get by? Please move – can I get buy?’ – but to no avail. Of course the same fellow hammered up the first hill and once we go to the top, blew to smithereens. Red lining the first few minutes of a 56 mile bike isn’t actually optimal. :-)

Surprisingly, the bike went real well for me on race day. In the 10 days leading up to the race I did 3 x 3+ hour rides to get a little aerobic boost. I wasn’t lacking for endurance at all which was a good sign. I ended all those rides at 18.5 mph and around 185 watts. I figured on race day a 2:55 was possible. What changed was that when I woke up at 2am on Sunday morning I asked myself why I thought I was going to ride 2:55 when I had ridden all the hard courses out there and 2:42 was probably my norm. I’ve had a few low 2:30s and even one 2:29, but worst case scenario should be 2:42 for me. I knew that was 21mph or so. So, I rode by feel. I watched my watts and even kept them down on the uphills, but at 45 minutes into the race I was still averaging right at my threshold (253 NP), which was a bit unsettling. My goal going into the race was to ride at about 200-210 watts! I thought I was going to blow up after 40 miles but I felt good and kept on keeping on. I kept the watts around 220 for the remainder of the ride and it turns out I averaged 218 NP for the final 1:51 (38 miles)- right on track. At 35 miles I even decided to push a little harder to see if I could hold the watts above 220 for my overall average. I ended the ride passing and re-passing a few people I know and even came into T2 pretty mellow: small chain ring, lots of spinning and thinking about a quick transition and being light on my feet for the run. My total bike time was 2:42:34 and my watts were 229NP. I had to take a quick potty stop in T2, but I was out and onto the run course in 1:47.

Once on the run, I had Ashley Walker (one of our CU Tri Team Members) as a carrot and Amy Kuitse (one of the D3 coaches) ahead of her. I passed Amy around mile 1 and we started chatting and we were pushing each other a tad too hard as we went through 2 miles at 6:45 pace (!). Yikes – I just ran a 5k off the bike two weeks ago at 6:38 pace. So, I backed off, Amy backed off and Ashley kept on trucking. I left Amy at about mile 4 and I went through 5 miles in 36:00 (7:12 pace). I picked up the pace slightly and re-passed Ashley at mile 6 or so, went through 10 miles in 1:11:20 or 35:00 for the 2nd 5 miles (around 7:09 pace overall). The last 5k is where I like to put down the hurt and that is what I tried to do. But my watch was telling me different. I was tying up quite a bit – not leaning, not pushing off my back foot, but trying to pick up my leg – I was all over the place form wise. So, I just focused on my breathing and going as hard as I could. With 1.5 miles to go we hit our last turn-around. I looked for Amy and didn’t see her. Uh-oh, what happened to her? Well, not soon after I thought that, I heard a sweet voice in my left ear say, ‘Come one Mike, keep working, good job, keep going’ – yep – it was Amy – going by me like I was standing still. I kept her in sight as best I could, but there was no catching her. She went on to finish 3rd in her AG – even with the recent knee problems she’s had. Congrats Amy! You are so incredibly tough! I struggled the last mile, pushing hard for a 1:35 run split that was once in the bag – but it wasn’t to be. I ended up at 1:37:31 or 7:26 pace. I crossed the finish line and just took a moment to breathe in the finish line – all the pain I went through to get there – the physical and mental struggles of the past year – how I wasn’t sure I had the desire to race anymore , or even if I liked training at all.

I can tell you without question the encouragement I got from Amy, Ashley, the CU crew at mile 4, Owen Hammond (1:22 run split!), Gabe, Jordan, Drew (4:40 as 19 year old!), Grant, Matt (2:29 bike split!), David, Lyndsey, Ray, and many others, it was really FUN to be racing again. I missed it and I can’t wait to do it again!

Although triathlon is an individual sport, it’s been about T-E-A-M for me in so many ways these past 8 months. The CU Tri Team, which I have the privilege of coaching, has inspired me to get my butt back in shape. Thank YOU TEAM! Special 'Thanks' to Dan and Jordan for asking me to coach the Team. Thanks to Mel and Hope for supporting me in every way possible. Thanks to Michael Folan at Infinit – their product is 2nd to none. Craig at Boulder Max Muscle has helped me fine tune my nutrition and its getting better each week. Thanks Craig! Danny Suter at Boulder Performance Net has taught me how to deadlift – and I have every reason to believe that my strength on the bike Sunday is a direct result of the thousands of dead lifts I did over the fall and winter. Danny pushed me to a new pain threshold each week and to that I am grateful. Danny also keeps me from doing stupid things. Thanks Danny!

Keep On Fighting the Good Fight!
Mike

Power Cranking up the Watts

2009-05-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

Since my last post, I've traveled a bit and have missed some training time, so I've made the most of what time I've had. I got one 3 hour ride in, right before I completely blew to pieces the next day where a 25 minute run and 30 minutes PC session just about killed me. This was the week of Collegiate Nationals and it was going to be an easy week anyway - too much travel (10 hour drive each day) and work to be done. We did pretty well at Nats by the way: http://www.coloradotriathlete.com/articles/09/2009_collegiate_colorado_triathlon_team_01.html - I did end up with a head cold from lack of rest and a cold swim in 52F degree water. So, my taper into St Anthony's wasn't really taper. I had a pretty solid day on Wednesday with a 2 hour ride, lifting session and 5x3' LT efforts on the run. The week after St. A's was a solid one and I started to feel more like myself. On Thursday I dared to TT the intimidating Olde Stage Road - time was 11:47 with a Normalized Power of 284 watts. So, even though it was only 11+ minutes, I saw this as a step in the right direction. Saturday was a solid ride, and even though it was in the rain, I pushed some decent watts - I think my best 60 minutes somewhere around 200+ watts. Not back to the old levels, but far from the 170s of the last few months. Sunday was a 2 hour run, and that seemed to go well. On Monday and Wednesday, I was wiped out. Tuesday was a ride with CU Tri Team that was 2x20' at Zone 3 effort. I managed 220 watts and 216 watts for these two efforts. I thought it was pretty easy and felt encouraged. On Thursday, I attempted the BTC TT and that went 'ok' - I averaged 268 watts over 18+ minutes on a rolling course. The important piece was that I raced the entire TT on the aerobars, in the big ring, and my time may have suffered, but I know I got stronger from this effort. Friday was a swim, that as much as I tried, I couldn't break 4:30 for my 300s - usually a lay up for me. I knew I was tired, but until I tried my run intervals on Saturday morning, I didn't know just how tired I was! I could NOT get my HR up, and it took a lot of effort to go 4:00 for my 1k repeats. So, after 5 reps, I ran home and called it a day. On Sunday I ran 90' and it was a real struggle - my legs were tired, but my mind was just not into it. Monday I rode 2 hours - up and over the backside of Lee Hill Road - again, nothing really in the tank and I called it good before I even got home! I stopped at Proto's Pizza - ordered up a Medium Pontiff and ate the entire thing in about 6 minutes. I got back on my bike and coasted home. Well, that's where I am with training. This week (5/14) I am in Costa Rica - trying to learn to surf! I am having fun, taking a break from training and learning something new!

Observations from Months of PowerCranking

2009-05-05T08:12:00.001-07:00

I have been riding the Powercranks exclusively since around October of 2008. This means that I have only been training on the PC's - no locked out cranks. I have put in some big rides (over 90 miles), some 25 mph+ group rides, and some 250+ mile weeks on the cranks. I am telling you this partially just to brag, but, mostly, to qualify the advice that I am going to write in this post

I realize there's a ton of message board debate about the Powercranks. In my opinion, all internet debaters would be best served to get off the internet and get on the bike. Try biking consistent 250 mile weeks on the Powercranks before you pontificate on their effectiveness.

I normally like to provide a lot of details and reasons for my advice (see my blog at freybird.blogspot.com). However, in this post I will provide just a few reasons to support my mostly undocumented advice and experience on the Powercranks.

1) The PowerCranks will help you fine tune your bike fit.

The process of relearning the circular pedal stroke made me move my seat forward and down a few milimeters. I had a finely tuned fit before the cranks (I have a custom Spectrum road bike), the crank changed my pedal stroke for the better which made me alter the fit.

2) Powercranks will make your butt stronger than ever.

The PowerCranks force you to use you butt when you pedal. Even though I am down in weight and my waist is smaller than it was in October 2008, in May 2009 my pants are tighter. This is because my ass is visibly bigger.

3) Biking uphill on the Powercranks is easier than biking uphill on regular cranks.

I have no reason or data to support this claim. All I know is my Rate of Percieved Exertion on a climb is lower when I am riding the Powercranks than when I am riding regular cranks.

4) PowerCranks make you feel like a bigshot.

It is a great feeling to pass people when riding the cranks. They feel demoralized when they realize that you passed them while essential biking one-legged.

5) PowerCranks will improve your running.

I dropped 2 minutes between 2008 and 2009 on my 5K time. In 2008 I was running around 30 miles/week, and in 2009 I have been running about 5 miles/week. Based on pictures and based on my feel, I have a much higher kick with my heels now, and I also have better running posture/lean.

6) You need to hug the tup tubes with your knees

I see pros cycle this way all the time...

The only way for me to cycle effectively and pain-free with the powercranks is to hug the top tube with my knees.

7) It's All Tears by H.I.M is a frickin' awesome song.

This doesn't have anything to do with PowerCranks, but the song rocks.

First Ride on PowerCranks

2009-04-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

First ride on the PowerCranks today. I installed the PowerCranks on my tri-bike as I am doing a lot of riding on my road bike. My idea is to get good riding the PC's in the aero position. Little did I know that PC recommends keeping a more open hip angle when you are first learning to ride them.

Photo: The set-up.

PowerCranks are independent drive cranks. It is like doing 1-leg drills with both legs at the same time. The idea is to present the down-stroke leg from helping out the recovery leg. I tell you my recovery leg has been getting some help in the past!

Photo: Riding PowerCranks in the aerobars. I was only able to ride about 1 minute in the aerobars at a time. The manual recommends working with low cadence and open hip angle first, then moving towards higher cadence and aeroposition later.

Video: First few moments on the PowerCranks.

You will notice in this first video that even though I am pedalling and moving, my timing is clearly off. I think that timing has a lot to do with riding these crazy things successfully.

Video: Getting a little better.

I have heard that many riders cannot ride for more than 5-10 minutes on PowerCranks for the first time. So I decided to go for a 1+ hour ride. I went out for a very beautiful ride in the Nashville Riverbend area with my fiance Susan. She took the above videos.

Photo: Lovely fiance Susan.

She also put up with my complaining by the end of the ride about how tired I was. Yes it was true, but the end of this ride I was pretty much cashed. Aerobically I was still fine, but my legs were hurting. That makes sense, because I am trying to improve my neuromuscular pattern and efficiency using PowerCranks.

Photo: My face by the end of the ride.

Addendum: As I finish this post I have just received a massage. My hip flexors are tired. I am looking forward to more and will report it here.

Stephen Taylor
Endurance Coach and Fitness Trainer
Nashville, TN
www.STtrainer.com
E-mail: triathletepro@gmail.com

Boggs 8 hour race report

2009-04-07T20:39:00.001-07:00

So, I know my race reports are a little different than the detailed training reports that a lot of authors post here, but isn't the result of PowerCrank training worth mentioning too?

As has become my custom, I trained nearly exclusively on PowerCranks two weeks prior to the race and tapered off and re-integrated my normal bike on the week of the race. Training on the cranks includes hills... lots and lots of hills. This is fantastic training because it gives me the opportunity to spin a fast cadence up the climbs and to push a big gear with a slow cadence going back down.

Here's the race report from another Blog. For those of you not interested in the details, here are the important points: 8 hour mountain bike race, 9-10 lap, 90% singletrack, 1300ft elevation per lap, I rode 11 laps, I won the Pro class and set a course record. For more details, read on...

Last week was a whirlwind of road trips, familiar faces, beuatiful weather, and dang good mountain bike racing! I loaded the car up on tuesday night with bikes, food, tons of clothing, extra helmets, shoes, lights, this, that, the other thing, blah blah blah… You all know the routine. It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it when it comes to bike racing.
So, after my ride on Wednesday, Alicia (my girlfriend) and I started on our voyage toward Sacramento. The War Wagon (my 1993 Subaru Legacy Wagon) flew up I-5 for the next 8 hours and brought us safely to Fair Oaks for some Adalberto’s burritos and a good night’s sleep at my mom’s new house. Thursday was all about getting the bikes set up and ready for Saturday’s race. New bikes are wonderful, but they always need some tweaking before the first race. It was super cool to go ride the road bike in the stomping grounds around Folsom for a few hours on Thursday, made me miss Norcal something terrible!
After hanging out Friday morning we contemplated staying in Nevada City that night and driving to the race first thing on Saturday morning. However, after realizing that it was roughly a 3 hour drive we decided camping at the race Friday night was the best bet and we left for the race around 6:30pm. Nothing like setting up camp in the dark! Thankfully my tent is so simple that a trained monkey could put it together… So I only had a little trouble with it. Ha ha ha.
Race morning came too fast and the start came even quikcer. I was runnin late putting all of my ducks in a row and I rolled up to the start line about 25 seconds before Carlos said “GO!”. Who needs a warm up at an 8 hour race? I kept the leaders in my sights for the first few miles, I had told myself that I didn’t want to go out too quickly and blow up. Without a warm up of any kind, I didn’t want to push too hard to keep at the very front of the pack this early on, but by the end of the first lap, I found myself in the lead group of 4 with fellow Sobe/Cannondale (now Cannondale Factory) rider Kevin Smallman, and two very fast (like, really very fast) riders from Content Works, Matt Chaney and Jim Hewitt. I’ve raced against Matt a bunch of times, usually in the single speed class at various events. I don’t think I’ve ever raced head to head with Jim before this, he’s usually winning a different class (gears) while I’m pushing my SS around the course. The same goes for Kevin, I’ve been at events with him before, but never really raced with him. I knew that all three of them were extremely good riders and with 8 hours to race, other fast guys could certainly emerge from the pack of riders behind us. It’s tough to tell how things will turn out after only 45 minutes of racing!
For the next 3 or 4 laps I was unable to really get a gap on the other three riders, though I wasn’t trying to sprint away. I would pick up a little time on the climbs and they’d pick me back up on the descents… Gotta put more time in on the MTB! At the start of the third lap, Kevin took a spill and had some technical problems as a result which is a darn shame because he was riding really well and I think it may have turned into a friendly slug fest towards the end of the race. Then, not too long after that; maybe lap 4 or 5, Matt and Jim just sort of weren’t there anymore. I fully expected them to come back on some descending sections and by the end of the lap, I was still alone.
I didn’t see this as an opportunity to ease up on the pace, I just kept pushing. I actually wasn’t feeling that great at some point in the race. I can’t remember which lap it was, but it was relatively early and I felt as though I was starting to lose my rhythm. A nice PB&J burritio took care of that though and I was racing with a purpose once more. I was getting the gap times as I came through the pits and I wasn’t putting substantial time into my opponents which was understandable as my opponents are super fast and experienced racers. I’ll admit that I was a little worried at points that if I got to the end of the race with only a few minutes on the next guy, he still might be able to pull me back on the last lap or two…
Then, I asked for the gap on what must have been lap eight or so and suddenly my advantage was 20 minutes! I was suprised to hear such good news, and I didn’t trust it. Once again, I didn’t see this as an opportunity to slow up at all, I just kept pushing in case there had been a mistake and my opponents were really nipping at my heals. Everything was beginning to hurt now, but this was the point in the race where I could start counting down laps and reminding myself that I only had to grunt up this or that climb 3 more times, then two more times, and so on.
I kept grunting up those climbs and eating PB&J burritos until I could finally say to myself, “this is the last time you have to go up this hill!” My pit had confirmed the gap at half an hour as I started out on my last lap. I wasn’t quite sure how to approach the lap. Sure, now I could probably relax a little and take some time to enjoy the lap, but I still didn’t feel comfortable in letting my gaurd down just in case one of the other guys got some sort of second wind. I also wasn’t completely sure how the grace period worked at this race. There’s nearly always a grace period after the actual 8 hr (or 12, or 24) for you to complete your last lap and I’d heard that this race gave us a full hour to finish up. That meant that laps had to be completed by 5:30 instead of 4:30. This worried me because I was probably going to finish up not too long after the eight hour mark, but if one of the other guys picked up the pace, they might come in soon enough after that they still had time to go out for another lap before the 5:30 cutoff….
What I failed to realize was that final laps had to be started before 4:30 and finished by 5:30 at the latest. So, since I was going to come in after 4:30, this was absolutely my last lap, and it was certainly everyone else’s last lap as well. I didn’t realize any of this while riding my final lap though, so I kept moving at a decent clip. I wasn’t pushing quite as hard as other laps, but I didn’t want to slack off too much either. I also caught up to Kevin on my final lap and we got to ride together for a few miles once more.
I came down the final descent unsure of whether I’d need to complete another lap. I was relieved to find that I was done and my win was certain. I was super stoked to hear that I had set the course record too! After chatting it up for a few with some Mad Catz and Breakouts, it was time for some civilian clothing and some hot food. There was a huge Sacto/Gold Country showing at this race, I almost felt like we were hanging out after a Prarie City race while we were waiting for awards to go down.
The day was a huge success. Thank you Jim and Alicia for being an awesome pit crew, I didn’t even need to get off my bike the whole race! You guys rock!
11 laps, eight hours and seven minutes. 9 or 10 miles per lap?

Body Fat Update and Power Cranking to Coach Troy

2009-03-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update - we are getting buried in snow today so I had a few extra seconds to post a second time this week. I am working with Craig at Max Muscle Boulder and my body fat numbers continue to drop. I went from 15.6 ro 13.6 to 12.6 this week (that original 23% I posted was wrong, thank GOD!). That's a nice improvement for the good guys - I have also put on 7 lbs of muscle since our first assessment on 2/17. I think the dead lifts are helping really burn up some stored fat. I still need to lose about 6# to get to race weight, but I am working hard on the nutrition side as well as the strength training. This week I am going to up the ante by using some Coach Troy videos and the power cranks - I may only last 10 minutes, but I'm willing to give this a shot. One of my athletes who qualified for Kona last year swears by this routine. You know the guy; you give him 5x6' at LT and he goes out and does an hour long Coach Troy video - I guess it worked for him! More important than the improvement on the bike was the improvement on the run! He went from a 3:23 in LP in 07 to a 3:11 at IMCDA in 08. I think power cranks had a LOT to do with that. We'll find out as I try this out for myself. I'll report back next week!

Let the Race Season Begin

2009-03-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

I am in AZ this weekend - having just raced the Lake Havasu Sprint Triathlon. The CU Tri Team was racing their Regional Championship this weekend, against the likes of New Mexico, ASU, Uof A, BYU, CSU and some other schools. I've been coaching the CU Team since early November and the Team has responded well to the training we've been doing. The Team exceeded my expectations with some incredible race times.

The Men's Team took 1st, 3rd, 7th, 9th, and 11th overall. The Women's Team took 1, 2 and 11th overall. I have to admit, that's a pretty good performance. We won the Men's, Women's and Overall Team Titles. The Team has worked hard over the past few months and they rewarded this weekend with some great racing. I think we had 12 or more first time finishers - and some of them even won AG awards or placed very high for the Team. I think we have a great nucleus for years to come. We have a lot of work to do before Nationals on April 18 but the Team loves to work hard and hasn't shied away from anything I've asked them to do.

Personally, my race went well - I was 4th out of the water in my AG and then went as hard as I could on the bike. The coure was hilly and tried to keep my effort consistent but hard. I got off the bike hoping I could run a decent 5k. The run is definitely a strength course - it starts out with a short jaunt through some beach sand - maybe 200 yards worth, and then run up the 50 or so steps to the London Bridge. I took the run out easy until the top of the steps, then pushed the effort up a few notches, leaving another gear for the return leg. I passed one person in my AG close to the turn around, and then saw two more bearing down on me, so I picked up the pace as best I could on the return leg. I neg split the run by 34 seconds which is about 20 secs a mile. I pushed hard to the finish and was able to catch one younger competitor in the wave ahead of me. I encouraged him to run in with me and we ran shoulder to shoulder until we hit the sand section again and I was able to open a gap up and finish ahead of him by a few seconds. It was great to be racing again after an almost 12 month hiatus. I forgot about how much a Sprint hurts and how much I enjoyed the pain. The last 12 months have been the hardest of my life emotionally and physically but this past month, I've felt as though I've turned the corner.

I am looking forward to the 2009 race season!

Neuromuscular Adaptation and Powercranks

2009-03-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

My name is Frey, and I was a blogger on the original powercranks blog at the powercranks.com website. I am transferring some of my older posts to this updated, blogger-version of the powercranks blog. This post was originally published on 11/9/08.

The highlight of the week was a 38 mile ride on the powercranks. I killed this on Sunday, and I felt surprisingly strong! The first few rides on the powercranks, I could barely pedal for 2 straight minutes.

I attribute this rapid increase in powercranking ability to gains in neuromuscular efficiency. Eric Cressey, author of the Maximum Strength Program, describes neuromuscular efficiency as follows,

Neuromuscular efficiency is a broad term that refers to the contribution of brain-muscle communication to strength performance... If you think of the brain's role in muscle contractions as being like that of a drill sargent commanding a platoon of muscle fibers to contract, then this increase in neural drive is like turning up the volume from a whisper to a shout.

The powercrank movement is a completely new activity for me, so the connection between my brain and my powercranking fibers had been weak - my brain had never needed to activate those posterior chain muscles while cycling before. Now that the powercranks force me to use the quads and hamstrings more, my body is getting used to telling those muscles to fire during the pedal stroke. My body is using those muscles more efficiently, so the powercranking is rapidly becoming easier. Gains in neuromuscular efficiency can happen more quickly than gains in muscular strength, and gains in neuromuscular efficiency can happen independent of gains in muscular strength.

Tabata and Nutrition

2009-03-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

Over the last two weeks I have implemented some Tabata intervals into my program. I have done this workout 3 times over the last 2 weeks so far. The protocol can be found here: http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/tabataintervals.html -but the general principle is to go as hard as you can for 20 secs, rest 10 secs and repeat 8x. Pure pain at it's best. In 4 minutes, you can really get in a very tough workout. In addition to adding this workout to my schedule, I have also started swimming intervals again - the first time since last March. I took 8 months pretty much off after mid-April last year. Even looking at my paltry 8 hours a week for training, some might consider me still in the off-season. :) The swimming has been going well - I started the first week with 6x100 - 2 on 1:45, 1:40, 1:35. The next week I did 9 on the same send offs, and then I did 6 on 1:40 and 6 on 1:35 in the 3rd week. On week 4 I did 4x100 on 1:35, 4x200 (2 on on 3:20 and 3:15)) and another 4x100 on 1:35. My only goal on these workouts was to keep the pace under 1:30, which I have been able to maintain. Today's main set I decided to step it up to 8x200 (2 on 3:15, 3:10, 3:05, 3:00). I made them all, but barely! I only see upside with my swimming and fitness in general.

I do this workout on Wednesday's and follow that immediately with a super intense weight training session at Functional Fitness with this guy who owns this company. Danny is a great guy and he took a guy like me with no formal weight training experience and has made me SUPER STRONG this winter - I was struggling with 125 lbs on the dead lift before Christmas and now we are up to 235 in my max sets. Maybe this won't translate to being faster, but the numbers I am seeing on my Compu Trainer Step Test and Tabata intervals tells me otherwise.

Typically in February, my Step Test wattage maxes out around 240-250. This winter I was at 300 watts on my last 2 minute step. If that's my starting point for the season, I'll take it. :) I haven't been riding much (under 200 miles for 2008) so once I get the miles rolling I am sure the watts will go up.

Lastly, I have been working with Craig at Max Muscle Boulder. Craig has put a nutrition plan together for me and I am seeing results in only 2 weeks. We did a body fat test two weeks ago - and I am someone who doesn't do well with caliper tests - probably b/c of my thick Italian skin - so I typically score a few points higher than what I do on a hydrostatic test. Well 2 week ago Craig measured me at 15.6% BF. Lean, mean and ready to race I typically sit at 7-8%. So, I was still in 'fat boy who took 8 months off from training' mode. In two weeks, I've lowered my body fat to 13.6% and I've seen better energy for my workouts. The best sign of improvement is when I put on my 'fat boy' jeans and they are starting to fall off me!

This week's goal is keep on the training and to even try the Tabata intervals on the power cranks - with my ultimate goal being able to make it through a Coach Troy DVD on the PCs by April 15th.

Keep on trucking!
Mike
d3multisport.com

New user of Powercranks

2009-03-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody,
I am new on the powercranks blog. So I want to write some words about me and the use of powercranks.

I am starting my second season at the pro level with the BMC Racing Team. Powercranks interest me because I have a displasy. My left legs has less power than the other and I hope that the use of powercranks can help me!

I start this new kind of training last november. Most of the time on the trainer. It's certainly easier to improve his ability on the trainer. The 2 first week I trained twice a week (about 30 minutes) with the powercranks. During the rest of the winter I used it at the end of a long training (about 4h) about 40 more minutes! It's very hard when you are getting tired!

This training confirm what I knew! My left legs has some trouble to keep going like the right one!

During the last winter I did a lot of workout in the gym and on the powercranks. After 2 months of using pc I did a new test to compare my 2 legs. The guy who test me was impressed! Almost the same strenght in both legs!

Since January I use the pc less because I had of lot of training camp in other countries. But when I am at home I am still training with the powercranks!

In the future I will try to train with the powercranks outside...when the weather will be a bite better...it's still not the case in Switzerland!!!

Good season for everybody
Steve Bovay, BMC Racing Team

The Benefits of Powercranks for Weightlifters

2009-02-23T13:39:00.000-08:00

My name is Frey, and I was a blogger on the original powercranks blog at the powercranks.com website. I am transferring some of my older posts to this updated, blogger-version of the powercranks blog. This post was originally published on 12/11/08.

I have a few very important points to make in regards to the benefits of Powercranks for weightlifters:

1) First, the facts. Since beginning Powercranks, my Front Squat has improved from 155lbs to 205lbs (a 32% improvement). My Deadlift has gone from 305lbs to 355lbs (16% improvement). My box squat has gone from 175lbs to 215lbs (a 23% improvement). During the same time frame, my bench press has gone from 205lbs to 225lbs (a 10% improvement), and my chinup has gone from doing bodyweight plus 25lbs to bodyweight plus 40lbs (a 16% improvement). In conclusion, the average improvement for my lower body exercises has been 24%, and average improvement for upper body exercises is 13%. This is over a 2 month period.

2) There has been a tremendous amount of internet discussion about the Powercranks, and this discussion usually focuses on 'proving' whether Powercranks are more effective for cycling training than is training on regular cranks. Proponents of the PC's say that they've experienced big gains in their cycling while using the cranks. Opponents of the PC's say that these gains don't prove anything. The reason these people have improved, say the opponents, is because they've been training, and any training leads to improvement.

3) The powercranks train the posterior chain like no other training technique. They also hit the hipflexors hard. There's no debating this. Also, big, heavy, barbell lower body exercises (such as the deadlift, front squat, and box squat) demand a strong posterior chain.

4) During a two month period, the average improvement in my lowerbody lifts was 24%, and the average improvement in my upper body lifts was 13%.

My case study suggests that weightlifting with supplemental powercranking can lead to bigger gains in the weightroom than weightlifting without supplemental powercranking. Were the powercranking not doing anything special, it would seem that my lowerbody improvements would be similar to my upper body improvements.

Even if you don't this my data supports my conclusion, you have to admit that a 26% improvement in lowerbody lifts over a 2 month period is f-ing awesome work.

My case study does not prove anything about cycling improvements, however.

On the anecdotal side, I can feel a significant relative strength improvement in my posterior chain compared to my quadriceps. For example, when I sit into a squat, I can feel my glutes and hamstrings firing atleast as hard (or perhaps harder) than my quads, whereas before using the PC's, I felt little action in the glute/hamstring complex.

Basically, if you're a weightlifter interested in becoming less of a wuss, you need a stronger posterior chain. The PC's will kick that chain into gear and make you less of wuss.

Frey is a triathlon author, athlete, and coach. A former NCAA basketball player, swimmer, and cyclist, he competes at the highest level of triathlon, and he coaches beginners, weekend warriors, and elite athletes. He is 24 years old. Check out his blog at freybird.blogspot.com.

Winter 2009 Baseline Numbers

2009-02-23T13:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, so after many months of trying to get myself untracked, I think I have accomplished that. Where to start - I am unfit and I am overweight - both are true statements. Here is the skinny:
I had a body fat test done with Craig at Boulder Muscles Max last week - using calipers - these aren't my favorite ways of measuring body fat but as long as the measuring technique is consistent, I am ok with that. I do prefer a water based test or a DEXA Machine - both of which I've done in the past. Craig measured me at 23% which is a lifetime high, I am sure. The highest I've ever been with a caliper test is 17% or so. With the water based test, I've been as high as 14% and in September I did the Dexa test - and I came in at 18%. I weigh about 174 which is about 6 pounds over race weight. Not really a big deal in terms of pounds, but it's not about the pounds as much as its about what type of pounds they are. When I was very fit - mid 7's for body fat, I had about 11 pounds of body fat. Right now, let's say the body fat is approaching my age! So, lots of fat to lose and lots of muscle to put on.

Speaking of, my weight training sessions have been going awesome. I bumped up again last week on my dead lifts - I'm over 200# now and I am feeling stronger.

I did a CT Step Test last week and my results were good for February. A step test is where you raise the watts every 2 minutes (by 20 watts). I thought I would bottom out at 240 watts, but I managed to make it to 280 watts, which was surprising.

I also did a swim test today which was 15:33 - about 1:33 per 100 - about as slow as I've seen in many years. Going back to 2002, I can't find anything over 14:45, so I have some work to do in the pool.

Running - I'll leave that test to this week. Yesterday I did my hellacious Sanitas, North Cedar Brook run in 1:29.09 - only a minute off my best ever. Quite crazy to see that time, but I was working hard and I feel it today. My legs are sore for sure.

Last week I also rode the PCs twice - once before warm up for the CT Step Test and again before I rode my Tabata intervals - 8x20" as hard as you can, 10" recovery. I averaged just under 300 (299) for the 4 minutes. My 20" efforts averaged around 360 so not a total loss of power. I am giving the credit to the weight training. I'll be on the PCs again today and then I'll hit the 8x20" on/10" off again - hopefully I'll break 300 watts for the 4 minutes. :)

I'll keep updating on my nutrition progress as well as my 2009 fitness - I have a long way to go, but this is actually fun. I haven't been this out of shape before and it's a good challenge to try and get back to 165# and 6:15 a mile off the bike for OLY distance.

Cheers,
Mike
d3multisport.com

Potency of PowerCranks...

2009-02-14T22:29:00.000-08:00

POTENCY OF POWERCRANKS
By Kenneth Lundgren

I remember racing Bear Mountain Fall 2005. A breakaway of four went up the road. On the final lap, one of the riders, Ryan Morris of Cornell University, had flatted, and we picked him up road-side. Two more guys were scooped up, leaving only Dan Zmolik up the road, able to stay away for the victory.

In the downhill sprint, Morris, off the front for most of the race, was STILL able to take the sprint for 2nd. Pretty. Damn. Impressive. It was apparent that when Morris flatted, the horsepower of that break flattened, too…

I raced with him a month later in Rhode Island at the Jamestown Classic. We got into an early breakaway, and man this kid could ride! We were caught mid-way, a rider soloed off, and in the final sprint – you got it – this kid Morris took the sprint for 2nd! He had a very fluid, effortless pedal stroke, able to power in TT-mode for long stretches, and he could also sprint…

In May 2006 I found myself in a 2-man break with him at the Hollenbeck Road Race, Cornell’s home race. We hammered for 44 miles, and this kid just did not seem to tire. He crushed me in the steep uphill finish, putting 11 seconds into me in less than 200 feet. Afterwards, we got to talking, and he told me of his training secret…

As an engineering major at Cornell, Morris was thinking of inventing the ultimate training tool: independent cranks. But then he realized they already existed: POWERCRANKS. Morris was on them immediately, riding them a ton, and in less than two years, he went from being a Cat-5 to Cat-1 and one of the top time-trialists in America.

Purchasing a set of PowerCranks, second only to a power meter, is where you should put your money if looking to improve performance. Carbon frames, aerodynamic wheels, lighter pedals, hugely expensive wind-tunnel testing, the latest 10-speed groupset – these things should not be your ticket to getting faster. PowerCranks offer a plethora of benefits: they teach you how to pedal more efficiently, strengthen your core, strengthen your legs, help you maximize your strength, and teach you how to best fit on the bike…

PowerCranks force you to pedal each leg independently. When you get on the bike, both crank arms are hanging down. You clip in and must pedal each leg individually, picking your leg up and pedaling in complete circles – there is no fixed bottom bracket holding the cranks together in a 180° position. You can pedal one leg at time, both legs at the same time. The moment you stop pedaling, both legs fall to the down position. Most guys who get on them either want to not ride them again, sell them, or can do only 5-20 minutes at a time. You usually ride very slowly and the cadence is very, very low – most likely you find the 11 and keep it there! You are hitting new muscles you never hit before and simply do not have the ability to keep picking your foot up…

But if you stick with it, PowerCranks will help you create the perfect pedal stroke. Let’s break down the pedaling action: your hamstrings are not only used on the upstroke. As you’re pedaling down, you should already be pulling back. There is a lot of hamstring in the downstroke. If you can access this large muscle in your downstroke, you will increase power.

As you get to the bottom of the downstroke, Greg LeMond’s advice from the 1980s remains the best and most succinct: “Scrape the mud off the bottom of your shoe.” Never will you feel like you’re scraping mud off the bottom of your shoe as much as when you are PowerCranking…

The upstroke is primarily a hip flexor and hamstring effort. One way to improve your pedal stroke, without using PowerCranks or doing pedaling efficiency drills, is to mountain bike as it forces you to pedal in circles to gain traction and get over rocks, roots, steep inclines, and other challenges in the trail. When you start mountain biking, you’ll realize how important a perfect pedal stroke is as you struggle through a rock garden or ride over a log… It’s not surprising that many fast mountain bikers are also avid PowerCrankers – mountain bikers have excellent pedaling action…

The final part of the pedal stroke is the top, and you need to drop the heel as you come over the top of the stroke, something PowerCranks automatically make you do. I can tell you from absolute experience that after first riding these things, muscles in your ankle, in your calf, behind your knee – muscles that you never knew you had – will be sore because you’ve never used them on the bike before.

Team Campmor’s Eddy Ceccolini, New Jersey’s fastest and one of New England’s best professional mountain bikers, rides PowerCranks religiously. Fast Eddy commutes to work on them 2-4 times a week during the race season, and in the off-season he’s on them usually 4 times, generally 8-12 hours a week. He doesn’t try to do too much structure – he just tries to ride them consistently as he knows how beneficial they are.

Just remaining upright on the PowerCrank bike forces you to use core muscles in your abs and lower back that you don’t use when pedaling traditional cranks. Westwood Velo’s Mike Gisler, the 2007 New Jersey State Time Trial Champion, noted that if he gets back on the Power Cranks after a break, his core is sore the next day. He credits Power Cranks for not only giving him a more powerful and efficient pedaling stroke but also a very strong core, a powerful ingredient to time trial success. Mike believes he also avoids injury because his tendons are super-strengthened, not to mention PowerCranks prevent muscle imbalances because his pedal stroke has become complete.

As the name implies, PowerCranks also do just that: they improve your power. Because it’s tiresome to keep picking your leg up, you end up pushing a bigger gear than normal, putting more stress on your quad. I should also mention another important fact about PowerCranks: they are HEAVY. When I put them on my Ghisallo, I added close to three pounds to my bike. So, when pedaling you can certainly feel the weight of these suckers, making the workouts even harder!

After PowerCrank training, on your regular bike you will notice that you can push a bigger gear, either when climbing, riding at threshold, or just cruising at tempo. But the Cranks FORCE you to strengthen your hamstring and hip flexors, so if you’re now using three muscles more effectively as opposed to one on the road bike, do you think you can ride harder, longer? The muscular workload is divided more evenly.

Something I’ve discovered is PowerCranks can take your strength and maximize it – The Tale of Two Opposite Time Trialists. Westwood’s Mike Gisler rides them a lot, and he is wicked fast on them. He time trials at around 80-85 rpms, so he's right at home on these things. At 80 rpms on the TT bike, he's putting out even more power because he’s utilizing a complete stroke.
I've been riding the PowerCranks for almost a year now. I'm the opposite of Gisler, spinning a much smaller gear in TTs, 105-110 rpms, and I’ve still garnered improvements because of the Cranks. I thought the PowerCranks would help lower my cadence, but they really didn’t – the cadence has actually increased! On the Cranks, I'm usually at 90-95 rpms. But I notice when I'm time-trialing, I can stay at a higher cadence without fatiguing because my pedal stroke is much improved. As a result, I feel much, much more comfortable time-trialing now. The quads, hip flexors, hammies, core – everything just feels solid. My legs aren’t fatiguing like they used to, whereas before I lacked the massive power to TT fast at 110 rpms… PowerCranks catered to my personal riding style and helped my capacity for time-trialing.

Succinctly, PowerCranks help strengthen your strength. If you are a sprinter doing sprints on them, I can guarantee you will sprint faster on your road bike (you truly learn to balance your body – you can’t even sprint on PowerCranks without a powerful core). If you are a climber and consistently did hill repeats on them, whether a spinner or big-gear masher, when you get on your road bike you will climb as if shot out of a cannon…

Once you put the Cranks on a spare bike, over time you’ll tinker with the position so you can ride them better. On my PowerCrank bike, I now have my handlebars higher, my saddle more forward and a little lower. I’ve found that with my bars higher, I can keep my hip angle open, allowing me to keep picking my leg up. Additionally, if you slide the saddle back, you’ll find it easier to ride the Cranks.

However, I’m focusing on TTs, so I have the saddle more forward, making it harder to pull up (further back, you can ride longer because you’re incorporating more leg muscle and core, and further forward you’re more aero but relying more on your quads and will fatigue faster – this is why if you want to become a good time trialist, as with anything else, you need to train the position).

I also found it easier for me to pedal with the saddle slightly lower, as I can pedal THROUGH the stroke more effectively. I see too many riders with their saddles too high, hips almost teetering up there, feet pointing down to reach for the bottom of that pedal stroke, and if they had that same height with PowerCranks, they’d have difficulty. With the saddle a smidge lower than usual, I can power down and through the stroke with more control – when I made the adjustment, I felt exponentially more competent on the Cranks. If you began applying these concepts to your road bike fit, I guarantee you’d benefit similarly…

Roger Aspholm of FinCraft Endurance Sport Coaching and one of the nation’s strongest 35+ racers has been riding PowerCranks since 1999. He understands that you need to balance the body and get both legs equally strong, that you need to properly tune that V8 engine! He thinks they’re pretty much the greatest training invention, teaching the neurological system to pedal perfectly.

Aspholm makes a good point in that it takes a long time to build strength on these things. “There is no shortcut to stardom, so be very patient,” Roger says. “Once you have eliminated all your weak spots in your legs, you can pretty much train normal on these. I do sprints, hill intervals, longer steadier intervals, and once in a while even fast group rides on these. If you have a PowerTap, then you have something to stare at when you are dealing with the pain. Pain is good!”

Now is the time to ride them. In the winter, we should all be returning to the gym, hitting up a progressive lifting program. As the leg strength is developed, endurance and force work on the bike can then be done. All the while, we should be working on our pedaling efficiency – so this means hitting the PowerCranks regularly! In my program, the first six weeks of Foundation training focuses on pedaling mechanics – this is what we need to do as we embark on winter riding. As the training progresses, you'll be able to do tempo and force work on them, and then during the season you should ride them at least once a week. Last year I rode them on my easy days, hoping to get acclimated to them. This year, I'm going to hammer on them once during the week, actually make a PowerCrank day – they're that important.
Doing group rides on PowerCranks is beneficial because it gets you on the Cranks for a few hours, usually without going too too hard. Don’t get me wrong: PowerCranks HURT. During a group ride, you’re working twice as hard as the guy next to you. But because you really can’t focus primarily on the downstroke and are instead hitting your hamstrings and hip flexors so much, it’s difficult to get out of the Tempo zone, or even elevate the HR up for extended periods… In a way, PowerCranking prevents you from going too hard and keeps you in the proper training zone because it’s difficult to hammer 100%.

PowerCranks are not magic, not some fast secret, not an easy recipe to the podium. You need to put in the time and be willing to suffer. Aspholm makes a good point in that success does not come overnight. Like with everything, you need to take your time with them and gradually find improvement. But this much is guaranteed: if you have the desire, motivation, and the ability to push yourself, PowerCranks are a great way to help you realize 100% of your potential.

Winter Cross Training

2009-02-04T21:54:00.001-08:00

I recently took a few days off to enjoy the mountains with my family and did not leave the bike behind. This ski trip was an opportunity how my PC training would affect my skiing. When talking to several customers it came up in conversation how much better their skiing was as a result of the PC training. Since I have been on them an average of 3.8 days/week since July I was looking forward to experiencing this firsthand myself.

As we arrived to Donner Summit, we quickly unloaded the car and headed down the mountain for a few hill repeats on the bike as the sun was just setting. The plan was to ride up as fast as I could, get back into the van until the bottom of the road and climb the pass again.

As soon as I was out of the heated vehicle, the chill in the air and fast dropping temperatures penetrated my well "insulated" body. It was time to start riding or else I would become an icicle.

I took off at a comfortable 80rpm in order to legs the legs somewhat warmed up for the ride ahead ... 3 miles of flat road surely did not help with that. Furthermore dirt/sand on the shoulder of the road made riding just a little trickier as you can imagine.

The directions to the wife were simple: "Stay behind me unless a car tries to pass in which case just go ahead and find a place on the shoulder to wait for me!" Since the resorts had already been closed for over 90 minutes the only traffic I encountered was downhill traffic; it was surprising how fast they slowed down as soon as they saw a well lit human candle pedaling a bike up the pass in below freezing temps! Luckily going uphill the body temperature was just fine.

All proceeded as planned until 15 minutes into the ride when I noticed that I was not getting enough oxygen; could it be that 6800 ft. above sea level was this difficult to manage? I slowed down the pace just and kept 265-270 watts pace for the remainder of the climb. It was not easy given the thin air.

Got back in the van and down the mountain I was taken while I was sipping water and thinking about the second ascent. Once out of the van I started pedaling and once again gave clear directions to my wife ...

The pace was going to be just a little faster as it was getting very dark very fast and I also wanted to make sure that we would get back to the cabin on time for dinner. Off I go looking at my powermeter and trying to maintain 250-265 watts for the whole climb. While the power data looked good, I was feeling the lack of oxygen even more the second time around. My pace quickly dropped to 62 rpm and 239 watts as the sky fell into night. The legs felt good, they had the strength as I found a good breathing rhythm ... and to the cabin I made it just on time for dinner!

Next morning was the first day of skiing ... all I can say is that this time around I had much better strength and endurance while downhill skiing. While I did not venture into the moguls this time to test my core strength, I can happily say that the legs were not sore and by morning I was able to hit the slopes for a second day of hard core, fast paced skiing.

Powercranks are the new black

2009-01-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

am now two weeks underway in my training with this training tool and a few thoughts keep comming back when I use them.
The thoughts that I have most often when riding powercraks are;
a) I suckb) this can’t be..how can I suck so muchc) fu.. this hurts
The first weeks was so hard. I could do 20 min on my training..I did not even think about going outside on the cranks.
Now after a couple of weeks I am able to ride the craks in periods that somewhat resembles bike training. But I am still left in pain after each ride..but a different pain.
My hipflexors are taking a beating but am also improving fast.
To understand the powercranks then pretty much what they are, are crank arms that are independent of each other - look at the pic. It’s like doing one legged cycling drills all the time. The theory behind them is that when you have a perfect stroke then you don’t cause watts to be lost on the up stroke in the pedal stroke.
One of the things I have found very intresting is that in the beginning I could only do 60 sec when I was sitting in a touring position. What about aero position..forget about it..i could hardly do 10 pedal strokes in the aeropositon where I have spend endless hours.
If that is a sign that I was not very effecient in that positon then for sure I should have some imporvement next.
Now that I mention improvements then that is of course the reason I got a pair…I don’t care about a whole lot but speed is one of the things that fills my simple mind. I don’t expect to have big gain on my bike but I hope that the improved hipflexor coordination and strength can be trasfered into a better run.
But even with this I don’t expect that much..I rather be surprised if I get improvements on my powercranks but so far things are looking very good. I can already feel something has changed on my run.
As regards to how I train on them. I use the intructions on the powercrank website and so far that is going real good.
I am eager to tell more about powercranking. But so far I predict powercranks to be the new black in 2009.

California Weather

2009-01-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

Living in Northern California has one advantage; when the weather is nice, it's really nice.
Yesterday the 15th day of January we were experiencing unusual high temperatures so Frank and I decided to go up the hill for a short ride and test our conditions and some stealth parts.

I decided to ask Frank a few questions before our climb to the top:

Needless to say that nothing beats having Mt. Diablo in our backyard since riding has become mandatory part of our work responsibilities. Having the ability to stress prototypes and production parts going up hill in big chainrings is definitely a plus. Modeling and lab experiments are never able to reproduce what happens on the road.

More to follow ....

It works!

2009-01-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

I bought these damn things in Nov 2007 and committed to using them exclusively for 3 months. I was excited to try them out but after the first two weeks I was ready to throw my bike away. My training volume dropped drastically and so did my motivation. Luckily I had a couple of training partners that had them on their bike as well….So I pressed on. 4 weeks in I decided to go on a 50+ miler with some guys were on "normal" bikes. That was basically the breakthrough ride. It was painful but I hung on and completed a 3 hour hilly ride on the torture dev… I mean Powercranks. As the weeks went on my body started to adapt to the pedaling motion. After 6 weeks it became natural to pull up and over through the pedal stroke. My cadence increased and I started to see drastic improvements in pedaling economy and overall aerobic fitness. I had virtually eliminated the dead spot at the top of the pedal stroke after 8 weeks. I was now doing 4-5 hour training rides with other people and was able to keep up and in some cases out climb them. I noticed that the pedaling action your body is forced to adapt strengthens muscles that were normally dormant from years of inefficient pedaling. My hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors and lower abs were starting to get stronger and were constantly recruited for power during the ride. Gone were the days when only my quads hurt and my lower back felt like it was going to explode.
I stuck to my commitment and rode the Powercranks through February 2008. I saw huge gains and benefits from being on them exclusively for 3 straight months. By the end of 2008 I saw my FTP go from 250 to 296. Im sure Powercranks wasn’t the only factor in the improvement but it definitely laid a solid foundation for the training I had done throughout the 2008 season. Id have to say though that if there is a shortcut to fitness it's 2-3 weeks exclusively on Powercranks after the initial adaptation of 3 months. My fitness started to decline in late August after being off of Powercranks for 4 months. I got back on them and forced myself to ride them exclusively for 2-1/2 weeks. I was putting in 12-15 hours a week with about 16-20k feet of climbing on Powercranks. Late September, I decided to race the Mt Tamalpais Road Race. I pre-rode the race course on Powercranks 2 days before (which in hindsight was not a good idea because of the residual fatigue on race day) and ended up finishing 7th on race day. Not bad for not having raced since mid May of 2008. 2 weeks later I did the Diablo Challenge and finished in 53 min and change. I started in the 2nd wave and won it. Avg power 296 for 53 minutes.
Its 2009 and I havent been as ambitious with my Powercranks time this year. I force myself to train on them at least 2-3 times a week as I build up my base fitness for the 2009 race season. Im "Powercranks fit" enough to do 5+ hour hilly rides but not as PC fit as last year. I incorporate Powercranks in my training program and I can already see gains on a weekly basis.
More to come…..

Starting Over

2009-01-11T19:40:00.000-08:00

In the fall of '08, I had some good momentum on my PCs but I took some time off to mentally get charged up for '09 and some of that involved getting some work done on my legs in the form of PT (physical therapy). Long story short, I was hit by a car in March '08 and finally gave in to needing some work done on my body. With that going on now and my issues getting resolved, I decided it was time to get on the PCs - well today was the day. :) I started out with an 8 mile run at a nice easy pace of 8:30s - then I hit the PCs later in the morning - alternating with standard cranks. I had two CompuTrainers set up in my garage, one with my road bike and PCs and the other with my tri bike and standard cranks. I lasted on the PCs about 2.5 minutes, then I hit the tri bike for 15', then did the PCs for 5 minutes, then the tri bike for 15', then back on the PCs for 7.5 minutes - giving me a total of 45' of riding 1/3 of which was PCs. I forgot to mention about 3 weeks ago, I did do a 90' group trainer ride on the PCs - that was really only an hour worth of pedaling if that - but it was tough and my legs were shot for a few days afterwards. We'll see how my legs feel tomorrow - but my reasoning for alternating with the standard cranks was to spin out the stiffness the PCs usually cause - we'll know more tomorrow.

Back in June, when I first got the PCs I rode 6 minutes the first day and I couldn't even run for 2 days after that. I am hoping for better tomorrow. :) Let's hope so!

My goal is to do all of my outdoor rides after March 1st on my PCs - I know I can ride one hour outside from what I did this summer, but being able to ride 3-4 hour rides would go a long way in helping me get my pedal stroke smoothed out and getting my hamstrings stronger.

Till next time!
Mike

First test results (after 5 weeks)

2009-01-10T12:05:00.000-08:00

This week, I was focused myself on two tests:

Conconi test (3’ interval)
10’ Time Trial.

6 weeks ago, I did the same test at the University of Leuven. My shape than was not very good. September and October were my resting months; I only trained on the bike once a week.

Training on Powercranks for nearly 5 weeks between 3 and 5 hours a week, I hoped to see some improvement. Because all my trainings were extensive, at low hart rate, focusing on cadence, I did not know what to expect.

Tuesday I rode in normal conditions and Friday I rode on 3000m altitude (14% oxygen instead of 20%).

Results:

Under normal conditions

Conconi test
5 weeks ago = 445Watt
now = 480Watt
10’ time trial
5 weeks ago = 415Watt
now = 420Watt

at 3000m altitude

Conconi test
5 weeks ago = 375Watt (=28’.30’’)
now = 415Watt (=32’)
10’ time trial
5 weeks ago = 320Watt
now = 345Watt

So, nearly 10% gained in 5 weeks.

Remarks:
o Initial condition was not good, so it is normal that I improve a bit.
o I knew which results I cycled last time, so I was stronger mentally.
o I was very happy to see that my cadence was very high good, starting at 115/min dropping to 100/min.

After 5 months I will be able to tell you what effect Powercranks really have, but it seems to go in the right direction.

Jan

New Years Resolutions

2009-01-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years! Being a true believer in PowerCranks, I actually based a few of my New Years Resolutions on this ingenious contraption: I wanna do at least one 100 miler and a +20 hour week on PowerCranks. I figure that the 100 miler equals six hours, so todays flawless 4.10 in 5 degree Celsius is a good place to start, but those last two hours could be really ugly... I have another 4 hour ride scheduled tomorrow, but we'll see how those hip flexors have recovered. Until then, keep cranking, Claus Bech, Denmark

Ice ice baby

2009-01-09T03:21:00.000-08:00

On October 21 last year I broke my left wrist in six places after falling on ice. It was multifragmentary intra-articular, the doctor told me. No idea what that meant at the time, but I do know now. I like to skate (World Champion Sven Kramer and I share the same great-grandmother) and as the Netherlands has many indoor halls with a 400 meter ice track, this is possible from early October on. Actually I had bought a pair of new skates: real Pro stuff: Viking thermoplastic shoes and Maple red devil blades. Great. But all that doesn’t matter when you fall. I wasn’t going to fast and had time to recover some. As a result I fell over forward and involuntary stretched out my left arm. Bang. The pain was intense. I more or less passed out and was taken to the hospital and operated on three days later.
Of course I couldn’t much use my arm afterwards and wasn’t able to do any biking, or running. The only thing I could do was walk and so that’s what I did. I used to take the bus to work and walk nine K’s back home, four times a week. Five weeks after the surgery the doctor who operated on me gave me the green light. I was good to go. Biking (on my commuter bike) was rather scary at first but felt good after a few tries. Swimming was a little painful, but bearable. Running went well straight away. My first training was a 1.40 hour run. No problem at all. Then it was time to get back on my powercranks. I hadn’t used them for five straight weeks but I was as if I had never stopped riding them.
The only thing that I haven’t done yet is skating (a mental thing, not physical). It’s a pity really because for the first time in many years there’s ice everywhere. But hey, I am grateful for what I am able to do.

You might recall I have had trouble with my left leg since starting using powercranks back in 2004. This fall I thought of a solution and bought an adjustable left crank, set it at 165 mm (I normally use 175) and got to work. The result was amazing. For the first time in four years my left leg actually felt normal during PC-use. I’m looking forward to a new season in which I will try to run my first (and last) 100K race. Training will include a lot of powercranking.

winter cranking

2009-01-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

Well, winter's here again and that means Dez has flown south for the warmer climate and dry weather for some good winter miles.

I rode the PCs for five days straight right after Christmas because I took a trip and brought only that bike with me, so a solid 22hrs were logged on the PCs that week. During moving and what not, I had not been keeping consistent really, but was still getting a couple rides of 4 hours or so in every week on the PCs.

After moving to SoCal the week before Christmas (and my Birthday), I was feeling rather homesick when I realized that I would be spending the holidays all by my lonesome in a strange city. So on Christmas Eve I decided that I was going to make the journey back home for the holidays and hitched a ride to Sacramento with a couple of guys who were willing to strap my bike to the roof of their 4Runner and give me a lift. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to get back on the PC wagon by bringing only that bike with me to Norcal so that I would have no choice but to ride it. And ride it I did!

By the end of the week, I was totally exhausted and feeling very satisfied with myself for getting back on PCs. Upon my return to Socal, I continued to ride the PCs for the next few days and broke the cleat on my right shoe on one of my little adventures.... What followed was 1 1/2 hrs of left legged pedaling to get my sorry butt back home. It is not flat here, in fact it is quite hilly terrain and I was actually forced to walk my bike in one spot, very humbling. A new set of cleats got me rolling again and I began to integrate the normal bike back into the routine later that week.

I took a few days off the PCs to do some super long exploring type rides in my new surroundings and ended up logging two 4 hour rides on the PCs this past week. The first ride was on Tuesday and it was a real suffer fest. I did hill repeats 6x up and down a climb of about a mile @ 7%. Then, I rode across town to a little lump of dirt in the middle of the city called Mt. Helix and did 5 repeats up and down using different routes to get to the top. I'm not sure of the % on this climb, though sections most certainly reach 15+%. Mt. Helix is about 1300' and I figure the base of the climb is <300', so it's not a bad little elevation gain for the length of the climb. I paced myself well and at the top of the 5th ascent I completely exploded. I hobbled back home grinning from ear to ear.

The effects of Tuesday's ride, combined with 5hr rides through mountainous terrain (5000-8000ft) on Wednesday and Thursday on the standard cranks led to TSF yesterday on the PCs... TSF is Total System Failure and that is definitely where I was at yesterday by the end of my ride which included repeats up a 2mile climb (x4) as well as the getting to and from the climb which includes 2000+ ft of elevation gain/loss. It's good stuff down here.

This is going to be a short week as I am switching my rest day from Saturday to Friday to prepare for the coming season. I think the route which I'm looking to complete tomorrow is going to be 150+ miles though so it will be a good week none the less. No Andrew, I will not be riding PCs tomorrow!! I am still uncertain as to whether or not I want to race in the 12 hours of Temecula later this month, I'll still be racing in November and 10 months is an awful long season of endurance racing..... We'll see.

What runners need to know

2009-01-08T14:54:00.000-08:00

It's easy enough for these two-wheel guys, but for a runner, getting started with Power Cranks is a little involved.

Technically our equipment high point are our shoes. But having decided that Power Cranks were the answer to

a) a need for more hamstring strength,

b) the quest for continuing improvement in my running economy and

c) the need to swap out at least one of my weekly runs for something low-impact, I found myself having to make three visits to the local bike shop.

The first decision you're going to be faced with is whether to stick PCs on your road or mountain bike (you do have a road or mountain bike somewhere in the garage, don't you?), or whether to fit 'em to an exercise bike.

I used to be a bike rider, but I really didn't fancy dealing with traffic, hills, corners and the like while trying to get to grips with cranks that just stay where you left them. I decided I had to get a stationary bike. Power Cranks make the choice easy, as it's obvious from the website that PCs are a great fit with a LeMond RevMaster. The old-style RevMaster Classic retails for more than 1000 bucks, but as LeMond Fitness isn't producing it any more (they are still supporting it), you can find them on ebay and Craig's List and the like for much, much less - like $600 or $700. So that's what I did.

Next step, you'll need to switch the cranks. And to do that, if you're not a cyclist with a garage full of specialist tools, that's where you'll run into your first problem. I'm an old fart, so I still remember when cranks had pins - cotter pins, that is - that you bashed out with a hammer. Although the last chainset I tangled with was Campagnolo, I'd forgotten that I'd need a special wrench. First trip to the bike shop.

The RevMaster comes with a very basic set of pedals, which suited me fine, as I was going to be wearing running shoes while Power-Cranking. Wrong! I found it impossible to get the toe-straps tight enough to let me Power Crank properly. So then I had the bright idea to simply swap the clipless pedals from my road bike to the RevMaster; then I would be able top use my Shimano cycling shoes and really drag those cranks round. No wrench would do the job. Second trip to the bike shop, for a specialist pedal wrench. Do take a rough measurement of the pedals before you buy the wrench, because they come in different sizes.

That done, I was nearly there... except the pedals on my road bike would not budge. After 30 minutes of struggling and WD40 attacks - third trip to the bike shop, where a friendly mechanic used a monster wrench to get them off in 10 seconds.

Am I set? Can I start now? Oh yes. Now all I have to deal with is the frustration of finding out just how hard it is to get these things moving.

* Simon Martin is an ex-pat Brit miler and 5k specialist living in Boulder, CO. He trains with Ric Rojas Running and has just been declared one of the Colorado Runners of the Year after winning the 55-59 age group division of the Colorado Runner magazine Racing Series 2008.