A small introduction of myself before writing this item: I have been training exclusively on powercranks for one year now and they have proved to be very beneficial in tilting both my running and cycling performance to another level. I ended up as my age group champion in Kona in 2011 and took off 40 minutes from my 2009 Kona time. But that's another story ;-)
This year I started to experiment with short (135mm) powercranks, which is 40mm shorter than what I was used to. "Why?" would most people argue. It was Frank from powercranks that got me interested in the idea because he assumed that shorter cranks (combined with higher seat and lower front) would put you much more aerodynamically on the bike and saving lots of watts on the bike. This was a plausible assumption that had yet to be proven with windtunnel testing and so on. Anyway, since a few months I ride these ridiculously short (although Frank still thinks they are too long) cranks. And I like them! At first I thought I would have to change gearing or pedal a much higher cadence to attain the same power output because of the smaller leverage of those cranks. This is not true: for some reason I manage to generate the same power output with the same gearing and almost the same cadence. I think the reason for this is the more efficient angles of your joints when the cranks are in the best position to generate power which is in the upper quarter of the pedal movement.
So I was quite confident that riding short cranks wouldn't affect my bike performance (from a biomechanical point of view) too much. If there really were aerodynamic benefits I expected to gain some extra speed from going short.
This weekend was the first real life test during a long distance duathlon in France. The bikeleg was 85km long on a rolling course and there was a terrible wind and part of the course was a quite heavy traffic area. Despite all this I manged an average speed of 38.5 km/h which was much faster than I'd anticipated at this early stage in the season and this gives me confidence that going short really might have some real benefits! Next real life test is scheduled on June 10th at Eagleman 70.3. To be continued!
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.
I’ve been
riding these more and more, and no longer on the
trainer. Nowadays, all the PC
work is happening outdoors and I’m enjoying it
quite a bit. As I’ve mentioned previously, it’s a challenge and makes
even 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, and
I no longer have issues with the pedal stroke while on PCs. Now it’s all
about
building up stamina to go long distance on them.
The most
recent PC workout was on Tuesday, when I did one
40-minutes set at tempo, averaging about 210 watts at HR of 159 (my zone
3 tops
out at 162). The first five and the last 10 minutes were the hardest.
For the
first five minutes, my hip-flexors were telling me to go “F” myself due
to some
residual soreness, but then the muscles got used to the motion and that
wasn’t
an issue at all. I went through the first 30 minutes without any issues
whatsoever, but as I crawled closer and closer to the 40-minute mark, I
did hit
a few dead spots and heard the familiar clunk. This only happened three
or four
times over the last 10 minutes, but it was still a sign of fatigue,
which
signals 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 from
riding on PCs is my climbing feels much more comfortable. I’m not making
a
claim that I’m all of a sudden flying uphill. Given that I’m still in
base, no
serious hill training has yet taken place, but I am saying that my
biomechanics
are working better. I’m having a much easier time relaxing most of my
upper
body and just pedaling from the core. I’m very curious to see what will
happen
once I get to the build phase and actually start doing hill repeats on
PCs.
A week or so ago, when I wrote out
my training plan for this
week, today was to be a day on Powercranks,
and I was really
hoping to make it a day outside. However, the forecast last night left
much to
be desired, and I went to bed convinced I’d have to spend an hour in my
garage
on 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 with
my bicycle and just do an hour of outdoor powercranking and drive back.
But
when 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 6:45
a.m. After looking at all the possibilities of what could go wrong if I
rode
from my house, and death or bodily injury having not popped up on my
radar, I
decided 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
glad
that the first time I got on PCs outdoors I was going downhill because
clipping
in with the crankarm down is a bit unusual, so the momentum gave me time
to
find the pedal. I have to admit that going downhill with both legs
hanging down was a bit weird at first, but as I got used to the
sensation, it actually
felt good – both of my legs could relax and neither had to stay in the
flexed
position. I was afraid that balancing may be an issue, but it wasn’t, at
least
not today.
Then came the stop signs and the red
lights. I quickly
figured out that for stop signs - where I stop but don’t unclip because
the
stop is so brief - it’s best to pedal backward with one leg and then get
started. The alternative is to come to the stop sign with one leg in the
up
position, but why stress it when you don’t have to? A plus of PCs is
that when
you pedal backwards, the chainrings don’t move, so there’s no risk of
chain
drop. 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 to
start in a very easy gear. As I mentioned above, clipping in with the
crankarm
down is a bit tricky at first, and I wanted to make sure I could pedal
with one
leg for at least a few strokes to gain forward momentum. Once I had that
figured out, the rest was simply a matter of getting the muscles to fire
in
proper sequence and keep it upright – the latter was never an issue.
Riding PCs outdoors is definitely
different than on a
trainer. Probably an obvious statement, but just in case you were
wondering. The road comes as is and the
terrain slowed me down, sped me up and not necessarily in the most
expected
ways. It’s easy to keep a good pedal stroke on a trainer, where I know
when I
will shift, when resistance will vary and when my cadence will change.
Not so
much outside. I had to pay attention to these changes and anticipate
them to
make sure I was in the proper gear and could maintain constant cadence
if that
was 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 than
just a few seconds and I was always able to recover quickly and get back
into
rhythm. I found that slowing the cadence down and going into a higher
gear
helped a lot to even out the pedal stroke, similar to how I started on
the
trainer. Then I could gradually go into a lower gear and speed up the
cadence
while keeping in rhythm.
About half way out to the polo
fields, I realized that I was
riding PCs like I was on a track bike – I always kept pedaling. “Why am I
doing
this?” – I thought to myself. So when the next little downhill came, I
just let
both legs down and coasted for a bit. It felt good! As I mentioned
above, both
legs relaxed and after five or so seconds of coasting, I was able to
pick up
the pedal stroke again. This was also great practice for starting to
pedal from
both legs being down and picking it up in rhythm.
Once on the polo fields, I just went
around in a loop for
about 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
stretches
run east/west, the changes in tail/headwind meant I had to pay attention
to my
effort. Otherwise, when the tailwind would hit, it would become easier
to pedal
and a few times one of my legs would go a little faster and caused me to
lose
rhythm and gallop, but this was fairly easy to get used to and wasn’t an
issue toward the
end of my session.
One last item that I didn’t really
have to deal with
this morning - because I was never really going that fast or leaning my
bike that much - is unweighing the inside leg when making a
turn. It’s important to unweigh the inside leg as to not hit the crank
on the
ground. While my crank length is set to 145, the whole arm is about 190
(185
being the maximum adjustment).
In case you’re curious, yes, I did
do the dolphin kick. It’s
pretty 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
toward
home on JFK, always either in the presence of other cyclists or when
passing
cars stopped at a stop sign. I figured I may as well give people
something to
talk about. Strangely, no one asked me about how I can do that.
On the way home, all I could really
think about was going
over Clayton on 17th 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 be
able to recover and would fall over. But I figured the worst thing that
would
happen 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 17th
Street, I
started to gain more confidence. In fact, I was very surprised that
climbing a
steeper pitch, pedaling PCs felt no different than my regular cranks,
but I
knew that my muscles were not working in quite the same way. As I turned
onto
17th, I had a bit of a downhill to let my legs hang –
honestly, this
feels so awesome, I think it was probably one of my favorite sensations
of the
whole ride. Then it was just two short but very steep blocks, and all
downhill
from 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’ll
be getting out on them more often – and by that I mean that unless it’s
pouring
outside, I’m not getting on the trainer. Perhaps one of the days next
week I’ll
try 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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
A small introduction of myself before writing this item: I have been training exclusively on powercranks for one year now and they have proved to be very beneficial in tilting both my running and cycling performance to another level. I ended up as my age group champion in Kona in 2011 and took off 40 minutes from my 2009 Kona time. But that's another story ;-)
So I was quite confident that riding short cranks wouldn't affect my bike performance (from a biomechanical point of view) too much. If there really were aerodynamic benefits I expected to gain some extra speed from going short.
