A bit of background on my online training

Over the last 25 years or so I've found that indoor training is the key to improving my fitness and performance in time trials. Away from the vagaries of dealing with terrain and motor traffic, I can focus on the workout rather than survival. 25 years ago, power meters weren't readily available, and one's focus was on heart rate as a measure of exercise intensity. Indoor trainers offered adjustable resistance, but little else. In those days I found the structured plan in Pete Read's The Annual Manual (the Black Book), which presented a month by month plan for training on an indoor trainer, to be highly effective.

Been a while since I posted about cycling - the explanation is that I've mostly been in the garage pounding the turbo. To deal with the tedium that is turbo-training, I've been listening to a variety of music via Spotify (via an old 1st generation iPad). In no particular order, here's some recent training music:[embed size="compact"]Mindflayer – It's Always 1999[/embed]Loud, fast, noisy - just what's needed. You can't listen to gentle ambient when you're trashing the turbo!On the other hand, a bout of mid-70s nostalgia led me to It's Alive, a double live album by the Ramones. I mean, what can you say beyond One Two Three Four![embed size="compact"]Ramones – It's Alive[/embed]Sadly, It's Alive seems to be unreasonably expensive as a download, presumably because many sites price albums on the basis of the number of track. And when most songs are about 2 minutes long, there are a lot of them!And an Oblivians album:[embed size="compact"]Oblivians - Desperation[/embed]Related to Mindflayer, and in a very similar vein is Lightning Bolt:[embed size="compact"]Lightning Bolt – Hypermagic Mountain[/embed]On the other hand, recovery sessions on the turbo don't demand such an aural assault, and the latest album from Wooden Shjips fits the bill.[embed size="compact"]Wooden Shjips – Back to Land[/embed]This is billed as "psychedelia" - to be honest it sounds to me at times like Suicide but played with guitars.As ever, you can view my listening habits over at last.fm.And how is the training actually going? I've returned to the training programme that has served me well in the past, the Black Book (a.k.a. The Annual Manual) by Pete Read. This training manual seems to have achieved mythical status and appears to be hard to come by. Essentially, it describes a month by month progressive turbo training programme, based on heart rate. I guess it pre-dated the advent of affordable power meters. In any event I still prefer to train using heart rate over power, on the grounds that HR better reflects my physiology and the effort I'm putting in. I use the power meter data to better understand how a particular turbo session went and to estimate my fitness level as I move through a training plan.I do have a bit of experience with turbo training and, with a bit of work-life balancing, now train on the turbo early in the morning before cycling to work. This gives a good balance of higher intensity work with easier recovery style riding. The big hope for this winter is that I can make it to the 2014 season without a Christmas cold, or a recurrence of my lower back problems - both of which had a dire impact on my racing last year.The metrics as analysed using Golden Cheetah seem pretty encouraging, and I'm looking forward to the club's New Year's Day '10', about 6 weeks away. At the moment, I'm optimistic.

I'm a little late with this update, but since things are as usual a bit quiescent in January that's not so important. After the New Year's Day '10', I've been trying to knuckle down to some proper training. As usual, this corresponds to quite a lot of turbo training, and if anything this aspect has assumed greater proportions than in previous years, since the weather has been frankly hideous! Unfortunately my working pattern has made effective training something of a challenge.It's too early to say whether my form is coming along well (my feeling is that I've plateaued a bit since Christmas), but at least I've survived so far without illness or injury. I managed to cock up some dates in March, so due to work commitments I won't be riding the usual season-opener, the Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up '25'. Instead, Team Grumpy will ride a '10' on a similar course - solo of course - a week earlier.On website matters, the site devoted to a defunct bike club - the Northwood Wheelers - that I maintain had a bit of a boost over Christmas after a former member made contact and sent some memorabilia, including 20 issues of the club newsletter/magazine dating from the 1950s. These have now been scanned in and can be read online.After the last North Bucks Road Club AGM, I've taken over the club chairman role. This means I have to attend all the meetings so I can chair them! This as well as maintaining the club website...

I can safely say that since I took up cycling again in 1990, I've not experienced such a dreadful start to a season as this year. Following a horrid cold (and subsequent post-viral fatigue) that effectively took me out of training for nearly a month to late January, by the end of February I had dragged my form back to where it had been in December. Then, I ricked my lower back again. This had the effect to making climbing on a bike sufficiently painful that I was unable to train for at least three weeks.During that period, I tried a race (the NBRC club event in early March) only to find myself housebound with backache for a couple of days), and failed to start the Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up 25 in mid-March. Following that, the NBRC club event at Astwood was thankfully abandoned due to snow - thankfully because I might well have been tempted to try riding it.The final club event of March was the so-called 'Hardriders 22' - this was held on a cold morning with a heavy frost. I rode out to see the start, but declined to race as I was a bit worried I'd aggravate my back injury which by this time seemed to be on the mend. Indeed, in the last week of March I've been able to resume training, albeit restricted to the joys of the turbo trainer.Talking of turbo training, for some time now I've been using the Polar chain tension power meter to keep an eye on my training progress (see the review in six parts). Unfortunately this has been going through something of a hiatus after I unshipped my chain at speed, and it has proven rather difficult to coax the unit into working again. The explanation is that debugging problems with the device is rather complicated as the power unit is complicated to both set up and keep working. Complicated because there are three separate components:1. The main sensor/transmitter. This picks up vibration in the chain, so needs to be the correct distance from the chain, but also positioned correctly on the chainstay. This requires judicious positioning in 3D for it to work consistently. The second function is to collect cadence data from the magnet on the crank arm. So the position of the sensor on the chainstay needs to take proximity to the crank arm magnet into consideration. If either of these don't work, no data is sent to the head unit, with no indication where the problem lies.2. The chain speed sensor. This is mounted on the rear derailleur, and the instructions aren't terribly clear on its exact positioning. As I discovered yesterday, if it isn't just right, no chain speed data are obtained. If it's incorrectly positioned, the system may work in some gears only. The chain speed sensor is connected to the main sensor by wire - this connection can fail. If this doesn't work, no data is sent to the head unit, with no indication where the problem lies.3. The battery pack. Batteries can wear down, and the connection with the main sensor can fail. If this doesn't work, no data is sent to the head unit, with no indication where the problem lies.So, you can see that there are several points of failure, with no real diagnostics in place. If any point fails, the main symptom is that no power or cadence is displayed. This is the main reason I'm dissatisfied with the system. The most recent problem related to the position of the derailleur mounted chain speed sensor, which isn't something that I'd suffered before, and frankly it hadn't occurred to me! I'd think about reliability issues with any power meter system that I were to consider buying in the future. For the time being, I seem to be able to get along with the Polar system and I'm not inclined to change just now - though the cleat based system from Brim Brothers looks interesting (but may ultimately never be released).So, to end in an optimistic frame, I'm hopeful that I've turned the corner and training can resume. I may even unwrap the CTT Handbook.

I've finally shaken off the recurrent cold that's been a bit of a burden since I returned from the USA in the first week of October.  This was convenient since my Team Grumpy team mate was visiting and we'd planned a bike ride.  This is actually rather a rare occasion for us.Of course all my assertions that we should 'take it easy' and 'don't forget I've been off the bike for four weeks' had zilch effect as we found ourselves zipping along on a beautifully clear and sunny morning (though it was rather cold at the start), particularly after we encountered an old club mate on the way, with the consequences that generally follow.  We covered around 50 miles in about 3h riding time - the furthest I've cycled since our trip to France in September, and the first 'proper' bike ride in the last month.  We did stop at a cafe in Winslow, which was just as well, since by the last 10 miles, my legs were suffering.It was notable how 'mobile' my heart rate was: while mostly it was in upper level 1 or lower level 2, it didn't take much for it to leap up to levels that I normally see during short time trials.  So recovery is still some way off, I guess.  Added to which, as I write this the following morning, I do seem a bit achy - particularly my neck.Oh, and I did collect a slow puncture a mile or two from getting home.

I've recently taken delivery of a Garmin 500 bike computer, rather a neat piece of kit that can use GPS positioning to show speed and distance: it also has a speed/cadence sensor and a chest strap to send HR to the unit. It is ANT+compatible so can receive data from any ANT+ power sensor (I've got an eye on the Metrigear pedal spindle device, should it ever enter the market).Garmin have a website to which data can be downloaded from the unit online: this requires a downloaded plug-in to facilitate upload from the Garmin 500. Or so they say (more on this in a bit), and it's only available for PC and Mac. The software is pretty limited in comparison to other apps I've used. While you can see graphs of power, altitude, speed and heart rate, you can't seem to plot them in combination. Nor are there any of the very useful ways of plotting power data that some other packages offer. You can however use Garmin Connect to convert from FIT format to TCX format, which can be useful.You can also download Garmin's Training Center to run on a PC or Mac. Once again there's no Linux version available, though I've used a Windows virtual machine to have a play with it. As with the web-based Garmin Connect, it seems to me to be rather limited in its analytic capabilities. So with those comments in mind, what training software have I tried and (perhaps more pertinently) use?I've been using VidaOne's Diet and Fitness (VODF) since the days it was known as MySportTraining, This was largely because it had a Pocket PC version that would synchronise with the Windows version - now it also has an iPhone app. Of course it's always been a pain to be using Windows apps when I am by and large a Linux user these days. I currently run this app in a virtual XP machine (using VirtualBox), and have training data going back 7 years. It would have been more, except for a laptop crash back in 2003 - which taught me a lesson! Using the Polar IR USB device, VODF can download directly from the Polar CS600X with power, but beyond offering a graph of power against time, seems limited in how to analyse power data. VODF doesn't currently download GPS data from the Polar CS600X.Most of the heart rate monitors I've used have been from Polar (successively the Polar Coach, S600, S720i and now CS600X), and so I've tried a few versions of Polar software - Polar Protrainer 5 currently, but find the interface a little clunky, though I guess this comes down to personal taste. And like VODF, it's analytic power tools seem to be rather limited. The principal reason I keep PPT is that I can collect GPS data from the Polar.Golden CheetahThis year, as I enter my second half century, I've seen consistent improvement in my time trialling performances. As I write, I have ridden my best times at 10 miles (21:05, my best since 2002, and my second best time ever), 25 miles (55:29, my best since 2004) and 50 miles (1:57:45 and again, my best since 2004). So, what's this down to?The sceptics out there seem to reckon it's due to my new time trial bike, built around a Cervelo P3. I supect it's more down to changed training practices. Back in mid-2009, I figured I needed to re-evaluate my work-life balance, since my working pattern was leading to ever-later finishes each day, and directly impacting on my ability to schedule training sessions. And as anyone should realise, the key to decent performance is a detailed and thoughtful training schedule. Indeed, way back when I was setting my personal best times in 2002-4 I was rigorously following Pete Read's Black Book, which is actually a fixed schedule of sessions based on heart rate monitoring.On the basis that a change is as good as a rest, I've been dabbling with power-based training for my time trialling habit since October (after last year's Duo Normand, in fact). I've reviewed the hardware I selected over at the Team Grumpy website - the Polar CS600X cycle computer with the WIND power meter attachment.Thus far, I've principally used the device on the turbo trainer bike. Despite frequently offered advice that the power system doesn't work on a turbo trainer mounted bike, it does seem to deliver pretty robust data. I also plumped for the Polar G3 GPS device for use in road cycling. This bit of kit picks up the GPS satellite data and relays it to the CS600X head unit. My main reason for investing in the G3 was that I'd not need to get speed sensors for all my bikes. I'm pretty pleased with the G3, it seems to generally work well, once one has figured out the hopelessly inadequate documentation.  The main problems I've faced have related to battery life (G3 uses a single AA cell, supposedly good for 10h, but I reckon less, particularly if an NiMH rechargeable cell is used).I don't particularly like the Polar Pro Trainer (PPT) software that came with the CS600X - I have continued using the training software that I've used since about 2003 (VidaOne Diet and Fitness), but need to use PPT to get the GPS data downloaded. Both the Polar and VidaOne applications lose out quite markedly on the matter of displaying and analysing power data. After a spot of Googling, I came across an Open Source project - Golden Cheetah - which produces releases for Windows, Mac OSX and (most importantly) Linux. This offers a neat set of analytical tools which mean that power metering can be really very effectively used to deduce the effectiveness of training sessions.I have found Hunter and Coggan's book Training and Racing with a Power Meter to be realy invauable in making sense of a lot of the graphs and charts that GC can use to display data. The book's just come out in a second edition. GC aims to display data derived from a number of devices (and their individual file formats). Unfortunately the Polar CS600X produces two files - the first containing the session data in hrm format, and the GPS data within a second file in gpx format. GC imports GPS data in the Garmin tcx format. In itself, this isn't a major problem (for example the GPSies website offers format conversion, except that the session and GPS data remain in separate files.Fortunately Rainer Clasen has developed a series of perl scripts to do a number of tasks with such data files, including merging datasets - see perl Workout library. These do an excellent job, though you do need to know a little command line work. I got the scripts installed with a minimum of perl expertise (and I mean minimum!), though there were one or two snags in the files I was seeking to merge that required a little help from Rainer (for which, many thanks). Now I'm able to merge hrm and gpx files into a tcx format file, which imports well into GC.Next on my plan is to take power-metered training out on the road. I have fitted a second Polar WIND power sensor to one of my road bikes, and over the last few weeks I've been evaluating the kind of training I can do with the extra information at my fingertips. Whereas on the turbo I principally use the power data to analyse my training sessions after completion, on the road I tend to keep an eye on the power output while riding. In part this reflects the nature of the sessions - extended efforts on the road vs intervals on the turbo - but also that the readings are a little more stable than on the turbo. Neatly, GC has a Google Earth display which shows the GPS track of the ride, coloured to show 30s average power readings along the ride. Now, I'm not convinced of the importance of the power colouring, but seeing the route is quite useful.Despite all this movement towards power-based training, my main emphasis has remained on using power metering to analyse the training sessions rather than dictate effort applied. In particular, I've been using it to estimate my threshold power in order to monitor my progress through the training schedule. Instead, I rely mostly on the physiological readout of my heart rate. What remains is to incorporate all this information into a much more structured scheme over next winter in preparation for the 2011 season.

Pez Cycling has a brief article (Toolbox: What Does Every Masters Athlete Have in Common?) which touches upon the physical decline that faces the ageing athlete, and what to do about it.  For one in his second half century, there's always something a little depressing about such articles, but at least there is advice, most interestingly on the subject of recovery from training:

To me, the key is fitting workouts together like a puzzle. For example, perhaps one day the focus of the workout is strength type efforts, where the cardiovascular system is not overly stressed, but the essential component of strength is benefited. The next day, a focus can be more aerobic. In other words, you are working on different “systems” on different days.One addition item. In a recent study, 75% of athlete’s polled (not sure of the amount in the study, but it was large) said they applied some type of recovery program to their training, like recovery drinks, massage, etc. I still think the biggest and most important, regardless of all the other things you try is sleep.

This year, as I enter my second half century, I've seen consistent improvement in my time trialling performances. As I write, I have ridden my best times at 10 miles (21:05, my best since 2002, and my second best time ever), 25 miles (55:29, my best since 2004) and 50 miles (1:57:45 and again, my best since 2004). So, what's this down to?The sceptics out there seem to reckon it's due to my new time trial bike, built around a Cervelo P3. I suspect it's more down to changed training practices. Back in mid-2009, I figured I needed to re-evaluate my work-life balance, since my working pattern was leading to ever-later finishes each day, and directly impacting on my ability to schedule training sessions. And as anyone should realise, the key to decent performance is a detailed and thoughtful training schedule. Indeed, way back when I was setting my personal best times in 2002-4 I was rigorously following Pete Read's Black Book, which is actually a fixed schedule of sessions based on heart rate monitoring.On the basis that a change is as good as a rest, I've been dabbling with power-based training for my time trialling habit since October (after last year's Duo Normand, in fact). I've reviewed the hardware I selected over at the Team Grumpy website - the Polar CS600X cycle computer with the WIND power meter attachment.Thus far, I've principally used the device on the turbo trainer bike. Despite frequently offered advice that the power system doesn't work on a turbo trainer mounted bike, it does seem to deliver pretty robust data. I also plumped for the Polar G3 GPS device. This bit of kit picks up the GPS satellite data and relays it to the CS600X head unit. My main reason for investing in the G3 was that I'd not need to get speed sensors for all my bikes. I'm pretty pleased with the G3, it seems to generally work well, once one has figured out the hopelessly inadequate documentation.I don't particularly like the Polar Pro Trainer (PPT) software that came with the CS600X - I have continued using the training software that I've used since about 2003 (VidaOne Diet and Fitness - formerly known as MySportTraining), but need to use PPT to get the GPS data downloaded. Both the Polar and VidaOne applications lose out quite markedly on the matter of displaying and analysing power data. After a spot of Googling, I came across an Open Source project - Golden Cheetah - which produces releases for Windows, Mac OSX and (most importantly) Linux. This offers a neat set of analytical tools which mean that power metering can be really very effectively used to deduce the effectiveness of training sessions.I have found Hunter and Coggan's book Training and Racing with a Power Meter to be realy invauable in making sense of a lot of the graphs and charts that GC can use to display data. The book's just come out in a second edition. GC aims to display data derived from a number of devices (and their individual file formats). Unfortunately the Polar CS600X produces two files - the first containing the session data in hrm format, and the GPS data within a second file in gpx format. GC imports GPS data in the Garmin tcx format. In itself, this isn't a major problem (for example the GPSies website offers format conversion, except that the session and GPS data remain in separate files.Fortunately Rainer Clasen has developed a series of perl scripts to do a number of tasks with such data files, including merging datasets - see perl Workout library. These do an excellent job, though you do need to know a little command line work. I got the scripts installed with a minimum of perl expertise (and I mean minimum!), though there were one or two snags in the files I was seeking to merge that required a little help from Rainer (for which, many thanks). Now I'm able to merge hrm and gpx files into a tcx format file, which imports well into GC.Next on my plan is to take power-metered bike(s) out on the road. I have fitted a second Polar WIND power sensor to one of my road bikes, and over the last week I've been evaluating the kind of training I can do with the extra information at my fingertips. Whereas on the turbo I principally use the power data to analyse my training sessions after completion, on the road I tend to keep an eye on the power output. In part this reflects the nature of the sessions - extended efforts on the road vsintervals on the turbo - but also that the readings are a little more stable than on the turbo. Neatly, GC has a Google Earth display which shows the GPS track of the ride, coloured to show 30s average power readings along the ride. Now, I'm not convinced of the importance of the power colouring, but seeing the route is quite useful.Despite all this movement towards power-based training, my main emphasis has remained on using power metering to analyse the training sessions rather than dictate effort applied. In particular, I've been using it to estimate my threshold power in order to monitor my progress through the training schedule. Instead, I rely mostly on the physiological readout of my heart rate. What remains is to incorporate all this information into a much more structured scheme over next winter in preparation for the 2011 season.