I've Got the Power!

Oh yeah.  I can never give up a chance to title a blog post after a lyric in an 80's one hit wonder song.  Ok, technically Snap! release the "The Power" on January 3rd, 1990, but it was recorded in the 80's.  But I digress . . . After I got my new aerobars, last year, I had my sights set on a powermeter.  It kinda went like this: I needed new chain rings.  I thought, as long as I'm getting new chainrings, I should get a new crank.  Full carbon fiber and shorter.  So if I'm getting a new crank, I might as well get a crank based power meter.  It all seemed so logical at the time.

Like the crack of the whip I snap attack

Seriously though if you're looking at a power meter, the first question is Where do I want to get my Power reading from?  You can get rear wheel, pedal, crank arm, or crank based power meters. Luckily, for me the decision was pretty simple.  I did not want a wheel based system because I want power on my training wheels and my race wheels (which I already have).  Eventually, I want it on a direct drive trainer that doesn't even use a rear wheel.  So then you are looking at the area around your feet.  I really didn't consider the crank arm PM as Jack Mott has made it his life's crusade to inform people of the fallacies of only measuring power on one leg.

Oh Canada!

So then I was down to crank vs. pedal. Again, it was pretty simple for me since I'm happy with my pedals, I only have one bike, and wanted new cranks.  So then you have Quarq, SRM, and Power2Max.   When comparing price and features, to me Power2Max looked liked the winner.  It has left/right balance, provides cadence feedback without a magnet, and has full carbon cranks available in 165mm cheaper than the others.

The contents of the box

So I spent some time trying to make sure that everything would fit together.  I went around for a while before I was sure that my frame was compatible with the crank and power meter I was looking at.  I decided to replace the bottom bracket as well, so I thought that might help it all fit together.  I then emailed back and forth with James at Inside Out Sports and decided that I would get the power meter and cranks from Power2Max and then get new chain rings and a bottom bracket from IOS and then have them put it all together.

The Lightning Crank is Uber Light

I placed the order online with Power2Max up there north of the border in Canada.  I went with the P2M Green color (shocking, I know) and 165mm Lightning cranks. They usually ship out right away.  Unfortunately for me, they were missing a part and couldn't ship it right away.  I was actually really OK with that when they offered to throw in a free bottom bearing bracket.  Since I was gonna get one anyways, that definitely saved me some cash.  It took 9 days before it shipped.  Then it sat in customs for 5 days.  I kept checking the tracking, but it wasn't moving.  Anyways, almost 3 weeks after I placed my order, I got the unit in.

The Power Meter Box

Then I took it over to IOS and had them take a look at it.  I still had to order some chain rings. We discussed it for a couple of days and we decided to go with the Rotor NoQ Aero Chain Rings.  I decided to stay with the 53/39 setup. It took another week and a half to get those in as Rotor sent the wrong ones initially.  I dropped my bike off right before a big snowstorm, but I was leaving that Saturday for a week vacation.  So when I got back my bike was ready to go.  IOS had no issues getting it all put together.  I also had them do the "Overhaul" so they took everything apart and cleaned it and replaced the chain.

Power Meter Front

Power Meter Back

It only took 7 weeks after I placed my initial order before I picked up my bike complete and ready to go!  Well almost. I raised the seat up 7mm as the cranks I'm on now are 7mm shorter (well technically 7.5 mm).  I will say this: the wait was worth it.  

My Precious

 I took it out for a spin on Saturday.  Everything was so smooth.  It literally felt like a brand new bike.  I had been reading Coggins and Hunters' book "Training and Racing with a Power Meter".  They suggested just taking it for a spin the first couple of times just to get a feel for the different power levels. Honestly, I don't even notice the difference in crank length.  I went from 172.5mm to 165mm.  So if you're on the fence about whether to go shorter or not, I say go shorter.  You can raise your seat for a better position and the cranks will weigh less.

Non-Drive Side View

Behind the Ring

I also played around with different settings on my Garmin to watch as I rode.  It's interesting to feel the 'burn' in your legs as the corresponding power jumps up.  Instantaneous power is rather jumpy, so I've been watching the 3sec and 10sec averages.  I also have found that I would rather watch average power instead of normal power.

The second weekend I had it, I did an FTP test.  I followed the protocol from the book.  Basically its a warmup, then 3x1min high cadence spins, a 5 min all out effort, and then you go balls out for 20 minutes.  You then 'estimate' your actual FTP by taking your power average for the 20min segment and multiple by 0.95.  This is because FTP is defined as an effort over 60 minutes.  So I did that.  It was pain.  Pure Pain.  I hadn't done intervals or tempo rides for quite a while so it really hurt.  But, at the end of the day, the FTP test in and of itself is not too bad of a workout.  So I got that going for me, which is nice.

So now after having it on my bike for a couple of weeks, I really like watching watts instead of speed.  Speed so susceptible to wind, turns, hills, etc.  Power is power.  I felt good about my first interval ride, where I held the power through 5 intervals very close to 110% of FTP each time.  I even felt better about my next tempo ride where I held 93% of FTP for 15 miles.  My speed wasn't super fast, but I really knew what my effort is.

The day I brought my baby home.

Before, everything was a shot in the dark, but now I know exactly how hard I'm riding.  I also plan to have it help me keep my easy rides easy.  One odd thing is that my Left/Right power always seems to show my left leg at 51% or 52% power.  Not sure why this is (or if its normal).  Maybe I should have gotten a Stages.  (If you didn't get that last joke, ask Jack Mott).

The best thing about the Power2Max Power Meter (aside from the lime green color option) is that it just works.  You install it, put the battery in, sync to your Garmin and ride.  Everything works perfectly the first time.  No issues with anything.  You can replace the battery yourself (as in you don't have to send it back to the factory like some brands).  Plus I chuckle a little to myself when I read threads like this on ST about trying to keep the magnet on their frame for their power meter.  Yes I have cadence and L/R balance.  No I don't need a silly magnet for a $1,500 power meter.

Now I can focus in on my workouts.  Set exact levels for intervals and tempo rides.  See if I'm working hard or just feel like crap.  But the biggest thing is being able to dial in my watts so that I don't destroy myself over 112 miles.  As they say there is no such thing as a great bike split if you fall apart on the run.

So watch out, Green Lightning just got a little faster!

No Caption Necessary

Howl at the Sun 5K Race Report

My son's middle school hosted a 5K race as a general fundraiser for the school.  They really wanted as many people to participate for obvious reasons.  So my wife and son and I all signed up.  My goal for this race was pretty simple: Crush the dreams of all those punk little middle schoolers and their overambitious fathers.

Up until this year, I hadn't raced an open 5K since November of 2010.  Now this was my second one this year.  They had a pretty good crowd, as there were over 360 people signed up.  The weather was threatening to be really crappy: 35 and raining.  Luckily the rain was over before the relatively late (9 am) start time.

The Crew before the Race

So I tried my best to be "that guy".  Or maybe it was "that tri geek".  I wore a Rev3 visor because it might possibly rain.  I wore my race number on my new Fuel Belt race belt.  And of course, I had my Garmin.  I did see another guy with compression socks on, so at least I wasn't doing that.  The race belt worked great, as I didn't even know I had it on.  It has places to store gels, but you don't need that for a 5K (not to sound condescending or anything).

Lime Green Race Belt. Expect Nothing Less.

The course was simple enough. Out around the school and then out and back the new bypass road (that has yet to open).  The only down side was that the start for 300+ was on a one lane road with a 90 degree turn about 20 yards in.  Not designed by a runner, I can tell you that.  But what do you want for a middle school fundraiser?

Went out on the left of the loop and finished on the right

Kids Sprint at the Start

  I started a little ways back and was able to sift my way up to clear pavement around about a 1/4 mile in, so it really wasn't too congested.  About a 1/2 mile in you could see who the real players were going to be.  There was a really old looking guy with a good 30 yard lead.  (Turns out he is 51). Then, there were 3 more guys in the chase group.  I took it easy up that first hill and then quickly settled in behind the chase group.

 I hit the first mile in 5:57 and didn't feel too bad.  Then we started the long slow climb.  I worked my way away from the chase group on the way up to the turnaround.  I was very very slowly chipping away at the old guy's lead.  I wasn't catching him as fast as I had hoped and he was still 10 yards ahead of me at the turnaround.

Once we made the 180 turn and started heading back, it was obviously downhill for a while.  The hill definitely took something out of him. I hit the second (mostly uphill) mile in 5:59 so I felt good about that.  I closed the last 10 yards on him pretty quickly.  When I came up beside him, I threw a little surge in to try and gap him right away.  He didn't have the leg speed to keep with me as we came back down the hill.  I didn't feet great on that last uphill, but had plenty in the tank to crank the last 1/4 mile or so.  I gave a couple of look backs on the last couple of turns, but he wasn't gaining.  I just pushed for the finish and came away with another win.

Big Finish.  Almost caught the lead bike.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Garmin had the course a little short at 3.03 miles.  That pace however would equate to an 18:12 for a full 5K, so I was pretty happy with that.  My official time was announced as 17:51 as they used 'gun time' instead of 'chip time'.  The spoils of the win were a free massage, $10 at Omega Sports and $50 at the Fish Market restaurant.  Not bad for a race that cost $16.82 to sign up for.

Free Stuff!

Official results are NO WHERE.  Go Green Events was responsible for the timing and their computer crashed, so there is no results page.  They did go 'old school' and figure out who all the age group winners were (no 2nd and 3rd place prizes here).  Also because it was run by the school, the age groups were: 0-10, 11, 12, 13, 14-17 (I think), 18-39, and 40+.

If you can't say something nice . . . 

I was extremely sore on Sunday.  It probably didn't help that I played basketball Saturday afternoon and then went for a bike ride.  Or that I ran 10 miles Sunday morning and then went for a bike ride in the afternoon.  On the upside, I swam 4,000 yards Monday morning and felt pretty good.  Was that too much information or a back door brag?  You be the judge.  Anyways, just a few weeks before the Come See Me Half on April 5th!

Caribbean Workouts

So we took a vacation in February.  It really wasn't my idea.  My parents were celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary.  Quite a momentous occasion, in my opinion.  They graciously asked the family to join them on a Caribbean cruise.  We were happy to sign up.

Our Ship

My wife and I had been on one cruise before.  It was 11 years ago and we did not enjoy it.  We really didn't understand the whole "cruise" thing.  All our friends had told us how much we would enjoy it, but we just didn't.  But I did say that if we ever did do one again, that it would be to the Eastern Caribbean.

So we found ourselves on a boat for seven days going to the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten.  As you can quite imagine, this puts quite a hinderance on the training schedule.  The one upside was that I was getting some things done on Green Lightning at the bike shop, so that worked out well (future sweet blog post to follow).

This ship (as I would imagine all do) has a running track up on the upper level, and a fitness center.  I worked out four days.  Basically the day we were in the Bahamas and the three days at sea.  The first day I ran up on the deck.  It was 7 laps to a mile.  The deck was all wet, but was surprisingly not slippery at all.  The wind was super strong, however and almost tripped me up a couple of times as I made the turns.

The Big Turn

The fun part was that I turned my Garmin on for my run.  It took a while for the satellites to lock, so the first couple of minutes weren't recorded.  But when it did start, I was flying!  Averaging 2:30 minute miles.  I cranked out almost 9.5 miles in 25 minutes.  I'm pretty sure that's a world record.

Here's where I ran

Kind of wavy through the water

Looks like I ran intervals

Can't beat those splits

Can't beat the weather, either!

The rest of the week, I decided to run on the treadmill.  Yes I was on a dreadmill.  Quite honestly, it was just a better workout than running on the deck.  I'm pretty sure that I had run a total of four times on the treadmill in my life prior to the boat ride.  Seriously.  I just can't stand it.  I'm an outdoor person, I guess.  So that being said, I could only handle 3 miles at a time.  I'd just get bored and would have to crank the speed up to make it interesting.  The last run I set the speed in the first mile for 6:57, then 6:27 in the second mile, then sub 6 at the beginning of the 3rd mile.  I eventually took it down around 5 flat for the last quarter mile, so that was kinda fun.

So then each workout day, I hopped on the stationary bike for an hour.  I did this interval workout that was 3 min hard, then 4 min easy.  The hour goes by pretty slow.  There are only about a dozen channels on the TV in front of you and they are mostly news and shopping.  I don't think I had done a stationary bike like that for almost 2 years.  I rode over 5K miles last year, but 100% was outside on the roads.  I guess much like the dreadmill, I can't stand the drainer.  For me, a 3 hour ride outside goes by faster than an hour on the drainer.

Of course they did have exercise equipment, which I also hit twice that week.  So I had a piddly 5.5 hours working out.  Plus all the food and beer doesn't help either.  I was definitely ready to get back to "normalcy" of working out as much as I can.  We enjoyed spending time with our family on the cruise. I really enjoyed the snorkeling as well.  But, at the end of the day, we're just not cruise people.  And I'm OK with that.

Beers on the Beach!

Janu-FISH-ary

As a lot of triathletes, a big focus of mine in the "offseason" is on swimming.  It is especially true since I am slightly faster than a 59 year old Grandma.  (It's true, she swims right beside me in the next lane at the Masters group swim).  Also, a lot of mornings when it is 16 degrees outside or 34 degrees and raining (my fav!) it is just easier to go to the pool and swim.

So here I am plodding along this January, getting some "volume" in.  That's in quotes because volume is all relative.  Pretty sure most of my workouts would only qualify as a 'warmup' for Jenny.  Last year I worked on technique.  It still stinks, but it's a lot better than last year.  I was actually afraid to throw some volume in there because my technique was so bad.  A lot of real swimmers (affectionately known as 'fish' in the tri community) will tell you to just swim more.  Volume, volume, and more volume.  A lot of times they do not quite realize how incredibly awful someone's form could be.  So bad to the point that your shoulders hurt (and not in a good way) when you swim too much.

I Kinda Felt Like This

So this January I jumped in with both feet as much as I could.  I set personal bests for a single workout yardage, weekly yardage, and monthly yardage.  I actually got the swim bug a little bit and looked forward to going to the pool everyday.  I swam every 5 days in a row one week (and 8 out 10 days).  This barely qualifies as news to a fish, but we're talking about me. I'm the slowest swimmer in the History of Ironman Triathlon ever to qualify for a World Championship. (Look it up.)

Garmin Don't Lie (don't judge the time, people)

My highlight workout of the month was on my birthday.  I've always heard people talk about birthday workouts, so I decided to do one.  It may have been the first time I actually looked forward to a swim workout.  Seriously, like for 2 weeks I was looking forward to it.  I swam 42 x 100's in the pool that morning. My longest single workout to date.  It was kind rough in the middle, almost more of a mental thing than physical.  Especially when you're on number 28.  You're tired and you're thinking, man I'm not even in the 30's yet!  But it felt awesome when I was done.  The significance of 4,200 yards is not lost on me as it is 2.4 miles.  Well, technically 4,224 yards is 2.4 miles, but I'm gonna round 2.386 miles up to 2.4 (ok we're kicking the engineer off the blog for a while, sorry about that).

Ah yes, 2.4 miles.  The Ironman swim distance.  It is what scares me come September 28th.  It is the biggest reason why I am doing the 2.4 Mile OWS race in Chattanooga in May. #faceyourfears

Hopefully Not.

The week of January 6th, I just kinda got the swimming bug.  I just felt like swimming every (week) day.  I logged 16,150 yards.  It definitely could have been more, but the Masters workout on Wednesday was only 2,350 yards.  So I still averaged 3,230 yards every time I jumped in the pool.  My previous high week was 15K.

So, overall, for the month of January, I logged 64,150 yards.  That blows away my previous monthy high of 50,100 yards.  For the month I averaged 3,376 yards each swim.  Feels good to get a good solid month in, and I still look forward to swimming.  I do believe the Masters swims have helped.  Anyways, my efforts got a "thumbs up" from this guy:

Racing Just to Finish

As regular readers of my blog know (ok, let's just say I do have regular readers, and leave it at that), I am signed up for my first Full Ironman distance triathlon in 2014.  It's been posted on the ST message boards that for your first full, your goal should be to just finish.  Sounds reasonable.  Smart even.  I just don't think I can do it.

Oh I have no doubt that I can finish.  Quite honestly, with the fitness level that I was at last year, I'm sure I could have swam 2.4 miles, then biked 112 miles, and then ran 26 miles and 385 yards in 17 hours.  What I can't do is race just to finish.  I've never done it.  I have never toed the starting line at a race where I thought in my head: My goal today is to just finish.  This goes back to the beginning of my racing.  Back when I was 12 years old and my dad took me to run my first 5K.  Even the rest of the way through grade school, college and decades later.  (Yeah, I'm that old.)

Case in point: New Years Day 2013.  My wife and I did a fun trail race here in Fort Mill.  She did the 5K, I did the 13K (year 2013, get it?).  There were only 70 people in the 13K.  It was quite laid back, and most of the people were there for the beer.  There were no awards.  No prizes.  No ceremony.  So taking that all in, I had a strategy and mapped out exactly what I needed to do to win.  I executed the plan, won the race, grabbed a beer, and went home.

Some people are just wired differently.  I don't have a problem with people who just race to finish.  In fact I think it's great when anyone does a race.  That includes anything from a 5K to a 140.6.  I like seeing people participate instead of staying on the sidelines and telling me how crazy I am.   It's just that racing to finish is something that I can't do.  Maybe I'm in the minority according to a Wall Street Journal article. With the explosion of the all the color runs, glow runs, mud runs, and obstacle races, I may be outnumbered.  And that's fine.  For me, personally, I don't see the point.  Maybe I'm too competitive, but I don't think so.

On ST one time Jordan Rapp was talking about racing.  He's like (and I'm severely paraphrasing here):  "I may think you're a good guy, hell I might even want to go drink beers with you after the race.  But when the race starts, I want to destroy you.  That's racing."  I have noticed that some triathletes don't have that killer mentality.  Maybe it's something I've learned because I've done so many running races over the years.  In most races in high school and college your time didn't matter nearly as much as your place.

So my goal for Ironman Chattanooga is not to "just finish".  My goal is to destroy every male out there aged 40 to 44.  Hopefully I'll position myself in the middle of the pack coming out of the water.  I plan to "bike angry".  On the run I'll use the hills to my advantage.  Is it overambitious?  Surely it is.  Am I an idiot?  Probably. (My wife would say Definitely.)  I just don't know any other way to race.

As the great Steve Prefontaine said "To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift".  At the end of the day, if I don't put it all out there, I will regret it.  That's just how I roll.  So look for me at the finish line.  I'll either be celebrating or in the med tent.

Ring in the New Year Race Report

This is the second year in a row, I've run a New Year's Day Race.  This year I opted for the shorter distance as I hadn't logged many miles in December.  As last year, this was also a trail race, but at a different venue.  The Rock Hill Striders put on the "Ring in the New Year" 5K and 14K trail runs at Anne Springs Close Greenway.  I used to run the trails out in the Greenway a lot, but not as much anymore.  Morning runs in the dark are a wee bit difficult on the trails for me these days.

PreRace: Me, Kary, Jon, Beth, Ann, Thomas, and Ransom (Reece with the Photobomb)

We had a good group with us as a couple of friends that ran the Kiawah Half Marathon this past December with my wife were on hand.  So three kids of one of the ladies and my eldest son also ran the 5K.  It's a pretty low key race.

Rush Pavilion for Check in and Post Race

The cost was only $14.  No T-Shirt, but it was very well organized. 14K started at 10am and we started 15 minutes later.  The course was excellently marked with volunteers at every turn that might possibly give you trouble.  We got a few instructions and then the gun went off.

Satellite Map

There were 3 water crossings that you could use a bridge on but took more time. I opted for the bridge on all 3 crossings.  I loss a good bit of time in the first mile with 2 crossings, but quickly made it up.  The water looked pretty cold and I didn't want this to happen:

Are we having fun yet?

I just hung with the leader for the first couple of miles.  I kept hearing this jingling behind us, like Santa was making a New Year's day delivery.  After a while I remembered that they had a table with free bells so you could run "Ringing in the New Year" the whole way.

Bells to wrap around your waist or whatever

So then another guy caught up with us around 2 miles and pushed the pace a little bit.  I just hung on his shoulder.  He thought I wanted to pass him, but I told him "You're good!" as I was content to sit in his hip pocket until we made it to the other side of the lake.

Not exactly his hip pocket, but close enough

Once we made it to the far side of the lake there was a little clearing and a mini causeway to get across.  I told greeny that we only had a 1/2 mile to go and it was time to take off.  He mumbled something, but didn't really go with me.

I took off hard that next 1/4 mile and dropped him pretty quickly.  Then it was time to hang on.  I definitely wasn't in the running shape I was a year ago.  Plus I had gotten up early that morning and did an easy 20 miler outside on my bike.  It was kinda like a warm up.  Yeah.  I rode my bike before a race.  But I really like riding and I knew I wouldn't be able to ride the rest of the day.  I wanted start the new year off right, ya know?

I didn't exactly feel awesome the last 5 minutes of the race, but I wasn't looking for anything here but the Win.  And I did get that.  Full results here.

So the results here are pretty old school.  No timing chip on your ankle or integrated into the bib.  Just plain old hit the button when someone crosses the finish line and tear the bottom off their race number.

Old School Timing

Like I said, what do you want for $14?  Well, I'll tell ya', I was pleased with the post-race food, though.  Cheese and Crackers, bagels with cream cheese, potato chips, pretzels.

Post Race Spread

They even had marshmallows and a warm fire going.

They did have awards.  Also if you got an award you got to pick a bag or an old race t-shirt from one of the other races that the Rock Hill Striders put on (Pumpkin Run or Greenway Trail Half Marathon).

Awards

In keeping with the "Ring in the New Year" theme, the awards were bells.  I liked it because it was different and I already have almost any kind of award you can think of (wait, did that sound egotistical, or just conceited?).  Our Group came away with quite the haul.  The boys swept the 14 and under age group and Ann won the girls 14 and under age group.

Ring your Bell!

We had a lot of fun at this race.  Next year I may try and get in shape to do the 15K.  I like these trails at the Greenway better than Baxter as the Greenway's are more established and little bit easier for this old man to run.  So just like in 2013, One race = one win.  Good way to start the year!