Trainer Confessions

What's in store for 2012?

Now What?

Early last week when I surpassed 10,000 miles for the year, I added the final feather to my cap in what will go down as quite the memorable year.  Just a couple of days later, I opened up my wallet and let the Battenkill promoter pull out $84 as part of my first race registration for the 2012 season.  The act of closing down 2011 and then setting the first target for 2012 gave me reason during the ample free-time this week to ponder on what I wanted to get out of cycling in the year ahead.

Believe it or not, I could imagine a possible future where I would walk away from cycling, at least at the commitment level I now dedicate to the sport.  If I ever can't give a good answer to the question "what is it that I want to get out of cycling next year", or if the answers I come up with somehow pale in comparison to other things I'd want to accomplish in life, then I could see myself flipping a switch and redirecting myself to some other endeavor.  At various points in my life I was (amongst other things) an aspiring body builder, a die-hard New England sports fanatic, and career consumed work-aholic.  For various reasons the motivation driving my dedication to these all-consuming endeavors fizzled, and each time I finished that chapter of my life, and I never looked back. 

The good news though for the few of you who follow this blog is that it didn't take much thought to generate a healthy list of solid answers to the question I posed to myself, so there's no chance that the "off-switch" getting flipped anytime soon.

Racing

Spending time thinking about my racing goals actually gave rise to the thought that I could in fact some day flip the switch to the off position.  In 2011 my goal was clearly defined, and I built a path that eventually got me my prize, a Cat 3 upgrade.  I ended that quest at the final race of the season, so as of right now I have NO experience competing as a Cat 3 and lots of question marks as to what I can now do competing at this elevated level. 

Am I genetically gifted enough, mentally tough enough, and not yet too old such that I might expect to one day win a Cat 3 race?  If I work hard enough, could I conceivably aim to upgrade to Cat 2 at some point?  Or did I just barely reach up the ladder to the next rung, and I'll forever struggle to hold my grasp and not fall backwards to the comfort of Cat 4 competition where my unshaven legs and my sub-1000 W maximum power record are less likely to hold me back?

Without any concrete evidence under my belt in Cat 3 races yet, I don't even have guesses to any of those questions.  So for 2012, I won't be targeting a specific accomplishment as my end goal.  There won't be any pressure to produce lofty results like I had in 2011.  Instead, I'll be signing up for lots of hilly road races (like Battenkill) and two stage races (Tour of the Catskills and Green Mountain Stage Race) in search of answers. 

I'll also be picking the brain of my new coach.  If the first few months of training with him are a good indication of what's in store for 2012, I'll not only be learning quite a bit more, but I'm guessing that I'll also increase the odds that the answers to my questions above might come back quite favorable.

Giving Back

While I can conceive of a situation one day where I might decide to flip the switch on racing, I doubt I'd ever lack the motivation to continue to ride as the bicycle allows me to pursue other life goals that I'm sure will always remain important to me.  While GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has accurately pointed out that we humans exhale CO^₂, and I bet you he'd also agree that cyclists generate even greater quantities of these greenhouse gases as we power up and over the hilly roads around my house, he and I would likely disagree on any policy or program that would attempt to get more people out of their cars and off of their couches and onto the ultimate in Green transportation -- the bike.  Furthermore, given the stranglehold Big Oil and Big Coal have on the decision-making in DC, I'm afraid that way too many of those in charge right now would scoff at any attempt like mine to use my bike to encourage action to be taken about Global Warming by participating in the Climate Ride for the 2nd straight year.

In addition to raising money and awareness as part of the Climate Ride, I'm hoping to find ways in 2012 that I can give back to the cycling community and to get more people out on a bike.  I'll be looking more closely at opportunities in my backyard (Glastonbury Bikeways), in the state of CT (Bike Walk CT), and nation-wide (Rails to Trails).  However, if anyone knows of a volunteer opportunity that opens up, or if someone is looking to start something brand new to cut down the car miles and increase the bike miles, PLEASE drop me an email!  I'm looking to help, and I have to imagine that there are some people out there looking for people to help, so I'm confident I'll be able to make a connection or two in 2012 to give back and make a difference.

Family Cycling

And of course there's yet another reason I hope to keep the wheels turning on my bike for years and decades to come -- spending time with Mrs D and the girls on the roads and trails in CT and exploring new parts of the country as well.  Though most of my exploration time will be done on my own, I'm excited to plan at least a day of family cycling while out in Tucson AZ on our February family vacation.  The Tucson family vacation will also double as 2012's winter training camp for me, where I'll tackle such climbs as Mount Lemmon.

Mount Lemmon's never-ending climb

I also intend to add a family bike ride or two to augment my summer-time training camp as we return to the White Mountains of NH for the 5th consecutive summer.  And if the girls don't tire of me and/or the bike, I also hope to plan another couple of weekend bicycle adventures like we completed in 2011 (one on Cape Cod, and another to the coast of CT).

The only challenge though that I see with this plan (aside from the monstrous climbs that the NH and Tucson offer) is that by mid-summer it's quite possible that the Desmarais girls may reach a point where they outgrow the caboose of "the train".  While they both still appreciate the rest afforded to them when they get to ride in the bike trailer in between stints spinning on the tag-along, I doubt I have much more than a year to go before one or both of the girls find that their feet start poking out the trailer's cramped quarters.  So...yet another goal for 2012 will be to find a great deal on a tandem so that when 2013 rolls around, I can list on next year's goals to get the girls comfortable riding something like this! 

Photo by Joe Angeles 

 

Climate Ride – why is it important to you?

[This post is somewhat off-topic & on Global Warming, but given that it ties back to the Climate Ride, it does belong here on Trainer Confessions.  What you see below is the text I intend to send to a few local news papers for inclusion in the Letter to the Editor section.  If you see any text that could be improved upon before then, please let me know.  And of course if you want to make a donation to the Climate Ride, please follow this link.]

When I signed up for the Climate Ride (a charitable 5 day 300+ mile bike ride to support sustainable solutions, bike advocacy and environmental causes) a few of my cycling friends thought it was a way for me to indulge my passion for cycling.  While there might be an ounce of truth behind such thinking, without question my primary motivation is help convince others to take action to avert the worst of what man-made Global Warming has already set in motion.

A long time ago, I once associated Global Warming’s impact with Polar Bears and glaciers – things in faraway places with only indirect consequences to my life.  In recent years as I learned more, I felt compelled to take Green actions as part of my parental duties; not only did I want to raise happy and healthy children, but I also wanted to make sure they inherited a livable planet when they grew up. 

But as I look back upon the increasingly numerous climate disasters in 2011 (unprecedented droughts, floods, and heat waves that impacted people all over the globe), it now has become clear that action is needed to make changes NOW and in my lifetime.  Global Warming isn’t something bad that could happen at some point in the future; it was one of the factors in 2011’s record setting number of Billion Dollar weather disasters in the US (a cost that doesn’t account for the devastation incurred to the hundreds who also lost their lives in these events).

But why doesn’t everyone realize this?  Why do you rarely hear news coverage of Global Warming, except for when it snows out during the winter and Fox News decides to roast Al Gore once again?  Why is it that all of the leading GOP presidential candidates even go so far as calling Global Warming a hoax perpetrated by greedy scientists looking for grant money?

And why is it that when I asked someone recently for ideas on how to raise money, they responded by saying “Global Warming isn’t like raising money for Cancer.  Everyone knows someone whose life was threatened (or worse) by cancer.  Global Warming just doesn’t impact as many people.”

I know first-hand of cancer’s far-reaching impact; I lost my half-brother to the disease when he was still just a child.  Cancer takes the lives of tens of millions of people ever year, so unquestionably those raising money for cancer deserve the support they receive.  But why can’t I convince people that the same is true for man-made Global Warming, which already is impacting the lives of hundreds of millions of people, and within a decade or so could be impacting all 7 billion members of the human race?

The comparison to cancer got me thinking a bit more as to why too few people today feel there’s reason to take Global Warming seriously.  Many decades ago, the scientific evidence on smoking was indisputable; if you smoked scientists proved that your odds of getting life-threatening cancer sky-rocketed.  Yet highly skilled marketers and lobbyists funded by the tobacco industry cast just enough doubt on the science, and as a result, millions of people dismissed the warnings and continued to smoke.  Big Tobacco’s profits continued to swell, even as people’s lives were ended by cancer.

Today Big Oil and Coal are following the same game plan to protect their record breaking profits, even going as far as using some of the very same former Tobacco marketers and lobbyists.  For example, even as the people of Texas continue to suffer through an unparalleled drought, the successful marketing and lobbying campaigns funded by millions of dollars of coal and oil money have the governor of that state, and presidential hopeful Rick Perry, declaring that Global Warming is a hoax and that there’s no reason for Texans to question the doubt as anything other than a natural occurrence.

It took millions of deaths to finally bring the end the influence of Big Tobacco.  Absent of their money and messaging, now you’d be hard pressed to find someone willing to challenge the science connecting smoking to cancer deaths.  Unfortunately today Global Warming science, now backed and supported by virtually every major scientific body, is still not widely known or believed by significant portions of the country.   Much like the chain smokers of the 60s and 70s whose health was on the decline, today we see the worsening signs of Global Warming, yet we fail to believe the science that would give us a path away from our terrible addiction.  I just hope that it won’t take the deaths of tens or hundreds of millions before we finally break from the shackles of the influence of Big Oil and Coal.

And that is why I signed up for the Climate Ride again this year.  It’s for a cause that’s deeply important to me, and now I hope that you might find a reason to think that it’s important to you as well.

 

Just another day in a cyclist's life

A whopping 400 miles!

I remember in 2005 being a bit proud of myself at the end of summer of my first season of riding (note that I don't have riding seasons now -- there's no beginning nor end to when I ride).  I had logged a whopping 400+ miles and I was exuberant over my accomplishment when I informed one of my managers (Julie) in the EMC² office.  She was an avid cyclist so I thought she'd appreciate the significance of such a big number.

She did smile, but in retrospect I think it have been just a case of her being polite out of respect for my position.  I was a director of Quality Assurance at the time, soon to move into director of Engineering, with my sights set on VP titles and beyond.  Needless to say that my career was pretty important to my self-identity.  I viewed my work title as partly defining who I was, and the title shed some light down the path of life and what I wanted to be.

A lot has changed since then.

The Meaning of 10,000

I do admit to having a bit of pride in now crossing 10,000 miles for 2011, but not too much.  I celebrated the less than momentous occasion for all of about 2 minutes this morning.  Partly because it was a milestone achieved at 5 AM in frigid temps.  Had I celebrated for any more time than the 2 minutes it took to shoot this photo of the moment, I'd have lost to frostbite some essential body parts required for me to cycle again.

The main reason though that I didn't pop open a bottle of bubbly is that its not like winning a race or climbing some monstrous mountain peak.  To be honest, it is not really an accomplishment, other than the fact that I am able to put in lots of hours on the bike.

Yet the number 10,000 does have some significance to me.  First, it served as a reminder that I'm darn lucky to have the time to rack up so many hours of enjoyment out on the bike.  I'm in a pretty special situation right now with work/life balance, my health, and the support of Mrs D and the girls.  You don't get to 10,000 miles without those key ingredients and for that I consider myself both lucky and extremely grateful.

Second, I do take a bit of pride in how I've been able to get many of the hours in w/o infringing upon family time.  While I'm certainly lucky with the situation I now find myself in, you also don't get to 10,000 without lots of dedication and determination.  I'm certainly not the toughest guy in the world, far from it.  However, you don't get a whiff of 10k living in New England while trying to maintain a decent balance with work and the family unless you can tough out a lot of early morning work-outs, either in the basement or in nasty weather.

But perhaps the reason I now find 10,000 of such significance is that it served as a sort of stamp on the paperwork to officially change the way in which I define who I am -- I'm a cyclist now!  I'm clearly no longer defined by work; that chapter of my life is closed, at least for now. If a stranger were to ask me what I do, my first response of course would be a dad, but quickly followed by "I'm a cyclist".  To be honest, if I ever have to look for a new job now, my path up the career track would only a secondary consideration in the job search.  Of primary concern now would be how I could fit cycling into the equation.  Would the company's location allow me to commute by bike?  Or would they offer the option to work remotely, allowing me to use commuting time instead for cycling?  Or maybe would the new job somehow do something to support other cyclists?  If so, then let's talk about future career growth and benefit packages if time permits during the interview!

So if you asked me what I did today, I might not even mention the 10,000 miles (OK, that's a stretch).  My response should be that the day was nothing out of the normal; just another day in a cyclist's life.

Climate Ride 2012 -- I'm in!

Climate Ride NYC-DC 2012

May 19 - 23, 2012 | 5 Days | 300 Miles

I wasn't sure if I was going to sign-up for the Climate Ride again this year.  Don't get me wrong -- I wanted to sign up; my experience in 2011's edition was nothing but positive.  It was an extremely well run event where I was surrounded by 149 like-minded cyclists intent to make a difference out on 350 miles (I of course had to add in extra 50 miles to the ride's standard 300) of mostly quiet back roads.  It also was an event that required me to raise $2,400 (which I failed to do, so I had to donate a big chunk of my own money), and that's why I had reservations on doing the ride again 2012.

I had no doubt that I would do the ride again eventually, but I wasn't so keen on going back to the well so soon looking for donations.  I am certain that in my fund raising efforts for 2011, I became so annoying in my persistent reminders and nagging that mail filters had me re-routed to Spam folders.  And I know there were a few people who dug deep in order to support the cause, and now I need to come knocking on their doors seeking their generous support yet again.

So why am I now signed up yet again?

Two great causes

In general, I've had a pretty great stretch recently.  Work has dramatically picked up, giving me ample opportunities every day to feel as though I've made a difference.  Its not just busy work -- I'm involved in things that put my skills to good use, and I regularly see that my efforts have helped to improve things and to help move things in the right direction.

Work isn't too crazy though such that I don't have time to keep up with my training for 2012's racing season.  While I do have to get most of my work-outs in before anyone in the Desmarais household is even thinking of ending the night's slumber, I'm now accustomed to the less flexible work schedule and I'm confident my progress on the bike right now will have me doing well come springtime.

And pretty much all of the other important things in my life (most notably Mrs D and the girls) seem to be headed in the right direction -- onwards and upwards.

But there's one big exception.  One part of my life where I still give myself a big fat F.  While I talk a lot about how little is being done about Global Warming (or Global Weirding as some have started to call it), and I certainly read a lot about how things are unquestionably getting worse, I still don't do a lot..  At best I'm a passive complainer, still searching for ways to make a difference but without much to show thus far. 

So without an idea yet as to what significant actions I can take to do more, I go back to what I do best.  Ride my bike and hope that I can convince people to contribute to two great causes (350.org and Rails to Trails). 

Oh, and if you do make a contribution, you'll be helping me to support two other great causes -- a world I hope my 2 girls inherit without wars fought over ever more scarce resources; a world not ravaged by ever more devastating floods; and a world with a thriving economy based upon local clean tech energy.  So if you want to make a difference and make sure the two great causes pictured below inherit a world worth cycling in, please consider making a secure, tax-deductible donation here.

About the Climate Ride (from their website):

The mission of Climate Ride is to inspire and empower citizens to work toward a new energy future. We use sport as a means to change lives and build an effective, citizen-based sustainability movement.

Climate Ride Program Goals

• Raise money for groundbreaking sustainability, climate, clean energy, and bicycle-related projects and organizations.
• Raise the profile of renewable energy and the green economy among participants, donors, sponsors, and the general public.
• Increase awareness and understanding of the inter-connectedness of environmental issues caused by the climate crisis among participants, donors, sponsors, and the general public.
• Foster a sense of civic duty and participation that encourages engagement with members of Congress, elected officials, and national leaders.
• Promote the bicycle as a viable, carbon-free, healthy, and critical component of a green transportation infrastructure.
• Motivate individuals to take responsibility for reducing their carbon and energy footprint.
• Develop multiple Climate Ride events that galvanize a worldwide network of Climate Riders.

About 350.org (from their website)

350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by thousands of volunteer organizers in over 188 countries.

About Rais to Trails (from their website)

Our Mission
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., whose mission it is to create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people.

 

 

Failure

Rude Awaking

Tuesday morning was my first interval session of the 2012 training year.  If you needed further evidence that I'm a sadist, I'll let it be known that I actually was quite chipper as I descended the stairs at 5 AM, into the dark basement and then up upon the trainer.  

It had been nearly 3 months without any structured intervals -- my first month of training had me at the gym lifting weights 3 days a week, but on the bike it was strictly endurance paced riding.  And for the two months prior to that, it was all play time on the bike for me.  I was pretty jazzed to get back into the routine of precisely dosed pain for specific durations, so that excitement, plus my 24 oz water bottle of coffee, had me smiling through the first warm-up part of the work out.

The plan sent to me by my new coach for the season's kick-off interval was one designed to tax the muscular endurance system -- 3 sets of low-cadence 10 minute efforts at around my LT for last season (270W, which corresponds to the green horizontal line I drew on the WKO+ chart below).  It sounded like the kinda work-out I'd enjoy suffering through, but the smile on my face slowly fizzled though just a few minutes into the first interval.  I knew I couldn't keep the Watts at 270 at such a low cadence, so I went with a quick (and in hindsight, mistaken) decision to abandon the low cadence goal to at least maintain the Wattage goal.

Just a couple of minutes into interval #2 I had to choose between the Wattage goal and the duration goal, and again, Wattage won out, and I had to pare the effort back to just six minutes.  There was no hint of a smile on my face at that point.

And by the time I barely made it to the six minute mark for the third and final interval...well...let's just say it is a good thing that I'm in the basement and that the girls and Mrs D were still fast asleep two floors above me.  I'm sure I said things that I'd rather not have them hear, or at least I think I uttered some profanity.  I was too deep in the pain cave to recall specifically what actually happened vs. what I might have imagined.

0-3

In 2011, I was pretty proud of my training plan success rate -- I can think of only two interval work-outs prescribed by my old coach where I failed to meet or exceed the prescribed Wattages, cadence, and duration goals.  That's probably two misses out of literally hundreds of intervals over the year.

So you can imagine how much of a foul taste was left in my mouth after finishing up the morning's work-out, and I'm not just talking about the normal foul taste left behind after downing coffee from a plastic water bottle.  It only took one work-out for me to rack up 3 big misses in my intervals for 2012! 

Those of you who know me well would not be surprised that failure such as this had me quickly digging deeper, looking for answers. I knew it wasn't a case of me just wimping out.  As you can see by the yellow lines I drew on each of the three intervals below, the rate at which my HR zoomed up to 200 bpm got increasingly faster with each interval.  There's no faking 200+ bpm, so the pain was real, but what brought it on so quickly?

• Last year I had a very bicycle training friendly work schedule, so I rarely did big interval efforts so early in the morning.  Perhaps this morning I encountered a case where the mind was willing, but the legs were still slumbering?
• Also, with the bigger efforts coming later in the day last year, I had a couple of the day's meals in my belly supplying the muscles with a steady supply of energy.  While I did down the 24 oz of coffee early into my work-out, maybe there just wasn't enough juice in the system to keep the muscles pumping?
• Over the last three months nearly all of my riding time has been in the 135 to 155 W range.  Any time spent at 270 or beyond was during brief climbs or sprints.  Maybe I've lost too much fitness and I'm just not ready for such efforts?
• Lastly, I'm now training with a new coach.  While we've met once and exchanged a bunch of emails, maybe we need a longer "dating" period so that he gets to know me better, understand what I'm capable of (and all of what I am incapable of!), and until then his plans may miss the mark for me?

Rapid Response

It didn't take me long to get the answer (or at least an answer).  Within an hour after hopping off the bike, I had downloaded my data and fired off an email with my powerfile to my coach from the breakfast table.  By the time I headed upstairs to start the day of work, I already had a response back. 

After analyzing my powerfile, he pointed out that I completely ignored something he explicitly had called out in an email to me earlier in the week.  What made that even more remarkable was that the email he had sent earlier in the week was in response to a question I had raised myself, specifically to be proactive about the matter that I now ignored!

The plan he had given me had assumed my time would be outside.  When I had asked him earlier in the week if and how I should alter the plan if I was confined to the trainer, the recommendation was to knock 15 to 20 Watts off of what he had asked me to do.  Had I aimed my target at that lower Wattage adjusted for the indoor training, he was confident that I would have completed all three intervals as planned.

So perhaps the real reason for my failure was that I should have had two coffee-filled water bottles, as clearly with just 24 oz's worth of caffeine, my brain was unable to remember the clear directions I had been given.  I'll know for sure though on Saturday when I attempt the same work-out, but this time outdoors and after a bit more coffee!