PROBIKEWRENCH

Please forgive the long hiatus from the blog.  There’s been too much going on to keep track of, and I just haven’t had time to write.  I’ve been going nuts lately, and since I use this blog to scribble out my thoughts and keep track of everything, I’ve been kind of discombobulated as of late.  Hopefully, typing tonight will help me regain some semblance of sanity.

It’s been a few weeks since all the festivities with Team Kenda p/b GearGrinder, but I’ve finally got a chance to get to the laptop to jot down a few notes and highlights from those few days.  Here’s a  rundown of what happened:

• I went down to Macon, GA for two days to help Team Kenda’s ace mechanic, John Columbus, assemble some bikes for the team.  It was a good couple of days.  We had a lot of goodies from Masi, SRAM, Thomson, Jagwire, and Look to make the job a lot easier.  We had to fashion a couple of homemade tools to get the job done, but it got done.  We built around 12 team bikes in a day and a half, which also consisted of unloading and rearranging the team trailer and work area.
• I got to FINALLY meet the MasiGuy, Tim Jackson (brand manager for Masi Bicycles) in person.  I have chatted back and forth with him on Twitter/blogs for the past several years, interviewed him for the VeloReviews Podcast, and I’ve got one of his bikes at my house as a demo, but had never actually met him in person.  Good times.
• The following Sunday, as a favor to me for working on the team bikes, Tim and Team Kenda p/b GearGrinder’s Team Director, Frankie Andreu (former US Postal Service rider, Versus TdF Commentator), stopped by Out Spokin’ for a meet and greet with several customers who decided to stop by.  They hung out for around an hour, and afterwards, we all rode over to LifeTime Fitness to join the rest of the team for…
• A great group ride with the team and a lot of LifeTime Fitness regulars.  We rode around 20 miles or so through Roswell and Alpharetta’s most beautiful subdivisions… and some hilly ones.  The guys from Team Kenda were really cool and I think that the team gained a few more fans over the course of the weekend.  I also got the chance to meet several Twitter-buddies in person, like Team Kenda p/b GearGrinder PR man, @ricktillery, and Super-Fan/Diva @BGreene1.  It was a great weekend for everyone involved.

It’s been a busy few weeks since then… don’t even want to catch up on a lot of it.   Last night I did a presentation at theRAMBO (Roswell-Alpharetta Mountain Bike Organization) monthly club meeting.  I spoke for 15-20 minutes about bike fit, and I think the group was at least slightly educated in the process.  I finished up a pretty sweet bike build yesterday, too.  It took a few weeks to get everything together, but I was happy with the end result, and so was my customer.  Here it is:

Tomorrow’s the last ride on my (first) Eddy Merckx.  I have enjoyed this bike thoroughly, but it’s time to move on to something different.  I’m actually taking my rig down a notch in order to pull off a two-fer.  I’m trading the Merckx in, fully loaded, for two bikes.  Which bikes, you ask?  I’ll let you know when I get them rolling.  More on that later…

I’ve got more pictures from the Frankie Andreu shop visit and Team Kenda p/b GearGrinder Fan Ride.  I’ll post them when I can, as they’re still loaded on my phone.  You can also find Tim Jackson’s report about the team’s training camp and a few bits about the shop visit HERE.

I’m not really big into testing, and never have kept track of a lot of data regarding my training or physical well-being, so being tested like I was last week was definitely a change of pace.  Andrew Smith (@ajsendurance on Twitter), conducted the test for me, and by the conversations that we had regarding the results, really seems to know his stuff.  Here’s the run-down of how the test went down and my results:

• 30 Minute Warm-up on spin bike
• Calibration of the spin bike (equipped with power meter), air flow machine, and computer
• VO2/Threshold Test (lasted about 10-12 minutes)
• Power was ramped up 30 watts per minute until threshold reached
• Cool down on the spin bike for several minutes
• Reviewed reports and future workouts with Andrew

The way the test works is by gauging the volume of air/carbon dioxide that I’m using, finding out where I burn fat vs. calories throughout my workout, and setting those HR zones, accordingly.  Then, the HR zones are integrated into a workout that can burn fat and calories and increase the VO2 levels that I’m putting out.  Pretty cool, huh?

Here’s the numbers that I have from the reports:

Heart Rates/Zones:

• My Base is in Zone 1 (HR – 145-155 bpm).
• At my base, I burn 7.2 fat calories per minute.
• My HR Threshold is 177 bpm.
• My threshold marks the end of Zone 3.
• My HR for Zone 3 is 166-177 bpm.
• Recovery HR:  N/A (changed HR monitors – did not record during test)

VO2:

• At threshold, my VO2 is 43.4 ml/kg/min.
• My Peak VO2 is 44.9 ml/kg/min.
• Threshold/Peak: 97%

I don’t fully understand all of that information yet, but it’s a good starting point for the little bit of training that I will attempt to do this year.  I highly recommend having a test like this done for anyone who wants to work on their personal fitness… especially for those wanting to accomplish something specific on the bike.  Just from this one test, I can already see how having an endurance coach like Andrew could increase your results exponentially.  Try it out for yourself and see…

I’m not going to make this a training-based blog, like a lot of friends of mine do, however, I may write from time to time about how my riding is coming along and how the VO2 tests progress.