Friday was a beautiful day in the Bay area, and I quickly ran home for a late afternoon ride to try out my new Zipp 900 Disc wheel.
I went out on Foothill Blvd and did some non-scientific time tests. From my house to a known traffic light, I usually take about 10 minutes during my warmup. But that day, it took me 9 minutes. Hmmm, maybe there is something here. On the flats of Foothill Blvd, I felt that maybe I was going 1-2 MPH faster than I normally would on those roads. Or I could have been just dreaming. Certainly I didn’t try to put more effort into my cycling. But it did seem like I was going a bit faster than normal on the same roads without a disc wheel.
And then there was that awesome sound like that of a jet plane flying overhead, but it was my wheel vibrating against the wind. In fact, the wheel magnified my gear shifts as well and it sounded like big ka-chunks every time I shifted.
All this talk about disc wheels is particularly interesting, especially the research on negative drag and aerodynamics. A buddy of mine remarked that at IM WA in certain parts of the course where the wind would hit the disc wheel just right, that he felt that he was shooting forward with the wind just a bit. I went out on the net looking for some literature about it.
Among the references I found, they talked about “tacking against the wind” as like in sailing. The technique is described as basically just leaning into the wind slightly, in whichever direction it’s coming from. Apparently, when the wind is hitting it from the side, it creates lift on the wheel which shoots the wheel and bike forward, similar to how a wing works where if air is accelerated off a surface, it creates force to push the wing forward. Aerodynamics is improved by smoothing out the airflow off the back of the wheel. But disc wheels will create instability problems in high winds and you need to compensate by forcing the bike to stay on course.
The other references I found were that disc wheels, due to their mass, have higher rotational inertia since it is solid versus a spoked wheel which is not. That means it takes longer to get up to speed, but then when you get up to speed, it tends to help you maintain that speed. Thus, you can maintain a higher speed easier, especially on flatter courses.
I can’t wait to try this disc wheel out at Ironman Florida at the end of the year.
If you want to read some of the stuff I read, here are some links:
Help! what’s the aerodynamic difference of the two wheels?
Spokes or Discs?
Aerodynamics – The Wheel Story
Duathlon.com Crosswind Tacking

Yesterday I took my new Louis Garneau Rocket aero helmet out for my long ride to test it out. I didn’t know what to expect but if the wind tunnel tests were true, then I should be using something which would have a dramatic effect on my cycling aerodynamic efficiency.
Wow what a noticeable difference. I especially noticed it while pedaling in windy conditions. It was noticeably easier to pedal with winds and headwinds, as I didn’t feel as much effort in my legs. The effect was most dramatic when I was in aero position. It made me want to pedal in aero position the whole time! When I sat upright, the effect was much lessened. But hunkering down on my aero bars with the back cone of the helmet laying against my back somehow made me slice through the wind much easier.
I’m sold! Can’t wait to try it out at Ironman Brazil.

I’m STOKED.
My Louis Garneau Rocket aero helmet arrived today. Putting me on made me feel like a ROCKET.
OK OK. I suck as a triathlete. Maybe you can argue that I’m not worthy of wearing an aero helmet. But after reading this article about Bicycle Aerodynamics and an article in Bicycling Magazine, September 2006, I am looking at anything to help me increase my aerodynamic efficiency. One of those, surprisingly enough, is the helmet. So I plunked down some cash to get my head more aero.
Will I go faster? Maybe. But what I’m more concerned about is conservation of energy. Even if I go the same speed, I should be more aero and thus expend less energy than without an aero helmet, and thus help me on the run. At least that’s the theory…

My coach, M2, just opened a new facility in San Francisco called M2 Revolution Cycling and Motion Studio at the corner of Bush and Van Ness. For his grand opening celebration, he got Floyd Landis to come and ride with us during a workout.

They put Floyd’s watts up on a video screen at the front of the room. Man, that guy is STRONG. We were officially dusted by his 520 peak watts, which was well over twice the power output I was putting out in the same interval. Makes me want to keep going up Old La Honda until my legs are as big as my waist!

If you live in SF, you should visit the M2 Revolution facility. It has CycleOps trainers which give you power output, treadmills, and also Vasa trainers for dryland swim training. Parking is on the next block over so very convenient. If you visit M2’s classes, you’ll get a taste for the interval training he puts all of us through. Very tough and very worthwhile. Much better than your average spin class.

This Saturday I set out on a cold (but warming) morning out on a ride. I was determined to ride up Old La Honda twice, as last time I only did it 1.5 times, completely wiping out in the middle of the second try.
It was my quest to increase my hill climbing strength. Previous to Old La Honda, I was doing hill repeats on a smaller hill and got up to about 6 reps, which each rep being about 5:15 minutes. It was time to move up. Old La Honda is about half an hour, sometimes many minutes less for those who like sprinting up a 3 mile hill with steep switchbacks and no flats at all. My legs were getting stronger, but I was determined to improve this part of my fitness as I’ve always felt that hilly courses wipe me out too much and leave me nothing for the run afterwards.
I went to low gear as I spun up the hill. It was tough but I reached the top in about 27:30 which was pretty slow compared to pros…or those guys with triple front chain rings who just easily went up that darn hill fast and easy. I have compact cranks, so I’m a tad better than those without compact cranks, but nowhere near the mechanical advantage of triple chain ring folks. Most of us frown upon those guys, even if they do blow by me up Old La Honda. Bah! I am going up twice and these turkeys are probably going to quit after one rep!
I pause at the top and rest, suck down a GU gel, put on my windbreaker, and then turn around and make a chilling downhill run and almost freeze my tail off coming down the hill. Cooling down with no effort, coupled with the fog up top makes for a super uncomfortable downhill, sometimes even in the middle of summer.
Then, at the bottom, I sit in a sunny patch for a minute to warmup. I take off my windbreaker, and then head back up. It’s definitely much harder this time. My quads are feeling very wiped out and I’m off my seat to vary my muscle usage as much as possible. I make it up in about 29 minutes this time, but I don’t care about losing 2 minutes. This is a strength workout and I so psyched to make it up the second time!
Next time, 2.5 times up Old La Honda, and then onwards to 3 times. It will definitely suck, but the benefits outweigh mere pain.

When I started using my Computrainer (CT) by Racermate, it was hard to figure out how to use. So I thought I would post some discoveries about it in the last 2+ years of using it while training.
The CT is great because it’s like weight lifting for the bike. The wattage settings are consistent with the CT from workout to workout; with a regular trainer, you aren’t consistent with the pressure the roller is pushing against the rear tire and you may not be working out as hard one day to the next. On the CT, a calibration step makes the wattage consistent from workout to workout.
Add to that the ability to ride simulated courses and you have the perfect companion for indoors training.
Here are some tips about it:
1. Make sure you go through the calibration step. You need to pedal at least 8-10 minutes to warm up the tire itself and then the CT will be calibrated to the rubber of the tire against the roller. When you hit both the +/- keys together, you enter the calibration mode. Then you pedal to at least 25 MPH and then stop pedaling until it stops. It will then reveal a number related to the tension of the roller against the rear tire. This will change from the beginning when the tire is cold to when the tire is warmed up. However, according to Marc Evans, he says that you can still have some variance in wattage consistency across workouts if you don’t push the roller against the tire with the same tension, and have the same air pressure in the tire. I am too lazy to make it consistent from workout to workout. I just calibrate as is. Marc inflates to 100 lbs and adjusts the roller until the unit says 2.00 during the calibration step.
2. Ergometer mode is where I do most of my workouts.
3. You can do a benchmark test to measure your fitness and give you a sense for your workout wattages, and tell you where approximately your bike LT is. This is a 2 minute 20 watt step test which is in the manual. Here is my benchmark from last year:

Record time, watts, HR and RPE. Change watts every 2 minutes by going up 20 watts until you can’t continue. My LT is around HR 174, where I really go labored.
It also told me that I can do 2-3 min intervals at about 170w-180w.
4. Generally interval workouts are about 30-60 minutes in length. I do usually 2, rarely 3, per week which is in addition to my long bike on the weekends.
There are ladders you can do, gradually increasing wattage progressions, and also see-saw type workouts where you have 2 minutes at high watts, and then drop 30 watts for a recovery, but not all the way down to spin watts (ie. 50-100).
5. Neural activation workouts which help you get used to more watts, are short intervals at high watts.
6. Strength workouts are done with low RPM but high watts and lots of rest.
7. My warmup usually includes the calibration step. So I’ll spin at low watts, 50-100 for 8 minutes, then enter calibration mode, calibrate, then exit calibration mode and raise watts to 100w until 9th minute. Then I’ll do :30 high watts, :30 low (100w), and steadily increase the high watts until I’m past my workout watts. Warmup is at a minimum of 15 minutes and better up to 20 minutes. I find sometimes that even though I warmup 15 minutes, my first few intervals are tough to handle, but I feel better as the workout goes on. But usually I’m time constrained so I only warmup for 15 minutes.
8. I have never tried doing an interval workout beyond 1.5 hours. It’s pretty hard and taxing to maintain that kind of strength for that long. My coach gave us all his mega interval workout of 2.5 hours. I have never tried it and don’t think I will ;-).
9. Spinscan is way cool. It’s great to practice neuromuscular training by focusing on creating perfectly round circles and even circles between the left and right legs. You can see the unevenness you may have in pedaling on this graph.
10. I also use Powercranks on my CT. It’s a great strength workout and helps in balancing the strength output between legs. Ergometer mode is perfect for adjusting watts during a workout. Powercranks workouts only last about 30 minutes. You’ll find they are much more taxing than normal crank workouts.
11. I don’t like to ride the 3D bike courses. You can’t coast downhill and uphills are super tough as the CT sometimes locks down on the rear tire on steep uphills. I do use the Challenge PC1 app and ride on simple rolling courses to practice maintaining constant wattage during a ride.
Here is a website with courses:
http://www.michiganoutlaws.com/computrainer.htm
One thing that helps on course rides is to make sure you jam the roller on the tire as much as possible, as sometimes the rear wheel slips against the roller on hills. This was from a Racermate rep I met at an Ironman expo in Kona one year.
Definitely one of the coolest, most useful training gadgets around.

They make such a big deal about bike fit. You sit for hours with someone at a bike store, or you pay big bucks to go to a professional to make sure you’re maximizing power output with the most efficiency and minimal energy waste.
But little is known about about shifting your bike positioning during cycling. And I don’t mean actually sliding the seat. I mean that you can actually engage different muscles for different terrain based on where you put your butt!
This article in Triathlete magazine talks about this:
http://www.dshen.com/training/bikepositioning.pdf (7 MB!)
Sorry for the huge file size. I wanted the images and text to come out nicely.
I tried this today in my long ride outdoors, which today consisted of hill repeats. I found myself naturally sliding back and forth and experimented with best positioning on the hill repeats. By sliding my butt all the way back on the seat, I could really engage my glutes and got some real nice power while on my seat going up the hill.
Down on the flats, I found myself sliding forward more to engage a wider range of muscles for making lots of revolutions while on the aerobars.
Along with the article on pedaling from Bicycling magazine, working on both pedalling and bike body position, I’ve been able to boost power output this year by another 5-10 watts.

When I started cycling for racing, I never could have imagined how complex cycling really was. Cycling technique has so many little nuances it’s hard to keep track of all of them when you are cycling. Only through extensive training and practice to reinforce technique can you unconsciously perform optimal cycling technique…and prevent injury.
A great article on pedaling was published in Bicycling magazine, March 2007 Issue. I scanned it in:
The Perfect Pedal Stroke, Bicycling Magazine, March 2007, pg. 108
After looking at the fantastic illustration, I noted that I wasn’t letting my heel drop on the downstroke but instead I was pointing my toe downward. By letting the heel drop, I could engage my large glute muscles and hamstrings which I probably was not in the past. I set out to try this.
Definitely a difference. My glutes are more sore in my Computrainer workouts, and I can definitely feel my hamstrings getting hit more as well. Overall, I think my power output has gone up another 5-10 watts on workouts that I did last year. Very cool. Definitely more to work on here because I still get messy and revert to old habits when I get tired.