Random Comments

I just spent a week in northern Michigan in Traverse City. Ended up logging about 474 miles in 7 days. Lots of headwinds, and tailwinds, some decent climbing and plenty of amazing views along the Old Mission Peninsula, M22 (the loop that runs from TC to Northport and then south), Sleeping Bear Dunes, etc. One of my favorite places to ride. Would be a great location for Masters Nationals. Spent some time reading some articles by some of my favorite cycling guru's. Here are some things I learned. Lennard Zinn commented in VeloNews on steel frames vs carbon. Jan Heine from Bicycle Quarterly (a very cool magazine with lots of custom builders, mainly old-school) feels that steel, being more flexible, allowed the rider to out climb someone on a stiffer frame since the flex in the frame returned energy during dead spots in the pedal stroke. He thinks in general that stiffer frames aren't better. Even the perceived difference from 531 to 753 steel was the result of the steel not being lighter but actually thinner and more flexible. Riders felt faster on the 753 and raved about its ride quality. While the 753 had a higher yield strength they were also more flexible. Greg Lemond was hesitant to switch to aluminum. The wider shell tubes that were introduced to compete with aluminum lost most of the ride quality. Davis Phinney thought his ti frame was the best he ever rode due to the flexibility of the frame. This makes me feel better about the custom built steel frame that I just received from Franklin Frames. I waited 9 months but its here and being built at Montgomery Cyclery. Its modeled after my '86 Tomassini which I still love to ride. I have several carbon bikes (Trek Madonne, Specialized S-Works Tarmac, Kuota Kalibur) but I still love steel. Hunter Allen has a new book called Cutting Edge Cycling . There is a ton of great information. I'll give some highlights here and in future posts. On HR zones, they offer that using just three zones, below 70% of max, 70-90% of max and 90%+ can be as affective as the 1-5a,b,c system. They make the argument that training HR based on lactate as a measure of fatigue and effort is still open to debate and whether an aerobic threshold truly exists. IF you're looking for a simple system, the three zones may work. The also make an argument that high intensity short efforts, like 4-7 all out 30 second sprints with 6-7 sessions over 14 days, can be as effective as long endurance efforts and actually aid in those efforts. Subjects in their study showed an improvement in time to exhaustion of 100%, from 26 to 51 minutes while riding at 80% of VO2 peak power. Could be a great option for the cyclist with limited training time.