New PowerMeter Option...Watteam PowerBeat

WATTEAM POWERBEAT Now Available Greetings Power Meter City affiliate partners. We hope you are well. There is a new power meter on the scene, and we are excited to be one of only two dealers in the U.S. currently selling it. The WATTEAM POWERBEAT.  The POWERBEAT is the first user-installed power meter. The POWERBEAT attaches to the left and right crank arms (see image below). This means, it can provide true left/right power measurement. In fact, at $499, the POWERBEAT is the most affordable, direct force power meter capable of providing total (both legs) as well as independent left/right power. The POWERBEAT is accurate to within +/- 1.5% (industry standard), is lightweight at only 18.9 grams per side, features a rechargeable battery with 60-hour life and offers both ANT+ as well as Bluetooth SMART compatibility. In regards to the installation process, it's quite simple. If you have 45 minutes and can follow instructions, you can install it. There are both road and off-road versions of the POWERBEAT. Road versions are currently shipping. Off-road versions should be available soon. Please let us know if you have any questions on it. We are quite excited about this new offering!   WATTEAM POWERBEAT Quick Reminder We also wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for participating in our affiliate program. We greatly enjoy working with our affiliate partners and appreciate the referrals they provide. If you know of anyone that would be a good fit for our program, please send them to our home page, where they can find a link to our affiliate program. Thanks again, Josh The Power Meter City Difference   ●  Largest selection of power meters and accessories ●  Free U.S. shipping and the lowest international rates ●  Power meters starting as low as $299 ●  Fast order processing and same day shipping ●  Power meter knowledge center with additional information and resources ●  100% satisfaction guarantee on all orders ●  Financing available through PayPal Credit ●  20% off TrainingPeaks Premium with the purchase of a power meter Most importantly, we are power meter specialists and can give customers expert advice and customer service before and after their purchase.

Copyright © 2016 Power Meter City. All rights reserved.

tonights strength class

tonights strength class; didn't go into the 90% as much since my zones recalculated based on last weeks spin class hitting a new high of 175 or so; I'll wear this on Sunday for the indoor tt and get close to my real max of 181-2

various intervals

Did these today and will take off tomorrow completely. The 40 seconds at high rpms were 127, 127 and 129 (2 min between; power in the 240's. The 3 min at 100 rpm was 330. The 3 min at 110 rpm was 307. The next 3 min at 100 rpm was 331. The last all out 3 min was 387.

Mindful Monday from Dr. Barbara Walker

Being mindful of your habits, both mental and physical habits, will not only help you gain awareness of how you are spending your time and energy, but will also allow you to increase your productivity, decrease stress, and improve your overall well being.    Remember that mindfulness is about paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment.  We all have the same 24 hours every day, although we all choose to utilize that time in different ways. Even within our own lives, depending on our mood, energy level, and motivation, we use our time differently.    My intention is not for anyone to be such a high efficiency machine, that they have no wriggle room or flexibility - that is unsustainable, no fun, and a recipe for burnout. Having some down-time, randomness, and spontaneity is serving you well!  Many of your habits may be very functional, helping you stay on the path toward your mission.  If those habits work, keep them. Consider, however, what habits of action or thinking might you get stuck in or choose to partake in that are wasting time or energy?   Do you get stuck rehashing an old conversation or live in regret? Do you over analyze and worry about something that hasn't even happened yet?  Do you keep thinking about all the things you have to get done but feel paralyzed as to how or where to start, thus wasting even more time in the process? How much are you allowing TV, social media, Netflix to take over your free time - and for what reason - avoiding tasks, numbing yourself, feeling bored?    When we get stuck or waste energy, a vicious cycle occurs, making us even feel worse about ourselves.  We have to gain awareness of what's not working and make appropriate adjustments.  At different times of the day, take a pause, with a deep breath and ask yourself,  "Is This Serving Me Well?" If the answer is no, find a way to stop what you are doing. The ability to control yourself in these situations will leave you feeling empowered to repeat the decision the next time the habit arises, and can cascade into other decisions that will allow you to continue to serve yourself well.

MyZone data from tiem trial the efforts

.

Click Here to Join Fitness February!

Sat 25 Feb 2017, 8:56 AM - 10:31 AM (1256679)

269 MEPs

95 Minutes

74% Av Effort

1163 Calories

127 Av Heart Rate

00:18 00:23 00:06 00:40 00:07 00:01 90-100% 80-90% 70-80% 60-70% 50-60% 0-50% 72 MEPs 92 MEPs 18 MEPs 80 MEPs 7 MEPs

Inside time trial efforts, 1x20, 2x10 minutes

Inside. Definitely didn't feel as strong as lats weekend. I was looking forward to these but once on the bike I knew my power was a little off. I did 1x20 and 2x10, all at 345. Not far off last week (2% lower) but expected better. I think the 100 mile effort on Thursday was still having an effect.

Todays Century Ride Data

did a solo century through Loveland, Blanchester, Ft. Ancient, and back. Unlike the steady indoor pace you can get an idea of the erratic power output. Drops in he HR were just loss of transmission. I added on the last 12 miles inside on the trainer as I answered emails on my phone and read my newspapers. 

Todays all day data

wore the MyZone monitor from 6am until 9 pm...this included two classes, a walk with the dogs, office time, two hours with the big band this evening and other typical daily activities 

two workout HR files

12 mile hike on 2-16-17 in Great Smoky Mtn National Park

one hour circuit class plus the bike ride home on 2-20-17

10x1 minute, 1 minute between

low 500's on all of them (501-519)

40 minute indoor time trial effort

held 352 for 40 minutes inside....did this inside as its hard to find a 40 minute non-stop road around here

Mile 300,000 recorded today

Mile 300,000 at the entry sign on my way out of the park today. Took almost 37 years. Includes over 200 centuries, longest one day ride of 225, longest two days at 335 (includes the 225), longest week at 535 (includes 470 on the Blue Ridge Parkway), most in a month 1500+, most in a year at 15,300, over 600 time trials (30-36 per year for 20 years, 315 at Cleves alone), and five wrecks (rr tracks in Madeira, Ault Park crit in the mid 80's, hit a friend when a dog ran in front of us, hit by a car in '93, hit a kid at Cleves who rode out in front of me). Bikes owned are two schwinns, a few Treks, two Colnago, Bianchi, two Cannondales, Serotta, HED, Kuota, Specialized, Giant, Franklin, and two Tomassini's (still have them, one from '86). Probably 30% of the miles are inside. Favorite century is Gatlinburg to Cherokee to Clingmans to Elkmont and back to the chalet on a sunny May or June day. The goal is 500,000 by 75. Age 75, not 2075.

Stages Power Meters Now Available through link on website

RBR article on Recovery, by Gabe Mirkin, MD

RECOVERY: THE KEY TO IMPROVEMENT IN CYCLING 

• February 10, 2017
• Published in Issue No. 749

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

If you want to become stronger and faster and have greater endurance, you need to exercise so intensely on one day that you damage your muscles and feel sore on the next day – and then train at a reduced intensity for as many days as it takes for your muscles to heal and the soreness to lessen. Then you take your next intense workout.

Athletes in most sports try to alternate hard workouts on one day and easier recovery workouts on the next. The faster their muscles recover, the greater their improvement from their sports training. The key to athletic training is to speed up your recovery so you can take your next intense workout. The banned performance-enhancing drugs called anabolic steroids improve athletic performance by helping athletes' muscles recover much faster from hard workouts.

How Muscles Become Stronger

Muscles are made up of thousands of fibers just as a rope is made of threads. Each fiber is made up of blocks called sarcomeres joined end to end at the Z-lines like a line of bricks. Muscles contract only at each Z-line, not along the entire length of a fiber. See the illustration.

Intense workouts cause muscle damage, which can be seen as bleeding into the muscles themselves and disruption of the Z bands that hold the muscle sarcomeres together. Significant increases in muscle strength and size come only with workouts intense enough to break down muscle Z-lines. When muscles heal they become stronger and larger.

The faster you move on your hard days, the faster you can move in competition. However, continuing intense exercise when muscles feel sore can cause injuries and an over-training syndrome that can take weeks or months for recovery.

Training to Get Better

Most athletes in endurance and strength sports exercise on their recovery days and do not plan to take days off. However, on recovery days, they work at a markedly reduced intensity to put minimal pressure on their muscles. If you develop pain anywhere that gets worse as you continue exercising, you are supposed to stop for that day. Active recoveries on easy days at low intensity make muscles tougher and more fibrous so the athlete's muscles can withstand harder intense workouts on intense days.

Almost all top runners, cyclists and weight lifters do huge volumes of work, and most of it is on their less-intense recovery days. The stresses of intense workouts are extreme; the recoveries take a long time and are done at low pressure on the muscles. Top endurance runners run more than 100 miles per week, cyclists do more than 300 miles per week and weight lifters spend hours each day in the gym.

Research data comparing active and passive recovery are scant. I am amazed at how few quality studies are available to answer this question. New training methods are developed by athletes and coaches. Then when these athletes win competitions, scientists do studies to show why the new training methods are more effective.

One study showed that runners recover faster by taking a relaxed swimming workout 10 hours after high-intensity interval running, rather than just resting (International Journal of Sports Medicine, January 2010). In another study, runners recovered strength and power faster after a marathon by resting for five days compared to those who ran slowly (Journal of Applied Physiology, December 1984).

Active recovery should be of limited intensity that does not interfere with the healing process. A one-hour recovery ride is more effective than a three-hour recovery ride after 13 days of intense bicycle training. Those who rode for three hours on their four recovery days had much lower maximal heart rates and maximal lactic acid blood levels, lower power output and slower 30-minute time trials (Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, June 2009).

Recover Faster by Sleeping and Eating

Athletes in intense training recover faster by getting off their feet after they finish their hard workouts and not even walking until it is time for the next day's recovery workout. You recover faster by sleeping immediately after an intense workout or race.

Eating a high-carbohydrate meal within one hour of intense workouts hastens recovery as well (Journal of Sports Sciences, January 2004). Adding protein to that meal hastens recovery even more (Sports Science Exchange, 87:15, 2002; Physiologie Appliquée, Nutrition et Métabolisme, February 2008). Adding salt and drinking lots of fluids are also necessary for a faster recovery (Journal of Sports Sciences, January 2004).

Within one hour after your intense workouts, eat fruits, vegetables and grains (for carbohydrates) and seafood, beans or nuts (for protein), eat enough salt to replace what you have lost and drink plenty of fluids (Can J Appl Physiol, 2001;26 Suppl:S236-45). As long as the post-intense-exercise meal contains lots of protein and carbohydrates, it doesn't matter what you eat (Am J Clin Nutr, Jan 2017; Med Sci Sports Exerc, Oct 2008;40(10):1789-94). Fast foods such as french fries, hash browns and hamburgers helped athletes recover just as quickly from hard workouts as sports nutrition products such as Gatorade, PowerBars or Clif Bars (International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, March 26, 2015).

Why You Need Protein as Well as Carbohydrates after Intense Workouts

The soreness that you feel 8 to 24 hours after an intense workout is caused by a tearing of the muscle fibers at their Z-lines. The fastest way to get muscles to heal is to have your body produce lots of insulin and also provide a supply of protein to repair the damaged tissue. We have known for a long time that insulin drives sugar into cells to be used for energy.

Now we know that it also drives protein building blocks called amino acids into the muscle cells to help them heal faster. Eating lots of protein immediately after intense exercise helps cyclists recover faster so they can ride harder for several days after an intense workout (Physiologie Appliquée, Nutrition et Métabolisme, February 2008).

Why You Should Eat Within One Hour After an Intense Workout

Intense exercise empties your muscles of their stored sugar supply called glycogen as well as damaging your muscle fibers. You recover faster from hard exercise by replenishing your stored muscle glycogen as well as healing the fibers. You have an infinite amount of fat in your body, but you have only a very meager amount of sugar stored in your muscles and liver. When your muscles run out of stored sugar, your muscles burn fat almost exclusively and you have to slow down. The more sugar you have stored in a muscle before you start to exercise, the longer and faster you can exercise that muscle.

Most cells need insulin to drive sugar and protein from the bloodstream into cells. However, when you exercise, contracting muscles can pull huge amounts of sugar out of the bloodstream without even needing insulin. This effect of pulling sugar rapidly from the bloodstream without needing insulin lasts maximally for about an hour after you finish exercising and then gradually decreases until it is gone after about 17 hours. Eating within an hour after finishing exercise helps muscles heal faster and also replenishes their stored glycogen faster than eating later. Your muscles are far more sensitive to insulin immediately after exercising, and insulin hastens muscle healing (Sports Med, 2003;33(2):117-44).

My Recommendations

• Try to set up your exercise program so that you take a hard workout that damages your muscles so they feel sore on the next day. Then take easy workouts until the soreness goes away, and then take your next hard workout.
• Immediately after an intense workout, eat whatever source of carbohydrates and protein you like best. I eat oranges and nuts immediately after I finish an intense workout to help me recover faster for my next workout.
• When you are training properly, your muscles can feel sore every morning. If they don't feel better after a 10-minute warm-up, take the day off.
• If you feel pain in one spot that does not go away during a workout, stop that workout immediately. Otherwise you are headed for an injury.

---

Gabe Mirkin, M.D., is a sports medicine doctor and fitness guru. A practicing physician for more than 50 years and a radio talk show host for 25 years, Dr. Mirkin has run more than 40 marathons and is now a serious tandem bike rider with his wife, Diana. His website is http://drmirkin.com/. Click to read Gabe's full bio.

Full day with MyZone: two classes and one ride

15x20 seconds on/off

averages: 527, 547, 544, 541, 550, 553, 554, 559, 558, 556, 555, 566, 562, 574, 564....554 avg

Mindful Monday from Dr Barbara Walker

  You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, 

deserve your love & affection. 

~Buddha

For most of the amazing people with whom I have the pleasure to work with, there is no critic on earth that could be harder on them than they are on themselves.  According to them, rarely have they done enough, rarely are they good enough, and rarely are they satisfied.   They strive for such high standards that they have become very good at beating themselves up. This is sometimes the double-edged sword of the constant push toward high achievement. 

They wouldn't even dream of saying what they say to themselves to someone else, nor would they allow someone else to say that to them, but somehow self-criticism has become habit.   

When we really stop and think about it, we know being unkind to ourselves isn't serving us well, but the thought of practicing self-compassion and love just hasn't been on the radar and may seem at first like we're settling or letting ourselves off the hook. Far from it.

In celebration of Valentine's Day this year, amidst the special cards, jewels, candy, flowers, hugs and kisses that are being exchanged, please celebrate your goodness and choose to love you! We simply can't love others to our fullest until we can truly love ourselves. 

Suggested Practice for the Week

Choose to do something extra kind for yourself every day this week  to show how much you care for you! Some examples are: Leaving work a bit early Sleeping in if you are sleep deprived Treating yourself to lunch or dinner Getting a manicure or a massage Taking a walk in the woods  Making time to call a friend you haven't spoken with for a while Starting a journal about self-gratitude  Creating a bucket list  Planning a vacation Scrapping your to-do list for the week Joining an exercise class Signing up for a race Consciously quieting the critic inside

Understanding Pain and Suffering, Performance Conditioning

Understanding and Dealing with Pain and Suffering
Guy Thibault, Ph.D., scientific advisor to the Canadian Cycling Association; associate professor, Department of kinesiology, Université de Montréal
Laurent Vicente, Ph.D. student, Université Laval, Québec
You’ll have noticed, of course, that pain and its alter ego, suffering, are at the very heart of what cyclists talk about. Riders who can really grasp the true meaning of these two concepts, and who apply certain strategies to better cope with the pain associated with intense effort do better at those times when it really counts.
My pain is bigger than yours
What is the most respected element, even above talent, in the world of cycling? The will- ingness to tolerate the level of pain associated with an intense, prolonged effort, in short, the ability to suffer. In the pack, everyone wants to be known as the one who, more than any other knows how to go beyond his limits. This is why, when recounting their exploits, cyclists love to emphasise the pain and suffering that accompanied their effort. And cycling lovers find that the great road riders become even more handsome when their faces are distorted with agony. The great history of cycling is full of these famous moments of devastating weakness when the giants suddenly become mere mortals.
Three types of pain
On the bike cyclists are likely to experience pain from accidents (e.g. contusions) and from
overuse (e.g. tendonitis). Of course, mountain bike riders are quite capable of having a good laugh
while they tell you about their fractures, scars and other contusions; but in the world of cycling,
it’s generally a third type of pain that’s valued: namely, that which is associated with intense and
prolonged effort. One thing’s certain: it’s clearly not a good idea to exacerbate an overuse injury by continuing to ride.
Useful pain
Physical pain is a localized and unpleasant sensation, transmitted by sensitive nerves and interpreted globally by the brain as a threatening disturbance. Pain therefore plays an important role in preserving bodily integrity: it encourages us to alter our be- haviour so as to reduce the disruption of the organism to some extent. Put simply, pain invites the cyclist to take care of him/herself. This is an ‘invitation’ that, as competitors, we reject, because the spirit of competition prefers ‘work like a dog’ rather than ‘take care of yourself’.
Learn to take punishment in order to excel
The capacity to give your maximum is an asset in several sports. We often sing the praises of the marathon runner, and with good reason. But, in general, long-distance runners avoid exceptionally intense bursts, knowing very well that they provoke a level of fatigue which will force them to slow down for the rest of the event. On the bike, by contrast, when there’s an attack on a particularly difficult climb, the cyclist has no choice: he must immediately raise his effort–and so inflict pain on himself–otherwise he’ll be shelled out of the bunch. If this happens, a poor performance is unavoidable–no doubt whatsoever. In fact, all cyclists, sooner or

Guy Thibault PhD

later, take a beating not only from the pain associated with effort of extreme duration, but also that associated with effort of extreme intensity.
Understanding pain in order to deal with it
Your capacity for sustaining a higher level of pain can therefore make the difference. According to some studies, the better we understand the mechanism of pain, the more able are we to resist it. In fact, your brain constantly interprets pain so as to adjust your desire to push yourself harder or your desire to rein yourself in. It does that by considering elements that are more or less sub- jective. These are, mainly:
• The psychological factor: ‘What pleasure (e.g. what personal prestige) can I gain from hurting myself even more?’
• Of your general strategy: ‘If I drive myself even more, shall I be in shape to keep going until the end without flagging?’ (Here we have a form of teleoanticipation; more on that subject in another paper).
And suffering–what exactly is it?
In talking, athletes use the terms pain and suffering as if they meant pretty much the same thing. In fact, the term ‘suffer’ refers to ideas of enduring, of putting up with something unpleasant, for example, a physical pain, like burning thigh muscles. Thus the suf- fering which the cyclist inhabits is more a process than a condition. We say that pain asks a question, while suffering attempts a reply to it. Suffering is at the same time the cause and the consequence of the propensity of the athlete to confront pain. While suffering aids or permits us to hurt ourselves, it’s the pain itself that hurts us.
Strategies for confronting pain
When faced with pain allied to effort, high performance athletes use special strategies. Some opt for an associative strategy: they concentrate on the pain to better manage the intensity of their effort. But the majority employ a dissociative strategy: they try to forget the pain by concentrating on a particular element, for example their respiratory rhythm, or perhaps a motivating phrase, or a hypnotic mantra that they continually repeat to themselves. The next time you find yourself in the red, you might like to try the fol- lowing mixed strategy: count your respirations backwards, starting from 20 down to one, then from 19, then from 18, all the time telling yourself that you’ll have the right to take it easy after breath number 1. At the end of each backwards count, switch briefly to associative mode in order to assure yourself that you haven’t passed a threshold of effort intensity that could leave you short of energy from here on. If you have to make another important effort having gone through this series of countdown respirations, start the formula over again from the beginning.
All the same, there are limits
If the giants of the road go faster, it’s not necessarily because they know how to drive themselves harder. It’s more likely that their physical qualities are more developed. Thus, even if they could motivate themselves to the uttermost, and even if they de- veloped a very great capacity to support the pain associated with intense effort, those people with a weak or average physique would still not be able to beat the great champions. On the other hand, the ability to hurt yourself when it counts can certainly make the dif- ference between cyclists with equal physical qualities. One thing’s certain: the passion that the cyclist feels for his sport is the key element that motivates him to transport himself into zones of intensity and pain that plunge him into a positive intoxication of suf- fering.
More Information Please!
Contact Guy at guy.thibault@mels.gouv.qc.ca 

Thoughts on Bike Fit from Performance Conditioning

A Simple Test for Proper Aerodynamics and Bike Fit

By Laurin Stennis, MSW, LCSW
Laurin Stennis is co-owner of Cycling Specifics, a cycling resource center in Carrboro, NC, dedicated to pro- fessional bicycle fittings and custom bicycle design and sales. Certified by both Serotta and F.I.S.T. as a bicycle fitter, she is also a USAC Licensed and BSE Certified Mechanic and a licensed coach with USAC and USAT. She can be reached at: laurin@cyclingspecifics.com
erodynamics and proper fit should be a marriage made in heaven: both should be attainable without conflict or pain and suffering. Far too often we hear triathletes or time trialists say things like, “Well, I guess I’m pretty comfortable on my bike...it just hurts when I look up.” When you look down the road, you mean?

Egads! This

is unacceptable and completely avoidable, and riders need to know this.
In fact, coaches and leaders in the sport need to know this as well. At last year’s USAT Coaching Certification Conference,
one of the instructors spoke about pain and stiffness when getting off the bike and mimicked running hunched over to T2 as he laughed and said, “We all want massages after we get off our bikes, right?” We politely raised our hands and said, “If anyone we fitted got off their bike moving like that, we would consider it malpractice on our part.” He was intrigued. Pain related to position is not a given in this sport. It is completely unnecessary.
Those who focus on having riders sit as low as possible without conducting a thorough and proper assessment of each rider’s injury history, range of motion, and flexibility not only risk that rider’s cycling health and well being on the bike but also hinder each rider’s true performance potential. Each rider should be set up only according to his individual body’s natural possibilities and limitations, his distance, and his discipline. This is the recipe for optimum health and power production, two keys to a successful season.
Certainly even mild pain in your athlete’s neck, shoulders, lower back, or knees are obvious signs of physical distress and the need for a proper bicycle fitting. But is it possible to be asymptomatic and still not be positioned as powerfully and as aerody- namically as possible? Absolutely.
Next long training ride on their time trial or tri bikes, have your athlete try this: Pick a c. 10 mile loop course for him to ride for at least three laps at tempo pace after a proper warm up. If he has a power meter, ask him to use it. Take a picture or video of your athlete as he begins his ride. Then take another picture his second and third time past. Remind him: “No posing for the camera, just let your body do its thing.”
Now compare each picture, noting any changes in his position. Does his back round? Do his arms stretch out further? Does he seem to be moving around on the seat a lot? Now look at his power output information over the course of the ride. Did it decrease over the course of the ride at all? These are all signs of a poor position, potential injury, and limited power production. And in the end, all of the adaptations his body made throughout the journey decreased his aerodynamics, causing his body to work harder from a biomechanically poor position. This is not your athlete performing at his best, and it is also an injury waiting to hap- pen.
The link between comfort, power, and aerodynamic efficiency is undeniable, and, when fitted properly, unbelievably pow- erful. But there is no one way to set up triathletes or time trialists to achieve this, no magical formula or set of measurements that can tell a rider where to be. Only by way of a thorough process of physical evaluation during the fit process can this be achieved. Next to an event bicycle designed specifically for your athlete from the frame up, this is the best investment he could possibly make toward improving his performance.