Output Input Ratio

There have been a couple of good posts recently on Joe Friel's blog. One about confidence speaks for itself. There's another about charting your base training progress by checking the ratio of outputs to inputs.

This output/input seems like a pretty simple and logical method to track progress, and, particularly on the trainer, doesn't require much in the way of equipment. I've plotted my ratios over 4 rides, none particularly long, just 1 to 1.5 hours. It will be interesting to see how this chart looks as I continue to build up.

Today I'm a bit sore from skiing on Saturday. Definitely found a few muscles that must not get used in my normal activities!

We're supposed to get dumped on this week; maybe 10 inches of snow tomorrow night. If that's the case, I'll try to find a way to get some more skiing in this week...

Highland Skiing

I went over to Highland State Park this morning and out on my first cross-country ski of the year. We'd gotten a couple of inches of snow overnight, so I was sure that there would be enough.

I hadn't skied at Highland before, but since I haven't seen much written about it, I figured that there wouldn't be many people. I almost expected to be there by myself. Wrong! There were about 10 cars at the trailhead when I got there.

A guy parked next to me and introduced himself; he was also a mountain biker, and he knew this trail well. So, he showed me through the intermediate loop before he went on ahead. It was nice to follow him for awhile; I learned some things about XC ski technique just watching him. He was much faster than me.

Anyway, I had a nice time skiing. The trails at Highland are a little tighter than Independence Oaks, and not groomed. Enough skiers had gone through that there were a clear set of tracks to follow though.

It was just a few degrees below freezing, so, by about the halfway point, my skis really felt slow and was wishing I had about one less layer on. Good information for next time I guess.

Making Progress

My back has been feeling really good since early in the week. Actually, it's better now than it has been in a long time. Nearly perfect, but not quite...

I've been focusing on strength workouts so far this year; I'm also riding some, but that really hasn't ramped up yet. I feel like I'm making good progress; I'm definitely getting stronger. We'll see if it helps me ride my bike faster... The last year I stuck with strength workouts for the whole year (2007), I had a very good year. So we'll see...

Oops

I played hockey Sunday night. It was a good skate, but it really caught up with my back. My back had been feeling pretty good; still not perfect, but I felt like I was nearly there. Hockey seemed to really tighten up the muscles in my back, and I've been a little sore Monday and so far today.

I've been following the recommendations in Esther Gokhale's book, and they've worked really well in helping my back out. I'm just not quite there yet...

Normal Weekend

I'm looking forward to having a relatively normal weekend. I don't have any big plans, so it will be nice just to hang out at home.

I got over my jet lag by about Thursday this week. It wasn't too bad, I was waking up at night, but not for very long. Mainly, I just got really tired in the afternoons.

I skipped my workout on Monday since I was so tired, but I stayed on track after that. I felt terrible on my bike Tuesday night, but I rode anyway. Wednesday and Thursday were strength workouts, and those both felt really good. My legs are feeling a little worked over right now, but otherwise, I'm feeling good to be back into a little bit of a routine.

China Trip

"The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient."

So, my trip to China was kind of rough. We missed our connection in Beijing, and the next flight we could get on was at 8pm the next day! So, we tried to catch the late train to Changchun, but we missed that by about 10 minutes. We ended up staying in a hotel in Beijing, then we caught the early train to Changchun the next morning.

(Beijing airport. Apparently it was finished for the Olympics, so everything was nice and new.)

The train was nice, but it was a really long trip... about 6 hours, and this was a high-speed train!

(Various sights from the train ride. In this last picture, you can see the tall, relatively new, apartment buildings that seem to be everywhere in China.)

I had a runny nose and sore throat almost the whole trip. I'm not sure if it was from the little cold I had the week before or from the air pollution. My guess is the pollution, but I don't know for sure. Some days seemed OK, but I really noticed it on other days.

(Huge shopping mall in Changchun. There was a large section of the mall devoted to stores that only sold doors...)

(Weaving loom picture for Mom...)

(Changchun from my hotel room window. Yes, the window was a little dirty, but there is also some pretty significant smog in the air.)

You definitely noticed the cold too... the worst during the day was -18F, but it got colder at night (-28F)! I was worried that the buildings would all be cold, but, if anything, they were too hot! Still, I was glad that I brought all the cold-weather gear that I did.

(Below-ground Chinese market in Changchun.)

(Mom's mittens did the trick for keeping my hands warm.)

(This guy's rickshaw was loaded up with cardboard, which he was likely taking to a recycling center to sell.)

The trip home went much more smoothly than the trip there. My layovers were all fairly long, so there wasn't much pressure to move quickly through the airport.

(First class lounge at the Beijing airport... Nice!)

A Little Discretion

I had to exercise a little discretion with my workouts this week. I couldn't tell if I was getting a cold or not earlier this week (sometimes the incense from yoga leaves me a little stuffy the next day). Finally, I decided it was a cold, so I skipped my workout on Thursday. My knee also felt just a little tweaky on Wednesday.

Anyway, I'm still not 100% cold-wise, but I'm close. I rode for a little over an hour today on the trainer and I felt fine (my cold and my knee). Hopefully I don't get sick while I'm gone.

I'm usually terrible about taking pictures on trips, but I will try to do better this time. I'm off to a bad start by not packing my camera, but I do plan to use my phone to take some pictures. I got hassled about all my electronic stuff at some airport (I don't remember where, Paris?) last year, so I'm not bringing so much this time. I will try to take some pictures though.

Jens Voigt "Facts"

Link to some dubious, but funny, "facts" about Jens Voigt.

Surprising Afternoon

My plans are nearly set for my trip to China. I have plane tickets and a hotel, so that's good. Funny, on Monday, I had nothing.

For this trip, I decided to get a set of "travel sheets" (or, in a family with young kids... a "sleep sack"). I've come back from trips (both in Asia and in the US) with some odd rashes, and I really wished that I had something like this at one of the hotels I stayed at in Paris last year. Should also help keep me warm...

I went to the optomotrist this afternoon. I expected to have to get new contacts and glasses. His suggestion was a little surprising. He thought my prescription hadn't changed that much and that I would get better correction soft lenses. So, he sent me home with a couple pairs to try out. I really didn't expect to go home with new (and so different) lenses. I did have a terrible time trying to put them in and take them out, but I guess I'll get used to the different techniques if I keep using them.

On the way home, I decided that an odd noise my car had been was now cause for concern, so I took it to the shop. It would be nice to get it back before I leave for China... we'll see.

News

The 2011 Tailwind mountain bike race schedule is out, but it is not on the website yet.

4/24/11 PLRA TT

5/14+5/15/11 Brighton Stage Race

5/28/11 Bloomer Relay (non USAC)

6/12/11 Ft Custer TT

6/26/11 PLRA XC

7/2/11 Stony Marathon

8/7/11 Big M XC

8/21/11 Ruby XC

8/28/11 Stony XC

Also, there will be a Betterride camp in metro Detroit this year (unfortunately, it overlaps with the Pontiac Lake XC race). I emailed Gene about it already. It sounds like he probably won't be here, and his assistant Andy will coach instead. Either way, I'm pretty excited about it and I plan to be there. After doing the camp two years ago and working on the drills, I have a bunch of questions. I expect to get a lot out of a second time through the camp.

Here to There

There was a good post on Lee McCormack's blog the other day.

One of the sections I liked was:
He entered inside, laid into the rut, leaned, inside grip near the ground … and — oh man! — his knuckle punched a pointy stump.

Yeah, his buddy was leaned over so far, his hand hit a stump. That's pretty far from where I ride. I got thinking about that, "how do you get from here to there?" Practice, I guess. From working on Gene's Figure-8 drill, I'm definitely getting more comfortable leaning the bike, but I'm not leaning anywhere near that far. I guess you also go one step at a time...

Looks like I'm off to China next week. I'll be in Changchun, where the average temp in January is between -4 and 15F. In Waterford, the average January temperature is 22F. I'll bring warm clothes...

Back Stuff

I thought I'd post a couple of links to some of the back stuff I've been working on. In particular, I think that the stretch-lying has been very effective.

General (but long) presentation by Esther Gokhale on her methods for relieving back pain and improving posture.



Short demonstration of the stretchlying technique. I've been doing this for a few minutes before I fall asleep and once or twice during the day. It seems to have helped a bunch.

Christmas Break in Pictures

Nathan's first time playing in the snow...



Cora's first time skating, with Grandpa Feldt!



Aunt Jesse, Nathan and Grandpa at the rink.





Nathan liked his helmet!


Cora modeling Grandma's newest hat!

Getting Started

I started my training for 2011 this week. It's earlier than normal for me, but since my last season ended so early, I'd go crazy if I didn't get going. I'll just have to make sure to take a few breaks in 2011.

I've been on vacation for the past week and a half or so. It's been pretty good, but I've had some really odd back soreness. Right before I finished with work for the year, I had some terrible tightness and pain in my upper back. It slowly went away, but it hurt like crazy. Sarah thinks it was my body finally succumbing to the stress of the year. I don't know.

I'm making some progress with my lower back. It's still sore on occasion, but it's getting better. The training, both riding and lifting, I've done so far haven't made it worse. So I'm pretty happy with that. I'll write more about what I'm doing with my back if it works out like I'm hoping.

Back Exercises

James Wilson has an interesting back exercise sequence on his website. Since my back started bothering me again after pulling Cora around on Saturday, I decided to integrate the sequence into my normal warmup routine last night. I'd already been doing some of the exercises, but the one mobility drill I hadn't done gave me a surprising result.

It was the exercise where you lay on your side and rotate your knees to the ground. On my right side, it was no big deal. Doing it on my left side, I could feel all kinds of tightness in my left hip / IT band. It really surprised me. The tightness was in an area I don't usually work much with the foam roller. So, I did some more rolling in that area (ouch!), and tried the exercise again. There was still some tightness, but it was much better.

So, maybe my tight IT band is also linked to my sore back? I don't know; it certainly isn't helping. I do know that I will keep working the upper end of my IT band on the foam roller though.

I did a contrast shower last night too, focusing on my back. It's been awhile since I've done that. The cold water is so shocking the first time... especially in the winter!

Kid Pulling

I pulled Cora for about 40 minutes in the trailer on Saturday. I need to be careful doing that before I get my cycling legs back... it's tough work! Especially if it's a little windy, like it was on Saturday. Still, I basically felt OK riding; my back got a little tired by the end though.

Cora had a good time again. When I looked back, she was either looking out the windows or looking at her book. We must have ridden about the right length of time though, because she didn't complain about stopping when we got home.

Backing Off

I didn't exercise for most of last week. My back was still bothering me, so I decided to back off and see if I could get it cleared up. The good news is that it now feels about 95% OK; I just have a few sensations at times. I did end up riding (easy) a couple times, and I played hockey Sunday night. So, I didn't totally just sit around.

I also continued to practice my bike handling skills. I feel like I made a little breakthrough with my manuals this week. I'm still not getting back far enough to hold the front wheel up, but I'm definitely getting close. I am getting back far enough that when the front wheel comes down, it lands pretty softly.

I want to get my manuals really dialed in, and then move on to a proper bunnyhop / J-hop. The video linked to here is, by far, the best J-hop video I've seen. I think, maybe because the jump is so big, the different parts of the technique are exaggerated and pretty easy to pick out.

Riding a Little

I was able to ride a little bit over the weekend. On Friday evening, I came home and took Cora out for a ride in the trailer. I didn't really expect to ride long, since the last few times we haven't even made it out of the driveway. We ended up riding for 20-30 minutes, until it started getting dark out! I kept asking Cora if she wanted to go home (since it was cold and windy for me!), and she kept saying no. When I finally told her that we had to go home, she started crying, then she didn't want to get out of the trailer, and then she didn't want to take her helmet off. Of course, when I asked if she had fun, she kept saying, "No, I didn't have fun."

It ended up being a tougher ride for me than I expected. When it's windy, pulling the trailer is tough. I also didn't have enough air in my tires. I realized it almost immediately, but once I started riding, I didn't want to go back home and fill the tires up, since that might have been the end for Cora.

I've been doing some hip-strengthening exercises over the past couple weeks. I was hoping that these exercises would help with my left "knee dive" issue (and ultimately, some of my knee pain), and, based on the ride Friday, they have. We'll see if it continues once I start riding a little harder.

Since I'm writing about the kids, the news with Nathan is that he started saying, "da-da-dad" this weekend. That's cool...

I rode on the trainer for a while on Saturday. The knee felt quite good on the bike, and my legs felt better the longer I rode. My knee was a little achey on Sunday though. The good news is that it felt more like my ache from this Spring rather than my more recent bruise, so I'm hoping that if I re-build sensibly now, I should be OK. I've been doing some jump-roping lately too, and I'm going to try to cut that out and see if it helps. Anyway, it seems like I'm making progress.

Skill Drills

For the last 4 weeks or so, I've really made working on my bike-handling drills a priority. It seemed to have paid off last night, I really felt like I had some breakthroughs.

The first drill that I usually do is the trackstand. I've become progressively more comfortable leaning the bike (and myself) over to maintain my balance. Basically increasing my range of motion on the bike. Usually when I trackstand, I end up rolling forward just a little to maintain my balance. But last night, I was able to hold my balance for quite a while without rolling... really a proper trackstand!

I had a good realization while doing my cornering drills too. I've noticed that I corner better going right than I do going left. I realized that, when turning left, I have a tendency to add steering input with my right hand (since it's my dominant hand I guess); I don't do this when turning right. I've been practicing my cornering drills with my inside hand open for quite a while, so, without thinking too much about, I started working on my corners with both hands open (so I could only push, not pull on the bars). So, there I was, zipping around the driveway, barely hanging on to my bike! Once I realized what I was doing I had to stop and laugh a little. Gene did this when I took his camp last Fall, but I never really thought I would try it. (Disclaimer: Obviously, on a trail, you want to hang on to your handlebars!)

The last drill that went really well was my switchback practice. I haven't practiced making a real turn in a while, I've just been practicing riding around slowly in really tight circles (until I get dizzy). Since I was bored with that, I decided to make mock switchbacks out of squares of pavement on my driveway. I turned left first, no problem, and I felt surprisingly comfortable! I did it again, and went faster! Turning right was not quite as good, but still much better than the last time I'd done it.

It is interesting that when turning fast, I'm more comfortable going right, and turning slow, I'm more comfortable going left. Anyway...

Banged up

I feel like I've got nearly constant aches and pains these days... hopefully it's not a sign of getting older.

I rode my bike on the trainer again this week. A little longer than before, but still a relatively short ride. I didn't have any knee problems while riding, but my legs got a little tired; I could tell I haven't been riding much. The next day though, the knee felt a little achey in the morning. So, I won't increase the duration for the next time I ride and I'll see how that goes.

I played hockey last night and either fell on my butt or smacked it into the boards, so my tailbone is quite sore today. That's never a pleasant injury. Otherwise, I didn't feel like I had a great skate. My skating and puck-handling are not where I'd like them to be, but, I'm only playing once every other week, so I guess I shouldn't expect too much.

My back's been sore on and off over the past few weeks too. I think I tweaked it playing hockey, then aggravated it raking leaves, then aggravated it some more with some of the core exercises I was doing. It's basically OK again right now, but the plan is not to aggravate it any more and get it feeling 100%.