More bike riding

After the Lake Placid "disaster" I realized I need to put in more miles on the bike. So on Thursday I rode to the golf course and back (38 miles). I did the same on Saturday, and on Sunday I rode 90 miles to Livermore and back. On Friday I "rounded it all out" with a 14 mile run to "sprints" -if you live in Berkeley, you know where that is.

On Sunday I stopped at ExtraMile, a gas station in Danville where I often get a drink. Since I was quite thirsty and since I hadn't eaten lunch despite having ridden 70 miles, I went to the soda fountain and got the biggest drink they had, 52 oz to be exact! I filled it with a mixture of coke and gatorade.

The cup was interesting, it read: soda, the forgotten food group. Seriously! In America, soda is all but a forgotten food group. For most people it is a staple. I never drink soda (or energy drinks) unless I ride. That 52 ounces fueled my bike ride, but unfortunately, most people who stop at ExtraMile are driving cars. It is a gas station after all, and one that is not walk-up friendly. So you wonder what all these people do in their SUV's and pickup's, gulping down 52 ounces of sugar water. No surprise everyone is overweight or obese here.

Today I swam for 45 minutes, taking it easy. I worked on my technique and tried bilateral breathing. It was better than before but I still have trouble keeping it up for more than 50 yards.

I read an interview with Lance today where he indicated he may try ironman. When someone asked him if he was going to win it on the bike, he said: better to take it easy. You can ride your heart out and gain 10 minutes, but then lose 20-30 on the run. So now you hear it from someone else: ironman is about running. If you want to do well you need to focus on the run. If your goal is to finish, and you have never done it, focus on the bike. Although you can't gain much time here, the bike is easily the most demanding leg and it is the one that sets up the run.

Garmin GPS

I think I was one of the first people I know to get a Garmin GPS. My motivation was simple: I wanted a speedometer for my new triathlon bike that did not have wires or pickups of any kind. No clutter. The Garmin seemed ideal for that purpose. All you need is to do is carry it with you in one form or another and get all the info you need. It even stores your route and parameters for later reference.

My first try-out for the Garmin was Ironman Arizona, and it worked spectacularly well there. I got it right before the race and never tried it anywhere else before. IM Arizona is in Tempe, AZ, and the bike course goes out in the desert from Tempe. Great exposure to the Southern skies as they say.

There was one minor glitch. Although the Garmin was new, it barely lasted for the duration of my ride. And I am pretty fast on the bike. By the time I rolled in it was already giving me warnings of a low battery. In subsequent races I would learn not to turn it on until after the swim. Unfortunately, that just adds another layer of complexity.

What I found next was not so good. Here in Berkeley, with all its wooded hills and narrow canyons, the Garmin did not perform nearly as well. Half the time, I ended up in the scenery or cutting out entire swaths of road. The worst was the altimeter. When the unit can't find a good signal, it switches to a built-in barometer and then altitude jumps of 3-500 ft are not uncommon. Parts of my rides looked so jittery you would think there was a major quake.

All those extras add up rather quickly and I often found my rides inflated by 10 or more miles, and the climbing by and extra 3-6,000 ft. I guess that is what beginning riders love!

Next came the download issue. I am an avid Mac user and refuse to buy a windows box or use one of the windows boxes my wife has. Garmin's website, motionbased kept having trouble with my Macintosh. They did fix some of it over time, but never quite enough to remove all the headaches. And then they delete all but the last 10 of your downloads unless you pay them a monthly fee. Go figure ! Why would I want to pay someone a retainer just to access my old data? And why do I need to be online to look at my data? It is a hassle really.

In short, the Garmin was just an endless array of little nuisance factors and in the end, I had enough and tried to sell it on eBay. But before that could go through, my teenage son picked it up for its "gadget appeal."

So here we are, several years later. My son still uses the Garmin from time to time. The glitches are better but many are still there. The tracking is much better and he hardly ever goes off road like I used to. The altitude is better too. But I suspect it is because motionbased corrects the data. They keep him on the road by using maps. That looks good but it is cheating. And what is the point of GPS if you end up using a map anyways?  How can you trust the values that way?

The device works best in open country, no hills to speak of, no trees, and certainly no narrow canyons. You better make sure it is fully charged before every ride and even then it won't last for a whole century, unless you plan to ride without stopping. The lap feature works but more often than not it just causes errors. The interface needs a lot of work and it is something only PC users can love.

Downloading is still a pain. They resolved the Mac issues but it takes forever. You have to wait to get your data, and sometimes you have to wait a long time. I can download all the data from my Ergomo (onto my computer by the way!) and get all the info I need before motionbased gets around to start "processing" the Garmin runs. 

You can keep rides on the device but the more rides you keep the slower the downloads go. Each time you download and process you move another one of your old rides out of reach (you only get to keep 10). I can keep hundreds of rides from my Ergomo on my computer for free. And I can access them anywhere, and anytime. I can get to the original raw data, as well as the processed data. And my Ergomo's battery is good for a week at least.

In short, I think the GPS is a bad deal. You get lousy battery life, a so-so user interface  (really needs some Steve Jobs here), a painstakingly slow download that can take hours, a very limited history (unless you want to keep paying them), a subset of features (unless you want to struggle with microsoft or read manuals or both), and worst of all, "massaged data" that you have no control over. The latter is by far the worst problem and one that should give you pause if nothing else. 

The positives are that you can see where you went. That is great if you happen to suffer from Alzheimer's disease, but I never have trouble remembering where I went. If you rely on the GPS though, you will never find your way again without it.

The trouble with GPS and other route-finding software is that it dumbs you down. You come to rely on it and then you can't remember how you got there. Like speed dial numbers. You friend is number 3, and that is all you remember. Come to a new phone and you are lost. The same applies to GPS. When the device runs out of juice or breaks, it leaves you stranded like a little kid in a foreign city. I know so many people with GPS in their cars, who can't find their local grocery store anymore. I think it is better to stay aware while you are alive. That way you get to enjoy it more.

As for training, the value is extremely limited. It is cool to fly over your route and get all that video-game entertainment, but most of that is a waste of time really. Better get on your bike and ride a bit more. 

On the other hand, if you are in it to impress your friends with cool gadgets, it might be something to consider;) Better to impress them with your riding though! More difficult perhaps but far more enjoyable in the end.

Stretching

One of the most common and difficult to combat misconceptions is stretching. Stretching is probably the most popular and most practiced waste of time in the racing community. Runners are especially prone to it, but even cyclists, swimmers and triathletes can't keep quiet when it comes to stretching. It may therefore surprise you to learn that there is no scientific evidence to show that stretching does any good at all. To put it simply: it is a waste of time.

Along with yoga, pilates, core exercises, massages, etc. Mind you, I am not saying that these activities cannot be enjoyable or relaxing. I do enjoy a good massage, but preferably in another setting. I am also not saying that you should not engage in these activities if you find them pleasurable or fun. All I am saying is that these will do nothing for you performance-wise, and that if you are on a tight schedule, all you can hope to accomplish here is waste more time.

Studies clearly show that stretching does not prevent injury. It doesn't strengthen your muscle or in any way enhance your performance. Gentle rubbing and stretching does provide some relief when you have a cramp but resting the affected part is probably key. Cramps go away when you stop working the affected muscle. Remember that when you stop to stretch, or to dig up some salt tablets, or to take a drink, it is the rest that matters, not the placebo action.

Since I never engaged in any athletic activity until I was well over 30, I never thought of stretching. My friends at the time were not athletic either and when I suddenly started riding a bike, they were as puzzled as I was. They certainly never told me to stretch. As a matter of fact, they weren't all that interested in all my bike talk and for sure wished it would simply go away. I was never officially part of a club or a team, and I would meet the people I was riding with along the course, so I never saw anyone stretch either beforehand or afterwards.

I never stretched and I never will. I tried it a few times for social reasons but found it to be of no benefit and a huge waste of time.  Whenever a training partner insists on stretching I make a note of it, and the next time I meet them along the course. I always just start running, biking or swimming. There are only so many hours in a day, and I can ill afford wasting time forcing my body into weird positions that are slightly painful.

While I do experience my fair share of aches and pains, these are no different from what others with similar training intensities go through. I have been fortunate to have had very few objective injuries. And it is not for lack of trying. Or for lack of predisposition. My leg alignment for example is quite poor, and my foot strike is far from perfect. Yet I run marathons in light racing shoes, with no orthotics or other contraptions.  And I don't waste my time stretching. Neither should you.

Going Long

In this blog I hope to highlight some of the things I have learned about endurance racing.  Most of these come from personal experience. I learned the hard way, without the benefit of a coach or guide. In some sense I am happy I did. It may not be the fastest way, but I certainly figured out what works and what doesn't.  I hope that by reading this blog you may avoid some of the mistakes I made. 

One would think that with all the information out there, things would be easy. However, I found that much of it is misguided and a lot of it is quite wrong.  The field is also driven by advertising and the desire to make money and much of the "information" one can find is nothing but blatant advertising for products that you don't need and that in some cases can harm you. These products are often portrayed as breakthroughs based on scientific insights. In almost all cases they are neither breakthroughs nor scientific.

I have been an endurance racer for a while now. I started out more than 10 years ago as a road biker, then I took up running and more recently I have been competing as a triathlete. I am by no means a natural talent. I also started quite late in life and never practiced any sports until I was well into my 30's. I did not start competing until I was over 40.

Over the last 4 years I have tried to improve my performance and despite being "over the hill" as some might think, I have been able to improve every year since, both in absolute (time) and relative (position) terms. I guess I must be doing something right.

The focus on this blog will be on endurance racing, not just finishing endurance events. The goal is to be competitive in events that pretty much take up a whole day. I will clarify my definition of an endurance event more in the posts to come.