Power Data from the 100 Mile Fling

I thought I would post the Power Tap data from my 2nd place at the Fling and try and get my head around what extra I need to do for next year to pull all the time back on Big Dennis.

Entire workout (200 watts):    

Duration: 7:49:17 (7:49:17)

Work: 5521 kJ

TSS: 361 (intensity factor 0.679)

Norm Power: 231

VI: 1.18

Distance: 162.825 km

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 791 200 watts

Cadence: 30 229 75 rpm

Speed: 0 58.3 20.8 kph

Peak 1min (433 watts):

Peak 5min (309 watts):

Peak 20min (270 watts):

Duration: 20:01

Work: 324 kJ

TSS: 26.7 (intensity factor 0.896)

Norm Power: 304

Peak 60min (235 watts):

Duration: 1:00:01

Work: 846 kJ

TSS: 68.9 (intensity factor 0.83)

Norm Power: 282

 

Looking at the power needed to be sustained over the duration of the event it is clear that nearly 2.8watts/kg is not enough. I am a little heavy at the moment having come off of a campaign of time trialing so some gains could be made there for sure. Looking at some data from Jeremiah Bishop from the states who won the Mohican 100 he averaged around 25 watts more and sustained 3.25 watts/kg ahead of a good class American pro field. What this does mean is that Big Dennis would be right up there and could win these big enduro events in the states with the sort of form he had this year at the Fling. Looking at the power chart shows good pacing through the event and I was able to sustain around 260 – 310 watts on all of the climbs without any issues for the whole duration of the event. My feeding and hydration were spot on with 7 x 700ml bottles of TORQ and a Gel each hour along with 4 slices of Vegemite bread for the sodium spread out over the ride. I also had a can of red bull for the final 60 minutes.

Power Graph from training peaks of 100 mile Fling

Well then what to do?? My best race weight is around 67kg’s so I am 4 kg’s over that at the moment and this has a big impact on performance, especially in a MTB event. My 60 minute power FTP is around 345 watts at the moment and I should be able to lift my percentage sustained to at least 70% IF 0.70 instead of 67% IF 0.67 which I held for the fling. This along with my reduction in weight should see a fair few minutes come off my time next year, lets wait and see.

Fenz

 

The Fling and Things

Well what a great weekend of racing I just had, coming off of a peak for the World and National Masters games I am always a little unsure as how long I will be able to hold my form once the real training stops and the maintenance starts. With a heavy workload at the moment with lots of programs and clients to look after it has been about 6 weeks of 5 – 7 hours a week of training tops. 2 weeks ago I managed to win the local elite Road Race Champs for the first time which was very pleasing, a solid race where I decided not to just keep smashing myself leaving nothing at the end. It came down to 6 of us and a little sprint saw me take the win.

It is great to have a bit left in the tank

This weekend was an open elite criterion on the Saturday in the lovely town of Berry on the south coast of NSW, followed by a 100 mile MTB race the Highland Fling on the Sunday. Two very different races and with the crit being a hot dog it was going to be interesting for sure. I decided to ride the 40 km to the race for a warm up but didn’t bank on the big North Easter blowing up and creating a block headwind the whole way out, bugger. The legs felt tired before I had started! The race was on from the get go, with the likes of Aaron Donnelly some Institute riders the National Masters 2 road race and crit champ and with a few other good sprinters it was always going to be fast. Each corner saw 1000+ watt spikes in power followed by some threshold efforts and another 1000+ watts effort. This was the race up and down with riders getting dropped left right and centre. After about 15 minutes there were only about 12 of us in the race and after a few attacks it was a small bunch of 3 away with a chasing group of 6 then a small group trying to get back on. I was in the small group of 6 and with about 10 to go 2 riders clipped off the front and left us to sprint out for 6^th. With $$$$ down to 7^th and some money on the first local rider it was looking quids in. In the end a hectic sprint saw the young guns push me into the dirt on the right and blocked me for 8^th!! Where is the respect for you elders guys ;o)

Leading the group

The legs were a little tired, but I was looking forward to Sunday’s epic. The race started quite fast and Dennis Van (the man) Mill was setting a good tempo. 5 of us clipped off the front and then got lost, letting around 100 or so riders get in front before the first bit of single track!! Arse!! I was running road shoes and pedals and getting off and running was difficult and getting back into my Keo’s a bloody nightmare on rough single track. Dennis managed to get up in front and I never saw him again. I settled into my own little race and worked on hydrating and eating, not wanting to blow up again due to poor discipline. All went very well and I had a blast of a race, never pushing that hard and having fun. I came in 2^nd in 7.43 with a little in the tank if I had needed it. A great race all round and I am looking forward to next year already for sure.

The 100 mile podium

It will be all go again now in prep for the National ITT champs in Ballarat and the Jayco Bay Crits, before we start getting MTB specific for Wildside, National XC and Terra Australis.

Lots of this in the weeks to come

See you on the trails (or the road)

Fenz

Masters National and World Championships 2009

National and World Masters Games 2009

The Masters 2 ITT Podium

When the World Masters Games were scheduled for Aus in October this year it was the perfect time to put in a little focus for the ITT in both the Nats which was the week before and the Worlds. Now as age related races I think the general perception is that Masters Racing is easy! Let me tell you at the pointy end of these races riders are still more that capable of winning state A Grade and National elite races. In the Masters 2 cat the main rival in the ITT was always going to be Peter Milostic, he is just a super solid rider and after finishing 7^th in the elite ITT at Ballerat in January behind the likes of Rogers, Meyers, Hanson and The Jonginator he is the real deal.

Prep for the races was not as good as it could have been, I stupidly raced 3 Enduro MTB races in the 3 preceding weeks and had shockers in all of them for various reasons. The main problem being that I am only training around 6  – 8 hours a week nowadays and I have simply got out of the habit of eating and drinking well on the bike. It sounds odd, but, it is a fact. Sound Hydration and Eating habits are formed during training and the only downfall of the reduced quality over quantity approach is that for most of the training sessions you are not limited by your consumption of calories. I had gotten myself into bad habits only drinking 300ml in a couple of hour and not eating at all. My power was up near my personal bests, with my 20 minute max up to 365 and 5 minute max up to 418 watts. All good and I felt very powerful, I had even just established the PB time on our local time trail course so I was feeling good and ready for a great series of races, however, there was another slight problem in my weight, I was carrying about 4 – 5kg’s more than my best race weight and I knew this would affect my road race performance especially at Canberra where it was a little hilly. All things considered I was going ok so was looking forward to the change of pace and doing a little on the road again. The Nationals ITT was a shocker with an out and back along the Uriara Road out of Stromlo into a gale force headwind. I cooked it a little in the first 5 minutes and never got on top of my gear. I came in with a 27.54 and initially thought it might get me a podium. Peter had totally blitzed it in 26.14 or something ridiculous so we knew he had the win, but it was looking close for 2^nd and 3^rd. One of my local FTP Training and Nowra Velo riders Damo Mason was within a second or two of me either way and with a stuff up in the timing we had to wait until the next day to find out that he had beaten me by 2 seconds and M. Tollhurst had nipped us both so I missed out on a medal by 2 seconds! A little gutted, but, also stoked for Damo. He had really put in the training and with a series of difficult things to deal with had pulled out a superb result. 

The road race was super tough and ended up with just 14 of us left in the lead bunch, as predicted the climbs were hurting me and on the last time the 3 sisters I popped, I chased for the entire length of Uriara Road (23 minute average of 334 watts) and got to within a car length of the group at one stage just to see a rider attack and drag the bunch away from me again. I ended up rolling in, in 14^th place. One of my Nowra Velo team mates the mighty Matt Carmelotti came away with a superb sprint win, another awesome Nowra Velo result.

The crit was a great race, the rain had stopped and I was feeling frisky, I knew as always that if it went to a bunch gallop that I would get smashed so attacked early. Stu (Computer) Campbell came across to me and we worked well together for the best part of 30 minutes with the lead yo – yo-ing between 10 and 25 seconds. With 3 laps to go a few Canberra guys made a big effort and dragged the bunch across to us and the game was over. With me off the front and Damo blocking, Matt had a dream ride and was there to finish off the double taking the sprint with his massive quads pummelling the opposition.

All up Nowra came away with a plethora of Medal from the Nats and from such a small country town it shows the depth and quality of the riders on the South Side of Sydney.

Damo missed out on a Medal this time around

This all left us primed and ready for the World Masters Games. FTP Training rider Bruce Williams (Drapac Robbie Williams Dad) and I had both had 4^th places at the Nats and were determined to make amends at the Worlds. The pre race prep week was a little better and I was feeling good. On the morning of the race at the Eastern Creek Raceway the conditions were great. Masters 2’s were off early and Damo and I had the chance to do a little warm up lap of the course before our start. It was going to be fun, a little technical with all the turns around the drag strip and car parks, but, fast and fun. I started after Damo and quickly settled into a great rhythm. You instantly know when you are on a good day, the pedals just spin round with the cadence and power high for a low RPE. I settled into an easy pace and built steadily through the ride. I knew I had done a ride as I smashed it across the line in 25.24, it was now up to the others to see what it would get me. Damo rolled over and said he had done a 25.30 something so I had gotten my revenge on my old mate, but, what had Peter and the fast looking UK rider done. Tension built as we all waited and finally the results were posted. Peter had again won with a 24.09 (av 47+km/h) and I had snagged a Silver medal a few seconds ahead of Ben Wilson the UK rider who had pipped Damo by 3 seconds for the Bronze. Super stoked and the result I was looking for, I just need to work out how to make up the minute or so to catch up Peter!!!Next up was Bruce who smashed it around the course coming in with a big smaile and knowing that he had done a good ride, as it turned out another Silver medal to the Nowra and FTP training crew ;o) Happy days.

The Masters 5 OTT Podium

The road race followed a normal pattern for me (after poor old Damo had a massive crash) I attacked after 1 lap had one guy come across to me a massive power house of a rider Tim Dalgleish. We smashed it hard (well he did) I was doing 340 – 360 watts long pulls on the front and he was coming through and I was at 400 – 450 to hold his wheel. I was a little concerned as I knew at this rate It could all be curtains. We had after about 90 minutes a 1.20 minute gap and it looked to be all over. Wilson and East were trying to bridge the gap and then I popped, I think in retrospect that I was a little lighter than I should have been in the morning when I jumped on the scales. I don’t think I had eaten enough after the ITT the day before and with the travel to and from I was just a little under with my energy stores. I had eaten enough on the bike but to no avail. I hopped on with the caching pair for a lap and then with the remainder of the bunch for a bit but, with not a lot left in the tank and out of the medals I bailed. Damo to my surprise had got back on the bike and soldiered on to finish with some nasty road rash to remind him of another Eastern Creek Race. Stats for the day were great the 60 minute NP was 346 watts and the whole race of 1 hour 45mins for me was up at a massive 0.92 IF with big and close to PB’s on 2, 5 and 10 minute powers.

Well now it is a little recovery and then the real build for the big MTB races next year, I need to focus on getting back down top 67 kg’s and therefore getting my power to weight back up to 5.2 – 5.3 watts/kg. When I am heavy and around 4.8 watts/kg I am simply not able to really get up there in the rolling hilly races. So it is fork control time and no wine and ice cream with dinner!!!

Catch you all on the road or trails

Fenz

The Scott 24 2009

It was a very strange birthday weekend this year as it was the first time in about 5 years that I did not compete in the Scott 24. Usually on my birthday I am a dribbling mess having smashed myself into a stupor at the Scott. This year, however, I decided that as the World Masters Games was the following week and I have been mainly concentrating on the road bike that I would skip it and focus on the ITT and Road Race.

I spent the whole weekend texting, calling and waiting for updates from my www.ftptraining.com riders and it was sensational. Jacqui Kennett smashed out an incredible top 3 in the elite womans solo, battling it out the whole race and pulling up from 5th at 6 am to smash into the top 3. An incredible result for her first 24 hour race, well done mate I am so stoked for you. Look out for Jacqui next year at the Worlds that’s for sure. Next up was another first time 24 hour www.ftptraining.com rider in the elite male category. John Blankenstein pulled out an incredible 2nd place to Jason English again in his first 24 hour race!! By all accounts he kept Jas honest and made him go out for another lap at the end of the race, always a tough call when the laps are around 60 minutes long.

I am waiting for the reports from my other riders, however I do know that Big Jeff Rooney has made the qualification for the Worlds next year, well done mate awesome result. Jeff has only just returned from the Simpson Desert Challenge and the extreme conditions that the racers faced out in the centre. A great result to get back last week and back up with the Scott. Time to put your feet up mate and have a bit of a rest ;o) Jason McAvoy, Kevin Wells and Arran Pearson all competed in teams at the Scott and are in prep for the Kona later in November.

Also at the weekend www.ftptraining.com rider Joss (I am full of Tang) Carlson smashed up the Scott trails finishing 4th in the prologue TT just shy of the times posted by Sid Taberlay, Ben Hendo and Hamish Elliot. He then backed it up with a sprint finish on the first lap of the race with Neal Van Der Ploeg. Good work mate. Mark Tupalski also smashed out a very fast prologue TT so all is looking good for Marks first season in the U23’s this year.

Ta ra for now catch ya on the trails

Fenz

The MTB Marathon National Championships 09

It was the long drive to Melbourne for old Fenz this week to catch up with Simon from Total Rush and look at the new Specialized products for 2010. I also wanted to get in to see Dean from TORQ to discuss our upcoming training camp and check out the fantastic new lab facilities that he has for sports testing. All in all it was a great week with possibly a little too much red wine consumed;o)

On Saturday arvo I traveled down to the Nationals course in Bendigo. With the race starting early on the Sunday morning I didn’t want a repeat of the previous weeks dodgy guts this time so I wanted lots of time to do the do in the morning. Right from the start I felt under powered and was struggling to maintain the watts needed to stay with the leading group. I was only managing to hold 350 – 360 for the 5 minute efforts and smaller climbs where normally I would be up around 420. I was struggling to breath with the cold air and decided to drop off the pace and think about the long haul. I settled into an easy relaxed pace with Phil Orr and started to feel better by about the 30km mark. I was focusing on trying to eat and drink and get onboard the 70 – 90 grams of CHO per hour needed to avoid the bonk. I was on schedule with the gels and bars and felt ok with the fluids from the camelback. By 70km I was feeling good and had caught a few riders and felt strong, by 90km the doors fell off again. I could hardly walk up the climbs let alone ride:o( I was gutted and struggling to produce 100 watts. All the riders I had passed slowly came past me asking if I was alright and Mark Tupalski who had suffered a puncture and then a bust chain caught up again and decided to stay with me and get me back to HQ, top work mate thankyou. I don’t think I would have made it without your encouragement and support.

On analysis back at the car I realised that I had only drunk around 1 litre and was by the finish a bar and a gel short of my CHO needed. The drinking really threw it as a large amount of the CHO was or should have been consumed in the drinks. I had another litre and a half left which would have given me another 150 grams of CHO, along with the gel and bar a grand total of 230 grams of CHO and my race down the pan again.

So what to do? My real focus is the ITT and Road Race at the Masters Nats and Worlds so these Enduro’s were only 2nd priority races, but, to continually blow due to my poor feeding strategies is just not on. With the focus on shorter harder training intervals I have not been training hoe to eat and drink during longer rides and it has become very apparent that this is not a given. Eating and Hydration is a learned skill and a habit and it needs to be training just like everything else. If you get out of the habit your long race performance suffers even if you have good legs. There is simply no possibility of a good Enduro race without getting the feeding and Hydration right.

With that in mind I am determined to correct it and get back for the 100 mile Fling in early November with it all sorted and a good solid performance.

Cheers

Fenz

The Very Angry Doctor!

What a weekend, as the temperatures soared in NSW into the low 30’s a solid crew of www.ftptraining.comriders lined up for the start of the Angry Doctor in Mogo. It was a super tough race in the above normal temps and it pushed everyone to the limit.

In the elite field www.ftptraining.com riders Josh Carlson, Mark Tupalski and John Blankenstein all rode to finish in the top 10 and well done to Warren Burgess who took the top spot. A great win with a great time on a super tough day in the saddle. It looks like a week in Timor worked a treat for Wazza;o)

All the other www.ftptraining.comriders came home with impressive PB’s. A stonking ride by Jacqui Kennett who completed in around 6.30 and sliced a massive 60+ minutes off of last years race time. Well done mate all is looking good for your first 24 hour. Arran Pearson, Jason McAvoy and Kevin Wells all took between 25 - 50 minutes off of their previous bests with Jason coming home in around 5.30 and Arran on the single speed in about 5.40. Again cracking times on a hard, hard day.

My race, well it was a shocker and I thank all those riders for asking if I was alright as they came by in the final 10km’s. All was good until the 45km mark when I slashed a sidewall. It wouldn’t seal so I had to stop again and put a tube in. This dropped me back from 5/6th to mid teens for the start of the 2nd 50. I was traveling quite well and made it up to Perren and Josh and we trucked along quite well until the world quite literally fell out of me!!! I had a savage case of the runs and spent a good 10 minutes loosing all of my fluids and dehydrating further in the Mogo forest!!! By the time I got back onto the bike I was a shell of a Fenz. I then went left up a fire road instead of right after the final feed and nearly rode back to the last feed station!!! If it wasn’t for a guy in a ute transporting another rider back to base I would have continued to go the wrong way. There was loads of pink tape so I thought this must be right, but, it wasn’t. The final 15km’s were quite possibly the worst I have had on a bike and I was just glad to get back to base and get out of the sun in a time of 5.15. It is all about recovery this week now and then off to Bendigo at the weekend for the Marathon Nationals.

Cheers

Fenz

Questions and Answers From Enduro

Fenz – Enduro 11

Another great weekend for FTP Training riders

There were a heap of great results for www.ftptraining.com riders over the weekend in all disciplines.

First up a great win in the Tamworth 2 Day Tour for Michael Troy. With a couple of large teams in the event he had his work cut out. Michael has been getting better and better all season and used his power and racing savvy to come away with a fine win. Good on you Tarmack.

In the Sydney 12 hour was Big Jeff Rooney, he had a humdinger of a battle with his usual nemesis John Evans, but came through with a great win. It is a huge result for Jeff who had a horrific smash a couple of years ago and broke his neck. To be able to comeback from that and put the massive effort into training and get the result is awesome.

Next up was Tim Anderson who took out the pairs in a Chase the Sun series race down in Vic. He is super stoked after a race long battle to finally win his first MTB race, good on ya mate.

On the club, local scene Both Henry Wakeford and Dave Hunt took out wins in the local Road and MTB races. Great stuff guys, Henry improved on his previous best lap times on the Super Bowl by over 2 minutes!!! That is a massive improvement in both power and bike handling.

Fenz and Carlso headed up to Coffs Harbour for the Pleasure and Pain 100km MTB race. It was a cracking single-track dominated course through rain forest and included 4 laps of the 25km circuit. From the gun Jason English resplendent in his BMC world’s kit smashed out a cracking pace, this was going to be a hard race. With the Rock Stars of Hamish and Troy in attendance along with a very fit looking Mark Frendo it was game on. For the first 2 laps it was all together then the splits started to appear. Firstly Hamish had to bail due to a broken rear mech, then Carso and the 2 local elite riders dropped the pace, I fought hard to make contact with the lead 3 leaders and just as I was getting onto terms my handlebars came loose on my new Specialized Stumpjumper carbon hardtail. I didn’t have a tool so I nursed it round the course until I found a race official near the track, we hunted down a tool and I managed to tighten them up. It was all over red rover by then, however. The leaders were well gone and the 2 local riders had come and gone and were up the road by a couple of minutes. I chased for a lap and then blew a bit limping in 6th. It was a super fast race with Jason and Mark completing the 100km in less than 4 hours, I managed 4.19.

I will hopefully get a few photos from the event up soon and I hope to see you on the trail.

Fenz

Anatomy of a Road Race

I have missed doing bigger road races and last weekend off the back of my longest training ride of 80 km I was all ready for the 160 elite nswroad race champs. I had been told that the course would suit me as it was rolling and had on 2 – 3 km climb each of the 5 laps. It was certainly a cracker of a day with the sub shining and hardly any wind so the gods were looking over us for sure.

Nowra Velo and www.ftptraining.com team member Michael Troy was competing in the U23 race being held alongside the elite race, so it was going to be fun to actually have a team mate in the race. We rolled around before the start and looking around it was clear that there were 2 major teams in the race, this was going to be fun!!!

The first lap was all a bit tentative, the pace was set on the climb, but it wasn’t too bad and most riders held in. On the second lap however, the hammer went down. I was holding between 4 – 500 watts trying to close gaps and over the top of the climb around 12 riders had clipped off the front. It looked like the move of the day so I chased on with the help of the spares car and after a 5 km chase got on the back of the group. It was a big effort that saw a 10 minute normalised power of 398 watts!!! I wasn’t going to have many of those efforts in me in one day. After a couple of Km’s getting my wind back the whole crew sat up @#$%. The chasing group which was around 40 riders cruised back on and all that effort was for nothing, oh well. The rest of the race was just a was of attrition as rider after rider dropped off the pace and out of the race. On the 4thlap I went for my last couple of gels only to find that I must have slid them into the gap between the jersey and the number and had none left!! I didn’t think it would matter and just got on with the race. On the final climb the last selection was made for the medals, 5 riders eased off the remaining 20 riders and the whole race split to pieces. A small group of 7 gave chase and I chased to get onto this group over the top. The rest were all dropped. As I went over the top of the climb with just 18km to go I blew a gasket %$#@. It was a catastrophic blow up and I could hardly pedal, it was going to be the longest 18 km ever back to base. The stragglers kept coming up and offering a wheel to sit on and all I could do is wave them on as I just had nothing at all. I ended up coming in last of the finisher in 14th place by the reckoning of race officials.

It was a fun race and the numbers showed some good form, being about 3-4 kg’s over my optimal race weight of 67 kg’s didn’t allow me to go with the best on the climb, but, I wasn’t far off and after only training for 6 weeks I am quite happy ;o)

Race Data Including Catastrophic blow up and without #1

SRM #1:

   Duration:    4:22:46 (4:24:16)

   Work:         3371 kJ

   TSS:            305.4 (intensity factor 0.835)

   Norm Power:      276

   VI:              1.29

   Distance:    164.091 km

                      Min  Max  Avg

   Power:        0     1040  214     watts

   Heart Rate:  0     240       5      bpm

   Cadence:    29    154     85      rpm

   Speed:         0     79.9 37.5      kph

 

New Range #1:

   Duration:    3:38:28

   Work:         2928 kJ

   TSS:            272.6 (intensity factor 0.865)

   Norm Power:      286

   VI:              1.28

   Distance:    142.029 km

                      Min  Max Avg

   Power:       0      1040  223  watts

   Heart Rate: 0      212       6   bpm

   Cadence:     29    154    87   rpm

   Speed:       11.5 79.9  39.0   kph 

FTP Training and Racing Weekend

Coolendel  enduro race weekend 26^th – 27^th September

 

Now in its 3^rd year www.ftptraining.com is proud to support this great grassroots enduro event at the fantastic Eco-Resort of Coolendel on the sunny south coast of NSW. With limited spots available to race you had better get in quick and check out the local club  http://scum.asn.au/  website for more details.

FTP Training riders will be able to take up the special accommodation offer of the large bunkhouse and will then be able to sit in on the Saturday night presentation on Nutrition for endure events given by Mark Fenner. If you are interested in one of these spots contact Fenz on m.fenner@ftptraining.com These places are limited so get in quick and as the race falls just before the Scott 24 it is a great time to fine tune the night riding skills and give the body a great workout in the Sunday 4 hour enduro.