BBL Wrap-up plus Huntsville Climbing

This weekend was quite the kicker of a way to end the training season and dive headlong into racing season … starting next weekend with the southern cross race. Here’s a quick look at what I believe I’ll be racing the next few weeks:

Feb 16 - southern cross (mtb)
Feb 17 - gsmr training race #1
Feb 24 - gsmr training race #2
Mar 3 - gsmr training race #3
Mar 10 - rouge roubaix
Mar 16-17 - union city (crit, rr)
Mar 23 - hell of the south

Yesterday was an epic 102 mile day with BBL with four attack zones and koms, adventuresome climb up bass pro cement road (close to 35% gradient), and followed up by more climbing with Mark through Mountain Brook and Vestavia. Today, Kristine was working up in Huntsville so I tagged along to do some riding/climbing up in Huntsville.

First, the scoop on today’s ride up in Huntsville … Kristine was working her admin assistant job for the army reserve center up in Huntsville, so I decided to tag along to try to get a good long climbing ride exploring some new climbs and putting in a couple hard KOM efforts on others. I ended up falling a few seconds short on the Monte Sano climb (kudos Mark) but taking the Hawk’s Nest one. Here’s a view from the top of monte sano looking back down torwards Huntsville with the space and rocket center visible in the background (look for the tall white rocket).

View of downtown Huntsville and the Space and Rocket center from the top of Monte Sano (click to enlarge and read the annotations)

At this point in the ride, the temp had climbed into the mid 50s with a few clouds and even a little bit of sun. After exploring another Cat 3 climb on the Monte Sano ridge line, I headed down 431 towards Keel and the super steep Blowing Cave climb. As I approached Keel, it started to rain a bit off and on but nothing heavy or steady. By the top of the Blowing Cave climb, though, it was starting to rain a little more frequently so that by the time I had turned around and climbed Keel from the backside and then descend on the frontside it was pouring … and the temp was down into the 40s … and I had shorts and short finger gloves on. I immediately decided to cut out a huge chunk of the ride … Woodville to Skyline (Cat 2) … and trade it for an additional climb up Keel. This worked out well because the additional climbs up Keel kept me warm enough so that I wasn’t hypothermic for the descent down Blowing Cave.

That descent was insane in the heavy rain and cold. I knew I couldn’t get up too much speed because there would be no way to brake hard enough and turn without sliding out. Still, the super steep section towards the bottom (20% avg for 0.3 miles) I outran my brakes and had to negotiate some of the turns at much higher speed than I felt comfortable doing. By the bottom, I was frigid but thankful I hadn’t fallen and that I could start hammering again to try to generate body heat. Fortunately, I had a nice tailwind for a large part of the next ride so I was able to crush the 53×11 to a gas station near 4 mile post rd (east side of cecil ashburn). I spent a while warming up in the gas station drinking $1.09 ($1.18 with tax) 20 oz cappuccino before braving the cold rain again. Absolutely freezing and even with a tailwind and a Cat 3 climb, I still almost crashed coming down Cecil Ashburne with speed wobble because I was shivering so badly! Fortunately, once I made it to the bottom again, there was an awesome tailwind, a lot of open road, and a lot of green lights. I arrived back at the armory sooner than expected. As soon as I stopped riding, though, and my heartrate dropped I got so cold that I was shivering again uncontrollably for a good 5 minutes until I had warmed up in the car in the parking lot with the seat warmer on and heat blasting at 90 degF. Here’s pic of the conditions (it had been raining hard for the last 35 miles of my ride) at the armory after I had stopped shivering enough to get a picture:

Warming up in the car at the reserve center after the ride while Kristine is working. Very cold rain for the last 35 miles of the ride.

Here’s the iBike data from the ride and from some of the popular Huntsville climbs…

Summary of all climbs listed below
                                  Dist     Avg% Max%  Gain
Bankhead 4-way stop (Monte Sano)  3.63 mi  4.98 12.0  990 ft
Big Cove - Governor's Bend        2.07 mi  6.57 23.3  786 ft
Blowing Cave Wall (Keel Mtn)      0.30 mi 19.91 26.8  309 ft
Blowing Cave Complete (Keel Mtn)  3.83 mi  4.49 26.8 1050 ft
Keel Backside (north) (Keel Mtn)  1.55 mi 11.20 17.4  895 ft
Keel Frontside (south) (Keel Mtn) 1.88 mi  9.39 25.2  897 ft
Cecil Ashburne (east)             2.02 mi  5.47 12.6  582 ft

Bankhead from 4-way stop (Monte Sano)
Dist:        3.63 mi (0:15:38)
Climbing:     990 ft
          Min   Avg    Max
Power      46  326.4   684  W
Speed     9.5   14.0  27.4  mi/h
Slope    -4.0   4.98  12.0  %
HR        142  170.0   182  bpm
NP:332W IF:1.13 TSS:33 VI:1.02
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 7:59 AM
48 degF; 990 mbar

Big Cove - Governor's Bend (Monte Sano)
Dist:        2.07 mi (0:14:21)
Climbing:     786 ft
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  243.1   420  W
Speed     3.9    8.7  23.6  mi/h
Slope    -6.0   6.57  23.3  %
HR        119  139.1   150  bpm
NP:261W IF:0.88 TSS:19 VI:1.07
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 8:52 AM
50 degF; 990 mbar

Blowing Cave Wall (Keel Mtn)
Dist:        0.30 mi (0:04:11)
Climbing:     309 ft
          Min   Avg    Max
Power     187  304.0   409  W
Speed     3.1    4.4   8.6  mi/h
Slope     8.6  19.91  26.8  %
HR        141  148.9   155  bpm
NP:311W IF:1.05 TSS:8 VI:1.02
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 10:03 AM
51 degF; 990 mbar

Blowing Cave Complete (Keel Mtn)
Dist:        3.83 mi (0:19:59)
Climbing:    1050 ft
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  256.1   496  W
Speed     3.1   11.5  35.1  mi/h
Slope   -10.7   4.49  26.8  %
HR        126  141.7   155  bpm
NP:273W IF:0.92 TSS:28 VI:1.07
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 10:02 AM
51 degF; 990 mbar

Keel Backside (Keel Mtn - North)
Dist:        1.55 mi (0:14:57)
Climbing:     895 ft
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  254.0   427  W
Speed     4.6    6.2  21.3  mi/h
Slope     1.7  11.20  17.4  %
HR        121  137.0   142  bpm
NP:257W IF:0.87 TSS:19 VI:1.01
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 10:27 AM
52 degF; 990 mbar

Keel Frontside (Keel Mtn - South)
Dist:        1.88 mi (0:16:00)
Climbing:     897 ft
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  248.6   449  W
Speed     3.9    7.1  23.4  mi/h
Slope    -4.2   9.39  25.2  %
HR        123  134.0   142  bpm
NP:253W IF:0.85 TSS:19 VI:1.02
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 11:05 AM
45 degF; 990 mbar
COLD AND RAINING HARD

Cecil Ashburne from Hwy 431 (east side)
Dist:        2.02 mi (0:10:47)
Climbing:     582 ft
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  276.4   604  W
Speed     0.0   11.3  24.1  mi/h
Slope    -0.6   5.47  12.6  %
HR        111  138.5   146  bpm
NP:287W IF:0.97 TSS:17 VI:1.04
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 12:25 PM
44 degF; 990 mbar
COLD AND RAINING VERY HARD

Now, the BBL videos from the attack zones and the climbs – in reverse order starting with the Bass Pro climb.

Mark and Kyle at the bottom of the bass pro climb (click to view the annotations)

Bass pro climb
Dist:        0.22 mi (0:02:31)
Climbing:     218 ft
          Min   Avg    Max
Power     124  349.7   582  W
Gravity   100  316.0   448  W
Speed     3.4    5.4  11.2  mi/h
Slope     3.1  18.05  33.2  %
Cadence    32   49.1   102  rpm
HR        133  164.7   178  bpm
NP:374W IF:1.27 TSS:7 VI:1.07
168 lbs; 2/9/2013 12:11 PM
58 degF; 990 mbar

Rocket center from the start of my ride

View of downtown Huntsville and the Space and Rocket center from the top of Monte Sano

Keel Mountain with blowing cave annotated

Spent 15 minutes warming up in a gas station drinking this 20oz cappuccino so I could finish the last 45 minutes of the ride (over Cecil Ashburne) in pouring rain

Warming up in the car at the reserve center after the ride while Kristine is working. Very cold rain for the last 35 miles of the ride.

Sunset view after long day of rain

Rainbow over our dinner choice (Frizzie’s)

ibike data for the bankhead (monte sano) climb

ibike data for the governor’s bend climb

ibike data for the blowing cave wall

ibike date for the keel mtn north (backside) climb

ibike data for the keel mtn south climb

ibike data for the cecil ashburne climb (from the east)

ibike graph for the climb (and descent) of the bass pro climb

ibike data showing the spot where it started raining

ibike data showing the spot where it started raining — repaired to adjust for the blocked wind sensor

bass pro climb (view from the top)

Mark and Kyle at the bottom of the bass pro climb (click to view the annotations)

BBL iBike Newton+

Cahaba river pedestrian bridge behind the ballfields (plus iBike Newton pic)

Baseball skills assessment collage … Josiah was scheduled for his tryouts at 2:45 … I rode 102 miles and arrived at exactly 2:42, but he had gone early because it was starting to rain. Fortunately I was able to catch them in the parking lot before they left.

Yesterday my new iBike Newton+ arrived, and so I ran through the basic setup to get up and running for today’s BBL ride. I still need to do my on-the-bike calibration ride, but looking at the numbers both during the ride and afterwards – the iBike Newton+ seems to be delivering pretty reliable power numbers even without that extra calibration step. We had a small turnout for BBL with a number of riders out for a variety of reasons — including the cylocross world championships up in Louisville, Kentucky. Still, we had a great time on the Kelly Creek – Tunnel – Wall – Mountain Top loop.

Once I get my Quarq fixed by SRAM I’ll be able to explore some of the more “wind tunnel” advanced features of the Newton. In the meantime, I’ve made a video and highlighted the data for each of today’s attack zones organized as follows – video first, attack zone data next, and attack zone graph last. I did this for all three attack zones / KOMs which I happened to take a clean sweep of today!

STERRETT ATTACK ZONE (1st place)
Dist:        2.77 mi (0:06:57)
Energy:     138.1 kJ
Cals Burn:  132.1 kcal
Climbing:     186 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  331.3  1049  W
Aero        0  264.9   774  W
Rolling    27   45.7    66  W
Gravity  -657    1.3   482  W
Speed    14.2   24.0  34.5  mi/h
Wind     13.5   23.2  37.1  mi/h
Elev      448    499   571  ft
Slope    -6.4   0.02   9.1  %
Caden      33   85.7   111  rpm
HR        139  162.4   184  bpm
NP:379W IF:1.28 TSS:19 VI:1.15
CdA: 0.328 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 2/2/2013 11:20 AM
43 degF; 1061 mbar

iBike graph for the sterrett attack zone (click to enlarge)

VANDIVER KOM (1st place)
Dist:        1.79 mi (0:07:21)
Energy:     152.3 kJ
Cals Burn:  145.6 kcal
Climbing:     498 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power     180  345.4   642  W
Aero        0   58.2   211  W
Rolling    18   27.9    43  W
Gravity    25  253.2   387  W
Speed     9.5   14.7  22.4  mi/h
Wind      4.4   14.1  23.2  mi/h
Elev      565    822  1064  ft
Slope     0.4   5.18  11.8  %
Caden      60   76.9   100  rpm
HR        141  170.8   180  bpm
NP:352W IF:1.19 TSS:17 VI:1.02
CdA: 0.328 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 2/2/2013 11:45 AM
45 degF; 1060 mbar

iBike graph for the Vandiver KOM (click to enlarge)

MIMOSA ATTACK ZONE (1st place)
Dist:        2.32 mi (0:06:07)
Energy:     135.6 kJ
Cals Burn:  129.7 kcal
Climbing:     241 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  369.5   957  W
Aero        0  236.7   851  W
Rolling    20   43.5    75  W
Gravity -1043   60.9   768  W
Speed    10.8   22.8  39.4  mi/h
Wind      0.0   21.2  37.9  mi/h
Elev      607    669   748  ft
Slope    -9.5   0.80  14.6  %
Caden      57   82.0   104  rpm
HR        122  165.6   181  bpm
NP:406W IF:1.37 TSS:19 VI:1.10
CdA: 0.328 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 2/2/2013 12:08 PM
48 degF; 1059 mbar

iBike graph for the Mimosa attack zone – annotated (click to enlarge)

COMPLETE RIDE
Dist:      104.76 mi (5:51:38)
Energy:    4063.1 kJ
Cals Burn: 3884.5 kcal
Climbing:    8491 ft
Braking:   -226.0 kJ (-5.6%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  192.6  1049  W
Aero        0  130.8  2294  W
Rolling     0   34.1    93  W
Gravity -2481    1.5   778  W
Speed     0.0   17.9  48.8  mi/h
Wind      0.0   16.1  52.5  mi/h
Elev      408    706  1107  ft
Slope   -19.9   0.02  18.9  %
Caden       0   81.8   130  rpm
HR         68  133.6   185  bpm
NP:247W IF:0.84 TSS:409 VI:1.28
CdA: 0.328 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 2/2/2013 8:28 AM
44 degF; 1063 mbar

BBL iBike data and videos

Fun day today at the BBL. I mainly wanted to put a post up with my iBike data for those of you curious about the iBike. I’ve highlighted the attack zone data below first – along with a video for the Sterrett attack zone and the Vandiver KOM. I forgot to turn the video back on for the Mimosa attack zone. The format for the post below goes like this: 1) data 2) graph 3) video. Then I’ve got the data and graph for the entire ride at the end.

Sterrett Attack Zone (1st place)
Dist:        2.64 mi (0:05:53)
Energy:     119.1 kJ
Cals Burn:  113.8 kcal
Climbing:     121 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  337.3   767  W
Aero        0  264.7   830  W
Rolling    33   51.5    70  W
Gravity  -632    9.7   481  W
Speed    17.2   27.0  36.5  mi/h
Wind      8.2   20.5  36.0  mi/h
Elev       77    126   182  ft
Slope    -6.0   0.11   7.9  %
Caden      47   86.8   107  rpm
HR        123  158.7   182  bpm
NP:366W IF:1.32 TSS:17 VI:1.08
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 5/3/2011 2:52 AM
48 degF; 1013 mbar

iBike graph for the Sterrett attack zone – I ended up winning this one after covering Mark’s attack on the final hill and then taking off before the swarm led by Jeff Fuller, Jim Brock, and Darrell O’Quinn could catch back up to us. This one shows clearly when I was drafting and when I had my nose in the wind (not often) – CLICK TO ENLARGE

Vandiver KOM (2nd place)
Dist:        1.72 mi (0:06:31)
Energy:     134.6 kJ
Cals Burn:  128.7 kcal
Climbing:     458 ft
Braking:      0.0 kJ (0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power     175  344.2   642  W
Aero        0   51.1   300  W
Rolling    23   30.2    39  W
Gravity    49  260.0   482  W
Speed    11.9   15.9  20.5  mi/h
Wind      3.0   12.2  27.6  mi/h
Elev      199    451   660  ft
Slope     0.8   4.92  10.9  %
Caden      54   83.5   113  rpm
HR        151  180.3   185  bpm
NP:358W IF:1.29 TSS:18 VI:1.04
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 5/3/2011 3:16 AM
50 degF; 1013 mbar

iBike graph for the Vandiver KOM – you can see where the climb flattened out and I had trouble finding a gear that would hold that I could still keep up with Mark – couldn't do it and he rode away from me to take the KOM – CLICK TO ENLARGE

Mimosa Attack Zone (3rd place)
Dist:        2.56 mi (0:07:08)
Energy:     126.5 kJ
Cals Burn:  120.9 kcal
Climbing:     236 ft
Braking:     -0.0 kJ (-0.0%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  295.5   793  W
Aero        0  189.1  1560  W
Rolling    16   41.2    79  W
Gravity -1889   27.9   571  W
Speed     8.5   21.6  41.6  mi/h
Wind      0.0   17.7  44.6  mi/h
Elev      221    302   375  ft
Slope   -14.2   0.39  12.0  %
Caden       8   84.4   123  rpm
HR        105  151.1   177  bpm
NP:338W IF:1.22 TSS:18 VI:1.15
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 5/3/2011 3:37 AM
50 degF; 1013 mbar

iBike graph for the Mimosa Attack Zone – I was having problems with a stiff link on my chain so I ended up setting a max cadence of 124 RPM when I finally found a gear that would stick … still held on for 3rd in the sprint – CLICK TO ENLARGE

iBike data for the ENTIRE RIDE
Dist:      103.94 mi (5:58:22)
Energy:    3781.5 kJ
Cals Burn: 3615.2 kcal
Braking:   -174.7 kJ (-4.6%)
          Min   Avg    Max
Power       0  175.9   793  W
Aero        0  117.9  2724  W
Rolling     0   33.2    95  W
Gravity -2123    1.6   603  W
Speed     0.0   17.4  50.1  mi/h
Wind      0.0   14.6  54.3  mi/h
Elev       77    347   823  ft
Slope   -16.5   0.03  19.1  %
Caden       0   81.3   134  rpm
HR         71  132.0   185  bpm
NP:231W IF:0.83 TSS:415 VI:1.32
CdA: 0.342 m^2; Crr: 0.0057
168 lbs; 1/26/2013 8:35 AM
50 degF; 1013 mbar

BBL 2013-01-26 iBike graph for the entire ride – note the addition of the gear ratio graph — pretty cool to show you when you switched gears. – CLICK TO ENLARGE

Tour de Cullman

What a great way to the end season – with the unique group ride / race / kom / party that is the Tour de Cullman. Carson Glasscock does a great job of organizing this every year and put on another great one this year even after the tornadoes in April knocked over every tree in his yard and did significant damage to his house. Driving up from Birmingham, you can still see where several tornadoes crossed I-65 with trees stripped and fallen over in all directions, and there are still a couple tall light posts twisted and folded in half serving as reminders 6 months later.

Enough about that, though, because the atmosphere today at the Tour de Cullman was one of celebration and having a good time. From the traditional parade roll-out all the way to the after-race party, people were laughing and talking. The serious part of the ride is a 16 mile section in the middle ending on the top of Skyball Mountain – a 4 mile climb. Pretty much as soon as the lead moto dropped the flag, Pat Allison put in an attack. It was quickly shutdown, and the group was still together as we made the left turn to tackle the steep 10-15% initial climb. I went to the front and set a fast tempo. By the top, we were down to five riders. Across the top, Pat drilled it and we were down to just three – me, Pat, and Paul Tower.

From that point until the end, it was a three-man team time trial. We traded pace pretty well, but I was saving up in case either of them tried to get away early on any one of the numerous short steep hills on the course. The right turn onto the Skyball KOM climb came much sooner than expected. When we started up the climb, Paul and I continued to work as Pat surveyed the situation. We cruised up the bottom flat part of the climb at a fairly easy pace which didn’t fit into my plans of attacking on the steepest part of the climb because everybody was still fresh.

Nevertheless, going into the lefthand turn onto Fat Dunn Rd, I attacked hard but couldn’t get a gap. I eased up but because the gradient was so steep at this point, we were still pushing well over 300 watts. Then I could see the next really steep section of the climb had actually been turned into a dirt road (they must have stripped the old, cracked, potholed road completely away and laid down dirt/gravel). I decided to attack again, and this time Paul came off the pace.

So Pat and I reached the top together with me in front. Pat kept me in front for the next mile or so before he attacked hard on the dirt road. I lost his wheel and started to chase with him just in front of me. We were flying. My Garmin recorded a top speed of 38mph on the dirt road downhill before the last turn with 200 meters left to go. It was at this turn that I finally caught up to Pat. I knew the finish was close so I went ahead and started my sprint and was able to hold him off to the finish to take my third win in three years.

Pat and I descended down the other side to try out the climb from that side, but this time Pat was able to take the sprint at the top. The group had a huge head start on us for the return trip to Cullman, so we drilled it for pretty much the entire ride back until we caught them just outside of town.

Then it was time for the after ride party and awards. One of Carson’s friends had brought over a portable stone brick oven that he had built and started making pizzas, which were awesome! The lady playing the accordion at the top of Skyball was joined by two people on the guitar, and the beer and cokes were flowing as everybody relaxed and recounted the race this year and races from past years. Awesome.

Here is all the data:

Polar annotated heartrate/power
Golden Cheetah annotated heartrate/power
Critical power
Tour de Cullman power map annotated
3 in a row!