The 2020 Accountability Thread

[E. Bryant]

Sinus infections are a bugger and generally deal with one or two each year. I have bad seasonal allergies which trigger the infection and get it treated before they get bad. Irrigation of the sinus cavities definitely help. My long time allergist who treated the infections always recommended to not to ride until the infection had run its course.

I generally get at least one in the spring due to allergies, but they are typically not week-long struggles like this one. Normally I'd try to fight against it (which I agree is not wise), but this one left me with no choice but to ride the couch until it mostly passed.

Did a socially-distanced MTB ride last night with some buddies:

I felt better than at any point in the last 10 days, but at no point was this performance anything to brag about.

We were standing around in the parking lot at the end of the ride, and up rolled a county sheriff deputy. He noted that we were maintaining a respectful distance from one another, thanked us for not littering (apparently that's been a problem lately), and moved along.

 

[ZiaHunter]

What are you using to measure power?

 

[E. Bryant]

What are you using to measure power?

On that bike, a 4iiii power meter mounted on the non-drive-side crank arm.

 

[ZiaHunter]

Thanks. Use Garmin Vector 3 pedals which links with my Garmin 520. Workouts are synched with Garmin Connect. Bought the medals to measure my performance after breaking my femur in a fall. Gives you stats on both legs and and move them to my trainer when indoors.

 

[E. Bryant]

I've got the Garmin Vector 3 pedals on my road bike, but that bike gets less use than any other of my rides so unfortunately the capabilities aren't being put to good use. The L/R balance stuff is useful; my left leg is ~10mm shorter than my right, and it usually shows up a few percent low in overall percentage and the power-vs-angle data shows that it's a bit off from the other side (power is generated a bit earlier in the pedal stroke, which makes sense because it's reaching full extension earlier). I've found that concentrating on my left leg throughout the ride will result in 50/50 balance, so I think my problem is more neuromuscular (mind-muscle connection) than anything else.

I use crank-based power meters on my mountain bikes (4iii and Stages), which are good enough considering the application. Basically, full-gas singletrack riding is a bunch of sprints at 1.5-2x FTP separated by brief moments of recovery, and I've see my heartrate go up by 20 BPM over a 3-minute downhill segment where I pedaled for less than 10 seconds total. Effective intepretion of power data under those conditions is more of an art form than a science.

My gravel bike and fat bike don't have power meters, and Strava's power estimation algorithm is completely useless under the conditions those bikes are used (see some of the numbers on rides I've posted earlier in this thread - no, I did not average 89 W at 147 BPM for 2.5 hours ). My brain says that I should spend the $300 to put a 4iiii on the gravel bike since it sees more miles than any other bike, but my heart says that I don't need to turn every ride into a data collection exercise.

 

[missed]

I have thought about power meters, for my bikes I'm not sure how viable it would be, I'm on SRAM X01 drive trains with the X01 cranks. It would be nice to see for training. I got a bit of trail work to do on the home trail today, get a handful of laps in and work on the 1/4 mile sprints up the hill. I'm up to 0.8 mile of trail that's a bit of single track, a little berms and jump flow. At this rate with the stupid virus I'm gonna build more trail on the place next to me which is 10 acres.

Looks like!e the Quarq spider mount meter works with my cranks and chain rings. Hmmmm I'll have to add that to the list. I'm getting a Guerilla Gravity Smash and the parts to swap over to a Megatrail also, and selling the Bronson.

 

[E. Bryant]

Most of my mountain bikes have Shimano XT cranks, so it's a simple 5 min job to swap the left-side crankarm from one to another. I believe the same would be generally true with SRAM cranks.

It's good info to have, but interpreting it is a bit tougher than road or trainer data. How hard was this effort?

Ok, going just by the average power, that's about 90% of my FTP for 25 minutes. Fairly hard, but nothing too bad, right? Wrong. That was a balls-out attack on my favorite local loop, and as you can see from the chart, it was basically an interval effort at ~200% FTP, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off.

Basically, what I've learned over the past 18 months is that mountain biking is hard and that heart rate is a pretty solid indicator of effort as long as you also take weather into consideration (the higher the heat index, the higher the HR for a given output).

 

[missed]

I might try this meter after I get the new ride done https://www.quarq.com/product/xx1-eagle-power-meter-spider/

I really like my carbon XO1 cranks and have no intention of changing them. They have survived the Enduro and bike park fun so there staying! This was one of my last rides at Dino since mother nature tried to turn us into ducks. Finally trails drying up and everyone is staying closed due to the virus. I really need to get stronger and get my sprint times down to get ready for the races when that comes back around. The elevation monitoring on my Garmin Instinct is not as accurate as I would like. I do have a Garmin 830 for the bike now, we will see if its more accurate in that respect.

 

[E. Bryant]

My 830 occasionally does weird stuff with elevation - I'll do a loop and the start point has a different elevation at the end of the ride. I'm not sure if there is a baro pressure meter, or if it's using GPS, or just guessing based upon how much wind I'm sucking. Regardless, we don't have many "real" climbs here so it doesn't matter.

Felt tired and unmotivated this afternoon, so I stepped away from the computer, hit a local trail, and put in a short piece of work:

Then I stopped back home, picked up the boys and their bikes, went to a different trail, and rode until it was well past dusk:

It was a good day.

 

[E. Bryant]

Did 25 miles on Zwift last night, but the ride didn't sync up with Strava, so it's like it never happened Considering everything else going on, this problem seems incredibly trivial.

A buddy is trying to convince me to go outside for a road ride, but man the weather forecast kinda sucks for the next several days - low 40s, windy, occasional rain. I'm ready for proper spring.

 

[missed]

I have tried multiple times to go ride the trail at the house today, its been the phone and now the rain.... 40 rainy and windy sounds like great fun! Its about the same here but in the mid 50's today. We will see if its too muddy here in a bit. Brown silty clay turns to suck when its too wet.

 

[E. Bryant]

It was 40F and rainy today, so forget riding outside. My wife's company is paying for a personal trainer to deliver workout sessions via videoconference, so I did some bodyweight stuff for an hour and that actually felt kinda good.

 

[missed]

I'm definitely in a slump, having a really hard time getting and staying motivated. I'm shooting to ride tomorrow. Either here on the home trail or the local private place. I need to get back to the strength training every other day. I just can't seem to stay rolling there.

 

[E. Bryant]

Yeah, I have certainly struggled the last few weeks. Some of it is normal late-winter-season blues, some of it was being sick for a couple of weeks (haven't been down for that long in several years), some of it was loss of normal routine with the wife and kids home full-time, and some of it is the general societal weirdness that is inescapable at the moment.

But the illness is getting better (not gone, but moving in the right direction), and the other stuff needs to be dealt with like any other distraction.

 

[missed]

Got 16 miles in just about 2 hours and 1300' of climbing. I'm whooped tonight!

Good to hear the sinus infection getting better, those just plain suck.

I'm working from home myself, I was on vacation the week before the shitstorm started so this has been the beginning of the 4th week I've been home. It's weird really really weird. But I have a full office here so i makes it nice. I could really work from here forever.

 

[E. Bryant]

Got out for the weekly Wednesday night ride and got in 20 miles at a reasonable pace, so that was nice. The crud has moved into my chest, but fortunately air moves freely when I'm riding. Once I stop it's all coughing and hacking, but I'd rather it that way than the opposite. Still managed to put in a nice 10-second sprint at 1000W when the last straightaway before the parking lot turned into a drag race

Temps are moving upwards - the forecast is showing 60F tomorrow, so I'll try to put some miles on the gravel bike.

 

[E. Bryant]

Did a bit over 5 miles with the kids this afternoon, and then put in another 20 miles on the gravel bike before the sun set. Feels like maybe I'm getting back to normal.

 

[E. Bryant]

This chest congestion just isn't letting go. It does seem to be somewhat dependent upon air temperature, which makes me think that asthma is a factor. But spring allergies and asthma don't usually result in coughing up thick yellow phlegm.

Anyways, I got in some riding the weekend before last with the kids, did the usual group ride on Wednesday night (only had one other guy show up because it was cold and rainy), did 18 miles on the mountain bike with a buddy Thursday night, put in 25 miles on the gravel bike Sunday, and did a Zwift ride last night.

I'm sitting at about 750 miles on the year so far, which is about 260 miles behind where I should be to reach my yearly goal. All things considered, this is probably not a complete failure, but I'd like to stop losing ground.

Need to get back to some strength training as well. That will be a priority this week, since the weather is back to sucking (looks like highs in the low 40s for the next several days).

 

[missed]

That sucks it wont clear out!

A few years ago I got sick and had that crap not clear out at all, seems like it was the never ending sinus crap then chest congestion. Doc told me to use the breathing treatment with the albuterol in the morning to help open things up to get the crap out, it worked. Mine was in the fall when things dried up after a wet summer and the weeds and grasses were just overwhelming. Like you said asthma should not have a discharge. I deal with a bunch of HVAC equipment and indoor air quality can really affect some people also, between dirty filters, air handlers, duct work and the crap just gets circulated in the conditioned space.


I'm sitting at about 45 miles for the month, and almost 300 for the year, which I am behind just a little right now of 1000. Going to get a few miles in with the heathens today, gonna try for a 25 mile dirt ride tomorrow, and get one more good one in friday or saturday. Sunday starts 6 12hr days on nights for the next 4 weeks sooo ill be real lucky to get miles in there. Ill have to hammer it through the summer as we have another outage in the fall also.

I am still having a hard time staying on the strength training. I do not know why I have such a hard time staying motivated there.

Its our turn for the good weather! Looks like about a week of awesome except for a day or two of rain with low chances.

 

[E. Bryant]

I've got an albuterol inhaler for "sports asthma", and it definitely helps. A single hit off that clears the lungs right up, and two hits gives me that turbocharged feeling. Looking at the US Anti-Doping Administration, 900 mcg is the limit in a 12-hour period, which would be just under 9 hits off my inhaler

My breathing has definitely been better now that the daytime air temps are in the 50s, but damn, we're now past the five-week point and it seems like maybe I should have gone to the doc about three weeks ago. Managed to put in eight straight days of exercise, so things must not be that bad. I did have to bail out on an indoor ride Friday night after only 41 minutes due to a coughing fit, but I compensated with a good 35 minutes of strength training and so it was probably a better workout overall. I leaned heavily on this dude's recommendations for exercises to be performed with bodyweight or light-ish dumbbells:

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I'm not ashamed to admit that I hit the deck a few times while attempting some of the balance movements.

Currently at 800 miles for the year, which is 261 behind where I should be.

 

[missed]

I need to get one also, allergies are setting in here, I'll barely have any decent ride time the next 3 weeks from work. I was right on target at 307/1000, I'll have to play catch up after the outage. We have another one in October to put a kink in things.

I'll have to look up his stuff.

My goal the next 3 weeks is to get 3 strength in a week and ride 3 days. Hopefully I can get that, once I get flopped to nights.

 

[E. Bryant]

I tried to lift weights Tuesday and made it about 10 minutes before stopping due to a coughing spasm during bent rows. The Wednesday night ride was manageable (put in just shy of 15 miles), but only after a couple hits of albuterol and a lot of wheezing.

Finally decided to call the family doctor yesterday, did a teleconference, and talked through the symptoms. Doc thinks that my immune system has fought this to a stalemate but can't gain any forward momentum, and so I'm now on antibiotics for bacterial bronchitis.

Two doses in and my gut is already messed up. Maybe this will help accelerate the weight loss project?!?

Hoping to get some rest the next day or two while the medicine does its thing, and then start kicking ass again.

 

[E. Bryant]

Kinda short on training hours this week since I'm trying to give my system a chance to recover, but I did manage to set a PR on Sunday and tied another last night. Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.

 

[E. Bryant]

I've slacked off on using this thread, but fortunately that's not indicative of my activity level. Resistance training has been sparse, but I'm doing ok with putting in time on the bike.

Managed to put in some quality time this past weekend with a couple buddies:

The first 30 miles or so was fairly intense, and we backed off the pace towards the end because one of the guys was hurting a bit (and I wasn't far away from being there myself, to be honest).

This is a hard way to average 200W:

I haven't run the numbers to figure out the normalized power, but it's in the neighborhood of 270W. That shouldn't be particularly impressive to anyone else, but I'm happy with it at the moment.

Currently sitting at about 1050 miles on the season, the majority of which has come on the mountain bike. I do need to start getting out for some longer, low-intensity rides on the road or gravel bike.

 

[missed]

haha I have been slacking. Work had taken over. Back on normal schedule this week, got a ride in this morning. Got some more strength training gear, going to be back on track this week!

 

[E. Bryant]

Dang, almost a month since I've updated this thread. The cycling is coming along nicely, with about 1250 miles logged in 2020 (about 90% of which has come on the MTB). The whole gym closure thing continues to impede progress in strength training, but some recent activity around the house (generator install and drainage improvements) have required a substantial amount of manual trenching, and it turns out that's a pretty solid workout. The biggest problem is that I'm not doing enough stretching and flexibility work, which is probably the most important thing I should be doing at my age.

Psychologically, the lack of races this summer is having a larger impact than I would have expected. I don't train for specific events and I'm certainly not competitive (the goal is usually to have fun and not finish last in class), but not having that specific date looming on the calendar has made it a bit difficult to put in less-pleasant work. On the other hand, I'm done a hell of a lot more social rides with buddies of all fitness level, and that certainly ain't a bad thing.

 

[E. Bryant]

I haven't updated this thread in almost three months and clearly no one cares Haven't done shit for weight training, but I have been pedaling my ass off all summer and my fitness is maybe the best it's ever been at this time of the year.

Unfortunately, the last race of the season (Iceman Cometh on the first Saturday of November) got cancelled last week, so there is literally no reason to keep riding my bike at this point. Well, other than general fitness and camaraderie, and just plain ol' having fun.

 

[missed]

Well....I kept thinking about it!

I've been sporatic on the weight training, usually only getting 1-3 a week in there. June I was at 156 miles, July 97, and August 86. It's been so damn busy around here.

We have had Strava timed races popping up, and there are some Enduro races that are going over the next couple months. Between a couple crashes in July that had my wrists and hip hating me and not sleeping well it has put a dent in my training. We're shooting for a trip to Bentonville in November. I don't think I'm going to hit any of the races this month. Just try to get back in the training routine.

 

[missed]

I know what you man about not having races to train for to keep you moving forward, that was one thing that was really contributing to my decline in the training also. The local Fort Worth and Weatherford trail group has fired up the Strava races, they do not have the same atmosphere of a normal race but there still pretty fun. Last weekends Enduro race I went and pre rode the stages, I was still weak as F from the lack of sleep and decided it was not a good idea to race. It was nice to see a bunch of the riding buddies that I had not seen in a while.

 

[ffj1313]

Dude glad to hear your back at it. Figured you were still doing something! Nice.

 

[E. Bryant]

A fun example of power output during a short, strenuous singletrack ride:

As one can see, it's pretty much like driving a car on a racetrack - full throttle on the straights, coasting in the corners, and not a whole lot between.

 

[MilkNWhiskey]

Yesterday I ran 11 miles in 2 hours.
This morning I did 500 sit ups.
This after noon I hit the gym and did 10 sets of 20 dips and and 10 sets of straight bar curls.
Tomorrow morning its pushups 10 sets of 50.
Wednesday its a 2.8 mile AM run and shoulders at the gym. Standing military press 10 sets.
Thursday its 150 pullups in the morning and leg presses at the gym after work.
Friday another 2.8 mile AM run and a cold beer after work.
Saturday morning is chest, heavy bench with flyes and cables to wrap it up.
Next sunday will be another 11-12 mile run.

Running a marathon in March. Combat fit is what I'm going for. Like Hackworth in Korea.

 

[missed]

Hopefully I will get my head back in it, a whole series of races is about to kick off, with work I will only be able to make the December race and maybe the November. Kids want to do one of the XC races at Gateway Park in Fort Worth, its a Strava timed race it would be fun for them.

 

[E. Bryant]

Actually got back into the gym today, for the first time since mid-March. Shockingly, I did not get stronger with six months of rest Regardless of my pathetic conditioning, this still counts as a win 'cause I did it.

My Fitbit Ionic shit the bed last month - that's the fifth dead tracker from that company in as many years, so I'm done. It got replaced with a Garmin Instinct Solar, which not only tracks reps and rest time (hey jackass, just thought I'd let you know that you haven't picked anything up in the last 4:32), but will also show a list of the specific movements in the app afterwards. Pretty dang cool.

 

[missed]

I jumped to Garmin a few years ago after the Fitbit wouldn't last six months.

I have a Fenix 6 right now. Still have an Instinct Tactical ( which I'm selling to get a couple of the basic Forerunners for the kids. I also have the 830 on the bike.

 

[bobke]

Glad to have found this thread-need to get my 68yr old ass back in shape after retiring a year ago. Currently mixing gravel/single track on Titus or Norco MTB’s and road on my 20yr old Colnago. Not piling up tremendous amount of mileage, but attempting to put in quality 1:10-1:20-2:00hr rides couple times a week, with stretching and sit-ups while recovering from some fraying in rotator cuff. Just do not heal as quickly as I did 20 yrs ago.
Appreciate ya’ll posting, as it’s keeping my head in the game, and is a good motivator. Shoot a couple of matches monthly, and now fortunately have time to work on this project, most of which lies in front of me. Maybe a surprise for some others in their 60’s in local MTB races, if all goes well. Thanks, guys.

 

[E. Bryant]

@bobke - thanks for joining this thread, and I hope that you'll bless us with some progress updates along your journey.

This past week's work looks something like the following:

Monday - lame-ass one-hour road ride (needed a recovery spin)
Tuesday - weights
Wednesday - two-hour gravel ride with some buddies. Pushed the pace in a few spots but overall it was pretty tame.
Thursday - weights
Friday - one-hour MTB ride. Averaged 164 BPM heart rate, but TrainingPeaks gave me an intensity factor (IF) of only 0.82
Saturday - did a upper-body workout with the Facebook group that my wife uses for training

This seems like it might form a rough outline of a fall training plan.

 

[missed]

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that thinks recovery rides SUCK. Frigging boring. I really need to get that Stages SB20 I want so at least I can watch TV while I'm doing it.

 

[E. Bryant]

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that thinks recovery rides SUCK. Frigging boring. I really need to get that Stages SB20 I want so at least I can watch TV while I'm doing it.

For me, I really struggle doing recovery rides on the MTB - it's way too difficult to let off the gas just when things start to get fun. The only time it works is when doing social rides with my slower friends, but even that eventually turns into a drag race for a least a moment (my internal voice: "hey, you did a good job hanging back for the past 90 minutes, but what this ride really needs is a two-minute sprint back to the parking lot where you'll blow up and then completely fail to cool down properly.")

Solo road and gravel rides work fairly well for recovery, since I can find plenty of flat local routes. It's just not that much fun, and since the ride bike has a power meter, there's always that same internal voice saying "you know, everyone on Strava is gonna see that your average power really sucked on this ride, and they're going to think less of you."

For indoor rides, I use a smart trainer and Zwift, and I find it very difficult to get on Zwift and not go full throttle. There are too many sprint and KOM segments that scream for my attention, and that's how I end up at 181 BPM during an "easy" ride.

 

[bobke]

Just off three days of Run N’ Gun. First day 10k on a VERY hilly up/down course on a local Hill Country ranch. Never done one, and cycling was not adequate training for this, so knee is pretty toasted and recovery rides may be my near future. RO’d 10k and 5k races Saturday/Sunday. This may be in my future, if I can maintain a proper training schedule and keep joints healthy. Did pretty well on the shooting stages, but know I can prepare and do better. Great group of folks.

 

[E. Bryant]

My left knee is not happy about my return to weight training, or at least I think that's what is going on. It feels like some mild tendonitis caused by getting a bit too aggressive after a six-month break. A bit of caution might be a good idea for the next few weeks; last year, I believe it was a good 4-6 weeks of acclimation after the cycling season ended before I loaded up the barbell.

Also, I really wish this sprained ring finger would heal. Six weeks later, it's still sore and swollen, and since that hand is already a bit weak due to prior injury, I need the remaining fingers at full strength.

And while I'm whining, the weather turned to shit this week.

Ok, I think I got that out of my system. Back to putting in the work...

 

[ZiaHunter]

Back to training after my summer sabbatical off the bike due to the heat. Weekend road rides and two Trainer Road workouts indoors during the week. Locker rooms at gym have reopened so I can resume my lunchtime weight workouts. Plan to ride Iron Horse in May and training has started in earnest.

 

[missed]

I have been a slacker lately, trying to get stuff out of the way before the refuel outage at work that kills a month. I did order a Stages SB20 indoor bike this morning. That will help on the recovery rides and the bad weather days, especially with the days getting shorter faster. I am hoping with the trainer that I will be able to get 100 miles in October. Which will be a major challenge as I am on nights working 6 12's. Were going to Bentonville AR for a week in November which will be awesome.

 

[E. Bryant]

I need to get down to Bentonville. Maybe I should do that in February, instead of going further north for a fatbike race which is the current plan because I'm a dumbass.

 

[missed]

I need to get down to Bentonville. Maybe I should do that in February, instead of going further north for a fatbike race which is the current plan because I'm a dumbass.

Let me know if you do I'm only 7 hrs away!

 

[missed]

I need to get down to Bentonville. Maybe I should do that in February, instead of going further north for a fatbike race which is the current plan because I'm a dumbass.

Let me know if you do I'm only 7 hrs away!

I got 10 miles in today. Should get 12 tomorrow and another 12 Saturday.

 

[E. Bryant]

No updates recently, because there hasn't been anything exciting to share. With the crappy late-fall weather moving in (and a bit of late-season burnout showing up as well), I've shifted some share of my workouts into the weight room.

My new Garmin Instinct can pair to external sensors, so I decided to use a spare heart rate chest strap during today's lifting session. Here's my heart rate as measured by the built-in sensor during a previous workout of similar intensity:

And here is the data from the chest strap:

That's a meaningful difference if one is attempting to track training stress.

 

[missed]

Crazy it's been a month and a half! Refuel outage at work kills me. I'm back and rolling, about to hit the trainer here in a bit. That's a significant difference from the watch to the chest strap. I have been thinking about getting one. I think that convinces me there. I have a Fenix6. I have noticed some slow reactions from the heart rate, or times when arm pump is setting in and the heart rate can not be accurate. Gonna take the little heathen to go ride tomorrow, then it looks like I'm getting rained out Saturday.

 

[bobke]

Finally back on road bike after laying up for a bit to get knees back under me. Short term goal is 3 months of 80-100 miles/week at increasing intensity, with some mtn bikes rides thrown in when able. Sure don’t recover as quickly as I’d like to at 68, nor can I build conditioning to the level I’d like, at rate I did 15-20yrs back, but working on it, and found a solid group to ride with in the Hill Country, which is especially welcome at this stage. Glad to be back in the hunt.

 

[E. Bryant]

Let's wrap this thread up for the year and see how I performed against my goals.

3600 miles/200 hours on the bike? Only hit half of that goal; a strong shift towards MTB riding over the summer means that I barely cleared 3000 miles, but my total saddle time was 212 hours. I have no regrets. Probably half that time was spent riding with friends or family, and I wouldn't give that up just to hit an arbitrary number.

Improved balance of hard vs easy workouts on the bike? Garmin data shows that I only had five weeks classified as "Unproductive", which would seem to indicate an improvement in training balance compared to prior years. Let's call this one a success, but perhaps only because the bar was set pretty low

100 days in the weight room? Nope. My gym was shut down for six months, so I only did about 70 weight sessions. When I got back in September, my performance was pathetic. The good news is that this gap really clarified the need for continued resistance training as I get older, so in a way I'm appreciative of this obstacle.

Clean up my diet? Uh, that's a no. It was absolute garbage for about half the year. Work has begun on this project and can generally be called the "eat more meat and plants, and less of everything else" diet. Do not misconstrue this as an attempt to eliminate tacos; my best rides this year were fueled by them.

Weight loss? Kinda. I'm down 4 lbs vs a year ago, but I never did really get down to my normal summer weight. This is a big fail.

So, not a complete bust, and given some of the challenges that the year presented, I'm going to hold my head high in defeat and commit to doing better in 2021.

In terms of exercise goals, perhaps I need to target a minimum number of active days - let's call it 300 - and just let everything else land where it will. A 60/30 split between the bike and weight room would probably serve me well, with the remaining 10% taking the form of some easy miles on the feet. A nice hike with the wife and kids is an honorable method of active recovery. Or maybe target a CTL (chronic training load) of 50 average for the year. Haven't done the detailed math of how to achieve the required average daily TSS (training stress score), but I bet it looks something like an hour a day, six days a week on average.

Here is the summary of my Strava 2020 year in review: