Metabolic Bike Test

As I firm up my plans for next year, I like the option of racing Silverman. It is nearby and thereby reduces the headache associated with long distance travel, different time zones and acclimation. The course is billed as one of the more difficult ones and that plays to my advantage. As I don’t have top end speed and aerobic endurance is a relative strength, the longer the day the better off I am.

I haven’t been to the Las Vegas to train, so I’m contemplating a review of the bike course during this year’s race. (Nothing like a fully supported training day!!) Realizing I’m not in the best of bike shape right now (read: no rides longer than 90 minutes in the past 2 months), this will require a little aerobic bike building over the next 6 weeks. This should be pretty congruent with my current restorative program. Currently I’m spending the majority of my training week in flexibility, and lesser degree core strengthening. I can safely add in the cycling without interfering with THE 2009 PLAN, ie fully recovering the plantar fasciitis I’ve been nursing since April. I will cover the rehab program in a future update.

In years past, I’ve documented my running base build with 30 runs/30 days on the TriCoWS website and my blog. This year I will track my progress on the bike from relative unfit bike shape to the fitness required to ride the Silverman course 6 weeks from now.

I will post my version of the MAF run test: the Metabolic Bike Test (MBT) to demonstrate my change in fitness. Nothing fancy and there are certainly a variety of similar protocols (Chuckie V writes about his here), but I will use what I have available currently in my garage-a computrainer hooked up in stand-alone mode. For those unfamiliar with computrainer, the system can be run without the use of a computer. I’m setting it up on ergometer mode, which allows me to train against a specific workload for a specified time. I haven’t sorted out if you can save this file, so I wear my basic hrm and record hr. The basic premise is that the metabolic cost (measured imperfectly by avg. hr) for the duration (60 min) and workload (180 watts) of the training session will decrease as I become fit. In simple terms, my avg. heart rate for the hour will decrease from the baseline value the longer I train.

In this case, I’ve chosen to 180 watts for 1-hour duration. 180 watts corresponds to the average watts I’ve ridden at the last few Ironman bike rides. You can self select your cadence and I ride 84-85. Speed recorded by the computrainer is immaterial and doesn’t translate in any meaningful way. I break every 10 minutes for 30 sec by shifting down and standing, with my cadence dropping in the 40’s...the power requirement remains 180 (I typically do a lot of standing during hill climbs and I find it interesting that my hr drops at least 6-8 beats when I do this on the road and during the test). This little break relieves the numbness in the “man parts”, which seems to be more prevalent for me when on the trainer.

I will have baseline and 5 weeks of data points collected by Nov. 9th. This should be interesting. I will post my MBT results as we go along weekly.

Baseline Data:

Date Watts Duration Avg. HR
9/28 180 60 min. 147

I was a interesting to see my avg hr end that high. I typically ride an ironman ride in 5:10-5:25 with my avg hr in the upper 130’s. A couple of thoughts…my computrainer tends to have a lower power reading than my SRM when using concomitantly. My SRM is at the shop, so I can’t compare. During the first 10 minutes my hr hovered around 140 and steadily rose from there. I suppose this is likely a reflection of my relative poor fitness and not surprising.

Update in a week. Enjoy the great weather as we enter fall. I haven't commented in awhile, but Gordo has started a new forum that is currently invite only. Shoot me a comment if you are interested in joining and I will forward you an invite.



J