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Category: Cycling

  • Floyd Landis at M2 Revolution 3-30-07

    My coach, M2, just opened a new facility in San Francisco called M2 Revolution Cycling and Motion Studio at the corner of Bush and Van Ness. For his grand opening celebration, he got Floyd Landis to come and ride with us during a workout. They put Floyd’s watts up on a video screen at the…

  • Success! What a Rush! Old La Honda Climbing

    This Saturday I set out on a cold (but warming) morning out on a ride. I was determined to ride up Old La Honda twice, as last time I only did it 1.5 times, completely wiping out in the middle of the second try. It was my quest to increase my hill climbing strength. Previous…

  • About the Computrainer

    When I started using my Computrainer (CT) by Racermate, it was hard to figure out how to use. So I thought I would post some discoveries about it in the last 2+ years of using it while training. The CT is great because it’s like weight lifting for the bike. The wattage settings are consistent…

  • Bike Positioning on the Seat

    They make such a big deal about bike fit. You sit for hours with someone at a bike store, or you pay big bucks to go to a professional to make sure you’re maximizing power output with the most efficiency and minimal energy waste. But little is known about about shifting your bike positioning during…

  • New Pedaling: Hitting the Glutes!

    When I started cycling for racing, I never could have imagined how complex cycling really was. Cycling technique has so many little nuances it’s hard to keep track of all of them when you are cycling. Only through extensive training and practice to reinforce technique can you unconsciously perform optimal cycling technique…and prevent injury. A…

  • From the MIT Center for Sports Innovation and Technology

    An interesting article from Bicycling magazine, September 2006, p. 32. Great insights into bicycling aerodynamics and the science of cycling. 1. Time trialing is about efficiency, not power. It’s much easier to increase efficiency rather than increasing power. 2. Your bike accounts for only 15-20% of overall drag. 3. 75% of drag is determined by…

  • Compact Cranks on my Bike

    Last week my coach and I were discussing a workout whereby I am supposed to cycle up Kings Mountain twice. I told him that my cadence is about 60-70 RPM usually, at which time he tells me about compact cranks. Compact cranks are a crankset that have a smaller bolt pattern to allow smaller chain…

  • PowerTap WOW

    The last few weeks I’ve been riding with a Powertap power meter. What an incredible piece of technology! My training has been taken to a new level! Previously, I was using a Computrainer and training based on power, as a measure of progress and application of resistance to the cycling motion of pedalling. It was…

  • The Ups and Downs of Cycling

    A few months ago I bought a pair of Powercranks in an attempt to improve my cycling and even out some annoying power differences between my right and left legs. I have discovered some amazing results with these Powercranks, in that they have really awakened some new muscles for pedalling in that circular motion. These…

  • Powercranks Wow!

    Wow. I did a first workout to try out. What a strange sensation! I attempted to get a rhythm down to warm up but failed miserably. So I pedaled until about 5 minutes at which time I finally figured out an interval which I could work out at. I moved up from 50 watts to…

  • Shifting Gears

    I just noticed something at my last cycling workout. I shift gears incessantly. I adjust my gearing at the slightest change in pressure to my thighs. I use them as my signal to shift down or up. This is because I don’t want to be powering through the ride, but rather using the mechanical advantage…

  • King’s Mountain, Geeking Out on Training with GPS

    Yesterday I went up King’s Mountain Road for the first time in my cycling history in the Bay Area. What a grueling climb it was! I had been up Old La Honda before which is supposedly 3.75 miles from bottom to the top. In comparison, my GPS said King’s Mountain was 5.2 miles although others…

  • Cycling in NYC

    This last weekend I went out with another M2 athlete, Chirag, and we went cycling up the west side, up Riverside Dr., across the George Washington Bridge, and up route 9W in New Jersey towards upstate NY. It was an incredibly beautiful day in Manhattan especially having rained the day before. When we got up…

  • Bike Fit? Pounds? Materials? What?

    “A good friend of mine was a writer for a Spanish Cycling magazine in which he would do frame reviews. While he would offer useful insights into issues like geometry, weight, etc., the question would always come back to him, “but will I be faster on this bike.” I always liked his answer, which was…

  • Cycling: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

    Today, I did a 6:20 bike ride, about 102 miles or so in preparation for my Ironman coming up in early March. When I go for a ride, I usually see at least one thing that bugs me or pisses me off. BUT TODAY – being out there for 6+ hours, I think I just…

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