Tabata!

The latest craze, or maybe it's "so last summer" and I'm behind the curve again? This method is just so...me! My background and education is all science and engineering and Tabata is a real doctor who did actual repeatable studies with the goal of evaluating methods to increase both aerobic and anaerobic efficiency. On top of that, it takes far less time to do and appears to simultaneously increase muscle mass and make you leaner. Magic!

OK, first the protocol. Warm up, some sites say five minutes but I ride for at least 30 minutes prior to interval work. Then do 20 seconds peak effort followed by 10 seconds of rest (I still spin my legs, but with zero effort) eight cycles in a row. Done in four minutes. Of course a cool down is required afterward. Tabata did his research based on five sets (total 20 minutes) per week. One of the problems with the web is that googling "Tabata Intervals" should bring up something like the abstract of the good doctor's publication. Instead, it's just blogs and exercise equipment (Tabata timer only $20!) sites that pop up. Oddly, Wikipedia was no help. Anyway, the reason for the above digression is that I can't figure out if that's one set on each of five days, or say two sets followed by two rest days or whatever.

Since the web seems to think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I naturally looked for a naysayer. I found a differing opinion here, which notes several downsides including "Interferes with Resistance Training", "Injury" and (my personal favorite) "Cardiac Event"! This didn't deter me. My son is away at college, my life insurance is paid up, the economy is in the crapper and my job sucks. So, why not try something new and potentially fatal? You might want to consult a physician before trying this. So I've replaced a couple of my anarobic intervals with these and dicovered a few things:

1. Twenty seconds is a long time
2. Ten seconds is a short time
3. Recovery is a mysterious thing
4. I'm not dead yet
   

Let me explain. After three or four cycles (ie only two minutes into it I'd look down and simply not believe that either (a) I still had seven seconds to go on an effort or (b) another one already? The first time I did a set I felt drained. Then after twenty minutes of recovery I began to be aware of my breathing. It felt like my lungs were really having a good time, exchanging that oxygen, sending energy to the muscles. The next time I went into the session already a little gassed from riding Como the previous weekend and slogging through a long week. The next day I had that "beaten with a stick" feeling that brought on an unscheduled recovery day. Bear in mind that I still did a 6x2minute (3min recovery) set 10% above LT power after, so blame could lie with that.

In summary, there are some issues. My feeling is that you can't possibly do these five days of the week. This means stacking two or three days. I'm going to try attacking from another angle and I'll let you know (provided I survive). I find that the limiter to completion of a second set on a given day is specific muscle fatigue. There's no reason why this can't be done with pushups and I'll give that a go to supplement the cycling intervals. Another problem lies in volume. I've managed to buttress my fitness with lots of tempo riding from September through early December. This would be eroded by the huge cut in volume resulting from "interval fatigue". I think I'm going to take a chance on high intensity, low volume training. By doing three weeks on and then a week of low intensity, high volume (AKA enjoyable bicycling) maybe I can race and enjoy life.

Sorry, Francois

Okay, if I'm going to blog I need to do it daily. I let things slip and missed a comment from I nice person named Francois inre the Polar iRDA interface. The answer is I never even suspected the CS600 would work with the old interface so I didn't even try at the time. Polar is a very frustrating company. They tease you. First they offer power monitoring for about half the price of any real competitor (notwithstanding the latest from iBike, I'll believe it when I see it) but then you find the IR interface is an extra $50. The installation involves wanting to grow an additional appendage and then it drops out seemingly at random during use. When this happens I stop and move the pickup unit a couple of millimeters (really!) and we're back online. The AAA batteries in the power unit seem to last a random amount of time, sometimes as little as 60 hours (vs the published 300 or so). But then they include some cool software which does almost everything you want.
In spite of all this I found myself defending the Polar in a class my coach was giving on using power measurement to reach training goals. In his opinion the Polar was marginal. This was based on the fact that most of his clients who tried the Polar later switched to the more expensive PowerTap or SRM and I was the only person who made the Polar work consistently. He related that there were numerous complaints about the PowerTap, especially the wired one. It appeared the SRM was pretty trouble free, but that may be due to the maintenance being handled by team mechanics or household servants.
I guess everyone lives somewhere on the "Frustration-Money Curve". The more money you have, the less frustraion you need to bear up with (unless acquiring the money is frustrating - which brings up a different discussion). For me, there were two sound reasons that the other systems seemed crazy. First, you could buy an additional bike for the price of either one. Second, hubs and cranks wear out - I like the "no moving parts" feature.

More Polar CS600 Advice

The CS600 is the follow on for the old 720/725 units. I think they still make 725s, perhaps for the running market. The coded wireless parts represent a big step forward, making the installation easier and performance almost seamless. Now for my BIG gripe. They still use an IR interface, and the one they make sucks horribly. Here's roughly the sequence of events:

11/17/07: I ride the PAA/John's Bike group ride, Burbank-Acton-Burbank (90 miles, 5h9min - my teammates like going fast and I don't like being dropped). John's had a one-day 20% off sale for PAA members and I score the complete CS600. My next easy day is Monday so...

11/19/07: I read all the instructions and find the part where Polar says something like "Oh, you wanted to USE the software, you'll need a Polar USB/IR interface!" I get one at Helen's in Arcadia, which was the closest shop to Pasadena which had one on hand. Prior to this, I hand recorded some data on the CS600 under "No Bike" to check the WIND WearLink (which worked much better than the older, non-WIND unit) so I could make sure data upload functioned. The installation of ProTrainer5 was easy, as was the transfer of my old data. There's a little weirdness: if you have old PPP data in that you create a fake "Team Member" (ProTrainer appears to be geared to use by a coach, you have a team which will be one person in most cases) add yourself, then delete the fake one.
I installed the driver for the USB/IR unit, hooked it up and....NOTHING. What followed was a classic case of modern living. We have scads of really awsome techno-gizmos which are, in a real way, dirt cheap. The problem is that the installation and use of these devices can be complicated and confusing. Here's the thing, I make my living as a computer system administrator. I deal with Windows and Linux on multiple platforms every day and what followed was difficult for me. Good luck to the typical user. In any case, after waiting more than 30 minutes for tech support we conclude that the problem MUST be in the CS600, and not the IR unit.

11/20/07: As luck would have it, my job brought me out to Burbank during the day so I stopped by John's with the idea of trading my CS600 for a good one. Just to be sure, I brought my work laptop and tested the unit John's had on hand. STILL NO DICE! So, the problem is not the CS600 unit, but the IR.

11/21/07: Just to be sure, I go into Best Buy with the CS600 and locate a demo laptop with a built in IRda device. It recognizes the CS600 as a valid device right away. During my lunchtime at work I try the Polar IRda on several computers and still nothing. Thanksgiving is coming up so I put the problem away for a while.

12/5/07: Turns out Helen's has another Polar IR device on hand. They trade me and send back the first one. The new one works, but let me make note of something: I thought I had de-installed the driver, so I went through a re-install. After I was all done with my test and went to close and detach the USB device I noticed that it was labelled "IRda #2"!

12/6/07: Normally, the install of the Polar WIND Power unit would be considered somewhat cumbersome, but compared to the crap I went through it seemed easy and wrapped up in about 30 minutes. The task was made much easier than it might have been because I've switched to the Wippermann Connex type chain which is really easy to remove and install. Compared to the wired unit that came with the 720, this was a breeze. A few notes:

• There is a typo somewhere that suggests that the IRda will work within 10cm. I think this should be 10mm!
• The CS600 mount looks flimsy to me. I've met at least one guy who had broken his, so be gentle. Careful positioning makes things go more easily.
• My previous Polar power unit didn't work properly with my original chain and that problem went away when I added 1" to it. I don't know if the new one has the same problem yet, but I'll be checking.
• At this writing the USB/IR interface doesn't have a driver for Vista. I expect this will have to change.
• I recommend installing the drivers and then rebooting your computer prior to connecting the USB/IRda interface the first time.
  
• Here's Polar's page on uploading.
  
• Check this out.
  

Hiatus, Part Deux

I've been busy. One time a biker passed me on a hill saying "Can't talk, breathing", and that's how I feel in general. Since my last entry I've ridden around 2000 miles, a lot of it pretty hard. Enough about me (strange from a blogger), I'll talk training later. A few reviews:

Wippermann 9 Speed Nickel Connex Chain: Wins. I got 1900 miles from one (last time I kept track I wiped out a Shimano in under 1500). This makes it about the same cost per mile, but it wins on convenience, even over the SRAM with master link.

Polar CS600, with power: Without going into too many details (waiting for phone support for 30 minutes, returning to bike shops multiple time and so on), it does function, and the ProTrainer software is a step up from PPP version 4. I haven't investigated the resonance phenomenon, but will eventually. This wins over the 720 since it has the following:

• More readable display
• 1-sec record rate
• More info in display
• Display flexibility
• Fewer data dropouts (none so far actually)

I also suspect that the accuracy is somewhat better. Power spikes occur on occasion still.

Polar Power & Resonance

So the program my coach has me on is power based. This meant I had to get out that damn Polar power meter and install it on the bike I'd use for most of my training. It only took a couple of hours and things seemed to work great, until I noticed that in one, and only one, gear combination the power went through the roof. So my wonderful wife suggested I try using her chain (wipperman connex, rather than my cheapie SRAM). Lo and behold the problem went away!

So we took out one of her spare chains to put on my bike. In life there are these moments when something tugs at the back of your brain and asks for your attention. I had one. As we're prepping the chain my wife asks "Should we leave it the same length as mine?" The obvious answer was "Yes!", but I said "Gee, it should probably be the appropriate (shorter) length for my bike. How could the overall length possibly matter?" Bzzzzzzzzzzzt, wrong answer.

What happened was that the resonance (that's what must be going on, because clearly the pickup is reading the wrong, higher frequency) moved from one gear combo to another (less bothersome) one. Crap! By the way, Polar will absolutely disavow any knowledge of this phenomenon. I'm having trouble getting my head around it, since the source must be in the static chain tension. I don't know if a longer chain length throws the resonance onto a gear combo you'd never use (say, 50x26) or just in between two existing ones. It doesn't matter, when my new chains come in I'll set one up as long as I can and test it. If the resonance is still there, then I'll cut it down and hope it falls into limbo between two gears. I'll let you know.

Power to the Pedaler

Power meters are expensive things and your average Joe may not want to go through the fiddly setup procedures, especially for things like the Polar unit. But getting an idea about power output is a useful tool, so here's one way. Find a standard climb which takes about twenty minutes (about the amount of time a reasonably fit person can sustain effort at the lactate limit (well, one who's my age)) and keep track of your progress. Around here we have such a climb, from Sierra Madre up to a campground called Chantry Flat. From the gate at the north end of Santa Anita Avenue to the gore point at the parking lot is 5km and gains 366m of elevation, and it is a very consistent grade which only flattens a little at the top.

I've compiled a table for estimating average power for the course. The estimate is crude and based on the fact the most people don't go very fast up a 7.5% grade. Time in minutes is across the top, and mass (including bike) in kg down the left side. The supplied .kmz actually starts below the gate at the intersection of Sierra Madre Blvd. Have fun!

Chantry Power Table
Chantry Google Earth file