Why Measure Power?

There has been an evolution from using only using heart rate measurements for training purposes to measuring the power output of the cyclists. To meet this need training method several approaches have been taken to develop power meters than read out the power in watts, being applied to the pedals.

Two Components

Most power meters are in two components. There is the mechanism to make the reading using something like a strain gauge. This is either built into the crank, the hub or some other part of the bike where power being applied to the pedals can be measured or estimated. Then there is the computer head which is mounted on your bicycle handlebar where you get the reading. The computer heads offer other cyclometer features including speed, distance, heart rate and even GPS on some models. The communication between the two components is either via a wire or wireless.

ANT+Sport^TM is a 2.4 GHz wireless network with standardized communication between devices including bike power sensors, speed sensors, cadence sensors and heart rate straps. This allows separate manufacturers to independently develop sensors and computers, allowing you to pick and choose your favorites to create a system that meets your needs. For example if you have a Garmin Edge 705 GPS based cyclometer, which offers not power measurement sensor, could be coupled with the SRM or Quarq crank to read out power and could be used instead of the computer heads offered by those companies.

Offerings

PowerTap:

This offering is from the Saris Cycling group (makers of the CycleOps cycling trainer). It uses a special hub and handle mounted computer to measure and display the power at the pedals. It requires a rear wheel with the PowerTap hub. There are wireless options. It adds weight to the bike due to the hub and the need to use a wheel that can accommodate the PowerTap hub. It is also expensive, especially for the wireless version. Although there is a 2.4 Mhz wireless option, it does not support ANT+Sport^TM so you are stuck using the PowerTap computer which really looks looks like a prototype built by an engineer for development and not a product ready for the mass market. It can be used on a bike trainer to measure your power output. Moving to another bike will require moving the wheel and the computer head.

Best For : Those looking for a reliable approach to measuring power and are willing spend considerable money and take a weight penalty.

SRM:

This offering is from Schoberer Rad Messtechni. It uses a special crank to measure the power to the pedals. There are a variety of versions to match some of the popular cranks, including DurAce and SRAM. SRM supports ANT+Sport so you can either use it’s computer head (which kind of looks like a prototype) or another device that supports ANT+Sport^TM such as the Garmin 705 Edge or iBike.

Best For: Due to the extreme expense it is geared toward professional cyclists or those who are prepared to spend as much measuring power as they might spend on a good quality road bike.

Polar:

This offering is from Polar, famous for heart rate monitoring. It uses a device to measure chain tension on the bike and transmit that to certain models of their heart rate monitor or cyclometers. It is can be difficult to calibrate and but once it has been it can have a reliable output. You do the power level read out on compatible Polar heart rate montiors (such as the 725i) or Polar Cyclometers. When used with the latest CS600 cyclometer, you can get an efficiency readout on the cyclometer. This efficiency is an estimate of what percentage of the calories being burned by your body go into moving your bike along, a step beyond just measuring power.

Best For: Those who use Polar advanced cyclometers or heart rate monitors and are looking for a lightweight and less expensive approach and are willing to go to the effort get it properly calibrated.

iBike:

This offering from Velocomp is a relatively new approach. It is different in that it does not directly measure your power output as is done with the above products. It measures the parameters of what you work against and then calculates what your power would need to be to achieve the speed you are going. Except for the front wheel pickup it is all contained in a well designed computer head that is about as large as the computer for the PowerTap and weights 100g. You can also easily transfer from bike to bike. It has some negatives. It can not be used to measure power on a bike trainer. It also seems to have a short battery life due to using a non rechargeable watch type battery. It needs to be mounted so it gets a clean air flow since it uses wind speed in it’s calculations so use with aerobars can be difficult. Cost: Moderate to Expensive.

Best For: Those who are looking for a less expensive and very lightweight approach to estimating power. Those with aero bars should look elsewhere.

Quarq:

This offering is from Quarq and uses a special crankset to measure the power, similar to the SRM approach. It offers ANT+Sport^TM compatibility. It’s computer head is one of the more sophisticated cyclometers you can buy and has a GPS option. Cost: Expensive

Comparison Reviews:

• Power Tap vs. SRM vs. Polar at BikeTechReview
• Accuracy of PowerTap and SRM at Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise
• iBike Power Meter Reviews - paper that gathers references to many different reviews
• Measurement Comparison of Power Tap vs. iBike vs. Quarq
• Active.com review of iBike

Categories: Equipment
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by Franz Kelsch

I finished the very difficult Devil Mountain Double on Saturday. It is 206 miles with 18,600 feet of climbing. It is probably the most difficult double century in California. My final time was 15 hours, 32 minutes, a big improvement over last year

I was happy with my time since it was hot again. I got worried coming up Mines Road because of the heat and started to get a bad case of hot foot. There was a breeze this year that helped. I really focused on drinking all day, and took a lot of Endurolyte tablets. I was so worried about cramping again on the backside of Mt. Hamilton that I went up slower than I probably needed to, but I never did cramp anywhere on the ride.

I was also happy to make it to Norris Canyon, the last section, before dark. I don’t like biking on Crow Creek Canyon road in the dark due to all the traffic. I had carried my one pound light the entire day and could have got by with a small Cateye light.

I left the aero bars on the bike which was a good thing. It gave me an alternate position not only for my hands but when I am in the aero bars I get a different position on the saddle, which greatly helped to take some pressure off a tired butt. It was either that part of the body or my right foot that hurt the most.

This year I used my newer bike with only a double crank, but I had no big issue with the higher gearing. I would have preferred to climb up Sierra Road with a triple but the better handling of the newer bike was a benefit on the rest of the ride.

Summary

Here is a detailed comparison with doing the same event last year.

Time Comparison

This chart shows my arrival times into the various rest stops. You can see that for the first 115 miles, up to the junction cafe, I did almost the same between both years. Last year my times slowed down considerably due to cramping on the backside of Mt. Hamilton. Click the chart below to view enlarge.

Stopping Time Comparison

This shows a comparision between my stopping time between years. Times shown are in minutes. Most of the improvement in the total time was due to a signficant reduction in the amount of stopping time at the rest stops.

Last Time

I don’t plan on doing this event again. It is very difficult and takes out of you far too much. Since I had a difficult time last year, I wanted to do it again to see if I could do it right with better training and more of a focus on hydration during the event. Having accomplished that, I don’t feel a need to repeat it.

Categories: Devil Mtn. Double
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by Franz Kelsch

There were twelve club members who took on the Solvang Double Century challenge this year, including Joe Farinha, Dave Zajac, Jon Kaplan, Gary Franck, Barry Schwartz, Marnel King, Barbara Murphy, Fred O’Leary, Louise McCracken, Steve Sundstrom, Ken Emerson and myself. In addition I knew a couple of others that I ride with that joined the event. This is the account of my experience.

Last week I took a look at my data from last year trying to figure out how I could improve on my time. I wrote about my strategy in a prior personal blog entry.

Just as we did last year, I started with the 7:30 am group, the ones that wanted to be timed. Joining that group was Gary Franck, Joe Farinha and Kley Cordona. This 7:30 start group is made up of mostly fast riders. We had a large gathering, maybe over 40 riders. The pace was brisk but I didn’t feel over taxed. After 20 miles we turned to head up Foxen Canyon. This has two moderate climbs and after the second one there is a longer descent. It was on this second descent that I lost the group last year and never was able to catch back on.

My strategy this year was to stay right near the front of the pack for the second climb so I had a better chance to stay connected. It may be the fact that this year there were no tandems to chase down the hill, or that I had been working on descending down faster, but in any event this time I was able to stay connected to the front pack, something only about half the group were able to do. We lost the other half on either the climb or the descent and I knew that they would never be able to catch back on.

We stretched out to a single pace line. Except for a few wheel suckers at the back, everyone was taking a turn pulling, some longer pulls than other, which was okay. One guy, who was particularly strong, would ramp up the pace every-time he pulled. I found myself right behind him on a couple of rotations which meant I had to drive hard to hang on his wheel, then do a pull and still keep enough left to rotate to the back.

I had already planned to skip the first rest stop and sure enough this group went right by it. We made one wrong turn which costs us an extra 2 miles and some lost time trying to get back on course. There were some rollers right before the 2nd rest stop (our first one) that proved a bit difficult due to the pace. I was glad when we finally stopped with a total of 84.8 miles averaging 22.0 mph.

Some of the group had a very quick stop, just enough to fill water bottles. I needed a bit more time but was was able to get back on the bike in less than 6 minutes. There was only one other fellow from the 7:30 group who started with me by the name of John who was from Nevada. He and I biked together for awhile. We were soon joined by others from the 7:30 group that had taken a little longer at the rest stop. But there was a couple of young guys who were driving the pace too high for me, so I eventually dropped off the back. I slowed down to wait for John who had fallen off earlier. We biked together, taking turns pulling until we hit the check point at Morro Bay. We had to wait 1 minute there to get the dot to prove we had gone to the turn around point.

While riding through Morro Bay I hit a bad bump and came down on the back of my saddle, which tipped up the nose. I couldn’t get it to move back level. Although it was quite awkward to ride like that I decided I could not afford to stop so I rode that way until the lunch stop, which was another 14 miles from Morro Bay.

It took me about a minute to fix my saddle and then another 6 to 7 minutes to get some food. We saw some of the 7:30 riders leaving, so John and I jumped on our bikes and caught them.

We started to form a pace line behind a tandem and rode with that group for awhile but eventually some of us moved out ahead and we never saw the tandem again. Soon it was just John and I again as we pulled into our third rest stop with an average speed of the last section of 19.5 mph. The pace was clearly slower while we kept behind the tandem for those miles.

After a 5 minute stop John and I took off, again just the two of us. I hit another bump and my seat got tipped once again with the nose pointing up. I didn’t want to take the time to fix it again so I decided to just keep riding that way. It made it hard to use the aero bars but I felt maybe I could just wait until the next stop.

We were taking turns pulling but on one uphill grade on Highway 1, where I was pulling, I notice that John had fallen way off the back. I had been doing some calculations in my head and figured at this point I had some slight chance to finish under 10 hours so I made the decision to ride on solo, which I did for the last 50 miles. I had a thought of skipping the last rest stop completely but was down to a half of water bottle so I made a 1 minute stop for water. Fatigue was setting in so I was having a hard time keeping my heart rate up. Fortunately we had a tail wind now. There were several club members at that stop who had started earlier. One told me that Gary was about 10 minutes ahead of me, so I jumped on the bike to chase after him. I noticed at that point I had averaged 20.6 mph rolling from the start.

On the way up Drum Canyon, I heard a popping noise so I stopped to check my bike, only to find I had broken a spoke. That was so unexpected for a light guy like me. I wrapped the broken spoke around another spoke, opened up the brake, then jumped back on the bike and started to climb. I had yet to fix my saddle and wondered if I had time. I decided to stop again and to level the seat. As I started to climb again I kept worrying about breaking another spoke and was not sure how hard I should be torquing the pedals as I climbed. I decided to climb carefully, but steady. I was getting very tired and found it hard to do the math in my head to see if I could still finish under 10 hours. My rolling average speed had now dropped to 20.1. When I made it to the summit, I was wondering how fast I should go down, considering it is a rough road. I decided to ride down fast, just hoping no more spokes broke.

Periodically I would calculate again how much further I had to go and how much time I had left. It seemed to be an impossible task and I was about ready to give up trying to make it under 10 hours. I felt lucky to make all the traffic lights in Beulton, thinking one single stop was more than I could afford. That final uphill as you are entering Solvang was just about enough to kill my chance. I then started to hit the traffic in the town of Solvang so I turned right one block early to take a back street.

I finally made it to the end and clicked the split button on my Polar Heart Rate Monitor just as I came to a stop. I was almost afraid to look down but when I did it read 9 hours, 59 minutes and 51 seconds. Ann was there, a bit surprised I finished so fast. She watched my bike as I ran to check in. I had averaged 20.3 mph for the entire ride and had a total stopping time of less than 23 minutes. Funny thing was that I felt better than I did last year after finishing 43 minutes slower.

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By Franz Kelsch

Today was a long distance training ride. The route started at the normal location and headed down to Bailey and then up Metcalf. I biked from my home and met up with Gary F. in Morgan Hill, timing it so we would meet the other riders on Metcalf. Four of us were route rebels and went off the published route after going up Metcalf. The great weather beckoned us to go up Quimby West. Then it beckoned us to to up Mt. Hamilton to the summit. We decided, why not go out to the junction for lunch. Three of us then descended down the backside of Mt. Hamilton and biked the 19 miles out to the junction cafe.

This would make a great long distance training ride route for the future. I biked from my home in Gilroy but a start in San Jose at Redmond and Meridian would end up with a good distance with a lot of climbing.

This chart show the climbs for the entire route. They are plotted against time so the slope should be a constant if I am climbing at an even rate in terms of feet per minute. You can see my heart rate never went that high because I was holding back on the climbs due the long distance I had to go. Click the graph to enlarge.

When I finally made it home just before dark I had logged 141 miles and 12,700 feet of climbing. I believe of all the training rides I have done this was both the longest and had the most climbing. It made for very good training ride for Devil Mountain Double since we had to do the backside of Mt. Hamilton after about 90 miles and and considerable climbing already. For DMD it is usually not the early climbs up Mt. Diablo and Morgan Territory, but the backside of Mt. Hamilton that takes it’s toll.

Categories: Training Log
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by Franz Kelsch

This year’s stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California included a 103-mile route from Modesto to San Jose, with no less than five King of the Mountains climbs, including the ascent of Mt. Hamilton (HR-above categorization at 4360 feet) and the category 1 Sierra Road. This was the first time the tour went up Mt. Hamilton.

I decided that instead of watching the tour on Sierra road, as I had done on the last two years, I would go up Mt. Hamilton, a hill I have climbed many times from both sides. Before leaving home I made a quick check of the Lick Observatory weather gages on the internet to find a current temperature of 30 degree. I shoved some more clothes in my backpack on top of my digital SLR camera I was going to lug up the hill. I originally planned to start riding at 9 am, with the Nightriders, up Quimby. Only Chuck showed up but he could not ride that day. So I got back in the car and headed over to join the Hills R Us ride that was going to start at 10 am, taking the longer, but easier climb, up Mt. Hamilton road.

It had also been raining all night and the roads were wet. It was therefore no surprise that only two of us showed up for that ride up Mt. Hamilton. We left at 10 am and soon we were making the 20 mile climb to the summit. We kept he pace brisk because we were not sure if they were going to close the road. As I passed by Quimby road, an officer told me that they would stop us at Kincaid. I thought about turning around and biking over to Sierra, but decided to drive on. Around noon I made it to the summit where I was stopped by a sheriff who said we could not go further.

Several cyclists were waiting around to see what would happen when we noticed the sheriff was gone and people were biking through, so we jumped on our bikes and headed toward the back side. I descended about a quarter of a mile and laid my bike on the side of the road on the hill side, along with another 15 bikes that were already there.

It was not long before the sheriff came along and told us that all those bikes had to be moved and we had go down further if we wanted to watch. I headed down the backside for about a mile to find a spot to take some photos. It was a hair pin turn, so I figured that the riders would need to slow down a bit while I snapped the pictures.

It was maybe another hour before the riders arrived. There was a lead pack of around 15 riders.

The lead rider was Ruberia with the Astana team.

Also in the group is David Miliar with Slipstream (fourth in the white jersey) and Levi Leipheimer with Astana a bit further back.

Several smaller groups or individual riders then followed.

The climb had clearly done damage to the field. The peleton finally arrived.

The peleton was followed by more individual riders and small groups.

Maybe a total of 15 minutes was all that was needed from the lead rider to the last rider. I jumped on my bike and started to head back up to the summit. It was a fast descent back to the valley floor and I could feel the temperature increase by the minute. By the time I reached the bottom I was way over dressed. Too bad I missed seeing the riders on Sierra Road but I was very glad I made it up Mt. Hamilton.

See all the photos here.

Categories: Races
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I finsihed a revamp of the entire website for Ultra Distance Cycling. I have moved many of the pages over from my Swim2Bike2Run site, which I will probably let lapse when the domain expires. If you are interested in the technical aspects of the change read my tech blog at http://www.tech.franzkelsch.com/archives/122.

I will be adding more material to this website soon.

Categories: Websites
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by Franz Kelsch

It is very important on what you eat and drink during the long period that you will encounter during an event like a double century, especially if the weather is hot.

It has long been known that you need salt during long periods of exercise. See this article for the research. If you don’t take salt and fluids during extended exercise in hot weather, you will tire earlier and increase your risk for heat stroke, dehydration and cramps.

I have personally found Endurolytes tablets from Hammer Nutrition to be work for me and easy to take, without any noticeable side effects. However it is not sufficient to just take these. You also need to hydrate. It takes time for the body to hydrate so you should not wait until you are very thirsty before you start to drink.

When I was doing the Devil Mountain Double last year the hot weather and limited water stops caused me to try to conserve my water intake. It was a big mistake and I ended up with significant cramping, eventhough I was taken several Endurolytes tables. When I finally reached a rest stop, I had to stay there for a much longer period of time, giving my body time to start to hydrate again.

There were some concerns about over hydrating after the death of some marathon runners who drank too much during the race but the medical experts have now come back around. Read this article on Hyponatremia Should Never Happen to You.

In addition to taking in enough salt and fluids, the next item you need to consider it taking in enough calories. Failure to take in sufficient calories will most likely result in Bonking, or when your body stalls mid-ride.

During the before mentioned Devil Mountain Double, my heart rate monitor said I burned 10,000 calories. A heavier person doing the same ride would have burned even more. Even on a much flatter ride, I burn a significant amount of calories during the ride. If you do not take in enough calories while riding you will bonk. Read these articles on how to prevent bonking during a long ride.

All cyclists have their own solutions for getting in the calories they need. It is can be a combination of liquid supplements added to your water bottle, some form of gel, and solid foods. There are conflicting reports in the scientific community on what is the right approach, especially when it comes to the amount of protein that should be consumed. It is important to develop you own approach during training. Don’t try something new when you are doing your first double century. Use what has worked for you on long distance training rides.

The above is only my opinion and the references cited are for information only, and are not intended to diagnose or prescribe. For your specific diagnosis and treatment, consult your doctor or health care provider.

Categories: Nutrition
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by Franz Kelsch

Yesterday we competed in a 2008 Mega-Monster Enduro 100 mile bike race as part of a 3 man team with Franz K., Jim W. and Doug R.  We called ourselves the Wheezier Geezers, figuring we might be comptetitive if we narrorwed downt he calissifcation enough that we elminate all other competitors.  What other group would there be will all guys over 55 years old?  The course started at Paicines and went south on Highway 25 all the way to the end, then back again. 

We had a total of 101.9 miles and 4,600 feet of climbing.

It was a grueling pace, especially with the climbing we had to do.

Here are our stats for the four legs.

We averaged 19.0 mph rolling with a total time of 5:34:59 and a rolling time of about 5:23, so we only stopped for 12 minutes total. 

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by Franz Kelsch

With the varying weather I was wondering if anyone would show up for the Long Distance Training Ride scheduled for Saturday, February 2nd. I really didn’t want to miss doing a long ride on Saturday so decided to drive up to the ride start at Landess and Morril. I was a bit surprised that there were 16 riders who also showed up.

We all headed out at 8 am under cloudy, but dry, conditions. It was a good opportunity to do the new Old Calaveras Billy Goat. David took off in his normal fast fashion while I was struggling to keep up. The a new rider, by the name of Mike, came up by me. Later I found out he was the fellow who was taking pictures at the Pet the Goat spot on the Devil Mountain Double last year.

We then headed up Calaveras and it was David and myself. We were moving fast, up to 27 mph on the flatter sections. Mike caught us after we passed Welch Creek road and then we saw Craig. The four of us plowed on but I was feeling the pain of the fast pace. David them mentioned that he was cutting the ride short and was going to turn around at about 25 miles. I thought, gee I should have let him do ALL the pulling. After David turned back I tried to keep up with Mike and Craig for awhile but after another 5 miles I decided I needed to back off. I was then caught in no man’s land, riding by myself for the rest of the ride.

There was some rain, but nothing real heavy, as I was going over the Altamont Pass. Then it cleared while I went up Patterson Pass. On the way back I was biking into a strong headwind, which explained the fast pace on the way out. I kept thinking it would be nice to draft behind big Mike M. but I was not sure how far back the rest of the riders were and I was worried about getting caught in the rain, so I plugged on. It was all bringing back memories of the Devil Mountain Double, but the weather was much cooler this time.

On the way back over Calavares it seemed twice as long as on the way out. I finally made it back to the ride start at 3:30, not long before many other riders were returning. I should have waited longer for the train to catch me so I could have drafted with the headwind. Oh well, it was good training, I guess. I ended up with 98 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing.

Categories: Training Log
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While visiting Mac World I stopped by the Garmin booth to see what new items they had. I found three very interesting new products.

Forerunner® 405 1st Quarter, 2008 Part Number: 010-00658-10 Suggested Retail Price: $ 318.74 USD

This unit is much smaller than previous Forerunner units and was finally down to the size you would expect for a runner’s watch. It had a most unique user interface. Instead of pushing buttons to move through the menu options, you just run your finger around the watch front, and tap it when you find what you want.

There is no mapping function but it does support heart rate, and has optional bike speed and cadence, and supports a footpod. It automatically transfers your data to a computer.

Edge® 605 1st Quarter, 2008 Part Number: 010-00555-00 Suggested Retail Price: $ 430.75 USD

This unit appears to be a much improved unit over the previous Edge 205, which it appears to be replacing. It now includes a true GPS mapping function in a package no larger that what I recall the 305 to be. Included is only the base map so that means buying mapping software to get other than major highways. It has support for a MicroSD card so you can add your own maps. This unit does not support a bike speed/cadence sensor heart rate and does not include a barometric altimeter, so you may want to opt for the Edge 705.

Edge® 705 1st Quarter, 2008 Part Number: 010-00555-20 Suggested Retail Price: $ 541.65 USD

This unit appears to be a much improved unit over the previous Edge 305, which it appears to be replacing. It now includes a true GPS mapping function. It adds support for heart rate and cadence and will also support Power with third party ANT+Sport-enabled power meters. You can also send your course wirelessly to another Edge 705. The battery life is suppose to be 15 hours, an improvement over the Edge 305, but still a bit on the short side. Even though the price of the 705 is more than $100 more than the Edge 605, I would recommend it because of the added features the serious cyclists would want and if you are not a serious cyclists why would you bother in the first place with one of these expensive units.

I asked about Mac computer support. All of the above units currently will only work with Windows, but Mac support will be coming later in 2008 (as Garmin has been saying).

Categories: Training Log
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