Authors
Kim is a an accountant (soon to be CPA), and triathlete, currently training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Steve is a software engineer, photographer, and cyclist on the Platinum Performance Cycling Team. We live in paradise a.k.a. Santa Barbara. Read More
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Blogosphere
Marco off the Mark. A guy who likes to hang out with family and friends, pedal his bike, dig in the dirt, and live life healthily and happily.
The Young and Restless. 22 year old kid who loves to ride his bike.
Happenings in SoCal. Ass-kicker extraordinaire...
Through Z's Eyes. Bikes, rants, ideas, and more!!
Of Dogs and Bike Racing. Aka. Dr. Kim. Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Santa Barbara.
On The B Team. The Chicken Ranch aka B Team's site for local cycling information and trash talk.
Lint Trap. Nothing to see here, move along now.
A New Hope. Sean
Pedal More. Overweight Underpowered Nor-Cal Pack Fodder.
George's Epic Adventures. Ultra Cyclist and father who recently completed 2- Person Race Across America (RAAM) and Furnace Creek 508 Fixed Gear.
Suffer-O-Rama. Eric’s blog about cycling and bike racing
Riders Ready. Jamie Smith's blog devoted to roadies, road cycling, and his book, Roadie: The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer. Go buy it NOW at VeloPress.com!
Think Fast. Quarq
Old Guy Racer. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll write bad cheques.
Wheels Rolling. Brandy
Sprinter della Casa. Carpe Diem Racing
Ryanf. It comes down to doing the above, or being a chump. your choice
Cat3 Phenom. "I'm kinda a big deal"
My Shaved Legs. The fine art of failure. Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies.
To Be Honest With You. Thirty something and searching for my next obsession.
The Brenda Report. The journeys and thoughts of an adventurous woman
The Tour de Chris. This blog is all about Chris. Fueled by espresso and metal.
The Incidental Cyclist. Cycling in and around Union County, NC
Everest Challenge x2. My wife and I have committed to enter the [Everest Challenge] Tandem division this year. This blog will chronicle our preperation, and ultimately our race experience.
Cycling in Seattle. The ride is the destination
As the Crank Turns. I attmept to ride bicycles...often
Cycling
Platinum. The Platinum Performance Cycling Team is a Santa Barbara based team with a diverse group of talented riders. The teams main focus is acquiring cross country results and new for 2008 is the addition of a road race team.
Echelon. Echelon Santa Barbara is a road bicycling club based in Santa Barbara, California. Echelon welcomes dedicated new riders and experienced racers, men and women, old or young, and all those who want to expand their cycling horizons. With a history our History in Santa Barbara bike racing since 1984, we are a USCF registered club.
Bikeforums Road Cycling. Road cycling internet message board. Discuss equipment, rides, races, and all cycling-related discussions.
SCNCA. Southern California Nevada Cycling Association
NCNCA. Northern California Nevada Cycling Association
BiciCORSA. An online group for cyclists of all levels--from recreational riders to weekend warriors to aspiring and professional racers.
Yehuda Moon. Yehuda Moon works at the Kickstand Cyclery, lives on his bicycle, and dreams of a day when everyone does likewise.
Everest Challenge. The hardest two-day USCF race. With the spirit of the "Death Rides" and the dramatic scenery of the Eastern Sierra, this bicycle race and ride will test your perseverance going uphill. We have three climbs each day with gains of 2,600 feet to 6,200 feet.
Local
The Restaurant Guy. John Dickson's Food News
Santa Barbara Independent. Delivers fresh news, arts, and entertainment news and information online all day, every day. The weekly newspaper is published every Thursday morning, with Santa Barbara county's largest circulation of 40,000.
Edhat. One subscriber suggested that the name came from "Every Day Happenings Around Town".
Vita Bella Photography. Local journalistic-style wedding photography
Miscellanea
Adam Szary. Freelance illustrator who is strongly interested in fantasy and comic art.
Virtual Dub. Proof that Avery had too much free time in college...
Liō. Daily comic strip created by Mark Tatulli that focuses on the adventures of a strange little boy named Liō. Most of the story is told visually, with little or no dialogue.
whilshire|one. this site covers topics including web standards-based development, web application development, Textpattern and other miscellany
Recent Comments
Mike (Everest Challenge Day 2 Pictures)
Hi, Are you set up to sell photos yet? Thanks, Mike Watson
Kim (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Marc, nowhere did I say that liberals are the only people that insult others. But it is true that as SB is a ‘liberal community’ …
Steve (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Fair enough but I’m still not sure how you found a way to be insulted in what she wrote. Also, if you will notice the …
It’s certainly very convenient to be able to take the test picemeal, and during the week, not to spoil weekend plans. I don’t think the …
Marc (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
You could have mentioned what happened without discussing specific political parties that were slammed. Bit I apologize for my intemperate remarks – maybe I’m just …
Steve (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Marc, We were at a dinner theater, and the people we were with said (to each other) “Can you believe that most of these people …
Kim (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Marc, you miss the point. If you spout out your position on anything, you need to be prepared to accept the consequences of saying it …
Marc (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
Kim – I sympathize with you. However, I think it’s mildly insulting to mention that people you have met insult Republicans. I would have given …
Andy Anderson (Everest Challenge Day 2 Pictures)
Hey guys! Hope all is well. Can you please hook up pictures 42, 76, 53, 91, and 99? I would like to …
CPA Roadie (Four Down ? to go...)
Good luck on the tests results Kim! Sleeping during business law class? lol. The tax section is easier with practical experience, but tough unless …
Sep 17, 04:52 PM by Steve | CinQo, Take 2
Posted in Cycling & Training | Comments [1]
Because I was have calibration issues with my CinQo power meter, the good folks at Quarq sent me a new one. Unfortunately it arrived the day I broke my ribs, and I was not able to test it until the next day. On Thursday I put it on the bike and redid static torque test, taking great care to make sure everything was parallel etc. The results were about 10% low at 10Nm to about 5% low and 30Nm. Interestingly, althought the % error was decreasing, the absolute difference is consistent. That means that the slope is correct and the offset should be accounted for in the auto-zero procedure. Given my crude setup and the nature of the test I would say these aren’t going to be perfectly accurate figures so I think that the results are very promising…
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Sep 9, 05:20 PM by Steve | What's in a Number, Anyway?
Posted in Cycling & Training
Some of you may have been following the thread on Bikeforums or seen Tom’s comments about the calibration issues I’ve been having with my new Quarq power meter. Tom has been helping me out with the analysis of the numbers and Quarq is sending me a new unit so that they can analyze mine. From all the tests (static torque) and calculations (OSM) I have done, it appears to be reading about 15% low, fairly consistently. It’s a little comforting, because it means my 895W sprint test on Saturday was really more like 1050W. Still pathetic, yes, but in my mind I figured I should at least be able to break 1KW. Maybe there’s hope for me yet. The new one is on its way and should arrive Wednesday. I’ll do a static torque test and then take it up OSM and calculate the difference.
The chart I had posted the other day that showed my performance vs. training stress was calculated assuming an FTP of 250W, which I had estimated by analyzing my performances on a long climb (Gibraltar), and by looking a few days worth of ride data. Of course I was considerably “in the hole” stress-balance-wise, so it’s not surprising that I was not able to reach my full potential. It has been made clear to me through much heckling that my FTP must be higher, so I bumped it up to 275W in WKO+.
Keeping in mind that everything is still...
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Sep 6, 11:58 PM by Kimberly | The Longest Journey Begins with a Single Step
Posted in Running & Training | Comments [4]
I’m beginning training for my Ironman that’s next June. As running is my weakest (by far) of the three parts, I figure a good plan would be to train and complete a marathon months out from the race, and then not do too much volume afterwards, mostly just with brick workouts. But who knows, maybe I’ll develop a love of running and will keep it up.
I haven’t been able to run (let alone bike) for some time, as my tailbone has been hurting. It got to the point where it would hurt just after a few hundred feet of running, or when I tried to put any substantial force on the pedals. I’ve been going to a chiropractor & it’s getting better. I was able to climb up OSM on a standard crank last week, which requires substantial force on the pedals, and I had no pain during it. (I did hurt some the next day though, so I have to be careful.) I’ve gotten the ok to try some running, but not push it yet.
So, to begin my training, I did a short walk/run this evening. It went pretty well, with no pain during the run. I did a 3 minute warm-up then 1 minute run / 1 minute walk 10 times, then cool down. It ended up only being 2 miles, but that’s ok for a start. I don’t have to do all 26.2 miles yet. I was pleased that during my run intervals I was...
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Sep 5, 04:51 PM by Steve | Alphabet Soup
Posted in Cycling & Training | Comments [1]
All of this power analysis has tons of acronyms. TSS, ATL, CTL, TSB, WKO, AP, NP, PMC, MMP, and the list goes on. One area that I found particularly interesting was the concept of training stress, measured as the “training stress score” (TSS), and training load, measured as TSS/day. A 7 day moving average of training load is taken to determine the “acute” training load (ATL) and a 42 day moving average is taken to determine the “chronic” training load. The idea being that the short-term acute load reflects how tired you are, while the long-term chronic load reflects how much fitness you have “stored in the bank”. Finally, there is a “training stree balance” (TSB) that is an indicator of your form, and is calculated as CTL-ATL. If your acute load is higher than your chronic load, your TSB will be negative, but if your acute load is less than your chronic load, your TSB will be positive and your form will be good. These times when your TSB is positive are peaks that should correspond to good performance.
As I have had some surprisingly good performance lately, I thought it would be fun to go back through my old data trying to analyze my stress and see if I had TSB peaks corresponding to any of my good performances, such as my attack on the ROCO ride, feeling great and...
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Sep 3, 06:38 PM by Steve | Some Real Power Data
Posted in Cycling & Training | Comments [2]
Now that I’ve had my Quarq CinQo for a few days, I’ve gotten a pretty good feel for the data and my power output. As I have discussed, I was previously using the GPS2PowerTrack plugin for SportTracks. I have compared the real power results from this and found that it was fairly accurate, at least over averages, giving results that were maybe 5-10% higher. Interestingly, I rode OSM today at a moderate pace, trying to hold a constant power of 250 W. My estimates from previous runs told me that should put me at about 19:30, a nice casual pace. My morning ride was 50 minutes at what felt like a tempo pace with 247 W normalized power (204 W average), so 250 W seemed reasonable. In the end I pushed harder than I had intended, averaged a little over 240 W, and had a time of 17:45. So as you can tell from that, my prior estimates were a tad high.
So with a power meter, I have to analyze the data, right? SportTracks is cool and all, but it seems that WKO+ is where it’s at. I downloaded a free trial and have wasted a good amount of time playing with all the pretty charts. My favorite so far is the Mean Maximal Power Curve, which shows the longest period of time I was able to hold any given wattage. All of the rides I have done so far were more endurance efforts, so...
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Aug 30, 09:25 PM by Steve | Think Fast!
Posted in Cycling & Training | Comments [1]
My new power meter came yesterday. It took a while to get it paired up with my Garmin, entirely through faults of my own. I took it for two quick laps of my oval-shaped neighborhood this morning as a shakedown before my “real” ride. The first lap I was making sure everything on the bike worked because the bike had been taken apart and put back together recently (the cranks notwithstanding). As I was about to come around the corner I got a bug in my eye (that’s when the power drops out), and then I sprinted to my house, coasted to the next corner, and cruised back around.
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