Interviewing Brian Loflin, Winner of ‘08 Gila Bike Race (SM3)
May 8th, 2008
Brian Loflin, bike racer for Team Echelon Spokes and Slopes from Boulder, Colorado recently won the men’s category 3 general classification at the 2008 Tour of the Gila 5-day stage race in Silver City, New Mexico. Below is a short interview conducted by Jeremy Duerksen from Peaksware discussing Loflin’s performance and what he did in training to find the form to win.
Watch the video below (or view it on YouTube) to get a small insight into what it takes for a Cat 3 cyclist to win one of the toughest amateur stage races in North America.
Loflin trains and races with a SRM power meter and post-workout analyzes the data in Training Peaks’s WKO+ software together with his coach Steve Owens of Colorado Premier Training. However, it took much more than monitoring the pure data for Loflin to train into the form demonstrated last week at the Gila with his commanding 3 1/2 minute win.. With direction from his coach, Loflin balances a full-time job, family and limited training time to as efficiently and productively as possible get in just the right amount of training and rest to be able to outperform his competitors.
Loflin started training for the end of April event five months earlier in December 2007. View Loflin’s Performance Manager Chart (PMC) at the right to see the progression of his long term training (CTL), short term training (ATL) and form (TSB) (learn more about the Performance Manager Chart here). Peaking for a tough event like the Tour of the Gila takes dedicated training regardless of whether you are a professional or an amateur bike racer. Loflin and his coach closely monitored his PMC over the last five months to systematically build his fitness and at the same time ensure he didn’t over-train.
Weighing 147 lbs and racing with a threshold power of 297 watts, the 30 year old Loflin’s 4.5 w/kg isn’t extraordinary when compared to top professional cyclists who race with 5 to 6 w/kg power thresholds. However, as Loflin notes in the interview, "when you compare yourself to [the racers] you’re competing against… all you have to do is be better than them".
Watch the interview and view the following power files to learn some of what Loflin did to win the win the race. When viewing the files, from the "Option" menu, choose "Download Raw File" to further analyze in WKO+ on your computer. If you don’t have WKO+, download a free trial here.
Stage 1 - Mogollon
Overall stage stats: 1st place. Time: 3:22:31. Work: 2,338 kj (calories). TSS: 225. Avg power: 195 watts. Normalized power: 252 watts. Avg HR: 150 bpm
Breakaway stats (mostly solo): Time: 40:12. Distance: 10.3 miles. Avg Power: 293 watts. Normalized power: 300 watts. Avg HR: 177
First 5 minutes of breakaway: Avg Power: 324 watts. Normalized power: 332 watts
Stage 5 - Gila Monster
Overall stage stats: 4th place. Time: 3:33:13. Work: 2,282 kj (calories). TSS: 239. Avg power: 190 watts. Normalized power: 244 watts. Avg HR: 142 bpm
First 5 min of the decisive climb: Distance: 1.013 miles. Avg Power: 337 watts. Normalized power: 342 watts. Avg HR: 167
Mur de Huy (Fleche Wallonne) Pinotti Power File
April 25th, 2008
Marco Pinotti of team High Road raced this week’s Fleche Wallonne classic in Belgium and spent much of the race in a major breakaway. His move was a large part of his team’s strategy to get teammate Kim Kirchen on the podium.
Marco spent nearly two hours, and 77km’s in the breakaway. According to his SRM, Marco averaged 297 watts. Look at his power file in the TrainingPeaks File Viewer. If you have WKO+, download the Raw File and analyze more in depth.
At the left is a screenshot of a portion of Marco’s power file in WKO+. You can see Marco’s watts, cadence and speed as he climbed, for the second of three times, the steep 1.2km Mur de Huy. Up the four minute climb he averaged 438 watts. Keep in mind that Marco only weighs 149 pounds so his power to weight ratio is one of the best you’ll ever see. For this climb alone, Marco’s power to weight ratio average was 6.4 w/kg.
Marco’s four minutes climbing the Mur de Huy was only a small part of the overall five hour event in which he spent 116 minutes above 332 watts. For a better understanding of his day’s effort, here is a breakdown of Marco’s time in minutes spent in each power zone:
Active Recovery 95
Endurance 41
Tempo 39
Threshold 41
VO2max 30
Anaerobic Capacity 45
View the complete article and an interview with Marco Pinotti on VeloNews.com.
Frank Pipp Moves into King of the Mountain in Tour of Georgia
April 22nd, 2008
TrainingPeaks user Frank Pipp of Team Health Net won today’s King of the Mountain sprint in the 2nd stage of the Tour of Georgia. Pipp is the first person to wear the King of the Mountains jersey in this year’s Tour of Georgia and it looks as if he’ll be able to defend it for a few days since there are no mountain points to be awarded the next few days. To view and download Frank Pipp’s race file please visit his coach, Frank Overton’s, FasCat web site here.
Pipps Teammate, and yet another TrainingPeaks user, Rory Sutherland helped Frank win the mountain sprint by “sweeping”, or blocking, other riders from catching Frank when he attacked on the short steep climb in Augusta, Georgia this afternoon.Today’s stage was 116 miles between Staesboto and Augusta and tomorrow is a 108 mile test between Washington and Gainesville, GA.To view all of last year’s power file archives from select USA Cycling team members, including Team High Road’s John Devine, click here.
Cutting-Edge Runner Training Plans Now Compatible with Garmin 301,205,305,405
April 21st, 2008
By Matt Fitzgerald, author, coach and runner
The Cutting-Edge Runner Training Plans that I designed for Training Peaks in 2005 were the first training plans compatible with a speed and distance device. Specifically, they were compatible with the Garmin Forerunner 301. The nature of this compatibility is that you can download these plans directly onto the device, which stores all of the prescribed workouts and guides you through each of them day by day. (Of course, like all Training Peaks plans, the Cutting-Edge Runner plans also go straight into your Training Calendar and you can even have the next day’s workout automatically sent to your email or Outlook account.)
Workouts are prescribed by time and pace. Pace targets are determined by the Pace Zone Index (PZI), a tool I created with Training Peaks CEO Donavon Guyot that enables you to easily find the appropriate pace zone to target for each type of workout based on your most recent race or time trial performance. The PZI is a modified version of Jack Daniels’ popular VDOT system that works better with speed and distance devices because you target more forgiving pace ranges (e.g. 7:10-7:00 per mile) instead of exact pace levels (e.g. 7:05 per mile).
There are 40 different Cutting-Edge Runner Training Plans—10 for each of the following four race distances: 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon. The Level 0 plan in each category is for beginners. The Level 1 plans are slightly more challenging, and so forth. The Level 9 plans are for experienced and highly competitive runners. With so many options to choose from, there’s a perfect Cutting-Edge Runner Training Plan for every runner.
However, about 18 months ago the Forerunner 301 began to be superseded by newer and better models of the Forerunner—50, 205, 305, and 405—that were not compatible with my training plans. It wasn’t long before athletes and coaches like you were clamoring for compatibility between the existing plans and the new devices. Now, at last, you can use the Cutting-Edge Runner Training Plans with any Garmin speed and distance device. Here’s how:
Once you have selected the appropriate level training plan from my training plans page, you’ll follow a few quick steps to make the purchase and then load the plan into your personal TrainingPeaks.com Workout Calendar. You can choose to start the plan or end the plan on any date. Once loaded, you’ll receive an email containing a .tcx file, which is a file that is compatible with Garmin Training Center, the software that comes with your Forerunner. Simply import the .tcx file into Training Center, and then sync it to your device. From now on, I’ll be right there on your wrist, guiding you with confidence to achieve your goal time at your next event. For full details on how to load the plan into your Garmin, check out our help page.
Job Posting: Software Developer
April 20th, 2008
Peaksware has an immediate opening in our Lafayette, CO office for a Software Developer to join our growing team. You’ll be working with Adobe Flex and object oriented Action Script 3 code. We mostly want good thinkers with OO skills that can translate feature requests into efficient code. We would also like you to have C# or Java experience, with an emphasis on business layer up through UI. Ultimately, you’ll have some experience with Adobe Flex, a solid foundation in C#, you think OO all the time, and you crave working in a fast paced results-oriented environment.
We strive to develop software systems that help motivated individuals and professionals achieve health, fitness and peak performance. Our main product is TrainingPeaks.com, a web based system to monitor, analyze and plan training and fitness information for individuals, trainers and coaches, worldwide.
You should have some combination of:
* BS in Computer Science, Math, Engineering or related field, or equivalent professional accomplishment
* Strong knowledge of Object Oriented methodology
* Flex/Flash/ActionScript is a significant plus
* Strong understanding of web services and XML a plus
* Interest in working in a Test Driven/Agile Development Environment
* Experience in client-side debugging, profiling, and optimization
Apply today: If you are looking for a great atmosphere, fun people, interesting projects, and the ability to make a difference in the health and fitness of people everywhere, we want to talk with you. Send your resume, salary requirements, time-frame for starting and a brief cover letter to: jobs-(at sign)-peaksware-dot-com. Plain text, PDF or MS Word format is ok.
Create a Course Without GPS Data
April 9th, 2008
Want to know the elevation profile for a ride, run or hike you’re planning? Or maybe you completed a route and wish you knew how far you went and what the elevation profile looked like? Do you have a Garmin Forerunner or Edge and want to generate a course, download to your device, then use the course for pacing or to keep you on track? Use Course Creator to do all of this and more. You don’t even need a login to get started, just start mapping.
Brad Culberson, Lead Software Engineer for Peaksware (TrainingPeaks.com) recently released version 2.5 of Course Creator. Read about Brad’s first release of Course Creator here.
The new version is very easy to use with a clean new interface, a real-time elevation data profile that is extremely accurate using Ground Control TrainingPeaks, the option to save routes and a number of file types available to export. You can even use Course Creator to map, then export a route to download and ride on a Computrainer.
Other features and updates include:
- Create a gpx file which can be imported into many mapping applications
- Updated user interface to use Yahoo Flex Library
- Added elevation profile
- Added re-sizeable windows
- Added ability to use application without logins
- Added settings for accounts to use English or metric units
- Added elevation auto fill during route creation
- Revised and intuitive ‘Edit Toolbar’
- Export to Google Earth
Try the Course Creator to build your routes today.
Dirk Friel Interviewed on Training4cyclists.com
April 8th, 2008
Training4cyclists.com is a Danish website published by Dr. Jesper Therkildsen, a medical doctor with a special interest in cycling. Dr. Therkildsen’s website www.Training4Cyclists.com is dedicated to publishing information "about physiology [and to provide knowledge] on the newest research results" on training in cycling.
Click here to read Dr. Therkildsen’s interview Expert Tips on How to Analyze Your Power Meter Files with Dirk Friel, co-founder and CMO of Peaksware, developer of the training and analysis software TrainingPeaks.com.
In the interview, Dirk discusses the level of power meter adoption by pro cyclists and how many are starting to realize the advantage they gain through "spotting the historical trends and how manipulating future training to take advantage of those trends is of huge benefit to those who take the time".
Read the interview to learn how Dirk works with Levi Leipheimer and his coach Massimo Testa to set up Levi’s WKO+ dashboard "to efficiently monitor, analyze and plan [Levi’s] training and racing". In addition, Dirk explains the basic metrics that should be tracked in training and how to use a power meter and proper software to be as successful as possible in racing whether you are pro or amateur.
Read the article and then try your own free 7-day trial of TrainingPeaks trial or WKO+ today.
Q&A with Customer Service - Which Product for Me?
March 28th, 2008
The Peaksware Customer Service and Support Department is well known and appreciated by TrainingPeaks subscribers and software owners. The following is the first article/interview in a series of regular blog features intended to address the most frequent and broadly applicable questions the department receives. If you have a question you would like addressed in one of these blog articles, please send it to Support.
Q. Which product should I buy?
A. That all depends….
It’s true, this answer is not complete. The truth of the matter is, it all depends on your situation, sport, and personal preferences, as to which product, or products may best fit your particular need. The following overview of the various Peaksware products and how they interact usually clarifies any confusion.
Here at Peaksware, we develop software systems to help motivated individuals and professionals achieve health, fitness, and peak performance.
We have grown our product line over the years, and now have a suite of products that can be used together, or individually, to achieve the goal of Planning, Monitoring, and Analyzing health, fitness, and peak performance.
TrainingPeaks Online Subscriptions:
This includes our web based line of products, which provide the planning and monitoring side of the equation. You can use a TrainingPeaks.com account in 4 different ways:
As a Self-Coached Athlete: use the planning and recording tools to set-up, plan, and monitor your entire training and nutrition structure, encompassing everything from your Annual Training Plan down to your day-to-day workouts and meals. http://www.trainingpeaks.com/traininglog.asp
- As a Self-Coached Athlete that purchases a Pre-Built Training Plan and/or Meal Plan: the Plan that you purchase, from one of the many coaches or nutritionists we publish plans for, gets loaded
into your TrainingPeaks.com account. From there you can follow it as if you had a personal coach planning out your training or nutrition. For more info on how the plans interact with your TrainingPeaks account, go to http://www.trainingpeaks.com/trainingplans/trainingplanshowtheywork.asp
As a Coached Athlete: you can hire one of over 1,400 personal coaches, dietitians, and personal trainers that use our software to interface with their clients. For help on finding a professional to work with, go to: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/coachdirectory/
- As a Professional: you can utilize the TrainingPeaks software
platform to interact and communicate with, as well as manage your clients; use our tools to deliver your methodology. For more on how to do this, and to try a Free Trial of the the Professional Edition, go to: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/coach/
WKO+ Desktop Software:
This is our desktop based software application, which includes the flagship product WKO+.
- WKO+ provides the tools to perform deep analysis of workout data that has been downloaded by an electronic training device (Heart Rate Monitor, Power Meter, GPS, etc.).
- WKO+ has a very handy feature in it for uploading workout data to a TrainingPeaks online account (WKO+ purchases come with a 7 day Free Trial of the TrainingPeaks online account, so try this feature out for yourself), which not only allows a coach (if you are working with one) to see it, but also allows you to personally record and monitor your planned versus actual data.
- Note that WKO+ is no longer just for cyclists, as there are new features in version 2.2 that have greatly expanded the ability to track running and multi-sport disciplines. Learn more at: http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/wko/whatsnew20.asp.
- For a 14-Day Free Trial, go to: http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/
For further descriptions of these products, go to http://www.trainingpeaks.com/products/
And if you ever need assistance deciding what product to buy or need support after you’ve purchased the product, don’t hesitate to ask a question on the professionally monitored Message Boards, search the Help Center, or contact Support directly.
Peaksware In Good Company at SXSW 2008 with Microsoft’s HealthVault
March 23rd, 2008
Joshua Rosenthal, Ph.D. reports for ReadWriteWeb in an article titled, Health Care at SXSW - Health Getting Hot With Tech Crowd (March 15, 2008) that Michael Kennedy, a Microsoft employee specializing in hospital and insurance systems mentioned Peaksware’s software www.TrainingPeaks.com in the very good company of a short list of recommended applications compatible with Microsoft’s HealthVault.
Microsoft’s Michael Kennedy was one of two speakers on a panel at SXSW 2008 in mid March. As part of his discussion on the topic, ‘Transforming Hospital Systems: The Digital Future of Healthcare’, Kennedy described a few of the applications and products that will truly transform healthcare using new technology. In particular, Kennedy discussed Peaksware’s web based application TrainingPeaks saying that Peaksware’s software is for anyone from “the workout junky [to the] person interested in being generally fit”.
Above is a screenshot of the “Sync With HealthVault” page from within TrainingPeaks.com
As Peter Neupert, corporate vice president for the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft said when HealthVault was officially launched in October of 2007, “[TrainingPeaks]*, built on the HealthVault platform, is helping us deliver on the promise of connecting and improving healthcare.” Read all about the HealthVault launch and Peaksware’s product compatibility on the TrainingPeaks blog as well as on the Microsoft website.
Learn how to sync your TrainingPeaks account with HealthVault here.
*Peaksware’s FitnessPeaks brand was initially a separate application built specifically for the partnership with Microsoft, the parent brand TrainingPeaks now has the same compatibility and with its much broader application to the fitness, endurance, health and medical audience the two brands have been merged into just TrainingPeaks.
Training and Racing with Team High Road’s Marco Pinotti
March 21st, 2008
Team High Road’s Marco Pinotti has been training with an eye on recapturing the lead in the Tour of Italy this May, just like he did in the 2007 edition of the race. Marco proved he can race with the world’s best stage racers in 2007 as he held the lead in the Italian grand tour for five days. Marco is also the reigning Italian National Time Trial Champion. TrainingPeaks asked Marco to provide some insight to his current training and racing program, which is managed by coach Max Testa.
Following a February team training camp in California, Marco started his race season February 23rd in the 183 km Trofeo Laiguelglia in Italy, where he finished 40th in the group sprint. Feel free to view Marco’s race file by clicking here. Pull down the menu at the top right of the file and download it for additional analysis in WKO+). If you need WKO+, get a free trial here.
In the Trofeo Laiguelglia Marco averaged 420 watts for five minutes on the steepest part of the last climb of the day, called the “Passo Balestrino.” He also tried several attacks in the final 30 minutes of the race which were well above 500watts.
Marco describes the race and in particular, the last steep part of the ‘Passo Balestrino’ climb, “where I averaged 420w for 5′ and stayed with the leading group. I finished in the main group and tried a couple of attacks in the final stretch (peak of more than 700 watts)”. Marco highlighted the climb in his file, the details of which may be viewed only in WKO+.
Above is the highest 6-minute stretch of time within Marco Pinotti’s Trofeo Laiguelglia race file. Marco averaged 414 watts on the day’s hardest climb.
Marco then raced the 197km Tour du Haut Var in France on February 24th and finished in the field with a time of 5:08. Marco explains how the race progressed:
“The following day (after Trofeo Laiguelglia) I raced another one-day race in France, always up and down and I was dropped from the first group on the last steep climb, where I averaged 400 watts, whereas the day before I was able to keep 420, but I was tired from racing two days in a row. The other riders were still fresh, having done only one of the races.”
Marco … was able to maintain an average of 370w for 30-minutes. Want to know how many watts (based on your weight) you would need to maintain in order to match Marco’s speed on a climb?
The following week Marco’s training included hill repetitions, “I have been following Max Testa’s advice and I am working on improving aerobic power, working a bit less than my lactate threshold. On the 27th of February I performed a test at the end of the training on a 4 km climb where I averaged 390 Watts. This is a test I perform to gauge my fitness level. I did this test after a hard training session and the results were good.”
Marco regularly performs a 4km uphill test to help him and his coach gauge his fitness. In this test above, he averaged 393w for 10 minutes.
Can You Match This…?
Marco weighs 68.0 kg (149lbs) and he was able to maintain an average of 370w for 30-minutes in the Trofeo Laiguelglia on February 23rd. Interestingly though his Normalized Power for the max 30 minutes was 386w which is a good indicator of what he can maintain within a 30-minute time trial. This translates to a power to weight ratio of 2.59 watts per pound of body weight, an enormous amount indeed.
Want to know how many watts you would need to maintain in order to match Marco’s speed on a climb? Just multiply your body weight in pounds, times the value of 2.59. This is the equivalent to see how many watts you would have to maintain in order to stay with Marco in an uphill time trial.
The next race for Marco is the Settimana Internazionale from March 25th to 29th. However, his main goal is to prepare for yet another successful Giro d’Italia which is May 10th to June 1st.
TrainingPeaks is a proud partner of Team High Road. Stay tuned to the TrainingPeaks blog for more of Marco Pinotti’s training and racing.
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