Interviewing Brian Loflin, Winner of ‘08 Gila Bike Race (SM3)
8 May 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
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