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The view along the Maui Loop ride. Photo courtesy of Josh Liberles.

OBRA’s Josh Liberles, who previously wrote about the 2009 Tour of the Gila for this site, recently spent more than a week training on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. His comprehensive report about this relatively little-used training resource can be found on VeloNews.com.

Liberles’ budget-minded travelogue includes information about affordable accommodations, awesome rides and the secrets that draw some of the world’s top riders to the Islands.

Check out Liberles’ photo gallery HERE.

Check out the complete article HERE.

This week Russell Cree and the coaches of Upper Echelon Fitness answer questions about last minute prep for CX Nationals, staying motivated after an upgrade, off-season diets and issues involved with indoor vs. outdoor training.

Would you like to ask Russell or any of the other coaches a question? Please use our Contact Form.

1. I’m registered for the national championships in Bend this week. How should I approach these last days before my big race?

Omer Kem: I have a couple of clients who are serious about CX Nationals and my experience says that it is better to be over-rested rather than over-trained. 3 weeks out from the event might be a good time to take some time to relax. You can do 3-4 days of easy spins or days off, start the Monday or Tuesday if you raced the prior weekend. This is almost more of a mental reset. The next week would be a good time to do sharp hard efforts of 1-5 minutes. Think about being explosive and the type of efforts it takes to have a good CX race. The training and racing leading up to this point is done, all you can do now is keep the edge sharp through these efforts. That last week it is important to rest and focus on the race. Nerves are part of racing and you can use them to your advantage. Your coach is key during this time to remind you that all the training is done and your fitness isn’t going anywhere in the last days leading up to the race. All you can do is race hard and hope for some luck. Read more…

UPDATE: Due to popular demand we’re re-running our initial Fitness Forum, which was originally posted on Nov. 12.

Oregon Cycling Action welcomes Russell Cree and the coaching staff at Upper Echelon Fitness to our new Fitness Forum. Cree will be joined by Evan Elken, Brian Forbes, Tina Brubaker, Omer Kem and Chris Swan answering readers’ questions. (You can find a brief bio for each coach at the bottom of this post). This week the crew answers five questions about training, injury and off-season plans.

Would you like to ask Russell or any of the other coaches a question?  Please use our Contact Form.

1. I just got a power meter for the 2010 season, how do I test myself to estimate my training LT?

Russell Cree: Field testing is great with a power meter. This can be used to determine your functional threshold power (FTP), but not your lactate threshold. Lactate Threshold is determined with blood lactate measurement. But FTP is very useful for training. To get a true threshold measurement, you would need 40-60 minutes of maximum effort. This would be similar to a 40k time trial. In training, it is very difficult to maintain focus and effort for this duration and it is hard to find a course without constraints for this time trial. So we use shorter trials and calculations to determine threshold. A typical test would be 20 minutes long. Taking the average power from the 20 minute time trial, you can subtract 5-10% and use this as your FTP. A rider with a high anaerobic capacity will be around 10% lower, while a rider with less anaerobic capacity and a more skilled time trialist will be closer to the 20 min average. Therefore, they might only subtract 5%. So, the general idea is to do a 20 min time trial and minus 5-10% from the average wattage.

The protocol might look like:

• 15 min warm-up
• 4-5 min time trial
• 5 min rest
• 2 x 40 seconds HARD, with 60 sec rest between
• 10 min rest
• 20 min time trial
• 15 min cool-down

Read more…