The presentations from the 2008 Cycling Science Symposium held in Denver, CO were released to the public today on the web.  Of interest are Lessons from the Tour De France, Conrad Earnest, PhD, Wind Tunnel testing Using A Power Meter by Jim Martin, PhD and Crank Length and Pedaling Technique by Jim Martin, PhD. 

Very good reading though be warned that these presentations are all PowerPoints that have been converted to PDFs.

Though I MUCH prefer cycling over running, I was never really bad at it and have now added it to my routine to give my ass some time to recover from the bike and to burn calories a lot faster.

Using the Bodybugg (God, I hate that name) has been a real eye opener for me in terms of my caloric burn.  For example, you can clearly see that I burn significantly less calories on the bike (even while riding for hours at my lactate threshold) than I do while running (at a pace I can easily sustain for an hour).

 
At my LT, I’m burning approximately 10 calories per minute (2 rides here).

 
When running, I’m burning about 15.2 calories per minute.

While this isn’t surprising, I’ve learned that running can be a real help when trying to maintain a 1,000 – 1,500 calorie per day deficit.   I needed to take today off the bike so I went with Amy down to 24-Hour Fitness and ran on the treadmill for an hour (30 minutes at 165+ bpm) and it went pretty well.  I’m not really a gym person but finding flat roads to run on here is just about damn near impossible.  It’s not the uphill that kills, it’s the downhill.

So far, so good on the weight loss front.  After a two sketchy weeks, I’m finally starting to drop.  About a year ago, I was 269.5 and I checked in this morning at 217.0.  Goal weight is 180 by the last Sunday in July and 170 by the end of this year.  After that, I’ll just want to maintain and work on my power output (more on using a power meter this week) and getting back into racing next year.  My motivation is a little different than most peoples.  Instead of wanting to look good, fit into certain clothes or be healthy, I just want to go faster up hills.  I’ve already got decent power output and if I can change the "mass" part of the equation, I can be competitive again.

Despite putting in 3.5+ hours per day on the bike and a 30 minute walk (with the dogs) or a run every day, I’ve gained 6.5 pounds since Sunday.  This also takes into account a 1,500 – 2,000 calorie per day deficit.  I know I have to be patient with this but I had merely hoped to stay the same or maybe even gain one or two pounds.  Before I started restricting my calories and upping my time on the bike each day by 30 minutes, I was only gaining 1.5 a week.  Time to rethink my strategy.

On the positive side, I hit 2,200 miles on the bike last night and my two mile run is now down below 13:30.

While our bike lines are a little wider, the pavement quality is far worse, and that’s in the summer.  In the winter and spring, the local government provides an extra challenge with inches of anti-ice sand that never gets swept up.  I’ve only lived here for 11 months and ridden 1/30th of my life’s mileage here but have had more near death accidents due to the sand than all other hazards in my cycling life.

Yesterday morning, I ordered some Assos Chamois Creme and about six pairs of Pearl Izumi socks from my favorite cycling retailer, Colorado Cyclist.  Their retail store/fulfillment center is 9.3 miles from my home.  Why didn’t I just drive down there and pick this up myself?  1) The past two days have been very busy at work and 2) sometimes it can take them FOREVER to go in the warehouse to find something small like chamois creme.  And I didn’t need this stuff right away.

I ordered "Colorado ground shipping" and paid $6.95 for it.  I just received my UPS shipment info and guess what?  They shipped it OVERNIGHT.  Surely, they jest, I thought.  I gave them a call and was told that they did this because I had been such a good customer lately and they do this from time to time.  Ironically, this will probably delay my shipment by two days since UPS will have to reroute it back to the ground shipment center.  LOL.