I have an idea.
The iPod Touch has a serial port:
http://iphone-gps.blogspot.com/2008/03/serial-connection-working.html
GoldenCheetah’s code for downloading PowerTap data:
http://goldencheetah.org/svn/trunk/src/PowerTap.cpp
iPod with serial… PowerTap with serial… I’m gonna do it. That’s right: download my PowerTap to my iPod touch.
I just bought a new second-gen iPod Touch off eBay for pretty cheap ($180 instead of $230) after seeing Dave’s. Do I need more toys? Probably not. BUT… Now I can look at any PowerTap file from this season by logging into my TrainingPeaks account ANYWHERE there’s Wifi (which is EVERYWHERE). I can update my blog and check email all the time. I can watch movies during class when I’m sitting around. I’m sure I’ll find more ridiculous things to do with it too.
This brings me to my latest geeked-out device. A few months ago I picked up a Pinnacle Video Transfer(PVT) off Woot!. This little guy records TV straight to a USB harddrive. No computer. Cool! Plug it into your TV and USB harddrive, hit Record, wait for the program to finish, then hit Record again to stop.
That wasn’t quite good enough for me. Walking across the room to start and stop the device is simply unacceptable. I popped open the case, found the contacts for the two important buttons (start/stop and on/off) and soldered some wires on them. I used a couple 2N2222 switching transistors to press the buttons when 5V was applied. The transistors were hooked up to my Arduino microcontroller, which talks to my laptop. Now I can program the PVT to turn on, start recording, wait for the program to finish, then stop recording and turn off. Awesome!
I spent a few days down in Eugene moving in and hanging out during a lull at work. I’m back in Corvallis now, but heading back down Wednesday evening / Thursday morning. It’ll be good to settle into the school routine again, but on the other hand I’m not that excited for the whole homework thing.
Lisa Turnbull and I have been racing up Fox Hollow. The winner is determined in one of several ways:
1) Time. The most conventional, most race-like, and least geeky.
2) Average power. This is relative to the power we “should” be able to do, as determined by Galen.
3) Progressive increase. Here, the winner beats their previous average power. This mean if you have a good performance, you’ll probably lose next time. Winning here is the trickiest- it requires pacing over multiple days. It’s also kind of lame.
Fox Hillclimb #1 (Thursday): I go out too hard at the bottom. This is a race after all, right? I think I can do ~310W for the 20ish minute climb, so I go out at 370W. Lisa lets me go, but slowly reels me back as I inevitably fade. I sit on her wheel. I attack. I get tired and get caught. After a couple more attacks, I “get away” and even when I ease up the gap is constant. Time: 22:55, average power 290. (I hit the button late, so at the time it said 285).
Fox Hillclimb #2 (Friday): I get an email asking for a rematch. I agree. We start. Lisa sets the tempo, I am hurting. After 5 minutes of this, I pick up the pace a little and move around her. The gap grows, and I finish a little under a minute ahead of her at 22:05, average power 302.
We rode down McBeth and back on Lorane. I attacked a few times before the Stop Ahead and won. It hurt.
On Saturday I rode McKenzie View (long) with Dave, Derek, Larry, Lenny and Andrew. Derek snuck up on me not once, but TWICE to steal a Stop Ahead victory. It was so embarrassing.
Isolated Leg Training Rocks.
I pulled up my Fall term schedule. I couldn’t really remember what it was. It looks pretty good (except 8am everyday).
I emailed Kenji for my Cat 3 upgrade.
Next year:
- Winter. Solid base miles, good endurance. Isolated leg drills. Loads of force work, tempo and threshold intervals. Goal: climb like a scared monkey. Or a rocket. Or both. Improve time trial (which will improve stage racing later in the year) legs.
- Intensity. I’m working on some combination of Friel/Baker/Coggan intervals sessions. VO2, Lactate Clearing, Explosive power. Race-intensity group rides.
- Pre-season racing. Cherry Pie and the Banana Belts. Racing as a 3 will be more useful to prepare me for collegiate racing.
- Collegiate racing. Six weekends of mini stage races. Lots of driving. Lots more awesome.
- OBRA Racing. Crits (Albany, Twilight, Champs). Cascade, High Desert, Celebration
And finally, a picture of Cole helping me out during the Celebration crit. Cole and I killed it at High Desert, the Eugene Twilight crit, and Eugene Celebration. I hope he moves back up the 3’s soon! Cole is an awesome teammate.
Crap, Skenzick, I guess this means I have to race against you.
I know Nick is burning for an update, so here we go.
First of all, Sam Johnson is awesome:
After spending 9 days in the desert wearing nothing but a speedo, I would be willing to wager that I have the best fearsome-speedo-tan to wattage-at-threshold ratio in North America. Prove me wrong. Make my day.
I just got back from my business trip to Boulder. I put some pictures up. It was a short trip, but fun. I went out to DMT to be trained on our aerosol instrument. By “our,” I mean the research group I work for at OSU.
Boulder seems pretty cool. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time flying, sleeping or at DMT. I did have a little free time yesterday morning, so I walked down to CU Boulder. Here’re a few more pictures.
I haven’t touched my bike since Wolf Creek. Real training isn’t going to start for a while, but don’t worry- I’ll be back riding soon. I should probably get the PowerTap rolling too.
I’m watching the USPRO Champs right now on Versus, eating a delicious sandwich and listening to my little brother’s “band” squeak away. Some of the guys are running deeper front wheels than rear. Check this out.
Scott Larsen sent out an email earlier today to the OBRA Chat list with some photos from Celebration. Behold:
I ate some delicious pasta, ice cream, peanut M&Ms and Hansen’s soda (also lots of water) last night. I got a solid 10 hours of sleep last night. I was well hydrated. I ate some PB&J toast and messed around on Facebook for a bit. Brian, Cole and Nikki showed up around 9:15 and we loaded up and rolled out. We were running a little late.
As I mentioned yesterday, no PowerTap today. It needs to be rebuilt. I’d look down every once in a while, hoping to see power, speed and time… only to see the empty black mount. It will come back and it will be excellent, but no data for today.
We arrived, chamois’d up and then had 9 minutes to the start. Yeah, we were a little late. While we rolled down King Estate, I thought of what would be happening 2 hours later going back up this 1km climb. It didn’t seem like it’d be fun.
The neutral stopped, and the pace went up. How fast? I don’t know. Comfortable, but fast. Brian launched some awesome attacks, and we chased. He probably put out 4 or 5. Everybody was jittery and ready to chase. Davis pulled a lot of them back. This made me excited- maybe he’d be tired for the climb! When Brian was done, Cole put out some awesome attacks. Davis chased again. A couple “bigger” moves went up the road a few seconds, but nothing for more than a few minutes. It was all together for the rollers before the climb. Davis attacked and got away. I sat 2nd or 3rd wheel, hangin’ out. The pace was hard, but not insane. Cole went to the front a set the tempo up Wolf Creek. Then he was tired and said bye-bye. The pace picked up and we turned onto Wolf Creek Rd. The group was still pretty big, which surprised me. I guess we weren’t going that hard. I was still sitting top 5 or so. I thought a lot about what I should do. I wanted a smaller group. The GC guys (as far as I know) were still around and looking pretty good- Zach especially. I attack. Everyone follows. I sit for a minute or two. I attack. I did this a couple more times, but the field didn’t seem to get smaller. None of them were all-out, because I thought there might be an epic attack and then I would be sad if I couldn’t follow it. We got to the false summit with a pretty big group. Zach hit the front and I said OWW. We drilled it pretty good up to the real summit. All this time Davis was up the road solo. Someone said he had 1:30 on us. The group was a little smaller now- maybe 15 or so. We formed up and were rolling fast and smooth on the false flat uphill to the second summit. The group descended fairly well. I couldn’t get into my 12t, which made it a little difficult to keep the gaps closed. We caught Davis at the bottom as we turned onto Territorial.
He got in just fine and the echelon continued to roll smoothly with 15 or whatever guys. I attacked, hoping to draw out a smaller group. No-one responded, so I sat up. I figured they would’ve pulled me back smoothly just like we pulled back Davis. Rats. More echelon work.
Lorane Hill was hard. I wasn’t put into too much trouble, but we dropped some guys. The group was about 8 over the top. I stuck on Davis’s wheel and we made the turn. 1km to the top. The guy who won (sorry, I don’t know who you are Brent Poole) attacked and I was not happy. I hung on with everyone for a bit, then I started to blow up. The guy who attacked at the bottom held it and won (badass) and I ended up 6th on the stage. Larry and David got 2nd and 3rd, which is awesome. They both ride for UO. We’re going to have a strong team next year. Watch out!
Today moved me up to 8th overall. Cool!
And with that, the road season is over. The serious road season, at least.
Cross? Anybody got a cross bike I can buy-for-cheap/borrow/have…?
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