High altitude mountain bike racing heats up each summer with Firecracker 50, Cross Country Nationals in Colorado, Breckenridge 100, Colorado Trail Race, Leadville 100 and Breck Epic stage race to name a few.  Most of these races start near 10,000 feet and go up from there. Colorado Trail Race is the altitude champion reaching 13,200 feet. Whew!

Locals who live year round in the Colorado high country rarely have problems with the altitude. The rest of us are very likely to. For some things in life, there are simply no short cuts, and altitude adaptation is one of those things. Living at altitude is the only sure fire way to adapt. Keep in mind, too, that there is considerable variability between individuals in their ability to adapt to altitude.

Here are the basics for the “rest” of us when racing over 10,000 feet.

Studies show that endurance performance bottoms out within the first few hours of arrival at altitude, and then improves steadily after that. The earlier you can arrive at altitude prior to your race the better your performance will be. Arriving 4 days before the race is good. Arriving 4 weeks before the race is better!

Some artificial methods of simulating altitude can be used at lower elevations to help speed up the adaptation process (or attempt to pre-adapt).

• Live or sleep in a hypoxic environment using an altitude tent to simulate altitude by lowering the content of oxygen in the air.
• Intermittent Hypoxic Exposure (IHE). An athlete breathes hypoxic air while at rest.
• Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT). An athlete breathes hypoxic air while exercising.

Prior to arriving at altitude:

• A month out have your iron levels checked and follow a physician’s advice on iron supplementation if necessary.
• Take 80-120 mg of Ginkgo Biloba twice per day in the 5 days leading up to arrival at altitude.
• Altitude induced asthma can appear in individuals who have no asthmatic symptoms at sea level. If you suspect you are in this group bring an inhaler with you to the race.

After arrival at altitude:

• Avoid any medications that will depress breathing rate. This includes alcohol, sleep medications and narcotic pain killers.
• Increase carbohydrate intake
• Increase antioxidant intake
• Continue Ginkgo Biloba use
• Drink plenty of liquids

Question: Should I train and race with a heart rate monitor or a power meter? What are the pros and cons?

For mountain bike training, I recommend using a power meter, perceived exertion and a heart rate monitor. The more data you have, the more tools you have at your disposal to measure performance and improve your training. 

The Bottom Line
Use a power meter extensively in training to best mimic racing demands, track measured changes in fitness, nail training objectives, and effectively calibrate perceived exertion with reality.  Changes in power output give you a direct, objective measure of the effectiveness of your training plan.  Heart rate will let you know you are alive.

Direct vs. Indirect
Power (Watts) is a direct measure of exercise intensity, whereas heart rate is an indirect measure of exercise intensity. Heart rate is a response to exercise and other factors (heat, humidity, altitude, diet, caffeine, stimulation, motivation, fatigue, time of day/night).

Crystal Clear vs. Crystal Ball?
Performance is accurately measured with power. Power data is crystal clear. You either produced the watts or you did not. Heart rate data requires guess work to interpret the result due to the many variables included. A crystal ball may be helpful in order to draw real conclusions from heart rate data.

Immediate vs. Time Lagged
Power has an immediate reaction to changes in exercise intensity. Heart rate has a time lag of about 30 seconds in its response to changes in exercise intensity. This makes heart rate a useless pacing tool for efforts of less than 30 seconds and for the first 30 seconds of any longer interval. Heart rate encourages athletes to over-pace at the start of an interval in order to quickly get their heart rate into the target zone. When training with power you can immediately peg the exact goal exercise intensity and train with accuracy.

Here’s an example:  The goal in the following workout was to maintain a steady power of 265 Watts.  The rider also wore a heart rate strap, so we have both sets of data.

Not only does heart rate lag effort by 30 seconds, it can also creep upward over time.  Imagine if this rider didn’t have the benefit of the power readings, and instead attempted to drive HR up to 165bpm in the first few minutes.  The result would likely have been an interval ending meltdown about 18 minutes in, and at the very least a drastic reduction in power in the 2^nd half of the interval.

Software
There are several software applications available to crunch your power data. They will analyze, interpret and summarize. You can look at how fast and hard you are pedaling with Quadrant Analysis (QA) to see if you are mimicking the demands of racing in your training. You can get a measure of the intensity of a ride (IF), the variability of a ride (VI) and the training stress (TSS) of a ride.

Performance Manager Chart (PMC)
PMC is a valuable tool for mountain bikers. It uses ride TSS scores, averaging them over days and months. Analyzing a single ride is like looking at a single tree in a forest. You get a nice picture of that tree but don’t know where it sits in the forest. The beauty of the PMC is that it tallies up TSS over time to give a bird’s eye view of the forest – or your entire season (or even cycling career). The PMC can be used retroactively to look at scores during times you had personal best performances and during times you thought you should have but didn’t. It can be used for forward planning to target a specific set of scores known to put you in peak form and to time that peak form to land smack bang on race day. The PMC takes much of the guess work out of training, tapering and peaking.

Racing
Whether or not to race with a power meter depends on the priority of your race. In low priority training races, go for the power meter.  Race data often uncovers one’s strengths and weaknesses, and can also turn up some surprising finds with regards to race demands.  Race files are a powerful piece of the training puzzle.

As an example, using Quadrant Analysis (a feature of WKO+ 3.0) with power meter data from single speed mountain bike races shows a particularly high concentration of power in the VO2max range with cadences below 60. This means pedal forces are much higher on average than when riding with gears.  This has led to some novel training methods for single speeders.

Goal events are different.  By the time you have reached a fitness peak, all those hours of training with a power meter have worked to “calibrate” your perceived exertion (PE).  PE is your best option for pacing goal events. You’ll know what you can do and for how long, and with enough experience, PE alone will guide you to your best results.

Potential drawbacks to mountain bike racing with a power meter
Power meter and heart rate monitors are not 100% reliable. How will you pace the event if your gadget malfunctions?

Power meters are heavier than race-weight wheels or cranks.

The highly variable nature of power production in mountain bike races makes it quite difficult to turn the real time power data into actionable information.  Short accelerations and race starts are deep into anaerobic power levels, even for longer endurance events.  It is tough to make sense of the numbers without software.

Mountain bike race starts are mayhem. The place for your eyeballs during a race start is on the trail, your surroundings and fellow racers and not on a little monitor screen.

Power meters can even make you slower in a peak race!
More importantly, pacing with a power meter may actually hold you back from a breakthrough performance! On a top priority race day your body should be in peak condition; trained, tapered, fueled, hydrated and ready to go. You should be poised to set records by producing more power and going faster than ever before. Pacing yourself using power numbers established in training may act as a governor on your peak day and could hold you back from a potential record performance.

Post Race Analysis
There is often quite a difference between what you think you did in a race (or, what you tell your coach you did) and what you actually did. Power data tells all! You can learn how to pace races more accurately and how to repeat outstanding performances from the data. Race data is useful in learning how much power you needed to win a certain race and in what pattern that power was created. This type of information is valuable in order to design better training plans and improve future performances.

Without a doubt, train with a power meter.  Also, race your lower priority events with the power meter to help objectively assess your strengths and weaknesses, helping you dial in your training for the goal event(s).  For peak priority races use your lightweight race equipment and rely on a well calibrated sense of PE to reach new performance heights.

Lynda Wallenfels is a USA Cycling Cat 1 certified cycling coach and pro mountain bike racer. She is owner of LWCoaching.com. She always trains and often races with a power meter.

As athletes are recovering I am getting their race reports and stories – cool!

I am kicking myself for not taking more photos, but hey I was busy racing my ass off in the co-ed duo class with team mate Scott Morris. We killed it and have our own race stories too

This post is the first of a few to recognize and relay the success of LW Coaching athletes. They did so well. I am so excited for them, so a no holds bragging session follows… I love coaching and they all did me proud!!

First recognition goes to Dave Byers 3rd place solo man. Dave is a personal coaching client and we shared a pit for this race. I had a row A view of the first class race execution he put down and was on-site in the pit between laps to relay a few splits and words of encouragement. His pit stops were fast and efficient and his lap splits perfect.

Living in the Tetons Valley he hadn’t seen dirt since the fall!! He trained entirely for the 24 hour race on a trainer and on snow! Impressive feat. Well done Mr Byers – you killed it and made me proud to be your coach.

Jeff Kerkove racked up another podium for his stacked resume racing in the open 5 person team division into second place. Check out the sweet video he made of the race.

My ladies were hammers too.

Personal coaching client Krista Park raced on the winning 5 person open team. She rode the fastest female day and night laps on course of 1:05 and 1:09 – wow – speedy!!

In the Women’s solo field LW Coaching gals scored 1st and 5th place. I don’t have a podium pic for the solo ladies. If you have one I would love a copy.

Windy Marks followed the 24 Hour PR training plan and rode a strong race to take the win. Here is Windy #59 on course.

Nice work Windy! You look strong in this pic.

Catherine Bywaters followed the 24 Hour Finisher training plan. Her goal was to finish her first 24 hour race. She did that and rode onto the 5th step of the podium in the process. Great race Cat.

More bragging to come when I get photos and permission from my other training plan users. I always ask for permission from any training plan athlete or coaching client prior to recognizing them publicly. I am proud of everybody and respect every level of privacy…

There are so many mountain bike endurance races to choose from in 2010. It is exciting! Finding the exact race that hits your hot motivator button takes a little research. There isn’t a comprehensive go-to calendar with every race listed. The Ride 424 calendar is close but still stuck on 2009 dates.

Here are a few good race calendars. If you know of any other endurance mtb calendar please leave a comment below with a link and I’ll add it to the list

Ride 424 Calendar still showing 2009 dates but does have race website links to follow to sleuth the 2010 dates.

USA Cycling calendar is still showing 2009 dates. They have not announced 2010 yet.

National Ultra Endurance Race Series aka the 100 miler series is also still showing 2009 dates.

MtbRace News Calendar and PreRace Calendar have similar formats and neither is comprehensive. Both are seeing work and improving and either has the potential to become the go-to calendar.

Arizona Endurance Series,  New Mexico Endurance Series,  Rocky Mountain Ultra Regional Endurance Series and  Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series are first class regional series all with 2010 dates posted.

Colorado Endurance Series is still getting off the ground. As is the tentative Southwest Endurance Series.

..and for those nutty multi-day self supported bikepacking types including Tour Divide, Colorado Trail Race and Arizona Trail Race 300

2010 Bikepacking calendar these guys are organized with their calendar with 2010 dates up and links for most. After surfing through all of the above calendars this one get the best well done prize!!

Ride 424 would rival bikepacking if they got their 2010 dates up!

Lynda Wallenfels and LW Coach Dave Harris both took the 2009, 24-Hour Solo Single Speed National Championship Titles. Full race report and details can be found on their 2-Epic race team blog.