Exploring the Houston Bayous

Last Saturday, I went on a very interesting bike ride. In an earlier post, I described how the City of Houston Proposition B passed overwhelmingly to fund development of bike paths along the Houston bayous. The Houston Parks Board is working with the public to build enthusiasm for this project. As part of that, they organized a small, informal bike ride to explore both what has been done to develop bike paths along Houston's bayous, what needs to be done, and what is about to be done. Those of us who attended were offered the opportunity to sign a petition in support of this effort as well as to write a letter of support to the Houston City Council. Although the Houston Parks Board is probably the leader of this effort, many city groups, especially cycling advocacy groups, are also involved. At some point, I "liked" one such group, Bike Houston, on Facebook, and it was because of that I learned of the ride. Here is the announcement:

The ride focused on the White Oak and Buffalo bayous as they passed through downtown Houston. Memorial Park is a jewel of the Houston park scene, near down town, enormous in size, and contains some nice paved bike paths and a large number of mountain biking trails:

Thus, it is no surprise that the ride began in Memorial park. About 15 cyclists in total showed up for this ride, some of whom are shown here at the start:

There was a range of ages, athletic abilities, and bicycles. Probably the most popular kind of bike was a mountain bike. (I rode my Surly.) We started out by riding on Memorial Park's paved paths, moved into the adjacent residential neighborhoods, and then explored a missing link that is going to be one of the very first projects to be done. In previous posts, I have described the White Oak Bayou Trail and mentioned a bike path that runs through a lovely neighborhood in Houston called the Heights. There is a several block gap between these two trails. It was smack in the middle of that gap where the ride took us, to a feature I fondly called "The Bridge of Death":

This is an old abandoned railroad bridge over White Oak Bayou on which the public is forbidden to travel. Not only does the public ignore that ban, but "volunteers" have placed some boards over the old timbers (which have 4 inch gaps between them) to make such crossing less deadly. I won't say we illegally rode or (in the case of the old and terrified) walked across this bridge, but somehow we ended up on the other side. Note the bridges in the distance; they are causeways that used to carry North Durham Drive and North Shepherd Drive over the same railroad line that used to go over the bridge. Just beyond these bridges is the start of the MKT trail, named after the  Missouri, Kansas, Texas Southern Pacific railroad that used to be here. (Most people, including Google Maps, call this the Heights Bike trail, but the MKT trail is the official name and is what the signs on the trail say.) What this imminent project will do is begin at the start of the White Oak Bayou Trail, about four blocks to the left of the picture, follow White Oak Bayou to this bridge which will be refinished as a pedestrian bridge, and then continue about five blocks straight ahead in the picture, under the bridges in the background and connect the 7.5 miles of the White Oak Bayou trail to the 4.5 miles of the MKT trail. The next picture shows our group riding the dirt path before we got to the MKT trail:

After this point, most of the ride was on very high quality paved bike trails:

As we approached down town Houston, the Heritage Trail branched off the MKT trail to provide an alternate path into down town, one which follows the White Oak Bayou rather than the old railroad line and thus is more attractive. This is a view of the Houston skyline from that trail:

The Heritage Trail terminates where it rejoins the MKT trail, which then continues to within a block or so of the Buffalo Bayou trail. As best as I can tell, there are no plans to bridge that gap because right of way issues have gotten in the way. According to the ride leader, right of way issues present one of the biggest barriers to development of these trails. The Buffalo Bayou trail is not new but is gorgeous, representing a significant aesthetic addition to down town Houston:

Although this trail is complete almost all the way back to Memorial Park, improvement continues to add trails on both sides of the Bayou and pedestrian bridges between the two sides. This is one recently completed bridge which is both beautiful and useful:

While researching this post, I came across the website for the Houston Bayou Greenways. It has an interactive map showing existing trails along bayous, trails which have been approved and funded but not yet built, and trails which have been planned but not approved and funded. This is a great summary of all these projects.

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For those new to this blog, each week I am posting an update of my training results; see my previous posts for explanations of my aerobic training program, MAF tests, and this graph.

My average performance has finally started improving, but some of that could be due to improvement in the weather. Next week I will discuss my training results in more detail, but briefly, 1) I believe that there are many factors that influence the results in a MAF test so I am fully expected to see these results to go up AND down in the future and 2) for many reasons I believe that overall my performance as measured by a MAF test is improving overall.

Houston's B-Cycle Bike Share Program

My older son and his wife live and work in Washington DC and I visit them fairly frequently. In 2008, DC launched what I believe to be the first bike share system in the US. Bike share systems provide bicycles for a fee for short term use to supplement the public transportation system by providing transportation for short distances. Wikipedia has an excellent article on the concept and its execution around the world.

Although DC's first system was more or less a failure, in 2010, DC launched its replacement, the Capital Bikeshare, considered by some to be the most successful bike share program in the US. In a recent visit, I could not help but notice the system. When I discussed it with "the kids", they told me that they thought it was too expensive to be useful to anyone but tourists. It was a surprise then, when a few months ago my daughter-in-law told me that she had been using Capital Bikeshare to get to work. Apparently, when she factored in the (lack of) proximity of her work to public transportation and the actual cost of other alternatives, Capital Bikeshare made sense. It was with that as a backdrop that it caught my eye when our city of Houston began its own bike share system, B-Cycle.

The system in Houston is undeniably in its infancy, having only 3 stations where bicycles can be obtained or returned and 18 bikes compared to the 175 stations and 1670 bikes in Washington DC. Out of fairness to my city, ours was clearly described as a pilot program. That said, the event that sparked this column is that, thanks to a partnership with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, the Houston system is about to be expanded to 24 stations and 200 bikes. Here is a map of the expansion from the Houston Chronicle article on this expansion:

How successful is this system likely to be? Honestly, I have no idea, but will be eagerly watching to see. It is somewhat less expensive than the DC system. The billing structure is similar for the two. One purchases a membership which covers short trips, 30 minutes or less in DC and 90 minutes or less in Houston. An annual membership in Houston is $50 as compared to $75 in DC. (Shorter memberships, as short as a day, are also available.) In Houston, trips over 90 minutes are billed at $2 for each additional 30 minutes, and in DC, trips over 30 minutes are billed at $1.50 for each additional 30 minutes.

Another factor that will influence the success of the Houston system has nothing to do with bike share itself and depends on the "bikeability" of the city. I have commented on Houston's bikeability in previous posts and will continue to do so, but there is now a more objective and comparative measure provided by the Walk Score website:

"Somewhat Bikeable" doesn't sound so good, nor does a score of 49/100. How does Washington DC do?

What is worse, DC is not even the United States most bikeable city:

Clearly, there is nothing I would like more than to see Houston get better. However, in defense of where we are today, I will ask you to look back at the maps and notice the color code: green is the most bikeable and red the least. The difference is partially in how intense the green of the DC city center is compared to Houston's city center, but even more that Houston is a big, sprawling city, and although the downtown/midtown/Medical Center region is reasonably bikeable, the vast outlying areas are not and bring down our score. In that spirit, I would like to conclude this post with a picture from the Houston B-cycle Facebook page taken on one of the prettiest pieces of Houston's cycling infrastructure, the bike paths along Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston which I plan to cover in a future post:

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See previous posts for explanations of my aerobic training program, MAF tests, and this graph. My average performance is still not improving, but I continue to think this is not significant. As I said when I first posted one of these graphs, the reason I am presenting the data this way is because there is so much "noise" in the data caused by weather (among other things). Over time, I believe the noise will begin to average out as the number of tests increases. Philip Maffetone, author of the training program I am using, predicts that performance should start to improve "after two or three months". Please stand by.

Old Bikes, Part Deux

I continue to think about what happened to the "road bike" between when I stopped paying attention in the mid 1970s and 2008 when I once again started looking at bikes. In this post I am going to look at a few bikes that happen to be sitting in my garage, pack-rat that I am, in that context.

SOME REFERENCE DATES: I attended High School from 1963 through 1967, and that was the time of my peak interest in road/racing bikes. From 1967 through 1971 I was an undergraduate, and maintained a fairly high interest in bicycles and cycling. In 1971 I started graduate school and found myself much busier, although I still managed to do some biking. In particular, I had a girlfriend (who is now my wife) with whom I liked to ride. In 1973 or so I helped her purchase a new road bike, so I had a brief immersion in what was going on at that point. In 1976 I finished grad school and began my entry into the work world with a postdoctoral fellowship and at that point my cycling essentially stopped for over 30 years. My two sons were born in 1981 and 1989, and as they grew up, I purchased bikes and went on the occasional ride with them, but didn't re-immerse sufficiently to get a clear an idea of what was going on. It was only in 2008 when I restarted cycling and started thinking about a new bike that I became aware of how much things had changed.

1973 Gitane: This is the Gitane we purchased for my wife:

The most striking thing about it is how similar it is to the bikes that were available when I was in High School - it is a classic cheap French 10-speed of the era. It has a lugged steel frame, but the tubing is heavy and uncomfortably stiff and the lugs are crude. The one thing that dates it as being Grad School rather than High School is not part of the original bike at all - it is the derailleur:

This bike originally came with a Simplex Prestige derailleur. However, we wanted to provide lower gears to help my wife climb the mountains of Vermont. To do that, we had to upgrade to something new: a Japanese derailleur - a SunTour GT. Not only could it handle lower gears than the Simplex, it was more rugged and shifted much better. This was my only hint of the coming domination of the bike market by the Japanese during the mid '70s to the mid 80s that I otherwise missed.

1993 Giant:

What a piece of trash! I described my wife's Gitane as a "cheap bike", but it is still giving us good service. (My younger son rides it when he visits.) This bike is useless. The only reason I keep it (besides being a pack-rat) is that if we need to patch up some other bike, we might be able to scavenge some parts. That said, 1) my older son loved this bike and rode it everywhere between 6th and 12th grade and 2) this bike was purchased at a Local Bike Shop, not a department store.

Technologically, this bike is still not all that different from what I rode in High School. The two features that show off its more recent vintage are that it has six gears in the back rather than five, and the cotterless/alloy cranks. These represent two different kinds of evolution. Six gears in the back simply didn't exist when I was in High School, so this is something new. Alloy cotterless cranks existed when I was in High School, but only on the highest quality bikes; the less expensive bikes had steel cranks that were held to the bike by cotter pins. Bicycle evolution (like the evolution of many consumer products) is characterized both by the introduction of new features as well as the migration of high end features to lower end products.

1979 Centurion:

I list this bike last rather than in the middle where it belongs by date of manufacture because it came to us last. My older son purchased it used for $75 in 2009 when he knew he would be visiting us frequently so he would have a bike to ride in Houston. What a gorgeous bicycle (and at what a price!) This bike was my first exposure to the Japanese bikes of the 1970s and 1980s. The overall quality in terms of look and feel of this bicycle is every bit as good as my Bianchi Specialissima, if not better, but there is not a European part on it. I have only two regrets about this bicycle: 1) it has had hard use which has caused some damage to the frame and 2) it is WAY too big for me. My son is 6 inches taller than I am, and it is on the large side for him.

I simply have to share a few of the gorgeous details of this bike. First, it has a similar derailleur as the one we put on the Gitane:

It is a different model, but very similar in appearance. Interestingly, I think this is the same derailleur I found on an old Bianchi Volpe I featured in an earlier post. The shifters that came with the SunTour derailleurs are some of the most attractive I have seen, bar none:

Next, there is the alloy cotterless crank. Although steel cottered cranks are a thing of the past and all road bikes now have alloy cotterless cranks, few of them are as beautiful as the Campagnolo crank on my Bianchi Specialissima. In my opinion, the Japanese ones on the Centurion are:

I am not a fan of the circular chain guards some bikes have, and if this were my bike, I would take this one off the Centurion. That said, it is the most attractive of these I have ever seen. (The pedals are not original. The bike came with some gorgeous pedals with toe clips, but I replaced them with these inexpensive clipless pedals because that is what my son uses.)

The brakes are of some interest for a couple of reasons:

Firstly Dia-Compe has now acquired some cache in the Retro-Grouch (1) corner of the cycling world. Second, they are side-pull brakes. This illustrates a third kind of bicycle evolution: fashion. When I was in High School, center pull brakes, like these on my wife's old Gitane:

...were considered superior to side pull brakes, just as large flange hubs were considered superior to small. As time passed, this reversed, and I am sure it will reverse again.

The final feature I would like to show off on this Centurion is the lovely workmanship around the rear wheel dropouts:

I found this model of Centurion, the Super Elite, in an old Centurion catalogue, confirming its manufacture in 1979. This was their second tier racing bike, below the Semi-Pro. This model of Centurion used the highly regarded Champion steel frame tubes, but on this model, only the three main tubes were double butted:

As I researched this bike, I noted that both Centurion and Diamond Back were made by the same manufacturer. Originally, the Centurion brand was used for their road bikes, and Diamond Back for their Mountain Bikes. Eventually, the Centurion brand was dropped and Diamond Back was used for all their bikes. Proof that I am a pack-rat is that among the bikes in my garage is a Diamond Back, purchased for our boys before they were old enough for a road bike:

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While preparing this post, I did a lot of research on road bike history. Rather than delay this post (which is already two days late) or make it even longer than it is, I will save my "Integrated History of Road Bikes" for a later post.

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MAF Test Results

This the latest update on my MAF tests, with four new data points:

I am getting worse at half the rate as last week, which I guess is good? Stay tuned.

By the way, for readers of my review of the Garmin 500, I had a second case of data loss on my Garmin unrelated to any of the previously suspected causes. I am also ready to confirm that the difficulty this model sometimes has locating its satellites, another common criticism of this model. My bottom line remains the same, this is far from a perfect product, but remains adequate for my needs.

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References

(1) "Bike Snob Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling" by Bike Snob NYC, ISBN 978-0-8118-6998-0, page 76

The Garmin Edge 500 Cycling Computer

SUMMARY: I have been using a Garmin Edge 500 cycle computer to enable my trial of Philip Maffetone's training regimen and this post describes the good and bad of that device. In short, the Garmin is adequate for my needs but is certainly not perfect. The impatient can safely skip the introduction of this article which provides some context for my judgements.

INTRODUCTION: Back in the mid 20th century during my first cycling career, cycling computers did not exist and very few people had any kind of speedometer or odometer on their bicycles. Because my kids bought them, I became aware of cycle computers well before I restarted cycling and when I did, one of my first accessories was an inexpensive Cateye Strada cycle computer:

I paid less than $40 for it back in '08 and it added a lot of fun to my riding, allowing me to track how far I had ridden and what my average speed was for each of my rides. As I gained experience and talked to other cyclists, I developed an interest upgrading to a Garmin Edge 500:

Weight control was a major goal of my cycling, so I set a weight target and promised myself I could buy the Garmin once I reached it. When I did, I went to Amazon to order one, but when I read the reviews, I was somewhat discouraged. Granted, most of the reviews were positive but there were a significant number of very negative reviews complaining of a "downgrade" of the GPS functionality relative to older models, of a screen difficult to read, but the most common and worrisome complaint was that buggy software on this model often lead to data loss. As a result, I delayed my purchase.

The Cateye has its own data loss problems. It lacks the ability to upload its data to a computer, so the opportunity for data loss is less than the Garmin which does have this capability. However, this device is controlled by "clicking" the entire computer as one giant button to switch between modes, and the normal reset mechanism is to "click and hold". Unfortunately, on bumpy roads this can be triggered accidentally, resetting the device and discarding your ride up to that point. (There appear to be other ways to trigger an accidental reset, but I have not been able to pin them down.) In particular, my Cateye reset it self on my one brevet to date, losing the data for that ride. This is particularly problematic on a brevet because the directions one follows are in terms of distances along the route. Once my Cateye reset, I no longer knew how far along I was and thus when I should turn. The complaint about the Garmin is that it loses data between the completion of a ride and uploading it to a computer. I am unaware of any cases of a Garmin Edge 500 losing data during a ride.

When I began trying the Maffetone training regimen, I needed a heart rate monitor. The Garmin is able to be connected to a heart rate monitor whereas the Cateye is not. I had not been able to find a better alternative to the Garmin Edge 500, so I swallowed my concerns and ordered it. In addition to the computer itself for $250, I needed to separately purchase a heart rate monitor for about $40. In addition, I wanted to be able to track cadence, so I purchased a cadence/speed detector as well for about $40. I also purchased a mounting bracket for about $10, but that turned out to be unnecessary because two came with the computer.

RESULTS: When I first tried the Garmin, I was most favorably impressed. It addresses a lot of minor frustrations I had with the Cateye. It has an easier to read display, the display is vastly more configurable, and there is a lot more data presented on each screen. The optional cadence/speed detector, which measures the speed at which the crank and rear wheel move, is much easier to adjust to work correctly on my Surly than the speed monitor of the Cateye. Both the optional heart rate monitor and the optional cadence/speed detector were detected by the Garmin quickly and simply. Garmin provides both web-based and local (runs on your computer) software for viewing ride data. Download and installation of the local software, "Garmin Training Center" were quick and trouble free. The web-based software also seems good, but I have had no incentive to give it more than a quick glance.

As quickly as I found so much to like about the Garmin, the major deficiency of the Garmin became apparent almost as quickly; its flakey software. It wasn't until later that I experienced data loss, but other symptoms of flakey software, from bugs to misfeatures, became apparent almost immediately:

• When I installed the cadence/speed detector, the Garmin immediately turned over authority for distance and speed to this device rather than using its GPS. However, when I tried to set the wheel size (necessary for getting a correct distance), distance was always way off. It was only when I set the option "determine wheel size automatically" (e.g. from the GPS) did it start working. This is despite the fact that the wheel size Garmin determined was very close to what I had been inputting.
• Having "heart rate too high" and (to a lesser extent) "heart rate too low" alarms are critical for the Maffetone workout. As best I can tell, the only way to set these on the Garmin is via heart rate zones. As is apparent to readers of this blog, I have had occasion to adjust these. As best I can tell, the only way to adjust these is via Training Zone on the connected computer. This process is misdocumented and erratic; getting the changes to "take" is a trial and error process that only sometimes works.

Both of the above issues are annoying but can be worked around. What was most discouraging is when, after a few weeks, I came back from a ride, went to upload my data, and found that the Garmin had lost it. This is the dreaded data loss problem that a number of people had commented about on Amazon. Some people experience this, some don't. People who do have tried to figure out what causes it. Hypotheses include trying to keep too many rides (more than five or six) on the Garmin (rather than uploading them to Training Center and deleting them from the Garmin) or pressing the lap button too often. It is true that I used the lap button more than usual on the day I lost data, and that I had about a dozen rides on the Garmin. Since then, I have avoided using the lap function and have been diligent about removing old data. It has only been a week or two since that first data loss, but I have yet to experience a second one. Truly, data loss is annoying but doesn't keep me from using the Garmin for Maffetone training. So long as I can monitor my heart rate while I ride, I can train properly, and if I make a mental note as to the miles completed during my 45 minute ride, that is all the data I need to record a MAF test result, even if the Garmin loses the data before I can upload it to Training Center.

I'm sure there is a lot I have left to learn about the Garmin. It has a wealth of features and it is easy to overlook or misunderstand some of them in the short time I have been using it. I expect my opinion of this device will evolve.

CONCLUSION: If I had it to do over, would I still purchase a Garmin Edge 500? Honestly, I am not sure. I certainly would diligently investigate alternatives. However, if I found nothing better, it is definitely acceptable, and in many ways, lots of fun. I think the major difference between those who love and hate it is expectation; those who love it don't expect perfection, those who hate it are annoyed at the buggy software for a rather expensive bicycle computer.

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MAF Test Results

After struggling a bit as to how best to track and present the results of my MAF tests, given how much day to day variability there is, I hit upon the following:

I am using Microsoft Excel to plot all of the test results, not just one per week, and to calculate a trend line. What is shown on the above graph, is that after 22 days, 9 tests, and 13 rides (non-test rides are not shown on the graph), my average speed is decreasing by approximately 0.05 MPH per day. I am not yet concerned about this because I don't believe I have been doing the training long enough to get a clear result and because I know things that have affected the rides (weather, general health, family activities that have interfered with training) that are not shown on the graph that might explain why some rides are faster than others. If, at the end of January, I feel I have been able to execute the training program with reasonable diligence and performance is still declining, I will re-evaluate.

Personalized Training

...or how I modified Phillip Maffetone's training regimen without even giving it a chance.

The title of this post is a take-off on the phrase "personalized medicine", a phrase describing one of the most important ideas in contemporary medicine. The motivating concept of personalized medicine is that different people have different responses to the same drug or treatment. With that in mind, medical research is devoting great effort to learning how to determine for each person which drug or treatment is best.

The premise of this post is that, just as people's medical treatments need to be customized, people's training regimens do as well. (This is certainly not a new idea!) This post reports my results to date with Phillip Maffetone's aerobic training regimen as described in his book "Endurance Training and Racing" and explains why I have modified it after only a few weeks of experience.

Heart Rates

Having decided to undertake Dr. Maffetone's aerobic training regimen, the first step was to determine the heart rate at which I should train, a heart rate Dr. Maffetone calls "Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate." Dr. Maffetone gives a formula for determining that heat rate, and using his formula, I calculated a heart rate of 112 to 122 beats per minute (BPM), depending on how I evaluated my prior training. When I acquired a heart rate monitor and began noting my heart rate under different conditions, this estimate seemed unreasonably low. Given Dr. Maffetone's assertion that base training should seem exceptionally easy at first, should I not have ignored my misgivings and given his approach a chance?

To explain why I chose not to accept Dr. Maffetone's formula for determining the heart rate at which I should train, I need to talk about the use of heart rate in training. There are several relevant heart rates:

Maximum Heart Rate

The highest heart rate it is possible to attain.

Heart Rate at Lactate Threshhold

The highest heart rate it is possible to maintain in a 30 minute time trial.

Resting Heart Rate

The heart rate measured first thing in the morning.

Heart Rate Zones

Various heart rates defined differently by different training programs to describe different kinds of training. (Heart Rate Zones are discussed below.)

Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate

The heart rate Dr. Maffetone recommends for base training. This probably corresponds to one of the above heart rate zones.

Many heart rate zones are calculated relative to the Maximum Heart Rate, making this heart rate important to know. Maximum Heart Rate does not change with exercise, varies from person to person, and for any one person, decreases with age. Unfortunately, it is difficult to determine. The general recommendation is to have it determined by a cardiologist as part of a cardiac stress test, with medical personnel and a defibrillator standing by. Given the age of my heart, I doubt very much if my cardiologist would approve such a test. There are formulas for estimating Maximum Heart Rate which take into account age but which cannot, of course, take into account person to person variation. Using the different formulas for determining Maximum Heart Rate, I estimate values for my Maximum Heart Rate of between 157 and 163 BPM. According to Wikipedia, the person to person variation in Maximum Heart Rate is 60 BPM, such at if the average Maximum Heart Rate for a man my age is 160, my Maximum Heart Rate could vary between 130 and 190. Since I can ride for several minutes with a heart rate of over 160 BPM with no great discomfort, I have to assume that my personal Maximum Heart Rate is greater than average. It is generally reported that, whereas it is difficult to achieve 100% of Maximum Heart Rate, most people can achieve 95% of Maximum Heart Rate by riding at a subjective effort of "as fast as I can go for a short time." That I did and measured a heart rate of 173 BPM. I could well imagine this is less than 95% of my Maximum Heart Rate, but it is hard for me to imagine it is more. Thus, if I assume 173 is 95% of my Maximum Heart Rate, then my Maximum Heart Rate can be extrapolated to be at least 182 BPM.

The Heart Rate at Lactate Threshold does vary with training and is typically between 75% and 85% of the Maximum Heart Rate. Generally, the more fit you are, the higher your Heart Rate at Lactate Threshold. Heart Rate at Lactate Threshold can be measured relatively easily as the heart rate measured during the last 20 minutes of a 30 minute time trial. This is a measurement I hope to make in the future, but based on the experience described in the previous paragraph, I am estimating my Heart Rate at Lactate Threshold to be 160 BPM. The highest this would likely be is 85% of Maximum Heart Rate giving an minimum estimate for my Maximum Heart Rate of 188 BPM.

Given the above two estimates, I am estimating my Maximum Heart Rate is 185 BPM.

Periodization

Periodization seems to be almost universally recognized as a valuable structure for training. Periodization consists of four phases:

Phase	Purpose
Base	Provide a foundation for later training
Build	Maximize fitness for selected event
Taper	Regain energy for the event
Transition	Recovery between events and between one season and another

That said, there seems to be two major schools with regards to what constitutes base training. To use training for a 200k brevet as an example, one school would include mileage increases in base training with the longest ride during base training reaching 150 km. According to this school, the Build phase would add high speed interval training to the regimen. The other school would argue that base training consist of relatively constant, relatively easy training rides and save the mileage increases for the Build phase. Dr. Phillip Maffetone is clearly in the second school, and that is the approach I am currently testing.

Training Zones

Different training regimens have different numbers of training zones. In the following table I have tried to merge zones or interpolate between zones to compare three common training regimens:

Author	Burke & Pavelka		ABCC/BCF		Friel
	Lower BPM	Upper BPM	Lower BPM	Upper BPM	Lower BPM	Upper BPM
Purpose
Recovery	70	118	70	111	70	130
Base Training	120	(137)	111	138	130	142
Aerobic Training	(138)	155	138	151	144	149
Lactate Threshold	157	174	151	164	150	158
Interval Training	176	185	165	185	160	185

Burke & Pavelka is "The Complete Book of Long Distance Cycling" (ISBN 1-57954-199-2). Burke & Pavelka calculate only 4 levels. From my reading of the book, I inferred they merge Base and Aerobic Training, and so split these, interpolating a value (shown in parentheses) half way in between. ABCC/BCF is taken from the Association of British Cycling Coaches/British Cycling Foundation Calculator. Based on their description of what the levels were, I merged the 7 levels calculated into the 5 levels shown here. Friel is from Joe Friel's blog.

Adjusting Dr. Maffetone's Heart Rate

What is Dr. Maffetone's Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate?  It is logical to assume it corresponds to Base Training in the above table, given how it is used. Another way to infer what it might be is to take advantage of the fact that it is calculated based only on age similarly to how Maximum Heart Rate is calculated:
    220 - age = Maximum Heart Rate
    180 - age = Maffetone Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate
If I do a reverse calculation using the HR of 185 BPS I estimated for my Maximum Heart Rate to calculate a "personalized age" of 35 years and then plug that personalized age into Dr. Maffetone's equation, I determine a Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate of 140, consistent with the HR values for Base Training in the above table. Based on these two lines of reasoning, I am now training at a HR of 140 BPS.

Training Results to Date

During my first month of using the Maffetone training regimen, I increased the heart rate of my Maffetone training from 125 to 130 to 140 BPM. I did two types of rides:

1. A 45 minute ride (after warm up and before cool down) at heart rates of 125, 130 BPS or 140 BPS.
2. A 14 mile (just over 1 hour) ride (after warm up and before cool down) at heart rates of 125, 130, or 140 BPS.

If I record the number of miles ridden in 45 minutes, any ride of the first type can be a MAF test. If the Maffetone training is working, then the speed for MAF tests should increase, "within two or three months". These are my results so far:

There is a lot of day to day variability some of which is due to the amount of wind that day. Given that Dr. Maffetone recommends waiting for two to three months before passing judgement and given the large day to day variability, this almost certainly is not enough data to draw a conclusion. I will continue to collect and post data.

More subjectively, I feel like my heart rate has trended lower over this first month of training. I notice this the most during warm up. I also notice that my heart rate tends to drift up over the course of a training session. I notice this in two ways. First, when I hold my heart rate constant over a 45 minute ride, my speed tends to drop. Second, my heart rate is significantly higher on the cool down ride after training than during the warm up ride before training. One final subjective point: even at 140 BPM, I feel like I am holding back, and that I am riding at more slowly than if I were riding at a comfortable pace on a ride lasting several hours.

In summary, I am guardedly optimistic about this training regimen so far. Although there are not enough data to draw objective conclusions, my subjective impression is that my performance is increasing at a constant heart rate. Finally, the regularity of this routine is resulting in my riding on the order of 400 miles each month, a relatively high number of miles for me, giving me some confidence that this is enough training to be of value.

Gaps and Connections

"It's long past the time for us to what I like to say 'string the beads' to connect the [bike] trail segments to connect Houston" Mayor Annise Parker said at a news conference... (Chris Moran, The Houston Chronicle,June 22, 2012)

It has been wonderful living in Houston under two mayors who support cycling, Bill White and Annise Parker. As a result of their stewartships, Houston has experienced a steady improvement in bicycling infrastructure. If I were to make one suggestion for future development of that infrastructure, it would be to look for places where relatively modest investments could produce large gains in functionality. With this in mind, I find Mayor Parker's comments, quoted above, heartening. In this post, I will discuss both places where the existing infrastructure connects nicely together, and places where improvement is in order. As an example, I will be focusing mostly on the Braes Bayou hike and bike trail because that is the part of the infrastructure with which I am most familiar.

As I previously posted, the Coats "bicycle" bridge is gorgeous and wonderful to ride on, and it does make all of Hermann Park available for the first time, but what it doesn't do is significantly extend the Houston cycling infrastructure. Interestingly, some adjacent improvements do just that:

This picture illustrates both an improvement and a gap. The concrete trail coming in from the bottom right of the picture is new, and almost eliminates the dangerous crossing of Alameda Road, greatly facilitating safe cycling all the way from Gessner in the west of Houston to McGregor park in the east. However, in the center of the picture, a few dozen yards of missing trail can be seen. Practically, this is no big deal, this short stretch of dirt is quite ridable. Symbolically, however, it represents a perplexing gap in an otherwise wonderful trail system.

There is a second gap in the trail, between the Coats bridge and the Medical Center:

This short, downhill gap extends from the end of the old trail at the very bottom left of the picture to the start of the new trail on the middle left.

This second gap is the more difficult of the two because of its steepness.  I find neither gap particularly challenging, but my wife has trouble with this second one. To my mind, more important than any real problem these gaps cause is their symbolism. They send the message that the trail is not finished, discouraging people from using it.

In contrast to the gaps noted above, the crossing of highway 288, a freeway that would otherwise represent a very dangerous crossing, has been very nicely done:

Another nice feature of the Braes Bayou trail is east of highway 288. There, the Braes Bayou trail connects with another trail, the Columbia Tap Rails to Trails path:

This is not my favorite bike trail in Houston. For one thing, it crosses a street every block:

However, Columbia Tap does represent a route from the Braes Bayou Trail to downtown Houston, a ride that otherwise would traverse some fairly busy streets. Unfortunately, once it reaches downtown, Columbia Tap dumps you unceremoniously on the east side of downtown with no safe path to anywhere else. In the Houston Chronicle article quoted at the beginning of this post, the focus was on connecting two other trails, the Heights Bike Path (actually a multi-use path) and the Buffalo Bayou path. Should the Columbia Tap path be connected as well, this would result in a continuous path from well to the north of Houston to the south side, and from the west side to the east. In addition to being of great recreational value, this would provide a safe bicycle commute between downtown and the Texas Medical Center as well as to a number of significant residential neighborhoods.

Whether for recreational use or commuting, it is important that major trails, such as the Braes Bayou trail, be connected to the residential neighborhoods they serve. The connection between the Braes Bayou trail and my neighborhood is acceptable if not perfect. I travel to the Braes Bayou trail via Brompton Street, a street not listed on the City of Houston's Bikeways map, but which is listed as a "bicycle friendly" street by Google. I frequently disagree with Google's designation of particular streets as "bicycle friendly" and would rate Brompton Street as a B- at best. By contrast, some of the neighborhoods west of me have better connections, however.

There is a rather unusual connection between the City of Bellaire and the Braes Bayou Trail. The City of Bellaire has a rather nice "super sidewalk" style path along Newcastle Street:

This path terminates at Beechwood street on the border of Bellaire. Just across Beechwood is a sewage treatment path and signage would not encourage one to bicycle through:

And yet, if one persists past these signs into the parking lot, one finds a bike path on the far side:

Definitely a mixed message! And yet, this somewhat confusing route represents a very good connection between bike infrastructure in Bellaire and the Braes Bayou trail.

When I first reviewed the Braes Bayou trail, I commented on two lovely new bridges across the Bayou that had been added:

Although I did not mention it at the time, as much as they were lovely, I wondered if they were the best use of resources. One of them replaced and existing, run down yet popular bridge, so upgrading that was probably a political necessity. The second bridge appeared to be a bridge to nowhere. I revisited this bridge recently and found that connecting paths had been completed and this now represented a connection to a lovely, adjacent neighborhood:

This is what the path looks like as it leaves the neighborhood to cross the bridge to the Braes Bayou trail:

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I would like to close with a rather unrelated point, but one which is of concern to a number of Houston trail users. As part of the very unusual weather we have all been experiencing, Houston has suffered from droughts. The soil in Houston is such that it contracts significantly when dry, and a consequence of that is trail cracks:

This crack is just the right size to hold a bicycle tire. The City of Houston has been diligent at filling these cracks, but as fast as they fill them, new ones open. These are especially dangerous to commuters bicycling home after dark. I don't know what the solution to this is, but it is definitely a "gap" which limits the utility of our otherwise excellent trail system.

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MAF Test Results

My Garmin 500 lost the data for my ride today, so there is no update on MAF testing from what I posted last week. (I will be reviewing the Garmin 500 in a future post.) Next week I will be posting a description of my first month of my aerobic training regimen along with measures of its effectiveness.

Progress on Riding Comfortably

Back in the beginning of September, I posted a discussion of changes I was making to my Surly Crosscheck to make long rides more comfortable; replacing the stock plastic saddle with a Brooks B17 leather saddle and raising the handlebars using a stem extension. At that time, I was limited in how high I could raise the handlebars by the relatively trivial problem of the front brake cable being too short. However, I rode on my bike in that configuration for three months before resolving the brake cable issue. I rode my Surly over 1200 miles with the above changes including four rides of more than 70 miles.

Saddle

On  one of these four rides, I had a minor issue with saddle sores, but I attribute that to dressing incorrectly. My impression is that the saddle sore problem has been reduced by switching from a plastic to a leather saddle, but because this problem is so occasional and only occurs on the longest rides, I am not yet certain of that. I do know I don't enjoy worrying about rain damaging my leather saddle and in that sense the plastic saddle was more practical. However, I intend to continue using the Brooks saddle until experience suggests I do otherwise.

Handlebars

The intermediate increase in handlebar height I used for 1200 miles seemed to significantly reduced the incidence of pain in my neck, arms, shoulders, and hands. However, it was not enough to allow me to use the handlebar drops comfortably.

Recently, have succeeded in replacing the front brake cable and thus getting the handlebars to the maximum height allowed by the stem extension. This photo shows the effect of lengthening the brake cable and raising the handlebars as high as possible:

Note that the stem is now at the top of the extender, with the spacers all below the stem. Previously, the height of the handlebar had been increased by two inches. Now it has been increased by three inches. This turns out to be significant. Immediately after making this change I went on a 17 mile ride and was able to complete the entire ride on the drops, something that I would not have been able to do previously.

This photo shows the impact on the bike as a whole:

The bags on the back of the bike contain approximately 40 pounds of produce. One of the standard rides my wife and I do is to is to Canino's Market, a 20 mile round trip that I will be describing in a future post.

Note that the handlebars are now significantly higher than the seat.

The difference in height between the top and the drops of the handlebars is 6 inches. Thus, riding on the drops, which I could not previously do, positions me about 3 inches lower than previously, and riding on the tops, 3 inches higher. This should give me much more versatility in future rides with one position more aerodynamic than before and a second more comfortable.

My current training regimen calls for short rides; 8 to 14 miles of training preceded and followed by a couple of miles of warm up and cool down. (As the season procedes, I will be both extending these rides as well as adding in a weekly long training ride.) I have been doing the warm up and cool down on the top of the bars and the 8 to 14 miles of training on the drops to become more comfortable with that position. Only time will tell for sure, but so far I am optimistic that my Surly is now configured to make long brevet rides more comfortable.

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MAF TEST RESULTS 

(Heart Rate of 125 BPM)
December   3, 2012: MAF Test = 10.3 MPH
December 10, 2012: MAF Test = 10.8 MPH
December 17, 2012: MAF Test = 12.0 MPH

A MAF test is the average speed for a 45 minute ride at the indicated heart rate, in this case, 125 BPM. I will be reviewing my experience with Dr. Maffetone's aerobic training regimen at the end of one month of training but as promised, I will list the results at the end of each week's blog as well. In my experience so far, there is a fair bit of day to day variation in the results of the MAF test, some due to conditions (e.g. wind), some do to minor variations in health, so a change from one week to the next may not be significant; consistent changes over longer times will probably be a better indicator of real improvement.

According to Dr. Maffetone's regimen, the heart rate at which one does a MAF test should be the same as the heart rate at which one trains. For reasons that I will explain at the end of the month, I have been increasing my training heart rate but leaving the heart rate for the tests constant.