Training Log Archive: dolph

Ütliberg-Antenna Trail-Home. VAM of 1004 up to the Üetliberg.

Evening ride on my usual loop Zoo-Maur-Witikon. After reading a lot about VAM, Dr. Michele Ferrari's measurement of climbing performance, I was curious what kind of values I ride when riding fast but not really hard. So I measured the splits on both clims, the one up to the Zoo and the one up to Witikon. VAM basically expresses the number of meters climbed in one hour. For example, climbing a 500m hill in 30min equals a VAM of 1000m/h. VAMs are higher on steeper climbs, hence one can not compare them 1-to-1 but they give an indication. My correspnding VAMs were 1040 and 1140m/h, respectively. How does that compare to the climbing kings? Follwing a quote from Ferrari's observations during the Giro 07:

"In the hardest stage of this Giro 2007, it was a fierce battle since the first climb, and the endurance of the cyclists was toughly put to a test.
The pink jersey group, after the Passo S. Pellegrino, was climbing the Passo Giau (10km at 9% average gradient) at 1627 m/h, the Passo Tre Croci (8km at 7%) at 1450 m/h, while the last 4 km at 12% of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo were devoured by Di Luca in 15'30" (1780 m/h), with Simoni and Cunego at 1700 m/h, Schleck at 1672 m/h, and the excellent Mazzoleni and Riccò, both for a long time in breakaways, at 1650 m/h."

The highest VAM I was reading about was achieved in the Vuelta 2002 by Heras (1900m/h) while Amstrong was riding VAMs of about 1550-1750m/h during the TdFs. His VAMs are lower because passes tend to be flater in the TdF than in the Giro.

My values are even poorer since the climb today was very short compared to the cited hills. In order to reach a VAM of 1600 on the Witikon climb, I would have had to ride it in 6:15, instead, I had 8:45. When riding all-out, I'd probably only come slightly below 8min.

It's a long way to the top...

C • well, I guess there is a diffe... 3

Evening ride on my home loop (Zoo-Maur), easy pace. Felt much better than yesterday.

Bin heute mit Dennis auf dem Velo gewesen...wäre am Morgen lieber liegengeblieben und hätte weitergekuschelt....er auch. dann vier stunden auf dem velo gefahren und die minuten gezählt, bis ich wieder nach Hause zu Nadia konnte :).

C • aha, 6

Event: WOC 2007
 

Warming the legs up for tomorrow. Started after 8pm, it was pretty dark when I returned home.

Event: Bohemia 5-day
 

Riding to work from home, via Rappi, 34.8km. Felt ok.

Riding home from work, via Luegeten. Feusisberg-Schönenberg, Hirzel, Horgen, Thalwil. Was for the first time in "old Thalwil", wow, didn't know that Thalwil can be that nice! 40.7km

My first wake board experience. My back is very sore today, hope everthing is ok as I fell quite hard once.

After riding for 200m, it started to pour, so I returned home...

2nd part of Nationalpark Bike Marathon, Livigno-Scuol, via the gruel Caschauna pass. I tried to ride the Caschauna (2694m) pass despite only having 2 gears on the crankset. It was very tough and I also had to push the bike 3x for about 100m in total and the path right after the hut. The facts: 3.6km and 630m climbing, avg. of 17.6%... The trail down to the Engadin was again worldclass. I was suprised to see that the road from S-chanf to Scuol is so hilly... an endless up and down, was very tired when we reached our car back in Scuol.
So in total, we had approx. 10h for the whole bike marathon course, the record is 6h...
Some pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/shuesler/2007_08_06_Bi...

MTB day tour in Livigno with my dad. This was one of my best MTB rides ever, will definitively ride it again! 80% single trails in beautiful nature... - Who's in next time??
We started from our hotel in Livigno, then went up to a trail on the south part of the valley, getting into the "Passo d'Eiria" road, the on a single trail back from the pass into the "Passo di Foscagno" road, following the road until the peak (where I had a battle with three other bikers... :) ), then down to Vezzola, up the valley to Btta trelina (2238), down to the restraurant of Casinte di Trela and via a little pass into the Val Pila where a 7km (!) singletrails is waiting to go down to Livigno. This trails is just outstanding, built for MTB, not difficult to ride but highly enjoyable.

Event: Scottish 6-Days
 

An evening ride up the Wehrenbachtobel to Forch, down via the Küsnachtertobel. However, the Küsnachtertobel is no longer exciting to ride... :(

Hiking from Sternenberg to Hörnli and back, with Nadia.

C • back in training? 1