Allen Hunter's Seminar on Power Training

I went to Hunter Allen’s seminar last Saturday. He was the co-author of the book called: “Training and Racing with a Power Meter”. After reading Joe Friel’s Cyclist Training Bible numerous times, this book serves not only as a supplement, but also provides a lot of new ideas in terms of training. That’s why despite the hefty registration fee, when I heard he’s coming to Pittsburgh to give a seminar, I couldn’t give up this opportunity.

My first impression of Allen Hunter is, “my, this guy looks like a business executive on the Wall street”. However, as I listened to his speech, I was deeply drawn, although my interest in the topic was also a factor. I think the reason of his success at presentation could be the following factors:

1. Did not linger on one slide for too long: He didn’t spend more than one minute on one slide on average, even though some slides are overwhelming. This also made the pace of the presentation flowing.
2. Relate himself to the audience: He referred to the terrain and the Thrift drug race in Pittsburgh a couple of times, and it really made the audience pay attention.
3. More bodily movement, but not excessive: One of the common guideline in giving good presentation is to refrain from doing some meaningless bodily movement, such as scratching your face. But good bodily movement actually makes the presentation livelier. When referring to some experience during his rides, he would similar a riding position – waist bent, hands holding a bar. And this really made us being able to share his experience better.
4. Change of tone: I was notorious in this aspect. More than once I was told by my audience that my voice was so flat that people were falling asleep because of it. Hunter would occasionally change his tone to that of a BBC news narrator to stress something he thought ridiculous.

More on what I’ve learned in the seminar later…

How to Stop the Chocolate Rain?

Hello, it's me again - Gordon. But right now I feel like CHAD VADER - trying to be someone in control but failed miserably. Why am I saying this? That's because I could see the long-hard road ahead of me as a sports medicine researcher, but I feel like I can't do anything to make it smoother. I had a discussion with a junior faculty in the school, for the job market in this field in US. He described how difficult it is. How hard? Let's put it this way, it's like being in a large company like Microsoft, and you are working your way up to become the CEO.

Tony, an accomplished PhD student in our lab and a very promising sports medicine researcher, told me how a license in clinical field such as athletic training and physical therapy could help me secure more jobs. There are different levels of research institutes in US. Level one institute means a position which you could do solely research and have no teaching responsibility, but these positions are VERY VERY competitive and hard to come by. There are a bit more level two institutes, but they require employees to teach classes. Level three institutes are more numerous, but need employees to do not only research, but also teaching and clinical works. And this is where clinical licenses become very handy. They translate to more job opportunities and places where you could fall back.

I talked to Anne, my fellow master student and a very good physical therapist, about applying for PT license in US. She said she had already explored this possibility because she originally wanted to apply for a PT master program and work in clinics to pay for her tuition. And her inquiries turned up negative. It seems most physical therapy boards in US adopt a policy to protect graduates from native physical therapy program, and physical therapists trained in foreign countries have to take a lot of make-up courses, even though they may have took similar ones already back in their countries, to be eligible to take the board exam for license. These make-up courses are so numerous that it might be easier just to do the whole undergraduate program again. However, I don't really care about doing clinical works anyway. From my experience during PT internship, I had to stretch my nerves to the point of breaking every day from interacting with patients, and by the end of the week, I just didn't want to be near any human beings. I just don't see myself working as a clinician in the future.

I understand a lot of people have no choice but to do the jobs they don't fit in. For example, a lot of MD students switched their profession to math, arts, or something totally unrelated to medicine, once they got their MD license and worked enough to pay for their tuition loan. I must be very grateful to my parents for allowing me to skip this process, but now I have to face the reality - this is going to be an uphill battle.

Now I feel like singing Chad Vader favorite song - "Chocolate rain" with my own lyrics:
" CHOCOLATE RAIN!!!
I went down a road filled with obstacles.
CHOCOLATE RAIN!!!
I don't see any way to make it easier.
CHOCOLATE RAIN!!!
...
...
...
Tell me how could I stop the chocolate rain,
CHOCOLATE RAIN!!!"


P.S. Watch the full episode 1-8 of Chad Vader at Blame society film

How Bicycling Change My Life - Looking toward Future (Part II)

The Phily race was the last race I've done in 2007 - actually I've done only 2 races this year. I have to admit doing collegiate races just don't fit my schedule at all. I don't have the luxury of time to do consecutive race weekends in places which take 7-8 hours of driving. The only way to get around this is to do USCF races, but then there are only a couple of them around Pittsburgh, and I won't be able to get club support, such as transportation. This means I'll have to buy a car.

Several factors come in the decision of how to prioritize my goals as well. I still need to perform my primary duty well enough, so that I can find a job which can support my racing, preferably in US. Now why do I want to stay in US? I believe to fully develop my racing potential, I need to be in a place where racing system is more structured. And I am less likely to find a job in sports medicine back in Taiwan, too.

As people I've known at my age are getting married or at least have girl friends, I also wondered if I am an oddball for not doing the same. It's not that I don't enjoy the company of an attractive girl, it's just that I don't think things will go well from the types of girls around me - so why bother wasting the time? I've learned this from my pursuit of a law school girl. At first I really thought I might be able to work something out between time spending with the girl and riding, but then in the end it's just too much for me. And I also consider myself as I guy who have problem managing my time well, so before I can take care of myself better, I don't think I am good for anyone.

Considering these, my first objective for 2007-2008 is to attain my master degree in Sports Medicine. I should, and only if I get my thesis completed, be able to continue for PhD in Pittsburgh. I will then get a car, which will give me more options in terms of racing.

Nevertheless, as I see to the future, I can picture myself continue training and racing my bikes. I wish I could ride up the Alps in my 90s, or at least be like the guy below.

How Bicycling Change My Life - a Revision of my Past (Part I)

I presented "Bike fitting and Performance Testing" to the Panther Cycling Club last Thursday. It's really nice to have the opportunity to present my enthusiasm to people. Also, while preparing my slides, I added a section of my bibliography, which allowed me to looked into the past and saw the future.

I had never thought I would embrace cycling as a lifestyle until I got a meniscus rupture at 1998, which limited my physical activities to non-weight bearing exercises. Before that, my favorite pastime was playing PC games. Now when I look back at that period, I really wish I was riding bikes instead of sitting in front of computers all day. But then, if it wasn't my knee injuries, I probably wouldn't have picked up cycling at all. So, I guess I have to be grateful of my knee injuries.



I was luck enough to have a bicycle club in my school during my undergrad. I learned to love cycling as a lifestyle through the influence of the club members, especially in terms of using bicycles as means of traveling. I did a 12-day 750-mile bicycle tour around Taiwan in my second year of undergrad, and it still remains as one of my fondest memory.



As fun as bicycle touring was, something seemed missing when I compared it with playing PC games. Playing PC games gave me a measurable goal and exhilaration when I attained it, especially when I was feeling frustrated with my "primary" duty - schoolwork. I realized I had to get a replacement for this aspect of my life. The solution was given to me during my summer session at Berkeley at 2002. I brought my bike with me to ride with the Berkeley cycling team - as you can see, I already felt the need to be with my bikes wherever I went. Under their encouragement, I joined the first race in my life, and crashed! But I started to love racing and training.


After I went back to Taiwan, I started doing as many races as I can, with some success. Several of my friends and I also started a racing team called "EUAQ", which I am really proud to be one of them.


2003 Race of North Coast


2004 Mt. Ba-Tur Race


2006 Race of North Coast


2006 Tour of Eastern Taiwan


2006 Mt. Ta-Tun race

Running with Individual Body Armor (IBA)

Boy, was that heavy! I was doing this as part of the pilot data collection for our DOD project. That IBA was about 21 lb in total, which may not be much, but when you were doing a VO2max running test with that thing on, it really made it a lot harder. My lactate level was about 6 mmole throughout the test, and the time to fatigue was 9 min shorter than when not wearing the IBA.

My niece and I at the Yellow Stone park

On the Use of Training Video

Dear All:

For those who ventured out riding during rain, I salute you! But for me, if I look out the window and see more than 10 ripples in a rain puddle, I’d ride indoors instead. Because I know if I go out and ride in that weather, I’d get soaked before I warm up, and hinder the quality of training.

As my lab has a fix office hour of 8 am to 5 pm, I can never train in the day time, except if you count bike commuting as training. So I am always training on trainers. In fact, I feel this helps improve the quality of training in that there isn’t any interruption during intervals. For example, the M2 workout described by Cyclist’s Training Bible requires a course where you can ride continuously for 6-12 minutes. I think it is possible to do that around Schenley Park, but for those who live farther it’d be problematic. Also, even on a course like that, you still have to spare some energy to look out for traffic, which prevents you from going all-out (unless you’re a never-check-the-traffic daredevil).

So how’s this related to training video? Well, doing intervals is never fun – it takes a lot of motivation to do it. I used to watch Tour de France when doing intervals, and it’s not just for watching the action, the audio – especially the cheers from the spectators – really boosted my stamina. Recently, I bought a combo of CTS training video, thinking they may work better because they are – training videos! However, after looking at the details of the training sessions, I feel they are only suitable for the training phase around Base 3 and Build 1. Because the interval time is too long for Base 1-2 and too short for Build 2. For example, the Steady State Intervals (equivalent of M2) prescribed in Climbing DVD is 10 minute effort with 5 minute recovery, but when I started doing intervals at Base 2, I was having problem with even 6 minutes! And for Build 2, I’d like to do 20-40 minute effort instead of just 10 minutes. Because of this, instead of following the sessions in the video, I just trained with my own programs and used the video as motivation. Interestingly, I found the instruction of Chris Carmichael quite encouraging, especially when he asked people to envision coming near the summit at the last few minutes of intervals.

Therefore, my suggestion about using training videos is that, depending on the training programs in the videos and the fitness of the users, it may not be suitable for everyone. I think it is critical that you know what and when you are during the seasons, and adjust your training programs accordingly. I once skipped the Base periods and worked directly from Build periods because of a race coming in less than 1 month, and found myself having hard time adapting to the training. Don’t make the same mistake as I did.

P.S. For those who don’t know about the training periods, please see below: