Focus over Four Quarters
1) This week we turn to Lee Krasner for our art inspiration. Her painting The Seasons is in our banner. Ever
Krasner was overlooked as a pinter and her more popular (and appreciated) partner Jackson Pollock. Her work is the splash page for this post.
since believing Joan Miro was a woman, I vowed to do more women’s art and cycling in class. I knew the name Lee Krasner from my admiration of Jackson Pollock. But like Frida Kahlo and Elaine de Kooning, it took the art world a while to appreciate Krasner. Forty years after her death, her popularity has never been greater.
2) I’ve always wondered if Krasner was aware of her greatness. I’m slowly working my way through a fantastic book called Ninth Street Women, which details the lives of the women invovled in the New York art scene of the 1950s and 1960s. It’s a fab read.
3) Cycling is full of similar stories, not acclaim after death, but riders who began cycling later in life and then realized their prowess on two wheels. Emily Newsom began cycling seriously after having a baby in her early thirties. Several years later, this article provides a fine synopsis, she was in the world tour and racing in the Tour de France! She recently moved to gravel and now participates in Lifetime’s Gravel Race Series.
4) Newsom saw early success in cycling which boosted her confidence to seek more challenging goals. For most indoor cyclists, more challenging goals can be hard to come by. Success is often measured in how many classes you’ve taken. Rarely do the content of the classes come into question. Our push for seven-minute intervals, up from five last month, is my way of creating a challenge. I’d argue that pedaling for seven minutes straight is a worthy achievement. As the great John Wooden said, “Never confuse activity for achievement.”
5) This week’s profile consists of four 7-minute intervals, with the last being a time trial. How confident are you in pedaling for seven minutes straight?
6) If you answered no, lack of focus, may be to blame. Many start off too fast and can’t maintain the pace. As opposed to losing your breath continuously, we seek
Understanding the energy zones is key to building your endurance.
consistent performance. We’ve teased the idea of the sweet spot (about 80% - 95% of your FTP) for a a few weeks — see prior post. This is the space where you are maximizing intensity and training volume. Sweet spot training is essential as it provides a balance of intensity and duration (time) — i.e. endurance. If you encountered success in our five-minute blocks, bring that same energy to the seven-minute efforts. What’s two extra minutes?
7) The New York Times provided a new take on endurance as it relates to art. They ask, “Can you spend ten minutes with a painting?” They recently used Kranser’s “The Seasons” in their series of paintings. The ability to focus on the large and small details of a painting is no different than endurance training. Yes, the full effort is seven minutes, but can you break it down into smaller segments? Identify signs of fatigue? Be willing to find pleasure in the small details — changing hand position on the bars or moving around in the saddle?
8) Speaking of endurance. I recently rewatched this movie called Fair Chase. The premise, inspired by the movie/book Born to Run, is that humans can outrun any animal. So these endurance runners look to chase down an antelope. I won’t give away the ending, but let’s just say that the animals have gotten smarter since the Stone Age. Us humans, I”‘m not quite sure if the same is true.
9) We continue our series on types of cyclists. The domestique, or helper, is one of the humblest roles in professional sports. They carry water bottles for teammates, pace team leaders up climbs, and leadout in the sprint before the team superstar overtakes them and goes for the win. Cycling is a team sport with individual winners. Akin to a basketball game, where only the person who makes the game-winning basket is given a medal. If not for the team, that opportunity would not have existed. One difference in cycling is that the winner often shares the prize with the team, sometimes not even taking their share. It’s always about the team. Many successful cyclists end their careers as domestiques — British great Lizzie Deignen, now in her final year as a professional cyclist, talks about her transition to a domestique here.
Brought a tear to my eye …