Team behind the Team

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RDO (Rostered Day Off)

After 9 days of racing this morning we finally had the opportunity to not be woken by an alarm clock. The first rest day was finally here and has given us all a chance to take stock of the weeks that's past since the giro began and look at what we are going to try and achieve moving forward. More importantly it gives the body a chance to absorb some recovery and freshness and get rid of it's arch rival fatigue before the race really ramps as we finally hit the mountains. 



So what happens on a rest day for us riders? It's funny as I was scratching my head this morning thinking the same thing, what on earth am I going to do today?? When finally i realized it is no different from an easy day at home when you have just finished an intense period of training. Just because your at a bike race it does not mean you need to avert away from routines you have built up over years and years of training and racing. The only difference is that there seems to be some much significance placed on this day by all those involved with the race that makes you think perhaps you should be doing some extra special like sleep for 22hrs, leaving a couple of hours for eating! But really it's not the case at all.



I woke at a nice pleasant hr of 9am and was super excited to see that my resting heart rate which we take every day along with blood pressure was the lowest I had been all week. Perhaps a sign that my body had finally finished it's battle with the bronchitis and I was finally back in A1 health, thanks the conclusion I will draw anyway! I strolled down to breaky, was not so hungry as I had the mother of all schnitzels last night at the auto grill which I reckon probably measured 60cm in diameter and weight half a kg. I am pretty confident that it will give me a back up fuel supply to last well beyond the final 2 weeks of this giro. From there we assembled the troops for a lazy 90min spin on the bikes. The mechanics really looked after us today and had fitted our bikes with compact cranksets which every rider duly indulged in a light effortless pedal in the 36 tooth small chainring! The legs just loved the opportunity to spin freely without having to feel like you were doing a 100 deep squat every time you turned the pedals as has been the case due to the rain of the past few days.



Following the ride was lunch and time to focus again on racing tomorrow by ensuring the fueling of the tank process begins correctly. So some pasta, ham, and mozzarella along with the customary side salad were in abundance on the table. After lunch I decided to try my hand at the greatest invention I have ever heard of, the "siesta", and zoned out for an hr or so. Took the opportunity to catch up with a good mate of mine Todd Skipworth on the telephone whom if you don't know and follow triathlon you will know alot about him very soon. He has been a member of the national rowing team for past 7 years, competed in the Beijing Olympics, was world champion in 2011, worlds silver in 2010, and more recently 4 in the London Olympics. Following the Olympics he decided he would pursue his other passion being triathlon and by january had already earnt his pro license and a few weeks ago finished 4th in a half ironman in Asia on his pro dubut however should have 2nd if not the winner had he not been sent the wrong way on the Nike course. When it comes to talent skippy has the name and the class to shine as Australia's next big thing in triathlon, that's for sure. So was great to catch up with him and share some perspectives on 2 different professional sports.



Next up it was massage time and now some down time before dinner to write my blog and get focused and organized for tomorrow. As always these easy days simply go way to fast, it's a result of you being so tired that you want the day to last as long as possible! Unfortunately the opposite always occurs. Having said that after my very pedestrian like performance's in the first week I am champing at the bit to get stuck into the next phase of the race. I have felt absolutely horrible at time this weeks and to finally be able to take a deep breath again and also sniff the roses is something have been craving every moment of every stage! I have no idea how I would have been affected by my sickness but i certainly felt a lot better yesterday so all things being equal I am confident this progression will continue.



One thing I was interested to observe today was what our team of tireless staff get up to on a recovery day? As you can see by the photo it is far from a recovery for them, if not an even busier day than usual. As you can see by the photo they are all hard at work from well before us riders lift an eyelid. I opened the window as soon as I woke and the picture was what I found, they are simply the back bone to the team. I took the time to have a chat with the mechanics and masseurs to ask what they did and basically the day without racing give them the chance to catch up on all the not so important things that have pushed aside during the first week and then once that's done start to do any many things as possible to ensure they can make the next week of racing as efficient as possible for us riders of the bike. So mechanics are preparing bikes and wheels for specific hard mountain stages like tomorrow, reorganizing all the bits and pieces in there big truck so they know exactly where everything is at all times, and basically ensuring that they are that well prepared should anything go wrong they have anticipated it and can get ontop of it ASAP. 



The masseurs who's job descriptions is far from just dishing out the odd massage are on much the same schedule with all there bits and pieces. A trip to the supermarket to stock up on supplies and ensure none of us ever go wanting for anything. Offering to do any extra washing like our tracksuits, pj's and any other garments of clothing that after a week are starting to become let's just say a little on the nose. If any rider has any little highly injuries then extra time can be allocated to tending to that to avoid any potential problems and then to top it all off give us all our daily massage on top of all this extra work they have taken upon themselves to do on our day of rest. I feel terrible asking them do anything as you know they will always say yes, no is simply not part of there vocabulary as they take there jobs as seriously as us riders. For them i am sure its as much of an adrenaline rush to see us succeed when perhaps they have given us a massage or prepared that banana and honey sandwich they saw you munch down before piling on the pressure on the front of the field. A mechanic can admire the way Elia viviani pumps over 1400watts through his cannondale evo as he goes head to head with cavendish. Knowing he pumped up those tyres and oiled up that bottom bracket to ensure Elia gets every bit of bang for his buck as he turns the bike inside side out. In my own personal opinion to perform this work could not be jus for the sake of it, these guys and sometimes there is the odd women working on teams, are so passionate that's it's simply infectious. A cycling team is an environment where people fuel of each and everyone involved and ultimately success breeds success. It's just so awesome to have such unconditional support meaning all we have to do is the easy part!! turn the pedals! Oh and of course I cannot forget our legendary bus driver lucio who's absolute pride and joy is his cannondale pro cycling team bus! What does the bus driver do on his day off?? Well as you can see by the picture he is up early giving it good wash and polish to ensure that everyone that walks past our team bus can use it as a mirror and straighten up there hair! There is no other way to describe them, the staff are just absolute machine.



So the rest day 1 is now just about in the books for 2013. I certainly feel fresher than I did this morning so from my personal perspective I reckon I have performed I pretty good giorno di riposo!



Cjw

Survival

The 1st phase of the Giro wrapped up today with tomorrow being the 1st rest day and from my point of view most anticipated day for the entire 1st week. Since getting crook on the eve of the race the plan has simply been to survive the first week and hopefully improve in the process and use the rest day to reset and recharge and start phase 2 of the giro in a whole lot more comfort! Most importantly without bronchitis.

On paper todays stage 9 had breakaway written all over it and with this type of stage also had pain and suffering written all over it in the first 30km before a break would form! True to the script everyone was lined up early for a good position on the start line and of we went a bullet a gate. There were the usual crashes as overly eager riders tried to pinch an extra position further forward that was only half there and as usual this added to the stress. Attack followed attack and finally after 20km vincenso nibali, the race leader, peeled of to the side of the rd for a nature break signifying he was happy with the group up the rd and the rest of the day would be controlled by his astana men in light blue. I woke this morning feeling a little better than yesterday and was certainly looking for a chance to get up the rd. Unfortunately my lack of bit in my bark for pushing forward meant I did not a chance to stretch the legs of the front of the bunch but I was happy that I did atleast see the group form and got a bit more of an idea of how and when these very selective breakaways form. To give you an idea the group formed at the top of 10km drag between 3-5% and at the time the peleton was split into 3 groups so as we were only 20km into the stage highlights how ferocious the pace can be at the start of a bike race. I did make one push to chage forward in search of that freedom but my lungs quickly reminded me there would be no charging around the peleton at 600+ watts to attack of the front today. Yet again I consigned myself to another day of recovery knowing that really the race is really just beginning. With the break gone and astana on the front the cannondale train swarmed to the front around our GC captain Damiano Caruso who had shown 2 days ago that should the race get hard and scrappy in the final km then he was a hard man that could handle those conditions and was keen to again mix it with the best.

Once we hit the first of 2 longer climbs I finally started feeling good. Felt like I had done for the first part of the season where I have been enjoying every climb I come across. The same could not be said for this week however and this week I have been reminded oh to heavily of the rate at which fortunes can change in this sport especially regarding you condition. 10 days ago I could barely feel the pedals, since then my legs have literally felt like concrete. Anyways todays was an awesome feeling to feel those good sensations again and I can only prey that it continues. Atop the first climb all was tickedy boo, damiano was in a perfect position up front and I began my stressless role down the other side. At the bottom we had no longer hit a flat section of rd when we immediately headed uphill again. I must have been feeling good as it was not until 3km from the top of a 9km climb that I actually realized we were on the climb. I immediately rolled up toward the front and only 1km from the top I was sitting in a perfect position next to the Astana train on the front, damiano in close proximity and all was going as well as possible in the pouring rain in May in Italy. At this point my day started to go pear shaped. People started to get edgy for front position on the decent and the pace started to surge. My heartrate started to spike and immediately my chest bit me hard and I felt like I was choking. All this happening just 500m from the top of the climb. I retreated to the back of the bunch hoping to recover which I did and once the rd pointed downward I was ready to rock on again. Unfortunately I had had my last view of the front. The rain was teaming on the decent and riders were being gapped left right and centre. From the safety of last position in the main field I had no idea if I was 1min or 10min behind the front! With 10km of these wet rds to descend I was pretty well aware of the the fact that by the time I got the bottom the front would be long gone. And so it was, sir wiggo had taken the cautious option down the decent and his rivals teams decided to try and put the nail in his coffin. As a result my leisurely dordle down the hill meant I was further back than full back quicker than I could wipe the mud and water from my glasses to see what was happening ahead of me. So the final 25km resembled the same as most days this week, a gentle stroll to the finish in firenze. The good news was damiano was safely in the front selection and was galantly waving the Cannondale flag amongst the big stars of the race. At the line the early breakaway would occupy the first 4 positions and damiano sprinted to an impressive 9th possi after such a hard stage so was great to see him finishing the week so strongly.

Rest days are often preceded by long transfers and this evening was no different. 350km on our luxurious bus awaited us after the finish which did not worry me one bit. A chance to chew the fat with the boys, catch up on some internet and of course refil the tank after 5hrs in the tuscan hills and rain! What impressed me most about the trip however was the efficiency of our incredible staff and in this case the masseurs. They work like absolute trogen horses day in day out, generally surviving on between 6-7hrs sleep for the entire 3 weeks. They don't miss a beat and are such an integral part of the smooth running of the team. An example was today during our long bus trip when we stopped for dinner at a truck stop or as they are called here, an autogrill. While all the riders rushed inside to feed there faces I spotted the masseurs putting our dirty race cloaths in the washing machines which are underneath the bus. By the time we had fed our faces and returned to the bus for the final 100km of our journey our washing was cleaned and waiting for us in our washing bags at each of our respective seats on the bus which we commandere at the beginning of races we attend throughout europe. I am sure its a small thing to the staff but to me seeing this commitment and organisation really gave me a whole new appreciation for these legends. Seeing things like that really stick in your mind and I will be certain to use there dedication and commitment to helping us attain success on the road as added motivation next time I am needing to ask Myself the hard suffering question in a race.

Race data

180km 4hrs 50min

Average heart rate 133

Average power 235 watts

CJW

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TT

I am pretty sure that this was perhaps the most anticipated TT I have experienced in my years racing a bike. The course on paper had many guessing what may or may not happen with the big favourites today and in the end I don't think anyone would have guessed how it all turned out. The rumours of how technical and difficult the course was were rife, who it may and may not suit, and most of all everyone wanted to see what the next chapter in Sir Wiggo's dominance against the clock was going to be.

As it turned out the british did win with young alex dowsett. His victory and the presence of so many specialists including turbo durbo durbridge from australia in the top 10 proved that it was a true TT course however also had a bit for the climbers to ensure they had a chance to avoid loosing big chunks of time. All in all I think it was an excellent course and had you done your home work then you could have really capitalised on the techniqual sections.

In Casa cannondale today was far from an objective. Only one of us, paolo longo borgini had seen the course and it was just a case of getting through and taking advantage of an easier day in the saddle. Having said that it is never easy at world tour level as if you go too slow there is a risk of missing the time limit so its important to maintain a solid rhythm to ensure your kicked out of the race at days end. At 54km in length it was by far the longest TT I had ever done and even had a designated feed zone to reload on gels and a water bottle after 30km, this was certainly novel! The course started very techniqual with more up than down for 20km and never a straight section of rd in sight, they seem to do a good job of building twisty up and down rds in this part of italy! After 20km the rd opened up and was certainly a final 30km for TT specialists with big wide straight roads and a couple of power climbs thrown in for good measure. The most interesting part of the course for me however was save for the final km which pitched up to 16%, it meant that after plowing along at 50-55kmph for the past 20km you were all of sudden flat out doing 12-15kmph and taking 2minutes to climb the final 400m! That was a real good little trap! So all in all it was a fantastic course and most importantly offered a little bit for all.

My goal was simple. Get from start to finish as quickly as possible without crashing, burning too much energy, and ensuring I don't aggravate my bronchitis which was almost gone this morning so did not want to jeopize my recovery. I did an nice casual warmup, 30minutes easy on the home trainer and figured I would warm up properly once on course in the first 3km which all went uphill. I also wanted to ensure that I maintained the same power throughout the day which I decided would be between 370-400 watts when I was pushing on the pedalable sections. I started and felt great and instantly was pushing a little harder than was my objective! My legs not wanting to suffer Karma would quickly slap my in the face as I nearly overshot the first corner. From that moment 500m into my ride I reverted to plan A and took all corners a little slower than tourist pace! I was confident I could push well on the flats so was not going to risk anything on the corners. On a course like this if you have not done your recon you have to simply swallow your poison and take it steady to avoid any dramas.

It came as no surprise to me that a Movistar rider won as I was caught and passed by juan hose cobo on a technical section and no quicker had he flashed passed he was out of sight I split second later. I began to pull him back on a flat section as the course opened up a bit but after a few more technical sections he was out of sight again. His team had obviously done considerable homework on the lay out of the course and it in the end it showed that this preparation helped to deliver a stage win. Sure the riders aboard there bikes are also supreme athletes but seeing cobo hit the corners and stories of other Movistar riders on the techniqual sections that have circulated since the race was won and won would indicate that going the extra mile so to speak has really shown out on the results sheet. Its really impressive to see teams doing this type of recon and research which historically I hear has not been so much a part of professional cycling. Its often been seen that the anglo teams lead the way with this but certainly the Spaniards from Movistar showed today that attention to detail is spreading thick and fast through the peleton.    

So after having my helmet sucked off by cobo I continued on my tentative way when required and opened up the throttle a bit on the flat straight sections. All was going to plan and I was still sitting in my power zone while pedalling and at the end of the day would average 356 watts. The average is a little lower than my target power zone due to the fact that there was a considerable amount of time that I was not actually pedalling! Anyways with a 155 average heart rate I achieved my objective of getting to the finish as quickly as possible without suffering to much, staying on top of my bike, and most importantly not antagonising my bronchitis so I was a happy little vegemite at the finish line.

Tomorrow we hit the first longer mountains so I am looking forward to getting stuck into that.

CJW   

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Stupid Programming Trick No. 17 -- Hacking EPMA's Planning Time Distribution

The problem

A Planning 11.1.2.2 application was created with the wrong Time Distribution option. Oops. And no one noticed until the UAT. Double oops. The real oopsie in this is that once created, a Planning application CANNOT change its Time Distribution. For the uninitiated, this is the spread from upper level Time Periods members like YearTotal or quarters to lower level members. It defaults to an even spread or can be optionally set to fiscal calendar 445, 454, or 544 spreads. Again, this is a one-time shot, so whoever creates the application had best mind his p’s and q’s. Which didn’t happen. Like I wrote, oops.

The hunt for the guilty and his inevitable gruesome punishment shall await Cameron’s Star Chamber. I am waiting for HM The Queen to appoint me Privy Councillor so I may begin the joyous prosecution.

 

Putting that happy day aside, oh may it come, and soon, let’s start figuring out how to fix this oopsie without recreating the Planning application.

NB – We are going to go faaaaaaar beyond what Oracle recommends, supports, or will even give you the time of day on if you FUBAR this and then call Oracle Support. It is an interesting hack, and maybe the exigency of your situation calls for it, but know that you do this at your own risk. You Have Been Warned.

 

The beginning of the fix

Dave Farnsworth found Celvin’s Kattookarn’s blog post with the code to change the Even split to 4-5-4 in the Planning application.

 

Here’s the code to transform the Planning application (this is in the Planning app’s schema/database). In this example, it is to change it from Even to 4-5-4. NB – This is in SQL Server but I think it’s identical in PL/SQL except for the COMMIT commands.

 

USE HYP_PLN_ChgSprd

GO

/*

0 = even spread

1 = 4-4-5

2 = 4-5-4

3 = 5-4-4

*/

--Flip from Even to 4-4-5

BEGIN TRANSACTION ;

update hsp_systemcfg set support445='2';

update hsp_account set use_445 ='2' where use_445 ='0';

COMMIT TRANSACTION ;

So problem sorted, yes? 

 

Oops, not entirely

Did I mention this was an EPMA application? Ah, no I did not. And it’s important.

 

After making the above change, and bouncing the Planning service, deploys from EPMA work until there is a change to hierarchy. When that happens, the deploy fails with the below error message:

[May 9, 2013 1:38:35 PM]: Parsing Application Properties...Done

[May 9, 2013 1:38:35 PM]: Parsing Dimensions info...Done

[May 9, 2013 1:38:35 PM]: Registering the application to shared services...Done

[May 9, 2013 1:38:36 PM]: You cannot change the Weeks Distribution after deploying. You must select 454 as the Weeks Distribution before redeploying the application.[May 9, 2013 1:38:36 PM]: An Exception occurred during Application deployment.: You cannot change the Weeks Distribution after deploying. You must select 454 as the Weeks Distribution before redeploying the application.

Btw, here is what EPMA had selected – it’s Even, not 4-5-4. But Planning is 4-5-4. KABOOM.

The research

So a dive into the EPMA tables seems to be in order to change that “Use application distribution” to “Use 454 distribution”.

 

I took a look at the EPM data models to get a feel for what’s going on under the covers. The EPMA schema is pretty sparsely documented, to put it mildly, but after a fair bit of blundering about, I figured out that I needed to look at the DS_Property_Application table and its c_property_value field.

 

Alas, the documentation does not tell you what the property value should be for the time spread or even the property id number. So I created a bunch of different Planning apps, each with a different Time Spread and came up with the following possible settings when I interrogated that field:

• Even
• 445
• 454
• 544

 

Once I knew what to search for wrt the setting, I then needed to figure out the application id and the property member id. With those two (I only want to change one setting, and I only want to do it for the right app) pieces of information, I can write an UPDATE query to fix the spread issue in EPMA. 

 

What application, what property?

I wrote this query to get that information, knowing that the application name is ChgSprd:

 

SELECT

A.c_application_name

,P.*

FROM DS_Property_Application P

INNER JOIN DS_Application A ON

A.i_application_id = P."i_application_id"

AND A.i_library_id = P.i_library_id

WHERE

A.c_application_name = 'ChgSprd'

AND c_property_value = 'Even'

When looking at the below, it looks like that the setting is repeated for each deploy of the application

c_application_name	i_library_id	i_application_id	i_prop_def_dimension_id	i_prop_def_member_id	c_property_value
ChgSprd	1	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	87	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	88	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	89	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	90	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	91	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	92	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	93	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	94	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	95	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	96	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	97	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	98	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	99	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	100	7	1	346	Even
ChgSprd	101	7	1	346	Even

The important bits are: this is application id 7 and the property id is 346. NB – I have been able to test this on completely different system – 346 is the property that contains the time distribution and the i_application_id varies. You will need to run the above query to figure out the i_application_id.

 

The fix

With an i_application_id firmly in hand, I can write an UPDATE query as below:

/*

Possible values for c_property_value when i_prop_def_member_id = 346

Even

445

454

544

*/

UPDATE P

SET P.c_property_value = '454'

FROM DS_Property_Application P

WHERE

i_prop_def_member_id = '346'

AND i_application_id = '7'

Btw, I tried just changing the last record in the above list of applications (the 101) and it didn’t work (although I got to play with SQL’s MAX function in a subquery so there is that). I had to change ALL of the values from Even to 454. I think maybe I could could have gotten away with changing just the i_library_id setting of 1 but I am not made of free time to test this stuff out. If you try it (on a throwaway instance, please) and it works, send in a comment to this blog.

Anyway, I changed them all, and then I bounced the Hyperion EPMA Server service and (since this was a compact deployment) the Hyperion EPM Server- Web Application service:

NB – In a real environment, I found I had to bounce all of the EPM services. Quite painful across a production environment but such is life. And yes, just restarting EPMA and Planning did not do it – there was a serious amount of relational caching going on.

I then logged back into Workspace, went to the Dimension Library, added CL_test3, and saw the following:

I now have 454 distribution. Success! Boil in bag! Hopefully.

The proof

So the proof of this particular pudding is to run a deploy.

And in Planning:

Fixed on both sides: Planning and EPMA. Whew.

 

A couple of notes

Again, for goodness’ sakes, this is a hack, and I had to do it, but I am pretty sure if you try to use this blog post as evidence that this is okay and, “Cameron said I can do it” Oracle is going to laugh in your face. Do it if you must, but may you never have to.

 

With that enormous caveat, if you are going to do it in your environment:

1. Make a backup of the development EPMA schema. And then in development…
2. Run the query to confirm the application and property ids. Yourappname will replace ChgSprd.
3. Modify the UPDATE statement to change Even/445/454/544 to Even/445/454/544.
4. Don’t forget to change the Planning application’s 454 spread, so maybe a Planning application schema backup is in order too.
5. Restart all Hyperion EPM services (I found that I needed complete restarts of all EPM services for this to work outside of a compact deployment and yes that hurt).
6. See if the deploy works. Prayer to whatever God or gods you worship is recommended at this stage. 

 

This was fun, kind of, and I’m not as scared of the EPMA tables as I once was. And it was a pretty cool hack. So I guess it was worth it. But an Order in Council is still going to go out – vengeance shall be mine as all of the above ate a lot of time I didn’t have.

Be seeing you.