Fyi

If you're on Time Warner Cable you're not going to be getting Comedy Central (daily show, colbert) or nickelodeon (plus other channels) as of midnight tonight. Glad I'm on Directv.

http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-30-2008/0004947904&EDATE=

Sent from my iPhone

Rat

The avalanch danger here is pretty extreme so that's kept us out of the backcountry. Just cruising with the kids through the trees and terrain park.

In an effort at getting a workout in I headed to Gold's and did 1:15 on a bike with 40' at a HR of 174. That was probably close to my threshold. A little stairmaster and some running made for a nice workout.

Sent from my iPhone

Newsflash

In a desparate attempt to get in touch with his sensitive side, crusty is gonna do some directing with the top womens team, Tibco. 

There will be some other crusty news prior to the ToC.

Sent from my iPhone

F'd up

Seattle to Salt lake flight diverted to Boise...6 hrs later we arrive at 3am. Tonight it's 3 bottles of wine. Tomorrow it's skiing at sundance. Fun.

Time to dope

It's time for my visit to the Dr....That's Dr. Alta for some RBC infusion, hard workouts and daily doses of very dry fluffy white powder.  I'll be iPhone bloggin' while I'm gone.  Be back Jan. 5th.

We'll see off and on snow throughout the day. Temps will be 5-10 degrees F. The next blockbuster arrives tomorrow into Christmas Day. Up to and over 2' of snow is expected, followed by another storm on the 28th.

Mega Ultra Plus Plus

Awesome ride today that was just shy of epic with weather and mechanicals.  We did a "reverse" Wateree route but hugged the coast.  The general route we did is HERE. Great roads with no traffic out there.

When the 5 of us left at 9:30 the weather was clearing but

 the wind was picking up.  We had a massive tailwind all the way down Perceival to 601 and pretty much had cross-tail or tailwind most of the ride...except for the last 15 miles back down Perceival--wow that was brutal.  We got really lucky with the wind today.

Casey snapped her RD cable at mile 50 and after trying to get the limit screws set to get her in a manageable gear I finally just jammed a stick in the RD which kept her in the 15 and gave her two workable gears.  That worked great for the rest of the ride (she may have a different opinion).  Rob later somehow managed to get his RD cable stuck INSIDE of a link in his chain...never seen that one before.  After fixing it he had access to only his 12,13,14 for the rest of the ride.  Crazy.

I spent a lot of the day sitting on the front with new-guy-Cleve who's a Cat. 1 type and races for Myogenesis.  This weekend I racked up 457 TSS...I'm gonna be worthless tomorrow at work!  My CTL now (37) is above where it was last year.

Uh oh

We're 50 miles out on a 90 mile ride and casey snapped a cable. What
you see is the stick trick.

Nice

70˚

3:15

60 miles

1800kj

A good group and the legs were feeling fine, I could have stayed on the front all day but didn't want to be That Guy.  Tomorrow's supposed to rain but the overnight lows will be in the 60's so it should be ok.  I need a big day.

I was looking at that photo of my bike and was like...damn, that nose of the saddle looks high.  I lowered it a bit and it was big time AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH's.

OT

Re:  Data backup

I've got a 500GB drive connected to my Airport Extreme that makes hourly backups of my Mac and Julie's MacBook (via Time Machine).  But this does me no good in the event of a fire or theft or lightening strike (you think that $29 surge protector is really gonna save your stuff?).

I've been researching off site backups and looked at Mozy and Amazon S3 but the best service by far is by a company called CrashPlan.  It's a one time fee of $25.  You make a backup to an external drive over your LAN then plug that drive into a computer off site (I'll use my parents Mac or put one in Julie's office).  

The CrashPlan software makes a nightly backup over the 'net.  It's all encrypted/verified/cross platform etc and in the event that you need to restore your data you can move that drive back to your computer (avoiding the slowness of restoring from the net).  It's all very "mac" cool.

Anyway...with over 10k photo's (mostly RAW), gigs and gigs of video, 12k mp3's, years of personal stuff, julie's work crap....it would really suck to lose it all.

round n' round

Another 60'

Did the first 30' a little harder...around 93% or so.  It felt harder.

My friggin Niterider HID died after last weeks rain ride...Grrrrrr.  That pretty much eliminates my longer rides during the week but I'm probably better off with what I've been doing intensity wise.

warm-ness

The weather's gonna kick ass this week...70˚ every day.  It was just shorts and jersey tonight...I can't believe how cold I was 2 days ago.  

I just got back from the crit course and my 60' of SST.  I mixed it up tonight by doing every other lap at FTP.  A lot harder riding but the legs were pretty good.  I'm slowly getting ready to start my 2x20's.  Probably next week.  Bring da pain.

5000' in December

Damn cold

This morning when I left the cabin it was 28 degrees. That would have been ok but I was planning on climbing upto over 5000'. The climb to newfound gap was over 14 miles, all up.

I've never been on a ride where I was damn cold in the sun on a climb. On the shaded slopes it was ridiculous. The descent was brutal. I had to stop at the visitors center to get to a point where I could feel my feet and hands.

But I gotta say...it was a great ride. Epic for sure. Lots of snow and icy roads and morbidly obese people having snowball fights.

Weekend

I'm off to Gatlinburg, TN this weekend for a family meet up.  If the weather is OK I plan to do some riding in and around the smokies.  It looks like some real good climbing real near where we're staying.

Twas a dark and rainy night...

The nut and I went out tonight and did 2.5 hours in the fort, basically 2 full loops.  Even with it being very dark and raining we still had a blast and rode hard.  Usually kindof epic conditions warrant hard riding.  It was 70˚ so that helped a lot.  The legs were good.

shorts & bare arms

Monday I was worthless after Sunday's ride and was pretty brain dead at work, I rested.  

Tonight was crazy warm...shorts and jersey and I did my usual crit course workout and the legs were really good.  I did 90% for 55' but threw in some laps at FTP.  I had a pretty wicked tailwind coming out of turn 3 and was hitting turn 4 at 30mph and holding that momentum up the finish, so that was fun.

Tomorrow if it's not raining I'm gonna try to get in a longer ride in the fort, if it's raining I'll repeat tonights workout.

Dean ride

Really nice mellow ride today out in the boonies.  I really had no idea were we were 90% of the time but the roads were nice and there was no traffic at all.  

It was bit chilly at the start but once it warmed up and the outer layers were shed it was perfect.  We had a good group for 5+ hrs of riding.  Pretty easy cruising but that's probably a good thing at this point with my sub-30 CTL and I think I'll be able to hit the crit course tomorrow for MOTS.

Saturday

Jules is in NYC giving a lecture so I thought I had some things lined up today to ride but it fell through.  Oh Well, I got some good kid time with the new kritters.  Tomorrow I'm gonna stay out as long as possible and we'll see how that goes.

My new favorite weather page:

NWS

ok

it's time for a big-TSS weekend...

SST

Did the same workout as yesterday...felt a bit better, maybe it was my iPod mix. 

Planning ahead:  I'm gonna take off every thursday afternoon starting on Jan. 15th for a 4-5 hour ride.  Will do this for 5-6 weeks.  Anyone else?

bu-bump

Did 55' at 90% at the crit course.  It was cold but I felt good.  A nice workout.

My CTL is very low right now....I'm gonna do the Jay C. method: 6 weeks of "base" and get my TSS/d up in Jan/Feb by taking some half days off during the week and getting those 4-5 hr rides in.

blah

This weekend was nasty....no riding.  Tomorrow it's back to the crit course for the usual.

thursday

Did 3 hours today in the AM.  Just cruised.

Me:  eleanor, get me a beer

E:  Ok

E's friend:  He's joking

E:  No, he's not.

B&B

Bread 'n Butter workout:  15' w/u, 60' at crit course @ 90% SST

It's sooo much nicer to do this workout on the road than on a trainer...I actually look forward to it.

S.A.D.

It's 5:30pm and it's dark...how depressing is that?

This is kindof funny...go HERE and enter your "favorite" blog to see what the reading level is.

Mine is:

chill

Nice day today but I missed our little group by 30'...did 2.5 hrs with my iPod.

Damn cold

I got called into work today so I had to do an abbreviated ride at 3pm.  It was still friggin cold.  After an hour of just cruising I was still pretty cold so for the next hour I started punching it up the climbs to warm up a bit.  That helped.  Without my iPod it would have sucked bad.

Tomorrow is still frigid in the am so it looks like a noonish ride for me when it's closer to 50˚.  Text or email if you wanna go.

B.A.S.E.

Cool.

 A while back I was climbing a 1000' route in the Verdon Gorge in France and a BASE jumper did about 6 jumps right over us.  It was pretty freaky on the first one when I thought some suicidal person just jumped from the top.

The closest I ever got was paragliding off of some mtn peaks we had climbed (much quicker way down than hiking!) but I imagine BASE jumping can be kindof addictive.

critcourse

Today I busted home from work and was out on the bike by 4:15.  I did a 15 min warmup down to the crit course then did 50 min at around 90% of FTP then rode tempo home. On every lap I would sprint around turn #1 for 10s or so.  Fun...hell yes.

After doing a few hundred races out there I can get pretty motivated by reminiscing about good rides...

I've suffered through workouts and rides the last few weeks and today I felt like I finally got a good ride in.

just and hour

Did an hour at about 90% of FTP on the velodyne...every 3 minutes I would sprint for 15 sec to mix it up.  Fun...not.

Do it this way...

THIS is similar to an article by Michael Jordan on how to dunk from the free throw line.  99.99% of the people who read it don't have a chance.

I'm off to the cave...

snow

We woke up to some snow on the ground so instead of a ride we built a snowman...a very tiny snowman.

Ok...THIS is an amazing article: an excerpt from an upcoming book by the guy who wrote "The tipping point"

STS Bronze-man

Awesome trip as usual...This year debuted "bronze-man" which only photo's will do justice (or injustice depending on who's looking at them).

On the nighttime flight back I had the perfect window seat and saw the launch of the space shuttle from 30k feet with a full moon.  It ranks up there as one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

I'm in Louisville for the next few days and am looking forward to riding my bike...if it would stop raining for 5 min.

Into the eye

Off to St. John's tomorrow...maybe I'll get to have a warm beer with Anderson Cooper.

Swis...when I say you'd look good as a brunette, Run.

sunday

Pretty nice day out there today...we did 60ish miles.  I'd like to get a couple more good days in before leaving for the caribbean on sat.

You gotta

keep your head in the game...

;-)

Hello....SST

The microintervals are interesting...


Lance’s Training Outline for October 2008 
2 x per week 5-5.5 hrs endurance pace
2 x per week 3-4 hrs endurance pace with 2 x 20minutes at *just below LT pace (380-400watts)
1 x per week Tuesday-nighter
1 x per week 3-4 hrs with 2 sets of 4 x 20seconds max effort x 40 seconds recovery
1 x per week day off-travel, rest. 

trainer

Did an hour on the velodyne tonight.  Kept the intensity at about 85-90% of FTP.  I need a vacation...

HSM 3

Just got back from the incredible High School Musical 3....Much, much better than 2 or 1. Being a parent you sometimes have to fall on a grenade. Tonight was a big one. Thank Jobs for the iPhone which I surfed cyclingnews while Troy and Zack sang about missing free-throws...deciding what they're gonna wear to prom...or any of the 27 other god-awful songs that were sung. Grenade...and it stung.

Rode this am, 3 hrs or so...tried to keep the intensity in a fairly narrow window but below threshold. The boyz who are coming off of late racing still have some fitness are killing it. I'd pull the plug when things got fast. Just into cruising at tempo right now.

True, true

Yo B...watch both of these:

Wasssssssup 1999



Wasssssssup 2008

Undecided

As usual...David Sederis never fails to entertain.

Undecided

Kaiser

So Karl is in the middle of the Arctic ocean for 6 weeks...arriving in Finland his luggage was delayed.  The airlines promise to get his bags to him before his ship leaves port.  They lied.  Karl's on a ship for 6 weeks with only the clothes he wore from Columbia.  Oh yeah...it's 30 below.

Karl's here:

Arctic Ocean

Rinse, repeat

Rode another 1:30 today in the Fort.  Basically kept the wattage at SST for an hour but I felt pretty good and pushed it up the hills.  Tomorrow it's to the pumpkin patch.

Ok...WTF is McCain doing with the purple hat???

loopage

The nut and I did 1:30 today in the fort.  I'm probably gonna start riding M-T-W due to the kiddo being in gymnastics/ballet...I'll play dad on Th-Fri.

Bike Practice

Gorgeous day today.  Did 2:15 and felt pretty good...just motored along.  I've been catching up on all my fav podcasts and tunes.

BooHoo

To understand why our economy is soooo totally fucked listen to this:

THIS

Boo

The return of a legendary party...

Back to training...

I was pretty sick last week...some kind of bronchial virus. 

I started up my 6 week plan...I'm doing an hour of SST (85-90% of FTP) on tues/thursday then longer rides on the weekend.  I figure about 6 weeks of SST and I'll be ready for some harder threshold workouts in November.  It's not that exciting...just getting the hours in.  I've been feeling really good on the bike lately. 

TNWC #54

The weather was great today...a bit windy. I really wanted to get some exercise but didn't want to do the crit with my lack of fitness. So I cruised down to the crit course at 5:00 and did an hour of SST/hard tempo then rode around a bit till the race started. I wanted to see how long I would last...which was about 20' then I cruised home. A solid 2 hr workout, it felt pretty good.

I'm gonna try to get an hour of SST every tuesday/thursday and then ride the weekends.

Saturday

Did 60 miles with a good group of 6.  Very muggy today, I'm ready for cool weather.  This 90 degree stuff is getting old.  Tomorrow AM with The Dean.

ps...I freakin love my new bike.

Deluge

I was dressed, tires were pumped, bottles filled...then the skies opened up. I really wanted to race tonight. Oh well.

Sunday

Did the "dean ride" today...a nice time cuz it was easy. I got home in about 3 hrs and I felt surprisingly good considering It was my 3rd ride since July 18th. ;-)

After I got back from the ride I worked on my "project" for 5 hours then did some jogging around the neighborhood while ella rode around...

My new ride is very sweet. It's got the same ride feel as the 6-13 (comfort) but is super stiff when standing or putting the power to the pedals. I'm stoked and it's dialed on my first ride (I joined the white-bar-tape-club). Mike T. of HN had a mechanic go over it before he sent it so mechanically it's working perfectly.

On cruise mode

I've just been riding easy...and not worrying about it too much.  "real" training for next year starts October first.  I've also gotta get out the fixed gear some...my pedal stroke is sucking big time.  I spent about 2 hours working on my new ride and finally have it all tweaked and ready to go for the AM.

JB State Champ

In a highly tactical battle with multiple attacks and counters JB took the Cat 5 win and is the new State Champ. Your first race too...Good going tri-boy! See you tuesday night.

and Casey won her race.

LL State Champ

Way to go Ladd...

hardest ride of the year

Since the roads mucked up at the crit course we did a sortof road ride out Bluff...It was fast, I suffered and ultimately got dropped on airbase after being too far back and getting gapped off from the fast guys on the small hill.

Me and DeRosa guy chased hard and were oh-so-close but just couldn't get it done...it was a fun chase.

Having my first ride in close to 4 weeks be a bloodbath road ride at times wasn't fun...you can only bluff it up to a point then it's "see ya". Plus it's a lot harder to hide in a screaming paceline with lots of surges than in a crit.

My new bike was sweet...gonna be good. The weird thing was riding 175mm cranks. This was very very weird...kindof like riding a giants bike. These are going on ebay soon. Otherwise the bike felt great...just need to change out the bars and get the reach dialed in.

New local hard man wattage-geek blog: my cycling watts

escape

I'm off to Seattle for a week...I think I'll ride my bike again when I get back.

fo-shizzle

cool

barz

I'm shopping for some new bars...thinking of trying the FSA K-wingz. Crusty don't like it that I've got 3 seasons on a 180g easton carbon bar.

Mac Tech Support

I laughed my ass off at this clip...I've had the exact same conversation with my dad many times over the years.

Video

Where's my beer?

Oh...there it is.

Le Tour

Wow...what an awesome TT. An added bonus was watching Evans suffer like a dog and not put major time into Sastre. I wonder who he's going to blame for losing. I don't think I've ever disliked a rider as much as him.

5 min update: That didn't take long...what a douchebag

The Australian expressed his disappointment that his team, once more, was not there at his side when he needed them. "I would have like some more support in the high mountains. At least one team member to ride with me and help at the tough end of a climbing stage," he said. "I would also have expected a bit more help from some other key riders when the pressure was on in the big climbs."

Looking back, what an amazing team CSC has. Incredible watching their tactics unfold.

VDV...what a ride and it was very cool seeing him transform from "sortof team leader" to da man in 3 weeks.

Kohl...dude, WTF? great TT but crashing on the ramp INTO the start gate? Maybe that got him pissed cuz he smoked the TT.

I'd love to see the TSS for Schumaker for the last week...that dude was in about every break last week then totally killed the TT. He's rocking some serious form right now.

Whew! watching that TT wore my ass out...

System6

I got a new ride...it's in transit and I'll have it on Sat.

and THIS video is friggin hilarious (if you're a masters aged rider that is)

slip sliding away

The form is leaving my body.

Thursday's group ride: I flatted early so after a quick tube change I chased back with ladd, jed and karl. We did a Team TT down harmon to catch back up...that was pretty fun. We were cruising at around 31mph. Down airbase rd I was not feeling that great but kept attacking anyway. I'd get caught then just attack again--what the hell. It was good exercise.

I'm also thinking that I'm "done" for the year. We'll see how I'm riding at the end of August but I'm thinking it won't be very fast!

whaaaa

Cadel is such a whiny little asswipe...I'll be glad to see him crack like he did in the '02 Giro. Go VdV!

Don't touch me!

choices

Crit vs Baan Sawan...hmmmmmm

Mondays tour stage was epic...It took 2 days but I watched all 5 hours of VS coverage. Wow.

Da Man

I've always liked Horner...even when he was working over crusty. Out at the cascade classic he was climbing up the summit finish after working for Levi and came up on a racer who had crashed 2k from the top. He loads up the guy and hauls him to the summit...he still gets 82nd (and the other rider 83rd!).

Cruise

I'm in cruise mode...no real objective other than just get some exercise and enjoy riding fast. While it lasts. My motivation's still pretty good, riding is still fun. I'm gonna try to keep doing tuesday/thursday as hard days then a long day on saturday. No real races on the horizon until the end of august/sept. I dunno how the form will be then but right now I'm gonna get some more house projects done and not stress about riding a bike too much.

Lately I've been thinking about getting a cross bike...

TNWC

Fun race tonight...lots of breaks/chasing. At 45' there was a lull and Toby attacked, I followed and the group let us roll away. We got a huge gap--flogged it and I took the sprint by half a wheel. I did 300w for the last 11 min and it felt easy. I'm oozing form right now.

Pics

Lots of photos HERE

The numbers

Crit: Not much to add about it...I flatted and rode half the race on a non-PT wheel. My NP was in the 240's for the first 40min so I was feeling pretty good I just didn't ride aggressively enough or smart enough to make the selection.

RR: Some crazy numbers here...the first hour I was at NP 278w which is pretty much my FTP. Then I raced another hour! No wonder my legs fell apart near the end. The weird thing was that even though it was incredibly hard and I was digging deep, it never felt like "I'm gonna get dropped" hard so maybe my FTP is a bit higher than 280w right now. My limiter was cramping so I need to take that into account for next year. I gotta do some BIG days before this race and get my CTL up around 80. I think that would do it. I think my intensity prep was about perfect, those 10x1' intervals and motorpacing were the ticket.

First Hour:
Entire race:

Crit

I felt awesome today...easily surfing the front but got caught out in a big split in the field with 12 or so guys off the front...I tried to chase, tried to bridge but then just settled in and finished around 24th. Pretty disappointing but thats racing. It was a very cool course in the infield of Churchill downs. More later...

Lang got 15th in his race. Results

Road Race

In talking to crusty, looking at the results he's like: that guy was a pro, that guy was a pro...on and on. The fields in all the races were stacked with mostly ex-pro's, ex-world and national champs, 1's and 2's. In our race the first couple laps were very technical, nervous and on-the-rivet fast. Totally lined out with my head down totally focused on the wheel in front of me. Crazy.

It did mellow after a while thank god and I then settled into a rhythm of going all out, then recovering. I did see a couple breaks go and was in good enough position to think about going but I knew better and needed to save all my matches. It was too bad that I came up a couple short cuz I would have loved to have had a shot at the last sprint/climb. I usually do pretty well with an uphill fast sprint. There's always next year...

Tomorrow we're gonna do an hour ride around here and mostly just chill. Tonight at a swank restaurant Lang ordered some god awful thing...picture a bison femur sawed in 3 pieces then baked and the bone marrow eaten with what looked like a popsicle stick. Totally disgusting! He loved it!

Natz crit report on Sunday...

Nats

Quick report:  By far the hardest race I've done this year...very fast and technical, I felt really good for about 6 laps (of 10) and stayed mostly at the front.  It was not at all flat...very rolling with one good big ring climb about a mile from the finish.  On the last lap I was in the lead group and on the climb my legs seized up with double hamstring cramps.  I limped in for 35th place.  Brian got 25th.

The winner of our race was "college" Lance Armstrongs best friend...

35-44:  Ladd 25th, Jay 32nd

45-50:  It started to rain which turned it into a crashfest...and Lang crashed but got up and finished 19th.  He's ok...just lost some skin.  Thurlow Rodgers solo'd to win.

results are up...see HERE

TNWC

Did the crit tonight and just sat at the back until I started to breath hard then I'd take an easy lap and jump back in.  It was a good easy-fast ride with a few efforts to remind the legs how to go around.  I felt really good tonight.

I cleaned my bike for the 2nd time this year and of course all sorts of things started falling apart...my front derailler is looking very suspect but I'm not too worried as I'll be sort-of big ringing it for the next two rides.  And my rear brake would not work...at all.  I thought it was some dislodged gunk.  And crusty was yelling at me cuz my brake pad was too high.  It seems my rear wheel wasn't in the dropout all the way so that solved the braking issue.  Crusty's just gonna find something else to yell about...

Ok...next update will be a race report.

Saturday

Jules and I did the "thursday loop" and had a good day. It was pretty effortless cruising at around 20mph. I did one 5 minute pull at around 300w and the legs felt good. I kept telling myself to take it easy and made sure JH had a lot of time on the front.

No word yet from the crew at BS&G but I heard that it was pretty windy up there.

<--the charts are up to date.

As of today my CTL is 70 and TSB right at zero (with not much TSS planned between now and the race it should be up around +15 or so).

the RR

Here's the "street view" for nats RR...it looks like Cochran Hill Rd will be the big "climb" but mostly it will be flat and fast.

Done

The TNWC was pretty uneventful for me...was in a couple of breaks but missed the one that stuck but chased pretty hard. Ladd/Jay/Brian/Lang were out and everyone's showing some awesome form right now. I think we're going about as good as possible for Louisville.

Tonights group ride was pretty sedate but fast and steady...I tried to just keep everything together and take some monster pulls. It was pretty fun and a return of Nutty to the fray.

So I'm done with my Nats prep. The race is in a week so I'm officially in "taper mode" which is a good place to be. I'm feeling pretty strong and "peak-y" right now...tonight I was smashing the pedals and it felt great.

The plan is to maybe do the beer ride tomorrow, 2 hrs Saturday with a few easy threshold efforts, Sunday off, monday easy, tuesday I'll sit in at the crit, travel wednesday (try to spin a bit once I get there), race thursday/sunday. I'm gonna look at my PMC chart this weekend to fine tune but I think I'm set.

Geeks: Google maps now has "street view" for Columbia.

Day eleven point five

Did an easy hour and a half with the crew...tomorrow I rest. The plan is to do the crit on tuesday, group ride on thursday then start to taper for July 3rd.

Day eleven: Solstice ride

Nutty and I went out this morning and did the Eastover loop...We mostly cruised but I did a few harder 8-10' threshold efforts at 280-300w. The legs were really really good today...what some call a "no chain" day. It felt like I had a tailwind the whole ride. Nice.

Day ten

I went out after work and did an hour of "Barts"


150+% of FTP 1 minute on/3 min off. Properly counting these intervals continues to elude me...today I planned on doing 10 and then did 11. Lack of O2 does funny things to the brain.

Day nine

Espresso, clif bar, 20' warmup, 55' motorpacing, more espresso...off to work. The session today felt easier but I went harder and had good legs. Thanks nutty...

Day eight point five

Ez loop in the fort with Chris...legs didn't feel that great.

Day eight TNWC

Tonight it was very hot and I was feeling very flat/apathetic. Didn't do too much...Sat in for the first 20' then was in a small chase group that was getting nowhere so I made one attempt to bridge solo to Lang/Sam and got within 3-5 seconds before blowing up. So close but yet soooo far.

I was in a winning break earlier this year with Sam and I knew it would be tough to bring them back. They stayed away from the gun so that was some impressive riding. Not my best effort in a race...oh well.

Day seven

A group of us got out at 7am today to beat the heat and I'm glad we did...the temps were low but the humidity was pretty bad.

We did: Fort --> Percival --> Screaming Eagle --> 601 --> Leesburg --> Congress --> Willie --> Cricket Store --> Gmart --> Cabin Creek --> Home

For the first 2 hours I rode hard and felt pretty good then the legs went away and I told Karl: I'm done, you got the green light baby

Karl then put his head down and pulled the next hour and a half at around 23mph...finally in Rosewood Chris yelled at him to SLOW DOWN! Gotta love our mutant Austrian. ;-)

Day six

7:30am Just got back from an hour motorpacing session with nutty...the scooter is a cruel mistress...

Update: This morning was hard. I felt on the rivet for the entire session but it was weird that my NP was pretty low at 244w for 54min. My cadence was 98 and ave speed of 30mph. Nutty was an awesome driver and kept it steady--I do know how hard it is for a 23yo to get out of bed at 5:45am! Being behind the moto really simulated a race pace...times below threshold and times way, way above it.

I was in a funk all day at work and was basically worthless...the head and legs were fried. I was kindof dreading the group ride cuz I felt so bad.

Once I jumped on the bike tonight I felt 100% better...that was weird and I felt super strong but tired at the same time. Tonights ride was good/fast but a bit subdued--with the usual race type break flogging it down airbase. I got a little crampy near the end but am pretty pleased with the day. Karl is absolutely killing it right now and back to his usual self...we needed that in April's races!

Total TSS: 242...a big day for sure.

Day five point five

Did an easy 2 hours today. The heat wasn't too bad. Tomorrow's gonna be big...

Day five TNWC

96º tonight but a ton of people showed up to race...probably close to 50-60 people. Cool.

It was full on from the gun with a large break rolling away at KM 0. Chase/Attack/Chase...fun racing. At about 35' in I found myself in a break with Lang, Jamie, Damon and another Harrells dude. We were all working really well together and built up a huge gap and I thought we could hold it if we kept drilling it. I was taking long very hard pulls (Lang too) but unfortunately tired legs prevailed and despite lots of vocal encouragement from Lang and myself we got caught with 2 laps to go.I was pretty dejected with getting caught and nearly just rolled it home but here's a tip: never quit.

The group was strung out and I jumped on the back and sat there for a while. At 1 to go I rolled up and put myself in the usual #1 spot right on Derek's wheel. At turn 4 he ended up on the front and I could tell he decided to just lead it out so he just freakin motored away. I got a great ride up to about 150m to go and he went left, I went right and had a beautiful run at the line and noone in front of me--clear sailing...Just at the finish Marc W. came tearing up past me absolutely flying and pipped me. Damn!

Day four...D'oh!

Today I went out early and did some Barts:

These are shorter, harder intervals. I planned on doing 10x1' (3' rests) at around 150-160% of FTP but somehow ended up with 9 of them. Hypoxia mixed with 90º temps will do that to you.


I started out pretty good...my first 5 were solid and I had great legs, then I struggled a bit. I did these at the crit course and from the turn-around near the entrance on Bluff up to the top of the homestretch at turn 1 was one minute. An easy cruise around the course and I was ready for another one.

Bigring √, iPod volume √...Go...Stand and sprint for 15sec...sit and drive it till that shadow @ 300m to go...keep going...push on the pedals...stand and sprint all out for 10sec...done...that freakin hurt.

Day three

Rob, Jules and I did 3 hours this morning...it was pretty warm/hot/baking. I did a couple 4-5' VO2 intervals at the beginning and felt pretty good. I was going to do more but with the heat I thought I should just cruise. Jules was able to sit in for 5' at 333w so she's getting back into some cycling shape.

It was a good ride we just were a little late leaving at 9:15ish. 8am would have been a lot better.

H-H-Hot

fuck

Day two

Did the thursday group ride...not a lot of people showed due to the 98º temps. I felt surprisingly good after yesterday's intervals. Tonight my plan was to just ride hard...I took some hard pulls and there were some fast people there so it was a good workout.

My rear axle came loose halfway through the ride. It was shifting poorly and the chain was jumping around so I tried to stick to one gear and didn't try to stand to sprint...that played havoc on my hamstrings and I cramped pretty bad near the end when I ramped it up in the saddle.

Casey was on the ride and said that for the CSC race she got stuck starting at the back which was pretty much a death sentence with a hard crit like that...she and a bunch of others got pulled after losing contact with the main group.

Day one

Today is Day one of intense training for Masters Nats...I've got a month to get ready.

It was farking hot today...I did 5x4' intervals at VO2 on tank hill. I knew they would suck but kept hoping that somehow someway it wouldn't. It did. After the intervals I did an easy loop. It felt good to at least get back on the bike.

My last 2 weeks were dominated by a minor house painting project that went nuclear and consumed a boat load of afterwork hours. It's done, and now I'm thinking of trying to get back some sort of form.

Chris/Karl are going to the mtns on Saturday. The weekend trip fell through but they're gonna do a 80 mile ride leaving from Cola. If you wanna go let me know and I'll put you in touch with Chris for the details. I'm not going...I need to stick around here and will try to get 2 solid days in.

And who would have thought that Elmo auditioned for the Joe Pesci role in the movie Casino...NSFW.

CSC

Casey's racing Sunday in the CSC invitational with the Aaron's pro womans team...Not bad for your first year as a cyclist. Good Luck!

Tour de LR

Good fast group ride tonight...some new N.E. faces. One bad crash for a young kid when his hand slipped off the bars during a downhill sprint...I was right behind him and saw it all, no broken bones but probably should have been. He hit hard, total yard sale. He learned a painful lesson...he's a strong rider but he's gotta stay in the saddle.

Coming down airbase was fun...about 6 of us flogging it. I gave Marc W a great leadout to the sprint (not by plan).

At the end of the ride I did a 3:30 effort at VO2...about 330w and it felt good. It's time to start the dreaded 6x5' intervals.

TNWC #12

Wow...it's not even june yet and we've been doing the TNWC for 3 months! Time for a road race in the fort...stay tuned!

Last nights race started out fast and stayed that way for about 18'...I just sat in waiting for it to slow down and the inevitable attacks to start. There wasn't that big of a group and everyone was riding hard so no breaks stuck.

On the last lap I told Lang I would lead him out to counter the derek factor but in the end that wasn't necessary and Lang won anyway. I found derek's wheel...surprise, surprise (he was riding his track bike and was a bit over or under geared...not sure but he didn't have his usual mojo) and my sprint totally sucked. Oh well...I burned some Kj and had a good time.

no show

I all ready to go out and kill it on saturday...then I got a call from work, then I remembered that I was "on call" Grrrrrrr (not that I had to work but that some other lazy ass called in "sick"...plus Ella has strep throat and I was up all night with her). Oh well...

I'm painting my house...yes the whole damn thing...in 3 days, so my riding will be sparse for the next little while. I'm gonna try to at least get out for some shorter workouts.

the usual

The thursday group ride went by the script tonight. Fast riding in the usual places. We started out pretty mellow...EZ paceline stuff but when we hit the airbase "hill" it was karl, lang and me lined up and we rolled away. Nothing surprising there.

Lang was not his usual self tonight so I kept attacking him (...nice guy that I am) to see if I could get rid of him before the sprint...no dice, but he had nothing left to contest it...and we all know that Karl can climb with Hincapie but doesn't have a fast twitch fiber in his body.

Despite the lingering "clutch-calf" pain...I had great legs tonight. My scoot is back up and running so I should heal up soon.

Dx

My weird left calf pain has a cause...this week I've been driving our POS toyota corolla to work (cuz my scooter has a flat...long story). And it's a................5 speed. Yes, I've got "clutch calf". You'd think that riding 10,000 miles a year would make me a bit more durable...I'm a one trick pony.

TNWC #11

I haven't done the download yet but tonights crit was good. Fast with lots of attacks as usual. I did an opener on the first lap to stretch the legs and they felt good. I pulled off and Lang attacked taking a couple with him. This was good cuz I could chill at the back and wait for the chase to do it's thing.

After a couple laps we caught him and I rolled off the front in the left gutter...Jamie saw me go and came along. Francisco bridged and we settled into a good 12+ minute break. The "catch" consisted of a chase group of about 12 people...the group was totally shattered tonight. People were all over the course. Carnage.

After that I started having a little left calf cramp/pain...it didn't do anything but annoy me. I bridged/attacked a few more times then settled in for the "sprint". With 2 to go I was in my usual place...on Derek's wheel but decided that there was no way in hell I was going to out sprint him with a massive tailwind up the final stretch. So I freelanced it...attacked on the backside...went up to Lang who had a small gap, but he was dead then just hopped onto Toby as he led it out and I did a 300m "sprint/leadout". Yes...Derek won...bastard!

Solo EZ

Had to work till noon today then I just cruised the Crusty Loop and added some, total of 3:30. Awesome day out there, it went by quick. My new plan is to cut down the volume and start increasing the intensity a bit and see what happens. Most of the cool people are headed to the mtns tomorrow...so I get to stay here.

cruise

The rain threatened but the group ride went on. Me, Lang, Dean, Joel, Kevin, Francisco. I figured with a small group that riding at threshold was the way to go so I spend a lot of time on the front just cruising and I tried to keep us all together.

I went hard enough for it to be hard but not to drop anyone. PE was low, legs felt good. A fun, fast ride with good numbers.

not quite there

After a killer weekend riding in KY I felt all puffed up and thought I could go out and nail an FTP workout. Not quite. In the 2 hour ride I did manage 40' at about 272w but it wasn't easy. I'm actually pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's harder than I had planned on going.

BH's comment and youtube link below got me thinking of how much espresso I drink and I remembered that my Saeco has a digital shot counter...So since January 2006 I've consumed 4,583 shots of espresso. That's about 35 Gallons worth...Yes, I'm wide awake!

South

Jules and I did 2 hrs today before we pile into the car. After the
legs got warmed up I felt great rode a lot of tempo...and J got killed
by crosswinds.

---Sent from my iPhone---

Thrashed

89 miles and not one of them was flat (very rolling terrain).  4:30 and would have been 5:30 but I had to call jules to come get me so we would make it for dinner.

A 15 minute shower and we're off to a Cuban restraunt to put a dent in my 3000kj deficit. I did eat a fig newton on the ride.  ;-)

It was an awesome day on the bike: the legs felt very, very good.  Right now I'm very, very fried.

Testing

Trying some iPhone blogging'...did 2 hrs today with Jules.

KY

Heading to Louisville for 5 days...gonna try to get some long days in and preview the masters nats road course.

TNWC #9

Another good crit tonight. Lots of attacking and chasing. Before the race I told myself to just chill tonight and sit in...that lasted the neutral lap.

At about 15' in Damon and someone else had a good gap--the Harrells boys were massing at the front so I launched across to them. I took one hard pull and then it was just me and Damon (sorry brah)...we were really flogging it in that break. I had an NP of 305w for those 12' we were away. A Sufferfest.

Multiple attacks/chases followed then it all looked like a field sprint at the end. I decided to organize a lead out for Brian. I put Ladd in front of me with Brian on my wheel. Halfway down the back stretch I told Ladd to GO! so we'd be first through the last couple of turns...he drilled it through turns 3 and 4 (with me yelling at him...Faster! --I can be a real ass sometimes ;-) I took over just after turn 4 and buried it until 50m to go and Brian easily won by a couple of bike lengths. It's nice when it all works out.

I got the new steel Powertap axle installed and it really made a difference in the feel of my back wheel. No more brake rub noodle-ness. It's solid. Sweet.

Sunday

Steady ride today. I did 2 hours of "hard" riding...basically SST keeping things below threshold, then I cruised easy for an hour. I played "guess the wattage" throughout the ride and was generally right on, sometimes low (which is good). My PE was back to normal and I felt pretty good.

I'm gonna be installing a steel axle in my Powertap today. Hopefully that will cure the lateral flex of the aluminum one. Slipstream runs steel in all their PT wheels. It's about 5 oz more weight.

post peak blues

Did the group ride today and tried to be in the wind a lot. Mostly tempo riding with a few efforts thrown in. I tried to take 5-8min pulls at around 250-280w. My PE was on the high side.

In my very brief racing career I've always had trouble doing a double peak in a year. Mostly that was due to no big events in June/July/Aug and lack of motivation after the early spring races and being burnt-out on traveling.

This year is working out better. We've got a solid team to travel with (which makes a huge difference) and I've got a goal to be flying by July 4th. I've got 8 weeks to get there.

I'm feeling a bit flat right now after the recent races and have been looking back to my January workouts to get a plan for the next few weeks. It will be lots of SST and threshold work then I'll start adding in Level 5-6 later in May. June will be big mtn rides, more volume/intensity then I'll do some form of taper (7-10 days) for July 3rd. At least that's the plan...

7 deadly sins

Alex S. just put up a very good description of Functional Threshold Power: what it is and how to determine yours. Check it out.

I'm still in EZ mode. Gonna do a loop after work then start riding harder this weekend. I'm feeling much, much better but maybe that's the 4 shots of espresso I just drank.

And The Foals have been in heavy rotation on my iPod. Check em out.

EZ

Took it easy today...did 90min, just cruised. I've been feeling pretty tired lately and need a break...gonna just do some easy rides this week then try to get a good threshold workout in this weekend to kick things off again.

TNWC #8

Tonights crit was fun. Attack and chase. A big group. I had a near crash mid race when I was bridging and came flying around turn 2 and saw a car coming so I cut the apex of the turn and jammed my pedal into the road. My bike felt like it leaped and bounced. It's amazing I didn't go down.

The legs were OK but I didn't have much motivation to do anything...I felt like I just sat around waiting for something to happen. Coming up to the end there was a break just up the road and when we caught them with 1k to go I launched, got a good gap then realized I had to ride hard if I wanted to win. Damn. I metered out the effort and got caught with about 20m to go...I gave it all I had but the wind was not in my favor, which is a killer with that slightly uphill finish.

LL, Jay & I are registered for Masters Nats in Louisville on July 3rd.

zzzzz

I left work with the idea of doing a quick threshold workout...in the 7 minutes it took me to get home I decided to take a nap instead.

Deluge

The girls went to the opera this afternoon so I had a large block of time for some bike practice. At around 2:30 I did a quick check of the radar and did a big "Uh-oh" as a large menacing band of thunderstorms were lined up on the SC/GA border and headed our way. I hustled out the door and it was raining a little when I jumped on the bike. The legs felt pretty good after yesterday and I mostly rode tempo and tried to attack the climbs a bit. I held back some as I want to do some sort of workout tomorrow. I got 2 hours in.


shit-->fan. When I got to the gate to exit it was full-on sideways blowing rain/hail...totally epic conditions. I hammered home but ended up getting completely drenched...missed staying dry by about 20'. YeeHaw.

attrition

Wanna suffer? Do 70 miles with Jay out around Lake Wateree.

I felt pretty good starting out...we weren't killing it but riding SST/threshold for long, long pulls. We averaged over 22mph for the first 50 miles or so. Things went south from there and at about mile 67 I had a spectacular meltdown on the final climb (actually I cracked a lot earlier but I willed myself to stay on J's wheel). I was glad to see the car.

It was one of those rides where after you get home you just lie on the floor for a while and when you get up your legs instantly cramp. Fun.

Thursday

Had a good day today. I got out did a loop in the fort then met up with the group ride. Legs felt OK, not great. Group was relaxed and we mostly cruised but went hard in the usual places. It's nice to see close to 200TSS on a thursday.

You can download Frank Pipp's wko files from Tour de Georgia HERE. Especially look at stage 3 where he was in a break all day. Some monster numbers. He rides for HealthNet and stayed with me last year for a couple of days between races and is loaded with talent. A nice guy too.

Some Masters Nats info was posted today HERE. Should be some interesting racing over July 4th weekend. The crit is in the infield of Churchill Downs. It's gonna be a sufferfest for sure, can't wait!

TNWC #7

Kindof a weird crit tonight. The stiff wind put a damper on things but it was from the same direction as last week. I attacked a few times, bridged a few times, missed the winning break then tried to launch at the end. It was good exercise then I rode tempo home to get a few extra TSS points (I'm shooting for 700 this week)

I've decided not to race this weekend...I'm a little burnt from 3 weeks in a row out of town and need a mental break.

Tour of Georgia

Packfill and Carnage

35+: A very hard race, very fast from the gun. I bridged to a promising break of 5 with both of the big teams represented so I thought it had a good chance...until a Columbia triathlete in the field closed the gap. Thanks brah!

Later the usual suspects (one guy who won 17 masters races last year) got away in a 3 man break and Ladd was sooo close to bridging solo (a couple seconds) but didn't make it and came back to the field. He looked like a whipped pup.

At one point my rear wheel decided to become detached from my bike. For you newbie's: in a fast crit this is generally not a good thing. It came out of the dropouts and seized up...skidding along. It's amazing I didn't crash (or anyone into me). It seems my skewer came loose somehow. I fixed it and went around to the pits and "hick frigtard official" says "you don't get no free lap for that" I'm like: my friggin wheel came out of the dropouts, don't you consider that a mechanical? He let me back in.

I battled back to the front and somehow ended up on Ryan Jenkins wheel near the end. Trouble is everyone else wanted to be there too so I had to really fight to hold my ground as these asswipes tried to bump me outta there. I was not going to go easy. Coming into the sprint things got congested and I ended up 20th. Blah.

Cat 3: 2 hours after the 35+ I felt horrible warming up...no surprise here. Once the race started I actually felt really good and even better as things progressed. I think that was due to the slower pace. This race was a whole lot easier than the 35+. There was a lot of attacking...I went off once and Toby bridged and we had a gap for about 30s before the yahoo's chased us down.

As the race progressed my legs felt great but mentally I sort of lost it. A loss of motivation to battle. With 3 to go I decided to either be at the front or at the back. I knew things were going to get pretty sketchy. Hmmm, I choose the back! I cruised for a while, chatted with Casey a bit then followed a couple of guys to see if they could go the distance and drop me off at the front. No go. I ended up drifting back and just doing the last lap with enough room to avoid any crashes.

Carnage: I sprinted easily to the finish and just before the line there was a tangle of bikes and a couple of guys went down. Hard. It seems Brian H's steer tube/fork broke and he augered (he's ok)...his bike shot out to the left and conveniently ended up in front of Ladd sending him airborn. I roll up, jump off my bike and LL's laying there in the fetal position, moaning. Lang's there (ER doc) and we roll him to his back...we check him out, convince him that he's still alive...he's OK, just minus a lot of skin. It sortof looks like he was drug behind the pace car for a couple laps.

It was actually quite a spectacle with a big crowd at the finish line...LL put on a damn good show for everyone. Near where we parked some dude let us borrow a garden hose and I did the ER scrub on him (this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you...) then basically poured peroxide over his whole body. The pictures show about half of the road rash he's got. At CVS the tegederm to cover everything cost about $60. Think of him tonight when you're sleeping comfortably in your bed after your relaxing shower. ;-) Casey finally won a womens race (right after doing the cat3 men)...it's about time! ;-)