Pollen

Every year about this time I'm going along fine then I get some kind of allergy attack. The pollen here is thick...it coats everything. This is usually combined with a big jump in training volume so my defenses are down...a perfect storm for not feeling great. It's not really that bad--just some congestion/sore throat/fatigue. I'm just laying low so it will clear the system before this weekend.

Oy Vey

I'm taking the day off...am completely trashed from this week. Need rest.

Even in my too-much-CTL-in-a-week stupor I laughed my ass off at THIS.

that blows

Nick and I did 3 hours today...just over 56 miles at 19.1 mph. We were riding hard but once we turned for home the wind picked up and we got killed for 90min. Our combined 276 lbs were no match for the 10-15 mph headwind. We needed LL or a vespa, either would do. 2000Kj...this is turning out to be a pretty good block of training this week. Time to be "dad" and we're headed to the swamp.

VO2 + group ride

My PT munged the download so I lost the data for tonight (then did the ride actually happen?). I went out an hour early and did 3 VO2 intervals of 5' at 315w...then I hooked up with the group ride. I knew if I did more than 3 intervals I would be crap for the rest of the ride and I wanted to go hard. It worked out pretty well.

I definitely felt "fresher" than last week with the 40' FTP interval and should be good for tomorrows ride.

transition

E-z loop in the fort today. Yesterday tweaked me a bit more than I thought. I should be ready for some VO2 tomorrow...we'll see.

I'm off of work friday so I'm gonna do about 3 hours at 9:00am...anyone interested?
email me via link over there -->

TNWC #3 and then some

In an effort to rack up some TSS I did a 20' threshold interval prior to tonights race. It was pretty "easy" at 276w and this softened me up a bit and made the race a bit more of an effort.

The pace tonight was a little slower than last week and to get a good workout you either got to go to the front and drive it or wait and attack at every opportunity. I prefer the latter, it makes things a bit more dynamic and I get some good time in VO2 and above. It's also good practice for timing attacks/counters.

The end came down to a bunch sprint and I have no idea who won cuz I attacked hard with 1k to go...drug a bunch of people with me and then just held on as long as I could. I then rode tempo back to the house. It was a good night: 1:51, 130TSS, IF .84, 1241Kj.

see-food

I cracked...

Yesterday I basically started eating when I got home from my ride and didn't stop till I was asleep.  It continued all through today and right now I'm pretty freakin hungry.  I'm thinking of just slamming a beer and going to bed.

Ok...I took today off. Tomorrow the plan is to do a 20min interval at FTP before the crit then see what happens.  Thursday night's gonna be 6x5 VO2 + group ride, then I'm off of work friday so I'll do 3-4 hours during the day.  

I'll see where that puts my TSB and maybe start throttling back this weekend to do a mini-taper for the Rock Hill RR.

Sunday

It's good having solid training partners. If I would have ridden alone today I would have just gone out and tooled around at Level 2 for a couple of hours.

Instead I hooked up with Lang/Brian and we did 42 miles pretty hard. I limited my work at the front cuz I was pretty tired but at times we were hammering. A good "recovery" day.

<-- the charts are current as of today

Floggin it

Today was good. 87 miles and great weather. We started out with 8, then 6, then it was Me, Ladd, Jay, & Phil . For the first 70 miles we averaged 23mph--we were killing it...it's not exactly flat out there around Winsboro/Lake Wateree. Those three were laying it down.

It was a hard ride but its very fun to go flat out fast on rolling terrain with a good group. We chilled the last 15 miles (which is probably a good thing). I felt great all day--the legs definitely showed up!

LL did a 20' test yesterday: 382w <-- wow!

Holy shit wow: Will Frischkorn of Slipstream was in a break all day at Milan-SanRemo. He burned 6747Kj...2 hours and 9 minutes at 330-380w...2 hours and 12 minutes between 380 and 450w. Kindof hard to get your head around these numbers. Wonder what his TSS was!

Rest

I chilled today. No riding.

In 2 weeks we've got the Rock Hill RR, it's 90 miles so tomorrow we're doing this. I hope the legs show up.

1x40 plus group ride

I had a feeling that tonight would be good. Just good sensations in the legs all day on top of a rest day yesterday. I wanted to do 1x40 and Maria, Rob, Casey and Chris wanted to tag along. I always tend to ride harder with someone on my wheel and tonight I absolutely killed it. 40min at 289w. My last 6 minutes were 300w. Awesome.

Afterwards we decided to hook up with the group ride at 6pm. Nick was riding hard tonight so I just followed him around. Coming down airbase I attacked hard on the little bump before the sprint...and died a very quick death. The legs were starting to cramp on Dbl Homey and after a hard pull by Nick I said "just stay there" cuz I really didn't want to come through...He got a good workout.

Tonight: 2:30, 182TSS, 1595Kj, 85IF, 236NP, 47miles
I'm fried!

crusty rebirth

Corbett's back in the news...media slut.

Rest + Weight analysis

Took the day off. It's raining. I actually got kiddo out on her bike--it's the first time she's been able to ride around the block without training wheels or me holding her. That's pretty cool.

Weight. Racing in the 35+ category...I'm usually on the edge. My weight is pretty critical to my success*. Typically about this time of year I'm bummed that I weight 155+. Since at my age FTP or 5 min wattages are not going to get that much better...I have to lose weight in order to be faster. Physics 101.

*in order of likelihood: survival, to finish, top 10, planets align: podium

So this morning my scale said: 147. I haven't really been trying to "diet" just not snacking/grazing like I usually do...I call the diet: No Chips/No beer. I haven't weighed this little since after a 6 week climbing trip to Peru 8 years ago where we climbed multiple 20,000' mtns.

That bumps me from 4.00w/kg to 4.12w/kg (assuming an FTP of 275w). If my FTP can get to 285w then I'm at 4.27w/kg. This chart puts it in perspective (and my horrific sprinting ability!):

Tomorrow: Threshold workout in the fort.

thought for the day

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring. –Desmond Tutu

via BikeSnobNYC

PS...why is everyone searching for this quote on Google?

TNWC #2

Lots more people showed tonight which was good. The pace was kept high which prevented any real attacks from going off for the first 20min and it was very windy.

Unless you count Nutty...coming up the final stretch on the neutral lap I gave him a push and said "go". He, being the 23yo he is, took off and stayed 10s off the front for a couple of laps while we chased. The Nut was killing it all night.

My goal for the night was to just chill, not work too hard and follow moves. I got away once with Karl and then a mix of other semi breaks until the last lap when during a lull I drilled it up the left gutter but Ken and team sippy cup saw it and were right on my wheel so I shut it down. Ended up lining up for the sprint and had a good wheel (sammy) but got a bit tangled up and lost some mojo. I actually had a good jump and thought I might win but got swarmed at the line by 2 or 3 people.

What my WKO+ download shows is that I've done zero anaerobic work. My 5-10-20s max's are pretty pathetic (compared to what I've done in the past). Need to start doing some level 6-7.

I'm feeling lucky

Sufferfest

#1 bee-atch (I own "ez loop" too)

update: damn...looks like I'm now #2

Did an easy 2 hour cruise today. 80TSS. The legs felt decent.

1x35 at 100%

It's been a while since I've done a pure threshold interval and with not feeling great yesterday I wasn't sure how it'd go. I wanted to have a goal so I figured Bluff Road to the turn at Congaree would be good and close to 40min (flatish and straight, no stops).

Mostly it went well, I wasn't worried about hitting 100% of FTP since the legs weren't feeling that great. I just cruised and the strong sidewinds were gusty which made it hard to keep a good rhythm. The turn came at 35' and instead of soldiering on...I just stopped. Averaged 274w.

Ended up hooking up with Nutty & the girls and rode easy back home.


<--- the charts are current

Tired legs

I did the group ride today and the legs felt mediocre to bad. I could get the wattage up but my PE was higher than normal. In looking over the ride in WKO I actually did ride pretty hard (lots of time in VO2 land) and racked up some good numbers...I just should have had more fun!

Tomorrow I need a solid threshold day.

E-Z Loop

I took yesterday off and today went out for 1.5 hrs with Chris. Just an easy cruise, my legs felt a bit ragged but I'm not that tired. Tomorrow should be good...gonna head out at 9am.

take the test

6x5 VO2

I wasn't sure how the legs would feel tonight after yesterday's race but sometimes when you feel crappy leaving the house you end up having a good workout...that's basically what happened.

I'm still trying to focus on VO2 and my bread and butter workout is 6x5 min (5min rest). I try to average 115% of my FTP (for me that's 316w).

It nearly always pans out this way: the first one sucks and the legs feel heavy, the second I feel strong, the 3rd and 4th are so-so, the 5th really sucks and the 6th sucks the worst (my perceived exertion is pegged for this one and I go through all sorts of mental gymnastics to keep the wattage up). This works out to 30min spent in VO2, A fun workout...when it's over!

This is the first time this year that I really nailed this workout so I'm happy about that.

TNWC #1

Good race tonight. I wanted to try to make it hard so I kept throwing in (suicidal) attacks. Not a great idea to attack with the pack going 26mph but hey--it's a training race. After a couple of these I chilled for a while.

With about 10 min to go everyone went into major cat and mouse mode...waiting for the move. I knew a hard attack would just get instantly chased so I eased up the side and slowly rode away...once I had 30m I drilled it. I got a huge gap and was cruising but as I came up to 2 laps to go I started looking back and doing the math...could I hold it? That's always the question. I pulled the plug which probably was a mistake.

Oh Well...it all came together at 1 and a half then Jed put in a massive attack followed by Ladd, Marc W. and myself. As I saw Ladd close it I thought to myself "COUNTER!!!" which is exactly what he did and he cruised to an easy win. I tried to close the gap to him in the last kilometer but he-strong-like-bull and I was a bit fried from my earlier solo foray.

$12k bike and one speed

Rode with Ladd & the tri-boyz today. There ain't no 45 min roll out with these guys...it's 21 mph from the driveway and keep it up till you get home. It's a great group to ride with...always hard but not too hard. JB did throw us a bone and we got to stretch our legs for one section.

<--charts are current as of today

Daylight savings is over and it's light enough to ride till 7:40...that means TNWC. See ya tuesday at 6:30pm for 40min + 2 at the crit course.

dnf

Today's race went well. Jay got 2nd, Brian 7th, Ladd 12th.

At the start things looked epic. Freezing cold and a sleet "downpour". We all were wearing everything we brought and then some. I had 2 of Brian's vests and his winter hat...also Jay's extra shoe covers and his extra gloves. It was crazy...

Once the race started things mellowed...the rain/sleet stopped and it warmed up a little bit. I felt really good and rode near the front all day. The climb to the finish was manageable but I knew I wouldn't be a factor at the end...too many strong/fit guys. Masters racing is pretty hard! Lots of cat 1's and 2's.

On the next to last lap I was near the front with Jay and there was a group of 3 about 15-20 seconds up the road. Jay was nervous about the break cuz they were some hard core cat. 1 types and he thought if they got more time we'd never see them again. It was just him and I at the front so I decided to go "all in" and started chasing as hard as I could. The breaks teams were all right behind us so there was no help. Brian and Ladd were stuck behind riders. I tried to keep the break in sight then as we got near the climb I dug deep to to get them close enough to allow Jay to bridge on the climb. He launched and I exploded...over the climb I semi recovered and did a half hearted chase to get back on but rode solo the last lap.

It worked out that Jay caught them then got away with 2 others finishing 2nd. Ladd and Brian patrolled the pack on the last lap. It was a pretty fun race...

spinopeners

I went for a cruise today in between the rain showers...the legs felt pretty good. I did my normal routine for the day before a race: 5 min of threshold then some harder efforts as openers. I'm not sure if it helps but it makes an easy hour spin more fun.

The course tomorrow is River Falls. It's got a 2:30 climb that's pretty tough and we do it 6x (i think). The last time I did this race the climbs were in the 380-400w range (140% or so) but this was as a cat 3. Tomorrow, all bets are off...it could get ugly. Winds will be 20-30...it will be ugly.

5x4.5

Since I'm gonna be racing this weekend I needed a jump start to at least feel some serious pain on the bike...probably more mental training than anything.  I went out tonight and did some VO2 intervals:  5x4.5' at 112% of FTP.  

It hurt and I went through all sorts of anguish to complete them.  Now I'm ready to race!

For the diehards.

Back at it

Trip's over...It was pretty good. Not the usual thrashing of mega-tours in the Wasatch but some good quality time. I'm editing some killer video right now and if you're into 5 year old aggro skiing you'll love it.

I'm going to be racing this weekend so I need a plan to get back into some sort of mental-physical shape. I did 1.5 hrs tonight, basically tempo riding. Tomorrow I'm gonna push that to 2 hrs and then throw some sort of intervals in for Wednesday.