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.