On the Road

I was able to squeeze a workout in on Tuesday at the crit course.  The legs felt like shit but I did 45' @ 90% with one 15' interval in there at FTP.  We're doing a little stopover for Xmas in KY then headed out tomorrow for SLC.  I'm looking forward to a week of skiing hard, riding hard and living large in my sis-in-law's McMansion.

Putting in the hours

Karl got his Ph.D last week so Chris threw a huge bash last night...I stumbled in at 2am so we pushed the ride back an hour. A good group showed up and we had a stellar winter ride. Temps in the 40's but very comfortable. At the G-mart I continued on and away from town solo so I'd be committed to a 4 hr ride. It's too easy to just head home when you get close and you're tired.

I ended up with exactly 4 hours and absolutely nothing to do the rest of the day. Crusty's moving so I did help him clear some carbon bits out of his garage (and into my bike room!). Now it's time to start putting in the long rides (and huge TSS) every weekend. Gonna hopefully get some big climbing days in Utah next week.

and another

The usual...

spoked

Went to pull the bike down for tonights ride and...broken spoke. How does one break a spoke with a bike just hanging by a hook? I can't really complain as I have 12k miles on that wheel. Anyway, plan B was to grab my old PT Pro wheel that has about 20+k miles on it. I've been lending this out to power newbies but now that I have it back it seems to be reading about 30w low.

So tonight I just rode by PE and glanced at the wattage every once in a while. I pretty much know where my 90% threshold is...just gotta keep pressure on the pedals and not daydream too much. I ended up with good legs and kept rolling it for 70 min. Dark night, warmish temps (53˚), a bright light and a light mist/rain made for a really nice ride.

Start of FTP

Slept in then putzed around and finally got out for a ride after lunch. It was just over 40˚ and not really that horrible but I did need to keep the intensity turned up a notch to stay warm. I just rode all the way out Bluff Rd via the swamp to 601 then turned around and headed back. Simple ride.

On the way in I was getting chilled so I decided to do two 10' threshold intervals. Both at around 280w (aka 100%). Felt just ok as I rode pretty hard for the first 1:30.

15' from my house it started raining and 5' from my house it started sucking really bad. I was glad to be home.

Cree-ville

99% done...beamshots this weekend and a full writeup, it's very sweet:

warm/windy

The wind was howling today but the 70+ temps were nice. I did the usual at the crit course for 60' with the huge tailwind up the final stretch @ 27mph...very hard not to go over FTP with those conditions. The backside, downhill...18mph and I was close to needing my small ring! Legs a little tired from yesterday but PE was pretty much in line.

back at it

The bad thing about feeling sick is that at a point you're not sure if you're still sick or just feeling like crap from not riding/exercising. That's where I was and I'm glad it was raining today so I could just get on the Velodyne and cruise. I warmed up for a bit then did 45' at around 90ish %. It was pretty easy but I felt 100% better after doing it.

Tomorrow I'm headed to the crit course after work and I'm gonna kill it...

My mega light is almost done. I'm getting good at soldering super small circuit boards. Once it's operational I'll post detailed pics and some beamshots.

not 100%

I was going to do a morning workout today but woke up at 4:30 with a sore throat and bad head...sortof half sick. I stayed home from work and basically just laid around all day to hopefully head off anything that may be developing. Should be good to go this weekend.

another ride

I totally didn't want to ride today but with rain on the way I forced myself to go. Ended up with a solid hour at the usual .9 IF. I just felt blah...sortof dead legs and it felt way harder than it should have. Luckily I had some good tunes and after I got going I had a few spells where I felt just ok.

It's December and time to start thinking about doing some IF 1.0 workouts...but I'm gonna start out pretty low key.

I've got a full SRAM Red Group I'm selling and a bunch of "vintage" Zipp wheels (1 track disc, 1 road disc, 1 front 303...all tubular). Ping me if you're interested...soon to be on eBay.

lots of kJ

My parents are in town so we've been eating out every meal...I've consumed a shit load of calories this weekend but did get some riding in.

Saturday I did 2:30 with Julie tucked on my wheel. It was a nice cruise and she'd blow at 86% so I kept it pegged at 85.5%. We don't get to ride together that often and she's recovering from H1N1 so she's out of shape.

Sunday I didn't have a lot of time due to a mid day Nutcracker performance by Ella so I did the standard loop in the Fort but just kept it at 90% for most of the time. The legs felt pretty blocked so it wasn't really that fun, but was over quickly.

Funny thing that is too long for a tweet: Fri night we rented Star Trek and after 2 hours we figured out that the DVD was farked and was basically playing chapters in random order. We thought that it was just the director being very artistic with the timeline but after a while it was ridiculous with several replayed chapters...Arrrrgh! Saturday we rewatched it with a good DVD and it is a kick ass flick!

exercise

Did 70' at 91% tonight... legs felt really good. Cold, dark and a light drizzle... Perfect conditions!

Thursday morning we're gonna do a 3 hour/60 mile ride leaving from Outspokin at 7:30am. It'll be an easy-ish ride.

Sunday

Good job to JB for a strong IMAZ. He killed the bike leg averaging over 22mph for 112 miles and probably paid for it on the run.

I did 60 miles easy on Sat and only left the house today to walk to the Dairy Bar for milkshakes...in the dark, in the rain (Eleanor's idea).

Crit course for the usual this week then I'm doing a longer ride early Thanksgiving morning so I can stuff myself with Tofurky© (Probably 7:30ish from Outspokin).

a preview

7up

SST

Crit Course: 1x70' at 91%

Legs were a little blocked at the start but once I got going they were like little metronomes. Good sensations, time went fast. New ceramic bearings felt smooth. Enjoyed just rolling at the crit course in the dark with no lights and Moby cranked on the iPod. Sortof surreal. Flatted right at the end and just rode the carbon for the last 30" (ouch!) Luckily my interval ended 3' from my house.

You may ask...why 70'? I have no good answer except that most people do 60' ;-) and if you can get to 60' at 90% why not do an extra 10'? 20'? 30'? More=better.

bee-u-tiful

wow...what a day to be outside. I did 3 hrs or so with the group and tried stay on the front as much as possible and ride at or near 90% or so. It was hard to tell cuz my PT had a flat so I rode julie's Rolf Vigors...and I had good legs today and the PE was very low. I probably was hitting my FTP a lot.

Some things I've been thinking about...First is that this is the first year that I have ever felt like I've held my "race fitness" for the entire year. Right now I feel like I could still go out and do a 50mile RR and be in the game. Second, this is the lightest I've weighed at this point in the year in like...ever. I'm usually 6-8# (or more) heavier right now. Third, I'm still not really riding *that* much, just a lot of quality SST minutes. How these will affect 2010 will remain to be seen but I think they're all good.

Trainer time

This week has sucked weather wise so the last 2 days were on the velodyne. Did about a 15' warmup then an hour at around 90% each day. Got through the latest Fast and Furious which sucked as a movie but was entertaining for someone that produces testosterone.

Weekend's gonna be good but I'm a solo parent again so I may have to just squeeze in my 3 hr rides when I can. I also *might* be getting SRAM Red.

OSB

First of all a huge congrats to Aaron Trent who won the silver medal at the Para World Championships in England today. Noone trained harder this year.

I haven't been able to train that much this week as my wife has H1N1 and has literally been in bed for the last 3 days. I got my vaccine so hopefully I'll be spared. It's a nasty bug. So I've been doing the parenting duties solo and today I walked into work with my t-shirt on inside out...that pretty much sums it up.

New news: Next year we've got a new team going. LL, JC and I are riding for Outspokin. It's actually our old team as we rode with them 2 years ago. Adding Brian C. and Karl to our trio will be formidable. That's a lot of horsepower. Should be good. We'll win a lot of races.

Old news: And no new bike for me this year which is actually a good thing...way too many strings attached and promises broken (surprise!). We just wanna race. No BS. Ask me about it out on the road and I'll tell you the whole story.

Darkness

Man, it got dark fast tonight. My ultimate light is being milled right now by a friend out in Utah.

Tonight I did the usual 70' @ 90% at the crit course except cut down the warmup/cool down to 2' each. I felt pretty good but was totally dragging all day long. The hardest part of the workout was definitely walking out the door, then I was good.

Will probably get out and just cruise around tomorrow in the fort then hit it again at the crit course on Wednesday for another 1 x 70'. My new bike has been delayed a bit but should be here very soon...

get your head in the game time

Crusty's having his yearly halloween party.

Saturday night

2819 Heyward

8:00pm

be there for drunken debauchery

sorta ride

Some incredible weather today...had to ride. My legs were feeling sortof crappy today, my PE was up so I rode for an hour at some mystery intensity cuz I was trying not to look at my PM. Just got some exercise and enjoyed the day.

1st indoor ride

It was a rainy day today. I decided it was time to jump on the velodyne for my SST workout. I did a 5' warmup then around 45' at around 90% then drank a beer. I've got my 24" LCD TV, iphone, dvd player & laptop to keep me company.

142x2

Some good riding this weekend. 2:50 on Sat and a little over 3 hrs on Sunday. Both days were 142 TSS. Gonna get out on the TT bike a bit this week to do my SST workouts as my new ride is going to be built up. The unveiling will be later this week...and you will be impressed!

Training, TT and LED's

Nothing is more efficient than a 5' warmup, 70' at 93% @ crit course, then a 4' cool down. Done and home.

New TT bike came today and it's time to turn into an aero geek...I can't handle the "truth"

People are talking about the Magicshine P7 light. It's a great deal for under $80 (I've got one) but it's not even close to 900 lumens. More like 600-650. Still a kick ass deal and lots of light if you don't want to build one. They're chinese made and cheap so they've got issues, some of which can be addressed.

This puppy is 7 XPG's and is gonna be 2450 lumens in a 4cm diameter housing. I should have the driver next week then I'll build it. Gonna be sick. A giant hyperspace leap from my rides with a 10w halogen on slickrock trail in the late 80's. I'm gonna be building lots of lights this winter for people.

with optic:

i rode my bike in orlando F.L.A.

I got back today from Orlando and Disney World. As much as I hate to admit it...it didn't suck. I was all ready for 10,000 square acres of walmart but Disney Inc. has it nailed. I'm still pretty fried from the whole thing and no telling how my 6 y.o. dtr feels.

Sat and Sunday mornings I got up and rode with Ward and his crew. Saturday was the group ride with 60-70 assorted riders. A huge group that seemed more like a critical mass event. Soon after the start I followed Ward to the front and we started hammering but after a few hard pulls I had no idea where I was going so I left it to the others and just sat in. It was a good ride but with lots of wind, felt more like a race at times.

Sunday was a smaller group of 12 or so of strong riders and we did around 70 miles mostly just cruising but there were a few times we made it hard. It was pretty cold for Florida...50˚ at the start and only warmed up to 60˚. Luckily I threw in some knee warmers and a vest for the trip. I got about 350 TSS for the weekend.

Back to the crit course on Thursday...

1x70'

Headed out for the usual at the crit course...Was gonna do an hour at 90% but felt good so I just kept going. I missed training yesterday so I wanted to do something significant. The legs felt like I could have ridden another hour at this intensity. Sweet!

May try to do a longer ride tomorrow. Maybe 4:45pm at the gate...do the thursday route? anyone? Bueller? ping me if you wanna go.

Saturday

Met the group then headed out to do my own thing. Had a lot of things going on and needed to get back home. Did 30' at 90% then got really hot and shut it down...why is it hot in October? I didn't feel all that great anyway.

1x60'

Did a loop in the fort with Chris and she sat on my wheel while I did this-->

Had awesome legs tonight. Effortless riding.

the usual

Did the usual today after work at the crit course...85 TSS in about 75'. Pretty efficient. Just cruised at 85% and timed it so I was 5' from home at the end.

I'm gonna be out there A LOT this winter, mostly M-Tu-Wed at around 5pm. It's really the perfect place to train. If you're a newbie and want to start some structured training come on out and ride a wheel. I'll be starting some threshold in November but right now it's all SST.

I'm also building a Dual-Triple Cree LED light using the just released XPG's and it should be close to 2000 lumens and insane. If you're gonna go...go BIG. LED's en route now from Australia! I will own the night...

Wkend update

Got out with Chris/Karl and Dean...mostly had it turned to 'medium' but Karl smashed me once and I smashed him once. Even. Rode 2.5 hrs. Btw...I'm no longer doing easy rides. I'm either training or resting. On or Off. 2010...gonna kill, rip legs off, etc etc.

I really need to download my PT one of these days...that's the trouble with 15hrs of rec. time and the off season.

Last TNWC of 2009

Another smallish group tonight but there were enough strong dudes to keep it interesting and fast.  Not much happened for the first half of the race.  A break of around 8 of us got away at around the midpoint and this was probably less of a break than just natural selection.  Pretty much everyone was there so I wasn't too concerned about doing much work to make it stick.

I knew I had to use that one match I had at just the perfect time.  With 3 to go Wingo launched and got a pretty good gap. We sort of took our time chasing him down which was fine with me cuz that meant one less strong guy to worry about for the finish.  Again I did a minimal amount of work...just surfed the back or just rolled through and off the front to conserve as much as possible.

With one to go I planted myself on Marc's wheel and at this point he had a 95% probability of winning so I wasn't too thrilled about sprinting against him.  Plus what made matters worse for me was there was a strong tailwind blowing down the finish (advantage to Marc).  Usually with that wind I like to attack into the wind with about 1k to go and if I can get a decent gap I can sometimes hold it to the line with the tailwind.  I did consider trying this but I didn't think I had the legs to pull it off.  My one match is sortof puny right now.

Coming to turn 3 of the last lap Jay was leading it out...then Toby, Marc and me.  Right after the turn Marc attacked hard and it sort of surprised me...I totally didn't expect it. A split second later I went after him, dug deep and closed the gap just before turn 4.  He bombed the turn and drilled it up towards the finish line. I looked back once and it was just us two by a good ways.  I knew I had a huge advantage at this point but still wasn't convinced that I could come around him.  I just relaxed, stayed an inch from his wheel and waited till the last possible moment... and with 50m to go I jumped hard and pipped him by a wheel for the win. Very fun finish, good instincts and aggressive riding by Marc but just bad luck.

zippage

posting for a teammate...lemme know if you're interested:

Front and Rear Zipp 404. Dimpled. Bought 2 seasons ago used. Very low mileage Continental Tubulars: $1,000

Front and Rear Zipp 808. Dimpled. New in the box, mid season 2008. Light mileage Continental Tubulars: $1,200

Zipp 900 Disc. Dimpled. Bought, used, in 2008. Vittoria Tubular: $900

Front Zipp 1080. Dimpled. New in the box, end of season 2009. 40 miles. Very, very low mileage Continental Tubular: $950

fo sale

New Kuota Kredo Ultra

XL (57cm top tube)

$1000

another TNWC

Good TNWC despite a small field. I think after 15 min there were only about 10 guys actually left racing. I missed the break (grrrrrr...) and ended up chasing with a good small group. We worked it and kept the break in sight but just could not close it. I decided to just pull as hard and as long as I could to get a good workout.

dirt

Today I got out with Jay and Mark D for a mtn bike ride at Harbison...it's been *a while* since I've ridden off road. At least a few years. When I lived in Salt Lake in 1989 I used to spend weeks and weeks riding around Moab and other places in UT and Colorado. I had a nice road bike but just never rode it as I had great trails leaving right from my place up Emigration canyon in SLC and it was too much fun.

This morning we hammered the trails for a couple hours...for the first hour I was pretty gripped, trying to ride fast when my reflexes and technical skills were lagging behind. The last hour I started feeling like a rider again. Good fun and I'm sure I'll do more this winter.

TNWC

I wasn't feeling that super today. Yesterday I did about 90' with 45' of 85% and my lower back was a little tweaked (I think from doing several no-hands laps to mix it up!). I basically just sat in tonight and cruised the back. I wasn't gonna do ANYTHING before 35' in to save my single match.

At 35' I started to get a little active and went with a couple moves but nothing would stick. The last 20' was pretty good racing. With 3-4 laps to go 4 guys got a little gap and the diminished field was left to chase. It seemed that lots of guys were pretty tired and I tried to bridge once at 2 to go but just dragged everyone up a ways till I pulled the plug.

With one to go I tried again, jumped pretty hard and got a gap. Derek managed to get my wheel so I figured I'd just drag him to the break. Right when I made contact he attacked (textbook!) and blew it apart...including me. End of my night and I rode home at a steady pace for some more exercise.

I have no idea who won. I was a little impatient at the end but it was fun none the less and a good workout. I was really comfortable on the bike tonight. I continue to be amazed at how well I'm riding with hardly any training since July.

Saturday

Karl and I did 3 hrs today out and around Eastover. We both felt pretty good so we rode pretty steady with him killing it on the front for 60% of the time. I didn't feel awful despite not having ridden this far in a long time. My batteries died on the PT so I was going by PE. I was gonna do 2 easier rides this weekend to get my TSS but one harder one works out about the same.

TNWC

Cool race tonight...lots happening and it was pretty fast. LL told me he was gonna launch after the first catch at 15' in but with my diminished fitness I figured I needed to burn that one match I had nearer to the end. LL, Karl and Ward were away for a long time and it took a hell of a chase to pull them back. I had to take a couple big pulls even though I didn't really want to but the chance of those guys staying away was pretty huge.

For the last third of the race I just sort of surfed and kept an eye on things...with everyone in the group chasing like mad I figured it would come down to a bunch sprint so I went into chill mode. It all stayed pretty much together and I was sitting 20th wheel with a half lap to go so I inched up towards the front following Marc W. Someone then put in a massive attack at 1k (Ward?) and I just put my head down and stayed glued to the wheel in front of me. That friggin hurt!

Coming into turn 4 I was sitting 3rd on Marc W's wheel...James (?) was leading it out. Coming out of 4 the train was starting to die and MW was again just sitting on and looking around for a wheel. At around 200m to go I saw my opportunity as the leadout was riding on the left gutter. I thought that if I could attack and ride just off the lead guy's shoulder and taking some people with me that I could maybe box MW in and have a shot at winning. I didn't know how many were following me but it was not enough and MW made it through and won pretty easily (but those tactics have a zero % chance of working in a 1-2 race). I got 2nd.

Damn these races can be fun...

400

Ok...my 5 week siesta is over. Time to start keeping the weight in check and maintain some fitness. My goal for the next month is 400TSS a week. Not huge but it will require riding 3-4x per week with 2 good days. I'm gonna keep the volume down and make it all about quality...SST will rule.

Today I did about a 90' ride with 55' at 85-90%. My new FTP is around 275w but is probably a little bit lower than that.

On a side note my shoulder is still pretty jacked from the crash last tuesday...I came soooo close to a major rotator cuff injury and I'm still not completely satisfied that I didn't tear something. I'll give it another week before I think about an MRI.

US Pro

I headed up to Greenville on Sunday to catch the US Pro road race. It's always a fun time and Ella wanted to do the kids world championships. Mike Tamayo had said I could catch a ride in the Ouch team car so I found him in the caravan before the race but there was a USA Cycling dude riding so he was going to try to get me on one of the other laps.

That didn't work out so Crusty's like "just jump on that moto" and I ended up with Trey Smith who was driving one of the press moto's. I had to wait a few minutes until Mrs. Hincapie decided she didn't want to go...yeah, really. I don't know what was more fun...watching the riders up close or having Trey going REAL fast down Paris Mtn and railing the corners! It was an incredible ride.

compare that to the ride in the Healthnet car...I'll take the moto!

State RR

After feeling good on tuesday and being shamed into going by Derek I headed up to do the State RR today at Fork Shoals. They changed the course from an earlier race we did there this year and added a pretty tough small ring climb and the approach to the finish was more uphill. A nice course.

My goal was survival...and not to do anything stupid like get into a break or to ever be on the front. I've done about 6 rides this month (and 6 weeks since quitting for the season) so my experiment was if I could hang with my diminished fitness. After the tnwc I did zero rides to get ready for this race, my CTL is sub 40 and TSB is ridiculous.

Eric Christopherson attacked from the word "G...." and took Scott Minor with him. They instantly had over a minute. This pretty much shot my plans to hell as I worked my way up on the first lap--Jay said "this is a disaster" so I went to the front and put in one big effort. I led up the big climb and figured if we meandered up it then Eric C would add minutes so I just went as hard as I could go (which wasn't really that fast). Soon after that Jay got away with 2 others and bridged the 2+ minutes to the leaders and ended up getting 2nd. Incredible effort on his part...will be some good reading over at his blog. Ken O did some good chasing too.

Once Jay was gone the group shut down. I rode near the front and covered pretty much all the moves. I didn't do any real blocking as we had lots of guys from Columbia there and I didn't want to be a jerk. If Tom Sunday or Brian or Ben or Derek would attack I'd let them go.

At the start of lap 3 (of 4) a guy put in a huge attack and I went across to him with another guy. They were pretty strong and I told them that I had a teammate up the road but that I'd work on the last lap if they could keep the gap. They were cool with that. Crusty says it's better to give guys a carrot so they keep riding. The funny thing was 30 seconds after saying this I looked back, reassessed the gap and said to the guys "I've changed my mind, Let's Go!" And I hit the front and put in a some big pulls. It all eventually came back together for the last lap.

On the last lap I was sag climbing all the hills...It was easy to get to the front then I would just drift back and climb at my own tempo ending up near the back. Then repeat. With 3-4 miles to go there was an acceleration and both of my legs seized up...massive cramps and I abruptly lost contact with the group. I was hurting and was popped, gone, adios. Luckily the group kindof sat up right at that time and I managed to claw my way back on. A few minutes of easy riding and lots of stretching and contortions helped a lot. On the last climb I was sitting delicately ON the back and stayed there till the turn at 1k to go. It was now or never so I started to move up, looked for Derek's wheel, found it, lost it, then latched onto Lang and he gave me a beautiful smooth ride to the line. I finished 10th 40+.

It was really a fun race and I'm glad I did it. Now I'm really done for the year...promise.

E=mc2

I'm putting together a little physiological/psychological experiment this weekend...Stay tuned.

TNWC 8/25

Another tuesday, another crit. I was thinking I might get dropped tonight...haven't really been riding a lot (5 rides this month!)...just eating bad food and drinking beer. After the first few laps I felt pretty good and then rolled off the front...not as much of an attack as just riding a bit faster than the group (I wouldn't chase me either HaHa). I got a ridiculous gap and after a lap or two at VO2 intensities I settled in at threshold and just waited for the catch. It was a good workout, I felt strongish and was cruising at 280-300w.

My plan was that once the group got sortof close I would duck into one of those driveways after a turn and sortof "disappear". I thought that would be funny but then Lang bridged and we were off again for a while.

The rest of the race was just sortof riding around in circles...we had to organize a chase as there was a pretty strong break late in the race but it came back and it all came down to a field sprint. I was surprised that I never really suffered.

In the end I just wanted to sit on Derek's wheel and see what happened...but so did everyone else so I had to do a bit of creative riding to "move" some people and establish myself. (Treze: "that's my wheel" Really? Not anymore! ;-) ). The sprint happened and I just sat on Derek who rode fast and had to do a fair bit of work to get to the line due to things getting stalled after turn 4. I got 3rd.

autopilot

Crit course today for 45' of SST...couldn't really muster much more than that, nor did I want to.  

burning calories

Back from a week in seattle...lots of food, very little exercise. Yesterday I was totally spent from travel and work so I did some quality napping.

Today I went out to the crit course and just wanted to do an hour hardish to get some exercise. I managed a pretty solid SST workout keeping the wattage around 85-90% for 45 min. My FTP has probably dropped a bit so I'm gonna adjust WKO a few clicks south...lets call it 279w (and that's damn optimistic).

yet another TNWC

The threat of heat kept a lot of people inside but there were enough strong guys out tonight to make it fun. It wasn't really that hot...we rode around in circles for an hour. I found myself in quite a few breaks but I wasn't that willing to do any real work, except once with LL and Karl...I thought that had a shot at sticking so I took a couple hard pulls. Mostly I just would find the biggest guy and sit on his wheel (Helllllo Henry and Jamie!)

It all kindof came together at the end and James and LL sortof rolled off the front with one to go. I was sitting back waiting for the catch so I could do a hard counter and take the win...that didn't quite work out. LL won. I'm off to Seattle till Monday.

Last NE ride

This morning we did the usual 76 mile NE loop. LL, Jay, Kevin, Gordon, Paul, Aaron, James. I was just looking for some exercise and with my lack of any real training for the last 4 weeks I knew I needed to conserve a lot to survive. We averaged right at 23mph and I didn't really pull at all...I'd stay on the front for a minute or two the come off regardless if I felt good or not. I didn't want to take any chances of cramping up or getting dropped. So for me it was a really nice cruise for the most part.

I don't think I'll be doing any more real long rides like this for a while. Speaking of long rides, Rob and Karl rode to charleston today--130 miles and averaged 20mph...you do the math.

TNWC

Ok...back to some regular updates. Not really much to write about lately. I've been doing 3-4 good rides a week. When I do ride it's nice because I always feel really good and rested. My goal is just to enjoy it and try to do some hard efforts for exercise. Surprisingly my form is still really good.

Tonights TNWC was hot but not too bad when we were cruising around. I just sortof went with the flow of things but no breaks were sticking. Again I knew I wasn't gonna win a field sprint so with half a lap to go some people were attacking and I countered one by Toby with about 800m to go. I got a really good gap and gave it all but died at the end and was passed with 20m to go by MW who won. The huge VW guy got 2nd, he was really strong and put in a couple really big attacks near the end.

Weird: Right before turn 3 my bottle popped out and I wedged it against my toptube with my knee, grabbed it and put it back in the cage...as I was attacking!

fini

My season's done. This has been brewing since nats...a little voice in the back of my head that kept getting louder. My good form kept the riding pretty fun but last weekend I cracked and after the tnwc I knew it was time to hang it up.

I'll have a more in depth retrospective post about this year later when I haven't had a few beers. This year I pushed through to a new level of fitness and it was the most fun I've ever had on a bike. Going fast is fun. No doubt about it.

Last year I didn't ride at all for over 2 months after nats because of a huge construction project on my house. This year I'm going to try to do at least 400TSS a week as maintenance. We'll see...it will take a long time to bleed off my 80 CTL so I should have some pretty good form for quite a while.

Weekend

Saturday Karl, Crusty and I did a long "flat" ride...we motored out bluff to 601 then turned around and made our way to the Gmart then in...about 60 miles and I hit my lap button on each pull and did 10' for each one at around my FTP. Great fast ride and I was riding pretty strong...karl of course was killing it too.

Today I didn't ride...too many house projects I've been ignoring and sleep I needed to get. I did motorpace LL in the afternoon. I don't think I've ever seen his face contorted in pain like that. I just kept turning the screw...It was fun being on the other end of the moto.

This week I'm gonna do a hard monday-tuesday block then chill for the races this weekend.

200 TSS Thursday

With French Broad coming up I wanted to hit some Vo2 intervals again so I did 4x4' at 120% before the group ride. Felt strong. The weather was iffy so not many people showed but that was fine cuz I wanted to get some more V02 efforts in. We pretty much motored with Karl, Paul and Kevin killing it. It's a lot easier to ride at 130% of FTP with a few strong guys on your wheel.

After the taper week for Nats my CTL's back on the upswing and TSB's back to negative.

Tonight I'm gonna tow Ella around at the beer ride then tomorrow it looks like I'm riding solo.

tnwc slugfest

Last night I went to the tnwc with one purpose...to ride as hard as possible. A few others had the same idea so it was one of the hardest crits of the year. Instead of attacking and then recovering I just went with every break I could and got pretty fried. I knew I wouldn't win the sprint so when Jay led it out I jumped after turn 3 to make it interesting and made it t0 200m to go before detonating.

data purge

For the geeks:

The Road Race
crazy high IF and NP for the race


For reference, last years race:


The Crit
surprisingly low NP but look at the graph...lots and lots of 400-600w sprints

Pics

See the soon to be ripped off leg tattoo (and nice "tribal" arm ring...ballin!) Some more photo's HERE

Master's Nats Crit @ Churchill Downs

Last night I slept like crap...I was wired and a bit nervous about the race today.  My race was at 11:30 so there was no rush in the morning.  I got there at around 10am and had a really good warmup then put the race wheels on and did some laps on the course.

I had to stop to get some tattoo's put on that I promised my daughter...then it was to the line.  The course was a 1/2 mile with most of the turns rounded so you could sort of pedal through them and turn 4 was weirdly banked and fast...about 65 guys started and we did 62 laps.

I'll tell you it was balls out fast and hard from the gun...and really never let up.  There were some lulls here and there but for the most part it was just crazy fast.  I saw more pedal strikes in corners than I care to remember but the group was really smooth and well behaved.

I tried to stay *near* the front but that meant about midpack.  A break of 5 guys eventually got away and held about a 20" gap.  Around the last third of the race I started feeling really good and started moving up and looking for an opportunity to go across to the break.  One guy who I was watching was the Kelly Benefits guy who Jay was chasing with on Tuesday...I knew he was strong so when he attacked, me and another dude went with him and chased.  The field eventually caught us and the gap then was only about 5 seconds and I gambled that the gap would close...Nope.  I was a little fried at that key moment and *should* have tried to bridge right then...but couldn't, and the gap went back out to 20".

At this point with 10 laps to go it was just looking like a field sprint for 6th...things started getting a bit argy-bargy and people were taking more risks to get to the front.  With 2 to go I had moved up to about 15th wheel...exactly where I wanted to be.  Then all I know is that when we were flying through turn 3 the guy to my left got in trouble and going down...I just hoped I'd sneak through but he slid out right in front of me and I slammed into him.  Luckily I landed on his bike (with him under it) so I wasn't hurt that bad but the race for me was over.

I did get up and ride the last 2 laps to finish the race...with rash down my left leg (ripping my new leg tattoo off!) and chain grease covering my entire left arm.  Whadda ya gonna do?  Later someone said a lapped rider caused the crash...I have no idea.  Now, 9 hours later I pretty sore and stiff.  Nothing a hand full of ibu and a few beers won't cure.

So I'm a bit bummed at the result but I am satisfied with how I felt and how I rode the race.  I was as aggressive as I think I could have been considering how hard it was and I was positioned where I wanted to be at the end.  

I'll do a post with some wattage numbers of both races when I get back to Columbia.

Ok...back to racing

After Tuesday's race I took Wed off hanging at the TT course with LL.  On Thursday Julie and I did a 2:15 ride where I did the first hour at tempo then followed her wheel the last hour.  The legs felt awesome and it was very hard not to ride harder (that's why I just sat on after a while).  

Today I went out for an hour and did a few opener type efforts...30-45 seconds at 150%.  Again incredibly good leg sensations...felt like I was just floating.  Very nice.  I took a huge 2.5hr nap this afternoon then hung out at the pool with the kids for a while just laying around in the shade.

I'm ready for tomorrows crit.  60% chance of rain...should be fun.  No expectations...just want to ride hard and be aggressive.

some thoughts...

Here's some random thoughts on the nats RR...

I saw some very "un masters-like" riding...a guy would accidentally get chopped a bit in a corner then he'd accelerate and try to throw an elbow at the dude or cut his wheel...crazy road rage type stuff. This happened 3 times...the last in the final 1k of the race.

Gordon Stihl had a horrendous crash on a super fast off camber turn where he followed a guy into a bad line...that guy lost it, took Gordon out and he went catapulting off the side of the road down an embankment and into the trees. It was so bad I was yelling at the next course marshal to get an ambulance. He's OK...just banged up and very lucky.

The "feed" zone was on a climb...but one we'd hit at 25+ mph. Carnage. I never saw one person actually get a feed, just bottles flying everywhere. Not that you needed one in a 50 mile RR with 80˚ weather.

Here's a pic someone sent Crusty...shows me (#1015) rolling in for 19th behind an ex-postal rider Clark Sheehan at top and Korioth in the middle.

TT: Ladd put in a great ride today getting 9th. Here's his START and FINISH on YouTube.

Masters Nats RR

My race today was at a reasonable 11am...lots of sleep and a casual morning then we headed down to the Cherokee Park course.  LL and Ryan's race was at 8 so they had already gone and raced by the time we got there.  Charlie, Jay and I did a lap warmup then lined up with 90+ other riders.  The field wasn't your typical 35+ group as you had hard men from across the country flying in for a shot at the national championship.  Everyone was strong and fast.

For me I had a good start position and had decided to just roll along for the first few laps and try to stay in good position.  The race was 50 miles...ten 5 mile loops.  I really felt good the first half of the race...the climbs were "easy" to me and I could pretty much go where I wanted.  Last year on the one grunt hill I climbed it in my small chainring but this year had no problem big ringing it.  Again...I felt really, really good.

The course was very crit like with lots of hard off camber high speed corners...I was a bit tentative on some of the harder corners at first and was content to just close the gap but later in the race I decided to just bomb the corners with everyone else and hope my Vittoria's held.  They were super good, sticky tires.

There was constant attacking so the pace was pretty high most of the race.  Finally a group of about 9 got away.  Lots of cat and mouse ensued then Jay and another dude got away.  The only thing I did at this point was to mark last years winner, John Korioth (Lance's "college" buddy).  So when he attacked I would follow.  

The second to last lap was pretty brutal and it took just about all I had to stick with the now small field over the last climbs...I realized that I could go hard and burn some matches to stay near the front as there was a long descent to recover before the final 1k finishing climb.

On the last lap Jay was close to making contact with the break but on the run in to the finish most of the break took a wrong turn and just continued on another loop (the start/finish was off on a side road).  It was a really bone head move...I guess some official was waving lapped riders off the course but it really is the responsibility of the rider to know when the finish is!  So the result was Jay got 7th insted of 11th...for a while we thought he had gotten 2nd.  That would have been pretty crazy.

My goal for the last lap was to stay on Korioth's wheel and that's just what I did.  He attacked on the 2nd to last climb and I let him go but got his wheel back shortly after.  On the last climb to the finish he gave me a great lead out and I got 19th.  My legs were totally cramping at the end but I just powered through it...I wasn't about to slow down.

Overall I felt awesome, had the usual few bad moments but finished about as well as I could have hoped considering the dynamics of the race.  I've totally happy with the result.  My NP for the 2 hours was 277w or about 98% of my FTP!   Ave speed was 25.1mph on a very hilly course. 

Full results HERE

My training for this race was totally spot on...those 1' intervals were perfect and on nearly every climb I would say to myself "this is not as hard as training at the crit course"  so I was really prepared physically.  Mentally I was relaxed and confident.  I knew I could ride with these guys and when it turned out to be easier than last year that was a big boost.  

All for now...Nats Crit on Saturday and I'm gonna be super aggressive!

taper, taper, taper

This week has been pretty chill for me. Did the TNWC and felt really good but forced myself to just sit in till the last 15' then I looked for a chance to win...didn't happen but I had great leg sensations, pretty much felt like I could rip the cranks off.

Wed: easy loop in the fort

Thursday : Did 30' tempo on the erg at work.

Friday: Got up early and did my last structured "workout" 4x4' Vo2, then 4x1' at level 6 (got about 96TSS in 1:18). The legs didn't feel all that great this morning but I wasn't really trying to kill it, it was actually an easy workout to get through at the lower intensities...even though it was cool, it was muggy and I'm not exactly a morning person.

I did mount and ride my Vittoria's w/latex and man those suckers can fly (but they are a total bitch to put on...back in the day vittoria's were scary easy to get on a rim, not anymore)

Right now my CTL's at 85, TSB's +5 and I'm headed to Louisville tomorrow morning.

The art of the taper

2 points I wanna make with this post...my prep related to last year and my planned taper for nats.

The prep: Last year at this time I was at a CTL of 67 and tapered down to the low 60's for the race. This year I'm at 90 and will taper down to 81. A big, big difference. Here's a comparison of the last 28 days of 08 and 09...notice all the yellow in 08 (or +TSB). I think I was burnt out before nats last year and had a mental let down at the beginning of June when I needed to be killing it. This year after my forced break due to a crash and broken rib in April I was ready to really hit it going into May and June. It's all there in the #'s (also look at the ATL days above 90tss/d this year).


The taper: I've given this a lot of thought and research and decided on a one week taper with less than 10 tss/d loss of CTL. I'm not planning on hanging up the bike this year (like I did last year...for 3 months!). So I don't want to lose too much fitness but I want to go into the races in Louisville as fresh as possible. A taper doesn't mean just sitting on the couch either, I'm planning on doing the tnwc (sitting in till the last part) then another day of SST/Vo2 intervals (dialing back the time/number and staying at the low end of the wattage target). I'll also throw in some longer easier rides. My plan is HERE. And this is a predictive chart that spells out the numbers:


Lastly I'm working on my victory salute...do I rock the baby with a ring kiss? double arms pointing to the sky? blow kisses to the crowd? It's so hard to choose the perfect one...(do I really need to put a smiley here?)

Sunday motorpace

Had an easy start to the day cuz my dtr wanted to make me breakfast...in bed, for fathers day. Didn't feel too bad from yesterday and was stoked to get out and ride hard behind the scooter.

Hooked up with my trusty driver, nutty and we headed down Bluff Rd at around 10:30. I planned 30' out and back. Going out we had a bit of a tailwind and were really motoring at around 34mph...I wanted to be above threshold and gave The Nut the green light to work me over. He delivered and can pretty much tell by now when I'm dying. Coming in I had him keep it at 25mph and I attacked the scooter a few times then struggled to get back on...that really finished me off. An awesome workout that isn't anything spectacular from a wattage standpoint but I'm always trashed afterwards...took a rare nap and chilled the rest of the day.

and that concludes my masters nats prep...

Hot Saturday

Blythewood Loop with the PV boyz. Muggy as hell at the 7am start but once the sun came out it was just "hot" which was bearable. At one point I hit something and my wet hand slipped off the bars...should have crashed, 7 lives left.

Rode hard and felt stronger as the day went on and felt great at the end...Peak? Feels that way. Life is good. CTL's hovering at 90 and TSB is only -10ish.

V-oh-two

Got out and did 5x4' at 330w. Was gonna do the group ride too but flatted, my tube had a short valve stem so I called for a pickup...no matter cuz the weather turned bad. I was gonna take an easy day tomorrow but since I didn't get all the TSS I wanted tonight I think I'll go do some L6 at the crit course after work. Long ride saturday, motorpace sunday and I'm done.

L6 + TNWC= 90 CTL

Did my 8.5 x 1' intervals today before the crit...was gonna do 10 but died on the 9th and decided to stop there. Great #'s tonight. The crit was good and fast but not too fast...easy to sit in. I wasn't too worried about getting in a break, I just surfed, followed some moves and it was all together till the end.

I did take a flier with about 1.5 laps to go and got a decent gap but was chased and then got caught with 1/2 lap to go...I slotted in at 4th wheel and then sprinted to 2nd place behind James W who got a nice jump. I really wanted to win tonight on my 43rd B-day!

Fun workout...lots of TSS. 4 hard days in a row and now I'm ready for a rest day tomorrow. I did hit an all time high of 90 CTL today...Rockin!

80 mile RR x2 (Salisbury NC)

Jay, LL and I headed up to Salisbury, NC this weekend for 2 of their state championship road races. Sat was the age groups, Sunday the categories. Since LL is the young pup Jay and I raced "down" in his 35+ category. We stayed in a room above a Salisbury bike shop that was set up by the guys at Carolina Masters (Nice guys who we've battled at nearly every race the last 2 years!)

Sat: This was the 30/35+. Jay and I were on early break duty and

we took turns following attacks. Then once LL worked his way up he launched and took a few people with him. This break stuck and he got 4th after pseudo-pro Rich Harper bridged solo up to them (Jay and I were just out of position to follow...would have been sweet). We then rode near the front covering the following attacks with Jay watching the 3 strongest guys and me trying to follow whoever else. I did piss off a Cerevellum D-Bag who kept yelling at me to pull through after I would follow his multiple attacks...not gonna happen dude (I did try to be nice and explain the situation...then when that didn't work I just told him to F-off!).

Jay ended up getting away with Harkey and I just rode the field into the finish. It was a hot day and I was feeling pretty crampy near the end despite drinking about 4 bottles. I finished 11th 35+. LL 4th, Jay 5th.

Sun: This was the Pro 1,2,3 race. It was pretty stacked with Time dev team showing up and some other near "pro's". The field was huge...maybe 80 or more. We were all pretty tired and over breakfast there was lots of talk of "survival" and "sitting in" and "you (meaning the other two) need to get in the early break"...but once the race started Jay was off the front of course in a break of 8. He stayed away for about an hour and it would have definitely stuck if the Time guys didn't go to the front and peg it at about 28. We were absolutely flying, strung out...for a long, long time to catch them.

Once it all came together we just surfed the field and near the end a few guys got away then Jay and LL took turns attacking with each of them off solo for a while but nothing stuck. Coming into the sprint Jay said he'd try to lead me out so I was glued to his wheel and coming up to the last k we picked up LL and I yelled to Jay that we were all lined up so he nailed it from out over 1k and did some amazing riding to get us up near the front, bumping and dodging along the way. Not exactly a clean sprint but as is with most of these we were sooo close to having it open up for us. We lost LL in the argy-bargy and superman Jay ended up with 10th, me 16th, LL 22nd.

I felt really strong Sunday and not really that tired...I felt great on the little climbs and could pretty much ride where ever I wanted position wise. In retrospect I probably should have tried to be more active/aggressive near the end but I'm happy with how it turned out. Even though it was faster today (25.9 mph ave or faster than our tnwc...for 3 hours) I worked harder on Saturday doing team stuff.

<---The PMC chart is up to date...7 more hard days of training until Nats taper time. YooHoo!

R&R

Rest day....Ahhhhhh.

Joy

tnwc

Continuing with the theme of train as hard as possible till you fall apart...Did 8x1' intervals before the crit (with good #'s) then felt amazingly good during it. 2:06 total with a TSS for the day of 163 (IF of .881).


I didn't really want to be in any breaks so I'd rest in the back and then go to the front and drill it to help bring back whoever was away...then I'd disappear to the back again. Did this a few times...was away with Toby for a while. Rob Reed rolled away with about 5 or so laps to go and motored...building up a huge gap he held for the win. Awesome job!

CTL now is 86...TSB -14 so it's all good. Easy 1.5hrs tomorrow, Thursday off, Friday ez spin then race the weekend.

I'll give you five sheckels.

Went out for some Vo2...not expecting much but wanted to try. Planned on doing 6x4' but it was pretty hard. Ended up deciding to do 4, then talked myself into another one. Not a bad workout despite how I felt. Did these at the crit course.

Tomorrow I'm gonna do 8-10 x 1' before the crit...that should be interesting. Just trying to rack up some serious TSS before taking a couple easy days prior to the RR's this weekend.

I've been thinking a lot about prep for nats...getting my shit straight. Physically I'm getting there but last year I raced on a bike that was not in great shape mechanically (surprise!) and I had issues so I'm getting things dialed NOW--new cables, housing, chain, cleats. New tires (Open Corsa Evo Cx's) will go on a few days prior to the race with a final go over. Here's my updated training plan and the "done" entries are what I actually did: Plan

Da Beach

Had a great weekend. On Friday and Saturday did the beach/pool thing with the kids (I say kids because we went with our neighbor & her 2 kids). Saturday morning I did get out in the am for a 2.5' 145TSS ride. I felt great and just hammered with the horrible Hilton Head traffic. Spent the rest of the day lounging and drinking. I got a great rate at this resort by looking at THIS website and using Priceline.

Sunday I raced in Beaufort. Pouring rain and a very small field of maybe 30, with 25 real strong riders. Eric Christofferson and Scott Minor were the 2 heavily marked guys there and one's I was watching pretty closely. We rode fast with lots of attacking but there was nothing gonna get away with a field that's strong and attentive. Less guys also means it's easy to mark an attack as you're never boxed in. I knew that the only way a break would stick was if Eric AND Scott were in it so I let everything else go. Eric would let someone get a 5" gap then get on the front and TT them back...amazing.

It was pouring rain most of the race and I felt pretty sketchy at times cornering through a 4" river of water...lots of rain/spray and grit in the eyes. Bars slippery and hard to see. And we were really motoring the entire time. Coming into the last mile I was sitting 4th wheel as Eric hammered on the front and I sat up to look back to see where everyone was (esp Minor). Right then they slowed a bit and I overlapped wheels and really should have crashed...don't know how I pulled that one off but I ended up about 20' into the grass then back on the road and back into my 4th wheel spot. Wow...crazy, very lucky. Tom S. got the close up as he was on my wheel at the time.

Coming into the sprint I really wanted to attack from a ways out cuz I was feeling really good but didn't have great position being near the front and then a Carolina Masters rider flew by at about 600m. I went after him and probably would have won if I had gotten his wheel sooner but once I latched on at 100m I took a breath then started my sprint. I wasn't able to get around him and then Eric C came roaring by for the win. I got 3rd.

This week it's a few hard days, a couple easy days then two 80 mile road races on Sat/Sun.

rest

Took another rest day today...just cruised around for about 30' until it started raining. I'm gonna just play it by ear this weekend. I may opt for a long ride early sat morning instead of the 2:30pm crit so I don't kill the whole day. I wanna just hang on the beach for a while and chill. Road race on Sunday for sure.

10x1'

Back yet again to the crit course, this time for more Level 6. Legs were a bit tired from the tnwc but my hamstrings felt a lot better today than yesterday. Not too hot...borderline. Did 10x1' @ at least 150%...I don't really look at the PM too much for these intervals, just go hard. That's why there's so much variability between them. Some felt good some not so good. Cross wind tonight...not so good.


I'm gonna race in Beaufort this weekend so I'm not gonna do a huge workout tomorrow. Probably just do 40-60' at SST depending on how I feel. I'm looking forward to the beach for sure.

tn-f'd up-wc

My legs were still pretty hurtin from the weekend even after the rest day on Monday. Motorpacing can fry your hamstrings. So tonight the plan was to do some kind of threshold workout before the crit so I ended up just doing a 90% 30' SST interval right before it.

I just rolled around for a while at the start sitting in then there was a lull and a too perfect time to attack so off I went...ended up away with Karl and a couple others then when I thought the field caught us I sat up to realize that it was the Jay express and the field was a long way back. Oops.

The field wasn't exactly chasing so I took off and ended up with Jamie, Damon and another Harrell's dude. We were working great together and I started feeling strong and was taking a minute plus pulls at high Vo2 range. We started with a 20" gap and was closing it down slowly but steadily until we were under 5"...until at 49' someone called 2 laps to go and fucked it up (again).

You know when a race is 50' plus 2 you look at your computer when you cross the line and if it says 50' then you have 2 laps left...it ain't rocket science. Maybe some people watching were getting bored sitting there...

We kept drilling it in the chase and on the "last" lap I put in a big effort and closed the gap to the point that Jamie was able to get across and latch on...right before the sprint started. It could have been an exciting finish...Oh well.

Sunday moto

The legs this morning were pretty hammered from yesterday so I went out for an hour to spin before getting behind the scooter. They were a lot better once I got going. Last year I did a couple workouts like this but did it before work and kept it at around 40'.

Today Rob K was my driver to get him dialed in for when Casey gets back. I basically went out Bluff road to the cricket store and back. Going out I felt really good and kept the speed at just below what I could handle. We had a cross tail going, cross head coming back and the difference in speed was 32mph vs 27mph. It took about 50' to get out there and I was getting tired after the turn around and was getting hammered by the wind. It was about 90 minutes total before I sent Rob ahead and I just cruised in easy. I did run out of water and I stopped at one of the houses on Bluff where a guy was watering his plants...asked to fill my bottles and he went in and got me a nearly frozen bottle of water. Awesome!

This is a type of workout that a powermeter doesn't really show the physical cost...I'm always trashed after one of these sessions. Nearly 3 hrs total workout and I *only* got 127 TSS. Easy day tomorrow.

My charts on the left are up to date. This week was tied with my highest TSS week (850) this year but with a much lower miles/time which shows the higher intensity intervals.

Saturday 75

Hooked up with Jay and 6 other fast guys and we did the usual jaunt through the N.E. I was taking hard, Vo2 type pulls and paid for it at the end when the legs seized up when everyone was attacking. A fun day, felt very comfortable and happy on the bike.

SST

The legs were toast yesterday from the hard 3 day block so I took an unplanned rest day. This weekend I've got some big rides planned so today the question was what to do...go too hard and you're no good for the weekend and too easy and it's a wasted day. With that in mind there's only one choice...Sweet spot.

I rode over to the crit course and did 60' at 251w which is 90% of my FTP. Easy? Try it and get back to me! The legs were really good tonight and I really had to dial it back to keep from going too hard except for the last 15' where I needed to focus on putting pressure on the pedals. There was also a strong tailwind up the final stretch of the crit course which is always good for intervals cuz it's effortless speed up to the start/finish. A great workout.

Off

Took a rest day...legs are fried. Gonna do some easier SST tomorrow then have a big TSS weekend planned.

Level 6

Last year at nats I got killed by the dozen or so 30" to 1' efforts at around 430-480w (150-160%). I did a few Level 6 workouts in 08 but after the race I knew I needed lots more for this year to be there at the end.

I had planned on doing this workout this morning but when the alarm went off I moved my legs around to evaluate em and they HURT so I rolled over and slept. After work I sat around till the rain stopped and headed out to the crit course. Legs felt good with the extra 8 hours of "recovery" at work but on the first pedal stroke of interval #1 I had the thunk...thunk...thunk: Flat. That sucked but got it changed and did a lap to rewarmup.

I had planned on doing 10x1' but ended up doing 12 cuz I felt good and the watts kept flowing...I never faded. My numbers were great...much better than last year. I felt really strong.

The effort went something like this: Start at the turnaround down down by the stoplight...Stand and semi-sprint for 20s trying to keep it under 500w. Hammer thru the little S turn and then sit and start driving it up the final stretch...focus on that large "for lease" sign and then once there stand and give it all for the last 15". Easy spin around the course then do it again. I like to break up intervals into chunks like this. 3' rest.

tnwc

The threat of rain kept most people away tonight. I did my 30' @ FTP and the legs felt good. I really just wanted to sit in tonight but with the wind and the small crowd it wasn't meant to be. After 35' there were only about 10 people left in various groups so I just cruised home.

I've got 10x1' tomorrow...I might get up and do them before work.

It's go time

Had a great workout today...finally. I wasn't exactly looking forward to Vo2 work but I put out some really good numbers. Kindof lost it mentally on the last one which was discouraging so it turned out to be 5x4'. I always do this...on the last interval I talk myself into just continuing on in the fort and not just sticking to tank hill. It's always a disaster. Vo2 work is hard, very hard so I need the same landmarks and points to concentrate on or I lose it.


This week's gonna be big with lots of TSS. Gonna do a 30' FTP interval before the crit then on Wednesday I'm starting my level 6 work: 10x1' at 150%. These are crucial for masters natz. I'll do some more Vo2 before the group ride thursday. Rest friday then do some big TSS rides this weekend with some motorpacing. Getting psyched for Nats and to go fast again.

I've sketched out my training plan for the next 5 weeks HERE.

Easy week

Since I haven't been going that well I decided to just call this a rest/easy week and start over this weekend. Wednesday I just rode around for an hour, no intensity. Thursday I did the group ride which is basically easy riding with 3 hard five minute sections in there and I started feeling better. Friday I had a few margarita's.

Most everyone is headed to the mtns so a few of us are gonna go roll around for 4 hours on Sat morning. I don't plan on anything over threshold but hope to be near there for a lot of the ride.

Crit

Legs still not 100%...not sure why. Just sat in tonight at TNWC and chilled which can be pretty boring so once the final break went up the road I bridged to it. Waited around till the finish then decided I'd either win or just cruise in.

Funny...the Harrells guy was going super hard on the 2nd to last lap and killing it into the wind...I was thinking wtf is he doing? Until he did a bike throw at the line...with one to go. D'oh!

Coming into the final lap MW was sitting on my wheel which is a definite "you won't win" situation in a sprint...so I let a gap open to see what he would do...nada, so I just cruised in. I'm gonna try to get out and do some VO2 intervals tomorrow to see if I can jump start the legs this week.

Weak-end

Kind of a crappy weekend for me ride wise...Rolled with a good group early saturday morning but was just feeling flat, no power. I just tried to sit in and at least enjoy the day and not worry about it. 70 miles and 220TSS. 3 days of 2x20's last week really took it out of me.

Sunday I forced myself to head out at 9am and did a loop in the fort pretty easy. I'm gonna try to do a similar week with probably 2 threshold workouts and the crit. Charts over there are updated and here's a summary of the last few months:


Good luck to all the Mt. Mitchell riders on Monday...should be some good stories.

Friday morning 6am

Took a rest day on thursday...that felt good. This morning I rolled out at 6:15 to the crit course. It was foggy and muggy but cool-ish, my legs were pretty blocked and it took a while to warm up which is not easy at 100% of FTP. Did 2x20...first went well but struggled on the 2nd...last 5 min was more like SST. No matter, got a decent workout in. I don't see how you "suits" do this...my core temp was jacked for a couple of hours at work.

No monster plans this weekend but hope to get 400TSS when it's all said and done.

transition to rest

I did 1:30 with LL today...just cruised & chatted and the legs were actually painful trying to push the pedals. It's funny...with all the training I've done with LL we hardly ever talk on rides (riding too hard). Got in 75TSS and am taking tomorrow off. Friday will be another 2x20 workout (gonna try an early am workout) then the weekend long rides. I'm feeling motivated and am on sort of a roll with my training right now.

TNWC and 1x30'

The plan was to do 2x15' at FTP before the crit tonight...I figured that even if I wasn't feeling that great I'd be motivated to ride hard due to other people cruising around. I ended up with good legs and once I got rolling I easily held 284w for 30'. I didn't feel the need to stop for a break.

I rolled around for 15' then started the crit. I tried to ride hard...tried to attack and bridge but as it wore on I was really feeling it. It was a fast TNWC at 25.9 mph. I sort of chilled the last 15' to recover for the sprint. We all lined it out (and btw...you know who, trying to muscle someone off a wheel in a training crit is lame) and I followed Marc W (who won...I think) up the final stretch then jumped to the right gutter and somehow managed to find myself coming up to the front. I thought--Hey, I could win this thing then .0001 seconds later I exploded with 50m to go and basically threw out the anchor. Trouble was that Jamie was on my wheel and I royally S-C-R-E-W-E-D him as he was boxed in...sorry dude! He would have definitely won if he had gotten through.


Video: I only got the first 16 minutes. It's uploading and will be HERE when it's live (30' to go at 10:30pm). I'm happier with the shot as most of you will be too! I tried to get my PT data in the frame but the cpu was too far from the lens...I think that will be cool to see in the future.

killer 2x20's

It really nice when things work out...I took a pretty easy day yesterday in order to recover for some hard intervals. Today was one of those days where I couldn't wait to get on the bike and hammer. I feel that way less and less as the season drags on. I normally take a rest day on mondays but I'm gonna do a 2 week block of intense training to ramp up my CTL so today was gonna be a hard day.

To mix things up I did my 2x20's in the Fort. Not as easy cuz you have to really hammer down the hills and there are 2 places where I spin out my 53x12. No matter, it's got a lot of variety and mentally it's easy to keep it going if you're feeling good. Today I felt really good and did 285w on the first and 286w on the second interval. If I can hit these numbers again later in the week I'll bump my FTP up in WKO+ a couple watts.

I felt so good after the workout that I *almost* turned around rode another loop in the fort (I actually did turn around...) but the little coach-voice in the back of my head veto'd that idea after 100m. Riding around an extra hour would just be "junk" miles and only serve to wear me down so that I'd be less likely to kill it tomorrow. Gotta train smart.

I've also been thinking a lot lately about tapering for "A" events using CTL/TSB...here's a blogpost from Joe Friel that is pretty good.

recovery

Headed out with the 9am group then just did a loop in the fort. Rode easy and just chilled to some good music. I felt good but tired...could have ridden longer and harder but wanted to recover for some hard intervals this week. I've decided that this week will be "hard".

300 TSS

Last night I got went to bed at about 9:45 (before ella!) so when the alarm went off at 6am I was wide awake. I did mention to LL that it's nice doing these rides when it doesn't feel like a 4am start. The sun was very up when we rolled at 7.

We had a larger than normal group with Rob, Casey and Brian C. joining the usual suspects. I thought that we were going slower than usual due to the heat...it got pretty warm but our average speed was where it usually is, over 22 mph.

I felt pretty good for the most part and tried to take pulls at my FTP or higher...went through a couple not so good spots but ended up finishing feeling strong. LL get's the kJ award for 4100! He did a 20' FTP interval on the way out, and a 10' one on the way in...plus pulling like a madman... an impressive amount of work. I'm pretty happy with a 300TSS day, I wonder how I'll feel tomorrow.

TNWC + SST

On tuesday before the crit I did a 30' interval at 93% of FTP. I felt good and crusied. During the crit I felt flat and had a hard time getting up to speed for any attacks/bridges. I'm glad it was a small field and we went pretty slow.

On the last lap Sam came tearing by so I jumped on his wheel for the leadout but he actually got us a good gap and I should have went earlier but waited and had to go from just after turn 4 and was caught and passed pretty easily by Ward and Ken.

The video is a little bizarre since it's all me all the time. An interesting perspective for 5 minutes, but not that interesting from a racing standpoint. I think I'll go back to the rear shot (or shooting fwd) for the next crit. Video is HERE.

Today I did 2x20 at the crit course...I was shooting for 95% ala Cannell and really suffered through em, glad they're done and I can chill for a couple days.

Weekend Update

Last wk: I did some SST on Wednesday, 2x20's on Thursday then took Friday off.

Saturday with Chris/Karl, Mike E, Rob & Casey and we did a nice 3+ hour ride. Mostly just cruised with threshold-ish pulls. Felt pretty good.

Sunday with Ward, Karl, Nutty, Rob R. We did perceival to screaming eagle/601 to congress etc. We were drilling it today and I tried to take VO2 type pulls to mix things up a bit. On the climb up Congress I followed Karl then after the top Ward/Nutty rolled away while we waited on RR. The ensuing chase gave me a NP of 292w for 20'. That hurt. I was feeling pretty strong today but so was everyone else and I got really tired near the end as I tried to work hard on the front. The Nut was killing it today.

I got a chance to ride around on Ward's new Dura Ace electronic group and it's pretty amazing/sick/awesome/etc/etc. Can't wait till mine comes in...Ha, just kidding.

<-- My PMC chart is updated and you can really see how a crash and 2 weeks off can affect your CTL. It's on the way back up though.

TNWC tibco edition

The 6 Tibco girls showed up tonight and really lit it up. They were definitely racing hard and to win. The locals were throwing spears but there was just too much HP out tonight for a break to stay away. I raced hard and the first 20' my NP was 292w (IF 1.03). With 3 to go Crusty & Tibco took to the front and I said "Uh-oh" and started looking around for help then just settled onto the back of the train.

In the back of my mind I thought that the girl who's wheel I was on didn't look like a sprinter and Brook Miller (current US road AND crit National Champ) was just ahead of her. Around turn 3 they lit it up and we flew around turn 4. Brook then attacked with about 300m to go & the girl in front of me sat up...my first thought was "I'm screwed" as Miller got a huge gap. She won the Athen Twilight in exactly the same way 4 days ago.

Jamie from Harrells jumped HARD from behind me and I managed to get his wheel then as we caught Miller I came around both of them for the win. It was one of those "planets align" sort of wins. Very fun.

The race tonight was the fastest of the year at 26.4 mph, my NP was 275w and IF was .98

SST

45' at around 90% today...legs didn't feel too bad, I didn't expect much. My scooter is up and running and ready for some motorpacing. Crusty's gonna take it out with the 6 Tibco girls tomorrow morning then they're all coming to do the TNWC. That should be interesting. I'm gonna have the video camera running...

Tour de Moore RR

Lesson #1: A $1000 worth of GPS's is worthless unless you actually look at it.

Lesson #2-4: If you're gonna do a hard 70mile RR in 90+˚ heat...take a freakin' 3rd water bottle, wear some sunscreen you idiot! And wear gloves so your hands don't go completely numb.

Lesson #5: People around you are suffering just like you.

Ok...After driving lost for 3 hours we parked for the race about 9 minutes before it started. That was fun. Luckily it started out very mellow...I actually asked LL "are we neutral?" so we at least got a chance to warm up our stiff-ass legs before all hell broke loose.

Things slowly got animated and I was able to ride near the front to keep an eye on things. I felt pretty good starting out but knew I needed to conserve A LOT to make it to the end. The field was pretty stacked with lots of youngish 30+ Cat 1 types who we never race against.

Pretty early in the race LL got away with 4 others...I kind of missed that and had to ask Jay where he was as I figured he was hanging out at the back as usual ;-). Jay and I moved up to the front to cover attacks. I rode a fair bit of tempo on the front to keep the chase mellow. At one point I covered an attack (waited way too long to go after it, stupid move on my part) then there were hard counter attcks and the field exploded just as we got caught...man that double effort really, really hurt (380w ave for 3 min...Ouch!)

When the gap to LL got to about 1:40 Jay said he would try to get away by countering an attack and that's exactly what happened as he got a gap with a few guys and that turned into a group of 7 or so.

At this point...at about mile 50 I had a complete meltdown.

Legs completed cramped...both hamstrings and quads. I was off the back and out of water, I stretched a bit and luckily there were 3 others who had gotten dropped who towed me back up to the field. Thanks!

I spent the next 15 miles in total survival mode. I could ride steady but if there was a surge or attack I would instantly cramp. That sucked and I did not want to lose contact with the field or I would still be riding out there in the backwoods of NC. Looking around at the other riders--it was pretty brutal...people looked BAD. Luckily right then the group just totally shut down...we rode real, real slow (well, 20mph). That was the longest 15 miles of my life! I finished and felt awful.

LL got 4th and Jay 10th and they both went threw their own personal hell...I'll post links to their race reports when they're up. Update: Ladd, Jay

pre race thingy

Went out for an hour today to stretch the legs...nothing fancy just a spin with some short hardish efforts thrown in. Excited yet apprehensive about tomorrows race. We're racing "30+" so that means every P,1,2 who isn't in Athens will be there. Should be fast & hard. I'll be in full domestic mode since I'm a little off...but if I'm feeling good I'll take a crack at getting up the road.

"the only true predictor of performance is performance itself"

Not my best effort

I felt ok tonight but didn't really have my head in the game...missed the break and couldn't get it together to bridge. Just felt flat. Oh well...just gotta stick with the plan and keep plugging along with the intervals. Next big goal is masters nats, July 4th.

a quickie

I'm trying to get a house project done so I had one hour to ride tonight...I busted over to the crit course and did 40' at 92% FTP. I'm still pretty tired from Saturday so this will be a transition day till the crit tomorrow.

the shocker

Sometime you need a good shock to the system to kick things in gear. Today I went out with LL and Jay, MD & Justin for 76 miles. We averaged 22 mph so there was no messing around, no talking--it was pretty much staring at the wheel ahead of you for 3:30. I think the weather was nice and it was probably pretty scenic out there but I remember very little about this ride except trying to keep pressure on the pedals.

I felt pretty average today and not so great at the beginning...then started to find my groove. For me it was one of those days where sitting in at 220w sucked at times, but pulling at 300w felt good. Mental. Glad today's over with but really glad I did it.