Lots of everything

It was cold this morning, no two ways about it but actually when we started rolling it wasn't so bad. It turned out to be a stellar day in many ways. A good group of 5 with everyone laying it down when on the front. I hate a long ride where I'm back there wishing we'd be riding faster...not today. Jay & I were playing who could get the most Kj. He won with 3280. LL probably a thousand more than that. Jay and I also had the same NP for the ride but his FTP is 310w.

My legs were pretty fair the whole day, not great. This was probably due to the 4 hr ride on thursday...I had a weird crampy feeling in my right hamstring that I thought would progress to full cramping but it never did. It went away in the last 45' and I felt pretty good up to the end. I'm sure that nutritionally I'm all out of whack...gotta get back on the plan.

This was a good test of my current fitness and I'm pretty happy with how the day panned out. Good riding you guys...

Rest

I'm taking a day off the bike and gonna rest up for tomorrow's 95 mile smack-down.  The legs feel pretty good after yesterday and should be good to go.  It's gonna be in the 30's in the morning so we'll see how many of Columbia's "hard" men show up.  HaHa. 

bike practice

My PT hub batteries finally died...I've been looking at that flashing icon for 2 weeks!

It was not gonna be a spectacular day on the bike anyway so I just went by PE. Just 4 hours cruising along and I didn't take any breaks. All that on two bottles and a package of cheese crackers (I was kindof on the limit calorie wise!). I'll give myself 210 TSS.

Big block

After work I did an hour on the velodyne without a fan so I could sweat a bit. Makes me feel like I'm doing something when I'm just cruising at 150w. Tomorrow's weather looks good for my noontime 4 hour jaunt. Saturday the scout master is leading a 90+ mile wateree ride and Sunday we'll see what happens. Should be a butt load of TSS this week and a return to the TSB -50's.

I just registered for the spring series...I'm planning on doing all the races except the BMW one (will be skiing...).  It's that time of year!

Ouch camp news: today they did 7 hours with most guys in the 5000-5500kj range...ouch indeed.

Barts

I gotta give my yearly shout out to Uhl Alberts BLOG. It was the inspiration for this one. He's a wattage geek extraordinaire and he trains in a very structured way explaining the how's and why's along the way. If you're learning about wattage and training his blog is a must read.

Tonight I wanted to do some microintervals to mix things up a bit. I did these Barts last year at a bit different intensity/time. So I headed to the crit course and did two 20' intervals where I alternated 30s of 330w then 30s of 225w. This gave me an average wattage of 280w for each interval (286w NP). The second interval was pretty hard and I really had to concentrate to maintain the zones.

These were surprisingly easy to complete because mentally you're always engaged with the timing and 30s goes by fast. Time flew by and my legs felt awesome tonight. I then hooked up with AT for a little extra cruising. 1:28 and an IF of .96 (136TSS): that's an efficient workout.

My pacing for each interval was weirdly identical...I am the man when it comes to pacing.

Crusty's back in car #1

He's gonna be DS for the Tour of Calif. He's at camp now. Look for some team ouchers to come through cola later this year (but not floyd). Also he'll be rocking the new kit next week (but no bike yet).

did it count?

My battery died in my PT and I thought I had another one but it was the wrong size. Didn't matter as I was just gonna do an easy spin on the velodyne for an hour. I probably went too hard as my legs felt really good and I had a good mix. I kept the fan off to get a good sweat.

Plan to do some micro-intervals tomorrow...inside or out is the ?

So Far

Here's my answer to the question: Been riding much?

a good week

Today was pretty cold this morning but it wasn't gonna get any warmer so I headed out with the group. I either planned on riding extremely long or short and hard...since it was 41˚ I decided to go the hard route.

After an hour or so I split from the group and did 20' at 100% FTP (276w) down Bluff road. This put me at the crit course...I rested for a couple minutes then did another 15' interval.

I felt pretty good today and my CTL is rising vertically...currently is at 48 TSS/d. I did around 700 TSS this week. Just gotta stay healthy and keep plugging away.

Saturday

Went out with Jules and did 2:30...an easy cruise but I racked up some TSS.   The legs felt really good but I held back on doing any intensity.  I want to save it for either tomorrow or Monday's 2x20's.

easy?

I woke up this morning and stared at the ceiling...what day is it?  It took about 5 minutes of hard concentration to come up with the answer.  Things didn't get much better all day as my brain was on about a 15 sec delay.  I'd look at something and just stare for a while trying to figure out why I was staring at it.  It's a good thing I don't do anything that important at work.  ;-)

Today was nice and warm so I had to head to the fort...Legs were dead and I planned on riding easy but started feeling good and then started hammering.  25 miles, 1:26, 880 kj.  Not bad.

I'm pretty motivated right now and am getting in some good training.  My goals this year are a bit different as there is no real masters team here.  Last year a "success" was just going to the front when needed and putting the hammer down.  That puts a bit more pressure on myself to get some results...I'm not saying I'll win any races this year but I'm sure gonna try!  My other goal is a top 10 finish in the Masters Nats RR and Crit...no problem!

250TSS

Had a great ride today with Maria and Jed. We did le tour de hopkins and they split at 2.5 hrs and I cruised up to the fort to get in my last bit.

We did the first 2 hrs pretty hard....Jed's always fast in that belgium-cat1-mutant sort of way and with the stout winds there was never any real easy cruising. It was fun and the legs felt just ok, not great.

I'll probably head to the crit course tomorrow after work for a short workout of intensity to be determined.

Also if you haven't seen it check out Casey's latest adventure.

A spin

I was pretty tired today so I just stuck to the velodyne and did 40' in the sweet spot.  Played around with some live streaming video from my MacBook...if you tuned in at that time you would have been able to see me sweat on Ustream.  There's an iPhone app about to be released that will allow video streaming from the phone.

Change

Yesterday I did an easy spin on the velodyne. I need the exercise. Hopefully today I'll squeeze in a workout between work and our inauguration party but I kindof doubt it. Chillin the champagne!

Warning: the few little white things falling from the sky are toxic and fatal. Keep the kids inside and do not venture out under any circumstances.

MLK

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

flat lined

After yesterday it was nice to do a workout where I was dripping sweat. I felt good and did 60' on the velodyne at 90% of my FTP (244w). Your basic SST workout, if you use a PM then you know what I'm talking about. It helped that I had the laptop tuned to the last bits of Paris-Roubaix from 1985 to 1990 on youtube. I also had the new Morrissey and Franz Ferdinand rocking the basement. Now it's football time.

Sub 40˚

I did the usual 2x15' but it was pretty cold.  Had a hard time warming up and never really felt comfortable. I did 272w and 276w.  Felt a lot better on the second interval but was glad it was over.  It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow and I'm gonna try to get out for a longer ride.

Tweet

Recently my  opinion of Twitter went from "a complete waste of time" to "freakin kewl" and that was thanks to LA.  Who really wants or needs to know what I had for lunch...but following Lance as he trains/parties/etc is pretty entertaining.  

Twitter is probably the best medium for pro cyclists cuz they have a hell of a lot of free time, they love new gadgets (blackberries/iPhones), they're too lazy to maintain a blog,  and they're usually so narcissistic that they want the world to know what they're doing every minute of the day....enter Twitter.  A few seconds on a Blackberry and everyone knows you just shaved your head.  

So go sign up for twitter and check out who I "follow".  My favorites are LA, his photographer Liz Kreutz, Zabriski, Taylor Phinney, George H, Johan, Basso...you get the picture.  

The Wattage Channel presents: Threshold Week

Looking at the weather for today through the weekend didn't look that great so I switched gears and decided to get 4 threshold workouts done instead of the longer rides.

I went back to the Crit course and did a repeat of tuesday's workout. 2x15' with a couple minute break. My pacing was pretty good: 283w and 282w. Again I felt extremely good on the bike and this workout wasn't that hard to complete.

Just as I finished A.T. showed up and started his intervals so I tagged along on his wheel for a while to rack up some "free" TSS. Looking at my file you can see the benefits of training with a power meter (he didn't have one)...he was going a bit too easy on the backside (downhill) and too hard on the finish side (uphill).

This was a pretty good workout and put me over 100TSS for the day. I'm planning on doing pretty much the same workout Sat/Sun then doing some insanely long rides next week.

Mas suffer

Yesterday I had planned on riding some but 5 minutes after getting home I was...OUT. I slept for 2 hours. I guess I was really tired from this weekend. It felt pretty good.

Today I was itching to do more threshold work...I headed to the Crit course and did 2x15' at 100% FTP with about a couple minute break. The weather was perfect and I felt great--the wattage came easily. My first effort was 278w and the second 281w. There's no way my FTP is 280w right now but I'm using that as a target and will lengthen the intervals as I get fitter. The legs were very good tonight and I was really looking forward to this workout all day. Sometimes it works out that way.

sunday

I headed out today with the nut and jules to the fort then I headed off alone and did part of the thursday loop and then back to the fort.

Felt surprisingly good and basically just cruised but did do 40' of SST along the way.  I also chased some huge guy down in the fort who was hammering.  A good weekend of riding.

Longish

Went out with a few people to the fort then I carried on solo on one of my favorite loops...the screaming eagle, 601, Leesburg, Congress etc.  I kept it steady and tried to keep pressure on the pedals but went fast in the fast sections.  A real good iPod mix helped me out a lot.  It was a nice and warm day.

Day 1

Today was my first FTP workout of the season.  The weather was crap so I did 3x10' intervals on the Velodyne with 4' rests.  I wanted to ease into these workouts and  I tried to keep it around 280w.  I can't say it felt good  ;-)

Pow

13" of new snow Friday night so I hooked up with some local friends on saturday who are some pretty hardcore/expert tele skiers. They worked me...It was an incredible "Alta" day.

Sent from my iPhone