tnwc

Tonight went ok...didn't think I would (or could) ride hard but I did. I've got a lot of form right now so it was easy just to push hard on the pedals and go fast without really involving my upper body. I couldn't stand to sprint or really take a deep breath. It was actually kind of fun to just surf the pack, move around, check things out then attack when I wanted to without any pressure.

After getting a bit discouraged about the pain level this morning I'm back to being optimistic about Sunday.

I videotaped the race with my new camera and it's cool as hell. It will be linked from THIS page.

TNWC March 31st from Sufferfest on Vimeo.

Healin up

This morning I rolled over and expected the pain...but it wasn't really that bad so I'm getting better. Still pounding the ibu. I could probably go out today and ride a bit but I think I'll just wait till tomorrow and go cruise around at the crit and see how it feels.

I'm cautiously optimistic about racing the Rock Hill RR on sunday.

taking stock

A rough night sleeping and today my concern has shifted from my shoulder to my ribs...may have cracked or bruised a couple. It's hard to take a deep breath or cough. Doing 800mg Ibu q 4 hrs.

A great 98.978 miles

The ride: Great ride with a big group. I felt just ok for the first couple of hours then started hitting my stride. The last hour I was feeling great and taking some threshold type pulls. The rain held off till the last hour then we got poured on.

At mile 86 I figured we'd better start attacking each other so I launched on a small climb and that lit a spark for the next 20 minutes of attacking/counters. My NP for those 20 min was 287w. Good race prep and some strong pulling by Aaron up till the bitter end.

The crash: I got ran over by a large south american. Landed on my head and shoulder. Definately 10/10 pain and as I lay there I really had to relax and control my breathing to avoid freaking out. I'm really amazed I got up and could ride after that. All I remember is my head and face smashing into the pavement...not good.

The 40' ride back to LL's was probably one of the worst experiences on a bike I've ever had as I couldn't really use my right arm and every bump was excruciating (and it was pouring down rain). Now...6 hours later I'm feeling a lot better, the arm has full range and I think I avoided any severe AC separation, it's "just" a grade I sprain. I've also got some bruised ribs and the usual road rash. My 42 year old body should bounce right back from this!

That's more like it

After yesterday's meltdown I kindof figured today would be good cuz I usually am after a day off.  Yesterday's hour ride was a whopping 22 TSS and 124w.  I sat around waiting for the rain to stop then headed to the crit course.  

The plan was 2x20'.  The first 20' I felt really strong and it was coming easy so I didn't stop.  The last 10' really sucked and it took a lot of focus and gritting of the teeth to keep the wattage where I wanted it. There was a tailwind coming out of turn 3 so I was absolutely flying around turn 4 with wet roads...that was a bit sketchy.  I ended up with 285w.  I'll take that.

Will probably do another easy day tomorrow then 110 miles on saturday.  I'm also trying out some compression socks for recovery.

Not today

Tired today...just stood staring at the bike and finally headed out. Tried to do some SST but the PE was through the roof...pulled the plug after 90 seconds and just rode around for an hour. Tomorrow's a new day.

Also: at the crit we've got to yield to the cars...don't pass them on the left and don't yell at em. Just slow down.

TNWC

Went out and did the same pre-crit workout as last week...30' at 93%. The crit was good and fast, about the same speed as last week but for some reason there didn't seem to be many times we weren't going hard. That's the benefit of not racing the crit as a "team"...to stay away you gotta be freaking drilling it.

I felt like I attacked a lot and tried to ride harder than I needed to or should have in different situations. In the end Nick and Toby were away, Nick won and LL "led us out" (which is what you call a brutal attack with 1k to go that gets covered ;-) ...he did do 2x20's this am so I'll cut him some slack). Marc W. is freaking fast, I tried but couldn't even think of coming around him at the end...damn sprinters.


Sunday I didn't post but I did 3 hrs with Jed...easy riding till we met up with the Forest Acres kids doing a race sim and we lit it up...there's gonna be a new and very fast crop of kiddos coming up in the next few years.

Also I was looking over my PMC (chart is updated) and my CTL's at least 10 pts higher than last year. I can really tell the difference the closer I get to 90 tss/d. Good stuff.

Out like a lion RR

Today's race was pretty fun. Lots going on from the start. I was in front for the first lap or so while Jay and LL worked their way up (huge field). I latched on to a few promising breaks but nothing stuck. At one point it was me and John Patterson with a gap...I rolled past and said "let's go"...he gave me a look then sat up. No respect! I was also away with Brown, Jenkins and Cannell and I was thinking "this is it" but.....No. The route had a decent 1:30 small chainring climb and very narrow back roads.

Eventually Jay and LL got to the front and were tag teaming the attacks while I sat in and recovered. Carolina Masters had a full team there so they were all over the front and firing guys off. Jay ended up getting away with Charlie Brown, Ryan Jenkins & John Patterson (3 carolina masters riders) then Pete Cannell, Gordon Steele, and one other guy. Once they had 30" it was all but over. That's some serious horsepower.

LL and I just surfed the front at that point and I told him that if he could get away to go for it. The Car. Masters were pretty attentive so we had to wait till the last lap and then I told him it was "game on". He got away a couple of times but noone would work so it all came together for the finish.

Jay ended up winning in a 7-up sprint by attacking at the exact perfect time...a very impressive win for him. He beat some hard core Ex pro/world/nat'l champ types. Carolina masters gets the award for worst tactics...ever. They had 3 guys in a 7 man break and the best finish was 3rd. I'm sure his race report will be good reading.

I was feeling really strong at the end and was sitting near the front looking for an opportunity. I just told myself that it was a new race and I wasn't sprinting for 8th! Inside the last k I followed an attack and then 2 guys flew past and I jumped on them and rode to the finish in 10th. LL was boxed in when the surge happened and he got 19th.

We were all stoked with Jay's win and I'm pretty happy with how I rode today. I was active, rode near the front all day and had a decent finish. Coolness.

50

Ladd and I hooked up for a 50 mile cruise around LR. Not too hard but not easy. My legs need a rest.

VO2

Felt really tired today at work and just wanted to get out the door on my bike...what happened next didn't matter as long as I was riding.

Headed to tank hill and did 6x4' with good numbers at around 117% of FTP. Much better than the last time I did these before my ski trip. They felt good...no, they actually sucked but they always do. As long as you're hitting the numbers you're ok but sometimes you suffer more than others.

Gonna dial it back the next 2 days for the race on Sat.

TNWC +

Since we're only doing 40' at the crit I wanted to get a bit more TSS tonight so I did a 30' interval at around 92% prior to the start. I felt good on this "warmup" and really had to keep the power in check. I was gonna do 45' but I flatted on the way out there.


The crit was pretty good, lots of attacking & chasing. I found myself away a couple times. Nutty was riding strong tonite, so was lang, brian & Nick. We did miss the HP of the dynamic 35+ duo. I tried to make it hard by either chasing or attacking. The first 15' I had an NP of 305w so I was throwing down. Nothing stayed away so it was a field sprint.

The finish had a strong headwind so a late attack was out of the question. I've been out there training proabably 30x this winter and every time it was a tailwind. No tonight. Because it was going to be a "slow" sprint due to the wind I positioned myself a little farther back than usual...probably 12th wheel or so. At about 200m to go there was a wall of guys going backwards so I went up the right gutter and really thought I could win if the usual suspects got boxed but everyone found a way through so someone won, I think Lang, and I was a half wheel behind him. My NP for the race was 284w with a >1.0 IF. Nice.

A picture

skiiage

Today I went backcountry skiing with a couple of local friends and julie's sister.  We headed up mineral fork (link is something I found on youtube) and climbed for a few thousand feet to the ridge.  We were the first in since the big storm so we had to break trail which wasn't too much fun...lots of work.

We did 3 laps at the top and the snow was incredible...17" of fresh powder, low avy danger, no tracks, blue skies.  An awesome day.  

My legs/body are seriously trashed.  I'm giving myself a conservative 150TSS  for all the climbing today (but it felt like >250!).  I'm getting my money's worth on this trip for sure.  Tomorrow???

Thursday

Great day on the bike today...I pulled a "casey" and started out with a plan to do 3.5 hrs but 100 miles and 6 hrs later I was home. I had really good legs all day. See my twitter page for some photos/maps. Call it 350 TSS.

The temps started out in the low 40's and I was a bit under dressed at the start and my hands were getting cold so I was looking around for a firehouse or an ambulance. Finally found a small bike shop and picked up a pair of latex gloves and was perfect after that. It really warmed up later in the day and was a stellar sunny day.

It's gonna be weird jumping on my bike for the crit on sunday cuz I've been riding a 50cm Orbea with 40 cm bars and a shortish stem. My bike will feel huge but I do miss it.

Big ski tour tomorrow...

SLC

Sunday: Did a ride up American Fork Canyon which is about 5 min from where I'm staying. 40 min climb to the top (snow), I did this twice, riding fairly steady to hard tempo then just rode around exploring a bit. Very beautiful ride. 2.5 hrs guesstamate 150TSS.

Monday: 60' on the trainer at probably 85% then skiing for 4 hrs. 85TSS.

Tuesday: Hard day skiing with some hard core locals, no rest, no lunch, no mercy. I'm giving myself 85 TSS for this.

Tonight I'm drinking a lot of beer (for me). Tomorrow I'm planning 3-4 hrs on the bike with multiple canyons etc. Thursday a mondo ski tour in the mtns.

G'ville #4 River Falls

I went into this race feeling pretty good. The trainings gone well and I've had good results in the previous weeks. River Falls is a pretty brutal race with a 2-3 minute climb every lap. There were some very strong riders out there, pretty much a who's who for SE cycling. Due to a warmup snafu I ended up lining up dead last behind about 80 riders at the start. This course is on very narrow roads so I was a bit anxious about the race being decided without me seeing it but due some luck and aggressive riding I ended up near the front before the first lap was done.

The first 4 laps were fairly tame...the climbs were hard but not extreme and I rode in the first 15 riders most of the day. On the pentultimate 5th time up the climb the shit hit the fan with massive attacks and there was a major split in the group and about 15 guys rolling off the front. I was gapped by about 5 sec and totally buried myself to latch back on...a suicidal decent helped too. I can't wait to see those wattage numbers. It was nuts.

There were a couple guys off the front on the last lap but I was pretty much in survival mode and just sat in and recovered until Jay attacked and got away solo. I figured if he could stay away and catch the others that he would have a good shot at winning so I tried to slow the group as best that I could by riding at tempo on the front and people were happy to just follow for those critical few minutes. Things heated up near the finish with multiple attacks and I just kept myself glued to the wheel of one of the strongest guys there...I have a vivid image of a 1080 zipp rear wheel for some reason. ;-)

Coming into the finish I was sitting around 6th entering the climb, I opened a gap for LL so he could be near the front and I just held on. There was a massive surge that caught me a little off guard...when you see 15 guys fly past you on a climb you tend to get a bit discouraged so I didn't have that great of a finish. I ended up 20th and got 5th in the overall.

Prerace

I did an hour today as a prerace opener type ride. Mostly rode easy but did 5' at FTP, 2x1' at 350w and then a couple hard sprints. I feel good and am psyched for tomorrow.

My CTL's at a plateau with all the racing the last 3 weeks but I'm going to try and get it back up with some big rides in Utah. When I get back to Columbia I'll do a big push for the Rock Hill race and try to elicit a peak with some hard short 1' intervals. This has worked pretty well in the past. I'll also be doing the crit in Forest Acres next Sunday.

I probably won't be posting much while I'm out west so check my twitter page for SLC updates. Gotta go do some laundry...

Just checked...my TSB's +1.2. First time positive this year!

bottomless

I didn't think I had good legs today. My test at work is running up the stairs a few times and they felt heavy (this has been pretty accurate over the years). Riding over to the course was the same. So I was going through all kinds of scenario's as to what I was going to do but at a point I just said: shutup and do the damn workout.

From the first pedal stroke at intensity I felt good and it just kept getting better. I was hitting 280w pretty easily so I didn't stop at 20 min. I just kept riding and slowly ramped it up. My last 6 minutes were at around 300w (total ave @ 285w). It hurt but felt good at the same time, Sexy time!

I've been helping a century type rider at work get dialed in with power and he was out doing some threshold work so I tagged onto his wheel for 20 min and did 5 all out sprints coming off of turn 4. Felt strong. Cruising home I kept it at 90% all the way to the driveway. Killer workout.

Off day

I rested today. No riding. I did take my bike into the shop to get a few things looked at. Since the rainy/grimy saturday race my shifting is a joke (even after a wash) and my freehub needs an overhaul. Gonna go do some FTP intervals at the crit course tomorrow at 4ish.

Looking forward to the River Falls race...it's a great course with a big climb at the finish (done 6x) and man is it gonna hurt.

Blah

Went out to the crit course today to do something. I didn't feel too bad riding over so I thought I would start with some 4' VO2 efforts and see how far I got. 330w, 229w, 320w, 320w and I was done with that. I then did about 15' at around my FTP. A decent workout but I'm tired from the last 3 days. Tomorrow may be an off day or an easy cruise.

My CTL's 80 and last year at this time I was at 68 so that bodes well. Just gotta keep plugging along. I'm planning on taking my road bike to SLC for our ski trip to get some mtn rides in.

sleep, eat, train

Not much to say about today except I enjoyed sleeping in and not really doing anything bike related until late in the afternoon. I got on the velodyne and did 1:30 with 60' at 90% of FTP. Your standard SST workout. Tomorrow I'll do something harder.