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.