69˚

Awesome weather today...had to ride. My legs have been a bit trashed since Saturday and yesterday's Tabata intervals didn't help much. Today was going to be just an easy cruise but once I got going the legs felt good so I did a 40' interval at 96% and ended up with a 2 hour ride in the fort. Nice surprise. More tabata's tomorrow then I'll post some info on these intervals from hell.

Solid

Thanks to Karl, Lang and Justin for showing up and riding hard.

real winter

So we've had a taste of what winter feels like to most of the rest of the country. Not very nice for road riding. Saturday when I went out it was 28˚ and I rode for about 2.5 hrs. Had to keep it at >200w to stay warm...below that and I could feel the cold creeping in. I had planned on 4 hrs so I spun on the velodyne when I got back for a while and ended up with close to 3.5 hrs total.

My dressing strategy: bibs, knee warmers, thin wool ski socks (knee high) and over all this I had a pair of AmFib tights. Up top a LS base layer, LS Jersey and a Cannondale winter jacket that I have never worn cuz it's way too hot for around here (I use it on my scooter). Hands got my soft side ski gloves and full booties for the feet. My secret weapon is stuffing chemical hot packs in both gloves/toes of booties. These make a huge difference. Hat and balaclava round it out (taped helmet vents too).

Today it was warmer and I went to the crit course and did my 2x20's at 100% of FTP. Felt a little tired from yesterday but eeked it out. I've got tuesday off so I may try to do a long ride in the afternoon. I'm also thinking of doing what I did last year and take a 1/2 day off from work to get in an extra long ride per week.

an old lesson

I've had days like this before...I feel like shit and am tired and all I want to do after work is just go to bed. And I know my ride is going to suck...but sometimes it doesn't, like today.

Getting ready and on the roll over I kept downgrading the workout in my mind...2x20 became 3x10 and went from 100% of FTP to 98%.

Once I got going I felt remarkably good and ended up with 15' at 100% (4.14 w/kg) then 20' at 102% (4.25 w/kg). Pretty solid workout for almost blowing it off...I'm glad I didn't. Some days are like that...the hardest part of the workout can be just swinging a leg over the bike.

My FTP "phase" has begun...

brrr

I'm back from our annual ski trip to Utah. I didn't get a huge amount of riding in out there but did a couple days on the trainer then one good day on the road. The good thing is that my sister in law loves my fizik saddle and wider easton bars so I left them installed so the Orbea is good to go whenever I head back out there.

Now it's back to doing SST/FTP and putting TSS in the bank.

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.