G'ville #3

Today was the Fork Shoals race in a driving, torrential downpour. It rained the entire race but the temps were over 50˚ so it wasn't as miserable as it could have been. Driving up with LL and Jay I didn't feel all that great (bad stomach) but I was mentally ready to race.

They combined the 35 and 45's so there were about 60 riders lined up for a 45 mile race (shortened due to rain). 3 laps. Lots of attacking from the gun (first 30' were NP 290w). Jay gets away solo and gets 1:30. LL and I go into cover mode which can be pretty strenuous then LL and Jim Cunningham get away. I soon follow with another guy who was really strong but we're 30sec behind.

Once Jay, LL and JC got together they put a pretty big gap on the field and were about 1:30 head of me. I had about the same gap to the field with 15 miles to go.

LL and Jay worked JC over pretty good and got a well ridden first and second. I worked well with my guy trading hard pulls. He ended up sitting on for the last mile but I beat him pretty easily in the sprint for 4th. It was a nice ride home with #1, #2 & #4 in the car!

The rain/weather wasn't really that bad. I was always comfortable but was glad I was in a break most of the day so I could work and stay warm. Looking over my WKO... this was a damn hard race: 2 hrs with an IF of .96! No wonder I'm tired. I'm now leading the overall.

Calm before the storm

Took yesterday off and man did I need that...was completely spent but today I feel good. Gonna go ride an hour or so after work. I'm definitely going up for the races this weekend. Rain or shine...that's being optimistic. 100% chance of thunderstorms. What-evah... A minor reason I'm going is that I'm currently in 2nd place in the 35+ overall behind Dirk Pohlman and he's signed up for the P1,2 tomorrow so I'd like to take a shot at that. Should be epic.

VO2

On the way out today the legs didn't feel so good so I took an extended warmup with a few Level 6 openers to see if that would help. Once I got started things went well and I did 6x4' at around 115%. I then hammered on the way home and got another 15' at FTP to eek out a little more TSS. A Good day. I'm gonna chill the next two days to be ready for Fork Shoals.


I read this today:

One thing alot of riders do is they wake up tired, too tired to work really hard - but they go out and ride 2-3 hrs or whatever easier because you can pretty much always do that. For me it's binary - you can either ride hard intervals or you need to rest. No in between nonesence. At least not for me, not for the guys I coach. I can't remember any race that consisted of riding medium the whole time.

Good Bad Great

Tuesday is threshold day so I went out with a conservative plan of 2x15' at 280w. Riding over I knew my legs would be good today. The first interval went well and the watts came pretty easily so I did 20' and I contemplated not stopping. I averaged 286w and had to restrain myself a bit so I was going well.

I rested for a minute or so and started up again and was really having a hard time even holding 260w...PE was off the charts. I was getting frustrated and ended up saying screw it and heading home but at the last minute I decided to just roll around for another 10' then try another 15' interval and see what happens and if I still was "off" I would just roll home.

I was amazed that my legs felt good when starting the 15' and got better as I went on...I ended up with 288w without too much difficulty or suffering. Interesting day...dunno what happened but I was pleased to get that 2nd interval knocked out. I'm thinking I just overcooked it in the 1st interval and needed a bit more recovery. Riding home the legs felt great.

I've upped my FTP in WKO to 282w & I weigh 68.9kg today (I'll lose 4-5 lb in the next month or so).

Tomorrow VO2.

G'ville #2

I knew a selection would happen pretty early in today's race because of the howling crosswinds. There was very little head/tailwind. It was bad. I stayed near the front waiting for the attacks but being a bit more restrained than yesterday.

It happened at the beginning of lap #2 and I easily followed it. There were 7 of us and I knew if we could hold the small gap till the crosswinds then we'd be gone. Our lead went from 50sec to 3 minutes by the time we were at the start/finish. Sweet!

In those winds a small break can go a lot faster cuz we were all riding steady...not super hard just everyone pulling through in a full on echelon. It was pretty easy actually & we were all working really well together...not like the suffering in the gutter that was probably going on in the field. Getting the peleton to organize a chase today would have been impossible...it's the nature of bike racing.

On lap #4 (of 5) Pete Cannell attacked and basically rode away from us for the win...in the worst crosswind section. Ends up he was some monster TT specialist (Won 30-34 masters nats with a 48:34). More power to him, literally.

On the last lap we just cruised along till the finish. Of the 5 others with me I was only really worried about 2 guys. A Smith/Barney rider (Bob Wright) who I know is strong and especially Dirk Pohlman who was a former pro (who still wins P1,2 races) and masters nat'l champ etc.

Coming up to the last k I made sure I was behind the two riders I was watching. Smith/Barney attacked on the hill and Dirk pulls over and looks back which was my cue to attack and I went across easily and sat on. Smith/Barney was still driving it but he knew he was screwed at that point. I looked back and Dirk was working hard to cross the gap and when he got within 20' I attacked again. He caught me with 500m to go and I made him come through then sat on his wheel...he said: "I guess we're taking it to the line" ;-)

We start our sprint with 150m and he closed down the inside which forced me into the wind. I thought I was gonna get him but after the bike throw and photo he pipped me for 2nd. I wish I could sprint...

I was dreading today's race this morning but it turned out to be one of the coolest races I've done.

G'ville #1

Felt good, rode aggressively and near the front and was in every serious looking early break. Attacked on lap #3 and was off solo for half a lap. Lap 4 was hard...23' at NP 285w. 3 guys off the front near the end...missed that one. Ended up 10th but didn't have a clean sprint.

Results for all categories are HERE.

ez

Did an easy 60'

Legs are good & I'm excited to get the season started this weekend.

SST+

I went out to the crit course with the idea of doing an hour or so of SST but once there the legs felt great so I just went by feel and cruised. I was pretty surprised after 20' to see an ave of 270w so I tried to turn it back a bit but then I decided to do 4 x 30s sprints coming up the finishing straight (had a massive tailwind). These efforts felt great, easy in fact and put me back to 270w ave for the 40'. 97% is not SST! Oh well, it was an easy threshold workout then. Man my legs really felt good tonight (at -36 TSB).

There were 4-5 other riders out doing laps tonight and everyone eventually ended up on my wheel. That's always good for a 10-20w bump in ave power.

Leg flush

The rain stopped for a while today so I busted out of work and went to tank hill to knock out some VO2 efforts. Plan was 6x4' at just shy of 120%. I did em, I suffered as usual and the legs felt a lot better after I was done...maybe flushed some junk outta there.

The Nut was doing a loop so I rode at threshold for 10' to meet up with him...after riding at 325w it's pretty easy to go 280w, for a while at least. CTL's 72.5, TSB -28.

Level 3

The legs were still not that great today so I jumped on the velodyne and did about 75' at about 75%. Nothing too strenuous. I'm gonna do some intervals tomorrow...not sure exactly what but probably VO2 if I can get outside and it's not raining. If I'm on the trainer it will be a threshold workout.

I'm psyched to start racing this weekend and since it's just 2 donaldson days I'm planning on just doing my normal training with no real significant taper. I may also do the 35+ and 3's on sunday to rack up some TSS...we'll see how it goes.

transition

Not much to say about today, the legs were bad. I went out to do some SST.  I started out ok but the RPE rose as I went along.  I pulled the plug at 45' and 248w ave.  I'm sure I'll be better tomorrow.

race sim

Today the crew came to this side of town to mix it up. We started out on Dean's ride to socialize a bit then once out of the fort we ramped it up. My goal for the day was to ride hard and take short VO2 type pulls...sort of thing you do in a hard break. It worked. My legs were pretty trashed near the end...right when we all started attacking each other in the fort. For the "fast" 2 hrs and 48 miles my NP was 247w (IF .89) at 22.5 mph. Nice.

Aaron (btw the only cat 4 out of nine riders who made the selection...good job): just because someone says chase Jay down doesn't mean you have to do it. ;-)

For the record: I schooled Jay, Ward and LL in the chaingang sprint. I only say this because it's such a rare occurrence and that I probably won't be able to write it again this year. Gotta savor it.

Feeling good for Greenville...gonna do some more threshold work Monday or Tuesday then SST till the weekend. CTL's 73 and TSB's -23. Ba-da-bing.

1x40'

I felt good today.  I went out with the plan to do 2x20's at FTP and after the first 20' I didn't think I needed a break so I just kept going.  I was shooting for 280w and my average was 279w.  My PE was lower than normal, especially at the beginning and near the end I was hurting and was glad it was over...a good sign.

The crit course is an incredibly nice place to train...

Music update:  Kings of Leon...overrated, I didn't get into them.  New Coldplay...OK but not a great riding album.  Vampire Weekend...these guys are awesome and my new favorite band, check out the song A-Punk.

This sunday we're meeting at 9am with Dean at Outspokin' and some of us are splitting off to do 70-75 miles at 20+ mph (percival, screaming eagle, 601, leesberg, etc) if anyone's interested.  Plan on pretty hard riding for, oh...say 70-75 miles.  ;-)

Plan B

I was planning on doing some 2x20's but got a STAT message on facebook / twitter / sms /email from the coach who decided that I should go easier today and slay it tomorrow. The legs were a bit blocked on the ride over and I planned on 60' at around 90% of FTP. After 10' I was actually warmed up, felt a lot better and in a good rhythem and had to keep the wattage in check as it kept creeping up. I ended up with an average of 242w for the hour. A good workout.

Looking at my last 12 weeks...I'm pretty happy with a CTL of 67 and how this preseason is progressing

Oh...and here's yesterday's VO2 graph:

Vo2 intervals

Last year I started VO2 intervals on 2/5 so I figured it was about time to get em started.  Last year I eased into them...shortening the # and intensity and built up over a few weeks.  Tonight I just wanted to go for it so I shot for between 115% and 120% of FTP and did 6 intervals (5 1/2 actually).  These were 4' on/4' off.  I'll build up to 5' soon.

My legs still felt tired from this past weekend so it was a struggle to maintain the wattage at times...these intervals have a lot of ups and downs mentally.  If you're going poorly they can really suck.

The wind was howling with 30mph gusts so on tank hill I would round the corner and get killed by the cross wind.  It was hard to keep a rhythm so after 2.5 intervals I headed up to the last climb on Dixie where I had a cross tailwind which made it much better and I knocked out 3 more.  I don't have the download yet but I averaged around 325w for each of the intervals.  Considering the wind and my negative TSB I'm happy with that.

I'm looking to doing a couple days of 2x20's at the crit course this week starting tomorrow.