Saturday Sprints

Saturday morning the weather was awesome, so I rolled out at about 9:15 to ride a couple of hours. I threw in four sprints to break up the monotony and give the ride some sort of purpose, since I didn't want to do yet another tempo or SST ride. The first two sprints sucked, but I got a good jump on the third one and hit 1200 watts for the only time this whole year and set a 5 second season best of 1119. As those numbers show, I am by no means a sprinter. However, I will do more sprint workouts in the future and hopefully make some improvement.

Friday SST Ride

I felt really great on my ride today. I rode my 34 mile loop with the modest goal of doing at least 45 minutes at 90%. Pretty much right out of the driveway my legs had really good sensations. The nice thing about my current schedule is that I'm only riding 4 days a week, so there isn't much fatigue. I cruised along for the first 25 minutes, then started my workout by riding about 30 sec at 120% of FTP, before settling back into 90%. About every 5 minutes I did a 30 sec or so effort. I felt good enough to stretch the workout to 1 hour, with an IF of .94, which was great, since my RPE was much lower. It feels like I've done plenty for the week (3 SST rides), so tomorrow I'm gonna chill and ride a couple hours easy. Then Sunday I'll do my cross training workout(tennis).

Halloween Ride

I did a fun group ride on Saturday morning here in Blythewood. 14 of us rolled out in foggy, damp conditions and rode a nice steady 20 mph pace. We kept it mostly double file, and there was plenty of opportunity to chat, which was in stark contrast to our summer hammerfests.

I just took it easy, and didn't even push it when I occasionally found my way to the front. My peak 2 minute watts was only 278, and peak 5 minutes was 264. Still the VI was really high, as often is the case on group rides, where there is a lot of coasting, driving up the IF to .66. I was tired and feeling some of the hills after mile 50 nonetheless.

I need to do more rides like this. The time flew by quicker than some of the much shorter solo rides I've done lately.

Speed & Power in Italy DVD Review

Over the past several years I've trained a lot indoors. I've tried watching training videos, but never got much out of them. I don't want to watch a video showing people riding on trainers, with someone barking out instructions like I'm in a spin class. I'd much rather watch something that tries to get my mind away from the fact that I'm sitting in my basement. I always watch something while I'm riding indoors: TV shows, news, sports, movies, bike races. All those things serve to keep my mind from dwelling on the mundane and sometimes painful workout I am trying to complete.

Recently, for a change of pace I decided to watch a DVD called "Speed & Power in Italy" by Global Ride. From the description I could see that this would be a simulated hour or so fast ride through Italy finishing with a 10 minute climb. Perfect. I usually ride about an hour, with tempo and threshold being my bread and butter. I started up the DVD in my laptop, cranked up the volume to 50 and put the ear buds in place. Some day I'll have a big wide screen down in the man hole, but not yet.

The video starts out in Venice floating through water with coach Matty Reed starting you on a brief warm-up, while Vivaldi plays in the background. After a couple of minutes the road ride begins as you ride with a couple of riders on some narrow Italian roads. The classical music was only for the brief warm-up and is replaced by some more upbeat instrumental stuff. I pedaled along watching the two riders as they cruised along through picturesque country side, passing through villages, with plenty of pedestrians, cars and other cyclists to make it interesting. The picture quality was excellent, by the way. The coach gave instructions, occasionally asking you to increase your speed or heart rate. One thing I liked was that the coach encouraged you to react to changes in terrain, as if you were in the group on the screen, so if there was a short steep hill, you were encouraged to stand. Too bad there were no stops.

The pace was never slow once the warm-up was done. I rode mostly hard tempo at 270 to 290 watts. At about the 45 minute mark, we hit the final 10 minute climb on a twisty narrow road, with zero car traffic, but several other cyclists. My virtual group ride passed several riders on the climb, which helped motivate me to stay near my threshold all the way to the end. I rode that final 10 minutes at 308 watts.

I’ve watched this DVD twice now, and could see myself watching it several more times this off season, especially during sweet spot workouts. It was fun and engaging to watch during my workout and enhanced the indoor riding experience. I was able to stay mentally focused on riding, without being bored at all. This is very different than watching something like a movie, which makes the workout tolerable by causing you to mentally disconnect from your workout.

More Sweet Spot Training

Monday I had the pleasure of doing a short road ride during the day, so I did the usual - sub 1o minute warm-up, ride hard, sub 5 minute cool-down. The hard section amounted to a little over an hour at 90% of FTP. It really wasn't too bad, so I think my FTP is holding steady. I just need to keep doing these types of workouts at least a couple of times a week.

Rain Ride

Saturday I woke up, got coffee, fed the cats, quickly checked the radar(which looked clear), then headed out on my bike into the near darkness to meet Gordon for ride. Riding early on a Saturday is great, once you get yourself out there. The traffic was very low and there wasn't much wind. We rode side by side most of the time, chatting and not pushing the pace. Somewhere around Ridgeway it got windy. No problem, we weren't in any hurry. Then there were a few sprinkles later on. Still not a problem. Then as we got close to Blythewood it started raining, and within a few minutes we were riding in heavy rain. We went into pace line mode and picked up the pace a little on Hwy 21. The heavy rain continued for most of the way back home.

Riding in the morning, I usually avoid getting caught in the rain, but not this time. It sucked, mostly because of the clean-up that followed, but the hot breakfast and hot shower that followed, almost made it worthwhile.

I just updated my PMC. Check it out. My TSB is -0.1 today. First negative day since August 30th, not because I trained hard this week, but because my CTL has finally declined to my current training level.

Wednesday SST Ride

I've gotten a little behind with my updates, but I wanted to include this one since it's a good example of what I've been doing since the race season ended. The weather was super on Wednesday, so I rushed home from work in time to get a ride in before dark. By super, I mean it was about 70 degrees with no wind. When I do short rides like this, my default workout is to do a short warm-up, then ride SST, which is exactly what I did. I spent a little over an hour cruising along between about 270 and 280 watts. I'm trying to do 2 to 3 rides like this per week, and a total of 4 to 5 rides. I'm only hitting about 6 hours a week right now, but that is probably enough to maintain fitness, until I start training for 2010.

Weekend Riding

I'm still riding 4 or 5 days a week, but not doing a whole lot resembling real training. I'm just doing what I feel like doing. Yesterday I went to Harbison and rode for 2 hours on the trails. I wasn't out to get in a hard ride, but you kind of have to put in some hard efforts riding a single speed, unless you want to walk up the hills. The gearing on my 29'er is 32x17, which is great at 12-15 mph, but not so great climbing at 6-8 mph.

This morning I did my usual 40 mile loop at a nice steady pace, never pushing too hard, but not relaxing either. I can tell I'm de-training, since today felt like a bigger effort than it really was. No problem. I adjusted my FTP down to 315 watts. That seems about right, but I don't feel like testing to be sure. I just know my FTP is lower.

Final TNCWC of 2009

Yesterday I took part in the final Tuesday night crit of the year. I haven't done any structured training in about a month, but I've ridden just enough to hold on to some fitness. My CTL is down to about 70 from a peak of 100.

The weather was great - 70 degrees and sunny, but there was some wind, which ended up dying down by the end of the race. We had a small group of under 20 and started out pretty mellow until about 15 minutes in, when the attacks started. About 25 minutes in I burned a match bridging across to Marc and Lang. That effort required 550 watts for about 1 minute. About 1/2 a lap after I got to them the agitated field caught up to us. Not too long after that things got hard and a selection of 8 or so formed. With about 3 laps to go James got away from us and held on until just before the sprint, with the rest of us marking each other.

Just after turn 3, Marc made his move and only Rich could follow. I was caught off guard and didn't make it, but even if I had covered, I didn't have the legs to win the sprint. Rich did have his sprint legs though, and came around Marc in the final 50 meters to win. Marc put in a monster effort though, basically sprinting the last 500 meters.

State Road Race

I competed in my final race of 2009 yesterday - the SC state road race, which was held near Greenville. I lined up for the 40-49 race with about 50 or so others, including PV teammates Rich, Ken and Lang. We raced 4 laps of a hilly 13 mile loop. I kind of screwed up and missed the from the gun move by Eric C, despite the fact that I knew it was going to happen. I was boxed in initially, though I could have jumped across to it before it got out of reach, but I didn't make the move. That hesitation was a big mistake and almost cost me any chance of contesting the race.

I attacked once to get across to the four man break, but got pulled back in. After that I just started taking pulls on the front, trying to encourage a chase. Ken and Rich helped me and a few others, including Tom S. took turns, but we really weren't making progress. Following Rich, I took a long pull up and over the new climb, which lined out the field. Shortly after that I took another pull through the right turn before the downhill that went by the river. Pat McCallion jumped and I followed him along with a Van Dessel rider. The 3 of us rode hard for the next couple of miles and got within about 30 seconds of the leaders as we passed the start/finish. The Van Dessel rider, who had a man in the break, dropped back, shortly after saying that the field was closing in on us. I didn't look back. At this point I was committed to either getting to the break or blowing up. It took several more miles, but Pat and I made it across on the 2nd lap, before the steep climb. At this point I had just done 322 watts average for over 25 minutes.

I was in the 6 man break, but had used a ton of energy to be there. I took my pulls in the break, but didn't attack. Eric and Pat were looking strong, so I waited. The break worked well even after we were 4 minutes ahead. About 1 mile out, Pat attacked hard up the hill. Eric and I followed, but we lost the others. From there I sat behind Eric in 3rd wheel. Pat went again, but we followed. I jumped on a little rise about 200 meters from the finish, but Eric was able to cover and come by me, so I ended up finishing 2nd. I had a pretty good sprint, 846 watts for 18 seconds, during a final 2:16 @463 watts, but it wasn't enough to beat a good sprinter like Eric. Oh well. I know I gave it my best effort and got beat by someone faster. That's bike racing.

Another Long Saturday Ride

I did another long training ride over the weekend. That makes three weeks in a row of getting in a 4 hour ride. That is unusual for me this time of year, since its hot, and I don't have the patience to stay outside that long.

It was a typical fast paceline ride, heading north up Hwy 21 past Ridgeway, over to White Oak via Camp Welfare Rd, eventually heading down Jackson Creek to 269 to Peach and finally back down Hwy 21. I settled in for the first 2.5 hours or so and tried to stay at or below threshold when I was on the front. There were still plenty of short climbs where I was way over threshold just following others.

I pulled the 5 minute climb on Jackson Creek at a steady 335 watts. Then a few minutes later I had to do a 567 watt 30 sec effort to stay on James' wheel on the steep hill on Peach after crossing 321. I took a pull right after that for about 3 minutes. A little later I was on the front going up the hill into Ridgeway pretty hard.

About 76 miles in the fun started. Steve R. met us near Ridgeway riding LL's scooter. From there I rode behind LL and the scooter for a blazing fast 42 minutes back to Wildewood at 279w NP.

Long Saturday Ride

This morning I rode the exact same 88 mile ride as last Saturday. I left my house a little late for the 5 mile ride to Food Lion and the group had already departed. James and I caught up in Ridgeway while they stopped to wait for us. It was a strong group and we cruised along at about 23 mph for 3+ hours.

With 9 guys riding a paceline taking long pulls, I didn't spend much time on the front, so when I got up there I took some hard pulls. I rested yesterday and didn't spend much time outside in the heat either. I felt much better today than last week. 70 miles into the ride, going into Ridgeway, I got on the front and did 8 minutes at 367 watts, with the final 5 minutes climbing at 382 watts. James and LL were still on my wheel, and James jumped and took the mountain points.

Coming back from Ridgeway, we were kind of taking it easy, until LL's scooter, piloted by Steve, arrived to moto pace him back to his house. I followed along for 6 minutes until they turned off, averaging 30 mph. That was fun.

Hot Weekend Riding

I'm still here and still riding, even though I've gotten lazy and haven't blogged in a while. Saturday I rode with a fast 8 man group leaving from Blythewood, riding what has become the standard loop around Fairfield County. We had a bit of a scare about 10 minutes into the ride on Hwy 21, when a pickup truck loaded with cardboard boxes and assorted loose pieces of cardboard passed us, then while still on the other side of the yellow line, a large box flew out and landed on the road. Another truck pulling a large trailer began to pass us just as the box was flying out of the truck. Thankfully the driver stayed left and ran directly into the box, and we proceeded unharmed. What kind of idiot drives down the highway at 55+ mph with a bunch of loose cardboard piled up in their pickup?

After that scare the ride was great except for the building heat. I tried to hold back some early on and I forced myself to drink 2 full bottles before the one store stop. At the stop I drank at least 20 ounces of gatorade and water, and refilled the two bottles. It still wasn't enough. I struggled in the last hour of the ride. Instead of kicking up the pace like I usually do, I was resigned to just sitting in and trying to get home. LL, James, & Kevin had other ideas, so that last few miles was a bitch.

The IF of .74 doesn't really reflect how hard it is to ride 4 hours in South Carolina in August. Sunday I went out by myself and rode a nice steady pace for 2 hours...about the same average power(199w), but only .64 IF, and I finished before it got super hot.

Asheville Omnium Weekend

This past weekend I did a 3 race omnium in Asheville, NC. I spent the weekend at my step-sister and her husband's house, and had an enjoyable time playing bocce ball, watching le Tour, cooking out, and drinking some beer.

Friday 20K TT - I put in the best effort I had in me and it got me across the line in 27:07 which was 11th place in 35+. It was a consistent effort, 318 watts on the way out and 316 watts on the way back. A few watts get lost turning around, so the overall average was 313 watts. I haven't done any training on the TT bike at all and that showed some, since I could probaby hold 20-30 watts more on my road bike.

Saturday 40 mile RR - This was the big day, a point to point road race with 6100 ft of climbing and a mountain top finish. I was really excited about this race. The rider who would end up winning got away very early and unfortunately the field cut him way to much slack. By the time we lit it up on the first big climb it was too late. We were too far behind to bring him back. I rode with the chase group which swelled to about 13 or 14 by the time we hit the final 2 mile climb to the finish. I was able to go with every acceleration until I was in a group of 2 at about 500 meters to go. I tried to attack, but Charlie Brown had no trouble covering. At 200 meters to go, I went again, but Charlie stayed with me. We rode side by side for a few meters, before I cracked and watched him pull away. I cruised in for 3rd.

The power numbers were pretty good for the RR. I averaged 362 watts for almost 12 minutes on the final climb, with the last 5 minutes at 389 watts. The "sprint" for me was 30 sec at 567 watts.

Sunday 55 minute Crit - This crit course was advertised as a 1.1 mile rectangle that was flat. Ha! It had a nice little hill on it that kicked up at turn 2. Then there was some fast descending and a super fast entry into turn 4. I rode the first two laps kind of weakly, then took off and followed an attack. I stayed up near the front while things got hard, and ultimately made it to the winning 5 man break, which included Charlie Brown, Dave LeDuc, Jeff McGrain, and Scott Minor. All I could really do was hold on and wait for the sprint. It was just too fast to think of ever escaping. My NP for the entire race was 334 watts and the speed was about 27 mph. I had some good wattage in the sprint, but didn't do a good job tactically, and ended up 3rd. I think I could've gotten 2nd if I had stayed on the same line as LeDuc through the last turn, instead of just jumping out into the wind. The sprint was 26 seconds at 880 watts with a max of 1102 and a max speed of 38.5.

I ended up 3rd in the omnium, which was great. I'm happy with the weekend. The rest of the PV team rocked. LL got 3rd in the 35+ TT. Gordon was 2nd in the cat 4 TT. Nick got 3rd in the cat 3 RR. Marc won the cat 3 crit on Sunday and will soon be catting up.

Tuesday 2 x 20's

After two easy days, my legs were pretty good today. I got out for a morning ride and went over to Hwy 269 to do 2 x 20 minutes. Headed north I had a head wind and only averaged 22.6 mph, which is probably my slowest 20 minute interval ever on that road. No problem though, since the power was right on target, 326 watts. I was shooting for mid 320's.

The 20 minutes coming back was much more fun, with the tail wind helping me average 26.4 mph. Power was again right on target at 327 watts. There's a lot of suffering doing long intervals, no matter how good you are on a given day, but at least today felt better than last week.

Saturday Long Ride

This post is a little late, but I since this is certain to be my longest ride of the month I'm not leaving it out. I rode a long ride at a pretty fast pace with a few others on Saturday. We started real early, and it wasn't too hot. I took some hard pulls in the 3rd hour and by the last 30 minutes I was slowing down and struggling to get home.

Hill Climb Intervals

On the morning after racing the training crit really hard, I did 2 x 20 out on the road. My legs were predictably tired, but I was able to sustain a reasonable pace, 97% of FTP. Thursday was a much needed recovery day with only a 50 minute easy spin.

This morning with drier air and temps below 70 degrees, I did 5 x 4.5 minute hill repeats on a 1.5 mile section of Pine Grove Road that I have used a few times now for this workout. Power numbers were great for me - averaging in the high 380's. As I finished the last one I turned around, then sprinted downhill until I was at 5 minutes total for the interval, just to record a decent 5 minute power number. To finish of the workout I rode another 15 miles at endurance pace with some tempo riding and finished up still feeling great.

I'm looking forward to getting out for a long group ride tomorrow morning. It'll be good for me since, I haven't done anything longer than 2.5 hours in the last 4 weeks.

Fast TNCWC

Last night I rode in the TNCWC for the first time in several weeks. The weather was about as good as it gets for July - under 90 degrees, and not raining. I wanted to make it a hard workout, and sit in as little as possible. I went with the first move immediately at the start. The race started so fast that the first 5 minutes were a season best 366 watts. From there I rested some and then attacked as many times as I could, but never got a break established. A couple of times it seemed like a move was going, but then it would get chased down. Usually when the race is hard, eventually the elastic snaps, but not last night.

Early in the last lap, I jumped one last time, not really expecting to get away, but just wanting to put in one last big effort. I just stayed on the front and led it out as long as I could, staying on the front until just after the 3rd turn, with a 505 watt 1 minute effort. Then I peeled off and watched everyone go by. Marc won the sprint, but I was way to far back at that point to see it.

July 4th SST Ride

Yesterday my wife and I celebrated the Fourth of July by spending the afternoon at my Parents' house on Lake Murray. We ate some great barbeque and rode around on the party barge where I enjoyed a few cold ones. It was a blast. Before that I squeezed in a 2 hour ride first thing in the morning.

This ride was a repeat of what I did exactly two weeks ago, except this time I didn't take any breaks. I warmed up for maybe 5 minutes and did about 3 minutes cool-down. In between I rode hard. I tried to keep my watts around 90% of FTP, occasionally ramping up the pace on the uphills, while easing off a little going downhill.

Today I again rode about 2 hours, but at a slower pace. I threw in about 35 minutes of SST in the middle, but did most of the ride at endurance pace. I can't seem to get motivated to ride more than 2 hours. I'm thinking next Saturday, I'll try to find a long group ride.

Back to Training, Sort of

Wednesday I didn't ride and yesterday I rode 1.5 hours easy and felt like total crap. My recovery after the road race wasn't exactly ideal, since I drank several beers to celebrate. Today I was feeling like my normal self again, but mentally wasn't quite ready for a real workout, so I opted to try an all out 1 minute, just to see what I could do and to put a high data point on my power profile chart. On a gradual uphill on Hwy 269, I did my 1 minute all out...almost. I messed up and stopped about 3 seconds early by mistake. Still it was my best 1 minute ever, 692 watts.

For anyone who uses Training Peaks software, I think it is impossible to have a true idea of your 1 minute power from any race effort. I couldn't come within 150 watts of what I did today if I were in a race. For one thing, sprints, even long ones are never 60 seconds and you will never be fresh enough at the end of a race to go all out.

Masters Nats RR

I finished 7th in the Masters Nats 40-44 road race on Tuesday morning in Louisville, KY after a bizarre finish to a crazy hard race. Here's how it went down.

I lined up with 90 something strong masters racers from all over the country which included several ex-pros and some former national champions. Weather was great, 70's with light wind and sunny skies. We raced ten laps of a 5 mile undulating course with numerous curves and turns. I rode near the back for the first 3 laps and had to ride across a couple of small gaps as riders were getting popped on the 2 short climbs near leading up to the start/finish. My strategy was to do nothing for the first half of the race, then look to get into the break later in the race, after the field had been whittled down. That didn't quite work, because a group got away around the midpoint, while I was still conserving energy and hanging near the back. While the field was still big it was really nerve racking to ride towards the front of the group with all of the aggressive riding on the technical course.

I finally dragged myself up to the front with 2 laps to go. The pace of the previous lap had been real hard and there were at least 8 riders away in two groups, but the gap was still under a minute. I tagged onto a 6 man break, that didn't last long, and watched for counters once we came back. I jumped onto the wheel of an LSV rider and we broke free with about 8 miles left in the race. We thought we had a chance to bridge up to the next group, so we worked as hard as we could. We got as close as maybe 10-15 seconds on the last lap, but the problem was that they were chasing the lead group, so basically everyone in front of us was going all out. I was spent by the time we hit the first climb and got dropped by my breakmate and rode the last mile alone, thinking I would finish 10th or 11th. Then things got interesting.

When I was inside of 500 meters from the finish, I looked up and saw riders rounding the corner to start another lap, when they should have been going straight to the finish line. I knew it was the last lap and there was no way I was going any further. People were yelling at me to go straight. I did. After I finished there was all kinds of confusion and I now had no idea what place I was. To add to the confusion there were a few lapped riders mixed in with the breakaway riders ahead of me. People were saying that I was certainly in the top 5. A possible podium result sounded good at the time, even though it sucked for guys who should have beaten me, that made a wrong turn literally 100 meters from the line.

When the dust settled and protests were denied, I was 7th, so I can't complain. I rode well in the final 2 laps, but just didn't have the power to chase down the break ahead of me. The final 19:38 of the race was 344 watts normalized, and the whole 1:54 race was 308 watts normalized.

Rich avoided a pile up in the field sprint and got 19th.

Many thanks to Rich's parents for sharing their wonderful home with us. The time in Lousiville was relaxing and stress free, except for that 2 hours on Tuesday morning.

Taper Week

I've backed way off from training this week to taper for the masters national RR coming up on Tuesday morning in Louisville, KY. Here's a quick summary of what I did over the past week.

Monday: Total day off from riding. Went to the beach with Lynda and relaxed.

Tuesday: Easy trainer ride at 65% of FTP for 58 minutes.

Wednesday: 5 x 4 minutes climbing intervals at 383w avg.

Thursday: 1 hour easy at 65% FTP.

Friday: 1:11 at 67% with 2 minutes at FTP.

Saturday: 1:40 with 15 minutes at FTP and 1 minute at 519w.

Sunday: 1 hour at 63% FTP

My total TSS for the week was only about 1/2 of what I've averaged over the last several weeks. CTL is down to 92 and TSB is up to about +17. Despite the positive TSB, I felt really flat yesterday doing a hard 15 minute effort. That worries me a little, but I think whatever residual fatigue I have will be gone by Tuesday. The day before the race I want to do some hard openers to charge up my legs. I don't want to rest too much. There seems to be a thin line between resting too much and not resting enough when you are tapering.

Later today I'm riding up to Lousiville with LL. It'll be nice to get that 500 mile drive out of the way and have all day Monday to chill out before racing on Tuesday morning.

Weekend Rides

I just finished off three solid days of training. Friday was two hours with 6 x 4 minutes on variable terrain. It was a little harder to hold power than doing hill climbs, but I felt pretty good and averaged 379 watts.

On Saturday I needed to be done riding by 8:30 am, to spend a day with family on the lake, so I rolled out at 6:30 and simply rode hard for the whole time except for 8 minutes of easy riding in the middle when I came up on a few buddies who were spinning around waiting for the group to assemble for a long ride. The image on the left is from Saturday's ride. I had an IF of about .9, and spent a lot of the ride in L4 a little below threshold. I'm finding that as my CTL rises, I can hold a pace near threshold for a long time.

On Sunday I did a 50 mile endurance ride, just to top of the week of training, and get some TSS points without hurting. I was tired but a steady 220 - 240 watt pace felt comfortable, until it got real hot and no pace felt comfortable. I drank 3 big bottles in 2:24 and still lost 4 pounds.

As of today my CTL is at 100.4. This is the first time I have ever cracked 100. It'll be short-lived though, since tomorrow I begin my taper for Nats. I'm going to the beach for the day and won't ride at all.

L4 Work

Yesterday morning I wanted to do a hard workout to complete a two day block, but my legs were tired, so I opted for some threshold work instead of more VO2 stuff. I warmed up for a few minutes, road tempo for a few minutes, then did 23 minutes at right around FTP. After a brief rest, I rode 27 minutes at 90% FTP. It was just a good solid hard ride and my legs actually were feeling better as I went along.

When I do these early morning rides I don't eat any food beforehand. I have a cup of coffee when I wake up, then drink Gatorade on the bike. I'm thinking 1.5 hours is about the limit for this nutritional strategy.

Tuesday VO2 Hill Repeats

I rolled out this morning planning to just ride easy and maybe do a few openers, since I thought I would need two days to recover from the weekend races. Once I got going I felt fine, so I decided to do the workout I was planning for tomorrow. I did 5 x 4.5 minute hill repeats on Pine Grove Rd at an average of 387 watts, which is 119% of FTP. This is about as good of a VO2 interval set as I've ever had, despite having a TSB of -14 today.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow morning; maybe just a solid SST ride. I hope the rain moves out by then.

Road Race Weekend

I just finished another big weekend of racing. Although I ONLY did two races this time, they were the longest two races I've done this year, about 80 miles apiece. Saturday morning Rich, LL and I left early and drove about 2 hours to Salisbury, NC and lined up for race #1, the 30-39 NC State Championship RR. Rich and I rode near the front early on and covered several moves. I attacked a few times to no avail. Then LL moved up and made a well timed attack to get away with Kerry from Carolina Masters. I was right there behind them when they went, and cruised up to the front and helped let the gap form. They linked up with a couple others who were already up the road, and got out of sight. Rich and I followed various moves, but missed the important one. Rich Harper attacked up the left side, but I was on the white line sitting behind Cannell and boxed in. No one flinched, so we watched the race winner, get away and ride up to the break.

With about 25 miles to go, and LL's group minutes in the lead and a chase group also out of sight, I followed an attack by Chris Harkey and we immediately started rotating and got away. After many miles of hard riding we eventually caught the chase group of 4 about 3 miles from the finish. A short climb caused a split in our group, so I could see that there were some tired legs in there. I didn't want to regroup, so I attacked at the left turn with about a mile to go. I held on and finished solo for 5th, a couple of minutes behind LL, who took 4th.

The final hour was the hardest at 302 watts normalized, with the final 2:12 at 411 watts. The NP for the whole 3 hour + race was 279 watts, so this was a big draining effort, but I had to quickly forget about it and rest up for the next day. We ate lunch at a pizza place in downtown Salisbury, then moved in to our accommodations above the Windsong Bicycle Shop, which Charlie from Carolina Masters hooked us up with. After a steak, and a tall beer for dinner, I went to sleep early.

Day 2:
Sunday was another 80 miles of racing in a big Pro/1/2/3 field. Despite planning to sit in and be patient, I somehow found myself in an 8 man break about 15 minutes into the race. Everybody was rotating and we built a lead of 1:20 at one point, before the field chased us. Team Mountain Khakis wasn't represented, so they along with Rich Harper and maybe others, brought us back after we were away for 1 hour. I still felt fine, so I was thinking about being in the next move, but I didn't keep myself near the front well enough and didn't make it. The rest of the race was boring, until the last few miles. LL and I got to the front and launched a few attacks, but didn't get anywhere. I thought all was lost, but in the last mile or so, I was near enough to the front to contest it, and Rich and LL were both there too. With both of them on my wheel, I took off up the right side and tried to lead them out. It was a little dicey, and at one point I went through a gap that closed as I went through. Thankfully no one crashed. I ended up riding hard all the way to the line to snag 4th in the field sprint (without ever going over 807 watts) for 10th overall. It was just a long hard finishing effort at 577 watts for the last 50 seconds. Rich was 16th and LL was 22nd.

Now its time to train a little more, then taper for Masters Nationals in a couple of weeks.

12 x 1 Minute Intervals

Here's a graph from a ride I did on Wednesday morning. I'm trying to prep myself for master's nationals so, I did some one minute intervals on the road. I rode a big loop from my house, and the plan was to do 12 x 1 minute with 3 minutes rest between intervals. Some of the rests were longer, so that I could use uphills for the intervals when possible. My goal was to ride at 150% of FTP, but that wasn't too hard, so I really kicked up the pace for the last few, hitting a peak 1 minute of 560 watts on the last one.

It's amazing how much 12 minutes really hard, can jack up the VI and IF of a ride. The VI was 1.37 and the IF was .908 despite spending 90 of the 102 minutes total ride time riding easy.

It seemed kind of weird having this be my only hard workout of the week, but I just wasn't recovered enough to train on Tuesday, and I need to rest on Thursday and Friday, to take on a big race weekend in NC that will comprise of back to back 80 mile RR's.

3 Race Weekend in Beaufort

I had a busy weekend of racing. I loaded up my 2 bikes, several wheels, tools, and miscellaneous gear and left at the ass crack of dawn to make my 8:44 am start time in the 40K State Championship TT, held in Yemassee, SC. I made it in plenty of time and got a decent warm-up. I surprised myself and rode a 57:12, which was good enough to get 2nd in 40-44 and 5th in P/1/2. I was happy to average 310 watts and over 26 mph, considering how little I have ridden the TT bike this year. Teammate LL had a great race, riding a sub 55 time to take gold in 35-39 and 2nd in P/1/2.

After a big lunch and a few hours resting in a hotel room, we took on the crit in downtown Port Royal. The race was shortened to only 47 minutes and was hard from the gun. I felt surprisingly recovered from the TT and made a few efforts to get away around the middle of the race. I found myself in bad position in the closing laps and couldn't move up much as the field was bunching up leaving little space to pass. I gained a few spots on the last lap and finished 16th, salvaging a few omnium points. Norm power was only 304 watts, but as you can see from the graph it was anything but a constant effort. It was a 4 turn 1/2 mile course, with coasting through turns, then sprinting out of them.

Sunday after a big breakfast including a waffle and assorted cereals, LL and I made the 2 mile drive from the hotel to the Naval Airstation in Beaufort to conclude the weekend with a 63 mile RR on a pancake flat 10.5 mile loop. The sun was coming out and from watching the radar I thought it was going to be dry. I even put on sunscreen since we were racing in the middle of the day. Then a dark cloud moved in and the skies opened up right after the race started. I rode near the front for a while, then settle back as we rode through downpours for the first couple of laps. It was dark and hard to see and there were areas with standing water on the course. A group of 3 got way up the road early on.

Late in lap 3 I got away solo, knowing a had no chance of bridging the 2 minute or so gap myself, but what the hell, I went for it just to see what would happen. What happened was lucky for me. Two guys, then eventually three, bridged up to me after I was away for 5 minutes. One guy was super strong and helped us bridge that gap to the leaders with 1.5 laps to go. After dropping one, the now 6 man group at the front rode together to the finish. There were some attacks along the way, but I just did what I had to do to stay in there. My legs were dead from the chase. In the end I got 4th in the sprint, which was enough to secure 4th in the omnium.

The power numbers didn't reflect how hard the RR felt. My norm power for the 2:24 race was 285 watts (88%), but it felt much higher. The big effort of the day was my 5 minutes out there solo at 340 watts average. All in all I was pleased with some good results racing Pro/1/2.

Great day for the Palmetto Velo team Sunday! Marc got 3rd in cat 3 and Rich took 3rd in 40+.

3rd Hard Workout in 2 Days

About 11 hours after racing in the TNCWC last night, I rolled out of my driveway for some hill repeats on a nice zero traffic road that is 12 minutes from my house. The climb starts with a steep 20 second section, followed by a 20 second flat, followed by another 20 second steep pitch. Then it is a gradual climb, before it kicks up again near the end taking about 4 1/2 minutes going hard. I rode the steep parts out of the saddle at over 400 watts and rode easier on the flatter sections resulting in a 375 watt average for 5 intervals.

I was really pleased with the power numbers today, especially since I did two workouts yesterday, and didn't get enough sleep last night. Now I'm going to rest up for a big race weekend in Beaufort, SC which includes a 40K TT and 60 minute crit on Saturday, plus a 63 mile RR on Sunday.

Tuesday Crit

After doing some intervals in the morning (see previous post) I made my way to the crit course at about 6:15 for the 6:30 start. It was hot so I didn't want to be in the heat any longer than I had to. I spent some of the early minutes of the race nestled in near the back of the group, while I tried to get my legs going.

About 12 minutes in, I went hard for about a minute at 440 something watts, but was brought back. Then I sat near the back for a few more minutes, while Rich and Karl were away. After the pack chased and brought them closer. I launched and went up to them. Marc and Nick followed. Karl jumped in, but Rich sat up, thinking the field was right there. The four of us traded pulls and quickly built up a big gap. Karl dropped back after a while, and the three of us continued.

I looked back a few times late in the race, and didn't think there was anybody near us. The field had broken up and lots of riders were assembled at the finish line. Apparently a small group including Jamie, Damon, and Rich had us in their sites. At 2 laps to go, we slowed a little and near the end of the lap, when I was thinking about suggesting that the 3 of us finish together, Nick jumped. I followed and Marc caught back up to us. Yes we are all teammates. Then Nick attacked again. We got back together, and eventually Marc said he would just lead us out so we could sprint each other. I came by Nick near the finish.

I'm pleased with how I felt today. I was at 101% (330w NP) for the 31 minute break and didn't feel like I was fading much at the end.

Tuesday AM Intervals

Masters Nationals are four weeks from today, so it's time to sharpen up and do some anaerobic stuff. This morning I did some 1 minute intervals on the trainer. I was hoping to do 10 at 150% of of FTP which equates to 488 watts, but as you can see on the picture, I was down in the 450's to 470's range and stopped at 8. I couldn't have gone any higher as my legs were burning towards the end of the last few. I still have time to improve over the next few weeks.

Saturday Fast Group Ride

I got in a great training ride today. I rolled over to Food Lion in Blythewood and hooked up with 7 others for a big loop around Fairfield County. Everyone was killing it on the rollers out there and I was getting in some hard efforts even when I wasn't on the front. When I was on the front I usually rode around threshold pace or a little higher.

Late in the ride on the climb into Ridgeway, Rich attacked and I ultimately chased him down, then set a fast pace (520 watts for 50 sec) up the steep hill near the top. After regrouping, we headed back down 21 to Blythewood with a tail wind and covered 5.5 miles at 27 mph as a series of attacks split us into two groups.

I ended up with 88.7 miles in 4:03 at 22 mph with an NP of 251 watts. The ride felt pretty hard. For me a .77 IF is about what I would expect to see for a race of the same duration. My legs are toast right now from the effort. Some guys had IF's much higher on this ride, and I can only imagine what they must feel like.

TT Workout

I did my first real workout of the year on my TT bike this afternoon. It wasn't real fun because it was hot and windy and the bike beats the crap out of me on rough roads. My bike is an all aluminum Cervelo P2K that is several years old.

After cruising for about 30 minutes, I did a 20 minute hard effort on Hwy 269 averaging 314 watts. Based on how that felt(real hard), I'd say I was about 15 watts below what I would have done on my road bike. However, I am pleased with the speed. I averaged 25.4 mph on the same section of road where I recently averaged 24.4 mph at 342 watts on my road bike. I had a cross wind today, so I don't think that helped.

After my interval, I rested a few minutes, then rode tempo for about 30 minutes. I've ridden this 34 mile loop a couple of times recently on my road bike going hard, but today I was faster with less effort and less watts thanks to the TT bike. 22.2 mph for the whole ride, despite starting off pretty slow.

Mountain Ride in Boone

As if Climbing Mt. Mitchell on Monday wasn't enough torture for the week, I took a day trip to Boone, NC for more climbing with LL and Mark D. on Saturday. I had done a couple of hard training days on Thursday and Friday, although I didn't do anything too serious - a little threshold work and some SST.

We did a 36 mile loop twice that included the Snake Mountain climb used in the annual Blood, Sweat and Gears century ride. We pushed this climb really hard both times. The second time up Snake I averaged 349 watts for the final 10 minutes, which pretty much used up all I had in the tank. Thankfully there is a nice 10 mile gradual descent after the climb.

The original plan called for a third climb of Snake Mountain, but after lap two we all agreed to end the ride and get some Mexican food.

On Sunday I did a short 1 hour easy ride on my TT bike. I haven't been on that stupid thing since last October, so it was a shock. Also I got rained on. I'm gonna ride the TT bike just enough so that the state championship 40K TT in a couple of weeks is possible.

Assault on Mt. Mitchell

Yesterday I finished 5th at the Assault on Mt. Mitchell, a 103 mile ride from Spartanburg, SC to the top of the highest peak in the eastern US with over 10,000 feet of total climbing. I've never done AOMM before and had no plans to do it this year, until Saturday afternoon, when a ticket suddenly became available. I made a few preparations, then headed to Spartanburg Sunday afternoon with Mark D.

On Monday morning I ate a big breakfast with oatmeal, eggs, potatoes, bacon and a bagel with cream cheese, washed down with some coffee. Losing track of time I made it to the start at about 6:27 for the 6:3o am start. About 9 minutes into the ride, the guy right in front of me locked up his brakes avoiding a pothole on the bridge over I-85. He went down and I went around him. I looked back and saw riders going down like dominos across the road. LL got taken out and broke two spokes in his front wheel, but was able to continue thanks to the generousity of Casey, who offered up her wheel.

The first 82 miles of this ride were pretty easy for me, as the group was huge and nobody was driving the pace. The first 4:08 of the ride was only 217 watts NP for an IF of .66. Then we reached the steep climb up Hwy 80 and the shit hit the fan quickly. Our 100+ rider group was shredded to 9 as Boyd Johnson drilled it. I averaged 326 watts for 19:46 up to the turn onto the Parkway. After a slight pause, the pace was back up again and I couldn't hold on after a few more minutes. I watched the remaining 5 riders ride away and rode the final hour or so alone. I gradually slowed down, but kept a decent pace right to the end, averaging 252 watts for the final 24 minutes. I backed off before the final steep pitch, because I knew I would need to some power to push my 39x25 gear, which wasn't really enough in a couple of places.

I passed one rider from the fractured front group, so I ended up 5th with a time of 5:44. The last 20 miles took 1:34 at 270 watts avg, 286 watts normalized, and a speed of 12.7 mph. IF was .88. LL came in 12th and Mark D was 28th.

Saturday Solo Ride

I was kind of busy today, but I managed to squeeze a good ride in late this morning. After 30 minutes kind of easy, I did 8 x 15 seconds with 1:45 rest in between. These weren't full on sprints, but pretty close. After that I rode about 1.5 hours at 250 watts avg. I ended up doing just under 50 miles at 21 mph.

The last two days were a good training block, but this is only the beginning. I decided last minute to ride the Assault on Mt. Mitchell on Monday. I had the opportunity to get a ticket from someone who isn't able to make the ride. Now I have one day to rest up.

20 Minute Test

I rolled out from my house this morning undecided on exactly what workout to do. I was thinking sprints, then some sort of threshold effort. As I headed over to Hwy 269(long traffic free country road with no stop signs or traffic lights) my legs felt really good, so I skipped the sprints and decided to see what I could do for 20 minutes. I was optimistically thinking 345 to 350 watts, so I rode for a few minutes at that pace, then deteriorated after 5 minutes as it became clear that 350 wasn't going to happen. I got a second wind at 15 minutes and ended up averaging 342 watts. The 8.1 mile section has one pretty good climb and a net elevation gain, so I was happy to see that I averaged 24.4 mph riding my road bike with box rim wheels.

After recovering for several minutes, I rode a 41 minute section at 274 watts and 22.5 mph. When I'm by myself, riding hard and steady seems like the way to go. I rack up TSS points without having to be out there for more than about 2 hours.

Solo SST Ride

After all of the hot weather lately, it was 48 degrees when I left the house this morning at 6:30. I had to break out some winter pieces, like a vest, arm warmers, and knee warmers. I'm not complaining though. The goal was simple, ride around at about 90% of FTP for most of the time.

Yesterday I did 2 x 20 minutes on my trainer at 317 watts. I'm trying to put in a solid amount of time in L3 and L4 right now to raise my CTL over the next couple of weeks. I don't have any races coming up until early June.

Big Day in the Heat

I did a big ride in the heat on Saturday with 7 others. This turned out to be my 2nd longest ride of the year. I rolled out from my house at 7:20 am and it felt perfect - cool with no wind. I met up with Mark D, Casey, and Rob in Blythewood. We linked up with LL, RW, Brian C and Justin in Ridgeway, then headed north for a big counter clockwise loop around Fairfield County.

Since it was going to reach 90 degrees, I forced myself to drink 2 big bottles before the one stop. Then I drank as much as I could at the stop, then drank 2 more bottles on the way back. Also I didn't push real hard when I was on the front. I would take a 2 to 3 minute turn at 90 to 100% FTP, but then I'd have several minutes to rest. Everyone else was riding strong, so the pace was pretty high - about 22 mph while we were all together.

With all that hydrating, and conserving energy, I felt really strong, so I did put in some of my hardest efforts after the 3 hour mark. LL decided to attack the climb back into Ridgeway and I put in a 602 watt 30 second effort to follow him.

Heading back home solo on Blythewood Rd near the end I rode into a stiff headwind and it was now above 85 degrees. All in all it was a great ride though.

Friday Sprints +

Yesterday I decided to work on my sprint, which has been neglected lately in my training. I did 8 x 15 sec with 1 to 2 minutes recovery. After that I took a few minutes easy, then did a 20 minute interval right at threshold pace. After that I just cruised along for almost another hour.

Midweek Update

I'm going to use the rest of the month to build, so I'm taking a break from VO2. I'm going to do a lot of L4 and SST. Tuesday I skipped the crit and did 2 x 20 on the trainer at 98% of FTP. This morning my goal was to ride SST, but I felt really good, so I ramped up the pace a little and ended up riding for 52 minutes at 94%, while I watched three episodes of Entourage.

I'll take one rest day, then more L4 on Friday, followed by a long ride Saturday.

Dilworth Crit 35+

I made the short drive up to Charlotte yesterday to race on a fun course that features a nice long hill leading up to the finish. I didn't have any teammates today, and had to go up against the loaded Carolina Masters team. The race started fast and nothing got away for a few laps. That 50 second or so climb wears down the field quickly.

Charlie from Carolina Masters rode off the front a few laps in. One more bridged up. I missed out, so I tried several times to get away and go after them, but it wasn't working. All I ended up doing was wasting a ton of energy. Eventually, I did get away and hammered out a whole lap at 386 watts and 26.8 mph. Ryan from CM had followed me and together we increased our gap on the field but made little ground on the two leaders.

With 1 lap to go we did catch Gordon, but Charlie was up ahead soloing to a win. The field was so close to us, that I didn't mess around and took a big pull down the hill before the climb to the finish. I couldn't stay with the other two on the climb, so I finished 4th. The sprinters from the field zoomed by me about 20 meters after the line.

Interesting race file to look at. The normalized power for 49 minutes was 353 watts, which corresponds to 110% of FTP. I took a quick look at the file from last year's Dilworth and at was actually higher - 356 watts!

Tuesday Double Workout

I did a short trainer ride in the morning, rested(I mean worked) in my cubicle, then rode in the TNCWC race. I decided that my sprint needs work, so I did 8 x 15 sec this morning. I topped that off with 8 minutes at threshold.

Tonight the crit was super fast the whole time. The Tibco women's pro team was in town. Those ladies can motor. They were all over the front and got in some breaks. Pretty impressive. I tried repeatedly to get away, and spent a lot of time off the front, but with all that horsepower in the field tonight, a break just wasn't going to stick. We averaged 26.3 mph. For all my effort I got in a great workout, 1.0 IF, 320w NP for 51+ minutes. I had a bit of a lapse late and was too far back to contest the sprint. In the end Rich got by the US National Crit Champ Brooke Miller to take the win.

Tour de Moore RR 30+

Rich, LL and I made the trip to Southern Pines, NC to race the 70 mile 30+ Tour de Moore RR yesterday. We very nearly missed the start, because we weren't paying attention and missed a turn on the way and lost at least 45 minutes. We rolled into the parking lot about 10 minutes before the race start and well after registration had closed. Thankfully the race promoter and officials were sympathetic to our situation and allowed us to race. All three of us were pre-registered, but we still had to sign waivers and get numbers, but we did that while lined up to start, which was a little nerve racking.

Once the race started, all was fine. We rolled out easy for about 10 miles or so. Once the attacks started I went to the front to take part. At one point I attacked, was brought back, then countered by Nathan Smith and Kris Stein. Then Jason Sprouse joined them. A little while later LL was able to bridge up to the leaders. I sat on the front for a while and kept a false tempo, which was much slower than the leaders, and they were all gone pretty soon.

For a long while, nothing happened as the first group got a huge lead of a few minutes. Then, I was out of position and missed getting into a chase group. After that 4 man group got out of sight. I did manage to get away with a couple of others with maybe 25 miles to go. We were caught by 4 more. The seven of us motored along until we made the turn to head back into the town. During those last 15 miles we had a head wind and the temp was probably approaching 90 degrees. At about mile 55 I was still feeling great, but suddenly by about mile 62 I felt terrible. We limped in to the town with no one fresh enough to attack. I jumped early to kick off the sprint for 9th and was covered by Pat Raines. He got around me, so I finished 10th. The finish had some climbing before the final stretch, and somehow I ended up with a 569 watt 1 minute burst.

Up at the head of the race, LL hung on to finish 4th with Nathan winning. Rich came in with the field. I think everyone was shocked by the heat out there. Everyone looked like death by the finish.

Pre-race Openers Ride

Based on my personal experience over the last several years, I don't like to take a true rest day on the day before a race, especially if it is a one day event. In a typical non-tapering week with a race on Saturday, I'll train hard on Tues-Wed, then do a very easy short ride on Thurs. I'll follow that up with a ride on Friday that includes some openers. This week I followed the plan. Today I went out for 1:10 riding mostly L2 for a long warm-up. Then I did a couple of short threshold efforts. After that I did a few L6 bursts, then rode easy for a few more minutes. I felt really good doing these efforts. My RPE was definitely lower than the power numbers show. I'd say that was about as easy as a 250w NP ride has ever felt.

I guess I have no excuses if I suck in the race tomorrow. I haven't raced in 5 weeks, but I'm clearly faster right now than I was then. I just need to ride smart, make the break, and give myself a chance to do something.

2 days of VO2 intervals

I'm in week three of focusing on VO2, and I just finished a two day block of intervals on the trainer. Yesterday was 5 x 5 minutes and this morning was 8 x 3 minutes. Both days were very painful, but I showed some improvement. I averaged 357 watts for the 5's yesterday and 374 watts for the 3's today. On the trainer, I'm still not able to duplicate the watts I can do outside though.

I'm going to recover the next couple of days, so I can be ready for the Tour de Moore RR in Southern Pines, NC on Saturday.

Saturday Group Ride

Had a nice steady 3.5 hour ride yesterday morning with LL, Rich, Mark D. and Justin. My legs felt good after about an hour and I took several 4 or 5 minute pulls at a bit under threshold wattage. My peak 5 minutes was 314w, so I never killed it. I just rode nice and steady. Everyone was riding strong, so we ended up averaging about 22 mph. The air was dry and the temp didn't reach 70 degrees. I love riding in this weather. In the summer a ride of this distance in the South Carolina heat can easily turn into a death march.

There are some really great roads in Fairfield County. Camp Welfare Road has virtually no traffic and a good surface.

Outside VO2 Intervals

I got outside to do a set of 6 VO2 intervals this morning. The weather was perfect - about 60 degrees, light wind, blue sky. I rode about 40 minutes, then did repeats on a 1.5 mile climb up Pine Grove Road. Based on past workouts on the same climb, I thought it would take 4:45, so my goal was 360 watts, but I rode the first one at 364 and it felt too easy. I ratcheted up the watts to the point where I rode the 6th interval at 386 watts and a time of 4:22. My average for the 6 was 376w, which is 24 watts higher than my 5 x 5 min workout on the trainer on Monday.

Double Workout Day

Today I squeezed in two workouts. In the morning before work I did 45 minutes on the trainer with 20 min at around threshold. After work I raced in the weekly training crit. The rain passed through just in time to have a dry race. The turnout was understandably low due to the rain and there were only 4 from the PV team. We were in every move and eventually I got away with Jamie from Harrells. After a few laps I was alone for a bit, then LL bridged up and we rode together to the finish, but never had much of a lead, so we had to work real hard. LL and I crossed the finish together for the win with GW and Rich coming in next to make it a sweep of the top four spots for PV.

The power file shows just how much effort it took to stay off the front. My normalized power for the final 20:47 was 340 watts, with an average of 323. I was in the drops as low as I could get virtually the whole time and I had LL to draft behind half the time.