Winter Focus

The following points sum up my focus for the last two months...

1. Get aero and get used to it...

I have decided to spend a lot more time in the drops than ever before. I realized when reflecting on past seasons that anytime I am attempting an attack, to bridge an attack, sprint for the finish, advance in a crit, hold position in a crit when I am outmatched, or ride a TT/prologue, I am in my drops. Yet I have spent nearly no time training in my drops. My road bike position is relatively aggressive on the hoods and very aggressive on the drops (these are mostly relative to my own comfort level but also in comparison with other cyclists)... this makes me less apt to ride in the drops than on the hoods. I have focused on spending time in my drops this off season and have tested there on occasion. I have more than a 20 watt drop in FTP when moving from my hoods to my drops... this is unacceptable and explains some of my hardship in certain races over the past few years. I will often jump into the drops on an attack or bridge attempt only to find myself quickly out of breath. Now I expect that is due to many factors, but giving up 20 watts cant be helpful in any case. Spending more time in that position will help flexibility, muscle firing, and strength in TT/drop specific positioning that should help in races. I need to be closer to 98% FTP in those positions rather than 90%... time will tell...

2. Lift Weights...

We will see... I hope that it adds to my sprint but who knows. What I do know is that it has made me full strong throughout and that should add to my durability and confidence during the next races season... cant be bad...

3. Save the L4 for January...

Last year I completed a 40 minute L4 time trial every week from November until nearly February. As L5 and L6 work started in Jan/Feb, the L4 work tapered off but still continued every other week for maintenance. This offseason, I have had a steady diet of L2 and now L3 and will build L4 similar to the way I have built L5/L6 in the past... do it over a month and dont look back. I dont know what this will do, but I feel much more mentally and physically fresh right now compared to other years and I burnt out last spring very quickly so maybe this is the right move. I am training between 8 and 13 hours a week... feels good and my legs seem OK so time will tell..

The Illusive Limiter...

There were certain races this past season where I was satisfied with a midpack result (I say "satisfied" because it was all I felt I had that day). I went into the event well trained (or so I thought) and yet was unable to perform for a result. When I reviewed my power file after the race, I noticed that the power output was not out of the ordinary... well within my threshold. I would then study the hard efforts during the race... searching for a match and trying to decide whether I had burned too many too quickly (as most everyone knows, the "match" is loosely described as an extreme effort... you only have so many of those in your box... once you burn them all, you get dropped.) On these particular events in question, I had a hard time defining what efforts left me tired at the end... too tired to make a winning move. The "intervals within the race" should have been well within what I was trained to do. I was left to decide that I just didnt have it that day... it wasnt in the cards... I just had bad legs... whatever...

As a guy that likes data and likes analysis and likes to think that I have some control over outcomes on the bike and likes to think that training specifically for events can provide success in those events... I didnt really like the "well I had bad legs" excuse.

So I was reading some stuff the other day... Friel to be exact. He was asking questions to help you decide what your weaknesses and what you need to train hard to overcome. One particular question caught my eye and got me thinking. Where do you find yourself in the pack on a climb (defined as longer than 5 minutes)? His shortened answer was that if you cant climb then force might be your limiter. Now the easy answer for me is off the back... of course this depends on what pack we are talking about, but still. The more specific answer is that if I can find a gear where my cadence is comfortable (95 rpm) then I climb OK... if I am lower than that... not so much. But could force be my limiter?

I started to think about my training. I am a spinner and I know it. I have power, but I harness and distribute that power quickly over the cranks. In a TT, my average cadence is between 95 and 100 rpm... always. If I am struggling during a TT, I can check my cadence and I will always realized that I have dropped into the 80s... speed up my legs and immediatley my power and speed increase. I have always rationalized that as long as I had gearing to find that ideal cadence that my body yearned for when putting out powerful efforts, I really never needed to worry out forceful, low cadence efforts. Lets face it... high force, high cadence is sprinting... I am not doing standing starts or anything else that would require high force, low cadence.

All this brought me back around to racing... is there a possiblity that racing requires those high force, low cadence efforts and I have never noticed it? If it did, could I look at my data and figure out where those efforts were or how many there were?

Enter Quadrant Analysis. A spreadsheet tool designed by Andy Coggan (to whom I give credit for the chart below... well, credit for design... I will unfortunately take credit for the power data... or does God take credit for that (for giving me the questionable genetics in the first place... I digress...). This "software" was developed to breakdown rides into quadrants of effort. Quad 1 (upper right) shows high force, high cadence efforts... Quad 2 shows high force, low cadence efforts... Quad 3 shows low force, low cadence efforts... Quad 4 shows low force, high cadence. So for me in a race (this statement is obviously oversimplified but is probably true at the extremities), 1 is sprinting... 2 is mashing/grinding (think Stoney here)... 3 is chilling... 4 is spinning.

The blue dots show every individual effort from the race. The red line represents my threshold wattage... if a point is higher on the graph than the red line... it was over 280 Watts... below it would be less. So, all blue dots above the red line in Quad 2 (upper left) would represent efforts that are above 280 Watts and below my ideal cadence of 95 rpms. The further from the y axis (pretty much) the slower my legs were moving. This explains some... see next post for more information...

Cold Weather Returns...

Finally we have a touch of cool weather today. The forecast calls for 47 degrees at ride time and only warming up 2 degrees during the ride. I love it... cant wait to break out some fall weather gear and smell embrocation will certainly spark nostalgia of offseasons past...

Winter Training... Where to go...

This time of year is always spent working on this offseason's plan. There is a lot of info out there on how to train and what works best. My interest is to find the best plan to max out my potential while minimizing time away from the family.

Last offseason, my two main objectives were as follows:

1) Minimize trash miles... otherwise known as recovery miles. My plan was to never do any workouts (nor intervals) over threshold (no lactic acid)... and never do easy workouts... L1... recovery workouts. I would always push L3 for every minute I was on the road. This is the area where the most bang for the buck is realized on the bike. L4 and harder workouts usually require recovery and therefore the physiological adaptions realized from such workouts come at a greater price. The graph below explains it best. I am talking about sweet spot training. Strain is minimized while training effect is maximized.

So, my thought was... if I only have 10 hours per week to train... it is winter which means that a steady diet of hard L3 work could be tolerated... couldn't I train there all the time and sit up when I get too tired to keep it up?

2) Grow CTL (Chronic Training Load) to highest point I could without overtraining. I wanted to hit 110 which seemed like as good a number as any. The truth is... this can only get so high on 10-12 hours per week, but I gave it a try.

So... what happened last winter and how did it workout this past season?

I really achieved both of my goals stated above. I rode L3 all the time and really cut down on trash miles. I did one L4 workout each week and took off one day each week. I got sick three times (always during intense training periods) and learned a few things about that. I increased CTL around 4 points a week and tried not to step back weeks (but would get sick just in time for a needed step back). I think I hit around 105 CTL... cant really trust all of that data, but I was riding a good bit and mostly around L3.

How did it workout for the season? Well... different story. I decided to crash diet coming in so that I could get really light before the races. I dropped weight quickly when I stopped eating... down to 174 from where I had been for a while (182). I am pretty sure now, based on what I have been reading, that the calorie deficit and the increased training intensity and load in February and March led to overtraining. How else can I explain the huge disinterest in cycling that happened in April and May. I starting running again... I think that says enough. I trained my tail off for 5 months looking forward to nothing but racing, through rain and cold, and 3 weeks into the season with beautiful weather I decide that I want to get off the bike and rest for a while. It makes no sense. I lost all of my form with 4 weeks of foolishness and never got back to where I was as far as form.

I will spend the next week studying my data from last winter and determining where to go with this information. I will not be crash dieting... that I am sure of...

September Summary...

I finally got my new computer up and transferred all my .wko files and looked over what I have been doing the last month.

Pretty disappointing really. 4.5 hours of riding for 3 weeks straight (at least riding with the powertap) until this week (probably around 8 hours this week). That is really weak. My legs have been horrible until today. I felt my old power creep back on today's ride and put down the first solid L3 effort without major discomfort for the last 3 weeks. Looks like my legs will come around after all... I was beginning to wonder.

Winter Training Month Summary

September- Stupid Easy

This is a month to lose the bike and find it... all in one month. First two weeks... you forget what your legs used to feel like when you suffer. Second two weeks... jump back on the bike. I am in the middle of this now and my plan is to quickly up my weekly time on the bike to 10 hours per week with no attention paid to effort level. I basically go out and ride for time... tempo if I feel like it... L1/L2 if I feel like... no worries... wont last long... enjoy it...

October- L2

L2 is really just the assignment for the month... not an absolute and this 4 weeks will see me grow CTL considerably while limiting effort for later months. L2 will make up a fair amount of time during this month, though.

Week 1- L2 all week with 1 sprint day (6x12-15 second... all out) and 1 Sweet Spot Interval (SSI) Day

Week 2- L2 all week with 1 sprint day and 2 SSI days

Week 3- repeat Week 2 with a few short L4 intervals (more later)

Week 4- repeat Week 2 with 2x20 FTP intervals one day (use HR to figure out wattage today)

Would like to work up to riding around 12 hours per week this month.

November- L3

Main focus is L3 this month with recovery days at L2 as needed. My general goal here is to continue to grow FTP/aerobic engine.

Do a FTP test in Week 1 to figure out where we are. One 20 minute L4 interval during W2 growing to 2-12 min intervals during W3 and 2-15 minute L4 intervals during W4. I will plan to do one SSI interval day, one sprint day, and one steady 1.5 hour tempo ride per week. I will fill in with more L3 as legs will allow and supplement with L2 as needed to rest some.

Would like to work up to riding around 14 hours per week this month.

December- L4

Obvious focus this month.

Week 1- FTP test on Tuesday and 2-12 minute FTP (95%) on Thursday. Continue with sprint day. Fill in with L3 and L2 as needed to continue growing CTL and rest when needed.

Week 2- Two FTP interval days. Tuesday- 2-20 minute FTP intervals at 103%. Thursday 2-20 minute FTP intervals at 103%-105%. Sprint and fill in...

Week 3- Three FTP interval days. Tuesday- Test for 45 minutes. Thursday- 2x20 at 95% FTP and repeat on Friday.

Week 4- repeat week 2... reduce to one FTP day if rest is needed...

Would like to work up to riding around 16 hours per week this month.

This is certainly just a rough cut of my plan. Generally, the difference from last year will be the delay of L4 work until a little later in the winter and variation in L3 and L4 approach from last year. Instead of doing the same thing every week, I will use varying lengths and intensities to stress the systems and hopefully produce a more energized workout.

Winter Training

Racing is over for the season. Nothing noteworthy really sent me into winter other than the end of the racing season and a trip to the beach following right behind my last race. Coming off a long run of bad luck- two of my last three races ended in mechanicals- I took off a week and sat around drinking beer at the beach. I ate like a pig and was lazy as I have been for a long time.

After that, me and two teammates (Bob and Drew) went through the certification course for the local velodrome (1 hour from Macon). Nothing really noteworthy happened there either other than it was a blast and something I will use to bring on the race legs in late February/early March next year for sure.

For the past month, I have been mixing off days with maybe 1 medium hard day and some easy days between each week with no real focus. I played tennis a few times... I worked on projects around the house... caught up on family time.

But now winter has officially started... winter training that is. I am changing computers, so I have still got to figure out what my CTL is (got to be really bad) and set the stage for that, but I have already decided how I will address training this winter. I will start with generalities and be more specific in coming posts...

September- Stupid easy

October- L2/L3

November- L3

December- L4

January- L5

February- L6

March- Race

Weird and sad...

I set up that feedjit thing on my blog a while ago. It is interesting to see how people find my blog. Most come through Jordan's website, but occasionally someone will find it by searching at google or some other search engine.

I was looking a minute ago to see what has been going on (not much... just like my blogging) and I see that someone from Southington, Conneticut found my blog by searching "woman cycling sprint."

Someone from Melitta (not sure where that is) found my blog by searching "woman no legs and screw"...

Wow... might be one of my more disappointed readers...

No legs... bad day to race I guess...

Had to work through all sorts of drama at work to go race on a
Wednesday at 3:00. I had considered that a race car course where TdG had raced the TTT years ago would be relatively flat and favor me. Wow... what a screw up. Tough climbs and concrete legs...

My legs were dead. I didn't know it at the time... I was not in difficulty on any of the climbs (and there were at least 3 punchy climbs (did it clockwise)... seemed like more by the end). It was just getting harder and harder as the race went on and I really never found a good rhythm. Coming into the finishing straight, I got on the wrong guys wheel who bumped against another rider... I tapped my brakes and lost 10 spots... I was glad... I was gassed and didn't feel like I could really contest the sprint...

The finale was a 48 mph drop into the finish line. I thought that would be a good thing for me and it probably would have been if I would have held my position. The sprint was fast but we were going fast anyway. I sat in and didn't pedal on the sprint... no one came past... I just tucked in as tight as I could and held my position... mid-pack.

Thought that I would have set big records when I got home, but there was not a serious effort on the whole ride and the overall effort was weak... even for a heavy guy, I didn't have a big normalized power average over the hour... I was shocked.

This is really when the power meter in a race earns its keep. I would be apt to say that the pace was high and I am not able to handle climbing with the guys in my group, but the truth is, my legs were just not up to it... maybe it is that I am not used to racing on Wed. when I raced twice on Saturday... maybe I took it too easy the last three days (I think this might be it- lost a little snap)... maybe I am thinking about vacation (starts Saturday)... maybe I knew I should have been working rather than racing...

Lessons learned...

5 Minute Max Power...

As described below, I attacked as hard as I ever have in a race in the last 5 miles of this past weekend's race. I set a new 5 minute record (and didn't get dropped because of it... actually managed 15 seconds at 800 watts in the final sprint at the tail end), which makes me laugh because of all systems that I have been training, that is the one that I have not touched. I think that this is probably the system (level) most trained in the Tuesday night group ride, which I have not ridden very much lately. I have not been racing much and only have been doing long tempo rides and hard short intervals sessions over the last couple of months. Surprisingly, this metric now tops out ahead of all others on my "power profile" chart... odd... but nice...

Gainesville Circuit and Crit...

The day started with a 30 mile circuit race... rolling course with two tough, quick climbs that dwindled down the field pretty quick. We had around 20 in our race. Tried to get a break going in a big way on the second lap, but the group kept nailing us back... I raced very aggressive the whole time. I have been sprinting well lately, so I didn't want to work too much on the last lap and instead save up for the end. There was a right turn at the top of the second climb and then around 3 k to the finish... all slightly uphill (2%) and an uphill finish (2-3%)...

This is not ideal for me for a sprint, and the group seemed to hit the first climb hard and sit on the second, so I decided that I would attack on the second half of the second hill and try to hold out the next 3 K for the finish. I nailed it on the hill at the perfect time... killed the corner and buried it for 1K before I looked back. Had a 10 second split with two guys bridging. Bad news... head wind. I knew it before, but still liked the plan. The guys bridged, but refused to come around. The group caught us at .750 K and would not come around me. I dropped my power to below threshold, but feared letting up too much, because if an attack came from behind, I wouldnt be able to follow. I kept slowing and no one would come around... I probably should have gone again there, but I was gassed. They were content to stay on my wheel to 200 meters where the sprint started and I jumped also... first three came by quick, but I got up to speed OK and got nipped at the line for fourth... I got 5th.

It was a good result, but I was a little disappointed. I had great legs and I really think I could have podiumed if I would have sat in and sprinted at the end, but that is bike racing. I set some 3-6 minute power records on the run into the finish, so I am not surprised that my sprint wasnt at its best.

Legs were a little busted on the crit... tough effort and stayed in the front too much. There was a strong wind and I was sitting 2nd wheel through the first half of the race... not far enough back to stay completely out of the wind, but I didnt realize how much work I was doing until it was too late. Stayed in the mix, but lacked power on the last lap to stay in up front for the sprint... it was a very sketchy lead in so maybe I lost my guts some too, but live to race another day. Looking back at the files, it looks like I put in a good effort, so I am pleased. I think I got 15th or so with a pack finish...

Looks like I am going to race on Wednesday at Road Atlanta... 20 mile crit course... cannot wait...

Thoughts on Lance...

Kind of sad for me today. I was really hoping that LA was going to kill 'em. The worst part is that I think both of us were hoping that (me and Lance). He just didn't have it... a lot more than most might think. I wasn't surprised that he didn't go with Contador... that guy obviously had a kick that no one had... it was sick. I was surprised when Andy Schleck attacked and LA didn't sit on him. You could rationalize that he was riding defensively and was at the time marking other riders that were closer to him. But when Frank Schleck and the others attacked, the only move for LA was to follow. From a team tactic standpoint, it would be imperative... he should sit on Frank's wheel in case he bridged to his brother and in case they both bridged to his teammate. I mean, Frank can climb, but come on. Even Kloden was able to release from LA in the end to pick up a few seconds. Thank God that Levi was not there. To watch him out accelerate LA on a climb of the TdF would be more than I could handle.

They always say to go out on top and I have never agreed with that until now. Seinfeld did it. I disagreed when they did. But now I see what they mean... it is really tough because I could see the disappointment on LA's face in the closing interview. He really believed that he might surprise even himself on that day... that the TdF, and the high mountains, and the passion, and the love, and the Giro, and the training, and the 7 time winner, and all the fans on the road,and all that would come together and he would attack and it would be like the days of old and he would rip the legs off the best in the world. Instead I am left thinking of the creased face and aged eyes of the guy conceding leadership to another...

I am going to watch some Seinfeld reruns tonight and celebrate their decision... maybe they were right, because their last stuff was the best...

Not going to unplug just yet...

I was thinking about power... thinking about how convenient it is to look at every effort and understand how different aspects of my cycling have grown through the time that I have had it. Certainly there have been changes in the last two years, but what is the easiest way to think about growth as a cyclist from before I had a power meter compared to now? My old friend- average speed.

I remember, probably 7 years ago... I had never raced nor did I know that there was a such thing as racing. I was fat, dumb, and happy... and I really thought I was tough and fast. I would go out to a stretch of Highway 41 (ironically the same stretch that I still use for my FTP efforts) and go as hard as I could for 10 miles, turn about and come back 10 miles. My goal for these workouts was to break 20 mph average speed. I never did it... not once. I watched the average speed ticker slowly die down below (after starting too hard of course) and would drag home.

I was looking at my data the other night to see how far I have come and relate it roughly to wattage. Now these are general relationships from looking over around the last month of data, but interesting to me non-the-less...

Average Speed........ Description
17.5 - 18 mph............1 hour easy ride (L1-L2) with 10 minute at L3
19.7 - 20.1 mph.........2 hour tempo ride (usually mid to high L3 for 1.5 hrs)
22.5 - 23.2 mph........40 minute FTP (all out effort on road bike)
25+ mph...................TT bike... away from hills preferably
30 mph.....................Team Time Trial

I guess it is amazing to me that I now can ride solo for 2 hours at a strong Tempo/L3 effort and average 20 mph when I dreamed of holding that for 20 miles in an all out effort several years ago. For all but the most gifted, cycling truly is a sport of patience...

New Stuff...

Raced in two great races this past weekend... A 21 mile Team Time Trial and a Road Race in a City called Dacula near Atlanta.

The TTT was on a rolling course on country roads with three open turns. The race was based solely on age and only 4-man teams were allowed. We raced in the 140-180 cumulative years division. We only practiced once and had a lot of variability in riding styles across our team, but we really felt good that we could race this thing well. We ended up winning our division and averaging 29.77 mph over the course with four guys. I have felt better on the bike, but considering that I have not touched the TT bike for 6 months I was very pleased...

The RR was a ball buster. Extremely hilly and unbelievably hot. My legs were a little fried from the TTT effort earlier that day and I decided to stay in the pack and feel it out. We were doing 6 laps for a total of 39 miles I think. I drove the course beforehand and immediately regretted riding the TTT that morning. It was not a course that favors me to say the least. The race started and I actually felt really good. I stayed near the front and the climbs were no sweat. The attacks started on the second lap. I saw a couple of riders that I know are strong attack and I couldn't help but to bridge and give it a run. After 1.5 laps in a break we had around 45 seconds on the field. After going around a turn, I stood to jump back on the back of the guy in front of me and my calf seized up a little. That turned a lot worse over the next two hills to the point that I could no longer stand without it cramping full. Finally, I had to slow down to work out the cramp... I lost the break and then lost the chase... shortly after, I had to retire as I couldn't put out over 150 watts without the cramp coming hard. Pissed... I think that this break would have made it... it was too hot for anyone to want to chase, but I could not hang on...

Racing in Macon...

Pinned back on a number this weekend and it felt great. We sponsored our first three stage weekend of bike racing in Macon, Georgia this weekend. There was a downtown prologue... a downtown crit (state championship no less), and a tough RR course in East Macon. A lot of hard work went into it and it came off really well. All the racers seem to have really enjoyed the races. I worked a corner during the prologue since we were a little short volunteers and ended up racing the crit and prologue.

My confidence was a little off going in... my legs have not been great, but I have been working hard lately. The crit was a blast. It was wide open and my legs were good. I worked in the top 5-7 guys all day and brought back a number of breaks so that Drew could have a chance at the State Championship. I knew he was catting up after this race, so I wanted to help him out if I could... especially with my shaky confidence. I didn't contest the sprint and finished midpack.

The RR was a sufferfest. Tough climbs and nonstop rollers and big heat. I figured that attrition alone would dwindle down the field and had serious doubts if I could hang with the front group. Turns out that I had great legs... the group fractured in half in the first 15 miles and dwindled down from there. I felt like I might throw up for the second half of the race, but hung in there. Drew broke away with three others after a fair setup effort by me. I then proceeded to gum up any chase efforts while Drew and the other two guys dropped the fourth. He won the race and I finished 11th out of a chase group (selection) of 12 or so. I was very pleased. You cannot race to win when you have no confidence and so I am glad to truly believe that I have the legs to win for the rest of this year.

I plan to step up the racing for the rest of the year and try to Cat up to 3 in the offseason...

Things I cant explain...

Much has happened since my last blog and most of it is not great from a cycling standpoint. I turned a 4 day vacation (anniversary trip around the first of April) into a week layoff the bike into a decision that I needed to start back running into a decision that I needed to start back swimming into a decision that I needed to start back doing triathlons into a realization that time off the bike along with running was making my cycling suck. That may not matter if I was really sold that I wanted to get back into triathlon, and my legs would certainly come around once they got used to running again, but I really didn't like sucking on the bike.

After having a very strange April and early May and getting my tail kicked on a few Tuesday night rides here in Macon, I have reconnected with the bike with a passion. Whatever reason I decided all the things I did, I am moving forward and while some has been lost, I have salvaged the season. I am training hard right now and am trying to get back into some kind of shape for the Macon race coming up middle of June.

I dumped the ergomo and got a powertap... that has been liberating. Come to find out, it was reading around 40 watts high on average and had other weird things going on that are not worth reviewing right now. They just cease to matter for the first time in a year and that feels good. Bad news... I trained with bogus numbers for a long time and it appears that they were not even relatively right... for instance I could easily maintain power going down a hill with the ergomo and I find that maintaining power downhill with the powertap is impossible. I remember it being like that with the ergomo before I moved it to my new bike and broke my hip. Anyway... enough...

I retested my FTP for a new starting point... wow... low...

30 minute power- 284 Watts

I think that I lost around 20-25 Watts with my hiatus in April (how stupid is that), but I think that can be rebuilt pretty quick. Most of my other measurables are close to where last year before the accident, so all is not lost.

Cycling Blog Turns Political Blog... only one... promise...

Yes this is a cycling blog, but it also seems to be my only avenue to vent publicly (however small the readership might be) on this issue...

It is hard for me not to react to Obama's comment last night on Jay Leno about the Special Olympics... my son has Down Syndrome and I am also an athlete and look forward to my son following in my footsteps. If it is not bad enough that I don't agree with most of what Obama is doing right now nor do I respect his abandonment of all pro-life programs and his celebration of all pro-choice campaigns, now he is actually making fun of the Special Olympics on national television. This is a third grade, school yard comment... it is really hard to believe that our commander in chief could say this at all... but especially in public... and on public television for all to see...

To cross-reference our brilliant president, here is an article written about a true athlete...

The top bowler for the Special Olympics looks forward to meeting President Barack Obama in an alley.

"He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily," Michigan's Kolan McConiughey told The Associated Press in an interview Friday.

The athletic-minded president made an offhand remark Thursday on "The Tonight Show" comparing his weak bowling to "the Special Olympics or something." He quickly apologized and told the Special Olympics chairman he wants to have some of its athletes visit the White House to bowl or play basketball.

McConiughey, who is mentally disabled, is just the bowler for the job. He's bowled five perfect games since 2005.

The 35-year-old McConiughey has been bowling since he was 8 or 9. His advice for Obama? Practice every day.

Thanks, Obama... thanks for invitation to come bowl with you at the White House... that makes it all better...

Albany Recap...

Great weekend in Albany... some weirdness, but generally a great weekend.

We were warming up in the cold and fog the morning of the prologue... the race route was not well barricaded and people were riding both ways in both lanes of the course. At some point, the racing started... Robert and some others were still on the course when a girl came barreling around the corner and hit him head-on... aerobars to aerobars... both ended up in the hospital and both ended up OK... but it was crazy to say the least...

Obviously, Robert’s wreck threw us all off, but I went ahead with my start time. I barely made it to the house in time and started the run. I paced it well and almost died at the line just in time for the final sprint. It took me an hour to get my wind back and feel normal. My time was slower than last year but with very difficult conditions (fog, moisture), but enough for 2nd place in our category. This is my first Cat 4 podium... I catted up a year ago after racing a few races the year before as a Cat 5... last season, I only had a few races before the broken hip incident. I was pretty stoked and what made it better, my mom, mom's friends (Chesh and DeHart), my wife and kids, and the Speils were all there to see me on the podium... talk about timing...

Crit

I had planned to stay in the pack and think about the sprint finish. I was convinced that I could win this race if I didn’t hurt myself too much before the end. The strategy was perfect and I knew it. BUT!!!!! I got in my head that I couldn’t let the 3rd place guy go anywhere… I knew he would be trying to take away my 2nd place overall, and I knew I would finish there overall because there was no way I would get dropped from the crit or the RR. Wrong! He attacked almost immediately and I jumped on his wheel. The guy was heavy, but had some major power and could corner really tight… I have no idea how he didn’t beat me in the TT to be honest… he was a beast from my perspective. He started yelling that we had a split and that we had to work together and I started pulling… I looked at my ergomo and quickly looked away… I was embarrassed to be pulling with that much power in a breakaway that I knew would fail that early in the race… but there I was. I don’t know what happened next… we got reeled back pretty quick, and I was in the red zone. I retreated back in the group to get myself together which worked well until they announced a prem and I went for it. I went pretty early and stayed out around a few corners and sprinted easily to take it. But… I blew completely to pieces. I remember Drew coming by me at least 5 mph faster than I was going and screaming at me to speed up. I sprinted onto the back and hung out there for a lot of laps. The guy in front of me let a gap form as he was getting dropped and I kept hoping he would bridge back up… the gap got wider… I tried to make it on the back and just didn’t have the legs… so I got dropped from the group and lost a half minute…

RR

Drew went in a breakaway from word go. I blocked for Drew for the first half. It was a thing of beauty… me and Davies screwing up any form of a chase for as long as we could. I fought like heck for perfect position in the sprint. I was second wheel coming up to 200 meters but the group was spread across the road a little. Everyone broke at the same time except for the guy in front of me. He decided to sit on the sprint. By the time I realized it, we were going 3 mph slower than anyone and people were zipping by us on both sides. Drew told me later that the guy was racing for third in the overall and just wanted to hold his position. I didn’t know that, but who knows if it could have made a difference. I was very disappointed afterwards, because I really thought I could win it and really had great position and it was really hard to get and hold at the end and I was able to do it… I took a lot of risks with absolutely no payout and that is what angered me. Anyway… I learned a lot and am still not sure how to do it better. I think we have got to get more than one guy on our team in the top 5-7 coming into any sprint… sure we don’t have a sprinter, but most of the guys racing with us are not sprinters either…

Race Week!

It has been a while since I have blogged (AGAIN!). So much has happened since my last note, that it is hard to figure out where to start... I think I will just ramble over the happenings of the last two months and then get to present and think about the race this weekend...

• Made it through the 5 minute interval stage of training... VO2 max intervals... without any major happening. They hurt... a lot... and that was good...
• Completed a few epic rides over the last 5-6 weeks... the Pine Mountain Challenge (130 mile ride to Pine Mountain and back). Got dropped on the way home, but salvaged the day with some hard efforts on the way in. I felt surprisingly good after 130 miles in the saddle and really felt like I could have gone a while longer. We also had our team camp in Dahlonega... no single ride was epic by itself, but three days in the mountains were epic when grouped together. I broke my shifter cable and was stuck with two gears to get through the long day in the mountains. It turned out to be a cadence workout that I would rather not talk about... we did the backside of hogpen... again, I would rather not talk about it. Suffice to say that I considered quiting cycling at the top... a 25 tooth easy gear on that side of hogpen is not a good idea...
• Thanks to these efforts and a steady diet of lunch rides, two-a-days when possible, and long, hard rides on Saturday and Sunday, I have built my CTL over 100 for the first time. It has pulled back a little since I started anaerobic intervals, but I was glad to hit that milestone that I had set for myself last year. Does CTL translate to winning races? Probably not, but watching that number keeps me riding my bike when others are sitting by the fire...
• I have been doing anaerobic intervals for a few weeks. I am on top of my training for the first time since winter started and I feel really great.
• I raced in Greenville, SC weekend before last. I did the Masters 35+ race and the Cat 4 race, back to back. This is a training series, but everyone shows up to test their legs. We were riding the 35+ race with a lot of higher category riders, but I think most of those guys were saving their legs for later in the day. I rode hard in the first race and dropped out half way though the second... legs were absolutely fried, but it was a great day and helped to build my race form.
• Albany is this weekend... I am very interested in placing well in this race, but it is still very difficult to know what my form is this year. Besides the injury from last year, my power meter cannot be trusted when comparing the numbers to last year. Maybe it is better not to know. Either way, I will know this weekend for sure and it will be great to be back.
• I finished out my set of Zipp 404s... they are really sweet and feel very fast on the road. I am trying to decide whether I will race them in crits...
• I have gotten my weight down to 176 lbs (low weigh in for last week) and am steady around 177 lbs throughout. This is 11 lbs down from year before last and 4-5 lbs down from my low last year. Every little bit counts...

More Ride Comparisons...

This off-season, more than last one, has had me concerned that I am not training properly. I have really been going it alone this time. Last year, I made it to a lot more of the Peach Peloton rides... rode the attack zones... long hours in the saddle. The hours have been the same this year, but the attack zones have not. I think things will work out, but it does not stop me from constantly comparing rides from last year versus this year during the same time period.

I was searching for a good comparison with the ride from yesterday. I knew that I had felt tired after this ride and therefore wondered if I had a similar effort last year at this time. I came across this ride (see table) from the middle of February last off season. It really didn't have anything to do with what I was looking for, but I couldn't help but to smile... what a difference a month makes. Less junk miles (I said this for you, Robert) this season... I have been focused on that this year... I only want to be in Active Recovery (AR) on Mondays (my off day). Endurance zone minutes are almost identical. Almost double the time in the Tempo zone and am higher in the Threshold zone also. That is where things go the other way... big time. A whopping 22 minutes anaerobic... and 19 minutes in the VO2 Max Zone.

Over the next month, my program will shift with a much heavier concentration on VO2 max and Anaerobic Zones. Months of holding back will finally be released and my NP will start to swing upward in a big way. I just hope it is not too late...

Saturday Tempofest...

I was not able to schedule a block of 5 hours to ride on Saturday this week, so I decided to split a total ride goal of 7 hours over the weekend into two equally times rides (3.5 hours each).

I had very, very good legs at the start of Saturday. My general goal thus far during the winter is to get in my key workouts each week (FTP, 5 min intervals, sprints, etc) and get in a long ride each week. The long ride distance is determined by how much work I have done during the week and is set at a distance (actually distance and intensity) that will slightly raise CTL (3-4 points) each week. If I am tired... I go a little shorter or take a day off during the week to rest and stay energized for the next workout. All other rides between the aforementioned are done at tempo pace... or as close as my legs will let me get to that pace. Most people agree that the most aerobic bang for the buck for the recovery cost is achieved at high L3... the sweet spot I mentioned earlier. On good days, I have done intervals where I ride at this power output for 10 minutes or so with a short break between... on really good days, I just ride at the sweet spot for as long as I can.

On Saturday, I had good legs and decided that I would ride sweet spot for my entire 3 hour ride. Did I think I could pull it off? No, but it sounded fun to try. After an hour and a half, I was dead where I wanted to be... NP was at sweet spot and AP was only off by 4 watts (lower, of course). I continued to do this and my legs continued to die a slow, long death. At two hours in, I could not really keep the wattage up without rest and by the end of the ride, I felt like I had been whipped. I was very tired after this ride and was shocked to see that my IF was only 0.83. That is not a shabby effort, but the way I felt, I was surprised to see it that low. Then I checked the AP... it was only 17 watts lower than my normalized. For that type of a ride, I could not find another ride on record with that high of an average power... so, I guess it was pretty good. Today, the legs were fried until I put out a 4 min all out effort and then they opened up and I was able to muster a 0.75 IF ride... pretty please with that I guess.

CTL is at 94.5... highest ever on record...

Good week... Build Phase Continues...

Workouts have been great this week. I am trying to push my CTL above 100 for the first time ever and I really only need 3-4 solid weeks to do it. Ironically, this 3-4 week session will culminate in our team's training camp in North Georgia.

Sunday- recovered from several hard rides over the new year and rode the TT bike for an hour... took it easy and played with my position when I got back. More on that later...

Monday- Off... thanks to work...

Tuesday- I did 5x5s again and really slugged out 5 tough ones... felt weak, but survived with my goal wattage of 110% FTP. I doubled up workouts today and went out to the Tuesday edition of the Bass Pro Shops ride. Some guys from the team and a few others do a 5 minute loop with one hill and go round and round for an hour or so. I have found these workouts to be a little too aggressive on the hill for my program this time of year, but perfect for a quick TSS boost- maybe I will do one every other week for the next 4 and then open it up out there when my anaerobic phase kicks into gear. If I have ever ridden a NP buster, this ride is it... I rode with them for 45 minutes and realized that my NP was 15 Watts above threshold but I still felt fine. That told me that it must be a NP buster for sure...

Wednesday- Sweet Spot workout... I did that same workout I have done before. It is not a recovery workout, but it is also not overly tough... you are glad the intervals are over, but sad that the ride is over. I don't know how else to explain the ride better than that. 14 minutes warmup- 6 min at 90% FTP (or SS or Sweet Spot)- 3 minutes L2- 7 minutes SS- 2 minutes L2- 8 minutes SS- 1 minute L2- 9 minutes SS- L2 till you finish your hour... nice ride and a good way to get a little TSS when you are not motivated...

Thursday- Bass Pro ride... I needed to do sprints, so I would ride the hill easy and let the group get away, and then try to sprint back into the group. Sometimes I judged it right... sometimes I didn't. I tried to make a good 15 second sprint and catch them right at the top of the hill. If I missed them, I would not chase but rather sit up and wait at the next break in the median for them to come by... then I would sprint to catch on the back as they went by (at 30 mph with a 15 mph tailwind). I liked this workout better than my other sprint workout... it is better to have people to sprint after...

That gets me up to speed... I would like to have a 120 TSS workout tomorrow and log around 7 hours in the saddle between Saturday and Sunday. If I can muster 70 TSS per hour (could be tough), I will hit 95 CTL by Sunday...

This Weeks Rundown...

Started the week still feeling the lingering effects of the virus I had late last week. I wanted to be cautious this week, but knew that I needed to push the training as much as possible. With a holiday week, I knew I would have the time to do it if I could find the energy.

Hit a good hour and a quarter ride on Monday to start things off. I had a decent training weekend last week considering the state of things, but not enough that I really needed an off day on Monday. I have realized that I need to train when I have the chance, because life and weather seem to make things difficult much of the winter and the last thing I need is more off days. I took Tuesday off... still trying to be cautious and thinking that it would allow me to open up for the next couple of workouts.

Wednesday was my first day of 5x5s... five minute intervals and I do five of them... each one is done on a hill that takes five minutes to climb exactly and I do them at 110% FTP. My legs felt a little rough during warmup and I had a very hard time working through these intervals. I only did 4 and then decided to head for home... there was a terrible wind and it was getting late on New Years Eve and I thought I would not push my luck riding in traffic on that night. The intervals were really miserable and I remember thinking that 110% was not enough last year to make things really hurt. For some reason, they are hurting this year for sure. Maybe it will take a couple of weeks to get on top of them...

Thursday I did a 40 minute FTP. This is my first one in a while... missed last week due to sickness and the week before, I did a TT position FTP in the Cave of Pain. I got up to 325 in the first 5 minutes and opened it up from there. The legs felt great and it was obvious that my stomach was better and my energy was back. I was thinking as I hit 330 average around 12 minutes in that this would easily be a record setting day. I was right and wrong. I was right in that I ended up at 331 Watts. I was wrong because I had to work as hard as I can imagine to hold on to that until the bloody end. It was a true sufferfest that you block out shortly after it is over. I added an hour ride on the back end of it to top off the day...

Friday- I went out with Tom and Dave on a very energetic ride. We did 50 and my legs were really great... did some very hard efforts and had fun on the bike until the rain hit. Rode the last 45 minutes in the rain and was not dressed warmly enough. It was really miserable for one reason or another... it was the end of a long ride... I was tired... I don't know... it just hurt... 200 TSS ride... really nice overall...

Saturday- went out for a 5 hour ride at 7:00... it was way to foggy so we waited until 8:00 to start. It was wet and a little cold and a little rainy. Legs were tired, but we kept the pace at a good medium/low L3 and worked for a few hours. The rain started again and again I was underdressed. We called it quits at around 3.5 hours and 170 TSS. It was plenty for the day... my legs were tired and I felt like I should be careful not to do too much in the cold rain for fear of getting sick...

A few things...

I pissed myself for the first time while riding today (Saturday). I was terribly cold and tired... and it was pouring rain. Four thoughts entered my head...

1. My bladder is about to explode...
2. If I stop, my legs will not want to get back moving...
3. I am on a major highway and it will be difficult to find a good spot...
4. Pee is warm and will drizzle down my legs and hopefully warm me up...

Item 4 really sealed it and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. I let 'er rip without even slowing down... it was a little weird... there were cars all around and I kept thinking that they could see what I was doing. Anyway, I don't plan to make it a habit, but, in the future, if you are behind me and it is cold and raining, I would recommend you attack...

Overall... a really great week... I will probably do an hour on my TT bike tomorrow to seal the week... CTL is up over 90... I hope to hit 100 by the time I get out of the build phase of my program...