Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Training again...


June 29, 2009
It’s time to get back out on the road. My cold is much better; I am just dealing with sinus issues at this point. No more time to waste, I have to get back to training. My planned ride for Monday was an easy one hour spin to loosen up the legs and prepare for the harder work ahead this week. Well, that happened, but I also met up with a group ride midway into the spin and went harder than I expected or should have. I did several long, hard, fast pulls on the front. Great weather, low humidity and I felt really strong considering I’d been off the bike for a week. I averaged 26-28 mph on all of my pulls. My quads are pretty sore today (Tuesday).
On another note, I got home yesterday to find my power meter waiting, a day earlier than I expected. Quarq is a great company. I have been very impressed with their customer service. I actually get a real person on the phone when I call them. They also answer emails very quickly, usually in a matter of hours, not days. Plus they send out swag. I have gotten 2 t-shirts and 2 water bottles at no cost. I got the crank back on the bike last night and will give it a try tonight or Wednesday. I want to be sure it is set up and working correctly before I get out on a training ride. I don’t want to lose any more data. I also found, during the installation, that my free hub body was loose. I think I got it tight, but I have never dealt with a free hub problem before. I’ll see how it goes on the next outing.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Great customer service


I contacted Quarq, via email, about my power meter. I have had it for almost a year now. They responded very quickly, asked some questions to try and determine the problem and decided to replace AND upgrade my unit to the newer version that they now offer at NO cost, not even shipping to or from their factory. Now that's customer service! I should be riding the new one by early next week. SWEET!

Monday, June 22, 2009

TOO HOT!!! This is insane.


June 22, 2009
1 hour of training this afternoon. I waited until 6pm to get on the road. The temperature was pretty nice along the river. I was frustrated from the start because my power meter failed me again. It will probably have to go back to the mother ship to be serviced. I emailed the manufacturer as soon as I got home. Training was a non-eventful effort. I did the work but it was not a stellar day on the bike. My coach emailed me late this evening and said he too was fighting a cold and for me to take it easy this week. I think I will.

Jun 21, 2009
Father’s Day. Did absolutely NOTHING! I seem to have a summer cold though, not good.

June 20, 2009
Avery Trace Road Race (see map and profile). One word can sum up this race HOT! This has got to be the worst race I have ever done. I felt great here 2 years ago as a Cat 5. I placed second that day as my daughter watched. No chance of that this year as a Cat 4. My race was scheduled to start at 10:45. The team mate riding with me had a start time of 9:45. I misjudged the time needed to get there along with the time change to Central time in order for him to have an adequate warm-up. I, however, was able to get in a 45 minute warm-up. It was already 95 degrees and the humidity was between 80 & 90%. You were pouring sweat just standing still. I drank a bottle of water on the way over and another ½ bottle during my warm-up. I was taking 3 bottles with me for the race. I also had a flask of energy gel. I got my spare wheels to the wheel truck and took my place at the start line. There was a neutral start for about ¾ of a mile. There was immediately a hill to climb. I was on the outside skirting the double yellow line. I managed to get behind a rider who was brake happy and could not hold his line. He almost took me out several times in the first few miles. Within 5 miles someone tried to pass on the right. He got too close to the edge of the road and bumped another rider. This domino effect took down about 5 riders. I had to swing wide into the other lane to avoid going down due to ever y one moving over to avoid the crash. The first 3 climbs were okay, but taxing. I was able to get a position at the front of the pack on the approach of each climb. I’d drift toward the back as we reached the top of the climb and I could easily regain my position on the descents. The descents up to this point were fast and fun, but even at 35-40mph, the wind in our faces was like a hair dryer blowing on us. On the 3rd descent a team mate and I were pushed to the outside of a sharp left turn by a rider who could not hold his line. I stood up and gave a few cranks of the pedals to get ahead of him and avoid going off the road. Someone a few places back was not so lucky. He left the road and slammed into a rock face along the road. I am not sure how badly he was hurt. The race does not stop for a crash if you are lucky enough to not be involved. The forth climb proved to be the breaking point for a lot of riders, including me. There was a gap by the top of the climb. I was with a group of 7 other riders, the main pack was ahead and there were riders scattered along the climb behind my group. The front group was well in sight and it was clear that if we all worked together we could bridge back to them. My team mate took the first pull at 27 mph. I was next and held 26.6 mph. When I pulled off the front, the riders behind followed and held my wheel. I move back to the right, brought the pace back to 26mph and pulled off again with the flick of my right elbow. Again, they held my wheel. I am not one to give instructions to other riders, but at this point I was hot, frustrated and getting very pissed at the lack of cooperation these guys were showing. I turned and yelled, “If you guys want to catch them you are going to have to get off your asses and do some work!” My team mate yelled back, “that’s right, let’s go”. He moved to the front again and did another turn. I followed him with another go at the front. When I pulled off the rider behind me pulled through, but let the pace drop to about 23mph. The next rider dropped to 22 mph. They all did a turn at the front for about 2 rotations and then started sucking wheels again. “This isn’t going to work” proclaimed my team mate. There was no way we’d bridge the gap at this pace. He and I sat up and rested a minute. We got back on the front and eventually pulled away from those guys. We knew that the 2 of us could not catch the peloton, but we were not going to pull those guys along either.
We had seen lots of riders from several categories turning back and giving up on the race due to the intense, brutal heat. It had hit 97 degrees at our start.
The 2 of us were only about 20 miles in and having chills and feeling very much like we’d lose our breakfast at any moment. I had already dumped a bottle of water over my head and downed a bottle and a half. I was not sweating; it was more like I was leaking. I had to take my sunglasses off because of the constant stream of sweat running down them. They were no use to me as I could see nothing through the lenses. I saw a man in his yard and a water hose stretched across the yard. I signaled to my mate that I was going to ask for water. I pulled over and asked if he’d be a gentleman and let us fill our bottles with water. His reply, “you can get some water, but I ain’t about to start being no gentleman.” Fair enough! We unhooked the hose from the faucet, filled a bottle each and dumped them over our heads. Then we each guzzled a bottle and filled 3 each for the road. His wife came out and offered us water from the house and ice, but we declined. The water from the yard was plenty cold. We mounted our bikes and proceeded. We had already resigned to the idea that this was no longer a race. It was just a Saturday training ride; a very sucky training ride at that. We both started to quit and turn back, but we knew we would not be reimbursed for our entry fee if we didn’t finish. We soldiered on at a disgracefully slow pace. When we came upon the feed zone we asked if there was anything left. We got a bottle of water and a coke. I drank the coke. It was the first real coke I’d had in about 15 years. It was SO good. We were now about 32 miles into this 57 mile course. We dragged ourselves over the remaining miles. We would ride with a guy here and there, but ended up just the 2 of us until the last 10 miles or so. We were in a group of 6 when we hit the next to the last climb. When I looked back, there were only 3 of us left at the top. We worked together until the final finishing climb. My team mate opened up a gap between him and the other rider. I was done. I watched them get a gap on me but didn’t fall too far behind. What a relief it was to cross that finish line. I did not care about the race or where I finished, just that I WAS finished! I drank 6 or 7 bottles of water, poured 3 bottles over my head and still manage to lose almost 6 pounds of fluid in the 2 hours and 51 minutes of pure, brutal torture spent on that road. I had nothing left in my tank. I had already decided that I was not about to attempt the Time Trial that afternoon, not in this heat. This was insane my worst day racing on a bike.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Hill repeats and 10 second spins

June 16, 2009
Tonight’s workout was tough. I really had to push on the last set. I did a long 45 minute warm-up which put me at the base of my usual training climb. I had to do 3 x 12 minute sets at LT. The last LT day I did 2 of these sets. Basically, I was going to do hill repeats at LT. I was fired up and ready because there was a group of riders on a regular Tuesday night ride up the road. They were the carrot dangling in front of me. I had no problem maintaining my watts on the first set. I passed all of the riders ahead of me. I turned and headed back to the bottom to do my 10 minutes of recovery. The next set proved a little harder to maintain at first, but I got into a steady, high cadence and just tapped out the 12 minutes. Set 3 however was a different animal. I struggled to keep my power level up to LT for the first few minutes. It got even harder as the minutes ticked by. I was, in the end, able to stick the set with a spot on average at LT. I limped home, dreading the daunting climb I had to get back home. The road I live on is a steady climb with a kicker ¾ of the way in at around 18% or more. I always have to remember to save a little juice to make it up that hill. I refuse to walk!

June 15, 2009
Spin ups were on the agenda tonight. They take more effort than one would think. I usually max out around 150 rpms during the efforts. I did 10 sets @ 10 seconds each with a 2-3 minute recovery between efforts. I was, once again, trying to beat the weather coming into the area. I got home rolled the bike inside and the rain started. PERFECT timing. I got in 1 hour, 11 minutes of training.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Here again...looking out.

June 15, 2009
I'm indoors on the trainer again today. It was raining on my way home and continued to rain as I debated on waiting it out or getting on the trainer. The rain I don't really mind, but I don't like riding when there is lightning. I opted for the trainer. I put in 38 minutes of good spinning. It felt really good to spin the legs out. I will be ready for the hard work I have to do tomorrow. Of course, it stopped raining and the sun popped out about 10 minutes before I finished the workout. The forecast calls for a 40% chance of strong storms all afternoon and evening tomorrow. I hope I can get outside and miss all that. Indoor training is more intensity packed into a shorter time period, but not nearly as much fun or as mind clearing as being on the road.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for clear skies.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

More than I bargined for

June 13, 2009
WOW! Not what I’d planned for today. I left my house at 6:30 am to hook up with a group ride starting at 7:00 am. I meet them on the on the road and had already put in a, much too hard effort, to meet them before they left. I averaged 22.3 mph on my warm-up. Not really much of a warm up at that intensity. My workout today called for a solid warm-up, 80 minutes at tempo and a long cool down. I needed to spend 3.5 hours on the bike today. I quickly found out the group’s ride plan was about 65-70 miles. This was more than I really wanted, but I figured I could cut off somewhere along the way and ride home solo. We were into a long climb within 20 minutes and by the top, I already had 80 minutes of tempo riding completed. Then my power meter started giving me erroneous readings. It would show 0 watts during a hard effort and 930 watts while in a pace line. I pulled off from the group to re-zero it and see if that would fix the problem. It did for a few minutes. Then the squirrely readings returned and it finally only read 0. I felt sure the battery had died. This is very discouraging and disheartening when you are specifically training based on power and you have no data. Plus this is how my coach determines the quality of my effort and workout. I debated on bailing out and heading back to replace the battery. Note to self; put spare battery in seat bag. I opted to continue on the ride. .I put in several long, hard efforts at the front. Each time as I would pull off and make my way toward the back of the line, the riders passing would comment on how strong I was riding. I have ridden with most of these guys in the past, so maybe they are a good gauge that my training is, in fact, helping my performance. It’s like when people around you everyday don’t notice you’ve lost weight, but someone you haven’t seen in a while is amazed at how much thinner you look. We started with 10 riders and 2 were repeatedly dropped. They were finally shelled for good at about 55 miles into the ride. I stayed at the front the entire ride. 3 or 4 of us did the majority of the work. As on any group ride, some riders never take a pull and sit in for the entire ride. This is fine, but they will never get much better if they don’t put in their efforts at the front of the pace line. My 3.5 hour ride turned into a 5 hour, 80 mile ride. I was not expecting that long of a ride and was not really prepared to be out that long. I had only 1 flask of gel, 1, energy bar, 1 bottle of water and a bottle of sport drink. I was able to refill bottles at one stop and the guys split some Powerade with me at a store stop. Surprisingly, I did not bonk. I still had 2 servings of gel left in the flask when I got home. I did limp home once I separated from the group. I was pretty spent and did not have much left in the tank. I am pretty sore from the effort and need to spin out my legs a little on Sunday. My proposed ride is only 30 minutes of active recovery, or full, inactive, recovery. I’ll see how I feel and go from there.

June 12, 2009
Today’s workout proved to be more intense than I had expected. I did 10 sets of single leg drills. I was out for a little over an hour. I really could feel the effort afterwards. My quads were really tight and starting to get a little sore.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Indoor sprints

June 11, 2009
It has been a long day. I am writing this post at midnight. I had lots of errands, chores, etc. to do after work so my workout got pushed way back. I sat down for a short break when I got home and 2 hours later, I woke up in a panic. I guess I needed the sleep, but I still had a workout to get done. I finally got on the trainer around 9:30 pm. It took a few minutes to clear the fog and haze. I cut the workout from one and a half hours to just one hour. It is general practice to cut a workout by 40% if done indoors on a trainer. It was still an intense hour. I did 10 sets of power sprints. I was not exhausted afterwards, but I was not about to go out and run a race. I’m glad tomorrow’s workout is short and not as intense. Saturday is another story. It will be a long tempo specific day. I think I have 3.5 hours to get in on Saturday. I may do the local group ride and just stay at the front for my tempo work. Right now, my pillow is waiting.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Spinning away

June 10. 2009
I had to work this session in between a thunder storm and rain showers, but I managed to do it and not get wet. There was just a little road spray to contend with. This was a concentrated workout of 10 sets of high cadence spin-ups. It didn’t seem like it would be much of an effort until I got into it. Spin-ups are not so much a strength effort, but they are quite an effort to maintain for the duration of the set. I averaged about 140 rpm for all 10 sets. I got a late start and didn’t get home until almost 7:30 pm. This one hour workout turned into almost an hour and a half when I factored in a good warm-up and cool down. Thursday’s training may have to take place indoors as there is a 50% chance of scattered thunder storms…AGAIN! No worries, I’ll get it done. On another note, I was listening to my favorite podcast, the two johns podcast, while training and the email I sent them last week won me the weekly swag for email of the week. SWEET!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Maintain that number

June 9, 2009
This was a hard workout. I did a 45 minute warm-up which placed me at the foot of a local climb. I had to do 2 x 12 minute efforts at LT with 10 minutes of recovery between. I felt a little sluggish for the first set but managed to maintain my watts. Though I felt better on the second set, my average watts dropped by 1 watt. By the time I finished the second set I was toast. The 30 minute ride home was a much needed cool down. I tried to spin as much as possible, but despite my best efforts to spin out the lactate acids built up in my legs, I am still a little sore this morning. It was very hot even at 6:45 p.m. on my way back home. The goal of the workout was to focus on my time at LT. I was able to stick it, but it was a mental fight to keep myself in the proper power zone.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Easy does it

June 8, 2009
I went for an easy spin today. I rode with a team mate and we checked out a possible crit course for a summer crit series our cycling club is trying to get started. We kept the pace very easy. He also wanted a recovery ride because he did 3 races over the weekend. The 30% chance of isolated t-storms didn’t happen. It was hot under a few clouds and sunshine, but no complaints, any day out on the bike is a good day.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Training, raining and climbing


June 6, 2009
Race day. This was a hard, mostly uphill race. I managed to stay with the main field and stay up front most of the day. I helped chase down a few breaks and did my share of rotations at the front. At about 21 miles into this 30 mile race we had, what we thought, was one rider off the front. We put in an effort to reel him in. Once we caught him, he let us know there were 2 more riders off the front. They were approximately 80 seconds out. The group really kicked up the tempo to pull those guys back. I stayed with them for about a mile and knew if I kept up this pace I would blow up long before the top of this 9 mile climb. I started backing off to my own pace and drifted to the back of the lead group. Then the elastic started to stretch and eventually broke. I was in no man’s land between the front group and those who had long been off the back. Over the remainder of the climb I managed to pass a few of the riders as they were spit out the back of the lead pack. A few riders were able to catch me as well. I finished 24th out of the field of 35. I had hoped to finish in the top 20, but I can’t complain. I felt very strong for most of the race and finished feeling okay.
It was a good day. 30 miles, 1 hour, 58 minutes racing and 6,451 feet of climbing. Not a bad day. There was still the 30 mile ride back to the parking lot. It was a very fast, fun and cold descent. I was starving by the time we got to the car. FOOD was all I could think about. I told my 2 teammates it was time to EAT!

June 5, 2009
Off, racing tomorrow, so no riding today.

June 4, 2009
An hour of form sprints on the trainer tonight. More rain falling outside. Indoor training sucks!

June 3, 2009
Another long tempo ride today. 75 minutes instead of 60. I left under cloudy skies only to be met with rain 15 minutes into my warm-up. I turned around and headed in the opposite direction hoping to skit the rain. 20 minutes later I was getting wet. I was already into the meat of the workout, so I decide to push on. The skies opened up and I was in a deluge of driving rain, thunder, lightning and wind. Debris was all over the roads in a matter of minutes. I came upon a downed power line at one point on the ride. As I pushed on, cold and soaked to the bone, the clouds gave way to sun. Behind me was dark and nasty looking, but it was clear as a bell ahead. I rode to a friend’s house to borrow some chamois cream, as mine was all washed away at this point. After a quick visit I was back on the road to finish the workout. I managed to miss any more rain on the way back home. I put in 2 hours, 19 minutes and 43.14 miles. Despite the weather I felt really good on the bike.

June 2, 2009
No time for a ride today. Very disappointed.

June 1, 2009
75 minutes of easy spinning today. I did 23.71 miles with nice sunny weather.

May 31, 2009
Today was a planned 3 hour ride with 60 minutes of ride. I was only able to put in about 2 hours which yielded 37.21 miles. I definitely felt this one when I was finished. Great muscular endurance training.

May 30, 2009
I got in a little over 2 hours of easy spinning today. 38.54 miles.