The Pros and the woes
I am chilling right now with a cup of hazelnut coffee and the Tour on the tube. Life is good. I am supposed to get out for an hour and a half recovery ride today. It will be later in the day. The temps are actually a little cool right now. Arm and knees warmers would be required for the start of a morning ride.
Big George Hincapie was robbed of the yellow jersey yesterday. Many, including George, feel that Lance and his Astana team pulled a crappy move to chase down the breakaway. I agree. I won’t get into all that…on to training.
Equipment
I have had a few questions about my bike, gearing, etc., so, here are the steeds in the stable.
I ride a 51cm Cervélo SLC-SL (Soloist carbon-Super Light) with SRAM Red, 10 speed components, a 11-26 cassette, Quarq Cinco Saturn wireless power meter on a SRAM S900 crankset with a Garmin 705 GPS, FSA bar/stem, Cane Creek Volos clincher wheels and Michelin Pro3 Race tyres.
I also have a 51cm Orbea Opal with Shimano Dura Ace 7800 10 speed group, 12-25 cassette, SRM wired power meter, Zipp bar, Syntace stem, Cane Creek Volos clincher wheels and Michelin Pro3 Race tyres.
My Time Trial bike is a 51cm Orbea Ordu with Shimano Dura Ace 7800 10 speed, 11/23 cassette, Vision bars, Cane Creek Aros 58 carbon tubular wheels with Tufo tyres. I don’t have a power meter on the TT bike. I use the Garmin on this bike.
All my saddles are Selle Italia SLR XP.
I am chilling right now with a cup of hazelnut coffee and the Tour on the tube. Life is good. I am supposed to get out for an hour and a half recovery ride today. It will be later in the day. The temps are actually a little cool right now. Arm and knees warmers would be required for the start of a morning ride.
Big George Hincapie was robbed of the yellow jersey yesterday. Many, including George, feel that Lance and his Astana team pulled a crappy move to chase down the breakaway. I agree. I won’t get into all that…on to training.
Equipment
I have had a few questions about my bike, gearing, etc., so, here are the steeds in the stable.
I ride a 51cm Cervélo SLC-SL (Soloist carbon-Super Light) with SRAM Red, 10 speed components, a 11-26 cassette, Quarq Cinco Saturn wireless power meter on a SRAM S900 crankset with a Garmin 705 GPS, FSA bar/stem, Cane Creek Volos clincher wheels and Michelin Pro3 Race tyres.
I also have a 51cm Orbea Opal with Shimano Dura Ace 7800 10 speed group, 12-25 cassette, SRM wired power meter, Zipp bar, Syntace stem, Cane Creek Volos clincher wheels and Michelin Pro3 Race tyres.
My Time Trial bike is a 51cm Orbea Ordu with Shimano Dura Ace 7800 10 speed, 11/23 cassette, Vision bars, Cane Creek Aros 58 carbon tubular wheels with Tufo tyres. I don’t have a power meter on the TT bike. I use the Garmin on this bike.
All my saddles are Selle Italia SLR XP.
I use Look Keo pedals on all 3 bikes.
Saturday
I have to admit I could not get motivated to get out on the bike for this training ride. LT efforts are quickly becoming a dreaded day on my weekly calendar. My ride started with a mechanical issue which sent me back home, up my steep finishing climb, to do some quick shifting adjustments. I didn’t get the issue completely resolved, but it was 90% corrected. It was good enough to get the training ride done. Today, once again, I had to up the anti. Not only are the 2 sets 20 minutes, but I had to insert 10 second jumps every 3 minutes. Doesn’t sound like much, but get out and give it a go. You will change your mind quickly. The jumps are not so hard to throw in the mix. The problem is trying to jump right back into your LT zone after the jump. Your strength is sapped for a few moments as you try to recover, get your breathing under control , get your heart rate back down and get your watts back to the desired level. I was surprised after the very first jump as to how hard it was to maintain my watts. I was, somehow, able to keep my average power output pretty consistent during both sets. I am dreading the day I retest and my LT zone increases. It will be that much harder to get in and stay in that zone. I did the workout on an average grade of 6%. I put in a little over 35 miles in 2 hours. I was scheduled to do 2.5 hours, but the skies looked very threatening, so I cut the warm-up and cool down short. The weather held and here was no rain, so I actually could have stayed out longer. But, I was pretty much spent by the end of the ride, so I don’t regret cutting it short. I worked on the bike once I got home, but a new set of cables and housings are in my very near future.
Friday
Today I worked on single leg isolations. I was out for an hour and did about 20 miles. I felt pretty good during this workout. I can definitely tell a difference in my pedal stroke as a result of doing these drills over the last couple of months. I also note that my power output is more consistent from leg to leg.
Thursday
10 sets of jump sprints; this workout was about what I expected. I'd call this an average workout. I felt sluggish and it got seemingly worse as it went. I was surprised by the watts on the last set though, over 1000 watts and this workout was just to work on jumping to start a sprint, not an all out sprint effort. I was out for an hour and a half, 28 miles.
Saturday
I have to admit I could not get motivated to get out on the bike for this training ride. LT efforts are quickly becoming a dreaded day on my weekly calendar. My ride started with a mechanical issue which sent me back home, up my steep finishing climb, to do some quick shifting adjustments. I didn’t get the issue completely resolved, but it was 90% corrected. It was good enough to get the training ride done. Today, once again, I had to up the anti. Not only are the 2 sets 20 minutes, but I had to insert 10 second jumps every 3 minutes. Doesn’t sound like much, but get out and give it a go. You will change your mind quickly. The jumps are not so hard to throw in the mix. The problem is trying to jump right back into your LT zone after the jump. Your strength is sapped for a few moments as you try to recover, get your breathing under control , get your heart rate back down and get your watts back to the desired level. I was surprised after the very first jump as to how hard it was to maintain my watts. I was, somehow, able to keep my average power output pretty consistent during both sets. I am dreading the day I retest and my LT zone increases. It will be that much harder to get in and stay in that zone. I did the workout on an average grade of 6%. I put in a little over 35 miles in 2 hours. I was scheduled to do 2.5 hours, but the skies looked very threatening, so I cut the warm-up and cool down short. The weather held and here was no rain, so I actually could have stayed out longer. But, I was pretty much spent by the end of the ride, so I don’t regret cutting it short. I worked on the bike once I got home, but a new set of cables and housings are in my very near future.
Friday
Today I worked on single leg isolations. I was out for an hour and did about 20 miles. I felt pretty good during this workout. I can definitely tell a difference in my pedal stroke as a result of doing these drills over the last couple of months. I also note that my power output is more consistent from leg to leg.
Thursday
10 sets of jump sprints; this workout was about what I expected. I'd call this an average workout. I felt sluggish and it got seemingly worse as it went. I was surprised by the watts on the last set though, over 1000 watts and this workout was just to work on jumping to start a sprint, not an all out sprint effort. I was out for an hour and a half, 28 miles.
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