When you say intervals on the trainer do you say that all year round? Or only in base training. Intervals were the only thing that kept my head intact when on the trainer for 2-3 hours through the winter, mostly during January and February.
For the first thing on the list I'm not sure if we're talking about the same thing, but thanks for the support anyway!
I think tomorrow I'm going to go do that 7 mile TT. I have a road that has like 30m elevation the entire way and is very long, open to wind usually so it should be a great road to. Those times are FAST. I've done 2 TT's in my life, one was last September as a cadet (15-16), I had just signed up for the team (they put the race on as well - the Youth Cup Championships), and had recently got back from vacation. So prior to the race I had absolutely no training whatsoever. I was still just a noob who rode a bike he knew nothing about. The TT was 3.5km (2.2mi). It was before the 36km race I finished in 8/16. The TT I finished 12th and did a 6:12. So bad but also considering I was untrained it was not bad for me and also without any aero equipment, and yes, wires everywhere. The only thing I had aero was a fully zipped up jersey choking me. The second TT was on June 9th this year, so not too long ago, it was 36km (22.4mi) and my goal was to beat an hour. I did a 1:00:38.. missed by a mere 38 seconds. I did it Eddy Merckx style with aero equipment only being 50mm clinchers and a skin suit. That was pretty enlightening to me.
The next day was my best race ever. I started at the front, was 3rd wheel off the bat, never left the top 10-15 out of like 40-50+ people, and was a two lap, 85km race. I felt absolutely incredible the entire time, apparently hitting over 50km/h on a dirt section and I was moving around, taking wheels, defending mine etc etc. I had a race report in the RR thread. We averaged over 40km/h the first lap and I stayed out of the wind. Still feeling like it was a Sunday cruise I decided I would eat my cliff bar because "eat before you get hungry" and everyone else decided it would be feed time, so I joined. Not a word of a lie, exactly 5min after eat the cliff bar, my entire legs just seized up, could barely even turn the pedals over. Suddenly struggling to do 20km/h on a flat. I've never had a cliff bar on a ride since, and won't. It's so disappointing because I had a real chance of doing well! I believe the reason it happened that way was because it was the "B" race, so all the Cat 1-2 people would have been in the A race. So I had more motivation that I could actually race the race and not just ride it. We still averaged the same speed as the A race. But now I'm here hanging on for 8kms at a 40km/h pace.
Looking back at my training for the last bit though, there has been a lot of 8km intervals with my local group/team. One of which is a 15min race on a 500m speedway. So roughly 10km. I guess I just got so used to doing that distance because I always get dropped at that exact mark. Trust me, I know I'm not going pro, I just get so worked up over it because I'm young, I'm sure you understand, it's hard just giving something up when it's possible, especially going pro. I'm taking your advice though and I'm going to take every road like a new challenge in my race next Sunday
As for power meters, I was looking at dc rainmakers updated review of the Stages, is that still a no go power meter? And power tap I would have to get a hub because I have 50mm wheels that I would like to put it onto. I would love to get an SRM but 1) They are expensive, but that doesn't matter too much because I'd rather spend $1200+ once and use it for years than constantly buying bad power meters. I'm looking to the long run. and 2) I have an Edge 500 so ANT+ would really be nice.
Check out the Abitibi results:
http://www.tourabitibi.qc.ca/resultats.php?lang=en
Canada got 1st, 2nd, and 1st in the 3 road stages so far. Yesterday my teammates got 1st and 3rd in the TT and as of this morning they are 1st and 4th GC! 1st place one did 19:10 on a 6 mile course. And the other guy was 8 seconds behind. That's 29.6 mph.
Ps. I understand what you say about losing 40 pounds to gain w/kg. I'm 160 pounds which seems big but I'm 6'3" so that's very skinny! The most I'll try to lose if I do is probably 5 pounds. But I have so many other things to worry about before I do stuff like such as get a better diet and work on my engine. I always think about the pro's, mostly sprinters, who weight 180, 190 lbs who are getting over the climbs to not get time cut. Now that's tough going against someone who weighs 130lbs and was born at altitude, talk about power..
Pps. As I wrote this a commercial came on tv. David Vellieux came on and the main message was, "ride for the love of it". Amazing
