Racer Ex 

Just don't start wearing tie dye and avoid the comb over 'fro.

I have a copy of Lemond's book (Lemond's Complete Book of Cycling?). Pretty large chapter on fit. Why I love Lemond:

Picture of Sean Kelly with the caption:

Sean Kelly's seat is too low. But he's Sean Kelly, so who's going to argue with him?

Bandera

Heathpack 

Opener ride #1 for me this am.

New Bioracer skinsuit: more comfy than the old Castelli Body Paint (which is now too big). I'm not really sure how the sleeves are going to be though, they have elastic cuffs that are supposed to sit snugly on your hands but they slipped back to my wrists this am. Not sure if that's because it's a men's small (they don't make women's) and my hands are smaller then a man's would be. Or if it was because I was wearing a jersey over the top (for warmth) which was maybe putting backward tension on the sleeves. I'll troubleshoot it tomorrow when I can ride a little later and not need the jersey over the top and I can actually see the sleeves.

Met a friend to ride. Foggy foggy foggy, I missed my first power target because I could not see more than 3 feet ahead of me. Then my glasses fogged up too and I had a distracting water droplet form right on the front of my helmet. It just hung there the entire ride and never dripped off.

Almost got taken out by a cottontail a little while later. We encounter dozens of these guys on every pre-dawn bike path ride, they typically dart around and sometimes come within a few inches of our wheels before darting off in the opposite direction. Today's rabbit zigged towards me in the usual way, then instead of darting off, zagged even more towards me. Then with a half inch to spare, he managed to save it and dart off to safety. As this was unfolding, I was calmly thinking, "Well look at my bad luck, taken out by a rabbit this of all weeks". Then very surprised to see the rabbit dart off. "Well look at my good luck, saved by a quick thinking rabbit."

Then we continue on and there's these weird masses of people on the bike paths which are usually empty this time of day. People on hybrids. Oh. It's bike to work day. Lol, there's rest stops on the bike paths every few miles so that people can "refuel" on their way to work. I did take home a free Clif bar. Schwag.

Then coffee and gossip. I was late heading home from coffee because it turns out there's a secret love triangle in our circle of cycling people, about which I had zero clue. I had to stick around to get the scoop on that. Also Boy Wonder is only 2 points away from his cat 2 upgrade, which he would like to obtain before his 16th birthday in July.

sarals 

You're shrinking, and I'm gaining! Looking at the picture taken of me in Florida (at the beach), my thighs have regained some mass - that's where the weight gain is, like three pounds!!

Okay, Florida business.

I didn't bring a computer, I only had my phone. My dad's computer is pitiful, so I used it to post to Strava (if there were "slow crawl times" for connections and then uploads, that thing would win every time), and that was that.

I rented a Giant Defy Advanced 2 so I could ride with my (younger, big and strong, marathoner) brother. Nice bike! But, heavy and the wheels were spokey and slow. Disc brakes (I felt no difference, was I supposed to?). It also had a relaxed geometry, but it was smooth and the fit was very close. Brought my pedals and an Oura saddle (ouch). I did three rides, the first (on Saturday) to get the bike setup and get used to it. I overheated! The second (on Sunday) was a 35 or so mile ride with my brother. I had never ridden with him, he's a big guy but slim, and my is he strong. He just rolls along at 22-23 MPH all day long. Good solid wheel! We did the "Florida Climbs" (bridges) and rode all over the coastal area of Sarasota (Siesta Key, Lido Key). We rode early to avoid the heat (it was still hot, and humid - duh). The third was a shorter ride (on Monday), about 20 miles, where we looked at properties on Siesta Key. We then ramped it up by jumping on the wheel of a club rider who was motoring along at a decent pace. We had to stop when my brother got a palm frond in his rear wheel, then I pulled us back to the strong guy in an (epic) bridging move (impressed my brother, I did). After that ride, I turned the bike back in.

I came home Tuesday.

Yesterday I had a check ride (flight check), annual instrument and visual proficiency observed checks in the helicopter. Four hours of flight time, eight instrument approaches, emergency procedures, airwork and other fun. All on four hours sleep.

Today, 2 X 20 minutes TT at close to FTP. It took my body a while to really come around and engage, but it did, and then second twenty minute effort was pretty good. The saddle height has sagged a little bit, I have to fix that. I couldn't get the proper leg extension and wasn't getting full engagement of my muscles on the back of my thighs. It was windy, too - ouch!

It's good to be home, but it was a blast JRA-ing with my brother!

Next weekend, another BtC TT and then a crit on Memorial Day.

LAJ

Schwag, coffee, and gossip. Near miss with a favorable outcome. Plus, a bike ride.

Yep. Your openers were good, @Heathpack.

LAJ

2x8 30/30 last night, with an hour of jra z1/2, then a short warm up prior to them. It was good. Tonight, long enough to make sure the TT bike doesn't fall apart. Tomorrow night, the TT. I think I'll be wearing my vintage Coors Classic t-shirt on Sunday, just because I can. 3 times up the wall starting at 8 am says it's OK.

valygrl

^^ nice. I'm doing openers on the TT course tonight.

sarals 

@LAJ @valygrl @Heathpack

CRUSH it this weekend! And good luck!

shovelhd

Did the WNR hammerfest last night. Was the third man standing at the end. First and second were young Cat1's and 2's. My power is so down from race fitness that HR is a better metric for me. I did the last 30 minutes at 175bpm. The last time I did that was in the M40+ field at the NCC Boston Mayors Cup. Boom chucka lucka.

happybday29475

No racing for me this weekend - the local race has too many hills. So I did a hard workout on the track....warmup, then flying 100m, flying 200, flying 300m, flying 400m, flying 500m, flying 600m, flying 700m, with each in a slightly bigger gear. The point to is learn about the biggest gear one can turn while also generating muscle fatigue.

I think track riding is also good learning for crit sprint finishes. In this case, it's sort of a study in "how far out can I launch".

Weather permitting, I've been doing a day a week at the track for the last couple of months. It's good fun.

happybday29475

+1!

sarals 

2 x 10 minutes above FTP this morning on the TT bike in very windy conditions. I made a minor saddle adjustment, raised it and moved it forward just a bit. It felt like I was engaging muscle groups more effectively, and the numbers seemed to bear that out. I managed to stay close to the target, which was tough to do in the gusty winds. Good, hard training ride. TSS was 78 for 66 minutes.

Racer Ex 

Yes it is. I miss not having a track close by. Right now the plan is to get through road nats then coin toss between a sabbatical, the hour, or track nats. I would like to at least ride the state track champs, which could be going down the rabbit hole.

shovelhd

Go ask Alice. When she's ten feet tall.

My vote is track Nats.

Hermes

Nice. I can generate muscle fatigue in any size gear over any distance.

happybday29475

RacerEx is clearly not going to get many votes for the sabbatical option. This is not the sabbatical board.

happybday29475

lol I don't claim to fully understand the thinking of the guy that was leading the workout. But, I didn't have too much muscle fatigue after a flying 100 with 80 gear inches!

shovelhd

True, but we've had some pretty frank and open conversations about expectations over the years.

Hermes

The neat thing about training is that most everything works. Arguing about what is better training is about as useful as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. However, I seem to respond better to certain types of training over others. And I suspect others are the same way.

Normally distances that are done "flying" means that the racer uses a couple of laps to come up to max speed and then holds that speed over the measured distance. So a lot of fatigue is generated in getting up to speed. Hence, many times we use a motor to bring the racer up to max speed and then the racer pulls off the motor and does the flying distance on his/her own. One can do more efforts this way and at faster times thus getting used to the higher speeds.

Generally, we use 78 to 82 gear inches for warmup. After warmup, we do some 100 meter jumps and accelerations. The jumps are from a slow roll versus flying pace. Then we switch to race / workout gears. And there is definitely utility in trying different gears. Generally, I will start the first set with a smaller gear and then go to race gears and over gear for additional efforts. However, that is more nuance than necessity. The reality of track racing is similar to road racing and track and field - we are highly influenced by our genetics.

Also, I like to do workouts at the track that I can only do at the track. Some track workouts can be done on the road using road equipment with only a slight compromise. But as long as one gets some track time, road work can be complimentary and vice versa.

The Russians did a lot of research (all old school stuff) but relevant to today that addresses what are the most effective workouts and have been named after them. One is Russian Steps. These can be done on the track or the road but work well on the track since one can do the max effort in the pole lane and the recovery at the relief line and they can be done in groups that make the suffering more manageable and fun. These are VO2 builders and great for TT.

Roger Iddles, 2006 UCI World Masters Champion in both the time trial and road race, believes his version of Russian-steps intervals helps prepare cyclists for the rigors of racing, especially time trials. After a sufficient warmup, go "flat out" for one minute and then pedal easily for nine minutes. In the second interval, increase the flat-out time to two minutes and reduce the recovery to eight minutes. Continue to add one minute of all-out riding and decrease the break by the same until you reach five minutes of both all-out and recovery riding. Iddles then continues what he considers essentially an endurance ride, but you may feel trashed and need to begin your cool down.

Another Russian interval requires 3 racers of approximate ability. One uses a one lap wind up and at the flying 200 meter line, the 3 racers, in line and close together dive off the banking. In the turn before the start finish line, the middle racer pulls up and leaves a gap. The last racer accelerates and closes the gap and then comes around to beat the lead racer to the finish line. This is good for match sprints or any type of mass start races.

Another Russian workout which I forgot the "formal name" uses a motor in the pole lane set above race pace. Racers form a pace line on the motor and get X laps behind the motor. They pull up and go to the end of the line but...ride off the line by 5 bike lengths for X-1 laps and then accelerate to close the gap before the next racer comes to the end. One goes through the line several times. I managed to blow myself up closing the gap after the interval off the back. The beauty of this workout is that even with the blow up, one just rejoins the pace line when the motor comes around and tries again.

Heathpack 

Second Openers for me today. I'm pretty thoroughly opened by now.

The new aero shoe covers worked well and look cool. I got two pairs because they are so cheap. I'm going with the lime green for tomorrow.

Skinsuit sleeves worked much better without a jersey over the top, but I still had one cuff slide down to my wrist when I came out of aero to brake. So I'm going to rig an elastic loop that I can slip over my thumb to keep it in place. I like this skinsuit very much, it seems more comfortable in the chamois than the Castelli Bodypaint.

My regular cycling friends did an easy ride and then went for coffee, I met them in full aero regalia at Panera, lol. I brought a gillet to put on afterward but I still looked like even more of a weirdo than most cyclists.

Start times are up, I go at 7:31:30 tomorrow. Forecast is for it to be 48F at that time, with a bit of wind. I think I'm going to go with wool socks but no base layer. I'll just throw a jersey and some tights on top of the skinsuit to warm up and then take those off to race.

I'm a little surprised looking at the competition and knowing a few of them & their times on courses relative to me- I'm actually a contender, which I didn't fully expect. Not that it's going to be easy- two of these women are historically a little faster than me and they are both way more experienced. But being a legit contender is pretty cool.

I was telling Mr. H how this TT stuff is about months of preparation and then just a few moments of execution. The preparation is 100% there, I feel really confident about that. Execution? Who knows? I'm still pretty flaky. But less flaky than I used to be.

Racer Ex 

And when it all comes together, it's a beautiful thing.

Mountain living in the rain shadow:

First 30 minutes of my MTB opener ride today I rode in dead calm sunshine, 40 MPH windy sunshine, 40 MPH windy sunshine and snow, dead calm sunshine and snow, dark overcast and calm snow, dark overcast and calm, dark overcast and 40 MPH, dark overcast 40 MPH and snow, calm sunny hail, and 40 MPH sunny hail.

It's literally snowing on one half of the house right now and sunny on the other.

Zero dark roll out tomorrow for back to back crits. 5 days to Nationals.

LAJ

One down. Race again in ten hours.

Rip their legs off, @Heathpack!

Have a great day, @Racer Ex!

Heathpack 

How did it go?!

Racer Ex 

No race yesterday. Snowstorm closed I-80 for a spell then it went to chain controls. Did 2:15 on the road bike instead. Not much chain on the bike.

Heathpack 

Nice, @Racer Ex. Crush it this week.

I had a fun ride with my beginner posse cycling group today. Enough strong people that I can have a bit of fun without it being to taxing. Sunny, windy & cool and we went out & rode an easy-ish route, 40 miles & 2000 ft of climbing. It was fun, I decided I was going to be take it easy except for the one climb, I purposely rolled out of the regroup last so I could chase everyone and see who I could catch. Ack, four guys nicked me. Then I could not resist battling it out down the descent as well. It was fun.

Home for a quick shower & then off to a Tour of California viewing party with the same people. Totally sweet, two of my Nightcrawler friends did up a second podium ceremony and gave me flowers & a homemade medal, I even had two 9 year old podium girls.



I have made a point all along of talking about racing with this group and posting to their FB and trying to make it sound fun. One of the women on today's ride was expressing interest in heading out to Piru for a 20k this summer. And to my great surprise one of the expressly non-competitive women at the party expressed interest in a TTT and my Nightcrawler friend chimed in that she'd do it too. (No time soon though because person A is out with a broken clavicle right now.). Changing attitudes, little by little. Love it.