tony2v

We're mourning the loss of a teammate and good friend Scott Folck, who was hit by a car on Sept 16 and passed away Sunday morning. We're going to celebrate his life at our last TNR (Tues Night Racing) of the season tonight. RIP Scott..........

shovelhd

Man I hate to hear these stories. Condolences.

Hermes

Tony2v, My condolences and prayers to the family. We are going back to NorCal on Saturday. MEA is racing team pursuit on Friday morning at VSC.

Allegheny Jet

My sincere condolences to you and your friend's family.

Cleave

Hi tony2v, I heard about Scott's passing. Condolences. Celebrate his life well and everybody be careful out there.

Cleave

I'll be at VSC again this evening to do some easy intervals. Will try to get there on Friday evening to watch Elite Nationals and still haven't decided whether or not I can volunteer on Sunday morning.

Cleave

Was too tired (mentally and physically) to make my way to VSC tonight. Easy spin on the trainer while watching TV just to keep things moving.

Racer Ex 

Tony, I hadn't heard about Scott. Very sorry.

sarals 

Tony, that's horrible news. I'm so sorry. My condolences to you and the family.

sarals 

It's hard to follow the last post with this, but...

I spent an hour talking with coach last night, plus filling out a TRS. I start (over) again with a three month regimen on October 1st. I am excited!

AzTallRider

The TRS runs my life.. My wife asks a question, and the first thing I do is call up the TRS on my iPhone. :-)

AzTallRider

Monday I did pace work and some form sprints, then raced the training crit last night. Proved I'm a grumpy old man by lecturing a kid who persistently wanted the wheel I was on. Our 30+ national crit champ (Mr. Freaky Fast) came by to the right of the line, and I decided his was a good wheel to follow. The kid saw who it was and said something "Hey, I want that wheel.", to which I said something like "Everyone wants this wheel." When he kept trying to edge me off, I chose to play by the rules the guy who disorganizes the race begs us to follow, and let the kid have the wheel. But I rode up beside him and let him know that taking wheels like that on Tuesday nights was a no-no. It's a non-sanctioned, uninsured race where everyone will swear to the authorities that it isn't organized and we just happen to show up at the same time. The several LEO's that do the race say that keeps it kosher. We have had a few crashes lately, and the focus has become avoiding those. We even stopped awarding points. But anyway, what I wanted to say to the kid was that, if he crashed me out, I'd sue his parents until they had to sell him to pay the bills. Of course, after that, Mr. Freaky Fast made it impossible for either of us (or anyone else) to ride his wheel. :/

My team's 50+ strong man was there, and I decided to learn from him. He was pretty much tail-gunning, which is something that usually results in my being dropped when I try it. But the group was big enough that, after the early drop-offs, there were still 20+ of us on the lead lap, and so it was working well enough. But about 30' in, I got that itchy feeling that the pack was about to stop bunching up at the normal places, and so I left the strong man and moved up closer to the front. I was right, because the pace started heating up, and the bunch ups ended. I fell off with about 6 laps left. It was one of those spots where, if I had made a final all-out effort to stay on, I think I would have stuck, because the pack would have eased up after the intense period, to get set for the finish. As things played out, it became clear our strong man had different training goals for the race, as he ended up drifting off the back as well.

My average power before I fell off was up in z4, with the nominal power up in z5. As usual, it's the rise that did me in; I did a pretty good job cornering, and not burning matches except for the rise. It's a good thing none of the Senior Games races last more than about 30 minutes, since I seem to fade right now when I go much longer than that.

Did TT work on the way in this morning: 5' max effort, then recovered and attempted a 10' z5 effort that ended up averaging down in z4. You get funny looks flying along an urban street at 30mph in the aerobars, and you run out of road real quick. Using commutes for training is sometimes a bit of a compromise.

Oh, and even with a new chain on the TT bike, I still get clunks from the RD, or rear hub, or something back there! One of them was loud enough I thought something broke. Of course it didn't occur when the wrench was looking at it. He test road as best he could (he is just weee bit shorter than I am), then called and 'thanked' me for not not torquing the cockpit that I installed and was still adjusting. Guess it was an interesting test ride for him. :-)

sarals 

That was a fun report, AzT! I've had similar experiences being "knocked off" of a line, not a wheel. I tend to keep my mouth shut, but if you could hear my inside voice....ooooo!

Coach wants an FTP test on Tuesday. We all know how that works - 20 minutes all out or until you have an MI. I have just the road to do it on, I think. I needs to be around six miles long and uphill. This one is. It will kill me!

Spin today was "all climbing". I think Kadria was mad about something. I had max friction and was OTS for 30 minutes. Granted, it's not real world, but it's still tough.

Yesterday on the group ride my body, not just my legs, suddenly came into it's own after the big climb, which was 3/4 of the way into the 35 mile ride. I felt really, really good, after that and was able to ride hard and well for the rest of the ride. That was really the first time in about seven weeks that I felt that good, so long that I'd forgotten I could feel that good! How my body behaves under these stresses is still such a mystery to me!

shovelhd

The thing about 20 minute tests is that they're 20 minutes. They hurt during and after but you won't feel it much the next day. I don't go all out. I do the first 2 minutes at about 80%, then ramp it to a pace that I think I can hold for 15 minutes, and then go all out in the last minute with whatever is left. I start having trouble breathing and seeing straight at the 15 minute point.

sarals 

Coach told me pretty much the same thing, Shovel. He did say towards the end I should be about ready to collapse (or something to that effect). I have a feeling I'll start running into trouble right after I ramp up from 80%, especially if my warmup isn't adequate. With that in mind, I plan to ride to the road I'm going to use, which should give me a good thirty minutes of work (with some climbing) before I start the FTP test. Frame of mind has a lot to do with it with me - this is one of those things that I HAVE to do, like a race, and if I get into trouble or not, I'll give coach 20 minutes of effort.

The local ambulance is AMR. You might note that....

AzTallRider

My stomach had an extremely violent reaction to my dinner last night: serves me right for eating fast food, even if it was roast chicken and steamed veggies. Thought I was going to die, and wanted to. Felt a bit weak this morning as I contemplated my assigned workout - part of final prep for the senior games qualifier. Jens was mumbling in one ear about the glories of pain (and how much faster he is than his shadow), while my wife was whispering in my other ear that saying 'Stupid Cyclist' is being redundant. So I did what politicians used to do, and compromised. I cut short the z4 and z5 TT intervals, and did the over-gear half hour on the way back, which is more downhill than the outbound.

So of course, as with most compromises, nobody is happy. Jens wants to know how a wuss like me expects to qualify for the 'Party at Jet's House', and my wife is shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

Racer Ex 

I sent them a note today to see if they take "day of" entries. I might be able to make it down.

AzTallRider

Would be great to see you...

Racer Ex 

They take day of. Now to do some logistics...

AzTallRider

Sweet. I wonder how, or if, they'll divide up the categories for the starts.

And one question I have for those of you who have done these, is what to expect from the guys who aren't racing USAC. I'm thinking there might be a lot of adrenaline driven activity to take advantage of early on?

shovelhd

I can't speak for the TT's as I did not do them. For the crits, the cream rose to the top within a lap or two. I raced the M55-59 along with the M50-54 and the M60-64. Once the fast guys were clear, it was like a dodge-em game. Lots of good hard racing with some really crazy situations from the slower riders.

sarals 

I did a 40 minute workout on the spin trainer this morning using the PT. I noted the difference in power generated on the trainer vs. on the road, which (as expected) corresponded to HR and was lower than on the road - much lower! That was not a surprise, the "how much lower" was. In spite of feeling like I was working hard, it was very difficult to hit 200 watts (and get much over 136 on HR). Sustaining 150 - 160 watts took what felt like a huge effort, I couldn't hold that level for long.

I did two minutes on each cog of the cassette until I warmed up. For the final ten minutes I did varying efforts. I did not follow any protocol on the TRS, I just spun. My garage is fairly cool that early in the morning, 53 degrees, but I still managed to "sweat like a guy" and left a copious puddle on the floor and on the top tube of my Look. I also totally drained a water bottle!

Tomorrow I'll do one of Coach's "Openers" on the trainer to get a feel for how they work.

AzTallRider

I did sprint intervals this morning, then the team group ride. Felt really good... I may actually have decent form for the qualifier!

Edit: Just looked at the data, and I was only 7 seconds over my PR going up 9-Mile hill. I'm ready to roll!

sarals 

Sounding good, AzT!!!

shovelhd

I have a cold and a sore throat. I'll ride tomorrow for a bit. It wasn't worth riding in a drizzly rain today.