Heathpack 

Where did we leave off training-wise?....


Sunday I was planning a climbing ride up in Santa Barbara with my fast club. I started to regret committing to it, because I was frazzled by having a ton of non-cycling stuff to get done. Plus it was gonna be hot. Plus it was at least an hour drive each way. Then there was to be lunch after. It was gonna take all day.


But I said I would do it, so off I went. My Garmin glitched a few minutes in and I got annoyed. Got that solved and then was dropped on the climb. Not unexpected, considering the people I was riding with. Then it started to get miserably hot. Power started to peter out. I had zero desire to try any harder. Then two flies landed on me and I thought to myself: F This Ride. Stopped, texted ride leader that I was done, and I turned around and descended all the way to the ocean. Rode in the merciful cool fog all the way back to the car. Some days you just should say "no".


The rest of Sunday into Monday, I was sore, stiff and tired disproportionate to the difficulty of the Santa Barbara ride, I think I was just kind of exhausted from a really busy two weeks at work. Monday I was supposed to do a strength workout but I slept in instead.


Tuesday was scheduled off, but I took the TT bike out for a recovery ride instead, I really wanted on the bike.


Wednesday was JRA, and normally I'd do that with my Nightcrawler friends on a road bike. But everyone's on vacation, so I took the TT bike out solo for 90 min of easy to moderate, just a little more time in the new position.


Today I had a TT workout: 3 x 5 at 114% and then 20 min of tempo, met a friend for coffee after. Those 114% intervals are really hard for me in the new position, just happy to get it done.


Tomorrow, another TT workout, tough one and then we head to a local mountain resort, Big Bear Lake for six days, staying with some cycling friends at their cabin. Mountain biking, road biking, wine, food, and Tour de France. Really looking forward to the R&R.

F16F22

My already thin training volume has taken a hit the last couple weeks. Lots of travel for work has put a damper on things.


A medical procedure on Tuesday meant no riding outdoors, but did manage 1.5 hours on the trainer at a recovery pace. On the road again today meaning I'll suffer through whatever time I can stand on the hotel bike and maybe some weights. Ugh


Next race opportunity is 8 July in Indianapolis. This is the race that sent my mood into such a death spiral last year. I'm on the fence about going to that one. The difference this year is that I'll have no false expectations and can go just for the experience of racing and obviously for the training value. Those are always good reasons to race in my book.


Next up after that are the Master's state TT and road race championships in late July. I have no delusions of grandeur. I just think it's cool to be in a "State Championships" of any kind. How many people ever get that kind of opportunity?

Hermes

Warmup, 2 jumps and 4x30" all out sprints 2' RBI. Average power for the set was 50 watts higher than last week. Although after the last sprint, I was cooked and it took about 10 minutes for my breathing to return to normal.

sarals 

I was planning on going to Hellyer for a sprint session last night. It would have been my sixth trip up to the Bay Area in the last seven days. I decided to take a day off.

Today, scheduled day off. I need it, I think.

Heathpack 

Single 20 min TT interval for me today at 105%. So much easier than 5 min at 114% (even though I did finish today's interval with 2.5 min at 114% just to make my target on the exact number I intended to land on).


I am purposely trying to do more of these high-output intervals on mixed or downhill terrain (rather than the 2ish% uphill terrain I have developed the habit of using). Just trying to mix it up and make sure that I can put out the exact power I intend to, uphill, downhill, flat, whatever. I noticed I was sometimes scaring myself when I got going too fast on the downhills.


Getting better with that, I find I kind of need to stomp on the pedals to make the number going downhill. Hit 37 mph today on a little descent and just kept the power up throughout. Progress.


Off to the mountains today for six days of relaxed R & R riding, it will be good contrast to the TT work I've been doing of late. Strava tells me that I'm close to 5000 miles on the TT bike, in a little under 2 years.

Bandera

Yesterday: Power work, hill intervals X3 in 50GI
Today: Recovery, Zone 1-2 for ~ 1 hour
Tomorrow: Mini TTs, 2 miles up a false flat X3

Counting down to the annual fixed gear Century.

-Bandera

Racer Ex 

Where? I am so in....

sarals 

I'm also lost,,,

Yesterday - Coach has changed up my STR training, much to my delight, to working on leg strength. I did my first STR workout yesterday using the new plan. I spent the bulk of the workout having the gym staff show me how the leg machines are used, mainly so I wouldn't hurt myself. I used no weights on them, just worked them to get the feel for how they work and for the proper form. That done, I did a whole bunch of planks and crunches.

Today - I exercised my pocket book and bought a UCI license. That HURT.

Heathpack 

Having a great time riding & hanging out at Big Bear Lake with friends, first visit to our friends' new cabin. It's a pretty nice place!

Our friends ride both road & MTB. The husband has been mountain biking for years & is pretty skilled but not fast, just rides a nice steady pace. Usually he & I are pretty decently matched on the road speed-wise, I have just a bit more fitness & endurance. The wife is way slower than both of us, has heart issues and can't push too hard. Her MTB skills are about like mine. So it is kind of a perfect circumstance for relaxed vacation riding, especially since we're riding from 6700-8500 ft, an altitude which affects me for sure.

Saturday we did a perfect scenic zone 2 ride around Big Bear & Baldwin Lakes, 30 miles. Very pretty.

Yesterday we did a sweet mountain bike ride, right from the cabin. Climbed a single track trail called Fern Trail. Beautiful through open pine forest carpeted by ferns. An easy to moderate trail, some little steep pitches, some rocky sections I'd had to walk. At first it was no fun because the husband was riding slowly to lead us and the wife was slow of necessity. Whenever things got steep, I'd wind up running up against the two of them, which would then freak me out, I couldn't see the trail. Eventually I mentioned this to the husband and he scooted up the trail, the wife let me get ahead of her & everything was way better.

After maybe 20 min of single track climbing, we popped out on a fire road & climbed that a few more miles until we got to the top of the mountain,where we started onto a ridge tail called Skyline. A bit more single track climbing, with more rocky bits I had to walk. Beautiful open forest with grasses, sage, big boulders. When the forest opened up, you'd have great views of the mountains. Really fabulous stuff.

Then we started miles of swoopy, non-steep, nicely-bermed, not-too-rocky descent. It was totally awesome, completely my speed. Because it was less steep, I could actually process things at a reasonably pace. Totally fun.

Today we just did a road ride from the cabin, 1500ish ft up to Onyx Summit. PRed it by 15 min, rode the 8 mile climb as a tempo TT effort. Fun, I worked a little harder but not too hard. I'm on vacation.

One more MTB ride tomorrow, then BBQ & fireworks and that whole shindig. Wednesday home, we get the puppy back from the breeder on the way.

Really nice trip.

Hermes

I rode the SD Velodrome today. There is much work to be done including painting lines. I had to stay above the relief line and did not ride in the pole lane.

The track is a lot smoother although at lower speed, there is some wavy sections that were noticeable. I would rate is smoother than T-Town, Marymoore and Hellyer.

Talking with one of the construction guys, the biggest problem in the resurfacing was getting a solid foundation. The track is built on a landfill. When they brought in large equipment, it sunk in the infield. So they had to bring is load of special fill to stabilize the ground. The leveled the track and slightly rotated it.

It is now wider and a perfect 333.3 meters. They did not fix the wind. It is just as windy as before.

I did a warmup, two jumps and some max spin ups.

Once all the work is done, the track should be very nice.

revchuck 

When? Gimme a coupla months and I might could ride it with you, albeit with a geared bike. We'll let @racerEx buy the beers.

Bandera

@revchuck & @Racer Ex,

Traditionally, if three years make a "tradition", late October - early November have been chosen for this non-event to get past the heat of the year. Since the attendance has been a massive field of two planning has been ad-hoc and somewhat last minute based on weather forecasts since the near disaster of year two, now referred to as the Death March, when winds were exactly the opposite of what we expected/needed. Location will be a new one this year being scouted by my buddy closer to Houston allegedly suitable for riding ~70GI fixed for a stupid distance on rural-ish roads and with my requirement of a good seafood local restaurant at the finish.

Stay tuned, I'll get w/ my buddy and see if we can firm things up from our usual nebulous "get ready for early autumn, something idiotic is coming" some weekend or other non-method.

-Bandera

revchuck 

That's plenty of time, sounds good!

Hermes

Another thought on the SD Velodrome. It is an asphalt track and there is no plans for painting it. It has to breathe for at least one year. So my tires have a nice coat of oil based crude. I assume that will lesson with time.

Also, they used a grinder on some sections of the track to make it smoother and did a very nice job.

We are having the district championships at SD this year.

revchuck 

I remember back in the late 70s(?), there was a moto GP track in Europe that had been freshly re-paved and held a multi-day high-level race. It was slick when dry, and when it rained the pros couldn't keep their bikes upright. About the third day in, about 2/3 of the field boycotted the race. All the pretty rainbows on top of the water...

If that's an outdoor track, high-humidity race days could be interesting!

Hermes

Our weather in SD at the velodrome's location is very moderate. But we get a lot of sunshine such that in direct sunlight, the asphalt temperature will rise.

I do not know if the asphalt used is special for this application. The contractor who did the work is one of the largest in the area and has significant expertise.

This project was done using volunteer services and I suspect that no one wanted to hire a geotechnical consultant and an engineering firm to design and manage the velodrome retrofit.

Hence, they ran into problems with soil, drainage, repaving and etc. One of the reasons told to me the other day for not painting the velodrome is that they are counting on the surface to be less slippery when it is wet so that they can continue to train and race in wet conditions.

At Hellyer, which is a concrete track, we stop racing and training if the track gets wet.

I think we have all seen enough time trials and mass start races on TV to see how slippery asphalt is when it is wet.

The good news for me is that the track is open again and I have an access code to get in the gate. My next racing event at the SD velodrome will be masters district track championships. I do not race mass start races.

Hermes

Yesterday was a 1.5 hour road ride. I continue to be surprised by how much endurance I have considering my focus on sprint training.

sarals 

Yesterday, Hellyer #28. I did the 30 lap warmup (Mr. Larry N was in attendance, very cool!), and then reconfigured the bike for some 2K torture. At Coach's suggestion, I bought another seatpost and saddle and have one set up for sprint/mass starts and the other set up for aero configuration. I experimented with putting the Garmin mount on the side of seatpost, right under the saddle, and it worked nicely. I may buy one of the Varia Garmin mounts, or one of the cool 3D printed mounts that attach to the seatpost. However, that stock Garmin mount banded to the post works just fine. (Buy, buy, buy...bike racing is SO inexpensive - NOT!).

Where was I?

Oh, 2K's. Did two, 30 minute RBI. Then a I did a flying 333 to finish me off. It did.

Today, I did the leg machine rounds X 2 sets at the gym. I added 10 and 20 pounds over the carriage weight, depending upon the machine and the exercise. Coach said that if I could only do 8 reps, to remove weight. If I could do more than 14, add weight. 14 was it! Weight is good. My back did just fine through it all, and I really broke a sweat. I also did my usual planks, Swiss ball workouts, and box jumps (only a foot) and step ups. Good stuff, I enjoyed it!

Bandera

TXDOT construction (finally) opened a well paved route w/ a wide shoulder that is as close to Flat as possible locally.
Just as good it's aligned w/ the prevailing SE winds to get shoved along for TT (ugh) runs, or slog into it on a FG to "build character".

Died on the third Merckx style TT interval set yesterday, still hate doing them like 10 year olds hate brussel sprouts but "they are good for me".

Today: Recovery ride on the town bike. I feel shorter.
Tomorrow: Off. Annual HVAC maintenance by a tech & a nice Tex-Mex lunch w/ friends.
Friday: Hills w/ an early start to beat the heat and hopefully show some pace & brio, or at least sweat out Thursday's beers.


-Bandera

revchuck 

Now, that sounds like a plan!

Heathpack 

Back from Big Bear and starting my work week.


On Fourth of July, we did another beautiful mountain bike ride. Mostly fireroads but one easy single track descent. It was again awesome.


Today I had a TT interval, 20 min, at "max" effort. I had grand plans. They did not work out. Not my day, I just kept drifting off my number unless I was staring directly at the power meter. My legs were still in mountain bike mode, I guess.


Rest tomorrow, then openers Sat. 20K TT on Sunday to test the TT waters with the new position.

sarals 

My am I stiff and sore from the leg strength workout yesterday. Those machines really do their job, I'm feeling isolated muscles in ways I haven't before. My lower back is stiff, a little sore, and that's a mild concern. It's not the injury site, but anything involving my back piques my interest. This is more "you worked me, I'm tired" than "be careful, you're hurting me". I can distinguish between the two. I'm sure those workouts will help!

One of the things I've grasped about the track that I don't see so much on the road, is how hard a jump is made. In a crit, I can anticipate an acceleration (if I'm paying attention) and cover it. On the track, even anticipating a jump doesn't guarantee I can be there, because people hit it so much harder on the track than they do on the road! I know the gearing is a big factor, but leg strength and leg speed are huge, too. When I'm warming up with the track veterans on Tuesdays, the last lap is always a contested sprint, to varying degrees of force. I get gapped almost every time. I know a lot of that is strength, but it's also age. I just can't respond and hit as hard as the younger women do and certainly not as hard as the men. It's a goal, though, to keep trying!

Hermes

VSC track workout today. Roller warmup and 2x 500 meter motor chase (a couple of bike lengths off the motor) efforts from a standing start.

Racer Ex 

Four days off in a row. MTB today I think. Resetting with World's in October as the target.

sarals 

Yes!!