shovelhd

A nice steady 50mi out and back to watch a friend destroy the Collegiate A's in their championship event. She lapped the field solo in a 50 minute crit a day after placing 6th/P/1/2/3 in a 65 mile road race. 19 years old. She just picked up a CycleSmart coach and a CX sponsorship. One to watch.

LAJ

That flat sucks, @Heathpack. Knowing how much you enjoy new adventures, it bites that folks can't see that.

Glad you had a nice ride today.

IBOHUNT

Was told to just go have fun for 2 hours so I did a loop I hadn't done in a while.
33 miles with 3,000' gain.

IF 0.83
TSS 145

A good week of work; TSS 795

happybday29475

Funny - very similar to my ride today too! I was prescribed 30 minutes of Z3, and 4 hours total. I set out and it was windy and cool and looked like rain...but as soon as I got the Z3 done, the clouds parted, the wind died, and it was a glorious April afternoon...and not much traffic around, either. It was a very pleasant ride, one of the nicest in recent memory....just what the Dr ordered after a few days of hard intervals.

sarals 

Off day today. Yesterday was a strength exercise, and the body was, as it usually is, early in the morning, hard to get started. Once it did, nice! Coach's strength training regimen is fun, and it's not as easy as it sounds.

Sorry I haven't been on here more. If I:

1) Did more rides in groups
2) Was racing more

...I would be.

sarals 

I've got a full weekend of racing planned for the end of this week. A TT Saturday, followed by a team clinic, then a crit Sunday (maybe two races). Then, on Monday, I go to Shreveport for four days. Two travelling, and two in the simulator for training and checkrides. I'll be home for only a week before I travel again, this time to Florida for a family gathering. Somehow I'll squeeze in training and maybe even a race.

This has been such a weird season for me so far. I've done very little racing, and the diet I did really threw things asunder. The diet is over with, and I've seen the form is still there, or at least I can get to it when I need it. However, the lack of continuity in my schedule has been frustrating. It's fun to read about everyone's races and training, but not being able to participate at my end has just sucked. Things aren't looking up at work, either. It's looking like the schedule isn't going to get any better any time soon. I hate to write this season off already, but I've missed races and am going to miss races I had counted on doing. If you read frustration and worse in my posts, well...that's the reason.

revchuck 

Dang, Sara, I wish Shreveport weren't 200 miles each way or I could take you to dinner.

Yesterday was supposed to be the last recovery ride of the recovery from Tucson but I couldn't do it, had to do a couple of hours at endurance pace instead. Today was six Stomps (seated full-power accelerations from 8-10 mph in the 52-13) bracketed by seven minutes at threshold for warmup and cooldown. The Stomps were supposed to be ten seconds long; I did the first three that way but did 15 seconds for the fourth and fifth and 20 seconds on the last one...almost saw stars after that last one. It was kinda fun.

TNW tomorrow. The kids still drop me eventually, but they have to work longer and harder now.

valygrl

First time on the track tonight. Did a women's "track taster" session - mini intro class. It was super fun! I got to the blue line. There were so many participants (30+) I didn't get to ride much. Might have to take a certification class and try it some more.

sarals 

Chuck, darn it!!

valygrl, are you in the area?

valygrl

Sarals - I'll be in the bay area Wed-Sun, working in Marin during the week, Mt. Hamilton Challenge Saturday, riding with sister on Sunday. I can't find your races on the NCNA calendar, where should I look? I doubt I can connect due to a tight schedule... but would try if the times/places make sense.

Heathpack 

Annoyed with myself because I mis-read my schedule and did tomorrows workout today. Some tough intervals, and I missed every one. Of course my chances of making the targets would be increased by doing the workout after two days of rest, like I was supposed to, instead of one like I did.

Then I finished my intervals and realized I had 15 minutes left- obviously I neglected to write down some part of the workout as well. Guessed and did the right thing with that 15 minutes. So at least that's something.

In my defense, I had a chaotic day at work yesterday.

Heathpack 

Hermes

I am not sure which race she is doing on Sunday but Saturday is the Beat the Clock Time Trial Series that is held on Canada Road south of Highway 92. Pen Velo Racing/Summit Bicycles » Beat the Clock TT Series

It is not a sanctioned race but is run as a training TT. Registration closes sometime during the week check the website - no day of. They have both aero and Merckx divisions. 9.7 mile out and back flat to rolling terrain starting at 7AM riders off every 30 seconds. Aero riders off first but if you let them know you want to go early Merckx, I am sure it is not a problem. My wife is racing aero ITT and with three other women in a TTT later.

valygrl

Thanks!

sarals 

Hermes beat me to the punch on the Beat the Clock. My team hosts it. MEA will be there!

The crit is the Salinas Juniors Crit on the NCNCA Calendar for May 1st. It's not restricted to juniors, though. The women's field is always (at least from my experience) tiny, like no more than 6, and it's always combined and in the afternoon when the onshore winds have come up. Yes, like that CCCX race you did last year! I do the men's M55+, although this year the 55+ and 45+ 1/2/3/4 fields are combined. I'll do it anyway!

I hope I get to see you!

Cleave

Been doing TTTs for many years. For our district championship, I raced with the same two guys since 2008. We have had a variety of "4th teammates" over the years. This year was going to be the usual drill. We found someone who races a bit, but not a lot, and who has never done a TTT before. This past Sunday was our first practice (practice more than training) on one of the local industrial park crit courses. We were about 8 miles into the session, riding at a moderate pace. Todd was leading James, our new guy, was second, Greg was third, and I was fourth as we entered turn 4. James stood up coming out of the corner to try to close a gap that opened up and he hit a Bott's Dot and went down. Greg and I were in the aero bars. Greg hit James (or his bike) and I swerved to miss Greg.

Greg has two fractures in his scapula and a separated shoulder. James broke his clavicle into two pieces.

Crashing in races is bad. For me, crashing during training rides is worse.

Todd and I are thinking we need to find two women to do a mixed TTT instead of our planned Men 220+ team. (Just in case you are unfamiliar, 220 is the combined age of all teammates -- average 55 years-old.) No age group for mixed, team has to be two women and two men.

Heathpack is interested. I will be at the velodrome on Thursday to see if I can find another woman who wants to try this.

shovelhd

Ouch. Best to your friends.

Heathpack 

@Cleave, hope your friends are feeling better soon.

I think I'm going to bow out. It would be fun but looking at logistics, there's no way I could sail over to Catalina Friday as planned & get to Lake Los Angeles by 7am Sat. So I'd have to let everybody sail over without me and then take the ferry over Sat pm. So I'd miss half the trip. We have friends coming from New Orleans for that weekend, and I really don't want to miss half the time we have to spend together.

Too bad @sarals cannot come pick me up with her helicopter- that would make it work.

If you guys get desperate, I'm willing to revisit logistics. But for now, Id say it's best to see who else is interested.

valygrl

Wow cleave that sucks. Good job avoiding the crash.

Heathpack 

Today was an interesting workout for me: a one-hour threshold interval followed by 10 min "flat out". This was a logistical conundrum- figure out a stretch of road where you can ride for 70 min continuously starting at 4:45am, not hit a light or stop sign, not get creamed by a commuter, not too dark (because my TT lighting is not as good as my road bike's), ok to ride solo as a woman in the dark, and with good cell reception in case there's a need. Took me a while to figure something out and I settled on a course that had 12 turns. I even had to consult my route-planning guru, lol, who at one point said "70 minutes is a long interval". Tell me about it.

Anyway, it went well, didn't seem that hard. I missed the 100% by a bit and I figure I lost maybe 3 watts off my average with the 12 turns, factoring that in, I'm going to call it 98%. You might ask: if it didn't seem so hard, why did I miss my target at all? Good question, I don't know. Laziness perhaps.

The "flat out" interval worked out to be 107%, that could have been harder too, I was strugling to breathe but not dizzy or nauseous and I did not max out my HR.

Still it was a respectable workout and an interesting thing to do. I was thinking afterward how different it feels to ride at threshold after spending so much time over threshold of late. By comparison, threshold now feels like a comfortable place to be, comparatively speaking.

Heathpack 

Oh yeah, and I hit mile 2000 on the TT bike this morning. I love that bike. Totally glad I got it.

LAJ

Holy crap, Cleave. I'm sorry to hear this. It's good you survived, and good thoughts for the those that are injured.

IBOHUNT

Holy carp @Cleave. Well wishes to your friends.

Hermes

@Cleave I saw that on Facebook. Glad you dodged the bullet. Good luck.

Racer Ex 

Way to stay upright Cleave.

Can't figure out why SoCal schedule the state TTT on top of Nats.