aaronmcd

Didn't have the best sprintervals today, but did get over 1300 a few times. Arms were actually hurting a bit. Good thing I'm on deload week. Also only rode an hour cuz my wife wanted to do a big hike then go out for dinner.

On the hike:
Sooo many wildflowers! Took photos of maybe 30 different kinds. Then we found a secret pond where we had lunch and signed a 6 year old geocash we discovered.
Then we ran across a zen farm creek rehab type place with a bunch of awesome flowers.
Then we attempted to light a fire on the beach in strong wind with nothing but trash and a small bit of driftwood tinder. Got a big ass blister on my thumb but after 30 minutes or so we had a small fire going.
Then a couple came by with firewood and a cooler, and the guy came by and traded us some firewood for some fire, and told us their son was shot dead last month.
Then it was awkward.
Then later on the hike back we discovered and ate tiny wild strawberries.
Then we found the same type of poisonous newt I picked up last hike.

Now we have to go eat a big fat dinner.

furiousferret

Not the week I had planned. Some lifting and moving put doms in my quads and groin which killed 4 days. I got some volume in but the intensity was lacking.

Ttoc6

Lifted this morning. Finally back up to my deadlift pr after slowly rebuilding back to avoid a bigger injury and focus on form. And it felt easy!

Hopped on the gravel bike for a recovery ride. One of those meditative, zen type rides where I just had fun listening to music and pedalling.

Heathpack 

Rocked my interval workout on the TT bike yesterday: 1 x 9 @114%, then 2 x 9 @102%. Felt pretty good.

Today I did a solo 30 miles/3000 ft on the road bike, with some over/under intervals (5 min 108%, 5 min 90%, repeat for 30 min) and 20 min of “ride hard”. I was planning on 20 min @ 100% but didn’t quite make that. Pleasant morning on the bike, didn’t get up too early, home by 10am with th rest of the day ahead of me.

Cool and cloudy at home in the valley today, but I climbed up and out of the clouds. It’s was warmer at the top of the mountain than at the bottom.



Three days now of feeling great on the bikes. Nice.

aaronmcd

Slept 10 hours last night so I didn't have as much time as hoped today, but it was worth it.
At the gym today, squat 1 rep max test. Hit 285, failed 300. Only 10 lbs more than march 6th but I've been working on depth and hypertrophy most of that time so it's ok I guess.
Rode 2:20 with 9x9' above threshold with 2' RBI. Felt like a perfect balance of aerobic and muscular endurance.

TMonk

Today I wanted to go long, but I was just tired from getting up at 5 to volunteer two days in a row, today at the veloswap and yesterday at a race, that went very well for me, more on that later. Submitting my cat 2 upgrade now, I got the points!

Instead I just went for 2 (hrs) and hit 2x4' anaerobic and 2x10' aerobic threshold intervals. Had modest targets in mind knowing I was tired and finished each one nice and strong. I guess I still had more in there to squeeze out after yesterday!

topflightpro

Congratulations on the upgrade.

TMonk

Haven't submitted it yet, but thanks. The only part that worries me is that 3 of the points are from 2016, where the rest is from this season. Our team director seems to think that points weren't expiring way back then, but we'll see.

TheKillerPenguin

Awww yiss TMonk that's awesome!

Points haven't expired for a while now, I am almost positive 2016 points should still count.

caloso

Way to go, TMonk!

I've had a good week of riding. Made the front group on the River Ride Saturday, then a couple hours of JRA on the fixed gear Sunday, and then hit my VO2max targets this morning. We have our team race coming up this weekend and all I want to do is not embarrass myself, so this is encouraging.

Ttoc6

20ish minute run just to do something after work. Still blow away how much faster these new running shoes are compared to my old faithful trainers.

Hermes

@TMonk Congrats on the prospective upgrade. If the points have expired, you will just get some more.

Gym workout yesterday. Whole body workout including a warmup recovery ride on the Stages bike. I could feel a bit of DOMS in my ass from Sunday's pursuit.

burnthesheep

Totally going to buy a cooling vest. I really need to be able to use the trainer in the gym at work, and I'm stuck with that fan. I can't bring in some loud blower while other folks workout.

So, going to give the cooling vest a shot........a'la pro teams after warmup before a TT.

Today with my 2x15min or whatever, I just felt like I was baking. Time to stop complaining and try something out.

I wonder if even some ice packs in the jersey pockets would help.

If someone has gone this way and like what you do, let me know. I'm just so tired of doing longer intervals and baking like a cookie. I have limitations for gym temp and fans, so this might help a touch.

Hermes

There may be some larger gel packs that could be put in the freezer and placed on the back of the neck. There was a local TT in NorCal that was very hot. Pantyhose filled with ice around the neck and down the back did the trick for warmup. However, melting ice in the gym and filling pantyhose with ice may have their own "issues".

How about a large 24" box fan that is generally pretty quiet and moves a lot of air? It seems more reliable than cooling vests / gel packs or dripping water from meting ice.

TheKillerPenguin

There is some benefit to be had by doing intervals in uncomfortably high heat - stimulates increases in blood plasma volume I guess? The soggy chammy life probably stimulates saddles sores too!

TheKillerPenguin

I'm a bit sluggish and "off" from the sickness downtime and am getting my legs back in order. Sunday was my first real thing in a week and my legs were generally unresponsive and my HR was low. Yesterday I did 2.75hrs with a 1hr block of sweet spot and another 13ish minutes at sweet spot up and over a climb around the 2000kj marker, and that went better, though HR was higher than normal. Usually takes me a week or so to get back to normal after a layoff so I'm unconcerned, it's just annoying.

Hermes

Raining this AM. Endurance ride on the Kreitler rollers with the wind load connected. Ug. It has been a long time since I did an indoor workout. This song came on Apple Music and it seemed appropriate. Does anyone think we should drug test these guys? Nah...they look fine.

Enthalpic

Yeah, there are various heat shock mechanisms that increase the training effect.

caloso

Surprised myself with a season high 1' power today. Even more surprising is that it was my 3d best all time. Maybe if I don't get dropped before the last lap on Saturday, I might actually be able to help a teammate out.

furiousferret

Last night I almost went straight to the ER after waking up with back pain so bad I could barely get out of bed. I managed to put in a few hours at work, then went to the doc. Doc thinks its a pulled muscle in my back. Since it was near my kidneys I thought it was that but the tests come back clean (phew).

Since it was in the 50's yesterday and the 90's the week prior, I didn't feel the need to drink water and I'm pretty sure that's the main cause of this mess. I definitely started feeling better after chugging water.

This kinda screws up my schedule, since the smart thing to do is take it easy and its my week to not take it easy but oh well.

revchuck 

So...I did the Tour of Georgia Gran Fondo. I had a good plan and I executed it well. My power numbers were among the best I've ever posted. My nutrition was spot-on. I pushed to a new level of mental toughness.

And I got beat like a rented mule. Crushed like an empty beer can in a redneck bar. 5/5 in the 65+ age group. Just call me DFL Charlie.

I emailed the results and report to my coach and she replied, "Let me check into their competition backgrounds." Turned out that two of them were top 10 at Master's Nats the last two years, the other two had USAC licenses but no recent results.

Gran fondos are scored based on the cumulative times of the timed sections rather than overall time. The four guys ahead of me had times of 1:34-1:39; my time was 1:45. I didn't screw up, I was just outclassed, pure and simple.

I'm doing another one in North Carolina later this summer, either at Boone or Asheville. I hope some of those guys are there; they'll probably still beat me, but I'm planning on narrowing that gap.

furiousferret

Sounds like you did great...just can't control who shows up unfortunately. Also sounds like you didn't have that leg issue.

Hermes

@revchuck Solid performance and great preparation. We are into a last man standing contest and the very good news is ALL the men left standing are very good.

The takeaway is that it is excellent that we have great competition and we can use it as motivation to get to the next level.

I have a question. I assume the fondo was 100 miles or so. Did you know when there was a timed section and hit the gas during the timed section and then back off during the untimed part of the route?

revchuck 

The route I did was 103 miles. The timed sections were publicized in advance and the start and finish lines were given down to the tenth of a mile and marked by flags on the course. The concept is to hammer on the timed sections and cruise on the rest of the course, but the rest of the course was challenging too. I hit a 14.5% wall at one point, that segment at the 81 mile point was .47 mile and went up 267 feet, took me six minutes to crawl up it. My Strava file for it is here.

I noted to my coach how funny it is that a good beatdown can be so motivating.

Hermes

@revchuck Yikes. You had two long climbs - one at 6% and the other 10% with both preceded by easier climbing. That had to soften up the legs. Did the timed sections include the climbs? If so, that course would definitely favor light weight riders.