TheKillerPenguin

Do sprints at the beginning of rides, like in the first hour. Your legs need to be fresh to hit proper sprint numbers.

hack

Same here ... but as @Racer Ex pointed out, he's 2 hours further than me and still gets to the track.

TheKillerPenguin

Just finished a last ridiculous training week before freshening up and chillin before GMSR. I'm so happy I don't have to ride for a couple of days!

hubcyclist

towed around my 41.5 lb child in a trailer for 28 miles. Wish I knew how much power that takes

Wylde06

13.5 hours for the week, 780 tss. Why? Because.

I seem to have found some fitness in the last week or so. Rode really well Thursday, surprised myself yesterday and ended up breaking away from the main group on our breakfast ride with 3 others..where we managed (I say we, but it was becuase of a well timed attack by my friend after the strongest guy in the group took a hard pull) to drop a guy that usually does the dropping. Then once my legs came around this morning I was once again surprising myself.

Now if this will stay around until next weekend, when I have my last USA Cycling weekend raceas of the season.

topflightpro

Rode the cross bike on some mountain bike trails yesterday. That kind of sucked. I really missed my full-suspension mountain bike.

Today, I didn't bother riding and went to the gym to lift instead. It was kind of nice.

tetonrider

what passes for MTB trails does vary, but, yeah, riding a cross bike on a real MTB trail is doable. the guys who tell you it's great are either riding carriage paths or the ones who deep down know it is the wrong tool for the job but won't admit it.

then again, i know guys who choose to race SS, fully rigid, stuff like that. it's a point of (stubborn) pride for (most of) them--they're not faster or more enjoyable.

go back to FS!

when i lived in moab the people riding HTs were called 'fun-haters'.

caloso

Did some drills with my u13 centerback. Dang if soccer doesn't expose tight hip flexors.

mattm

about 80 miles today, after doing a whole hour of riding all week.

did a bunch of hills even though I hate hills. they're so boring. downhill parts were fun tho!

aaronmcd

Truth, and truth!

abhirama

You're probably at least half-joking but I used to feel the same until I rode for a short period of time in a pancake flat area. That was boring.

My favourite kind of terrain is mildly rolling where I can carry enough speed into the short ramps to power through. Terrain that makes me do a lot of front shifting is my least favourite (which is mostly what I'm surrounded by!).

aaronmcd

Thought I might do the Terun ride, long hills, hard. Alarm went off and I decided I was still tired, legs still sore, and I went to sample IPAS and food trucks last night. So slept in, got our monthly groceries, wife went to teach yoga and I planned on doing nothing. But got bored so rode around for 45 minutes. Felt like I've been neglecting upper body for a few years so did some push ups and stuff. Much harder than it used to be but I've a feeling it'll come back quick if I really want it to. Watched a fun movie. #training

mike868y

doing a gravel ride/race next weekend so did about 4 hours on the cx bike yesterday. started with 5*'4 hill repeats up a gravel climb then i ripped around the local trails for a bit.

21.5 hours last week. off today.

topflightpro

The trails around here are full of roots. And it was just beating me up. Rigid MTB would have been a huge improvement due just to having larger tires. I definitely felt the rim hitting things a lot.

globecanvas

I love riding my cross bike on carriage roads with a little bit of single track mixed in. But Saturday while on a cross ride, we came across couple of miles of brand-new single track that has just been laid out in the preserve. The trails had been cut but obviously not yet ridden by anybody. Fun for a while but eventually we just had to bail and hike a bike back to the carriage road. I was having trouble just holding onto the bars because my hands were so cramped up. In fact one hand is still sore now, two days later.

topflightpro

Yes. I experienced that too. I finally had to call it a day because I couldn't hold the bars/work the brakes. And after going down a long rock garden with my hands popping off the bars/brakes several times, I decided that was enough.

wktmeow

Officially starting the off season! Went MTBing with the guy who first talked me into riding, but doesn't ride much anymore himself. He got me to throw up after some short steep hills when I first started, so I tried a bit to return the favor yesterday.

I forgot how much fun the dirt is! I just wish there was some near me that I didn't have to drive to.

Did some light upper body and core work at the gym, followed by some sauna time.

TMonk

Off season wooooo! I plan on hitting base early this year (week of 9/12) as my new team has me motivated to get in shape and be better for next year.

Yosemite + Half Dome this weekend! Woo!

hubcyclist

no off-season for me because there was never a season to begin with!

mondays seem to be a 2x15 ftp day for me as of late, it's a 55min session on zwift and a good way to squeeze in something after my son goes to bed. it's a good challenge but not excruciating by any means. my ftp has been set at 255, and tonight I did 258w on the efforts with, I think, some effort to spare (i.e. not hitting what I believe my threshold HR to be, even on the 2nd set).

grolby

It kind of depends on where you go. Smoother trails are a blast on a 'cross bike, even though they're still probably slower. Once it gets rougher, well... most of the stuff that's ridable on a MTB is still ridable on a 'cross bike, but it's much slower. And being able to go fast on the rough stuff is part of the fun of riding mountain bikes. I like my cross bike and I like riding it on trails, but yeah, there's no question that a mountain bike is more fun most of the time on single track. You've got to pick your lines pretty carefully with those skinny tires.

hack

broke out the cross bike and did a mix of gravel, single track, and bike path ... good fun

mattm

Don't you guys have crits in December down there?

Yosemite sounds fun though, I need to make the trek some day. I'm not really a Californian until I've been I guess!

TMonk

No December crits here, just the 4/5 upgrade series. Yosemite does sounds fun.

In regards to the off season, I kicked down some super had 2x20s this morning, lol. I'm motivated to build up and be in better shape for next year, so I may end up riding more over the coming month or two than I usually would.

TheKillerPenguin

I am a firm believer in smashing the hell out of the fall before taking a quick break. It doesn't even have to be all that structured, you get to do all the absurd **** you aren't allowed to do during the rest of the season until you inevitably crack, then you take a few weeks of softpedaling and let your S/O remember what you look like, and then you get back to it. You wind up boosting fitness before base so you're capable of sustaining more kj/hr, and you get to have a ton of fun while doing it!

hubcyclist

great day here, went out and kept it z2, 2.5hrs 117 TSS, now I'm up to 73.2 CTL, while my all time high is 73.3, so I'm at peak fitness lol

although I'm debating bumping up my ftp based on my workout yesterday. I did 2x15 at 258w (ftp currently set at 255), didn't even hit my threshold HR on either. Do I try 260 and see how that goes?