badhat

i really like night time training in the winter.

most of the good rural county roads around here have good shoulders and good visibility and i know them back and forth, and out in the country, with no other light and very little traffic, a couple of rear blinkies and a good compact headlight stand out from a great distance. you can literally see me from a mile away in the dark.

i feel much more conspicuous in the boonies with lights at night than during the day.

i imagine theres probably more drunks out, but theres less traffic in general and i find that pleasant.

Hermes

Wednesday was a 45 minutes of pedaling drills on the trainer z1. And last night, I went to the gym for a core/back workout and then did 1:45 minutes of z2 on the trainer.

graphs

Brisk walk home from work last night (~45 minutes), then 1:45 of z2 on the trainer and a good nights sleep. Feel great today.

shovelhd

Stab it with an ice pick.

Day off today. I didn't feel like getting blown into a semi with a full load on the bike.

echappist

after a few years as a scientist, the Mad part is redundant

TMonk

Well, I graduated college (BS-Chemistry) in december of last year, so I haven't earned the "Mad" moniker quite yet.

Hermes

I got a saddle sore right before I was going on a multi day bike trip. I went to my dermatologist and he put a shot of cortisone in it. It felt like he stabbed it with an ice pice. However, it was gone a 24 hours.

TMonk

intervals went good this morning; I was motivated.

First 20' was 95-98% of my LTHR and the second was 97-101%.

spessx

Did an hour on the trainer last night. 10 minute warm up. 45 minutes at 235W then 5 minute cool down. Looking at my numbers from last April, I was holding 260 watts on the trainer for 20 minutes and about 265 for an hour on the bike.

My goal is to get to 275W for an Hour (on the bike) and 162lbs (currently 165.4).

This would put my FTP at about 3.75W/KG.

My 5 second is about 17W/KG.

Think I can be competitive in Cat 4 this year?

-s

hammy56

Maybe.

badhat

numbers suggest that if you cant hang in 4 it wont be lack of fitness holding you back but rather brains and attitude and luck.

rkwaki

Man up - cut it off with a box cutter.

I had a hang nail in my big toe one time that I pulled out with a pair of pliers - then subsequently went for surgery on my toe...

HMF

Excellent workout on the trainer this morning. I had been wondering if purchasing this thing was a mistake, but with the fan set up, the right tunes, and 2011 Paris-Roubaix on the laptop I was able to get a solid workout done without much mental stress.

Force work:
5x5' @ Z4/5 and 70~RPM; 2.5' RBI

Fat Boy

Doper

mattm

Status: lazy. I rode the trainer for 10 mins earlier this week but that's it.. (something came up, had to stop).

But I've been 'cramming' by doing about 9 hours over the weekend; I need to start riding more but this will do! I still plan on crushing it next year.

That sprint should get you places (at least to the 3's), depending on how smart you ride.

I wouldn't worry about holding any certain power for an hour unless you plan on doing 40k TTs (which there is no need for anyway).

Your FTP will need work, but that will come in time. My $0.02.

echappist

a 1250 5" is a wicked punch in the 4's. I wish my sprinting power were that good

hammy56

we all how little that can matter...you still need to be in the right spot when it counts. Im aware Im simply stating the obvious here.

TheKillerPenguin

Yesterday- 1:52, 40mi, 21.5mph, 3500ft elevation gain.

Today was going to be a 4hr ride, but I had a snafu with a client. Sit on down, penguin has a story.

I do web development. One of my clients is about the friendliest guy you'll ever meet, but he has a way of comically misunderstanding how to use computers.

I just completed an e-commerce site for him. During the design process we linked him to the test site so that he could watch progress and the like. Prior to the site launch I sat down with him and showed him how to use the admin section of the test site so that he could maintain his own store without needing to pay me to do it for him. So I show him the ropes for an hour and he seems to get it. Yusssss.

Site launches. Dude tries to upload items to the catalog but nothing is showing up on his site. I'm perplexed, as things work fine on my computer, and every other computer I tried out. I checked out database privileges, changed passwords, dumped caches, etc. Nothing works. I call him up today to see if he can walk me thru the process of how he was adding in products. We walk through it together, and he does it exactly right. He then states that all of the products he's added are displaying in the admin side of the site, but not in the actual store. I'm like WTF.

So at this point a lightbulb goes off in my head, and I check the test version of the site. It turns out the dude has been uploading his entire catalog to the test site through the test admin screen, but had been going to the live site to check to make sure the catalog was updating.

That was a long-winded way of saying I was going to do 4hrs today, but now i'm only doing 1.5. Alas.

veloboy971

This is great!!!

1 hr super easy for me today!!!

mattm

I think it's worth saying, people forget this all the time. Training sprint doesn't mean as much as what you can do at the end of a race.

spessx

Where would you think my FTP needs to be for me to be competitive in the 4's?

hammy56

my former teammate is a perfect example...he has a really good sprint- 175ish lbs, 1600w+ sprint- but had a hard time being at the front when it mattered.

spessx

And that's the whole deal. I can guarantee you my sprint isn't anywhere near 1200W at the end of a race. My legs get rubbery - which is why I'm trying to raise my FTP and length of time that I can hold it.

I wonder if I should start training my sprints at the end of my ftp workout? It seems more specific. A hard 2-3 minutes and than an all out sprint.

-s

hammy56

fwiw- my ftp last year was 3.4 w/kg and i was able to get into the top 10 in the 4's. But again, I learned that riding a little smarter would have gotten me more of those results, or better. Lots of variables. Course types, etc etc...

spessx

I was about 3.4-3.5 last season and had the crappiest season ever. Mostly, at the end of the race when the pace picked up I was getting spit out the back. I'm attributing it to muscular endurance so I'm doing longer FTP sessions. I'm adding in WRI's also. Hopefully I'll be able to feel a little better about myself this season.