sarals 

@Heathpack and @Racer Ex - sublime!!!! Just fantastic....

revchuck 

Yeah, what she said!

I rode again this morning, felt pretty good. Still doing just endurance pace, though I was pushing it toward the higher end. 1h:40, IF .75, TSS 94.

The water level is slowly falling around here. I'll be able to use one part of my usual route that I had to detour around the last couple of days. OTOH, I did a recon of our shop ride's usual Saturday route and was desperately wishing I had my F150 back - the Focus was wading as much as driving. I went on Facebook and canceled it for tomorrow. I'll have to figure out how to get a long ride in on Sunday to meet the weekly TSS goal.

Heathpack 

One last mtb ride today before we head home. Rode with @valygrl and her sister, and friend-of-valygrl and friend-of-sister. It was a really great group, fun to ride with. It's really such a pleasure to ride mountain bikes with other women because when they can do something, you assume you can too. Vs sometimes it's unclear when a male friend rides something youre uncertain about if maybe theyre just able to ride it because theyre stronger than you are.

Todays trail was the Emigrant Trail in Truckee, CA, a rolling fairly easy (but not without technical features) single track trail. Nice because even the hard elements were not too hard, it was a good one for me.

I was riding behind FOVG for awhile and she seemed to really know what she was doing. Just weaving her way calmly up the rocks, unlike me, who was lurching around. I realized I was oversteering. I mentioned the difference between us & she told me something she heard in a mountain biking clinic: look ahead on the trail and let your peripheral vision + memory get you over each obstacle. That really did help, the farther I look up the trail, the smoother my lines. Cool.

Anyway, it was a great ride. I rested yesterday so felt really fresh & sparky today.

Such a great trip. Got in 115 miles and 10,000 ft of climbing on the mountain bike. Since I only have 1100 miles on that bike, this trip represent 10% of my total mtb experience. Awesomeness, I feel like I made tons of progress. One race, which went well, and a beautiful road ride. Plus tons of hanging out with friends, Mr & Mrs Ex and the VG sisters.

Usually at the end of a trip, I'm really ready to get home. But this time I'm a little sad- it's hard to get to good mtb trails at home. Lol, I told Mr H that I should just get a second mountain bike & leave it at @Racer Ex's house. Then I could just fly up whenever. I got an eye roll of that comment.

It will be good to see the doggies though. And what kind of training effect I get from this 10-day trip to altitude.

revchuck 

I had a good past couple of days. Saturday I was able to ride my usual route since the water had receded. I decided to ride at threshold to see how it felt; I did a 12-minute interval and it didn't feel bad at all, 20 minutes would've been doable. Sunday was a longer ride. I decided to do a 3x8' threshold set during the ride; the first two went fine, but during the RBI after the second one my hip flexor started fussing at me so I passed on the third one. It was a little frustrating since the power and stamina were there, but I didn't want to screw things up by pushing too hard. It was probably for the better because my legs were tired for the last hour of the ride, it would've been worse had I done that third interval. Four consecutive days of riding, 432 TSS for the week, my hardest block since I started riding again.

This week is going to be good. TSS goal is ~550. There's a cold front coming through mid-week, the predicted temps at sunrise will be ~60 W/Th/F with 10% chance of rain and moderate winds. Sounds like miles to me.

Hermes

Wrapped up a week of training at VSC. My wife did a pursuit camp Saturday and Sunday. I hung out and bike slaved. Just when one thought that one knew most everything about aero and pursuit, in comes a guy from Germany, who is aerodynamics expert who works with the German national team and we get a lesson and learn some new stuff.

As always, making anything new, operational, takes time, practice and adaptation.

Heathpack 

@revchuck, nice to see you roaring back. You are a smart man to be reasonable about it though...

@Hermes, new German aero guru? Sounds tasty.


We're back home, it is great to see the dogs.


Recovery ride this am with a friend, and then coffee with everybody in town it seems. But I was wiped out, if I blipped at all into zone 2 I really felt it. Wow.


Then I got home and uploaded my data. I have to estimate my TSS on the mountain bike rides and my initial estimate came out to a pretty high TSS, seemed wrong so I cut each of the mountain bike rides by 10% and still came up with a TSS of 1500 for the 10 days of vacation. Haha, I was maybe -55 the day I decided I was "too tired" to do the women's clinic.


So now the puniness on the recovery ride makes more sense...


Not sure what I'll be doing this week, I usually get my new schedule on Mondays. But I have a race in a week, so I'm guessing it will be a little sharpening of the TT knife.


We're supposed to go to Catalina for 10 days over Thanksgiving. But I'm now ruined by this mtb stuff and am wondering if there's somewhere I could go mountain biking that would still be snowless then...


I'm also wondering what our own @sarals was up to yesterday, maybe something of note??!

Hermes

@Heathpack The new tasty German aero guru works at Specialized and was one of the writers of the ERO software for track aero testing. Having said that, they did not do aero testing at the clinic per se, but had some very cool electronics and video set up to show lap times and take pics.

The clinic was more about positioning and techniques that yield faster speeds. I like to compare elements at the track to the golf swing. This is especially true for timed events. So even if one knows what to do, one has to execute in real time and not regress back to old habits.

The clinic was excellent and that was partly due to low turnout. Most of the participants flew in from out of town. We were the only locals.

Heathpack 

Well next time you come to Carson, pop me an email. We will treat you to a nice dinner in exchange for your revealing some German aero secrets...

sarals 

Germans never give up secrets....

Yesterday I went to Hellyer to determine, once and for all, who would be the lead rider in the team sprint BJ and I are riding together in Districts this Sunday. I had a good 30 lap warmup, even though it was hot. After that, and a rest period/bike setup, BJ flipped a coin, I lead the first team sprint. I felt good, but my acceleration off the line seemed a little sluggish. Our time was over two seconds faster than the time we posted two weeks ago. We rested again, and went to the line for the next attempt (we were only going to do two), in which I was second rider. Truthfully, I wasn't quite recovered from the first ride, and it was even hotter. The air temp was 92 - 94, but on that concrete it was over 100 - my Garmin said (when I read it later) that it was 104. At the "go", we left the line, and BJ immediately pulled two bike lengths on me. Coming out of turn two, she was three bike lengths ahead. I never got on her wheel and was working super hard to try to stay in what little draft I was getting. I had to do a full lap yet, and I was not doing well, in either form or speed. Coming out of turn four, I literally blew up, one of the worst pops I've ever had. Everything just stopped, I couldn't even turn the pedals. I dove on to the apron, rolled around to the back straight, made it to the warm down circle, and collapsed. I lay on that (nice, cool) grass for a long time.

I'm doing the start.

The moral? It was TOO HOT. I was tired, and exuberance masked how tired I really was. BJ and I have a gearing disparity. She's been working with bigger gears and a lower cadence for a long time.

This pairing is only Districts, I'm not racing with her at Worlds. This is also my first season on the track. I have a lot to learn yet, and much fine tuning to do. That will happen over the next year, for next year's Worlds.

Hermes

That is the best offer I have had all season. In fairness, you will be getting shortchanged on the deal since you already know most of what was discussed except for the implication for pursuit plus a couple of tactical pursuit pacing issues that may or may not work.

sarals 

Today: Openers for tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Masters Districts at Hellyer.

Sunday: Masters Districts at Hellyer.

Looking forward to it!

Heathpack 

Good luck @sarals! Enjoy it.

revchuck 

Well, it was a good week of riding! I spoke with my coach on Tuesday, and she had to dial back my enthusiasm a bit...I keep forgetting that LATOJA is next September and I don't have to get to really long rides until later. No more intervals for the time being, just endurance pace rides.

Tuesday: Recovery ride, 1h:00, TSS 23, IF .48
Wednesday: 2h:03, TSS 102, IF .70
Thursday: 3h:36, TSS 186, IF .69
Friday: Off.
Saturday: Group ride, 2h:21, TSS 158, IF .82 (Felt REALLY good on this ride!)
Sunday: 2h:04, TSS 104, IF .71

First >200-mile week since the crash! (201 to be exact.)

I've found that my strength isn't much below what it was pre-crash, but my endurance has taken a pretty good hit. Prior to the crash, the hardest thing about a hundred-mile ride was figuring out where to stop to refill bottles; now, I could make it through a hundred-mile ride, but I'd be pretty wasted at the end. The endurance will return in time, but I want it now!

sarals 

I know the want it now feeling, @revchuck. But still, you're on the way back - and you've a long time to get there. Awesomeness!! It's so good to see your happiness!

sarals 

26 days to Worlds. It's starting to get real....

Heathpack 

Monday was a rest day for me
Yesterday I had a 25 min 105% TT interval which went well. I hit the exact number I was shooting for, love it.
Today I had a tempo ride on the TT bike, I screwed up the internal structure of the 30 min interval but whatever, I don't think that matter much. I had the wrong thing in my head as to what I was going to do, really busy the past few days at work, got home kind of late and forgot to review my schedule. But it was a nice coffee ride with friends (except for the part about riding with the married couple who had just concluded in a counseling session the night prior that divorce is inevitable!).

Recovery tomorrow.
Off Fri.
Aerotesting Sat.
Mtb Sunday.

Heathpack 

So my other thing right now: my brain is crazy. I can't really focus well. Just too busy with everything.

Work- obviously I just have to suck it up and get it done. But I've been triple-tasking all day long recently, no real time to think about anything else. So the other stuff I usually attend to in those tiny pockets of free time I have during the day are not getting attended to, just accumulating.

Feeling unprepared for my aerotesting, I can't believe I haven't given this more thought in the three months I've had since the last session. Which was a bit of a cluster. Hopefully I'm not in for a repeat of that experience. That will be the price I pay though for not being on top of my stuff.

Then I'm just swirling with trying to figure out what to do over Thanksgiving. Major first world problem but we were supposed to go to Catalina for 10 days. Now I don't want to because there's no singletrack over there. Ideally I'd use a timeshare for the stay and all 10 days are available In Sedona but I don't want to leave the dogs & no dogs in that timeshare, so that's out.

So I decide to rent out a timeshare to free up funds for an airbnb or the like, that rents in 24 hours and now I have cash in hand.

Want somewhere quiet, trying to decide between Prescott AZ, Sedona, Tuscon, Big Bear or Tahoe. Maybe Southern Utah. Outside chance of Vegas, could visit my aunt who lives there a few days but otherwise Vegas does not appeal. San Jose? But the Bay Area is more frenetic than I have in mind...

But between trying to research weather, trails I could ride solo, and pet-friendly accommodations, it's hugely distracting. And then do I try to get a bigger place and see if I can attract someone else to come so as to have someone to ride with, and then trying to figure out who might be free around Thanksgiving and also riding at my level. Oy, I have a huge headache but don't want to fail to get something booked over a holiday week and then just miss out entirely.

And no time to pay attention to the things I need to do to avoid becoming fatter and to ideally right that ship and become *less* fat.

Whatever, I'm just venting. It will come together I'm sure, just a busy time.

sarals 

@Heathpack, I feel your frenetic pace! I live that way, too - and I do not like it. There are times I am surprised I have the energy to perform on the bike AT ALL much less race at a reasonably high level, considering the amount of calories I burn worrying about glop.

And I AM getting fat. Six pounds over the last seven months. I was shocked when I was viewing the photos of me in my skinsuit at Districts this past weekend. I looked like a stuffed sausage! After Worlds, I will address that, but I will do it in a reasonable way, and Coach will be consulted.

Settle yourself down, HP. Life is too short. Just enjoy!

Cleave

@Heathpack, hope your testing went well.

Heathpack 

Well....

There is a Chargers game today. The velodrome was being used as a staging area for NFL security detail last night. They kept opening and closing doors, especially a large forklift sized door.

Air density readings were too variable for some of the runs. We got some useable data but not that much. We finally called it a night.

Unbelievably a *third* aerotesting session is scheduled for late October now.

Bright spots: I got more track time so the consistency of my laps times is improving, I got to see @Racer Ex and @sarals and my fitter.

But otherwise: Le Sigh.

Hermes

@Heathpack Sorry to hear about the aero testing glitch.

sarals 

@Heathpack, it was wonderful to see you and Mr H., as well as getting to see and work with @Racer Ex over the weekend! Hey, that dinner/lunch gigundo burrito place was fun, too. I was at the aero testing session, as well, and got to watch some really cool gear in action. And, oh yes, the NFL messing up the testing session by repeatedly opening a big access door and running a quad thing in and out was truly frustrating. I was amazed at how sensitive the testing equipment is. Slight variations in air density really affected the readings. The numbers generated by that equipment are so precise!

I also had three excellent workouts/training sessions on the boards at VSC, and one great session at Encino. I worked on the the team sprint with JS, Coach was helping. I'll be number two rider. One session was devoted to trying to find a good way to the top of the track for the 200 meter windup, a good way means not burning a lot of energy and loading up the legs before the sprint. I'm confident Coach and I managed to work that out. Then, the entire afternoon session was spent working on a team for team pursuit. BJ, JS and I, along with Coach's great patience, expertise, and skills, got things going pretty well.

The Encino session was yesterday, and BJ, JS and I got things rolling pretty well with our team pursuit. We had help from the "track sensei" (who held TWO us at once for the held starts), and we honed our skills a great deal for Worlds. We aren't going to be a threat to the established TP squads, but we have a team, and we're going to enjoy ourselves.

And, I think I found another track discipline that I really enjoy - Team Pursuit.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Heathpack 

Nice to see you too @sarals and I'm glad you had some good sessions.


After my aerotest session, we went home, stayed up a little too late and then I woke up bright and early for my mtb ride at a place called Pig Farm. The trails are about as appealing as the name makes then sound...


Then a message the ride was cancelled. Where to ride, where to ride?


How about a daytrip to Big Bear?! Dogs got to play in the lake supervised by Mr. H while I rode some sweet trails. Somehow I didn't remember the steep stuff being quite as hard as it seemed yesterday, I wound up pushing the bike up the steep technical stuff.


But 14 miles and 1500ish ft of climbing solo on some beautiful trails I've ridden before. Walked way less of it, rode over things I would have been unable to ride over just a month ago, managed to ride through all but one of the switchbacks (it was uber-steep with loose dirt!), felt confident enough to ride up the little bermy thing on the side of the road twice and picked a bug off my tongue without crashing. Progress.


Lunch after and a beer. Beautiful weather, temps in the 70F range and sunny. That was a Very Fine Sunday.


Going to Big Bear again next weekend.

Heathpack 

Rest day yesterday for me, good thing too, I was really tired.

This morning's workout was a multimedia event. Stretching prior, then a no-problemo TT workout with some 5 min 114% intervals and a little tempo riding. Then I timed it such that I got home right when my cool down should begin. Switched to the mountain bike and spent 10 min cooling down and practicing front wheel lifts.

Making the most of my time.

sarals 

Countdown to Worlds....

Today, Hellyer. Home, I love our Old Hellyer! Coach had me doing 2 X 500M efforts, one standing start, one rolling start. We had made an adjustment to the stem for the aerobars (it's one of those Ritchie adjustable stems) while I was at VSC, and he asked me to lower it some more and ride that for this workout. I did, two notches down, and it was too low. So I went back up one notch with it and it was much better. After that, I switched the bike over to the "sprint config", and did two rolling start 333 meter efforts, in a bigger gear than I had been riding. That went well. Overall, I was fatigued from the weekend, and I also suffer from "lousy day after a rest day" syndrome, but I still had a good workout.