I rode pretty well over the weekend. Had a number of guys mention that I was riding better and while that's nice, the best was that it somehow came up that I lift and someone didn't believe that I could either curl 50s in each arm (I literally never do biceps alone but knew I could) or do pullups with a 40-lb toddler on me. Finally a reason to make my wife watch and video me lifting!

It's weird how I can trash my legs in the gym but then they are fine on the bike. If I do a big ride first I probably need a few hours to rest and refuel before hitting the gym.

How do you balance rest? Do you deload on recovery week or offset them? I'm due for a rest week after this week on the bike, and a deload any day now. Debating deload this week in hopes of squeezing a bit more out of the bike before recovery week. Or do both at once and maybe come back fresher for both.

I havent really been "training" . I try to lift 2-3x a week and ride maybe 3-4x a week. Havent been following any kind of plan for either, so when I get tired I either lift light or dont do anything at all. Riding, if im tired I dont really ride. Im sure once I actually start training/riding more I will have to think more about it.

My take is that the gym uses the ATP-PC system and there is enough rest between sets for a recharge. The glycolytic and aerobic systems are lightly used in the gym unless one is circuit training. So when you went out on your ride, you have a lot of glycogen remaining and have not generated a lot of waste products. Although, strength training is fatiguing such that it may clip off the top end of the bike workout.

In reverse on an endurance ride, the glycolytic and aerobic systems get a lot of work and even though the ATP PC is "fresh" the muscles are fatigued. If I go into the gym after a long ride, I feel it in my arms and etc as well as my legs.

So when I do my "strength" training on the bike, I warmup and then do accelerations, jumps and starts but keep the efforts really short to stay within the ATP PC window and try not to use glycolysis. I have found that I can then do my endurance workout with little to no impact from the strength part.

Strength training yesterday preceded by a 15 minute recovery/warmup on the Stages bike then band walking, glute / ham work (bridges with kettle bell on stomach on the bosa ball). lat pulldowns, dumb bell presses on the bosa ball, incline presses on the bench, lateral raises, band work on the shoulders and traps, core work on the pulleys, stretch and roll. The other exercise I do is walking around with 50ish pounds of weight called the farmers carry. The goal is to work on posture and engage the stabilizing muscles in a more significant manner while walking.

55-minute recovery pace ride this morning. Felt good and pretty loose. Average HR was 97 - eat your hearts out, hummingbirds! :lol: Crossed into positive TSB today. Tomorrow will be about an hour with a 20-30 minute sweet spot interval. Half-hour run Thursday, openers Friday and then I hit the road.

Attempted vo2. Haven't done it in many moons. It went bad. Got 13 minutes in at 120-125%. Didn't help that the grade is like 13%+ and I'm mashing <60 rpm for half of it or more. Gonna leave it for a while, revisit every few weeks and keep trying to get threshold to a semi reasonable number (like the number I was hitting today for vo2)

Nothing's worse than going to bed an hour early, and waking up tired.

Starting a 3 week block at 72 CTL. Hoping to finish it at 85-90.

When I'm on form my RHR is 35-43; this year its been about 53-48. So I really want to work on my aerobic engine. I'm not sure if basing resting heart rate off fitness is junk science but it seems to align well in the past.

Bouldering and beer yesterday. Hands hurt and I got a massive flapper that is gonna take a bit to heal on my pinky finger.

Today was the race ride. Brad huff showed up but didnt really put any massive digs in. Seems like a nice guy! Easy to talk to. The ride was tough. I was dropped probably like 3 times and clawed back every time. Solo effort after solo effort until the end when Neil shirley and a kid that showed for the last 15 minutes got away after an acceleration at a stop sign that I couldn't match. Tried to come across, got close but didnt make it. 3rd is fine. Super pleased with the performance I was able to put out on what felt like flat legs to start.

Did pretty well tonight had some caffeine to counter the tiredness and it worked. Two of us were up the road about 10 seconds on everyone, then near the peak the group was about to catch us so I stupidly gave in and let about 25 pass me; the intent was to latch on to the back but they just blew right by. That's a fixable problem though.

This is the first Worlds ride I didn't have a failure and I could actually shift to the big ring. Its amazing the difference it makes.

Mannnnn got hit with a head cold. Took the past couple of days off, sorta turning this into a little rest period while this goes away. Dunno where I even caught it! Maybe something gross flew into my mouth on Saturday, it was raining during the race and we were going through farmland...

Good excuse to binge on pho at least!

Bailed on my 2x20's this morning halfway through the second one. Was doing it by feel/winging it and power was a bit low, about 10-15 w below what I'd like on some stiff, sore legs. HR low so it wasn't my aerobic system. Was potentially under-fueled, felt a little hungry last night before bed and this morning, trying to stay lean.

I got a bag full of excuses but the bottom line is I'm not worried about it, nor do I want to force it right now. I know I'm fit. Plus I'm racing this weekend! I only need 2 points to get my Cat 2 so hopefully we can wrap this up!!!

Local TT practice run with some nice folks. Headed to the car I thought I had boogered the start going a bit too hard. Looking at the data, it was smoother than I thought. Not a great watt/speed or watt/CdA, but pacing was pretty good. Power to pain to stupidity ratio was definitely in the right balance.

I learned something that could matter a LOT in the long run. I'm running the wrong gearing setup by far. I ran the online calculator on the gears, my cadence, and what speeds I'm mostly living in.

Come to find out I'm constantly feeling between gears, and yup, I'm on an 11-28 and missing that 16t cog. I had a spare 11-28, so used it. Being cheap costing me. I spin about 95 rpm on the flats in TT on avg, so that works out to have a solid gap right in the speed range I'll often be in. From 23 to 27mph.

Also, time to setup the home video again for position work. Also time to ditch the free old school HED basebar I ghetto rigged. No adjustment. I need adjustment and fine tuning there. I'm probably throwing away speed.

Before the race Sunday, I'm going to buy an 11-25. I wasn't in the 28 on THAT course recently practice riding even at tempo, so only stand to gain flexibility and consistency in my cadence and power delivery.

A very nice thing to have learned!

@burnthesheep - Another possibility would be a 12-25 cassette. Assuming it's 11-speed, it has a one-tooth jump from the 12 to the 19, then it's 21-23-25. The obvious downside is that you lose the 11-tooth cog. On a flat course I find it beneficial. OTOH, it kinda sucks on a hilly course because most of the time when you shift, you need the bigger gap between gears.

Trying to secure one in either before the weekend race. Local shop has both the 11 and 12 starting cog. I just ran the "gear speed cadence" calculator, and looked at my recent rides on that bike and I haven't used the 11 cog. So I told them to hold the 12-25 for me.

It's flat enough on the recon ride I never got slow enough to need a 28.

Last night it was constantly like, ughhhhhhh here we shift again. Too much, too little. I was cruising like between 22 and 25ish on some rollers and kept skipping 15 to 17 on the 11-28. I needed that 16t.

Glad that this thing is in the morning (heat). I should be on the bike and out of T1 by 8:40 including my AG start and the initial run leg time. Assume 25min of run and up to 15 min delay starting.

Yeah, personally I'd take the 16 over the 11 any day of the week.

@burnthesheep I run a 54/44 and for training use an 11/23. I adjust the rear cassette for the race. During the strength and adaptation phase of training, I do low cadence work on the TT bike for strength training and ride 54/11 on Fiesta Island. I could use a 55 or 56. I like to keep the speed up so that I get the right muscle recruitment versus climbing on the TT bike and going slower.

As an anecdote on gearing, I did a stage race where the TT stage had an uphill section. I had a 54/44 12/25 ten speed. I was worried about the climb and not having a low enough gear. I was warming up next to Phipps (local NorCal strongman TT guy). I asked him about the climb and he said, he pre-rode the course the day before and used a 55 chain ring for the entire route. I did not mention my "concern" about my gearing.

While you are thinking about gearing consider chainring size as well, especially for flatter courses. A couple teeth can shift your whole cassette up or down a half tooth. At 90rpm for example a 56x15 (26.3 mph) is dead center between a 54x15 (25.3) and 54x14 (27.2). Another option if you feel like you could gear up a little but 1 tooth feels like too much.

Everyone, thanks!

I'll report back after the event. It's a du, so I won't be on the limit the entire time like doing TT stuff. So less pressure, kind of just trying this out.

I do think getting this right though could increase my efficiency and enjoyment on that bike.

Deload squats (135x10/165x8/205x5/135x10), some other easy leg work, and 5x5:45 w 2' rbi. Was only able to hit ~106% but it's something at least.
Gonna try and get 350-400 TSS this weekend (try and break 1400 on Saturday, then attempt to get 80 minutes of zone 4 on Sunday), then bike rest week, then hopefully maybe come back with a less embarrassing FTP.

2X25' sweet spot. Good. Heavy but not killing.

Mountain ride. Held good power for the harder of the climbs. About 20 minutes. Did not feel good for it though. Other climb I just rode tempo and was still sweaty as ****.

I've never been so sweaty in my life. Its not even hot here yet but I was sweating out of my eye lids it seemed. Gross stuff. Like a cloudy looking sweat. Idk what's wrong with me.

Track workout at Velo Sports Center. 60 lap warmup and 4 lead out sprints. Then 2x40 lap motor efforts were the motor was set a 25.6 mph 22" lap pace and groups had to take 2 laps on the motor during each 40 lap session.

Wednesday I did just over an hour with a 30' sweet spot interval, I was pretty comfortable during the interval. It's getting warmer here, so my heart rate was higher than last time but still had an EF of 1.77 for the interval. Ran about 30 minutes yesterday and it was warm and humid; the run felt harder than usual but not hard and my T-shirt was just about completely soaked. I already miss the cool weather. :( This morning I'll do about an hour at sunrise with 3x5' threshold intervals for openers, shower, take my grandson to a doctor's appointment, then hit the road. It's about 750 miles to the venue and I'm giving myself two days to get there...driving isn't as much fun as it used to be. I've been saving podcasts for the drive, so there's that. CTL is 89, ATL is 69.

Where did I leave off?... Vacation riding, I trashed my legs, drove home from Carmel on Sat and then down to San Diego on Sunday to race a 20k TT at Fiesta Island. Intentionally started at a 10k pace, which went pretty well, considering. But then the wheels came off the bus and my overall time was mediocre. I came in 4th of 4, but my field consisted of one pro and two other women who’s cumulative age was less than mine. It was “ok” but by no means inspiring. I got to see @Hermes and the Mrs, which is always nice. Turns out I also won the women’s open category for the SoCal TT Series. In the nick of time it seems, as this series won’t be a thing anymore. I have yet to learn if I actually won anything literally.

Then my legs were trashed. My workouts didn’t go so well all week. Then the cherry on the top was going to Big Bear last weekend and riding mtb in Fri and Sun at altitude. And doing a “gravel” ride on the mtb on Sat, from Yucca Valley in the desert climbing up towards Big Bear. Advertised that you could’ve done it on a gravel bike but no way. Very steep, rocky fire road with extensive sand. Like 1.5 miles of 3” deep sand going in and coming out. Fools errand on a gravel bike and in reality it was all mountain bikes.

Wound up riding it with a female friend who is a cat 1 mtb racer, her thing is adventure mtb racing. But she used to race cyclocross, downhill, enduro, you name it. “Sand is my jam,” she said to me and the day turned into Heathpack School of Sand. Lots of practice. It was a beastly miserable ride but a great day on the bike. We were planning on the 35 mile version but downgraded to the 25 mile. We had the same time for the ride, 2nd fastest women’s time of the day but there weren’t many women out there. Riding in the Joshua Tree forest was pretty cool.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e3a39b306.jpeg

Then I was really wrecked all of last week. Essentially took all week off. Today was the first day I felt normal on the TT bike. TT workout tomorrow and enjoyable ride on Sunday.

Also I’ve come to a decision that after National Senior Games, I’m going to transition to being a mountain biker who races TTs, There’s a pretty big world of women’s mountain biking out there and I’d like to avail myself of it.

Thinking about Rebecca’s Private Idaho as the goal event for 2020.