TheKillerPenguin

Thanks, it's a shame you were put on duty at Stafford, it's kind of a cool vibe around here. My throat isn't sore anymore but I have a bit of congestion left, which hopefully clears itself out before tomorrow's stage. Aerobic capability has never been my limiter anyway so I doubt it'll impact me much.

hubcyclist

Ha, yeah, I guess it just felt that way

Harlan

Seems like more sustained climbing with one real big downhill. Should make for an interesting race.

mike868y

@tkp Lol was going to post that

If the course is what I think it is (haven't looked as I can't race), the climb is on the longer side for stuff around here but pretty mellow. The finish though is going to be a fast run in to an uphill sprint.

shovelhd

Hey, I get to be the Chief. Woohoo. Maybe next year. I have no control over assignments.

canuckbelle

Dared my one Saturday group ride to try to drop me. They couldn't. I got a lead out for one of the sprints and shaved off 11 seconds (600m in 42s). I may start riding Saturdays with a faster group where I'm in much bigger danger of getting dropped.

furiousferret

Blew off the Saturday hammerfest because really, I dislike the vibe and kind of dread it. Its more of a HS Football Team vibe to it, and dudes are just itching to yell at something.

Told myself if I did that I'd suffer more, so I've done my first climb in a few months. I'm not going to look back at this season and reminisce that I didn't work hard enough. It was 44 degrees around 5k feet and pea soup fog. Climbing I always seemed 500 below the fog, then descending it was bad. Wet road and couldn't see 100 yards. I was worried about going down in a turn and cars not being able to see me in time.

Moving time: 3:55:01 (87%)
Distance: 53.2mi
Climbing: 5614ft
Work: 2016kJ
TSS: 231

https://www.strava.com/activities/310285072

Hopefully I didn't wreck my legs first day of the 3 day weekend.

KingShakes

Semi race simulation for my A race in 2 weeks. Solo 55 miles and 3000 ft of climbing with shorter steep hills. Two flats and a gashed tire from an unknown gravel section made for a long day. TSS of 235 over 3 hours of moving time. Race has a steep 400 foot climb where the attack will come. Last year I got dropped there. 4.9 watts/kg over 5 minutes on a similar hill today. Hopefully I can do better in 2 weeks.

globecanvas

Isn't that the Cleveland baseball mascot?

burger0014

Solo training ride 3x20's then tempo for a few hours. 305 TSS. Tomorrow is going to hurt

shovelhd

Describes me perfectly.

aaronmcd

74 miles, 6800 ft, and a crash (don't even say anything, Fudgy).

Small group, teammate just got married and we were going to do a ride+bbq, but decided on just a ride. Feeling fresh so I hit the first long climb pretty hard, PR'd the last non-stoplight segment by a minute (18' to 17').

Descending into Big Basin, roads were wet so we were taking them slowish and careful. Still, my rear wheel hit something and lost contact big time. Before I even had time to plan the fall I was sliding indefinitely on wet asphalt. Got a bit of road rash, torn kit, and VERY sore hip - can't walk properly but I could still climb pretty hard as long as I was out of the saddle so finished the ride. Hoping it feels better for Hawaii tomorrow.

Ygduf

rideaz

I went down to Tucson with some friends yesterday to ride Mt Lemmon. I ended up with my biggest day of climbing: 6 hours, 90 miles and 11k feet. Some of our group did 2 climbs but I'm not in shape for that. A few of us did the full climb then back down half way and climbed again so we could all regroup at the top for food. It was a really awesome day, perfect weather, beautiful scenery and good friends!
Details and some pictures here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/310462122

grolby

It really is pretty amazing to me how much a steady diet of Z2 and Z3 is able to wipe me out. I think this mostly means that I'm training consistently. 16 miles of daily commuting is contributing to the fatigue. I'm pretty excited for when I finally start to top off with shorter duration power and anaerobic recovery work. Another week left in this block, I will be pretty wrecked by the end - but maybe I can start building for Fitchburg after that.

Do it! We're hitting the meat of the New England road racing season starting this weekend, and these are all just beautiful areas and beautiful races. Purgatory is the week after Harvard, you should do that one as well if you can. It's quite a bit more climby than Harvard, so Harvard would make a pretty good test to see if you feel ready to race in the hills.

As for the climbing itself, ~400 vertical feet/lap doesn't sound that bad to me. I'm not familiar with the Oak Hill climb, but it seems like it's kind of shallow at the beginning and end with a steep section in the middle. Maybe 8-10% there? I'll probably be taking my 12-23 cassette, personally, if I need a lower gear than that I'm getting dropped anyway, a very real possibility given my lack of top form and being at the end of this block. You may or may not want something a little lower for the Cat 5 race. You're more likely to hit the bottom of the steep section going slow, because of race dynamics more than fitness levels. Anyway, it's a classic climb in a beautiful area, so I think it's well worth doing this race.

beatlebee 

The weather so far this May has been incredible. Yesterday was excellent; glad you had a good time on my local hill.

rideaz

You are so lucky to have that in your backyard! That's only my 3rd visit there. I would have loved to have tried to do the complete climb twice!

canuckbelle

2x20min threshold work. 240w and 225w (still tired from yesterday). Couldn't bring myself to suffer for the second one in order to bring it up to 240w too.

canuckbelle

EPIC suffer score is epic!

furiousferret

Went a tad bit over my expected TSS, supposed to be a recovery but I felt strong and went crazy at some points.

13:12:37
205mi
Load: 764

Biggest week ever, with a lot of solid work over zone 2. hopefully I can carry this into the next 2 weeks.

My issue in the past has been middling around in the lower zones, and I'm trying to keep my volume at 50% over z2.

Enthalpic

Very nice. I did le buzz to Summerhaven and back once and that was more than enough for me.

Is there anywhere to get water on that climb besides Summerhaven?

rideaz

The best/worst part is the climb past summerhaven to the very top :-)
There's a faucet at palisades around mile 19. We used it yesterday but I think they sometimes shut it off.

Enthalpic

I'm sad I missed that. I obviously didn't do enough research, I thought the high point before the little descent into summerhaven was the highest point you could get to by paved road.

hubcyclist

Yeah, I rode it with my 42/23 combo, and it wasn't really awful except for the fact that I had been riding uphill pretty relentlessly through concord acton and littleton and wasn't very well fueled, I rode the oak hill segment at 86rpm and was below my lthr the whole time (14mph avg), so it's a matter of digging in and riding as hard as I can on race day. I think my overall fitness is quite competitive, just have to approach it with confidence

grolby

Didn't have time for a full workout. Hit the old Blue Hills loop to try out my new set up (changed bars, slammed stem) and do a 20-minute threshold effort. Ended with the climb up to the observatory, a first for me. Hit it a bit too hard at the bottom but it was hard not to with a 39x23 as my low gear. Set personal bests for power from 3.5 minutes all the way out to 30 minutes, which was kind of nice. Though that's largely because I haven't done any power tests or short duration intervals for a while.