TMonk

Final TTT practice yesterday, race tomorrow. There is one other team registered in the 4-man 140+, which is an average age of 35+ for those not inclined towards mathematics. Things are getting more streamlined, pull length, rotation order, rider-specific strengths and weaknesses.

It's such a unique and cool event and so simple/pure - 4 guys trying to cover 40 km ASAP. Like ITT, the element of circumstance and luck is taken out compared to road racing. And even more so than ITT - TTT is about execution. It's all execution, and rewards practice.

This is my first time in the captain's role, and all together we are a notch or two down in speed compared to the supersonic teams I've done in the past where I've hung on for dear life. Now I'm the leader and strongest rider. A different vibe - still tons of fun!

himespau 

Bigger screen is definitely nice. A keyboard you can easily access helps a lot (I also like the Zwift Plays to let me see if I can give everyone in my pack a ride on or something when my mind starts to wander). A rocker plate is helpful too.

Hermes

bampilot06 I have injured my knee and a muscle in the back of my right leg on the trainer. I have not, in 16 years of racing, injured a muscle or joint on the bike crashes not included. So I am careful with too much of anything on the trainer. That is a big YMMV comment.

And there are the men of steel trainer riders who are able to ride long duration, sprint and whatever on the trainer with impunity.

If I ride constant power ERG mode, I choose a big gear and let the indicated speed go high. My opinion is that the high rotation rate of the flywheel makes it feel more like riding a flat road. That could be my idiosyncratic muscle composition.

bampilot06

Maybe one day I will have that set up. Not really a priority for me. When I am home I ride outside almost exclusively out doors. We do plan on creating a workout room eventually. Ceiling fans, two TVs, etc. Just don’t know when that will be.

The Ipad doesn’t really bother me, and honestly the chat is kind of annoying. Maybe it just happens to be the people around me that are annoying.

TMonk

OK. As long as you are ready to hear me suggest it each time you complain about poor experiences on the trainer . Good luck on the workout room! That's essentially what I did to the top of my tandem garage.

EDIT: I will also second that I have knee issues flare up on the trainer more often than outdoors. I think it's because you're more immobile and there is less overall body movement. Like many others here, I mitigate knee pain with a holistic approach including stretching, foam rolling, but really strengthening/weights which has minimized my frequency of significant knee pain in recent years. Hermes had suggested glute work, as had others that I know IRL or in the community. procrit also has had knee pain that he manages through his own unique routines and holistic approaches.

I am also a huge fan of Kinesiotape. The KT Tape brand stuff is nice but cheaper stuff can be had. A bit of a learning curve on how to apply correctly but there are videos on Youtube. To me, it's a band-aid that I can use when experiencing low grade pain or even sometimes as a preventative measure before major events. It does not treat anything per-se but it's great at keeping things in place and not getting misaligned or pulled this way or that due to muscle imbalances or tightness that you are working on off the bike. It's really great stuff. The combination of the tape and strength exercise has prevented me from really having to take any significant time off the bike due to knee pain for a few years.

bampilot06

I went to a doctor the last time. It was so bad on and off the trainer I couldn’t ride. Was told to do some knee strengthening excercises. Basically my legs got too strong for my knees. Sit with my back against a wall, legs straight out and raise my leg off the ground for 20 seconds at a time. I can’t remember exactly what happened. How long I was off the bike, but the pain did eventually go away. I think I messed with cleat placement too.

I am sure I wasn’t off the bike back then for long, I rode more for my mental health than anything and I am stubborn.

Back to training.

I didn’t have a lot of time today and didn’t get good sleep. I am on the bottom floor of my hotel, and the guy above me, also in work training, also practices for his stomp team. This morning was absolutely ridiculous.

I built a VO2 max workout on zwift following a ladder format.
5 mins on 5 mins off 4 mins on 4 mins off 3 mins on 3 mins off etc. Each interval was increased by 5 watts. Workout went well. The first set I didn’t use ERG mode and my power was fluctuating more than I liked so I turned it on the rest of the workout. It went really well. It was short but I was able to complete it.

I forgot to mention last week when I went home I did a free ride. Goal was to get as many miles as I could in the short time that I had. I felt rested and good to go, only bike available to me was my checkpoint. I was able to maintain 250 watts for the whole 2 hours. That was a first for me, not that it matters but my average speed on my gravel bike was 21. I was super stoked and only wished my madone was out of the shop.

TMonk

Memorial Day ride:

Practicing eating more on the bike,. Did some cat 6 racing in the middle when a triathlete and some excited tag-along roadies were running lights, dodging pedestrians etc. Was fun to let them go and then reel em' in and tighten the screws during the open sections .

Towards the end my legs were feeling a bit sore, but I thought that I would test the waters with a threshold level effort for 10 minutes after the 3 hr mark. Felt great and I had the watts and gas in the tank. This ride leaves me feeling good about SCNCA state champs on the 8th, might be my last "long" ride until then.

Hermes

Memorial Day, we did a banded ride with our friends in Oregon on Zwift. Talked on Discord and discussed the Giro and the next gen of bicycles and wheel technology.

Today was an endurance interval session on Zwift. 3 sets of 5x(1' on 2' off). Crappy legs but my breathing and heart rate were great. My lungs seem like they are back on line. I can will my legs to perform but lungs are a different matter. I am at the stage in recovery from my crash where I can start to actually...train. Up until this time, training has been limited by something, usually breathing and lungs or just pain in the surgical sites / muscle tightness.

In other news, my wife catted up on Zwift. She is a C in the women and general. She has been racing with the open D men.

procrit

You and me both. I can ride for hours without knee or hip issues on the road, but my left knee will have discomfort within 30-40 mins on the trainer. I generally limit my trainer time because of this, and only do it when I have no other options.

procrit

While my CTL is slowly headed downward, my power numbers are coming up. 430w for 5' now, which is another record for me. My overall endurance seems to have taken a hit from the lack of volume, but I seem to be finding decent legs. I leave for Tulsa in a week, so I just need to hang onto this form for another 10 days! That said, most of our local crits have all been cancelled, so all of the practice I was hoping to get didn't happen. I feel like I'm making the power to do well, but my race craft is probably very poor. I guess we will see...

TMonk

^
GL and let us know how it goes procrit

Hermes

procrit Good luck at TT. You got this. Do not over think it

bampilot06

over the last couple of days I have gotten to ride outside, I went for some sprint training around this massive warehouse near me. Parking lot was completely empty of cars, but on the second round a guy came out and asked me to leave. So then it was just riding outside to ride outside.

Yesterday I did over unders on the trainer. Workout went well. Today I opted for a zone 2 ride with ERG locked at 180. Around 25 mins in my knee started hurting so I stopped. It’s still burning now. Hoping tomorrow it doesn’t rain, my knee doesn’t hurt and I’ll do some light high cadence outside. I get to go home this weekend so plan is for a long zone 2 ride on Sunday or Monday. I have not checked the weather though.

TMonk

DBR "afternoon" race (D = Danish???), 1st/13 starters on Innsbrucking. Course features a ~55s 7% "Leg Snapper" climb, but is otherwise pretty featureless.

The first third or so was pretty active establishing the front of the race. Then, it became 5 and pretty tame/cagey between the Leg Snappers. AP dropped quite a bit, lowest power I've seen in an A race in some time. The last climb was hard enough to shed 1 rider, and then I knew I was at least gonna be on the box, since one rider was clearly a diesel type. Turns out I had the best kick, sweet.


Break fully established. After this, average power would plummet as there was almost no "red" outside of the Leg Snapper



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Hermes

Tuesday was one of my better training and diet management days. Of course, the last time I posted about nutrition we lost a member. So it goes.

We met with our nutritionist and performed, weight, body fat and blood work. I was up 4 pounds of muscle mass and down 1 pound of fat - 162 pounds at 7.1% body fat in the last two months. All my blood metrics improved - HDL, LDL, triglycerides and hematocrit. My strength has improved in the gym. Based upon the new metrics, we adjusted the diet slightly - eat more due to increasing muscle mass and training.

We went to the indoor track after the appointment where I had a solid session. We did motor drills. Fun, but hard workout.

TMonk

Happy to read about the progress Hermes.

TMonk

My club's criterium is this weekend, Barrio Logan GP. Figure 8 course with a pretty good hill up one of the long sides of the course. I've initiated and rolled breaks here a couple times in the past, including last year in the same race (35/45+).

This year, a local dominant master's squad (Monster Media) is going to have six racers present, three of whom have national champ stripes, and another one who is just as good but hasn't won nats yet. I've taken it to 'em before and won when there was only a couple of them in my race, but four???? They are going to control this race.

I usually like to race criteriums pretty aggressively, but this time I will need to be on the defensive. If they don't like the composition of a move, they will pull it back, period. So I'll have to keep my wits about me. If I am able to get up the road with some of them (and that's a big "if"), I'll be expecting to get my teeth kicked in during the final laps. My team (SDBC) will be similarly represented, but not at this caliber of rider. I will probably be the protected rider, maybe 1 more that is capable of winning.

TMonk

Training, I think I might take it easy next week. Hard to justify when I'm on ~70-75 CTL with an infant at home, but I might need it. Going to ride hard tomorrow (Zwift), race Saturday, and I might get a leash for a long ride on Sunday, my first father's day. Then I'll need some rest. Plus, I haven't really taken it easy for nearly a couple months, so mentally I could use a re-set week with low TSS days or off days.

Hermes

First ride on my TT bike on Fiesta yesterday post Mexico. Warmup with accelerations and jumps and then 3 sets of 9 x (30" on 1' off) with 2' of z2 riding between sets.

I got to Fiesta mid morning and the overcast cleared and the wind picked up. I had solid legs and killed the workout. Nice day and there were a couple of cyclists on Fiesta but no real hitters.

procrit

Man, Tulsa Tough was not good. For whatever reason my legs vanished, and all my numbers looked pretty crummy. My teammates all said that the races were much harder than last year, but I still was hoping for better results. I'm going back to the drawing board...

Hermes

procrit

The human engine...some days better than others. Sometimes I forget to pack my fast legs. It happens.

TMonk

hey maybe you just had a bad day. it happens. I feel like my bike form (as long as fitness is adequate at least) is kind of like my pool shooting: I'm always decent, but sometimes I have flashes of brilliance.

TMonk

Looks like I get a leash for a 4 hr ride tomorrow morning - let's call it a father's day present. I'm honestly conflicted about whether or not to ride zwift (lol). I could go out in this beautiful San Diego weather, or stay in my garage and stare at a screen.

TBH though the Z ride would be more social. On the road, I'd be solo, whereas on Zwift, the 3R club is having a 100k endurance ride (2.5 - 3.0 w/kg advertised pace) that I could do and just bookend it with some solo cruising. The chat can sometimes be fun and make time wiz by. Plus, there are brand new routes released from the recent expansion. It's a toss up, will be a game time decision.