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Training Status??? (IV)

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Training Status??? (IV)

Old 08-09-18, 09:10 PM
  #12251  
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Spent almost 8 hours "on the bike" today chasing around the tour of utah. Only about 3.5 riding, but I ran into nearly all my cycling friends from Northern Utah, so I was pretty stoked on how today went!
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Old 08-10-18, 05:39 AM
  #12252  
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Did not ride this morning as planned. Just couldn't get myself going. Going to have to ride tonight, when it's really hot out.

That said, I did the same work out after work last week and before work this week. Last week's after work performance was much better than this week's before work effort. I'm wondering how much of a factor when I do the workout is toward my performance. It's not a clear cut answer because I was doing a lot more intensity this week than last, so I was more fatigued this week, but still, I wonder.
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Old 08-10-18, 10:14 AM
  #12253  
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This was supposed to be a big week for me but both Tuesday and Wednesday were days where my power was down or I just had to cut the workout short. I *think* I'm fresh today so we'll see.

I'm sitting at 72 CTL and imo, you need a transition week where you are going to have to train tired and suffer through if you want to jump to 80+ and get bigger aerobic gains. Going just by RPE and resting when I feel tired, I'd never go over 70 CTL. If I'm wrong about this I'd love to hear why.
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Old 08-10-18, 11:15 AM
  #12254  
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nope that sounds about right. it follows with necessity that if you want to increase your CTL/aerobic engine you have to go in a negative TSB hole for a while, and then a while longer to start feeling fresh and good at higher CTLs

also its August! It's hot, humid and smoky (in your area) and racing is over. Take a break!!! That's what I'm doing. Track on Tuesdays and Thursday nights and outside of that just commuting and riding on the weekend if/when I feel like it for the next 4-6 weeks. CTL still at ~85 so I can afford to lose some before I build it back up.
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Old 08-10-18, 11:35 AM
  #12255  
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I only demo'd Training Peaks so never had enough time in it to get the hang of the CTL and ATL figures and such. I just pick my "dumb plan" and apply my power for the zones and go do it. I don't have time for mega 12 to 20 hour weeks. So the intensity is a bit different anyway. You all are talking a different world I'm not into yet.

Rode the group ride last night. Felt like I had a disproportionate amount of time on the front along with another guy I ride with. Our turns were all in the several minutes range, and other guys taking turns in the 30sec range with skips. I can "TT" or sit at tempo just fine. But it's annoying dealing with surges and being back on front again just a mile later. They weren't able to pull much.

Even so, I wore my souvenir polka dots from the France trip and went off up the pair of hills on my own to prove my worth....lol. By hill, I mean 2 min hills if gunning for it and 3min if not. I waited at the top of the first one. The second one is the last one, so just went on back to start. Wasn't caught. Lost time waiting to turn near the end, so almost caught. I couldn't gain any more time once the grade went under 2%.

240w NP and 20min over 300w for a 90 min group ride. The majority of the 20min spent in the 330+ zone.
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Old 08-10-18, 11:45 AM
  #12256  
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Originally Posted by TMonk
nope that sounds about right. it follows with necessity that if you want to increase your CTL/aerobic engine you have to go in a negative TSB hole for a while, and then a while longer to start feeling fresh and good at higher CTLs

also its August! It's hot, humid and smoky (in your area) and racing is over. Take a break!!! That's what I'm doing. Track on Tuesdays and Thursday nights and outside of that just commuting and riding on the weekend if/when I feel like it for the next 4-6 weeks. CTL still at ~85 so I can afford to lose some before I build it back up.
I'm coming around to this thinking. I'm just going to ride for fun (what? what's that?), maybe think about doing a CX race or two this fall, and then lay a nice deep base for next spring.
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Old 08-10-18, 11:47 AM
  #12257  
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word. Racing here starts in February with Valley of the Sun where I like to be fit, so I'm going to spend September making sure the CTL doesn't get tooooo low and then start hittin' it by Oct/Nov.
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Old 08-10-18, 02:19 PM
  #12258  
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Originally Posted by TMonk
nope that sounds about right. it follows with necessity that if you want to increase your CTL/aerobic engine you have to go in a negative TSB hole for a while, and then a while longer to start feeling fresh and good at higher CTLs

also its August! It's hot, humid and smoky (in your area) and racing is over. Take a break!!! That's what I'm doing. Track on Tuesdays and Thursday nights and outside of that just commuting and riding on the weekend if/when I feel like it for the next 4-6 weeks. CTL still at ~85 so I can afford to lose some before I build it back up.
I still have 1, maybe 2 races (Mt Whitney SR and maybe CCCX) then I'm done until November. I have a vacation in Spain during October with no bike and another 7 weeks of easy riding. Things start out so early here you have to start training in November.

Next year I'm planning the Belgian Waffle Ride and La Ronde Tattiene so its going to be a big year.

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Old 08-10-18, 03:18 PM
  #12259  
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Originally Posted by furiousferret
I still have 1, maybe 2 races (Mt Whitney SR and maybe CCCX) then I'm done until November. I have a vacation in Spain during October with no bike and another 7 weeks of easy riding. Things start out so early here you have to start training in November.

Next year I'm planning the Belgian Waffle Ride and La Ronde Tattiene so its going to be a big year.
Do you mean La Ronde Tahitienne Vélo Club de Tahiti ? We raced it this year on our tandem.
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Old 08-10-18, 06:58 PM
  #12260  
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Another day chaing the Tour of Utah. Rode south this morning to meet up with some friends at the top of the hill of the SLC circuit. Really cool little loop that I rode right before they shut the roads down.

Then, out of the blue, I got a text from an old college roommate that he was in town so I went and had a beer with him for lunch. Beer, bikes, friends and then had some good conversation with random people on the train ride home. That's how a summer day should be.
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Old 08-10-18, 09:50 PM
  #12261  
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Originally Posted by Hermes
Do you mean La Ronde Tahitienne Vélo Club de Tahiti ? We raced it this year on our tandem.
Yes, my wife signed us up for the cycling cruise, so on the last day we'll do that. I'm hoping to podium my AG but I get the impression its a really fast field.

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Old 08-11-18, 03:13 PM
  #12262  
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Took my son on the B ride this morning. We're both in pretty lousy cycling shape but there's no way we should be dropped from the B ride. Except that there was a handful (more than a handful, actually) of guys who really should have been on the A ride. And normally, that should be fine. Lots of times you just want a mellower ride or you're riding with a junior or a buddy that you're trying to initiate into road cycling. But that means if you're one of the strong guys you should not be attacking, guttering, and all the other crap that blows up the group. So annoying. I guess I need to call them out on FB now.
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Old 08-11-18, 05:10 PM
  #12263  
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Originally Posted by caloso
Took my son on the B ride this morning. We're both in pretty lousy cycling shape but there's no way we should be dropped from the B ride. Except that there was a handful (more than a handful, actually) of guys who really should have been on the A ride. And normally, that should be fine. Lots of times you just want a mellower ride or you're riding with a junior or a buddy that you're trying to initiate into road cycling. But that means if you're one of the strong guys you should not be attacking, guttering, and all the other crap that blows up the group. So annoying. I guess I need to call them out on FB now.
Well at least you feel calling them out on FB is a reasonable recourse. Try being a woman where that would get you nowhere except get mansplained that the problem is you don’t know how to stay in the draft. Never ‘OMG mea culpa, shame on us for blowing up the B ride’.
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Old 08-11-18, 05:29 PM
  #12264  
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Well my practice was bought by a corporation a year ago and last week some weird juju went down. Suffice it to say: big work stress. I never skip workouts and I’m continuing to skip one or two every week, all TT workouts. It’s frustrating but it is what it is.

Somehow I never skip the mountain bike rides though.

Yesterday did an easy coffee shop group ride. The good thing about skipping workouts is at least I was well rested, lol.

Today went up with a friend up to Mt Pinos in Frazier Park to ride mtb. There’s one trail there, 8 miles, a really great one. You can climb the trail obviously or the road, which is 9 miles and a little less steep. Friend wanted to climb the road, so we got a good chat in, he wanted to hear all the work **** and his reply was “yeah that is f-ed up, glad I’m retired”.

Anyway, great trail. It’s tops off at 8500 ft so it’s pretty cool up there, high temp was in the mid 70s, it was really nice to beat the heat. 17 miles/2400 ft, all zone 2/3 stuff, and a bunch of PRs.

More mtb tomorrow.


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Old 08-11-18, 06:53 PM
  #12265  
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Probably my biggest day on bike to date. I got a very last minute entry to the Gran Fondo that accompanies the stage of the Tour of Utah from a friend. (I did it last year, but hadn't planned ot this year because f paying 150$ to ride on open roads).

Anyways, 107miles, 10k feet of climbing. 383 TSS. I reallllly suffered going up Little Cottonwood canyon. Heat + I put in a good effort on Guardsmans. And my team was greatly annoying me. We were supposed to ride it together, but it ended up being like 3 of us pulling the other 35 and then waiting FOREVER at aid stations. I was using this as a dry run for LoToJa nutrition, so I was not taking anything and it gets real old standing around watching people eat sub sandwhiches when we should be riding our bikes. I eventually just told the group I'd meet them half way up the last climb so we could roll through together (Big sponsorship thing). Just wish I would have done that in the beginning and got to ride with people that are actually my speed and who I normally ride with.

After I finished riding lcc and clocked in my time (much worse than last year on account of a much harder course and having to ride basically the entire thing solo), I grabbed a small bite of recovery and then did laps shuttling teammates up the last 2k. That got the extra 6 miles and about 1000 feet to kick me over.

Food, beer, watching a pretty exciting finish, hanging out in kit for way too long.. The whole schebang. Then I met Rich Hincapie and Bobby Julich (very in passing) as one of my friends and teammates is working a potential business venture with them. A good day. Now off to eat all the calories.

EDIT: I forgot to mention... I've never seen as many pinarellos in one place as i did at this ride.

Last edited by Ttoc6; 08-11-18 at 08:46 PM.
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Old 08-11-18, 07:36 PM
  #12266  
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Short road ride in the morning (~30 mi), beach in the afternoon with climbing, Now that's my kind of late summer day!

Now it's off to find a restaurant with a nice patio so I can knosh and sip wine with the lady
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Old 08-12-18, 07:09 AM
  #12267  
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Originally Posted by Ttoc6
Probably my biggest day on bike to date. I got a very last minute entry to the Gran Fondo that accompanies the stage of the Tour of Utah from a friend. (I did it last year, but hadn't planned ot this year because f paying 150$ to ride on open roads).

Anyways, 107miles, 10k feet of climbing. 383 TSS. I reallllly suffered going up Little Cottonwood canyon. Heat + I put in a good effort on Guardsmans. And my team was greatly annoying me. We were supposed to ride it together, but it ended up being like 3 of us pulling the other 35 and then waiting FOREVER at aid stations. I was using this as a dry run for LoToJa nutrition, so I was not taking anything and it gets real old standing around watching people eat sub sandwhiches when we should be riding our bikes. I eventually just told the group I'd meet them half way up the last climb so we could roll through together (Big sponsorship thing). Just wish I would have done that in the beginning and got to ride with people that are actually my speed and who I normally ride with.

After I finished riding lcc and clocked in my time (much worse than last year on account of a much harder course and having to ride basically the entire thing solo), I grabbed a small bite of recovery and then did laps shuttling teammates up the last 2k. That got the extra 6 miles and about 1000 feet to kick me over.

Food, beer, watching a pretty exciting finish, hanging out in kit for way too long.. The whole schebang. Then I met Rich Hincapie and Bobby Julich (very in passing) as one of my friends and teammates is working a potential business venture with them. A good day. Now off to eat all the calories.

EDIT: I forgot to mention... I've never seen as many pinarellos in one place as i did at this ride.
Kudos on a huge ride.

Back when I did those things, I made a plan to ride an organized century with some friends, our stated intent was to work together, post a good time and finish together, unlike the previous year. About five miles in, I came off the front trying to rotate to the back. The group slowed down and l was stuck riding in the traffic lane. After several attempts, I saw the writing on the wall: the idea was for me to tow them around most of the day, after which I’m sure I’d get dropped on the last long 8ish mile climb because I’d be tired and they’d be fresh- ie similar to how it went the year prior. So I just started riding my own solo pace for the distance, dropped the group and figured I’d assimilate into some other group. Never happened, I skipped the first SAG stop, got ahead of the organized ride entirely and rode 80 miles solo. Lol the only group I caught it turned out to be a local club ride heading down the PCH, not until I was in the middle of their pace line did I realize they were unassociated with the organized ride. Got a pretty fast 20 miles in along the Pacific Ocean though. This was back when I was doing endurance racing, so I was in a different mindset than my friends were. Lol my friend who brought a triathlete friend had a similar experience, she very rarely could get him to take a pull, mostly she just towed him around all day and rode 80 miles out in the wind.




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Old 08-12-18, 11:55 AM
  #12268  
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Originally Posted by Heathpack


Well at least you feel calling them out on FB is a reasonable recourse. Try being a woman where that would get you nowhere except get mansplained that the problem is you don’t know how to stay in the draft. Never ‘OMG mea culpa, shame on us for blowing up the B ride’.
I hear you. I didn’t get a lot of mea culpas but there was a bit of oldsplaining:”back in Nineteen-ought-diggity when I was a junior there was no B ride, you would just get dropped every week and left for dead and you got eaten by coyotes and dadgummit we liked it!”
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Old 08-12-18, 03:21 PM
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Originally Posted by caloso


I hear you. I didn’t get a lot of mea culpas but there was a bit of oldsplaining:”back in Nineteen-ought-diggity when I was a junior there was no B ride, you would just get dropped every week and left for dead and you got eaten by coyotes and dadgummit we liked it!”
lol
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Old 08-12-18, 03:36 PM
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Super chill, super enjoyable MTB ride this am. Twenty miles/2500 ft climbing, about 15 miles of totally sweet singletrack. Some forested areas, some open grassy fields, some epic views, some tight tunnels (holly? does that grow around here? I guess so). Rode with a friend who is prepping for an endurance mtb race. He wanted a long zone 2 ride, so the pace was just mellow. Perfect weather, temps in the 70s. We wandered around a little once we got to the top, did a little exploring. Saw zero other mountain bikers, one woman hiking solo, eight deer and a coyote. Perfect morning.


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Old 08-12-18, 07:08 PM
  #12271  
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3 hours on the trainer, with a zwift race at the beginning. Still too smoky to ride outside. I was strong af today, but unfortunately have a power profile of a Kenyan and whether its Zwift or real life I always get popped on the selection; that 20s to 1 minute burst effort that separates the pack. Still I've learned how to cheese it by going otf early (sometimes). Three strong days in a row and I still feel good, which is a positive sign.

So I'll work on my sprint some time in the near future, the plan is:
  • Speed up my cadence
  • Lift weights in the gym
  • Catch chickens in Philadelphia alleyways
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Old 08-12-18, 08:44 PM
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Rode my mtb up an awesome climb to catch the Tour of Utah before it hit the KOM today. Awesome lcimb up, but my legs are tired after 19.5 hours of riding this week and a TSB of -41 lol. Got a cool pic of Sepp. Hope no one classifies this as spoilers, it's just a picture.


Then we descended back down the same trail and one of the guys I was with got a flat, sealant didn't work. Went to put a tube in it, that tube broke. He tried to use my 29er tube in his 650b, that tube failed.. So he had to hike about 5 miles down with his bike and his son and I went and got the car to pick him up.

Overall a huge week for me. >1000TSS and 19.5 hours on 6 days of riding with a recovery ride there in the middle. Pretty cooked!
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Old 08-12-18, 09:49 PM
  #12273  
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good stuff @Ttoc6! Very cool.
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Old 08-13-18, 09:30 AM
  #12274  
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Originally Posted by furiousferret
Yes, my wife signed us up for the cycling cruise, so on the last day we'll do that. I'm hoping to podium my AG but I get the impression its a really fast field.
It was a really fun race that we would do again. We were 6th out of 77 in the open tandem category all ages, genders and racing levels. And they start everyone racing together based upon race distance versus race category. So all the racers doing 55 Km started together including the tandems.

We did the race at the end of the cruise since we did six week vacation beginning with a cycling trip to Mallorca Spain and then spent a week in Newport Beach training at the Velodrome. We then went to Tahiti a couple days before the race.

At the start of the race, the tandems lined up next to the road but going the wrong way with all the single bike riders lined up in a conventional manner behind the start line. When the gun went off, we had to go the wrong way until we could file onto the course and go to the start line. This took about 45 seconds. We should have been at the very front of the tandem line but there were continuous changes to instructions where to line up.

For us, we time trialed the 55 Km and passed a lot of racers on single bikes and tandems. The main peloton broke into two groups, We saw them with motos after they made the turnaround coming the other direction.

The course is out and back, very scenic with good roads and fast. There are no real terrain differentiators except for one power climb that is steeper on the way back that I am sure the fast guys will kill on the return leg. So it may make a difference if one cannot hang on or chase back on during the descent. And as I remember, on the return after the climb, the descent flattens out into a round about.

I have ridden in Europe many times but I had not raced a course with round abouts. The guys on TV make going fast through a round about look easy. And it is easy but at 25 mph or more, it is a fast left and immediate right or other combination depending on where the course goes. The tandem is more beastly so I slowed down a bit but it was still fast. The course is not technical exempt for the round about intersections that are police controlled for the race.

We pre-road the race course the day before the race so we had an idea of what to expect.

The cycling cruise was a lot of fun and there is excellent riding on all the islands. It was much better than we expected. It is probably better to cruise before the race than after since one has time to recover from jet lag and can use the days before to get used to the heat and humidity. Of course, our weather right now is mimicking that of Tahiti.

Pre ride the course.



Pre-race





Getting the bikes from the ship to land



Bora Bora: Dinner on remote island



After dinner return to ship

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Old 08-13-18, 11:02 AM
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@Heathpack Beautiful routes.
@Ttoc6 Great week of riding. #monsterweek
@furiousferret Train with the Russians in Russia.
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