TMonk

Did some MTB'ing with @wktmeow on Sunday, bit over 2 hrs pedaling with a lot of up and down. Good times. @wktmeow loves talking about how he is a slow MTB'er but I was impressed by his descending skills! I would gap him when things were super twisty and/or technical, but not on straght, rocky descents and definitely not uphill lol.

We straight up hauled ass on the final ~3 mi (flat) segment to get back to the car. I wasn't exactly bleeding out of my eyeballs and we did have to slow a few times to not run over hikers, but we still logged one of the top times on Strava (3rd?). I think with no hikers and an all out effort we could have taken it .

johnybutts

I've been working my way back into a healthy lifestyle. Went on the keto diet about 2 months ago and have lost about 22 lbs. Starting to ride again over the last couple weeks. Primarily using zwift, The gains come quickly when you start from nothing, but it's depressing to see how far my numbers are from when I was fit and fast. c'est la vie. One day at a time I guess.

Hermes

Gym workout yesterday. I am a great observer of other peoples workouts and their physical condition. What was notable yesterday was a younger woman's lower body workout and assuming we are allowed to still observe these things, her lower body, which was perfect.

I was coming off of the track camp and racing so I started my workout on the Stages stationary bike in the gym. What is interesting about the Stages stationary bike is that it is equipped with a real Stages power meter so power is probably pretty accurate. I did notice that if I juiced up my left leg, I can raise the power up 50 watts but not so with my right leg. Of course, that is how a one sided measurement system works.

While on the bike, there is the woman (mentioned above) doing a band walking routine just like the one that I do and planned to do after I got off the bike. I finish my bike and put on my band and start walking. She goes to the Smith machine and puts on 140 pounds on the Olympic bar. With the band on her legs, she positions her shoulders on a platform and puts her midsection under the bar and lifts the bar.

After band walking, I do a variation of that but I keep the band on my legs and get a large ball. With my shoulders on the ball, I place a medicine ball on my gut and touch my ass to the floor and come up to a bridge. The ball on my shoulders destabilizes the motion so it is harder to do.

I proceded to lats and biceps and then to additional floor work and cable work for core work. The woman keeps knocking out these glute / ham reps on the Smith machine. I get a steam shower and when I come out, she is now using the Olympic bar deadlifting 275. The woman weighs 100 pounds tops and 5 feet tall.

Also, I have seen her do the 45 degree hand stand from the pushup position.

Okay, more work, it never ends.

Hermes

@TMonk Beware of cyclists who claim to be slow.

Where did you do the mountain biking?

TMonk

RE: petite lady at the gym... Beast Mode!!!

@Hermes we rode at Ranchos Peñasquitos Canyon, starting from the Canyonside Park TH on the east side off Black Mtn Rd. Most of the good stuff is north on Del Mar Mesa, in between the actual canyon and the 56 bike path. I like to start and end my riding with some stuff in the actual canyon, but spend the bulk of it up on the Mesa.

TMonk

On most Tuesdays I like to commute to and from work (8-12 mi depending on route), then do Tuesday Night Racing at the track. I wasn't able to finish up at work early enough today so I went down to Fiesta Island after work and did some hammering for a bit out there.

furiousferret

Tuesday Night Worlds - First group bois! I was the fastest up Sunset on the first lap, stuck behind a slow Porsche on the descent and got caught but a great finish nonetheless. Locally its low key big deal to finish in the front group, also something I never thought I'd do since I was back of the pack the first few years I did it....sometimes last.

Sitting at 75 CTL and I don't feel 'locked in'. I'm still fighting knee issues and my cardio doesn't feel dialed, so crushing it now is a really good sign. Sadly I can't translate this to racing unless I want to race in NorCal and that's a tough sell for a wife that spends many of her work weeks travelling.

TMonk

You racing Manhattan Beach?

furiousferret

I was going to do Sherman Pass, but I'm on call this week and my co worker can't cover since he's in the hospital recovering from surgery. So its the last 2 Redlands Friday Night Crits and that's it for the season.

Hermes

@furiousferret Glad it came together. As a suggestion, you may want to consider track racing to expand the number of racing opportunities in SoCal. In your area there is Encino and Velo Sports Center. They have omnium racing as well as time trials.

Hermes

Thanks. When we lived in SD may years ago, I rode some of that terrain on a bad mountain bike. *I have dabbled a couple of times with mountain bikes but ended up selling them. If I tried it again, I would want a bike like @Heathpack has with a PM and etc.

hubcyclist

back to the hard stuff so I can be ready for CX. While I've enjoyed following the structured trainerroad plans, I'm going off script and picking workouts where intervals are shorter, as I have trouble with repeatability with 3-5mins at 120%, for example. Today was 6x2min @ 120% and that was definitely doable. So hopefully this approach will pay off and allow me to extend the intervals.

Heathpack 

TMonk

I feel like you'd need super fancy PM with high resolution/fast sampling to capture all of the "micro bursts" (as @Heathpack put it) that mountain biking requires.

People do speak about how it's "difficult to take it easy" on a MTB, which I also don't entirely agree with. It *is* possible to take it easy between the micro (like 1s) bursts, and I feel like with enough conditioning your neuromuscular system can get used to them without feeling too taxed after a ride of given duration. Hell, that's probably also a great adaptation for track and crit racers.

I also don't have a PM on my MTB and thus estimate TSS for all my rides. But then again, I also estimate it for track racing, road FG riding, and my road race bike (which doesn't have a PM). Only my road training bike does, which averages to about 50% of all my riding.

In general, I think it would be cool if roadies weren't so singular in their pursuit of cycling. I find value and interest in all forms of cycling. Crossover is a good thing.

TMonk

On that note I did my MTB commute into work this morning, 1.25 hrs with about half of that on the trail.

On the way home I'll ride the MTB 45' straight back home on the road.

furiousferret

Thanks. I've definitely considered it, the kicker being both are 3-4 hour traffic commitments. I use to take that drive for years to go surfing, and got burnt out. I may take you up on that in the fall though when things really slow down.

colombo357

YMMV, but I ditched my low carb diet and focused on raising FTP and VO2max power via TrainerRoad with excellent results. Following their plans pretty closely, my boost in FTP has been substantial, way higher than I ever thought possible.

My weight loss has been gradual but steady. I eat healthier rather than eat less, because I need calories to improve power. Every other week, I ride 5 hours on Sunday and burn 3500 calories riding at endurance/tempo pace, and easily recover in time for my Tuesday interval workout.

I'll hit my target weight in due time (currently about 15 lbs off). For now, I'm having way more fun with a higher FTP, not getting dropped on fast group rides and contending for a spot at races. The mirror can F-off until wintertime.

Hermes

wktmeow

Thanks @TMonk, glad to hear I'm not as bad at it as I thought

Pulled the plug on training and racing (basically just skipping one last race) for this season. Just didn't feel like it anymore, and sorta felt mildly depressed for a while. Doesn't help that I picked up a slight nicotine addiction again after a wedding about 6 weeks ago (started using one of those little Juul vapes, sooo good if you're into that stuff). Just finished weaning myself back off of it. Also started supplementing Zinc and some algae based omega 3's. Hard to say what made the biggest impact, but I'm starting to feel a little better. Commuted yesterday, and in the spirit of "ride however the hell I want", smashed it any time the road pitched up, and kept it tempo-ish on the flats. Got a few PRs on some segments and also I think that was the fastest I've done my 19.8 mi commute (about an hour moving time). Then went out for a sunset social spin with some friends up to Soledad and back home.

This morning was a coffee ride before the commute, then I was going to be late so I did the same pacing as yesterday's ride home. I didn't have much for breakfast though, so I was fading by the end.

hubcyclist

more 120% stuff today, 9x2min, definitely "enjoying" these. might go out with my cross bike a little later to find some trails and practice dismounts/remounts

Hermes

Tuesday 3xTorrey Pines VO2 climbs and Wednesday TT bike on Fiesta with sprinters warmup, accelerations and jumps and 30 minutes of low cadence strength and adaptation.

JuiceWillis

Ttoc6

Been on a recovery week this week. But last night I went up to Logan to do a informal TT. Somehow, on no warmup and the worst start (probably >15 seconds fiddling trying to get clipped in) I still won the TT and set what's damn near a PB for my 10 time. Favorable conditions (hot, but not windy) and really good pavement helps. But I guess that bodes well for the 40k TT I have in a few weeks for state champs.

Races keep getting cancelled here, so there are basically just two things left on my calendar. Mid August for TT and lotoja at beginning of September. Not looking good for me getting those last couple points to my cat 2 this year.

colombo357

How you prefer 9x2s compared to say, 6x3s at the same power?

I ask because I did 6x3s this morning and was hurting by the 5th interval. Was able to gut it out, but I think I might try 9x2s next.

rubiksoval

This popped up on my feed yesterday. Kind of addresses this, though this is one of those cases where it's on a blurry line:

https://www.powertap.com/post/blog-t...es-no-go-zones