beatlebee 

Bozeman century.

sstang13

Did a loop yesterday as hard as I could, sorta, which wasn't too smart because I had a 142km very hilly (Sydenham, Snake Rd., Rattlesnake) group ride today about 12 hours after yesterdays ride. Lucky for me it go cancelled due to thunderstorms, maybe next week. Might do a easy hour or so today, will see if the weather clears up.

rbart4506

T-storms...What T-storms? Just finished a 3.5hr ride,. There were a few periods of moisture, but nothing major and the heat quickly dried everything!

Good day in the saddle...

sstang13

They were calling for it, there's still a chance of them. It's currently pouring rain down here in Guelph. The weather is a bit bi-polar today though.

teufelhunden222

Ok, so my training is as follows. Monday is sprint day, wednesday is distance day and saturday is hill day. ended up at 152 miles last week and 11k of climbing. Seem fair enough for a beginer?

Beaker

If you read others posts, you'll see that most folks measure their training in terms of power based training load (total training load TSS) or times in zones/intervals. You can approximate effort with HR zones too, but the numbers you've posted above don't tell us much. You could do one long ride of 152miles and 11k ft of climbing which would be a nice long endurance ride, but of next to no value training for a 45min criterium.

revchuck 

That's a pretty good week of riding, but as Beaker implies, you need to target your training towards the events/races you're planning on doing. Pick a specific event/race and back-plan from there. And if you haven't already, buy and read Friel's book.

thechemist

I know you commuters can commiserate. 2hrs zone 2 ride but man was it humid and hot. My early ride to work(read 4am) is usually a real pleasure temperature wise. I know it is getting hot when my glasses are fogging up and I am dripping in sweat at 5am riding in zone 2.

Blah

rbart4506

Nice evening on the bike with my wife...

Rode up to the local club TT, the weekly crit was cancelled due to road conditions because of the flooding/rain storm Toronto way. Did the TT, set a PB and wasn't even going 100%. Saving the legs for this weekend.

Riding up i set a nice endurance/tempo pace and the wife was hurting... Either I'm stronger or she's tired after Nationals, I'm guessing a bit of both...

rankin116

Group ride tonight. Hit 55mph on a descent.

caloso

20x15" on-off intervals. It's a surprisingly hard 10 minutes.

mattm

SJBC twilight training "crit", same old story.. 2nd again. I would jokingly say "FML" but people that take things literally might get upset so I won't..

Anyway it was good training. I hit the hill hard every time even though it didn't make tactical sense, and went otf solo for a few laps (2 mi laps) trying to bridge to the solo break, but alas couldn't.

Attacked the field with about .5 mi to go, before the 3rd turn. Held them off up to the line, one guy almost came around but he said I got it. Not that it matters since only the winner is tracked in this ~race anyway. More good training, looking forward to Cascade coming up!!

shovelhd

Did you go for the late prime?

mattm

No.

I was in the winning break (with 13 to go) with the winner and another guy, and got lazy and dropped out. At least how that's I remember it; in reality I probably just couldn't hang.

The other guy dropped out eventually too, and the winner (recent natl 55+ TT champ apparently) solo'd away. He's done it before and will do it again.. just gotta hang on to him longer!!

Jandro 

Fast group ride.

50' z2, 50' z3, 50' z4, couple shorter anaerobic sprints/efforts. Legs are feeling good.

TMonk

got my ass handed to me by zitter and co. at the track last night. as per usual I finished ahead of the main field in all races, but not quite as strong as zitter, hans and this other dude. thus I continue my lifelong path of being "above average."

Ive just come off a rest week so my legs were more than a little bit stale - they felt either dead and unresponsive or extremely tight and burning - there was none of that sweet, efficient feeling that is the middle ground.

this morning was an hr ez, tmrrw will be 2x20's, and 5-6 hrs of steady solo riding over the weekend will round out week1 of this new block. next week at the track should be better.

sstang13

Hammerfest yesterday, basically 'race pace' intervals on an 8.1 km loop. Goal was to hang on the back for the first one, hang on but take a few pulls the second time, and then try and make something happen on the third. First one was a success Second I decided I felt good about 1 km from the finish and attacked up a hill but cracked as I crested it and from then on I got dropped anywhere from ~2-5 km in on the third and fourth ones, my heart was within 10 bpm max the whole time, wth is wrong with me!?

My coach a while back explained to me that the reason why I get dropped in races all the time is because I can't take the pain. When it hurts to much, I stop. And I just cant push through that barrier/threshold. He said once I do though, I'll realize that it's really not that bad, it'll still hurt, but it will be more of a 'good' kind of hurting when you know you're still in the race and all. But when I'm on rides like yesterday's, I do push my hardest and try to "break through" but no matter how hard I push, I just can't push big enough gears to hang on. I've trained a lot so I wouldn't think it's my fitness but maybe it is because I always get dropped within the first half hour of the races.

What do you guys feel about this? How much of racing and hanging on is mental and being able to push the pain aside versus fitness? Any thoughts are appreciated

Anyway, did 1:10 today easy to keep the legs open for another hammerfest tomorrow, legs are tired.

caloso

90% of racing is half mental.* One thing that did wonders for me is to give myself permission to quit, but only after I hung on for 30 more seconds. Nearly always that was enough to keep me attached, the pace would ease up just a bit, and I'd recover and keep going. It doesn't matter whether it's a hill or a crosswind or a bridge attempt, I'm just burying myself and repeating "30 more seconds, 30 more seconds, 30 more seconds."









*Apologies to L.P. Berra.

globecanvas

I remember Levi saying something like, bike racing is a process of constantly trying to trick yourself into thinking it's almost over. All I need to do is get to that little rise, that tree, that corner, etc.

Jandro 

Pretty common way of breaking down big goals into a series of smaller, more easier-to-complete goals in all aspects of life.

Whether it's saying "30 more seconds, 30 more seconds, 30 more seconds..." or "Ok, get to that corner. Ok now that tree. Ok keep going until I get to the top of this rise...", try to break down the goal of "not getting dropped" into smaller, more manageable goals. Your coach is probably right - it seems to be a mental, rather than physical, barrier you've been running up against.

I used to do the same thing. When it started to hurt "too much", I would just turn off the gas. My racing/club mate noticed it and would shout at me to keep going. So I did. Once you break through that barrier, you will see you actually can keep going (well... most of the time anyway ). It helps to remember that when you're hurting, most likely everyone else is, too. When I think about that, it helps motivate me to push a little longer or go a little harder.

shovelhd

The mental part is takes the longest to perfect and is the easiest to lose. What helps is to know what you are capable of. Training can give you an idea, but trying things in races is what really helps. Just keep trying. Push the barrier. If you fail, you fail, but you'll either find out what you are capable of, or what you might have done if you tried harder.

sstang13

My coach did also say that the next 5 seconds are the most imprtant 5 seconds of the race, and then after that, its the next 5 seconds and so on. Just last Thursday I was riding with someone who wanted to pull the whole time, but I was still in pain. On a hill I was in a lot of pain where I would normally give up, but said just to get to the top, ended up staying with him for the entire ride which was another 50km or so (ouch) and thought I finally broke through the barrier, but is it something you have to break through every single ride? It just seems it comes so easy to everyone. Well at least to me because I always hear of even the noobs completing races, but I can't even stick with the pack for 20km..

Ps. It's not that I just say "this hurts, I'm going to stop now", I'm the last to give up. I try to push as hard as I can but I just never have the strength to push hard enough, or is that what the mental aspect is all about?

Jandro 

It's definitely not easy for me. I have to constantly tell myself to keep going when I'm nearing the limit.

Flatballer

You're certainly not alone. I'm working on the mental side a lot lately, as well as the physical. Last night was the Orr Rd P/1/2/3/4/5/6 industrial park crit. My goal is to just hang on a little longer each time I go out. This time I got 2 laps not counting the neutral I think, so like 4 minutes. It's partly being able to ride smoothly and with little effort in a pack, partly learning to dig deeper to hold that wheel, and partly not having the power to hang. Doing the riser at 800W every lap takes it out of you when your 1 minute power is only 400 or so.

It can be a little depressing to watch everyone else riding like it's no big deal, attacking off the front at speeds I can only manage for a few seconds, etc. But if you keep racing and training and learning and suffering, eventually you'll get there (at least that's what I tell myself).

You also might be one of the slow starters (not the technical term) that Friel talks about in his bible. Some people go from untrained to relatively fast in a short period of time. Some people it takes them a long time but they can get just as fast or faster. People's bodies just adapt at different rates. I know it's depressing to get dropped from the group ride while everyone else is just chatting on the climb, especially when they've only been riding a couple years, but you can be one of those guys eventually.

shovelhd

The whole thing is a progression. Comparing yourself to others can be a fools errand.