Exactly the same, but different

Another mixed training day. Did some climbing out of the saddle intervals and a TT interval but both types were different than yesterday.

On the climbing I did not go as long but I did get into the 94+% range sooner and stayed there longer. Also did fewer on them.

During the TT interval, I focused on my positioning while keeping my effort steady and less on going fast aspect. Did a kind of ladder where I spent 2.5 min in a road bike TT position (sort of a forearms on the tops of the bars as the hands wrap around the horns of the brake hoods idea), 2.5 min recovery, 2 min TT position, 2 min recovery, 1.5 min TT position, 1.5 RI, 1 min TT, 1 min RI, then 30 sec TT. The triceps are surprisingly sore after that. Also used my forearms to push the bike around on the climbs so the upper body got a bit of a workout today as well.

Tomorrow I'll put in a straight endurance ride to get some miles in before the group ride Sunday that was delayed due to weather 2 weeks ago.

Distance: 50.04 km
Speed: 27.44 kmh
Cadence: ?? rpm lost the cadence magnet. Will replace it for next ride
AVG HR: 164 bpm
Weight: 202.2 lbs

Transitions

Slowly figuring out how to follow a training plan when my local road topography does not suit what the workout calls for as I transition from training indoors to getting back on the road. Warmed up for 10K then climbed from the river to Hampton Road out of the saddle the whole time in about 6 minutes. Starting to feel the climbing vibe. Got into a steady pedaling and breathing rhythmn and it felt quite comfortable. Took a brief 2 minute RI then into the drops for a high 80, low 90% MHR TT effort on the flats.

The climb, RI and TT effort combined together for 10K, which came in just over 19 minutes. Had a little recovery then when I hit the next hill, got out of the saddle for the whole thing again. Even on the flatter or slight down hill sections. It was about here that I started to see how I could follow my training plan by slightly modifying what the book called for to fit the roads I ride. I figure that I could get my climbing training in by getting out of the saddle whenever there was a hill. Get on a hill, get out of the saddle in the big ring, recover on the downhill then back out of the saddle. I may not have a 10 minute climb close by but I do have several 3+ minute climbs and several other 2+ minute climbs with very little RI in between.

I think I had several instances when I was "Dancing on the pedals" too. :) Felt pretty good about the 28+ kmh average speed today as well.

Distance: 42.02 km
Speed: 28.75 kmh
Cadence: 74 rpm
AVG HR: 160 bpm
Weight: 203.0 lbs

The end of 2011 turbonights

Last night of Wednesday night turbo sessions @ MOB. Perfect attendance and I achieved noticeable improvement on two counts. First, I was better than last year in that I was actually able to complete all elements, in some form, of each session this year. Even as the sessions got more difficult I was able to keep up. Second, specific skills I will need in July are coming around. For example, I'm now capable of standing out of the saddle for 5 minute stretches and pushing through some psychological barriers that kept me from moving to a new stage of improvement. Yeah me.

The last night had a ladder of TT's. 3, 2, 1, 2, 3 minute TT efforts. Did 53-17 on the way down and 53-19/21 on the way backup. Also did a 5 minute standing ladder with 15 second sprints every minute. My quads were screaming for mercy after the efforts Sunday and yesterday but I did it. It wasn't pretty and won't say my form was very nice but I did do it. Next,  a 5 minute sitting ladder starting @ 100 rpm down to 80 and backup with 10 second sprints every 50 seconds. Did not do this in the big ring and I think it saved my ass. 2 minute ILTs on each leg with no RI and finished off with a spinup. Rocked it on the last 15 seconds to honor the coach. Yeah Mock Orange Bikes! You gave me a great start to the season.

Distance: 23.43 km
Speed: 20.54 kmh
Cadence: 78 rpm
AVG HR: 157 bpm
Weight: 201.8 lbs

10 K baseline TT

Beautiful day for a 10K TT. Warmed up for ~13.5 K (the distance from home to the start). I feel really good about my TT effort (see the data by following the link. The TT is 13.2K to 23.2K. It's fairly obvious if you look for a sudden drop in speed then up to 38 kph). I did not start out too hot. I slowly ramped up to 88-90% and held it quite well. On the flats I was averaging 38 kph (except for 1K around 3K into the TT). It started to get really hard around the last 2.5 K, when I had the descent to the river then all uphill to the end. But even that I think I did well. I hit the hill @ ~93% and went all out, bringing the HR up to 98% just as I hit the top.

I'm pretty pleased with the route itself as well. Mostly flat to slight down hill until the last 2K when I'm likely to be tired and I have to climb one last hill and drive home to the line.

If there was one area for improvement it was the finish. I almost ran out of gas as I got over the top and then the Garmin started beeping to indicate the approach of 10K. I had never used the "ride until a certain distance is covered" feature before and I got confused.  I eased up too early before I realised my mistake and hit it for the last 10m or so.

Over all, a good baseline of 34 kph for 10K

The rest of the ride was just cruising home and getting some practice climbing the hills out of the saddle. Noticed some weaknesses that I will start to work on this mesocycle.

Distance: 43.07 km
Speed: 27.76 kmh
Cadence: 62 rpm
AVG HR: 164 bpm
Weight: 205 lbs

Not quite what I planned

Well that was quite the recovery week. Scheduled 3 rides and missed all of them due to having to take the bike in for maintainence, the MOB turbo night being cancelled and having to take the bike back in for maintainence (right shifter finally needs replacing so I'm upgrading from Mirage components to the new Veloce's. Ah well, if it had to happen, this was the week.

First day of the next mesocyle started today. It called for 3x10 minutes on a steady uphill @ 91-95% Max Hr @ 80-95rpm.

For the first day back I maybe took on too much. I wanted to recon the TT route while doing the workout. Unfortunately, I watched the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this morning and was rushing to put together the workout for this afternoon. I slammed the workout together too quickly and forgot to make it road friendly. It kept making annoying beeps which lead me, for the first 15 minutes before I realized what I was doing, to keep shifting to try and keep the rpm's and HR's in range. It made the whole thing very ragged and clunky and contributed to my decision to only do 2 of the intervals.

The intervals themselves were very revealing. I started the first one way too heavy. I went from 68% to 90% in less than a minute and it really hurt. My legs burned and had no strength, I lacked rhythm and my breathing was heavy, and laboured. An unpleasant experience all 'round. The warmup + the 10 minute interval got me from the start of the TT to the turn around point of the out and back course.

Turning around I did the 5 minute RI and started the second inteval almost at the low point and heading up. A great place to start. This time I ramped up the HR over 2.5 minutes and had a much better time. I was breathing hard but I was smoother and felt like I could hold the effort. Had a little hesitation @ the 7 minute mark but the pain was nothing I haven't felt before and just rode through it. Finished at the TT start location. Soft pedaled for 5 minutes up the road a bit to cool down and decided to forgo the 3rd 10 minute interval and call it a successful first day back in the saddle.

Tomorrow I do a planned TT test so will try to get into a smoother rhythm.

Distance: 16.39 km
Speed: 28.07 kmh
Cadence: 84 rpm
AVG HR: 164 bpm
Weight: 206 lbs

Embrace the Pain

Wednesday I embraced the pain. The last few session have been hard and my motivation has been flagging andWednesday was shapping up to the toughest yet. My legs were dead and sore and I was expecting the the workout to be even harder than last week. But, I decided I was going to embrace the pain. As tired as I was, I was not going to let it rule this session. I was going to push hard and break through the pain. I was going to take a Jens Voigt attitude and tell my legs to "Shut Up!". On my way to Mock I cranked Overseer, psyching myself up by listening to the heavy big beats (and frankly getting my face into a good grimace of pain for practice) before the session. As much pain as I was going to experience, it was not going to break me. I was going to embrace it. I was going to revel in it. I was going to crush my pain. AARRGGHHH! 

The boys at Mock did not dissapoint. 4x 2 min overgeared TT @80 rpm, followed by 2x 4min TT@ 90rpm, followed by 5 minutes standing (starting in 53-13, sprinting 10 sec each minute then shifting to a harder gear then backup to 53-13), followed by 5 minutes sitting overgeared (sprintiing 15 seconds every minute) and finishing with 2min ILTs  on each leg.

Joe told us to really hit the second 4 minute interval hard as that was the one that would pay off the most. So I gave it. Focused on two of my goals this year, visualising myself TTing @ 34 kph and/or climbing up and over that cat 2 mountain. I really left nothing on the table and felt good about it. Then he said, "The next interval is really hard too...". I hung my head, dug in and gave it my best shot as well. The climbing out of the saddle was not agonizing but the sprint was, shall I say, lacklustre. But I did give whatever I had and that was an important accomplisnment for this night of embracing the pain.

Oddly, this mantra worked. I'm feeling really good about the workout and I think I learned something new about my abilities tonight. For instance, the climbing out of the saddle interval was actually tolerable and not nearly as dfficult as it was the first time I did it this year. Hmmmmmm.

Distance: 19.62 km
Speed: 17.56 kmh
Cadence: 74 rpm
AVG HR: 160 bpm
Weight: 203 lbs [and dropping :) ]

Some promising early observations

Good solid effort on the road Saturday. During the 2x 15 min intervals. I got about 7K in on each 15 min effort using the sections of the route with the most climbing. Of the 385 meters of climbing, ~220 was done during the intervals.

I had difficulty maintaining the cadence zone given the terrain and bike handling was sketchy with my constant shifting. I'm thinking it might be better to find gearing that approximates the desired cadence for the route profile and go with that rather than struggling to maintain a particular cadence. As long as I keep the HR in the right zone I should still be accomplising the desired task.

The other cool thing about the ride was that I did this route at a pace that I had not reached until the end of June last year. The average speed included the intervals, the ~20 minutes of gentle warmup riding and ~20 minutes of easy easy gear cool down. I'm really interested in how I'll do when I get to give it full gas.

Lastly, some notices for charity, and other event, rides are starting to roll in to the LBS. I think I'll check/adjust my training schedule to achieve one of my peaks sometime during the 6 week TT series being put on by MOB this year. A TT should be good personal best type competition in a context of a realistic race event (i.e., fans cheering, crossing a line, cow bells etc.) that should be a fun introduction to bike racing without making myself feel bad.

Distance: 32.23 km

Speed: 26.51 kmh

Cadence: 87 rpm

AVG HR: 160 bpm

Weight: 205.6 lbs