Tuesday, May 18, 2010

the legs aren't willing

For the past year or so, I've been working from home. That makes riding much easier--really, it makes life much easier. But recently, I've been driving into the office so I can work in the lab. This morning in the rain, I got a good reminder about how much time driving can take out of the week. Anyway, it ended up being a long day. I had no chance to head out to Westlake, but at least I still had a chance to get out on the bike before the sun set.

I was pretty pumped up to get out and do some hard intervals. I rolled down to the bike path and took an absent minded drink from my water bottle, and immediately realized I was totally dehydrated. I probably had two cups of liquid in 10 hours. I did one interval and just sort of ran out of steam half way through. I took a little break, then tried to pick up the pace again, but without much success. Even though I felt pretty good mentally, my legs were toast.

Hopefully I'll get back to my normal routine in a few days.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

it's done!

First of all, really big thanks to Lynn Marut and Don Cernanek. Without them, there's no race! Lynn was at the eye of the storm of all the chaotic activity of the race all day. Imagine it: the rider list shows up, riders line up, the race gets underway, and before you know it, the race ends. Places get tallied, and then it's time to do it all again with hardly a moment to take a breath. Don's guidance really helped get us through the day.

Next, big thanks go out to all the volunteers who got up really early and spent their day registering riders and keeping everything organized. Without them, there's no race! Special thanks to Jim Behrens and Daryl Breedlove for driving the support vehicles.

The park was quite supportive and easy to work with. I have to say it was pretty cool to see the ranger car come around every lap with the lights going.

Al Dottore was really the driving force behind getting the race going again.

Charles Howe provided a lot of information and consultation about the race and also helped out at the finish line. PDQ Cleveland provided a $500 donation to help defray some of the expenses of the race.

Pyro Apparel provided the really cool winners' jerseys. Mountain Road Cycles provided prizes, mechanical support, and helped to promote the race. Thanks Guys!

Chris Nicula and Jim Behrens spent several hours helping to plan and organize this event.

And thanks to all the riders for riding hard today!

Friday, May 14, 2010

this has all happened before

I made it up to Leroy for the first TT of the year. The weather was nice and warm and the road was dry, but there was a 10-15 mph wind out of the SSW.

I was looking forward to testing out the new Reynolds wheels on the Leroy course. Also, I am feeling like my fitness is steadily improving, so I felt like I could get a good time, so my only plan was to go all out from start to finish.

I was fixated on the power meter through the whole ride. I pushed a big gear, and just kept trying to keep the power reading around 300-350W. The outbound leg was a total struggle in the wind. When I got to the hill, I was feeling pretty good, so I ignored my pacing and pushed a little too hard, cracked a little bit, then had to back off on the second half of the climb.

I didn't really get back up to full gas until a few hundred meters after the turn. Then I wasn't really able to drill it over the last mile.

Once I got home, I went back to my 2009 training log to check my time. It was exactly the same as last year's edition--down to the second.

I felt like I had a lot left in the tank last night, so hopefully with some better pacing next week, I'll pick up a few more seconds.

Monday, May 3, 2010

race intensity

The weather radar looked apocalyptic on Sunday morning, so I skipped the CB race. But, the bad weather slid east of us, so I won't be getting my AMS approval any time soon.

I ended up doing a "race intensity" workout in the afternoon. My route for that these days is to head west on Sherman to Caves road, then take Caves down to Pekin, and head back to Bass Lake Road. There aren't any big hills on the route, but there are plenty of rollers.

The noteworthy thing about the ride is it actually was at race intensity. I was pretty satisfied by that effort. It seems like I'm through the early season muddling phase, and am now building up toward July and the Tour of the Valley.

Sherman Road seems like a pretty good way to evaluate my fitness. When I ride a race-like tempo, the little rollers push me into the red in rapid succession. In the early season, I'll blow up after only two or three of them. Once I get in shape, I can absorb the effort and keep the tempo going.

So, the next couple of months, I'll be cranking up the intensity a notch or two and also stretching the length of the rides a little bit. Also, I'm going to try a new tactic to burn some fat--doing early morning rides at recovery pace in addition to my normal routine.