Tuesday night at the races

I showed up early to ensure I got a spot in the field, did a lot of warm up laps, opened it up for a couple, tested the old engine, all systems were a go. We line up and start - Jack Rabbit Flash SPRINTS through turn one and down through turn two. I'm cracking up inside, that guy is wonderful. The field realed him in, and the pace was set. I went to the front and stayed there most the race. The course was fantastic. I love the clockwise rotation. I felt like I could do anything I want ed in the race; inside line on downhill sweeper, sprit out, take out side line up hill and left,... it didn't matter. There were a ton of Natures Path and CarryTown riders so, I coached Jack to mark the fastest guy. He did GREAT. Every time a break started, Jack or I would run it down. A couple times I wanted to feel some fresh air so, I went up front and worked the field over some. Quite frankly, I felt like a man racing with boys. Every line I tried worked. Any time I wanted to accelerate and mess with the big teams, it worked. Only mistakes I made; not watching the lap board, with three to go, I went up front and stretched the feild out, then with one to go I was mid pack and needed to get outside, I finished midpack in a race I felt I coulda been top 5. But, I aint grumbling. My confidence is back, I felt like I could move anywhere I wanted, and my bike handling skills felt top notch. Bottom line, we get me, Jack, Jose, Steve, Dewey, Jeff, and the rest of the F'Burg cat 4 &5s down there and we could rock that place.

Next Tuesday, Jack and I are going to counter attack after the second preme as we come out of turn two. Come down and join us.

WOW what a week

With all the emotional shit going on in my life, the bicycle is a welcomed form of therapy. That said, Bill is one mean psycologist.

Tuesday - I rode on base, it seems like no matter what direction I ride, there is always a head wind. So, 15 minutes warm up - check, 10 minutes Tempo (ahhhh) - check, 5 minutes rest - not so much, 10 minutes Tempo (feeling GREAT) - check, 5 minutes rest - definately. Now comes the fun part; 4X8 LT, I want to raise my LT topend so, I figure, go all out. Whew, Hurt Locker - check. 15 minute cool down, sauna, finish the work day with a satisfied grin.

Wednesday - The evil dr. puts me on back to back LT workouts. I'm not sick but, I'm not well. I figure, go harder than yesterday, I'll be better for it. 2X10 Tempo, easy. 2X10 TT, I go all out (to the point of verping). Did I mention the headwinds!!!

Thursday - gotta be easier than the last two days. 3X3 hill sprints! are frigging crazy! I head to the park, roll up and over, go about a quarter mile, turn around, and sprint, thre3e quarters up, I puke on my garmin,m handlebars and front wheel, finish, turn around and repeat,.... WTF BILL?

I got 7 of 9 done, didn't fully puke again. Then rode home, oh yea, gotta get home, I live at Whiute Oak, gotta climb. looks like an opportunity to not wuss out and sprint the hills on the w

the Renegades have highJACKed the Massaponax ride

Great ride Saturday with Jack and Jose. We missed Gussie, he's gotta pay his dues to da man tho.

Started out nice and mellow. I knew it was gonna be tough tho, Jose was sporting bear legs. Jack had to get to work so, we did the short loop. Jose was good with this as long as we JACKed it up a bit. We did the last 25 miles with a 23 mph avg. Heart rate was high, I did fall back on one hill acceleration, gotta work on sprints. I think the TT legs are coming along. Smooth power pulls are becoming easy. Its the damn acceleration. I guess I'm gonna do hill intervals this week at Dahlgren.

Wednesdays workout

Fort Lee beat me down a bit so, a couple days off were in order.Thursday I decided to hurt myself so I set out to do 3X20 LTs with 10 min tempos on both sides. I got the first two done, as I faded, I decided I had made my goal, to hurt myself. Last interval turned into a hi tempo - lo LT for 10 minutes. Finished that, rode 5 miles home on the way home, Shelly drove by me, stopped, and told me the Dr had just admitted her for internal bleeding. We're hoping for surgery next week.

Fort Lee fotos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009693&id=1369791553&saved#/home.php?ref=home

Well, a recovery week is done and, so was I.

Crit racing is not for big fellas. I WILL overcome this acceleration issue. Problem is; corner one is coming, brake, roll through accelerate like crazy, power through turn two, sprint like hell, turn three is coming up, Bunch up, brake, sprint, brake, bounce through turn four, sprnt like hell, repeat 20 times.

My max HR is 169. This is what I've been training to, yesterday I hit 172. for the first 6 laps, my avg was around 163. I blew up, tappered down to 155 and got my TT on. Bring on the compresion tights and a fresh month of work outs. My goal is to do a sub hour 40 K TT so, I will not get down on myself. To get back into racing, I gotta get back into racing.

To race with friends in Orange and in Blue was great. I'm a bit scared of Jack though. I'm trying to convince him to stay a Cat 5 and go for the BAR. I actually have a hidden agenda, if he cats up, I gotta keep up.

Wednesday, where was BWR?

Easy day in the windy park. Where were the BWR fellas?

Tuesday afternoon LT intervals

Tuesday was LT intervals for me. I took a mental health day from work. Headed out, Flatted! stopped at the shop, picked up provisions, I'm off. Climb into the park at start of tempo work, feeling good today. Five minutes rest gets me to the back half, start to crank it up - FLAT. Damn, I take the front wheel off, check inside and out, no burrs, pricks, nothing. So, I fix the flat, do a short tempo, and hit the LTs. Here's my stats:

Speed - just under the speed of sound as I could barley hear myself whimpering
Power - .125 - .129 hourse power
Heart Rate - high in my LT zone 1st interval I had spitters and snot hanging from my chin about 2.5 inches

Sets two - three about the same
Set Fout - I hit my cresendo (a nasty VURP that lead to a chunky spit) Yea baby!!!!!!

Untill I get my Garmin back from warranty repairs, I'm going by feel. And, that workout felt GOOD. Good enough to break out the granny compresions tights.

Saturday with the Renegades

Wow, great ride. 62 miles total, some great hills, fast pulls, and Jose was on FIRE!.

Friday's unsceduled Tempo

It was too damn nice for a recovery day. Shelly wanted to lay down for an hour so, I was dressed and gone. Limited time meant no dilly-dalling. I got a good ride from home to park and back in 1:10. Thats 21 miles. Not bad for an unscheduled, post bridge interval, fat, old guy.

I'm feeling good today, riding 15 miles to the Massaponax ride, doing 45, then riding 15 miles home.

Thursday = Bridge intervals.

OK, these were my first bridge intervals. I rode to the park. Mechanical on the way slowed me down (thanks Dre). When I hit the park I go into a tem minute Tempo. Then, a five minute rest. I have no computer due to Garmin being shipped for repair. I figure, count to 87, then check the time and do a two minute rest. amazingly, it worked within a couple seconds. Set one, 3 reps done. I feel fantastic! Five minute rest, and repeat. Second set goes just as well. The third rep was heading up the false flat on the front side, it hurt, i pushed through it. Whew, five minute recovery. I felt really well so I went to the back side and did a twelve minute high tempo. that was good. I thought about hammering up the hill but, though better of it. Maybe I will add a ride in tomorrow. The ride home felt great! I rolled into the garage, layed the bike in the stand, What a ride.

couple of thoughts. The recovery week was good. The rides in VB were over the top, The new Ultegra works better (for me), I also made a couple adjustments. 1) yesterday, I dropped the stem 10cm. It was too much so, I raised it 5. I also raised the saddle 2 cm. This combo feels really good.

Quadzilla update

Back in the program. The program is good.

Where were the BWR fellas on Wednesday? I looked out from my garage, light mist, cool, I'm riding. "F" the stationary trainer. I slide on my knee warmers, leg warmers, then knickers. A wind sheer tank, short sleeve jersey and my micro shell. Five minutes out, the wind picked up and the skies opened. I was already warm so I forged on. Rides like this make me feel tough (even if i'm not). I got my hour and a half outside on Wednesday. Felt good (and cold).

Back in f'Burg, Back on the PROGRAM

Tuesday workout; 15 min warm up, 10 min high tempo, 3X10 LT, 10 min tempo, 10 min cool down. It may not be Pungo but, it'll have to do ................................................. Black Beans and rice nachos and a ice cold Harpoon IPA.

The new (to me) bike is getting an Ultegra upgrade. The Old Specialized is getting 10 sp Veloce (Campy) and heading to EBay. anybody want a great crit bike for $700?

Sunday cruzin

Wow, what a wonderful ride. Great to ride the fast paceline, wish we did it more often. My Garmin kept powering down. so, I do not have great data on the whole ride. I do know that yesterday I attacked the park hills and got HR into VO2Max twice. Today Greg had a helluva pull returning to the Burg. I was high end LT just holding on. Great sprint into town.

Sorry I will miss the mayhem in the park. Gotta go get a new laptop and then hit Capial Ale for my weekly $1.50 cheese burger. Oh and a couple 20 oz dogfish head ipa. Those thing will HURT me. I love Monday at Capital Ale, buck fidy meal and I leave with a $50 bill, how does that happen?

6X6 LTs put me over the edge.

OK, maybe I managed to super compensate on Tuesday. On Thursday I only managed a super colapse. Notice the fade on sets 5&6. I kept waiting for the extra burst of energy. It didn't come. On the up side, I stuck to the plan, and finished the last set. Bill, I hope this pays off as much in mid season speed and strength as it hurts today.

Whew.

Ride in the park to talk about 4X10s

MAN! This workout routine is tough. So, yesterday was 10 minute tempo then 4 sets of 10 minutes at lt. Once again, I forgot to add a five minute rest between Tempo and first LT so, I went with it. Sets two and three were very rough. I thought if I tried to alternate cadence I could "trick" my legs into liking it. Ha! next - fourth set. Maybe I will stop and rest. Skip fourth rep. No way, gotta stick it out. Five minute in, all of a sudden POW! I felt great! Went harder, with less effort, counter-intuitive. Oh well, I went with it. Then today, i'm hitting the park for a little more than easy.

I'm looking like a dream sickle in my orange and white on my new hot orange steel Lemond. Feeling good, looking better (if I do say so myself). The BWR fellas are out in FORCE! I stop and chat at top of hill. Coach Willie seez, I super compensated. WOW, I didn't know I had anything super in me. Don't do it in training to often. But, I SUPER-COMPENSATED. Isn't that how to make corn liqour? hmmmm.

Legs are feeling good, tomorrow is 6X6 LT, then, I slide into a mellow recovery week. I plan on following the recovery plan.

4X10 LTs felt good (at first)

OK, I realize I'm a month behind the BWR boys and, the 2X20s are even more brutal. That said, the 4X10s were no cake walk.

I programed the Garmin workout and once again, left the 5 minute recovery out between the Tempo and 1st LT. So, I kinda did a 20 minute high Tempo to high LT to start. I was maintaining a cadence around 80-82, HR at 150-152. I decided to try and mix things up so, set #2 I went for a bigger gear, higher cadence, similar HR. I maintained 85-87, at 149-152. Felt good but, the cadence was hard to hold in the waining minute. Set #3 - back to 80 RPM, felt hard, leg dead and tired. Rest 5 minutes, sweet ! Set #4, I'm hurting, is this really worth it? Five minutes in, 5 to go, holding 83-85 RPM at 150-153 BPM. Then, BANG! HR drops5 beats, legs feel good, I jacked up the cadence, added some resitance, got the HR up to 155 - 157 for next 3 minutes, then faded slightly. All in all, very good workout. I liked varying the cadence. Legs hirt like crazy. This is how I shoulda felt after DDTT. I might go do the Canal TT just for the halibut.

BTW, Sunday was great. BWR has a great organization. It is nice that you guys ride with us. If you want, we could start helping with your team tactics. Renegades go out for a minute or two, BWR chases, Renegades could attack with flyers, BWR real us in,...

Hard workouts

Well, I lost sight of my priorities and worked late Tuesday. Unfortunately, that meant no 4X10 LTs. Instead, I hit em on Wednesday. Then Thursday, I hit 5X6 LTs, and did an easy spin today. Legs are feeling good.

Man! I can't wait for some 60 degree riding days.

Hope to see you Sunday.

Dismal performance Dash

Well,

I've got my work ahead of me. check out the charts. At least I had a relatively constant effort. Just not hard enough. My LT is 140 to 160, my avg was 149, I think I need to hit 153 - 157 during a TT. Another tactical error; I had Beats Per Minute and Cadance called up on my bike computer. As I rode, I kept watch on my heart rate and eased off when it hit 152ish. I think, in hind sight, that I should call up speed in place of cadance. Then, shoot for speed vice Heart Rate. As long as HR doesn't start red-lining.

For those who missed this event. It was well organized. The best in Virginia one might say. I am partial due to the sponsor team being AAB. The weather on the other hand was tough. Raining in showers at times (most my first leg) and 43 degrees. Up side; wind was low.

Lesson Learned:

Warm up - great plan, get to LT a couple times, stay at high endurance for a while. I should have timed it to end closer to my start time. I ended up being about 20 minutes early.

Mental plan - I made a plan and stuck to it. To a fault. I felt better than planned, I should have adapted plan on the fly and increased HR zone by three to five beats.

TT is like unrolling a large roll of carpet. It kept me in the right frame. I did have extra juice at the end and began using it 4-5 miles out.

Season is young. Remind myself I am coming back from an eight year hiatus. I will not be in top form for another few months. Stick to the plan. The evil mind of Coach Bill will get me where I need to be.

What a nice day!

Sunday is long steady distance (LSD) day. The Renegades were sleeping off hangovers or recovering from week one of shift work so, I headed out to enjoy the day.

This time, I managed to stay down in fat burning range most the time. I did the White Oak loop then headed out Massaponax way. It is very hard for a big feller to keep HR low climbing the FCC hill. Had a couple mechanical issues to tend to, turned at Jackson Shrine, rolled home a a bit higher pace, all-in-all a very pleasant ride.

Note: second sunny day, spent mostly in TT position, tops of arms are a bit burned. Feels better than wind burn from all the 30 degree rides tho.