caloso

Went to the gym. Didn't touch a machine except to use the pullup bar. Exhausted and sore. Gravity is harsh mistress.

rkwaki

Yes.

furiousferret

Really tired on my ride because I did too much housework on my day off. I need to hire a butler and just drive a motorized scooter when I'm not cycling.

Taking it easy this week. Next week I go on vacation. Two weeks off. Well... two weeks off for me. My legs are going on the opposite of vacation. No one has told them yet its not going to be a relaxing time but instead:

YMCA

I don't peruse this thread. Is it worth my time?
Figure it's prob a lot of CTL this and e-wang that.
Seems counter productive to share secrets with the enemy.

mattm

No.

Yes.

They already know!

YMCA

cat1 truth mattm

shovelhd

It's entertainment.

Hermes

Everyone thinks their competitor's training regime is wrong. But there is this aspect as well...

Ygduf

I admit, I don't get it.

aaronmcd

Woke up slow and couldn't find my computer, ended up late to the morning ride. I was told I was 3 minutes behind so I ended up doing most of it solo until I caught on, then commute to work and back.

2.5 hours in the morning, about an hour of it hard and the rest around endurance pace.
1 hour this evening, wet cold and mostly zone 1.

tetonrider

FWIW, i didn't mean to imply that myerson's comments on cogburn's riding had any relation to your riding -- i just found some of the base-related discussion going on lately to tie into the dialogue those guys were having.

there's a great deal about pro-level training that doesn't so much apply to amateurs and the common races that most of us do, and yet it's been accepted that scaling down world-tour workloads @ 25, 30+ hours/week to match 12, 14 hour weeks is appropriate. i don't think that is a given. (again, another tangent...not directed toward you.)

tetonrider

i didn't watch but guessing based on the title it has something to do with being excited that one's competition is doing the wrong thing. just a guess.

personally, i think that as one moves up the category system and/or races the experienced masters, those riders got there based on results and generally have found something that works well for them. there are many ways to skin the cat, and while often we all can improve upon some aspect of training, there's no universal solution.

Ygduf

that's what I was expecting and then I watched it and it was much less clear than the title would make it seem.

tetonrider

hopefully you get out of base just before you start to hate your bike! ;-)

mattm

dammit. woke up at 5, ready to ride on wet roads. a few of my weather apps said it would start raining, which I didn't believe but of course it was right..

now I have coffee in my system, lying in bed, listening to the rain. just can't bring myself to ride in the dark while raining!

and the rollers are too loud for this early.. there goes my 2015 season!!

mattm

yup, the timing will work out juuuuust right!

last few weeks have just been on auto-pilot (focused on volume, plain z2 with some group rides) whereas I had a bit more structure before. without any real structure things get boring quick! but I stay motivated by thinking about 2015.

bmcphx

I woke up at 230 to pouring rain after I had already made plans for a 5am ride. The weather app said no rain at all today.

Wylde06

Just over an hour on the rollers last night. ~50tss. Time to start riding a little more consistently. In the next couple of weeks going to get into a little more structure so I want to get used to riding more than I have been.

grolby

I think it's increasingly not accepted that just scaling down a professional racer's workload is the right approach, and I agree with that perspective. For example, I am currently still in an adaptive phase, easing my body back in after injury and lots of time off, so even my short trainer rides are in Z2. But when I'm in the midst of doing my base work, spending 1.5 hrs in Z2 during a weekday trainer ride would probably be fairly unproductive, that time will probably be better spent at a higher level of intensity. Aside from simply having more time to train, pro riders also don't have the work week/weekend variation in available time to ride that most of us do, and we have to plan effective training around that somehow.

gsteinb

Looking at the math, if I get down to my goal weight I can crack 5.0 for 20 minutes. Beyond that I'm pretty much where I'm at. Weight can only go so low, FTP only so high. It is what it is. Thankfully my five and one minute outputs are better, and probably have more wiggle room for improvement.

Chiming back in on the 'you've got years of base' thing…I'm saying it was a waste. I'd have been a better racer with better results had I trained wiser and more specifically. 20 hours a week of Z1/Z2 when I was in my 20s did not prepare me for the kind of racing I was really doing. And as a result I lacked the work in the zones that make me successful now. I didn't have the end race 5 minute power to hold position and then use my natural sprint. I suffered there and as a result my sprint got deemphasized. The hours were also not sustainable for me with work, job, parental cancer. It was doable in any real world application. If I had I been training for my reality, sub 2 hour races, I'd have spent more time in applicable zones, had less time in the saddle and probably a more sustainable attitude. The difference in looking at the bike after work and saying '****, I need to do 3 hours in the dark' vs 'eff it I can get my 90 minutes in on the trainer.' Of course this is irrelevant if one plans on doing p12 stage races and such, but that was never me or my goals. Train for what you're doing.

furiousferret

Nobody is doing tons of research on the guy that got 22nd in the latest Cat 5 crit. I could be in a Pharmacy buying epo with Dr. Ferrari and Lance standing next to me and no one would care.

Ygduf

we had another inch or so yesterday in RWC... sloppy roads this morning only. maybe dry tomorrow for the TNR!

globecanvas

Hermes' point is obviously, did you know that Sallah and Gimli are the same person!? Also definitely keep a monkey around if you think somebody is trying to poison you.

globecanvas

Either that or, be careful trying to interpret what you see other people doing, because you might only have half of the picture.













You have to grab the red hot medallion in both hands if you want the whole picture.

rkwaki

Great post.
I agree completely. For me, the longest I will ever race again would be 90 minutes unless I decide to do a RR, attack from the *** then ride in with the wheel truck. As such it would be 8-10 hours, balls to the wall training and weight work.