Heathpack 

Grasshopper met the Nightcrawlers today: two hour JRA on the TT bike. Just rode it "normally," by which I mean I was in aero unless I needed to brake for some reason, probably 1:45 in aero? Neck still gets sore and the saddle is not super-comfortable. But otherwise all is well. I'm not sure about minor aspects of the fit for various reasons and I can't get back to see my fitter until a week from tomorrow. So far, though, he seems like a genius (he actually is), I think he's gotten it mostly right. He told me I would hate him for 2 weeks and I only in fact hated him for 3 days.

The saddle is the limiter for sure, its just hard to put out much power on it. Still though the bike is faster than either road bike, I rode the same exact route, same exact conditions, almost same IF, two weeks ago. Today was 1.2 mph faster and I'm not really trying yet.

I'm supposed to be in Palm Springs right now but we just didn't feel like dealing with the traffic yesterday afternoon. Leaving in a little bit. Tomorrow is my actual birthday (thanks for the pre-birthday wishes) and the plan is to ride through Joshua Tree NP, which is a 60 mile route with 4000 ft climbing. Forecast high temp is 110F tomorrow, so I'm not sure how much of the route I'll do. The plan is to start at 5am and see the sunrise, I would be ok with starting sooner but I doubt my SAG support will want to get up that early.

I'll be riding the Sparrow aka the Madone because the Di2 on the Magic Bike is not working. Seems to be the battery and I already had to replace the battery once in a bike that is less than 18 mo old. I don't know what the deal is, we'll have to call Shimano. This is why its nice to have a sweet back-up bike.

IBOHUNT

Did some sprint some stuff and some crit type stuff. None of which I am good at but as always, one should focus on what one is not good at.

Heathpack 

60 easy miles JRA, sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park. Beautiful morning, good thing I got up early though, towards the end of the ride, 9:30am, it was 103F

Hermes

Recovery pool intervals at Marriot Newport Coast Villas.

revchuck 

Recovery drinks with little umbrellas?

Heathpack 

Haha recovery floating-languidly-in-the-pool at Marriott Desert Springs Villas for me.

Hermes

No umbrellas or drinks for that matter. Soaking up Vitamin D listing to Apple radio pop tunes.

sarals 

Low cadence drills on the TT bike (TJ) today. Coach has had me doing a fair bit of cadence based intervals as of late. Interesting to note that my last TT was actually ridden better than I considered. I was a little faster with less power, but I'm still not happy with the way I rode.

I've had no saddle issues with the TT bike until today (Heathie, you had to bring that up!). I've developed some chaffing and a "lump" right on my sit bones, and it just doesn't want to go away. It doesn't bother me when I'm on any of my bikes, but it sure does afterwards. Something else to solve.

Heathpack 

@sarals, that's too bad on the saddle, sorry I brought it up. My bad.

Maybe it's the low cadence/high force?

I am ok with my saddle as long as it's nothing more strenuous than a recovery ride.

Speaking of which, recovery ride today. Took Grasshoppa down to La Qunita and had a spot of tea.



I got in touch with my fitter on Thursday and found out he does indeed have several saddles I can try out during my post-purchase fitting (which is next Fri), ISMs and Cobbs. So that should help quite a bit. It will just be a few minutes each and just on the trainer. But at least it's a starting point.

sarals 

ISMs and Cobbs! Both great!!

Maybe I was channeling saddle issues? It's been so long since I had them. I think you're right on low cadence/high force.

Grasshoppa is sexy! It will be even more so with aero wheels. Beautiful bike!

Hermes

JRA leg opener for tomorrow's TTs at Velo Sports Center.

I rolled around for about 40 minutes and took this pic from the top of the Marriott Newport Coast Villas complex. Our villa overlooks Pelican Hills Golf course and the ocean but from a lower tier. Great day for a ride. I have to get my golf game elevated before I take on Pelican Hills.

Cleave

This could almost go under the "Just hanging..." thread. Big SNAFU with US Airways this morning so I am sitting at John Wayne Airport instead of being on my way to St. Louis. If I'd booked this flight originally, I could have ridden this morning. The bad thing is I won't get to the Boeing Leadership Center until about 11:00p and the workshop that I'm facilitating starts at 8:00a. Ugh.

Great to see Hermes and Velo Diva, even though it was just for a few minutes. Track intervals with Roger were good and my teammate and I took turns leading each other for the intervals. Hadn't been to the track in about 6 weeks and I definitely missed it.

Saw this NY Times article on intervals:

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/0...also-have-fun/

Will try it on the fitness center spin bikes while I'm in St. Louis.

Oh, and I really am working on a National Senior Games race report.

sarals 

Cleave, we're waiting (not like you don't have anything else to do)!

Hermes...beautiful view, and a beautiful day!

Me - I entered a 3/4 crit for next Sunday. I need to experience and build some intensity for the upcoming Championship crit in September. I don't expect much in the way of results, I am racing younger women, after all. No way I'd enter the P 1/2/3 crit which comes right after. There is some powerful talent in that field. Anyway, the course suits me, and it's early in the morning so the temperature should still be relatively cool. I need to keep my head on my shoulders, sit in, and keep the rubber side down. No heroics. Oh, and I will have fun! It's been a while since I raced a crit.

globecanvas

That article seems fundamentally flawed. The premise is that "overweight, out-of-shape" people who are prescribed high intensity intervals will abandon them and remain overweight and out-of-shape. A physiologist then tested a specific high intensity interval protocol on "recreational runners" and discovered that they improved. This seems to me to be two unremarkable, unconnected results.

Heathpack 

I think a huge missing piece of the puzzle too is motivation. To be really motivated IMO you need specific goals that you're trying to achieve on a specific timetable. Lots of people who are new to exercise start with the vague idea that they want to "be healthier". That actually is a great, low-pressure start for people but probably not the scenario in which HIIT is sustainable, intervals are too hard for that kind of soft goal.

OTOH, if you are prepping for an important race on a specific day, you're going to be pretty motivated to do whatever workouts will maximize the gain you can make in your limited timeframe. Suddenly HIIT is pretty rewarding because you can see the progress you're making towards your goal. It worth the hurt and then rather perversely the hardest stuff starts to become a positive instead of a negative, you start to like the hard work. Maybe eventually you learn to like it independent of a goal, who knows? I haven't been there yet, I've always had a series of goals in my pipeline.

I think it's also really important to keep the intervals challenging, both mentally & physically. Plus enough of whatever other types of rides you enjoy, group rides or long rides or climbing or mountain biking, so that you've always got something you're looking forward to. Some of us are luckier than others, we have help and wind up with a great schedule.

I just think studies like those quoted in the article are flawed because they're looking at HIIT in the wrong people, the newbies or people who are just doing it as part of a study. The reason "events" are popular IMO- marathons or road races or triathlons or whatever- is because there's a game day to give structure to the training. Those are the people for whom HIIT is most relevant, who are the least likely to abandon interval training. If researchers want to determine the best way to encourage your typical person to improve fitness, I think goal-setting & motivational factors are the places to look.

IBOHUNT

I'd have to agree. I got signed up to be like a criminal for a 26.whatever mile ru**i*g event come October. I had to have hit my head pretty hard to say yes to that deal but none the less I've started "training" for it. Did 8 miles yesterday afternoon after doing a 50 mile ride in the morning.

Did some @revchuck recovery drinks but no lil' umbrellas; they don't belong in Mason jars...

sarals 

Heathie, I couldn't agree more. I think you're right on the mark.

IBO, that's quite a goal! A marathon, eh? Cool!

Hermes

Hey all I do is 30/20/10 workouts.

Hermes

2 hour tempo+ ride with wife along PCH in Newport Beach. Great day for a ride - perfect weather.

Heathpack 

@Hermes, nice route, hopefully the traffic wasn't too dicey.

Yesterday I did a short workout, 20 min of TTT intervals because I'm riding an intramural club TTT on Sat (which will be *very* low key). It seemed really easy, about 1 hour, IF 0.82, TSS 76.

Today I got a real workout, it was awesome, some over/under intervals, some high intensity stuff in the drops and a little riding around. I rode with two of my Nightcrawler friends and lost them during my last 15 min of intervals. Whoops, I am going to have to send them an apology for taking off like that. 1:45, 0.89 IF, TSS 137. Felt mighty on the bike this am.

Racer Ex 

Got sucked into a 4.5 hr MTB ride on Saturday. Worth noting that my "big" week going into track nats was 6-something. 5k+ of climbing in the first 25 miles to a high point of 8400'. I swear this is the only route that manages to go up the entire time. Hung with my skinny/tall friends (one of whom is a female nats level Xterra rider) for 2.5 hours then went into survival mode.

Love the new MTB (will post some pics soon). Did not love the old bibs I threw on, or the saddle; may have been a combo of the two but I think for the MTB I'm going to need a cutout version of my road saddle.

Took Ridley out for a long walk on Sunday and felt tired but not crushed.

Might do the crit at Nats next month, but otherwise flipping the JRA switch. Might put some air in the cross bike tires.

sarals 

I'm feeling the need for some dirt on the cross bike. State crit first, though.

Did some over unders today. I had a bad night last night, work stress (and there is a LOT of that lately), and it took it's toll. The ride was "suboptimal", in fact I half way blew up on the UMAX effort and couldn't do the high pace effort after it. Well, the difference between the now me and the last year me is I know why and I also know it's an aberration and not a total collapse. Hence, no panic.

Saddle sores are healing. I need to stop wearing my old knickers on long training rides.........

I entered the 3/4 field for the crit this coming Sunday. Let's see how long I can hang!

revchuck 

Yesterday I did three sets of descending Z6 intervals, 1:00/:45/:30/:15, rest period the same as prior work period, two minutes RBS. Power stayed ~133-137% for all of them, and it didn't seem that hard; went straight back to regular cruising speed without dipping back to recovery pace at all. Of course, last Monday's intervals felt easy, then I barely made it through Thursday's and then spent a few minutes doing my best fish-flopping-on-the-dock imitation, so I'm not claiming a breakthrough yet. Today was a recovery ride, tomorrow is a rest day; this has been the pattern through this and the last build. Five sets of the same intervals Thursday, then 7x1' Z6 on Sunday, and six sets of the descending intervals the following Wednesday, and I'm through with the zone 6 stuff for a while. CTL has been hanging around 50 for a while, coach hasn't decided on the following build but has said that it will involve more duration. She told me that these intervals are "fun, in a sick kind of way", and I agree.

Heathpack 

@sarals, too bad about the work stress, hopefully you'll have fun this weekend racing, I know it's been a long time coming for you.

valygrl

Enjoy the crit sarals - it's been a while, unless I'm mistaken, since you raced? A 3/4 crit with a slightly bigger field than some of your other races might make it easier to hang in. Good luck, and looking forward to the race report!

I'm up early because I get to do "wednesday morning velo" this week - it's a group ride/networking opportunity. I've only done it once before, and it was great, so I'm psyched - even though the alarm rang way too early.