Racer Ex 

And toes. Always cross the toes as well.

Hoping for the best news Chuck.

Weights and 30min riding the fixed gear hoopty in 104 degree weather yesterday. May do a race tonight. 7-8 hours in the car on the 4th heading back and forth to track practice for the upcoming team pursuit and team sprint races at states.

sarals 

Very positive thoughts coming your way, Chuck. As Ex said, toes crossed, too!

sarals 

Next weekend is the State TT Championship. Entered. Going. I might even do a team time trial, we P/V gals broached the idea at the Burlingame crit last Sunday. I seem to be riding decent time trials as of late, this race will be one of Absolute Truth!

On another note, work has intruded on the rest of my summer. I will be able to fit in three more races, including the State TT, but that's about it. I'm glad I hit a milestone with that win in Long Beach, otherwise I'd really be upset....

Nothing compared to what Chuck is going through. Once again, sending you some love, buddy...

Oh - and I am thrilled Shovel is back!!!! Umm...Kudos?

Cleave

Me too!

Cleave

@sarals, TTTs are fun.

revchuck 

I damned sure hope that it turns out okay. I've been feeling pretty good on the bike - not up to my best level, but progressing well. I'll be pissed if it's worse than expected just when things are going in the right direction.

Another guy responded to my post and said that he was able to train through the hormone therapy, both bike and weights, and was able to maintain his strength. So even if things get more sideways than expected, it can turn out relatively well.

Again, thanks to all for the well wishes.

Heathpack 

I had my pre-purchase fitting for the TT bike today. It was awesome, I 100% love my fitter. The fitting was supposed to be an hour, we were there almost 3 hours, just get him talking aero and you will be there awhile, aero is his thing. Totally fine by me.

We talked bikes and wheels and helmets and skinsuits and of course general cycling chit chat. I'll get my shopping list next week, but so far I know the Trek Speed Concept, Felt DA1 and Cervelo P2 or P3 will work for me. Very likely the BMC Time Machine too. The P2 will be my cheapest option, but I have a lead on a DA1 at a nice price. And I am very partial to the orange Speed Concept, that's a good looking bike.

He was saying though that by far the most important thing is position on the bike, way more important than the bike itself. He has to cajole most people into a decent position but I volunteered for a good position pretty early in the process. He was happy, I was happy, it was a good day.

sarals 

Absolutely!!

sarals 

Wow! It WAS a good day, Heathie!! You've got a knowledgeable person there in your fitter. Our coach says quite the same things. I just wish I had the time to be able to go to Reno and get a proper fit on my TT bike from him. I'd probably be able to shave even more time from my ITT's.

If I had my druthers, I'd like to have a Felt DA. However, I know I wouldn't be any faster on it than I am on my B16. It's just about it's looks, as you said about the Speed Concept. Whatever you end up with, you'll fly on it. I know you!

shovelhd

Chuck, my thoughts are with you. I know how feeling good on the bike can make life's problems go away for a while. Your race fitness will come back sometime. Keep your eye on the prize and make fun on the bike the priority. Best of luck to you.

The pin in my shoulder is coming out on the 21st. What was going to be an office procedure has turned into day surgery. That means more pain and a longer recovery. I also was going to start PT on it before surgery as I have limited ROM and pain at the extremes, but that was voted down. So it's just a waiting game at this point.

revchuck 

@shovelhd - Damn, if it ain't one thing, it's another. The bike is therapy.

Rode this morning, low Z3 for 1:25. Not saying it was humid, but I soaked my bar tape from the sweat coming through my gloves. TSS 582 for the week so far, CTL is up to 50.

Heathpack 

30 minutes of over/under intervals up this hill:



Then home through my favorite canyon, where a bee flew in my helmet but did not sting me, how lucky is that? Politely waited on my scalp for me to stop, take off my helmet & brush him off, that is one decent bee.

Went long by a good margin, but I had a big ride last week and therefore not much time on the bike this week. I couldn't resist, it was a beautiful morning here in the Santa Clarita Valley.

revchuck 

Wow, that's a sweet place to ride!

sarals 

Cali-forn-eye-aa, Chuck!

TT at FTP for 15 minutes today. More like almost FTP, because the average power was 135 watts for the interval and my FTP is 158. I only got 25 minutes for the warmup, and that's not enough. However, this was practice, an exercise, and I was more concerned with smoothness than the absolute number - although it would have been nice to see an average of around 150 watts. Tomorrow is a recovery ride, followed by a day off, then a couple of more days of TT work.

I'm hoping that the P/V gals will see fit to doing a TTT at Sattley. We could do well, in spite of our inexperience. I know it would be fun, too. I may well follow the TT's the next day with a crit. A nice, flat, crit. In a 3/4 field. NOT a P/1/2/3 field!

Racer Ex 

Ticked that they put the State TT on top of State masters track. Would like to be there for you and MEA.

Did a 7.5 hour round trip to the track for practice. Starting to feel human. Did 3 team pursuit efforts, set our fastest time in worse conditions, and did a solid team sprint. Next weekend is States. Week after is Nats.

watching a reply of the Tour. Had Dennis on my fantasy team but pulled him at the last minute figuring he'd be working for TJ long term. Piffle.

Heathpack 

I got an email recently asking if I'd ride the bike leg for a practice tri that my cycling club was putting together, someone had dropped out of the short course and they needed a bike person for the relay team. I'm smitten with TT recently and this would essentially be a 34 mile TT. Sounded great, so I said sure. Then I learned the bike leg was on a bike path over a holiday weekend, no race pace. And I needed to check-in by 6am and the start is an hour and a half from my house. Ugh. But I said I would do it, so I did it.


Awesome!

Yes, there were people on the bike path but it was not crowded and didn't really slow things down except for once or twice. We started on city streets, so there was a little bit of non-TT riding at the beginning. But pretty quickly we settled down into the bike path TT segment and that was just long and straight and flat. Perfect.

I had a few issues of course- I got confused because we were supposed to just stay on the bike path but also follow the yellow arrows. Then around 10ish miles into the bike leg, there were suddenly arrows directing you into a park. Turns out they were for the runners. Whoops, I rode it to the park and then was confused because no one was there (the runners hadn't started yet of course). The turn-around was on the bike path itself, not really possible to ride through it, you had to unclip and put a foot down, the path was too narrow. And I unbelievably fell for the same yellow arrows again, which I thought were the finish, I had been told the course was 32 miles and the arrows were exactly at the 32 mile mark. It turns out the course was 34 miles long.

Anyway, very happy with it. I rode it at a NP 96% FTP and good negative splits, 93% FTP outbound and 99% coming back. Its a little confusing though because the start was 10 miles south of the finish, the turn-around was around mile 20, so the outbound leg is longer. VI was 1.02 but I did have that small section of wandering through the park confused, so not terrible. I've had a zillion things going on recently and once I got to the start, I realized that I had zero game plan for this ride. So I was trying to figure out how long it would take me and what %FTP I should ride it at. I decided to go for 90% FTP but it was obvious pretty early that was too low. Rookie mistake.

I had a good time and it didn't really seem that taxing. I wish I had started a little harder. And it was most definitely *not* smooth. But totally fun.

sarals 

Good stuff, Heathie! Arrows, ugh, made for an interesting ride, I guess! Good training effort!

Recovery ride today. I did about 3/4 of the hour on the sticks, even though I was crawling along. It's much easier to stay aero when you're going fast than it is when you're going slow, that wind helps support the upper body. Anyway, nice ride. It was fun being more concerned with staying on a low number than with holding a high one.

Ex, I wish you were going to be there, too. However, the racing schedule is what it is. It's looking like we're going to do the TTT, Yvonne is making sounds like she wants to, but we're still waiting to see if any other teams sign up. Wednesday is the day.

revchuck 

Good week this week. Ten hours, 186 miles, TSS 603 - highest TSS since the week of Rouge-Roubaix in early March. My coach told me I could try for TSS 600 this week. Mostly Z2/3, with a 45 minute SST interval one day and a 2/4/6/8/6/4/2 threshold interval series another, both of which felt good. ATL 73, CTL 49, TSB -32.

I did an hour recovery ride this morning, TSS was 21, IF was .46. I used power this morning where I usually just go with heart rate for recovery. Looks like hrTSS bottoms out at IF .60; that's what it read the last two times I did the same ride at the same speed.

Next week brings more intensity - bottom end of Z5 for intervals - and an hour at SST, plus more Z2/3. I've been talking to my coach about Friel's book Fast After 50, where he advocates lots of VO2 max time for us fogeys. The next build is going to be heavy on them; the trick is going to be figuring out how heavy. Friel has some suggestions along those lines, I'll pass those to my coach and see what she thinks.

The weather here has been drip-dry weather. You get done with your ride, hang your jersey until the sweat stops dripping out of it, and then put it in the hamper. Stuff gets pretty...fragrant if you put it in there wet.

sarals 

Chuck, when I worked down there, I went through two uniform shirts a day. Ai.....

revchuck 

Another good week, at least so far. Intervals Tuesday were no problem. The hour at SST this morning was strange - at about 40 minutes in I was thinking I might have to break it into two parts, but I caught a second wind at about the 48 minute point and made it through no problem, could've made it longer but don't know by how much. IF for that hour was .92. It was my strongest hour since January, and that ride was all of one watt higher. I wonder if I need to re-test?

Endurance pace ride tomorrow, group ride Saturday, Sunday is an open question. I'm enjoying feeling this good on the bike again.

Racer Ex 

Doing a short recovery ride today, then driving down to the Bay Area for State track. Should be interesting.

shovelhd

Go get it Ex.

revchuck 

Best of luck, Ex!

revchuck 

Group ride went well, no problem staying with the surges until mile 57 of 60, when the ride leader (then at the back) yelled "Right turn!", I set up for the turn with the expected slowing, and the front of the group went straight. I got up to about 26 mph to catch back on, but they had decided to accelerate at that point and I couldn't make up the lost ground, so I decided to make the last three miles a warm down. Went though three bottles of water with electrolyte, finished the dregs when I got to my truck, stopped at the first convenience store I passed and got a can of Monster protein shake - because, you know, chocolate! - and a bottle of Gatorade. They both just evaporated in about 15 minutes. Spent the afternoon drinking water.

I was tired this morning, so I just did a 1:30 endurance pace ride. I've been feeling the work after that layoff. 194 miles, TSS 632, 6582 kj for the week. Recovery ride tomorrow, then the first step in my radiation treatment Tuesday, recovery (for cycling, not the treatment) the rest of the week. Following week is VO2 max stuff.

globecanvas

I had a genuine bonk on Sunday for the first time in years. Just a classic undereat, overheat, middle of nowhere bonk. HR wasn't high and I wasn't gasping, but I could not turn the pedals. Had to get off the bike at mile 60, staggered around for a while, but then pedaled slowly another 20 miles mostly uphill before my head cleared enough for me to take a real break and gag down some food. The whole ride was 110 miles. I'd have quit if there was an option; as it was, my teammate cracked far worse and was puking so I had to ride back to the car so I could turn around and rescue him.

Anyway I'm wondering how long it takes you old farts to recover after a full on bonk. Not talking about a "boy I was tired" thing, but the being at the brink of physical shutdown. I'm giving myself at least 3 days fully off the bike, tentatively planning for a bit of intensity maybe Thursday in preparation for racing Sunday.