Good luck rk!

Thank you sir.

Last two days have been wattage testing. This is coming after a 6 month injury/work/travel-induced layoff, followed by about 1 month of 3-4 days per week tempo/endurance riding. My 5s power dropped by 6%, 1m by 24%, 5m by 19%, and FTP by 16%. Adding in the 10 lbs I've put on, I'm now officially in the Cat 5/untrained categories

Going to be a long road back...

This week has been a wash.

Literally. Rained out of almost everything all week long, only got some running and stadiums time in. I'm going long tomorrow though.

What are you guys doing to recover? As I actually start to pick up the miles ahead of next years race season(I did a couple crits this year and am hooked. I'm attempting to go from a casual rider to a racer) I am having trouble with soreness and it seems like my legs never feel fresh. Do I just need to eat more? Maybe a recovery drink?

In my opinion it just takes time. Whenever I take a couple days off I notice my legs hate me the next few hard rides back. A longer break, or just getting into cycling and it'd be that tenfold. I actually remember when I was first getting into cycling, and man I suffered so much to only go like 8 miles.

But, the more you do hard rides, the more your body will get used to them and recover better. I've personally never been a fan of recovery drinks. Just make sure you have a good meal or get some solid foods, rich in carbs, into the body within 30 to 60 minutes of your ride and you'll be fine. Make sure to vary your workouts, give yourself a chance to recover a couple times a week, and have a full recovery week when you feel like you need it or every 4 weeks.

Good luck!

In addition to what Creatre said, start eating more protein. I also like protein shakes post-workout; nothing fancy (e.g. Hammer or whatever), just a cheapo Whey Protein shake from the supermarket.

Thanks! It's going to be a long process but I look forward to it.

10-4. I have some whey around from when I used to lift a lot so I'll work that back into my habits
Thanks for the help

+1. I always try to just get a meal in the first hour after I'm done and if it doesn't look like I'll be able to I'll get a high protein snack in.

3 hrs last night with the south side of town "race" ride in the middle - one of my teammates and I attacked one after another and shredded the group in the first 3 miles. Tried to ride away after the first sprint point but I went too hard for the first 5 minutes and the one guy that came with me and wouldn't give anything so we got caught. Won the second and final sprints.

today - 1 hr ez

A lot of temp = too deep a hole.
During my base I did a ton of tempo... Is that a good thing or should I vary up some other zones (SST, endurance, etc?)

If you do a ton of tempo, you will get really good at...tempo. My point to wattboy was doing tempo with heavy muscular stuff like big gear hill repeats is going to necessitate rest.

Finishing up my final month overseas. I've been trying to do some longer spin bike riding, with sustained 20-30 minute efforts as well as some 2-4 minute intervals. I have no idea if or how spin bike workouts for the last 11 months at 5k feet will compare to sea level crits, but we'll see. I can say it seems I can't get my heart up as high on the spin bike. Good news is I'm running 2 times a week and I ran a 9:46 1.5 mile fitness test last night. I've never broken 10 minutes, so for me this was a good time. I should be back on a bike of some sort in 5 weeks!



Cheers

Rob

once you get home and get a couple weeks out on the road, im sure you'll feel just fine.

welcome home (soon).

4:22, 3:30 of it with the group. Pretty animated and fun ride, tired now for sure. One more long day tomorrow and then some rest!

+1

CX practice with the club today. 5 laps - 35+ minutes of work. I felt reasonable, but I'm zapped now. We had a really good group out today. So far have only burped the ghetto tubeless when running at pressures in the mid twenties. At 33 psi it has been stable.

hard ride today, a bit wet too

A ride plus some extra miles

https://app.strava.com/rides/19698377

5:00 hrs riding solo, 4:20 moving time. Almost **** myself but found a Shell just in time. No toilet paper and no paper towels. FML.
180AP 2800 kJ. "Breakthrough workout". Mountain biking tomorrow I hope.

one of my buds had to stop in the woods on a ride one time - he went in with gloves on and came out without!

A bandanna did the trick for me once.. enough about that.

2 hours for me today, legs felt like crap but in two sprints one of them yielded the best power I've seen all year.

5-sec was 1113w or 16 w/kg. (1 w/kg less than all time best)

Race tomorrow, last local race of the season, was cancelled. Wtf do I do now? There's a crit in Spokane in a few weeks, but those usually have tiny turnout and is ~5 hours away. Ugh.

we shall call that, a "johnnybutt"

Did a loop from Boulder to Estes Park and back. Was able to hit up the Peak to Peak highway before the pro's got there and was cheered on by some of the spectators. It was pretty cool.
Capped it off with some wine, veggie flatbread, and mussels at a nearby cafe.

There is a lot of climbing in these parts...
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/214955162

All in all I would call that a good day.

4 mile run. Didn't totally suck.

Cyclocross?

Not for me. Too much running involved (any is too much). I've watched a few races and it looks like too much work, carrying your bike and all.

Also, I like races where if you get dropped you get pulled and embarrassed in front of your family. Cross does not seem to offer that..