Back from my month long sojourn and had the first two "on the road" rides since my ACL replacement. All good! I am not to exceed 20 minutes of cardio work but I did two 15 minute intervals at 230 watts with warm up and cool down. I figure if my body can't assimilate a new tendon in 14 weeks then I suck anyway...

Riding hard always puts the screws to my appetite. In my simplified view, the amount of work to be done for repair is a set amount that can be put on hold for awhile, so if you undereat here or overeat there it doesn't matter so much as long as you listen to your body's signals (which processed food is designed to interrupt). Counting calories is a good way to underrecover! Carb manipulation is far more effective (I'm assuming you already eat 5-6 times a day, which is arguably just as important). They're OK in the morning but otherwise only eat them before/after workouts and throw out anything with 'enriched' in the ingredients. I wouldn't worry about the carbs in vegetables since it'll be hard enough to round out your menu. I love my corn syrup-laden Honey Bunches of Oats as much as the next guy but when my dedication wanes my shirts get a little fuller like clockwork. Insulin tolerance is one of those genetic things and my family definitely got the short straw, and a big part of why you can race bikes and still be huge.

286 W for 20 min test - new best - need to confirm with 1 hour test

found weakness in the 5 minute range - best is 304W; gonna go easy for a day or two then try to hit 600's for 1 minute and 350-400W for 5 minute; 5 sec is in the 1050-1080 range; hit 36 mph on flat solo sprint today

doing half-squats, 4 sets of 12, 102 lbs, raising weight 5 lbs at a time every 1-2 weeks

working on a fully powered pedal stroke

put on 3-4 pounds at the beach; not coming off easily; going back to tracking what i eat and trying to eat 6 times a day with no eating after 5pm-ish; i suck at eating vegetables

new crit series starting this Sunday at NC State; hope this work will pay off

+1 I have an uninterrupted 1.2 mile stretch that's all uphill or flat. Nothing steep. A really mild downhill would be ok, but you need to be at a comfortable cadence so you can continue to kill yourself.

Yeah, 3' intervals is bordering on AWC work more than VO2Max. I think it takes around 2:30 to fully saturate for VO2 work, and with a 3' interval, you're not getting much time actually pushing VO2. I prefer intervals closer to 5' for this reason.

[quote=waterrockets;9275078]+1 I have an uninterrupted 1.2 mile stretch that's all uphill or flat. Nothing steep. A really mild downhill would be ok, but you need to be at a comfortable cadence so you can continue to kill yourself.



Yeah, 3' intervals is bordering on AWC work more than VO2Max. I think it takes around 2:30 to fully saturate for VO2 work, and with a 3' interval, you're not getting much time actually pushing VO2. I prefer intervals closer to 5' for this reason.[/QUOTE]

Or you can do 4' v02's like me because you're a big sissy .

1:30's gotta be worth something.

Either 'A' I'm not fully recovered or back up to snuff. Or 'B' I have lost some fitness.

This morning I tried my normal 3x20mins and could barely finish the first. I struggled like a mu-fu but fought through it to do a 90% then an 85%. Thought I was going to blow chunks.

Thanks for the new thread, been wanting to post but couldn't get into the old thread.

Sat was good, did the A-/B+ training ride (we a have a A+++ group ride on Sat morning as well but I'm way to out of shape for that one). Threw in some attacks that broke up the field, and was surprised that I was able to recover and attack again. Didn't have the legs to contest the final climb to the city limits sign though. My form is coming back and the weight is coming off as well, I'm down to 152 from a high of 155.9, 4 more pounds and 3.5%bf to go.

That's why you keep the rest period short!

Yeah, I did ATC this week and made a commitment to ride really aggressively, knowing I wouldn't be able to hang in the front. So, I ended up off the front with the usual group of hammering Cat 1/state champ types. For the sake of training, I took regular pulls, and eventually got dropped from a group of five. I've sat on these guys' wheels before, but couldn't stay with them on those hills when I was taking pulls. Good training.

I beat a pro* in the bunch sprint from the chase group 10" back.

*woman

Yeah, that will help blend it into VO2 with those more intense 3' intervals, but if you're really not recovering betwen them, then it's turning into an FTP workout with AWC jumps. It all blends together, so you're certainly getting VO2 work in.

Recovery ride turned into a long ride yesterday when a friend decided that he hates recovery rides and didn't want to bother with one so since I didn't know the roads we were out on a 30 mile+ ride before they had to call a sag wagon because it was getting dark. Never had to have a sag wagon before, but whatever.

Totally messed up my recovery...

Leaving you with a silly note.

From a kid I go to school with (lol):

Yo ridethecliche i met some bra at a race this week who said he new you from the bike blogosphere/internets. I'm pretty sure his name was bostongarden and he discussed buying a powertap with you or something....anyways, small world...a few random equipment questions:

Any tire recommendations?? I'm thinking I'll get some more deserving tires for my new wheelset than $15 Schwalbe's....

Also, brakepads??? Should I be concerned about replacing them?? If so, what do you recommend??

Did a 10k TT effort today with some better than expected results. 301NP was higher than I would have expected given my recent conditioning, way down from what it should be about now but I'm encouraged by the fact that I don't have as far to climb back as I thought I did.

Dude, that's great power, congrats! You're staging a fast comeback.

I did some STUCI intervals today, and my power is down a bit. I feel really good, but the power's just gonna dwindle if I can't find the training time. FTP is probably around 350W right now if I wasn't riding at 100F. I'll get back up to ~7 hrs again when school starts up I guess.

It's the heat man, no way to get around it unless you do what I did and that's roll out at 7am. BTW at the end of the 10k I had to noodle home...I didn't have another 10m in me at the power level.

We have a "6-day" series on Sunday evenings here in Fort Collins around the CSU Oval, a 660something meter loop on campus. The races are track style - points races, miss n' out, etc.

That also means they are all 3-10 minutes and hurt like hell!

Anyway, I busted my '09 sprint record last Sunday.

5s - 1356 (21.35 w/kg)


1m - 546, not quite a record, but close. But since this wasn't a test I actually sat up at 50 seconds. 50s av was 595w (9.44w/kg). The first spike is where I broke the 5s record.


The loop is a big oval with one side maybe 1-2% uphill and the other down, with the corners level. Finish line is on the uphill side, which is where the two spikes are since I was going for points in a points race this lap. Held on for the next set of points too because I had quite a gap.

My theory is that training actually beats down strength, hence an increase in 5s power after 3 weeks off.

Also did 3x10 at 310w this morning, so the longer stuff is coming around too.

Hey Ze!
Congrats on the new 5sec best. That's better than my best ever peak wattage of 1,320! And I'm 6'3 and weigh 172 lbs!

The wife and I will be spending our 1 year anniv./ belated honeymoon in Ft. Collins and CO Springs next month. I think I'm going to talk her into some riding while we're there. Scenic recommendations?

Yeah, my 7:15 commutes are stronger, but the morning humidity gets me down too. It's just tougher in the summer.

Nice work. I can't see photobucket at work, but it sounds like a great 50" effort. That's a really great 5" power to be carrying around with your FTP.

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Nice stuff Ze. Sometimes we don't have enough people show up for a real crit practice (10-15) so we do a few different track events. Miss n' out's are my favorite. I hate win and outs.

Did 1x40' z4 climb up to the top of the ridge in Santa Barbara this morning. Sucks to get out of bed and the legs and heart rate are a little slow in the AM even after 25 min of easy spinning to get to the base of the hill. After about 15' in I start feeling great and the pain subsides until im almost over.

Views from the top coming down are absolutely gorgeous of course.




Plan on hitting the road tommorow at 6 am for 3.5 hrs at the upper limit of my z2 with 2x25-30' z3-4 climbs thrown in. I plan on being really tired all day tommorow afterward

Hopefully I can get out of bed on time....

I didn't see happy anniversary, so, from another post to ya somewhere else on BF, take this in its place and substitute "anniversary" for "birthday"

lol, thanks!

First year is said to be the hardest. We hope so because it's been absolutely great!!

Where are you going? What does the upper limit of your z2 and z3-4 work out to? Maybe I'll join you...

My status...

Was in a bit of a slump for a while but power coming back up finally. I didn't think I felt great but my legs came around eventually for the lunchtime hammerfest. Highest ever AP and NP for that ride, and I am finally finding myself back in the hunt at all the sprint points, although I still usually can't seal the deal--I think I was third in the first two and fourth for the last.

Last week I had my highest 60 minute NP (4.7 W/kg), second highest 5s, and third highest 1m, so things are looking good

Uggh. Feel like junk today. Taking the day off, apparently my recovery ride yesterday didn't help. Four day weekend coming up, so I'll get to make it up.

I'm about to sit down and try to craft a nice training program for myself. Picked up the training bible and my brain is just overflowing with information.

I'm excited to finally follow a plan. Any tips?

If it's your first year really riding, then follow friels advice and don't make a plan.

If not, then remember that it's late in the road racing season, so you should be thinking about next season instead of immediate results.

Take your time and build up and remember that recovery is important. A balance between volume and intensity needs to be struck.

How much time do you have to train per week?

Tough training crit tonight. Windy as heck.

New 1 min record at 560W.
New 20 sec record at almost 1000W. It was 970, I missed it by 1 sec. Previous best was 1kw for 15 secs.
New 30 sec record at almost 900W (892 for 29 secs).

I guess my sprint is coming along and it's more of a drag race style drawn out sprint than anything else. This was all from sprinting into a stiff headwind.


I'm a bit confused about what to make of this, but my NP for the 40 min crit was 292W (227AP).

20 Min AP is 248, NP is 324.
30 Min AP is 237, NP is 305.

My LT was tested to be 255 a couple of months ago, I'm guessing it's gone up a little bit, but I'm wondering if the NP from this training crit tells me anything. I'm guessing the numbers are pretty meaningless because of the huge VI (1.3ish).

I don't think I have a 280/290 FTP.