mike868y

Just got home from the battenkill pre race recon mission. It was disgusting. No doubt about it that this is one hard core race. Steep punchy climbs like you wouldn't believe. There were a few juniors there who were just killing it, absolutely insane (who rides a full carbon Argon18 in the middle of winter in upstate NY?). I know I haven't been doing a lot of intensity stuff so my 5-10' power is definitely not were it will be come race time, but it scares me that these kids are this strong in January. If they continue to peak right into April, I'm not. Definitely can't start waiting to hit the hill repeats hard next month.

dmb2786

In an open junior race, especially a big one like Battenkill, you're probably going to be racing against plenty of cat 1s. Don't expect an even playing field. Good luck, have fun, and learn a lot.

mike868y

Yea it is just going to be rough because so far 4/8 registered riders are from the same local team and from what I saw today they know this course like the back of their hands. It's not even a fitness thing as much as they just know whats up around there. Pre riding it def. helped, but it is going to be a tough race. I'm pumped though.

johnybutts

Why not race 5s? or 4s? or whatever you are?

mike868y

I went w/ the juniors because of the smaller field size and honestly because of the cheaper entry fee (strapped on cash, as is everyone). i know there will be some strongggg kids and believe me, I have no images of a grant result, but at least I won't be wizzing through that covered bridge with the other 500 4's who are already registered. Plus, when I decided to do the race, everything was full almost besides juniors and cat1/2

RichinPeoria

I rode for less time than normal today. It may be in the 50s tomorrow. Maybe the salt bike and I will go out for a ride

kensuf

I think I know what you mean. I was singing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" right after putting in a 450w 2 minute effort in my race today.

mollusk

Thanks for all the concern.

Right now everything feels fine, but that could be due to a couple of glasses of wine and Chandler Parsons hitting yet another buzzer beating 3 for a Gator victory. The bad news is that I gave up my game tickets (4th Row - Level 1) because I wouldn't be able to get back from the race in time to shower and make tip-off, so I watched it on TV.

45suited

CX bike for 4 hrs in z2 on a dirt trail. Pretty tired so not sure what tomorrow has in store. I'll see what my legs feel like.

grolby

Trust me, that covered bridge is the least of your concerns. There were recently graded dirt downhills when I did that race last April that sent the pucker factor through the roof. It's unfortunate, but mid-spring = time to fix all of the wrecked dirt road surfaces after the winter! Lots of loose gravel.

bostongarden

42' 150ap on computrainer, that's all

Nickel

My legs have felt terrible. I can't maintain any intensity.

Z2, again

umd

I'm surprised nobody commented on the part about seeing the Joule head unit on my ride today...

johnybutts

My legs feel a little reluctant from yesterday. So I'm heading off to do ~60 miles with your friendly neighborhood group ride.

ljrichar

Hey umd, what did you think of that new Joule head unit?

substructure

2x20@92% this morning. I was going to do another session this afternoon, but I think I need recovery more than another set.
This year it's all about recovery. Recovery. Recovery. Recovery.

I'll be 40 in a couple of weeks. I need to remember that. I'm not 20 anymore. Boy howdy am I not 20.

El Diablo Rojo

After yesterdays race I need to work on recovering quickly after a hard effort....I got popped with about 12mi to go after the break I as in got caught...I had just done about a 2-3min pull at 375-400w and we hit the base of a climb. The pack got us right then and I couldn't recover quick enough to stay on...ruined an otherwise great race for me....

ZeCanon

40mph winds today, temps a hair below freezing. Good thing I didn't have much riding planned anyway.

Might take today to rebuild bikes and get as much homework done as possible. Maybe hop on the rollers for an hour later.

We'll call it a CNS day, for those of you familiar with Rick Crawford.

umd

I thought it looked really slick. And it was funny that another pro there had a Quarq w/705 and they had a little argument over which was better so it's not just a bikeforums thing

Nate552

TSB -31.5 after this mornings 10x3 @ SST.

mattm

Base 3, week 2 has been going nicely. 14 hours for the week so far, maybe a few more today.

Team ride was fun yesterday, even though we got rained on and had four flats between the eight of us.

kudude

rode for 2 hours yesrterday, and for the first time I thought that I should try to do a 20' interval. I'm mentally opposed to riding hard for over ~2 minutes

I'd had my ftp set to 265 (maybe a somewhat low estimate), so I thought I'd try to peg 270 for the 20'. It turned into "don't let it drop below 270" and looking at the data when I got home, it was 295W for 20' (which included a little downhill pedaling with the brakes on - I ran out of hill)

SO ,what do you guys think?

1) from inspection of a ride file. <--------------this ride?
2) from power distribution profile from multiple rides. <--------------- don't really have enough consistent riding since I got the ptap
3) from blood lactate measurements (better or worse, depending on how it is done). <---- no
4) based on normalized power from a hard ~1 h race. <--- haven't raced w/ it yet
5) using critical power testing and analysis. <----------I COULD do this, I guess
6) from the power that you can routinely generate during long intervals done in training. <----considering I've only done one 20'.....
7) from the average power during a ~1 h TT (the best predictor of performance is performance itself). <---- no ****ing way


.95*295W = 280W, except that I wasn't dying at the end of the interval. My legs were tired, but the last minute was at 341W (after I turned around to get some more uphill).

johnybutts

Today was 3:30 and the last half was me pulling the majority of the way. For whatever reason, I felt really good and just hammered the entire time. I wish I had my Ptap about now.

Its the end of my week, and I ended up with 12:30 of riding, and a LOT of intensity. My CTL right now is 56 based on my estimated TSS for each ride. Next week is leading into TourNB, and I'm hoping to help some people out, if not get a result myself. It seems that my CTL has been ramping steadily at ~5 CTL/week and I'm coming up on 2 stressful weeks at school, so it's good to have something in the bank.

I can definitely tell that adding in a Sat and Sun >2 Hr ride has really improved my endurance. I kinda wish I could find a bit longer rides to go on on Sat and Sun. the 3-4 hr range is nice, but I feel I could make dramatic improvements with 5-6 hr rides, and since I have the time on the weekends, why not? I just have no motivation to go out and solo for 6 hrs.

So, Goals for the next month: After next weekend is a rest week. I'll try for 4-5 hrs. Then I will hit VO2 intervals and 2x20's hard during the week, I'm thinking VO2 on Tues, and 2x20' on Thurs, while keeping the volume up on the weekends. I will aim to have a 2-3 week build phase, and take it from there.

caloso

Went on the River Ride yesterday. Brutal crosswind. Brutal pace. The group got shattered into about 5 groups with stragglers all over the place. On the way back I hung onto the front group through the Sweeper only to be slagged off at the frontage road.

165 bpm avg., 191 max, 2254 calories, 2 tired legs.

johnybutts

Caloso, how old are you?