ldesfor1@ithaca

My training day by the numbers:

35 minute Z2 warmup to the Group ride, which went as follows:

CRW42 stats::
Duration: 1:45:59
Work: 1750 kJ
TSS: 157.1 (intensity factor 0.944)
Norm Power: 340
VI: 1.23
Distance: 40.684 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1295 276 watts
Cadence: 29 141 97 rpm
Speed: 0 38.5 23.1 mph


About 10 miles in I launch a weak attack on a downhill section and get a meaningful gap. Stronger-than-me-but-also-tall rider bridges shortly. Yay! then we hold the group of for a while. Like this:

2 man Break:
Duration: 1:01:52
Work: 1143 kJ
TSS: 98.4 (intensity factor 0.977)
Norm Power: 352
VI: 1.14
Distance: 24.374 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1046 308 watts
Cadence: 32 141 99 rpm
Speed: 2.4 38.5 23.6 mph

Then we got caught. I got a good, but premature leadout and still had a nice sprint left, but as I launched early I sat up, satisfied to see that max wattage was good, even after a long break. Then, I z2'd it over to our local wall and did this, to simulate the bkill finishing climb (I WAS on my climbing weapon of choice, mind you):

Summit Ave Climb::
Duration: 2:01
Work: 61 kJ
TSS: 6.6 (intensity factor 1.404)
Distance: 0.337 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 407 593 512 watts
Cadence: 68 95 78 rpm
Speed: 8.3 13.9 10.1 mph


ANNNNNNNNNNNNDD a 3 hour NP PR:

CP 180:
Duration: 3:01:42
Work: 2705 kJ
TSS: 231.6 (intensity factor 0.877)
Norm Power: 316
VI: 1.26
Distance: 62.686 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1295 250 watts
Cadence: 29 141 94 rpm
Speed: 0 38.5 20.8 mph

Good day on the bike.

First race tomorrow!!!

-L

slim_77

I've done 5 sprints so far this season. Three yesterday--and it was only because of peer pressure. I plan on practicing doing more form sprints this week before the COUGR series.

Form sprints can help especially because you are working on body position, hand position, pedal stroke, etc. more so than power. Basically, they are slow motion sprints. Kinda fun, too.

Pedal stroke is my weakness in sprinting, I bounced my rear wheel too often last season...I'm still not perfect, but I'm much much better.

edit: 8 sprints...but you get the idea

tspek

Me too...badly.

slim_77

WR posted some good advice on this...do a search and try and pull it up. It is a matter of form, pedal stroke in particular.

try form sprints on rollers.

ldesfor1@ithaca

i've been form sprinting 2-3 times a week and it's taken about a month to finally start showing some rewards. Keep at it, your body needs time to adapt to a "new" motion/movement/energy pathway.
Keep us updated.

FormerBMX'er

See you tomorrow =)

waterrockets 

Yeah, rear wheel bounce is caused by applying force through the bottom of stroke. There's nowhere for the pedal to go, so your body goes up, and if it goes up far enough/fast enough the bike comes with you a bit. Work on training sprints at very high cadence to smooth it out a bit. That should help your "normal" cadence sprints out a lot too.

slim_77

yep. high cadence drills are helping me, esp doing them on rollers. If you are off form, you really notice it.

mollusk

End of a 17 hour week with a bit of intensity in there to spice it up.

Today's ride: Warm-up, 2 hours of tempo, half-hour of cool-down/JRA home.

Tomorrow I want to get 3 to 4 hours of Zone 2, but I'll have to go early if all I want is occasional rain. Later in the day looks like a lot of rain. I'm waiting to hear if any teammates that aren't racing tomorrow want to go for a ride.

bostongarden

1hr 42' ride to work more on managing and getting a better feel for my new higher spin rate. I'm getting better at spinning up on climbs. On a stretch where I like to do my 3' FTP test -- I was neither testing nor going hard today -- a TT dude went by and opened up a nice gap of about 75 yards. I stuck to my workout. After the "test" stretch of road is a climb that is about 400 yards or so in length. He was standing and mashing while going up and I was just sitting pretty spinning up a storm. It's funny, I didn't feel like I was moving too quickly, but, I gained and overtook him at around the 300 yard mark. I've got to learn to trust this thing. It's just weird when I am not mashing and getting that sensory feedback in my feet and in my legs that I am giving it a solid effort. But, the speedometer does not lie. I am going up the hills faster.

kensuf

it can be. That's what Albany was for me since I was still sick, good training.

substructure

Going out in a few to do some hills. About 3hrs total today.
Also going to try and get rid of this negativity that's wrapped itself around my mind. Sometimes a solid training ride can help release a lot of frustrations from the day before.

Here's to a nice morning - finally in the 50s and not in the 30s.

bostongarden

I wasn't planning on racing today, but, awoke and decided it could be as good as any training ride that I was going to do aside from something on the order of 60-90 miles, which I was not going to do today. So, I rode 6 miles to the race, raced a bit over 26 miles and then rode 6 miles home -- I suspect that I would not have done more than 38 miles today anyway. Did the Wells Ave 3/4 as I it was not on my agenda to feel pain, which is what I suspect would have happened had I entered the 1-4.

Good time, hung out in the back for half the first part of the race; then, after a bike slammed my bike (after a bike slammed it and one slammed that one -- sheesh), I decided, time to move up Effort was reasonable but nothing killer, 24.1mph, 189ap, 219np; felt some hard effort once when I chased down a break. I was very happy with better managing higher cadence - means of 87, 95 (without zeroes) and, in the last 29 seconds/push-sprint, it was 115.

Finished 12th (from what I could see). Finishing drive, sprint speed and form are clearly not there as, for the last 29 seconds, data show 480ap and 31.9mph; but that is fine as that is consistent with my training thus far and expectations. Also, I've been working on some extra stretching for my bad hip over the past 2-3 months and it is great that I can now get down into the drops, and get lower in general, with a bit more ease and comfort. Good to race!!

mollusk

A couple of hours of Zone 2 in the rain. All my teammates that were not racing today stayed home. Wimps.

Time to clean the bike.

badhat

oval training ride #4 yesterday.

my goal for this one was to make it over "the wall" with the group, after feeling good last week but getting gapped at a light.

this week i wasnt feeling quite as fresh, and it was really cold and we started 3 hours late due to the cold (by 1pm it was still only 30 degrees). but there was still a decent turnout and it was bright and sunny.

different vibe today. my understanding is that the intensity cools off in march once the racing starts, people dont cook themselves on the oval quite as much, and the cold probably sapped some legs but it was really really mellow, and stayed in a comfortable steady pack the whole way up the wall. but i made it so mission accomplished.

couple of minor attacks after that and the tempo picked up a little bit but still much chiller than my experience. so much so that i followed a couple of attacks and pulled at the front to reel one in. i knew i'd regret it later, but i was less interested in just finishing with the group for the sake of finishing with the group and more interested in working hard till i couldnt work anymore and then riding tempo the rest of the way.

so... one guy went off for the midway town line sprint, one chased, and no one else so i decided to go too.

and that was pretty much that. i was cooked by the time the pack caught us and dropped shortly afterwords, but got a great workout and got a lot further than i'd gotten before with this crew. baby steps.

now i am resting. still on the fence about the crits this afternoon. got some heavy legs and a lot to do around the house.

ldesfor1@ithaca

raced.
wells ave. A race:
Duration: 1:13:04
Work: 1206 kJ
TSS: 108.1 (intensity factor 0.942)
Norm Power: 339
VI: 1.23
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 31.863 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1220 275 watts
Cadence: 43 141 98 rpm
Speed: 18.7 34.2 26.2 mph
Pace 1:45 3:12 2:17 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 335 70 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1041 238 lb-in

fast fun, safe.

the plan was to keep riding for another 2 hours, but I didint feel like it! and I'd like to ride tomorrow before the rains move in, soooooooooooooooooooo 3 hours tomorrow z2 to finish off a really nice 3 day block.

-L

fishmel

First really hard week with little structure for the year. All winter and up to the start of racing I was making a real effort to make intervals count and rest/easy days count. The past couple years I just rode hard most of the time and was really tired all the time. I was fixated with the stupid CTL line on the PMC, and making it go up (horrible way to train btw).

So after trying to be structured for most of my training this year, I let loose a little this week and tried to just go hard all week. My downfall the last couple years is that I would do this week after week until I was worthless, and then couldn't/wouldn't recover going into key races. Need to keep reminding myself of the right things to be during, which is the main reason for typing this.

334miles
18hrs41mins
18,000' +
1048 TSS

First time breaking over the 1000 mark of TSS at my new FTP #. I know that these numbers are not alot for some of you, but for me they are the highest of the ytd.

ridethecliche

No offense, but you should probably finish the ride with the group before you start chasing everything. You're just wasting energy and won't finish with the group. I think that should be your first goal.

badhat

i dont know what you thought would be offensive there, but no offense taken.

i'm a 4 and my longest race this year is 2.5 hours

this particular ride is a 4 hour hammerfest controlled by mostly 1s an 2s

i understand you point but what i want to get out of that particular training ride is anarobic work, tempo changes, responding to attacks, rotations, etc...

i think i get a better workout for my needs putting in a couple of hard efforts with these guys for a couple of hours, chasing a little, getting in the rotation a little then getting dropped and soloing at tempo than i would just pushing a steadier tempo in the back of the pack.

i get stronger every week, and i get further in the ride every week, but even if i didnt get much further than 2.5 hours, it doesnt matter to me cuz thats the target. next year i'll worry about finishing with those guys. for now i'm happy to get in a good hard 1-2 hours and then do my own thing.

fits my plan.

train agressively, race conservatively, all that

ridethecliche

How do you do/define your form sprints?

ridethecliche

If you want to be a 1 or 2 eventually, you should train as they do, which means being able to stick it out for 4 hours. If all you do is 2.5 hours, and your longest race is 2.5 hours then you're not really training harder than you're racing. Whereas if your longest hard training rides are 3-4 hours, then your 2.5 hour race isn't going to be such a big deal and you'll finish MUCH more strongly.

Take my word for it, and if you don't then I'm sure a few others will chime in and say the same.

ldesfor1@ithaca

meh. you both have valid points, but I think badhat has a plan. Good for you, badhat in sticking to it. Do what you need to get stronger, not what the internets says.

RTC, I know what youre saying, but we may not have enough information to assume he needs to train like a 1/2 at this stage in his training.

ridethecliche

Truth, but from personal experience, training only as long as your longest races is a great way to finish very weakly. All my training rides last spring were 2.5-3 hours in length. I always lost it at around the 2 hr point in hard road races.

I think that as a cat 4, the 'ride lots' is still a great idea, especially if he can do little work and hang on for 4 hrs and then increase the work as he gets stronger. If I had a ride like that around here, I would have made it a priority to get in the training and hours especially before the 'meat' of the priority races. Spring training crits/RR's shouldn't be raced fresh. You should be using them as a build to compensate towards the priority races.

Badhat, sorry for making assumptions, but what's your plan like? If it suits your goals, could you rearrange it to have a recovery ride the day after this race so you could get in the hours? Just interested to see what you're doing and what your rationale is.

euphoria

It's almost April and you want him forsaking intensity for volume? In what 4 race is zone 2/3 fitness a deciding factor?

badhat

to be clear i definitely do training rides that are much longer than my 2.5 hours, esp in base. but this particular ride ive been using differently.

also to be clear its not really as if i'm off the front for an hour being a jackass and then getting dropped every week. i just find some value in putting in a couple of efforts.

and like i said its working for my needs, i'm hanging in longer each week, AND i'm improving my pack skills and otherwise feeling fitter and stronger as it warms up.

theres other rides around here i use differently.

i come to racing as a 10,000 mile per year commuter. WRT my plan, i am using freil and am in build 1 at the moment, so i'm designing my plan around roughly 700 hours a year. my past week looks basically like this:

monday: recovery commute 1.5 hours - i'll use this for speed drills or form sprints or duck into a church parking lot and do some cornering
tuesday: commute + theres a TT series around here thats got about 2000ft of climbing over 4 respectably steep hills and almost no flat. its 40-45 minutes, last week i did it as intervals, as all the climbs are 5-8 min.
wednesday: commute + mid week A pace training ride, just started up last week. 90 minutes, but it'll get longer as the day gets longer. more 3s and 4s in this one. theres an wedneday worlds AX here too, but i'm not up for that one yet.
thursday: commute + 90 min hill repeats, this was gonna be ZCIs but by the time i got to the climb i was gonna use i ran out of daylight, so i just did the dam roads here, which are some pretty solid interval work all by themselves.
friday: snow day, earned after 3 hard days
saturday: oval - 2 hours with the group, 2 hours pushing hard tempo by myself.
sunday: housework. i probably should have gone out today, two rest days a week is unusual for me, but domesticity called, and i felt pretty comfortable w 4 hard days this week even if my total volume was a couple hours below target.

worked out to 15ish hours for the week.

this week was a lot of high intensity work w/ 2 group rides and a mountain TT, but fewer structured drills than last week, when i did the whole ZCI, 1125211 pyramids, LSD on wednesday night thing. i am still experimenting to see what i repond to, and trying to balance pack time/starting lines against solo drills. as a former messenger, endurance rec rider, and full time commuter, i am still discovering my limitations and strengths, in some ways i am a total newb to this sport while in others, i have more miles and hours in my legs than many cat2s... so im having fun reading this board, freil, other forums and books and just playing around to see if i get any results and if i have fun doing it.

i'm absoltuely open to criticism and suggestion. ZeCanon has been really great both on the forum here and on training rides/practices, and i soak in a lot from this place.