echappist

got that right. 7x5x1 ZCI's on the other hand, i'm looking forward to doing them tonight.

Cycling is nice in the sense that weight isn't penalized as harshly as it is in running.

When I was 165 lbs, and i knew i was better at the distance stuff, but was too big for a distance runner and too slow to sprint.

echappist

actually, scratch that. haven't been resting very well for the last two days, and my power is 5 watts off. still, 6x5x1 is a lot better than sprinting

mechBgon

Did a night ride on the XC-race bike with another rider. The off-road part was about 1400ft ascent over 9 miles, but mostly zones 2-3 for me. Call it a recovery/active-rest ride after yesterday's slog, I guess. Sure was nice to ride a light bike for a change, instead of the studded-tire monster

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/67373780

caloso

Measly 76 tss today, but it's better than nothin'.

king-tony

Two short ramps and thirty minutes at ftp were the directions for the day. My Quarq battery died at 20 minutes in. This did not bother me too much.

LowCel 

I've got to do 2x20 minutes threshold this evening. Is it wrong to say a prayer to the bike gods for the battery in my Quarq to die?

Allegheny Jet

Two hours on the trainer last night with a 1:35 Z3 interval within the workout. My average for the interval was within 1 watt of the last time, even though I rode a gear higher @ 95 rpm.

Trainer class tonight where I'll get some real suffering doing ILD's, high cadence spin-ups, overgear into OTS 85+ cadence intervals and other devious methodologies assembled to inflict pain in the name of cycling skills.

rbart4506

Rest week...Suppose to be an easy 60-90 minutes tonight...Of course now I have a friggin cold...Perfect!

rkwaki

Now we're talking in my arena. First off when it comes to cycling and I think about a sprint I get excited and pumped up. Again I don't use a power meter so cannot really comment on numbers though I rode with a friend a couple weeks ago (he is a little lighter than I am) and he was in excess of 1500 watts on a few of our jumps.

I seem to end up in this discussion alot. My beliefs are you want to develop big sprint power and leg speed there are two things that will help accomplish this
1. Weight work in the gym
2. Sprint more - interval training, sign sprints, etc

I have always been a big gym guy and train legs extremely hard (hence their size) and believe that it is this leg strength that allows me to sprint the way I do. Gym work is something that I never shy away from even during the race season I am just more careful about when I do it.

I agree with some of the other comments regarding short intervals. I use my spin bike for short intervals. As I have a big kick for the final 250m I do 15 second intervals (approx 250m) starting from like 5 rpm and spin them out until I hit 15 seconds. Basically I go from 5 rpm to 180 rpm in about 5 seconds leaving me 10 seconds at 160-180 rpm, then I rest for 45 seconds and repeat for 5-6 reps, 10 minutes of rest and repeat. At the end of this interval session my legs are completely cooked (and pumped).

When it comes to the sprint itself I completely agree - when you pull on those bars pull so hard you thing you are going to snap them - there is a reason I use aluminum bars/stems - its because I go after it like a fat kid to a candy bar and though my wheels hold a straight and steady line my bike is dancing wildly under me as it comes to speed. In a 15 second all out sprint I have figured I sprint best by standing for 5 seconds to get to speed then sitting for the rest if I am at that 130+ rpm range.

Let me think some more...

kensuf

Good stuff, keep it coming.

ridethecliche

Wait, really?

You sit after you get up to speed? What?

That takes the ripping bars and dancing bike out of the equation! I'd understand that if you were doing it to get separation from a group for a break, but in a sprint?

graphs

1h30 on the trainer last night. Was supposed to be 2 hours but I recently made some significant adjustments to my position and just didn't feel like I should push it. Hopefully I will acclimatize to the new setup in time for the 4+ hour endurance ride this weekend.

rkwaki

All depends on the load on my pedals and my rpm - spin bike I have to sit down. On the road I do a mix - uphill I sprint standing as my rpm isn't as high. Hard to stay standing at 38+ mph and super high rpm.

I stand corrected - just went back and looked at some sprint pics from last year - I am back up the last 75 meters or so

rkwaki

OH Btw up at 4:00 this morning and on the bike by 4:20 for 1 1/2 hours at moderate pace - legs are fried from yesterday's leg beating

waterrockets 

FWIW, when I was in the gym a lot (pretty steady for three years), my legs never got bigger. I never did max sets, and did 10 reps on most exercises. I had gotten to 405x10 on the squats and 1200x10 on the leg press. I've still always just had moderately skinny legs.

Regarding sprint training, I've taken to liking on-bike more than in the gym. Note that the pure leg strength is only part of the finish of a crit or RR though. The last 2 minutes may have significantly reduced my sprint power. I've found that most of the time I actually work the sprint, and launch with 75-100m to go, I'm peaking at maybe 1400W, when my 5" power at the time was 1650W. If I launch from 800m out, I'm still fresh enough to find >1500W for the separation, and there just aren't many people prepared or willing to drop that kind of power from 800m.

I also know that a lot of guys do really well in sprints and don't have that amazing 5" power. They get it through leg speed, positioning, and threshold.

rkwaki

Well said - so much of it is timing, strategy and shear willingness to win.
I continue to develop leg power as I am a big guy and feel it helps me (I wish I were smaller like most of you). I have some friends that are going to set me up on a Powertap just for *****s and giggles

ridethatbike

Last night was 3x15 SST, followed by 15 minutes on the rollers. TSS 94, IF 0.82. Not a hard workout by any means, but I had been slacking off the last few days so last night felt great.

I just got a hold of the rollers to (borrowing from a teammate), and they are a lot of fun. Last night was my second time on them. I really have to concentrate on relaxing, otherwise my upper body gets super tense. I'm sure it'll come with time.

Probably more of the same tonight, maybe a little longer on the rollers. I need to adjust my FTP upwards as well (yay).

waterrockets 

It will be good if you can spend a week or two with it. You'll have a few surprises about when you're really going hard and when you're not. You might be able to calibrate your internal RPE meter as well.

rkwaki

Thanks WR - I think that is the plan - at least give me an idea - I may be old school but would still like to see numbers so I can fell all important n stuff

Crash716

so...going on 2 days in a row off right now...can he make it three?

GirlAnachronism

Great gym workout at lunch today. Up to my body weight (130) on the squats now.

TMonk

Damn all this talking of lifting makes me a little jealous. I used to be a 2-3x/month hard leg WO kinda guy, but since I graduated and don't have free gym access that has stopped...

mattm

Sometimes it gets the job done though.

TMonk

Pendleton Ride was a blast today. The killer crosswind out and back made it kind of interesting and painful.

Way Out:
I got dropped about 25/35 min in, right after we left the base. Some one got to the front and freakin drilled it right in the gutter. Single file, no echelon, no shelter. I lasted about a min around 200 BPM before I got popped. By this point the ride was about 1/3 the original size and I got swept up by a chase group of 9-10 riders and rotated all the way through the campground. Fun.

Way Back:
I decided to leave a little earlier with a smaller gruop (8), figuring that we would get swept up by the main pack. Turns out the some fast guys were in our little group (including that La Habra/Chronic Tacos dude who makes the announcement at the beginning) and we didn't get caught; in fact we were only 4 strong by the time we left the base in Oside. Felt moderately strong; I'm looking forward to beginning my race season in a few weeks.

After:
Ran into a hipster/fixie friend at Pacific Coast Cycles. He's a pretty unpretentious and friendly dude actually. We shot the **** with Chuck about some of the classy and vintage bikes he has got in there and then I drove home. Great morning.

rkwaki

Way to go GA - I did my first squat workout yesterday and it went better than I thought it would (didn't have a belt or straps so I was a little more careful). What sucks is my lifts yesterday were about 60% of what they were last year - damn injuries.
But I guess now I can finally get some quads