hack

Yesterday was a 2.25 hours, 200 TSS, and 3700 feet climbing. All in all a pretty tame week (650 TSS, 160 miles, 8.5ish hours). Racing crit(s) on Saturday really kills the training weekends I've been getting in.

grolby

Normally I would agree, but four layers of clothing, good people and 'cross bikes can really turn things around. It wasn't 100% fun, though. Crossing the Bourne Bridge over the Canal was easily one of the scariest things I've ever done.

hubcyclist

Did you ride or walk? I did a charity ride from Westport to Falmouth in oct and they required us to walk over the bridge. it wasn't really windy that day but the effect was more pronounced crossing the canal.

mattm

About 3 hours this morning.

Since I got sick last week and only ended up with ~8 hours/500 TSS, calling that another rest week and restarting Build 2.

grolby

We walked on the way over, but more than half the raised sidewalk was covered in snow, the remaining half was icy and vehicles were constantly going by just 18 inches away at 60+ mph. With the ice, wind*, and limited space, it would have been easy to slip off the sidewalk. And anyone who did that would've been dead. It was genuinely horrifying. We took the right lane and rode over on the way back, which also sucked - especially since we then had to take the exit ramp off of Route 128. At which point we had to contend with random people screaming at us or visibly acting out their opinion that we were obviously there because we were insane idiots and/or troublemakers and not because we had no other choice. That was sort of the worst part for me, really. That people are such ******** that they're unable to see past their own noses long enough to consider that the weirdos in spandex might have held a conference and come to a rational conclusion that the safest option available was to ride a short distance on the side of a highway offramp. Anyway, for all that, it beat the hell out of trying to walk across again.


*we had been shouldering our bikes, but once we reached the main span the wind had picked up enough that being dragged into traffic by your own wind-blown bike seemed like a very real danger.

Wesley36

Dang.

Stretching intervals yesterday and today, the knee is feeling better. I must look hilarious foam-rollering my adductors, as I laugh/cry at the knots as I work them out. Perhaps good timing that it flared up right at the end of the training block?

Also, zinc lozenge intervals again today. Wife and kids started to fall sick with something else this weekend, and right now I am a bit congested and feel totally drained. I live in a townhouse, and I am just dragging myself up and down the stairs. Feels like recovery week time.

mattm

It's all relative.

Last year it would've been a pretty normal Build week for me, but not this year!

globecanvas

Somebody posted about snow shoveling TSS...





One hour of fairly stout shoveling. HR never got out of Z1.


Our "hidden drive" sign is now very meta.

Wylde06

I have what seems like knots that just wont go away, no mater how much I roll them. They hurt so good to roll, but wont leave

hubcyclist

i wore my hrm as well, averaged 115bpm, I thought shoveling was more aerobic than that. I've spent maybe 90mins so far today cleaning and recleaning cars and driveway

globecanvas

Today I:

XC skied for a half hour with my 10 year old. Wore my HRM. TSS: 15, not going to count it though.

Shoveled snow enthusiastically for an hour. Wore my HRM. TSS: 30, not going to count it though.

Night backcountry skied for 2 hours with a couple of hammerheads. Over 1000 feet of climbing, head down zone 4 chain gang style, sweating right through my jacket at -5F. Wore my HRM but the phone I use to record it died due to extreme cold .. after an hour it just showed a screen that said "you must let your phone cool down before you can use it." Estimating 125 TSS, maybe should be higher, sure wish I had the HR recording.

aaronmcd

That's why you have to go ride afterwards. I rode a couple hours after cal aggie, but still it was low TSS for a Saturday.

UmneyDurak

Did dirt biking on Saturday morning, then went for a 2 and a half hour ride around Holister. Did steady three hours on Sunday.
Re-starting base building tomorrow. I am not even in same fitness form I was last year, let alone close to racing form.

gsteinb

strap a HR monitor on and go lift weight. You might notice that, depending on how you rest and superset, that your HR doesn't get all that high. Yet somehow the body is stressed and is sore the next day.

TheKillerPenguin

Ugh...yes...same here...more coming...i hate winter...

gsteinb

92 TSS on 1:05

owie

furiousferret

CTL took a pretty big hit in January, 82 to 64. 1 rest week and 1 injury week caused it to really plummet.

grolby

+1. Low HR doesn't mean there's no training load, and doesn't even mean that there's no strain on the heart. It means it's not sustained aerobic exercise. And on the other hand, a high HR doesn't mean you've done an aerobic workout. Check your HR after running a 200m - it'll be pretty high. Doesn't make the 200m an aerobic effort.

aaronmcd

Starting taper.
1:18 with 4x~4' climb @ 125%, 113%, 110%, 108% (for some reason I personally feel I get a better workout going hard and fading each interval), 3 short sprints, and one bus chase/draft. No ride to work. 87.5 TSS

First climb was my 3rd best all time on that hill @ 5.45 w/kg. Looks like fitness finally came around, lets hope for good form (and decent race smarts) in 10 days.

bbbean 

Minute man intervals X 20. Successfully traded cotton between the 13th and 14th intervals. Good way to start the day.

Thinking of cutting back to one interval day per week and adding a couple of tempo rides til first race of the year (RR in 3 weeks), then back to 2 interval days, one tempo day, 2 days focused on whatever is relevant, and 1 easy day.

BB

hack

True. If I hadn't pulled out of the P123 race due to the mechanical, it would have been a better day in terms of effort. A few teammates that were only racing the P123 did a fairly robust ride before hand to make good use of the day.

caloso

90' of SST.

TheKillerPenguin

What do you do as far as rest week shenanigans go? Is that 8hrs of endurance with a couple of extra off days thrown in? I ask because I usually do 2 rest days instead of 1 and 2 super easy spins, along with a couple of ~2-3hr very light endurance days. Basically no intensity at all. Last rest week was a little over 8hrs and my TSS was 207.4 to give you an idea of how easy I take it.

mattm

I still do intensity in rest weeks, just less of it.

So instead of riding 6-7 days 2-4 hours a day, I'll do two or three weekday rides, at around 2 hours, then the Saturday (2-hour) hammerfest, and only add on 0-1 hours after instead of 2-3. And if I miss a planned ride, I just don't sweat it. And I'm still doing Sunday training races in rest weeks as well.

Also some of my rest weeks are more like 4 hours/300 TSS. Last week was kind of in-between, and could probably be counted as an "on" week rather than rest, but I wanted to go harder than I did.

mattm

Woke up at 6 this morning, then got pulled into work stuff and didn't get out until 8... so just hammered for an hour.

It was good though, 1118w (peak) sprint, which I like considering I've only raced a few times this year and I'm down to 148#.

Nothing record-shattering, but I'm hoping it'll only get better from here!