Racer Ex 

I appreciate the input folks, I really do. Right now it boils down to two things, one of which is logistics and the other is a possible attempt by the guy who recently set the US 50-54 40km/25mile TT mark. What I'm probably going to do at this point is to train for the 500m and 2k through Regionals and Nationals, then make the Hour vs. Worlds decision.

I'm Joe Slightly Above Average. Had I started this sport earlier I would have been telling stories about how many water bottles I could carry at one time at the Tour of Backwardsistan.

chasm54

LOL. Personally I envisage myself going back to the car, collecting the bottles and then being unable to make it back to the front...

AzTallRider

In my nightmares, I'm winning some upcoming race, raising my arms in the air, and promptly crashing.

Hermes

Unlike the others visualizing themselves in various possible scenerios, I was out this AM for a track workout on my road TT bike. Warmup, jumps, one full power 500 meters from a standing start and one full 333 meters from a standing start. I got some great power numbers off the start and in the TT position. I love being a sprinter. Most of the workout, I was rolling around marking time waiting for my next effort.

And... I pulled the trigger on a Power Tap track hub and had it mounted in one of my Planet X 50mm carbon wheels. Here is the bike and wheel.



The PT hub has a multistar spline that the cog fits over. It is held in place with a lock ring.

Allegheny Jet

Which ever decision you make Racer Ex, it will be fun just following your journey.

Allegheny Jet

I had a few mediocre races the past week and was feeling funky on tonight's short sprint intervals. I cut the workout shout but on the ride back home attacked a series of short rollers. On the 4% grade leading to my subdivision I let loose on an OTS sprint and felt strong. Later when loading the PT data I saw that my 30" PP on the sprint was 4 watt less than my PR that was set last Aug. I think I'm going early at my next race.

chasm54

Training hasn't been much fun this past few weeks. This was the wettest, and one of the coldest, Aprils on record here, and so far May has continued in much the same vein. We appear to have had April in February and vice versa. The weather doesn't keep me from going out, but some of my longer sessions have been pretty brutal with horizontal rain. Good for the moral fibre, I suppose...

Hermes

I am off to SoCal for a week of training at VSP and taking a standing start and pursuit clinic from two Brits from Manchester. It should be a great week at the track and I can use the PT to do some testing.

Racer Ex 

There was a reason all those Brits ended up in places like Burma

Part of our leaving Texas had to do with the weather, which in our last few years there seemed to vary between ice storms and months of 100+ degree days. The only consolation was that everyone else had to train in the same conditions, and the harder you were, the stronger you were relative to the rest of the field.

chasm54

Yes, that's true enough. Sadly, the days of Empire have passed. However, I'm going to do the next best thing and spend this coming winter - December, January, February - in Southern Spain. If I can't start the 2013 season in competitive form after that, I'll know I can't cut it.

That's interesting. I won't ask their names, but are they from the British Cycling/Sky coaching team?

Hermes

The Brits are https://www.fasttrackcoaching.biz/

They were here last year and got good reviews. I am treating the clinic similar to an A race. I want to be in very good form and not tired. I think it is going to be a blast and I will certainly learn at lot.

As previously stated, I started my "race" training with the Russians that coached the National team. They loved riding the rollers with a magnetic coupling with the fork in a stand. The winters in Belarus are difficult and when the pros were on the rollers so were we. Riding a stationary trainer has a lot of benefit. It is relentless and there are no periods of rest unless one chooses to rest. Body core temperature rises causing adaptation to be able to ride at higher ambient temperatures and there is reduced oxygen due to the fact that you are not constantly bathed in fresh air. And the routines can focus on specific weaknesses. Mentally, it is really hard so it improves focus.

I like to ride the trainer even if the weather is good. I like some of the specific workouts. My other motivation is that when my competitors are whining about the weather and not riding or doing less, I am doing more or what I am supposed to do.

AzTallRider

I wussed out Wednesday afternoon and got picked up at work. There were thunderstorms rolling through, with reports of hail. Last time it happened, I tried to "beat the storm home", got caught in a major hailstorm, and had little round bruises on my legs and arms. That storm resulted in lots of roof replacements and car repairs in Phoenix. Fortunately, I had ridden my steel bike - the hail made nice pings on the frame. I passed one other cyclist on the bike path that day (which I had trouble staying on because the water was so deep), and we both started laughing like mad men.

Yesterday, I opted out of riding again, due to a combination of a really early meeting and (here's the 50+ content) it was prep day for a colonoscopy, with the attendant fasting, and schlepping what I could drink to work. So let's just say I'll be fresh for the team group ride tomorrow. This is technically my off-season break, so I don't feel horrible about a "training failure" post.

Cleave

Sadly???

Last night was kind of strange at the velodrome. There was a bad crash at the prior private training session and a couple of riders broke some bones: collarbone and hip. The turnout for Roger's Session was unusually small and the "blue line" groups had some weird pacing. I started the second set with a group but it was stranger than in the first session so I dropped down to the black line and finished the set solo. The workout was 1 min each in Z1, Z2, Z3, Z2, Z3 times 5 repetitions time 2 sets. I was riding faster than the blue line groups in Z3 but slower in Z2. Like I said, strange. I didn't stay for the motor game as I needed to save something for Saturday.

Personally, I don't have the mental fortitude to do hard workouts on a trainer. (I don't have the mental fortitude for a lot of things related to bike racing.) Part of it comes from when I started racing in the Northeast US. I had these cheap Cinelli rollers that sounded like a freight train when you rode them and I rode them for an hour or more at a time during the winter. By the time I finished college I could barely ride them for 30 minutes without being bored. I thought I'd get over it with time but I haven't. As an aside, I ended up completely wearing out the steel bearing cups that were pressed into the side of the rollers.

I bought a Kurt Kinetic trainer this past winter thinking that it was going to be wet, but it wasn't. This trainer is pretty amazing though, it feels as close to the road as any that I've ever used. The marketing hype isn't quite as much hyperbole as usual.

I used up most of my 'hard guy' points in my 20s. Getting up at 3:30a to go to the district time trial championships is as tough as I can muster these days. Don't know Racer Ex's start time but it looks like he should be far enough behind that he won't catch me. Ex, if you do catch me and since you're the stoker, wave as you go by.

shovelhd

I have a Kurt Kinetic trainer, and I just picked up a set of used E-Motion rollers. Each has their pros and cons.

Allegheny Jet

When I want my rollers or trainer to feel like being on Ohio roads, I wrap a few rounds of duct tape over the tire and rim.

Racer Ex 

You're at 8:42, we're at 9:02. You should have plenty of time to set up the picnic table and tap the keg before we come in.

Hermes

Here is a story on the 24 hour record at Hellyer. The weather sounded lousy. https://www.bianchiusa.com/news-story...t-44478-miles/

AzTallRider

Too bad she faced so much wind, but hey, that sort of things is part of it, right? Hell of an effort and result - that is one determined athlete.

Cleave

Hi Hermes,

Pretty amazing that Seana is still riding at that level. It must be a record to set a record again almost 20 years later. Also, I presume that you won't be at Roger's Sessions while you are in town. I'll be at the velodrome on Thursday. Tuesday evening is one of the last Tuesday world championship races for me. In June I'll probably switch to Thursday night races in Irvine.

Cleave

Hey Racer Ex,

Unfortunately, no post-race barbeque for me. My teammate needs to leave relatively quickly after we're done. We should be around long enough to congratulate or commiserate as appropriate. Hopefully the wind won't come up while we're racing.

Hermes

Cleave, I will be at the 4PM session on both Tuesday and Thursday.

Red Rider

This is how I trained today. Spent nearly 6 hours negotiating short sales, composing letters to short-selling banks who are discriminating against mt clients, and babysitting new agents who can't find their tuchus with both hands. Oy to the vey!

My ride was my reward. While it doesn't measure up against what most of you men are doing, I found it significant on several levels. In fact, I'm inclined to spend my warm-up time on the trainer before an event negotiating a short sale, as a high level of frustration apparently yields great bike results.

I loved my track time and would love to increase that; however, the 90+ mile drive one-way is a significant factor.

Until we get a track built closer to us, I'll just get mad and ride hard.

Hermes

Red, That was a great ride. Note that Strava calculates your climbing VAM which was ~600 VAM which is similar to what AZTR posted. It would be higher if the hill were steeper. So I am calling BS on not measuring up.

For those that do not know Red, we got to know each other in the tandem forum where she and Cgallah were riding centuries and other rides on their tandem. MEA and I had just started racing our tandem and I talked them into joining us for the Dunlap TT which is a 30K TT that has a tandem category. They were skeptical but I talked them into it and said "how hard could it be?"

It would be great if Red writes a narrative on how she got into bike racing. Here is a pick of her and Cgallah riding from their house to the race staging area. I am sure this pic will bring back memories.

This pic deserves a caption contest.

chasm54

Cat 4 crit this afternoon. Thirty minutes plus four laps, 1.2 mile slightly undulating circuit with a 200-300 yard shallow climb to the finish. Weather (miraculously, given how it has been lately) sunny and fairly warm, but some puddles of standing water on the course as a reminder of recent rain. More of them, later. About forty starters.

Just for once the field doesn't go like a bat out of hell right out of the gate. Settle into the middle of the pack. The course is quite narrow for the size of the field, so most attention is focussed on simply staying out of trouble. I've mentioned before that crits are demonstrating to me that I need to work on my bike-handling skills. No need for me to be embarrassed about them today, there is a lot of twitchiness and unnecessary braking in the pack. After about ten minutes this culminates in a ludicrous crash, as a guy more or less alongside me decides to veer off his line to avoid a puddle, realises mid-manoeuvre that he shouldn't be doing that, tries to swerve back, thinks maybe that too is a mistake, becomes discombobulated and simply falls off, without anyone touching him. You couldn't make this stuff up. I am OK but he takes out three or four riders behind him.

This thins things out a bit, because as well as the fallers a bunch are slightly impeded and having to chase to get back on. As a result the remainder of the race is less crowded and twitchy. I'm even able to use my brains now and again and work my way towards the front as we approach the inclines, so that as my fat carcass drifts towards the back I'm still on a wheel at the top.

No question of my having the legs to attack off the front, and nor, it appears, does anyone else. So we proceed round until the finale. No chance in the sprint, roll in towards the back of the bunch, maybe 18th or 20th, something like that.

Progress. But I need to lose the rest of the weight and do more interval work in my training. I just don't have enough watts/kg to give me the flexibility I need.


Watched the 1/2/3 race that followed, which was absolutely brutal from beginning to end with attack after attack and was 20 seconds per lap faster than the Cat 4s. I have a ways to go...

AzTallRider

So I take it this was run as a Circuit Race, since the laps were over a mile? The big difference being that, if it was an actual crit, I believe the guys impeded by the crash would be entitled to a free lap to reattach to the pack. Not so in a CR.

Sounds like significant progress, indeed. Way to go.