Racer Ex 

I would absolutely match her to the track position we ended up with.

There's several things that could use some tweaking. If you go to a fitter make sure they really know what they are doing with the TT bike. Or find an excuse to come to SoCal. Or call me in a month when I'm back up there

I used to compare my basketball game to Wilt Chamberlin's. Then I realized I was 11 and couldn't touch the net, let alone the rim.

Point being you should measure your improvement and racing by your improvement and racing.

Even the top pros get dropped badly in races. The reply following is this is often "my training is going well and I'm optimistic about my chances in July".

Mrs. Ex and I went up to the Whitney Portal yesterday on our way home. I climbed that thing last fall. Seemed steeper in the car.

That's really odd.

Hi ho and back to work and all that.

sarals 

AJ, you just painted the picture for me. I realized that what you described was exactly what the other riders on that course were doing. I'm headed back out there this morning, and I'll work on those short efforts. I realized, too, that I use up energy very quickly in a short hard effort and my recovery is fairly slow. If there are several bursts in a row, well, I'm in trouble! Does that improve with experience?

Ex, thanks! I've decided that Evie Stevens and you guys here are a few heads and a few shoulders above where I'll ever be. You and Shovel have given me hope!

Allegheny Jet

Yes and no. Experience is a good teacher but lags some in the training side. If you raced in a local Tue Worlds your body would adapt to the surges and attacks that take place in races. Keying your workout to address specific goals will get you there faster. The idea of hard intervals is to trigger the body to adapt to the stresses and build up strength, CV and fueling abilities. Simply put to ride up short steep hills with the group you need to train at a level that requires more effort than race pace. If the best you can do is needed time and again during a race you will soon be OTB as the body can't keep doing 100%. It always bugs me when someone says they played at 150% WTF?, how can you do that without being a sandbagger during the rest of the game? The only thing I know of that can go above 100% was the space shuttle engines which would be at 104 % at times, and look at what happened back then. Back on topic, as that was my track coach persona coming out. When you practice going up those steep little hills concentrate on form and at a pace that gets you to the top that is harder than race pace then recover for at least 5 minutes. You should not hit Z5 HR on 1 -2 minute efforts until after you have done several, if able to hit it at all. That kind of effort will build strength to climb and sprint.

To build recovery there are variations of the 20"/20" drill where you are "on the pedals hard" for 20" then "off the pace" for 20” and repeat… for sets of 5' and add time/reps and intensity as you get stronger.

Or, find a 20" hill that allows you ride into it at race pace then crush the effort up to top it with room to turn around then coast back down, then when your HR drops to 120 bpm, have at it again. You can do a few sets of 5 reps.

Another drill my coach occasionally has me do is sets of 15" seated building up speed right to 15" OPS sprinting followed by 15" seated easy spin leading to the next rep of 15" seated, 15" OTS, 15" recovery.... for sets of 7 reps.

Others can and might suggest different variations and drills which will accomplish the same. I think the key when doing those kind of efforts is that it is very hard but never at 100% maximum effort. I used to tell my sprinters and hurdlers that the key to speed was how strong are you and how close to 100% effort can you get while still being in control to make changes to your stride.

sarals 

AJ, thank you! I just printed your thread...please, let your coach out more often!

sarals 

AJ, I just returned from the circuit course. I rode out there and back, total was 12 miles, which doesn't matter. I had your first response in mind while I was on the course. I specifically DID NOT warm up, I wanted to see how my body would respond to being pushed without it. It hurt, a lot, but it worked! My legs got VERY tight on the first little climb on the course and were right on the verge of cramping, so I backed off, and then hit it again pretty quickly. They were okay after that. Here's the ride I did. I notice that my heart rate stayed up pretty well, was at a fairly even rate, over most of the course. I also notice that it would recovery pretty well on those short descents. There is hope in this body yet!

Hermes

Mount Diablo Hill Climb on July 21st is open for registration. Okay all you fatties and skinnies, this is a 10K ITT sufferfest up the north side of Mount Diablo. MEA and I are registered. Here is the link. https://www.bikereg.com/Net/16557

Flyer. https://c4racing.org/wordpress/wp-con...o_Flyer_v6.pdf

AZT, Time this race with a trip to NorCal. Sara, it is time to suffer.... immensely.

RR, This has your name written all over it.

Racer Ex 

2007. 6th. 27.23.

Hermes

My couch is available.

Red Rider

I'll be there...maybe c_gallagh will race it too.

Racer Ex 

Tested out a new cockpit and lower/forward position at Hellyer while Hermes and I were doing the clinics.

Seems to work well. Power is good and with the full aero helmet and skin suit it should be even faster. Forgive the poor line discipline, I was concentrating on holding position:

sarals 

I'm scheduled to work that day (like most races, it seems...). I'll see if I can get the day off. I'd love to SUFFER with you folks!

Hermes

This is what I did on Monday night.



While my wife did this.

Hermes

Yesterday, I did a track workout featuring 3 kilos and 2 500 meter flying efforts. I could talk about my fatty power numbers but since my speed was okay but not great, I will work on my position. Can a man have too many stems?

Hermes

Racer Ex, The women leading the group in the pic with MEA is Beth. She is your draft if she does team sprint with us.

Hermes

I realized that I focused my attention on the locals and known travelers to NorCal concerning the Diablo Hill Climb. It would be great if all the racers from this forum showed up. It would definitely be a blast and Diablo is a cool climb to race.

Red Rider

Tonight, the 10 mile version of the Putah Creek Smack Down. New PR for that distance. Found new parts of lung that have been hiding; during the warm-down I sounded like a refugee from a tuberculin ward.

Red Rider

You're right; it would be great if everyone showed up. We have a bedroom, a loft with a futon, and 2 couches if anyone is so inclined to trek to NorCal and need a place to stay. We can take up to 4 bikes on our carrier. And 2 friendly dogs.

If enough of us show up, maybe we can climb to the top, descend and have lunch together.

Just throwing out ideas -- we're in and we're flexible.

sarals 

Absolute agree! But, once again, I'm working that date...and I can't get off. S**T!!!!

sarals 

I've been getting great advice from you all (and some coaching, which I really like and need). What has made the biggest impression on my little female brain is that "gains are incremental". Well, today I notched up an increment. I went back out to the CCCX course to do some hill repeats (thanks to Coach AJ for those ). In warmup I did a "hot lap" of the course, and set a PR. It's here. My speed was up, even on the climbs, and my performance was pretty even. My heart rate stayed fairly flat over the whole effort, and I noticed I could dig and even though I suffered, recovery was quicker - much quicker. That allowed me to get over those rollers and make an effort to get back some speed on the "recovery" descent. The really heartening part was that I was NOT going 100%. 90%, perhaps, but I knew I could go harder. I'm now 406th of the 412 who have recorded that ride on Strava! Yay. Small steps!

After that, I did five 20 second hill repeats, on a short roller, with 20 seconds recovery in between (I turned around and went back down). Oh yes, they hurt! By the fifth one my legs would NOT respond when I got the top, and when I came OTS on that effort I about seized! Wow. I'm feeling pain like I haven't before, and it's ALL GOOD.

Tomorrow is an off day, time to recover. I have to go to work, too. Saturday I'll get a ride in before work OR I'll ride the bike home from work (20 miles, good climbing, too) and back to work on Sunday morning.

Next race? I don't know!

shovelhd

AzTallRider

Right now, it looks like I'll be there the weekend after that one. :-/

Hermes

Sara, Well done. Here is a racer that you may want to follow on Stava ... Yvonne W. She is 50+, excellent time trialist and hill climber and races the circuit course. She is a skinny gal and representative of your better competitors. I think she may be a Cat 3 but do not let that throw you. You can compare your results to hers. Try to match her climb times on the course using Stava.

Hermes

Did a track workout this AM. Warmup followed by a 20 lap motor paced effort with my wife. We exchanged every two laps. On the motor 205 watts, behind MEA 250 watts, next to the motor 350 watts. I did several starts and a 6 lap team time trial with MEA. My primary objective today was adaptation to a lower position in the aerobars and practice standing starts.

Racer Ex 

Went and did the senior games yesterday. Report here.

Fun stuff. Hung out with Cleave. I'll let him fill in the details.

AzTallRider

Way to go, Sara. That's the kind of thing that will make a big difference. Work really hard, then recovery just as hard. With your work schedule, it seems you need to have a training cycle that's a bit different than most of us. Most folks do a rest week every third or fourth week, using the freshness to do the tests you need to monitor progress. Yours will likely have to be based on your work schedule, where you crank it really hard when you are off, and fit all the spinning or whatever you can in when you are working.