Ahh, that's right, you told me you and c_gallagh were running the Big Sur Half - as will I! That will be fun.

RR Aug 27th? Hmmm.... :~)

I have a spare room if you want to come up Friday.

Hi,

My doctor said I'm cleared to race nationals! :D No racing before then and no "risky" riding. Now I have to figure out how to ramp up my fitness in 12 days with a 2-day drive to Bend thrown in. :p

Hmmm...I'll let you know, RR - thank you so much for the offer!

Long intervals on the trainer. Motor pacing at the track would be great but too risky.

Ride to the race just Like Kevin Costner did in American Fliers.:lol:

:roflmao2:

Register by Wed. before midnight. We have plenty of room, and you can clean up after the ride, too, if you want.

Chris will grill the night before and be available for neutral feed zone support. :thumb:

Have I tempted you enough yet? :)

My intention today was to ride hill repeats. The Diva had a flat rear tire and I was pressed for time (I'm not fast at changing a tire). I decided to make it a TT day instead.

After a decent warm up I began a workout I've done on the trainer numerous times, on the road once with the Diva. It's 5 min. of high gear/low (50-65) rpm, followed by 5 min low gear/high (90+) rpm. I did that 3 times and took a 5min. break. Repeated that effort 3 more times, which entailed turning into the wind about halfway through, and took a 6 min. break. Did two more sets and then cooled down. 35 miles, 18.9 mph avg. and I hurt more than I thought I would.

The legs I expected to hurt, so I've employed the foam roller. My neck is way more sore than I thought, but then, this is the longest I've ever spent in aerobars. I'm spending a lot of time looking at my cleavage in an effort to stretch. :innocent:

Sunday's team sprint race did not happen due to a last minute cancellation by a team member. Today, I was back at the track getting ready for the final LAVRA Race series at LA Velodrome. 30 lap warmup, 2x100 meter jumps, 3x8 laps behind the motor taking half lap pulls every two laps, 2x 1/2 lap full power standing starts and a 15 lap warm down behind the motor.

I spent a long weekend in PA at out cabin riding and fishing. Riding ended up being better than the fishing due to a cold front passing through resulting in the fish getting lockjaw. I did get to school my brother on some hill riding and race pace riding. He is entered in a citizen race over the Labor Day weekend and wanted to get a hard workout in. During the "race pace" work we were riding on a few sections of road with small rollers and I was setting pace, with him on my wheel, and hitting the rollers as one would in a RR. Everytime he started to loose my wheel I'd yell "HTFU get back on the wheel", and he did everytime and then recovered to suffer some more.

I'll be riding a mtb TT in a few hours and plan to suffer greatly. First effort 3 weeks ago was 50:12, last week was 49:33, hopefully I'll be in the 48's and possibly I'll suffer enough to be in the 47's.:eek:

Old guys rule... Sunday was the elite track state championships. My team sprint did not happen in the morning but, later in the day, the other racer who was committed to my team, raced in the match sprints in the afternoon. He is one year older than me and current World Match Sprint Champion in our age group. He came in second against the elite sprinters.:roflmao2::D He set a PR 12:00 second flying 200 which was good enough for 5th out of nine. However, he then proceeded to beat the faster guys on tactics in the head to head sprints to take the silver medal. I said, from now on we will refer to him as Sir Mark.:D

AJ, I liked the HTFU and get back on my wheel. Tomorrow is an easy ride and then I fly to LA Velodrome to participate in a tough 3 hour training session where I plan to suffer immensely.

Had an almost totally clean mtb TT tonight. Only a few small bobbles and one time at a top of a short steep pitch I smacked a root and lost all momentum then needed to unclip and push off with one foot to get going again. I knew that I was turning much better using a new technique but still could not ride fast enough to be at the red line level. The turning technique is to "dab" the inside bar when turning, much the same as turning in a crit where you push down on the inside bar to carve the turn. End result was a 3:13 improvement over last week's effort with a 46:20 time. At the evil elevlated bridge, that bashed my ribs a few weeks ago, I rode it clean warming up but in the TT I crossed it cyclocross style and kept enough speed that when clipping back in I was already going down the stairs at the other end.

AJ, Amazing improvement over the previous week.

On a different subject, I thought the pro racers in Colorado were spinning very slow. I guess it makes sense to use less cardio if you can.

This weekend was the masters district criterium championships. The President of NCNCA invited the USADA to perform doping tests. 16 racers were tested including winners and a couple at random. USADA paid the bill $20,000 but will not for future events. There has been a lot of discussion and it is mostly positive. Results will be in 3 to 4 weeks. The real issue is how to fund testing without significantly increasing the cost of racing.

I'm on a 2 week mid-season recovery. At the end of today's seasy spin I decided to see what was in the tank going up the last hill before turning onto our cul-de-sac. I got a new 30 second PP of 888. After I loaded it on the computer I decided to go out and try again but just missed my goal of 900W by 3 watts.:(

I bet if I tried it again a third time I could have done it.:innocent: All I needed to do was stay on the effort a few more seconds, the power curve was going up and down within the 30 second span

http://i489.photobucket.com/albums/r...ndpprecord.png

AJ, Great numbers. You are getting scary strong. Those will you serve you well in during the cross season. I am in LA and racing tomorrow. I had a great track workout yesterday. I did a couple of one laps and 500 meters behind the motor. It was the first time I did a flying one at the 250 track. I was behind my coach and we used a two lap wind up and then dove off the 38 foot 45 degree bank. The G forces were amazing. It was the fastest I have ever gone on the track. I am putting together a team for Elite Nats Team Pursuit later in September.

Hermes, AJ, I say you fellas are in peak form right now! This is great stuff to read! Good luck this weekend.

Hope you do well this weekend Hermes. Your fitness seems to be high. Does Elite Nationals have age divisions?

No. This is the real US Track Nationals where the pros and best racers show up. In previous years, one had to qualify. This year, there are no qualifying requirements for timed events. For mass start races, one has to be a Cat 2 or better. I could have a 25 year old pro on my team. However, we could probably not hold his wheel. So, my goal is to assemble a team of similar ability racers. Our goal is to compete. The team pursuit is a blast and at LAV it is amazing and we get to do it on a national stage.

Interesting. I have a powertap so I can see a continuous heart rate when I download the data and view it. Once in a while in very hard efforts, like road races (when I'm getting dropped), fast climbs, etc. I've seen these momentary spikes for a few seconds. I'm about in your HR range (my age is 60) - in a time trial, I'll stay at around 160 or so. These spikes can go to 180 or 190 which is nothing that I could ever sustain. Outside of a few PVC's and PAC's (when I was worked up ten years ago), I don't have any heart problems. I have no outward symptoms. I don't want to ask the GP because they'll do the same - work me up, and tell me to get on with my life when I'm not about to keel over.

So my thought was maybe this is similar to you. So if you find out, let me know!

Jim

Hermes and RR, waiting anxiously on race reports!

My wife and I flew to LA and competed in the final LAVRA cup event of the season. To score in the event, one has to compete in 3 races (there are 5 race events over a 6 month period) and the total time of the best 3 events is your score. My wife continues in her winning ways. Unofficially, she won the 500 meter TT and the 2k pursuit. This is not age differentiated but an open category and today, she set a PR for her 500 meters. Winning a LAVRA jersey at LAV is a big deal - highly coveted.

I raced the flying 200 meters, the 500 meters and the 2K pursuit. I set a PR for the 500 meters at 39.86. Breaking 40 second in the 500 meters is the gold standard which is very hard to do. I am really happy. My 200 meters was okay with a 13.3 seconds but I was hoping to get under 13. It takes practice on the 250 track and this was the second flying 200 that I have done on a 250 track.

I did the flying 200 first followed by the 500 meters. After about an hour wait, I did the 2K pursuit. I had a plan to get a 2:45 to 2:48 time. I had a good starting lap and then settled in to my plan. I felt really good and found myself hitting my targets - which is generally not the case. The middle laps, which can be difficult, felt easy and I lifted the pace for the last 2 laps for a 2:47.72. My previous best time in LA was 2:49.x. It was hard but I felt okay at the end. I was accelerating and my legs were not loaded up. So considering the previous racing, I am happy with the result.

As far as warmup for the event, I went out with some racing buddies and we did 60 laps at 22-24 mph and then 10 fast laps. I did a couple of laps at bridging power.

And I put together for Elite Nationals. The problem is all the racers are better than me so I have some work to do.

Here are a couple of pics from my flying 200 meters.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...AFlying200.jpg

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...astrade200.jpg

Congratulations to you and Velo Diva, Hermes! That is most impressive, impressive indeed! I love your "I only get better" mantra, and you prove it every time. You are truly an inspiration.