Good "Roger's Session" at the track last night. I hadn't been to that workout in a couple months, instead doing some more targeted sessions on my own. Used the bulk of the night to work on leg speed (81" gear), and then ended the night with the usual motor game (the most exhilarating way you can bury yourself).

How was the bike?

Really liked it. Position works well for me, I think. Need to change the saddle to be sure. Didn't feel any lateral flex going very hard through the turns. I will be doing some standing starts on Thursday... we'll see how those feel (and how it feels on the bumps of Encino, ha).

Racer Ex can comment on how the DF3 performs at Encino. However, the Planet X frame worked well at Hellyer. I would assume that the DF3 would offer a harsher ride on bumpy tracks. However, the DF3 is a very stiff sprint bike and sprinters do not spend a lot of time in the saddle either racing or training. At VSC, the smooth track is a pleasure to ride on any bike frame.

Doing my coach's group workout on short steep hills last night revealed my Cat 6 tendencies.

Go hard and explode?

Sort of, yes, wasn't my fault. We did a Z5b pyramid of 30", 1', 1.5', 2', 2.5', 3', 3' then back down with recoveries at 2/1. The coach messed up our recovery time on the initial 1.5' and 2' efforts and only gave 1/1 recovery. That put a real hurting on me on the first 2.5' effort. I was ready to bag the workout and did take about 30 seconds of float during the effort to get my act back together. After that, the longer recoveries did allow my legs to come back for the backside of the intervals. Of course the skinny guys and national champ gal did not suffer the same fate as I did. We were about even going up the hill at 2' but I didn't see them on the efforts under 1.5' and they didn’t see me on the 2.5' and longer efforts.:D

AJ, all I can do is shake my head and think of Terminator.

Adaption drills and sprints coming up this morning. It's STILL windy, it has been for five days straight. Enough is enough, already!

Did a warmup with TallWife, averaging 82w on the TT bike, then 2 cycles of strength work, which she also did. Sort of. Then she asked if we were doing it again on Friday.

Ahhh. No.

Rest day today.

I love 80 watt rides. That is what we will do on the bike trail this weekend when my wife wants to do a "bike workout".

I was doing 53-11 hill repeats yesterday when a momma duck guarding her ducklings charged at me about 2/3 of the way up the hill. Each time. I'd move over to the other lane and she'd chase me, then go back to digging for grubs. So Ex, if you see a little blip at :40 that's why.

What kind of mother duck would take their ducklings on a hill? That is pretty irresponsible.

No kidding. Feeding your little ones grubs instead of diving the pond for kivvers. Lazy momma.

One of my team mates clobbered a deer on a training ride yesterday at 28MPH. It totalled his bike, but he's okay. It was a hit and run. The deer took off. Those things are too stupid for words....

Wow.

I know of several people that hit deer on motorcycles. Bad stuff.

Deer stories are plentiful here. On a group ride (I was not on it), a car coming the other direction hit a deer which was then hurtled into the group ride taking down a female cyclist. The deer ended up on top of her. When the others got stopped and tried to help, the deer got up and ran away. The woman was okay but really shaken up.

A friend of mine likes to train at night in the mountains with lights. He was descending and when he turned the corner a buck was facing him with a full set of antlers. Luckily, he missed the buck. This guy is a great bike handler but he told me that he had visions for a moment of being speared by the antlers.

Not one of my better workouts. The planned workout was about a 40 minute pre-TT warmup, then two intervals consisting of 7:30 of LT+10% segueing into a two minute VO2 max effort. The warmup went well. The first interval started out okay, but about halfway through I felt like I was pedaling harder while my output went down and my HR went up. I was about seven bps below my max HR and I still had the VO2 max part to do, so I decided to pull the plug and finished the ride at endurance pace. It's been a while since that's happened.

It could well have been an excess of wussitude, but it's also the hottest weather I've ridden in this year. My guess is that I haven't re-acclimated to the heat yet. Well, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

Three practice races next week - ten mile TT Tuesday, 24 mile RR Wednesday and another RR of undetermined length Thursday. Waiting to hear back from my coach to see if she's okay with me doing them.

Two training rides in a row where I flatted out. Rear tire again. This time I had to walk 6 miles. No cell coverage for 3 miles. I did have a tube and CO2, but the button stuck on the dispenser and I lost all of the CO2. Yes, I was mad. I screamed, even. At least I did the A2, but the sprints and hour at pace I did while pushing the bike. This is BS.....

Did you find the cause of the flat? CO2 failures are a pain...

Sara - Yuk. To echo AzT, you might have something in the tire that you didn't find when you first flatted. I've had that happen with tiny pieces of tire wire that worked their way through the center of the tread on Gatorskins - took them a while to work through the protective belt, but they did, and I ended up with two flats within two miles. I now carry two tubes and two CO2 cartridges with me.

Reading about having to walk six miles in cleats makes my feet hurt.

Never liked CO2. Frame pumps work.

Yeah to all of that...

I haven't had a chance to see what the cause was this time. Last time was a stem failure - it tore loose from the tube, probably a result of the bike taking that tumble off the Yakima. Shovel, I think I'm going to find me a frame pump. I've had so few flats over the years, but it only takes one like yesterdays to change my whole outlook.

10 miles and 45 minutes at pace on the TT bike at 5:30 this AM. Wow, is the fit ever off on that thing, and I thought I had it close! The saddle adjustment is way off, my knees were way too bent, making me use the muscles on the back of my thighs way too much. I couldn't develop the kind of grunt I needed to make that thing climb ITS, coming OTS was by far the best option. On a good note, the new driveline is SWEET, and it shifts better by far than it ever has. It goes like hell on the flats and down hills, too - on the aero bars. Pretty cool, that!

Sarah,

CO2 has been very good to me, but flying with it is a PITA. I have a nice Lezyne mini pump that I won as a prime that I carry when traveling. It has a water bottle mount, but I just shove it in a jersey pocket if I need it on the bike. Just another alternative.