Heathpack 

Scored another sangria coupon with our breakfast check.

Husband would like to skip the buffet tomorrow however. Fine by me, we'll just have to hit up the sangria- I mean Spanish- place.

sarals 

And Spain, too, apparently.

sarals 

<snickering!!>

sarals 

Yes, it was!

I am still winnowing down the way I graze, umm, eat, but I'm getting better and more focused. Heathie, Ex and I have been working together on this. I've quit processed foods almost entirely, and I've increased fruits and veggies in the absence of the junk I was consuming. I'm trying to balance protein, carbs, and salts. I do add vitamins, mostly with addition of vitamin laden fruits such as bananas, grapes, and oranges. I don't have cholesterol problems, so I con't mind eating eggs. They are so great for my energy. I make a home made pho that covers a lot of the bases for food groups. The one thing it's high on is salt, so I have to watch that carefully. Heathie sent me a great recipe for oatmeal that I just LOVE (that egg, Heathie - wow!).

My day - before I do a hard workout or race - Heathie's oatmeal OR two poached eggs on whole wheat toast, a banana and coffee. Post workout or race, a bottle of Ensure (immediately) for recovery. Copious amounts of water. Lunch - cottage cheeze, an arugula salad with tangerine or orange slices and crushed nuts with oil and balsamic dressing. Snacks - nuts, coffee, juice, fruits. Dinner - lean meats, boiled potatoes, fish, chicken, quinoa, salad, mushrooms, pasta (various ways), veggies, water or tea, or fat free milk. Combinations of the various meats, within calorie allowances, make for my dinner. Before bed snack - raisins, grapes, or an apple. Even more water! That's pretty much what I'm doing right now.

Strength workout this morning. Down on strength, especially upper body, but I'm still in decent form. I can soon level out and start to rebuild. Off season is short!!

revchuck 

I seem to be joining the "fast in November" crowd. I PRed my usual route yesterday without trying to. The goal was 20 minutes at SST; I did 30+ minutes with 20+ of them at threshold. It just...wasn't hard. Apparently taking last week off the bike helped with more than just not getting sicker. 1:23, IF .85, TSS 101, 1017 kj.

Since we're going through the house buying thing, my coach gave me goals to hit with the option of going over if I have time. This week the goal is three hours on the bike with one hour of that at SST. The weather looks good, so I should be able to go over that. I'm going to try to hold my CTL around 50 until we're moved into the new place.

Hermes

@revchuck i will take fast anytime - November, January, May, August and etc. We all hope for matching fitness to events but fast is fast and much better than slow.

I was at a party on Saturday hosted by the woman that recently set the elite hour record and had a chance to take with a couple of my racing buddies. One, who is the current hour record holder for 75 to79 was doing climbs with 30 second max efforts with 90 seconds rest and the other who is a 5 time world sprint champion is doing max effort 100 meter jumps. The sprinter used to coach the Stanford Cycling track team. He believes that if older racers rest too much, they lose speed and never get it back. We like the slight modulation in seasons versus periodization training. Taking it easy in November is probably okay for 25 year olds with a lot of HGH and testosterone. And of course, we all have different genetics and respond differently to training and racing stress.

Be happy that it was easy!!!!!!!!!!!

Heathpack 

I have nothing to contribute except to say that the Spanish restaurant was quite good and I'm surprised they need to bribe people to go there by offering free sangria.

Hermes

Sangria intervals. I would definitely hit that with a like.

YogaKat

Living vicariously through your vacation right now.

Racer Ex 

1:20 XC skiing at 8500' today. Poor man's EPO.

Cross race Saturday that's 10 minutes from the house. Looks like I'll get the MTB out for this one knowing the terrain.

Hermes

2:45 endurance ride including a climb up Mount San Bruno. It was an amazing view of San Francisco and Mount Diablo across the bay from the top. Chilly 61 degree ride.

Racer Ex 

New training/racing term:

"Overwatt"

Definition: The first 4 minutes of a TT where you ride 20% over what you are actually capable of sustaining.

Example: "I overwatted and crawled home"

Racer Ex 

Ordered a Tacx Vortex trainer. Given I need at least 1 x a week on the TT bike over the winter, also ordered a Garmin ANT+ dongle and am going to give Zwift a try. After the last El Nino year we had up here the trainer is going to be unavoidable between shovel/plow sessions; skiing isn't an option during the storms.

The Tacx is pretty cool. Aside from it adjusting resistance to the various Zwift courses you can download classics and tour stages. I have my eye on the Ronde Van Vlaanderen.

Heathpack 

"I overwatted and then cracked mentally, plotting mid-race to sell my bike on Craigslist"

revchuck 

Today's ride was going to be 2x20 threshold intervals. At the end of the first one I was feeling pretty good so I kept going, ended up doing the 40 minutes in one fell swoop. I could have gone longer, too. I've got no idea where these legs came from, but I'll take 'em! 1:23, IF .90, TSS 111, 1057 kj.

sarals 

I'm not slowing down, I'm just on a diet. My matchbook is small right now. Hermes, I think your track coach friend may be correct.

Did a short ride on the CX bike today, after intervals and a "mock race" yesterday. Felt it! Power was okay, sustain was not. By the way, I tried to ride the cross bike up a longish 22% grade yesterday. I don't recommend that! Just saying!

Looks like rain Sunday, plus I'm going to a team awards banquet on Saturday evening. So, I'm bagging the cross race on Sunday. I was advised, as well, that I'd be better off riding a mountain bike on this particular course. As an aside, I've noticed that a lot of the cross courses around here are more suited for mountain bikes and the mountain bike folks than they are a cross bike and roadies who ride those.

Hermes

This is more like it.

shovelhd

I have the European version of the Bushido. Erg mode via the phone app is pretty bad, but during the Zwift workouts it's pretty good, and during Zwift rides and races it hits you hard with the terrain. I did a portion of the TNW this week and got my ass handed to me. Keep an eye out for me. My name -ZTR-C.

Racer Ex 

Great bike throws throughout history.

Old school Riis at 0:46. When it goes bad, it goes bad. Throw clearly meant for the corn field ends up still at the side of the road.


0:08, Millar shows great direction control, height, and backspin.


0:50, Wiggans with the classic "microphone drop"

Racer Ex 

Let's schedule some rides

sarals 

I should probably sign up for Zwift. It's the only way I'll get to ride with (get dropped by) shovel....

sarals 

Power supply failure....

sarals 

Rest day today. JRA tomorrow. Strength Monday, then two more rest days.

Ahhh, my mitochondria are loving me!

Almost time to start going fast again.

valygrl

I'm soooo miserable. today is day 5 off the bike. I'm in California and the weather is beautiful. Tomorrow I fly home to CO, where the weather will be beautiful on the weekend, and I am not supposed to ride. Monday marks the end of rest week and the beginning of strength training, and coincides with snow in the forecast.

I think I'm going to cheat and ride this weekend. I'm going to have to tell my coach. if i tell her before I do it, she's going to talk me into continuing to rest. So i want to just do it and tell her after....

Someone talk me down off the ledge, my head is going to explode, I've gained some unknown amount of weight (living in a hotel, no scale, eating salads with chicken but not skipping the bread & butter like I should). crawling out of my skin. i hate resting soo much. fuuuuuuuuuuu...........

Heathpack 

I think you could probably do just a wee little easy ride. The way I look at it is if I screw something up my coach will just fix it later.

PS I've also been off the bike exactly one week. Actually one week and one day, but who is counting? I've been ok with it, distracted by yoga and swimming and vacation. Scale in the room has kept me honest on vacation.

We fly home today, then openers tomorrow for a 20k TT on Sunday. After getting in this evening, we turn right around Sat am and drive down to San Diego, that's where the TT is.