IBOHUNT

That's a part of what I call 3 sisters. It involves the climb up 491 to Ft. Ritchey from Smithsburg, then up Pen-Mar High Rock (1.7 mi/500') then down to Thurmont on 550 then back to Smithsburg via Rt 77. Good 5000' metric or so.

echappist

3-sisters, as known to people who do Tour of Wash County, are the three kickers on Leitersburg-Smithsburg Rd. First one is a non-issue (50 second long, though quite steep) as you get to recover a good bit afterward. Second one is more serious, and is immediately followed by the third. None are too bad in isolation, but on the 6th lap of a 8-mile loop, it's a leg breaker.

watched the winning break sail away last year...

Heathpack 

TT workouts for me the past two days.

Yesterday it was wet and threatening to rain, so I rode the trainer and it never did rain.

Today I put together a group ride without looking at my schedule. My workout today was not that group-friendly. It was pretty drizzly out, wet roads from rain over night. Between the group aspect, the darkness, and the wet roads, I missed on a lot of this one. But it was relatively warm and we got coffee after, so I was happy in the end.

Off tomorrow. More rain coming Fri but I'm hoping I can sneak out for a quick ride before it starts. Then appt with my eye surgeon prior to heading up to Santa Barbara.

Climbing ride Sat in Santa Barbara and then Carmel on Sunday.

revchuck 

I went out with the A group today and let them play "Drop the Geezer" with me. It took them a half hour after we got up to speed to do it, but do it they did. My legs are still hurting four hours later. 1:56 rolling time, 148 TSS, .84 IF.

Heathpack 

First day of vacation riding, right now we're in Santa Barbara.

We did an iconic climb today up Gibraltar Road, I think it's something like 10 miles at 7.8%. The first 15 miles of our ride today had 4000 ft of climbing. Here I am at the top.



Once you get to the top of Gibraltar Rd, you descend a little and then climb up to La Cumbre peak. Once you get over this peak, it's usually a great descent. But today we rode into thick fog. You can see the fog/clouds rolling in.



The fog made the descent zero fun, it's basically a one lane road with no guard rail and at times the visibilty was really poor. It was cold and I was just creeping down the mountain. My eye surgeon has cleared me to ride but not crash- no kidding, I can't crash until Feb 20. It gets in your head when someone tells you "don't crash," you start to worry about crashing.

I think this one was something like 22 miles with 4000 ft of climbing. Took it pretty easy, I've got some ok weather in Carmel and some fun people to ride with this week. We head to Carmel tomorrow.

revchuck 

Sounds like it was an awesome ride, bummer about the fog. And disregard your eye surgeon - don't crash after February 20 either!

Heathpack 

Actually I'm having surgery 2 on Feb 20, so my "no crash" date will get reset to March 20. Until then, not crashing is an absolute mandate type of thing but afterward more like a general guideline.

revchuck 

Three hours at endurance pace with 4x10' muscle tension intervals. I started them at about the 30 minute mark and finished them about an hour later and felt okay, then hit the two hour point in the ride and felt like someone was turning down the rheostat on my power. I had stayed on water until the 1:30 point and then had a half of a Clif bar, and the other half at 2:00, but it apparently hadn't been absorbed quickly enough. I dug into my emergency gel stash at 2:20 and that seemed to help. TSS 173, IF .76. CTL is currently 87.5, the highest it's been in probably a year; it had been floating around the 70 mark most of the time.

Hermes

@Heathpack Great pics
@revchuck You seem to really have it together this year.

2 hour endurance ride along the coast. Met some riders along the way...a mixed 110 plus tandem team that won state last year and another 65 plus guy who started recruiting me for his team pursuit team at worlds.

We had to pass on LAVRA due to travel conflict.

revchuck 

Recovery ride Monday, yesterday was supposed to be gym day but that was overcome by family drama.

Today was a pretty hard one, 2x18' at what Carmichael calls "Climbing Repeat" power, 105-110% of FTP. These intervals are usually done at shorter times. They came in at 107% and 106%, and while I had to work hard at them, I could've extended them to 20 minutes with no problem, which means they're probably threshold intervals in reality...at about 15 watts higher than my official threshold. Coach ain't dumb, so I'm expecting a "no good deed goes unpunished" email bumping my ranges up any time now.

Tucson schedule is pretty much firmed up. Drive Sunday (770 miles), drive the rest of the way Monday (440 miles), unpack the car, drive to Saguaro National Park East and do two laps of the road there (~16 miles with ~1k feet of climbing) to get my legs going, Mt. Lemmon Tuesday, Kitt Peak Wednesday, ~1:30 at recovery pace Thursday, ~2:30 at endurance pace Friday, Shootout Saturday (hopefully the extended version to Madera Canyon, legs willing), recovery ride Sunday, pack the car and head back, arriving home Monday night. There's a chance I may stay an extra day in Tucson.

Coach told me I went to Tucson last year with an average of 50 TSS/day, while this year I'll be there with over 80 TSS/day. I have last year in Tucson in my legs, plus the private camp in Utah, plus a bunch more intensity, plus some encouraging rides lately. I'm really looking forward to this.

Dalai

Great work with 2*18@ 106%! Hurts just thinking about it!

Tuscon schedule looks good. Enjoy!

Heathpack 

I have been on vacation, having a great time. 200 miles and 15k ft of climbing in the past 7 days, that's my kind of vacation, in great company. Great to see & ride with @sarals and @Racer Ex.

My favorite route anywhere is Carmel Valley, just so beautiful:



We had great weather all week until today, which was a rest day anyway. Big rain and wind storm blew through.

Tomorrow we drive down to San Diego. Sunday I have a TT at Fiesta Island and Monday my 2nd eye surgery.

revchuck 

@Heathpack - Sounds like you had a great time and a well-needed break, awesome!

Yesterday's ride was supposed to be 2:30 at endurance pace with an hour in the middle at Z3. I decided to start that hour at the 30-minute point because that's where the longest uninterrupted stretch starts. At ~1:28, I see a flash of lightning in the clouds, and at about 1:32 the rain starts. Aw, expletive! I decided to push it a bit the rest of the way. The rain continued until I was about ten minutes from home. 2:36, TSS 163, IF .79 - so the whole ride was Z3.

happybday29475

Happy dance! Good luck Sunday and Monday, I'll be thinking of you.

I spent last week in the town where I grew up, dealing with a parent with Alzheimer's. It's been a heavy week. On a lighter note, I reconnected with some high school classmates that I haven't seen in decades, and it was really fun, and conversation went on for hours.

Today is a team ride that, owing to my recent lack of bike time, is going to hurt.

valygrl

good luck with the drive @Heathpack, sounds like weather in CA is nuts right now! @rapwithtom - sorry to hear about the parent. that must be very hard.

I have a three day weekend for presdents day... and a cold. I'm going to ride anyway. I know, not that smart, but whatever.

Hermes

@rapwithtom Sorry to hear about your parent.
@Heathpack Glad you had a great vacation. No Fiesta for us - conditions too unpredictable. We are doing a coast ride tomorrow.

After last nights torrential rain, there was a window to ride so I did some climbing up and down Soledad Mountain.

Some of the pics in the LA Times of the flooding looked unbelievable. The last time I saw that much water in the street was in Aguascaliente Mexico during a hard rain where their storm sewer system is non existent.

shovelhd

Great club ride today, just four of us. Started out in the 40's and then touched 50 at the end. Nice break from the trainer.

LAJ

Tough days, @rapwithtom. My heart is with you.

Positive thoughts, @Heathpack. Hope this straightens it all out.

sarals 

@rapwithtom, I'm sorry to hear to your news. My heart goes out to you.

sarals 

The last couple of weeks have been, well, notable.

There was the unexpected vacation in the hospital. I eased my way back into training after that, but things sort of fell apart. I aged up on Valentines Day, and to celebrate, I went to Hellyer and rode. I tried to keep my exuberance in check, but things got out of hand once or twice. The next day I did a ride with @Racer Ex and @Heathpack, and fell flat. Completely and totally bonked out. BJ was there, too ( @Heathpack got to meet her). We got to a regroup point, only 45 minutes and 8 miles in, and my tongue was dragging. Coach looked me in the eye and said "This is February. Worlds is in October. Lots of time. You need to get well first and then rebuild." (sic). Of course he was completely right. As he always is. He knows me very well ("What, Sara went too hard at Hellyer yesterday? Come on...") Yeah, he knows me.

The next evening we regrouped for dinner. @Racer Ex, Mrs. Ex; @Heathpack, Mr. H; me and the Tall Russian. We had a terrific time! We talked about many different things, but yes, some training was discussed as well, and Coach once again expressed his concern for my health and that I'm going back to square one for training. I repeated the adage to him that I was told way back when I first started getting serious about racing, "You have to slow down to go fast". Ex nodded his head and smiled. I told him there was a big difference between this season and seasons past. Last season I finally began to understand not only racing and how to race, but me. I've had to come back from setbacks before. I've had two big ones this winter. I know I will come back from them. In the past, I'd have become demoralized. Not now.

I am fortunate, blessed, to have a coach like Racer Ex, as well as have him as a friend. I am also fortunate, blessed again, to have such wonderful friends as Heathpack. And BJ.

All gained through the bike.

And I have all of YOU.

Yes, I am fortunate indeed.

Heathpack 

@sarals, it was great to visit with you and chat and ride some. Bike racing is all ups and downs. I agree, there's some awesome people to meet through racing. Why racing specifically? I don't know, maybe it's that people who race understand trying hard and all those ups and downs and how trying/exhilarating/addicting it can all be. Anyway, rest rest rest when you've been sick, your body needs to recover. The track will be there, look long...

@rapwithtom, stinks to have a sick parent, and particularly stinky when it's anything like Alzheimer's. Hang in there, my friend.

revchuck 

Got to Tucson yesterday, did two laps of the loop in Saguaro National Park East to wake up my legs after 1200 miles of driving. 16 miles with 1283 ft. of climbing according to Strava, compared to 125 miles and 1443 ft. of climbing from all of last week. That is the most fun-packed eight miles on a bike I've ever ridden! Had to slow down a few times due to cars on the loop doing the posted 15 mph speed limit...it was President's Day, after all.

Heathpack 

Where's the Saguaro pics???


Have fun! Vacation riding is the best.

revchuck 

I was focused on getting the ride done before I went comatose from built-up driving fatigue - besides, the cacti haven't changed from last year when I did post pictures.

I rode Mt. Lemmon today. No real problem doing it, it was very much a "head down and keep pedaling" thing. That's not to say it was easy; it was definitely the hardest ride of its kind I've ever done. Coming back down was the most fun I've had when I wasn't horizontal. I was spun out in the 50-11 and well over 100 rpm much of the time. I spent about an hour in the drops, hyper-vigilant for road debris and checking as far ahead in the corners as I could see. My legs don't hurt right now, but the back of my neck sure does!

valygrl

Nice! I hope someone told you about Le Buzz. If not - go to Le Buzz in the shopping center at the base of Mt Lemmon. Great coffee and pastry.