sarals 

I know I really laid it all out there at Snelling, but I was lulled to sleep by how good I felt after the race. I didn't recover properly, either. It's all a learning process!

On another note, under the "what bad luck" category, our team leader, Don Chapin (who was peaking for Merco this week) was washing the dishes night before last and one broke while he was holding it. He severed a tendon in his right hand, requiring surgery. He's going to be off the bike for a WHILE. It wasn't even bike related! I can't imagine how bad he feels.

sarals 

I'm glad to see you back out there! Strong will come, and probably quickly. How is the new bike?

Racer Ex 

It is. FWIW I do a lot of stage races, and normally do well at them. I've invested a lot of time and energy into recovery tools and research. A really good recovery protocol makes a huge difference.

AzTallRider

Breathing is fine. No restriction; no sharp pains. I can even do snot rockets again, unless things are acting up.

Impression of the new bike so far is that it has a slightly harsher ride, but seems faster in the wind... hard to know how much is placebo. Will get a pic up today.

sarals 

I learned that the hard way, but I'm glad it was just ONCE.

I'm shopping around for some other road races to do mid-March. I want to be up on recovery by then, and try it out.

revchuck 

57 minutes tonight, was supposed to be an hour at recovery pace and started out that way. There's a cold front moving through with a brisk north wind. I did an out-and-back route, with a tailwind on the way out; I turned around and discovered just how cold that north wind really was and pushed up into the endurance pace range to warm up and get done sooner. I did a little one minute sprint at the end, just because it felt good.

Off the bike tomorrow, Saturday is a fast group ride to be cut off at a total of two hours, with a set of stomps (start at 12 mph in tallest gear, go as hard as possible for 12 seconds) on the way back. It'll be ~28 degrees with the wind chill at the normal start time. In south bleepin' Louisiana.

sarals 

Blue norther....

shovelhd

I don't do stage races anymore, but I routinely do multiple races in a weekend. Managing recovery and staying loose are critical.

Hermes

I did a 45 minute gym workout which was entire body including legs. I then got a 1.5 hour massage.

sarals 

I'm still learning! Staying loose, to me, is harder than recovery.

Cleave

Workout Time divided by Massage Time < 1.0

This must violate some kind of training protocol.

Roger's Session at VSC: Z1 2 min, Z3 2 min, Z2 2min, Z4 20 sec, Z3 2 min X 3 reps per set X 2 sets

Managed to take a lap during the motor game and finish the entire game. That's a first for me but the last 10 laps (of a 40 lap game) felt a little slower than usual. I think Roger was taking pity on some of us old guys who were still in the line.

Hermes

Cleave, Taking a lap on the motor. I like it.

I think every massage I get from this therapist adds 6 months to my longevity. Immortality is possible.

shovelhd

But you'd be one ugly son of a b*tch.

sarals 

I haven't had a massage or a mani-pedi in TOO long.... <sigh>

45 minutes at pace this morning. It should have been longer, but I went back home to put on leg warmers - the fog was COLD. Sort of a choppy ride, because my body was really sluggish plus I was avoiding the fog by staying away from the coast, which meant a lot of climbing. So much for a smooth tempo.

Hermes

Rest day today and the temps were in the low 70s. I laid out in the sun to work on my tan.

AzTallRider

5 x 1' strength intervals, along with 30' pace... doing the team ride tomorrow. Hopefully they'll take it easy on me. Hey, it could happen.. okay, no it won't.

Hermes

sarals 

He's NOT ugly, but I hate the hair.

Could I still be recovering from last weekend? I had an awful session on the trainer this morning. I was supposed to do 30 minutes at pace tempo, and then one set of three five minute intervals, max power below FTP. The pace portion went well, and I felt good. When I started the first interval, I felt good, too, but at two minutes I was feeling like I was struggling, and 30 seconds later I popped. I recovered, tried the next effort, with the same result. I recovered again, and tried the third effort. It was better, held the power for three minutes, blew up, recovered for a minute, and then did one more minute at the target power. I felt like CRAP when I was done, and my hips were really stiff (that's new). It might have been the hour (0530), and I do think that does come into play. I take as long to wake up in the morning as I do when I warm up for a ride. Warning! You don't even want to be around me if you wake me up at 0300! I WILL get the Flying Monkeys!

revchuck 

Sara - I had a similar workout a week and a half ago, with a similar result, and I have no idea why it happened. My coach couldn't figure it out either. I just chalked it up to "one of those days."

A possibility...since this happened early in the morning, had you eaten prior to the workout? 30 minutes at pace might've burned through whatever glycogen stores you had left if you hadn't eaten since supper the night before.

I think you and I are the only ones not racing today.

revchuck 

1:52 with a mixture of things. I was supposed to do a group ride, but it didn't materialize...might've had something to do with the below-freezing wind chill temperature. I came home from the meet-up point and went out on my usual out-and-back, did a 20 minute LT interval that actually went over my LT, recovered for a bit, and did another ten minute interval at about 15 watts higher. All of this was into a 12-15 mph headwind - it made it easy to keep my speed down. I turned around and on the way home did four "stomps" - tallest gear, ~13 mph start speed, while remaining seated, push as hard as I could for 10 seconds, five minutes RBI.

When I got home and uploaded the workout I checked Intellicast; it was 37 degrees with a 14 mph wind. In south bleepin' Louisiana. I nuked a cup of milk and dumped four heaping tablespoons of Ovaltine in it. Man, that was good!

sarals 

Chuck, thanks! I had not eaten, no. I never do when I get up that early in the morning. Let me clarify - I ONLY get up early to train when I'm working the day shift, which is four days every other week. I don't eat prior to a workout, there just isn't time to do that. You just caused a lightbulb to come on in my canary brain...my performance for training on those four work day mornings is USUALLY difficult and sometimes sub-par. I always get up at O Dark Thirty, and I'm usually starting to show fatigue from work by the third day. Hmm.

I think you're right about not racing today! Wow, if I wasn't working, I'd be out there. What's keeping you off the bike?

revchuck 

Oh, I've already done a couple of hours on the bike. My A race is next Sunday - taper begins tomorrow.

AzTallRider

Did the team ride this morning: 2.5 hours of mixed effort. No climbing legs, that's for sure, and I am overly conscious of my position in the pack, though I didn't let that control what I did. I can't help but think now and then about how hard the pavement looks. I'm sure that will pass.

Damned PM is acting up AGAIN. I've been a solid supporter of Quarq. Many folks are intolerant of what you need to do to avoid calibration 'drift', but I'm fine with that. IMO it's no different than cable stretch and der. adjustment, which everyone accepts. Once you get it torqued down right, you're good to go. But I am now on my third unit in two years. The last one (got it in October) conked out after the crash, so maybe that's understandable, though I didn't hit that side of the bike. But the replacement they sent last week just told me I could climb 9-Mile hill mid-pack at 169w. That's barely out of z1. No way. Great that they send free replacements: better if they worked!

chasm54

It will pass, but it takes a while. When I broke my arm a few years ago after someone lost it in front of me on a descent, it was three or four months of riding before I again felt fully confident going downhill fast. And tomorrow is my first race since I was hit by a car and separated my shoulder last summer. Obviously there'll be no cars on the course (!) but I still don't want to come off and land on that shoulder again, it's never going to be the same again as it is. Of course, the real danger is that fear of injury makes one tentative, and that is a recipe for disaster. So I'll give it my most aggressive shot.

Which just amounts to saying that I sympathise, and know how you feel.

Allegheny Jet

revchuck, I will gladly trade weather with you until April , then I'll want mine back.

AZTR, I know your mindset about the road. I felt the same way every time I crossed a footbridge with the mtb after my hard crashes on them. I a mtb TT race I even got off cyclo-cross style and ran across the bridge that I got the broken ribs from a month earlier.