hubcyclist

long outdoor ride yesterday, metric century, haven't been able to crack 64-65miles this year, despite needing to practice being in the saddle for longer. that was 186tss hopefully next weekend will get in 75. did 2hrs z2 on the trainer this PM, 97tss oh, and I did way too much driving this weekend, 2hrs on friday going down to my parents house (during rush time, normally it's a 1hr drive), 2hrs yesterday to NH for a little weekend thing we did, and 1hr back home today.

Hermes

Saturday 2 hour coast ride along PCH with a Torrey Pines climb. I was a few watts below all time high average power for the TP climb. I could have squeezed out a few watts more If I knew how good I was going to feel at the end. Sunday, we rode Camp Pendleton, the bike path and through the park. The goal was constant power with 4 to 6 anaerobic efforts. I did 4x90" efforts in the drops @AT power with 5 to 8 minutes RBI. The marine base and state camp ride is one of the few rides in SoCal where one can keep power on the pedals with minimum stops.

Ttoc6

Climbed a ski hill, descended back down. Fun times. Then pre-rode the wednesday night race course. Should be a good week.

furiousferret

Planned to do a ride up to Onyx Summit, but had some back pain and turned a right to Forest Falls. 57 miles, 6100ft climbing, 187 tss.

aaronmcd

Often on Sundays I find myself needing to get in a good ride but also wanting to have some daylight to do something fun with my wife so I ride around the city for a few hours hitting hills. Today was one of those days.

Yesterday I only did one crit for 110 TSS but I raced hard and felt it today. Did a couple 5 minute hill efforts at 110% and them legs were already feelin it. McLaren park has an amazing 5+ minute loop with no stops, a climb, a fast descent with some speed bumps and I have no idea why cyclists don't know about it cuz only 50 have done it on Strava but I did that for a few a few laps of effort. By then the legs were really pooped so I climbed San Bruno for another 20 minutes of low z4. Tacked on some car drafting at 35 mph up the great highway and finished up with 2:35 and 170 TSS.

Hermes

When we lived in San Mateo, I would cycle to my wife's office in South San Francisco and she and I would climb Mount San Bruno over lunch. Also, we would do laps around the Brisbane Criterium Race course. Pic below is from top of SB looking toward SF.

wktmeow

Weak training last week, but it was also a rest week. Still, I didn't do any of the planned recovery spins, and even bumped everything back by an extra day because I was just feeling generally ****ty and didn't want to ride. Got a few tests in. Pretty disappointed with my 5s test, seems like I've lost some sprint power. Did 1205w, but I used to hit high 12s and even low 13s once or twice before. Maybe it was just a bad test day, or maybe I've lost some fast twitch through all the endurance work. Also I keep lifting either my rear wheel or my front wheel, so maybe I just need to hit more practice sprints and get my weight distribution right. I hit a 1376w peak last April with the Quarq, and 1275w for 5 that day but with a weird drop off at 3s. Anyway, not a huge deal just wish it was where it used to be. Maybe some plyo is in my future for off season. Not that I'll ever be a pure sprinter, but it's nice to have a jump to use from breakaways and such.

Also got in a 5 min test, but I misremembered the course I chose and forgot about a slight dip about 2 mins in where I had to shift to my big ring and back to small again. Still pretty pleased with the result, though I can't help but wonder if I could have eked out a few more watts if I did it on a steadier climb. 378w for 5, getting closer to the elusive 400w. I've had a lot of trouble with vo2max stuff this year, so I was glad to put in a decent effort.

Tonight I just did an easy ramp test to see what power I'm doing at 160bpm. Looks like it's about 275w, though the ticker seemed to settle at around 161bpm today.

I've been having some trouble getting motivated and making good choices these past few weeks (e.g. staying up way past my bedtime and writing this post...). I picked up the nicotine habit again and have been using this stupid Juul thing ever since a friend's wedding a few weeks ago, and I've kind of got myself down about that and some other personal stuff. Planning to try to cold turkey it tomorrow. Also maybe a little bit of a mid-season slump. Caught myself recently day dreaming about giving up the sport and just living a more 'normal' life, and maybe only riding for fun and not worrying about training. Watched a few racing videos that has helped with motivation though.

This week I've got some vo2max work, Fiesta Island worlds on Thursday, some z2 stuff around a wedding on Saturday, and then a crit or two on Sunday (Ladera Ranch).

hubcyclist

ramp test today, same ftp, i stall out at the same interval (358 for me) at 19mins.

TMonk

@wktmeow the season is basically over! If I were you I'd let myself relax a little. Do you and your coach have some down time scheduled before you ramp up for next season? Given how early the calendar is here, it could be good to let loose a bit now.

caloso

Anaerobic capacity (3x2', 3x1', 3x30") intervals this morning. I definitely do not enjoy 2' intervals, but recognize that they're really beneficial.

arai_speed

Went out for my quarterly FTP test (20min effort up a 5% hill) and came up with an average of 282 watts.

Doing some conversions I am at 3.29 w/kg

Last time I tested I was 3 watts lower so I guess I've improved since then

Hermes

Ttoc6

Went out for a 2 hour spin on my mtb to make sure it's all dialed for the first midweek race tomorrow. Need to get new brake pads/ rear tire soon. Struggled a bit to modulate my rear without skidding and the tread is starting to look a bit flat.
@Hermes.. You're making me miss track racing right now and I never even got to do a legit pursuit..

furiousferret

As usual I got my ass kicked at Worlds; tried to keep up with Gruppo Phil up the first punchy climb and decided to pull the plug; we recovered and almost reconnected but had to stop at the only stop sign on the course. Se Fin.

Got my 3rd highest 1 minute power PR all time, and I've consistently been at 305w for my 5m power, just 10 watts off my best ever, and I was 10 lbs heavier then. 10 minute is also the same, past that I haven't done enough efforts to really measure. This is all still rather mediocre on the large scale of bike racing but getting PR's from 1 minute to 40 minutes while being 10 pounds lighter than you ever have been feels pretty good.



The good thing is I don't feel like I'm on form right now, I'm just pedaling bio-mechanically correct right now. My left glute was twitching for 2 days.

Hermes

Do you have a velodrome where you live?

topflightpro

Are you going to masters track nationals?

Hermes

Not this year. Worlds in October.

topflightpro

That makes sense.

Since I am an East Coaster, I'm going to T-Town, and if it goes well, I'll head to Worlds in October.

topflightpro

We were discussing warm ups at some point. There's a new study arguing that shorter warm ups may be better: Training Center: New science on how to warm up | VeloNews.com

Hermes

I found the information in the above article to be true for me and I adopted shorter warmups last year per my coach. Also, graduated force in the warmup works for me. Yesterday, I did the start out slow and ramp up warmup and then accelerations seated and standing but not too much. Then I did my 100 meter jumps and followed that up with 20 minutes of rest and put on race gears. Also, I have found that I need one short high torque, high power standing start BEFORE I do a race standing start to prime my ATP PC system and it takes that system 20 minutes to recharge so the timing of that warmup start is critical prior to the event.

Also, many older athletes believe that they need more warmup...be careful what one believes to be true. I have found that not to be the case. The only thing that I believe to be true is that I am going to rip the pedals off the bicycle.

Now having said all that, my PR in pursuit occurred after I had completed a team pursuit. Go figure.

topflightpro

I find I need the same thing. I've noticed over the years that my second interval is almost always stronger than my first, regardless of my warm up. So, I try to get one 200 start effort in before my timed 200.

TMonk

@Hermes you racing master's track champs this weekend?

Hermes

Yes

TMonk

Great, good luck! I may come out to observe a bit on Sat.

I raced TNR last night, 48 lap points then 48 lap scratch. In the points I did good, winning one sprint, second in another, and second in the final. With 2.5 to go some guy dropped into the pole lane and no one wanted to chase and before we knew it he had a 1/2 lap on us... nice work. Some other unfortunate soul chased with about 2 to go and didn't reach him. I jumped out of a still-hesitant pack with 1.5 to go and swooped up the in-betweener but not the first attacker.

Scratch was hard - just fast and on the gas in the pole lane the whole time. I need to start racing conservatively now that I'm in the A's. In the B's I would just hit the throttle hard every time I hit the front and still be able to win - that's not the case any more. I did that for the first half of the race and then started struggling to close gaps when attacks started going on the last 10 laps or so. I finished, but was totally gutted.

Good times!

furiousferret

Good luck @Hermes!