We went to the RR Course yesterday and rode the race distance of 2 laps and 40 miles. Some people are asking why the heck we do this? This is our third year in the race? And, we have ridden it every year prior to the race. WE KNOW THE COURSE.
The main reason for going yesterday was to put in a 'race effort' and that we did. Christina had a real break thru day from a mental standpoint. She might have had her best day ever on a bike but the most important thing was her mental tenacity. She made acceleration after acceleration.
Our past coach, Joe Friel, states clearly: The best preparation when a race is nearing is training and racing that looks just like the race. That is what yesterday was all about.
Oh sure, we checked out all the holes and gravel. We confirmed where the 'selections' might occur. We orientated ourselves to the likely wind conditions.
After, we had lunch with the great folks with which we rode…..the people that challenged us.
I heard how Reg is going to ride away from us in a solo break as we are defenseless against his power. The guy is GREAT. He is a helluva a lot better than me but come on…..doesn't someone have a chance? I mean he is human. He had a heart attack last year, he has been suffering from asthma issues, he went skiing two weeks ago, went to see grandkids last week, and he has only one TT under his belt this year.
Doesn't someone in the peleton have a chance?
With the prospects of the 3-4 of us (who train together some) riding alone and Reg having some team mates, I suggested we could ride as team with strategy and a plan……that went no where. The response was that Reg was just going to ride away in the hills on the second lap. I left wondering why anybody was forking up the $85 and racing?
I have been beaten about 25 consecutive times by David LeDuc but every time, including the last time, I went out thinking that THIS would be my day.
I guess I am still thinking, "This will be my day." I just hope to heck that Reg can/will race. It won't be the same without him. If he is not there, somebody else will win. Of course, all these guys will put an asterisk by it to denote that Reg was not there…….degrading the accomplishment.
Almost every community has a 'Reg' in almost every sport. I have played everything under the sun and never achieved anything close to 'Reg Status' in anything. I wish I could but I am just one of those guys struggling to be competitive. If you flip a coin enough times, it is said it will land on the edge, neither heads nor tales. I am going to keep going out there, preparing my best and racing my best……..maybe the coin will come up on it's edge someday?
By the way, the rolling time for full race course was 2:08 yesterday with Christina taking pulls and working her little 'you know what' off. Last year the time for Women's Master's Race was 2:12. I think she had enough in the tanks to go much faster yesterday……….look out. Look out for newly found 30 sec to 3 minute power output. There is definitely 'break away' strength being built……of course, she has to bring it to race day. Hopefully, her Reg, Martha Stedman will race………or maybe Christina is a 'Reg'? She is in my book, anyway.
SEE YA OUT THERE.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Preparation Preparation Preparation
WHY SHOULD YOU READ THIS? No matter your endeavor, preparation is a key to success!
We have the terrific Tucson Bicycle Classic ( TBC ), a 3 day stage race, coming up soon. The TBC is one of the top races in the southwest and is used by many to tune up for Redlands, which follows.
We like the race and have made it an A race for both of us this year. Last year, Christina set this priority on it and won all 3 stages and GC. A great accomplishment. This year she may be back in Women' Masters, defending her title, or in Cat 3……she is now undecided. Last year, the Women's Masters field had many strong out of towners as well as strong local riders……hopefully that will be the case again.
I will be making my first real effort for results as I used it for training last year. I am moving into the 65+ Cat but that gives me very little breathing room. There about 10 guys out here that are as as good or better than me……4-5 that I have never beaten. The field will likely be rounded out with some 'out of town' guys………folks usually do not travel long distances without being competitive.
The ITT is the first event and very important in a Stage Race, in which total time is scored. Last year, C did 10:16 but really needs to improve to mid 9's to be competitive in Cat 3. I had a terrible run last year at 9:46 and I need to be under 9. Of course conditions can change times drastically.
Today we went for the first of 3 scheduled practice runs. I have these sandwiched between hard training days. We warmed up, did one easy run, went hard for a run and cooled down……little over one hour. The course is half downhill and then half uphill.
She did 10:07 and I did 9:07 (click for my ride in Strava) Conditions were perfect, even though we were far from throwing down top race efforts to get these PR's.
I did 4 things differently:
* Rode my P4 Cervelo instead of the Transition (sold it last year)
* Because of the ending climb, used a 404 on back(instead of disc) and 303 on the front
* Went less than full gas on first half, which is a descent, to save for the uphill
* Left the aero position, on the climb out, for the hoods….seated and standing
NOTE: We had no aero clothes or helmets
Next time we go back, we will take aero clothes and road bikes (suggested by our friend Bird) and ride both bikes to check time differences.
I hope, first, you will identify A events in your life……whether you cycle or not. Second, I hope you will prepare in a way that will allow you to be the best you can be. Most of the time, we have only one shot on the 'stage in life'………prior dress rehearsals are a great thing.
See ya out there.
We have the terrific Tucson Bicycle Classic ( TBC ), a 3 day stage race, coming up soon. The TBC is one of the top races in the southwest and is used by many to tune up for Redlands, which follows.
We like the race and have made it an A race for both of us this year. Last year, Christina set this priority on it and won all 3 stages and GC. A great accomplishment. This year she may be back in Women' Masters, defending her title, or in Cat 3……she is now undecided. Last year, the Women's Masters field had many strong out of towners as well as strong local riders……hopefully that will be the case again.
I will be making my first real effort for results as I used it for training last year. I am moving into the 65+ Cat but that gives me very little breathing room. There about 10 guys out here that are as as good or better than me……4-5 that I have never beaten. The field will likely be rounded out with some 'out of town' guys………folks usually do not travel long distances without being competitive.
The ITT is the first event and very important in a Stage Race, in which total time is scored. Last year, C did 10:16 but really needs to improve to mid 9's to be competitive in Cat 3. I had a terrible run last year at 9:46 and I need to be under 9. Of course conditions can change times drastically.
Today we went for the first of 3 scheduled practice runs. I have these sandwiched between hard training days. We warmed up, did one easy run, went hard for a run and cooled down……little over one hour. The course is half downhill and then half uphill.
She did 10:07 and I did 9:07 (click for my ride in Strava) Conditions were perfect, even though we were far from throwing down top race efforts to get these PR's.
I did 4 things differently:
* Rode my P4 Cervelo instead of the Transition (sold it last year)
* Because of the ending climb, used a 404 on back(instead of disc) and 303 on the front
* Went less than full gas on first half, which is a descent, to save for the uphill
* Left the aero position, on the climb out, for the hoods….seated and standing
NOTE: We had no aero clothes or helmets
Next time we go back, we will take aero clothes and road bikes (suggested by our friend Bird) and ride both bikes to check time differences.
I hope, first, you will identify A events in your life……whether you cycle or not. Second, I hope you will prepare in a way that will allow you to be the best you can be. Most of the time, we have only one shot on the 'stage in life'………prior dress rehearsals are a great thing.
See ya out there.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Pinning on a Number
My Dad started teaching me to compete shortly after I started walking. He did this by competing with me in every kind of game and sport you can imagine. I spoke about this at his memorial service. We even competed when fished together….the biggest and the most. I learned how to handle losing as I was about 13 before I ever beat him at anything (ping pong).Even before Christina and I formalized our Maddog 83 team contract (got married), we were doing 10K's. She had not done much competing in sports prior but she got right into it.
It really wasn't until I chose some mentors, as an adult, that I learned to collaborate. Playing win/win was a different notion for me at that time. This 'new' paradigm was life changing and in ensuing years, we built partnerships that are still successful today. Some of these partnerships, like the Starship Enterprise, took us where no man had been.
My embracing collaboration, never meant giving up competition. However, over the years, my perception of it has changed. I have fully accepted and promoted failure in recent years, believing you never know your limits if you don't go to failure. I also came to understand that competition is not about winning over others. It is about surpassing one's perceived limits. The only person, I try to compete against these days, is myself. This idea is not mine. I have been lucky enough to be around some world class athletes in their prime, who imparted this to me.
I took criticism last year for being too intense. Competition brings this intensity out in me and I don't think that is a bad thing. It is intensity and focus that have landed me where I am……. a place I like a lot. The focus I learned in competition, allows me to zone on being the husband, friend, father and grandfather I want to be.
You won't find me aimless riding around in the country or in life (so to speak). I like purpose. There are, however, times that competition should be set aside. You won't see me half wheeling the guy beside me on the front of a two man pace line, attacking to be first up every hill in an endurance ride, or hammering a recovery ride. I try to save these testosterone events for the times I have a number on my back.
I hope I never live a day that I don't have goals. Maybe someday it won't be a race, but don't hold your breath. This old body has still got a few laps in it and I plan to put a lot more numbers on this wall. I have a pretty darn intense team mate who is going to put her share up there, as well.
See ya out there.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Recovery on Demand
Our coach (in past years) and mentor Joe Friel, has a huge effect on the manner in which our two person team trains. He has recently put a name on a process…..RECOVERY ON DEMAND. We are currently adapting this concept to our training. To get better in 2014, I planned for us to achieve higher training loads. I suspected that we would could get stronger if we increased the loads.
As most of you know Training load = intensity x volume. As when we were under Joe's tutelage, we planned to emphasize volume in first part of the season and intensity as racing neared. In the past, we had accomplished what Joe called BREAKTHROUGH WORKOUTS (BT Workouts), about 2 to 3 times per week. The rest of the time was recovery or active recovery.
I am not sold on active recovery for Christina. These 1-1.5 hour workouts are questionable in training value and cause her mental stress by interrupting her day. While they fit me mentally, I am not sure they are really effective in hastening recovery. So, we take days completely off in lieu of active recovery…….any time we want with no feeling of guilt.
IT IS THE BT Workouts that drive our training gain…….the rest is recovery, on or off the bike.
So, what does Recovery on Demand mean to us?? It means we can schedule training days that are hard, back to back, and then take off when we feel fatigued. That is how I interpreted it for us. We can go several weeks hard and back down a week only when necessary, not when scheduled.
We had a short BASE period this year: January. We can do this because we came into January very aerobically fit. In the fall months, although we did not schedule to train, we rode huge miles. In BASE, I scheduled 3 day blocks of BT Workouts but we would take off if necessary. All was good and I averaged 4+ BT Workouts per week. Christina was close behind. These were mostly 100K endurance rides with some Lactic Threshold intervals dispersed in the workouts. The intervals ranged from 6 minutes to 50 minutes (Mt Lemmon climbs). Joe believes these Cruise Intervals or steady state intervals are the best thing for maintaining and increasing one's Functional Power Threshold. The problem is most people will not do them because they are very hard.
In February, we moved into more intense training and have had a couple of training races. Races are the best training. The goal for this period is to get in 4 BT workouts a week:
Anaerobic Hill Intervals - DOGS on Tuesday - the best training ride I have ever done…..ever.
20 minute steady state intervals (Cruise intervals) - Substitute an ITT Race.
Hard group ride - Sub a road race
20-60 minute climbing intervals - Mt Lemmon
NOTE: Once every two weeks, we will do an endurance ride. We will revisit our endurance needs with a 3-4 workout block of endurance rides if needed.
Feb 2 - Following an 'easy' week, we had Oracle RR and the day after we were both in the bag! I felt almost like I had the flu……fatigue. We laid around all day on Monday but fully rode the DOGS Anaerobic Hill Ride on Tuesday. We both performed well in the DOGS but Tuesday PM we were exhausted again….both of us. Wednesday we aborted a BT Workout and took our bikes for walk with Roger for 1.5 hours….I mean all in Z1…..we were passed by fat lady in a Pearl Izumi outfit! Today, I took Christina to the airport (got up at 4:30 AM) and just still did not have a lot of kick. I did salvage the day with solid endurance ride (100k - Steady endurance pace) again with Roger. I feel pretty good right now.
The jury is still out on Recovery on Demand. I don't think it works if you have a remote coach. If you are self coached (me) or have a coach who workouts with you (Christina), it may have value.
Here are the tips:
You have to believe you can go hard on back to back days.
You must be prepared to listen to your body and back down as needed.
If you do hard workouts, you need a lot of recovery.
Most folks go too hard on their easy days and too easy on their hard days.
Some really hard efforts are easier to accomplish with a group.
If you ride with great riders, you just might be one?
As most of you know Training load = intensity x volume. As when we were under Joe's tutelage, we planned to emphasize volume in first part of the season and intensity as racing neared. In the past, we had accomplished what Joe called BREAKTHROUGH WORKOUTS (BT Workouts), about 2 to 3 times per week. The rest of the time was recovery or active recovery.
I am not sold on active recovery for Christina. These 1-1.5 hour workouts are questionable in training value and cause her mental stress by interrupting her day. While they fit me mentally, I am not sure they are really effective in hastening recovery. So, we take days completely off in lieu of active recovery…….any time we want with no feeling of guilt.
IT IS THE BT Workouts that drive our training gain…….the rest is recovery, on or off the bike.
So, what does Recovery on Demand mean to us?? It means we can schedule training days that are hard, back to back, and then take off when we feel fatigued. That is how I interpreted it for us. We can go several weeks hard and back down a week only when necessary, not when scheduled.
We had a short BASE period this year: January. We can do this because we came into January very aerobically fit. In the fall months, although we did not schedule to train, we rode huge miles. In BASE, I scheduled 3 day blocks of BT Workouts but we would take off if necessary. All was good and I averaged 4+ BT Workouts per week. Christina was close behind. These were mostly 100K endurance rides with some Lactic Threshold intervals dispersed in the workouts. The intervals ranged from 6 minutes to 50 minutes (Mt Lemmon climbs). Joe believes these Cruise Intervals or steady state intervals are the best thing for maintaining and increasing one's Functional Power Threshold. The problem is most people will not do them because they are very hard.
In February, we moved into more intense training and have had a couple of training races. Races are the best training. The goal for this period is to get in 4 BT workouts a week:
Anaerobic Hill Intervals - DOGS on Tuesday - the best training ride I have ever done…..ever.
20 minute steady state intervals (Cruise intervals) - Substitute an ITT Race.
Hard group ride - Sub a road race
20-60 minute climbing intervals - Mt Lemmon
NOTE: Once every two weeks, we will do an endurance ride. We will revisit our endurance needs with a 3-4 workout block of endurance rides if needed.
Feb 2 - Following an 'easy' week, we had Oracle RR and the day after we were both in the bag! I felt almost like I had the flu……fatigue. We laid around all day on Monday but fully rode the DOGS Anaerobic Hill Ride on Tuesday. We both performed well in the DOGS but Tuesday PM we were exhausted again….both of us. Wednesday we aborted a BT Workout and took our bikes for walk with Roger for 1.5 hours….I mean all in Z1…..we were passed by fat lady in a Pearl Izumi outfit! Today, I took Christina to the airport (got up at 4:30 AM) and just still did not have a lot of kick. I did salvage the day with solid endurance ride (100k - Steady endurance pace) again with Roger. I feel pretty good right now.
The jury is still out on Recovery on Demand. I don't think it works if you have a remote coach. If you are self coached (me) or have a coach who workouts with you (Christina), it may have value.
Here are the tips:
You have to believe you can go hard on back to back days.
You must be prepared to listen to your body and back down as needed.
If you do hard workouts, you need a lot of recovery.
Most folks go too hard on their easy days and too easy on their hard days.
Some really hard efforts are easier to accomplish with a group.
If you ride with great riders, you just might be one?
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Check Out Arizona's Newest Cat 3!!
Some women are Cat 4's for only 2 months but then few enter USA CYCLING racing in their 50's. Coming out of a competitive running background after being sidelined by injury, Christina has been encouraged by many wonderful team mates and peers.This week after amassing 42 upgrade points, she has officially been elevated to Cat 3. This is certainly something she deserves for her hard work and the level at which she races.
Rarely the strongest rider in a race, Christina's tenacity and skills have routinely placed her at the top of nearly every field. Often times racing and winning in masters fields, her accomplishments were for naught in USA CYCLING upgrade system. All these 42 points came from Cat 4 and Cat 3/4 races.
This week, she finished her Cat 4 tenure with a 5th place in a field of 21 entries at Oracle RR. This was a terribly hard 40 mile race over a grueling course with top contenders.
The future will offer Christina options to compete in Womens Cat 3 or Masters Women. She will likely also cross over and race Masters Men 65+, which she has done successfully (look out fellas, this can be very humbling).
As her husband and coach, I am very proud of her!
Monday, February 3, 2014
Oracle RR Race Report
We went to the line at 10:10 (me) and 10:16 (Christina) in Oracle, AZ. The initial challenge was what to wear. It was much colder at race time (38F) than it has been. We knew what to wear for this temp but, it was more complicated in that it might go to 55F….or even higher, before the finish. This was a race and Christina and I could not stop to take off jackets and vests. At race pace, we can always manage to get gloves and armies off. I suspect most amateur masters bike racers are similar.
So, after dressing and redressing, we headed to staging. I had about 40 or more in my combined 55+/65+ group. My 65+ AG had 12 or 14 folks……..skinnier than you can imagine. Maybe all but a couple were sub 150 pounders. After feeling like crap Saturday afternoon and some jitters earlier, ice water was running through my veins. I was not cocky….I was confident that I had come with my A Game. That is all I can ever do: Be the best I can be.
We rolled in neutral for about a mile to a right turn and then it was 'game on'. Mostly downhill for 6 miles, it was pretty sane. Then, the moto missed the turn, taking a big part of the pack with him. I turned the right way and I was way off the front. Luckily no crashes occurred and we were back together soon.
About 10.5 miles in, we turned on Webb Rd (7 miles and 1350 feet of climbing). That was the time for me to execute my strategy: Stay in the lead pack until I finish or can't pedal, whichever comes first. If I can't pedal, recover and ride like hell.
Soon, there are 12-14 of us……... Roy Quade and Tom Wallace were the only riders in my AG. Two thirds of the way up the climb, the 'can't pedal thing' happened. Coming off, I pull off gloves and armies and then returned to pedaling hard. At the top of the climb, my buddy Richard Ellwanger, caught me. Richard is 70, weighs 141 and can climb like a rocket……..he has had a flat and come back, passing all dropped riders, and was solo. I asked him to back down a notch. With 13 pacing miles ahead, he decided two were better than one and gave me a short recovery.
Three miles later, I hit a low emotional point when 5 guys caught us….including Jack Dillon (a guy I have never beat). Soon our grupeto reached the climb for the second go round. Shortly, it was Richard, a 55+ guy and me. I was suffering and lost contact with Richard in the exact place I lost the lead pack on the first lap. I still had not given up hope for 3rd place and continued to chase….pitch after pitch. Later, Strava would tell me that these two climbs were my best ever and the second was only 1 minute slower than the first!
For me, this drop ended the race….oh, I had to ride like heck. There were guys only minutes back. In the hills prior to finish, I caught a 55+ guy and put on a serious sprint to beat him………I always sprint at the end whether needed or not . It is physical and mental practice.
FOR A GUY WHO WEIGHS ABOUT A DONUT LESS THAN 190 ON A COURSE WITH TWO EACH 7+ MILE 1350 FOOT CLIMBS, I FELT PRETTY GOOD ABOUT THE DAY.
Christina's race went pretty much the same. She made the winning break of about 8 but could not quite hang. She finished 5th and felt very good about her race. TREMENDOUS RESULTS FOR HER!
I will be racing Flapjack Flats 30K ITT on Saturday while Christina returns to Greenville for a week!
So, after dressing and redressing, we headed to staging. I had about 40 or more in my combined 55+/65+ group. My 65+ AG had 12 or 14 folks……..skinnier than you can imagine. Maybe all but a couple were sub 150 pounders. After feeling like crap Saturday afternoon and some jitters earlier, ice water was running through my veins. I was not cocky….I was confident that I had come with my A Game. That is all I can ever do: Be the best I can be.
We rolled in neutral for about a mile to a right turn and then it was 'game on'. Mostly downhill for 6 miles, it was pretty sane. Then, the moto missed the turn, taking a big part of the pack with him. I turned the right way and I was way off the front. Luckily no crashes occurred and we were back together soon.
About 10.5 miles in, we turned on Webb Rd (7 miles and 1350 feet of climbing). That was the time for me to execute my strategy: Stay in the lead pack until I finish or can't pedal, whichever comes first. If I can't pedal, recover and ride like hell.
Soon, there are 12-14 of us……... Roy Quade and Tom Wallace were the only riders in my AG. Two thirds of the way up the climb, the 'can't pedal thing' happened. Coming off, I pull off gloves and armies and then returned to pedaling hard. At the top of the climb, my buddy Richard Ellwanger, caught me. Richard is 70, weighs 141 and can climb like a rocket……..he has had a flat and come back, passing all dropped riders, and was solo. I asked him to back down a notch. With 13 pacing miles ahead, he decided two were better than one and gave me a short recovery.
Three miles later, I hit a low emotional point when 5 guys caught us….including Jack Dillon (a guy I have never beat). Soon our grupeto reached the climb for the second go round. Shortly, it was Richard, a 55+ guy and me. I was suffering and lost contact with Richard in the exact place I lost the lead pack on the first lap. I still had not given up hope for 3rd place and continued to chase….pitch after pitch. Later, Strava would tell me that these two climbs were my best ever and the second was only 1 minute slower than the first!
For me, this drop ended the race….oh, I had to ride like heck. There were guys only minutes back. In the hills prior to finish, I caught a 55+ guy and put on a serious sprint to beat him………I always sprint at the end whether needed or not . It is physical and mental practice.
FOR A GUY WHO WEIGHS ABOUT A DONUT LESS THAN 190 ON A COURSE WITH TWO EACH 7+ MILE 1350 FOOT CLIMBS, I FELT PRETTY GOOD ABOUT THE DAY.
Christina's race went pretty much the same. She made the winning break of about 8 but could not quite hang. She finished 5th and felt very good about her race. TREMENDOUS RESULTS FOR HER!
I will be racing Flapjack Flats 30K ITT on Saturday while Christina returns to Greenville for a week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)