RACE FUEL

Just after the second climb in last weekends Dead Dog Road Race, this dude pulls out this bag of gummy worms. I almost blew my water through my nose, I thought that was one of the funniest things Ive seen in the middle of a brutal race. Ive used sharkies which are similar in texture, but far from the worm in nutritional value. What do you use as race fuel?

PowerIntervals
Goal: To increase power output during short intense efforts. How to do it: This workout can be performed on an indoor trainer because of the controlled environment allowing for a better comparison from one session to another. It can also be performed on a relatively flat section of road. The gearing should be moderate, but pedal cadence must be high (110 or higher). Take one minute to build up to the desired training zone, then maintain this intensity for the remaining interval. It will be during the last two minutes of each interval that will develop your maximum aerobic capacity. If you have to, shift into a lighter gear to maintain the cadence, but don't let the intensity of the interval drop. With a high cadence, your heart rate will remain extremely high and you will train your body's ability to deliver oxygen to the muscles. Recovery between intervals is easy spinning. If you are training with power, the prescribed range might be large. The goal of the workout is to produce the highest average power you can for the interval set. Power average might vary depending on length and number of intervals. Among the athletes who use this interval session are Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie. Since the addition of this workout to Lance and George's training programs, CTS has seen them further develop their extraordinary ability to attack on steep hills late in races when everyone else is gasping for air. ~Taken from CTS Performance Manual - Cycling Appendix.~

Now I dont know about all that goop about Lance and George, but I do know those suckers HURT like a MOFO. For all you non CTS peeps out there these are aka VO2MAX plus some. I was scheduled for a brick of these leg pleasers on Wednesday and Thursday. Wed's block consisted of 7x3min with 3min recoveries, and Thurs's consisted of 7x2min with 2min recoveries. Nothing like holding the puke back for 3mins I must say. These are the hardest intervals I do all year, and they pop up on the ol training schedule every once and a while. Every time they do I spend the day dreading the minute I am to hop on the bike and start them. I swear I go totally mental. (worse than usual that is) I know they work, and are an integral part of training, but they just hurt so bad. I did a couple bricks of these just before the season started in March and came out of the gate flying (which was the plan). So I sucked it up and propped the ol bike up on the trainer in the garage and set out on the road of happy destiny. Yep, trainer session in June, wow I must be totally insane, but this is the most consistent way to train with this type of interval. I had some crazy looks from the people in my complex who walked by the open garage with the El Loco on the bike inside, sweating like a fool. I think the best part of these are the periods of mild body tremors during the last 10seconds of the interval where you power begins to drop, and you are using every ounce of energy you have to keep it up. Good times, now that's why I race bikes.

I Got Girl'd

Besides the race, there was another contest going on this weekend.

"Who Provides the Worst Draft" World Championships

(who's the shortest)

The reigning women's world champ had enough of beating up on the girls, and decided to test her skills in men's category, where I had currently reigned. As you can see it was close, but I ended up second.

And no, the purple shoes didn't help. Renee's just to tough. Looks like it might be time to retire them from action. (BTW I stole the pick from Renee's blog)

~Dead Dog Stage Race~
First off, props to Marty my teammate who finished 10th in GC at the Stage Race. Way to go buddy.

Day 1, 86 Mile RR with 7000+ feet of climbing. First off, what the hell was I thinking........No seriously, sane people dont do this for fun. The temps were high 80's to mid 90's the entire race. The race started in Albany Wy, and descended to a little valley before the town of Centennial. Once we hit Centennial the race went vertical. I managed to stick with the lead group for 3/4's of the 1st climb, which is an improvement from the last mountain RR. Once we hit the first feed zone, it was all over though. Off the back, so I settled into a rhythm and the 2nd group began to form. The group hung together through the descent, and back up the climb. A couple of guys attacked the group and no one was motivated to chase. The third feed zone was located back at the top of the major climb in the race, and from there it was a screaming descent back to Centennial, and from there some long painful rollers and a short but brutal climb back up to Albany to the Finish. Our group ended up catching the guys that attacked on the mountain, and promptly spit them out the back. On the final climb up Albany we were down to 6 guys including myself. The pace picked up towards the finish, the members of the group were sitting 22nd through 27 th place in the race. Then 200m from the finish this Kid, attacked. I briefly thought about telling him how much of a wanker I though he was after the race, but hey he's a kid and probably doesn't know any better. It is a race, and he was still racing, that stuff happens all the time. I think what bugged me most is the little dude was just sitting on our wheels, and skipping pulls in the wind on the strech back up to Albany. Attacking the gruppetto in my opinion is just lame. Enough of that. Sorry that bothered me a little and just had to vent.
We had a nice team dinner at a local restaurant after the race, and got some serious rest.
It looks like I'm still about 10-15 mins off the pace of the lead climbers in the 3's. I can see some more climbing repeats in my future.
Next day Crit, and TT..............

Got Power?

I'm not sure yet, I just started training with a power meter for the first time this week, thanks to Killa B. I did a field test (aka, the 8 min Carmichael Puke Test 2x) on Tuesday, to set my power zones. The results were interesting, and are the first data set with many to follow. I have been training with heart rate and perceived effort for the past year, and this is just another tool to use to refine my efforts. It will be fun to see where this takes things.
I have heard different sides of the training with power story. You have the old school guys saying perceived effort is all you need, and the other side swearing by the meters. Regardless of what you are using, you still have to go out each day and do the work.
Having the data from training, and racing will be nice in tracking progress. I'll let you know how it goes.
One thing I have learned thus far is my power to weight ratio (W/kg)at LT has gone up. Last year in May it was measured at 2.6 at LT in the lab and by field test. I estimated it to be at 4.6 at LT from the field test results this week, which yielded an estimated threshold power of 275 W. Now I know this might be slightly off as the estimate from the field test is difficult to compare to lab work, but it is the best indication of progress I have thus far. I'll be doing a 20 min TT effort soon to see how those numbers look. Later this summer I have a session down at Carmichael for the lab LT test also. Ahhh, the numbers game starts.

WEEKEND QUOTES:

"IF YOU'RE GONNA GO.........GO BIG!"

"THE RACE IS IN FRONT OF YOU."

"IF YOU NOTICE THE SCENERY, YOU'RE NOT GOING HARD ENOUGH!"

HUGO

80 Mile RR in gods country. Flat, to slightly down hill, with major wind.
The plan, get Chris on the podium. The players, myself, Chris, and Chris. This could get confusing but, after 18 miles it got real simple. Plans out the window, Chris flatted, and Chris dropped back in an attempt to tow him back on the back. The only problem, all shit hit the fan once the race turned west. At this point I was solo and planned to conserve as much energy as possible, while covering breaks. Things got fast in a hurry after an hour of soft peddling and pee breaks. I found myself at the front with a group of 10 trading pulls, apparently we had opened a gap on the field which only lasted about 15 mins. Our little break didnt last, there wasnt any real motivation to make the thing stick, and the remainder of the peleton was moving to keep us in check. We just eased back and break over. Turns out it was enough to shread 40-50 or so off the back. So the group was now about 35 guys, and we were moving at a descent clip. The accelerations were manageable, but the real test would be the mileage. Being Straight outa the FO's where we called 65 mi's a RR, 80 mi would be a test of my fitness level. We hit the north leg of the route, and had a sweet tailwind. Man we set sail, that sucker was strung out for the entire 20 miles. I held my position hovering around 5th wheel, working but not too much, faking pulls, as I had no team mates in the group for backup. Then at mile 14 it happened. One of the only uphill stretches on the whole course, I found myself starting to drift back a bit, I began to pick up pace to regain my position, and a dude from the right decided to drastically change lines. The result was the o'l buzz saw of his quick release on my wheel. I didnt go down, and quickly opened my front break to release the tension. The wheel was badly out of true, and in an attempt to stay with the group on a bum wheel I popped. I dropped back to get a wheel from the wheel truck, and the first wheel he gave me fell apart in my hand. The dude gave me a second, but at this point its Race over. I rolled back to the finish and finished 6 minutes of the pace of the group, and 10 mins off the winner. Thats racing. I'll tell you what though, I came away with some good indications of where my fitness is, and things are gonna get fun. This years goal has already been achieved, and the rest of the season is for next year. As for the Chris's, total bumber, but Dead Dog is in the Sights, and I have a feeling that's gonna be a different story. We gonna have a Full VC Team in the House.

This is gonna be fun.


Long time no blog, well after the visit from the family, I went straight back into flog thy self on the bike mode.
AKA super top secret training. With some back to back big weeks and at the height of my training block came the Colorado Cycling Festival Road Race. This is a road race that should have been well suited for me, however there were other plans apparently. The race was a 56 mi with some descent climbing. The race started at Hughs Statium in Fort Collins, went up Rist Canyon, around Horsetooth Res, and back to the stadium. Rist Canyon is a nice little 12 mile jaunt up mountain with the last mile pegged well over 12%. Horsetooth had some "Rollers", which were shorter leg breakers than Rist, but hurt just as bad.
I hit the line just straight up tired. My goal, stay with the climbers as long as possible, and finish. I'd never raced with the 3's in a mountain RR so there was the potential to come away from the race with some good indications of where my fitness is, and needs to be. Well, it was made very clear from the start of the climb, that this was going to be a struggle. I managed to hang with the lead group for about 2/3's of the climb, then the bod said enough. I dropped back and just missed the chase group over the top. Its amazing how a 50 gap can grow on a descent when you are solo, and are trying to catch a group. A small group of about 8 of su formed and we the second chase group, dangling about a minute behind the "real chasers". At this point it was just set cruise and head on back. Our little group shrank until there were only 3, but we managed to keep a strong tempo going. Two miles from home, my legs said " all stop!", wow that hurt, I endured spasms I had never seen or felt before. At this point I was in "just get back" mode. A teammate caught, and towed my sorry butt back to the line. Thanks Lance, I owe you a lead out BRO!. And to my surprise I only finished 8 min off the winner. No complaints here, you see last year at this point in the season I was 20 mins off the leaders in the 4's. I think there's been a little improvement with a year of training and racing. A little rest, and lets see what happens.