Mar 7, 10:11 PM by Steve | Training 3/1-3/7
Posted in Cycling & Training
This week was fun. High intensity, good volume, a bunch of rain and a 75 min crit in there somewhere. I did two hard group rides, two hard threshold and sprint interval workouts, AND I hit my highest 60 minute NP since last August. Hopefully I won’t get sick next week.
The crit was fun, it was nice having such a huge Platinum presence at the race. Of course we got some flak for having 1/3 the field and only managing second, but hey, that’s not my department. I was happy just to hang in for the whole race, through the rain, and managed to do a little bit to help with team tactics. I don’t know how much I helped in the end, but I was near the pointy end of the crit, my teammates asked me to do something, and I was able to do it. That’s a success in my book.
Signs have been pointing to an underestimated FTP for a while now, and the workouts and rides this week convinved me to bump it up a little bit. Also, I made a cool little graph of my power distribution for the week. The colors correspond to the [new] zones.
Total: 18.3 hrs, 332 miles, 1,030 TSS, 11,308kJ
Mon: 1 hr Recovery Ride
After work, I rode out to Kim’s office in Carpinteria to pick up our other that we had left there when we drove out to Nevada.
Tue: 2 hrs Refugio & Back
Wed: 2.5 hrs w/OSM repeats
Increased my interval power by about 3% over the same workout last month.
Thu: 2.5 hrs 2× 154 to OSM w/sprint intervals
When I saw this workout on my schedule it sounded like it would be painful, and it was!
Fri: 2 hrs Refugio & Back
Had a no chain type day. It was “easy” by PE (and HR) but skirting tempo by power. Of course I hadn’t adjusted my zones in a while… Even then it was much more power than similar rides a the same PE over the last few weeks.
Sat: 4 hrs Echelon Ride + OSM + Island View Criterium
My race wasn’t until mid-afternoon, it was supposed to rain late in the day and I was supposed to do some extra riding after the race. I knew I wouldn’t be able to ride after and I didn’t really care how I did in the race, so I decided decided to ride extra beforehand, then rest until my race. The skies over the mountains looked mean so I “wussed out” and did the Echelon ride instead of climbing. I justified this by saying I could take this ride easy.
Of course I should know myself better than that. It was a small group and I ended up going to the front and hammering it more often than not. I held back a lot but ended up getting in a 3-man break (with Thomas and Steve N) and working harder than I should have, so I shut it down at Glen Annie. Ran into Ed on Glen Annie, and we out to OSM and rode up at tempo.
The crit was a pretty small field, and Platinum had maybe 1/3 of the riders. It was hard for me near the beginning (probably because I didn’t warm up, oops), but I felt better as it went on. While I was suffering I was hanging out at the back with some of the women who were doing it because there was no women’s P/1/2 race. It started raining partway through the race, and apparently hail, I was told. A bunch of people pulled out when the rain started. It didn’t really bother me, and it was kind of nice because the corners smoothed out a bit.
Because we had so many in the race, there was always one of our riders off the front, but the composition of the breaks kept changing. About an hour in, Adrian was off with Walker and a LaGrange guy and signaled that he was not happy with the break, so Cookie told me not to let it get away. Kieth towed us down the start/finish straight and launched me into the first corner, right into the strong winds on the backside. I averaged nearly 30mph for a minute, mostly into the wind and to get as low as possible, my knees were literally hitting my chest. When I caught the break I pulled up past their wheel to drop off Cookie, then pulled off and recovered, ramped back up to speed and tucked back in. It was very painful, but very satisfying that I was able to contribute to real team tactics in a race way above my level. Shortly after, another break went with Adrian and Gary, who took second.
Sun: 4+ hrs Sunday “worlds” + Gibraltar + Camino Cielo
I had to leave home early to get to SBCC to take our team picture. We had some time before worlds so cruised over to Jitters to check it out. Nice enough place but I don’t really drink coffee so I just hung out. Then Worlds… I broke a spoke right at the beginning and ended up riding with a wobbly wheel and a rubbing brake pad until the regroup. I did Goob, but skipped Bates so that I could check it out. I wrapped the bad spoke around a good spoke to get it out of the way, opened up the brakes, and continued the rest of the ride. On the way back after the high school, Chester came up and said let’s go to the front. So with a few others we went up and kept a good pace. One of our guys was off the front so I asked Chester if we were letting him go for it or what. He said for me to go, so I did. I don’t always understand the tactical stuff, I just do what I’m told. As we were nearing the end I was on Gary’s wheel and a voice behind me said to go. I didn’t really question it at the time, but in retrospect I’m not really sure who it was. When I’m going really hard I guess I’ll just do whatever someone shouts ;)
After worlds, I went to Peet’s with the group and waited with John for Jen Jo (I hope I spelled that right, I’ve only heard it…) to head out to climb Gibraltar. We did a nice easy pace and it was a great ride despite some extremely gusty winds at some spots.
