It's killing me but..........

[bgoetz]

Sure thing, I don't ever post stuff because I never use the computer on this forum, just my iPhone, but I will be sure to throw one up. Hopefully there will be a 600 watt pop at the end where I can say "and this is where I took the race from 1k out", but we will see.

 

[maxroadrash]

Originally Posted by bgoetz .

Starting my big taper into a few weeks of hopefully good racing. It always amazes me just how good my legs can feel and how effortless it feels to maintain a wattage that use to take effort.

I managed 360 watts for 20min on my way to work today, which will yield my highest watt/kg to date. The thing is I had to traverse no less than 3 stop signs and 6, 90 degree corners, so it was by no means ideal. I will look at my NP when I get home, but I was seeing 370-380 most of the time between having to slow down. For now I am thinking I will keep my FTP @ 350 and see what type of 1hr NP I get from upcoming races and maybe adjust up from there. Really with where I am at in terms of training/tapering FTP being right on is not super important.

Hope everyone else is doing well! I will try to keep you guys updated with my race results, Battenkill is only 1 week away!!!

Hey man , good luck at Battenkill! After reading your posts for the last few months, I feel like I've got a vested interest.
Kick some ass!

 

[jsirabella]

Ditto Dude...Got to live through someone nowadays!

 

[Felt_Rider]

Originally Posted by jsirabella .

Ditto Dude...Got to live through someone nowadays!

Double Ditto BG. Looking forward to your race report.

 

[Bigpikle]

Me too - those a some very impressive numbers going in so good luck! Harding back home to wet and cold today for me Managed 250 miles and 10,000m climbing in 5 good rides up the mountain, so am hoping it was a worthwhile week. Focus was on holding a tempo pace as much as I possibly could although the last ride yesterday was tough and really just became about turning the pedals for 50 miles and making sure I hit my 2000m climbing target for each ride. Wen I get back and get everything uploaded to Strava I will at least be able to check times on the climbs versus last year and back at Xmas, so am hoping for some slight improvements. I think its time to change focus slightly when I get home and really hit the L4 work again as well as long rides primarily at weekends. I have a pretty full calendar of weekend events of 100-120 miles that I hope will boost fitness and confidence over the distance and then keep hitting the FTP with L4 sessions. The recent spell of doing lots of 2-3 hour tempo work has helped with my ability to push the pace for longer periods but I don't think it's really helped my 20 min power numbers, but now the weather seems to have finally turned a little more 'spring-like' I hope to turn the wickiup a little and keep pushing up.

 

[Felt_Rider]

BP, I thought you must be holding back on uploading your ride data to Strava since I had not seen any of it. Pretty cool that you got get in a nice volume of work.

Yep spring has sprung here in the south and the plant life is in full bloom, which means I feel like death warmed over from bad allergy symptoms and the drugs do not seem to be helping me much this time around. I feel like I have been kicked to the curb and run over by the garbage truck. Despite feeling like **** I did get out on the bike over the weekend just to keep the legs active.

Best news was weighing in Sunday I saw 159 lbs on the scale, which is the lowest I have seen since making the lightweight class for my very last competition in 1996. Also I really need to speak in past tense of being a former competitive bodybuilder and power lifter. I am morphing into one of you guys now. I probably would be shunned by the gym world at this point. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

I am still about 15 lbs heavier than a friend of mine of the same height and frame that is a 4 watt/kg cyclist.

 

[bgoetz]

God dang what a hard race this weekend, strong field, 75 miles, 4000 feet of climbing, and the strongest cross winds I have ever raced in. The first hour of the race was insanely hard as the strong guys/teams just tried to expload the field. When it finally did go, I found myself hesitant to "write a check" as I felt like if the rest of the race continued like the first hour I needed all I could hold on to, so I waited for someone else to close down the gap. This turned out to be a big mistake as a total of 11 guys ended up up the road. I managed a respectable 13th, but it is always hard to watch the race ride away. Here is a brief summary of my first hour of the race: The first 1hr was nuts! Max 5min of 397 within the first 7min, 12min later max 10min of 331, 9min later 371 for nearly 7min, followed 5min later of a max 20 min of 300 watts, which included 2min of 400 where the break went. This does not include some of the shorter AWC efforts in between these longer efforts. I have not had such a hard hour, at least not that I can recall.

 

[RapDaddyo]

Originally Posted by Bigpikle .

The recent spell of doing lots of 2-3 hour tempo work has helped with my ability to push the pace for longer periods

These sessions are exactly what you need for your target event. It's fine to work in some shorter L4 sessions, but I wouldn't neglect the long SST/L4 sessions.

 

[Bigpikle]

Originally Posted by RapDaddyo .

These sessions are exactly what you need for your target event. It's fine to work in some shorter L4 sessions, but I wouldn't neglect the long SST/L4 sessions.

Thanks for the reminder RDO

I'll make sure to keep a focus on L4/SST/long L2 rides then. Thats the beauty of the expertise offered here - keeps you from forgetting key stuff!

Well the Strava uploads showed PBs on every climb and route I did across the week, even against my hardest efforts done when fresh back at Xmas, so things are obviously working. I need to take inspiration from you Felt, as I need to see the scales tip a little lower in the coming weeks as I've slightly neglected that aspect recently.

 

[bgoetz]

Well Battenkill is Saturday! Nice L2 today. 2x3 @ 120%, 12min FTP, and 2 AWC is on the books for tomorrow. Thursday off, then an hour pre-ride w/ a 3min effort is planned for Friday. I am somewhat afraid that tomorrow's workout may be a bit much? Any thoughts?

 

[swampy1970]

Well Battenkill is Saturday! Nice L2 today. 2x3 @ 120%, 12min FTP, and 2 AWC is on the books for tomorrow. Thursday off, then an hour pre-ride w/ a 3min effort is planned for Friday. I am somewhat afraid that tomorrow's workout may be a bit much? Any thoughts?

Tomorrows ride looks like a nice warm up for a shortish TT. If that's too much then maybe Battenkill is gonna be more "fun" than you expected Good luck at the weekend.

 

[bgoetz]

No it will be fine, I just want to be sure to error in going in more on the fresh side, lol. Sunday I did not feel real fresh, but I guess I knew that doing a 20min test Friday and a 1min/5min Saturday would not leave me feeling fresh and that was not the intent.

 

[bgoetz]

Gosh either my PM is off, I just had a bad day, or two1min intervals, two 3 min intervals, and one 12min interval is harder than I expected. That 12min @FTP just was not happening today, I could hardly hold 90% and my HR was way high. Ugh! Hopefully just a bad day

 

[Felt_Rider]

Originally Posted by bgoetz .

Gosh either my PM is off, I just had a bad day, or two1min intervals, two 3 min intervals, and one 12min interval is harder than I expected. That 12min @FTP just was not happening today, I could hardly hold 90% and my HR was way high. Ugh! Hopefully just a bad day

Rough week for me too (working overtime, allergies, allergy medicine and not so good training days). I felt that way on Wednesday for the metrics I was seeing as output did not seem to match what I normally see for typical metrics around my 90% FT mark. I even got off the bike once to see if I had accidently bumped my resistance setting on the rollers, but when I got back on I was still struggling. Tried fumbled around with zero offset a couple of times. I was so hoping it was equipment related and not me, but I guess it was just me. Ugh! is what I thought too.

Anyway just wanted to pop on here and give best wishes on this coming weekend.

 

[bgoetz]

Well guys wish I had some cool story about how I sprung from the pack to win Battenkill, but that was never going to happen. Even with my training the course and the level of racing is just something I could not prepare for. The climbs were more difficult than anything I have access to and half of them were dirt! The cat 5s I am pretty certain could hold their own in a 3 race in the mid west. The day started off good, we did 2 loops of an 18 mile section and then hit the remainer of the course to get our miles. There were two hard climbs on that loop one long paved and then the infamous Juniper Swamp (18% dirt about 2 minutes of pure agony). I managed to hold my own through both loops and was feeling good heading to Juniper Swamp the 2nd time. I knew this time was going to be a key moment as once we took the turn onto the rest of the course there was a really long very hard climb, a launch off Juniper Swamp could decide the race. I managed to gut it out in good position the second time, but as soon as we got to the top the race was stopped due to a bad crash in the Cat 1 race at the bottom. So we stood neutralized for 10 minutes, lactic acid just sitting in our legs, all the while everyone who was dropped the previous 30 miles was now back in the race. Once things got going again my legs didn't feel nearly as great and I found it hard to get back in the grove, shortly after we hit a never ending climb. I got baited into a couple early digs that started things off hard and by mid way I was in a place I have never been in terms of pain and agony. All I could do was watch the front 3rd of the field ride away. The thing is the next 20-miles with the chase group I felt in my rightful place in the race, especially after my blow up. Then at mile 60 I unexpectedly dropped my chain and had to get off and fight to get it back on, putting me a minute behind. I chased for a while, but there is something about chasing for a top 50 finish that makes chasing hard. I ended up in a small 20 man group by the end in which I practiced one of Dave's drag race sprints and took 2nd just for fun. So basically mid-pack, but reality is the best I had would have maybe earned me a top 20, it was just that hard of a race. I will download my file tomorrow sometime and take a look, but my NP for 4hrs was 280, which included a light 30 minute warmup, standing for 10min at the start line, and standing for 10 minutes at the top of Juniper Swamp.

 

[RapDaddyo]

Well done, especially hanging in when things went wrong. Great experience, and 280NP for 4 hrs is damn good. The hardest races are the ones where one's power is just average or slightly above average for the field. So, good job.

 

[Felt_Rider]

Originally Posted by RapDaddyo .

Well done, especially hanging in when things went wrong. Great experience, and 280NP for 4 hrs is damn good. The hardest races are the ones where one's power is just average or slightly above average for the field. So, good job.

That's what I thought. That is hard for me to grasp. Great job looking at this from my level.
I had a pretty good time today, but I'm not about to post my feeble numbers /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

 

[jsirabella]

Originally Posted by RapDaddyo .

Well done, especially hanging in when things went wrong. Great experience, and 280NP for 4 hrs is damn good. The hardest races are the ones where one's power is just average or slightly above average for the field. So, good job.

Yes I see lots of touring in my future...lawl. Just the thought makes me giggle...

 

[jsirabella]

Originally Posted by Felt_Rider .


Rough week for me too..

Ditto, something happen when I got back from Nashville. I was doing well and suddenly after my first ride back from Nashville, the back kicked in more than usual. It took a week but seems to have gotten back into shape.

-js

 

[maxroadrash]

Great job Goetz! I think between the unscheduled stop and the dropped chain I would have canned the whole thing /img/vbsmilies/smilies/mad.gif.
Shows some great intestinal fortitude on your part.