9/28/09

It's Monday, and I've taken a few days off from the bike. We had some friends from Cali stay with us for a few days, and today there's 30 mph winds. I did manage to squeeze in a good kettlebell workout yesterday which left me a little sore. Hopefully I can get out early enough tomorrow morning before the winds starts blowing again.

9/24/09

Yesterday, a couple friends and I rode 64 miles, with around 5500' of climbing. What a great day! For me, it was one of those days that felt like I could push as hard as I want to, for as long as I want to. Ahhhhh...I love days like that.

JMU TT #2

Today, I had another TT Test @ JMU. It was the strongest I've ridden since my race last week, which was nice. The above picture is part of the 1200 calorie meal that I consumed on the way home! Yep, that's a 500 calorie cheese danish...
This afternoon, I started having pain in my right hip and lateral knee. I'm fearing some IT band irritation. Tomorrow's a rest day, so hopefully it calms down a bit.

9/21/09

This post is late, but I did train yesterday. I only managed about 30 miles, before becoming discouraged and calling it a day. I felt like I had no strength/endurance, and the wind was brutal. I'm beginning to think that I'm under-eating. I have never been good at consistently eating large amounts, and now that my activity has increased exponentially, I haven't begun to eat that much more than I have in the past. For a few weeks while I was monitoring my intake, everything seemed ok, but I have been lazy recently, and haven't been writing stuff down.
My wife mentioned finding a nutritionist, which sure would be nice, but we'll see.

Puttin' in some more miles...

Well, it literally rained ALL day yesterday, so I scrapped my ride. Instead, I hit the gym and lifted some weights. So today, I did a 3 hr. ride which was great! I love it when I need to carry 3 GU's with me (every 45 min.), so I decided to have a little fun with Photoshop when I got home. Today, of course, was more "Foundation Miles", as will be for the next 2 months. I work tomorrow, so if I have enough discipline, I'll wake up at 3am and get a kettlebell workout in before I leave.

Tuesday ride = still tired!

Today, I rode 1.5 hrs. of "Foundation Miles". Also, lifted some weights in the gym...some good ole' upper body work! I'm still feeling a little fatigued from this past weekend. Tomorrow's a rest day, so maybe Thursday will be business as usual...

Back into the swing of things

 

I finally unloaded my bike from race weekend this afternoon...when I lifted it out of the back of the truck to put the back wheel on the ground, a HUGE amount of water came rushing out of the chainstay tubes!! I guess that proves how much rain we raced in. I took a picture of my dirty head tube...yeah, my drive train was dirtier, but I like the head tube pic (photoshopped, of course).
Today, I had a 2 hr. "Foundation Mile" training ride with 7x10 sec. "Power Stomps" included. I found that I'm still not recovered from the blistering race-pace from 2 days ago. My muscles are still fatigued. Once I got home, I also did about 40 minutes worth of kettlebell training. After that, I did a double shot of protein powder, showered, and took a quick nap. This evening will be full of carbs!

Race Day!

I raced the Milton Harvest Festival road race today. Here's my little wrap-up:

I started middle of the pack, then worked my way up to the top 10 within about 2 miles, then hung on there for about 5 miles. It wasn't until a big "separator" hill that I fell back to about 15th. The lead group took off, and I found myself in the second chase group, but still ahead of the peloton. We all took turns pulling, and reeled in the first chase group, making it a 6 man chase. I was hurting after catching them so I took a break for a mile or so, and sat "back wheel" in our group. The pace quickened, and I re-entered the rotation, making sure that I pulled my fair share. We had the lead group in sight, about 300 yards or so up the road, when I FLATTED!!! DAMMIT!!! I stood on the side of the road for about 40 minutes waiting for the SAG wagon, until one of the last guys on the road offered me a tube. I guess I'll be carrying my own shit in races from now on...

Oh, and the above picture was from the rankings board at the end of the race. My friend (and teammate) decided not to race because it was supposed to rain, so another friend of mine decided to have a little fun with it!

JMU TT #1

 

 

I had a 40k Time Trial Test today, for the JMU caffeine study. I had to completely fast for 10 hrs prior to the test, woke up at 3am, arrived at JMU at 5:30am, went through blood draws, the TT, plus VO2 tests all by 8:30am. So, needless to say, the drive home was pretty much non-stop carb replacement therapy! In the first 30 minutes of the drive home, I drank a Coke, a bottle of Gatorade, ate a blueberry bagel, a cereal bar, and an apple pie. Halfway home, I stopped for a Starbucks grande white chocolate mocha....got home and PASSED OUT for 30 min!
Tomorrow's a rest day, getting ready for Saturday's race.

Good Training Ride!

Today I rode with another member of my club/team. I had originally intended to stay aerobic throughout the duration of the ride, but it didn't turn out that way! Also, it's very frustrating to watch somebody who weighs 65 lbs. more that you, pull away! Especially on a climb. I'm cooked.
Here's today's stats:

46.3 mi.
2000' of climbing
18.5 mph average

Tonight, I need to eat, eat, eat...I have to fast for 10 hrs starting @ 7p tonight. I have a TT test in the morning for the caffeine study @ JMU. I'm hoping for a good effort tomorrow.

CTS Training Regimen

Today, I did some resistance training at the gym. Included legs, chest, back, and abs. I'm trying to taper my riding a little bit to prepare for a small race this weekend. It's a fairly short race, at 29 miles, on relatively flat terrain. I think the total elevation gain doesn't exceed 1100 miles. Should be a good test of my conditioning this far, and give me a decent indication as to where I stand, preparing for a full season in the Spring.

For the next 12 months, I will follow a workout that is outlined and described by Chris Carmichael in his book, "The Ultimate Ride". There's a ton of great info in the book, I highly recommend it.

Here's my periodization schedule:
Sept., Oct., and Nov. will be "Foundation" months. This will basically be a period for building a solid aerobic system. There won't be a lot of anaerobic work, just a bunch of solid work to build a foundation to build upon. I suspect (as confirmed by my VO2 Max test the other day) that I've got a decent base already, but might as well be sure!
Dec., Jan., and Feb. will be "Preparation" months. During this time, the length of workouts may shorten, but the intensity will start to increase, as I begin to push my lactate threshold a little more. Hopefully, this will start to build some good pedal force, and give me some good power both in and out of the anaerobic zone.
Mar. and April will be for "Specialization". This is where my cycling will hopefully begin to really take form, as I continue to build specific skills needed to successfully race. Some of these workouts will also be pretty intense.
May, hopefully, will be a peak month for me. This should be when I am  at my peak performance/conditioning. The schedules aren't out yet, but hopefully there will be a few races during this month to allow me to capitalize on this!
June goes back to a "Preparation" period to begin rebuilding after my peak.
July is another "Specialized" period.
In Aug., hopefully, I will Peak again.

New Tires!

I finally got some new tires on my bike (my previous pair had about 2000 miles on them). I decided to go with the Continental GP4000 (yellow) set (I have to admit, they look good!). I wanted to check out the Michelin Pro Race3's as well, but nobody locally had them in stock. I got the Conti's mounted, and headed out to try to squeeze in a ride before a rain storm. They ride VERY well in comparison to the Conti Ultra Sport's the I just took off. Unfortunately, I flatted about 15 miles into my ride! No big deal, just changed out the tube and everything was fine. Maybe it was because I used my old tubes in my new tires...
I did manage to squeeze in almost 25 foundation miles before the sky got ugly and convinced me to head home. I'm following a training program that Chris Carmichael outlines and describes in his book "The Ultimate Ride". More on that later~

VO2 Max Study @ JMU

This week, I began the preliminary steps of a "caffeine trial" that JMU is conducting. This study will determine which caffeine-sensitive gene the test subject's liver has, and how that gene is effected by caffeine. The aim is to find which athletes do or don't respond to caffeine. (I think). Anyhow, I completed the VO2 Max test, which is a scientific way to say that you're curious about how efficiently your lungs use the oxygen that is in them. The test consisted of strapping a tube to my face (to monitor the air movement), wearing a heart rate monitor, and putting a computer in front of me (to record all the numbers), while riding a stationary trainer bike.
I found out the my VO2 Max is 59. Not too shabby considering 1) My age (32), and 2) The fact that I could probably train a little harder. In case you're wondering....Lance Armstrong's is 84!