Hill Accelerations

After yesterdays off day I had just 4x4 hill accelerations today. I used Heekin Avenue near our house for these. It has a steady 10% with a section at 14% and then goes to 5-7% to the top. The idea was to go 3 minutes at time trial power and then finish the last minute all out. The 3 minute/1 minute efforts ended up being 354/455, 371/428, 370/431, and 376/438. I was gone for about 35 minutes with a normalized power of 311 and actually got in 1400' of climbing. Tomorrow is a long ride of 5-7 hours. Next week is very light with just the Tuesday tt and some endurance and recovery rides.

Hill Accelerations, 4x4

Cleves Time Trial

Last night was the third Cleves Time Trial. As part of my warmup I did a couple of 12 minute efforts with 6 minutes at 340 and 6 at 350. I took my road bike with the PowerTap for these. The time trial wasn;t as fast as the last two weeks with my time being 22:28 or about 27.4 mph. A strong headwind on the first half didn't turn into much tailwind on the second. Next efforts on the schdul are 3x15's with 5 minutes at 30, 340 and 350.

Weekend Workouts

AFter the 100 mile Smoky Mountain Century on Thursday we did a 10 mile hike to Ramsey Cascade on Friday followed by a great drive through Cades Cove where we saw 5 bears. We had planned to ride on Saturday before we left but it was raining when we got up so we headed back to Cincinnati. Once here I did 2x20 steady states at Ault Park at 320 each. Today was an off day where I taught the 8am apin, a noon beginner cycling class and a 4:30 spin intro. Big week ahead with steady states that ramp from 330 to 340 to 350, some hill accelerations and the time trial on Tuesday.

Smoky Mtn Century

Left the chalet today with the idea of doing 70-75. We headed to Cades Cove which roundtrip would put us in that range. When we got back to Sugarlands my brother headed home but I went up as far as Alum Cave, back down to Sugarlands and back out towards Elkmont and then home for 100.6 miles, 8000' of climbing and 5:54 on the bike. Great day to ride: sunny, hot, a little windy, and not much traffic in the park.

Cleves, May 14

On week two of the 22 week series I posted a 22:12 or 27.7 mph. Off to one of my best starts ever in the last 17 years. The ramped up winter intervals (think back to the multiple weeks of 20 x 3 steady states two or three times per week, the 2x60 tempo's and too many power intervals to count) along with the strength training has made a difference. Would love to break into the 21's sooner than later.

SouthWest Ohio Senior Olympic TT

Today was the SWOSO held in Mt. Airy Forest.Not a huge turnout but I have to say that the course was tough. It was shaped like a Y. For the one mile we went to the fork and back with a roundabout at the turn. I ran that in about 2:10 or about 27.7 mph. The 5k was run to the center of the Y, then out to the right fork to a roundabout, back to the center fork and then to the left fork with another roundabout at the end and then back to the center of the Y and back to the start, repeating this for two trips. Lots of turns where my speed went from 28 to 18. I did this in 6:48 or 27.35 mph. The 10k was the same but four trips around. I came in at 14:10 or 26.27. Could I learn to take those turns at 25? Maybe but they were very very tight. It was pretty much a one lane road through a city park so there wasn't a lot of room to go wide. Plus, there were other riders at most of the turns. Interesting setup for a time trial. The times were good for gold in all three events.