Strava
I've had a lot of people ask me why I don't use Strava. I guess my main consideration would be that I know what zones I want to train in to do well in my events so I concentrate on that and use courses that suit my training. I have to say that during training I only care what I'm doing and not what others have done. I may go up a hill 10 times or do out and back intervals on the same road for two hours. I don't really care that one person put in one big effort to get an online time. I keep my training as just that, my training, where I do track mainly power and not speed. I save my big efforts for the 30+ time trials I ride each year. Plus, I have concerns about safety and cheating with Strava. Truly have no time to get caught up in that. Plus, its nice to just ride for the pure pleasure of riding when I'm not training. I don't want to feel like every ride is a race. I guess Strava is a great competitive outlet for a lot of riders and thats good. Just not my thing at all.
Trainers week at Cincinnati Sports Club
I held a clinic last night on Strength Training for Endurance Athletes. We went over the many reasons to do year round strength training (greater efficiency in your event or events, reduced chance of injury, increased longevity in your sport, etc) and a variety of exercises to incorporate and when to fit them into the training schedule, and its not on the off days! Had nice crowd selection of swimmers, triathletes, etc.
Indoor Endurance class starts the last Sunday in November and runs through February. This is 90 minutes of strength, foundation, plyometrics and spinning.
10x6 minute steady states
I had less than 90 minutes but got these in and ended up less a couple of minutes on the last one; held 315, 330, 320, 328, 322, 321,321,321,321, 311; last one was on the climb back to our house; took less than 90 seconds between each effort as opposed to the 6 minutes noted on todays schedule
Final Cleves and some comparison
Rode another 22:45. Been stuck on that time for weeks.
Here are some year to year comparisons.
average speed for all rides that year:
2013 27.33
2012 27.52
2011 27.5
2010 27.6
2009 27.5
2008 27.27
2007 26.4
2006 26.6 (could go back 17 years total but no need)
Last time I rode in the 23 minute plus time, 2008, 5th week so early June of that year.
This was the first time in four years that I didn't get a time in the 21's
Won my bracket so I've medalled every year for 17 years
Have to say that the last few week have been rather disappointing only in that I wanted to get a 22:15-30 time but not a big deal. I was mentally worn out on that course while still slamming good times at Dayton. Plus, timing everyone takes away from the mental component needed to really want to ride hard. A power meter next year should be interesting. If I'm slow but still putting out the power, I'm ok with that. I'm not nearly ready to start to see any major decline in my times here or elsewhere. May and June were still two of my best months ever on that course.
This was the fewest number of times I've ridden that event since 2006. I missed 6 or 7 and usually on miss 2. Felt good to skip some.
Off Day
Took off Saturday as it was raining heavy in Tennessee in the morning. After the Tuesday race, Wednesday two hour spin/circuit, and then late day Wednesday ride in the mountains followed by rides and hikes on Thursday and Friday, the day off worked out well.
Ride profile, Great Smoky Mountain with tempo efforts
Tempo's in the mountains
I used the climb to Fighting Creek Gap (Laurel Falls Trail Head) starting at the park boundary with Gatlinburg for the first tempo effort. Took me exactly 23 minutes from the park border to the top averaging 295 watts, HR around 145. The next effort started at Sugarlands and went towards the Chimney Top picnic area. Didn't make it that far in 17 minutes but still covered some ground and averaged 290 watts. Just for fun I headed back to Gatlinburg and rode Cherokee Orchard Road and then the Roaring Fork Motorway. That road has some great sections at 17-18%. Ended up with just 3 miles in 2:45 but got in 4500' of climbing.
Second last Cleves Time Trial
Another night right at 27 mph avg. Rode with just one other rider at 5:30 and then timed the other 26 riders at 7:00. A little hard to get motivated with just one other rider on the course and with just one more event left.
5x5 results
Felt a little of yesterdays power test when I started off on these but settled in for some decent results: 325, 337, 335, 331 and 342. On the last one I had some other riders that I wanted to pass so I put in a little extra effort. Heart rate in the upper 140's to low 150's.
Second last Cleves time trial on Tuesday. Would like to get back in that 22:20 range to end the season.
Headed to Tennessee this week to do some riding and hiking. Another trip planned in October but in November headed to Colorado for the USAC Level 1 clinic.
Weight training will be picking up in October. Kept it going all summer with 2-3 sessions per week with plenty of plyometrics.
and another day of 5x5 minute steady states, the graph
watts/kg on the field test, FTP
Todays efforts were just below 5 watts/kg at 4.94. Need to reach 385 watts average to be at 5. The one hour power at 341 would be around 4.4 watts/kg.
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2x8 field test results
I looked forward to this all week. Rode the first one at 377 and that includes going out almost 2 minutes too long ending at 9:53. I was so locked into the average watts that by the time I thought about checking the time I was way over. Held 381 for 8 minutes on the second. I think both of those are pretty decent results compared to previous efforts. Seems like my previous best's were 371-375. Felt great. I like that length of time for an effort. My 20 minute effort was 351 a few weeks ago. Based on these my functional power (power that could be held for one hour) would be somewhere between 335 and 340.
5x5 steady states, comments
Was planning on an easy day but found five 5 minute steady states on the schedule. I used flat Riverside Drive for these. The goal was upper end of the zone of 319-334. Actual power ended up being 336, 337, 333, 330 and 335 with HR hitting 150-155 or 82-85% OF max. Time between was short at 60-90 seconds; recommended time was about 5 minutes. Have the Blue Streak on Wednesday and another field test, 2x8 minutes, on Saturday.
Century
Rode about 80 miles outside this morning (19.8 mph and 220 watts, flat road, little wind) and then rode an easy 20 inside watching the Reds beat the Dodgers. Taking tomorrow off. Have the September Blue Streak TT on Wednesday.
Over/Unders
I rode these at Ault Park. Actually added an extra to the second set. Must have been caught up in the effort and lost count. Better than doing too few. Here is the power going 4 minute then 2 minutes: 321/371/316/379...324/366/320/375/314/373...311/359/312/378. Certainly better than last week. The day off yesterday helped. Hope to get 100 miles or more in tomorrow.
So Far This Week
Monday was an off day with some light recovery miles. Also did a little upper body with pushups (100 total), curls, press, extensions, etc.
Yesterday was the Cleves Time Trial. Rode a 22:38 or a little over 27 mph. Kind of stuck in that range of time for the last couple months. Hard to get too excited at this point in the season but it is good training.
Had four 5 minute steady states today. Pretty light effort with instructions to keep the power below the typical zone of 319-330 so I held around 310. Preceded this late afternoon workout with my early morning hour spin and hour circuit. In spin we concentrated on holding 90-100 rpm while varying the intensity from zone 4 to 5. We did one minute efforts with the last 15 seconds at zone 5, two minutes with the last 30 seconds in zone 5, 5 minutes with the last 15 seconds of each minute in zone 5, 6 minutes with 2 minutes in 4 then 1 in 5 repeated twice and then some 15 second zone 4/15 second zone 5 repeated for 7 minutes with 15 seconds between each effort. The other efforts had from 30 seconds to 2-3 minutes rest between.
Circuit class was a mix of strength training (3-4 minutes) and then cardio (3-4 minutes). We did plenty of pushups, squats, lunges, forward and lateral arm extensions, ski jumps, speed skaters, running in place with high knees and butt kickers, power jumps, mountain climbers, planks (side and regular), rows, etc. Had about 34 people in circuit, 28 in spin. The fall attendance spike has started.
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