email to me coach with response to follow

Julia,

I rode the last time trial of the season tonight and posted the results to TrainingPeaks. I was considering doing one on Sunday but given the 4 hour round trip drive and cool forecast (upper 40's to low 50's), I think I'll pass. Here are some of my thoughts on how things went this year: 

State championships: thrilled to go 5 out of 5 in gold medals at these(3 Ohio, 2 KY); power and effort in each was about as expected

nationals in MN: can't complain about two silvers but missing that gold by 1.1 second still bothers me; don't want to settle for silver again in Birmingham in 2017

our local Tuesday tt: overall, much slower than in the past; I did ride my 300th race on that course at the last event in September; thats a lot of tt's over 19 years on one course; I definitely don't attack it like I used to; I think its good training but certainly not my priority like it used to be; I still won my age and had the 5th fastest time of the year out of 600-700 rides; my best this year was just 8 seconds slower than last years best; I hold the all-time record for most age bracket championships at 13...no one else has more than 7 or 8; still, I hate riding times over 23 minutes; I went 5 or 6 years without that happening and it happened a few times this year; also, haven't been below 22 minutes in a couple of years; if its not a priority, should I be bothered? managing the event has certainly changed how I approach it and riding virtually solo 90 minutes before everyone else can be tough

Blue Streak: rode well and won my age every time but once and that was when I was messing around with my position on the bike in April; like our local tt, I'm not hitting those really fast times in the 21's like I used to but still top 5 out of 110-130 riders every time

Overall, did well in the ones that really count while a little disappointed in the local it's  

I do feel like I did well in the training efforts and I do take the days off. Could be I'm just getting old!   ;-)   I feel like I should still be riding as fast as I did 4-5 years ago. and, while I may getting a little bored with our local tt, I was super fired up for states and nationals and even tonights last tt. I was bummed out that it was the last one and I'm looking forward to the start of the indoor tt's in November. The desire is still there! 

Looking at the winter, I do want to keep my Monday evening strength class and my Wednesday double header of spin/strength on the schedule. I think Tuesday and Thursday could be good days off. I don't mind doing intervals on Monday and then doing the class later that afternoon. My Mondays are pretty open for riding. Same with Friday and Saturdays. Endurance on Sunday seems to work as I have a spin class in the morning that I usually don't ride spring through early fall but do ride mid-fall to late winter. For the most part, I do get some good tempo to steady state to power interval efforts in the classes. Coupled with the strength class, which have plenty of plyometrics, the classes are good training in my opinion. 

The efforts that I find really challenging during the indoor winter training are the long steady states like the 20 minutes x 3. Outside, no problem, inside, they are soooo long. Part of the problem is how the Cycle-Ops Indoor 400 works. You pick the desired power and then have to maintain cadence but it seems to drop over time and the power drops. Maybe we have an alternate if I can't get out? Or we break them into shorter but more efforts? Of course, maybe this reflects some of the drop in power/effort on the local tt's? Maybe mentally I have a block with some of these? Oddly enough, I like the 30 second and one/two/three minute efforts. Short, sweet and painful. 

While I am competitive with other riders in my age bracket at most races and ideally in the top 3, I still compare myself to the younger and in a few cases older riders beating me. Tonight I was beaten by two guys around 30 and one guy 59. Keep in mind that the latter is the national champion in the 55-59 the last three years and top 5 in the world the last two. Regardless, I feel like I should be close to them over 10 miles, not a minute back. But, that would take a PR ride on that course tonight under less than ideal conditions. 

Next years goals: win the state senior tt's and state USAC tt; the former will qualify me for Birmingham

                             win the KY state senior it's 

                             ride masters nationals USAC in Winston-Salem, NC....top 10!! 

                             local tt's: get back into the 21's, at least a couple of times 

Next year will be my 20th year riding time trials. So, I'm not even halfway there! I think I can go well into my 80's.  Thats of lot of intervals still to do. 

Sorry for the long email. 

Peter A. Wimberg