This is just a quick impromptu post inspired by my workout tonight. I'm in the midst of a solid training block starting last week and extending through this Saturday. Last Thursday I nailed an 18 mile long run averaging a comfortable 7:25/mile and feeling good start to finish. Saturday I did the Ride to Montauk - 110 miles from Babylon, NY to Montauk point lighthouse. It's a dead flat route aside from a few rollers at the very end but the wind was pretty stiff a lot of the day. The first 20-30 miles have relentless stop signs, and intersections as it weaves through neighborhoods but eventually it opens up and I was able to settle into a steady effort and get some good cruising. I ended up with 5:45 total ride time @ .81 IF and had a 3.5hr block at .85 - solid work. Sunday was a day off to travel then a good 10 mile tempo run Monday (5 miles @ 6-6:10/mile). Tuesday was hill sprints and plyometrics.
That brings me to today - a 42min max effort power test on the bike. It was over 90 today but I don't think that impacted me much since I wasn't out riding until after 6pm. This is an extremely challenging workout that is very tough to motivate for. Basically, it hurts like hell and you may not like the results. This one turned out to be pretty rewarding though and worth the suffering. After a good warmup I got into the test - 2X20' with 2' rest between intervals. The objective is to go as hard as you possibly can for that 40; with only a very short rest period. The average power for the entire 42min sets your reference power for all workouts over the next 6 weeks or so. I thought I was right about 270W for my threshold power but hadn't formally tested to confirm (I tend to put this test of at every opportunity). I set my Garmin display to show me nothing but the timer and dropped the hammer. For a test like this it's best not to have any feedback aside from the effort you feel. Seeing your actual power in real time can lead to either chasing some number that you think you should be able to hit or maybe even getting discouraged and losing motivation if you aren't meeting preconceived expectations. So I had no idea if I was near what I thought I could do or completely bombing it. Either way 2X20 is always a very good workout, so I had that going for me. I gave it everything I had, paced fairly well, and finished on the verge of tossing my afternoon snack all over Shore Drive. Turns out I did 277W and 264W and logged 268W for the entire 42min - exactly on target with what I thought. 2 thumbs-up for going hard and proving whatcha got!
Here's the power file - CLICK ME
On tap for the rest of the week - 2hr run tomorrow at 6am, 4hrs riding on Skyline Drive Friday, and 100 miles riding with Bike Virginia out of Berryville, VA. Sunday is reserved for sitting on the beach with some cold beverages.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Time In The Saddle (TITS)
I mentioned in my last post that it's
time to start my race preparation training for the Ironman US Championships in August. That means a typical training week will
include 6-8hrs of riding on the weekend, a 2-3hr long run on
Thursday, tempo or threshold interval run on Tuesday, threshold
intervals on the bike Wednesday, 3 swims, and a couple of quick
transition runs off the bike. I tend to log 15-18hrs or training
each week for the 8-10 weeks leading up to my taper. This year I
decided to start with a 4-day block of riding in the mountains to
jump-start my cycling strength and get an immediate training volume
boost. Over the 4 days preceding Memorial Day I spent 23 hours on my
bike logging 377 miles with over 30,000ft of vertical climbing –
and loved every minute of it.
May 24 – Skyline Drive (Afton to
Front Royal), 106 miles, 8850ft climbing
Day 1 on Skyline Drive |
Day 1 data geek stats – 7:01 riding,
384 TSS, 198W NP, .76 IF, 1.09 VI
May 25 – Skyline Drive (Front Royal
to Afton), 105 miles, 9870ft climbing
Ready to roll out on Day 2 |
No idea what that look on my face is all about |
TrainingPeaks power file - HERE
May 26 – Wilderness Road Ride - 38
miles, 1890ft climbing
Ahhhhh – RECOVERY! Friday evening I
departed the Charlottesville area and left my EN teammates to battle
the Blue Ridge Parkway over the weekend. I relocated to a rental
house on Claytor Lake in Hiwassee, about 45min from Blacksburg, and
hooked up with my wife (that still sound strange) and some friends
from VA Beach to tackle the Cycling Double Header. Although I had 2
really solid days of riding in me and was feeling pretty good I
decided to make Saturday an easy spin and opted for one of the
shorter routes on the Wilderness Road Ride out of Radford College. I
knew I had a big day coming on Sunday and didn't need to beat myself
down today with 58 or 78 miles. So I rode nice and easy with Shawn
and Paul then took a quick 3-mile transition run along the river
before we loaded up and headed to Cabo Fish Taco in Blacksburg for
some lunch and a couple cold beers. Not surprisingly we ran into
some more of the VA Beach crew that had already set up shop on the
patio. They were carbo loading for Sunday as well. Our lake house
is in the middle of BFE so we had to hunt down some beverages while
we were still in civilization unless we wanted to drink Budweiser
from the local bait and tackle shop all night. The waitress at Cabo
directed us a couple blocks up the street to Vintage Cellar, which turned
out to be a beer snob's dream. I grabbed some stouts and Abita
Strawberry and everyone else made their selections. Then we headed
back to the house for some quality time sitting on the dock and
enjoying the quiet, as well as watching Paul swim across the lake and
scale the cliff on the other side in his Speedo.
Day 3 data geek stats – 2:25 riding,
96 TSS, 164W NP, .63 IF, 1.08 VI
TrainingPeaks power file - HERE
This where the nice group photo of everyone getting ready to head out of Radford for our ride would go but Katie still hasn't learned how to use the camera on her phone and she deleted it. |
May 28 – Mountains of Misery - 127
miles, 12,100ft climbing
This is what we were here for – the
Mountains of Misery double metric century. I've done the double
metric once before as well as the standard century once so I knew
what the day had in store – many hours of hard work with a
sprinkling of fast descents and plenty of rolling country roads
connecting it all together. There are 4 major climbs on the double
metric route but the first 20 miles also gain 1800ft of elevation as
a series of stair step climbs before the first really fun winding
descent. This downhill was one of my favorite sections of the route
this year. I'm not a confident descender but I was able to relaxe
enough to carve through the switch-backs without smoking my brakes –
something I wasn't able to manage last time. That fun was
short-lived though as the first big climb comes shortly after. There
are fairly long sections of mostly very mild rolling undulations
connecting the major climbs so unlike my first 2 days of riding where
I seemed to be climbing relentlessly up gradual grades, today I was
grinding up steeper grades with lots of relatively easy riding
between. Here are the first 3 climbs over about 66 miles:
Climb #1 – 42:36, 6.6 miles, 1800ft
Climb #2 – 26:50, 3.7 miles, 1200ft
Climb #3 – 1:15, 17.6 miles, 1900ft
The last climb of the day is brutal for
several reasons. First, it's the last 7 miles of the ride, finishing
at Mountain Lake. Second, it's the biggest with 2200ft of climbing
averaging 5.6% grade with spots that exceed 15% (last 3 miles average 11.9%). And finally,
perhaps the most sinister aspect of the entire day – you ride
directly past the start (there's my car) only 10 miles before hitting
the the base of the climb. With 110 miles already in the books it
sure is tempting to call it a day right there. But my other favorite
part of the route is in that 10 miles so I pushed on. After a
shorter climb there is a section of narrow winding country road
snaking along a small river with lots of shade from the dense tree
cover. It's a very gradual net downhill and you can really get into
a groove carrying good speed for relatively little power output.
Riding the entire day solo aside from the first 10-15 miles I was
really looking forward to cruising this section of road in peace. I
zipped past an occasional slower solo or couple on the back end of
the century route but otherwise the road was mine and I really
enjoyed it. I knew that it was about to come to an end when I made
the hard right under the bridge and crossed the train tracks. There
is a shorter climb followed by a quick descent and then the big one.
I spent 47min working that 7 miles to the finish line. For every
person I passed on their bike I saw at least 3 walking. The road
levels out a bit over the last couple 100m and I gave a final kick to
the line. Mission accomplished. I felt strong start to finish,
only spent 18min total at rest stops, rode probably 110 miles
completely solo, and logged one hell of a training day.
Day 4 data geek stats – 8:03 riding,
528 TSS, 219W NP, .81 IF, 1.13 VI
TrainingPeaks power file - HERE
Mountains of Misery double Metric century elevation profile |
I've spent most of the days since
Sunday recovering aside from a couple of swims. By Tuesday I could
really feel the fatigue in my quads and I decided to put off any
bike/run training for a few more days. Right now I'm sitting on a
flight to Phoenix, AZ tapping out this blog entry. I was hoping to
get a longer run in later this afternoon but it is supposed to be 107
degrees there today so that might not happen but hopefully it will
cool down enough in the early evening to get some easy running in.
Tomorrow morning I'm on a flight back to VA Beach and have Blackwater Duathlon on my schedule for this weekend. It's the USAT National Championship and a World Championship qualifier. Stay tuned for my next
post to find out what I'm doing in Phoenix (Scottsdale actually). I'll give you one hint –
FASTER.
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