Jeff

Jan 4th, randomness, and awards

Next year officially starts on the 4th of January or at least that is what my little spreadsheet it indicating.  Starting then will allow me to get in three peaks next year (2 for road, and 1 for cross).  The first 16 weeks are planned out in very fine details with the remainder of the year being more generic.  One thing I am not sure of is how long my first peak will last.  Last year was not a good test as I switched jobs in the early spring that derailed my training.  The job has settled down enough that I am very hopeful of getting my workouts in with the necessary sleep.

My wife did remind me that I tend to have bold plans that don't fully reflect reality.  This may be true but if you don't set your sights high you will never reach your potential.  Thus for next year I would like to increase my power to weight ration by 10% and my FTP by 5%.  Are these reasonable I am not sure.  The lower levels goals I have are to complete the full strength and power cycles of my lifting plan and continue to develop my race savvy.

On a very different note I won the most improved rider award at our end of year team party.  It is nice to be recognized by your teammates.  I still feel like I have a ton of untapped potential!!!!

Take Care,

Jeff

the plan for the plan

So the plan for the plan.  I started to convince myself that using a coach to help me create my plan was a good idea and even did a little pricing around.  Unfortunately at work the rumors of layoffs started circulating again, and since I am in a middle management role decided less spending is better.  So I decided on taking the 16 week plan in the Training and racing with a power meter, bring the volume down a little, and add the strength training I want to do.  I am concerned it is still a little heavy on volume.  Below is an excerpt of what I am starting with.  On the main worksheet I have my FTP, and then all the subsequent weeks reference that value and take the ratio to what the book has.  The left side is the original volumes and the right has the modified version.

I still have not completely given up on the idea of a coach.  

Jeff

No NE

On Thursday my buddy and I decided not to go down to Omaha and race.  At the time there were only 8 registered riders, which did not seem worth the trip.  The decision was with mixed emotions:  On the one hand I am ready for a break as I feel like I tried to extend the season beyond my base.  On the other side it would have been nice to get another shot at a win.

So at the end of the year I did not get the results I had hoped for, but I do feel like I have become stronger.  Next years goals will be more power related.  I am thinking of the following:

1.  Increase Power to Weight ratio by x% (not sure what is realistic)
        a.  Lose 5 lbs (sub 170)
        b.  Gain Power (back to the gym)

2.  Increase FTP by x% (again not sure the right number)

Before the start of next season I plan on doing some cross racing.  Since my cross bike is still at the shop (recalled front fork) this will be a good week to take off the bike.  If anything a few short rides to keep the legs moving.

I plan on trying my first race in early Oct so I will let everyone know the outcome.

Jeff

Club Ride and Waiting to Race

So I joined facebook this last week?  It has been fun seeing names and faces from the past.  I am definitely a late adopter when it comes to social networking sites, but hey now I have a blog and a facebook page.  Watch out twitter here I come!!!!

Anyway to the training stuff.  I have a little gap in racing and then have 3 weekends in a row of solid road races.  I am feeling good again so I am hopeful for some solid finishes.

This past weekend the whole family spent the weekend at a friends family cabin, which was a blast.  The wife's did a triathlon (the main reason for the weekend) on Saturday morning.  Jill, my wife's friend is an amazing swimmer and was first out of the water, but lost ground on the bike and run.  Jolene didn't do so good on the swim, but hammered the bike and run.

On Saturday afternoon the husband's (Matt and I)  went for a 40 mile ride that include 6 sets of 2 min hill intervals.  There were two hills back to back that were perfect.  It was very windy, which made for a tough ride.  Sunday we played in the lake with the kids all day and thus skipped riding.

Wednesday I caught the club hill ride.  I felt tired, but pushed through it.  Even though the legs were screaming I was able to get in some solid work.  The interesting part was seeing my power file when I got home.  I set new high marks for my power at 30 sec (1000 watts) and 1 min (687).  I did make sure it was properly zeroed if you were curious.  Now I just need to carry the fitness for a few weeks and see if I can race smart.

Take Care, Jeff

Another Omaha Trip

Decided to bring my bike with me to Omaha this weekend, which was great.

On a side note: What if anything helps reduce the noise of the bike rack on top of the car?

I was able to get in a 3.5 hrs of riding over the weekend.

On the 4th I went for a 2hr and 10 min ride focusing on race winning intervals.  We were at the in-laws all day so instead of taking the customary afternoon nap I hit the roads of Underwood, IA.  I now have a better appreciation of the nice MN shoulders, because none of the roads I went on had anything close to a shoulder.  There were some great drivers that gave me plenty of space, but there were a couple "pucker" moments that I could have done without.  Overall it was a good ride, plus it helped balance a less than perfect eating day.

On the 5th I was able to get in 1hr and 20min, while my youngest took her afternoon nap.  I tried to find a decent road but was unsuccessful, thus I decided to do some hill intervals after about 40 min on the bike to get something out of the ride.  The only "hills" close to my brothers house (where we stay) were not huge, but okay to do 30 sec sprints.  Thus I did 2 sets of 5 x 30sec x 30sec with 6 min of rest between.

Overall I felt that I made lugging the bike down worthwhile.

Going to do a Crit race this Sunday, and then a 2 day stage race the following weekend.

My brother did say he checks the blog so at least I know somebody is reading my dribble.

Take Care - Jeff

Back in the Saddle

I decided not to race this past weekend and continue a methodical ramp back into shape.  The last couple weeks I have felt great on the bike.

This past weekend I was able to get in 100 miles which was great.

Saturday:
I hooked up with two LSC teammates in the morning and was able to get in some solid miles.  Both guys have a ton of racing experience so I was able to pick there brains on tactics.  That is one area I need to focus on.

Max Power = 1109 Watts
Avg Power = 206
Time in saddle = 3:23
Distance = 70mi
Work = 2506 kJ

Sunday:
Solo ride around 1:00pm when there was a break in the rain.  Decided to do race winning intervals from the Hunter Allen book plus a few sprints thrown in.  I could still feel Saturday's ride in my legs, but decided to push through it.

Max Power = 887 Watts (11.3 W/kg) - Sprint at 110 min outside of below intervals
Avg Power = 172 Watts (2.19 W/kg)
Time in saddle = 2:15
Distance = 39.1mi
Work = 1380 kJ

I did 6 sets of 30 seconds 600 Watts, 3 min 300 Watts, 10 sec 600 Watts with at least 6 min rest if not more.

Set 1:  Max 773W, Avg 359
Set 2:  Max 717W, Avg 339
Set 3:  Max 800W, Avg 343
Set 4:  Max 851W, Avg 353
Set 5:  Max 829W, Avg 353 
Set 6:  Max 857W, Avg 352    

Overall it was a great weekend, which I have followed up with 2 days of rest.  Tomorrow I am going to catch the team hill ride and I plan to do a crit on Sunday.

Jeff

More Camp

So a questions was asked for more detail around camp.  So here goes.

While we were on the flat sections I would vary my location in the group either up in the front or in the back helping to pull guys back into the group if they dropped back for some reason.

I made a point to try and push each of the hills.  On both days it was a mix of pulling on the front or sitting on 2nd or 3rd wheel.  I used the PowerTap to help pace me on the hills.  One hill I can remember clearly was 7min long and since I was already in the front I just keeping pulling for the entire hill.  The fun part was turning around and seeing that only 2 guys were left on my wheel.  Another hill that was steeper than what we had been riding I knew I had to let the 2 guys go that I was working with since my heart rate had rocketed and the Watts were not sustainable.  Once I waited and my HR stabilized I was able to continue to push and pull back a little ground on the 2 guys that dropped me.

I did fade each day around the 80 mile mark.  The second day was better as I tried to eat more, but still the last 10 miles of the 100 were painful.

My 5 min best was 380 Watts with a peak at 1015 Watts.

In Summary I did a mix of pulling and sitting in, but definitely did a fair share of the work on the hills.  Enough to feel like I put some good work in.

I am also going to look into the roller piece Rachel mentioned

Jeff

Camp

Well another week (plus a few days) is in the books.  This past weekend was my team camp, which was a blast.  I ended up getting in 85 miles on Friday and 100 miles on Saturday.  I felt good during the rides and was able to ride with the strong guys.  I did hit a new peak watts at 1040 at some point during the weekend.  The plan was to do a 40 mile ride on Sunday, but snow and high wind made that not a good idea.  It has been a little crazy since the weekend so I have not had a chance to really dive into the numbers.

Camp was the incentive I needed to shave the legs for the summer.  Last year was the first time I shaved the legs so my wife still has mixed opinions on it.

One really cool aspect of camp was that we had the opportunity to get professional massages on Friday night.  The Fix studio is a team sponsor so they came down.  It definitely made the legs feel great.

Yesterday and today were the first days I have commuted to and from work.  This is great as I can get my workouts in vs. sitting in the car.  Both days I have not had the best snap in the legs, but enough to keep pushing through the workouts.

Jeff

Rest Week

Not much to report this week as it was a planned rest week.  I ended up riding a little less than I wanted, but I had a decent amount of other stress.

Went out for a ride Saturday (50 miles) and froze my hands and toes!!!!!  If it is not above 30def F I think I am better off on the trainer.  The cold weather gear leaves me wanting more when it is below freezing.

I will be stuck on the trainer for the first part of the week as it is saying snow, but next weekend is the team training camp.  This will be my first time at camp so I am sure I was will have some good stories.

Jeff

Another Week of Training in the bank

I definitly had two distinct blocks of training this week.  Since I did not push it much last week due to the cold and since the weather was nice I rode Monday and Tuesday. 

Monday was a lunch ride were I did 60 min at a constant pace with 10 seconds sprints every 3 min.  I finished the workout strong, but ended up a little further from work than I thought I was.  This required me to put in a solid 20 min of tempo to get back to work on-time.  I was late enough that all I had for lunch was a cliff bar and a vending machine chocolate milk.

Tuesday I meet with with some teammates and rode out of downtime after work.  This was the first time I did the ride and after 2 hrs rolled in with it getting dark.  I have a hard time seeing at dusk since I had lasik (I would do it again without hesitation though) but somehow managed to miss the big potholes.  It was good to get a ride in with some of the guys.

I then took Wednesday off the bike, with Thursday being basically a day off as all I did was spin in the basement for 30 min to get the blood flowing followed by some core work.  When I weighed myself Wednesday morning I was down to 173lbs, which I have stayed at since even after severly increasing my water intake.  I definitly think getting below 170lb is possible for race season.

This weekend I ended up riding solo due to scheduling. Friday night I tried to ride after the girls went to bed, but that was a joke, I think I might be overheating when I ride on the trainer.  One of the comments from Murat made me think about it.  Saturday was 2.5 hrs that included 45 min of tempo with 3 sets of 10 min keeping watts above 310.  Sunday was 3 hrs where I was able to 60 miles in mostly with watts around 240.

On another note keep the comments coming it is cool knowing that somebody is reading my dribble.

Take Care - Jeff