Pat

The Course is up!

The official course for the Utah State Time Trial has been announced and my entry fee paid! Apparently, the race flier went up about a week ago with little or no fanfare. As of right now I'm the only Cat 5 racer signed up, but I'm sure as the word gets out someone will join me.

As it turns out, the course is on the same stretch of road going past Saltair that I've been doing my testing on for the last six months. It's a dead flat, out and back course that runs from the International Center, past Saltair, out to the State Marina and back. The distance is 36k for everyone except Cat 4 women, Cat 5 men, Jr's and masters 60+ who go only 25k.

Having the race be only 25k is a little disappointing after training for 40k. But, it is what it is and truthfully, I don't think my training would have been much different if I had know the shorter distance up front. My primary goal when I set out to train for this race was to put myself in position to contest for the Cat 5 State Time Trial Championship. In 15 days we'll see how all the preparation and training has paid off.

Train Hard and Smart,

Pat

Testing, Testing

As we approach three weeks till the Utah State Time Trial my training plan has gotten very focused on race specific efforts both in power and duration. Yesterday was scheduled as a testing day. To get a handle on where my power was along with bike setup in “real world” conditions I decided to head out to the local Time Trial series in Saltaire. The course is a dead flat 6.75mi out and back on an access road next to I-80 that sees little or no traffic.

The wind was fairly light at 5-7mph out of the east, so I decided to push the pace some on the way out (into the wind) and take it “easier” on the way back. I was hoping to average around 250-260 watts and close to 25mph. But truthfully, I had no idea what kind of speed I'd be able to maintain, that's why I was testing!

I started out way too hard averaging 360 watts for the first minute and then settled down averaging 256 watts from there till the turn around. This gave me an average power of 267 watts for the first half with and average speed of 23.2mph. On the way back I averaged 247 watts and 25.8mph. Over all I averaged 258 watts and 24.44mph, fairly close to what I was hoping to do.

So what did I learn from this testing?-

1- I have a fairly good idea of where my power is both in Park City at 6800ft and Salt Lake at 4200ft. Depending on where the Time Trial is, the course still hasn't been announced, I'll be able to adjust my power accordingly.

2- My aero setup seems to be pretty good, but could use some further refinement. I'll be dropping my aerobars one more spacer and check to see how that effects my breathing and power.

3- I'm not quite there yet. If I want to be able to go sub 60min in a 40k TT, I need to go 24.8mph for an hour. Even with a better aero-position, better pavement, no wind and a perfect taper I'm not quite there yet.

So I work. 3 weeks to go, 12 workouts to finish and then I race!

Train Hard and Smart,

Pat

Indoor Vs. Outdoor intervals.

 OK, I think we all have a love / hate relationship with the trainer. Living in snow bound country, the trainer is a necessary evil for a big chunk of the year. But once the sun comes out the trainer isn't necessary any more, it's just evil. But I have to admit, after spending over 70 hours on the trainer this season I've gotten pretty good at doing interval at a specific wattage. And I had no idea if I'd be able to hold a specific wattage stable outdoors while dodging cars and trying to keep the bike on the pavement .

On Wednesday I decided to give it a try. My prescribed workout was 4x9 minute intervals at 102% of threshold or ~230w on my TT bike. I headed out to a nearby climb called “Big Mountain” that is closed seasonally to car traffic do to snow. It was the perfect road with a continuous climb and no cars to deal with, just other bikes. I decided to warm up on the first part of the climb and then do four ten minute intervals keeping my power in the 230-240 range. It turns out maintaining a power range wasn't difficult at all, even if it did hurt a bit. I ended up with average powers of 237w, 234w, 229w, and 236w. Right where I wanted them. I did run out of hill before I finished the final interval, but I ended up with 34minutes at 103% FT and the workout called for 36 minutes at 102%. So, pretty darn close.

The moral to the story, weather permitting, I'm outside!

Train Hard and Smart,

Pat

I love climbing.

I don't know why I love climbing, I'm not particularly good at it. I'm definitely not some 130lb Whippet of a man who goes full blast up hills like they aren't even there.  I'm more of a Labrador, who bounds up hills with my tongue hanging out the side of my mouth.  But you can always tell I'm having fun, even if it's not easy.

 

Yesterday, I did my prescribed 60min workout at 95% of Functional Threshold on the trainer.  And while it was hard and I'm sure it had the desired physiological effect, it was mentally tasking and quite boring.  So today when my plan called for 90min Z3 (83% of FT) I ditched the trainer and headed outdoors.  My warm-up consisted of about 10min of climbing on 6-8% grade and then 3 min of fast descent (yeah I like going downhill too) before I settled onto the bike for my 90min of Z3.

 

All in all it was a fun workout and I'm fairly sure the extra 10min of climbing won’t hurt me too much.

 

Train Hard and Smart

Pat

Back on the Bike, Back on the Plan

After exactly 42 minutes on the bike in the last 12 days and several near-miss ride attempts, I finally got back on the bike for a crit last night. In trying to massage my work schedule around to be able to do the “Tour of the Depot” and take the family up to Seattle for a couple of weeks I ended up with almost two straight weeks off the bike. That would have worked out fine if I had done the tour and got in some serious training in Seattle, but with a couple of sick kids and a sick wife it ended up being...less than optimal. But that's OK, because I'm back on the bike and back on my training plan.

I started the year using a 12 week “semi-custom” training plan from Rich Wharton of onlinebikecoach.com designed for a 40k Time Trial. It's a great Power based plan designed to be done on the trainer with very focused workouts. My plan was to do the first 9 weeks, take a break to do some racing, then return to the plan for the final 5 weeks leading up to my goal race. So far everything has gone mostly to plan, I did the first 9 weeks and had an improvement in my Functional Threshold Power of 11%. I took my break and got a few races in, which after 60 plus hours on the trainer I really needed, and now I'm ready to get back on the race specific plan. Weather permitting, I will be doing some of my workouts outside. However, I won't be doing any workouts that don't make me faster in the TT. I just have to stay focused for 36 more days.

That being said, I decided to withdraw from the “Escape from Alcatraz” triathlon. The ability to add swimming and running to my already very busy schedule just wasn't there and that's one race you don't want to show up for with a weak swim!

Train Hard and Smart

Pat