Thirty years of bike racing and I can pack a race bag in the dark. I just kind of realized that this morning, as I was packing my bag, and something that a lot of racers struggle with. It doesn’t even matter what temperature, it’s going to be, I know what and where my race gear is at. Even preping my bike, before a race, comes so naturally to me.
I love this song. Kind of goes hand in hand in how to become a bike racer. Kind of deep. I’ll save that for another blog. I’m a rocker. One thing I need to travel is a good sound system, some loud rock, and I’ll be there in no time. Rock!
The results suggest that the chronic intake of caffeine, as well as chronic low-intensity exercise, decreased muscle damage and inflammatory infiltration into skeletal muscle.
If anyone is interested in going up to this race, Dec 10-11 I have a spot open in the Evil VW. You’ll get the chance to ride the Cross Nationals course and listen to a lot of loud rock n roll. You might even get to witness how I handle myself when I get a speeding ticket. Seat belts optional.
Here is the file. The ride afterwards was a blast. I love riding in the dark, yes I turn off my lights, it really demands focus. You’re always looking forward and in your side vision for objects, especially deer. There’s no body out. It’s really quite. It’s a rush. Do this at your own risk.
I took the Jamaica/Homestead trail out of town. I’ve been riding this trail a lot this fall just for this reason, night riding. I’ve got all the road crossing barricades, bridges and even where the deer hangout memorized. It’s good to know the course without lights. The cross race tonight was similar. Since it was so twisty you were always in a turn every 10-15 secs and that demanded focus.
The big picture, I’ve hit a CTL of 141 this past Sunday. You can check out what CTL is here. It’s basically a measure of fitness when using power. This is from the technical version provided by Dr. Andrew Coggan :
Chronic training load, or CTL, provides a measure of how much an athlete has been training (taking into consideration both volumeand intensity) historically, or chronically. It is calculated as an exponentially-weighted moving average of daily TSS (or TRIMP, etc.) values, with the default time constant set to 42 d. CTL can therefore be viewed as analogous to the positive effect of training on performance in the impulse-response model, i.e., the first integral term in Eq. 1, with the caveat that CTL is a relative indicator of changes in performance ability due to changes in fitness, not an absolute predictor (since the gain factor, ka (or k1), has been eliminated).
The way I approach hitting a personal best CTL is to back off a bit, about 3-4 TSS/d, with a couple days of easy riding. Then I’ll take about a week to bring it back up to ~141 again, rinse and repeat for however long it takes to adapt to the stress of a that new personal best. This high of a CTL is all about base with some intensity.
This Happy Hour webinar will feature Benjamin Sharp and Marc Gullickson. Benjamin is the High Performance Director for Endurance Programs that encompasses the junior road, junior track and elite women’s road and track programs. Coach Sharp will be the coach for the 2012 Women’s Endurance track team. Marc is the Program Director for Mountain Bike and Cyclocross.
That’s what Sunday’s ride entailed. It was such an easy, peasy ride it makes for an opportunity to actually observe things and not only in the ditch. It was really a nice day up around 80 degrees and sunny. All the fall colors are definitely at there peak. It won’t be long before all the leaves are gone and things will look more barren.
Today’s ride was an active recovery ride. Little ring all the time. I stayed on the road, with the cross bike, to avoid all the vibration. Sometimes you just need a break and the road is so much smoother. These easy rides I sit and stand on the bike, most of the time, in a stretched out position instead of being hunched forward in the aggressive position. Standing, I’ll stand a little taller and upright. I drop the heel a lot to stretch the calves, hold my head in different positions, ect…. Anything but the normal riding style works.
Last weekend I did the Jackrabbit Hundy. A 105 mile gravel road ride/race/I’m not sure what to call this. Fun/hard/challenging event. I won’t bore you with the details of the ride/race/I’m not sure what to call this. I’ll bore you with what I was trying to accomplish.
Read this article, Dr. Gabe Mirkin, and it will explain what I was doing. Wow! did I ever accomplish a bonk. Fifty miles into the ride/race/I’m not sure what to call this, was to be an aid station, where a my drop bag was delivered. Intentionally, I had put in only an oatmeal creme pie, banana, and water. Since my plan was to bonk I didn’t want to have to many tempting calories available at the pick up in case the bonk came on early.I wanted just enough so get me at least another 25 miles. I had taken an oatmeal pie and 3/4ths of coke at the 40 mile mark. This was spot on. When I hit the feed bag drop zone all I took was water.
Sure enough, at around the 80 mile mark I started coming un-glued. At the 95 mile mark, wham bam, the bonk was on 100%. My power dropped considerablely, to recovery levels, during the hilly last section. I was weaving up hills. It is an awesome game to play mentally. Your brain runs off glucose. I was so dizzy. It’s a dangerous thing to do, so I don’t recommend it, only if you sign a waiver. A 5000 kj ride on about 1000 calorie intake.
Skip to yesterday. The plan 5 hrs of gravel. I’ll skip the boring details and go to the plan. Basically, not to bonk. An 80 mile ride at same power output as the 105 mile ride taking in about 2000 calories for a 4000 KJ ride. No bonk. The last 10 miles high tempo. Success.
I’ll be back next year to the Jackrabbit. Maybe with a few more carbs in my pockets.
