It has been a week

since I have made a blog post. I need to report quickly about last weeks training.

Wednesday night ride went well for the Bike Masters ride. My goal was to take it easy and I did for the most part.

Thursday night - It was time to work with some SE Intervals. 3 - 6min Zone4 - 5b 90rpm cadence. Curiously I was not able to get to zone 5b. As per Friel, I stopped after 3 tries. I finished the 2:30hr ride staying in zone 2.

Friday Off

Saturday - Spin Class and I was able to get a good 2:30hr north on hiway 75. I hit the hills hard.

Sunday - T-storms all day.. Put the trainer on the front porch and rode for 1:30hr in zone 2.

Monday Off

Tuesday - TNR at High Gear. I did Hill intervals on the ride. So basically I would ride on Kevin L's wheel get to my zone 5a and hang there for 6+ minutes. Then drop off into zone 2. The rest of the group would catch me then I would work in my next interval with them.

Spin class this morning

Tonight if there is no T-Storms I am heading out for at least a couple hrs.

Briefly

Last night I rode with Mr. Kevin and the rest of the High Gear group. The goal for the night was to get in some zone 4 => 5b interval work. Mission accomplished. I hit zone 5b about 3 times otherwise spent a lot of time in upper zone 4 and zone 5a.

Le Tour de Husker

Race Review - Finally a race I can get a feeling on how I am riding. In all the previous races this year there was something preventing me from doing my best. I was sick for the Spring Fling race. Then later for the Twin Bing race I had a flat tire. This weekend none of that happened. There were no excuses.

Tractor Test Track Crit(a half mile "oval") - After a raining morning the skies cleared for a near perfect afternoon of racing. When I got to the track there were already 6 wreck from the earlier races. A lot of them caused by the rain. While I watched the Cat 4 & 5 race there were at least 3 more wrecks. This didn't concern me much. To tell the truth I was more concerned about not being able to hang with the group.

Before I knew it the race started. The first two corners of the race were no problem... the group was still ramping up to speed. The second lap we were going fast. Nobody really knew what line to take. I got caught taking an inside line with too much speed. Coming out of the turn I could not hold a good line went wide. Yep, I heard about it. My bad!!

After that I played follow the leader through each turn. Kevin B kept yelling "go wider" so we could cut through the apex of the turn. That was a good call. Still we brought our wheels within inches of the grass on the inside of the track.

I was staying up with the group. I wasn't hanging off the back or put in too much difficulty for about the first 15 laps. Then it started to happen. Each time the group came out of the back stretch into the wind. I would start tailing off. A little a first and then more. I would catch back up and be ready for the next lap but I would get less and less rest. Until, with 27 laps to go I could not catch up.

So I pretty much rode solo after that. Of course it is no fun being lapped by the group but I wasn't too discouraged. I figure all the accelerations in and out of the corners got to me. I like more of a steady pace.


TTT - I love team time trials... I wish there were more. Devin was our locomotive and rabbit. All the rest of us had to do was keep up. Easy? We ended up 3rd of 6 teams.

Sunday's Crit - This crit was much more my style. There was not so much slowing and then accelerating. About 15min into the race I was off the back of the pack with Paul W. We worked together for awhile then Kevin B & Brian R joined us from behind. Others from the lead pack dropped back until we had about 7 riders. This was not an organized group. People were taking their turns on the front but it wasn't a smooth rotating pace line.

Then Jared B lapped us and our group raced up to get on his wheel. So, till the end, it was Jared(a lap up) on the front. The rest of us were tucked in behind Jared. I was at the end of the pace line. Not a good place to be so I tried to move up. There were no gaps. Every was tucked in tight.

Bell lap. Everyone was moving into position. I ended up right behind Brian R. A little slip of Brian's rear wheel sent him off course and crashing into the outside curb. I took the inside track to miss him and all looked good. Until his bike went high into the air. I was quite sure the bike was going to hit me so I ducked. I thought I was going to catch a pedal or something in my back but I made it through.

The Red Cross medics quickly ran down to the scene. More details are on his blog

I was happy with my performance. I still need to do more work. I was doubtful about my decision to cat up to Cat 3 but I am glad I did. It is where I need to be. Although, I need to get a lot faster to be competitive. I am up for the challenge.

Race Week - Le Tour D'Husker

I am getting in some good training this week.

Tuesday I rode hard with the High Gear crew. We did about 40 hilly miles. At the end of the ride I had 25min in HR zone4 and 5 minutes up to zone 5a. This was a little disappointing... I want to get where I have an hour or more in zone 4.

Wednesday's ride was another group ride at Bike Master's. It was a fun ride. The guys that usually push the pace were not there. As usual the ride broke up into small groups. Then on the way back I found myself in a group of 5. We maintained a good pace and would pass small groups of riders. Many of the passed riders would join our group. So the group swelled to over 10 riders. It was fun! I worked hard but it was bearable.

Thursday - I took the day off riding.

Friday - Don't know I may go out for a zone 2 spin tonight.

Since I have my training plan set to peak for the Norfolk race, I have an extra week to play with. So I am going to burn that week. I will call this week a rest week and start my Build 2 period next week. Reason? I think I need to focus on my ability to get to zone 4/5a and stay there for longer periods of time. Also, focus on hill training. Finally, another thing I am missing is longer rides in zone 2. In the winter I was really good about riding 3+ hours. I have only done one of those in the past few weeks.

Build 2 begin

I finished up my Build 1 phase last week with a hard ride on Saturday and a recovery ride Sunday.

Now it is time for Build 2. Last night I did some hill cruise intervals on the Tuesday night ride from High Gear. It was a great night for riding. I was able to ride approx. 30min in my zone4 and 5 minutes up into zone 5a. There were several fast riders hanging on to Kevin L's wheel along with me.

Today I need to take it easy. Going to do ride up to the bike masters ride. The hard part about todays workout is keeping my HR below 155bpm.

Saturday - High Noon Ride

I should be nice Saturday. I am setting up a ride from Wehrspan Lake on the West side of town. 12:00pm. Dan Schuldte and I will be there for sure. Devin B may make the trek from Wayne? to ride with us and of course all are welcome. This will be a fast spirited ride 18+mph.

This week.... so far

I rode Tuesday night with some of the Bike Way team (Rich, Bryan, and Dan). Rich, Bryan and I were hitting it hard on the rolling hills on Platteview Rd. I would classify the ride as steady tempo with periods of high intensity. At one point Bryan tried to come around me. I couldn't let that happened so I kicked it pick up the pace. My HR quickly jumped to 185 which I have not seen in a long time.

Wed night I did the Bike Master's hammer fest. A big turn out. I would estimate 30 people showed up. My goal for the night... hang with the lead group. I was right up there with them. The group eventually thinned out to Spence, Vasquez, Rodgers, Brackenberry, Lempach and me. Pretty good company in my book. I am happy how my training is progressing.

Finally..

after several failed attempt I finish the work part of build 1. All I have is the rest week then I start Build 2.

I am happy with how I did last week. I was able to do my all my hard workouts including a 4:30hr ride yesterday.

I am looking forward to next week. It looks like Build 2 requires much more time in Zone 4 & 5a for my aerobic workouts and time in 5b.

Stats(guessing at these) - bike mile ~150mi, duration ~15:30hrs,

Build 1 Week 3 update

I want to get this update out before I forget.

Tuesday night - Did my cruise intervals on the trainer. I did a couple intervals of 8minutes and several 10+minute intervals. I touch zone 5a a couple times. Next time I do cruise intervals I will try to do more time in zone 5a. As part of my warm up it certainly helped to do a couple of shorter 2min intervals. time 2:00hr

Wednesday - One hour spin class in the morning. Bike Masters group ride in the evening. I felt pretty good for the group ride. Total time 2:40hr

Thursday - Ride with Vaughn west of town. Ziemet/Spence suck the life out of Vaughn so we took it easy. time 2:30hr

Friday - Got up early to do form sprints. Did 10 form sprints. time 1:40hr

Overall a pretty good week so far. I am a little behind on time and it is going to be tough to get in rides this weekend. Trainer? UGH, I don't want to think about it!!!!