Yeah but it was a Warm Wind

Did some after work riding last night with Craig.   I was going to go out alone but talked to Craig at the last minute to come out with me.

We met at Wehrspan Lake.  I got there early and was able to do "The Loop" three times.   The loop is a loop at the park that is about a mile long... one side you climb the other you decend.  It makes for great interval training.

Once Craig arrived we headed out to Gretna down 370.   My training plan called for a force workout which mean hills with a low cadence.  That is what I got.  For the next 1:30hr we muscled up the hills and into a brutal south wind.  I didn't mind... it felt good to not be wearing my winter garb. We rolled along past "The Flying J" and down to Buffalo Road.  I was done at Buffalo Road but Craig still wanted to keep thing lively.

We got back to HiWay 50... now for the fun part.  The tail wind.  We needed the tailwind because it was getting dark and we still had 10miles to ride home.

All in all I got a force workout.  My legs feel properly stressed as if I lifted yesterday.  I believe Craig go a good Aerobic/Anerobic workout too. He is climbing well!!

Tonight it is off to Bike Masters for a aerobic endurance ride? Right... we will see if that happens.

Weekend Report

This is going to be short -

I did the training 60min 1/2/3 training Crit Saturday.  Dispite the weather it was fun.  I was able to work with my teamate to take the win over a pretty fast Cat 2 rider.  I am trying not to make too much of this since there were only 3 other riders in the race.

Sunday's ride was fun.   Too much fun.  I did not stick to the training plan at all.  I have 2 more build weeks to get serious.  Joe Martin is coming soon... need to get faster.

Stuck to the plan

Last nights ride was pretty much how I described it in the previous post.  I was able to get 4 solid cruise intervals on rolling hills.  Each of the intervals were at least 10min in duration.  A couple of the hills pushed my HR up above my LT.  To add an element of a force workout I kept my cadence low.  In one of my cruise intervals, I was able to hold 23+mph from Schramm park to Hiway 50.  This was a solid "Break Through" interval for me.

Today, a 3hr endurance ride.  Going to start out on my own and then join up with the Bike Masters ride.

Mixed Bag

This will be the first workout of my Build 2 phase.  I am rested and ready to ride.  I want to work on all my abilities... aerobic, Threshold, anaerobic, force, and power.  I think I will keep it down to two facets  threshold and force.

So for the thresholdpart of the workout I am going to hit Fairview road NW of SpringField.  This stretch of road is long enough to do a couple cruise interval.   I should be able to get one more cruise interval done before Schram park.

For my Force workout it will be at least a couple hill repeats up the banks of Platte R.  At least I will have a nice view while I am gasping at the top of the climb. 

Then there are a couple more opportunities for threshold intervals on the way back to Hiway 50 and then back North to Millard.

That's the plan....  I will have some company... Pat & Rich are coming along.  Pat invited some of his friends to to meet at El Bee's at 6:00.

Group Rides

Got out yesterday for a very enjoyable group ride.  The weather was great 43 - 50 degrees breezy but not to windy.  It was a great first full day of spring.

Four of us(Rich, Pat, Brandt and I) set out from El Bees to do the Schramm park route.  We kept it mellow down Hiway 50 and then turned off into the rolling hills of FairView road.  That is when the pace picked up... no worries, I stayed back with Pat.  We regrouped and headed south.  This time all together.  We had a nice steady pace line cuising along at a respectable speed.   There was nobody trying to "Get off the front" or anybody trying to grind the bunch into submission.  Even the rush to the "Sprint Point" was aggressive but controlled.

After the break at schramm, Rich talked me into doing the Schramm hill.  It was an easy sell because I was feeling good.  That too was fun!  I made it up & over the top of a 18%+ grade without gasping for air.  Bonus!

In the paceline everyone knew what to do.  If pace got too much, people knew to sit it.  If the pace was too slow they knew to come around to get their turn at the front and work.  We cruised like this for about 15miles and made quick work of our ride back toward Louisville, and then up to Springfield.  At a rest stop we sat  just to soak up the sun.

I rode back to Bellevue with Rich down 370 with a little detour to the new Trek Store.  I finished up the ride with a solo trek back west to El Bees'.  Total Mileage 60.  I felt good to go another 30 but had to head home.

Another Fit Test Complete

No training criterium today so I did my build 1 fit test.

As before I took 45min to warm up.  This one was tough.  Ten minutes into the test I wanted to be done.  My music wasnt motivating me either.  All I had to keep me going hard was that I wanted to see some improvement from my build 1 phase training.  The test was done on my trek and on the trainer

Once again my HR monitor was not reading my HR as I worked harder.  So I don't know my avg HR... the main reason to take the test.  I will probably keep training at 173bpm as my lactic threshold.

Another metric that I have been tracking is my average speed.  I am up 1.1mph from my last test.  I am happy with this result.  I have gained at least 1mph from each training stage from 15.3mph back in December to 19.5 now.  Since this was done on the trainer, I don't know what speed this translates to on the road.

Going out tomorrow for a 3hr ride.

Bike Master's Crew

Got out for a Wed Night Ride with the Group from bike masters.  Had to test the legs against the like of Ryan & Brandon.  I felt good but can't let my guard down they are riding real well too.

The rest week is almost over, I can't believe my final build phase is upon me.  Got to get re-focused!