Where does the time go?

So it's been like three weeks since my last blog. I've been focused on getting through the holiday season with as much fitness and sanity as I entered. One outta two ain't bad. My CTL on December 13 was 111 TSS and assuming I can stay on my bike all day Tuesday I should start the New Year at 113. That is about where I was at the end of April last year. My last build period ended on November 29 so I have been on this current plateau for almost a month. If all goes well I should reach 120 TSS on February 1.

I've mostly been on a diet of sub-threshold work with the weekly group ride thrown in. I'm riding comfortably on the River Ride and moving around the pack with ease, though I'm not strong enough to go with the breaks. But, all I need for that is a few weeks of focused V02 intervals and I should be right there. That is my favorite kind of speed work...6 x 3:00 by 3:00 at 400 watts on the tt-bike. Ahhhck, March seems so far away!

just a taste

Funny, by the look of this pic you wouldn't believe it was 42 degrees out there. I am, however, getting acclimated to the cold. It looks like the storm door is open and we'll be getting some Alaskan chilly chill over the weekend into next week with snow as low as 500 feet. Guess I'll be flying low again this week.

Today I got a little taste of FTP with 3x6:00 cruise intervals at threshold. These intervals are long enough and hard enough to hint at the pain cave but not long enough for the heart rate to fully respond. But, had I extended to 10-12 minutes I surely would have got it up the extra ten beats per minute. The sensations were telling me that this is the pace I would have to hold if I wanted to survive a 40K time trial or a long sustained climb. Cold, calculated, deliberate.

Yesterday was standing starts in a big gear. I've got it down to being able to start at less than 3mph and am consistently cracking over 1000 watts. These hurt real deep and there is definitely lasting fatigue in the upper body as well as the legs the following day. The fun thing about doing these on a 40 pound commute bike is that you cannot swing the bike for fear of ripping the rack and panniers from the frame. Everything must be heading in a straight line, the shortest line to the finish. I've watched and studied several 100 meter track and field sprinters. Marion Jones was a genius at wasting as little motion as possible. When she was on you could see no side to side motion. A thing of beauty for sure. Too bad she succumbed to pressure and temptation and did the unthinkable.

Holy Guacamole

It was 40 degrees and cloudy in Auburn this morning so I opted for a local workout rather than freeze on the descents and take a chance on finding some black ice. So I headed over to the old canal for some serious torture.

I did 5x10:00 at progressively higher watts. 235, 245, 257, 263, 272 The plan was to keep increasing until it got difficult and then look at the second to last interval for the next set of 2x20:00 Both intervals were identical, 266 watts each. Next was 35:00 at 246 And finally 40:00 at 224

I burned up 3000 kJ in four hours.

Rex 54cm cross bike for sale

We built up this beauty for a recent show.
It's an Ultegra and Ritchey blend.
It's got a full carbon fork and seat stays.
Hit me up or stop by the shop for more info...

recovery week

Not sure why, but I do not enjoy recovery weeks. One would think that after six weeks of near perfect training I should be able and willing to cruise easy and enjoy the time off while waiting for all the wonderful benefits of super-compensation to settle in. Well flibbity-floo, I'm doing it, but I don't like it. There is always this underlying anxiety about whether I've done too little, or I've done too much, or I lived too fast and too hard for too long and will never be able to compete at the national level. Then of course there is the lack of endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds floating round my system keeping me in that trashed state of contentment and well being. But it's still about five months until my first race of the year so I'm just trying to focus on staying healthy and not taking on more than I can handle. I got some cool projects going at work and hopefully we'll continue to stay busy while we wait for Steve to return.