A Good Week of Training And Some Gators!
Despite what i said earlier, i'm starting to like riding at night. The temperature is perfect and with our new NiteRider Sol head lights, we have no problems seeing or being seen. This week I spent a lot of time on the bike, 120 miles. To a lot of roadies that about average but to me, thats about 40-50 more than usual and I hope i can keep it up. I feel great and I can notice my endurance is getting better and so is my power. I'm not letting the pain tell me the ride is over. On tuesday I pulled something, either my hamstring or my glute but i didn't let that end my ride, I put in 22 miles in AFTER it happened. I also rode the next night with alex, doing a lot of sprints. I was able to touch 30 mph a few times and my heart rate didnt get too crazy so i guess i am getting fitter. It was also some pretty exciting, albeit slow, side by side sprinting between Alex and me.
On Thursday i put in an easy hour long ride by myself, and for 10 minutes spun the 50x12 gear at about 60-70 rpm continuously. It's not very fast, but spinning that gear for 10 minutes KILLS you and i want to get that work out in once a week. I've also been concentrating on spinning and cadence, the last few rides have had an average cadence over 90 rpm, and i want to keep it going up to high 90's or low 100's. I figure i don't have the most powerful legs but my lungs appear to be pretty good so i might as well use that to my advantage.
On Saturday we hit up shark valley in the everglades. a smooth, flat 15 mile loop in the everglades with an 8 mile return into a very very very very stiff wind. I went out with alex, mandy, and adam, we were trying to work a bit more like a team and ride in a paceline. WE'd each take a minute or so long pull and then pull of and fall back to the end. this was going pretty well at first, but once we hit the turn around and hit that wind we started breaking. First Adams breakfast wasnt agreeing with him so we took it slow for a while for him to recover, after he was feeling better, mandy started hurting. he had warned us before we even started that he was feeling under the weather so given the circumstances he did really good.
On the second lap i wanted to try a sprint and had alex lead me out, at the end I managed to hit 33.5, my record for a flat land sprint. I still want happy with it though, my cadence was only in the 90's so i really need to work on my spin up, and my arms don't pull smoothly on the bars. i'm sure if i can smooth out and get in a lower more aero position i can squeeze another mph out of it. To bench race a bit, i could probably get another mph or more over that with a nice set of deep section wheels. which would put up near 36 mph on the sprint which i think would be respectable in a cat5 race. i hope.
On the return road we tried to work as a team but mandy and adam were hurting so it was alex and i taking pulls at the front. IT HURT. 45-60 seconds pulling into that wind feels like an eternity and 45-60 second recovery feels like an eye blink. To be honest i was being a bit of a douche and was speeding up on my pulls but i wanted to get in the most pain possible since i knew we didnt have a 3rd lap. I also have a definite advantage over alex in the wind, with probably 25% of his coefficient of drag lol. We hooked up with another guy on a pretty nice bike that road with us for a bit, but after two pulls at the front he was busted and fell back. in the end, it was alex and me that finished up ahead, with mandy and adam a few minutes back. I loved the ride though and while i'm not becoming that much faster, i'm learning to deal with the pain a lot better which will probably get me further than pure speed in a race. Can't wait for next week now!
Wednesday - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/18541380Thursday - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/18618071
Friday - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/18664445
Saturday - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/18742656 and because everyone loves seeing gators!
3 comments
