Training Week February 26 - 22, 2009

Monday - Heavy rain - rode to Sausalito, watched ToC riders drinking coffee, watched them ride neutral across the GG bridge, rode home and watched the rest of the stage on TV. 1:15 ride
Tuesday - More rain - Evening spin class 1:15
Wednesday - Lunch spin, class was full so did my own workout - 1:10.
Thursday - Finally got in a polo field ride - did 8 sprints and a few hard lap/easy lap intervals. 2:00 ride
Friday - 50 min park ride before leaving for Ripon
Saturday - Snelling - no warm-up (spent 30 min in chip line), neutral + race was about 2:30, rode about 30 min afterward. 3:00 total ride.
Sunday - More rain, good, we need it - Day Off

Weekly totals: 7:05 riding, 2:25 spinning, 9:30 total.

Snelling

Snelling is one of those too flat for me races that I avoided for my first 2 seasons.  Even today about halfway through the race I reached down for my water bottle and went from 2nd to 80th place in the peloton.  I definitely prefer the races with the big hills that tend to thin the pack a bit.

But, it's a big turnout race for our team, so I did it last year and did it again today.  According to the pre-reg numbers we had the 2nd biggest team after Rocknasium with 9 riders.  

The team rode incredible today.  We had guys attacking, counter attacking and getting 1 or 2 guys in every break.

I had a bit of good luck late in the race.  We had Hutch and Rich up the road in a break of 5 and me and our other 6 guys were patrolling the front of the field.  I kind of lost focus for a bit and found myself about 50 riders back with Paul and I told him we better get to the front.  So, I was motoring up the right side of the field and just as I got near the front I noticed that Metcalfe (Specialized) had a gap in front of the pack, so I didn't have to accelerate too hard to break away from the pack, but it took just about everything I had for a mile or 2 before I caught him.  We both really buried ourselves to stay ahead of the pack that started to get real close, but after a couple good turns and some really hard pulls we had a safe gap.

A few miles later we caught the break and with 3 of the 7 in the break, I was part of a 1-2-3 Morgan Stanley sweep at the finish!

Great teamwork today guys!

Training Week February 9 - 15, 2009

Real light training week due to the rain and thinking I was going to do road races on Saturday & Sunday.

Monday - 50 min spin class

Tuesday - 1 hr GG Park Polo field ride - 15 min Zone 2, didn't feel too good.

Wednesday  - 55 min spin class (moderate Z 1-2-3)

Thursday - 50 min spin class (easy Z1)

Friday - 55 min spin class (moderate Z 1-2)

Saturday - SJ Crits - 45 min masters, 1 hr P/1/2 - 3:00 total riding with warmups.

Sunday - Day off

Weekly totals:  4:00 riding, 3:30 spin classes - 7:30 total.

Change of plans leads to San Jose Crit

All week I was eagerly looking forward to the road trip down to the Fresno area for a weekend of road racing at Cantua Creek and Pine Flat with Paul and Scott.  But unfortunately, they both got that nasty cold/flu thing that's been going around and had to pull out on Friday afternoon.

So, I'm sitting at home on Friday, all bummed and jonesing for a bike race, trying to figure out what to do.  I really don't want to drive 400 miles round trip by myself and spend 2 nights alone in cheap motels in the central valley, and racing without teammates is always way less fun.  I consider doing the KOM down in San Jose, but the format is some odd kind of mass start individual time trial with a bunch of corporate CEO types all over the road and there's no masters division, and the only award for the P/1/2 is a trophy for the winner, and the entry fee is $52.  Still, I do love hill climbs, so I'm considering it.

The other option was the San Jose Classic Criterium built by Webcor.  Since there's no 2nd race discount and I don't have a spare $104 dollars right now I had to choose between the 35+ at 8:40 and the P/1/2 at 2:45.   Hutch and Dan are doing the 35+, so I decide to do that one.

The course is a little too flat for my liking, but it does have lots of turns, including a nice hairpin, and no real long straightaways for packs to build up high speeds, so it looks good for a breakaway.

Our race starts with 3 guys from Form Fitness blasting off from the gun, so fast I didn't even notice them go off the front.  One of them immediately flats on the first lap, but the other 2 get a nice gap, even though the guy in 2nd is too far behind his teammate to gain any draft benefit and he can't seem to close it.  I decide to chase them down since, well, that's what I always do and no one else is doing it.  So I take off and go right by guy #2, but it takes me most of a lap to get onto the leader's (Dennis Hopp) wheel.  After a short recovery I come around and take a pull and the 2 of us get into a nice rhythm of trading pulls every 1/3 of a lap, so we each get the same head wind sections every other lap.  Over several laps we build a nice little lead and because of the hairpin can keep a good eye on the field that is now about 20 seconds back.

Then I see Hutch bridging up with another guy, so I start pulling a little less hard until about 2 laps later Hutch drops the other guy and I let Hopp know that I'm can't pull until he catches us.  Once Hutch joins us, I go to the front and put on the gas to build our lead back a bit and discourage the 2 guys trying to bridge (Wire was 1 of them I think), then the 3 of us work it and as our lead continues to grow Hutch whispers to me to wait for him to attack first.  

Just after the hairpin with under 6 laps to go Hutch attacks after Hopp's pull, but Hopp is able to cover it with me on his wheel.  As soon as Hutch sits up I swing to the other side of the road and go, get a gap and TT in the last 5 laps for the win!  Hutch (thanks!) came in 3rd  and Dan who had been jumping on any bridge attempts ended up 3rd in the 45+

Since I don't get to win too many crits, I'm very glad I decided to do this instead of Cantua!

I even won enough cash to pay the entry for the P/1/2 race, so I decide to enter it since it looks like the dry conditions are going to last and no interval workout is as good as chasing down a bunch of berries.  Having so much time in between events I'm also able to enjoy watching all the women's races.

The P/1/2 race was....harder.  It's not quite so easy to get away in that race.  I did get off the front once for a lap early on and even won a prime.  

5 pounds of Ironman Coffee!  I hope it's good because I'm going to be drinking it for a while.

But, most of the race I was near the back, just moving up near the front a few times for fun.  The winning break of Stewart, England, Hernando and Moore got away with around 10 laps to go.  After that there was no way I was getting off the front again and I don't participate in pack sprints, so I just faded to the back and finished.  I think we had delValle in the money though and maybe Hutch too.

I'd still like to do Pine Flat tomorrow, I just don't want to drive down there and back.

I think the 2 races today will hold me over until Snelling.

Rainy Wednesday

It’s great to see that the Tuesday/Thursday night polo field workouts have really caught on. I’ve been going out there just about every Tuesday & Thursday night for the past 4 winters. I was mostly alone for the first 2 years, then Greg was there all the time last winter. This year we’ve had a couple roaring mice and several bike forums riders join us. We had about 12 out there last night. It sure is nice to have the company, especially when you’re not feeling great.

When to you decide to quit a workout? I’m usually pretty good at toughing through them, but last night I could feel that I just didn’t have it. The legs were flat and the power wasn’t there. Maybe it was the 2 races on Sunday, or this cold/cough that I can’t seem to shake, but after the first 6 mile interval (which was over 1 minute slower than last week), it started sprinkling and despite having a great group out there I decided to bag it, go home and rest. I was a bit sad as I rode off and saw the long string of red blinkie lights continue going round and round, but I had to listen to my body.

Looks like the rain is going to continue just about every day for the next 10 days or so. Too bad for the tour of CA, both the riders and the fans. I sure feel lucky that we had such great weather for our camp last month.

Speaking of the tour of CA, unfortunately I won’t be able to see as much of it live as I’d like to. I’ll be down in Coalinga/Fresno area this weekend for the Velo Promo fun. I’m trying to find out if there’s a bar in the Fresno area I can watch the prologue on after the Cantua Creek race. Maybe I can even make it up to Santa Rosa in time for the finish on Sunday after Pine Flat.

At the very least I’ll catch them coming through SF on Monday. I wonder if Robin Williams will be out in his yard since the race goes right by his house? Isn’t he buddy buddy with that Lance guy?
Tuesday is iffy. I’d love to go out to Sierra Road again, but it’s going to be tough to get out of the office, speaking of which I've got to get back to work.

Training Week February 2 - 8 2009

Lots of lunchtime spin classes this week and with a Sunday race no long ride this week.
Still have a few symptoms, but finally getting rid of this cough/cold I've had for over 2 weeks.

Monday - 55 min spin class (moderate)
Tuesday - GG Park Polo fields - Huge turnout (10 of us). 4 x 6 miles in about 14:30 each with racelike attacks/sprints every 3rd lap. Great workout. 2:00 total ride.
Wednesday - 55 min spin class (moderate)
Thursday - 55 min spin class - sprint simulations (did 8 x 30-40 sec all out with high resistance)
Friday - 45 min spin class - easy
Saturday - 1:45 park ride - did a few "openers" to get ready for Sunday.
Sunday - Cherry Pie Crits - 45min in 35+ and 60 min P/1/2. Attacked a lot in the 35+, just chilled in the back in the P/1/2. - 3:00 total riding.

Weekly totals: 6:45 riding, 3:30 spin classes, 10:15 total

Cherry Pie

35+ 1/2/3/4

Race plan - try to prevent LaBerge from winning again, preferably by getting one of us Morgan Stanley's in a breakaway that would make it to the end.

Result - FAIL.

Still, we had a lot of fun trying, Hutch and I alternated trying to get away and each time we'd make it for a few laps, but in the end it was the same old story with LaBerge the victor.  

Kellin ended up 7th and I was 10th.  

I also picked up a nice bottle of Cycles Gladiator wine for being most aggressive.  

Training Week January 26 - February 1, 2009

Monday - 50 min spin class - easy

Tuesday - Polo field evening group ride - 5 of us did a paceline for 30 laps (20 miles) at about 23 mph. 1:30 total ride.

Wednesday - 50 min spin class - went hard.

Thursday - Polo field evening group ride - Sprints - Good size group of about 8.  We did 10 half lap sprints with a 2 lap recovery. 1:30 total ride.

Friday - 50 min spin class - moderate

Saturday - Paul's "3 Climbs" ride with Steve, Dave and Tom turned into a 1 and a half climb ride due to a mechanical that took 45 min to fix and at least 6 flats in our group of 5.  Still, I finally got to climb Mt. Vision, which was incredible!  Total ride time was 5:30.  Hammered home the last 90 minutes.

Sunday - Slept about 11 hours then spent most of the day tuning up my bike and finally upgraded the Force shifters to Red and replaced all cables.  Rode around the block twice to make sure the shifting was working OK.  

Weekly totals:  8:30 riding, 2:30 spin classes, 11:00 total.