30 Days Update

Tuesday, April 5: An early morning mountain bike workout which included six 6 minute intervals in my zone 3 effort. This was my first set of any kind of intervals this season so even though it was a lower effort than one tends to think about for an interval training workout, I definitely could feel it later in the day. One challenge I tend to have with endurance racing is keeping my heart rate high on the descents as to prevent my body from going into too much of a recovery effort and I think that this workout and the course that I used gave me good practice at keeping my heart rate up, even while descending at other speeds. if I am able to keep my heart rate up, it makes returning to cruising and climbing pace easier (or at leat it feels that way to me).

Wednesday, April 6: 2 laps arounds the parking lot on my singlespeed. I rolled out of the garage late in the evening to grab the mail and then took a quick spin in the parking lot.

Thursday, April 7: Suspension testing on the Trek Fuel EX 8. This sounds a whole lot fancier than it really was actually. After getting home from work at almost 11pm, I twisted the rebound dials on both the front and rear suspension to try them out in a different position to try and balance out the feeling on the bike. It's a work in progress to get that bike dialed in and it will require much more time than the one lap around the parking lot I gave tonight.

Hall Ranch and St Vrain Canyon

Heart Rate Testing

My training plan, Weight loss and Base Training, by Linda Wallenfels (LW Coaching called for a Heart Rate Test today, in follow up from four weeks prior. I've chosen to use The climb up Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder as my testing grounds as it has a good steady climb and is far enough from the house I can get in a good warm up and cool down without having to kill myself to get there. I start once I pass through the stoplight at Baseline and 17th Street and go up from there. Although my average heart rate for the 20 minute test hasn't changed in the past four weeks, I perceive that my power has increased as I was able to climb a quarter mile past where I finished last month's test. This shows me there have been gains in the past month but that better diligence in training will produce even greater dividends.

Breck Epic Training

Yesterday marked 24 weeks until the Breck Epic rolls out of town for Stage 1. That means it is also time to start getting the real training underway. I have chosen to go with Linda Wallenfels plans and today I started with her Weight Loss and Base Training plan which will finish on May 22. I am not planning any big races during this time which is good but will also allow me to focus more on the plan than being race ready. I will likely line up for the Front Range 60 and the Battle of the Bear race the first weekend of May to get some back to back racing days in but I don't see myself gunning for much more as the plan does not call for any super intensity (that I've seen yet). Here goes anything.

Cooling off, Warming Up

I had today blocked off as a vacation day to make this weekend a four day weekend (we take Columbus Day as a holiday) so my ride today was a warm up for racing this weekend. I pulled the road bike off the wall, pumped up the tires and headed out.

The gray sky and cool temperatures on my way out gave way to sun and warmer temperatures as I rolled towards home. Today also marked the first ride of the fall that I rode with a base layer, jersey, vest, and arm and knee warmers.

I realized today was the first long ride in while and I've felt it the rest of the day. Hopefully this will act as more of a warm up than a jet burning ride come Sunday's inaugural Colorado Cross Cup points race.

The heart of 'cross season is here. Game on!

Wednesday Worlds

The Hogans dropped into the Bowl of Death to set up the barriers as I was setting up to shoot this picture.

Wednesday Worlds

The Hogans dropped in to set up the barriers as I was setting up to shoot this picture.

Wednesday Worlds- a growing movement within the cyclocross community to put on group training sessions on Wednesdays throughout the fall.

Friday, Aug. 6th

Singlespeed Sunday Vol. 1, Issue 4

Hey, what happened to Vol. 1, Episodes 1, 2, and 3? Well, they never got written up so you'll just have to deal with Singlespeed Sunday updates starting at Episode 4.

As you can tell by the numbering, singlespeed mountain biking has sort of become a Sunday afternoon thing for me to do. I've been getting out on most Sundays with Josh and rolling out to the Koppenburg climb, through the South Boulder Creek Trail and back home via Baseline Rd. Sometimes we or I will throw in a loop over towards Davidson Mesa or Harper's Lake for good measure.


Today, we headed out the Coal Creek Trail about 7 miles and turned around. With snow falling, we elected to stay off the roads and on trails for safety and the sloppy factor. Pushing through the fresh snow and balancing over the spots where the new snow was covering old ice and frozen tracks proved to be a challenging workout that we didn't need to go find any hills to abuse ourselves with... today. Maybe in March.

And for those interested: Garmin Connect -Activity Details for Singlespeed Sunday 2.21.10

Birthday Ride: Boulder>Gold Hill>Home

From Drop Box

Garmin Connect -Activity Details for Birthday Ride

Saturday Ride

Looking down the road...

Watching the final lap of the 2008 World Cup race at Koksijde gets me thinking down the road towards the Boulder Racing cyclocross race at the Boulder Reservoir on October 25. Although I haven't raced a Boulder Racing race at the reservoir, I remember the Boulder Cup Day 1 in 2008 at the Res. One thing I notice in this video is how tactically smart Erwin Vervecken and Sven Nys ride this last lap-- never letting the other one get too far out ahead, knowing when to ride and when to dismount, when to attack and when to sit in just just a little longer. In the end, Vervecken punches it just right to come out from behind.

The sand at the Res just sucks the energy out of your legs and the best option is to run and pin it. It hurts so much but feels so good at the same time. Weird how so many 'cross races end up that way.

09.09.09 Working Man's Wednesday Worlds

Seeing these numbers of folks coming out for Working Man's edition of Wednesday Worlds is rad. The talent pools from state and national champions down to the local cat. 4 guys (myself included) all looking to get some good practice before this season kicks off soon.

Racing season is nearing us and the adrenaline is starting to flow. It's time.

Another cross convert?

It started yesterday at Boulder Cycle Sport as E and I spent an hour or so looking at cross bikes for her. We checked out a demo Scott CX Team for her and today we spent a few hours out at the Louisville Rec Center and the local elementary school working on skills-- really to see if she's interested.

Initial signs show she is and could get good, fast and clean out there. Watch out cat. 4 women.

Wednesday Worlds #2

Bike, bottle, helmet, long sleeve, sunglasses, and port o barriers. Good to go this early am.

A few folks finishing up the first round of 5 laps.

More later...

Today's projects

I spent a few hours this afternoon working on getting these portable barriers put together following the easy plans set up by Greg at mudandcowbells. I modified them slightly but the blue paint is to distinquish the cross bars from the legs when setting the up. I also have a fourth cross bar piece I can add in if needed and a few spare connectors in case something breaks. 

I started a Toddy brew of the Roastery Blend from the Rocky Mountain Roastery today and have it brewing overnight. It should be set so that when I wake up in the morning, all I need to do is unplug the drain and let it drain out to give me 6-7 cups of coffee concentrate. I think some of that plus the JetBoil will make for a great warm up after those late season cross races this year.

The Great Awakening

Wednesday Morning Worlds (Working Man's edition) kicked off this morning-- 6:30am at Amante in North Boulder. We rolled over to the Elks Lodge and did two sessions, 5 laps then 4 laps with 7-10 minutes in between. There was a bit of everthing for the first week- log barriers, steps, gravel and water ditch crossings and porta-barriers.

It felt good. There are definitely some cobwebs to be cleaned up in form, equipment and fitness but starting this training phase three weeks before the first race is going to show itself very soon.

Game on.

Misc. riding photos

Racing fuel x2

I only know of one Dunkin' Donuts in Colorado so everytime I'm in
Colorado Springs I stop. It is a good thing I don't find myself there
too often though. That's not good for racing.

Seasons

Just finished Seasons on DVD while doing a Zone 2/3 workout with 30 second spinups (little to no resistence, high cadence, minimal bobbing) every five minutes. Have a peek.