Stage 5 and 6 of my epic week brought a change of scenery, as I drove down to coastal NC to visit the folks. First the summary, and then the details:
Stage 5 was a (rain-free) 3-hour tour of the area surrounding Hampstead, NC. I have yet to discover the “perfect” longer loop in the area, but I got closer this time. After a 15-minute warm-up, I put in 50 minutes of low L4, starting in the lower end of the range and building up, with the last 10 minutes at FTP. Then took 20 minutes of L2, then 50 minutes L3, another 30 minutes L2 (which felt a lot more like upper L3), then the final 10 minutes in upper L3 (I was pretty worn out by this point). Took a 10-minute cool down and called it a good day.
Stage 6 was a criterium simulation on the indoor cycle. Since the weather was crappy, and I spent most of the day driving, I decided to make it a short stage day, in hopes of resting up a bit for a big finish this weekend. I wasn’t content to take a rest day, or treat it like a transition stage and do lower intensity, so I opted to build the ride around my advanced cycling class at the YMCA. After a brief warm-up, we kicked into 10 minutes of L3 with brief 5-6 second accelerations every 30 seconds (to simulate corners). Then it was 4 x 1-minute maximal efforts, followed by 3 x 1-minute leadouts. After class was finished, I rode L3 to finish out the hour.
Ahh… Spring Break. The joy of not sitting on my ass, not drinking beer, and not trying to get some college girl to show me her boobs. No, I am taking the “Break” in “Spring Break” literally, to see what it will take for me to be broken. 20 hours? 25 hours? 30 hours? Just how much cycling can I do in a week? So far the weather has cooperated. Tomorrow and Thursday aren’t looking so hot, but what would an epic stage race simulation be without a few miserable slogs in the rain?
Riders in my category and age group don’t usually get the opportunity to do more than maybe a 3-day stage race, usually a points omnium. I want to see what it might feel like to do 7-9 days of solid riding, no noodling about but real mileage at an intensity factor characteristic of your typical longer road race, about 0.75-0.85. While 6-hours a day like the pros is simply out of the question based on prior build-up, I think that 3-4 hours a day should be manageable, with perhaps 1 or 2 shorter “time trial” rides of an hour or so at a higher IF.
Because of the cycling class I teach in the evenings, the past 2 days have been 2-a-day workouts. I’ve put in 2-3 hours both days, then rode to the YMCA, taught a 45-minue class, and rode home. Monday. I teach a pretty advanced class, and while I don’t have power the HR is solidly in the tempo range. Here is the stage data thus far. I’ve indicated NP and TSS for each (I used a TRIMPS calculator to estimate TSS for the cycling class):
The next two days, I’m traveling down to NC to visit the folks and get some rides in on the windy flats. It’s going to rain there too, but at least it will be 5-10 degrees warmer. Compared to the Dismal Dash, it’ll be no big deal. Friday’s weather is looking sweet, and the preliminary plan is an assault on the Cat 1 Apple Orchard Mountain – 13 miles at 5.5%.
Spring Break starts this week, so I decided to make the opening weekend a series of epic rides. Didn’t hurt that the weather was sunny both days (although Saturday was a cool 40-50 degrees). Rode 75 miles on Saturday with the Rod-man at a mostly recreational pace, with an IF of about 0.72. There were 3 longer climbs on the ride, 2 6-minute climbs and a 13-minute climb, rode those at a steady L4 pace. Although VI for the ride was higher than my usual solo excursions (1.24), AP and NP both fell within my L2 range, which was the goal, and, combined with 2 shorter climbs, I still managed to get in almost 30 minutes of L4 work during the ride. I did some speed work with Rodney, helping him work on following a wheel, which I hope was beneficial to him.
Saturday’s ride was also an “experiment” in riding on empty, which has been popularized of late by a couple of interviews with some protour riders. I think that the primary goal is forcing your body to utilize fat for fuel by riding in the morning without having eaten anything, although I’ve also read something about forcing your body to create more mitochondria. Naturally I kept the workload relatively low-end, since I knew I was running on a limited supply of glycogen, but I didn’t find myself tanking on any of the L4 efforts. On the other hand, I spent VERY little time (11%) of the ride at L5 or higher. The entire ride was 2940 KJ, so I guess I had to have been burning quite a bit of fat, since at most I would have had 1500 KJ of glycogen stored up. Of course, I ate plenty when I got home, too. I might continue to try out this type of riding maybe once a week, during training weeks when I don’t have an upcoming race, just to see if it makes a difference. Even if all it does is keep my weight down, then it’s at least good for something.
Yesterday rode 80 miles solo, keeping my effort steady in low L3 (245-265W), IF was 0.82 for the 4 hours with AP at 248W. I fueled up well beforehand and brought 4 bottles of Perpetuem with me – I was far too chicken to attempt 4 hours of tempo on an empty stomach! I’ve always approached the supplement/fuel industry with a wary attitude, but I will say that Perpetuem & Endurolytes kick ass for the long-haul rides. A bottle an hour and my power stayed steady the entire 80 miles. I saw a 1% increase in AP across the first 3 hours, and then a 2% decrease in the last hour. Given that I’d ridden 75 miles the day before, I’m pleased with those numbers. I’m also giving their Mito-Caps a try, but the jury is still out on that. I want a full 6-months of anectdotal data before I reach any conclusions.
I’m tempted this week to go long most days, it is the last week where I can pile on the TSS before the Spring racing kicks in, and while most of the Spring races are B or C, there are a few TTs where I’d like to bring up the TSB a bit. There is a short break of a few weeks in May, which will be a good opportunity to rebuild some base, and then June-July is A-race time.
