Well I guess T.I.W (This Is Winnipeg). Sub-zero temperatures on Friday and +5 on Saturday and temp is rising again today. Waiting till noon before heading out to avoid the chilliness. Had a surprisingly good ride yesterday, kinda one of those "no chain days", and was able to hit it really hard for 2 x 30'. This was surprising because I've felt bit off this week and went to a social on Friday night. Sometimes slight hangover boosts the fuel tank just right, but that's as hard to do as trying to fix diarrhea by farting.
Went to scout the Bird's Hell race course and it appears that park people decided to place huge rocks in two spots, I guess to prevent red necks from ripping up and down the bike path in their pick-ups, but I need to ask those to be removed at least for one day or I need to come up with plan B. The originally planned course is as close to those Belgian races as possible here in Manitoba, no bunch sprints on that course.
Need to start building my TT bike as well. Or just the bar end shifters and brake levers. Just some Shimano friction bar end shiters paired up with SRAM brake levers. Should be pretty good. Then need to keep an eye out for UCI legal bar combo. Those bastards just make the life difficult for those who actually need to buy their own equipment. Sucks c**k out of a car door to spend hundreds or even thousands of $/€ and find out after couple of months that you are not allowed to use that widget in a race.
I'm also looking for a new pair of wheels. Need to be carbon, tubular, 50mm or taller and good quality that will last more than first pot hole. I'll lace the rear on to my 24h PT hub so rear hub doesn't add any value in this case. FFWD and Edge are the strongest candidates at the moment, mainly because rims are available separately and I wouldn't need to buy 24h rear hub in the complete wheel.
But off to the roads I go. Remember to stretch.
sunnuntai 21. maaliskuuta 2010
torstai 18. maaliskuuta 2010
Back in the Basement
Normal Winnipeg spring weather forced me back to the basement. Or actually it was the dark because wifey is sick and little chica had too much energy to burn tonight, meaning that I was strongly advised not to go outside to play. And it was hard to go back to trying to be entertained by Paris-Nice while pushing through intervals. It's so much easier outside. So my return to trainer looks like below (there was a bit of a suffer-fest yesterday for 90min). All I can say is that I'm not an evening training type of guy.
Had pretty good weekend though. On Sunday I rode to the park and hooked up first with Dave, Eric and Brad, but they were just finishing their ride and then I rode for few laps with Marian and Lifesport train. Good ride and tons of people in the park since it was the first spring Sunday of the year. Marian has been coaching the Boy and trying to train himself as well. He has a full-time job though so he can't train the way he used to before. The Boy is in good condition though, might be a good season coming up in the duck pond. Below is a photo of my Sunday ride. I finished the ride by towing little lady in the Chariot behind my MTB and that combination works pretty well when riding with the wife. She can actually drop me on the hills on her CX with road tires.
And again I got some feedback from my faithful fans. Apparently leaving the numbers out is childish and cocky. It's nice that at least someone reads my blog but I'm terribly sorry if my stories upset those readers. I guess I'm getting old because I feel kinda guilty for upsetting people with my blog rambling. Thank you for the feedback though, I'll do my best to meet your expectations.
Good night.
Had pretty good weekend though. On Sunday I rode to the park and hooked up first with Dave, Eric and Brad, but they were just finishing their ride and then I rode for few laps with Marian and Lifesport train. Good ride and tons of people in the park since it was the first spring Sunday of the year. Marian has been coaching the Boy and trying to train himself as well. He has a full-time job though so he can't train the way he used to before. The Boy is in good condition though, might be a good season coming up in the duck pond. Below is a photo of my Sunday ride. I finished the ride by towing little lady in the Chariot behind my MTB and that combination works pretty well when riding with the wife. She can actually drop me on the hills on her CX with road tires.
And again I got some feedback from my faithful fans. Apparently leaving the numbers out is childish and cocky. It's nice that at least someone reads my blog but I'm terribly sorry if my stories upset those readers. I guess I'm getting old because I feel kinda guilty for upsetting people with my blog rambling. Thank you for the feedback though, I'll do my best to meet your expectations.
Good night.
sunnuntai 14. maaliskuuta 2010
First Ride Outside on My Road Bike
Pretty weird. It's March 14th and I'm about to go out on my second training ride outside on my road bike. This wouldn't be that special anywhere else, but last three years, while living here in the prairies, I've been shackled on my trainer this time of year. Yesterday it got up to +11 or +12 and it was pretty nice with sun and not much wind. Can't complain.
So all the highways are dry here and even the River Road was pretty good. Quite a bit of melt water on the road though so I won't be riding there today. It's pretty wet inside the city still but all the snow should be gone by the end of the week. Here's a picture from River Road. What makes me even happier is low water level in the river...shouldn't need to stress about flood this year and no roads blocked by water.
Of course I got bit excited, because of the good weather, and my first road ride outside and overcooked my first interval a bit. It just felt too good and the damage was done before I noticed anything. Had to take the second interval bit easier but kept going 10 minutes longer. So 28 and 38 minutes at bit below my threshold. Trying to get that 60 min of threshold/SST work in every outdoor session now. I removed all the power/speed/HR/torque/cadence numbers off the picture below because I've received some feedback about them in one of my previous posts. Smoothing in the picture is 30".
So this 60' of threshold/SST per outdoor session will be the meat and potatoes of my training for next 8-10 weeks. Local races will help me with non-structured VO2 training starting mid-April and I'll start my structured VO2 training at the beginning of May. Then it's pretty simple. Bikes on Broadway 4 weeks before nationals and hopefully few races at America's Dairy Land a week before nationals. I wasn't really thinking about training too hard once the season gets going. Just do the local MTB races for training and then Tuesday night crit' and two other rides during the week.
MTB enduros are pretty good training though. I need to pin it at high SST just to keep up with the more agile MTB guys. Being overweight = good training on MTB when trying to follow those more cyclist looking guys on the trails. And MTB enduro stands for MTB marathon locally here in Manitoba. Don't confuse it with MTB enduro familiar to Finnish guys.
Most important goal for me is to get rid of few more kilos. 75kg by the end of May would be OK and I can get there pretty easily. 73kg would be better, but that takes some more commitment. 70kg would be great, but that is little too much. I guess 500g/week is good pace without killing yourself so 11 weeks x 500g = 5500g. Doesn't look that bad...
OK...enough of this rambling and off to a training ride.
p.s. After the winter and parking spots covered with snow, some of the fellow 'peggers have as hard time parking their beloved trucks as they have allowing cyclists onto THEIR roads. Good for him only blocking two spots. My wife didn't let me take another picture later on that would have explained this inability to maneuver a vehicle.
So all the highways are dry here and even the River Road was pretty good. Quite a bit of melt water on the road though so I won't be riding there today. It's pretty wet inside the city still but all the snow should be gone by the end of the week. Here's a picture from River Road. What makes me even happier is low water level in the river...shouldn't need to stress about flood this year and no roads blocked by water.
Of course I got bit excited, because of the good weather, and my first road ride outside and overcooked my first interval a bit. It just felt too good and the damage was done before I noticed anything. Had to take the second interval bit easier but kept going 10 minutes longer. So 28 and 38 minutes at bit below my threshold. Trying to get that 60 min of threshold/SST work in every outdoor session now. I removed all the power/speed/HR/torque/cadence numbers off the picture below because I've received some feedback about them in one of my previous posts. Smoothing in the picture is 30".
So this 60' of threshold/SST per outdoor session will be the meat and potatoes of my training for next 8-10 weeks. Local races will help me with non-structured VO2 training starting mid-April and I'll start my structured VO2 training at the beginning of May. Then it's pretty simple. Bikes on Broadway 4 weeks before nationals and hopefully few races at America's Dairy Land a week before nationals. I wasn't really thinking about training too hard once the season gets going. Just do the local MTB races for training and then Tuesday night crit' and two other rides during the week.
MTB enduros are pretty good training though. I need to pin it at high SST just to keep up with the more agile MTB guys. Being overweight = good training on MTB when trying to follow those more cyclist looking guys on the trails. And MTB enduro stands for MTB marathon locally here in Manitoba. Don't confuse it with MTB enduro familiar to Finnish guys.
Most important goal for me is to get rid of few more kilos. 75kg by the end of May would be OK and I can get there pretty easily. 73kg would be better, but that takes some more commitment. 70kg would be great, but that is little too much. I guess 500g/week is good pace without killing yourself so 11 weeks x 500g = 5500g. Doesn't look that bad...
OK...enough of this rambling and off to a training ride.
p.s. After the winter and parking spots covered with snow, some of the fellow 'peggers have as hard time parking their beloved trucks as they have allowing cyclists onto THEIR roads. Good for him only blocking two spots. My wife didn't let me take another picture later on that would have explained this inability to maneuver a vehicle.
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