These past six months have `informed' me of how erratic my training had to be. I pretty much expected that but granted myself the luxury of being optimistic. Much of what I had intended to do in the way of `training' was interrupted by mundane but important other matters.
I have a hopeful grasp on what is practical and realistic for me in the way of training and events over the next calendar year. So the switch from ebullient optimism to practical realism ... I don't like it! (If you set your goals only so that they're `realistic' it takes all the headiness, the unknown, the surprise out of things.)
My training will, perforce, have to be local in order for me to have any sense of fidelity to a plan. And I've been fortunate enough to be introduced to a variety of training surfaces and terrain (hills, mountains, flats, short [25 mile] courses that include flats and lots of short, spikey climbs). Local short course So this permits a rational plan for development of cycling skills and physical development.
I've had bike destroying accidents on one of my recumbents that has required a great deal of expense and mechanical work. I'm not the best mechanic so it has taken time.
On the other two recumbents I've made pretty comprehensive changes in the gearing, cranks, and drive-train. Again, this has caused me to spend a fair amount of money and experience many delays due to finding the time to do the mechanical work.
At this point all my recumbents are operational and can be ridden at the point of selection.
I'm even intending to dust off my upright bike for local and short trips. I'll not need to do any mechanical work on the upright because it is, at worst, dusty.
In my next post I'll offer some detail as to the local training courses and a few of what I call `performance events.' `Performance events' are what the training is all about.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
"Great Leader" Sports Nutrition Products
I just ran across a piece I wrote a few months before my RAW 2010 attempt. Somehow my email address got out to the world of snake-oil merchants and I got so fed up I posted this, below, to a few cycling related discussion groups:
GREAT LEADER SPORTS NUTRITION PRODUCTS
"Expensive Urinite:" Improve your speed 300% while keeping your heart rate under 85 bpm. Scientifically formulated and tested at a secret underwater independent North Korean humility `Great Leader' sports lab. Trust us!
Easy to swallow, non-chewable, tasty seaweed flavored powder dissolvable in simple yak milk. 16 oz irradiated `repurposed' nuclear centrifuge cannisters @ only $175 each. Money back guarantee if you live that long.
"Swell Gel:" Dance up hills in happy bliss doing `silly circles' around your grunting competitors. All ingredients in Swell Gel have been personally and individually used by "WADA" scientists and carry their official ` thumbs up with a wink' photo. Unlike other sticky, gooey, gag-me-with-a-spoon gels Swell Gel is snorted by riders. No sticky white residue.
"Secret Power Suppositories" For the `daring' competitor, the one who isn't cowed by wussy WADA rules or spy camera crews. Enormous weiner sized slick suppository jam packed with EPO, epinephrine, testosterone, and a veritable plethora of fast acting 'roids. Nobody will know that when it looks like you're just scratching your crotch you're actually inserting a "Secret Power Suppository" up your keester.
Guaranteed NOT to grow an inch of hair on your shoulders and arms by the end of a Stage.
Be the first to finish, knowing that when you get off your bike and your knuckles are dragging at your feet you'll have a long night of bike groupies wanting to know you better.
Amaze your friends when your voice drops from falsetto to alto.
And we promise not to insult your intelligence by selling for dollars what you could buy at your grocery store for pennies. Because WE KNOW you want one of our "GREAT LEADER" T-shirts to prove to your buds that you're one serious, baaaddddd-ass cyclist!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
What is the `baseline?'
I started getting serious about cycling around 1996, as a way to not get too unbalanced with my job.
Periodically I'd complete a training or competitive event and feel sore, beat up and fatigued. I'd wonder if my `age' (50, at the time) caused me to be less resilient and to experience limits and physical consequences that I would have shrugged off 20 years earlier.
I'm no further down the road with this question, sixteen (16) years later, now that I'm 66.
As I increased the challenges and cycling demands on myself I'd feel the `consequences' from these efforts. And still I'd wonder: "Would I feel this beat up if I were 25?"
Last Wednesday I rode with a group of really great people through some exceptionally demanding Arizona terrain. Eighty-one miles (out-and-back) and 7,100 feet of climbing. This was difficult but the distance and cumulative climbing didn't cause me to have to reach deep into my physical resources. However, there was a ten (10) mile section on the return leg that was nothing but uphill, grades between 4% and 11%.
Kirkland to Bagdad, AZ
This `blog' is entitled `Training Blog' because that is how I approach my cycling. I'm not a recreational cyclist. My deficiencies in life include being somewhat of a hermit, somewhat of a `driven' personality with enough insecurities that scare me into having to `prove myself' at almost everything I do. Cycling, for me, is an almost `ultimate' form of staying sane and not letting the demons overtake me.
So, on that ten mile stretch of road I demanded that I `pound' it, climbing at the highest gear and wattage sustainable. There were several times when I said to myself `prudence suggests that you not `redline' it, Dan.' But then there was `Bad Dan' who said `you HAVE more so you must GIVE more. Otherwise you're just another old fart on a bike ride.'
And I did give more. I could literally feel it coming from the marrow of my bones. And I heard that little homunculus inside of me was saying: "If this is the last thing you do you have to do it."
Still, I was passed by two riders. I rationalized being passed by discounting those two riders: "Classic cycling bodies: lightweight, thin and experienced. One of them weighs 80 lbs less than me and is riding a `feather' bike. You're `the Man,' Dan. You're training on your 28 lb, loaded up fwd recumbent. THEY couldn't do what you do!"
But that isn't the point. The point is "why, when you know this is going to deplete you, are you letting yourself be so unwise?!"
Today, the third day after that ride, is the first day I feel like I'm among the living.
Would I have been able, at age 25, to do what I did last Wednesday and not feel completely drained?
I don't know.
But I DO know, that at age 25 I was still `over the top,' doing things that were way too demanding and unwise.
So .. the more things change, the more ....
- d
Periodically I'd complete a training or competitive event and feel sore, beat up and fatigued. I'd wonder if my `age' (50, at the time) caused me to be less resilient and to experience limits and physical consequences that I would have shrugged off 20 years earlier.
I'm no further down the road with this question, sixteen (16) years later, now that I'm 66.
As I increased the challenges and cycling demands on myself I'd feel the `consequences' from these efforts. And still I'd wonder: "Would I feel this beat up if I were 25?"
Last Wednesday I rode with a group of really great people through some exceptionally demanding Arizona terrain. Eighty-one miles (out-and-back) and 7,100 feet of climbing. This was difficult but the distance and cumulative climbing didn't cause me to have to reach deep into my physical resources. However, there was a ten (10) mile section on the return leg that was nothing but uphill, grades between 4% and 11%.
Kirkland to Bagdad, AZ
This `blog' is entitled `Training Blog' because that is how I approach my cycling. I'm not a recreational cyclist. My deficiencies in life include being somewhat of a hermit, somewhat of a `driven' personality with enough insecurities that scare me into having to `prove myself' at almost everything I do. Cycling, for me, is an almost `ultimate' form of staying sane and not letting the demons overtake me.
So, on that ten mile stretch of road I demanded that I `pound' it, climbing at the highest gear and wattage sustainable. There were several times when I said to myself `prudence suggests that you not `redline' it, Dan.' But then there was `Bad Dan' who said `you HAVE more so you must GIVE more. Otherwise you're just another old fart on a bike ride.'
And I did give more. I could literally feel it coming from the marrow of my bones. And I heard that little homunculus inside of me was saying: "If this is the last thing you do you have to do it."
Still, I was passed by two riders. I rationalized being passed by discounting those two riders: "Classic cycling bodies: lightweight, thin and experienced. One of them weighs 80 lbs less than me and is riding a `feather' bike. You're `the Man,' Dan. You're training on your 28 lb, loaded up fwd recumbent. THEY couldn't do what you do!"
But that isn't the point. The point is "why, when you know this is going to deplete you, are you letting yourself be so unwise?!"
Today, the third day after that ride, is the first day I feel like I'm among the living.
Would I have been able, at age 25, to do what I did last Wednesday and not feel completely drained?
I don't know.
But I DO know, that at age 25 I was still `over the top,' doing things that were way too demanding and unwise.
So .. the more things change, the more ....
- d
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Local Cycling and Training Opportunities
I barely adhered to my intention of making this a `recovery' week.
Last Sunday I completed what amounted to a 110 K time trial in Phoenix. Phoenix Invitational . It had been a long time since I was on terrain that didn't include miles of annoying downhill coasting and miles of slow but challenging and demanding slogging uphill. Being able to apply sustained watts over 110 K of flatland was welcome and quite taxing.
On Wednesday, after two days of being off the bike I rode a 53 mile, 5,700 ft of climbing course (Garmin data: P'cott - Kirkland - P'cott . Though I purposely stayed at nothing more than 60% max it was still 4 hours and 45 minutes of raw effort. Felt the symptoms of overtraining so I elected to take the next day off and take it easy on other training sessions the rest of the week.
My friend Mike wanted to get some miles in on his new recumbent so he chose a local training area that, initially, sounded mighty tame: an industrial park with easy loops and flat roads. About the only thing easy about it, I found out, is that it is `local.' That is, only a few miles from home.
I accompanied Mike to the course and immediately saw the potential of this area. The City of Prescott put in the infrastructure for an industrial park near the airport just before the recession hit. So, the roads are excellent, there are barely 10 - 15 small plants and warehouses. Ninety-five percent of the area is utterly vacant. No traffic.
In my own mind I'm already planning some ultra endurance training sessions ( 6 hour, 12 hour, 24 hour). I can park my truck and loop past it every 12 miles if I wanted to. Keep dry clothes, fluid, food, equipment, etc., in my truck Plenty of water at numerous locations. If a problem arose I could get a `spousal rescue' in 20 minutes by cellphone.
The next day I rode this course on my own for about 2.5 hours. Steep (14%), short (50 meters) climbs everywhere you turn. About 10% of the course is actually flat.
Here's yesterday's Garmin data: Jan 7 - Local trainng course
Today I rode another 3 hours in the course. Great potential for training, competitive events (Time Trial, Criterium). Here's today's Garmin data: Jan 8 - Circumference of Training Course - 12.2 miiles
And then a few more hours of `free style' use of this training course: Jan 8 - Using the course for hill training and time
Last Sunday I completed what amounted to a 110 K time trial in Phoenix. Phoenix Invitational . It had been a long time since I was on terrain that didn't include miles of annoying downhill coasting and miles of slow but challenging and demanding slogging uphill. Being able to apply sustained watts over 110 K of flatland was welcome and quite taxing.
On Wednesday, after two days of being off the bike I rode a 53 mile, 5,700 ft of climbing course (Garmin data: P'cott - Kirkland - P'cott . Though I purposely stayed at nothing more than 60% max it was still 4 hours and 45 minutes of raw effort. Felt the symptoms of overtraining so I elected to take the next day off and take it easy on other training sessions the rest of the week.
My friend Mike wanted to get some miles in on his new recumbent so he chose a local training area that, initially, sounded mighty tame: an industrial park with easy loops and flat roads. About the only thing easy about it, I found out, is that it is `local.' That is, only a few miles from home.
I accompanied Mike to the course and immediately saw the potential of this area. The City of Prescott put in the infrastructure for an industrial park near the airport just before the recession hit. So, the roads are excellent, there are barely 10 - 15 small plants and warehouses. Ninety-five percent of the area is utterly vacant. No traffic.
This could be the core of several local club events, e.g., family fun rides, longer timed events (time trials, criterium).
In my own mind I'm already planning some ultra endurance training sessions ( 6 hour, 12 hour, 24 hour). I can park my truck and loop past it every 12 miles if I wanted to. Keep dry clothes, fluid, food, equipment, etc., in my truck Plenty of water at numerous locations. If a problem arose I could get a `spousal rescue' in 20 minutes by cellphone.
The next day I rode this course on my own for about 2.5 hours. Steep (14%), short (50 meters) climbs everywhere you turn. About 10% of the course is actually flat.
Here's yesterday's Garmin data: Jan 7 - Local trainng course
Today I rode another 3 hours in the course. Great potential for training, competitive events (Time Trial, Criterium). Here's today's Garmin data: Jan 8 - Circumference of Training Course - 12.2 miiles
And then a few more hours of `free style' use of this training course: Jan 8 - Using the course for hill training and time
Monday, January 2, 2012
A Spring Classic ... for the fun of it
Yesterday I joined a great group of local roadies driving to an invitational in Phoenix. Sixty-five miles and just a tad over 500 feet of climbing. I've done flatter routes but that was flat.
In my maturity I've come fully into my miserly ways. Living in Prescott I cannot imagine doing what I used to do often several times each week in Chicago: driving 100 miles to ride my bike. And though there are great adventures all over the southwest the sense of `weirdness' overcomes me when I send money to people 100 miles away to give me a map, a water bottle, sign liability waivers. And then spend 3 figures in gas money to drive for four hours ... to ride my bike.
!?*@##!!!
And here I live in Prescott!!
So I'm resigned to the `loneliness' of the hard core ultra cyclist. That is, poorly paraphrasing Eddie Merckx, when asked how he came to be so dominating a cyclist, he responded: "Ride a lot."
I'm making up routes and courses that are low traffic volume, good road, challenging and with the occasional water spiggot every 40 or 50 miles.
Here's one from my front door:
Likely climbing: 12,000 feet
Start half an hour before daybreak to be advantaged by daylight.
No fee.
No sag.
Self-support.
No club affiliation.
No course `certification' or `sanctioning.'
YSYD (you're stopped, you're dropped).
No rando organization.
No getting your card stamped or signed.
A complimentary burial on the side of the road for DNF'ers.
No T-shirt.
No goofy set of safety pins with a number on some sheet of linen.
No subsequent internet hounding by profit-mongers wanting to patronize you with "Hilly Hell" mantras.
Who will know you did it?
You. Only you.
In my maturity I've come fully into my miserly ways. Living in Prescott I cannot imagine doing what I used to do often several times each week in Chicago: driving 100 miles to ride my bike. And though there are great adventures all over the southwest the sense of `weirdness' overcomes me when I send money to people 100 miles away to give me a map, a water bottle, sign liability waivers. And then spend 3 figures in gas money to drive for four hours ... to ride my bike.
!?*@##!!!
And here I live in Prescott!!
So I'm resigned to the `loneliness' of the hard core ultra cyclist. That is, poorly paraphrasing Eddie Merckx, when asked how he came to be so dominating a cyclist, he responded: "Ride a lot."
I'm making up routes and courses that are low traffic volume, good road, challenging and with the occasional water spiggot every 40 or 50 miles.
Here's one from my front door:
- Prescott to Bagdad: 67 miles
- Bagdad to Yarnell: 56 miles
- Yarnell to Congress: 10 miles
- Congress to Wilhoit: 29 miles
- Willhoit back to Prescott: 17 miles.
Likely climbing: 12,000 feet
Start half an hour before daybreak to be advantaged by daylight.
No fee.
No sag.
Self-support.
No club affiliation.
No course `certification' or `sanctioning.'
YSYD (you're stopped, you're dropped).
No rando organization.
No getting your card stamped or signed.
A complimentary burial on the side of the road for DNF'ers.
No T-shirt.
No goofy set of safety pins with a number on some sheet of linen.
No subsequent internet hounding by profit-mongers wanting to patronize you with "Hilly Hell" mantras.
Who will know you did it?
You. Only you.
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