Suncrest was on the menu today

Adam invited us to a ride starting at the mouth of Suncrest today with the intention of riding around the point of the mountain, climbing the north side of Suncrest, riding down the steep southern face, then going home.

At least that was the intention. Ryan showed up and muscled his way, well, won a rock/paper/scissors session to make us go up the steep side of Suncrest right away rather than at the end of the ride.

As you can see below this climb has a bunch of sections over 10% grade, some reaching 14%, yielding an estimated grade of 8% for 3.5 miles.


Within the first 1/2 mile I start looking down at my bike, thinking there is something wrong with my gearing or I have a flat. I can't be in my lowest gear already. I am fit damn it. I have been working out all winter. What the f***?

A bit later I realize what the f***: I am running a 11-21 cassette with my 53-39 crank set. Yeah, I did it, I just blamed the hardware. In November I replaced the cassette with an older 11-21 because I was going to be doing FLAT base miles and that cassette is just not used anymore since I have a 53-39 crank set. May as well use it up during the winter. Therefore today's climb up Suncrest was done at 5 mph in a 39x21 gear. This was strangely reminiscent of a certain Little Cottonwood canyon climb during a certain 1000 warriors race. Don't do that.

Then came the downhill. Turns out I'm still a featherweight and I don't believe there is anything I can do to help gravity. I pedaled the whole way down at nearly my functional threshold power but couldn't be useful for anyone and could only keep up if I was in someones draft. Pathetic.

All in all the day was gorgeous, the company was great, and we got a few quality hours in. Tomorrow: Ski day!

Base miles milestone

1082 miles ridden so far for the 2010 season - my 2010 training season began November 16th 2009. I am not THAT much of a freak where I would have ridden 1000 miles in less than one month.

The 1082 miles translate to over 67 hours on the bike. Mostly indoor. One one hand I am starting to get pretty tired of my trainer and really want to ride outside. On the other hand I am increasingly enjoying being on the trainer as it is simpler than dealing with traffic, road conditions, and finding terrain to match the workouts. But, as I start more race-specific training the need for real mountains and real terrain also increases. Outside good.

1000 miles is a well known milestone to denote the end of a base period. It is recommended to get 1000 miles in before starting to beat the crap out of your body to get to the next level of fitness. Here comes the pain.

2 excellent rides this weekend.

If you didn't get to ride this weekend you missed out. Travis organized a great outing in Park City where he, Ryan, and I were treated to mostly blue skies and clean air for almost 4 hours. Then Sunday's ride was the almost famous Wardy Sunday at Noon event which yielded a group of 6 people. Nice stuff for January.

Those 6 hours on the bike allowed me to reach my 11 hour training goal this week, which is a relief as I didn't really think I was going to reach my goal as of Friday evening. And I am feeling better about riding in sub 30 degree weather. Sad, sad accomplishment.

Lastly I reached a weird milestone during Saturday's ride where I broke the 1000 watts barrier of power output. It was picture worthy. Saturday's ride also bumped my personal best 5-second duration power output to 963 watts. I have a long way to go to reach my season's goals but it's a start.

2009 to 2010

2009 in retrospective

Professional

Not the best year. Third or fourth attempt at managing people with the same result. Just not a manager and don't want to be one. Otherwise tired of being the bad guy; I just don't want to deal with grown adults needing supervision to do their jobs. Just let me solve technical problems and get out of the damn way.

Personal

Great. I am super lucky. I don't deserve it especially given how selfish I am.

Cycling

Good energy outlet. Great early season, unfortunate knee injury, shitty team dynamics. Wished I could have excelled.

2 new bikes: One was too tall, the other was stolen. Good and bad.

2010

Eat, sleep, work, train

Getting serious about competing on a bicycle. Spending approximately 12 hours per week training starting in November. Will win races, will excel, will destroy LOTOJA.

Olympics

1 month in Vancouver for some awesome Olympic experience. Too bad I wasn't chosen as a volunteer but I hope we make the most of it.

Home improvements

It's time to update the house with new carpet, maybe pergo-style flooring in the upstairs bathroom, new non-yellow canned light rings, and possibly new door hardware.

4 weeks of training in the books

First day of the training I felt there was no way I could achieve 500 hours in a year. I actually feel pretty good about the plan and am starting to think it is attainable.

The plan breaks down into weeks of targeted effort, and for this first 4 weeks it was expected to be 12 hours a week for 3 weeks and 4 hours a week for the recovery week, totalling 40 hours of effort. I reached 36:28. The plan also says to do your best and not worry if you don't make all your workouts, therefore I am not worried.

As scientific as this plan is, there is a over training or burnout clause that is based on one's feel. My legs were dead by the middle of the third week so I only got 9:30 in that week instead of 12. I feel good about stopping, and I feel ok that I worked out so much during the first 3 weeks. I don't believe I have ever worked out as often and as regularly as this plan is needing me to.

I am a believer of this plan. I think periodization makes perfect sense at the workout, week, month, and the year levels. Excited to see the results on race days.

The annual training plan

Joe Friel's blog has a great series of articles to help one prepare an annual training plan. Part of the plan involves setting goals and training objectives as previously discussed. The part of the annual training plan that frightens me is the Annual Hours.

Annual hours can be calculated by adding 10 to 15% to the previous year's hours. Another calculation can be to multiply normal weekly hours of training by 40. Lastly a chart is supplied to help plan the hours needed based on the longest race planned to participate in. Given that I have set a goal to participate in LOTOJA again my longest race is expected to be over nine hours, which means the minimum I should train to "finish the race", not to compete, is 500 hours.

The way I see it others are likely using this method to train therefore this may be the reason I am not able to compete at high levels. That's why the guy's book is called "The Cyclist's Training Bible" not "Another training book".

Now for some perspective. I bike a lot. People around me, whether they are fitness nuts or not say that I bike a lot. I ride more than some and less than some on my race team. In 2009 I logged 239 hours on the bike. I need to double that number.

I need to become much more vigilant at logging my training off the bike, whether it's hiking, cross-country skiing, strength training, or whatever. Hell I need to log walks with the dog if I want to have a chance at this number.

500 hours annually is 12 hours a week. I spent one hour every day this week on the bike or strength training, and walked the dog once for 30 minutes. That leaves me with 6:30 of exercise to do over the weekend. I wish the weather allowed for a nice easy 100 miler in a nice quiet area.

Let's get serious.

At the end of the last season I realized I needed to either step up or get out of the racing scene because I am not thrilled with mediocrity. I decided to get serious.

I am committing to the Joe Friel Annual Training Plan approach with a little sprinkle of public humiliation. Here are my goals along with training objectives. You are welcome to use these against me anytime.

Season Goals:
1 Complete LOTOJA in 9:40
2 Complete an endurance mountain bike race (Park City Point 2 Point, 12 hours of Sundance)
3 Achieve 5 top 10 finishes in individual events

Training Objectives:
1 Average 400w for 5 minutes by July 1 (muscular endurance)
2 Average 700w for 30 seconds by May 15 (power / sprinting)
3 Train 4+ days per week by April 1