quick update: masters road nats

Cara and I are in Louisville, KY this week at masters road nationals. Today was the TT. My individual TT was at about 9am this morning. I was pleased to get 4th in my age group with a time of about 50:54 for the 38KM undulating course. It was raining for most of my ride, but I don't think it slowed me down any. I averaged 343 watts which gives me slightly over 5watts per Kg....about as good as I could have expected today.

At about 1pm Cara and I set off for our tandem TT. We rocked it even though the wind had picked up dramatically. We did 50:43 ! Faster than my individual time ! We have never done that before. The return leg had a serious headwind and the last 5 miles were excruciating.....one of the hardest things i have done in a long time. We had the fastest mixed tandem time by about a minute.

Mission accomplished so far: one podium and a national championship......

Tandem road race is thursday.

a2

pics from the trials road TT

GAME OVER: paralympic trials road TT

Just finished the road time trial for paralympic selection. We rode really well and did 100.9 % of our time standard of 1 minute 17.6 seconds per kilometer. We rode a 17:56 on a tough little course with some difficult turns and hills. Unfortunately it was not good enough to get selection for the team. The hand cyclists and amputees ruled the day. 3 of them did 95% of their time standard! I don't know just what their standard was, but that is incredible. With only 6 male slots for the team and 3 of them "ring fenced" we would have needed to ride about 97% of our standard to get selection . We rode over 28mph average....and honestly no matter what we could have done we would no way have been able to ride fast enough to do 97%! To do a 97% for the pursuit we would have literally had to come close to setting a world record!
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So in the end...after all the hard work and time....training for an event I had never done before (pursuit) and travel, we never really did have a shot at making the team. The way the selection rules are written, and the small size of the team the US had qualified for the paralympics we were fitghting a losing battle from the onset.....of course we did not know this until recently....most of this is new for this paralympics as the uci recently took control of the cycling events and new rules are in place for Beijing.
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I do know that we trained hard and raced well....to the best of our abilities....and for me, the experience was truly amazing.
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I hope to have some pictures and more thoughts up here soon....
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a2

4:43 something

That was our time for the 4KM pursuit today. We rode really well..especially for a team that had never done this event before. I was hoping for better, but we rode to our ability and this is what we came up with.
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We did start a little too hard. The start itself was near perfect about 28.0 sec for the first lap....then the big problem: 21 seconds for the 2nd lap!...too fast!!!! We knew this, but the damage was done....we needed to hold speed as long as we could.....and we were doing really well. Lots of low 22 sec laps...then into the 23s ...we made it past 5 to go with good times...then started to pay for the early effort with 24 second laps for the last 3......ouch.
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What an incredible experience though....this event is crazy hard..the focus it demands is complete. During the ride it was like we were on another planet....there was nothing else in the universe except us, our effort and the patch of track in front of us....
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When we finished all I could think was that I did not want this to be my first AND last pursuit with Matt...we have one more chance to move up and make the team.
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Our ride gave us the bronze medal for the national championship....but was 105% of our time standard....so we are still in 4th for the team selection ranking with just the road TT left on friday. We will need to ride FAST.
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No pics from today yet....maybe tomorrow.
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a2

Paralympic Trials Day 1

Today was day 1 of the trials. The pic is Matt and Anton starting the kilo. They had an unbelievably fast start and ended with a 1:06.8 . This gave us a 102% ranking...meaning they were 2% off of the elite standard for this event. 3 riders (one tandem team and 2 individuals) had better rankings so we are now in 4th. This means we have to go FAST tomorrow and friday.
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It was a little stressful for me to be out there watching and not riding. I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by the amount of spectators (look at the throngs of people in the stands above!)..and even by the amount of competitors....but even though the fields are small for the track events the times were wicked fast and the competition is extremely fierce to get those team spots for Beijing.
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After the event Matt and I did a short road ride, then I headed out again after lunch and did some leg opening efforts. I can't say I felt great, but I was putting out the power so I think I will be ok for tomorrow. Conditions were great today....if they are the same for tomorrow we should be able to ride a fast time.
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Hopefully I will be able to put up a good post tomorrow.....but now to bed.
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a2

Almost Time for Trials !

Pictures courtesy of cycling photographer extraordinaire Casey Gibson. Team King is the one on top....that is Anton, Matt, and me.......extra points if you can tell who is the sprinter and who is the endurance guy. Between Matt and Anton that is a lot of quadriceps muscle!

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This was essentially our last real week of preparation for the trials next week. Now we are in "taper" mode. We did some hard work Tuesday-Friday on the track....well except Thursday when a car ran into the track overnight and they would not let us do a workout....no joke.

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Honestly the workouts this week are a blur. I know they were hard. We did get 2 motor paced sessions in as well. OK.....motorpacing is relatively challenging. Now: do it on a tandem, with a fixed gear, on the track, in the aerobars, and on a really windy day. Let's just say the learning curve was pretty steep.....but it was an absolute blast. Today we tried to do a 4 KM slightly above race pace with 1 lap on and 1 lap off the motor. That was somewhat of a disaster with the wind....we really got less than half a lap recovery each time....so while we didn't get exactly the effort we were looking for, it sure was hard. Next we did a 4KM effort on the motor the whole time. This went pretty well. The first couple laps were a little ragged, but then we settled into low 21 second pace for most of the effort...until the last couple laps when we fell apart. After a rest we did 6 or 7 KM behind the motor in an easier gear and at a more moderate speed. After this I FINALLY really got the hang of it...too bad the session was over!

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As far as fitness we now have what we are going to have for trials....time to do some easy workouts, rest, get all the race gear dialed in, and try not to stress too much....which is easier said than done.

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out for now

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a2

tour of leelanau

After a week of training on the track in Colorado I flew to northern Michigan for the 110 mile uci road race near Traverse City. I knew the travel would be tough....but after landing in Chicago and sitting on the tarmac for 45 minutes I missed my connecting flight and the day became super stressful. For a while i thought I was going to have to rent a car and drive the 5+ hours the rest of the way....but luckily I got onto an evening flight.

The race course was beautiful....lots of tough hills. I actually RACED at the front for at least a while. I was feeling good and went with the very first attack.....ummmm....not such a good idea. We were looking good for the first hour....riding well, then it started to rain. I managed to get gapped off on the first KOM climb and had to chase back for a few KM...ouch, but no worries....got right back to the front and was able to mix it up a little more....then we hit a twisty/ wet/ pot holed descent. I was still in contact with the group as I passed a teammate right near the bottom. I waited for him and tried to pull him back to the bunch. Just as I was making contact I looked back and saw he was behind, so I slowed again....big mistake. the field was going fast and as it turns out he was not really having any problems....Ryan Gamm came around us and drilled it to get us back on. Ryan pulled off and I went hard up the base of a small climb. Joe was able to jump around and get right back on the group and I ...well....I got dropped. Of course at that point there was only about 50 riders out of the 110+ starters in the field....but still. I chased hard for a bit but was soon caught by a group of about 6 riders from behind. These guys were motoring and I slotted right in. We kept the gap at 15 to 20 seconds for several miles...then the gap blew out and we lost sight of the field.

I had good company with ex teammate Shaun Adams and MTB superstar Mike Simonson. We kept the pace high enough to hurt, but our goal was to make the tight time cut as we knew we would not see the field again until the finish. We rode hard for the rest of the course but still managed to miss the time cut....what a drag to see a DNF next to your name when you did actually finish the race....oh well ...that is what you get when you try to play with the big kids.

The highlight of the day was as our group was finishing up the final steep hill. Simonson and I were going really hard....not sprinting mind you but riding hard for the finish. Just as we got about a half a meter from the line, neither of us wanting the distinction of sprinting the laughing group we both jammed on our brakes and came to a virtual track stand at the line..... I am not sure who won that contest :)

After the race I got to spend some quality time with my teammates....while we were bummed that the team performance was not the best, we did manage to have some fun.

Up at 4:15am on monday morning and back to Denver and the drive back to C-Springs by noon.

Next competition: the Paralympic Trials !!!!

back on TRACK

I am not even sure if I can remember everything that has gone on since my last post....but I will try.

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OK, so I went home from CO Springs, did the Rock Hill road race weekend with Inferno (a great team weekend), then did the Cohutta 100 mile MTB race ...(where I finished 16th and which really deserves it's own post)...then did the Airforce uci road race (where I was dropped like a rock), came back to C-Springs for a week of intense track pursuit training with Matt, flew back to Asheville for a whopping 5 days and had a great time doing the 12 Hours of Tsali MTB race with my Kobold / Cannondale teammate Daniel Corum last saturday(where we were 3rd in the 4 person open team category with just 2 riders...hope to do a post on this race individually as well). Got up the day after the 12 hr race, packed and DROVE 2 days (10 hrs sun, 12 hrs mon) BACK to Colorado Springs again,.......which leads us to this week.....keeping up??? I am not sure if I am !

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Now things are hotting up with our training for the Paralympic trials. We have been KILLING it with our workouts on the track. I have to say in my almost 20 years of racing bikes I have NEVER done this much specific all out intensity work...nor have I put this much energy and sacrifice into preparing for a certain event....and I suppose that is saying something. I am convinced it will pay off.

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Training for the 4 KM pursuit on the track is quite complicated and specific. I am certainly learning a lot. Matt enlisted Chris Mirabella to help with our training program (husband of famous track star Erin Mirabella)...so a special thanks from my aching legs goes out to him :) > I should also mention the incredible help we have had from Bill Lahman ..who has done everything from airport runs, to lap timing to wrenching for us....not to mention training with Matt. So far this has been a real team effort.

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Today's bout of pain was a long track workout consisting of a nice warm-up punctuated with a 4KM effort building to 130 rpm or so in a light gear (51x17 I think). Then the fun began with 4x 3KM all out efforts in our expected race gearing. It was super windy and our lap times were not great...but our effort was really good. We finished off doing 2 start efforts from a real starting gate...which was good practice. This workout left us completely spent. We then took about 30 minutes off followed by a 2 hour easy ride up through the Garden of the Gods (pictured above).

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The picture on the top is Katie Compton doing a serious motor paced track session......

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Now I need to recover for tomorrow's killer session again...

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a2

US Air Force Cycling Classic

Andy is racing in the US Air Force Cycling Classic as I type this, with his team, Inferno Racing.

Read the live report here: http://live.cyclingnews.com/?id=latest

Colorado Springs

So since last tuesday i have been out in Colorado Springs training with Matt King on the tandem. This trip has been focused on track specific work looking toward qualifying for the Paralympic pursuit.
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I was up @ 3:30 am last tuesday morning and in Denver by 9:30 am. Matt's riding partner Bill picked me up at the airport...and we were on the track in the Springs by 1:30pm This was a tough session with 2 and 3KM efforts and some starts. This was my first experience ever on a banked track....and to do it on a tandem , in aerobars, and near race pace was quite the challenge.....and it was a blast. I had no trouble at all...although trying to hold the tandem on the pole line @ 34 mph and 120+ rpms is quite ineresting.....I didn't feel too bad at altitude (the springs is @ 6000+ft), but after the track session I felt like death. We took a 45 minute spin after and I thought i was not going to make it :)
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Thursday was another productive track session with a series of flying 500 meter (2 laps) and 3 lap efforts....and of course some starts. We went FAST this day, but to think of sustaining that pace for 4KM not just 500 meters is a bit daunting. After this session I was COOKED. I went back to Matt's house and slept most of the afternoon.
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Friday we were rained out of the track....but it cleared up enough for us to go out and do some road TT specfic work....which turned out to be 2x20 min @ TT pace up a 3-5% grade....a GREAT workout and we felt strong.
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Saturday was ENDURANCE day. we set out to do a 5 hr ride, mostly rolling north through the Air Force Academy then out east. The wind was moderate at the start, but was picking up all day....when we turned south we had a full on gale for a cross headwind....which of course was changing constantly to give us a headwind for about 3/4 of the entire ride. When we turned west again we were crawling into the wind. On small descents where the tandem would have easily been doing 30+ MPH COASTING, we were pedaling hard @ 15MPH. this turned out to be a 6 hour tough ride....character building my Dad would likely say.
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Sunday was cold and a well needed recovery day.....we did about 90 minutes easy mostly on bike paths.
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Monday (today) it was back to the track for some more solid work. We did 4x5 KM (15 lap) efforts. We didn't quite hit our performance goals...but it was really windy again and Matt and I were both not @ 100% ( I was just still feeling fatigue from saturday and Matt was up all night with his son who was sick). We still got a killer good training day in though....capping it off with some really good start efforts, then a 45 minute spin on the road.
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2 more days of track work to come before I head home on wednesday night. Tomorrow we plan to head up near Denver after the track workout to recon the road TT course for trials.
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Matt has such a great support system here. His regular training partner Bill is a huge asset, and his family (wife Kim and kids Lavyn and Spencer) are completely behind his bid to get back to the games.
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Another note is that while we have been at the track some other Paralympic athletes have been there as well.

It is amazing to see these folks training. You have not seen anything until you have seen a rider with one leg doing standing starts in pursuit race gearing....unbelievble.....
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a2

catching up again....

The problem with my blogging is that if I let it go without posting for more than a week, so much happens it is tough to get caught up with any amount of detail. Oh well...I will give it a try:
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After the TT from the last post I got back with a solid training week (about 23 hours) including 2 great days of training with Mark Heckman who was staying in Brevard for a few days. The week was capped off with a super fun 6 hour MTB race down in Georgia. I rode ok, not great, for 6th place and it was a blast. Other than having some serious foot pain from over supinating on the technical trails, I had no major issues....hydration and fueling were perfect. The course was quite technical (twisty with plenty of roots), so it was good practice for my less than stellar single track skills.
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The following week (last week) was slated to be a very high volume week. I got right back to riding after the endurance race....which was a mistake. After 2 days of lack lustre riding I finally took a day off (wed). When i got back to it on thursday I felt reinvigorated. Lesson learned: take a day off after an endurance MTB race in order to recover enough to train properly! I should know that already.
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Friday was the beginning of what has become an a2 annual tradition of a killer training block over Easter weekend. Since there are never any events this weekend it is the perfect time to get a nice crash block in. Friday Cara and I did a solid almost 4 hour ride on the tandem. Enough to properly fatigue me for the hardest training weekend of the season.
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Friday night Mark Hekman and $Rich$ "showtime" Harper drove over to stay and train for sat/sun. Saturday we set out to do a ride I have been thinking about since we moved to Black Mountain. My idea was to do my 100 mile (from Asheville) Hotsprings/ Doggett Mountain loop....but from Black Mountain. I knew this ride would be over 6 hours and probably over 120 miles. Of course we set out at a pace that was just above my normal solid endurance pace (which is about 245 watts). Everything was fine until we hit the Dog (Doggett Mtn) climb 80+ miles in. We had a cross tail wind on the stretch from Hot Springs through Spring Creek and Mark decided to pin it...and pin us in the gutter most of the time. We were too tired to complain and just rode.....About a mile from the base of the climb I cracked HARD and struggled up the 30 minute climb alone. After the descent I was feeling a bit better, but we still had (ouch) more than 40 miles to go. Thankfully the last 15 miles from Asheville back to Black Mountain was with a nice tail wind....and it was awesome to watch $rich$ and Mark suffer as much as I was for the last 30 minutes :) ...Ok maybe not suffering quite as much as I was. We ended up with 130 miles and almost 7.5 hours of riding on the day.
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Saturday night while I sat pondering how exhausted I was, the guys drank more beer than imaginable....I have no idea how they do that and still ride....quite amazing actually.
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Sunday we saddled up the mountain bikes and headed out for a nice 5.5 hour ride on most of the off road assault on Mt Mitchell course. This was done at a pace considerably slower than saturday...but it was great. We included what i call the "endless climb" up Curtis Creek road to the Blue Ridge Parkway..then continue the climb on the parkway to the old Mt Mitchell toll road. The Curtis Creek climb is about an hour long (14 miles?)...then the climbing on the parkway just seems endless before the turn back down the mountain.
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We survived.... and so ended the epic weekend.
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That brings us to this week and the next post........
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a2

Camps and Such

As usual much has been going on since my last post. After Matt left, VeloSports put on a very successful MTB skills camp, then a few days later I headed off to the Inferno road team camp in Macon GA. This camp was tough...not from a riding perspective, but from a work perspective. Since Wobble Naught is a sponsor of the team we had to fit all the riders in just a couple of days time. We had "king wobble" himself (Tom Coleman) helping with fits and doing video analysis with Dartfish (more on that in an upcoming post)....along with myself, team rider and fitter Jim Baldesare and 55-Nine WN fitter Eddie O'Day. Even with all of us working non-stop it took 2 full days to get everyone set up. I spent so much time crawling around on the floor taking measurements and setting up bikes it left my back in a terrible state, BUT we got everyone set. One really cool note is that Thomson was the main sponsor of the camp (special thanks to Dave Parrett)....and at one point we had a few riders having trouble getting proper saddle set back (including myself) due to the Masi frame geometry, saddle rails on our new SDG saddles and the 1.6cm setback of the Thomson posts. How to solve the problem? Simple: have Dave custom bend some posts at the Thomson factory to get additional set-back......I feel pretty special now :) . Kudos to Chad Thompson for putting together an incredible team for 2008 and all the team sponsors for the support. There are a few sponsors in particular I will be talking about in future posts....stay tuned.

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So after a couple of tough days with that work and other logistics, we got to some good riding in great weather. We actually cut loose a few times and let some of the riders with a little better early season fitness kick it up.....the last 10 miles of the saturday ride was particularly fun. Sunday was a short ride dedicated to photos and the like....then after everyone headed home, I was able to get Tom to take a look at my TT set up and make a few really cool refinements. After that it was the drive home and back to work.

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My back was pretty darned sore when I got home from all the fitting work, and Tuesday I somehow managed to make a wrong move and pull a muscle in my lower back. Ouch. It was pain, pain , pain....so much I could hardly move, let alone get on a bike. The closest pain that I can compare it to was my hernia repair back in the early 90s.....yes the pain was THAT bad. It was frustrating not being able to ride for a few days....and the recovery was gradual, but is almost complete. I was worried about the TT we were going to on Saturday , but it turned out that my back was not a limiting factor in performance at all.

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Friday night we headed over to TN for the Spring Forward 40KM TT. The weather forecast was dismal, more like cyclocross weather, but we were determined to get it done. The weather was in fact abysmal: 30 degrees, snowing and gale force winds made for an interesting event. The course was quite rolling....not much flat, mostly big rollers....more down on the way out and more up on the way back. Cara finished with a couple of inches of ice caked on her bike. The wind was close to a full on head wind going out and it was a struggle to keep the bike up to speed and going straight. I dressed with multiple layers and heavy gloves...which was a good choice. I took the turn -around at about 30 minutes....slow! and my power was all over the place, very difficult to keep a steady rhythm with the conditions. After the turn was easier to be steady and even though there was more elevation gain, I was FLYING getting through sustained sections at around 38MPH....ahh tailwinds feel good. I was over 5 minutes faster coming back. I felt good about the ride even though power and time was poor. I felt I managed the conditions well and put in a solid ride. Turned out I had the fastest time of the day by quite a bit....and Cara had the fastest women's time as well...so it was worth the trip.

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out for now

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a2

Bid for Beijing : the Big News....

Ok, so here it is...the big goal for 2008 I was holding out on: Matt King and I will be vying for a spot on the US team for the Paralympics in Beijing this coming September.

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Matt is a blind cyclist from Colorado Springs and has been to 3 Paralympic games. He claims he is a track specialist, but I would argue that he seems to be a great "all around" rider. He found me to be his "endurance" pilot....so the events he will focus on with me are the pursuit and the road time trial. Of course I sure would like to do the road race as well.

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So Matt arrived here in Asheville last wednesday night. I picked him up at the airport in Charlotte....complete with 2, yes 2 tandems (one road, one track). We started riding on thursday of last week and it immediately felt great. We hit the track for the first time on monday and had some good speed as well. This weekend we headed down to the Tundra TT near Atlanta GA to give ourselves a real full on performance test. We rode early in the rotation and did the 9.5 miles in 20:28. Not bad at all. I went out about an hour later solo and pulled a 20:07....but I was beaten for the win by just one tenth of a second! The conditions were perfect for fast times and my power for my solo run was about 4% lower than last year for a time almost 50 seconds faster! Not sure how much time doing that first effort on the tandem cost me, but I don't care, it was a great day all around...Cara had a great ride too, for the fastest women's time of the day.

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Back to the Paralympics subject: So Matt will have been here for 2 weeks by this wednesday when he heads home. We know we have some serious training to do, but I think the prognosis for making the team for the games is pretty good. The qualification process is a little complicated and confusing....but there are time standards that need to be met regardless. I think we can smoke the road TT time standard, and I hope we can get the pursuit standard as well. I will need to do a lot more anaerobic work this spring.

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So that is the latest....and for me this is really an exciting prospect. I have already learned so much working with Matt. Honestly I can't say that I had ever had much interaction with anyone who is blind before. I was a little nervous at first, now of course I have no idea why, and the riding part was soo much easier than I thought it was going to be. Heck, I have to give Cara as much information while she is stoking the tandem as I do for Matt.....and Matt doesn't yell at me to slow down on fast winding descents :)

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I will post much more about our quest and what we need to do to get to Beijing. This is really just the beginning of what will probably be to say the least, an interesting adventure.....

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Chack out more info on the Paralympics here: http://www.usparalympics.org/

quad

Just rediscovered this pic from near winston-salem last year. I felt I needed to share it with everyone.... I am pretty sure that bike isn't uci legal :)

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Relevant and interesting new posts coming soon...I promise!

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a2

2 posts in one day ? !

Ok, So no pictures or power files, but the ride today was worth writing about. All everyone is talking about is the cold weather this weekend in the East. Yesterday Cara and I did a soggy, snowy miserable 90 minute MTB ride in Bent Creek where we plowed through several inches of crusty snow before getting soaked and heading back to the car. Not too fun, but a decent strength workout nonetheless. With the temps below 30 and the forecast for even more frigid conditions sunday, the ride outlook was pretty bleak. Just before we headed out we ran into some friends who were planning a nice long off road ride up the Mitchell toll road and down heartbreak ridge. Of course I said I would go....that is now my hometown ride.....we were to meet @ 12:30 sunday.
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I think it was about 12 or 13 degrees when I headed out the door. At first I thought I was overdressed, but then I realized I had a tailwind heading over to the meeting spot. Turns out all but 2 other riders bailed...too cold for them! So it was just Marv Masson, Trish Stevens and me. We hit out to climb for over an hour on what were to be interesting trail conditions. I was afraid that we would get wet, but the snow was not melting, so we had mostly crunchy good traction...way better than expected. there was plenty of ice as well.. but not too much trouble going up hill. It was cold...oh yes it was cold, but we were in no huge hurry and stopped to warm hands and feet numerous times on the way up. The snow added resistance to the ride, but at times it actually made riding up the rocky toll road on the hardtail even smoother that usual. As we topped out near the Blue Ridge Parkway and turned onto upper Heartbreak I was a bit worried that the slippery conditions would make the downhill treacherous....and man was it cold up there over 5000 ft!
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As it turns out the downhill conditions were AWESOME. It was super fun riding on the crusty snow. There was very little ice and where there was not snow the trail was dry.....it was so different from any other time I have ridden that trail...it was a blast. By the time we got down to Old Fort we were all actually feeling plenty warm for the trip back up the climb to Black Mountain. I made it home after being out close to 5 hours. Sure, we didn't break any speed records, but we didn't freeze to death either and had a great time......
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Just goes to show that if you are prepared for the conditions...both with the right gear, and the right mental outlook...even "challenging" conditions can be a lot of fun to ride in.
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a2

first couple of training weeks 2008

So the first couple of training weeks for 2008 are in the books with relative success. The first week was really solid with about 19 training hours capped off with the Snake Creek Gap MTB TT...which was a blast. The 2nd week saw a few less hours due to work/time commitments and less than perfect weather....for about 16 hours. This week (week 3) has seen even fewer training hours, but a couple of really solid sessions.

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I have posted a couple of files above. Unfortunately the dates on the files are wrong, as I forgot to check my power control ...and it thought it was 2003 for some reason. The second is what I would call a "typical" endurance ride for me. I like the look of the srm software graphs for seeing the ride all at once. It gives an instant visual of the climbs, descents and steady portions of the ride....as opposed to the analysis that is possible in the WKO+ software. Notice that while the average power looks low (just over 200 watts), this was actually a pretty solid ride with lots of time around AeT. Living in the mountains the average power is skewed because of all the low power soft-pedaling on descents.

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The file posted at the top is a 30-30 workout I did the other night inside on the computrainer. I thought the contrast between the outside endurance ride and the controlled short interval workout inside would be interesting to put side by side. This file is only the "work" part of the training session. I did a 1 min effort at about FTP, then did 16x 30 seconds @ 125% of FTP, with 30 seconds recovery. This is a hard workout. My goal was between 15 and 20 efforts. I stopped after 16 mostly to be sure I could get enough recovery for a long endurance ride the following day. Another thing to note is the heart rate curve. Check out how HR does not reach max after each effort until 15 + seconds into the recovery. Also note that the "depth" of recovery is less and less as the session goes on. Each effort was about 420 watts average....my estimated off-season FTP now is probably about 330 watts or so.....in the future I would hope to see several things occur with this type of workout: increased avg wattage for efforts (but probably the same % of FTP as FTP improves), increased depth of HR recovery between efforts, and of course the ability to complete more efforts without feeling like dying.

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OK, I promise a more interesting post next time ... :)

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a2

"42"

If I remember correctly, according to the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, "42" is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything........well today I turned 42 years old.
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Maybe this will be a year of particular enlightenment?
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a2

2007 Season Summary

Happy New Year!

I have been meaning to post my 2007 season summary for a while....I ask all the athletes I coach to answer these questions for me at the end of each season, so here are my answers to those same questions. The important thing I try to get out of this is honesty. If you can honestly assess the season you are already a long way down the road to reaching the goals for the next year.
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So, 2007 was a year of very good and well...some bad. Usually I have good consistent seasons, or not -so- good seasons. Last year was both. With everything else going on (like new business commitments, and buying a new (old) house) my training volume took a huge hit compared to previous years. However, some really great results happened in 2007 as well.....so here it is:
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Season Summary
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Name: a2
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Race Season/Year Just Completed: 2007
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1. What was the highlight of your season (for example, best race or greatest accomplishment)? Please explain why.
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Tandem national championship road race….most fun on a bike ever.
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National TTs, both masters and elite. I only lost the master title by 9 seconds or so…it was what I would consider a great performance and I really don’t think I could have given any more. Then I was able to maintain focus and take another top 10 in the elite TT with an even faster time….too bad I couldn't hold focus and fitness through the elite road race.
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All the races Hekman, Harper and I did together….it was like magic, we never even had to talk about anything, we knew each other so well and what each of our roles was to get results…perfect.
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Winning 6 hrs of Tsali, and 5th @ ORAMM….. Rediscovering my MTB roots, especially at long distances.
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1a. In what areas do you feel you improved most this season?
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Crits? I had a few performances in crits where I even surprised myself…particularly at the Raleigh nrc race…me on the front of an nrc crit…who would have believed it?! (and I have at least one picture to prove it...posted above)
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Learning how to go fast on the MTB again
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2. What was your greatest disappointment? Why?
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Worlds: I put in a very good performance in the TT, I went 35 seconds faster than last year in tougher conditions (more wind), for only 11th place. “Very Good” does not make a world championship performance…..everything needs to be perfect: preparation, mental aspects, and giving it ALL. My preparation between nationals and the worlds trip was not up to the necessary standard to get the result I wanted. Between a slight loss of focus, too much travel and business commitments the proper training just didn’t happen. My own shortcoming with time management, I believe, was the primary cause….the trip was still wicked fun, and to share it with Cara was great, but the results left me thinking I didn’t live up to my own expectations.
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Elite road nationals: After spending 10 days living out of hotels in Nowheresville PA I completely lost focus, fitness and determination to do well in the road race….I was ready to go home after the TT and my riding showed it…after making a stupid attack on the big climb on the first lap, getting caught and promptly dropped, I proved that you can’t help your teammates perform when you are off the back.
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2a. What do you feel you need to improve most next season?
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Time management! The business is going to be even more demanding in 2008 and I need to manage training, work and everything else precisely to get the form I want….I am motivated to make this happen correctly…..
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3. If you could change your training, mental preparation, or race tactics/strategy in this past season, what would you do differently?
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I believe I am lucky to some degree that I seem to have the mental skills I need as an athlete….I have worked on these skills for years, mostly without even realizing it. I find that I am relaxed and ready to go even for most of the big races where other riders are nervous….so no problems there. I would however like to get back to my old aggressive style of road racing rather than being conservative in order to help the team leaders like this year. Being off the front is one of the best ways to help your teammates!
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4. If you've started thinking about next season, what would you most like to accomplish?
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Ahhh I am not going to spill too many beans here…let’s just say I have a few exciting new possible goals for 2008. Stay tuned for more info on that. Although certainly defending our tandem RR and TT titles at nationals is on the list…as is helping the revamped Inferno road team accomplish what ever goals they have. I have several goals for off road racing in 2008 as well.
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CX Nats 07...Kansas City

I was not really looking forward to writing this post after a somewhat miserable weekend in Kansas City for cross nationals. After the previous week's good performances and improving fitness I allowed myself a little confidence going into the final big show of the season......unfortunately Mother Nature had plans to put me in my place.

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We left Wednesday on the long drive West and stopped in St Louis to visit Cara's family which included a trip to the hospital to see her sister and 2 day old niece. Thursday we completed the drive over to KC. When we arrived at the venue we got to pre-ride the course in beautiful mud. It was great and I had a blast riding 4 or 5 laps in slow, energy sucking mud. I loved it. No joke. In fact I honestly thought that if we had those conditions for my age group race I would have had no trouble at all getting on the podium...unfortunately the weather report called for frigid temperatures and a snow storm Friday night and Saturday. For Cara's race on Friday the course was still awesome....a bit more frozen and slippery than Thursday, but still good. She rode well to 11th in her master's event......that night came even lower temperatures and snow.

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For my race Saturday the temp was about 21 degrees and the course was covered in rock hard slippery, icy ruts....on top of that was about 2 inches of snow....and it was still coming down. I didn't know exactly how the course would "feel", so I just warmed up and hoped for the best. I had a front row call up and managed a really good start (for me) and was able to stay ahead of a huge pile up in the first turn. I was 6th or 7th heading out onto the course.....then we hit the ice. I was riding, but 2/3 of my energy went into keeping the bike upright as opposed to going forward....riders were passing me and I was terrified. Give me mud, even snow, but ice and I have had a very unhappy relationship for years....going all the way back to 2004 when I broke my leg quite badly falling on black ice while working as a messenger in Philly (that is a whole other story).....since then I can't seem to get the nerve to ride fast on ice.....I just ride scared... which is what I did Saturday. I watched riders pass me, then crash, get up and pass me again. I actually managed not to crash until about half way in ..then I had two or three falls that were pretty hard. After a rider right in front of me slid face first into a metal pole...and I was already out of the top 20.....I turned off the gas and just rode in survival mode to finish. I was disappointed to say the least...and was not even physically tired. Kudos to the guys at the front ...they had the fitness AND the skill needed on this course.

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Sunday was the elite race, and while it was still cold (below 30), the sun was out. I decided that today I was going to have fun....no pressure for results, just ride in the mud (it was still very icy, but much more rideable and faster than Saturday)....until someone tells me to stop. I was #41 on the starting grid out of about 160 registered...and I managed a great start again. I was maybe 25th going onto the course. The last few years I have second guessed my participation in the elite race at nats. I am usually somewhere between 30th and 50th...a bit better than the middle, but not much. I have made it to the end on a bunch of occasions and have been pulled just as many times....but regardless of results, being part of the big show at nationals is just too much fun to pass up. It is unlike any other cycling event I know of....so many fans screaming at you....either heckling or encouraging....and as opposed to a road race, you are actually going slow enough to hear everything they say....and it is a blast. This race was no different, and the crazy icy, muddy difficulty of the course made all that much more insane. I had a grin on my face from the starting gun to the moment they pulled my sorry butt off the course when the leaders got close to lapping me half way in. On the second lap I had a spectacular crash when my muddy glove slipped of the bars as I was coming out of a nasty gully....Sure it hurt and it took me a while to get untangled from my bike and going again amid the cheers of many witnesses....but I am pretty sure I was laughing out loud the entire time.

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So after some disappointing results, but, none the less, a fun experience, I am already looking forward to next cross season!

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Thanks again to my cross team sponsors! ... and especially Mark Hekman for putting it together....

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MSG & NC Cross Series Finals

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The Series finales of both the MSG and NC Cross series were last weekend. Saturday was the last MSG race up in Tennessee. The weather was bleak: cold and light rain: cross weather. After a weekend off from racing last week, I was not sure how I would feel ....but things went well and I managed 2nd behind Dan Timmerman. It was a fun race and 3 of us rode together behind Dan until the last run-up @ 100 meters to go...the only reason I managed 2nd was because Will Black was on his single speed! This gave me plenty of points to take the overall series win.

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So after that race I ran back to the car and had just enough time to switch skin suits and get to the start of the real single speed race. So for this final race, Dwayne, the series promoter has this idea to have a "Little Debbie short cut". For anyone who doesn't know, Little Debbie snacks are the ultimate in inexpensive sugary, fatty junk food. The rule was: after the barriers you could pull over, stuff a little Debbie snack cake in your mouth (various varieties available) then take a short cut on the course that would save about 10 seconds. I do believe that when I heard this my smile could have powered a Russian nuclear attack submarine. No doubt about it...this race was MINE. At the first snack stop I grabbed an oatmeal cream pie. Getting the whole thing in my mouth while trying to breathe after several minutes of all out cross racing was a challenge....and I think a large portion of it got sucked into my lung, but I made it and had a nice gap on the field after the short cut. Next lap was a swiss cake roll....much easier to get in the mouth..and I was getting the hang of the process: stuff cake in mouth, breathe through nose and swallow as the lap progresses....hopefully well before the next stop. 3rd lap was a zebra cake ...and on the 4th lap I got cocky and had a swiss cake roll AND an oatmeal creme pie....and cruised to the finish unopposed. I suspect if there was a "Little Debbie short cut " at nationals you would see me on the podium for sure :)

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After the series awards I hopped in the car with Josh Whitmore and took the long drive across state to Raleigh....the NC cross series final was to be in nearby Cary where the temps were in the mid 70s! The Cary course was quite technical and bone dry with lots of loose corners, a run up and a really steep ride-up. At first I thought I would not do well...but it ended up being a great day. After a mediocre start (as usual) I worked my way up to chasing for 4th with Charlie Storm. Charlie was just ahead of me in series points and we both knew that there was some cash at stake so we rode our butts off....it was great. We passed Charlie Pendry who was having some mechanical and crashing issues, then were closing on Travis Livermon who was riding in 2nd. Charlie was killing it, but I suspected I could outlast him. I did, and caught Travis by myself with 2 laps to go. I attacked when I felt t was a good spot for me and stayed away in 2nd to the end. Jon Hamblin rode away with the win. So 2nd in the final race and I managed to pull out 2nd overall for the series....a great way to lead into nationals next week.

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Tomorrow we get in the car and head to nats in Kansas City. We will drive to St. Louis and stay with Cara's parents tomorrow night , then cruise over to KC on thursday. The temperature has been over 70 degrees here the last few days...but will be in the 20s and 30s over there! Not sure I am ready for that...

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A couple other weekend notes:

Hekman is back racing! and we have the pictrures to prove it....

We got the new HED Stinger Wheels ...awesome...just in time for Nats
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