well, saturday's breakthrough ride turned into a broke-me ride.

a HUGE headwind on the way to sharon meant i was completely spent by the time i got to the route4 climb. was averaging 190watts for the first 1:45-2hrs, but nothing in the tank going up the long climb (think average was only in the 215 range and time was a pathetic 19mins and change).

basically crippled on the ride through NYstate....and got into Kent on fumes.

fueled up with some chocolate milk and cereal bars, then headed up the climb to warren...not originally the plan, but i needed it just to warm up.

rolled rumsey road ok, but got home just barely before dark.

5hrs and 5minutes worth of riding.

1.5hrs of xc skiing on sunday and now on to a recovery week....juts need to control what i eat as i still have a ways to go in the scales department.

first breakthrough ride of season

after a fairly good week of training, i'm trying to get motivated to deal with a 4.5hr ride in 20 degree temps and 15 mph wind.

i need a big day today, a breakthrough ride....but right now, its espresso time :)

here we go again....

ok, let's try this blog thing one more time.

today re-starts my 2010 season...have to get serious about the diet & training because i can't go into next season at the same weight i did last year.

that's easier said than done due to the 15 days i've spent out of town this month. sadly, my weight right now is around 164lbs and i have a race weight in the 140 range. so 24lbs has to go. at two pounds a week, we are looking at 12wks to lose it all....which puts me into the middle of march/bethel spring series. that's all good, but it doesn't leave much room for error.

the weather today is not helping, but i have the PT back, so that always works for motivation on the trainer. well, that and soft porn on cinemax :)

week1, day 2_nueromuscular sprints

this week begins the hardest training program i have ever untaken....so 

wish me luck. 

week1, day2 was nuerimuscular sprints (our favorite : )...1hr @ 190-225 
with 10sec sprints @ >450 every 3mins. 

everything i had heard before about this ride was true. 3mins 
happens very fast and by the end holding the tempo portion up is 
difficult....but the good news is my sprints were always well above 450 
(usually 500-600). at the end the numbers looked good (don't have norm 
power info yet), but averaged 225watt @ 155bpm which put me at the top 
end of the tempo range with a pretty good HR. 
oh, and it was fucking cold out. (21degrees)

annual journey up constitution

every january for the past 3-4 years i have done a field test up constitution hill (@ the southbury training school).

and this past sunday was no exception. this year i did it a little differently, i did the normal x14 ride but just hung out/skipped the poggio so i had 2+hrs in the saddle before i did the charge.

it actually went pretty well.....my ave power was 299watts (goal was 300), but as i'm a dough boy right now (162lbs) my w/kg were WAY down. The good news however, is that the raw power number is better than 2007, so the base is being laid and all i need to do is ditch the weight.

field test_constitution: 
Duration:   7:31 
Work:       135 kJ 
TSS:       16.9 (intensity factor 1.16) 
Norm Power: 296 
VI:         0.99 
Distance:   1.133 mi 
Min Max Avg 
Power:       167 533 299 watts 
Heart rate:   136 199 169 bpm 
Cadence:     37 105 75 rpm 
Speed:       5.9 20.7 9.0 mph 
Pace         2:54 10:10 6:39 min/mi 
Hub Torque:   76 399 236 lb-in 
Crank Torque: 227 694 334 lb-in 

here's the rundown of  previous year's tests:

2006_ 257  watts (approx..based on time/weight) @ 145.5lbs 
2007_ 297 watts @ 141lbs 
2008_ 313 watts @ 147lbs (taken at end of feb...so it should be higher than others) 
2009_ 299watts @ 161lbs (yes...i'm a slob) 

here's to going to bed hungry and a kick-ass season.

so yesterday was the final tempo workout of this build period. I've   
spent the past seven weeks doing strictly structured tempo during the   
week (six weeks really, there was a recovery week in there)....anyway,   
I was feeling pretty tired, but my numbers were still in my zone   
(195-235) so I wasn't really worried. this was the longest single   
tempo session I've ever done (45mins), so there is some pride there. 

here's the numbers: 

45mins @ 217watts, 78 rpm and 158bpm. 

this gives me 1hr 25mins of tempo for the week so far and 3hrs 35mins   
of tempo in the past three weeks. 

next week is a recovery week, then I move on to a mix of tempo and   
steady state...building to 2x30mins of SS.

should be hard, but the effort should be rewarded :) 

don't know why....

I have no idea why i started this blog....just thought it would be fun to chronicle some training info, share some workout charts and write post-group ride stories.

When i lived in Savannah, we started a training series called The Nestor Cup and i used to have fun writing stories about the rides....so i figured this would be the same : )

anyway, hope this turns out to be a good thing......