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Our training over the last several days have focused on more intensity. We continue to do both morning and afternoon training sessions (4-5 hrs on the bike a day). Sunday morning at the track, after a steady 20 minute warmup, we did four 4 km pursuit efforts. Glenn and I did ours on the road tandem since the track tandem was in transit and had not yet been delivered. These were designed to be undergeared, so higher cadence (leg speed) in a smaller gear. The idea in a pursuit is to hold a steady fast pace for the length of the sprint. This is a long endurance sprint compared to a flying 200 (1 lap after gaining maximum speed three laps before) and a kilo or kilometer (4 laps from a standing start).
At the Colorado Springs velodrome, a 4 km pursuit is 12 times around the track. So, that is what we did - four of those. We ended up doing 32 miles on the track for that workout. For the pursuit intervals we held our speed between 28-29 mph, which was a good speed and good work. We will probably go 3 mph faster at race pace in our race gear. But this was the workout prescribed to us.
See, cycling training is very specific, we don’t always go at race pace for all of our workouts. In fact, only a small percentage of each workout is at full out speed or full out effort. The workouts are designed at different paces and to target a variety of heart rate zones and physiological responses. Many of the workouts are designed to be either below, at or under lactate threshold (LT) - this is the point where your legs burn and flood the muscles with lactic acid. Workouts are designed to adapt the body to deal with lactic acid and flush it through the system. This allows the legs to be under total strain for long periods of time. Training is designed with power work (big gear and over gear) and high cadence work (undergear but higher leg speed at 110-125 RPM) which targets both our anaerobic and aerobic systems. We have to develop and adapt the body. As I am not a sports physiologist, it is hard for me to explain the physiological responses and scientific process...but hopefully you get the idea. Cycling training has become an art form. You just don’t hop on a bike and ride! Well...there are certain times when we actually do that to build endurance. We call that “endurance miles”. It still targets a certain heart rate zone. - the point before you reach your lactate threshold heart rate.
Okay...back to telling about our training. So then Sunday afternoon (after the intensity on the track a few hours before) we did an endurance ride up Gold Camp Road, which is a mountain road with 2000 feet of climbing. And that is just to get to the place to do hill sprint intervals! Once we get most of the way up the mountain road we then did 6 intervals of 1.5 km out of the saddle big gear sprints. This is to simulate the climb during the road race in Athens. This is a big gear, power workout. Really strains the muscles, body and heart rate. It is a long out of the saddle climb. Glenn and I on tandem do it in our 56-15. You cyclists will know that is a BIG gear on a 5-6 percent climb! On the tandem for these big gear out-of-the-saddle endurance hill sprints, Glenn and I work on form and technique as well as maintaining power for the duration of the sprint. These are the hardest intervals we do at camp. They kick are butt! Really tough! The last quarter of the interval, the road pitches even steeper. We go from a fire hydrant to a mph street sign. It’s pretty funny for a few cars to go by and see bikes sprinting up the hill and others coming down to do them again. We all do them at our own pace. Glenn and I work in sync out of the saddle, moving the bike underneath us in rhythm side to side. Our bodies are still but the bike goes left and right under us. This helps us get leverage as we pull up on the handle bars with each pedal stroke. I have experimented with my hand placement on the handle bars. I get more power and we are more fluid when I remain in the drops and not on the hoods of the handle bars. This helps me get leverage to extenuate my leg power and strength.
The next day on Monday our morning workout was a 2.5 hour road ride with six 12 second uphill sprints. It took 45 minutes to an hour to get there. The last 20 minutes or so, Glenn and I lit it up on a down hill and flat stretch. Were in the big gear (56-11) doing 45-48 mph. Only a few were drafting us. Like the afternoon session the day before, these uphill sprint intervals are overgear work where we were in a big gear. For Glenn and I we were in our 56-15 again going up a 5-6 percent climb. This is an all out sprint. It simulates an attack while going uphill. Coach marked the start and stop points on the hill with orange cones (that is what Glenn told me). They ended up being about 16 seconds long, instead of 12 seconds as planned. But that is okay...no complaints here. Since our road race is the longest of all events (75 miles), coach had Glenn and I do 8. Then on the way back, he let us go on our own at our own speed. That allows us to go faster and work on things that we can not otherwise work on when going slower to keep our team together. He also let us go do about 40 minutes more and more miles. Was good for Glenn and I to get out there and hammer on the way back. Was good to go fast and get the heart rate up. We did a variety of heart rate zones and cadence work. Speed was good. Mid 20's (mph) on most climbs, low 30 mph on flat portions and high 30's to low 40 mphs on descents. Nice! That afternoon we were back on the track doing track interval work.
Did recovery rides on Tuesday. Recovery rides are easy rides with heart rate usually below 100 and in our little chain ring (45 - but little to us!). That really got us ready to go for today - rarin’ to go. We have another recovery day on Friday, so we want two hard days in a row. Today and tomorrow. Tomorrow night is racing up in Denver again (Meridian). Always look forward to that - to implement some of the skills and things we have been working on.
This morning was a good hard ride into the Black Forest. We have done this ride several times before at the June camp. It has a long steady climb to get there, like Tangerine Road in Tucson - similar pitch and distance. Then big rollers with big climbs rest of way for about 30 miles. We headed out to the stopping point before our team broke up and went different directions. 5 endurance riders with us, and the rest of the team another route for a shorter ride. We set out on a good working pace (150 heart rate) up hill in a head wind. Doing 24-27 mph. Had one teammate draft us the whole way (Al “the machine” Michini). We then waited for the rest of our riders to regroup at a gas station (the normal regrouping point for this ride). After regrouping we then took off for the Black Forest, heading north. We lead up the long steady 7 mile climb. We kept a good steady speed (22 -24 mph), high cadence and pushed it up each hilltop with out of the saddle efforts. Going up the hill we were pulling PRAD (Paul, Ron, Al and Dan - so named by Ron Williams). Half way up the hill the pace quickened from us pulling and half the PRAD (Paul and Dan) pulled off for a coke (as they were thirsty)...so we continued on with half of PRAD, now just RA (Ron and Al). Right before the last steep climb, coach came by in the support van and told Al (the machine) and Ron Williams (you may remember him from his journal entry last week) to not go at max and that “you don’t have to race the tandem!”. Well with those words, they too stopped for a coke...and Glenn and I continued on with no fear of being attacked on hills since PRAD were together sipping cokes and not on our heals ready to attack. (Drinking cokes is really not what happened, just a figure of speech...but a funny to picture). Coach told us to “Go ahead at your own pace and do your own thing”. So...for the next 1.5 hours we road hard and by ourselves. Coach came just at the right time as within a mile at the last steep climb, Ron Williams and “The Machine” were poised to pounce and attack on the climb.
Let's take a time out for a moment to hear Ron William's account of these events in his humorous writing style to lighten things up...EXCERPT FROM RON WILLIAM'S JOURNAL:
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The endurance riders were to continue on to the Black Forrest. The endurance group included, Paul, Ron, Dan, Al, Katie/Karrisa, and Jason/Glen (Blue Bus). As soon as we left Falcon the lines were drawn in the sand. It was to be a duel between the single bikes and the Blue Bus (tandem bike). We will call the group of single bikes “P RAD” (Paul, Ron, Al and Dan). As soon as we left the town of Falcon the Blue Bus went to the front of the group and dropped the Sledge Hammer. P RAD knew that the Blue Bus was well rested after the rest day and they wanted to test their legs. So when they dropped the hammer P RAD was not surprised. The members of P RAD settled in the draft of the Blue Bus. Since the members of PRAD know the strengths and weakness of the Blue Bus each member was prepared to have their eyes roll back in their heads and put there leg pain on mute!! For some reason early on in the Slug Fest my mute button on my legs was broken and I could hear my legs calling uncle!! The other members of PRAD seem to be handling the pain just fine, so I gritted my teeth and locked myself in the pain locker!! The Blue Bus, turning over the pedals like a fast food restaurant does help, was chewing up the pavement. I have a funny feeling that the Blue Bus wanted to drop the members of P RAD to make a statement on today’s ride. Glenn could be heard yelling at Jason, “I need more, I need more!” Glenn commands were answered as the Blue bus lurched forwards with a sudden burst of speed. P RAD had to buckled down and crank out some major wattage to stay with the speeding bus! The attacks and counter attacks lasted for about 40 minutes. Then there was some trouble with P RAD. The Dan Animal’s heart was beating so hard it sounded like a gangster rapper rolling through Campton on 20’s. Dan was starting to loss focus and he began to separate from P RAD. Since Dan was riding behind Paul, Paul saw the explosion as Dan blew his head gasket! In a panic Paul realized that the group formally known as P RAD was now P RA. Since Glenn is the Bus Driver, he could see all the action unfolding in his REAR VIEW MIRROR as P RAD transformed into P RA. The transformation added fuel to the fire that had been set under Jason butt and the Blue Bus continued to race toward the Black Forrest. P RA now a man down was in trouble!! Paul called up the line and said, “We dropped Dan do you want wa……………………………….it” A that very moment I realized P RA was now RA!! The Blue Bus intercepted the communication between the members of the group formally known as P RAD, and knew that the silly single bikes were on the rivet!! It was now up to RA to stand up and fight for the rights of the single bikes!! RA (Ron and AL) were holding their own against the Blue BUS when out of the blue…like cold sores on a first date, the coach's van pulled along side the group. Headmaster Coach Griffin yelled at RA and said “that is enough you guys are going to hurt the blue bus on this hill coming up,” he continued, “RA you guys easy up and ride easy and the blue bus will think that it has beaten you guys.” So RA pulled up and before long the group was back together and P RAD lived to fight another day!!
That is about what happen today!! The above account is my attempt at humor! You can’t be serious all the time right? I hope all that read it laugh as much as I did writing it!
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Okay, back to my regular account of the day.
Well...didn’t see coach in the van or our teammates again. We pretty much road at quasi-race pace the whole way. With the big rollers and hills we worked on our out of the saddle sprinting at each hill. Was a killer pace. We were regularly in the low 40's (mph) and in the 56-11 most of the day. We came up on cars in the road on several occasions and had to slow down for them! Our top speed was 48.6 mph for the day. Had head wind most of the day! Was a great one! We have been real happy and pleased that coach has allowed us to go and train at our own pace when needed. It is really helping us out so that we can work on things. Last night as Glenn and I were going to bed, we talked about me pushing harder into the beginning of hills. Glenn said that he felt he was expending a lot of energy at the beginning of hills before I knew we were on them...before I gave more gas and power to the pedals. So...we worked on that today and he indicated it was a HUGE difference. Those are the type of fine tuning things we are doing. A lot of it has to do with me not seeing the terrain or other bikes, so we work on communication and me feeling nonverbal cues on the bike. It’s a real teamwork thing!
Our afternoon recovery ride was a steady 1 hr ride around the track. Boy, an hour on the track sure is different than an hour on the road. Definitely prefer the road....but what do you expect ...I am a “roadie” not a track sprinter.
Up next...a journal entry from Glenn (“The Tool”). And for those that know Glenn well...don’t worry I will type it for him. He will dictate to me. Otherwise might take until after Athens for him to do it!
Breaking News: The Tool just helped proof read this entry, is now tired (from what I do not know) and is going to bed...stay tuned tomorrow.
- Jason
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