Ben's Training and Race

8/15
So, I miss a race, ride to work and almost rip a guys face off. With the exception of the 30 mile ride in, not a good start. I regain my composure at work, finish the day, and ride back home. 61 miles round trip, 206 watts avg, 20.3mph, 2230 ft of elevation gained. Not a bad day all in all. Sounds like Bill had a banner day. Jack - hang in there buddy. How did Joe do?


8/15
I should be packing gear and heading down to Chesepeake. Instead, I'll be riding to work. To catch up on workouts and post truthful numbers.

Power check in the park. How do you do it? Keep power lvl within 50 watts in the back half rollers? Greg! I need you help and pace. I accidentlly did 30 minutes vice 20 but, random 20 minute extractions were all about the same. 20 minute power 260W avg speed 20.8. I had a lot of 100 watt swings. These numbers will come up with practice and smoother efforts.

Last Sunday was a great ride with Bill, Ken and Greg. Dibs on gatekeeper. We went pretty darn hard. A continuing theme; I held my own pretty well till.... hills, hell even a false flat hurt me at our pace. I was at the top of my yellow, low red zone for about 1.5 hours.

Tuesday I got the word about Saturday fun day at work so, figuring next Sunday is Livestrong in Philly, Hill intervals. At dahlgren, I ride up the WAWA (301) hill, through the church parking lot then back down 206. I did that five times, varrying positions, cadence and positions. Power meters don't lie. I found that I am very effecient (for a 225 lb'r) a little forward on saddle at 82 - 85 cadance with steady power at 250 - 300 watts. That will avg out on the two big climbs next week.

Thursday - 5X5 Matchsticks. 10 -15 sec all out sprint every minute for five minutes with seven minutes in between sets. My first four sets were really close. I faded on #5 but, did 'em all. Max power - 1135. max 5 sec 1080. avg sprint powers 850 - 925. All done on the pancake flat circuit I call Dahlgren. Max speed - 34.5. My legs were toast! Interesting note; heart rate during these bursts would go to about 147, then the 45 sec rest would come down about 10 bpm on the first effort , after that, it stayed around 2-3bpm throughout the rest of the set. Then, on seven minute rest, it came down to 115ish.

Today - I ride to work.
Training with power now! Just in time for 4 hour E rides (110W, off the back). Last night I did a 30 minute baseline in the back half of the park. Coach says, "keep it with in 40 -50 watts uphill and down." What the #$%@# ? I need practice. I never hated going downhill IN MY LIFE! Roll over the top and THEN accelrate to keep pwer up. Man that sucked. Are power numbers like wiener sizes? Are we all supose to lie a little? If so, I averaged 320W over the 30 minutes with a HR at 135 and an avg speed of 32.8MPH.