Dirt

This past friday some of the crew from work and I had a chance to try out the SRAM XX 2x10 groupo. Amazing, absolutely amazing. I rode around Daley Ranch trying to keep up with Kyle, so was able to give it a good workout. Light, quick shifting (even while standing cranking uphill), and easy. Normally, I don't give SRAM alot of credit, but they knocked it out of the park on this one.

Week 7

Ah, weekly goals.... when's the next rest week?

Monday: Strength Training (Gym)

Tuesday: 3 hours (tempo intervals)

Wednesday: 6 hours (forced reps)

Thursday: 2 hours Strength

Friday: 3 hours (including trainer workout)

Saturday: 3 hours Big Ring low effort

Sunday:5 hours Strength (including trainer workout)

25 hours total

Holiday Week

I was able to get a few more days of riding in over the past week, toping out at just over 300 miles and 20 hours. Monday was a long ride up the coast through Oceanside / Vista and back through Rancho Santa Fe; Wednesday's east county ride; Thursday's Thanksgiving ride with the Swami's crew up the San Luis Rey course; Saturday's Swami's "A" ride; and Sunday a solo ride from Escondido to Ramona and back. Lots of climbing in really, really cold weather for San Diego. Temperatures in the 30's left me scrambling to find all my old Colorado gear.

I've put on a few pounds over the past month, but I'd be hard pressed to place the blame on too much Thanksgiving gorging... it more due to increased muscle mass from the big gear turning (at least that's what I'm telling myself). The climbing fitness is coming well and I seem to be on track for the early season races. This year the calendar seems to be filled with a few more Stage and Road races and I'm excited to try my hand (legs?) on some outside of California.

On the equipment front, Cody sent out a set of the EPC cycling kit last week. It's some of Pearl Izumi's premium gear and you can really tell the level of quality and construction from the first time you wear it. Really nice stuff.

Good Day

Sunday was my birthday; and like past years I once again set out on a big ride to celebrate. The extra hour of sleep from the ending of Daylight Savings Time helped a bit, plus it was already light by 6am. The goal was to head out to Rancho San Diego and meet up with the Sunday crew for a training ride up the Great Western. First was a quick stop in Linda Vista for an apple fritter - hey, it's my birthday right? No such luck, all out and not even 7am yet, so with empty stomach I headed east.

I made a quick coffee stop @ Cosmos Coffee in La Mesa, coming out just in time to see newly retired Kelly rider Neil Shirley heading out for a ride... here's wishing him good luck on his next adventure! On the way to the meeting place I ran into Phil and rode with him the rest of the way. I hadn't seen him in a while so it was great to get caught up again.

There was a pretty big group waiting at in Rancho San Diego for the start of the ride, Riders from the Cyclovets, Cal Pools/Dewalt, the USA National Team, and other assorted bike nuts all milled about and waited to Todd to pull them together. After a few comments and direction we pulled out and headed up Willow Glen to Dehesa.

The 5% grade of Dehesa signaled the first training interval: seating big gear climbing; which meant for me using my 53x14 @ about 55 rpm. Painful, but it felt good to get back to pushing big gears after spinning for most of the year. Over this interval Dehesa gains about 800' over 3.2 miles. After regrouping at the top, we started the second interval; Standing big gear 53x13. Smiley faces painted on the asphalt let you know when to stand or sit. This stretched for 4.6 miles and climbed an additional 1120'.

We regrouped and turned right on Lyons Valley and headed back to "Four Corners." Whenever the road tilted up we did Low Cadence ILT intervals. After the first two sets of standing intervals, switching to ILT's proved somewhat painful, but it'll pay off later. There's was another regroup at Four Corners. Instead of waiting to participate in "Anarchy" ( a series of race pace attacks and chases back to Rancho Santa Fe) Rigo, Don, Bobby and I rolled through and dropped down Skyline and Mexican Canyon. We hit the long drag to the flashing light sprint pretty hard and did a fair amount of work.

At the bottom Don and Bobby headed back up for "Extra Credit" while Rigo and I tried to find some water. At the 7-11 I ran into Mike (RAW rider and ultra distance rider extraordinaire) and Janel (USA National Team) and headed back up Mexican Canyon for some "Extra Credit." I was good to get caught up with Mike as well, sounds like he's gearing up for a solo assult on RAAM in a year or two - crazy stuff. We made a loop up Lyons Valley and back the way we came. Back in Rancho Santa Fe we hooked back up with Don and Bobby and headed back to Mission Hills.

The final damage for Sunday's ride was 101 miles with over 7000' of climbing. A great way to spend your brithday.

Early Signs

This past Saturday I went up to ride with the big dogs on the Swami's A ride. I got spit out the back on dump hill, but still got some quality work in. One encouraging sign was that even with the lack of much effective or pain free riding I managed to maintain 319 watts for 20 minutes. That's my high LT from last season... hopefully a omen of good things to come. Now, if I could only maintain 400 watts for 20 minutes... and drop 30 pounds...

Bee's Knees

I've been having major issues with my knees. Years of team sports in high school and club sports in college left me with a torn ACL in my right knee, a torn MCL in my left, and a fair amount of my meniscus missing in both.

I had been training pretty hard for a two day stage race up in Bishop, lots of climbing, but two days before I was to leave my left knee popped out of joint... not as bad as in the past, and not as bad as last winter... but still enough to keep me from going.

I took that as a sign to keep off the bike for a while, so I spent the next three weeks staying away.

When I got back on, the knee pain returned. Slowly at first, but by this Monday I was really wondering if I might have to give cycling up. Today I went for a slow, easy ride up the coast and on the way back everything "clicked" into place. Earlier, the weekend before the Bishop race, our rep from WTB had sent us some new saddles to try out. I had been having a love / hate relationship with my current Fizik saddle (I had decided that even though it was one of the most uncomfortable saddles I had ever used - there was no way I was going to be defeated by a saddle) and was willing to try out something else. I bolted it on, keeping it at the same angle as my previous perch, and went for a ride. And there was the mistake. I have always set my saddles up slightly nose high and so set this one up the same way.

So on the ride back, I dropped the nose a few degrees and the pain disappeared! Who would have thunk? I guess rotating my hips forward also changed the way the pedaling forces go through my knees. I'll know for certain over the next few weeks.

Week One: Training Program 10.18 - 10.25

Monday: 2 hr Gym Workout

Tuesday: 2.5 hr w/ Spin Ups & ILTs

Wednesday: 5 hr Climbing @ low zone 1-2

Thursday: 2 hr Gym Workout; 1 hour on trainer

Friday: 2.25 hr low intensity zone 1-2

Saturday: 2.5 hr w/ Spin Ups & ILTs

Sunday: 1 hr x-train

Total: 17.5 hrs