Every year about this time the same scenario plays out in downtown DC.
1. Spring time = out of towner's coming into the city in droves. Also coinciding with the millions of people coming to view the Cherry Blossoms.
2. Out of towner's driving erratically b/c they don't know where they are going. They stop for no reason. Don't use turn signals b/c they don't know where they are going. Drivers trying to read their GPS devices or talking on the phone.
3. Taxi drivers hungry for a buck and will do crazy shit to pick up a fare.
4. Fare seekers opening up cab doors without a care in the world.
5. Frustrated local drivers mad about the increase in traffic....great, not like drivers need more fuel for the fire around here.
6. Wondering tourists not paying attention to anything around them while walking around the city.
7. The fair weather cyclists being awoken.
8. Out of town tour bus drivers who aren't familiar with the city.
What does this all this mean? IT MEANS BE EXTRA VIGILANT (CAREFUL AND DEFENSIVE) OVER THE NEXT 3-4 WEEKS WHILE RIDING IN THE CITY. Every year it hits me. Today it just happened to be during my commute into the city. The tell tale signs for me were:
1. Park personnel putting up signage at Hain's Point for the Cherry Blossom parking.
2. The countless tour bus drivers either parked along Hain's Point or driving aimlessly around the loop spewing exhaust fumes.
3. The two Freds who thought I wanted to race them at Hain's Point when I casually rolled by them doing like 180 watts for my recovery day mellow spin to work.
4. A taxi driver who thought it was ok to just swerve into the bike line to pick up passengers along 15th street. He couldn't understand why I was so pissed at him. And to the lady who was about to open the door to get in right in front of me...I confess, I yelled a few profanities.
5. I had my closest call to date for getting doored.
6. Driver nearly took me out while crossing K & Vermont. He was turning left coming the opposite way and obviously was in a HUGE hurry.
Needless to say, I was just happy to get to work in one piece. It's just a busy time of year around here and I hope folks get the message. Be careful out there!!! Things will return to normal in about 30 days.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Faith in humanity and the end of a good block
It has been a busy few weeks for sure. A few weeks ago while commuting home on Friday, I had an unfortunate event occur...yep, a bike commuter crash. I cracked the top tube of my Specialized SL carbon frame, bike frame destroyed. Without going into all the details since it's hard to explain, I'll just say that riding on the trails is dangerous. My accident occurred down by the airport where the trails merge near Crystal City. Fellow commuter came out of nowhere merging on. Luckily, we just barely avoided a head on collision, but I still went down after clipping his mtb handlebars. I thought everything was fine until I saw the cracked top tube...I cried inside. I loved that frame. It made it through 2 years of racing, yet, gets taken out and shot during an easy commute home...sad. BUT, the gentleman involved offered to help me cover the cost of replacement. I'll be honest, I was astonished. I never really lost my cool during the whole ordeal b/c I think I was mostly distraught over the frame. Neither of us were critically injured, I just had some scrapes and nicks. I gave him my card and said to email me if he was serious. I then proceeded to go 3 mph home on a nearly cracked in half top tube. So, Saturday I get an email from him. He feels terrible about the accident. We go back and forth and agree on a figure. Next thing I know on Monday morning a money order shows for twice as much as I expected, yet it will cover the cost for me to get a new frame, not exactly a true replacement, but good enough. Frankly, I was shocked, thankful and relieved by this. There are good people out there who are true to their word...faith in humanity restored.
Thankfully, teammate Brian is able to help me get my PCs off my training bike and get some regular cranks on it so I could hit a hard final week of training before some recovery. The plan was to take THUR thru SUN to get some good rides in.
Teammate Sunny met me THUR for one of the Haymarket loops. 70 miles, some gravel, 5k of climbing and wind. It was a great start to my mini-camp. Hit almost 3 hrs on FRI with some teammates, not too crazy, worked on some sprints. Then headed up to Frederick on SAT for a team ride. We had a shitty start to the ride when Brian got taken down by a car 10 mins into the ride. Out of towner decided to abruptly make a left turn on a 2 lane one-way street from the right lane. I was in the back of the bunch and watched the whole thing unfold in horror. Thankfully, Brian is ok, but his front wheel was taco'd and his bike un-rideable...needless to say he had a big headache. So, we get Brian in the police car and he gets take back to his car, the group pushes on. LOTS of climbing for sure. Legs came around and I was putting in some good work. I think we ended up with a little over 4 hours and then ended up eating some awesome Mexican food with Margies. SUN was a pretty free day. If I felt good, I'd do something hard. If not, I'd ride recovery for a few hours. Once I hopped on the rollers, everything came to life. Knocked out a hard 60min tempo effort at 325w avg after warmup and called it a day. Things are coming together. Getting amped about the team and our chances to do really well this year. Now I just hope my race frame comes in soon so I don't have to ride this boat anchor! It's looking more and more like Jeff Cup will be my first race...Battenkill is nearing.
Thankfully, teammate Brian is able to help me get my PCs off my training bike and get some regular cranks on it so I could hit a hard final week of training before some recovery. The plan was to take THUR thru SUN to get some good rides in.
Teammate Sunny met me THUR for one of the Haymarket loops. 70 miles, some gravel, 5k of climbing and wind. It was a great start to my mini-camp. Hit almost 3 hrs on FRI with some teammates, not too crazy, worked on some sprints. Then headed up to Frederick on SAT for a team ride. We had a shitty start to the ride when Brian got taken down by a car 10 mins into the ride. Out of towner decided to abruptly make a left turn on a 2 lane one-way street from the right lane. I was in the back of the bunch and watched the whole thing unfold in horror. Thankfully, Brian is ok, but his front wheel was taco'd and his bike un-rideable...needless to say he had a big headache. So, we get Brian in the police car and he gets take back to his car, the group pushes on. LOTS of climbing for sure. Legs came around and I was putting in some good work. I think we ended up with a little over 4 hours and then ended up eating some awesome Mexican food with Margies. SUN was a pretty free day. If I felt good, I'd do something hard. If not, I'd ride recovery for a few hours. Once I hopped on the rollers, everything came to life. Knocked out a hard 60min tempo effort at 325w avg after warmup and called it a day. Things are coming together. Getting amped about the team and our chances to do really well this year. Now I just hope my race frame comes in soon so I don't have to ride this boat anchor! It's looking more and more like Jeff Cup will be my first race...Battenkill is nearing.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Bam
Heard this before?
Yeah, it's what was ringing in my head after this morning's workout. You KNOW racing season is approaching when the "white hot" stuff starts to show up on the plan. You just never know what to expect. In the back of your mind you have some preconceived notion of what "would" be great, but in reality you just have no idea what's going to happen when the real intensity starts to get thrown into the mix.
Woke up early, had a few cups of coffee and tried to mentally prepare myself for some suffering. Hitting the rollers on the TT bike with 4x 3min all out efforts with a few SubSupers thrown in after that. For some reason, I thought the plan read 3x 3min efforts but then I noticed the "4" this morning..whoops. A little unusual for me, but the first one felt pretty solid..then the next..then the next...then the finale. I cracked a bit halfway through the last one, but stuck it out. I definitely was seeing some stars after it. Ended up with a 430w cumulative avg which is good and a bit scary. Good by way of numbers, scary that I now know what I need to build off of. Plan on some endurance riding the next few days and then a few good longish rides over the weekend. Should be fun.
Yeah, it's what was ringing in my head after this morning's workout. You KNOW racing season is approaching when the "white hot" stuff starts to show up on the plan. You just never know what to expect. In the back of your mind you have some preconceived notion of what "would" be great, but in reality you just have no idea what's going to happen when the real intensity starts to get thrown into the mix.
Woke up early, had a few cups of coffee and tried to mentally prepare myself for some suffering. Hitting the rollers on the TT bike with 4x 3min all out efforts with a few SubSupers thrown in after that. For some reason, I thought the plan read 3x 3min efforts but then I noticed the "4" this morning..whoops. A little unusual for me, but the first one felt pretty solid..then the next..then the next...then the finale. I cracked a bit halfway through the last one, but stuck it out. I definitely was seeing some stars after it. Ended up with a 430w cumulative avg which is good and a bit scary. Good by way of numbers, scary that I now know what I need to build off of. Plan on some endurance riding the next few days and then a few good longish rides over the weekend. Should be fun.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Good weekend
It's no secret I'm a big fan of knocking workouts out inside. When I picked up the e-motion rollers back in 2008, my entire outlook changed. I fell in love with the dynamics of being able to squeeze productive hours training inside regardless of the weather. I'll admit, I rarely ride just to ride. I try to have a purpose and goal every time I get on the back. Some say you miss out on the joy of "just" riding. Don't get me wrong, during my transition time from year to year, I do "just" ride, but once the beginning of the year hits, every ride has a purpose. Plus, I like knocking my workouts out in the morning when all possible so I can enjoy the day and not stress about what I need to do after work.
So, although it was relatively nice out on Saturday (relatively is used lightly since there were like 40mph wind gusts out), with a threshold workout on tap on the TT bike, I decided to stay inside. No cars to worry about..no stop lights to worry about...no hiding.
Coach calls them "LT Subs" 4x 8mins at threshold 100%, then drop immediately to 4+mins at sub threshold 95%. This was a new format and I liked it. Cumulative average for all 4 was 343w's...right where I needed to be on the TT bike. I won't lie, the first one felt like DEATH, I just couldn't get breathing right or mentally find a rhythm. Legs were still a little cooked from Thursday. Then things turned around and got better and better each time.
Surprisingly, I wasn't too wrecked afterward and that left me with some good confidence to hit the tough workout on tap for Sunday. So, on Sunday I ventured over to my secret training spot and fired up the engines for some more pain.
The main villain for Sunday was 4x2min all out seated hill reps, followed by a quick set of seated enhanced accelerations and then a 20min tempo set. The route I use is really lumpy. I found one decent climb that would work for the hill reps. It's just HARD to find a true climb around here (well, close to Alexandria) over 2mins. So, after pile driving myself through the hill reps and the rest of the workout, I was pretty cooked. The numbers were good so I was happy to head home and finish up some home improvement projects to keep the wife pleased. It's weird how I'm always in a better mood after having a good workout.
So, although it was relatively nice out on Saturday (relatively is used lightly since there were like 40mph wind gusts out), with a threshold workout on tap on the TT bike, I decided to stay inside. No cars to worry about..no stop lights to worry about...no hiding.
Coach calls them "LT Subs" 4x 8mins at threshold 100%, then drop immediately to 4+mins at sub threshold 95%. This was a new format and I liked it. Cumulative average for all 4 was 343w's...right where I needed to be on the TT bike. I won't lie, the first one felt like DEATH, I just couldn't get breathing right or mentally find a rhythm. Legs were still a little cooked from Thursday. Then things turned around and got better and better each time.
Surprisingly, I wasn't too wrecked afterward and that left me with some good confidence to hit the tough workout on tap for Sunday. So, on Sunday I ventured over to my secret training spot and fired up the engines for some more pain.
The main villain for Sunday was 4x2min all out seated hill reps, followed by a quick set of seated enhanced accelerations and then a 20min tempo set. The route I use is really lumpy. I found one decent climb that would work for the hill reps. It's just HARD to find a true climb around here (well, close to Alexandria) over 2mins. So, after pile driving myself through the hill reps and the rest of the workout, I was pretty cooked. The numbers were good so I was happy to head home and finish up some home improvement projects to keep the wife pleased. It's weird how I'm always in a better mood after having a good workout.
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Condor of Varsseveld
I had no idea that was Robert Gesink's nickname...bad ass! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gesink)
Gesink won me over as a fan during the 2009 Tour of France. I remember watching the stage (5) where he got caught up in a crash pretty early in the race. He freaking finished the stage with a broken hand at the age of 22. Sure, he ended up having to drop out of the race that year due to the injury, but that demonstrated some serious guts and hardness...I've been a fan ever since.
Although I'm not a huge fan of Rabobank, I always find myself rooting for him. I hope he's coming of age. He has some great years ahead of him at the ripe old age of 24. I was very happy to see him take the GC at Tour of Oman. Damn, not sure if it's a blessing or a curse to have Eddy Mercx tip you as a future Tour winner...I hope he's right. This guy is a class act and one of the bright stars for years to come. I just hope he learns how to TT better!
Gesink won me over as a fan during the 2009 Tour of France. I remember watching the stage (5) where he got caught up in a crash pretty early in the race. He freaking finished the stage with a broken hand at the age of 22. Sure, he ended up having to drop out of the race that year due to the injury, but that demonstrated some serious guts and hardness...I've been a fan ever since.
Although I'm not a huge fan of Rabobank, I always find myself rooting for him. I hope he's coming of age. He has some great years ahead of him at the ripe old age of 24. I was very happy to see him take the GC at Tour of Oman. Damn, not sure if it's a blessing or a curse to have Eddy Mercx tip you as a future Tour winner...I hope he's right. This guy is a class act and one of the bright stars for years to come. I just hope he learns how to TT better!
Friday, February 18, 2011
Numbers
I had a little time today to play with some numbers. I don't believe they tell me anything I don't already know, but hey, I've got them so why not play around with it. Today, I was just curious to compare my 2010 Jan to my 2011 Jan. No big ephiphany or anything, just more or less curious.
Last year in Jan, I had ballparked FTP at 325w. In 2011, we're looking at a pretty comfortable 350w (I'll keep weight a secret for now ;-)) I still have some slight discrepancy in power between TT bike and road bike, but I'm spending much more time on the TT bike than last year. I guess anything would be an improvement over zero last year.
After I wrapped up my charts, I noticed a few odd things. First, in 2010 I had a huge spike in Endurance zone. I went back to those files and realized that my meter was sent back to service for a week or two and I had a lot of manual entries the first few weeks. So, that sort of blew me out of the water in order to get a good analysis. Second, in 2011 I missed about 4-5 days of training due to sickness. Also, in 2011 I feel like I've been doing more commuting, especially on the powercranks. It skews the numbers a bit in the lower zones. But it is what it is.
Here's the 2010 vs 2011 training zone buckets.
2011:
2010:
The few things that jumped out to me were- is that it appears I logged a relatively substantial % of training time in the Endurance zone. Tempo/TH would probably have been close had I not been sick. Active Recovery % is lower in 2011 most likely due to a higher frequency of time on the rollers vs 2010.
Here is the power distribution charts from same time period:
2011
2010:
Strange to see the huge spike ~200w in 2010, most likely due to manual entries since I try to estimate TSS by plugging in some average power #'s. Definitely think I upped the time spent at Tempo, Ultratempo & Subthreshold in 2011. LT work started kicking in right at the end of Jan in 2011.
And this post wouldn't be complete without a PMC chart:
So, if you can figure out what all this nonsense means, you'll know how fit or unfit I am right now. I do really enjoy being able to compare "programs" year over year. Ken is methodical and progressive in his training approach. Some things have varied a little bit, but by and large, it has been a very similar program through the winter. I'm starting to get excited for race season, especially Battenkill! Well, that may be an understatement.
Last year in Jan, I had ballparked FTP at 325w. In 2011, we're looking at a pretty comfortable 350w (I'll keep weight a secret for now ;-)) I still have some slight discrepancy in power between TT bike and road bike, but I'm spending much more time on the TT bike than last year. I guess anything would be an improvement over zero last year.
After I wrapped up my charts, I noticed a few odd things. First, in 2010 I had a huge spike in Endurance zone. I went back to those files and realized that my meter was sent back to service for a week or two and I had a lot of manual entries the first few weeks. So, that sort of blew me out of the water in order to get a good analysis. Second, in 2011 I missed about 4-5 days of training due to sickness. Also, in 2011 I feel like I've been doing more commuting, especially on the powercranks. It skews the numbers a bit in the lower zones. But it is what it is.
Here's the 2010 vs 2011 training zone buckets.
2011:
The few things that jumped out to me were- is that it appears I logged a relatively substantial % of training time in the Endurance zone. Tempo/TH would probably have been close had I not been sick. Active Recovery % is lower in 2011 most likely due to a higher frequency of time on the rollers vs 2010.
Here is the power distribution charts from same time period:
2011
Strange to see the huge spike ~200w in 2010, most likely due to manual entries since I try to estimate TSS by plugging in some average power #'s. Definitely think I upped the time spent at Tempo, Ultratempo & Subthreshold in 2011. LT work started kicking in right at the end of Jan in 2011.
And this post wouldn't be complete without a PMC chart:
So, if you can figure out what all this nonsense means, you'll know how fit or unfit I am right now. I do really enjoy being able to compare "programs" year over year. Ken is methodical and progressive in his training approach. Some things have varied a little bit, but by and large, it has been a very similar program through the winter. I'm starting to get excited for race season, especially Battenkill! Well, that may be an understatement.
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