Steven's View Point » Cycling

2 flats, 1 dog chase, 2 deer, 1 dead skunk, 60 miles, 3 hours, and blue sky! Did you get out and ride today?

Steven — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:34:29 +0000

What a great day to end the first week of the 2010 racing season!

Long time no post….

Steven — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:45:22 +0000

I am hoping to start posting again this fall. Things were a little wild this summer. I had a great racing season and accomplished all my goals. I have started my winter training program which includes 2/3 days a week in the weight room and some cross training (swimming and running).

Fisk Knob Time Trial 2009

Steven — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:52:04 +0000

7:00 65 Degrees, 9:00 50 degrees, 11:00 40 degrees, rain, 12:00 35 degrees, sleet, 1:00 32 degrees snow…1:47:00 roll out of the start house for 17 miles of riding on a somewhat hilly course….2:36:00 cross the finish line.

The day started out awesome. As I was loading the car it was 65 degrees outside. Wow, how could the forecasters be this far off on the weather. It was going to be a great day. Picked Tom D. up and headed towards Cedar Springs. My great day slowly turned into a so so day. The closer we got to Cedar Springs the colder and nastier the weather was getting. I guess the forecasters were not that far off after all.

We arrived at Fisk Knob Park with plenty of time to pre-drive the course and warm up. I was not expecting how hilly the course was. The elevation profile on the website does not do justice to how hilly the course actually is. The start and finish are on the top of this huge hill and all along the course there are smaller “suck the energy out of your legs” type of hills. I am glad we spent the time pre-driving the course. By pre-driving the course I was able to formulate a plan of when to expend energy and when to conserve energy.

My original plan was to do a normal negative split race. Cruise the first 9 miles at 20-21 mph and then pick up the pace t0 21-22 the second half and finish with at 21-22 average. After pre-viewing the course that plan was going to result in a very slow time. The new plan was to average 22-23 to the bottom of the finishing climb and go as fast as I could the last 3 miles up the hill.

My start time was 1:47. I got in a good warm up and didn’t stand around at the start line for very long. I was worried about getting cold. Starting at the top of the hill was really cool. I hit 38 mph going down hill. The flat part of the course was a bunch of rolling, West Michigan style, hills that were more of an annoyance that anything. The best part of the course was the 6-7 mile section in the pine trees. The trees sheltered you from the wind, sleet, and snow. Coming back towards the finishing hill, I did a good job keeping my speed up while recovering for the climb up to the finish line. I had set my PowerTap to show average speed as I started up the finishing hill it was depressing to see my 23 mph average quickly drop lower and lower. I finished the time trial in 49:00.35 minutes and averaged 21.18 mph.

5th in age group and 35th overall is not a bad start to the season. Especially since it has been 23 years since I have competed in any type of endurance sport. Next up is the Willow Time Trial on April 25th.

Build Week One

Steven — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:45:08 +0000

Well, build week one is in the books and it didn’t turn out all that bad. Three of the six rides were outdoors and only one ride was in nasty weather. This week I set records for my peak 1′, 5′, 20′, and 60′ wattages! I love riding outside.

The upcoming week looks like I can ride outside 5 of the 6 days. Hopefully the weather cooperates. I took a peek at this weeks ride schedule and my target wattage numbers have been bumped up again and the length of the work segments are longer with shorter rest periods. I did notice there is a lot less 1′ and 5′ power intervals and Saturday is a long 3-4hr ride. Anyone want to tag along????

On a very positive note: My trip to the emergency room Friday night turned out ok. They did a bunch of tests, ultrasound, ekg, and blood work. Everything came back normal. Thank you to all my friends who helped out. It was very comforting knowing that you guys were with the kids while Bren was with me.

Training Rotation Week 4

Steven — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:16:56 +0000

Today, started 4th week in my workout rotation. The dreaded “Recovery week”. Over the next 6 days (12 hours), I don’t get to let my heart rate rise over 150 bpm. This doesn’t lead to very challenging workouts, but its the end result that matters. The goal for the next 12 hours is to average 150 bpm and 280 watts.

Today I spent 2 hours pedaling at exactly 150 bpm and averaged 282 watts. Only 10 hours to go before I can have “fun” again.

Its Tuesday, February 10th and its going to be 55 this afternoon!

Steven — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:55:59 +0000

WOW, what a great day! With the weather so nice I decided to go ride outside. From the first pedal stroke to the last it was awesome! Even with the 15 mph head wind for the first 18 miles. The whole ride was 40 miles with an average wattage of 278.

While I was cooling down, a question my Wife asked at the dinner table last week popped into my head: “Where did you see GOD today?” It got me thinking……

My day started out with a nice 1 hour Endurance ride on the rollers, while my Wife got out for a quick 4 mile run.

After spending a couple hours at work I got to go, with my Son, on a field trip to the Port Huron Museum to see the big bugs. It was fun following him around the museum talking about all the cool exhibits.

When we returned it was time for a “Brainstormers” assembly. The kids were all asked to submit a story they wrote earlier in the year and the Brainstormers choose several of the stories to act out on stage. She did not know her story was chosen. The story my daughter wrote was about a lost kitten her and her brother found at the playground one day last fall. It was a special moment when they called her up to sit in the “Authors” chair and answer questions about her story.

Lastly, I dropped a water bottle and had to turn around and go back to get it. What I saw was absolutely beautiful.

Where did you see GOD today?

Did you ride today?

Steven — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:28:14 +0000

I have not posted in a couple of days, life has been very busy. My son has the flu, work has been a bit busy, the extra curricular activities my kids are involved in are taking up lots of time, and we have had a slew of doctors appointments the last couple of days. Even with all thats going on, I have still been able to work in my rides.

I was suppose to do an over/under ride today, but I must have loaded the wrong CTS podcast because the workout was a power interval ladder (2×3, 3×2, 3×1) similar to the ones I did on Tuesday. My motivation was not there to do a full all out power interval ride so I decided to set wattage targets of 340, 360, 380 for the different intervals. It turned out to be a good workout that averaged 255 watts over 75 minutes.

Today’s Workout – January 29th 2009

Steven — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:39:14 +0000

Today’s workout was going to test my mental toughness. 3×1′ fast pedals, followed by 3×6 max climbing repeat intervals, and finally 3×2 power intervals. The hard part of this workout was the recovery time between the intervals; 30″ for the fast pedals, 1′ for the climbing repeats, and 1′ for the power intervals. I did this same workout a couple weeks ago, but the recovery times were 4x what they are this time. I started out a bit timid, pushing the very lower limits of the wattage ranges. After I finished the second climbing repeat interval, my legs were still feeling good and my mental attitude was along the lines of “hey this isn’t so bad”. So, I hammered the third climbing repeat. Focused on staying relaxed, holding good smooth pedaling form, and not watching the PowerTap. The rest of the workout was a breeze!

Climbing Repeat Interval 3:
Duration:     6:03
Work:          124 kJ
TSS:           11.5 (intensity factor 1.07)
Norm Power:    342
VI:            1
Pw:HR:          1.47%
Pa:HR:          1.67%
Distance:     2.694 mi
Min    Max    Avg
Power:           285    395    343     watts
Heart Rate:     151    176    169     bpm
Cadence:         83    100    89     rpm
Speed:           22.7    28.8    26.7     mph

Stay focused, Stay relaxed, Stay smooth, Finish strong!

Steven — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:08:11 +0000

I needed a confidence booster. I struggled with the last couple of CTS workouts.
Today I choose to complete: 2×5 2×6 at 310+ The plan was 10′ WU, 5′@310, 4′ R, 6′@310, 5′ R, 5′@320, 4′ R, 6′@330, 5′ CD

Great workout! I was mentally tough and met all my goals for the session.

The build begins!

Steven — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:49:17 +0000

My latest CTS field test went great! Round one I averaged 380 watts and round two was 382. I did the test on my rollers set at resistance level 3.

I learned an important lesson near the end of this CTS field test. Rollers are not your friend. Let me explain how I came to this realization. Around the 6 minute mark of the second round things were getting really tough my concentration was starting to stray, heart rate was at the limit, respiration was not in control and I was fighting the bike to stay upright. Finally, the timer went off and I was done. The timer was not the only thing that went off, the bike went off the rollers! I had jumped right over the little wheel on the side meant to keep the front wheel on the rollers. I have had some less than spectacular crashes riding the roller, but his must have been a good one. The bike was ok, I was ok, the cat was a little peaved

I am very happy with the results and am looking forward to the next block of training. I finally get to start working on the upper end of my steady state training range.