threshold intervals

This image has nothing to do with my training

However i do sometimes wish i had something like this available to combat asshole drivers.

"sorry sir i was skeet shooting at the time and i didn't see you trying to squeeze me off the road so you could get to sit at the next red light 5 seconds earlier!"

OK so today i hit the spit and did another round of 3x20x10 threshold workouts, making darn sure to refuel in between intervals.

first 20 avg, 351w
second, 347w
last, 335w

Last two intervals i also included a "race-break" interval into things about 4mins from the end of the time i sprinted for 15-20 seconds then held my ftp before giving a final kick again at the end.

This hurts a lot, (a regular theme) especially after going hard for 16mins already but then thats whats it all about right?

You hammer it hard break away from the group stick it and dive for the line.

anyway it was a great work out after yesterdays anaerobic stuff, tomorrow i might do a long steady tempo ride up north before the snow returns!!!

anaerobic hill reps

Snow cleared this afternoon, roads kind of cleared, i was getting antsy being stuck in all week

So i headed out for a short ride.

The cycle paths roads here were a mix of snow and icy puddles.

So i put out some short anaerobic hill reps close to home

6x 1min 40sec efforts (standing climbs in the big ring and the the time to top the short climb and sprint at the end)

averaging from 380w to 420w with roughly 6-7mins of easy spinning in between sets.

Whole session was done and dusted within an hour.

Tomorrow the roads will be clearer and the weather somewhat better so i'll risk doing some 3x20x10 FTP intervals down at the spit.

Springs around the corner, thanks goodness, all this snow is getting old.

SnOW dAY!!!!!

I call .....SNOW DAY!!!!!!!

Feck it spring is around the corner, warmer snow free weather is two days away.

i woke up at six am looked out the window at the 40kmph winds and drifting snow and said "feck that!" ate my breakfast and went back to bed!

Got up went for breakfast...pancakes.

Went home swapped out my winter gearing for the summer drive train and decided to take it easy and wait for the storm to pass....went and bought an old copy of Nina Hagens "Nunsexmonkrock" on vinyl. I'm sitting here listening to it as i write...classic German....something (not sure how to describe it) but it was a pivotal musical moment in my life,

The combination of white lightening blotters and this album corrupted my childhood for ever ;0).

Later I'm going to go for a Indian and sit on my arse all night....

I've been in a state of constant starvation for the last 3months, i've lost 11lbs, as soon as the weather breaks I'll be back out again heading in to lactic overload on a regular basis,


bUT 4 nOw...

death by turbo

Snow covers the ground outside.

i nearly crashed 4 times trying to get home from work yesterday in rush hour traffic before i thought fuck this! I`m getting a taxi!!!

Brimley road hill repeats cancelled for this week.

Instead its death by turbo.

15mins warm up

5mins at FTP or 356w

5mins cool down

then 5 times 1.30min at 117% of ftp or around 390w-420w.

Got to get some bigger gears on my bike again, spinning at 110rpm is just making it all the harder

i breath hard and heavy, my legs scream, i shout internally at my self to keep going just one more time.

heres the details

wish it were sunny outside.....

back in the fridge

Well its back to the grind in the GTA.

But unperturbed I'll try to keep things rolling, race season is just around the corner, the sun was even out today.

Kept it busy this weekend with a 3x20x10 threshold interval session Saturday at my new FTP level, which hurt a lot!

20 mins at 340w, 3 times, although in fact i totally popped just into my third set but keep it going none the less despite the drop in power output, cause thats just how we roll right!?

Mental beefcake!!! or mentalist masochist perhaps...I feel that way sometimes.

Just gotta keep asking yourself "how much do you want it!?"

Ended dizzy and reeling, hypoglycaemic, shot, but satisfied. Got to remember to eat in the middle of those workouts.

Today was a simple tempo ride; 300w avg for 60mins.

Tomorrow I rest, then Tuesday its off to the bluffs for some VO2 max workouts on the climb!

Nice!

Last day of Training Camp.

Well I'm writing this sat at the airport in Tucson after an amazing trip.

I'm sad to leave but happy to have been here and take home what I've picked up and learnt whilst being here.

Anyway I finished off the trip with a ride to the top of Mt Lemon, more or less, 21 miles of steady 4-7% gradient and up to 8000ft, from where i set of that was over 2000m of vertical ascent!



and to start it off i began with a 20min ITT to test me threshold power level again.

i hadn't meant to i planned on doing 3x20x 10 level 4 workouts, but after starting with a steady output of 370w and feeling fine i thought i might as well kick it for the last 10 mins and see if i could raise my peak levels.

I finished the 20 mins with an average power output of 375w which sets my FTP at a new high of 356w - 9w above my last season peak and although i've not weighed myself in a while i'm pretty sure i've lost a lot of weight being here so my overall power-weight ratio will be even higher than last year.

anyway after the hard slog up the climb i had the fun of a 21mile decent :0) racing pick-up trucks down the mountain at up wards of 72kmph sweet!!!!

anyway thats it trips over for this year now the really hard work begins, I've just got to make sure i continue with the workouts at threshold and VO2 max and keep up the weight loss.

Anyway Coach Mirek had some very encouraging words for me about my progress and potential (prefixed as usual with the mention of being too fat)

So i'm going to keep focused, work hard and see what happens this time next year.

anyway here is the details from yesterdays ride.

This time tomorrow I'll be in the snow and cold of Toronto again. wondering where the snow and daylight went. Glad I got those winter shoes finally before leaving. brrrrr.


first race is in 6weeks.....Good Friday road race.

hopefully i won't get dropped this year!

The last weekend

Blue skies, clear blue skies,
open roads, and cacti....

Its been a wonderful trip...hard, challenging, painful yet exhilarating.

Lots of hard grinds up steep climbs, rolling hills and desert flats. Already counting the days till i get back here next year.

today was due to the the end of a hard 3days of riding.

140km and 30mins of seated big ring, low cadence intervals up Mt Lemon a steady 4-7%).


Then standing big ring intervals at a higher cadence up Gate's pass (image left) which topped out at 15%, sandwiched within a 100Km ride.

Then today was another blatt on the local shoot out, a 180km hammer fest!

however karma had other plans for me today, just as we reached the outer limits of the Indian reservation , the tempo picked up and i dropped down a huge rut in the road. At first, despite the bone shuddering crack, i thought had escaped without damage, but shortly after my rear tire began to deflate and i watched the pack disappear up the road in front of me. At that point i knew it was over, there was no way i was going to hook back on the end of that again today.

resigned to my fate i fixed my flat, and headed back home, only to find my front tire and taken the full force of the impact as well and was also flat. (see this is why i always carry two spare tubes) at that point i could only hope to be able to make it the 35km back home incident free.

which of course, given the fact I'm writing this now i managed. Slightly more successfully than some of my fellow riders. I met another a short distance away from me that had fell foul to the very same hole, yet his fondness for deep section wheels and his lack of a valve extender had resulted in him being stranded on the very same reservation i was now gleefully peddling away from.

I also saw "team" charlie one of the young riders one the camp get caught out by the unforgiving pace of the group. He picked a bad time to pee, by the time he had gotten back on the pace was up and he was left in the dust, with no hope of catching back on. I saw him later as i wrote this sitting in Starbucks...you live and learn.

active recovery

Today was a rain day, instead of the planned 150km ride we did a short 50km. I have to say I was happy about that my legs were toast today.

Anyway we missed the rain, which is a good cause with no drainage system when it rains here the streets become a river system.

instead i headed down to (Andy) Gilmore frames, a long term friend of Mirek, which was a treat! he had some really beautiful custom steel and Alu frames!

desire is a terrible mistress to have.....if i can sell a kidney before i leave, i would love to order a custom scandium frame.

sponsors are welcome ;0).

Anyway unfortunately missing one day of full training means i now have three days of hard riding to do, including the shoot-out Saturday.

I can see some humble pie coming to town...



Here's the details of today's ride

2 a day

So we started 2 a day work outs today

90km in the morning, interspersed with 4 vo2max intervals on Mt Lemon. i got up to mile 8 of the climb then bombed it back down before spinning home.

some food and some sleep then we headed out for a tempo ride of 50km.

felt strong all day but was starting to Bonk by the end of the 2nd ride.

big steak for supper, and a salad. no carbs.

carbs are for breakfast, lunch and post rides.

weight is starting to drop off, but getting down to 175lbs is still a long way to go....

its meant to rain tomorrow... but we ride regardless. Flanders stylee!

here's the details if this morning

and this afternoon

Its like florida for cyclists

Today I woke up tired. The last week and especially the last two days had been hard for my body to assimilate.

A quick look at my training journal reveals and massive in crease in training load about 3-4x what i had been doing prior to turning up here. Which is cool but combined with dieting makes for a lot of stress for the body and mind to deal with.

Thankfully today was an easy day, just a short spin down to the local bike shop "miles ahead" where they sorted out Derek with a mini overhall and new chain for $10, shit!! now thats service.

After that I returned home for some nutrition and a afternoon nap before heading down to starfucks for a latte and some decent internet access.

tomorrow we start 2 a day training sessions morning intervals and afternoon spins about 140km in total a hard 90km and an easier 50km ....yeay!!!

anyway I'm starting to realize this place is like Florida for Canadian cyclists! we passed the Canadian woman's champion mountain biker on the road today taking in some winter miles, and Saturdays shoot out was full of Kunuks.

I guess its a bit like heading to Mecca.

heres todays files

120km with 20min threshold test on Mt Lemon.

So today was day five 120km ride that i fitted a 20 min TT to test my FTP for the first time of the year.

Not ideal testing conditions due to the previous days hard ride (normally you are meant to have 2 days off the bike) but i felt i wanted to see where i was at and although it wasn't quite what i had hoped for i was pretty happy to see that i was actually about 20w above my level this time last year. So by all intense and purposes i'm doing pretty well.

Gotta watch that ego!!!

My weight is down, my relative power is up the two together mean that my power to weight ratio will be even higher, nice!

Anyway the ride up Mt lemon was awesome, actually the ride down, the ride up hurt like a mutha fecker! but a nice 60+kmph descent for 6 miles made up for it, along with some awsome views over the valley, and city of Tucson.

Tomorrow is a rest day a gentle 50km spin up to the foot of Mt lemon again. Then next week
will be a harder week again.

The rest however will be welcome

heres the details

Tucson Shootout!!!

So today was the local "shootout" 170km of unforgiving riding across the desert and up to Madera canyon and back .

Quite the experience, with its fair share of pro riders putting the hammer down and an average body fat level of 7%.

The first 40km out side the city limits was a gradual false flat with heavy roads and a steady 2-4% gradient, which meant there was little place to hide from the heavy pace being laid down at the front of the group.

I made the cut though, holding on for dear life at the back of a group of 30 riders thats had made it from the original 150 or so, chasing a small break away of the front.

Thankfully after the first main climb the tempo settled a bit before a short respite for refuelling.



Then it was a slow 30km slug uphill to the canyon. With the 130lbs grimpeurs setting a pretty unpleasant pace up the 4% lead up to the base of the climb. All to soon that became a 7% grind and then a 15% nightmare that left me spat out the pack and on the rivet wondering how the feck i was going to make it back home ; still another 100km away.

Anyway luckily that 100km home was pretty much all down hill at around 45kmph avg.

have to say i felt pretty good by the end, having survived the shootout intact and with some semblance of honour.

Over all it was an amazing experience, awesome landscape, with a very friendly and amazingly talented bunch of riders.

i love it here, wish i could stay!

heres the details: shootout

Day 3 active recovery

Just a gentle jaunt up to the foot of mount lemon: here the details

An active recovery day, so the legs are fully rested for tomorrow. on the way we passed some members of team BMC, they will most likely be out on the local shootout ride tomorrow.

early start about 6am - 7hr ride up a canyon and back with about 150-200 riders ...sweet.


The other lads said to treat it like a race day...

day 2: if i was 150lbs i'd climb that fast as well

DAY 2: tempo followed by climbs.

today seemed harder but all the more enjoyable due to the sunshine making an apperance and the amazing scenary.

It was another 1000m+ vert day and just alittle over 100km at a fairly hard pace.

at time i was pushing 360w on a false flat holding my own on the front with the Cat I lads, thinking there is no way i'm going to be able to maintain this kind of output for another 3 hrs!!!

Then we hit our first major (for someone from ontario) climb, a long false flat then it kicked up to 4-5 % before ramping up to about 15% at the top. About 2 miles in total.

i'm begging to understand that yes i am indeed in cycling terms too fat! If i put 50lbs on the back of those kids i'd whip there ass on that climb...alas however it was the other way round.

still its early days and i love a challange.

also it was my first ride in the new bike posistion felt like my feet where floating! amazing difference!

tomorrows an easy day, then saturday is the local hammer fest! ...oh dear ;0)

heres the details of today.

Day 1: easy (?) tempo ride

So i hooked up with Merik Mazur an ex US team coach, canadian team coach and ex pro rider from Poland. Its his training camp i'm on at the moment.

For now there is myself and three young cat I cyclists from around Canada. Some of whom i've raced with and one lad from Abitsibi in north Quebec.

Within about 5 mins of being here he told me i was too fat! ,although i'm actually the leanest i've been for some time. But i guess thats pretty much par for the course in cycling where power to weight ratio is everything!

Anyway we're placed at the foot of the mountains in Tucson Arizona. Pretty much every where is up hill even the downhills.

Anyway i'm pretty stoked to be here, its going to be a really great experience. And riding with those Cat I guys is going to be excellent.

Merik helped me with the set up of my bikeFit yesterday, which has already resulted in some significant changes, he rasied my saddle over 3cm, a huge increase, it'll be interesting to see how it rides later today, it certainly makes my bike look very different.

anyway day 1 was an easy (?) tempo ride around the foot hills of Mt Lemon, 96km 1000m+ vertical ascent.

day 2 will be a little longer, however saturday is the local blatt, 150+ riders doing 160km, described to me as the "donut" on steriods, and its not unusual to have several pro riders turn up. apparently the first 50km is a steady gradiant of 3-4% up hill then it gets crazy.

i have to say i'm a little intimidated, but thats fine its not the first time i've found my self i nthat kind of posistion.

anyway i was minus my power tap for the first ride as it was still MIA but i had my garmin so
here the details of day 1

the wonders of travel

SO i set off at 4.45am EST got through customs with only a minor hitch (was called back over the tannoy due to C02 in my baggage) boarded no problems after a terrible TGI fridays breakfast and promptly got told to get off the plane again due to mechanical issues.

missed my connection, got back on the same plane 30 minutes later and then tranfered through Dallas, 12 hours later i was In Tucson. Only minus my bike and baggage.

which thanksfully arrived about 24hrs later intact....thank heavens for bike boxes!!!


now i'm all about the cactus and snow capped mountians!!!

Tucson Training Camp.

Spent the afternoon running around after work getting last minute supplies to take with me to Arizona.

Bulk eNERGY gEL bottle

CO2 refills for my puncture kit.

Spare tubes.

Then spent the rest of the evening packing all my crap into my Bike box and luggage.

Next stop Toronto airport for 5.30am, change in Chicago, then in Tucson by lunch time.

Who knows might even get a ride in, providing all my gear arrives with me!!!!

anyway can't wait, and luckily i don't have to really. My alarm is set for 4.5hrs time at 4am.....

I'll keep you all posted...