Valley Rally

The Telegram & Gazette ran an article on the upcoming Treasure Valley Rally that I spent some time this winter helping Russ lay out.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20080413/COLUMN31/47359254/-1/SPORTS_COLUMNS

This is gonna be a fun race, I think we have a really good course.

Ride to work

Wow, it's been a long winter, but I finally got my first ride into work for 2008 (April 8th). It was a cold start at just 31 degrees out, but I got a pair of winter tights so I was pretty comfortable. Just the fingers and toes were a little cold. This time of year it's tough to ride to work, I get on the road around 6:30 when it's in the 30's and when I come home it's typically closer to 50ish; layers are key.

For this early in the season I guess my time was respectable at 25:30. I think last year during my peak I was making into work in the low 20's; so I need to shave a few minutes off this time.

Update:
I checked up on my times from last year. My first ride into work took 30 minutes so my time of 25 minutes was actually pretty good. Also I got started a few days earlier; last years first ride was April 20.

Lab Rat

http://www.velonews.com/article/73765/the-lab-rat-is-loose

I found this article on VeloNews, one of their correspondents took a very similar power test to the one I did back in February. Although it’s not apples to apples as his was done outside, it does offer some interesting comparison points. It seems our numbers are pretty similar through out most of the zones (see mine in the earlier post).

Considering how similar our numbers are I think I may need to work on my sprint or anaerobic power as well. The author of this article doesn’t seem to happy with these results, but I am not too concerned considering how early in the season it was that I took this test.

Col de Peyresourde

This Sunday I was back at Opt-Performance after taking last weekend off for some epic snowboarding. We again spent the first hour + warming up and doing some intervals. The second have of the class was the Col de Peyresourde. Similar to the Alp d'Huez this is another 8 mile climb from the Tour de France. The Col averages a 6.6% grade, but much of the ride is over 7%. What made this weeks climb so tough was that we spent much of it pushing a big gear.

I guess I have been underestimating how difficult these classes are, I thought last weeks was tough because I forgot to bring food; but I brought plenty of food this week and still got my ass kicked.

I need to get some base miles in.

Here is the breakdown:
Dst: 46.09
Max: 47.8 mph
Ave: 18.6 mph
Time: 2:37.01
In Zone: 1:02.28
160+: 1:34.33
Max: 189 (97%)
Ave: 161 (83%)

Alp d'Huez

This morning I finally went to another Opt-Performance spin class; I haven't done much over the past two weeks as I had the flu. Today's class was an hour warm up with 25 minutes or so of interval work at the end. Then we started the Alp d'Huez, this was a pretty tough way to get back into things. For those of you that don't know Alp d'Huez is the most famous climb in the Tour de France and may be the most famous climb in all of cycling. It is an 8.4 mile climb, we set the trainer to a 4% grade and we put blocks under the front tire to give us an additional 5%. Unfortunately I forgot to bring any food, and I feeling pretty hungry before we even started the climb. This definitely affected the day’s performance.

So here is the breakdown
Dst: 40.51
Max: 30.8 mph
Avg: 17.9 mph
Time: 2:28.16
In Zone: 37.42
160+: 1:50.34
Max: 186 (95%)
Avg: 164 (84%)Calories 2476

EFTA Banquet

Last night was the EFTA awards banquet. Kevin, Gina, Kristy and I all had a pretty good time. Some of the ‘activities’ went on for too long but overall the event was fun. Kevin got an award for finishing 3rd in the single speed division for the year. I got an award for finishing 1st in the Expert, Senior I category. EFTA does a good job with the awards, rather than just giving away a trophy I got a Pearl Izumi duffle bag with my name embroidered on it and the EFTA logo with my season title. A bunch of free swag too.

Me and the rest of the Expert field season winers.

Power Session (Updated)

Wednesday night I went back to optimum performance to do the “power training” class. This class was designed with the intent of defining your performance zones so you can train more effectively. Paul only offers these classes every 6 weeks, so I am glad I got into this one.

The class started with a warm up and some fast spins; then we spun at a maximum sustained effort for 5 minutes. This opens the lactic acid barrier and gets you ready for the next effort. After the five-minute interval we do an easy spin for 10 minutes to get a full recovery in. Then the fun part starts, a 20-minute (or 8 mile) maximum effort. Paul broke this part up into four, 5-minute songs so we keep track of our timing based on the music. If that wasn’t enough Paul gave us updates throughout to keep us on pace.

Based on the first 5-minute effort Paul gave me a goal of maintaining and average of 310 watts for the 20-minute effort. The computer was set up to show my current watts and the average watts. For the first five minutes I was averaging 330 or better, but as the time wore on, that dropped. Paul said he would prefer to see you slowly drop your average rather than start really strong then just drop off. I did a pretty good job of managing that and kept the 20-minute average to 311. That’s not an exceptional number, but I think it was pretty good considering I have only been on the bike once or twice since November or so.

The class record was 360, I hope to hit that number (or better) by the peak of race season. Talking with some of the people in the class, I heard how they improved 30, 40 or more points in just 6 weeks so I don’t think that goal is unrealistic and I think the more structured training can get me there.

Here are the results:
Functional Threshold Power: 311 watts
Recovery Zone
Min: -
Mid: -
Max: 173
Endurance
Min: 174
Mid: 205
Max: 235
Tempo Zone:
Min: 236
Mid: 259
Max: 281
Lactate Threshold:
Min: 283
Mid: 305
Max: 328
VO2:
Min: 329
Mid: -
Max: 374