Ride the trainer much? In the 20 rides I've done this year all of them have been on the trainer, including the first race of the year! When I bought my first trainer it was difficult to ride for even 30 minutes at a time due to boredom. Today, some of my scheduled rides call for riding up to 3 hours and with the weather as it is, it's necessary to ride the trainer. Getting over the boredom is a hot topic this time of year. Training plans get ditched for some simply because they can't handle long hours riding inside. Here are some of the tricks I've used to keep me riding:
-Have a scheduled, time based workout! Breaking up your workout into 1 to 20 minute chunks really helps the time go by. Just sitting there riding zone 2 for 2-3 hours will bore most people to death. Breaking up the workout into tempo, intervals, rest, ramps, etc will keep your eye on the clock but in a good way. Several sets of XX minute intervals with XX minutes of rest between really helps the time fly.
-Keep your mind occupied! I've spent time watching and rewatching the 2004 Tour that I have on DVD. If the workout calls for hills, I'd watch a hilly stage (stage 10 was my favorite), tempo I would watch a flat stage and sprint at the end for fun. Go to NBC's website and re-watch all the episodes of Heroes or ABC's site and re-watch LOST. At 45 minutes per episode, you can catch up on shows you missed AND get quality time on the bike. Watching TV doesn't really work with intervals though as it's hard to pay attention when your eyes are bleeding from your heart rate being way too high!
-Music! Listening to music is necessary for long inside riding at least to me.
-Virtual trainers! I have a Travel Trac RealAxiom V2 trainer that I got last June. Hooked up to my laptop, I can watch my heart rate, time, distance and wattage while riding a course that I programmed myself (it also comes with pre-programmed courses). It works great because I program courses to suit my necessary workouts. There are many different options out there for virtual riding, but I chose the RealAxiom mainly based on price, and I've not been disappointed with the quality of the unit.
Now there are no excuses not to do long rides on cold, crappy days (like today).
Monday, January 29, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The jerseys are in!
Update - laundry is done...
The team jerseys arrived at my house last night, and it's still January! Pictures will come later as they are in the washing machine right now. The team chose Champion Systems as the jersey provider due to their low minimums, great prices and unlimited colors. They look great! Short sleeve jerseys, long sleeve winter jersey, arm warmers, leg warmers, shoe covers, winter AND summer gloves and a hat were all included in the package. A skinsuit was also in there.
We have the bikes (Orbea), the helmets (Bell Sweep) and now the kits in hand. Time to race hard!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Bags of sand and why you should care
Career Sandbaggers. We've all raced along side them. They've been our team mates and our competitors, the guys you hate to race against. Part of me couldn't care less about them, but another part of me hates them. Let me explain. When I race along side a sandbagger, it doesn't bother me personally. It forces me to train harder knowing that I'm along side guys who should be a category higher (in part, that's why I race masters category in a lot of crits). What I don't care for is lower category guys who refuse to upgrade. All that does is promote more animosity in a sport known for extreme snobbery. Whether it's ego or fear that keeps people from upgrading, I don't know, but being the highest rated guy in the lower categories would embarrass me personally.
1. It's not good for your team. If you are a team leader, you need to lead by example. Refusing to upgrade when you are past the "mandatory" point, is not being a leader. Getting wins for your team may or may not be important to your sponsors, but having a bad reputation is certainly worse for your sponsors.
2. It's not good for you. Reputations are hard to shake, for the good or bad. There's a small group of riders of riders in Ohio and whether or not we know everyone's name, people know other's by sight. If you have a reputation for being a good sprinter, people know it. Bad climber, people know it. Won't work in a break? People know it. Sandbagger? Everyone knows it.
3. It's not good for the system. That's why categorization exist.
It comes down to personal choice whether or not to upgrade as there has been no mandatory submission of race result and/or no forced upgrading. Hopefully the new Ohio Cycling Association will help fix this problem. Mandatory result submissions in my opinion is a great place to start.
I'm not saying to upgrade before you are ready, BUT if you are on the podium every week, it's time to move on up.
1. It's not good for your team. If you are a team leader, you need to lead by example. Refusing to upgrade when you are past the "mandatory" point, is not being a leader. Getting wins for your team may or may not be important to your sponsors, but having a bad reputation is certainly worse for your sponsors.
2. It's not good for you. Reputations are hard to shake, for the good or bad. There's a small group of riders of riders in Ohio and whether or not we know everyone's name, people know other's by sight. If you have a reputation for being a good sprinter, people know it. Bad climber, people know it. Won't work in a break? People know it. Sandbagger? Everyone knows it.
3. It's not good for the system. That's why categorization exist.
It comes down to personal choice whether or not to upgrade as there has been no mandatory submission of race result and/or no forced upgrading. Hopefully the new Ohio Cycling Association will help fix this problem. Mandatory result submissions in my opinion is a great place to start.
I'm not saying to upgrade before you are ready, BUT if you are on the podium every week, it's time to move on up.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
2006 in review
The main thing I learned early on is that long winter base mileage without intensity does nothing for me. I spent hours and hours (and hours) of "zone 2-ish" mileage early in 2006 and it accomplished nothing but getting myself dropped in the early road races. My coach and I have worked to change that this time around.
My race season started off on March 5th with the Reilly road race. While the team I was on was having success, I was not off to a good start. Other than the lack of intensity in winter training, my head was also somewhere else. In 2005, I crashed 5 times. Three times on training rides and twice in races. Several near misses were in the mix as well. Once the first race came around in 2006, I found myself gun shy and nervous in the pack. That had to change asap or I wasn't going to race. My coach told me about the "Ultimate Cyclist" cd which blends hypnosis with positive reinforcement. Whether it works or I developed the placebo affect I don't know, but it worked for me and I became comfortable in a pack again.
In 2006, I put a heavy emphasis on time trialling. I upgraded my TT bike with some fancy new gear and I was off. Time trials are not heavily attended races, but those who do show up, are time triallists for the most part. My best success was breaking the hour twice at Monrovia's 40k tt (out of 4 total times), with my best time being 58 minutes, 45 seconds. I faltered, however, at Groveport's tt (home of 2007's state championship) and the state championship. I won the bronze at the state, but I should have done better. Groveport was one day after 7hill's woodlawn race where I got hammered in the master's race in 90 degree heat. Each time I was beaten by Bill Lawhorn of Team Dayton, who I had quite a rivalry with last season.
In September I upgraded to catagory 3 and transfered to a new team for 2007. Project Velo Racing has a goal of youth development and I'm proud to be with this organization! I just hope I can do my part to help our guys to bigger and better things in the future.
Only time will tell how 2007 shakes out, but with an improved winter training plan and a TEAM concept of racing, it certainly looks bright!
My race season started off on March 5th with the Reilly road race. While the team I was on was having success, I was not off to a good start. Other than the lack of intensity in winter training, my head was also somewhere else. In 2005, I crashed 5 times. Three times on training rides and twice in races. Several near misses were in the mix as well. Once the first race came around in 2006, I found myself gun shy and nervous in the pack. That had to change asap or I wasn't going to race. My coach told me about the "Ultimate Cyclist" cd which blends hypnosis with positive reinforcement. Whether it works or I developed the placebo affect I don't know, but it worked for me and I became comfortable in a pack again.
In 2006, I put a heavy emphasis on time trialling. I upgraded my TT bike with some fancy new gear and I was off. Time trials are not heavily attended races, but those who do show up, are time triallists for the most part. My best success was breaking the hour twice at Monrovia's 40k tt (out of 4 total times), with my best time being 58 minutes, 45 seconds. I faltered, however, at Groveport's tt (home of 2007's state championship) and the state championship. I won the bronze at the state, but I should have done better. Groveport was one day after 7hill's woodlawn race where I got hammered in the master's race in 90 degree heat. Each time I was beaten by Bill Lawhorn of Team Dayton, who I had quite a rivalry with last season.
In September I upgraded to catagory 3 and transfered to a new team for 2007. Project Velo Racing has a goal of youth development and I'm proud to be with this organization! I just hope I can do my part to help our guys to bigger and better things in the future.
Only time will tell how 2007 shakes out, but with an improved winter training plan and a TEAM concept of racing, it certainly looks bright!
Goals, got to have 'em.
Before figuring out a plan of attack for 2007, goals had to be determined so we could work backward from there. It appears that all my priority races fall in June. Originally, I had designs on a double peak season, first for the OVR spring series and again in June, for the Ohio State time trial championships (as well as Summer Solstice and Tree City, if it's being held this year). This would allow for the month of May to be a prep period for the ajor races. As luck would have it, there are several 40k time trials in Monrovia in May!
So here they are in random order:
Ohio State TT Championship - top 3 age group (I'm 36)
Summer Solstice Stage race - top 10 cat 3
Tree City Stage race - top 3 cat 3
I raced Tree City as a cat 5 in the 4/5 division in 2005. The best thing about this race for me was that the stage race was time based instead of points based. That favors time triallists. I was sitting 2nd overall after the time trial but unfortunately crashed in the crit and ended up 9th overall. Boo! I wanted revenge in 2006, but the race was cancelled. Hopefully, it's back in 2007!
So here they are in random order:
Ohio State TT Championship - top 3 age group (I'm 36)
Summer Solstice Stage race - top 10 cat 3
Tree City Stage race - top 3 cat 3
I raced Tree City as a cat 5 in the 4/5 division in 2005. The best thing about this race for me was that the stage race was time based instead of points based. That favors time triallists. I was sitting 2nd overall after the time trial but unfortunately crashed in the crit and ended up 9th overall. Boo! I wanted revenge in 2006, but the race was cancelled. Hopefully, it's back in 2007!
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Time Trial results
The results are in. I finished 2nd in my catagory (age 30-39) out of six and 5th overall out of 25. My finish time for the 6.2 miles was 16:08.7 so that gives me a mark to shoot for next time. Average speed was 23.04 mph with my average watts being 304.93 (peak at 507). I didn't wear my HRM so I have no data there. Average RPM was over 97 and that seems odd given I've been intentionally lowering my cadence over the last several weeks.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Race #1
The first race of the year is in the books. It was a 6.2 mile computrainer time trial. I won't know the overall results for another day or two, but I didn't even win my heat. Over the winter, I've tried to keep some intensity to my workouts (as opposed to last year where it was riding "base" miles) and that helped me yesterday. All that being said, it was only the second time I've ever rode the Orca on the trainer.
The computrainer felt way more smooth when changing grades than my RealAxiom does. Time to play with some of my courses to figure out how to make it better.
The computrainer felt way more smooth when changing grades than my RealAxiom does. Time to play with some of my courses to figure out how to make it better.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Indoor time trial #1
Sunday is my first race of the year and my first indoor time trial ever. We'll be riding computrainers over a 10k rolling course. Being no stranger to riding the trainer, I hope to do well but really this series is for checking my fitness level at the moment. Sadly, there are very few people signed up for the first of three races in the series.
The Orca will be my weapon of choice.
The Orca will be my weapon of choice.
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