Training Log 12/14

Nothing as interesting as the Mt. Ham hill climb, but the last couple weeks have had their challenges. First off, I've been dealing with some soreness in the right IT band. It started the day after the hill climb, when I was scheduled to take a day off the bike but since I was on vacation, I tuned up the TT bike and took it out for its first ride on the road. Not smart for a major training week, given the aero position naturally a bit stressful and I don't have it dialed in. It was getting better the week after, then I did my Friday workout on the trainer (was home sick) with the TT bike, which triggered it again.

So last week was an easy week. This week was back to the programmed training intensity but it was a stress week at work and I skipped my Friday workout. So glad I had a good ride up Mt. Ham yesterday, plus some time on the track (for Gio's track clinic at Hellyer). Today I got a good base ride in, but was half frozen in the rain. 

I write a fair bit of individual ride detail when I upload my files to my TrainingPeaks.com profile. It's mainly for my coach's benefit (Peter at Whole Athlete), but here's a sampling:

Tuesday

Endurance 1h 30m Zone 1 Polo fields 

Speed work 8 x 15s Zone 5 seated max accelerations

Very cold, but wore lots of layers, including leg + knee warmers. Stayed in paceline for longer than most weeks for thorough warmup. Had added bonus of making the pacelining a bit more consistent (since there were few attacks until last 10 m), which was good for the couple newbie Mice who were out. Put in a couple attacks in the last 3 laps to get things lively, then did the leadout. Rolled around with Jay, then Jamie, both of whom were also doing seated accerations from the WA plan. Felt better on the whole, but not 100%.

Wednesday

Tempo Endurance 5 x 6m Zone 3 steady effort ~235w 

Endurance 1h Zone 1-2 do not exceed mid-z2 HR 

As described. All at Polo Fields. Cold morning, so took 30m to warm up before first rep. Felt better after first one.

Saturday

Climbing 1h 45m Zone 2/3 Mt Ham in the a.m.- do first two sections ~240w, then last long section middle of z3 HR (do not exceed 157bpm) and let's see what kind of power it produces. 

Cold day, but I dressed well. Had extra vest layers I zipped up as I climbed the hill, then put on extra dry layers at the top. Much more comfortable decent than Thanksgiving. I was running late because I stopped at the stop to get them to add the 17t training sprocket I'd bought a while back. So had easier 49x17 gearing at the track clinic. Very late by the time I got to Mt Ham. Wanted to do as much as I could. Cut out half of section 3, which saved me 20m I needed to make the track clinic productive. Mt Ham was fun to climb. Took time to warmup and eased into 240w pwr target. Felt good when I got really going and was feeling great in the Zone 3 HR section at the top. Felt like I was getting a lot of power for 154-157bpm (266W avg for 3rd section, 20m). 

Track clinic was around 35m of on-the-bike time (8m in zone 4 HR). Due the rain last night and thread of rain later today, they changed the schedule and compressed the afternoon materials into the late morning, so I missed most. What I did get was a bunch of standing start practice (4x). On the first one, I nearly lost my balance transitioning from low-rpm to mid-rpm. Got much better at it from the practice (and had aero bars on so it was representative of 4k pursuit). We also did a 4k team pursuit from standing start. Tomorrow is canceled for rain and the event will get a new date in January.

Sunday

Endurance 4h Zone 1 steady ride in the morning. stick to z1 except for limited z2 on hills 

Paradise loop w/o Camino Alto hill, then Polo Fields. Just missed the 2hr window when it wasn't raining and left just as it started again. I wore plenty, but I really need to get some upgraded clothing for serious rain. After an hour, I was wet pretty well through (except on core) and at the 2hr mark, my hands were pretty well frozen. Plan was to do a couple Paradise loops, to minimize decending and generally keep it safe and steady. Decided not to do a second Paradise Loop given the frozen hand situation. Stopped at Mike's Bikes and found some winter gloves on sale for $25, which if nothing else were dry and allowed me to finish the ride. Apart from the cold and wet, I felt pretty good. Got a good high Z1 rhythm going at the Polo Fields for the last 45m (avg 184W, 132bpm).