Training Update

[Veronica]

Well, I've been focusing on training for DMD for about a month now. The weather gods have not been quite as kind as I would like, so I don't have the outdoor mileage I would like to have at this point.

Here are the highlights:

We rode up Morgan Territory on Sunday. Compared to our last trip up it from home, a year ago, our average speed over 54 miles increased .8.

I've had a few people comment over the years, that I spin very fast. Now that I'm actually watching my cadence, here's what I see. I like to be at 90 RPMs. At 100 I want to shift to a harder gear. Around 85, I want to shift to an easier gear.

Yesterday I was doing hill intervals outside - the same hill 5 times. It's .9 miles long, average grade of 3.2%. It is steepest at the top. I was pleased that my times were more consistent with each other this time - just a few seconds apart. Last time I dropped 15 seconds between the first and last. My third and fourth time up the hill yesterday, I concentrated on staying in a bigger gear. It felt pretty good the third time and I was two seconds faster. So the fourth time I really pushed it. My average speed increased .7 on the fourth interval, 18 seconds faster! Heart rate average stayed about the same. My cadence average dropped from the mid 80s to 73. I do have trouble with my knees, which is why I spin so much. But I think that I need to work on increasing my leg strength, so I can stay in the bigger gears longer. Increasing my speed consistently that much, would take an hour off my ride time. Good news is, my knees are fine this morning.

I am not doing as much ab/back as I should. My lower back was tired after doing Morgan Territory. I can tell I haven't been doing much climbing lately. I've also started riding a lot more in the drops rather than on the hoods.

I also haven't been very good about doing two workouts on Tues./ Thurs. I'm blaming Thom. He's been getting home late so I haven't been getting as much sleep as I would like.

We've signed up to do the Solvang Double. This is huge! Thom will ride it with me. He really prefers metric centuries. He says they are all the fun, none of the pain. I'm glad he's doing my first double with me. He's good at blathering along to distract you.

I've lightened Fluffy a little bit. No more rack. I tried switching my Terry Butterfly from my MTB to Fluffy. Couldn't take it for a three hour session with Coach Troy, so the Brooks is back on. It's a 100 grams heavier, but feels so much better! The fenders and Speedblend tires are staying on until just before Solvang in March. We'll switch to Continental 23s for the doubles, that will lighten things a bit more. We looked at switching at various components and I'm not sure it's money well spent. Talked about getting a new bike, but Fluffy feels really good. Probably going to add aero bars.

I'm hoping I'll lose about 6 pounds in the next three months, but I'm not obsessing over it.

Overall, I think I'm doing okay. We need to really start upping the mileage on the weekends. You can help by doing sun dances for me.

V.

[SadieKate]

Trust me. I'm dancing. It was icky wet foggy here yesterday and, of course, raining today. I'm in the January doldrums. I can't even get on the trainer.

[massbikebabe]

V,

Even I'll dance for you I've gotten pretty good with the canes!!!


Best of Luck on your training!!!




karen

[Veronica]

Thanks. I did nothing today. We had a mandatory meeting on reducing your stress level. Ahhh... what would really reduce my stress level is if we didn't have this meeting.

V.

[Trekhawk]

Im impressed Veronica is this your first double?
Im stressing about managing one century and look at you girl.

I think I need to train harder just reading your post made me feel tired.

Yikes I am lazy reading about going up the same hill 5 times in a row blows me away.

Ok so now my sig line should be slow and lazy.

[Veronica]

Yep, Solvang will be my first double. It's one of the easier ones with 7500 feet of climb. I'm really training for the Devil Mountain Double, which is one of the hardest doubles with over 20,000 feet of climbing. I've done the staff ride twice, never really expecting to finish - just riding until it wasn't fun. Thom does SAG for it, so I could stop whenever. This year I decided I really wanted to finish it. Since I am training to do one of the hardest ones, I might just as well do two others and get the triple crown.

Five times up this one hill isn't bad. I'm watching my heart rate and lap counter, and working hard, but it's bad not until the last 45 seconds when I go beyond my lactate threshold and sprint as hard as I can. It has a good downhill, so I don't need to work for a bit.

V.