It's October, the weather is getting chilly, leaves are changing, rain is falling and for the next eight months fenders have been permanently mounted to my bike and the trainer setup in our living room. Yahoo! time for some long slow miles to build my base again and continue to strengthen my mental game. This year my coach and I have made a few changes to the program:
I train with a power meter, measuring my output in watts and energy burn on the bike. As a point of reference here are some of my numbers to date. We will revisit this later on to see what improvements have been made and where I still need to work.
Height: 5ft. 11in. Weight: 144lbs.
5 sec power - 1002 watts/ 15.4 w/kg (Feb 13, 2013)
1 min power - 545 watts/ 8.4 w/kg (March 3, 2013)
5 min power - 349 watts/ 5.4 w/kg (March 12, 2013)
10 min power - 329 watts/ 5.1 w/kg (March 2, 2013)
15 min power - 312 watts / 4.8 w/kg (Feb 24, 2013)
30 min power - 276 watts / 4.3 w/kg (June 9, 2012)
60 min power - 246 watts / 3.8 w/kg (Feb 19, 2013)
Keep in mind this is just before I crashed and was coming into fitness, I never truly "peaked" this past year and my calibration for numbers was set at 144 lbs. By March 23rd (the day I crashed my bike) I was 5ft 11in and 138 lbs. For the 2014 season I hope to be right back around that weight for racing, super lean and climbing like a madman again. It's October and I'm sitting right about 144lbs. (It's strange but the only reason I've been keeping track of my weight is because our cat is sick and to weigh her we measure ourself once and a second time holding her. I don't obsess about my weight, I'm still on the "see food" diet). I plan to revisit these numbers right before the season kicks off, and before Lauren and I go to Solvang.
Also kicking off this season we are beginning to put the final touches on our wedding planning, which includes a short trip to Solvang, CA. to do some bike riding and enjoy our mini honeymoon as we save up for our big trip to France to follow Le Tour (yes, that's right, Lauren's as big a fan of cycling as I am which makes me the luckiest guy in the whole world, sorry fellas this one's spoken for). Als for the wedding we are asking for some support in ordering a pair of custom road bikes from English Cycles, once we get details and a mockup rest assured I will devote an entire post to how excited we are for our bikes and trip to France.
While the roads in and around Portland aren't the greatest for accessibility to training, I have made a commitment to try and do a bit more exploring to hopefully find a secret climb that takes 20-30 minutes to complete that's within riding distance. In Eugene, I could get in 6,000 ft of elevation gain in 2.5 hrs, now I shoot for 4,000 or so on a good day. If that doesn't work I'll just make a few more trips down south for some better training and a change of scenery :)
The mantra for this 2014 season is to stay motivated and be consistent, no injuries and come out guns-a-blazin' once the racing begins. Cat 3's beware because your races are about to get a whole lot more difficult. Cat 2's get ready because there's going to be a new guy coming up in the peloton and he means business.
Stay tuned for next week's post, same bat time same bat channel.
Cheers,
-Andrew-
No post is complete without some photos for you to look at so here you go.
- Instead of having daily workouts, due to my sporadic retail schedule, I will be given weekly targets of hours and workouts to perform. This should allow me some flexibility as to when I can fit training time into my schedule. Consistency is the name of the game.
- I'm continuing to make my own "portables" instead of bars & gels (my latest batch was coconut, nutella and honey, yummmm). So far so good.
- Both Lauren and I have started a 30 week core strengthening program specifically designed for cyclists. I can tell you that after only 3 weeks into it I already feel stronger and more stable on the bike.
- Anticipating a significant amount of time on the trainer, I am considering purchasing a set of rollers to keep things interesting.
- I've made a switch in teams but I can't talk about it right now because it's a secret and if I told you well you know what I would have to do then: stay tuned.
I train with a power meter, measuring my output in watts and energy burn on the bike. As a point of reference here are some of my numbers to date. We will revisit this later on to see what improvements have been made and where I still need to work.
Height: 5ft. 11in. Weight: 144lbs.
5 sec power - 1002 watts/ 15.4 w/kg (Feb 13, 2013)
1 min power - 545 watts/ 8.4 w/kg (March 3, 2013)
5 min power - 349 watts/ 5.4 w/kg (March 12, 2013)
10 min power - 329 watts/ 5.1 w/kg (March 2, 2013)
15 min power - 312 watts / 4.8 w/kg (Feb 24, 2013)
30 min power - 276 watts / 4.3 w/kg (June 9, 2012)
60 min power - 246 watts / 3.8 w/kg (Feb 19, 2013)
Keep in mind this is just before I crashed and was coming into fitness, I never truly "peaked" this past year and my calibration for numbers was set at 144 lbs. By March 23rd (the day I crashed my bike) I was 5ft 11in and 138 lbs. For the 2014 season I hope to be right back around that weight for racing, super lean and climbing like a madman again. It's October and I'm sitting right about 144lbs. (It's strange but the only reason I've been keeping track of my weight is because our cat is sick and to weigh her we measure ourself once and a second time holding her. I don't obsess about my weight, I'm still on the "see food" diet). I plan to revisit these numbers right before the season kicks off, and before Lauren and I go to Solvang.
Also kicking off this season we are beginning to put the final touches on our wedding planning, which includes a short trip to Solvang, CA. to do some bike riding and enjoy our mini honeymoon as we save up for our big trip to France to follow Le Tour (yes, that's right, Lauren's as big a fan of cycling as I am which makes me the luckiest guy in the whole world, sorry fellas this one's spoken for). Als for the wedding we are asking for some support in ordering a pair of custom road bikes from English Cycles, once we get details and a mockup rest assured I will devote an entire post to how excited we are for our bikes and trip to France.
While the roads in and around Portland aren't the greatest for accessibility to training, I have made a commitment to try and do a bit more exploring to hopefully find a secret climb that takes 20-30 minutes to complete that's within riding distance. In Eugene, I could get in 6,000 ft of elevation gain in 2.5 hrs, now I shoot for 4,000 or so on a good day. If that doesn't work I'll just make a few more trips down south for some better training and a change of scenery :)
The mantra for this 2014 season is to stay motivated and be consistent, no injuries and come out guns-a-blazin' once the racing begins. Cat 3's beware because your races are about to get a whole lot more difficult. Cat 2's get ready because there's going to be a new guy coming up in the peloton and he means business.
Stay tuned for next week's post, same bat time same bat channel.
Cheers,
-Andrew-
No post is complete without some photos for you to look at so here you go.