Intervals with Krueg

2 hours out to Cannon City and over to Nerstrand. We toiled out, somehow staying in our big rings a majority of the way. rested on Nerstrand Blvd, and then flew back to town in gears no smaller that 53-16, well except for the steepest kick towards the very end. At one point we were almost spinning out our 12's.

As advised, got in some good interval work today, no specific numbers, but some extended segments, somewhere in the 8-15 minute range. Heart rate was a little high, but I had just eaten some popcorn just before the ride and I think I'm a little unnerved by the coming race weekend, and the two papers I have to write, one of which I'll be starting on shortly.

Weather: it was well crumby in the best way. I actually love riding in the wet and the grit, when your legs are sand-covered and your bike is too. Your face comes back flecked with mud and you don't use your glasses anymore. Rims are black from the wet and the used brake pad residue. These are my favorite conditions, usually because they cause everyone else to suffer more than usual.

And speaking of suffering, I think that it is my favorite part of bike racing and bike riding. Not in a sadistic way, but just when you can go on suffering more than the other guy. It's the most rewarding to drop someone during an intense effort, or hold them off after an attack. What a struggle.

Reassembly and the Value of Values?

Today I've got to go down to Mike's Bikes after class to get these:

so I can do this:



And ride my Madone again. Just finished installing the new cables, DA shifters and DA crank, all that's left is the chain. Might as well get the bike a little dirtier as it's really only half clean. Gotta get dressed and get to class. We're discussing Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil today, should be a pretty good time, what with his perspectivism laying the seeds for the post-modern movement in post-WWII America and Europe... what are the value of values anyway?

ciao

Update

For some reason my brief post from AR isn't showing up.

Short stats:

450 miles in 7 days
29 hours of ride time
lots o climbing
could not have had better compatriots to ride with


Saturday I hit up the Doc ride in Dousman, and picked up some slick new racing rubber for the season, got in a decent 2.5 hours with quite a bit of work being done.

Sunday was an hour easy after scooting on back to school. I am still playing catch-up.

Monday was a group ride of 8 from Olaf. For some reason, I have had no problems hitting it hard, despite using this week as a recovery week. Best part of the ride: Holding of Jake for the final two miles back into town from the NWpassage. He sat up with Krueger and I kept motoring for a bit. When I saw that I had a gap, I just kept going. He chased and chased but the gap never got any smaller. Guess my fitness is coming around quite nicely. First race this weekend down on in Lawrence, KS.

JV advised me to start doing intervals, even if they aren't all that disciplined, to start mixing it up. And that's what I've begun to do, though I don't really care for them. Tomorrow should be a hard day with Krueger out to Nerstrand to do some TT interval work back and forth on the road between Nerstrand and Cannon City. Legs feel good. I feel good. Back to work.

None

Short stats:

Sat: 3hrs at 143
Sun: 5 hrs at 147
Mon: 4 at 139

biking in AR is nice. to say the least

Nothing Like Waking up and Sliding into a Skinsuit

I leave for AR today:
Today I woke up, slid into said skinsuit, and put in 15 minutes just to shake out the legs from a ridiculous 5 hour ride yesterday which included 16-20 mph winds, a chain that was running on borrowed time, and an insufficient amount of caloric intake. Gotta get to class

Ciao

Trainer Time

This is what I've been up to the last two days: trainer time

This is my friend Katie, we ate dinner and she got a little flustered as you can see:

This is that Finn character and Katie (not the first one)
Havent been able to get outside and rock these duds the last few days, but hopefully thursday:

Spent 6.5 hours on the trainer so far this week, with about 30 minutes of tempo and 45 minutes at race pace. Today was a 3.5 hour session done mostly at endurance pace, for the rest, I ran my own personal criterium avg hr of 164 max of 191. Last 7 minutes were done above lactate threshold, slowly ratcheting up my hr till it maxed out at 191. I'm pretty sure I can get it to go higher...

Talked to Larry Moore, my neighbor and a team MACK rider today about his prep and training for Hillsboro Roubaix. He's had some bad crashes, including one where his quadricep detached from his hip and rolled down to his knee. He took the last year or two off from racing, but last year after riding with him, the pressure from his teammates and me was too great and he's going to be racing again, which is great as I am in need of a training partner back home.

Arkansas trip in only 3 days now. I am almost beside myself.

Oh, Sick

Oh well,
That's right, I'm sick. After riding outdoors as much as I did this week, I managed to develop the worst headcold I've had in recent memory. Put me down and in bed for most of Friday. However it has abated for the time being, enough for Krueger and I to get in 2:15 today while watching We Were Soldiers (not a bad war movie by the way). Avg hr of 138; felt ok most of the time but the legs were tired from not riding the last 2 days. Hr was a little higher 5-10 bpm more than usual for the work I was doing, chalking that up to sickness.

In other cycling related news, I've registered for Hillsboro Roubaix and I'm quite disappointed that O'Grady didn't win Het Volk today, oh well. I've got a paper to get to work on, outlining it as it's due at midnight tomorrow.

Ciao