Sep 10
It goes without saying that endurance athletes need to keep a watchful eye on what they are eating. For what you eat today will affect your ride tomorrow or the next day. It seems the old thinking of carbo loading the night before a race is being dissproven. The meals in the days prior to the start are the important ones.
I thought I'd share one of the blogs I read, VO2MAXXED. VO2MAXXED is the chronicals of James and Beth, two triathletes and mainly covers their cooking and nutrition. The site has some great recipe and cooking ideas. I haven't made anything from the site yet, but I plan to try their fish tacos at some point.
Sep 6
Today's workout called for a race simulation. "There’s not really one specific task for this ride; there are a few. Find two of the hardest climbs in your area and ride a loop that includes the two of them. Ride each of the climbs at the highest pace you can sustain." I went out and did the Volente Loop, I tried to keep the pace at 20 plus miles per hour. I've yet to compete in a real race so I was just winging it, mainly concentrating on keeping my speed up and powering thru the rollers and steeper climbs. I figure this was more like a time trial effort as the power and effort were too consistent. A real race would probably be a bit more chaotic with huge power surges to either stay with a group or to jockey for position.
As I came to the big climb on Limecreek Road had been averaging 19.75 mph. If you recall my fastest time up the Sisters is 3 minutes and 47 seconds. I hit the base of the hill, which in my opinion is the hardest part, and I was out of the saddle giving it my all. Not sure what gear I was in, but I know I had a few gears to shift to if needed, but I was attacking it like nobodies business. I then went up the middle sister, as I crested her I shifted down one to speed up my cadence a bit to give my legs a little rest before the third sister. I then shifted one more, stood up to sprint up the last portion and then it happened.
The chain came off the cassette, I immediately sat back down and looked down to see what was going on. I was quickly slowing down from 8 mph. When I realized the chain was completely stuck between the hub and cassette and as such it was like applying the break so I didn't have any time to release from the pedals.
Now I would like to point out the finer points of crashing:
- Don't tense up, you'll want to be as pliable as possible so your body is not so ridged that it can freely move. You'll get hurt more if you are fighting your body.
- Don't stick your hand out to try to catch yourself. Keep your hands on the bars. When you stick your hand out to try and catch yourself you're more likely to break an arm or wrist. Plus you will be in a prone position that can lead to a broken collarbone or separated shoulder.
- Roll with it. I'm not sure exactly how to describe this, but when I hit the road I immediately roll up into a ball. This keeps me from sliding on an one body part. For example I went down to the right, my right knee hit first and as I made contact with the pavement I rolled up into a ball and rolled on my back. This allowed me to distribute the blow with the pavement. Granted I probably ended up with more bruises on my backside and back, but my knee only sustained a scratch and a bump. I think it could have been a lot worse.
- This might be the most important nugget of advice I can give you grasshopper. Once you do a quick inventory of all your vital parts, now it's all about saving your pride. Of course as soon as I'm laying there in the dirt I hear a car coming around the bend. I quickly got off my back and onto my knees and had my bike upright again. Last thing you want to do is get caught looking stupid. I did a google search and youtube search and luckily I was the only one in the vicinity.
The chain was stuck good, it wasn't budging and I couldn't do much with it, I had to call the SAG wagon to come pick me up. I walked up the rest of the way up the Sisters carrying my bike over my shoulder like a wounded soldier. This workout turned out to be more race like than simulation as I got the big 'Ol DNF (Did Not Finish). Hopefully when I do jump into my first race I've got the DNF out of the way and I can race in peace.
The diagnosis for the bike was good, Eric at Spin City was able to fix it up. He also said the rear derail er was out of alignment which caused the over shift.
Sep 3
Today's lunch time workout brought me to Mesa Dive. For those in Austin who might not be familiar with Mesa Drive it is just off of 2222. From the bottom of the hill (the 2222/Mesa Drive Intersection it is only .8 miles to the stop sign at the top. In those .8 miles the average gradient is 7%. The Max gradient is 22.2% on the final climb right before the stop sign. There's even concrete splatterings in the bike lane letting you know it's pretty darn steep. The total climb to the stop sign is 267 feet.
The total length from the bottom of Mesa to Far West Boulevard is 1.5 miles with 335 feet of climbing. This hill was perfect for today's Summit Finish Intervals. The task for the workout was to find a hill that takes at least 4 minutes to get up and go at about 95%-98% power intensity for the first 1/2 of the climb. For the second half accelerate and go as hard as you can.
Time allowed me to do two of these Summit Finish Intervals for a total ride time of 45 minutes. There's plenty of harder rides in Austin and especially in the vicinity of Mesa. A few that are right there are Far West & Ladera Norte. The overall layout of the hill seems to have a hard stretch right at the beginning then it tapers for a bit that lets you catch your breath and then it finishes with a another steep stretch at the top. Mesa is a bit of a curvy road, as I was going up there were a couple times I thought I was at the top only to come around the corner and see there was more of the hill left to conquer. This can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending upon your level of fitness. The car traffic on this section is relatively light and there is a bike path that starts close to the bottom of the hill, once you get over the first steep incline the bike path starts and goes all the way to Steck Ave. for the most part. The section that doesn't have the bike path is fairly wide as Mesa has 4 lanes at that point leaving cars ample room to pass you safely.
Today I wasn't the only one enjoying the ascent that Mesa had to offer, as I was going up the hill for the second time 5 other cyclists bombed passed me going down the hill.
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