Loose Ends

Just trying to tie up some loose ends here at work before I split until January 2nd. Basically pick some low-hanging fruit this morning and then eat lunch in the kitchen area and read a little bit more of The Skeptical Environmentalist during my break. Not much going on, most everyone either under radar or blathering about their coming time off. So I just need to get to the end of the day and then boffo, I'm golden.

A loose ends day also means taking care of emails that I've let sit around for a while. This goes for both work and personal. So with that, let me pick up a few comments from the past few days of so. The first one is bike related, but then the rest is riff raff. So if you want to skip down to the next comment.

ChrisG

Hear you on the need to get the most out of the workouts, and agree that "base" riding on the trainer is for the birds, so doing higher-end efforts with your limited time during the week makes perfect sense. As for the longer stuff on the weekends, that's where you can get the base effort in, even if it's just the one ride. And tapering up the "tempo" portion of that one long ride is exactly what I do as the winter progresses and the season gets closer. Two longer-ish tempo intervals, with some substantial recovery between, is a really good use of a 3 hour road ride. In keeping with the "race length" element as an indicator, I'd say that attempting more than 90 minutes, maybe 2 hours, of true tempo, would be plenty. And that would be something to build to over the next 8 weeks or so. I usually work in 10 minute increments when adding tempo. That's my off-the-top response, anyway.

Come January I'm going to be doing the 2x20 and 3x15 stuff with the trainer. A 2x20 turns out to be about 65 minutes in the saddle (15 warm, 20 on, 5 off, 20 on, 5 cool). I really should warmup for 20 but at that time of day it's kinda tough. That should be about the lowest level I do on the trainer this year. All quality on that thing. Either blast it out or get out of the house. I wish I could ride at 5:00 am in the dark outside before work. But dressing up and down for that would add 15 minutes to my already tight morning.

Good stuff on the tempo build. I was thinking along those lines but hadn't really fleshed it out yet. That gives me some good direction!

Terren

"I used to sneak a book/magazine in my pants on my way to/from the bathroom to avoid the political ramifications of reading in the bathroom."

Oh the old UT days. I bring the Blackberry in but it's just not the same. I guess I could do a small book but there's no privacy in the cube so people would see me jamming something down my pants. Not that anyone would care, mind you. People see what they want to see so they'd likely just assume I'm masturbating. Whatever

Steve

"she is too cute to be the fruit of your loins :D"

Indeed. The reality is that she was conceived by a doctor in a test tube or something. So it's entirely possible Tom Cruise stopped by and jerked off in a cup. Hey whatever, she's my little angel now. I just hope she doesn't get into any of that Scientology shit when she gets older. And please don't let her embarrass herself on national TV in front of Matt Lauer.

I like to cut off after 3 comments so that will be good for now. I need to put together the weekly schedule for 2008 and let Mr G take his red pen to it and tell me where I'm doing dumb stuff. I feel pretty good right now and I'm not really making much of an effort to eat particularly well nor put in a Herculean effort on the bike. So that's good going into 2008, I think.

On The Fly Reply

This is a reply to my earlier post of today which you can read here.

ChrisG

Interesting, as always. Following your proposed calendar, when does "race season" arrive? April? I'd offer that the endurance base rides are important not because they should equate with your common race distance, but because a "bigger" endurance base (theoretically) will allow you to build your intensity to a higher level.

The actual race season would really be a 4-6 week race peak, or a pair of them to be more precise. That would be determined by how the races fall, likely May-ish and September-October time frame. Maybe I'll lay those details out sooner than later and plop some races around to see what falls where. The lull will probably be July and maybe early August. I'm not planning on doing the 24 HoA race this year so mid-summer is open for valleys and subsequent peaks.

The endurance stuff is a balance because I lack time. My winter rides on the weekend are one thing but weekdays I'm limited to an hour or maybe 90 minutes. Plus building a base on a trainer is a mentally draining proposition. So that leaves a pair of weekend rides, one of which should be off-road to stay "fresh" with that. Then top that off with a longer tempo ride.

Would pushing that tempo ride to the 3 hour limit hurt? Maybe from a rest perspective it might. But I also know that what I called tempo last year was probably more along the lines of medium-low tempo where now I'm really just trying to work up to medium-high tempo. Those are assessments as made before I knew what it was like to race as opposed to now, after I've raced. So I'm really looking at adding time to that slowly. Basically 65 tempo minutes last time out and hopefully stretching that as the winter goes on and cooperates, or doesn't. In other words, trying to lay out a slow and steady build to 90 or 120 quality tempo minutes as opposed to 3-4 hours of junk miles.

Make sense?

A Biking Post

Mid-week, hamburger patty, onion rings, Greebo the cat. What does it all mean? Who can say? These words just pop in my head on the train and they end up here. I have a headache, a slight sore throat, and a little congestion. Maybe I should have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night?



The State of this Onion? After 2 days off I was back in the saddle this morning. Some basic Tempo-maintenance for 55 minutes. Why 55? It just works out that was. I go until 6:10 am and then rush like mad to get out of the house in time. One of my goals in 2008 is to spend less time on the trainer. Last year I spent a lot of hours on it and I'd prefer not to repeat that this year. But last year I needed it. Right now I'm a year plus into the "real thing" so it's not quite as pressing. Even though I fell off after the season I know I'm stronger now than last year at this time.

So right now is sorta "filling in the blanks" of December. I just need to get to this weekend then I have 11 days to bump up that foundation further and get some solid saddle time in. After the new year I'll start feeding in some Threshold work which is basically Tempo+1. Then in February I'm going to start the 2-6 week Ross Psychotic Tmax intervals which then bleed into a 4 week block of longer intervals. Tmax is generally in the 1 minute realm and the longer ones are 4-5 minutes. At the end of that I'll go into the first block of the race season, a "maintenance" phase of sorts. Then a little valley in the middle of summer, then a second build for the end of season.

So that's my sort of State of the Onion right now. I need to hammer out details and dates and stuff. I also need to get through the rest of this week. It's hard to believe it's only Wednesday. I guess this post turned into something mainly for Chris and Maurice as most of you guys probably zone out when you read it.

So I may as well keep going. Not sure how much I'm going to follow Ross to the letter because he suggests 4 days on of Tmax intervals and then 3 days off. The obvious flaw there is that you get zero time off-road which is just not acceptable. So I'm going with a partial/modified approach. When the weather is bad I may bang out a few back-to-back weeks of it but my overall approach will likely be off-road on Saturday and then maybe 3 days of Tmax stuff. Or I may throw in some longer rides on a Sunday, by which I mean 1.5-2 hours. As a sport class rider my endurance doesn't need to be very high at all. So my need for 3 hour rides is zilch other than to go out and enjoy myself from time to time and maybe with an eye on jumping up to expert sooner than later. Because let's face it, that's the goal.

So the trainer this morning gave me just under 20 miles today which gives me 2001 miles on the trainer and 2033 miles on the road, adding the 820 off-road miles brings the yearly total to 4854, just 146 short of 5000. Figure tomorrow morning on the trainer as well and then hopefully not again until January. Hopefully.

At some point I should revisit my offseason goals but right now all I've done is stopped night eating and regulated my weight at a solid 190 right now. My aim is to be 190 (or less) at the end of vacation rolling into the new year. At the beginning of 2007 I saw 202 so that's a lot of progress. I suppose I've also adjusted my riding to accommodate the Sat-Tue schedule I'll be maintaining in February and March. Other than that I haven't done anything else. That's all well and good as the eating and weight stuff is plenty thus far.

OK that was my serious biking post for the month. Back to gibberish and cow pies for a while. Winter hasn't even started yet bitches!

Some Comments

Just some feedback today with pithy comments from yours truly.

Steve

strong like bull, smart like tractor

I don't even know what this is referring to anymore but whatever, it is what it is.

Matt Fat Cat

My brain is tired and it won't allow me to read words at the moment but since you supplied pictures, I don't have to. Everyone lookin good. Great stuff.

Thanks! I've got a long modeling career ahead of me, I'd say.

Walter

Imaginary audiance, I'm for real damn it. My friend once said, " did you ever take a news paper into the shitter, and then realize all you are doing is reading the paper with your pants down?

Sorry Walter, don't want to diminish your reality, though you're not on the train next to me so it's still a leap of faith to assume anyone will read what I'm on about. I figure it's only a matter of time before people get sick of listening to me.

I wish I could take my book into the crapper at work but I think people would look at me funny. People are like that.

Surfing

Currently surfing the sickness wave, which translates to a bit of coughing at night and sore throats in the morning. Overall feel OK but no way in hell am I going to overdo it before my 11 day Christmas vacation. In the meantime here are some pictures of the little girl to enjoy.

First we have her trying out mommy's dish washing gloves...



Then a little walking in daddy's boots...


And then daddy gives Julia a lesson on how to pose pretty for the camera. She learns quickly...



So now it's showtime. Has she learned anything once it's time to pose for a Christmas picture?



Hmmm, not so much as a sneer on her face, though she knows enough to try and get the hell outta the frame. Finally she sits nice for the camera with the snow globe grandma and grandpa brought for her...



Note the picture of herself inside the snow globe. Neat shot there.