June 28

Great ride today! A 3-hour E2/endurance ride was on the schedule today, and I decided to get it started shortly after waking up. I usually eat a good breakfast and wait a couple hours before riding, but tried it a bit different, with only eating a banana and Power Bar, then getting ready and heading out. I did make sure I had some gels and other good stuff like that on my ride, as I knew the calories would come in handy. I stepped out, and the weather was great for a ride, with cloud cover, little breeze, and temps around 70-75. I did my usual 20-25 minute warm-up to get to the roads where I could actually ride with some rhythm, then started my "real" ride. I was basically shooting to keep my wattage around 180 on flats and declines, pushing over 200 on small inclines, and attacking the hills pretty hard. I headed out Darnestown Road/MD-28 and went all the way out to Dickerson, MD. Overall, a really good ride.

Total time: 2:55
Total distance: 52.2
Normalized power: 202

June 27 - Poolesville Road Race

So, maybe I just suck...I'm still working on getting my legs back for fast rides, and this race was better than last week's, but I still got dropped. I lasted a little under 20 miles before losing the pack this time, but it was almost more of a tactical error than a lack of fitness. The course was a 10ish mile loop that we would repeat 4 times after a neutral roll out, and there was a 1+ mile stretch of dirt/gravel road in the middle of each lap. The first lap was relatively uneventful, with the exception of the group actually accelerating a bit on the dirt stretch, which was rather disconcerting, since it was pretty loose gravel in places. The second lap started well enough, until we hit the dirt again. This time I was toward the back of the main pack, and the group really accelerated once hitting the dirt, and I got separated a bit, along with a few other guys. Once we got through that section, there was a bit of a gap, and of course the next section was the only real "hill" on the course and some rollers, and I went really hard for the next 5-10 minutes to try to grab back onto the tail of the group, but just couldn't get there. My average wattage was actually 50 watts higher in the 10 minutes following getting dropped than it was while I was in the pack, so definitely shows the value of drafting. I really think if I'd been more toward the front of the group when we hit the dirt, I wouldn't have had much trouble hanging, but such is racing. I've got a couple more chances coming up in the next month or so, and I'll definitely work on improving my fitness before then.

On a side note, the guy that won this race also won last weekend's road race, and apparently has been killing it for the last month or so. I know he's registered as a cat 3 for the Page Valley Road Race in August (State Championship road race), but he's still a 4 for the Giro di Coppi in mid-July, so that should be interesting...

Time (total/race): 1:26/0:52
Distance (total/race): 26.1/19.0
Normalized power (total/race): 224/249

June 26

Easy ride with some openers today. Nothing terribly eventful about this ride.

Total time: 1:03
Total distance: 15.6 miles
Normalized power: 150

June 23-25

Sorry for the lack of posting so far this week. I've been getting some good riding in so far this week. Monday was a scheduled off day, which is never a bad thing.

Tuesday I got in a good solid ride, with a mix of SST (Sweet Spot Training) and Tempo riding. For SST, I was shooting for wattage between 235 and 255, and was trying to get constant 10+ minute intervals, but I ran into stop lights, so i did the best I could. I decided to do some tempo riding with wattage over 200 on the ride in. I was able to do this pretty well, and the ride felt good.

Total time: 2:00
Total distance: 35.0 miles
Normalized power: 202

Wednesday was another good ride. I was scheduled for some E2/Endurance miles, so I set off on a nice route down Darnestown Road in Rockville. I think this is going to be my go-to route when I need to get in good miles. It's a little congested getting to the start of it, but once I get out of town, it's a great road.

Total time: 2:30
Total distance: 42.3
Normalized power: 173

Today (Thursday), I was scheduled for an hour of a couple choices of riding, but I decided to take a mountain bike ride instead, as I could use some brushing up on my trail skills before a riding weekend with some buddies in a couple weeks. I hit the Cabin John trail near me, which isn't spectacular riding, but it's some pretty decent singletrack. It'll be a much better track once it dries out a little more, just a little muddy in places right now. Not sure on the exact riding time or distance, as I haven't gotten around to putting a computer on my mountain bike, but these should be close enough...

Total time: 1:15?
Total distance: 10 miles?

June 20 - Race Report or: How I Learned to Love Getting Dropped

So, apparently the riding I've been doing since separating my shoulder hasn't been enough. I got dumped about 8 miles into the road race for the Tour of Washington County today, and I'm not really sure what happened. It was relatively hot and muggy, and pretty breezy as well, but didn't seem crazy out. Here's the story:

The race started out pretty easy, with a neutral roll out to a 6ish mile loop we (not I) would do 6 times before heading back in for the finish. Once the officials started the actual race, the pace stayed pretty slow for a stretch, with us working over some rollers, false flats, fun stuff like that. Eventually the pace began to pick up about halfway through the first lap, and I was out in the wind a bit, but did a decent job of staying hidden. Then, toward the end of the first lap, the field began to split a bit, and I was toward the back of the main group. We hit a hill, and I guess I picked the wrong wheel to follow, as we started to get gapped. I finally got around that guy, and began pushing to get back up with the group, and I just didn't feel like I had much. Then we started to hit the rollers again, and also a couple bigger hills, but still nothing huge, and I just felt my heart rate going through the roof. By this point I was hanging with some stragglers, and I saw a guy with Evolution Cycling turn around to head in. I didn't really want to pack it in, but I knew it would be a long freakin' day out in the wind, and I'd have no chance to catch back up to the pack, so I called it a day and rode the couple miles in with him.

I looked at my power files when I got home, and my heart rate was definitely redlined, but my power output wasn't out of the ordinary, so I don't know if I just wasn't rested, or if I'm just out of shape...

Since I DNF'd the road race, I was ineligible for the time trial and crit the next day, but I wasn't too upset about that given my performance. As I'm writing this on Monday the 22nd, I took two rest days and am just trying to regroup for two more races next weekend. Hopefully Saturday was a fluke, but we'll see...

Total time: 0:33
Total distance: 10.2
Normalized power: 254

June 19 - A Little Late

Took a relatively easy ride, with about a half dozen jumps thrown in to get the legs opened up for the race tomorrow. Jumps are the first 10-12 cranks of a sprint, so enough to get you moving, but not enough to tire you out too much. I'm also realizing that there is no easy way to get in a flat ride leaving from our new place. Leaving, you're immediately faces with a slow, gentle uphill, but enough to make sure you're working. Then you get into some rollers. I really have to work the gears to keep my power output down for a warmup.

Total time: 1:06
Total distance: 16.9
Normalized power: 167

June 18

Took a relatively easy ride with my wife today. Two days before a race, so supposed to go easy, and this was a good choice. The roads were still relatively wet from the rain the past couple of days, which was annoying, but better than actual rain. I'm keeping my hopes up for this weekend. Wheels down at 1:40 PM Saturday for 37 miles. I'll do some sprints tomorrow as openers, I'll report back then.

Total time: 1:02
Total distance: 14.8 miles
Normalized power: 157

June 17 - Rain Sucks...

Stuck inside on the trainer today, and it happened to be a sprint day. For some reason, and I guess this is a fairly common occurrence, I can't sprint as well on the trainer as I do outside. So, the wattages were a fair amount lower than I can typically put out. Hopefully the weather cooperates for the Tour of Washington County this weekend, with a 37 mile road race Saturday, and then a 20k time trial and 20 mile crit on sunday. We'll see...

Total time: 0:50
10-second sprint averages: 692, 680, 704, 763, 678, 690, 690, 713
Normalized power: 179

June 16

Got out for a bit of a mountain bike ride today. I checked out Cabin John Regional Park, which is actually only about 2 miles from home, but somehow the number of entrances made it difficult to find the trailhead. After finally finding where I needed to be, the trail was actually quite good...until I hit some wet spots after a couple miles. It may have gotten better if I had continued on, but it looked pretty soggy, and I was on unfamiliar turf, so I decided it was best left to another day. So, I just tooled around on the part I had already ridden, and went the opposite way of where I started. It ended up being a pretty decent ride overall, and I'm sure I'll be back before long.

Total ride time: about 1:00
Distance: no clue...

Rockville Riding 6/13 and 6/14

I'm finding that riding around my new place is pretty frustrating. On the rides I've taken the last two days, I've been finding that there is very little shoulder to many of the roads around here. Today I tried to follow a route that one of the local clubs does for their Sunday morning rides (didn't feel like going this morning), and found that one of the longest stretches is on a road with no shoulder that winds through some woods with a 45 mph speed limit. I didn't feel like becoming a hood ornament for one of the seemingly millions of SUV's on the road, so I turned around and did some time on a local MUP. I'm not a big fan of these trails, but at least they're mostly safe, if not a little crowded. Here are the details of my last two days:

June 13:
Total time: 1:27
Distance: 24.0
Normalized power: 191

June 14:
Total Time: 1:32
Distance: 25.0
Normalized power: 189

Home Again...

Well, that was a fun week off the bike...sort of. Starting last Saturday, we've been in the process of loading a moving truck, I got to drive it from Austin to the D.C. Metro area, and then spent a couple days unpacking...still in the midst of that process. But, I'm definitely looking forward to getting back on the bike, and I have to find routes around here, which should be interesting to say the least. I did get to take a ride after getting the truck loaded, and here's the posting that I wrote that night (after our internet had been turned off, so didn't get to post it). Hopefully I'll have another new post tomorrow.

June 6, 2009
After dealing with the joys of loading a moving truck today (big shout out to Marc and Ryan (and Winton and Brinley) for the help), I got outside for some hill repeats (A6). They suck, but they have to be done. I was shooting for around 300 watts during the first minute of each interval, stood up and went hard for 15 seconds, and then sat and tried to hammer for another 15 seconds. Repeated 8 times…good fun.

Here’s a breakdown of how each interval played out:
First minute of each interval: 299, 303, 307, 301, 297, 299, 300, 302
Next 30 seconds of each: 482, 431, 430, 404, 412, 384, 414, 420
Average wattage for each 1:30 interval: 360, 346, 345, 335, 335, 329, 338, 343
Total ride time: 1:02
Distance: 16.7 miles
Normalized power: 232

June 4

Basically did a repeat of yesterday's ride. Sometimes it's just nice to get out for a nice ride with my wife, and the weather's been pretty great in the evenings lately. Plus, it just feels good to be riding outside versus sitting inside riding the trainer. The only downside of tonight's ride was that I got a flat on a road ride for the first time in I don't know how long. Thankfully I had everything I needed to change the tube on the road, so more of an inconvenience than anything.

Total time: 0:46
Distance: 12.6 miles
Normalized power: 168

June 3 - Back Outside!

Finally felt up to a ride outside today, but didn't want to push it too hard, so did a nice light ride with the wife this evening. The shoulder didn't really bother me at all on the ride, even going over bumps and dips in the road. It still feels a little tight, but the range of motion is definitely there, so things are looking up!

Total time: 0:47
Distance: 12.6 miles
Normalized power: 164