Blue Star

17+ Hours in the Saddle

Wow, I just experienced quite a week on the bicycle. Work slows down between the Christmas and New Year holidays, so Coach Thomas set up my schedule to take advantage of having more time to devote to training. In total, I put in over 17 hours in the saddle for just about 250 miles. Not a bad haul for a 7 day period that included 2 recovery days.

Monday: Recovery Day. I had to let my legs recover from the effort of the past weekend. Plus, the weather was nasty.

Tuesday: 3 hours of saddle time. The first half of the ride was outside taking advantage of the waning light. Mr. Bicep and I hit the Birk Gilman for a short spin. Intensity was fairly low, but I cranked it up a little towards the end to remind Mr. Bicep that single malt doesn't make you fast on the bike. Just as the last bit of light slipped behind the western horizon, I returned home and set the bike up on the hamster wheel. I spent another hour and half of riding on the trainer, zoning out to some music on the iPod.

Wednesday: 1 hour of gym time and 90 minutes of chamois time. I started my day with 90 minutes on the stationary trainer. My body hates early morning workouts. In fact, it revolts and the engine refuses to fire for at least an hour. I plodded through the ride and was relieved when it was over. Later in the day, I hit the gym. I'm now in my strength maintenance phase, which means I'm backing off the weights some, but still lifting enough to allow me to keep the strength gains I have made without putting on any more muscle mass. One of the keys to going fast on a bike (especially on those long, lung searing climbs in the mountains) is power to weight ratio. More power over less weight equals more speed. Lose too much weight and you also lose muscle that generates power. Put on too much muscle and the power increase from that additional muscle mass is not enough to offset the weight being carried. It's a tenuous balance to maintain. I've put on about 2 kilos of muscle in my legs, arse, and lower back the last two and half months. The big question is whether my power ouput on the bike has increased to compensate, or exceed, the weight gain as compared to where I was at the end of last season. In other words, have I increased my power to weight ratio. From my recent rides, I think there is more power under the hood. I have some power tests coming up soon to confirm my suspicion.

Thursday: 2.5 hours of riding on the trainer (a new personal record). Thursday's workout was very specific, so it had to be done on the trainer. After a long warm up, I did 5 sets of force intervals. As I described in a previous post, force intervals are low RPM, high power output affairs. Essentially, this workou is like weight lifting on the bike as I slowly crank out big watts. I did 5 sets of three minutes at my CP12 power with three minutes of recovery following each effort. Even though the effort was high, I felt really smooth and powerful today. It is exciting to see fitness developing.

Friday: Recovery day, sort of. A half day of taking advantage of fresh snow at Snoqualmie Pass. Not a vacation for the legs, but it was fun to get back on the slopes after a dry winter last year. The snow was so good the Pass was closed for a few hours at the end of the day. We had to hang out and have some food and drink while the DOT folks plowed like crazy to make I-90 drivable.

Saturday: An epic 5.5 hour group ride totaling 90 miles. We began the day be heading about 30 miles to the northeast to Snohomish. In Snohomish, we stopped for a slice of fresh pie at a small bakery to fill the tank for the next 60 miles. After getting warm and eating yummy apple crumb pie, we braved the elements and turned south along the Snohomish River valley. The roads in this part of Washington are very beautiful. Unobstructed views of the snow capped Cascades to west with pastures and undeveloped land in the foreground. Plus, there were only about 5 cars that passed by in a 30-mile stretch. After heading south along the river valley putting in some solid tempo in a pace line, we had to cross back over the western slope of valley. Union Hill Road took us out of the valley and dropped us down into Redmond. Union Hill is the perfect climb. It is just steep enough to generate a steady effort while the road winds ahead in the distance all encased by woods filled with big trees. I was motoring dropping all my riding companions in my wake. The beautiful thing was that I did not even put out an effort, staying in HR zones 3 and 4 the entire 3-mile climb. After regrouping on top, we descended into Redmond, went south through Bellevue, across I-90 and north back to the U-village Zoka.

Sunday: 4+ hours. Hayes and I headed to Tiger Mountain for some mountain bike fun on the fire roads. We road out to Poo Poo Point. Poo Poo Point is a 15 mile out and back ride that features some serious climbing in both directions, but it is worth it for the westerly views from the top. We set off in heavy winds and a slight drizzle. Half-way out the clouds began to thin revealing some button holes of blue sky and occasional rays of sun. The last two miles of the climb gain 1000 vertical feet. We crested the top and rolled out onto the point. The point serves as a launching pad for hang gliders and and parasailers, but none were braving the shifting and heavy winds today. The urban towers of Bellevue stood like monolisks in the distance, flanked on either side by shimmering waters of Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington. I-90 was pumping cars and trucks in and out of the city. It was as if the landscape was alive. I was snapped out of my thoughts by a harsh gust of wind that signaled our call to retreat to the car before the weather turned nasty. A fast two-mile descent, letting the bike drift through the gravel in the turns at 30mph, was soon followed by some steady rolling climbs for the next five miles back to car. About a two miles out from the trail head, the cold rain started to fall, first slowly but picking up pace with each pedal stroke. We got back to the car and decided to bag heading for the 4 miles up to Tiger Summit. Total mountain bike ride time was just over 2 hours.

After retreating off Tiger to my warm and dry living room, I set up the road bike on the hamster wheel for another 2 hours of spinning. 32 miles on the trainer to close out the weekend. iPod to the rescue again to keep my mind from imploding from the monotony of pedaling but not moving anywhere. Daydreaming of the mountain bike ride to the rhythms of Dave Matthews, U2, and others made the time pass by quickly.

Over 17 hours later, it's time for a recovery week. It is important to remember that fitness develops during recovery not the workout. Only seven hours on the schedule this week, which happens to coincide with what is surely going to be a busy week at work as everyone returns to normal schedules fresh from their respective holiday breaks. I'll probably make a trip to Dream Clinic for a massage to work out some kinks (both physical and mental) at the end of the week.

Three pair of Tifosi glasses arrived last week. I'll post photos and reviews soon. Preliminary report is that the Q2 is the perfect riding eyewear.

That's it for this long post. Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year to all,

Blue Star out.