Long Steady Miles

Well today was dodge the rain day, but we did get out for 3.5 hours today for some long EM miles. We headed south into the wind to Brownsburg, and then back up to Lebanon, Whitestown and back home. I didn't have that snap in my legs today, they felt the burn all day and a little sluggish. I think the work this week has taken a toll on my body. It was pretty windy today and by the end of the ride I really wanted to get off the bike. My back was a little sore and my legs were definitely feeling the work. Rest and recovery are the name of the game tonight, and hopefully I will be up for the ride tomorrow.

Ride Stats
Time 3:30
Dist: 60.1 miles
Avg HR 143
Max HR 173
Avg Cad 94
Max Cad 130
Avg Spd 17.1
Max Spd 34
Morning HR 53
Kcal 2560

A Crazy and windy evening

Well let's start in reverse tonight, from my trip home then back to the ride. To make a long story short, I decided to around this POS van doing 30 in a 45 on the way home heading up through Whitestown, b/c I thought it might be faster. Well it went from 45 to 25 with no warning, and guess what, there was a cop sitting there waiting for me. So I got pulled over, and just before the cop came up to the window, the lady I passed pulled up next to me with her window down, and yelled HAHA. Anyway, the guy was pretty cool and let me off with a verbal warning, so all is well that ends well. Now back to the important stuff, the ride today. I set out doing some EM miles and with SS mixed in, two intervals of 10 minutes a piece keeping my HR between 170 and 173. The wind was strong out of the East tonight, so it was a decent side wind. I cranked it up in a 53x16, and headed north starting this SS about 40 minutes into my ride, when I hit 170 it was surprisingly easy to peg my HR and I held it at pretty much 171 and 172. It wasn't too difficult but became very annoying at the end, I was starting to tire a bit. I really practiced scrapping the mud off the bottom of my shoes today, and I noticed my speed went up and the load off my thighs was gone, however it was wreaking havoc on my hamstrings. So I was sitting in the low 170s and my speed was in between upper 22 and upper 23's, the same speeds I was running in my TT with a HR much higher. I guess that shoes how much better I can do when I focus on smooth strokes. However by the end of the ride my quads were quite tired and I felt like I had been mashing all day, but I think it was b/c I was turning a much bigger gear than I usually do, and not spinning it up today. Overall, the ride was pretty good, even though by the end of it heading back south, the wind had turned almost dead out of the south it seemed, and it was tough into the wind. Now its time for recovery, and lots of hydrating. Ride Stats below:

Time: 1:32
Avg HR 145
Max HR 173
Avg Cad 90
Max Cad 115
Max Spd 30.6
Avg Spd 18.1
Morning HR 51
Kcal 1106
Strong wind out of the east tonight about 12 mph.

Prep for the fit test

The day after the wedding I went to yesterday, had me feeling a little sluggish this morning. But after I showered I was feeling pretty good. I drank a lot of water last night before I went to bed and a lot before my ride this afternoon. I set out to do some power intervals in preparation for my fit test tomorrow. A 20 mile loop up to Cicero and back, with three intervals of 30 seconds each and 3 minutes rest between. I did all three intervals in a 53x18-17 and my HR was able to elevated and then return into my recovery zone within my 3 minutes of recovery. I finished off the ride with EM miles and taking it easy within my zone. The wind was pretty stiff coming back south, so I wasn't moving very fast, but nonetheless my legs felt pretty good. MY HR was a little high I thought, but I felt fairly good from an overall standpoint.

Ride Stats
Dist 20 miles
Time :1:11
Avg HR 145
Max HR 185
Avg Cad 91
Max Cad 140
Max Spd 32.5 mph
Avg Spd 16.5
Kcal 887
Morning HR 54

Fast, Chaos and Carnage

Today was the first CIBA ride of the year. The St. Patty's Day ride over off of 161st and Spring Mill in Westfield. The temperature today was not to bad, much better than yesterday. At 1pm it was about 42 degrees with 5 mph wind coming out of the WNW. There were probably 80 people at the ride, and of all different riding levels. So we left out in a large group, asking the faster people to leave first and the sociables to leave after. The group started out with about 40-45 riders in the front group, and it didn't take long for the pace to pick up. We cruised at about 20 mph out of the gate for the first 3 miles or so. Then once we started heading back north the pace got a little faster and a couple people fell off the back. I was sitting in the middle of the pack about 20 people back off the front, just trying to find that drafting pocket.

I found it hard to move from wheel to wheel too often, but found a couple of guys I bounced back and forth between for a while. Once we crossed over SR 32 headed north the pace moved above 25mph, and the group was about 20-25 now. It didn't take long to shed a few more riders as after about 1-2 miles of 25mph+ we were now down to about 15. Rotating through from the back to the front, I found myself briefly up front pulling for about 5 seconds before the next person rotated through, at this point we were doing 27-28, and I was really starting to feel it. I moved to the back of the rotation and went into hanging on mode. Through one more stop sign, which helped me lower my HR and catch my breath a bit and we were right back on it. I noticed that sitting in the back of the pack was like a slinky effect. A gap would open up between somebody and everyone behind would quickly try to close, then close to fast, touch the breaks and have to jump back on it again. So it was up and down, and I knew the back was not the place to be, but we were moving so fast, I couldn't move up. I held on for as long as I could, but ended up getting dropped around mile 21 of 38. So I got dropped and there were about 15 people still in the first group, being dominated by two teams, one with Roark all over their jerseys, and the second was the Indiana Hand Center. Shortly after I got dropped, 5 guys picked me up from behind and we began moving a little faster ,but not like the front group. Clipping along at 23-24 I was feeling a lot better. It amazed me how when in the fast group a 4-5 beat drop in my HR made me feel so much better. And that's where it all went bad. Moving along with these 5 other guys I was up front going into a right hand turn, I moved out to the left to take the corner and try to avoid some of the gravel in the turn. Right as I dove into the turn someone cut me off from the inside and I clipped his back tire and went down sliding across the road. What really pissed me off is that they didn't even stop. So I tore my right leg warmer, f'd up my bike and the hoods, and was bleeding from me knee. I picked myself up and dusted myself off, the bike seemed to be OK other than some cosmetic things and I rode home. I was about 6 miles from my house so I rode the marked route to a mile from home and rode in. Not too happy with what happened, but oh well live and learn I guess. Busted my computer off my bike, found it and stuck it in my back pocket. These are the ride stats to that point of the crash.

25.6 miles
Avg Spd 22.9
Avg HR 176
Max HR 194
No cadence
Morning HR 53
Kcal 1107

Recovery Thursday?

I had a recovery ride for tonight for an hour outside. But I did it on the trainer tonight, so I only ended up doing 40 minutes. And even that was pretty boring. My legs felt a little loaded when I first started, but felt good after about 10 minutes into the ride. HR was pretty low today, nothing special, just turned it over in a small gear 39x18-17-16.

Ride Stats
Time: 40 min
Dist 11.5 miles
Avg HR 115
Max 147? Hr monitor acting up
Max Spd 20.8
Avg Spd 17.3
Cad not working
Morning HR 53

Just another Recovery Monday

So today was my first weekday out with day light savings time hours. It stays like here until about 7:45, and its only march. Well I headed up to the south park of Eagle Creek tonight, around 56th street. And did a recovery ride. 1 hr long. I felt a lot stronger today, and more rested..even though I didn't get much sleep. Tonight was just a recovery ride, and it felt pretty good. I hit a max of 146 bpm, only b/c I got a little turned around and found myself on a very busy street. So I was hauling ass to get off that road. Other than that I felt pretty good, and found a new place to ride that was pretty wide open, west of Eagle Creek. Tomorrow is EM miles, we will see how it feels.

Ride Stats
Time 1:03
Dist: 16.2
Avg HR 120
Max HR 146
Avg Spd 15.8
Max Spd 25.5
Cad not working
Morning HR 53
Kcal 535

Recovery Sunday

Most people, at least my age, spend Sunday recovering from a hangover, today I spent it recovering from my ride on Saturday. I went out and hit up a recovery ride today. I felt pretty good, my legs felt solid, my HR was fairly low. IT was a great day today, sunny and mid to upper 50s, and really no wind at all. It hit up the Cicero loop today 20 in and back in about 1hr 20 min. Hopefully this week will bring good training, and possibly a good race on Saturday.

Ride Stats:
Time 1hr 20 min
Dist 20.0
Avg HR 118
Max HR 143
Avg Spd 14.9
Max Spd 25.5
Cad not working
Kcal 640
Morning HR 54