Friday 29 June 2007

REALLY Tranquillo

Okay so all those Euro Dogs must be super tranquillo now that Jorg Jaksche is going to tell where all the skeletons are. Let's hope he has enough sack to really say what's going on out there. The whole thing kind of makes me sick, but it's a tough deal. I've raced sailboats at a competitive enough level where if drugs gave a significant advantage, people would definitely be using them, but they really don't. I mean sure, a shot of hgh probably would have felt great a few times. There was a Pan Am Games Trials I did in '98 that was so windy for three days straight, plus sailing in the gulf stream off of Ft. Lauderdale, jeezus I wanted to die every day when I came off the water. And the winner was drug tested at that event. I didn't win. Would I have taken drugs to try and win? No, but I wasn't there in the first place. It would have made a difference but it wouldn't have made THE difference. The other thing to me is that it clearly seems that the institution of pro cycling is to blame for most of the mess.

On to brighter notes. From reading other people's blogs, I get the impression that maybe I ride a lot less than others. For the past several weeks I have been decreasing mileage and time, and WAY increasing intensity. Tonight, for example, I did 7 rides up Ridge Road in Rock Creek Park from the gates (where you hit the pavement again after riding over the grass on the Goon Ride) to the top where the road forks at Ross Road. The intensity is really high - you are supposed to ride these as though you are breaking away to try and win a race that ends at the top of the hill. But the workout total was like 1:10 including riding there and riding home. This is not at all atypical of this plan. I just don't feel like I need the mileage now, as I got heaps of mileage through the late winter and spring. I need intensity.

The weird thing is that sometimes I really just want to ride my bike more than I am supposed to. It's the summer and it's nice and I sure do like to go for a nice long bike ride. Well, we'll see how it goes.

Instead of going to Smithsburg this weekend I am off to a wedding in Lynchburg, VA. It will be held at a church where the late Jerry Falwell was once the minister. It ought to be...interesting. Actually there ought to be a pretty high degree of debauchery. And on Sunday I will get to revisit the Skyline Drive since Lynchburg is supposedly some principal gateway to the Blue Ridge or some such thing. Will I go 2 for 2 on bear sightings? Stay tuned to find out.

2 comments:

Jim said...

I shell out good coin for coaching and my coach - a pretty strong racer in his own right - says the only two things you should be doing at this time of year are really slow, easy rides, or balls-out intensity work of fairly short duration. I think there's probably some hurdle you go over, where you are training 20 hours a week and doing marathon interval sessions and everything, but for lesser wheelmen, it doesn't seem to be the way. My Cycling Peaks software, with its Freshness & Fitness curves, seems to confirm this general approach to training.

Chuck Wagon said...

thanks, Jim. It's working out all right, but you know how it is when you hear all these guys telling tales of mammoth mileage. How closely does your coaches advice synch up with what Cycling Peaks is telling you?