Sunday 14 March 2010

Flahute

A few of us got out for a team ride this morning. Being a geographically diverse group, it's a tough ask. The weather sucked but not nearly as much as it was meant to. It barely rained, it was just tons of residual water. Seneca Creek was about three times as wide as normal. Each of us wore a different flavor of embro, so we were fragrant as hell. Mine (Elite Thermo Gel) just wasn't all that hot. I need something else. Anyhow, we got a few less than 50 in, told some funny stories and got completely filthy.

I think my base must be pretty good. Spending an hour at 90% of CP60 is no big deal. I'm not yet in the "all the hay is in the barn" stage, but I'm ready for some of the shorter harder efforts, so I started those in earnest this past week. Measured against previous years, I'm in a good spot. Using power for training is great, but combining it with 'natural intervals,' like up a hill from a certain sign to a certain mailbox, is ideal. There are a bunch of places around town where I can get a good, quick check in. I think it's important to develop those.

A bunch of guys on the team are doing variants of time compressed training plans, and clearly it's working pretty well for
them. I seem to do better with more volume. This last week was like 11 hours, much of which was spent in the tempo/sub-lt range, a lot in lt, and a bunch in each of VO2 max and low intensity. This qualifies as a pretty high volume week for me. Hopefully I can keep it up like that because I feel good for this time of year.

It still feels like racing is further away than it is. It starts next week. Wow. Hopefully spring will decide to show up.

There's a lot of stuff floating around in my world right now. Good stuff. Not good stuff like some other good stuff that some
other people have got going on, but still good. If a couple of things work out, man, it could get
really freaking fun.

I don't like Contador. Many people view this as mutually inclusive with liking Lance. Not so. Gilbert, S Sanchez, Koen de Koert, Chavanel, Pozzatto, VDV, Horner, Voeckler, Kreuziger, Haussler. These are the dudes I'd like to see go well. Haussler gets some heck from people, but he did a good job turning himself around - he was a booze hound rager who was out in da club the night before he won a Vuelta stage as a 21 year old and quickly saw himself settling into a comfortable mediocrity, then got his shit together when Gerolsteiner folded and he needed a job. I respect that shite.

If this kid Peter Sagan doesn't turn up hot, I'll be pretty amazed.

7 comments:

Chuck Hutcheson said...

Sagan is a rocket and just because he is tearing it up does not mean he is doping. Great riders have to start being great at some point. After this last week, I am a fan, but if he does turn up hot I will be severly let down.

Jim said...

Sportbalm hot. It should be sufficiently warm. Word to the wise: it's best on bare skin, quite warm under knee warmers, and a herd of outraged attack bees if the weather nips up into the 70s during your ride. It's the embro for which alcohol wipes was invented.

Chuck Wagon said...

Chuck - Agreed. And I heard he's been a stud the whole time coming up. I also hadn't yet seen today's stage when I wrote - the fact that he wasn't a key protagonist today is somehow a relief in terms of credibility. It just sucks that someone like him comes along and the sport has taught us extreme skepticism. I also meant it more that I'll be amazed at him, not that I'll be amazed if he isn't a doper.

Jim - Thanks that sounds like what I need.

Tim Rugg said...

You're not as friendly on the ole country roads these days. What's up?

Chuck Wagon said...

I nodded, you didn't. Should I have offered breakfast?

Tim Rugg said...

An invite to breakfast at least.

TerribleTerry said...

Rugg - He saw the Harley Davidson logo and thought chaps and leather instead of tights and lycra. He was just trying to avoid eye contact or throw a wave that would be confused as a gang sign.