Red Eyed Vireo at the Furnace Creek 508

Posted on November 28, 2010 by REV Cycling Directeur Sportif

Alright, voting time! Is this the cover for the 2011 Furnace Creek 508 race magazine? AdventureCORPS has made a photo of me available for download as desktop wallpaper. It is one of my favorite photos from the 2010 Furnace Creek 508 taken by Marcus Edvalson. He captured me approximately 350 miles into the race, in between Shoshone Time Station #4 at mile 326 and Baker Time Station #5 at mile 382. I am secretly hoping that my photo makes the cover of the 2011 Furnace Creek 508 race magazine. If you feel the same, please take the time to post a comment on my blog or Facebook!

Felt F2 with Di2 7900 Electronic Dura-Ace, SRM 7900 Dura Ace Wireless Crankset Power with Power Control 7, Skins Compression Pro Cycle Bib Tights and base layer, Bont A1 cycling shoes, Nathan Sports Reflective Gear, Zipp Zedtech 2 wheels, Swiftwick Socks, Bike Religion Cycling Team and Oakley Sunglasses.

Bike Religion Shop Ride

Posted on November 27, 2010 by REV Cycling Directeur Sportif

Today I helped lead the first Bike Religion Shop Ride. It was an easy paced 50 mile ride. A good ride with new friends. Stay tuned for additional Bike Religion Shop Rides.

Garmin Connect – http://connect.garmin.com/activity/58100272

Ride with GPS – http://ridewithgps.com/routes/233316

Ride with GPS Player http://ridewithgps.com/trips/140828— Choose satellite in Playback mode

Wednesday Ride Comparison

Posted on November 25, 2010 by REV Cycling Directeur Sportif

For the last three weeks I have been slowly increasing the amount of effort I put out at the weekly endurance ride. What I do is sit in front for the first hour of the ride and pull. I do this so I get one hour unsheltered . Most of my events I ride/race in I don’t have the benefit of drafting behind other riders. It’s important for me to get time in the wind whenever I ride with groups. You will notice my Normalized Power increases from 220, 235, 241 watts or 3.23 w/kg, 3.45 w/kg and 3.54 w/kg, respectively, for a 60 minute period. The first hour of ride is generally uphill.

Thanksgiving Day Ride

Posted on November 25, 2010 by REV Cycling Directeur Sportif

On my ride today (Thanksgiving Day) I rode up to the top of Ridge Park in Orange County, California. Beautiful day with morning temps in the low 40’s and highs in the 70’s. Here are some pictures of Sasha, Soloist SL w/Di 2 and Wireless 7900 SRM with mountains in the background.

and just for the heck of it a shot of Newport Harbor and the Pacific Ocean below.

The Week in Review

Posted on November 20, 2010 by REV Cycling Directeur Sportif

WEDNESDAY RIDE- ENDURANCE

On this week’s Wednesday ride I sat out front for one hour instead of hiding in the peloton. My Normalized Power was 235 watts or 3.45 w/kg

THURSDAY RIDE- HILL WORK

On Thursday I began my first of many hill repeat workouts of the 2011 season preparation. The local hill is Newport Coast Drive. It is 1.5 miles with an average grade of 6% and gains about 460 feet. Because of the enormous amount of mental focus required for hill repeats, I planned for a short workout. This Thursday I only did four repeats. I will slowly increase the duration and intensity of my hill workouts. The gearing choices were 39 x 28, 39 x 25, 53 x 11 and finally a “free ride”. The 53 x 11 climb was for strength training on the bike. Below are the graphs and data for the 39 x 28 and 53 x 11 repeats. You will notice a huge difference in wattage and torque.

FRIDAY RIDE

My legs were a little stiff from the hill repeat workout on Thursday. I felt good through the hills on Tesla and stayed with the front group. Even when a gap opened up I closed the gap. The power chart below is the final 5 miles just before the sprint. There are a couple of rollers and lots of changes in pace. Unfortunately, we got caught at the light at the bottom of Newport Coast Drive. I was in a trackstand when the light turned green and was able to be one of three riders ahead of the pack. I didn’t have anything left to sprint though.

My Normalized Power for the last 13 minutes of the ride was 282 watts or 4.14 w/kg

Sasha Gets a Makeover- Cervelo Soloist SL with SRM 7900 Wireless Power Meter and Shimano Di2

Posted on November 16, 2010 by REV Cycling Directeur Sportif

Sasha got a makeover last night. She is now equipped with Shimano Di2 7970 electronic Dura-Ace. I am also running the Dura-Ace Tubeless wheels. The Dura-Ace wheels are already the best riding wheels I have in my wheel inventory – going tubeless just increased the ride comfort one more notch. Along with the Dura-Ace wheels, and Di2 I also installed my SRM 7900 Wireless Power Meter on Sasha. This is just about the closest I can come to dream bike! Only thing left to do is upgrade the frame to a Cervelo S3…hmmm.

Tempo work – Coastal Ride- Laguna Beach

Posted on November 14, 2010 by REV Cycling Directeur Sportif

TRAINING GOALS:

A. Ride at Tempo (209-249 watts)

B. Ride higher gear lower cadence (80-85 rpm) to keep power up.

C. Work rollers in bigger gears … seated climbing

RESULTS:

A. Normalized Power 225 watts – GOAL ACHIEVED

B. GOAL ACHIEVED

C. GOAL ACHIEVED

Hill Work — on the coast

Posted on November 12, 2010 by REV Cycling Directeur Sportif

Training Goal – Three (3) hour training ride, maintain 200- 220 watts on the flats- (Tempo wattage range 209-249 watts)

Work coastal rollers in my 53 x 11 seated as a muscle tension workout

I had a great ride today with incredibly nice weather as a bonus. We are in Santa Ana conditions with clear blue skies and unseasonably warm weather. The downside is the drier air which dehydrates you much sooner. It was a stretch to do the 60 miles with only two bottles.

On the power chart you should be able to notice the Torque squiggly line greater than the yellow power line. On the rollers with a 53 x 11 gear selected torque shoots up significantly.

Thursday Coffee Crew

Posted on November 11, 2010 by REV Cycling Directeur Sportif

The weather forecast called for 25 mph gusts and it was accurate. As the pack made its way around the former Marine air base the pack was shred first by the pace at the front and second by the cross winds. The funny thing is I knew it was coming but didn’t have the power to stay with the front section. In a crosswind there is nowhere to hide except riding alongside another rider. Problem is that on city streets the bike lane is only wide enough for two riders and really the only way to keep a pack of riders together in crosswind conditions is to spread the width of the road in an echelon formation.

I did what I could to stay on but I was popped by the lead riders. I was then picked up by the trailing pack and worked in with them to finish the ride.

Screen shots from Training Peaks WKO 3.0

I have posted side by side the last two Thursday Coffee Crew rides. The one on the left is 110410 and the one on the right is from 111110 (today). You can see from the two summaries above how these two rides differ. Last week’s ride I thought was hard but the numbers from this week are much higher.

1. Notice how much higher the peak power numbers are for all categories under 2 minutes on the left chart 110410.

2. Now notice how much higher everything is for all peak power numbers for categories more 5 minutes is on the chart on the right 111110.

3. Also notice Normalized Power is 213 vs 202 between this Thursday and last Thursday, respectively. Much more work on today’s ride.

4. Also notice how the kj are higher, 1326 kjs, for today’s ride and 1240 kjs, for last week even though today’s ride was 4 fewer miles and seven fewer minutes.

5. The IF (Intensity Factor) was 77% for today’s ride 73% for last week’s ride. It’s interesting to have such a disparity since the first 15 minutes of the ride were REALLY easy. There was a lot of bunching up as no one individual or team wanted to take control and set the pace at the front of the pack. And yet the IF was 4% higher today than last week.

It was a hard “group ride” for me today.

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