Training Axiom

January 22, 2010 at 10:05 AM | Posted in Racing, Training | Leave a comment
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Gifted with an unusually pleasant winter, I had taken advantage of the weather to develop the famous California Juneuary fitness (I think Hernando coined that term).

The weather pattern that pummeled our state this week altered my training. I will train in the rain. I will ride at night. I will even challenge the wind, but when you combine all three, I turtle-up inside.

I tried intervals on the trainer last night and was forced to remember a truism learned early in my formative year as a Cat 5 in NYC, but long since forgotten:

The trainer makes you Tough

After accumulating roughly 6 trainer hours to-date this season, mostly spinning, I am decidedly un-tough.

I had a “discussion” about riding in bad weather a few weeks ago with Bender, the newest addition to the BBC team. We spoke of the hardmen in the Northern classics and how they get that way.

I posited that riding in the rain makes you a savage. I described how I placed fenders on my bike, donned my hermetically sealed gear and rode in the rain as evidence of my street cred.

His view was that you ride on the road in the rain because you aren’t brave enough to ride your mountain bike. “Mountain biking makes you a hardman!” Now since he is pushing 200 pounds and wins sprints from the hoods, I was inclined to give weight to his suggestion.

We were both wrong. Grinding it out on the trainer builds up the fortitude. Thank goodness for the sun this weekend.

Together we accomplish more

January 19, 2010 at 7:30 AM | Posted in Training | Leave a comment
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Rain combined with a rest week coupled with a long weekend led to a minor case of cabin fever. After bouncing off the walls with unspent energy and replacing the shoe laces in all of my footwear (just kidding?), I pulled out the camera to play with some old videos.

After watching years of Formula One, I figured it might be fun to replicate some of their footage. Another random thought: now that Sky is involved in cycling, how cool would it be if they brought the viewer selectable, multi-feed coverage from European F1 telecasts to cycling?

This video cracks me up for the “equitable” division of labor. In December, I rode with some friends on the newly formed Evergreen Racing Team. I wasn’t supposed to exceed tempo which meant a cycle of droppage on hills and chasing back on. In reality, I was the biggest wheelsuck in Marin, leaching onto anybody willing and able to pull me back to the group.

In this case, it was Henry. I kicked back relaxing in the draft, drowsily sipping mint juleps as he buried himself to bridge to the group. At some point, a tinge of guilt and the holiday spirit entered my mind and I roused from my somnolent state in the draft to share the workload and finish the job.

Dr. Wu puts in a very impressive pull, probably 500+ watts for 70 seconds, (give me a call, we should work together again).

It will be fun to play around with the camera in race season, assuming I hang around long enough to film the interesting bits during events.

Riding Dirty

January 11, 2010 at 12:18 PM | Posted in Training | Leave a comment
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Decided to go for a change of pace this Sunday. Rather than wake up early, I slept in. Instead of filling the bottles, I donned a Camelbak. In place of skinny tires, I rolled out some wide knobbies and left the warm sunshine of the east bay and made a beeline for the lone remaining fog bank in the bay area, stubbornly nestled over Camp Tamarancho.

I’m a new hand at this mountain biking mess, but it’s a load of fun. Though very humbling to learn that your bike handling is at beginner levels, it doesn’t detract from the amusement.

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