Saturday training ride...

A fun?? 115km jaunt with ergvideo. Threshold set @ 300 watts and running on a level 2 ride setting... worked out to a 200 watt average for 2 hours 45 minute ride. Covered 115km today... setting up nicely for Maui in a little over a week!

Dave Z house burglarized

http://velonews.com/article/88567/zabriskie-s-home-burglarized

The world (North America in particular) needs tougher laws on these parasites who break and steal what's not there's... some of those items stolen can NEVER be replaced...We've been broken into before, luckily we didn't lose to much... I vote on automatic death penalty... guilty til proven innocent... my rant for the day...

I think this just about sums it up...

"I have always believed cycling offers so much. Whether you do it for a healthy lifestyle, a way to spend time with family and friends, an outlet for your energy away from the stresses of life, or with aspirations to race, or for other reasons. The sport has a technical side involving equipment and clothing and a physical side which at times can demand extreme suffering. Finally a mental side where a rider can be pushed to limits never thought possible. - Kevin Livingston"

Ruptured spleen to world champ...

Niels Albert DESTROYED the field... what more can you say... intensive care a few months ago, now the world champ.

1 Niels Albert
2 Zdenek Stybar
3 Sven Nys
4 Bart Wellens

Hammering in Hawaii...

Soon... Well its been a looong countdown to Maui, and its still a long countdown away... another 41 days to be exact... Winter training has progressed nicely.. Im floating at almost fighting weight.. power has substantially increased for now anyways... I started XC skiing FINALLY.... its amazing what the proper kickwax can do... or shall I say I found out what lack of kickwax can do.. my upper thighs are still killing from the 2 hour ski at BHP over the weekend... 4.5 hours of Computrainer on those 2 days didn't help much either... Oh well... off to work, then ride, and maybe a quick ski tonite...

Ergvideo is awesome

I'm just about to start into the 8th week of my Computrainer Ergvideo training program... so far things are progressing.... "nicely" I haven't gained an ounce of weight since season ended.. thats good because normally over winter I tend to put on a few pounds.. This year I also elected to squash the gym from the program... I usually end up (a) Hurting my knees (b) Feeling to sore to ride properly (c) Coming out in spring and my legs feel like concrete... so I figured this year its 6 days a week on the bike and nail the set program.. which reminds me I should go cancel my gym membership...

Ergvideo is unique to the computrainer... you can watch the videos if you want and ride try to ride the power profile if you have a powermeter and a regular trainer, but its not the same... Ergvideo is taped races and training sessions along with a power profile. You are considered to be a rider in the pack.. when the pack increases the pace/power output, the computrainer sends resistance (watts) to the load generator and you have to maintain the set watts (erg mode) If you start bogging you are getting dropped. The thing you have to watch with videos is if you see a hill coming the normal tendency would be to gear down... you can't do that in this.. when you see a power spike coming you need to INCREASE your RPM to maintain the profile... most of my rides have been averaging around 105rpm and I have been riding a 53X16 generally.

This was probably one of the harder weeks on the program...
The week consisted of:
5X9 minutes @ FTP with 3 min break between each effort
3 sets of 8 reps 45 seconds @ 125% FTP with 2 mins break between each effort
1+15 minute recovery ride - very cool ride with team CSC in South Africa
1+45 minutes @ Aerobic level with some bursts on the hill upto 400 watts
2+30 minutes with 14 hill intervals @ 80% FTP 4 minute intervals
1+45 Aerobic ride

It was funny today after climbing a few minutes @ 320 watts how 240 watts seemed rather "easy"

The best thing about this program is I can scale the video to ANY profile... you ride the videos at your ability... my threshold isn't the same as yours, so you can set your threshold to your level, but we get the same workout, just at different wattage output... Just because the CSC ride was easy yesterday, at the push of a button on the Computrainer controler I can ramp the ride foorm a Level 1-2 recovery up to a Level 3-4 hard ride...

This combined with 3 weeks in Maui in March should have me prepared for spring... unfortuneatley, the first race isn't until late in April...

Looking back on 2008

Well another year has come and gone.. as I look back on 2008 the first thing that comes to my mind is on January 1st of 2008 I rode my bike 145km around Maui with over 4000 feet of elevation climbing... the BEST way to start the new year in my opinion.. what could be better than escaping minus whatever and snow to 80 degrees in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with my favorite Italian carbon friend! Unfortuneatly.. I have to wait another 69 days to do it again, but at least its hopefully going to be a smooth transition to come back here and ride outside immediately... well hopefully... I guess thats what the computrainer is for and my ergvideo training program.. I actually look forward to coming home and looking at what punishment is ahead of me for the evening... today was 6 X 1.5 minutes @ 360 watts with 3 mins rest between each effort.. I was pulling way more watts than that, but the computrainer is regulating the load and wont let me drastically exceed it... 50kmh though @ 118rpm.

2008 race wise, I want to say a big thanks to Tim and Arlene Woodcock for all their efforts for the team... Arlene motorpacing us down River Road was always fun as she always seemed to find the throttle on the hills to make life a little more "interesting" I will pass you this summer.. well Im going to try anyways!!

Overall the season was succesful.. a few wins on the road, some good strong TT rides, a 2nd overall in Minnesota at the Tour of Granite Country, I got better at cyclocross... and of course don't forget my annoying emails every other day about training rides... which were usually met by a select handful of dedicated team mates.. you all know who you are!! If you think you got alot of emails from me this year.... you haven't seen ANYTHING yet... I want EVERYONE out there on the team...

Awards won... Bronze Medal (AGAIN for the past 4 years) in Master A Provincial TT Championships... Silver Medal Provincial Cyclocross Championships, Woodcock TT Series - 1st Overall, MCA Sportmanship award, MCA Road Organizer award to the Woodcock team.

Thats a wrap for 2008... looking forward 2009... especially with my new Cosmic Carbone Powertap wheels!!! Oh yeah.. and Super Record 11 speed...