It's that time again. With the end of one season begins another. The slate gets wiped clean, and with some retrospective evaluation of the year behind, the year ahead starts to take shape.

The year behind:
The year started in Japan. Races in Kirarahama (6th in the TT, DNF/flat in the crit). Made the move to the states in January and attacked the schedule change as best as I could. I found myself peaking rather unexpectedly in March, well before races with 2x20's in the upper 360's and even a 372 along the way. Then, a couple bouts of sickness and races started.

A lot of learning in the racing. I had a number of 10th-15th places as I tried to maintain some sort of fitness and challenging the new work schedule, but nothing significantly better than that. By the end of April, I burned out and decided to reset mentally. I hopped back into base training and got some consistent miles under the belt. After a bit of time, I got my groove back on. I started using a local group ride at Wakefield park to add some mid-week, unstructured intensity to the schedule. Fitness came right along as I hoped and threshold was pushing 365ish (based on consistently riding 50 min @ 365-370 with the group). I raced a few races in August and September just for the fun of it. Took a lot of pressure off and had some good fun.

That leaves me a little short of my two main goals for this year: move to Cat 3 and 5.0 w/kg threshold power. I'm slightly more fit this year at peak than last year, so I'll take solace in that. I finished off last year with a threshold of 345 @ 75kg (4.6 w/kg). I finished this year with 365 @ 77kg (4.74 w/kg).

The year ahead:
Fitness: I'll once again set a goal of 5 w/kg for threshold by next summer's end. I honestly believe it's in the sights. With two periods of sickness in Feb/March and later in June, and a horribly managed spring season, I lost early fitness gains and had to make that ground back up mid-summer. It essentially equates to another 30 watts on MAP. I gained 20 watts this year (452 up to 471), so while still a stretch, I certainly think it's possible.

What it takes:
--Consistent training, focused on threshold improvement throughout the off season, with the necessary VO2 training to raise the ceiling. I know workouts that induce adaptation.
--It will take some trainer time this year, as the DC metro area winters are a bit more messy - which means there will be workouts moved to the trainer. I have to motivate myself to get on the trainer and ride the living daylights out of it.
--Weight maintenance is key. I've found that I can sit around 77kg and be healthy and strong there. Trying to drop weight below 77 ramps up fatigue quite a bit, so this year 77kg is the magic number.

Racing: Cat 3 is back in the sights.

What it takes:
-- Racing enough
-- Racing smart
-- Fitness (see above).

Time trials: Win 2 time trials, one each at the Cat 4 and Cat 3 level

What it takes:
-- Close the TT bike/Road bike power difference. This means solid positioning on the TT bike with the right amount of flexibility and core work. I'll take a month or so on the new TT bike (in the stable next week) to get the bike dialed in. Once that is accomplished, one of my two threshold workouts per week will be on the TT bike. If that means that workout takes a hit in target wattage initially, I'll manipulate the training schedule to get a third quality threshold day into the week.
-- Did I mention flexibility and core work? Something I've neglected before so adding that to my training early will make it a good habit early. Like everything new, this will be an experiment.

So, now for the "goal setting" check.

[S]pecific - Check for all three
[M]easurable - Check for all three, MAP, win, win
[A]ttainable - Check for all three
[R]ealistic - Check for all three, 5 w/kg FTP is the hardest.
[T]imely - Check for all three, by end of next season (September)

Ride safe, ride lots,
VW

Today was the finishing race of the season, the ING Direct Capital Criterium. Raced the Masters 35+ which had a stacked field of talent. The race started hot, just as we expected. The “hill” before turn two wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be during warm ups. Pop it into a low gear and spin like mad and you pretty much got sucked up it. At least half the time I was soft pedaling through the top into the corner. The rough stretch of road on that descent out of turn 3 into turn 4 was a tricky bit of position gain/loss depending on the line you took. The most painful part of each lap was typically the stretch right out of the 180 keeping contact with the bunch.

It took me about 10 of our laps (we did 20) to feel like I had the flow of the course down. Once I had that, the race went much more smoothly and I was able to move from “hanging onto the back” to “working the middle.” With about 4-5 to go, I was finally feeling warmed up and got off the front for the stretch from the start/finish to the top of the hill. By this point, the IM folks had worked the front well enough that nothing was going anywhere without the pack getting strung out to catch it. The break was up the road by 30ish seconds by this point.

I was dreading this race yesterday, but once we got it moving, the course was a blast. About 5 laps in I got to thinking I might not be hanging on for the whole race, but as usual – once the legs warmed up it was all good.

Contrary to a lot of folks, I think the 180° turn adds something to the course and the challenge. It would definitely be a much faster race without the 180 as it was planned. It would probably be safer as well. We had two crashes in our race on the turn. Folks just needed to relax and the turn would carry momentum, but too many folks were trying to make up position and cut the corner too close. That force of the accordion effect was brutal if you weren’t geared for the surge out the other side.

Figure I finished in the bottom third somewhere but I didn’t check the results. We’ll see what gets posted and go with it. Absolutely great race and hope to see it on the calendar every year here.

My season is also officially over today. I’ll take a transition week this week while cleaning up a midterm for school, some house work and a couple days of vacation. Taking the next week to do those much anticipated easy long rides in our beautiful weather before turning over to the beginning of base season. I might even pull the mountain bike out on Wednesday and Sunday and just go have fun on it.

Nothing of significance happened this season in race results. I had a smattering of 9th-15th places with a whole mess load of top half of the field results. I've learned a lot about racing in the states versus race in Japan. I've been humbled by kids literally half my age and made some great friends along the way. I've raced some awesome venues and look forward to adding them back on the schedule next year if they're still around. I'm rolling off this season onto a new team for the 2009 season in Whole Wheel Velo Club. It's a fantastic group of guys, strong guys and motivated to train and win. I look forward to being able to contribute to the team's success in the coming year.

My responsibilities: training and commitment.

Tomorrow's post: 2009 Goals. It's time to set sights.

Ride safe, ride lots, ride smart.

VW

Here we are, wrapping up the year of racing. I've had great form of late and was really looking forward to racing today. I wasn't especially keen on racing twice today. I've never done "two a day" racing and wasn't sure how to work the legs and food and still keep cool and loose. Today's unseasonable high temperatures topped with crazy humidity certainly didn't help.

So, I got to the race on time and got warming up. One thing I know for sure nowadays. With the training load where it's at, I need to get a good hour of warming up before I hit the race level intensity. There was a time I could get on the bike and do 20-30 minutes. Nowadays I can almost feel the "snap" show up in the legs around the 50-60 minute mark.

The plan for today's first race (Cat 3/4) was to sit in as much as possible and stay fresh for the second race (Masters 30+). Off we went, and sit in I did. In fact, I sat in so much that I didn't even know a break of 5 got off the front and up the road. How's that for missing the point? Oh well, so I'm sitting in and riding circles. There were 5 primes for a 15 lap race, which seemed inordinately high - but there it is. I came around one lap after hearing the bell ring for a prime. I didn't really want to go hard, but I could wind it up a bit and offered to lead out Bryan Vaughan as I came along side him. He looked at me like I was nuts and I took off.

The first thing I thought was "Here's a repeat of Strasburg where I sprinted for the finish a lap early." Indeed, off the front and no one chases and I soft pedaled through the start/finish line. That got me a $15 prime uncontested. Bizarre!

Handful of laps later we're hitting the prime lap again. The pace was definitely high and I think the guy on the front thought it was high enough that no one would try to get it from him as the first 10 riders were strung out. I jumped hard left and took off. One NCVC guy saw me going and I saw him get up to go. He didn't close the gap and I got through my second prime, prepped to settle back into the pack. (2008 Tour of Flanders DVD, woot!)

It was about this time that I heard a guy along side the course yell "30 seconds!" and I thought, "30 seconds to what?" It was at the end of this lap or so that one of my future teammates pulled along side and said "Let's go! We can get them!" "Ummm... get who?" It was sinking into the head that a break had got away, and contrary to everyone's previous advice about Cat 3/4 races on this course, that break was going to stick. Awww cruds.

We tried to close, but after having just blown a huge match for the prime, I wasn't prepared to settle at threshold, so I cried, "Uncle" and settled into the pack. We rolled onto the last lap and I worked my way into the front end. I saw a couple guys setting up for a leadout and I got my bike in the middle of them. The lead guy didn't realize it until we rounded the last turn and I was sitting about 7th wheel. Other than leadouts, a couple guys blew themselves up trying to sprint from about 500 meters out - each of which we would systematically pass as they sat up gasping for air 100 meters from the finish. I pulled in across the line 4th in the pack sprint - not bad for a slow twitch guy. That put me 9th overall, and since they paid out to 10th place, it was a rather successful race (2 primes and a 9th) - especially since I planned to sit in.

The Masters 30+ was brutal. My legs were extremely tight. Disappointingly so. I worked what I could to hold the pace, which was driven by the a stacked DC Velo field and everyone else trying to beat the DC Velo guys. It wasn't that the pace was extremely high, but the surges felt brutal to my stiff legs and they just never opened back up. Bo Lee tried to get me to go with him into turn 1 about 3/4 of the way through the race. We made the turn but the remainder of the pack was on him like white on rice. The entire race was basically "attack to bridge" and "surge to cover" with huge mixes of non-movement in between.

The power numbers for both races are extremely low for me - evidence that physically the races weren't that demanding. But I'll say that coming across the finish of the 30+ race hurt like crazy pushing endurance level wattages.

Next weekend should be a respectfully brutal race as well in the Masters 35+ Capital Crit. Fortunately, I won't have burned any matches in a 45 minute race an hour prior.

Ride hard, Ride safe,
VW

Yes indeed.

I finished my 2 hrs of riding today at just before 7:30pm thinking, "Man, I need to get my rear flasher light on. It's stinkin' dark." Daylight is closing down on us and with a quickness. Add that to two more race days left on the calendar, and we're settling in for the off season.

It's still pretty weird to think of the off season starting already. Last year at this time I was planning a peak race in October, three races in November and one in December. This year, it's just about over. The good news is I seem to be on pretty good form so for these last two race days I should feel pretty good. Time to leave it all on the race course for the season.

Since I typically plan out a month or so in advance, I've started to think about the training plan as I roll off race peaking into base season. I'm carrying 17-18 hrs per week of training right now, and with daylight rolling back fast, I'm going to have to find ways to get that time in over the winter without totally skipping on the family. So, I'm starting to construct a plan to get my ride time in right after work on the way home.

Interval training isn't as crucial through base so my course selection can be a little more varied. I plan to work 3x20's @ 91% in twice per week as a good portion of my off season regimen, and I've got places to do those. Everything else is long, steady riding. Once or twice per month I'll do a 1 day VO2 workout. I find that it helps me stretch FTP just that little bit.

The week beginning the 22nd will be my transition week. Two of those days that week I'm gonna drag the mountain bike out and get some trail riding in. I'll do some long needed bike maintenance and cleaning. I'll also sit down and put some goals on paper, post them here, post them in the "bike room," and probably laminate them to my handlebars.

Either way, it's still hard to believe it's even the time of year to be thinking about "off season." I feel too good on the bike for "off season." I'll be curious to see how I test MAP in my first week after transitioning.

Ride hard, ride safe.

VW

What a week!

My legs are downright toast. Only one other week of training that I've recorded has had as much training stress as this week did.

I rode my standard long rides over the weekend and took my Monday off like normal, and then it was on to the hard stuff.

For the last month and a half or so, I've been doing the Tuesday and Thursday group rides out of Wakefield. They're great rides, attended by racers from the national champion level down to the Cat 5 level. Tuesday rides tend to be the more anaerobic workouts - very much simulating crit style speeds and surges. Thursday rides are typically attended by fewer of the hammerheads so they tend to be more steady state - "always on" - rides.

This Tuesday was a world of attacking like mad. Local killer, Bryan Vaughan, usually spices things up but I was feeling pretty good so I joined in the attacking. We rolled off the ride a bit shorter than normal due to high speeds, but the 53 minutes of hard work rolled out right at 360 watts with a little left in the tank. I was floored when I saw these numbers when I got home. Flat out, floored.

Wednesday was a solid, steady long ride and then I rolled into Thursday.

Thursday's Wakefield ride was a poorly attended event by the usual Cat 2's in the group so I figured I'd take my chance to work the front. I attacked once, that was covered. Once I got recovered in the group I just rolled to the front and applied pressure. Nothing crazy, but just enough to push through the tops of some of the rollers at the beginning of the ride. Sure enough, we'd softened up enough that only Chris and I got off the front, so now it was time to get a gap. By the time we hit the "halfway" stop light, I'd rolled a 30 minute pNorm 362. Chris was toast at his own admission, so I was content to work the rest of the ride. Chris did a fantastic job holding on the rest of the ride. Dialed back a bit but still did the second "half" at pNorm 320.

So, I woke up today pretty tired but facing a Saturday of torrential rains, so with a chance to get an early day from work I rolled into my 4 hours of "Saturday" long riding. By 3 hours I realized I'd not eaten well, hydrated well, or simply was plain tuckered out. When I got home and saw that I'd just carried through 7 days of training at 183 TSS/day avg, I realized it was an "all of the above" reason for suffering.

I'm at a training load (CTL ~ 139) that has only been seen last November, right before I "blew through" into overtraining. I'm going to be extremely careful the next few days. Fortunately, I begin two weeks race "freshening" to do the Turkey Day races and the Capital Crit.

If I can carry any sort of the form I'm on now into the last two races of the season, I should hopefully salvage what has otherwise been an uneventful year.

Ride safe, ride hard, ride lots.

VW