training 5-30-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 (4054.5 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-32.6, S-33.1, N-28.0, S-29.5, N-flatted, S-29.7. I flatted on the fifth run and found that I had significant patches of no tread around much of the circumference of the right front tire. I'm surprised it could hold air. I replaced it with a used Stelvio. I was thinking of doing one pass (22.5 miles) on Saturday instead of resting 5 1/2 days before Tuesday's TT. While I felt strong on the first lap, not having to work hard (heart, lung or leg-wise) to achieve decent training speed, my heart is telling me it could probably use the extra tissue repair time. Maybe it's tired from pushing gallons of ice cream through my blood vessels. I ended up eating three gallons of it in eight days. That's 26,680 calories of ice cream in eight days-- an average of 3360 calories of ice cream per day. That doesn't count the huge amount of cake and ice cream I ate on my sister's birthday. I'm a sick, sick man.

training 5-28-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (YTD 4010). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-30.7, S-30.0, N-31.6, S-30.1, N-30.5, S-30.1. 30.5mph total ride average. It looks like I'm going to pass on the Hellyer races in favor of the Folsom TT next Tuesday. As the Hellyer race approached I've been more and more apprehensive about subjecting my velomobile to the dangers of riding on the velodrome with inexperienced riders. Doing so has already caused one of my bikes to be destroyed. I've thought about what would happen if someone caused damage to my velomobile. I would not be happy and I'd only have myself to blame. Sure, killing the offender would bring short-term satisfaction but that wouldn't fix my velomobile nor would it do much for my future freedom. Anyway, after trying to electronically signup and failing, then having my printer go on the fritz when I tried to print the forms out I'm going to heed the omen. Yay, I also saved myself 5-6 hours of driving, gas and entry fees. Instead I can ride five miles to the TT course from my house.

training 5-26-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (3965.5 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-30.1, S-27.5, N-30.9, S-28.8, N-31.9, S-28.8. Rest week (29.66mph total ride average).

training 5-24-13

Folsom canal, 44.5 miles (3921 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-32.6, S-31.5, N-33.1, S-31.8, N-33.3, S-31.8. No drama (32.35mph total ride average). I feel better than I have in a long time thanks, I'm sure, to my ice cream therapy. I feel stronger and my mood is good. The thing I really notice is that my blood pressure doesn't drop so much when I stand up causing me to almost black out. That usually happens when I lose weight but not when I'm at my normal weight like I am now. It's very disconcerting. It especially helps when I get out of the velomobile to turn around on the trail. There are times, especially after faster runs that I feel pretty close to meeting my maker. I feel fine riding but when I stop, get up and decompress-- holy shit. That is one reason I haven't been too gung-ho about doing the local TT's--what would happen after going at full race effort? Well, hopefully that won't be an issue any longer.

training 5-22-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (3876.5 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-27.8, S-35.0, N-28.7, S-35.1, N-29.9, S-35.4. Very windy (31.98mph total ride average). I felt good today but still held back. Yesterday I started my Blue Oyster Cult (aka Don't Fear the Reaper) Diet. I switched out oatmeal for premium grade, 61% fat ice cream. I had a half gallon (4480 calories) of it yesterday to prime the pump. My diet will be nine eggs fried in butter, at least a half gallon of milk and at least a quart of ice cream per day. Plenty o' saturated fat. This diet, and variations of it, has proven to be a good high-performance diet in the past. The fatal flaw in it is my inability to keep ice cream stocked without eating too much of it. Maybe this time.

training 5-20-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (3832 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-29.2, S-32.6, N-30.3, S-32.2, N-29.5, S-31.5. Easy day (30.86mph total ride average).

training 5-18-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 (3787.5 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-30.7, S-30.1, N-30.9, S-30.2, N-30.8, S-30.6. Easy, no stress ride (30.55mph total ride average).

training 5-16-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (3744 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-28.3, S-24.4, N-28.5, S-24.6, N-28.8, S-24.6. Super easy day. After moving around like the living dead I needed it. Perhaps I'll stick to easy rides until the Hellyer races. Another thing I have to be wary of is that after the last four velomobile sessions I've added stiff-leg deadlifts. I'm only using 110lbs for 3 sets of 10 for starters which is very easy but I have to keep my eyes peeled for any negative effects, either muscular or hormonal. The reason I decided to try them is that the velomobile position stresses my quads more than I'd like and I'm concerned that my glutes and hamstrings might be undertrained and susceptible to excessive damage in the required Battle Mountain position. That is also why I am keeping at least one session per week with longer cranks.

training 5-14-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (3699 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-33.0, S-30.1, N-33.1, S-30.6, N-33.1, S-30.0.

training 5-12-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (3654 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-32.5, S-29.6, N-32.0, S-29.3, N-29.2, S-25.3. Easy day. Despite that I feel the most beat up I ever have after a ride this season. Even though it didn't feel that hard doing the 293 watt interval (about 15 minutes) on the DF yesterday as soon as I stopped it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to sit down to keep from passing out. I couldn't help thinking that I'm going to kill myself if I keep this up (Just sayin' in case it happens. I don't want nature thinking it pulled a fast one on me). My quads are especially toasted. They're not sore, just drained of glycogen. My accelerating power started off low and tapered quickly. By the last lap I was crawling along at 27mph with just a slight headwind. That's got to be a record low. Oh well, I have three weeks until Hellyer so I'll be tapering anyway.

training 5-11-13

Folsom Canal, 21.5 miles (3609.5 YTD). DF (170mm cranks). 1) 293w, 2) 237w.

training 5-9-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 (3588 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-33.3, S-31.8, N-33.5, S-31.3, N-33.1, S-31.8. I averaged 32.02 mph for the week in the velomobile.

training 5-7-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (3543.5 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-34.1, S-32.1, N-34.2, S-31.0, N-32.0, S-28.4. I had nothing but a bunch of peanuts for dinner last night and it showed in the latter half of my training session today. With the relatively high percentage of my aerobic capacity that I'm training at and the amount of energy I expend accelerating low glycogen storage levels are not easily forgiven.

training 5-5-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (3499 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-31.6, S-30.7, N-32.6, S-30.9, N-32.8, S-31.3.

training 5-4-13

Folsom Canal, 21.5 miles (3454.5 YTD). DF (170mm cranks). 1) 254w, 2) 244w.

training 5-2-13

Folsom Canal, 44.5 miles (3433 YTD). QuestXS (foothole covers, hood w/shield). N-32.1, S-34.4, N-32.1, S-34.5, N-31.8, S-34.2. I hit back-to-back one-lap round-trip average speed PRs of 33.25 and 33.3mph and a total session average speed PR of 33.18mph. I ate at least 4000 calories worth of corn tortilla chips yesterday so maybe it's true what they say-- vegetables ARE good for you. I took yesterday off because I had three days in a row where I felt very tired. I didn't feel like I was going to do myself any good if I rode. I think I'll switch to four days per week-- three in the velo and one on the DF. Those short DF rides knock the crap out of me.