Well, my training is wrapping up this week as my first century bicycle ride draws near. Today I wanted to share with you what I’ll be doing this last week before the big ride. Stuff like press conferences, sponsorship signings, and pics with perspective podium girls. Ha, ha! Just kidding.

I’ve been absent as of late but I have been busy. Most importantly, I’ve begun my training for the Tour de Cure in earnest as of this past Monday. See, I should have written this post on Monday but now it’s Wednesday. Busy I tell you.

Day 44 – 4×6 Intervals at RPE9

All my interval sessions up to this point had been 4×8 (four intervals at 8 minute duration) so I was looking forward to something new and to see just how hard I could push for 6 minutes. It was hot when I started the ride with a stiff wind out of the Northeast which made the second and fourth intervals particularly difficult.

After my warm up I waited until I had a slight downhill section to start the first interval. I shifted up a couple of gears and quickly got up to 21 mph. My speed varied between 18.5 to 21 mph during the six minutes and it actually felt pretty good. I wasn’t all out but probably couldn’t have given it much more. After the interval I had to slow it way down to recover. This was repeated for the other three intervals but the two into the wind were very tough and my speed did suffer some in areas where I had a direct head wind. The last interval was particularly hard because it was the last of the day and was into the wind. I think I gutted it out pretty good though and gave it a good effort.

Even though these intervals were 2 minutes less than my normal intervals they were very hard due to the effort expended. I wasn’t all out but almost. Here are the days numbers:

Time (h:m): 1:13
Distance: 18.62 miles
Avg Speed: 15.3 mph

Day 45 – 1 Hour Endurance Pace Recovery

I was really feeling the hard interval workout from the day before. My legs were heavy, I was tired, and not keen on riding but knew I needed the recovery ride to work out the kinks in my legs. Even though it was only an hour in length it felt much longer and tougher. The wind was absolutely brutal today blowing at a stiff 20 mph out of the South. Instead of resetting my computer at the end of my warm up I just rode for an hour. My average speed really suffered because of that but I still got in a decent ride.

It was Wednesday which saw, again, lots of cyclists down at White Rock Lake. I think I’m going to have to start calling it ‘Bling Day’ because this is the day you see all the serious riders show up with full team kits, carbon wheels, TT bikes, Colnagos, Pinarellos, etc. I wonder what the total cost of hardware rolling around the lake on a day like this is?

Here’s the day’s numbers:

Time (h:m): 0:57
Distance: 13.6 miles
Avg Speed: 14.32 mph

Day 46 – 4×8 Intervals

Another interval day but back to the 8 minute variety with a little less exertion. It was a hot day but, amazingly, no wind. Wooohooo! Don’t get those very often. White Rock Lake was almost like glass. I did my warm up and rolled straight into my first interval.

I think doing the 1 hour recovery ride yesterday really helped because my body actually felt quite good and I had no heaviness in my legs at all. I had actually noticed that when I got out of bed in the morning. I found myself rolling along at 19 mph for the first interval with no problem and maintained that for most of the interval. The same was repeated for the other intervals with me able to sprint over the small hills in intervals two and four at over 17 mph and quickly accelerating back up to 18.5 to 19 mph. On the fourth interval I pushed it pretty hard for the last 3 minutes or so and it felt great. Once done with the last interval I decided to go ahead and start my cool down and roll back to my car due to it starting to get a little dark. I need to remember to bring my lights next time.

Here are the numbers for today’s ride:

Time (h:m): 1:00
Distance: 16.2 miles
Avg Speed: 16.2 mph

I have a rest day today followed by a four hour endurance ride on Saturday. Hopefully the weather will be nice.

Today marks the end of six weeks of training for my first century. Last week was a somewhat lighter load as far as mileage goes but I still managed over 100 miles for the week thanks to the 63 mile ride on Saturday. Here’s the breakdown and re-cap.

Day 40 – Off Day

Day 41 – 4 Hour Endurance Pace Ride

I was a little nervous going into this ride because I had not ridden this long at one time in a very, very long time. If ever. I did 3 hours last Saturday so I knew I could do that. If I maintained my century pace of 15 mph I should be right at the metric century mark for the ride.

I arrived at the White Rock Trail at about 7:45 AM and set off for my warm up. The temperature was pretty nice in the low 80s and there were already quite a few folks on the trail both running and riding. I finished my 15 minute warm up in the same spot I always do, reset my computer, and settled in for a long morning. After about 1.5 hours the wind really started to pick up out of the South and got steadily worse throughout the ride. I still managed to maintain at, or above, century pace into the headwind but it was very hard to do so in the fourth hour.

My biggest worry for this long a ride was fueling during it. I brought six fig newton bars and a cliff bar for use during the ride. After two hours had elapsed (32 miles) I stopped for a quick 5 minute rest, ate the fig bars, and refilled my water bottle. I stopped after three hours and had the cliff bar. When I was finished with the ride I had two bananas waiting for me at the car. Overall I think the fueling went just fine but should have brought some gatorade with me.

Here are the numbers for this ride:

Time (h:m): 4:08
Distance: 63 miles (my first metric century…unassisted at that)
Avg Speed: 15.24 mph

Day 42 – 1 Hour Endurance Pace Ride

Not sure how my body was going to respond the day after riding 63 miles. During the first part of my warm up my legs were heavy and felt sluggish. After 15 minutes though they actually felt pretty good. I reset the computer and hit it good for an hour. The wind was brutal, again, this morning but I was still able to maintain a good average speed. The most interesting thing this day was seeing a guy wearing white bibs, a heart rate monitor, and no jersey. That’s got to be a huge cycling fashion no-no. It was scary looking.

Time (h:m): 1:05
Distance: 16.76 miles
Avg Speed: 15.47 mph

Day 43 – Rest Day

Here are the mileage numbers for last week:

Total Time (h:m): 6:46
Total Last Week: 104.1 miles
Avg Speed: 15.53 mph
Total Training Mileage: 613.96

I’ve updated the charts on the Century Training Tracker if you’d like to see those.

This week in the Century Training Plan is basically a recovery week so in addition to having Monday as a normal rest day I also had Tuesday off with Wednesday as an easy spin day. I believe this week was positioned this way to give riders a chance to recover some after having put in three hard weeks prior to this week. I can tell you that I needed it. Here’s the daily breakdown:

Day 37 – Rest Day – not much to say here

Day 38 – .5 Hour Easy Spin – I mentioned this ride a yesterday when I posted my rant about weatherchannel.com and horse dung. This was truly an easy spin for 30 minutes that felt pretty good. My legs were actually still a little sore from the weekends rides. Having this easy spin helped to loosen them and they felt pretty good for last nights ride. Here are the numbers:

Time (h:m): 0:30
Distance: 7.57 miles
Avg Speed: 15.14 mph

Day 39 – 1.5 Hour Endurance with 4×8 Intervals – I had been eagerly awaiting this ride because I wanted to really hammer the intervals. The wind hurt me on intervals 2 and 4 but I road them very hard regardless. On interval 1 and 3 I was able to maintain some good stretches at 19+ mph with some over 21 mph. That’s huge for me. I find it funny that while I’m doing these intervals upwards of 20 mph that I’m still getting passed by other folks. It just tells me that I have a long, long way to go to get back into shape. I have noticed though that I can maintain higher speeds on the hills and when I’m done with each interval my recovery time seems to only take a few minutes. I don’t have a heart rate monitor to see exactly how long my recovery time is but I do know that when I’m finished with an interval I’m back to breathing normally and wanting to pick my speed back up to 15 mph after only 2 or 3 minutes. That tells me that they seem to be working. Here are the numbers for yesterday’s ride:

Time (h:m): 1:03
Distance: 16.76 miles
Avg Speed: 15.96 mph

You’ll notice that I cut the time short by about 27 minutes. Believe it or not, I was getting uncomfortable in the saddle again and I was wearing my new bibs (with chamois cream). I have one particular spot on my right side that seems to really bother me. Almost like a blister. My left side is perfect. I don’t believe it’s a saddle sore just an irritation caused by my bibs, saddle, or fit. If I can figure out how to remedy this one problem I think I’ll be good to go.

I read an interesting article today about FRS in Men’s Journal – The Best Energy Supplement Ever? I had wondered if the stuff was all it was cracked up to be and the article suggests it is. I love how Juan Pelota (Lance Armstrong) was able to get some free samples. I tried to get some free FRS so I could do a long-term test during my century training and was politely told to buy my own. Guess I don’t have the pull ole Juan does. Sometime soon I’m going to have to start looking at something besides gatorade. My weekend ride mileage is starting to climb with me probably looking at 65 miles tomorrow which would put me over the metric century mark. I’ve also noticed that after some of my longer/harder rides that my legs will be sore the next day. I’m just hesitant to lay out the cash for supplements and not see any help. I thought the discussion on FRS potentially having to be banned by WADA interesting.

I just said that I’ll probably ride about 65 miles tomorrow (4 hours on the bike). Last week for my 3 hour ride I had a cliff bar at the 1.5 point and lots of water throughout. For tomorrow’s (and subsequent long rides) I think I’m going to need a little more. Maybe a cliff bar and a gel or peanut butter sandwich. I’ve read that 45 minutes between refueling is a good point to start. I’d like to hear some of your opinions on eating/drinking during the 4 hour ride to include food choices and when to eat.

Day 33 – Rest Day

Not much to be said about that. I considered riding anyway because I had missed a day earlier in the week due to rain but decided against it so I didn’t compromise my Saturday morning ride.

Day 34 – 3 Hour Endurance Pace Ride

I woke up a little before 7 AM and headed on down to White Rock Lake to get this ride in. The morning was just beautiful and the temp was still in the lower 80s when I started. There were a lot of folks out this morning doing their riding, running, rollerblading and walking. There even looked to be some kind of running race going on but I missed most of it because it looked like it had started early.

This ride was fairly simple – ride at endurance pace (15 mph) for 3 hours. I’d done this same length of ride just a couple of weeks earlier so I knew I could do it. After a 15 minute warm up I settled into a good rhythm and went to it. Everything went really good but after about an hour the wind started to pick up from the South and that made my Southbound leg around the lake a little difficult on some of the exposed points. I was really happy with the way I attacked the three or four hills that I see in each loop. I did notice that after several laps I couldn’t maintain the same speed I did initially but I can tell I’m getting better at riding them. I brought a cliff bar with me this time and had it at the 1.5 hour point. Immediately after that I rode pretty good (could have been psychological) but the 2 hour to 2.5 hour time frame was pretty hard.

After I was done I felt really good about the ride and am happy with the numbers. While I didn’t ride 50 miles during my timed endurance portion, if I was to add on my warm up I would be over the half-century mark. Here are the numbers:

Total Time (h:m): 3:10
Total Distance: 48.4 miles
Avg Speed: 15.28 mph

Day 35 – 1.5 Hour Endurance Pace Ride

This is the same ride as Day 34 but for only half the time. Instead of waiting until the evening to ride I decided to ride early and am glad I did because it got HOT later in the day. One bad thing about the ride though was that the wind was brutal. Straight out of the South but blowing hard. It made it quite difficult on portions of the loop but I just grinded it out. Saw lots of riders again this morning. Here are the numbers:

Total Time (h:m): 1:30
Total Distance: 23 miles
Avg Speed: 15.3 mph

Day 36 – Rest Day (Week 5 Re-Cap)

Today is Monday and the standard rest day. The Century Training Plan I’m following also has tomorrow as a rest day so I should be well-rested for Wednesday’s ride. I know I need the rest but I don’t feel like I need two days off.

The mileage numbers and measurements for this week are below. I’m about 23 miles short of what I should have been for the weekly mileage due to a rain day but I’m still happy with the numbers. My measurements seem to be fluctuating a bit and frustrate me. I really thought I’d start seeing change changes in my girth by this point but I haven’t seen anything significant. It seems like I’m holding within a half inch on all measurements with some up and some down. The next several weeks should tell me a lot though because my Saturday rides will see me really raising the bar on the mileage with this Saturday calling for a 4 hour ride. I’d like to find someplace other than White Rock Lake to do it so if any of you readers are in Dallas and can suggest a safe, low traffic route I’d like to hear about it.

Here are this weeks mileage numbers:

Total Time: (h:m): 5:59
Total Distance: 91.3
Avg Speed: 15.2 mph
Total Training Mileage (since 4-Jul-09): 509.87

Measurements changes since last week:

Neck: +.5 in
Chest: -.5 in
Left Bicep: -.25 in
Right Bicep: +.25 in
Waist: +.5 in
Left Thigh: -.5 in
Right Thigh: -1 in
Left Calf: -1 in
Right Calf: 0

New Gloves

After finishing my ride on Sunday morning (Day 35) my gloves finally gave up the ghost with one of the seams giving way. The seam had actually given away a while ago but it finally came all the way loose today. I can’t argue with how they’ve performed because they were a cheap pair of Nashbar gloves that have probably seen well over 1000 miles of riding. They needed replacement a long time ago but I try to make stuff last as long as possible (maybe I’m just cheap). I ended up going to the local Performance Store and they had several gloves on sale. I opted for the Performance Century Gel Glove which cost me $12.99. I know they aren’t a name-brand glove but compared to some of the name-brands that were on sale the Century Gel seemed to fit better and had better padding. We’ll see how they go and I’ll probably do a long-term review to let you know how they work out.