Week Ate, er Eight: Fat Boy Trains for Tour of the Gila!

This year is all about learning and developing as a cyclist.  I'm learning about how long it takes me to recover from things like a hard stage race, like last week's VOS.  I think I'm still feeling effects of it a full week later.  On Friday, for example, I had an insatiable appetite.  I ended up eating 3,800 calories worth of food, all save a small bag of pretzel chips, was what I'd consider healthy food.  And right now, I'm eating to hunger, to be strong, not to cut weight.  So, I felt a strong kinship to my wife's little dog, who found himself in a dangerous situation where this pretzel chip bag almost cost him his life!  Poor little thing couldn't breathe.  Of course, I had to take a picture before rescuing him!

After digesting what happened last week I sat down and mapped out my plan from now until Tour of the Gila.  I really need to work on my ability to "punch" hard on a hill and then recover at a fairly high level of effort.  I also need to work on my ability to make power on my TT bike.  Those are the biggest two issues I see myself struggling with that I can do something about in the next two months.

The biggest limiter I have is my weight.  I'm happy to say that I'm consistently under 200 pounds now, but would like to be 180.  I can perhaps drop a pound a week or so without the weight loss inhibiting recovery from workouts, but getting stronger is more important than getting lighter at this point of the season.

Some deer I spotted on the way to Pena Blanca Lake

All that said, I am only using TrainerRoad right now for intervals in the aero position.  Some intervals are at Sweet Spot, but I'm also doing an easy 30 minute spin early in the mornings, too.  I do these in the aero position, hoping to become more adept making power in that position and also burning a few hundred easy calories without taxing myself too much.  I love TrainerRoad, but I need to get experience on my bikes in race conditions.  That means, time trial bike in windy and hilly conditions and the road bike spinning instead of grinding up hills!

Tuesday I rode to Pena Blanca Lake, which has about 8 total climbs ranging from 1 to 2 kilometers in length, all with some very steep sections!  Perfect hills to practice punching and recovering.  I hit the hills and held 400 watts up them and then over the top I spun out and then stood up to regain speed as I went down the other side.  I was happy with my workout, though I was tired from VOS.

Wednesday morning was an hour of zone two intervals in the aero position and Thursday I attacked Whipple Observatory Visitor's Center climb twice.  It's a Category 2 climb, about 6.5 miles long, averaging just under 3% gradient, but that's a little misleading becaus

e there are some steep sections.  I had a normalized power of 353 watts on the second attempt and had my second fastest time ever on that attempt.  I just went into it thinking about punching whenever it would make me fastest and then trying to recovery without letting off the gas too much.

Friday I was a chaperone for the high school science club as we went to an amusement park, Castles and Coasters, in Phoenix, to ride the roller coasters and do science-type stuff.  It was a great, but exhausting day.

Knowing I was a bit fried from last weekend I opted for an easier, but still challenging, group ride on Saturday, the Bicycle Ranch Round Up, in Tucson.  I was very happy with my efforts, especially on the last big climb of the day, which is actually quite short, but still takes a few minutes.  I attacked the hill and the data showed I held 790 watts for 25 seconds and then 475 watts for another 30 seconds to finish off the hill.  Nobody was around me, so I just finished off the next 10 minutes of the ride at an average of 373 watts.  I wish I could make 373 watts that easily on my TT bike!

Sunday was windy!  I went out on the TT bike with full aero equipment, just to see how it felt.  I did only three intervals, covering 40 miles (20 less than planned), but was fried.  I am happy to report that the 90 mm front wheel I run from Flo Cycling is amazing.  In the crazy wind I did get pushed around a bit, but never did I feel like my wheel was being twisted, even bombing downhill in the aero position with the winds swirling through the narrow canyons!  I'm super happy with Flo and I will be buying a 60 mm front wheel in the future, for my road bike!

Here's a video of part of the group ride I did on Saturday.  It's hosted by Bicycle Ranch Bike Shop, in Tucson.  Great shop, awesome and friendly people.



This coming week I will be doing a step test on the TT bike to see where my FTP is so I can have more accurate goals and pacing.  I'll be putting in a big ride over the weekend.  Otherwise, just grinding it out, eating right and trying to get plenty of sleep!

Until next time, thanks for reading!