After a really great weekend of mountain riding, this week is going to be a slightly easy week.
Monday: No riding today - complete rest day.
Tuesday: No riding - go to the gym and do upper body/core work.
Wednesday: Zone 2 recovery ride, cadence >95.
Thursday: VO2 max intervals - 4x5min with equal rest between intervals, cadence > 100rpm. I think these might be a little painful...haven't done intervals of much length in a month...guess we'll see.
Friday: Zone 2 recovery ride, cadence >95.
Saturday: Not sure what will be done today....maybe just some really easy riding again.
Sunday: Raven Rock Ramble - at least 87 miles, maybe 100 miles if I'm feeling really good.
I need to get in at least 87 miles to get some experience with distances greater than a metric before Assault on Marion. Then, 2 weeks after AoM, I will be back up in the mountains for two days of mountain riding.
Did I mention that I really love riding in the mountains?? :)
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sunday Recovery Ride
After a pretty good night's sleep at Andy's, I got up too damn early today!!! Birds were chirping and it was light outside...must've been dreaming because I was talking to Andy's daughter and I asked what time it was...she said it was "ten till ten". I need to get up!! We're gonna ride before it rains today.
So, I hop outa bed, get a shower, get dressed and head out to my car for my cereal. When I get back inside, Andy is up and asks why am I up so early???? Ummm, I dunno and tell him about the dream. LOL. After eating, I get a bit sleepy, so I go to the living room and try to nap. That doesn't last long cause he says we need to go ride if we're going to....the rain is coming!!










So, I hop outa bed, get a shower, get dressed and head out to my car for my cereal. When I get back inside, Andy is up and asks why am I up so early???? Ummm, I dunno and tell him about the dream. LOL. After eating, I get a bit sleepy, so I go to the living room and try to nap. That doesn't last long cause he says we need to go ride if we're going to....the rain is coming!!
OK...the first few miles of the recovery ride are fairly flat, then we start climbing. My legs hurt. They burn. They scream for me to stop. No. HTFU legs. Lots of climbing he tells me...about 10mi of it. Great. Just great. Just what I was asking for. Why do I keep doing this??? 'Cause. I love to ride in the mountains. It might be hard, but it's a challenge and I like challenges. I don't give up. None of the climbing I did this weekend killed me (obviously, as I'm posting here) - it just made me stronger.
After a bit of climbing and descending, we approach another climb that the local riders call The Wall. OMG. Hard. No, wait. Hard doesn't describe it. Brutal may be a better description, especially after the riding on Saturday. Well, Andy tells me, before we get to the climb (near the sign that points to the right turn), that I need to relax and settle into my pace as this climb is pretty hard. That it continues on around the curve at a pretty steep grade then eventually gets a bit easier. Steep. Yea, right. Steep my ass. That was steeper than anything on Cullowhee Mtn I think. Hard? Yes. But, you know what? I did it. I didn't stop pedaling. I don't think that I could have done that climb last September or anytime last year. I've come a long way since then. Still have a ways to go, but I'm getting there, climb by climb.
I watch Andy climb this as I'm trying to find my pace. He looks like he's hunkered down over the bars, pedaling for all he's worth. Then, he's gone from my view. He climbs so effortless it seems. Maybe one day, I'll be able to climb at as good as he does on a bad day. Finally reach the crest, where he is waiting on me. It's then that he tells me the climb is something like 12-15%!!! I'm so glad he didn't tell me prior to the climb. I would have had it in my head that I couldn't do it. But, I did and we continued on...
We finally reached the Blue Ridge Parkway after a few more climbs and passing the Balsam Mountain Inn. This place is supposed to be a really nice place to stay. I could see staying there and doing some rides from there in the future. So, on to the Parkway. Now, he tells me, this is a 2mi climb of 7% up to the first overlook. OK. Fine. I can do this. He paces me up the climb pretty damn good, just under my threshold power, until I HAVE to adjust the shoes. They are just too friggen tight and making my feet tingle. I get gapped then because he doesn't let up. Oh well. That's ok, because I just kept my power where it had been while he was pacing me and climbed. And climbed. And climbed. No breaks in the climbing until I reached the overlook. Very nice. Can't tell you how proud I am of my self for all I did this weekend.
We head back towards the cars and go down a whole lot quicker than we came up! The descending makes up for all the climbing!! I love descending!! We see a couple of people that we rode with on the September ride and stopped to talk to them for a bit. There were quite a few riders out this morning. Andy knew them all I think! After chit-chatting for 10min or so, the four of us head back towards town. Load the bikes up, back to his house, take another shower and then we go get some lunch. The bottom fell out of the sky during lunch! Very heavy downpouring of rain. We timed our ride just right this morning!
After lunch, we said our good-byes, I went and took pictures (I forgot to bring the camera on the ride this morning and I wanted some pics of scenery on at least one of my rides). So, after we finished and I was headed home, I drove the route and got pics., then started the 5hr drive back home. I SO need to move closer to the mountains. Or just buy another bike to leave out there and see how much it costs to fly into Asheville!
So, here are the pics from our route today....
After a bit of climbing and descending, we approach another climb that the local riders call The Wall. OMG. Hard. No, wait. Hard doesn't describe it. Brutal may be a better description, especially after the riding on Saturday. Well, Andy tells me, before we get to the climb (near the sign that points to the right turn), that I need to relax and settle into my pace as this climb is pretty hard. That it continues on around the curve at a pretty steep grade then eventually gets a bit easier. Steep. Yea, right. Steep my ass. That was steeper than anything on Cullowhee Mtn I think. Hard? Yes. But, you know what? I did it. I didn't stop pedaling. I don't think that I could have done that climb last September or anytime last year. I've come a long way since then. Still have a ways to go, but I'm getting there, climb by climb.
I watch Andy climb this as I'm trying to find my pace. He looks like he's hunkered down over the bars, pedaling for all he's worth. Then, he's gone from my view. He climbs so effortless it seems. Maybe one day, I'll be able to climb at as good as he does on a bad day. Finally reach the crest, where he is waiting on me. It's then that he tells me the climb is something like 12-15%!!! I'm so glad he didn't tell me prior to the climb. I would have had it in my head that I couldn't do it. But, I did and we continued on...
We finally reached the Blue Ridge Parkway after a few more climbs and passing the Balsam Mountain Inn. This place is supposed to be a really nice place to stay. I could see staying there and doing some rides from there in the future. So, on to the Parkway. Now, he tells me, this is a 2mi climb of 7% up to the first overlook. OK. Fine. I can do this. He paces me up the climb pretty damn good, just under my threshold power, until I HAVE to adjust the shoes. They are just too friggen tight and making my feet tingle. I get gapped then because he doesn't let up. Oh well. That's ok, because I just kept my power where it had been while he was pacing me and climbed. And climbed. And climbed. No breaks in the climbing until I reached the overlook. Very nice. Can't tell you how proud I am of my self for all I did this weekend.
We head back towards the cars and go down a whole lot quicker than we came up! The descending makes up for all the climbing!! I love descending!! We see a couple of people that we rode with on the September ride and stopped to talk to them for a bit. There were quite a few riders out this morning. Andy knew them all I think! After chit-chatting for 10min or so, the four of us head back towards town. Load the bikes up, back to his house, take another shower and then we go get some lunch. The bottom fell out of the sky during lunch! Very heavy downpouring of rain. We timed our ride just right this morning!
After lunch, we said our good-byes, I went and took pictures (I forgot to bring the camera on the ride this morning and I wanted some pics of scenery on at least one of my rides). So, after we finished and I was headed home, I drove the route and got pics., then started the 5hr drive back home. I SO need to move closer to the mountains. Or just buy another bike to leave out there and see how much it costs to fly into Asheville!
So, here are the pics from our route today....
Waterfall along the ride:
Some climbing and cool rr bridge:
Church along the route:
Harder climbing to come:
Previous picture is the start of The Wall. The following pictures are midway up and another point on the climb.
After that, The Balsam Mountain Inn, Balsam Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway, some of the climbs on teh BRP and the overlook turn around point.
Burnsville Metric
OK...
Burnsville Metric:
My friend Neal & I drove up to the square and picked our registration packs up around 7:15, then went back to the motel to finish getting our stuff ready. Started riding around 7:45am, riding up the climb from the motel to the square, around the square, anywhere to work up a good sweat and get the legs really warmed up. Our mutual friend, Andy, drove up from Sylva to ride as well - he didn't get there till around 8am.
Our motel:
The climb from motel to square:
The Green (square in Burnsville): 
There are no pictures during or on the ride itself. The peleton Andy, Neal and I were in was very fast and unpredictible. Slowing!! Speeding up!! Slowing!! Too much of that to leave me comfortable taking my hands off the bike to grope for my water bottle or gu, let alone a camera to take any pictures of the nice legs in front of me or the scenery. I don't think I saw any of the scenery. All my concentration was on the people in front of me and around me.
Stuck with Andy for the first 35mi of the ride. Neal was somewhere in our group, but Andy & I stuck together. In this 35mi stretch, there was at least once that we got gapped and Andy pulled us both back to the peleton at 31mph!!! He's a workhorse!! These are the only pics I got of Andy before the ride, and my prefered riding position, behind the guys with nice legs:D
There was a crash also during the ride, don't remember where, just somewhere during the first 35mi. I heard some bikes hit the pavement and then I hear "crash, crash!!". We all slowed and went on through as it looked as if friends of the crashee's were looking out for them. We rode with a couple of tandems for a while too. Those are great to ride with! You can get a really good draft off of them!
For the first 35mi, I had an average of 22.8mph! It was just awesome! But, I knew it wouldn't last once the climbing started. When we started climbing, it was everyone for themselves. I can't climb very fast at all, but I manage pretty well at my own pace. Andy and Neal went on and then waited on me at the first rest stop at 42mi. OMG. I didn't think I would ever get there! I was hungry and getting tired. Chocolate gu wasn't doing the job. Will have to find something else to eat when I do AoM. At the rest stop, my average was down to 20.8mph.
Then, it was on Highway 80, which is all up and down. Mostly up. I didn't think I would ever get off that road. But, eventually, I made it to the last rest stop, at 50mi, where Andy and Neal were waiting on me. Such nice guys. Andy asked if I needed anything and my reply was "some fresh legs". Oh man, my legs were about done! Anyways, we then rode back together for a while, but into a headwind. It was getting bad by then. Those guys went on around me after a while and I just worked at my own pace to get me back to the final climb, trying to conserve what energy & strength I had left for that climb.

A couple of pics after the ride:

Burnsville Metric:
My friend Neal & I drove up to the square and picked our registration packs up around 7:15, then went back to the motel to finish getting our stuff ready. Started riding around 7:45am, riding up the climb from the motel to the square, around the square, anywhere to work up a good sweat and get the legs really warmed up. Our mutual friend, Andy, drove up from Sylva to ride as well - he didn't get there till around 8am.
Our motel:
Stuck with Andy for the first 35mi of the ride. Neal was somewhere in our group, but Andy & I stuck together. In this 35mi stretch, there was at least once that we got gapped and Andy pulled us both back to the peleton at 31mph!!! He's a workhorse!! These are the only pics I got of Andy before the ride, and my prefered riding position, behind the guys with nice legs:D
For the first 35mi, I had an average of 22.8mph! It was just awesome! But, I knew it wouldn't last once the climbing started. When we started climbing, it was everyone for themselves. I can't climb very fast at all, but I manage pretty well at my own pace. Andy and Neal went on and then waited on me at the first rest stop at 42mi. OMG. I didn't think I would ever get there! I was hungry and getting tired. Chocolate gu wasn't doing the job. Will have to find something else to eat when I do AoM. At the rest stop, my average was down to 20.8mph.
Then, it was on Highway 80, which is all up and down. Mostly up. I didn't think I would ever get off that road. But, eventually, I made it to the last rest stop, at 50mi, where Andy and Neal were waiting on me. Such nice guys. Andy asked if I needed anything and my reply was "some fresh legs". Oh man, my legs were about done! Anyways, we then rode back together for a while, but into a headwind. It was getting bad by then. Those guys went on around me after a while and I just worked at my own pace to get me back to the final climb, trying to conserve what energy & strength I had left for that climb.
This is the last climb of the day, which I took before the ride. Andy thinks it is about 1000' long and probably a 12% grade. I didn't think I was gonna make it, but there were people near the top, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna do anything else but ride up that monster. Tough as hell after 59mi:
That's about it for the Burnsville Metric. I ended up with a 17.5mph average, 3hr22min. I met my goal for this ride and I'm pleased with my effort. Starving after the ride and we had some lunch afterwards of tamale's, rice & chocolate cake.
I think that I'm going to revise my goals for AoM. I'm going to aim a bit higher - 18mph average instead of 17-17.5mph. I think I can do it.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Intervals & 3 Days Till Burnsville
30s intervals this evening...they seemed to be harder than the ones I did on Saturday. Maybe because I tried to get the cadence higher or who knows why. I had a banana about 1.5hr before riding and it wanted to come back up after the last set. Probably because I ate it too close to doing the ride.
Numbers:
#1: 385/652/96; #2: 311/505/93; #3: 305/454/90
#4: 372/552/95; #5: 343/543/85; #6: 255/509/88
#7: 381/526/91; #8: 322/549/93; #9: 346/572/96
No heart rate data, as the PowerTap is not recording it for some reason. It will start out recording, but then drop out after about 20 to 30 minutes. Have no idea what the problem is. I've changed all batteries except the hub batteries. Found out the problem...Garmin & PT are both wireless for HR - interference between the two. Rode without Garmin last night (4/24) and no drop outs for HR on PT.
Tomorrow is an easy ride, then I leave for Burnsville at 11am Friday! I'm really looking forward to this ride. Only bad thing is the 40% chance of scattered T-storms on Saturday, so I'm probably going to be riding in the rain. Oh well, I'm not skipping the ride. I also plan on staying around the mountain area for a ride somewhere on Sunday. One friend is planning on riding up to Mt. Mitchell Sunday, depending on how he feels after riding BM and the weather. So, depending on how I feel and the weather on Sunday, I may do that ride with him. Or, I might ride somewhere else, to be determined later. Maybe Burningtown Loop, since it's one of my favorites up there. Who knows?
Numbers:
#1: 385/652/96; #2: 311/505/93; #3: 305/454/90
#4: 372/552/95; #5: 343/543/85; #6: 255/509/88
#7: 381/526/91; #8: 322/549/93; #9: 346/572/96
No heart rate data, as the PowerTap is not recording it for some reason. It will start out recording, but then drop out after about 20 to 30 minutes. Have no idea what the problem is. I've changed all batteries except the hub batteries. Found out the problem...Garmin & PT are both wireless for HR - interference between the two. Rode without Garmin last night (4/24) and no drop outs for HR on PT.
Tomorrow is an easy ride, then I leave for Burnsville at 11am Friday! I'm really looking forward to this ride. Only bad thing is the 40% chance of scattered T-storms on Saturday, so I'm probably going to be riding in the rain. Oh well, I'm not skipping the ride. I also plan on staying around the mountain area for a ride somewhere on Sunday. One friend is planning on riding up to Mt. Mitchell Sunday, depending on how he feels after riding BM and the weather. So, depending on how I feel and the weather on Sunday, I may do that ride with him. Or, I might ride somewhere else, to be determined later. Maybe Burningtown Loop, since it's one of my favorites up there. Who knows?
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Group Ride/Recovery Ride
Some of the people I ride with, organized a ride today, starting from a winery in Pine Level, NC. Routes were either 22 or 40mi in length.
5 of us chose the 40mi route. A bit overcast at the start, but as the day progressed, it became quite nice. Temps around low to mid 70's I would guess with a bit of a headwind on the way back in. I did pretty well, sticking to what I was supposed to do and not letting myself get caught up in the ego thing. It was supposed to be a nice, easy zone 2 recovery ride for me and I pretty much followed the plan.
I had an average power of 121w, normaliazed power of 152w, cadence of 86, and 16.7mph pace. I guess if you look at the NP, then I didn't follow the plan. Not really sure which one you are to go by...NP or AP? If AP, then I did ok, otherwise, not quite as well.
Anyways, no riding tomorrow, 3 sets of 3x1min intervals on Tuesday, and recovery/spinning type ride on Thursday. Burnsville metric next weekend!!!
5 of us chose the 40mi route. A bit overcast at the start, but as the day progressed, it became quite nice. Temps around low to mid 70's I would guess with a bit of a headwind on the way back in. I did pretty well, sticking to what I was supposed to do and not letting myself get caught up in the ego thing. It was supposed to be a nice, easy zone 2 recovery ride for me and I pretty much followed the plan.
I had an average power of 121w, normaliazed power of 152w, cadence of 86, and 16.7mph pace. I guess if you look at the NP, then I didn't follow the plan. Not really sure which one you are to go by...NP or AP? If AP, then I did ok, otherwise, not quite as well.
Anyways, no riding tomorrow, 3 sets of 3x1min intervals on Tuesday, and recovery/spinning type ride on Thursday. Burnsville metric next weekend!!!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Intervals & Group Ride
Today was the first of many rides with a group that I have been riding with since 2006. This group rides on Saturdays in training for the MS150 in September. Today's ride was a short 23mi out and back route. The group starts off with short distances, working up to 65+ miles later in the summer because most who ride with the group, stop riding after the MS150.
5 of us led the group out...we left everyone! Made excellent time to the turn around point, averaging 20.7mph. But, after my short pull, the next guy just ramps it on up to 23-24mph+ and I said the hell with that. I had intervals to do and I was not going to wear myself out hanging with these guys. I did take the city limit sign sprint. Drafting about 3 back in the paceline....I knew where it was, lead guy didn't have a clue...I just blew around them and they were like WTF??? Hehehe.
Anyways, solo on the way back so I could do my intervals (3 sets of 3x30s zone 6). Not sure if maybe I just didn't go hard enough or I'm adapting somewhat. Probably didn't go hard enough because I didn't have that "about to puke" and "fall off my bike" moment at the end of the second set nor the end of the third set.
Numbers:
#1: 332/552/84 170/177; #2: 336/518/87 180/184; #3: 337/529/80 182/185 (avg/max/rpm hr av/max)
#4: 371/576/83 165/174; #5: 306/55/85 177/181; #6: 346/600/85 171/176
#7: 357/565/82 151/167; #8: 295/580/79 171/176; #9: 338/489/88 172/178
I think I can do better than this. My cadence was WAY too low. Last time I did these, I think my cadence was up in the 90's. I also had a peak 20min power: NP=197, AP=153.
Tomorrow will be (weather dependent) a 2-2.5hr ride, upper zone 2 - low zone 3. Forecast is for rain/showers in the morning....we'll see.
7 more days till Burnsville!
5 of us led the group out...we left everyone! Made excellent time to the turn around point, averaging 20.7mph. But, after my short pull, the next guy just ramps it on up to 23-24mph+ and I said the hell with that. I had intervals to do and I was not going to wear myself out hanging with these guys. I did take the city limit sign sprint. Drafting about 3 back in the paceline....I knew where it was, lead guy didn't have a clue...I just blew around them and they were like WTF??? Hehehe.
Anyways, solo on the way back so I could do my intervals (3 sets of 3x30s zone 6). Not sure if maybe I just didn't go hard enough or I'm adapting somewhat. Probably didn't go hard enough because I didn't have that "about to puke" and "fall off my bike" moment at the end of the second set nor the end of the third set.
Numbers:
#1: 332/552/84 170/177; #2: 336/518/87 180/184; #3: 337/529/80 182/185 (avg/max/rpm hr av/max)
#4: 371/576/83 165/174; #5: 306/55/85 177/181; #6: 346/600/85 171/176
#7: 357/565/82 151/167; #8: 295/580/79 171/176; #9: 338/489/88 172/178
I think I can do better than this. My cadence was WAY too low. Last time I did these, I think my cadence was up in the 90's. I also had a peak 20min power: NP=197, AP=153.
Tomorrow will be (weather dependent) a 2-2.5hr ride, upper zone 2 - low zone 3. Forecast is for rain/showers in the morning....we'll see.
7 more days till Burnsville!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Stupid, Stupid, Stupid
Yes, that's what I am. I don't know what's got into me lately, but I haven't been listening very well to what the mentor/coach guy has been telling me. Didn't follow the advice for the TT and now, I haven't listened this week - rode my bike when I was supposed to go to the gym and just do upper body work. I'm sure he gets frustrated with me over this. *whack me upside the head with that 2x4*
I had 3 sets of 3x1min zone 6 intervals to do today...I did them, but they were WAY harder than the 2 sets I did last week and I didn't do very well. My legs were screaming at 30s and it was very difficult to complete a full 1min. Pretty much all of my numbers are below what I did last week. My cadence was too low and the damn HR was not being recorded by the PT. Gotta figure out why that is. I'm going to try to change the battery in the computer head; I've already changed the HR strap battery.
Numbers:
#1: 275/641/91; #2: 261/508/80; #3: 266/453/82
#4: 260/500/79; #5: 248/564/78; #6: 250/545/77
#7: 250/573/80; #8: 240/514/84: #9: 247/497/78
It's gonna stop right now though - this not listening crap I've been doing. If there's one thing in my life that I need to do well in right now, it's my cycling. Just don't ask about the other stuff as it's totally F'd up. With that, tomorrow/Saturday/Sunday will be done as I was told to do them. No more, No less. Get it right.
Tomorrow will be an hour of low zone 2 riding with concentration put towards spinning.
Saturday is 9 30s intervals. There is a group ride of 23mi (first MS150 training ride)...wondering if I could do half of it as warm up and then do the intervals on the way back to the ride start????
Sunday is to be a a 2hr or so ride in zone 2, or 30-40mi. Another group ride, a "wine & ride" or is it "ride & wine" ride?? Not sure, but I won't be partaking of the wine.
But, given my latest troubles with group rides, I really better think long and hard about this before Saturday. Most likely, in the best interest of my cycling training, I should forgo these two group rides. My most important ride so far, Burnsville Metric, is coming up in 9 days and I really need to be fresh and "on top of my game" so that I do well. If I continue acting stupid and not listening, I'm not going to do well.
Dang. I feel a bit better getting that out...acknowledging the fact that I haven't been listening to my mentor/coach guy. But, that's all a changing after today. I will listen and do as I have been told to do...I surely don't want to get him so frustrated with me that he no longer wants to help. That would be soooo not good for me. So, straighten up girl and fly right!!
I had 3 sets of 3x1min zone 6 intervals to do today...I did them, but they were WAY harder than the 2 sets I did last week and I didn't do very well. My legs were screaming at 30s and it was very difficult to complete a full 1min. Pretty much all of my numbers are below what I did last week. My cadence was too low and the damn HR was not being recorded by the PT. Gotta figure out why that is. I'm going to try to change the battery in the computer head; I've already changed the HR strap battery.
Numbers:
#1: 275/641/91; #2: 261/508/80; #3: 266/453/82
#4: 260/500/79; #5: 248/564/78; #6: 250/545/77
#7: 250/573/80; #8: 240/514/84: #9: 247/497/78
It's gonna stop right now though - this not listening crap I've been doing. If there's one thing in my life that I need to do well in right now, it's my cycling. Just don't ask about the other stuff as it's totally F'd up. With that, tomorrow/Saturday/Sunday will be done as I was told to do them. No more, No less. Get it right.
Tomorrow will be an hour of low zone 2 riding with concentration put towards spinning.
Saturday is 9 30s intervals. There is a group ride of 23mi (first MS150 training ride)...wondering if I could do half of it as warm up and then do the intervals on the way back to the ride start????
Sunday is to be a a 2hr or so ride in zone 2, or 30-40mi. Another group ride, a "wine & ride" or is it "ride & wine" ride?? Not sure, but I won't be partaking of the wine.
But, given my latest troubles with group rides, I really better think long and hard about this before Saturday. Most likely, in the best interest of my cycling training, I should forgo these two group rides. My most important ride so far, Burnsville Metric, is coming up in 9 days and I really need to be fresh and "on top of my game" so that I do well. If I continue acting stupid and not listening, I'm not going to do well.
Dang. I feel a bit better getting that out...acknowledging the fact that I haven't been listening to my mentor/coach guy. But, that's all a changing after today. I will listen and do as I have been told to do...I surely don't want to get him so frustrated with me that he no longer wants to help. That would be soooo not good for me. So, straighten up girl and fly right!!
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