Build up Week for the Hospice 100

After basically a rest week off the bike, I was hoping that it would lift my form a little in preparation for the Hospice 100. On Monday I did a nice endurance ride to the tune of 30 miles and a avg speed of 20.4mph. My HR was acting haywire, so the chart is not worth showing.

On Tuesday I went out to do my normal 40mile time trial, and was hoping that I would see something that would indicate that the form was in moving up. Here is the Chart for the entire workout.

For the first hour I was having serious problems with finding a flow as the legs had just not found themselves yet. Plus, I was being straight "Wind Jacked" by the nasty crosswind. I still managaged a Avg Speed of 20.6 for the 1st hour. Here are the stats for the first hour.

As I turned back I started to feel better even though I was still in a crosswind. My speed slowly crept up, and the burn in my legs crept down. The only negative about the rest week was my hips were aching a little. I was pushing the pedals harder than I have this year, and I was going faster and faster. I'm right around my fastest time at all checkpoints, and my HR is still in the 140's. I'm not heading East on 84 and my heartrate is in a zone and I'm riding faster into the wind than I was going West with the tailwind. Once I get to I-75 I stand up and attack all the way up and over. My HR goes from 147 to 171bpm, and I still have the burn does seem to set me back as I keep the pace high all the way back home. The Avg speed for the 20miles back home was 21.9, and that is the fastest that I have ever rode back, especially with most of it into a headwind. Here is the stats for that lap.

I went back and looked at the laptimes of the top riders at Santos and I realized 1 major factor. And it was constant speed. I need to hone in my ability to ride constant speed. When you are coming from XC racing, it is easy to push the pedals at that XC effort. I realize if I do that, then it will set me back at about hour 4. I'm still convinced that I did the necessary training for Santos and it was my stomach that I failed by overdosing on carbs, sodium, etc. Nam as me on the right program, so I can sleep easy on what is going into my body.

I've been sitting on these for about 2 weeks, and I'm itching to get them on.

My FSA K-Force Flatbars have not come in yet, so I'm going to miss having the new brakes on for the Hospice 100. I'm going to apologize now for anyone that is near me during the race because I have some squeaking that just won't quit. I thought it was the bushings, so I replaced them. It's still squeaking, so I'm going to have to troubleshoot it at a later date because I dont' want to tamper with the bike as it is functioning well right now.

For Wednesday I decided to do a 6 lap dress rehearsal at Markham in preparation for the Hospice. I'm prepared 6 water bottles, and the plan is to do 6 laps back to back. After Tuesdays great workout, I really need to get back on the mtn bike. I haven't quite figured out how to transfer my talent from the road bike to the mtn bike, so at this point just riding the mtn bike more may do the trick. Or maybe my talent is higher on the road bike. I know that everytime I have gave a great mtn bike ride, I go back and have a better road bike ride. I wish I could reverse that.

The bottles were prepared to Nam's specs and I went out to Markham. I decided to put out my small cooler on the picnic table and just grab one as I went by each lap. The only thing I was fearful of is someone tampering with the water bottles in the cooler. My nightmare is urine in the bottle. I need this dress rehearsal so I take a chance and leave the cooler on the picnic table and I’m off. I was feeling really inspired in the car, and I was hoping that my legs would match my emotions. The trail was empty and I was feeling pretty good, and being about 20 seconds up on my normal checkpoints indicated that. I was not riding harder than I normally ride, but I had a really nice flow going. A couple of times I held back for a few minutes, because I wanted my 2nd lap to be the same as my first. I’m also glad I was doing all the laps back to back as the weather was cold. I wouldn’t want to have to go back to the car and have the body cool down in this frigit weather. I bring in the lap at a 26mins, 30 seconds, which is about 17 seconds faster than I have ever ridden at this effort

I have to stop to open up my cooler and get another bottle and that sets me back about 15 seconds. I was feeling good and I decided that I would push it enough to bring in the lap at the same time as the first. My legs felt great and I push it in certain sections that flowed and backed off in the more anaerobic sections. It took me the entire lap to get 10 of those seconds back, and I brought in the lap at 26mins, 35 seconds

Yeap! I pushed it too hard and now my legs want to back off. I don’t fight it as I still have a flow, I’m just pushing the pedals a little softer. By the end of that lap I had lost only 19 seconds and the power was ok.

As I went into this lap I could see the cars of the usual suspects out at the park. I call them the "Frat Pack", and I normally don't run with them. It just seems like I don't quite fit in now that I'm a Expert rider, which is weird. My attitude was the same when I was a 220lb Beginner as I always gave my opinion. The better I got, the most resistant I got for saying my opinion. If another rider give their opinion, it's ok. But if I give my opinion, then I'm taking shit and it comes back to me. Looking at a riders laptimes at a race and giving my opinion is not taking shit. Writing on my blog that I have had problems with asking a certain rider to pass that everyone else has historically had a problem with is not taking shit. Taking shit is if I went up to that guy and said, "Hey, I saw that your grandma won the "Amateur Night" at the strip club last week wearing the 1985 Tour de France Motorola uniform. See, that would be taking shit. So to avoid conflict, I just go into the trail and ride by myself. It's what I did when I played table tennis, so it's old hat at his point. OK, back to this 4th laps I'm putting down.

I felt good with my effort, but I was starting to lose some power as I didn't hit sections as fast I normally do. At the halfway point of the lap I connected with a Active Cycles Teammate Dean Yobbi and having that company lifted my spirits, and it showed in my speed and HR. Dean stayed on my wheel until the end of Alligator Alley where I either surged or he backed off. Having another rider behind me for 10 minutes managed to bring up my morale and I'm only 2 seconds off my 3rd lap.

Now, I have my system for scooping my water bottles out of my cooler without even missing a beat, so I'm stealing seconds with a really good bottle exchange. I’m not having any problems with my stomach and I almost don’t even notice it. I'm so used to having stomach problems and it always affected my ride. I’m taking in 1 power gel per hour, and that is ok. But I can tell you that I’m a little bit hungry. My legs have taken another 20 second hit and I'm able to manage that effort. I'm started to daydream about how hungry I am. In my daydream I'm taking a nap and I'm actually dreaming that I'm one of those "Feed the Homeless" kids. I'm standing there with a fat stomach, diaper full of boo boo, with flies all in my eyes. Of course, I'm swatting down looking right into the camera with the stoic look on my face like I do this all the time. Then the white man comes walking around the corner to explain my situation. "With as little as .35cent per day you can feed Brian". I speak English and realize I can defend myself. "Hey Mr. White Man, I can take over from here. I look into the camera and say, "I don't need .35 cent, I need you to come and get my black ass. Look at my stomach, I need some carrot juice to flush my colon." That nap inside of the daydream allows me to forget about the fact that I'm losing power, and bring in the 5th lap at 27mins, 35 sec.

During the 5th laps I had fantasies about blasting out a 6th lap faster than my first, but the legs were not having it. In fact, I was hurting and I had lost 40 seconds at the halfway point. That is when I went from the comedic standpoint to keep myself in high spirits, to straight insulting myself to keep that 6th laptime intact with the 5th lap. I had to dig deep to get creative to get this done, so I created a Good Rider, Bad Rider personality. The good rider would say " My ass is hurting", and the bad rider would take over and say, "You is a bitch Brian! Yo punk ass is hurting. Maybe you should put on KY Jelly on it . You ain't got no heart out here dying after 5 laps. As a matter of fact all you got is balls. Where's your shaft Brian. You sure you don't have a coochie down there. You aerobically "Embarrassed". You got bad Credit Brian. You got one of those fat, video booties, I see why your ass is hurting. Put a thong on that booty, Brian." The good rider doesn't even get a chance to interrupt as the lap was over by the end of the rant by the bad rider. I brought in the lap 10 seconds faster than the 5th. Mission Accomplish, it was just a really funny exchange with the fake personalities I created.

Here is the Overall Chart

Here is the HR Values Chart

The only negative about the entire ride is someone stole 4 of my water bottles that I threw on the ground. Man, if you need to steal a riders water bottles that are used, then you are doing bad. Now, what should I do if I see someone with "Dedicated Athlete" water bottles that are issued to sponsored riders. I'm not going to put some foot to dat ass, but whomever it is will get the whispering of a lifetime (That means some really eloquent curse words). The workout was so good, that I didn't let that dampen my spirits of making it more than 50% through my Hospice workout while keeping my speed extremely constant.

I can't ride anymore controlled that this workout, and I hope that it is enough to put up a fight with the best riders. I know there are going to be some heavy hitters in town, and it's hard for me to make any kind of prediction regarding my performance. I had really high hopes for Santos, and that got crushed after about 6hrs. So I'm going to take a page out of being respectful of my ability and my pass performance. So my mine objective would be to run good laps just like I did in this workout.

The recommendation Nam gave me on how much to intake during the workout was spot on. When I told her it is forecasted to be hot on Saturday, she gave me a fluid intake preparation plan that is extremely planned to a tee. I'm going to have to write that one down to remember it. I'm actually hoping for hot, hot, and more hot. I'm still hype on drinking the 9.5 water, and it being hot will only help drive my point home on the benefits of it. I don't want a good performance to be indicative of the benefits, but it seems like that is what it is going to take.

The weather is way too cold and windy for me to ride on Thursday, so that means a CTS workout on my ipod, or a stinking Spin Class. I think I'm going for the ipod workout.

Until then, I'll keep you up to PACE

Pacer Out!