P.U.R.E. BIKE COACHING

Here's Elliot from NRO showing me how to win a sprint at the training race in Clinton last week. He played it just right, and once he came around me I had nothing left to get him back. Great job Elliot, guess I'll have to be better next time. Photo - nrocycling.com

Another week has passed, and the races are sneaking up on us. The second training race in Clinton was today. I'm not sure how it played out, as I was unable to attend due to the dreaded "work" problem I have. I guess I should be thankful that I even have any work to do, with the way the building has slowed drastically here in the Bozeman area, but it sure gets in the way of training and racing. I hope everyone is getting in some good, structured training in preparation for the upcoming season.

My training has been pretty good so far this winter and early spring. I have been more focused on getting my rides in, and have had more structure in my training than in years past. I feel pretty good at this point in the season, and seem to be a little ahead of where I was last year at this time. I had hopes of racing at some early stage races like Walla Walla and Frozen Flatlands to test the fitness, but don't think I'm going to be able to make it happen. So, for me, I get one more good solid block of training in before the Rocky Mountain Roubaix race outside of Missoula in late April. Hopefully, my busy work schedule won't derail my training to bad, and I can come into the Roubaix in decent shape. Time will tell. I had one minor setback earlier this week, when I somehow tripped and fell while climbing up the side of a bouldered deck at work. Ya, graceful, I know. I managed to land awkwardly on my left leg, resulting in a painful "charlie horse" that won't seem to go away. It forced me to take a couple days completely off the bike, followed by some easy riding to "spin" the leg out. I was finally able to ride hard again today, but there's still some soreness. Prior to that, I felt great. I had an awesome ride on the trainer early in the week where I was shooting for 1 1/2 hours of sweet spot training. I felt pretty good, having just come off a rest week, and was able to up the power a notch or two, and ended up riding for 1 1/2 hours at what I thought was my functional threshold power, with a pretty low average heart rate. Obviously, my training is working to some extent, as I am definitely getting stronger. Today I had some high hopes of getting in some good climbing miles, as my current job site is near the Norris Hill outside of Ennis, MT. I was going to go up and down that bad boy several times, trying to climb at or slightly above threshold power. I though that would be some good suffering. Unfortunately, just as I finished up with work, the weather turned nasty, and I was forced abandon my plans and head home without doing the ride. It looked as if there was another long, boring trainer ride in my near future.

Once back in Belgrade, the weather was a little better, though still cool, gloomy, and spitting a little rain off and on. I decided to sneak out for a short ride on my 'cross bike before dark. I have a little loop I do that keeps me close to home in case the weather gets bad, has a mix of dirt/gravel paths, sidewalks, grass, roads, and subdivision streets. It is super fun, and much better than the dreaded trainer. I ended up having a great ride, got a little wet and muddy, and did some solid race simulation type efforts. Most of the ride was in zone 3, but I did plenty of hard riding to keep it interesting. I did a few 1 min hard effort around our subdivision loop. There is virtually no traffic, and I can hit the corners as hard and fast as I dare for some good cornering practice. There are a couple long gravel stretches where I did some good threshold work, and tons of tight corners. The corners are great for bike handling practice, and also for working on your acceleration as you power out of each turn. I had a sprint point on each loop so I could get in a few good, hard sprint efforts, which I need. I also did some short hard efforts to simulate an attack, or closing up a gap. This is a ride that I do a lot in the fall to prep for 'cross, but also serves as a great ride this time of year to help prepare for the constant speed changes encountered when the racing starts, plus, it is killer fun. I also do it a lot of times at night, with lights of course, which for some reason makes it even more fun.

Well, that's what's going on in my little world. I was hoping for a good long ride tomorrow, but it sounds like more snow is on the way. I better go put my bike on the trainer.