After Mondays much needed rest day came the first of this seasons GAS cross practice sessions on Tuesday evening. We had a pretty good turnout for the first session and spent the evening working on barriers, run ups, dismounts and remounts on the bike. There was a mixture a newer and more experienced riders,and we all tried to help each other out with technique, skills, etc. We had a couple people just learning the technique of getting on and off the bike at speed, and with just a little instruction and practice, they improved dramatically. I also learned a thing or two at practice. This will only be my third season of 'cross, but I felt like I was getting pretty good at the barriers. It can be helpful to have others watching you practice, as they can pick up on things you don't know you're doing right or wrong. It didn't take GAS teammate Tomas "Ubersmooth" Dumbrovsky long to see that I was dismounting and running through the barriers kind of on my heels. He had me point my right foot toward the ground as I prepared to dismount, which automatically got me more on the balls of my feet as I ran through the barriers. With a little more practice, this will definitely make my barrier sections smoother, which will make them faster. Thanks, Tomas. Next Tuesday I hope to have my video camera set up so people can see how they look going through the barriers. That way, they can see for themselves what they may need to work on. I also learned that even though it's been three months since I broke the collarbone, shouldering the bike is a little painful. I may have to devise some sort of pad for either the shoulder or the top tube to help alleviate some of the pain. Of course, in the heat of the battle, there will be enough other pain that I may not even notice the shoulder! Hope to see more people out next Tuesday, when we will probably do some practice laps as the racing season is pretty much upon us.
So, since Tuesday's ride was spent mostly working on technique, I decided to get in a good run that night. I did 45 minutes on the treadmill, with a hard 2 min hill interval every five minutes. Not the same as a cross run up, but better than nothing. It was a pretty tough run, but at least I'm getting to the point that my whole body is no longer sore afterwards.
Wednesday was a day to pick up the intensity a little. I've spent the last few weeks building up my threshold power and getting in some good time on the bike, but now it is time to ramp it up a little. I started the ride with a good warm up, then did a 5 minute blowout effort. I did a lot of these efforts last year, so this could give me an idea where I am at compared to last year at this time. The 5 min blowout is basically an all out effort for 5 min. I definitely started a little to hard, and faded badly at the end. The 5 min power is still a touch below where it was last year at this time, but was higher than I expected. And, this is my fourth hard week in a row. With a little recovery I can expect that to be a little higher, which may put me closer to where I was last year at this time. However, I won a grand total of 0, ya that's right, ZERO, races last season, so I need to be better than I was last year. It's a long season, so hopefully I can continue to improve. After the blow out I recovered fully, then did three minute power intervals. Wow, those hurt bad. For power intervals, I basically go as hard as I can for three minutes, recover for three minutes, and repeat for about 5 intervals. Once again, I overestimated the power I could hold for the interval and faded badly by the time the three minutes was up. Ouch! So I dropped the power I was trying to hold, but still faded. On the third interval I could barely hold threshold power for three minutes, so I called it a day and spun home easy, because that's all I could do. Totally cooked!
Thursday I decided to do some tempo riding, and to help get used to the constant speed changes and acceleration in cross, I threw in a 20 second all out burst every five minutes. Two more hours on the bike, and another hard ride. I warmed up, and actually felt pretty good, then started the tempo/burst work. I lasted 45 minutes, and then I blew up pretty bad. Unfortunately, at this point in the ride I was on a gravel road that was freshly graded and felt like the gravel was about 3 inches deep. It was all I could do to keep the bike moving. I had to push pretty hard just to get down the road. Once back on the asphalt, I cruised the last hour at zone 2 power, once again, because that was all I could do.
Friday was another much needed recovery day. I did an easy ride on the town trails in Bozeman with Tawnya and Trey. It was fun to just chill out, ride easy and hang with the family. Trey and I also went into town that evening to get in some BMX practice. He has been to a couple clinics with some pro riders, and he decided I needed a clinic that night. It was hilarious. He would demonstrate a technique a few times and make me watch, then he'd park on a certain spot on the track to watch me try it, then give advice. He was so serious, and such a good little teacher. It was awesome! Thanks Coach Trey.
Saturday was back to some hard riding. Time for some microbursts, 15 sec on, 15 sec off for ten minutes. Recover, and repeat. I once again started out with the 5 min blowout effort. This time, the power was up there with last seasons efforts, which I take as a good sign. I rode easy for a little recovery, then came the first 10 minute session. It hurt, but wasn't to bad. The second 10 minute effort hurt a little worse, of course. I decided it hurt to much. I planned on doing three, but called it after two. I tried to tell myself the power was down, I'm fatigued, you're better off to not do the last effort, but basically, once the ride was over, I felt like I just quit and should have done it. I'll have to remember that next time I want to quit early! Once recovered, I did a good solid 30 minutes of Sweet Spot riding on the way home, which confirmed the fact that I had the ability to do another microburst interval. I'm such a quitter! Oh well, all in all it was a great ride.
So that gets me up to date. Right now as I write this, I'm watching the live updates from Starcrossed, where teammates John and Lisa Curry are battling it out with some of the top cross racers in the nation. Good luck, John and Lisa! Wish I was there! So far no mention of them, but I'm sure they're doing well.
Keep it PURE,
Brad
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