4/4/15 12:47 PM

it's been 11 years since i've raced with any real condition and i'm almost 50 now...things are different.

did a local cat4 training race today, got shelled after 30 minutes when my legs had enough...which i expected, but i'm actually pretty pleased with how i rode as it came later than i would have figured.

i've only been doing any intensity for the last 2 weeks, prior to that it was 100% small ring in very small gears -- we're talking 60". plus after dropping 7# in march i'm still carrying around an extra 5#...so i'm taking all the positives and building for next saturday.

figure i gain 1% in "race readiness" in my legs/lungs and maybe lose 1-2# bodyweight this week...i'll be shooting to not get shelled. :-)

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Last edited by walter on 4/14/15 6:57 AM; edited 3 times in total

4/4/15 12:58 PM

I dunno, maybe you should expect a little less with so little base miles with all that winter you had! [having?] ;)

4/4/15 2:56 PM

Very pleased with where I am

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4/4/15 3:03 PM

Go for it. I'm no racer, but as I've posted elsewhere I've been training with more intensity than in the past and really enjoying it.

Almost 50? Don't sweat it, I'll be eligible for Medicare in a few months...

Love the white Sidis.

4/4/15 5:40 PM

LUCKY DOG!

4/5/15 12:22 PM

Go for it man, keep on upping the intensity, I think you will find that your fitness will come faster then you think.

4/6/15 8:42 PM

...aint off to a great start.

massive Easter breakfast, easily 2500 kcal, followed up by a cousins massive 50th bday feast (easily another 2500kcal) -- those 2 meals are good for a 1# *GAIN* of body weight!

i have no willpower when it comes to yummy food.

4/6/15 9:10 PM

"i have no willpower when it comes to yummy food"

I do, but not for more than a few nano seconds. ;)

4/11/15 2:57 PM

firstly, i ended up the week a net +1lb in bodyweight, so not the right direction.

today, got to the course w/o as much lead-time...ended up yammering with a couple guys which cut short my warm-up to a mere 5 minutes on the course. not good when i need every advantage at my disposal!

got shelled, much like last week. i was thinking i lasted not quite as long, but comparing my power files...i actually hung in a teensy bit longer. however, the pace today seemed a bit less hectic with less winds to deal with, so i the truncated warm-up did play a role. field was smaller, so spent more time in the wind as well. very good training, mixed in with some small chasing groups to get in some quality rotating paceline work.

bottom line...still building condition. if a poor warm up makes a difference, then i have some work to do!

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Last edited by walter on 4/11/15 6:28 PM; edited 3 times in total

4/11/15 3:03 PM

"ended up the week a net +1lb in bodyweight"

How do you know it is not -5 Plus +6 in water and food ??

4/11/15 3:17 PM

exact same time and day of the week (friday morning after coffee and constitutional), makes week to week comparisons reasonably reliable.

in the intervening days my weight was all over the place for the very reasons you suggest.

4/11/15 3:27 PM

And 'that' is how you know. ;)

I should know you better by now. ;)


But, how do you know it is not -5 fat and +6 muscle ?
If my belt goes down one hole and my weight up I assume this is the direction.

4/11/15 3:45 PM

Assuming a crit type race fast off the line, starting with a 5 minute warmup sounds like the 7th circle of hell to me...:)

I need.a long warmup to do anything hard, but I am an old guy...

Keep rockin' it.

4/11/15 4:58 PM

muscle gains, esp when measured in lbs, requires certain kinds of work that I honestly haven't done this year. Any meaningful changes in lbs-range weight around now will be predominately fat.

4/11/15 5:29 PM

my beater/race bike is a C50. Timeless Perfection if u ask me.

Fellas at the race were bustin my balls "dude how about getting a bike from *this* decade?! "

Disrespectful punks ... and stay offa my lawn!

4/12/15 6:43 AM

Looking at your files, quit working. Whe you know your fitness is questionable you hide. It looked like at least 20 dudes in your first picture, you should be 10 in the field the entire time. To far back and you get yoyo'd off the back in no time, to far forward and you get hammered by the wind.

Move to the front on the hills if there are any and let the field crank by, only to grab them at the back on top. You save energy by climbing slower but don't lose the peleton.

Find some weights and do some squats to build more instantaneous power. For crit type racing it is paramount.

Your bike won't slow you down, just put on FAST wheels, they can make for 2-3kph at speed.

4/12/15 5:24 PM

i just need better race-condition, lots of ways to get there...

last week i was +20 deep, this week i actually did stay in the top-10 until i popped. it was a pretty breezy day and staying so close to the front actually kept me more exposed to the wind than my condition can handle. Totally agree... riding on the razor's edge when one is short of condition, it's a fine line to balance where to stay in the bunch. either i work too hard to stay up front or i pay the price with big accordion-effect accelerations at the back -- choose your poison, either case i'm going to pop eventually with the condition i have.

i also rode the little hill on the course in the big chainring, again putting more demands on my legs than they can handle right now. i definitely should have spun and done the "back-slide" move to save some energy, which is ironically what i did last week. guess i was riding as if i was stronger than i really am!

if i had good condition, all of these things wouldnt matter nearly as much. but since i'm hanging on by a thread...the littlest things matter. lifting weights wont do it, more miles and targeted threshold work will -- a couple more weeks and i'll be feeling good.

remember what eddy said: ride lots. here's my strava file for this event. https://www.strava.com/activities/284374158/analysis

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Last edited by walter on 4/19/15 8:53 PM; edited 2 times in total

4/12/15 6:40 PM

Dude on the cross bike gave you shit about your ride? ;)

The chick hammering the front has some change in that ride to really be racing it and it is still to cold to race if y'all have to dress that way.

I have been just my kit for almost a month. Of course this summer it will be three centimeters from hell here and a nice balmy 25C at your place.

4/13/15 5:34 AM

Erik-if you waited for "just kit" in Chi town you'd be waiting until June....

Plenty of Ttown types here doing crits in March in full gear.

4/14/15 6:53 AM

everybody. i'm content with my classic carbon frame and non-aero alloy rims.

on the weight/diet front, back on a good trend...doing 3 hrs of tempo on rails-trails sunday and skipping any on-ride snacking or post-ride lunch put me in a nice calorie-deficit condition.

no mass measurements 'til friday, but i can feel it. :-)

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4/18/15 2:21 PM

proper warm-up, sunny day, riding smart, feeling good...until 20 minutes in i get caught behind a crash.

2 guys (or more) come together and go down right in front of me, nanoseconds to react, plowed into them and spent some up-close time with the pavement. a couple guys rode up my back-side as well.

left side took the impact, left elbow planted hard and left some skin on the pavement, i think my nose got grazed by a spinning wheel as it was dumping blood on the ground, and a light bump to the mellon... but the real damage was indirect... during the tumbling my legs were flung about and strained the hell out of my groin/hip areas.

there were a couple EMS guys and doctors in my field and were concerned about the pain and immobility around the hip so they strongly encourages me to stay on the ground and wait for medical assist. all i could muster was to roll over from my left side to my right. i was stuck laying on the pavement. never lost consciousness or anything, actually was joking and watnot during the interminable wait.

xrays were clean so now i'm home. amazing how much you use those groin and lower ab muscles for everything. it took me 20 minutes to shuffle 10 feet from the garage to the sofra. i sponged off as best i could, took some tramadol, and i'm planted here for a while. i cant even lift a foot to step forward...i had to side-shuffle from the garage to the house, feet never leaving the ground.

no idea how my bike fared, a teammate disconnected it from my foot and loaded it into my car. another teammate parked the car safely. now i gotta heal up enough to drive so i can fetch it and assess the equipment damage.

hey....coulda been worse...at least i'm smiling while using my helmet as a pillow!

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4/18/15 2:28 PM

my ankle is feeling comparatively better. ;)

Quick recovery!!


I know the shuffle thing all too well. Moto-CX days tail bone landing. Took 30-40 seconds to rotate 90^ in bed. And an awfully long time to shuffle to the bathroom. Could not even get my feet off the floor for a few days...


BattleSCARgalactica. ;)

At least yours was on [coming off?] the bike and not mowing the lawn. ;O

4/18/15 6:59 PM

Well shit dude. Heal up as fast as you can. Funny, the first thing out of my mouth would have been "How is my bike?"

OUCH, is now a real statement instead of a euphemism.

4/18/15 7:09 PM

Racing isn't good for you. Quit while you're ahead. Too many people rely on you to be healthy. Yes, riding in a pack is neat, but you have friends you are comfortable leaning against and slicing turns in formation. Yes, it's freaking fun to race well. But seriously, how many times a year will you win, place or show? What level do you intend to master? International? National? Regional? Local? Local training races? What is the return on risk? What is the return on investment?

Put in more than 10-15 hours a week and the diminishing returns curve gets steep. Approaching 50? 10-15 hours of full body fitness. Run enough so you can run a little more and not feel it the next day. Swim, hike, use your upper body on a court. Get and stay hard! Get one of those body fat, body age calculating scales and have a race against time. Against aging!

Internal injuries can lead to unseen clotting. A clot breaks off and ends up in your head and a piece of your brain the size of a finger nail clipping dies and you feel really weird and things are never the same.

I remember your wedding announcement. Wouldn't it be nice to be married for over 50 years?

In the race of life the winner finishes last.

Get well soon!

4/18/15 7:37 PM

"Racing isn't good for you. Quit while you're ahead. "

I opted for TTs when I partook to lower the odds. I had a client base with a 4 hour emergency response time in my contracts. Showing up in crutches might be OK once in a few years, might!