@StayHydrated - I've been doing 2 things to try to get more sleep. First is to take the phone and move it away from me when I go to bed. I've been putting it on the bookcase in front of the window when I read. When I'm done reading, I'm not tempted to pick up the phone for "one more hit" before I go to sleep. This has helped on the front end. Second, I try not to set an alarm, though sometimes I do. Last week I did twice and it made me drag all day. So I've been avoiding the alarm. That helps on the back end. I'm aiming for 7 hours a day.
This means that I don't wake up as early every day to write. I still wake up & work on the book, which I'll need to give a name at some point. It just takes me longer and longer every day to wrap up the chapter. Yesterday and today I wrapped up chapters 29 and 30. Looking at 10 to go. Figure maybe 2 weeks and I'll be through 40.
The last 2 days I rode my bike outside, which is 4 days in a row. The Zwift Cockpit has been disassembled for now. I was given the green light to keep it until Thursday but I said screw it and took it all apart to get the house ready. The fewer cans we kick down the road, the better. Yesterday I rode easy, recovery. Today I hit it hard, attempting 8 Strava segments of 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length. I didn't get any of them but I did come 1 second off the 2nd effort. I cycled through each effort, then rested, then did another. I didn't expect to get any of these and I didn't. Best way to get a KOM would be to do only ONE segment. But this isn't how you get stronger for racing, is it?
As I looped through them, I felt good, even if I did start to fade a bit. But I kept going and on the 7th one, I actually felt surprisingly good. Decided to go for an 8th one, which frankly is unheard of when I do these. I'm pretty happy to see that I can bounce back pretty well from these, better than I expected. The power numbers aren't where I would love to see them but this whole power realm is new in the training intervals for this year. Rinse, repeat, keep going. Bake stronger bread every week.
Anyway, 8th effort one is my street. My cleats fly out of the pedals, and I almost crash. That would have sucked. Went home and ordered new cleats.
@StayHydrated - I think just a few pounds as they come off is the best I can hope for and get away with stuff like today. If I am good/vigilant, it will slide down. I do think I could drop 5 between now and December 14th. That's not totally out of the question. Once that comes & goes, I'll probably embark on a huge winter base season to try and lose more. We'll discuss that later, next year, when James @pearl may reassess his opinion on blogging.
4 days to go. Still not done getting ready.
This means that I don't wake up as early every day to write. I still wake up & work on the book, which I'll need to give a name at some point. It just takes me longer and longer every day to wrap up the chapter. Yesterday and today I wrapped up chapters 29 and 30. Looking at 10 to go. Figure maybe 2 weeks and I'll be through 40.
The last 2 days I rode my bike outside, which is 4 days in a row. The Zwift Cockpit has been disassembled for now. I was given the green light to keep it until Thursday but I said screw it and took it all apart to get the house ready. The fewer cans we kick down the road, the better. Yesterday I rode easy, recovery. Today I hit it hard, attempting 8 Strava segments of 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length. I didn't get any of them but I did come 1 second off the 2nd effort. I cycled through each effort, then rested, then did another. I didn't expect to get any of these and I didn't. Best way to get a KOM would be to do only ONE segment. But this isn't how you get stronger for racing, is it?
As I looped through them, I felt good, even if I did start to fade a bit. But I kept going and on the 7th one, I actually felt surprisingly good. Decided to go for an 8th one, which frankly is unheard of when I do these. I'm pretty happy to see that I can bounce back pretty well from these, better than I expected. The power numbers aren't where I would love to see them but this whole power realm is new in the training intervals for this year. Rinse, repeat, keep going. Bake stronger bread every week.
After the race I identified these things as my weaknesses I need to work on:
1. Weight loss - ok this is obvious
2. Microbursts - I am not ready to do yet but that GD clover exposed this. I think there were 15 turns in that infield.
3. Short-term power - that was today, not micro-short but sub 5 minute stuff. The back side hill climb was this stuff. See below
4. Driving - I'll worry about this more if I don't see some improvement in the next few races
So that back side hill climb in Lucky. I defined it as a segment in Strava:
https://www.strava.com/segments/19009212?filter=overall
My times over the 6 laps, from 1 to 6:
1:46
1:54
2:01
2:01
2:06
2:05
That's a 20 second drop across the spread. Ideally I want that to be more consistent but it's ok, that was a race in September. Plenty of time. But today's workout is how we address this. Well today's workout, plus the weight loss thing will both help address it.
Now look at Utah (difference with mine):
1:37 (-9)
1:35 (-19)
1:42 (-19)
1:42 (-19)
1:41 (-25)
1:55 (-10)
Ok do the math here. This is 101 seconds. That is huge, HUGE, maybe even Yuge. He beat me by 211 seconds. Almost half of that is on this hill that is 1/4 mile. So I lose half my time on 20% of the course. How do we address this?
1. Lose weight - again, duh
2. Improve your power in this 90-120 second range
3. Learn to be able to repeat this effort under stress. This is why you don't do one KOM run, you do 8.
One spot ahead of me was Charlie, who beat me by 71 seconds overall. He beat me by 74 seconds on those 6 climbs. So I beat him by 3 seconds on 80% of the race, but the 20% is so important he totally crushed me in the final results.
I hope that makes sense.
1. Weight loss - ok this is obvious
2. Microbursts - I am not ready to do yet but that GD clover exposed this. I think there were 15 turns in that infield.
3. Short-term power - that was today, not micro-short but sub 5 minute stuff. The back side hill climb was this stuff. See below
4. Driving - I'll worry about this more if I don't see some improvement in the next few races
So that back side hill climb in Lucky. I defined it as a segment in Strava:
https://www.strava.com/segments/19009212?filter=overall
My times over the 6 laps, from 1 to 6:
1:46
1:54
2:01
2:01
2:06
2:05
That's a 20 second drop across the spread. Ideally I want that to be more consistent but it's ok, that was a race in September. Plenty of time. But today's workout is how we address this. Well today's workout, plus the weight loss thing will both help address it.
Now look at Utah (difference with mine):
1:37 (-9)
1:35 (-19)
1:42 (-19)
1:42 (-19)
1:41 (-25)
1:55 (-10)
Ok do the math here. This is 101 seconds. That is huge, HUGE, maybe even Yuge. He beat me by 211 seconds. Almost half of that is on this hill that is 1/4 mile. So I lose half my time on 20% of the course. How do we address this?
1. Lose weight - again, duh
2. Improve your power in this 90-120 second range
3. Learn to be able to repeat this effort under stress. This is why you don't do one KOM run, you do 8.
One spot ahead of me was Charlie, who beat me by 71 seconds overall. He beat me by 74 seconds on those 6 climbs. So I beat him by 3 seconds on 80% of the race, but the 20% is so important he totally crushed me in the final results.
I hope that makes sense.
Anyway, 8th effort one is my street. My cleats fly out of the pedals, and I almost crash. That would have sucked. Went home and ordered new cleats.
@StayHydrated - I think just a few pounds as they come off is the best I can hope for and get away with stuff like today. If I am good/vigilant, it will slide down. I do think I could drop 5 between now and December 14th. That's not totally out of the question. Once that comes & goes, I'll probably embark on a huge winter base season to try and lose more. We'll discuss that later, next year, when James @pearl may reassess his opinion on blogging.
4 days to go. Still not done getting ready.