Tucson Day 2

Good day of riding today, it was sunny in Tucson.  I got a good 5hours in with a bit of intensity.  I did a pretty good FTP TT effort about 1.5 hrs in.  I'm thinking about talking more in depth about that, but it's really nothing special so I'm just gonna leave at that (cough cough...385w...cough).  Oh yeah it was so cool, today for a bit of the ride we rode with this guy that rode for Toyota United this past season...his name's Fred, and he can trackstand!

Once we got back to the house I headed out for a little more, did a quick run up Gates Pass and down the backside (steep side), I then came back up and did it hard up the steep side, got a good little effort in right der.  This picture is from like halfway down Gates looking out at the valley, pretty different from the epic Best Buy I pass everytime I do my favorite ride back home!
Tomorrow I'm doing a little shorter, but going to do some hill repeats on Gates cuz on Tuesday we're gonna do a big one out to Kitt Peak.  But otherwise all is good, just wanna give a quick shout out to my mom C-Wizzle, I miss you mommy!  

Tucson Day 1

So we got to Tucson at about 1am this morning, luckily I was able to sleep some on the plane there, which is weird because I usually can never sleep on planes.  After some extra sleep at the house, we headed out for a ride.  Today would've been our only day to do the shootout since we're only here for a week, but with the late flight it wasn't really feasible.  Steven Black who got here last night went to do it.  The ride today was pretty solid, we just rode pretty steady I got a good ~4hrs in, not really too hard, at the end I did a trip over Gate's Pass, just pretty ez which was nice, it always makes me happy to climb!...probably because I get to see people cry when I climb!  It was nice and sunny today but not to warm, it was in the 40's but the next week it's supposed to get up into the 70's.  Later in the week we're going to hit Kitt Peak and Madera Canyon and Mount Lemmon.  Also beast from the east and west Russ Brown is coming out to Tucson tomorrow so I'm gonna throw down withhim.  If anyone is out in Tucson or knows people that are in Tucson that want to do some good climbing and long rides then holla!...for realy cuz Kitt Peak and Madera Canyon are some pretty big rides and it wouldn't hurt to have a few more motors, about 5 Lances for example equal one me!  

Also, I took some cell phone pics on the ride today of just stuff...here is just a random peak, the scenery around here is such a nice change for the eyes from the DC suburbs:

This picture is of this long straight flat road with just desert around, it was pretty beast, made me feel hard:
So yeah should be a good little block of training this week, see how it goes.  I'm starting to get pretty pumped for next season, Tradezone starts in like 6 weeks or something, hopefully by then I'll be on peak form.  I'm gonna come out all guns a flying and just lap the field like two or three times at the first Tradezone then just go into hibernation the rest of the season, satisfied with a good early season haul.  If you want to form a composite team to ride support for me at Tradezone #1 then email me at: nate1wilson@verizon.net

Alright...I was kidding

Soooooooo...on my last post when I said my training schedule and asked for advice, I made that up.  I tried to make it as crazy as possible while still being believable.  I was dissappointed I only got two people to take the bait, but Chip and Kyle's responses were entertaining to me.  Sorry fellas to trick you!

In other news I did some real training today...my buddy zack is back from college at CSU and we rode out to Great Falls and rocked some hill repeats, or more truthfully I rocked some hill repeats while he sat on my wheel and cried. While out there we saw the venerable Nick Bax, presumably home on his christmas break from college.  He was towing some guys around that seemed to b riding on his wheel in a similar manner Zack was on mine...ahh tis the life of crushing people!  But no really I cried every time up great falls, it was worth it though, because maybe I'll be stronger now.

Whenever I'm coming back home from that direction I usually go over chain bridge up to Arlington, the main road after chain bridge has a lot of traffic on it so I go up this little side road that is like mad steep so today I took a picture of it, dissappointingly the picture doesn't accurately portray how steep it is.  Next time I go up it I'll try and get a better picture...I cried going up that hill too...c'est la vie!

Training

Sooooooo...everything has been good, training is pretty solid I THINK?  Yesterday I got a nice 4 and a half hours in the WV mountains with some beast bikers.  My cannondale is currently in a box on the way to Tucson, AZ as it is much cheaper to ship fed-ex then to pay the rediculous bike fee on the plane.  So Sue let me borrow her back-up bike to ride until I go out to Tucson, it is the first road bike in 6 years of riding I have ever ridden besides my cannondale...except for turkey day a few years ago where my bike was broken and I rode my mom's women's specific ruby in the junior and then sue's ruby in the 1/2/3.  But here's the bike it's pretty sweet, its a 54 instead of a 56 but i just jacked up the post and it is sweet, so stiff and supple a ride, the ceramic seat post bearings are exquisite!

The ride was good we did an epic 30min climbing test at the end with some vicious switch backs, but before we could get down to bussiness Blair had to get a flat 7.5min into our ride...exciting!
Today I got out on the bike for about 2.5 hours I took this shot becuz it is g...and I don't have my powertap cuz the wheel is on the way to Tucson, not worries, I jsut rode steady today anyway so not missing much...woulda been just a strait line at 320w on the file anyway.

You may recall the title to this post was "training?".  Well that is because I've been thinking about my training schedule a lot.  I've come up with it mostly on my own and some of Sue's input, I'm worried I'm not training enough for next year, I really want to be on good form.  There are a lot of people out there that are much more knowledgable and have a lot more experience than me.  So I'm putting my schedule for this week Mon-Sun below and would really appreciate any feedback I can get:

Mon- 2hr on the bike (outside) zone 2, power=250w @ 110 rpm...then full body gym 3x20,               45min on bike (rollers) after power=220

Tues- 3.5hr with 3 sets of 10x 30s HARD/10s off rest between sets 6min @ power=280

Wed- 4.5-5 hr with 2sets of 5x5min tempo efforts power=360, rest 5min between efforts @             power=200 rest between sets 10min @ power=250

Thurs- 5-6hrs all zone 2, power=250-260...remember your competition is taking off so every            mile counts!!!!

Fri- Rest day...3hr on rollers power=230, core work

Sat- ~7hrs ride to Charlottesville, down skyline drive starting in The Plains power=250

Sun- ~7hrs ride back from Charlottesville, this time go thru Batesville, Wintergreen, Front             Royal...Sue picks me up in Gainesville power=250 but hit Wintergreen and 211 climbs             HARD

So this week is fairly big since I only have school Monday and Tuesday.  But I want to know am I doing enough volume (not enough/too much?) enough intensity, the right intensity whatever.  There's a lot of smart guys out there so give me some feedback, just post in the comments.  Thanks! and have a good holiday!

Stuff, Stuff and Boulder!!!!!

So, I've been up to basically the same old stuff training, school, and whatnot.  Sunday it was pretty nice and sunny, me and Blair got in a nice 5.5 hour ride on the Peters Rd. Loop (unofficial name, but should be official).  I felt pretty good but thats boring no one wants to hear about that, but if your courious average power was about 87 watts.  More interesting news, maybe?, is that next year I will be riding for Kelly/LSV.  This is a picture of me wearing some Kelly clothes:

I've been riding for NCVC ever since I started racing in 2003 but now I'm trying to be on the up and up and thought I'd mix it up a bit, so giving this a go for next year, I think it will go well.  More information as the season goes on, I guess.

As for the ride, that loop is awesome, once you get past like Gaithersburg, its like no cars and really sweet back roadds through farms and stuff.  You come out at the scenic Monocacy River, by Buckeystown:
Peters road is a cool gravel road with these two steep little climbs that are like something in tour of flanders or something, it is sweet, it was kinda wet yesterday so my bike got all muddy only non sweet part, but at least my sick fender caught some of it:
Scale of 1-10 how awesome is the fender, 10 being like really awesome?

Finally, some really good news just came my way as I have been accepted early admissions to University of Colorado Boulder...so I am really happy about that and basically for sure going to go there for Fall 2009!

GamJams Reviews: Trainers and Rollers - Rollers.

I'm definitely not a fan of training inside, as I think most people aren't except for a few guys I know that are like real hardcore and do it to keep all things constant and what not.  But when I do train inside I like to rock the rollers.  I've had a couple sets of rollers, first were a set I found in a trash can.  Surprisingly enough they served me well for two years, and would still be serving me if someone hadn't given me a pair of Kreitlers.  I now have Kreitler dyno-lyte rollers they are nice, slightly smaller drums then the standard version but not tiny.  They are good for doing z2 on much more than the trainer, because you use your core more to stabilize like your riding outside and it requires more focus.  Unfortunately I only use them for z2, with my junior gears (52x14) they don't have enough pressure to do intervals, in my 14 at ~100rpm it is about 220w, so maybe if I had adult gears I could do intervals on them.  But the bottom line is riding inside my first choice is always rollers of any kind, my kreitlers are great, and the trainer is really only for intervals, and even then I'd rather just get fat and give up bike racing, so thats my advice.  If you find yourself having to ride inside just give up bike racing.

Finally, I've heard e-motion rollers are awesome and I'm sure they are.  They capitalize on rollers being awesome and make them more so plus (I think) they have an adjustable mag unit so you can make pressure and do sick intervals.  I haven't gotten to try a set, I would love to own a set, but the 800 dollar price tag has deterred me.  If anyone has a set they are looking to give away for free, and/or less than ten dollars please email me @ nate1wilson@verizon.net

Hurting

IT was pretty nice today but I didn't have time to ride outside, cuz the light runs out before I can finish my workout anyway...ahhh I hate school for this.  I would love it if instead of school from 8-3 I could have schoool from like 2pm-9pm, oh well this is senior year anyway so next year i'll have more time.  But I'm about to go get on the trainer to do some intervals, I'm not hurting yet but I know I will be so I thought just make this post before hand.  It's been so freaking cold lately but the next few days are supposed to be warmer then cold again, it's gonna be in the 40s this weekend i think so after some computrainer stuff on saturday ill hopefully get out for a long one on sunday.  Also the NCVC end of year party is on Saturday which is always kind of fun, who doesn't love free food and trophies!  Also, I leave for Tucson in 17 days...YES...it is 70 there right now, hate me.

Crushing Foos

I haven't blogged in a while which is dissappointing, been over a week i think, im sorry.  I have not really been too busy just too lazy, and uncreative.  But heres a quick catchup on janx...it was really cold today so instead of suffering for like 4hours on a long ride i decided to get all my sufferin done in a quick painful 40 min cx race.  So I'm broke out the cx bike first time riding it since mid-october...oh yeah and i slammed the stem on that bitch, so awesome.

So I just did the jr race cuz I ddin't want to do not good so it was pretty fun, i felt pretty decent it was a cool course...me and steve kendall crushed it and went 1-2, yeah i got 2.

Other exciting news continues I cut my steerer tube down so it looks more g and i popped it down a spacer, i really want to slam it BUT i might break my back, plus im switching bikes pretty soon anyway.

More awesome news (isn't this the best blog ever!!!!) last weekend I did some intervals on my TT bike.  I feel real good in the position trying to get rockin on it so I can crush in some tts next year.  Hopefully you cant read my powertap because it says 108 watts, infortunately this is during one of my intervals, it's hard to be me.

I'm sitting at my keyboard out of things to stay...stalling, stalling...YES, something just hit me.  I will share an anecdote, first follow the link to this picture, for full effect of the story:

http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2008/JrRoadNats/c1718/pages/94AD3510rnc.htm

The picture is from junior crit nationals this august.  The course was nothing too special, it was in a parking lot around angel stadium in LA kinda like RFK, made outta barriers.  I had vicious saddle sores coming off a week long stage race that were open raw and stinging so bad I didn't even really want to start.  I started anyway and rode through them for awhile.  On the third lap I got to the front and bridged to a break with a HotTubes kid and someother guy.  Eventually the group swelled up to 10, as seen in the picture, and we opened up a bigger and bigger gap, I started thinking we were gonna stay away, but too many guys thought that the move was def away and just wouldn't work that really pissed me off.  After about 10 laps out front we were brought back, I was pretty angry and after almost crashing I just dropped out, my sores ripped open.  IT was a pretty dissappointing nationals for me this year, with a shitty TT, that in the crit, and a RR where I just attacked the hell out of the race and got really nowhere on a dissaappointingly unselective course, and I easily missed the winning move, unfortunately thinking back the crit was probably my high point of nationals this year, oh well.  Good post, probably my longest one yet, if you read this account I am honored, hope it wasn't too boring.  This anecdote idea is kinda cool, I think.  Next time I want to blog but can't think of something I'm just gonna talk about race from before my blog.