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2008-2009 UCLA Cycling Team
Team Blog
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I'll briefly summarize my Everest Training Plan:
Long hours of riding and climbing for 5 weeks after collegiate. Then, keep the hours and build in some intensity: Thursday la grange rides, 3 x 20 min intervals etc. A typical day might be: up Las Flores, down Piuma, up Piuma, down Las Flores - repeat 3 times.
The biggest thing I tried to focus on was to really hit my zones. I structured the workouts so that a 5 min interval session was early in the week followed by 20 min intervals when I was fresh, with the longer base rides later in the week. I tried to not dig myself into any "holes" by monitoring my Power Tap data.
To summarize the plot: The blue line (CTL) is my "fitness," the Pink line is my "fatigue" (ATL) and the bar graph in yellow is how "race ready" I am (TSB). My goal was to get the CTL number around 125 units in a linear fashion throughout the summer so as to not plateau, or build too fast and dig myself into a hole. You can see I did a big workout for the "training camp" - 21 hours saddle time in 2 days, which spiked my fatigue (ATL) and dropped my TSB.
One great feature with this kind of analysis is to ensure there is always a constant training stress - it's not ideal to maintain a flat CTL (blue line). It would better to eaither be building or recovering. Training is all about adaptation.
Using my training plan for the summer and the Power Tap as a guide, I was able to increase my 20 minute power from 320W to about 345-350W, a pretty significant increase.
Oh, I also ate. A LOT of food. I averaged 50,000 kJ (~calories) and 1300 miles / month for 3 months straight, and 30,000kJ and 800 miles / month for the 5 months before.
Happy Riding!Labels: Everest, Power Tap, racing, Training
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 Cat 4
Eric, Brian, and I headed north for a return visit to the first road race I ever entered. The Sisquoc course appears in both the collegiate and USCF series, and is one my favorite courses. I entered the Cat 4 mob of 70+ for four leisurely laps around the 10 mile circuit. Despite the moderate pace, it took me three laps to weave my way through the cramped field from a poor start position. The centerline rule on the narrow roads made moving up difficult. I was locked in the pack for an incredibly slow ascent up the final climb. Feeling fresh and foolish, I made a jump on the rollers as planned, but determined that I lacked the strength to overcome both the pack and the headwind on the descent. I sat up after a minute or two to mesh with the first nine or so riders and let someone drag me down to the finish. Things started to get hairy as the sprint began, but the high-speed autopilot that kicks in on a fast descent brought me to the sixth wheel. At the final dip before the small rise to the finish, I heard a yell and the characteristic crack of carbon fiber immediately behind me and to the right. The two riders in front of me drifted slightly apart and I saw my chance. I shot through the gap as one, two, and three riders faded from the periphery of my rapidly-tunneling vision. I expected my lungs and legs to burn, but felt nearly numb and strangely distant. The other riders appeared to simply fall away until one wheel remained. When I looked at him beside me, my disbelief gave way to hunger and the fury was unleashed.
Victory.Labels: racing
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The Sisquoc course is located in the rolling hills about an hour north of Santa Barbara and just south of San Luis Obispo. Aside from the feedzone location it's the same as the UCSB RR. It's a fast 11 mile loop with a few rollers, a long flat tailwind section, and a 3 minute climb that's just long enough to settle into a good rhythm. We would be doing 6 laps.
As expected the first 4 laps were relatively easy. I figured that nothing was going to stay away early, so I just sat midpack and let some of the more overzealous teams (read: La Grange) do all the chasing. The pace was all over the place for the first few laps as somebody would attack, the pack would respond, the break would be caught, and everybody would sit up until the next attack went. Aside from a few small jumps and accelerations I had a pretty easy going for the first 2 hours.
After hitting the hill on the 4th lap I knew that the field was starting to get a little less antsy and it was time to find the right move. Two guys got a decent gap at the beginning of the fifth lap, but I decided to wait. A few small accelerations on the rolling back portion shook up the field a bit and legs were definitely getting tired. Just after the feed zone two strong riders went off the front (along with an SC Velo rider covering for his teammate who was already up the road). I jumped hard, bridged and then hammered up the climb. We caught the two guys up the road, immediately dropped one and then started motoring. By the start/finish line we had a solid 45 second gap. We worked well together for for the next 8 miles until we dropped the second SC Velo rider on a long flat tailwind section.
We kept motoring through the rollers, past the feed zone and up the climb. Every so often I would get a small peak at the field way in the distance. It was a bit frustrating because we didn't have a motor ref or anybody yelling out the gap. Two of the guys would occasionally stop working and myself and a Cynergy rider would have to yell at them to pull through. In the end it came down to a four man sprint. I started out second wheel and in decent position but I had nothing left and ended up rolling in 4th. Despite the crappy sprint I'm extremely excited with the result. It's a great feeling to dupe the field and make the sprinters fight it out for 5th. It was a 59 man field, so I get 6 upgrade points.
Now I just need 19 more to get my Cat 2 upgrade...
Power geek numbers:
Race:
Duration: 2:40:39
Work: 1983 kJ
TSS: 196.1 (intensity factor 0.856)
Norm Power: 260
VI: 1.26
Distance: 64.336 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1090 206 watts
Heart Rate: 83 184 152 bpm
Cadence: 29 222 83 rpm
Speed: 9.1 44.9 24.0 mph
Breakaway:
Duration: 36:11
Work: 600 kJ
TSS: 55.3 (intensity factor 0.957)
Norm Power: 291
VI: 1.05
Distance: 14.376 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1004 276 watts
Heart Rate: 153 184 176 bpm
Cadence: 29 178 84 rpm
Speed: 11.5 41.1 23.8 mph
Labels: Eric, racing
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