Free vo2 max Study Test in KC.

"The study is looking at the effects of static stretching on VO2 max and cycling efficiency using a computrainer. It would require you to come in to Rockhurst twice for about an hour, and you would also need to be able to bring your own bike. One testing session you would perform the stretching protocol, and the other session you would perform the control. You should be between the ages of 18 and 44. You would also need to fast before the test, i.e not eat breakfast before."

Email trebor.besser at gmail.com or call him t Six two 0-450-eight143

Ride on Sunday.

Did 84 miles at 21.5 mph. That's with a few stop lights too. There was barely any wind which was nice. Ride Here. Ended up with 100 miles for the day with some miles before and after the ride. We started with 15 or so riders, then I think 6 of them shortened there ride to 66 miles by going south from Linwood and back by 83rd. Everyone seemed pretty fresh after a 4 day break from riding.

Classic Ride

Big Ride this sunday. Not sure why exactly we are calling it a classic ride. But that's it. Should be fun. There will be a few more in april/may/june to fill in the gaps of the race schedule.

There are quite a few gaps in mine now. Looks like I won't be racing for a month almost. 3 sundays of no racing. I might go down and race the NWA Classic. I need to do something. I definitely haven't been riding hard at all this year so far, need to find the hard races that will make my eyes bleed. Traveling hours on end to do this is not what I want to do.


4-15 Bazaar RR
4-21,22 Tour of Herman
4-25-29 Joe Martin
5-6 Auburn RR
5-11,12 Tour de grove.
6-2-3 Riverfest crits, wichita.
6-8,9,10 Tulsa Tough
6-22-24 Tour of KC
6-30 Lawrence Circuit
7-1 Lawrence Crit

Rained all week. The younger kid got ear infections this week too. I jogged a little monday but that is about it. The rest of the time I've spent eating and playing with tractors.

China made some 23mm wide, 50mm deep tubulars, they call them cross tubulars but they'll be good for the road too. They look just like these in the pictures.



I'm going to try and make energy bars on saturday for the big ride. I thought about a few different ingredients, but I think it best to go with the bacon-cashew recipe first.

Perry Dam #3

I paid for the series, it probably would have been better for me not to have shown up. I didn't feel like racing no matter how much coffee and monster energy I could drink. There were only 4 starters. 45 miles of level 3 riding. The kind of riding I hate. Just trudging along. The kom I got 3rd, I didn't really want to go. 1 point. Then the for the finish same thing happened, my legs felt heavy, no snap, just wallowed up to the top for 4th. 6 points. 7 total. At the end of the race I had 60 miles in my legs. I have never ridden like that. There were no attacks, no surging, no hard pedaling, no soft pedaling, just constant power the whole time. I hate that.

One of my demotivators was that I was 5 points ahead 3rd place, Brian, who had 13 and I had 19. I didn't think he could catch me. He won the race and got 2nd kom, so his best 2 races now added up to 19, we were tied. But if you take our 3rd race, our worst race, he had 6 points and I had 7...so in theory, I should have got 2nd. If I can still count. Joe brought home $50 for me which meant 3rd.


I found out Perry-Roubaix will not have a race for 1/2s, this sucks. I might be doing nwa classic now, 72 miles, get ready.

strava and garmin

I uploaded all my files to connect.garmin.com. I was told that garmin had a better way of exposing the power numbers. Its a little better. Its nice scrolling through and seeing all the charts separately. I still think strava is better, especially with all the battles and koms and stuff for competition.

I got a new trailer last week. I can now get out of the house with the both boys and roll around at a measly 13mph with an extra 70lbs hooked to the havocstaff. My first ride I noticed my hr was way low. I was going at 200watts for a while and my hr stayed below 120. Usually as soon as I hop on my bike the hr spikes to 140.

I'm guessing the speed has something to do with it, only going 10-13mph, but still producing watts. Guessing going fast makes you have to think faster, watch the road better, think faster, all those things, makes the heart pump more, work harder. I'm hoping these trailer rides teach me to control my hr better, keep it lower.

I road 2 hours today with the trailer, before setting off on a good a solo ride. I was surprised how low my hr stayed. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing.

Perry Dam #2

It was 45 degrees and lots of rain. There wasn't as many racers this time. Only 5 of us lined up to do the shorter race, only 30 miles. The 2nd lap was the prime lap. We all road pretty good together, then Ben attacked the turn before the climb. I got on Kents wheel who chased him down, finally passing him with 200meters to go. I started my move around kent at 50 meters, but never got there, maybe had I shaved my head I would have won it. After that lap I told Kent how much I enjoyed racing against Ben Stover. He's always attacking, and when he does, they are the kind of "oh shit" he's really going type of attacks. The 3rd time up the hill we were still all together so I dropped it into the small ring and road hard up to the top. Towards the top, Ben went again, really hard, this time with Kent and this man, Brian West, going with him. I had a sort of lazy moment where I said to my self I could catch them by the bottom of the hill. They thrashed all the way down the hill and across the dam, perfect 3 man break away. At the bottom was me and Funk were starting our chase when he quit pedaling, he may have flatted, or just didn't want to spin his Junior gears at 35mph across the dam, it took me a few seconds to get around and when I finally looked up, I could barely see who was who, they were up the road. We had 3.5 laps to go, about 18 miles left. I was in my 50/11 riding out of the saddle for 2.5 laps. With 1/2 lap to go, I finally made contact, I averaged 24mph by myself for 13 miles. They seemed to be riding well together. There were 4 of us, and no one was chasing, everyone was on cruise control and I actually felt like I had legs to attacked. At this point, we were all frozen good, none of us could shift good and our shoes/socks were a wet mess. On the tough road before the climb Brian West attacked, I jumped with him, after a bit Kent and Ben caught us and I actually felt like I had a chance to win, then Ben went. I started the chase, I went as hard as I could and half way up I cracked. I shifted it down and spun up to finish 3rd. Ben did the same to get 2nd, cracking at 50 meters left or so, a case where had I jumped out of the saddle and put myself through some real pain to stay on Kent's wheel would have led me to 2nd...but 3rd was what I deserved.




I road over 90 miles today. Got plenty of vitamin D. 75 and windy. At mile 55 I was cracked good. Guess eating half a bagel and a liter of coffee wasn't enough food. One of those deals where your mother in law shows up to baby sit the kids and says, "go ride your bike." Stuff I pray for every night.

Recovery

Here's the thing. No one needs recovery if they are riding less than 15 hours a week. You don't need to "rest" the day before a training race in March, you don't need to "spin" your legs out after a 40 minute crit, you don't need skin cream where you sit if you ride less than 10,000 miles a year, and you definitely shouldn't be riding wheels that are shallower than 38mm.

It must be nice to be pro right? Ride your bike all day in foreign places. Eat all the food they can stomach. Wake up every morning feeling like the local little league team had batting practice with your legs all night long. Hoping to god today isn't the day they go down breaking every bone in their body and ending their career.

It hurts to race in March. Even the guys pushing the pace at the front hurt. If you are in the "gutter," there is someone at the front hurting himself more than they are hurting you and actually, they are probably liking it that it hurts you.

Yes, pros riding 600k a week, they probably do need a massage once in a while, they probably need to eat a few more calories, they probably do get 11 hours of sleep after an 8 hour 250k day of riding, and yes, they might go on a 4 hour recovery ride the following day to well...recover.

Go ride your bikes, and if you are caught saying you are taking it easy on saturday in order to get a "result," then come next year, you probably will be in the same place you are now. Get better, hurt a little more, go faster.

Whatever you do, keep having fun.

Race #1

First race of the year in the books. The guys putting this race get an A+. I would have bet on the way there that there was going to be 4 cat 1/2s and that we'd go off with the 3s, but there were 11 surprisingly. Still a small group for a 35 mile circuit race with 30mph winds. Brian Jensen was racing, it seemed no one would attack or follow attacks unless he was going. After the first lap a guy got off the front. We were chasing somewhat, there wasn't really any organization with all the wind, you could barely speak to the guy next to you. Finally on the 2nd time up the hill they rang the bell for the kom point lap, this meant the next time around the top 3 places would get points. We started going a bit better with kent and brian taking a few pulls. On the flat section on the tough road before the climb Brian attacked, kent bridged bringing everyone with him. Kent got up to him quick and at this point the man off the front was probably 10 bike lengths ahead before the turn to the climb.

Jensen and Kent go again at the bottom, I am behind 3 dudes. The first dude gets a gap while the 2 dudes in front of me keep it steady. Eventually I look up and the guy in 3rd is about 12 bike lengths ahead and 100 meters from the finish. Its the steepest part of the hill and I could see he was tired, so I attacked my guys, jumped up 13 bike lengths and got the remaining 1 point.

I sat up after the points, Kent and Jensen were coasting down the hill. The guy I jumped went after them and I pedaled along and about 10 seconds later I was joined by 5 others. We got going across the dam, catching the 3rd placed rider with only kent and jensen up the road. We had 3.5 laps to go at this point. There were only 3 or 4 of us taking pulls of the 6. Eventually after a lap or 2 there were only 3 of us. We were still pulling strong but going across the dam the final time we could see that we weren't going to catch either of them. I took some big pulls anyway for fun. I'm pretty sure the 2 riders I was with were faster up the hill. They both had small rings that worked and looked more fit, lighter. I was debating whether I should attack before the hill to get a gap. Instead they both attacked me 1 after the other on the hard road before the turn to go up. By the time we started the climb I just kept pedaling and left them for the 3rd place points.

results here. Well done race officials. I heard the winner of the kom cat 4 lap got a skateboard.