Gold in them thar hills

I have been really digging this last two weeks of cycling focused training. I've been seeing some good improvement both real and perceived. First of all my legs and hip (IT band) feel really strong and balanced. I've also seeing some improved stability on the bike from the core and strength training. Spending all this time on the bike has allowed me some time to think and kind of set some goals for the rest of the year. I probably won't release the details of these goals just yet, as I'm pretty excited right now.

Since the big ride on the Fourth, I've been feeling really good. I took a planned day off on Thursday and went out for a longer tempo ride on Friday. Longer meaning a 35 minute tempo section riding in Zone 3.

I was surprised at how easy the effort felt compared to the suffering two days prior. I descended the workout slightly to make sure I was in the proper zone/HR wise. It was a big gear interval keeping the cadence around 72-78. I noticed it was less taxing on the cardio side and more strength oriented. I generally favor a high cadence to produce speed and am able to produce smooth power up to 125 rpm. I think the strenght workouts will translate into more pure speed at the higher cadence, normally around 100.

20k @ 238 watts avg.

average HR: 144

Max HR: 156

Nice power for low HR!

I did a little flip flop Sat/Sunday and hit the gym for some corework and shoulder stability on Saturday so I could join James on a longer ride on Sunday.

It's a little more work organizing a "group"ride but well worth it as it gets me more stoked. We've done pretty well mixing up the rides as we've set out to keep it fresh, trying some new rides around the county. There is a lot of killer rides that have yet to be checked out. I kind of wanted to keep this ride on the mellower side but was not afraid to go longer than the 2:30 on the schedule. We talked about riding up the coast to Dana point but fear of boredom led us to pick a ride outside of Alpine,CA. It's pretty much the same route as the Alpine Challenge road race, so it's definitely legit.

The temp was cooler than expected around 68 at the start and low 80's and dry by the end. Perfect. We surprisingly managed to keep it mellow, but I appreciated the discipline as we could have easily turned it into a suffer-fest. That's the great thing about this ride, even though it was 4000+ of climbing, it didn't max out my ratio so there was occasion to spin up the hills riding in Zone 3/low 4. It also ratchets up with some brief rolling at the top of each climb which were only about 6-10 minutes at a pop. I did let it out a little on the descent to work on generating some good speed and power at 120-130 rpm, plus it was fun. I just pugged a redbull and wanted to test my "wings". This was a great ride on a fun route that has lots of potential to link for longer rides up to Sunrise Highway or for some good climbing intervals. Road riding at it's best.

Of note is how strong my legs felt on this ride. It's amazing what great training response I get from riding in the mountains. No matter where my training is heading I'm definitely going to keep these rides going.