Biscotti Madness

BiknBen said:
I do NOT recommend falling in love with Cracker Barrel. There is little on the menu that I find acceptable. I suspect they add butter to the orange juice. 😱
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For sure, it was a butter factory. The closest one is in Clinton which isn't very close, and once I get out of vacation mode I doubt I'll agree to go there very often. But if we do, it will be after some of my 3-4 hour early morning rides. Anything less than that and you're in the calorie red for the day.
 
Back in the saddle today after a few days of easy Amish living:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8465979

(That elevation profile is entirely inaccurate. It's almost always consistent with this ride. It appears the MD gravity no longer works. I went in and it was unchecked, and checking it does nothing.)

Aim

Today's aim was pretty straightforward: take the 2 days of rest my legs had, combine the 48 hours of eating, and throw it down to get me back into the flow. I had to go into work today so my time was limited. Ended up with a 20.7 average and 152 average HR over and hour and 11 minutes. The ride basically started as a tempo ride and turned into a threshold ride. In all a good workout.

Speed and Snap

Had plenty of speed today as the average indicates but not a whole lot of snap. That could be due to the days off, the diet in the last 2 days, the early time of day, or a combination of all 3. I kept it in a big gear for the most part and pushed a big gear up any small hills I encountered.

Week

I don't really have a classification for this week. It's not a rest nor a taper but it will be fewer days and less volume. I'm calling it more of an unloading week than anything. The previous 4 weeks averaged almost 13 hours a week so I need to dial back a bit so I'm reasonably fresh for this Sunday's race. I have plenty of training in my legs to unload and still be fine.

After that I'll likely do a lot of intensity next week as I WFH all week and have a weekend off between races. Following that I will likely do a 2 week taper for the last 2 races and try to form some sort of peak for KVSP. After that I will build up again as the Summer Silence ensues.

Race

Looking like another muddy H2H race this weekend. I'm debating swapping out tires on the geared Niner but I don't know if I feel like bothering at this stage. I'm not sure how the added weight of the Geax will translate and I may not get a ride off-road until Sunday. The weather is making trail riding very difficult. Another option is to run the SS but how much ground will I need to make up after the 1.5 mile prologue? The SS could literally be the difference between a 13 mph start and a 20 mph start. Over 1.5 miles that's a difference of 4:30 versus an almost 7:00 minute prologue. 2:30 is a ton of time, an absolute ton. If this weather didn't suck I would go up Thursday with both bikes and run the prologue with both and see which is faster.

Am I crazy?

24 hours

Registered the first MTBNJ team this weekend. Experts Bill and Bill will join Fred and myself in an effort to claim the top spot in the men's 4 man category. We have the second team just about done and the 3rd team 3/4 set. We may actually be able to cobble together a 4th team.
 
Norm said:
Looking like another muddy H2H race this weekend. I'm debating swapping out tires on the geared Niner but I don't know if I feel like bothering at this stage. I'm not sure how the added weight of the Geax will translate and I may not get a ride off-road until Sunday. The weather is making trail riding very difficult. Another option is to run the SS but how much ground will I need to make up after the 1.5 mile prologue? The SS could literally be the difference between a 13 mph start and a 20 mph start. Over 1.5 miles that's a difference of 4:30 versus an almost 7:00 minute prologue. 2:30 is a ton of time, an absolute ton. If this weather didn't suck I would go up Thursday with both bikes and run the prologue with both and see which is faster.

Am I crazy?

.
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Norm,

FWIW, Luke and I pre-rode the course and I rode the pro-log section twice with my paragon. I can tell you that the entire fireroad was MUCH faster for me with gears than when I rode it on my SS. Then into the single track section I dont think I dropped below 2-5 minus the very short, left hand uphill climb.
 
Thanks for the input Joe. That's basically what I'm concerned about, me falling totally OTB in the first section.

kush said:
What was the word someone used once? Oh yea, you're mindfvcking this 😀

(run gears)
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I'm thinking dammit, thinking!

Ok, 2 votes for gears. I'll run gears. It really would be a shame to have all that SRAM stuff on there and just let it sit in the shed.
 
Norm said:
So I saw Utah Joe's post and it reminded me about everytrail.com. Here's that link:
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=243725

Is it better? I'll need to do one of these with pics one day to see how it plays out as a trip storyteller. Seems like it could be pretty cool.
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Norm,

Most of the time for my training rides, I put them on motionbased. I find its a bit quicker and easier. However, I have been having problems with my 205 since I DROWNED it on a road ride in the rain last week. It shut off on me twice last night. So when I uploaded the data to motion based, there was a huge chunk of my ride missing. I tried it with everytrail and it worked fine. Go figure. I think the data is a more complete on motionbased. The elevation profiles, etc...

For my virgin islands trip, it was awesome. Pictures, information, etc... Very cool.
 
Norm said:
I'm thinking dammit, thinking!
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You are MindFvcking! Spin this any way you want but your results will be lower in the geared class if you choose the SS on this course. Other courses would be different. This is not a good one.

Some pre-ride laps times don't mean shit. It is an empty trail. Scatter 20 slower racers through the course and you will be slower.

My recommendation, sell the geared bike. Then the choice will be made. 🙄
 
BiknBen said:
Some pre-ride laps times don't mean shit. It is an empty trail. Scatter 20 slower racers through the course and you will be slower.
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I let JDog's comment in, which may not have been a good idea.

The first ST section of this course is not good for passing, especially with the conditions looking like a mudfest. So aside from starting last, I wouldn't be able to pass many people on that Major Mike section. The rest of the course is better but by then I'd be 5 minutes down.
 
mud or not, it sounds like you'll race better with gears at the course. if you want to SS it, don't shift a ton. just use your gears to get out in front, and to avoid possible gum ups with the shifting, find a good gear to 'SS it' and stick with it once you settle in.

or dip your whole bike in teflon pre-race. slick stuff that teflon is.
 
Funny you should say that, I heard that if you spray and coat wd 40 over the lower components it sheds the mud a little better. Makes sense no?....
Maybe for at least the first 5 minutes
 
We used to use some different products for the motocross bike to keep the mud off. Would not really keep the mud off the bike, just make it easier to clean after a moto.

The problem with stewarts is that the mud is like concrete. I noticed last week that riding through the few sections that were muddy, CAKED up my bike badly. My legs had a shell on them.
 
My legs hurt and I have a slight headache. Today is how I trained most of last year when I wasn't on the trainer doing intervals. The recipe basically goes like this:

* Wake up at 5:00
* Eat something nominal, today it was toast with honey
* Get on bike just after 5:30
* Immediately go into tempo mode
* Coast downhills in the first 20 minutes and call it a warm-up
* Hit the hills fairly hard and call it a warm-up
* After 20 minutes no more coasting
* After 30 minutes start to up the tempo into threshold
* Downshift, leave it there, do not shift up
* Start to calculate what it takes to average 20 mph
* Reach 20 mph, start to press harder
* Do not cool down, ride this way to the last hill you need to go over to get home
* Alternate sitting and standing on the hill because you want to hold 20.7 mph
* At the top of the hill start pressing again to get to the downhill
* Coast downhill back home and call it your cool-down

Now the ride is over, goes like this:

* Feel good, everything is vivid
* Coffee and breakfast are awesome
* Feel good on the train
* Getting sleepy but still feel good
* I could use something to eat
* Train ride over, ok, these steps hurt my legs
* Coming out of the subway, legs hurt more
* Sit in cubicle for a few hours, start to crash
* Headache settles in, legs get stiff
* Hunger grows through the day
* Remember why last year was as unproductive as it was, remind self to not do this anymore because it's stupid
* Decide to post this on training blog to make sure I document that while I do learn lessons, sometimes you need a reminder why riding like an idiot is not necessarily a good thing
* Go get coffee in the hopes that headache goes away
 
Kill Hill Volume 3:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8471254

Thanks to Bill Graveyardman's suggestion to include a specific downhill, I have now altered this route to have over 100 feet of vertical per mile, making this a Death March classification ride, according to Ben.

Aim

Today was more of a Kick HIll day, as I didn't exactly hit the climbs super hard. The aim was saddle time, and keeping a stead pace up the hills without going too far out of zone. On the ups I went over and downs I went under. In all my HR avg was 137, lower end of tempo. At times it was 171+, and at times it was 100. Hard to take HR info from this and translate it into much.

Legs

My legs felt yesterday's session this morning, and I played it appropriately. Around the 2 hour mark I tried to force a little snap by sprinting up some of the small rollers and they responded fine, but the heaviness of my legs returned shortly after. Not too concerned since I'm still in post-vacation as well as post-throw down from yesterday. The crap conditions can't help things either.

Rain

I woke up and it was pissing down like nobody's business. Oh well. This is my WFH day and if I don't take the opportunity I lose it. So I went out and it pretty much dumped on me the whole time. I wore tights and a LS base layer and LS jersey, and am pretty happy I did. It was pretty chilly at points. Towards the end it stopped briefly then opened up Noah-style shortly after. I was a total mess when I was done.

As much as it seems this would suck to ride in, I actually enjoy it. Aside from the fact my rear brakes were useless, which made some of the big downs a little sketchy, it's kinda fun to be out there when nobody else will get out there. If you only have a mountain bike the past 2 weeks have really hurt your fitness level because the trails are in such bad shape.

Clif Bars

After all this time I still like them. I think my 4 favorites are:

* Chocolate Macadamia
* Maple Nut
* Blueberry Crisp
* Black Cherry Almond

Race

Looking like a total slopfest. Still plan on doing it though the angel voice on my shoulder questions if it's a good idea. If Mike and George think it's bad for the trails they'll cancel it. So if they say it's on, I'm in. I'll be bringing the geared bike which I have not ridden since the Tymor Race on May 17th.

Tomorrow

Back in Brooklyn, no bike. I've been moving towards a WFH schedule which is 3 days on a normal week, Tue, Thu, and Fri. Friday is the wildcard, and if I need to do some drive-byes and meetings, I have to go in. In general though, Friday is a standard shit-hit-the-fan day and wasting 3+ hours commuting only dumps more of a work load on my coworkers.
 
Way to be Norm.
* Chocolate Macadamia
* Maple Nut
* Blueberry Crisp
* Black Cherry Almond

The bottom 2 are my tops these days but I can't find the CM, I'll trade you one for the videos🙂
 
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