Hairy Back Ride - First Day of Spring

First day of spring did not disappoint! Awesome weather awaited gravel thirsty riders for the longest and final organized MO Gravel Grinder of the year.

Alot of the riders are training for big mile events coming up like Trans Iowa (300 miles) and Dirty Kanza (200 miles). This ride is a drop in the bucket for them but provides them the much needed training.

With that many miles riders get creative with gear design.




For me this bike was the winner in that category, cool set up.

We headed out into the wind for an uphill ride to Owensville.

On any ride you see some stuff that you would not expect, yesterday we came up on this. This guy is into forts.

Half way; time to fuel up on fluids and get some food. And mix in with a group of 4 that started at noon from Owensville to Hermann.

Before we turned back South to Hermann we hit the Moto Mart and so did all the boat owners in Owensville.

$3.35 a gallon - boo

In side the Moto Mart the hot dogs looked good, but I passed on them for...

This...

We took a few moments to eat and take a load off.

The trip out seemed like all up hill with a head wind that did not help. The way back was nice, tail wind and down hill. 15 min faster getting back.

Ended the day at Wings A Blazin where all filled up after a long day of riding. Thanks to all that made the trip to Hermann for this ride, good to see so many enjoying the challenging gravel the Hermann area has to offer.

For me that peaks out the long 5+ hour rides. I'll still do long rides but under 4 hours at a higher intensity.

It's been a good 9 weeks of base build with only a few weekends that the weather would not allow for a long outdoor ride.

Yesterdays ride was right where I wanted it, 200 watt normalized power, ended up with 198, close enough. And I wanted to feel good at the end of the ride, did that too. Sunday is race day as long as the rain does not spoil it.

The Numbers
Entire workout (168 watts):
Duration: 5:13:43
Work: 3170 kJ
TSS: 281.5 (intensity factor 0.734)
Norm Power: 198
Distance: 78.868 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 603 168 watts
Cadence: 30 239 83 rpm
Speed: 0 39.1 15.0 mph

172 days til cross!

Hermann Gravel this Sunday

Go Here for More info

Rest week, blow out ride and I Tunes

I'm sure there is a study somewhere on the effects of music and performance. For me, If I have some awesome tunes I know I ride harder and motivation is improved.

But I hate to pay for music and I don't like to steel it either, so what does one do? Pod casts are the way to go.

I subscribe to a number of house and techno pod casts that give me a new batch of downloads each week just before my weekend rides. Easily 8 to 10 hours of heart pounding music. Enlarge this photo and you can see what I downloaded this week. All this is free and free to download.

Equipped with a new set of tunes Jose and I headed for a heavy does of high intensity on the road for 65 miles Saturday.

There was little time for idol chit chat as blazed our way around the Hermann area.

In case you did not know, the famous dog Benji from the 70's is retired here in the Hermann area. Benji likes to chase me every time I ride by his house. You might think, the 70's? How old is he, well it does not matter, it's Benji and I'm sure he will live forever.

I was ready for you this time Benji, caught on camera!

The rest week is over, capped it off with a blow out ride as mentioned. Pleased the outcome as I hit top three power peaks for the year is every measured category with the exception of 3 min watts. And that's OK, not even attempting to hit 3 min efforts that high right now.

2011 Season PMC

Up next I continue with 5+ hours rides, this time on Sunday it's a long gravel ride from Hermann to Owensville and back - details here

Then my first race of the season March 27

Only 180 days til cross!!!

Peace love and beats!

One Last Base Block

Friday the weekend started off with a bang, that afternoon a freak hail storm pounded Hermann. Never have I seen that much hail come down, looked like it had snowed. Hermann smelled like cedar after it was all done with so many of the cedar trees getting hit.

The weekend also brought from Hong Kong the new Revolution Cycles team kits. Took out the kit, wind jacket and vest for a good 5 hour gravel ride. Lots of white on these new kits.

Heavy rains on Friday kept the creeks up. Nothing too high that I could not cross with one legged pedaling.

Base training is coming close to an end. One more good solid block then on to threshold improvement. Made a few changes from last year, mostly a slight increase in intensity from time to time and longer Sunday rides with specific wattage goals. Last year the long rides were in the 3 hour range, this year I've had several 4 hour rides and Sunday I hit 5 with plans to do more 5 plus hours rides during this last base block.

Now in my third year of training with power I'm beginning to understand how to build fitness (blue line) and how what I do during this time will impact my cross season for the better.

My strategy is to grow fitness 3 points a week then loose one point during the rest week. Also during the rest week it's important to return training stress (gray bars) to positive and drop fatigue (red line).

Target fitness is 100 by the beginning of Aug.

PMC Chart starting in Jan of last year to most current.

For now I enjoy the rest week and then one last hard base building training block.

186 days til cross!