What I did to prepare for Sebring 2017 ---today

[LarryOz]

Sunday was my rest day, but my knees where still a little soar from the 3:45 Saturday "Mount Drum" workout. I think I move my boom in a little too far (total 1 1/4") for my 150mm cranks.
I move it back out about 1/2" for Monday's workout: Huffaker (what "huffer" - as in huff and puff at those V02 max intervals. I really hate those things!

Then today I rode Spruce Knob - wow it almost felt like a recovery ride compared to Huffaker.
And things kind of got goffy at the end (300+ watts cooldown!!) because I wanted a little higher wattage to cool down with and then it went through the roof because I tapped the up arrow for the % too many times.



Also interesting comparison to Spruce Knob I rode back on November 29, 2016
Overall 12 watts more NP, and 3bpm less average HR -
Last 30 minute interval:
Nov 29 - 220watts with average HR=154
Today - 232watts with average HR=148
...
It is nice to see some improvement over the winter training sessions.

 

[LarryOz]

The ride was strategically scheduled as a wake up call for long hours if you put out too much power. It's equivalent to riding 6 hours at too high a power output and then fading. Something you don't want to do at Sebring if you are riding the 12 hour, for the hundred milers it's a warning not to over do your turns pulling groups in the wind; if it didn't cook you, then you're FTP would be wrong. (see my next post for how the rest of the plan plays out; this was a measuring and assessment workout.) SO sounds like it worked

OK Ratz - I know I am slow sometimes so please forgive me - So this last weekend's Mount Drum ride was purposefully picked so we could not complete it? If we could complete it, then out FTP is set too low in TR? Is that what you are saying? I also thought you mentioned this coming weekend's long ride (Mount Blackburn) was similar in this regard.

 

[CruzLike]

OK Ratz - I know I am slow sometimes so please forgive me - So this last weekend's Mount Drum ride was purposefully picked so we could not complete it? If we could complete it, then out FTP is set too low in TR? Is that what you are saying? I also thought you mentioned this coming weekend's long ride (Mount Blackburn) was similar in this regard.

Larry, I read this the same way. I did expect to have a ride I couldn't complete.

I'm opting for the substitution rides Ratz proposed. My legs had not recovered from the previous ride. An hour in to Mt drum they didn't feel good. Looking forward to next Sundays test. I plan to eat better the night before. My legs surely can't feel worse than before. The humidity will be lower because of the weather. All of which conspired against me.

If I end up short on Sundays ride I will be a little concerned. Maybe thinking about electric assist. (not really)

BTW. I was thinking about cutting my hair too.

 

[LarryOz]

BTW. I was thinking about cutting my hair too.

Anything to shed some weight for those Sebring mountains- wet it down so it weights more when you cut it off!

 

[DavidCH]

My legs surely can't feel worse than before

Better let that thought go

I bought some gel heal cushions for leg after care today.

I also tested out a new cheapo hydro bag and the bite valve is well knaff

So just have to get a two litre camelbak or perhaps just change the bite valve.

Today's ride was a sweat box. Had three layers of clothes on and just sweated buckets. And really irritating to almost break your teeth trying to get a drink.

 

[ratz]

OK Ratz - I know I am slow sometimes so please forgive me - So this last weekend's Mount Drum ride was purposefully picked so we could not complete it? If we could complete it, then out FTP is set too low in TR? Is that what you are saying? I also thought you mentioned this coming weekend's long ride (Mount Blackburn) was similar in this regard.

Last week is a system shock going 351TS back to 584 with 282 loaded on the backend last two days. Saturday burns off excess anaerobic capacity; and then before you recover you get hit with long ride at Tempo which the aerobic engine then has to carry the freight. Net effect is it simulates a 5-6 hours outdoor rides and it comes in the fatigue curve like you are starting at hour 4 or so. So basically that's what Sebring hours 4-10 would feel like if you went up Tempo.... Week 7 and 8 are worse; .91 IF on Saturday will take your strength and Sunday will take your measure.

In the end It was meant to test if you could complete it or not or if you had to cut the percentage down. That's a marker. We are training for a 5-12 hour event based on FTP's from 8 minutes tests. But Stamina matters now. We might be strong enough to do the 60-90 minute sweet spots, to get stronger, that doesn't mean you can hold those levels for mega hours. If Drum was uncomfortable or unfinishable that's a marker that we need some longer lower intensity rides for the final phase of the run up.

Personally I'm almost recovered should be fine by tonight; but I don't like the way my feet reacted to the duration, so I'm going to try and find the time to substitute at least one longer ride this week. If I stay hard riding I probably could get 5-10 more watts on FTP which of makes 160 steady that much easier; but if my feet cramp at 6 hours that potentially defeats the power gain. With lower intensity work we can take the TSS a little higher; 607 and 637 can be 670, 700 Week 9 just needs different taper. And I planned to customize any how. Depends on what you are riding as well. Blackburn and Pluto are test runs at a full and fast Century; the lack of coasting makes up the lower intensity. If you crush those the century ride will be been there done that. If you are doing 12 hours it's the confidence builder that if you negative split you are going to be fast at hour 11 relative to your fitness.

And to be clear it's an either or swap out both will work and help with time and schedule management:

Wednesday -- Spruce knob 90 minutes 95 TSS ---->> Warren+1 135minutes, 97 TSS
Friday --- Whorl 75 minutes 50 TSS --->> Conness 165 minutes, 111 TSS

OR

If burned by Saturday then Saturday's high intensity workout can be swapped
Leconte 90 minutes, TSS 124 IF .91 ----> Big Squaw 150 minutes, TSS 121, IF .69

I plan to swap Wed, Friday get the longer hour rides. Then burn the anaerobic capacity with Leconte and then access how Blackburn feels.
Spruce nob is a TT effort and Whorl is filler. I will be better served by the saddle time; and it will allow me to help TeamMoose with the zwift ride too.

 

[DavidCH]

Sebring mountains

 

[Barefoot Biker]

Got serious about training for Sebring. I am starting with a rest day!!

 

[ratz]

Got serious about training for Sebring. I am starting with a rest day!!

Bhahahaha I've seen your strava rides, I don't buy your head fake. So I take you are coming and bringing the v20?

 

[Barefoot Biker]

Bhahahaha I've seen your strava rides, I don't buy your head fake. So I take you are coming and bringing the v20?

Yes! 12 hour drafting. First time. Go easy on me!

 

[LarryOz]

Today was Darwin for me - probably tomorrow for the rest of you since I start on Monday instead of Tuesday.
Man - tough Threshold workout after 2 pretty "challenging" days of V02 Max and SS riding.
The killer for me was the almost immediate 3 minute "near-Threshold" interval after only 3 measly minutes of warming up. Given my druthers, I like about 40 minutes to warm-up!
I felt as if I barely made it through that first 3 minutes at 96% FTP and near the end I was thinking: There is no way I am going to be able to do 40 more minutes at this power level in the next 53 minutes (with minimal rest in-between! No Way!
The first 2 were pretty rough - but I started the video of the 11 mile Sebring loop, turned up my fast tempo riding worship music and just kept my eyes on the road. Before I knew it, I was 1/2 way through my 3rd one. By the last one I was feeling pretty good and even cranked it up to 102%. Have fun and don't talk yourself out of it. Really nice rest day tomorrow if you feel washed out! But do rest up because "Leconte" the day after is like Darwin only worse and 90 mins instead of 60.
(weirdness in my power is my pedals started fading (low bat I think), so I switched to KICKR only power - which is super smooth as you can see.

 

[CruzLike]

Sunday was my rest day, but my knees where still a little soar from the 3:45 Saturday "Mount Drum" workout. I think I move my boom in a little too far (total 1 1/4") for my 150mm cranks.
I move it back out about 1/2" for Monday's workout: Huffaker.....

Last night I rode Huffaker. Detailed in Larry's post linked above.
I felt much like Larry described his ride this morning, when I was warming up and it stepped up to the second step of 165w. I was having flashbacks from Mount Drum. My legs where saying "Cut that out". I thought I struggled more with 165 than the 285. I surprised myself and completed the ride without reducing workout intensity.

 

[ratz]

My goodness it's wednesday already and it's almost over. No training plan goes on with out it's challenges. On Tuesday I was all set to go out and try out the new FTP and power match to see if I was up to the challenge. So of course Work emergencies pops up and I loose 5 hours of my evening running some parts across the state and installing them. So the work out didn't go quite as planned. I climbed on the bike a mere 30 minutes after eating crumy take out food to try and tackle a V02Max workout. Bad idea.....

The ride was Huff-and-Puffer...errr I mean Huffaker. and while I could operate at the new power I couldn't elevate my heart rate with out blowing up. Intervals 3, 4 and 5. I had to do 30sec back spins every minute or so to get just enough of a hear rate dip to press forward. It was a very demoralizing workout in the end.



Fortunately this morning I woke up feeling better and Spruce Knob tonight ride was much more do able. I road the first interval on the new Power Tap FTP levels; and then my leg got a little tight so I switch to the easier and smoother Kickr power for the second interval. no need to risk injury at this point. Still a good workout and felt just a tad faster than 12 hour race pace.



Interestingly the last time I rode this workout was Feb 8th last year. Normalized power on that day was 144, today it was 181. So a 37 watt increase since last go round.

 

[LarryOz]

Today was a nice recovery ride - very welcome after the first 3 hard days!
Almost fell asleep it was so peaceful! haha
But tomorrow is the dreaded Leconte that will make Darwin look like an easy ride (90 minutes at .91 IF) - then a 4 hour Mount Blackburn on Saturday to see how well you can do on a long endurance ride a day after burying yourself from Leconte.
Based on what Ratz is telling us, this should come close to what the last half of a 12-hour might feel like and if you can maintain this power output. We will see!


I also was working on my next secret weapon - recumbent shoe covers for the bottom.
Hoping to test them this week and see if they give me any aero advantage.
These are the "cheap" 2-liter Mountain Dew bottle version (no I did not drink it!)
If they work really well, then I will have to try to talk Rick into making a set out of CF!

 

[CruzLike]

"Do the Dew" Go Larry.

Tonight I plan in mounting my new 700c wheel on the Quest. I expect to fork will need a little massaging in order to put the larger wheel on. After this is completed I will able to convert over to the 11spd components and give them a whirl.

Tonight's my first .9IF ride. Looking forward to it.

 

[Mathew Fy]

I also was working on my next secret weapon - recumbent shoe covers for the bottom.
Hoping to test them this week and see if they give me any aero advantage.
These are the "cheap" 2-liter Mountain Dew bottle version (no I did not drink it!)
If they work really well, then I will have to try to talk Rick into making a set out of CF!
View attachment 4103

Maybe you're a candidate for these custom carbon shoes:
http://simmons-racing.com/product/simmons-full-custom-cycling-shoe-mojo/

 

[super slim]

At ONLY $2000, Larry would jump at it?????
They do LOOK very snazy, and Aero!

 

[LarryOz]

What a tough week. After Huffaker, Spruce Knob, and Darwin - you think the hard part of the week is over. No way!
Welcome Leconte: 90 minutes at .91 IF - WOW! 120 TSS points earned if you can finish it!
Another workout for me; where after the first set of 2x10 minutes at just about FTP with 4x30sec sprints well above (with only 1 minute rest), had me thinking, there is "no way" I can do this 2 more times!
It is do-able though, remember you had a nice rest day yesterday. Just push through the pain and keep going. Your body had been training for this - Your mind will tell you to quit - don't do it!
I just watched some of my past velodrome races where I could just concentrate on getting through one more 30 second lap!
This again is Ratz's stragety to wear us down, and then have us ride 4 hours of endurance tomorrow to simulate how tires you are going to feel during the last 4-6 hours of a 12-hour event. Can't wait
Sebring is only 2 weeks from tomorrow - almost down the home stretch! Can't wait to see everybody!

 

[DavidCH]

Today was a nice recovery ride - very welcome after the first 3 hard days!
Almost fell asleep it was so peaceful! haha
But tomorrow is the dreaded Leconte that will make Darwin look like an easy ride (90 minutes at .91 IF) - then a 4 hour Mount Blackburn on Saturday to see how well you can do on a long endurance ride a day after burying yourself from Leconte.
Based on what Ratz is telling us, this should come close to what the last half of a 12-hour might feel like and if you can maintain this power output. We will see!
View attachment 4101

I also was working on my next secret weapon - recumbent shoe covers for the bottom.
Hoping to test them this week and see if they give me any aero advantage.
These are the "cheap" 2-liter Mountain Dew bottle version (no I did not drink it!)
If they work really well, then I will have to try to talk Rick into making a set out of CF!
View attachment 4103

You must be getting desperate to see gains with that. You could go full disc up front too.

I thought of something too... So I changed my pedal set to give me a bit less resistance and rotational weight.

I packed everything and now to do my back in by taking it all to Florida.

It's easier to stick it in a trailer for sure so I am envious.




It weighs just over 10kg and I have the seat, headrest assemblies and front fork in my suitcase.

Let's hope my wheelset gets through the ordeal.

 

[ratz]

And Just like that it's Friday. Finished up a few things. Including getting the extra E-tap rear derailleur if anything happens; it's not like those are going to be in other peoples spares boxes; and when the event is 12 hours; there's plenty of time to recover a mechanical and get back on the road.

Spent a good chunk of Thursday building taper plans after reading up on what the big brains currently recommend. Enter that into the personal calendars and tuned them up to each person. After Sunday the 3 of us posting progress will probably stop. Tapers are somewhat unique to each person and it can lead to wrong conclusions on how to do this if you look at what someone else did without knowing the full context. And besides we've probably posted too much for the competition to see any how already.... though I suppose you can still stalk people on Stava and get an idea of what they are doing.

Got a replacement Qollector in the mail one of the first ones had a defect; techsupport was great about getting one before the race. I'm going to need a volunteer to receive the race live links from the devices and post them to the forum because that's not something we can do at 6am from the bikes when the gun goes off.

Ordered some wheel covers from wheelbuilder just incase the Flo90 get here. To quote a person at FLO when he saw a photo of the v20 with the flo90' "Wow! That does look very cool. That thing must fly" so that seals it; I can stop training all that matter is that the bike looks fast; after 5 miles I can pull over and take a nap.

Check my wheels and and spare and decided two need to be rebuild this weekend base on how they are holding air.

oh and did about 3 hours of other stuff that I can't tell you but that you will be hearing about through official channels You follow the CB facebook page right? thought so.

Oh and I rode Darwin at 11:59pm so it was still technically Thrusdays ride. I manage to survive nature selection but it was a close thing. Still had to switch to the slightly easier kickr power part way through; but after midnight I really don't care; needed to get the full workout in and avoid a DNF