2010, Part Deux

BY KENNETH LUNDGREN

So here we are, post-States… I took a nice week off, rode lightly a few times, pretty much violated every law in the Paleo Diet… I was stopping at Dairy Queen, stopping at 7-Eleven for Slurpees… I was craving some sweets after 3 weeks of Monk Mode, and it was nice to kick out… I needed it!!! Spent the week hitting some tennis balls with a few of my athletes, no running, just easy hitting, went fishing, just chilled the F out… Saturday night, had some close friends over and we cooked steaks and drank beer and just had a terrific night.

Now, back to being an athlete again :).

With that break, I’m back on track nutrition-wise — good to get that out of the system! When you have micro-cheats, you avoid the dreaded macro-cheat… With States in the rearview mirror (just read Fritz’s post, awesome post), the training now changes… Gone are the long 20-25m LTs, gone are the longer SubThreshold intervals…

Started with shorter intervals on TUE on the TT bike… Man, I can ride for 25+m at 330w, but I can barely hold 350w for 8+m. Funny how that works. The beauty of specialization right there… But I logically completed TUE’s shorter workout, then did a longer hilly road ride on WED…

I did a loop where I know every inch of the road… I sometimes do this loop weeks before hard races, to see where the form is at, plenty of 2-4m climbs, then a final 4+ mile stretch of flat and rolling terrain… Well, back in 2005 and 2006 when I was a pure road racer, my data was sharp, the power WAY higher, the speeds up… Lol, here I am yesterday, feeling “good” up the climbs but pushing 340-370w, just don’t have the gas — or the endurance. I just haven’t been climbing or training the legs to ride uphill — this will take time. But, and this is a big ‘but,” I’m roughly 8 pounds LIGHTER, so the overall speeds weren’t terribly off… Keep that in mind, you folks looking to shed a few pounds!

Felt great to get out on the road bike, but the legs really aren’t there right now. TUE data shows I’m not great, and WED shows I have a lot of work to do on the road bike… I didn’t want to harp on it, but my left knee is bothersome… Off the bike, I get little twinges and aches. On the road and PowerCrank bikes, I feel fine. On the TT bike, being slightly more forward, I put more stress on the knee and can feel some pain in later intervals, blah… So I’m really training with a higher cadence and will look to shut things down by early August…

But I want to finish the TT Cup strong. I foresee Freifelder scoring the win at Upper Freehold. He’s probably in KILL MODE after States and he just climbs better than me, bottom line. But I’m hoping to get my legs back and have two strong rides at Flanders and Kingwood, leaving it down to Long Meadow and Blueberry… So we shall see… Right now we’re separated by 1 point in the Cup race…

And I plan to do some more road and MTB racing… I have a CRCA race on JUN 26th, then am racing Lewis Morris MTB on the 27th… If any of y’all have a mountain bike, come on out — we can BBQ afterwards and have a great time! The course is very roadie friendly I’ll have several EE athletes (both road and MTB) there, so I’m REALLY looking forward to it.

Then in July I might actually go out and race the Tour of the Valley stage race in Youngstown OH, then come back for Flanders TT and Pine Cone RR… Another note: the NJ MTB State Championships are now SEPT 19, at Jungle Habitat, again not a super-technical course — a roadie with MTB chops could potentially win States this year!

With Elite Endurance, we’re enjoying a terrific year… Here are some quick updates off the top of my head…

Sean Pasieka of Propeller Cycling recently did his first TT and took 4th at the CRCA event, Eddy class…

Marc Cooper of the Road Dawgs is starting his taper for his epic July trip to France, where he’ll be tackling the Alps!!!

Kirt Mills of MTBNJ.com scored a solid 2nd place at the Tymor Park MTB race and will be at Williams Lake this week and Lewis Morris in two weeks…

Laura Winberry of Team Campmor is now a PRO MTBer, living in Bend, OR. She has 3 more sponsors and is living the dream, people… Her updates can be found on the Elite Endurance site…

Pete Warner of Whole Wheel Velo Club, winner of this year’s EPIC Jefferson Cup race, recently 5th at the Chuch Creek 40k, is hoping to further dial in that TT bike of his and have a terrific ride at his year’s Tour of Washington County…

Dov Torenberg, owner of the Tenafly Bike Workshop, has been influenced by me to start racing his MTB! He was 7th at Waywayanda, is racing again at Williams Lake and Lewis Morris… With an FT of 270w, he’s never been stronger…

Grayson Church of the Bike Rack Cycling Team is coming off a HUGE 2nd place at the Poolesville RR (summary can be found in his profile on EE.com) and is primed for a strong performance at this weekend’s Tour of Washington County, which has a Day 1 RR, then a TT and Crit the final day…

Mark Cywin of Propeller Racing is recovering well from his injuries from his terrible APR accident and will be back for our schedules EE group rides in JUN, JUL, and AUG! His focus is to train 100% for cross, a very logical goal…

Roy Vaccaro of Jimenez Velo Sport is currently 3rd in the NJ TT Cup in the Cat-4s, and he’s in a heated battle with Michael Dworkin of WV and Mark Curran of Pure Energy Racing… Our main goal is to rip the rest of these TTs, earn that final podium spot, and also gear up to win the NJ State MTB Championships at Jungle Habitat… This is Roy’s first year of time trialing and he’s doing GREAT…

Anat Doron started training in October for an epic June trip to Colorado… Well, she arrived in Colorado on SUN and it’s EPIC, alright… 20, 30, 40, 60 minute climbs! She did 7h on Monday, 6h on TUE, 5h on WED… She’s sending me daily reports and is feeling GREAT out there… Nothing makes me happier than getting e-mails like this — it’s the reason I do what I do! I love it :).

David Blume of Edgemont Capital is coming back from a weak off-season. We started working together this spring, and I have advised him to shy away from racing right away, instead find another goal. And find another goal he did: La Marmotte epic 105-mile in France, up the Galibier and Alpe D’Huez!!! The ride is on July 3rd and he’s already put out his best 2-5m power numbers ever… I’m very stoked to see how this goes… He’s already had trips to the Berkshires and now California in preparation… The training has gone VERY well and let’s see how he does in France!!!

Shawn Erickson of the Tenafly Bike Workshop won the first race of his career this spring in Central Park, also took several podiums in Prospect, CP, and Branch Brook… After a year of training, his strengths are starting to become climbing, and he almost snared a top-10 at Hollenbeck in May and here in June he’s stronger than ever. I’m excited to see how he does at Housatonic this Sunday, then as we start to peak for Pawling Mountain in July… He’s going to earn some top results, mark my words…

Bladdy Coronel of Westwood Velo – Trade Manage Racing started the year slower than ever. He came off a full cross campaign and plans to race cross again this year… He’s currently 11th in the TT Cup, riding steady, and took a 6th at Augusta, then earned a solid 2nd place at the Waywayanda MTB race… I’m hoping Bladdy can have a solid weekend, as planned, and ride to his potential at the State RR on SAT and then Williams Lake on SUN… At Lewis Morris the following SUN, he will be flying…

Julie Jones of the Montclair Bikery is a first-year racer and we started working together late last year… She started doing the right things from the beginning and she’s already having huge success out there… She WON the Readington TT and took 2nd at a few others and it currently 3rd in the NJ TT Cup!!! With her base, I’m hoping she can build on this as the season continues, hoping others start to weaken a bit… But it’s a crapshoot, as she doesn’t even have one full season in her legs yet… Let’s hope she can keep moving up that podium!!!

Eric Kuo of CRCA Setanta is a terrific sprinter and power climber, and after a slower start to the year just scored 3rd at one of the hardest races of the year: High Bridge… He powered over the climb no problem and jumped early in the sprint… But it was great seeing this aggression, as sometimes he leaves it a little too late or not at all… We’ve turned that corner, his sprint data is FIERCE. He’ll be at Housatonic on SUN and we’re also planning a few strong rides at the summer New England hilly road races…

Robert Donovan of Propeller Racing earned a 5th at the Rahway Criterium… Just last night at the Kingwood TT, he took 75 seconds off his time from last year! Whoa!!! For 10 miles, that’s a ton of time… However, his strengths lay in criterium racing, and after a recovery week here, he’s going to be in full crit-mode for the remainder of 2010… I’m VERY interested in seeing how we can do in the bigger crits this year…

David Richman of Kingpin Racing took a solid 10th at Battenkill Roubaix, and then we dialed things back a bit… At 144 pounds and an FT of 300+, he’s VERY fast and strong… We’re building back for the summer and this week he posted the year’s BEST data during his Cruise intervals… I’m hoping he can ride very well up at Housatonic and also look to have a very strong summer road racing campaign…

Cathy Cosentino recently completed the Brasstown Bald Century for the second year in a row, which finished up the vicious Brasstown climb… I coach many racers, and I also coach many non-racers, and helping Cathy achieve her goals is just as important as seeing a rider win a State Championship. She struggled mightily on the final climb but was able to push to the top, just a priceless feeling… To see all that work lead to something great gave me goosebumps… She’s now in training for July’s Muddy Buddy (www.MuddyBuddy.com)…

Thanks for reading.

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Coach's Diary | Thursday, June 17th, 2010 | | |