First Century of 07 :)
BY KENNETH LUNDGREN
Weather was borderline gorgeous yesterday. It’s January!!!!
!!!!!!! (hope it ain’t 130 degrees come Fitchburg…)
Went out at 1 pm, overdressed and fearing riding in the cold darkness. Felt good. Did an immensely heavy week this week, lotsa tempo, lotsa big-gear stuff. For those who haven’t seen me on a bike, I like to spin! It can get a little out of control. Gisler tells me to push bigger gears. Roger has always told me to push bigger gears. Paul says… you get the idea!!!
Easy to say, hard to do. It’s more neurological than anything… So this winter, more than ever, I’ve been trying to develop more firepower and learn to pedal at a lower cadence. In the first part of the winter, I followed a periodized lifting schedule and did a lot of standing climbs, focusing on pulling up with the knee to strengthen the hip flexors. Then I started doing heavy lifting. Now, I’m trying to transfer this power to the bike by doing specific overgeared stuff, specifically on a 1m30s steep local climb. Just crawling up that bad boy at 55 rpms!!!
I’m getting better. I’ll never be a grinder. My TT cadence is 108-ish. If I can lower that a smidge, and put some more pop in the stroke, I’m hoping I’ll get the feeling I’ve been launched from a cannon! In races or rides, when I find myself caught in a big gear and shift up, it feels like I’m cutting this leash and I fly forward. Not everyone’s like that. Gisler grinds away, muscling the gear, rocking away. Painful to watch (but last time I checked he was king of the TT — and not a bad climber!).
So I did a long one yesterday. Stayed primarily seated for the duration of the ride, grinding a low cadence up every climb. Long Meadow. 106. Did reverse loop of race course, bombing down Tiorati, up Lake Welch, up the rest of 106, down Gate, up Hook Mountain. Grinding, grinding, grinding. The power is down, so it the HR and speed, but that’ s normal.
Met up with Gisler on Piermont Road and we shot the sh%t for a little bit. I got water at his house, and off I went.
A wonderful evening as I cruised back to my house. Near the end, I saw that I had 92 miles (that went fast! didn’t feel like it!) so I noodled around for a little at my lower tempo zone (240-ish), until I hit 100. Long, steady ride.
One more considerably long tempo ride, then an endurance ride, and time for some recovery rides. Mike said to me today, “Man, sometimes it’s nice just to get on your bike and ride for an hour.” That’s what I’m looking forward to!!!
Tanita: 154.7
Ride Time: 5h 40m
Norm Watts: 185
Distance: 100 miles
Avg. Watts: 154
Max Watts: 1211
HR: 126 bpm
Cadence: 88
Speed: 17.6 mph
Thanks for reading. Looking at everyone’s posts, WV is gonna be FLYing come March (hopefully come June). Hope all is well…
