Monday, October 19, 2009

Holy soreness.

The ride: Shabbos +1. The attendees: Mr. Miles, Bryan, and Big Puma (aka Mr. Fenster). I new Bryan was going to be feeling his oats since he was running a Trek Madone finally after putzing along on a heavy steel Bianchi for a couple months. Mr. Miles always is a power rider, and then Big Puma shows up who I've heard has been putting everyone in the hurt lockers recently.

Well crap. I hadn't done a long ride in a couple weeks and my whopping 6 mile round trip commute sure isn't much to get fast from. However, I also had a secret weapon. I had been riding a heavy commuter for about 3 weeks and I showed up on my pared down racy Lemond Bike. Ha ha!!

We left the coffee shop and headed straight into the wind. Of course the speed gradually ramped up but we were civilized to each other and traded pulls. However, the ramping up was just too much after a while. Bryan was having fit/saddle issues and I sure wasn't comfortable holding 18 mph into a 15-ish mph headwind. But luckily we were near our Southernmost destiny. So we headed East to do some climbing in Bellevue. Of course the eventual serious climbing wasn't planned, but it's difficult to venture into Bellevue and not think, "I wonder how much that one crazy hill will hurt?" The first climb was a steady grinder to reach Bellevue Blvd. This thing is deceptive since it doesn't seem steep for the first couple of blocks, but then it curves to the left and goes UP. At the top of the climb, Bryan read my mind and said, "Hey, should we go climb some crazy hills?" Why yes sir, I do concur.

So we hit up Fontanelle Hills neighborhood and did a double decker climb on which Randall and I used to do competitive hill attacks. Basically, you hit the bottom of the climb, one guy leads out at a fairly fast clip, then about a third of the way from the top, the 2nd guy comes around and attacks. Whoever get's to the top first is better, er, wins that round. We would do 6 repeats of these. I think I died a little each round. But it was fun!

So our group got to the top of the double decker and promptly fell over. Well not really. Big Puma had a slow leaking flat that was needing a change, so we waited around for that. At this point, we were pretty much out of time so we headed back toward home. Of course the only way to do so was still really hilly, but we made it ok. Mr. Miles let me know in a text later that we "normalized" out to 265 watts for the ride. My guess is that means averaged 265, which seems high, but I don't train with power, so I'm probably way off. It was painful though. Even after an easy spin this morning, my legs are still all toight and sore.

More coffee please!

13 comments:

Mike Miles said...

No sir we averaged out at 200W (iirc)...normalized power is a rolling 30 second average of the power for the ride. Which CyclingPeaks politely informed me was 256W... Normalized power is the power your body believes it has put out for the effort. Based on my HR, PE, kj burned for the ride etc it supports the 250ish NP #. Our VI (Variability Index) for the ride was 1.31. Do some googling and you can learn a bit more or borrow Training and Racing with a Powermeter from me. Andy Coggan is much better at the explanation than I am.

munsoned said...

A la Brady's website, what the hell is Mr. Miles talking about?

Mike Miles said...

Munson, maybe I should talk less about bikes when you come by and more about training... I know a little bit. Enough to say I'm educated on the matter? eh that's up for debate... enough to call me dangerous? absolutely.

Biker Bob/Runner Bob said...

And I took a nap on Sunday. My back is a bit sore from too much sleep, so I feel your pain. I also had to climb the stairs several times to refill my cup of Mt. Dew. My steps are deceptively hard. You go up a good 8 steps and take a hard right and they just keep going up. I think my TV uses around 260 watts or so.

Unknown said...
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Chris G. said...

I am so glad I decided to ride dirt instead of Shabbos+1 yesterday.

munsoned said...

Mike - I've been through the training wringer and I'm not sure I'll ever go back to it. I still have training plans from '03 and '04 to fall back on if need be. But I think I've learned from years of riding what I would need to do to get up to par again. Committing to it would be the first step....

Bob, the trials of a family man are not without their struggles. "Training" for the family comes first, always, whether that's stair climbing or nap taking.

Chris, I will probably start posting the proposed tempo of the weekend rides from now on. "Giant hurt-fest" was probably the appropriate description of this last weekend's ride.

Scott Redd said...

Yes, Munson. Please do continue to post the intensity expected level (and be honest).

I've no interest in "Hurt Me Plenty" rides, but may do OK on longish moderate intensity rides.

I love the company and I love the miles. I haven't had my cross bike (which is my road bike) out for weeks.

Mike Miles said...

Really?? Giant Hurtfest? It wasn't that bad at all...

munsoned said...

Mike, I know it wasn't all bad, but still rather quickish. I should equate pace names with average speeds.

Such as "Easy Shabbos +1" = 16mph or lower with minimal attacks and mellow hill climbs.

"Punchy ride" = 16-18mph averages with some attacks and some hills.

"Hurtfest" = 18-20 mph with attacks and rather steep hills.

"Spence Pain Train" = 20+mph anaerobic, lactate-inducing, bloody-lung insanity.

bryan said...

No, it wasn't that bad. Ouchy for me because I'm out of shape, but the average pace wasn't punishing.

Flintstone R Cube said...

"Spence Pain Train"

That's funny (because it's true). It even happens if you join his group on the keystone. Except it's more like 30 MPH there.

brady said...

re: ... new [ sic ] Bryan was going to be feeling his oats since [ ellipsis ] ...

C'mon Mr Hyperbole, just because Bryan had a broken back and is now like RoboCop doesn't make him "new".

He's still got his neural net and memories.

What the hell is Murphy talking about?