He thought you were the candy man

Looks like I need to get back into the habit of journal keeping.

High points from the week: Finally (after officially writing the check for the bike in November) got to take the Tarmac out for a spin. I'm still on a few borrowed parts, but that was okay. I honestly don't know what's taking Ritchey so long to send out that order...

Noticeable differences on the Tarmac: SRAM shifters. I like them, though the initial concept was hard to get used to. It's stiff and snappy, but I guess I don't notice much of a difference until power output gets really high. Sort of like turbos in a car.

Things I have to troubleshoot: The Seatpost seemed to slide down into the body of the frame as I rode leaving my ass about 2 inches closer to the ground at the end of the ride. Easy fix.

Also, the chain is skipping (or causing something funky to go on with the rear derailer) in certain gears. More complicated fix, but I think I can handle it. My hunch is that the limit stops are off and the chain is misaligned slightly. With SRAM's funky higher end cassettes, I think this might be throwing things off a bit.

Other than that, I have had a hectic week between home, work, and the occassional pit stop at the RBC.

Speaking of: Several RBC regulars have united to fight the wussification of America through shaving. I always claim that our grandparents' generation was tougher than we are. This is one avenue (that has come to my attention recently) that we can travel to help in meeting their standard of toughness.

Unfortunately, it will require about four months of dry shaving with this mofo to balance out the Chai Latte I had two nights ago...

Training Stuff

Tuesday: Sprint work on the Tarmac. Good stuff. Nice top end and high speed acceleration. A little squirrely, but I think I'll get used to it soon. Managed 7 all out sprints up various slight hills in the hood on an 80' ride. Solid.

Wednesday: Back to lifting with Dr. 1%. We both (I think) felt great and had really solid form for not lifting in 3 weeks. Perhaps the break gave my hips a chance to cool off. I'm still hampered by the sprained thumb, so it was pretty much body weight stuff.

Goblets: 2 x 10 @ BW really focusing on depth and posture
OHS: 3 x 10 @ High jump bar (These have gone from my least favorite type of squat to my most favorite)
Box Squats: 1 x 10 @ middle box, Oly Bar
2 x 6 @ low box (well below paralell now), Oly Bar

The box squats also felt great, even with the low box. Since I felt so good, I stealthily dropped the box on Dr 1% by ~1" on her last set. Heh heh.

Snatch Grip Deads: 3 x 10 @ Oly Bar, focus again on form.

Thursday: Threshold work on the trainer. Power #'s were inconsistent with prior weeks (I switched tires which changes speed of the flywheel b/c of different tire diameters when inflated) so I went by feel and HR. This was a tough workout. Goal again was 6 x 8' @ Threshold Power. I started easy with the first set sub threshold, 2nd set right below (My HR was LTHR @ the end of the set). 3rd and 4th were pretty much pure threshold for 8'.

I was again experimenting with different gears and cadences. I think my leg strength is limiting right now. That is to say, I can't push the pedals hard. I can turn them over quickly. My leg muscles fatigue if I use a hard gear and a lowish 80-90rpm cadence even though my cardiovascular system feels okay. This is what happened during the 5th set. I was pushing a lot harder gear, my HR was low, power was high, and my legs just quit. No mas. Called it at 7' and had to bail on the 6th set. Next week.

Prescription: Warm up well and use big gears more during workouts. Also: climb hills in the saddle.

We'll see how that works.

On tap today 30-60' of very easy recovery spinning with a hilly road race tomorrow morning. The Tarmac might make its competitive debut depending on how comfortable I feel riding it.