Anaerobic Threshold Aka The Bread and Butter

So welcome back to the next installment of Training with the Whiz, riding at high levels does not always mean putting in big hours. This was a big mistake that I had when I was training myself, and also a big folly that I see with local and national level guys. What happens with the big hours is that you hit a plateau, you will hit this and hold it for sometimes up 6 weeks, then you bomb hard.

So to battle this its really important to get in short intense rides, two hours or under, to work the anaerobic systems and recovery inside of those efforts. Working these workouts will help put more "bullets in your chamber" during a race, or make sure that you have the snap when things start to heat up.

The workout I am going to show is one of the best for the race season (this was highlighted on vs. with Chris Carmichael) 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off. Robby prescribed a warm up into a 30 minute straight block of 30s on/off (30 intervals) with a minimum average wattage of 350, 20 minutes of recovery then 10 minutes of 30s on/off with a minimum average wattage of 400.

So when you put that on screen it will look crazy

Here is my download


After a block of time off this was not so much fun, my numbers were pretty low for me in terms of where my heart rate was, and I was pretty close to throwing up about three times. I kept a very high cadence and did a majority of the intervals seated to also help with some core maintenance on the bike.

If we had some hills here, this workout is perfect for climbs, it would also facilitate maintaining higher watts since gravity is on your side. Unfortunately, Florida has rollers at best. So you just have to put your head down and go.

Feel free to comment with questions and I hope to make this blog a tool and resource for all

Training with the Whiz

So now after some much needed time off its back to structured training... Hello agony and suffering. So today's menu was a four hour ride, broken down at 3.5 hours in zone's 2/3, followed by 20 minutes LT then recover, then three sprints 10s 20s ans 30s. I knew that this was going to be great after not doing these rides for 4 or so weeks. Everything was good, speed was where it needed to be, power was a little lower compared to my heart rate, but that will come in a few days of doing training again.

Here is the screen shot of the download:


For me keeping my cadence high and letting my power fluctuate more my main goals. As far as the 20 minutes at the end, I was in town and sort of just suffered through and the sprints were in the rain so power was relatively lower than normal.

These rides definitely help being ready at the end of the race, its a fail safe to train then end the rides very hard.

For coaching, I use Robby Ketchell, he was previously with Colorado Premier Training, but is now under his own banner, www.ketchellsportsscience.com

We have had a great relationship over the years, racing together and coaching. Robby works with a lot of the top echelon riders in the US, Chris Baldwin and Mike Friedman to name a few.

Also, for most of you know, I did get signed by the Colavita Development Team for next season. They were very pleased with me as an individual and rider. Now I just have to get that Cat. 1 upgrade as the team will be all one's next year, with a better budget and more complete calendar.

Keep fighting the good fight..

PS if you ever want to see files directly, just email me and I will send them to you!

Back in the Saddle

So I am back, and as per many questions the blog will go on, I am going to share some screen shots of powerfiles and other things involved with my riding and day to day fair.

So long story short, I am back to just being a bike racer. I was sitting in an airport all day, when I found out that my position with Glory Cycles was no longer part of the company schema...

We part ways as friends, so now I am in the hunt for a new job. I have worked hard to build up a network in the cycling community so I am sure that the chips will fall into place in my favor.

Now we got that out of the way, today was greated with pleasant news, that I did earn a spot on the Colavita Development Squad for next season. So that was motivating in my slew of resume editing and emailing people...

Got kitted up and got my roll on for two hours.... It was great to be back in the FL riding... Nice and easy today and some sprints... I am pretty much doing whatever rides for the next week or so, then back to some structured training. Looks like we may be riding the Vuelta a Chihuahua in Mexico in September if the team gets the invite.

Keep Reading... I'll Keep Writing

Fitchburg Stage 4

Welcome back folks...

Sorry for the delay in getting these last two posts up, we have been like caged chickens and now we are getting some freedom...

So I had a nice breakfast of PB and J, then right to the kit, got in about an hour spin to warm up. There were no need to open up after 10 days of racing. I got to sign in and had a great conversation about my crash with one of the head officials, who informed me that the Metlife team, who's feeder caused the crash, was being fined. This made me pretty happy, a small prize for losing 11 minutes in a stage race...

So politics over, our course looked awesome, a nice uphill finish, with a 180 turn at the top and then a long back stretch followed by two left turns, measuring exactly one mile. The race went for 28 laps, at the start my position was bad on the back line, but I made it to the front in two laps.

I made some great early moves again and was in some promising breaks, but nothing was sticking. With three to go I knew it was now or never. I attacked on the inside on the back stretch and an NCCS rider saw me and put me right into the curb on the corner. I bumped him hard to stay upright, came unclipped and was pretty much at the back of the field by then. My sprint started then. I dodged another crash on the last corner and went hard to end up 24th. Finishing 70th overall. Not my best stage race, but the team DS was very happy with how I raced and pleased to see all my efforts and hard work. The team will be using me if they get selected for the UCI race in Mexico in September, or anything else that may come up.

What great trip. The day ended with some beers, a drive to Boston to stay with another teammate. Then a night on the town.

Monday morning came along, with some eggs and toast, then off to a hike in the Blue Hills Reserve, which was beautiful. We came back home, then rode for 2 hours around South Boston, on the HarborWalk trail in Dorchester...

Great times and all to see the world on a bike!!!

I hope you all enjoyed reading these posts as much as I did writing them

I had a great time here and hope to share it with everyone when I get back...

Untill Then

Fitchburg Stage 3

Welcome back for another day in Paradise here....

Today's stage was a 50 mile circuit race in downtown that proved to be deceptively difficult...

I slept in until the 12th hour... so boom knock on the door, speed shower and super speed to get the kit rocking and I was on my bike out the hotel doors. I went so fast I didn't even pin my number on.

So I warmed up by TT'ing it to the course (about 6 miles away), I got their with time to spare for sign in and number pinning, lucky me. Today's goals for the team were for me to be at the front and get into some early moves and then hold on until the finish.

The race was hard from the gun, but the end we averaged 27.70mph for the 50 miles..... Mind you this is with almost 2.5km uphill. So I got into the moves early on and was not feeling great, the downhill sections added some recovery for the legs but not for the nerves as there were constant jocking for position.

I felt the opposite in this race as the road race, it seemed every time we went up the climb I was hurting more and more. We sent a guy off with 1 to go and it almost worked as he got caught on the downhill section, I was sitting pretty for a top 20 finish and my legs shot the wall going up the climb and I finished in the group around 51st.

The week of racing is starting to add up, as is sleeping in a hotel room this long. But we have a guy sitting in 19th in GC, I moved up a few spots after the crash and I am 12 minutes down. Tomorrow is the final day... A mere 28 mile long crit in downtown... I have not seen the course, but hope to place well after a hard 10 days...

Hope all is well with everyone and I'll see you soon

Fitchburg Stage Two

Holy hard stage....

When you don't ever climb hills... This course is not for you. It was a course not for kids. 92 miles of agony and pain.

So pretty much the race was one of attrition.... Lap by lap the field became smaller and smaller, by lap three I was contemplating why I was a cyclist, and wanting to quit and enjoy my 4th of July. Then every lap I was stronger and felt better and better....

Then on the last time through the feed zone, BOOOOOM disaster struck. I was in the front group when some genious spectator/feeder decided they were just going to drop their bottle right in the road directly in path with my front wheel. I hit the deck hard, I was stunned. I exchanged some choice words with the gentleman regarding his skills as I got on my bike and attempted to limit my loses. I chased until I was on the verge of blacking out. I ended up 11 minutes in the hole by the end of the day. The majority of our team DNF'd. We lost one guy to a crash in the first 5 miles, another guy the first time up the climb, and another guy by lap 4.

I must say this was the hardest course I have ever done. Puts anything else to shame. The sad thing was I was there at the end and had some bad luck. The team DS was really happy that I dug hard and did not give up. He told me that he was estatic to have me for this weekend and enjoys watching my racing style. So kudos to me...

The was a little rough since we were in a time crunch to get to the race. Which was a little bs, but out of my hands. We made it there with enough time for me to sign in and get on my bike...

Little bit of stress there... but oh well thats life

Tomorrow is another hard day with a 50 mile circuit race that has a lot of climbing. So one thing is certain for me... By the time I get back I am going to be going really fast after some nice rest days..

Now we are in the hunt for stage wins.

Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you with tomorrow's good news

Fitchburg Stage One

What a day here in Fitchburg.....

So stage one is an uphill tt... Not a big fan here... Especially on a bike that I have ridden twice. We'll get the crap news out of the way first, I finished 2:30 down. Some of the climbs I kept a lid on and others I tried to grind up them...

Maybe not the best strategy. Our best guy is 1:30 down, so we will have lots of options during the road race, I am not sure what the story is going to be tomorrow, but I am sure its going to be hard.

The course today had the worst roads ever, and it was hard to find smooth lines. I caught my 30 second guy in the first 1k, so I am thinking I went a tad too hard...

So the day started up with packet pick up, then haul a#$ back to the hotel so we could make our start times. Finally got everything I needed with clothing and everything else... Finally got all settled and it was time to ride to the TT course.

I was a little worried I was not going to have TT wheels for the start, but the team bus pulled up on time...

So got that out of the way, I went uphill semi-fast... then had some homemade pasta, some food from Starbucks and Wheat Thins.

So all in all, little bit of a crazy day... Not the best result, but not really my favorite course. Tomorrow is more my flavor, so look for a good showing from Colavita.

PS Happy Fourth Tomorrow... Blow somethings up and drink some for me

Rest Day

Welcome to probably the least eventful posting of the trip.... The Coveted REST DAY...

I was thinking about things that I wanted to address in this blog day to day, but never really had a chance to get it going... Like how many dollars in Odwalla Juice I could drink every day or after the first two days how man tires I would go through while I am here, but that ended quick. So Maybe the last day I can come up with a full summary of everything just to keep it all in perspective.

I also want to thank everyone again, had some great phone calls and text messages for support. I really have dedicated this season in my mind to my recently deceased Grandfather, who did a lot of my raising growing up. I know that he always wanted me to succede in any of my ventures, but I knew how keen he was to athletics. So this year has been in his memory and I know he is watching somewhere, proudly!

Now moving on to my day, we had an early photo shoot this morning and had all of the team photos done. So basically, we packed up our hotels rooms, got kitted up and stood around in the parking lot looking cute.

We then packed up the vehicles, some people decided to ride to Fitchburg, I opted to ride in the car and set up my tt rig when I got there. So we get there in about an hour or so and unpacked. The weather was looking rough, but we had to get our ride in regardless.

I mapped out the route to the course then we were off after a little wait for weather. We finally got to the start... This TT will not be fun.. Looks to be about 4.9 miles uphill then 1.5 downhill....

The legs felt good and I formulated some strategy for tomorrow, lets just hope it works.

The ride back was a little more interesting, we got dumped on hard, then my roommate Steve hit a storm grate and it caught his wheel about 1 mile from the hotel. It was a rough trip for him, with two crashes. But he's ok, more pride bruised than anything else.

Eventually we did laundry, ate, found the one grocery store in town and got some snack stock...

I am off to get a nice massage and then to bed...

Thanks for reading the blog and look for a good result tomorrow!

Exeter Twlight Criterium

Holy Twlight Crits... One thing people don't understand about racing twlight crits is that you usually don't get done until 8:30-9pm (sometimes later, in last nights case, 10) so then you have to eat, travel back to your hotel, shower and then wash your clothes. This makes bed time around 2am. This can really scramble you schedule....

So back to my not so boring adventure... 9am wake up and right to massage therapy... Lets say there are professionals and girlfriends...

Holy smokes I had the full work down and had an alignment, which was pretty cool, I had things pop that I didn't know could, like pulling my ears until they cracked... Super Weird, but hey I felt good. Then right back to bed.

I finally woke up around 12 and then made my way to a local deli, which was amazing. Then back to the hotel, for some work/email time and rest.

Finally 3pm rolled around and we packed up our stuff all pilled in the van and made our way to Exeter. This was about 1.5hr drive. The weather looked really bad. By the time we arrived at the course it was pouring. I really don't enjoy night crits, and also night crits in rain...

But I saw Jonathan Page registering and was like Holy Crap that guy is my hero(cyclocross hero, I think my real hero has been my dad)so I had no choice to race. I saw who was there, and knew immediately this was going to be full gas. Rite Aid was representing the Yellow jersey for the week, Bissell had a full squad, Team Type 1, Kelly Benefits and Time Pro also had riders. This was going to strung out from the gun.

Knowing this, especially in the rain, I made sure that I was in the front at the start. The race was exactly how I predicited. STRUNG OUT... There were a lot of crashes, but they all happened behind me, so that was a plus. I stayed in the top 30 riders all night, at points the 53x11 was not enough, I was spinning it out through the start/finish. We were going so fast I had no idea where we were in the race.

Finally, I saw the 12 laps to go come up and I knew it was time to solidify my positioning to insure a good sprint. I was sitting 5th and 6th wheel for a few laps but would get flushed out here and there. By 5 to go, there was no moving up. The last lap I was in my 11 the whole lap.

So I managed 27th, 3rd best finisher from the team. We finished 14th, 19th, 27th and 30th with 2 DNF's

No one crashed so that was good. I was mixed about the result, but in retrospect that race was hard hard hard...

Just food for thought... 124 started the race. 58 Finished...

There was no spots for the weak of heart here.

Tomorrow is a team photo shoot. Then we travel to Fitchburg to prepare for the upcoming stage race.

I am planning on smoking the TT... maybe I can grab a Yellow jersey.

Thanks for letting me take you from you day...

Look forward to reading all of your great comments!