Quick Update Before California!

Hello all y'all!

I'll be leaving tomorrow (Sunday) first for a stopover in Portland, and then off on Monday to California, near Santa Cruz for the week-long OrganicAthlete training camp - woohoo! About 30 vegan bike racers (including Marty, Tasha and Kevin from here) will be converging on a lovely resort (yes, resort! We've got connections apparently!) to make Dave Noisy suffer on all the hills. Yes, i'm looking forward to riding in 5-10C warmer weather, but i'm scared of all the hills. And the distance...the 'A' group will be doing 100 miles many days... 100km is 'easy' for me, i do it a few times a week, but 100 miles is about 160km...eeep! I'll likely swing down for a few B rides. ;)

A few topics worth updating:

Training

Still have been out 4x a week, finished my MT (MuscleTension) intervals on the Observatory a few weeks ago, the final week with two efforts of 8 x 8:45 was *brutal* but i did it!!!  I took a week of just straight-up riding, and then moved onto Tempo intervals, which in the CTS system is an intensity slightly higher than EM (regular 'miles'), but at 70rpm, so for me, i'm holding ~240w. And the intervals started at 30min for me, and last Thursday i did a 55min effort...ouch. That's two solid weeks of Tempo intervals, toughening up my legs, woot! Now i'm off to CA, will get thoroughly trashed, and then chill for a week when i get back, and do another 3 weeks of Tempo's, and then head to the track and begin my sprint training, and getting back my anaerobic strength. =)

Speaking of which, while i'm very comfortable with anything under 300w, anything over 500w spells nearly instant death for me...haha..  I've been joking that my fast-twitch muscles are still on holiday, my sprint is about 10 seconds long, and then i FADE. My lead-out is really solid tho! =P

I've gotten a bunch of new PB's in the wattage department, on both ends of the spectrum, at 5sec and 120min. That's pretty satisfying.

Winter Bike

I've been riding my winter bike exclusively, tho it's been decent enough to break out the summer bike. I'm really comfy on my Salsa! I'm actually taking it to CA as well, since i haven't been on the road bike, and it fits a bit differently...would likely be kinda dumb to just jump on it for massive efforts after such a long break.

Speaking of brakes, finally got the disk brake wheel built up, got a nice Mavic Open Pro built to a WTB Laser hub with Revolution DT aluminium spokes - perfect training wheel. I'll get something a bit more fancy for cross-racing come the fall.

Other Gear

I've got some more lofty goal purchases for the spring.. First up is a PowerTap for the track bike, looking to get one built to something like a HED Stinger90, 90mm deep carbon rim...getting wattage will be really helpful on the track.

After that i'll be getting a new track frame (sorry Kona!) The most promising is the Argon18 Electron track frame...it's got just about everything i'm looking for: aero tubing and cutout seatpost, similar geometry to my Kona, stiff, and a neutral paint job! Would be more cool if it were green or orange, but hey..

In there somewhere i'll also be nabbing an HED3 tri-spoke for the front.  Interesting note: i'm going to go with clinchers instead of tubulars. You can get several tires with better rolling resistance, which means more speed for less watts. I'll take it! The downside is a bit more risky if i get a flat, then again, it's an easy fix if i do flat. =P

I'm also considering a new road frame, we'll see how finances deal with this so far. ;)

Climbing

I mentioned in my last personal update that i've been rock climbing at the climbing gym Crag X - i've been going 3x a week, and still am LOVING IT!!  My vegan climbing buds Kelly and Ian are inspiring to climb with, and i've been progressing nicely. All the 5.9's are a cinch, as are several of the 10a's. There's one that i say *isn't* a 10a...nasty bugger, none of us can get more than 1/3rd of the way up.

We've been plugging away at 10b's, and a few 10c's now. There's a new 10b route that we all completed...we're thinking it's a bit too easy..  Surprised with the strength and endurance of my hand and arms now..the callouses are insane. The week off ought to be good tho, i've been getting pretty fatigued with all the climbing and riding...!!

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A'ight, that's prolly enough for now, gotta finish getting ready, and get some sleep too!

I'll try and update my blog as much as possible, and include photos! Below is my RideCam #12 album, with shots of various rides and climbs over the last month!

http://picasaweb.google.com/davenoisy/20080216RideCam12

Ciao for now sports fans!