NATHANRTAYLOR | “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.”

Baba Sno’Reilly

By Nathan | February 16, 2010

It’s been a Frozen Wasteland in middle Tennessee for long enough that last weekend I got excited about a group ride in 35 degree weather. Even though the novelty of moving forward while pedaling didn’t wear off for the entire 50 miles, it took a full load of laundry to wash all of the cycling clothes that I wore.

clothes

The lack of good weather days for road riding is definitely getting to me, but worst case scenario I still have my rollers and Todd’s classes that get some leg-moving time in. The thing that is really getting to me is the lack of mountain biking. Sure we had the Snake Creek Gap race recently, so you would think I would have had enough of the singletrack lifestyle for a while, but all that did is make me want more riding (and less mud).

Between the cold and the near constant precipitation, every trail in the area is useless right now. Montgomery Bell is actually closed. Everything else is constant freeze/thaw cycle, which means I could theoretically ride before the sun was up, but if you happened to still be on the trail once the ground reached warmed a little you would be riding in wet muck (and destroying the trail).

I want a long day on a dry trail with the sun coming through the trees, and the temperature warm enough that I don’t have to dress for an arctic expedition.

I want my water bottles to still contain liquid after an hour of riding, not slush.

I want short sleeve jerseys and shorts instead of wool socks, booties, shorts, leg warmers, windproof tights, base layer, jersey, arm warmers, windproof jacket, helmet liner, and insulated gloves.

The cold, demoralizing weather has also made it hard to stick to a training plan. Corner sprints last Friday? No chance, it was snowing. I can get time in on the rollers, but that soul-sucking contraption is tolerable for an hour of tempo at best. My CTL has risen very very slowly (if at all) over the past several weeks due to missed or shortened workouts. I have another FTP test scheduled in a week and a half, and I’m not looking forward to the results.

I used to pride myself on being from the Great White North (okay, just Iowa) and being able to handle the cold. Not any more. My transition to southerner started with greens and pulled pork, continued with a reluctant acceptance of people who say “y’all”, and has apparently been finalized with a hatred of the cold.

Posted in Cycling | Tagged cold, mountain biking, road biking, training | Leave a comment

2010 Snake Creek Gap TT #2 race report

By Nathan | February 12, 2010

I had been looking forward to this race since my DNF four weeks ago in January. After an early dinner and a good, if fitful night’s sleep, Jonathan and I were geared up by 7:30am and headed to the “Snake Pit” at the Trade Center. We got signed in, and planned on sitting in the warm car until the shuttles started to load. After loading our bikes onto the trailers, we returned to the car to find it locked. With the keys inside. Along with our water bottles, helmets, and camelbaks.

Fearing a repeat of January’s RV hydraulics debacle that put us on the race course almost an hour after most riders had started, I went into quiet panic mode. Luckily, 30 minutes later we had the car unlocked (thanks to the towing company owned by the father of one of the race volunteers) and were seated in one of the shuttles to the race start. Panic mode was quickly replaced by pre-race jitters.

In years past, the shuttle to the race start has been provided by old, used up school buses driven by crazed blue-hairs with no reason left to live. After we signed up for this year’s race, Fred told us about a past year when the combined weight of 50 adults (as opposed to 50 4th graders) overwhelmed the brakes of one of the shuttle buses as they were driving down a mountain road. The driver was passing cars in the oncoming lane on a curvy, poorly paved road, all the while cackling madly. This year the buses have been replaced by more modern transportation and slightly less deranged drivers.

Since Snake Creek Gap is a time trial event, everyone started individually with around a 30 second gap between riders. You ride up to the line, a race official counts you down, and you are off. I left around 9:30am. I settled into an easy pace and let Jonathan try to chase a group of money class riders who caught up after starting just behind us. Two miles later I reached “Dry Creek”, which was anything but. The water was upper thigh deep and moving swiftly. Jonathan was waiting at the banks of the creek because he wanted to see my reaction to this first obstacle. With no other options, we shouldered our bikes, slogged through it, and quickly got underway; hoping that movement would keep us warmer than stopping to change into dry socks.

If the high creek wasn’t an obvious indicator of the rain that North Georgia had received in the past week, the mud was. Soon after beginning the first climb, I started to get chainsuck every few minutes. Every time the trail would pitch up, I would hear the chain threaten to bind against the chainstay. I quickly lost Jonathan, and settled into a rhythm of climb, stop, swear, walk. The downhills posed no problem, and the trail offered a surprising level of traction in the mud, so I tried to regain a little time whenever the trail pointed down.

By around 12:30 I crossed the road and entered the parking lot of the halfway point. I was still feeling good, but knew that I had 17 more long miles to go. I stayed at the aid station just long enough to mix another bottle of Hammer Perpetuem, and headed back onto the trail. There were several people with damaged bikes who were forced to bail out by this point. Between missing derailleurs, broken chains, flat tires, and used up brake pads, 27 of the 108 riders who started the 34 mile route weren’t able to finish. Read More »

Posted in Cycling | Tagged 650b, harpeth racing, mountain bike, mud, NWGA SORBA, pinhoti trail, Snake Creek Gap Time Trial | Leave a comment

Obvious, but interesting nonetheless

By Nathan | February 11, 2010

Last night’s class at Endeavor Performance illustrated a point that I knew but hadn’t thought about in a while; the relationship between pedaling cadence and heart rate. We warmed up as usual for about 15 minutes at an easy 60% of lactate threshold, then started into short tempo intervals (80% of lactate threshold) of five minutes each.

Instead of doing the tempo intervals at a cadence of 95-100 rpm like the last four weeks, Todd instructed us to do the first five minutes at 80 rpm to focus on leg strength, and the second five minutes at 110 rpm to work on leg speed. It was obvious from perceived exertion that the leg speed portion of the intervals were much harder than the strength portion. The 80 rpm segments were easy and relaxed, where the 110 rpm segments required focus and really made me feel the effort. Keep in mind that the CompuTrainers were set to keep the wattage required the same regardless of the cadence being used.

The perceived exertion wasn’t the only difference visible. Looking at the heart rate info from the workout, it is clearly visible which part of the workout I was in at any time. As leg speed went up so did heart rate, even if the wattage stayed the same. workout chart

I’ve read a lot about how low leg speed focuses on muscle strength while higher leg speed focuses on aerobic strength. I’ll admit that this is a fairly intuitive connection, but to have a workout demonstrate the point so clearly was good. It’s one thing to read it and it’s one thing to have your muscles learn it.