King's Tour of the Quabbin

I rode the king tour of the quabbin this past weekend, I went with the intention of riding the 100 mile loop. I left a 7:00 am with the 125 group for the first 15 miles stayed with the lead group we had a pretty good average going then we hit some hills and the group split up. We all came back togther at the first rest stop then split up again I end up with a slowe group of about 15 guys. We kept up a pretty good pace at the split for the 100 they where all doing the 125 so I decided to stay with them them because I was feeling pretty good. I was on fumes at the 100 mile rest stop and my left knee was starting to have a little pain, this point I wished I did the 100 I rode the final 25 very slow and the climb to Oakham and the start was painfull. All in all the weather was great and the ride was good, next year I will be back for the 100. Here are the final stats from the Garmin

Distance: 121.22
Elevation Gain: 7395
Time: 8:02
Avg Speed: 15.1 MPH
Max Speed: 41.6 MPH

King Of Burlingame Time Trial

Sunday I did my first mountain bike time trial at Burlingame State Park in Rhode Island. I almost did not go because I had not been feeling well for most of the week with congestion, despite this I decided to give it a try. I have never done a mountain bike event before this is the first one. The beginner group I was riding in was scheduled to start a 10:00 am. I was able to watch the other riders start you could only see a few hundred feet in to the woods before they disappeared. I did notice that everyone was bunny hoping over something.

I went off about 10:20, with my adrenaline pumping I saw what the bunny hop was a fairly good size log across the trail, I decided why not my front wheel cleared but the something hit either the back wheel or the front chain ring, before I knew it I was flying over the handlebars “not good”. After I got up feeling embarrassed hoping know one saw what happened, the person who started behind me passed me.

After that the course went downhill with rocks and a stream at one point I almost crashed again. I decided now just to ride at my own pace and get through the rest of the course without getting hurt. The course the rest of the was not as technical as at the beginning, a couple more riders passed me so I knew my time was not going to be that good. I finished at 56 minutes but had a good time despite the falling off the bike. I plan on doing this again next year and I would recommend riding a course prior to the race.

3 Mile Aerobic Time Trial

The weekend ride calls for a three mile aerobic time trial on Saturday, Sunday looks to be a wash out with rain forecast all day. An aerobic time trial is staying in your upper aerobic heart rate zone, for me that is about 160 beats per minute, this is done on a flat course. Once my heart rate goes above 161 I stop pedaling until it falls back to 160. I did this test back on 3/7 at the end of my first week of training I completed it in 10:34 with an average speed to 17.1 Mph. This time I completed the same course in 9:40 with an average speed of 18.6 mph. I am pleased with the results for only beginning on the training plan.

2009 Training Plan Training Peaks

The 2009 training plan is well under way, for most of the winter I have been in the Gym taking spin classes or runnng on the eliptical machines. I have also worked in quite a bit of weight training and core work this winter which I intend to keep up with throughout the training season.

In February I signed up to training peaks to compile my yearly plan, I put in 460 hours which is the number of hours for a cat 4 racer according to the Cylist Training Bible. My overall goals for the year are Finish with the main group in a cat 5 road race by July, Complete one of the Dover Ma time trials with and average of over 20 mph and try the six gaps ride in Vermont.

Training Plan 2008

I have decided to start up my blog entries again after a year end hiatus. Since the beginning of the year I have been busy training. I have been using the periodic training program from the Cyclist Training Bible, I have just started the Base 3 period, which has started to add more intensity to my workouts. During the past two to three weeks I have really been watching what I eat as well as training this has resulted in a six pound weight loss. My goal is to get down to 210 pounds by mid May I am planning on trying several time trials this year one of them is crank the Kanc which is scheduled for mid May. I order to get more out of my workouts I purchased a new heart rate monitor my old Timex was giving me inaccurate readings I think it was picking up other electronic signals. I purchased a Suunto t3 it gives a very accurate heart rate reading and also tracks each work outs te (training effect). This is basically the amount of effort you put out for each workout based on a scale from 1 to 5 from data that you input into the computer. The other interesting thing about this watch is that you can by pods to add on to it GPS, Cycling and Computer.

Cross Country Skiing

Received over a foot of snow in the last week so riding outside is out of the question. I went cross country skiing Saturday in New Ipswich New Hampshire at the Windblown ski area. It is a family run ski area that is a working tree farm in the Mount Monadnock area of New Hampshire. The conditions were great for so early in the year, there are over 21 miles of trails from easy to expert. If the winter is going to be as snowy as the last week this is going to be a big part of my off-season training routine.

Shimano Dura Ace 9 Speed Shifters for sale

I am selling a used pair of Shimano Dura Ace 9 ST-7703 Triple Speed Shifters.
They are in used condition I want $60 for them they work fine. I changed the set up of my bike to a compact. Drop me an email and we can arrange payment through Pay Pal.