September 2010

So this was the final month in which I trained hard, and I only resumed training for one race, the Mt. Tamalpais hill climb. I didn't do the Oakland Grand Prix because honestly, I wasn't too enthusiastic about it, partly because most of my competition would be the powerful Juniors!

So this month is pretty self-explanatory, it was mostly training, and towards the end, I started my transition into the Transition period!

September 6 - September 12 Training

With Mt. Tamalpais being (now) less than a week away, I have two more days where I need to go very intense in order to prepare myself for the racing intensity again, especially because this is a climbing race. I'll be racing with other Juniors, and because this isn't a criterium, I'm expecting a median place, or the top 50%. If it was a criterium, I would probably be dead last.

So I did a typical 6 week, easy hard pattern day. Monday and Saturday I did Over Unders on San Bruno Mountian's Radio Road. Monday was wet, but Saturday was pretty nice. I noticed that my Lactate Tolerance is very low, meaning when I go hard, my leg fatigues pretty fast. I don't remember being like this before, so I'm assuming I'm out of shape, but tomorrow when I continue the intervals I'm hoping to see a little change, because there's a possibility I could've just been tired or something. On Thursday I did an anaerobic workout in which I did my typical South San Francisco-Brisbane-SSF-Daly City loop, but 3 minutes all-out 5 minutes recovery. I really don't want to overtrain for a race that's not too important (but important enough for me since it's a climbing event). All recovery days were just normal rides in which I looked around. I also want to express my sorrow for those victims of the San Bruno Gas Line fire. I rode around the area a bit, and just thinking about it was very emotional.

On Sunday, i rode to my LBS to get my headset adjusted, and to buy a spare inner tube. Unfortunately, Chance got a flat tire so we rode to Sports Basement, and then Mario, Nolan, and I got picked up by Mario's parents since it was too late to ride home. (6:30pm) This week should be similar, with Mt. Tam at the end of the week. I'm also going to skip Friday to wash my bike or hang out with my friends.

Total Distance: 163.57 miles

Total Ride Time: 11:37:55

Total Elapsed: 13:00:00

August Time and Distance Graph

Time Graph on top, Distance on bottom. This is showing my decreasing workload in preparation for late training in September.

August 30 - September 5 Riding

Alright so I finished the last week of August, and the first week of September. This week was alright since I got to do a trip to Woodside on Wednesday, a really random day to go there. After Wednesday, I was getting a little exhausted, I think I was getting a little physical burnout, then it eventually turned into mental burnout. This was evident on Friday, when I was just so bored that I wanted to go home. On Saturday, I took a break because Saturdays are my long rides, and that would have made it even worst. But after learning that the Mt. Tamalpais Hill Climb and the Oakland Grand Prix are to be held the last two weeks of September, I snapped out of it and got back to business.

So I rode with Chance for about 50% of my ride (Sunday), and then just rode around South San Francisco. I got a flat tire when I got home so I guess I'm taking a day off tomorrow and I'll see if I can get that replacement tube soon!

But now that I've decreased workload and volume, I can extend actual "training" for the rest of September, meaning that I'll be doing intervals again, more hard rides, and less group rides, until October!

Total Distance: 125.67 miles

Total Ride Time: 8:41:26

Total Elapsed: 9:20:00

August 2010

August was my deadline for a 2000-mile goal. Well actually, the milestone was to be reached before school started, and I completed that goal. As you may have noticed, the colors of August are mostly greens. I took this month very easy to prevent burnout later on in the month, and I was pretty successful with that. Plus I'm remaining in my base period for a couple of more weeks, then after the Mt. Tamalpais climb in September, I'll transition into a more easier workload.

I improved a lot on the flats, but I felt like I ignored climbing and so September I'll do a little more climbing. I also need to work on an efficient crank rotation, and I need to integrate that to my climbing as well.

On another note, August had some great weather, and I had a lot of fun this August. It was great to have more riding partners, 2 to be exact, so that there's less boredom in riding. I'm not saying riding is boring in general, but It does get kind of boring when there's no one to talk to.

Anyways all I can see in September is regular riding, with a few training workouts next week since Mt. Tam is coming around the corner.

August 23 - 29 Riding

(Click the picture to view full size)

This week was an example of how school is going to limit my cycling time. It's not only the academics, but the social life too because Friday I was set to do a 40 mile ride, but we had a school rally, and I was just so pumped that I didn't really feel like biking so I went to Wingstop (Chicken Wings restaurant) with 3 other friends, but at least I had fuel for Saturday's ride. But anyways, I do have a weekly minimum of 9 hours so I'm good, but by 5 minutes...

Alright so on Monday it was close to 85 degrees...in South San Francisco! So Kenneth and I biked around South San Francisco, Westborough and Hickey--> El Camino Real, to be exact. It was a fast paced ride and we had some shade for 1/3 of the loop we did. On Tuesday it was even hotter, so I did homework and then rode at around 5:45 and it was great, nice and breezy. I stayed around South San Francisco, around Mission Rd and Chestnut and Commercial and Orange Park. Saturday I did an easy Solo Ride to Woodside, and did a sort of time trial effort, but it was pretty easy and fun. Then Sunday, I did the same route but turned around on the first mile of Canada road to meet up with Mario, Kenneth, Nolan, and Chance, and we rode together back to South San Francisco. Going to Canada, I maintained 19mph for my average speed, the fastest ever, which is the reason I considered it an Intense ride. Plus it was hot!

Total Distance: 142.24 Miles

Total Ride Time: 9:05:23

Total Elapsed Time: 10:00:00

August 16 - August 22 Riding

(Click Picture to view full size)

Okay so this week went by so slow. I did have time for some rides, but I'm getting scared that I won't be able to do more than two hours each day. I don't know why but some days it takes me over more than an hour and half to do 15 miles, which is why my distance count is so low. I also took a two days off the bike, one was because of the first day of school and second was to bond with some friends.

On Monday I did an easy ride but I forget where I went. I believe I went to San Bruno because I was getting tired of Summer homework. On Wednesday and Thursday Kenneth and I met up to do some sprints with a slow-pace recovery for a very easy effort those days. Saturday I rolled down to Woodside at a pretty fast pace, for over 40 of the miles I maintained a 17mph pace until the hills came. And Sunday I rode with Nolan and Mario to the end of Sawyer camp, going back we "raced" our way back, which was a lot of fun, but drained me out. When I got back to South San Francisco, I did some more miles around Centennial Trail, the school and Chestnut.

Total Distance: 166.85

Total Ride Time: 11:26:01

Total Elapsed: 13:15:00