My Training

Start of 2012 Criterium Season!

I am ready to get some racing in this year, but this year will be a little different than my past years.  My off season this year was challenging for a variety of reasons. First, I bought a lake cabin so there has been a lot trips “up north” to play with my wife and [...]

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Fall Training

It has been a long time since I have written anything, but I have been busy since the racing season finished up with family stuff. A few people have asked me about my fall/winter training plan.  I am in transition right now.  I have finished up my break at the end of the season, and [...]

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Pedal Through a Criterium Corner

One of the scary things to learn to do in criterium racing is pedaling through a corner.  Here is short video about pedaling through a criterium corner.  If you have speedplays, you have to lean really far to hit your pedal.  I actually hit my shoe before I hit my pedal. Ride Hard Steve  

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Red or Blue?

There are always decisions in life.  Each decision sets a direction and determines what you focus your time and attention towards.  There is a scene from “The Matrix” where Morpheus shows Neo two pills. “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill–the story ends, you wake [...]

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How do you know if your base training is working?

Base training is a funny thing.  You want to go hard but you know that you should go long and easy to build your base aerobic fitness.  But how do you know if are going hard enough to make a difference on your base or if you are going too easy and just wasting your time with junk miles?  Or [...]

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Will Spring Ever Come?

Lately, I have been writing a lot about my training, and I will continue this trend today.  Soon I will get back to writing about criterium tactics and team tactics.  I thought I would share my Performance Manager Chart so that you can see the effects of my winter training.  (Warning:  If you don’t use [...]

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VO2 Test #2

On Feb 4, I completed my second Metabolic and VO2 max test with Angie Sturtevant from Specialists in Sports Performance in Madison WI (www.VO2test.com).   Click here for more on the testing by Angie. I would highly recommend Angie if you are interested in this type of performance testing. My first test by itself was interesting but not helpful.  [...]

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My workout for the next few months

Right now, I am experimenting with stallouts after my 2×30 min LT efforts.  I recently read about these in the book by Bill Edwards, Progressive Power Training.  I am doing two variations of the stallouts based upon my modification of his idea.  The first stallout is aimed at the anaerobic energy system.   I set a computrainer [...]

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My 2011 Training and Racing Schedule

As an example of how to plan, I thought I would post my planning sheet for my 2011 season.  I started with my racing and training goals for 2011, then added my known obligations for work and vacations.  I have a relatively challenging travel schedule which includes 10-12 international trips per year, so it is [...]

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My FTP Improvement Plan

As you know, I am a big fan of training with power, and FTP (Functional Threshold Power) is a huge part of training with power.  As I have gotten older, I have found that there is no such thing as an off season.  When I was younger, I would not start training until the snow [...]

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My Training Goals 2011 season

Last year I spent a lot time working on my anaerobic and sprint power, and I made huge gains from the start of the year.    Start Finish Increase Max 1322 1627 23%  30 sec 703 1011 43% 1 min 501 744 49% 3 min 386 456 18% 5 min 364 385 5% 20 min [...]

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My Criterium Training Update

My training has continued to go well.  I had a hiccup because I was stuck in Europe for an extra week during the volcano ash.  I was able to do some mountain biking during this time period but basically I had two weeks were my training was less than ideal.  I planned for one week, [...]

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Okay, I am an addict!

So,  I must admit.  I am addicted to my Powertap.  Late last Friday night, I was getting my bike ready for the year (new cables, chain, cassette, brake pads, bar tape, and a good cleaning) when noticed that my bottom bracket was shot!  Here is the problem:  I needed to ride early in the morning [...]

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Update on my training progress

The last few workouts have been a great progression on my max power output.  I have been concentrating on intensity and sprinting during the last few training blocks.  As I mention before, I have been doing 3 days hard and 2 days off for 4 cycles and then rest for 5 days.  This works well because I travel internationally once per [...]

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