White to Redbud

Garmin Connect Ride Data

Group: Despite putting this together and getting an email out late Friday, we did have a good turnout with about 15 people. With the route being a little flatter and with a general downhill trend for half of the ride we were keeping a solid pace. Until we stopped at the store my average was 18.7 mph. Later I dropped off the group because of my tire had a slow leak. Instead of fixing it I stopped a couple of times to air it up so my average ended up dropping. I wish I did not have the issue because I was having a good day for performance.

Route Description: Fairly flat route with some short little climbs at times.

Nutrition Intake During the Course: (1)Hammer gels, (2)24oz. bottles with Hammer Heed/10grams Glutamine , (1/2) 24oz. bottle refills with plain water at the store stop, (1)Cliff Bar, (4)Endurolytes, (1)Post Ride 30gram whey protein drink

Weather: Heavy clouds at the start and sunny at the end - 70's at the start and 85 at the finish. High humidity and calm air

Training Goal: This group ride was thrown together at the last minute, but we had a good pace and my goal was to end with a 0.8 IF and I was just a little short with 0.78 IF. Having tire problems threw in a monkey wrench today, but through out the ride my legs felt like they had enough in them to keep up with the group and push the pace at times.

Bike and Gear Used: LOOK 585, Garmin 705, Powertap Power Meter

Entire workout (139 watts):
Duration: 3:29:49 (4:03:22)
Work: 1736 kJ
TSS: 212.8 (intensity factor 0.784)
Norm Power: 180
VI: 1.29
Distance: 62.4 mi
Min/ Max/ Avg
Power: 0 / 700/ 139 watts
Cadence: 30/ 244/ 78 rpm
Speed: 0/ 36.5/ 18.0 mph
Pace 1:39/ 0:00/ 3:19 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 354 57 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 820 162 lb-in

Brewery-JohnsonMt Birthday Ride

Post ride picture of part of our group

(click on image to enlarge)

Garmin Ride Data

Group: We had an incredible turn out today. It was announced as my birthday ride, but it was also Blake's and Jason's birthday as well. If I were to guess I would say about 30 in our group, but when we started another big group was mixed in with us. It looked like an organized charity event with a mass start. After a few miles the other group split off from us. I believe overall everyone had a good ride. We feel blessed based on the damp roads and a fast descending section when Chick says he applied his brakes a little too hard. I was right behind him when his bike started to fish tail one direction and then another and then again. I thought he was about to pull it out for a recovery and was amazed how well he was handling the situation, but the last maneuver he hit Edgar who had just pulled to the side of the road because of a flat. It looked like a very hard impact, but Edgar and Chick both got up and said they were okay. After the climb and descent from Johnson Mountain we were back on Hwy. 411 with Claire at the front with a steady pace. It was at that point I believe the group broke apart. Once we crossed over the highway and were on Cassville Pine Log Road the group picked up the pace again and put a little gap on me, Claire and Chick (Don), but I heard Claire say, "go get em" so I put on a harder pace and we did pull to the back of the group. At that point I think my legs were toast, but I did get in one more effort on Busch Drive in the last miles. At the end of the ride we all enjoyed some fellowship and brownies that Diane had made for us. I feel incredibly blessed to have such good friends to share a day of cycling.

Route Description: The route had sections of climbing and technical descents with some flat highway and road sections toward the end. Diane created a very good route for our group today.

Nutrition Intake During the Course: (1)Hammer gel, (2)24oz. bottles with Hammer Heed/10grams Glutamine/3grams BCAA's , (1/2) 24oz. bottle refill with plain water at the store stop, (1)Cliff Bar, (4)Endurolytes, (1)Post Ride 30gram whey protein drink & several birthday brownies made by Diane and a few more of those brownies when I got home just for kicks.

Weather: Cloudy start / Sunny finish - 70's at the start and 81 at the finish.

Training Goal: My goal today was to hang with the group and follow whatever pace was set. I am not a strong climber so I had to make up for the climbing weakness with some stronger efforts on the flats to catch up at times. My power data and my improvement on the bike are correlating to one another. The slow ramp up in weekly training efforts are making a difference.

Entire workout (147 watts):
Duration: 3:16:01 (3:42:21)
Work: 1702 kJ
TSS: 222 (intensity factor 0.831)
Norm Power: 191
Distance: 54.836 mi
Min/ Max/ Avg
Power: 0/ 945/ 147 watts
Cadence: 29/ 244/ 79 rpm
Speed: 2.3/ 38.6/ 17.0 mph
Pace 1:33/ 26:06/ 3:31 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0/ 439/ 70 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0/ 1066/ 168 lb-in

Sports Distance Calculator

This is just a brief announcement of a new web site that can be used to create routes for cycling or other events. This particular site has a few features that I like that are not currently available on other mapping web pages that I use, such as, reverse course is a nice feature. I was asked a few weeks by a group member to reverse a course and this feature would have been a real fast solution. It also has the auto routing feature by using the right mouse buttom that will allow you quickly create a route and an elevation profile option is available.


So if you are looking for alternative course creating web sites check out the following link.

Sports Distance Calculator

Brewery to Euharlee

(click on the images to enlarge)

Garmin Connect Ride Data

Group: We had about 7 guys and Diane, who ain't scared to ride with a bunch of guys. For the most part the group stayed together. At the end me, Diane and Rod came in under a more subtle pace.

Route Description: Rolling hills and flat sections with one fairly short taxing 20% climb that was about like Burhalter Gap Road that we hit just before mile 20. Very nice route with great variety of gradients and fairly low traffic.

Nutrition Intake During the Course: (2)Hammer gels, (2)24oz. bottles with Hammer Heed/10grams Glutamine/3grams BCAA's , (1 1/2) 24oz. bottle refills with plain water at the store stops, (1/2)Cliff Bar, (4)Endurolytes, (1)Post Ride 30gram whey protein drink

Weather: Sunny - 70's at the start and 85 at the finish. Cooler for August

Training Goal: My goal today was to hang with the group and follow whatever pace was set. It was an enjoyable ride and a break from the last couple of weeks of staying within a certain lower power zone and being off the back of the group. Today I was right in the mix of being in the front and at the back. A couple of times I "stretched the legs" as Rick would say just to see if my legs were up to any speed work. At the end of the ride I tried a couple small sprint practice runs out of curiosity. The sprint practice went as expected after 54 mile of a group ride. My shoe cleats had a little too much wear on them to put that kind of torque on the pedals.

Entire workout (132 watts):
Duration: 3:23:21 (3:43:26)
Work: 1580 kJ
TSS: 203 (intensity factor 0.78)
Norm Power: 179
VI: 1.36
Distance: 55.645 mi
Min/ Max/ Avg
Power: 0/ 751/ 132 watts
Cadence: 29/ 244/ 78 rpm
Speed: 2.2/ 34.3/ 16.7 mph
Pace 1:45/ 26:49/ 3:36 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0/ 584/ 62 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0/ 1253/ 154 lb-in

Silver Comet Sunday - August 8th

Garmin Connect Ride Data

Solo: Solo effort, but I did join in with a guy named John for a few miles in the first interval. Really I drafted John for a few miles, but close to the turning point my hips really tightened up and I was feeling the fatigue from Saturday. There was just no way I was going to be able to hang with John to finish the ride and he looked to be in a good consistent solid pace. Perhaps having John there was a bit of motivation for me to dig a little deeper on the first interval. I definitely felt the fatigue in my legs.

Route Description: Flat

Nutrition Intake During the Course: (1)Hammer gel, (1)24oz. bottle with Hammer Heed (1) 24oz. bottle with plain water (3)Endurolytes, (1)Post Ride 30gram whey protein drink

Weather: Hot - 91 degrees

Training Goal: My goal was an hour out and and hour back at a tempo pace, but with the ride yesterday I knew today may be a struggle and it was. I could not hold level 3 (tempo) and ended up more in level 2. The first half was not too bad, but I could feel the fatigue in my legs and some discomfort in my hamstrings and hips with a 0.77 IF. The second interval (on the way back) I reluctantly tapered back and ended with a 0.6 IF.

Interval 1:
Duration: 59:20 (1:00:24)
Work: 581 kJ
TSS: 59.1 (intensity factor 0.775)
Norm Power: 178
Distance: 17.749 mi
Min/ Max/ Avg
Power: 0/ 557/ 164 watts
Cadence: 31/ 244/ 83 rpm
Speed: 4.8/ 26.3/ 18.0 mph
Pace 2:17/ 12:23/ 3:20 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0/ 285 /61 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 /779 /178 lb-in

Interval 2:
Duration: 1:02:15 (1:03:16)
Work: 481 kJ
TSS: 38.6 (intensity factor 0.614)
Norm Power: 141
Distance: 17.782 mi
Min / Max / Avg
Power: 0 / 393 / 130 watts
Cadence: 29 / 244 / 69 rpm
Speed: 2.3 / 24.3 / 17.3 mph
Pace 2:28 / 26:06 / 3:28 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 / 210 / 51 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 / 707 / 166 lb-in

Brewery 74 - Endurance Pace

(click on the images to enlarge)

Garmin Connect Data

Group: Though I did not stay with the group's pace, we did have a good turn out with about 14 cyclists starting. Three went back with a mechanical, but since I did not stay with the group I am not sure how their ride ended. It seemed that the group broke apart from what I could tell and heard.

Route Description: Virtually flat for a ride in this area. Some nice quiet roads with virtually no cars along the north end of the route, such as, McEntire and Cagle road.

Nutrition Intake During the Course: (2)Hammer gels, (2)24oz. bottles with Hammer Heed/10grams Glutamine/3grams BCAA's , (3) 24oz. bottle refills with plain water at the store stops, (1)Cliff Bar, (6)Endurolytes, (1)Calcium chewable tablet, (1)Post Ride 30gram whey protein drink

Weather: Hot - 70's at the start and 93 at the finish

Training Goal: After ramping up the indoor training efforts from Monday to Thursday and a fast run on the mountain bike this past Tuesday, today's goal was to keep the ride "aerobic" or to end up somewhere near 0.6 to 0.7 IF (intensity factor). My data for today is 0.66 IF for the 74 miles and despite not staying with the group I did stick to my goal. I had 2 or 3 cramps starting about mile 60, but was able to spin through them in an easy gear.

Entire workout (118 watts):
Duration: 4:56:45 (5:27:15)
Work: 2053 kJ
TSS: 212.7 (intensity factor 0.663)
Norm Power: 152
VI: 1.29
Distance: 74.737 mi
Min / Max / Avg
Power: 0 / 500 / 118 watts
Cadence: 29 / 244 / 74 rpm
Speed: 2.2 / 33.9 / 15.4 mph
Pace 1:46 / 26:49 / 3:54 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 / 372 / 57 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 / 906 / 142 lb-in

Covington Century - 80 Mile Route

Garmin Connect Ride Data

I did not think I would go this year, but I did on the pretense that I would go as a training ride and keep my intensity level low. The last couple weeks I have doing solid blocks of 45 minute efforts each day in the "sweet spot" and then plan to do an endurance ride on the weekend. This weekend I decided to join Alan, Paul and Mike Quick at the Covington Century for the training event.

My goal today was to ride at 0.6 IF (intensity factor) for the 100 miles, but having my power meter hub batteries go dead this morning I could not record the ride and I had to use perception the best I could to keep my heart rate down. Kind of tough to use an organized ride to do this kind of training because there are a lot of cyclists using this event to set personal best in overall time. The big group normally made of Cat level racers will shoot for a sub 4 hour century. So it is hard not to get caught up in all intense efforts, but I was determined to stay with my goal.

I stayed with Paul, Alan and Mike until about 40 miles when the big group comes by at a good speed. I noticed at the same time the guys also pulling away from me, but without the power meter or a heart rate strap it was hard to tell if I was coming out of my zone. My heart rate was incrementally climbing and my breathing rate was increasing. I started to reflect back on my week of ramping up my training and was thinking fatigue was starting to surface causing these effects.

That is when I felt it necessary to make another personal decision and to break off at the 80 mile route turn off. My goal was to not dig a deep hole because it is important to me to continue these indoor training efforts while ramping up. Mike and Edgar also decided to break off for the 80 mile route with me, but it wasn't long before they were gone as well. For most of the remaining miles I was solo and felt every single pedal stroke. Very soon after the turn off I was pretty happy about the choice and figured I could finish the remaining miles and not put myself in a deep recovery hole.

About mile 65 a sheriff comes up in front of me with his lights on. I looked back and there was no one there but me. "Sweet", I humorously thought to myself at my slow speed, "I have my very own escort." About a minute later the escort car comes around me and I hear voices way off in the distance to hold my line. I knew the fast guys were coming again. It was inevitable to be passed twice by the fast guys. They finished the 100 miles faster than I did the 80. As the fast guys came by I picked up my momentum a bit because I was feeling the slip stream of the big group. I stayed in this group for a mile as my heart rate increased, but decided it would be best to stay at my goal. I dropped out of the fast group and was solo again.

Like Haley's Comet you see guys coming out of the fast train. I was about 10 miles from the end when I saw a victim of the 100 mile intense effort. I could tell the way he was stopped in the middle of the road he was cramping. I stopped and talked to the guy and found out he was indeed cramping bad and had no water remaining in his 3 bottles. I gave him 3 Endurolyte capsules, took a couple myself and headed off again. Turned out there was another water station just ahead a couple miles so the guy rolled in a minute after me. I refilled my bottles to finish the remaining miles and met up with Mike Quick as he was riding back toward me.

When Mike and I got back to the truck, we did not mess around. I was getting pretty hot by that point. So we loaded up and headed out for the 1 1/2 hour drive back to Woodstock. Thank the Lord for a good day and that we had clouds for several hours in the morning that kept the temperatures lower than last year. It is a bummer that I just have my Garmin 705 data and not the power meter data. I think I was definitely more tired today before riding because I had a 2 hour nap when I got home and struggled to wake up. I feel the exhaustion from a good week of training. I am just glad that I made a decision to change plans and go with the 80 mile route instead of the 100 mile route.