Welcome to a New Season!
I'm back. To my many fans, all three of you, I'm back for another season of bike racing. It's the middle of winter, as my morning ride of 26 degrees reminds me (you tend to forget that the Antelope Valley may be in Southern California but it definitely has it's own unique weather.) This winter we have not had the torrential rains that slowed training last year. It's been a pretty dry off season and now my first race of the season is just next week. Just like last year I'm going to face off with the Nelson's Landing Stage Race in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unlike last year, I'm going to give the criterium a shot, my first criterium in over 19 years. Friday, January 27 is the time trial. Saturday, the 28th is the crit., and Sunday, the 29th is the road race.
A couple of things are different this year. I'm 49 now, so by USAcycling rules I'm racing as a 50 year old. The second difference is that I now have a full year plus of training under my belt and feel strong. I just completed a week of training that covered 209 miles, and 12 hours and 30 minutes of work. My training goal this year is to cover at least 500 hours of training. I'm already pushing 6,000 miles of road work for the year.
My goals are pretty simple this year. Finish another four mass start races allowing me to upgrade to Cat 4 and then actually place in the top 10 in a Masters 45+, Cat 4 level race. You really don't need the Cat designation in a Masters race, as any category could be in a Master's race but I also plan to ride a couple of Elite races at the Cat 4 level. My other goal is to get under 190 friggin pounds. All winter I've flirted with the high 180s but I always seem to level off at 190. My climbing is much better this year as I logged a lot of training time in the hills. One of my "favorite" hill workouts that I do with my training partner, Tim, is to ride Godde Road three times at a HR of 155-165. This workout has me climb around 3500' and is pretty tough.
That's it for my first post of 2006. Look for my Nelson's Landing Race Results in my next post.
A couple of things are different this year. I'm 49 now, so by USAcycling rules I'm racing as a 50 year old. The second difference is that I now have a full year plus of training under my belt and feel strong. I just completed a week of training that covered 209 miles, and 12 hours and 30 minutes of work. My training goal this year is to cover at least 500 hours of training. I'm already pushing 6,000 miles of road work for the year.
My goals are pretty simple this year. Finish another four mass start races allowing me to upgrade to Cat 4 and then actually place in the top 10 in a Masters 45+, Cat 4 level race. You really don't need the Cat designation in a Masters race, as any category could be in a Master's race but I also plan to ride a couple of Elite races at the Cat 4 level. My other goal is to get under 190 friggin pounds. All winter I've flirted with the high 180s but I always seem to level off at 190. My climbing is much better this year as I logged a lot of training time in the hills. One of my "favorite" hill workouts that I do with my training partner, Tim, is to ride Godde Road three times at a HR of 155-165. This workout has me climb around 3500' and is pretty tough.
That's it for my first post of 2006. Look for my Nelson's Landing Race Results in my next post.
posted by Bob Grove at 2:58 PM
