Theme of the Day: Does it always rain here?!!

Summary: Campers ride in a drizel all day, climb Mt. Howell, a serious KOM, and are met with dry clothes and hot soup in Angwin.

The Full Run Down
The hills and length of Stage 1 provided a good shakedown that identified some maintenance issues to be addressed quickly before/during Stage 2. Coach Rich stayed in Davis to await the opening of Davis Wheelworks while Patrick and the other campers hit the road. Major props to Wheelworks for opening early for us and banging out some critical issues in less then 30 minutes! Rich was back on the road within the hour, driving to the intermediate sprint town of Angwin, which is where the campers would end their day’s riding before making the admin transfer to Pacifica for the start of Stage 3.

Meanwhile, Patrick was leading the group on the ride from Davis. In this, our fourth year of doing the Tour of California, we have NEVER done this stage without rain…and this year was no exception. The ride started out overcast with the rain holding out until the end of the day…just in time for the KOM ascent up Cat 2 Mount Howell and the short descent into Anwgin, were Coach Rich and Camper Chris Malone where able to hook up hot soup for the crew at the end of the ride.

We then loaded up the camp into the vans and drove to Pacifica, our starting location for Stage 3.

Stage 2 Map and Profile

Stage 2 in Pictures and Video

Pre-Ride Prep

Mrs. Coach Rich is ready with hot soup for cold, wet campers

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On the final day of the camp (not the Tour, those poor S.O.B.s have to keep going!), we rode about 70 miles all-in. The course was pretty challenging…not sure how the pros are fast every day, but we were all definitely feeling it today. The ride started easy but then began drifting up the ridge. All told there was 38 miles of climbing for 3800 total gain, but most of it was in the last few miles. Can you say OUCH? The headwinds didn’t help, but the fans were out to give us a nice mental push as we made our way up the KOM. Lots of folks out riding today — this was theh SoCal cycling community’s chance to finally get some TOC riding in. We even met Verna from the forum…way to ride girl!

Once we crested the ridge and got on the 2, it was a slight climb and then BOMBS AWAY! We flew down the big sweeping turns, with the only mishap being some motorcycle monkeys passing cars on a turn on the other side of a double-yellow line…right where Coach Rich happened to be riding. YIKES!!!

Once safely on the other side, we dropped into the Rose Bowl where, after a quick change, we jetted over to the finish line to watch the peloton roll by. They had five laps and while the crowd wanted Hincapie to win his second straight Pasadena finish, a few other doodes had their own plans. In the end, Nocentini edged Peter Weening for first place on the day. The crowd dispersed, with many apparently heading over to the Team vans and the doping tent to get some signatures or rider close ups.

We had other plans, coming back to Rich’s house to clean and pack our bikes…and then relax. All in all it was a GREAT camp…we couldn’t have asked for a better set of folks. Hard to believe the camp’s at an end…guess it’s time to plan for 2010!!!

Happy Riding!

Patrick

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Day 6 of the Camp found us in Solvang. After a great dinner at The Hitchin’ Post and a good night’s sleep, we were off to ride the TT course and then hang out in Solvang. This was also a rest day for the squad…after 5 days of 50+ miles, people were definitely feeling a bit under the weather.

The ride itself was uneventful and pretty easy. We rode no-drop through the first half of the TT course, then detoured out Foxen Canyon Road for a nice out and back session. After a few flat tires (including a screw that went in one side of the tire and out the other!), we were rolling smoothly. Got some great video of the team on the return trip too….just a ton of fun!

Once we re-integrated with the course, we climbed up the switchback section and then powered through the descents back to Solvang. We had a great paceline going and were just drilling it! After regrouping in town and storing our bikes, we hit the pastry shops hard and then went to watch the TT.

Solvang was jammed with fans…it’s just great to see how much the interest around the Tour has grown over the last four years (4 years!!!!). The team buses were slammed, the Astana bus was mobbed and the course was jammed. All of the riders looked as though they were out to crush it, and as we learned this year, the course ain’t easy!

At the end of the day, Levi just outdid Dave Zabriskie to claim top honors and add to his overall Tour lead. The group was psyched to see so many pros and to get so many great pics. Just killer!

More Soon,

Patrick

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The climb up Sierra Mtn Road hit us early…a mere five miles into the ride, the hill kicks up and starts hacking away at your confidence.  Almost everyone made it up to the top of the 5k, Category 1 climb. Only one casualty — a snapped chain — held one person back. The rest of us took a ton of pictures at the top and then turned our attention to the descent.

This was a great drop, with most of the next 20 miles being rolling to downhill. We flew down here and along the way met up with 8 folks from the NorCal Endurance Nation sleeper cell. Many thanks to you guys for showing up to escort us down the mountain, around the highway and into Livermore proper. A detour was required b/c part of yesterday’s course had the peloton riding on a freeway — the wrong way. Can’t do that on a bike! 

Once into Livermore we learned that the breakaway and then pro peloton was only 15 and 20 minutes behind us respectively. Our late start plus the detour meant that we simply could not stay away. We flipped it, hit the van for starbux and cookies and returned to the course in time to watch both groups, the motorcade, and the helicopters go ripping on by.

Due to their 12pm later start, the peloton hit some more rain than us and really looked miserable. Sun on the menu for Wednesday…so excited!

Please continue to follow our progress on our blog, via Twitter, and our SmugMug album. Some sun and fun in our pics tomorrow!

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Third day of the tour, our second day of riding, and second day of rain. We started a little south of San Francisco in Pacifica, giving our group a good 15 mile head start on the Pro Peloton as they ventured across the Golden Gate Bridge. As the video from CycleTo.com shows below, even the pros weren’t that excited about the day.

Watch Jens and Jurgen – S*** at the Start

Our group was only just a bit more excited, and we found a way to roll down the coast on the PCH 1 despite the conditions.

There was a hotly contested sprint (See video below) that coach Rich only just took ahead of Dan “Soigneur” Socie and Bryan “Have You Seen My Foam?” Masse.

Half Moon Bay Sprint

We then turned left up Tunitas Creek Road for a 10+ mile stint, with over 7.5 of them climbing. It was just an epic ride, starting in farmland and then gradually building up to slight forest, changing over to redwoods, then switchbacks and eucalyptus trees and more. There were parts no wider than a car and the fans stiil turned out in earnest despite the conditions. It was a tough climb, and a tiny part of you knows that the peloton would just big ring the whole thing….just sick.

Our group pulled at the top of the first KOM, with just over 30 miles on our legs with the hopes of living to fight tomorrow’s epic climb of Sierra Road (and more). Spirits are high, lots of joking and a little bit of fear as we look ahead to two more quality days of work before the TT break in Solvang!

Ride safe!

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Second day of the tour, our first day of riding, and, as always, an adventure! With a forecast of rain, wind, more rain, and temps in the low 50′s, we began the day with the squad kitted in full battle gear: gore-tex, layers, and full rain gear. Coach Rich decided to toss Coach Patrick into the scrum on the first day. Welcome to Cali!

The first 20 or so miles were flat-ish, through vineyards, but with gusting head and crosswinds. Coach Patrick took the first sprint points of the tour, with a win in Winters, while Coach Rich managed to get the van stuck in the mud about 7 miles into the day…but a quick call to AAA saved the day!

The crew continued on to tackle the first KOM, a Cat 4 with a short steep climb. The riders then descended into Napa Valley for more vineyards and crosswinds. Next was an incredibly scenic tour of the western shores of Lake Berryessa.

The group then turned its sights towards the Cat 2 climb on Chiles Pope Valley Rd. Very steep, very tight, TONS of specatators and did we mention STEEP? We called it a day at the top, as a cold, windy and tough day is a more than good enough at the start of seven days of epic cycling!

All told, half the riders got in just over 50 miles, with the other half logging about 70 miles. Some great miles over super great terrain…just a bit wet!

Shacked up in Pacifica for the night, and the wind is howling outside. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Please check out our Tour of California photo gallery!

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In Part One of this series, we covered the overall benefits of adding volume to your endurance training regime and how to implement this volume in such a way that would allow you, the age group triathlete, to maintain a work/life/family/training balance, aka a Big Volume Week. In Part Two of the series, we discussed why there should be both Bike and Tri specific overload components to your long-course volume goals as well as why installment #1 should be cycling specific (with a sample week). In this third and final installment we’ll cover the importance of incorporating a Big Triathlon Week in the course of your Iron-distance training along with some basic guidance.

To Recap
The reason why we consider adding big volume weeks to the standard age-group training regime of 10-12 hours is because we can earn significant endurance-related benefits in a short time without incurring the costs typically associated with a high-volume only program (scheduling, sleep/recovery deprivation, over-use injuries, etc.). The given parameter of a “week” is significant enough to put a serious physical and mental training stress load on your body in such a way that is not only manageable, but easily recovered from. IOW, if you know you have to hit a big week on May 11-18, you can prep and plan for that, making sure everything is ready to go.

Examining the Big Triathlon Week
The Big Tri Week (BTW) comes later in your season, after several months of good training as well as after your Big Bike Week. The BTW represents your final push to build endurance fitness before becoming 100% focused on your race…so what does it look like?

1. Anywhere from 5-7 Days Long — Yep, it doesn’t have to be an actual week on your calendar, especially for the newbies. We are just looking for something longer than just a weekend / holiday weekend.

2. Happens in the 10 weeks to 6 weeks to go Range — Any further out and it won’t match up well with your race specific build; too close and you’ll carry the cumulative fatigue into your race day.

3. Still Cycling-Dominant — The riding, as you’ll see below, is still waaaay up there. We simply can’t beat time spent on the bike (your tri bike this time around!) for safe, manageable fitness gains.

4. Race-Quality Terrain (or Harder) — Do yourself a favor and make your week happen in course-like conditions. If that’s not possible, go harder. The mental strength gained from serious time spent on challenging terrain will be very useful on race day.

5. You Need Peeps! — Not the marshmallow kind (although I have seen some folks train with them!), I mean other people to do this with. You don’t need someone to shadow you every day, but just someone to spend part of each day with so you don’t go INSANE would be a good thing. I have done big weeks solo in Arizona, and after about 3 days you start going a little batty.

Sample Big Triathlon Week
In my previous post, I was using my build to Ironman USA / Lake Placid as the season example. After an early season bike push at the Tour of California Camp in late February, I target early June as my last big triathlon push…this is our Lake Placid Camp. The camp runs Tues through Sunday, for 6 total days of training which is more than enough time to get fit. Here’s what it looks like:

Day 1: 5-mile run, then 56-mile bike
Day 2: AM Swim 2.5k, then 100+ mile bike. Optional 30 minute run.
Day 3: AM Swim 2.5k, then 75-90 minute run; Optional short bike in PM
Day 4: AM Swim 4k, then 100+ mile bike, then a 30-60 minute run. The Epic Day
Day 5: Either long ride of 100 miles or Brick of 56 miles + Long Run. The Swing Day

The above schedule allows you to get about 25-30 hours of training into one week!

• 9k of swimming (2.5 hours)
• 25 to 40 miles of running (up to 4.5 hours)
• 300 to 350 miles on the bike (18-24 hours)

Managing Your Week – Top Two Factors
Aside from picking a killer location that has good weather and terrain, and finding folks to play along (at least for a bit), your top two priorities are Equipment and Nutrition.

On the equipment side, you’ll need to have a recently tuned bike with lots of spare tubes, CO2, chamois cream for your bum, etc. On the nutrition side, you’ll want good workout nutrition as well as hearty pre- and post-workout meal options. If you think you eat a lot now, wait until you are in day three of your Big Week! 

Also don’t underestimate the value of having a beginning, middle and end to your volume session.  Big volume is really fun to read about, but far less fun to execute. Whether you admire or pity those PRO athletes who do triathlon all day, every day, you have to admit that they a lot of work…A LOT. And while it’s sexy to think about, you probably won’t find it to be that sexy by the end.

Conclusion
There you have it…the reasoning (why) and instructions (how to) on inserting two significant volume pops into your training cycle this year. Hopefully you have the desire and motivation to make this happen. Remember, you don’t have to do 20+ hour weeks…every week…to gain the benefit of volume in your training program. Train smart, be balanced, and get faster for race day!

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To Recap, Why Only A Week?
From our experience, the adaptations to long, aerobic sessions happen relatively quickly and last for a longer period of time than the fast-twitch/high-end fitness work. A quality week is easy to build into your life, easy to focus on, and is adequate time to get a nice bump in your overall fitness. The image below is from Coach Rich’s WKO+ homepage (power file analysis software). The blue line is Rich’s Chronic Training Load (CTL), or the cummulative effects and fitness gains of the training Rich had done over the past six weeks. The purple line is Rich’s Acute Training Load (ATL), the effect of Rich’s training in the last seven days. We’ve highlighted a high volume cycling week during our Tour of California Camp, where we rode over 450 miles in 6 days. Rich piles on the volume (big jump on the purple line, which significantly raises the height of his CTL, the blue line when he exits the camp.  You may also be able to see the volume and resultant fitness spikes from a couple well placed, high volume training weekend, one on the Wildflower course at the end of March and other local camp at the end of May. Our experience with recovering from volume like this is that most of you will “feel it” through about the following Thursday, and may be just a little flat / sub-100% by the following weekend.

From TOC athlete training for IMCDA

Why Two Installments of Volume?
We recommend two separate and distinct volume weeks for your long course season precisely because our seasons are so long. Training for an Ironman or 70.3 event means you’ll be “working” on your fitness for 6 to 9 months prior to the event, if not longer. The benefits from any particular volume pop will only last for about 2 months at the most, so we stack them appropriately to allow us to build off our regular training but also off of each volume session.

As an example, in training for IMUSA, Patrick typically uses a cycling week in February and a triathlon week in early June to prepare. February gets him out of the basement dungeon and onto the roads…he returns to the lab fitter and re-energized…then after a few weeks of outdoor training he was off to Lake Placid for a 5-day triathlon camp where he put the final touches on his volume just 7 weeks prior to the big day. Note that he would gladly show you his PMC chart, but he lost all of his data in a hard drive issue. Semper BackUp!

The Bike Volume First
There are five main reasons why you should consider doing the bike volume pop first, before doing run/bike/swim volume weeks.

1. Your body is coming off of a down period and some shorter training. Bumping up to big volume will be stressful and the bike is the the easiest of all three disciplines on your body. There will be fatigue and some discomfort, but they are easily overcome.
2. A big bike week isn’t that hard to build up to or to recover from. In other words, you can ramp up quickly and you can get right back to your regularly scheduled training right away. We’ve learned through through the experience of our Tour of California training camp, where North Eastern Pain Cave Dwellers have gone from a 3-4hr cycling weeks to 20+hours during the tour, with no endurance-related problems.
3. Doing the bike week early on and a tri week later in the season means two separate opportunities to push the bike volume up. A reasonable goal is to set a mileage benchmark in your bike only week early in the year, and then try to match that later on when you have added running and swimming to the mix…ouch!
4. Just cycling reduces a lot of the “noise” of training. Sure you might feel more like a triathlete running 60′ after a 4 hour ride early in the season, but that 60′ isn’t an ideal run (you are heavily fatigued) and is really only eating into your ability to recover for the next day’s riding session.
5. Finally, it’s easy to take this increased fitness back to the lab and work on it again in our daily training cycles. In other words, a week of high volume helps you cement your early season intensity training and now you can go back to pushing up your threshold numbers with no need to continue riding long. But running and swimming gains are much more fleeting, and will disappear more quickly. It’s recommended that you reserve this volume peaking for later in your season when it will have a direct impact on your actual race.

Sample Bike Volume Week
It’s really easy to find a camp that lines up all the riding, support and logistics for you. We recommend you find a camp that actually allows you to ride a lot (think more riding, less wicker baskets), has several years of experience running the camp, and doesn’t try to add swim or run. If you need to do this on your own however, here are guidelines for a 5 day session for an athlete prepping for an Ironman:

• Day 1: 60-75 miles
• Day 2: 80-90 miles
• Day 3: 80-90 miles
• Day 4: 50 miles
• Day 5: 90-100 miles

Days 1 and 4 are “easy” just riding around days, this way you don’t nuke your week on day 1 and you can recover mentally and physically for the final push on Day 5.  Days 2, 3 and 5 are all negative split days…out easy, come back just a bit stronger. Any option to use different gear ratios or standing intervals is welcome.

One last note before we move on: you should really consider doing your first big bike volume week of the season on a road bike or roadie set up if possible. Road bikes are more comfy, different than the “I’m going to work” aspect of a tri bike and when all is said and done, the last thing you want to do in sunny CA is spend the whole week looking at everything horizontally! If you plan a big bike week closer to the race, do it on the tri bike so you can accumulate lots of time in the saddle to create race specific fitness, acclimate your body to hours and hours in the aero position, etc.

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