What I've been up to--all with the Iceman on my mind

Iceman Cometh is coming up in 6 weeks or so and I'm really excited. I love everything about the race and for whatever the reason, I have managed to do very well the last two years, placing 4th last year--only 10 seconds off the podium and 6th the year before--both in fields of nearly 200 riders. I originally felt a win this year was a real possibility, but with the format change that's going to be much harder--nonetheless, my real goal is to go sub 1:50 and with the new format, that should be easier, although perhaps more painful as the race should be quite a bit faster--racing faster people with less traffic to ride around.

So, what have I been up to in an effort to make that sub-1:50 happen? Well, my strategy this year has been totally different from the past 2 years. I have spent the last 6 weeks doing a lot of Z1Z2 rides without any real intensity workouts since the week before Mt.Washington, other than Mt.Greylock, Critz Farm and a ride or two with the Paceline boys.

In my opinion, this is the way the front of a coffee shop should look--it's a blast getting out in a large group.

Heading up Konchar road--next time will definitely hurt a whole lot more, as this is my recent hill of choice for the threshold intervals.

More miles up in Amish country--great roads and few cars. The occasional horse and cart keeps you on your toes.

Due to my high level connections, I got a chance to ride with Tim Duggan while he was in town--what a nice guy. I always wanted to know if the pros really spend a lot of time riding long slow distance--in this case, the answer is yes. I also had the pleasure of riding with him the next day as well when he was doing some intervals--I've always wondered how fast are these guys?--the answer here is really really really fast--I got dropped like I was standing still as we started up Hooker Mountain. My power meter said 460 watts as I was reconciling with the taste of vomit and going backwards--I lasted less than a minute--Timmy accelerated up the hill for 8 more minutes--that boy is CRAZY fast. Timmy-thanks for the great conversation.

I was just talking to Brian about how good I have been feeling in the 250-270 watts range. I think I have really built a nice base and my CTL would support that as it is hovering just below my all-time high. The cost, however, of all the hours on the bike is obviously fatigue, so I have planned a week of real rest in Vegas, which spells sleep and pool side laziness and, oh yes, I have allotted myself exactly 100$ to play the games of chance. Now, if all goes as planned, this will leave me feeling nice and ripe for a build up in intensity and race specific workouts, this of course, will also come with a drop in volume. I am going to do a lot of 1 min., 5 min. and 15 min intervals to add the high end to my base. My goal will be to maintain the same training stress via intensity and ideally my CTL will continue rise until I start to taper. On paper it all seems easy--now let's see if I can make it all happen and the race gods let me deliver--after all they know how much I love the Blue Tractor.