Saturday Review and USAC Schedule

Hi Guys,
First off, good work with the first round of race-specific training on Saturday! As on old coach of mine used to say - "Perfect practice makes perfect" meaning that just simply practice isn't good enough - you have to strive to do things right in training for them to be done right when it counts. Saturday was a great start...and the coming two weeks will provide more opportunities to get it right.
Racing is not too far off - see http://www.rmccc.org/race.php for local USAC races that are part of the collegiate race season, including a technical TT next Sunday at Bear Creek State Park that would allow you to do the team training on Saturday and then do a TT on Sunday if you are interested in getting in some TT race training.

My power file from Saturday can be viewed here. Overall, the chase efforts averaged just above threshold (my current threshold is around 275 watts...maybe 285). The first one was more variable, and the second less variable (as we had fewer riders at the end). As a comparison, my TT and TTT efforts at the Haystack TT and TTT and Rabbit Mtn TT and TTT have been between 290 and 300 watts normalized power, respectively. Typical TT's are < 1.03 VI and TTT's are between 1.05 and 1.10 depending on length of pulls and number of riders. All in all, great race specific training!

Key stats are:
Chase 1 (East bound on Hwy 66):
Duration: 10:11
Work: 169 kJ
TSS: 19.6 (intensity factor 1.074)
Norm Power: 295
VI: 1.07
Distance: 7.135 km
Min, Max, Avg Power: 0, 859, 276 watts
Min, Max, Avg Heart Rate: 100, 165, 151 bpm
Min, Max, Avg Cadence: 41, 113, 94 rpm
Min, Max, Avg Speed: 22.6, 51.5, 42.0 kph

Chase 2 (Westbound on Hwy 66):
Duration: 10:01
Work: 171 kJ
TSS: 19.2 (intensity factor 1.072)
Norm Power: 295
VI: 1.03
Distance: 6.514 km
Min, Max, Avg Power: 0, 863, 285 watts
Min, Max, Avg Heart Rate: 120, 172, 154 bpm
Min, Max, Avg Cadence: 49, 115, 93 rpm
Min, Max, Avg Speed: 8.8, 46, 39.0 kph

Leadout 1 with 45+ guys:
Duration: 7:27
Work: 124 kJ
TSS: 16.8 (intensity factor 1.165)
Norm Power: 320
VI: 1.16
Distance: 4.203 km
Min Max Avg Power: 0 980 277 watts
Min Max Avg Heart Rate: 81 179 147 bpm
Min Max Avg Cadence: 49 126 92 rpm
Min Max AvgSpeed: 6.1 53.3 33.8 kph

Sunday's for the next two weeks would be good days to get on your TT bikes after doing the quality road bike and race-specific work on Saturday. Most of you will probably just want to keep the Sunday effort at Recovery to OD, but some of you hosses might be able to tolerate a little EN or even some Tempo/LT effort IF you take it really easy on Monday AND Tuesday. Ride and recover well! Neal