Jud & Mendy taking the Bear Mountain entrance, originally uploaded by Shane Beake.
This past week was the second of three weeks during my build/intensity period. Last Thursday I rode well on a hot night out of Hopewell to Lambertville with the Princeton Freewheelers. The power numbers were 183w absolute, 237 normalized and 210w combined for a fairly hilly course. Friday I rode a moderate pace for 24 miles with the Cyclepaths (135w/171np) and then came the weekend. Because of the rainout of the Hillier Than Thou practice ride the week before, I had it back to back with the NYC 200k, featuring the Bear Mountain climb. That meant 64 miles with 6,400 feet of climbing on Saturday, followed by 125 miles with 8500 feet on Sunday. Combine them and allow for bonus miles and I actually rode 193 miles with 15,000 feet of elevation gain.
What’s the point of exhausting yourself that way? Well, those combined numbers are about exactly half what I will ride in four weeks on Quadzilla, which is 400 miles and 30,000 feet. So that’s what I did. It was in the mid-90s both days, but I hung in there pretty well. Both days I tried to stay just below the red zone and not burn out my legs. They protested loudly under the workload, but they did not sell out on me. Saturday my numbers for the 64 miles were 163w/212np. Sunday’s numbers, because of a much slower pace, were 113w/174np. That would be comparable to the second day of a 600k.
Jud
WEEK: 20 hrs 6 min
GOAL: 12 hrs
I have just finished the second of three build/intensity weeks. I have four weeks to go before the big goal event, Quadzilla.