Mountain 2 Mountain was founded on mountain sport and culture.  Literally the organization was founded with the idea of creating a trail race in the mountains of Breckenridge as a fundraiser three years ago. Overnight that idea blossomed into a full blown non profit working in the mountains of Central Asia.   Yet the idea of mountain sport and culture remains as a way to tap into the energy mountain folk have and use that energy to fundraise.  Specifically harness the energy of climbers, bikers, runners, and skiers to help support our projects in Afghanistan.

This year alone, Mountain 2 Mountain started a mountain biking team, Team M2M, in which members raised money for projects and rode in the team jersey at races to spread awareness.  We hosted the 2nd annual Race for the Mountains trail race here in Breckenridge, raising enough money to sponsor a computer lab.  Mountain 2 Mountain was also recipient of both the Breck 100 bike race, and the 2nd annual Climb for Literacy.   Thane Wright, director of the Breck 100 generously donated $1000 by pledging a percentage of race entries to our cause.  Ellen Miller of Vail, Colorado co-created the Climb for Literacy last year to support literacy and education non profits through the energy of competitive climbers.  Climbers got sponsors to pledge a certain amount per vertical foot and then climbed their butts off on the Vail Athletic Club’s indoor climbing wall in a series of sponsored days of climbing with the Vail climbing coaches and supporters cheering them on.

Word spreads beyond the mountains, and its not just mountain lovers that now support our efforts.  Road bikers in New Jersey are sponsoring a ride to support education in Afghanistan.  After discovering that the Taliban had banned all sports, including kiteflying, when they were in power, schoolchildren in New York and North Dakota are building Afghan kites to learn about Afghan sport and culture and use the kites to sponsor specific projects.

Photography has also been part of our cultural exchange and ethos from the beginning.  We started with using photography as a backdrop as an author event with Greg Mortenson with photographer, Beth Wald who had travelled with Greg in Afghanistan.  That evolved into our first collaborative photography exhibit, Views of the Himalaya, that stood on its own as a gallery exhibit.  This past year we created an entirely new exhibit with Dreams of Kabul, a photography exhibit based soley on the work of Tony Di Zinno who travelled with founder, Shannon Galpin, on her first visit to Afghanistan.  This exhibit combines the experience of an art show with the purpose of a fundraiser.  Combining culture and outreach in the form of storytelling to connect our communities across the world.

While much of our fundraising comes the old fashioned way with fundraisers, grants, and the generosity of the public at large….its fun and exciting to see individuals and communities do what they love in an effort to support our projects.  So to those of you using your creativity and your muscle power to find unique ways to raise money and awareness for our efforts – we thank you!!

This year’s Jingle Cross Rock in Iowa City took on a Woodstock vibe with muddy conditions, blaring music and good times had by all. The music wasn’t live but the racing was. The three day event/Children’s hospital fundraiser ($25,000 raised – VeloNews) was an entertaining success.

As you may already know if you follow this blog, Dave entered Sunday’s Cat 4 race. I chose to spectate and cheer him on instead of racing this year. I kept going back and forth for the last few months on whether to race or not, and finally ended up wimping out since I hadn’t been practicing and wasn’t feeling fit enough to enjoy myself. Excuses, excuses, I know. There’s always next year.

The muddy conditions of this year’s races made for some entertaining spectating and a showing of grownups looking like children after an afternoon making mudpies turned mudfight. The best viewing area was at the bottom of Mount Krumpet looking up a steep, muddy hill where riders had to carefully descend down a rutted-out muddy track, then steer into a sharp, right turn at the bottom without wiping out or losing control.

People were sliding all over, falling down, having mechanical problems and getting mud stuck in places before unknown. The singlespeed race on Sunday had a team wearing bikinis and speedos who were gallivanting through the course including a couple riding a tandem bike. At one point, a few of the bikini girls hopped off their bikes for some fun in the mud and one yelled, “Pyramid!” They proceeded to make a muddy-people-pyramid and cheered on the other riders.

The elite races were a great showing of the skill and athleticism of the participating men and women. As they raced around the course at impressive speeds and navigated through slick areas and steep switchbacks with ease, it was quickly evident that these ARE the elite.

This year was my third Jingle Cross Rock. Every year has gotten bigger than the one before. Hopefully the fun-filled sport will continue to grow and hopefully I’ll get off my lazy butt and get training so I’ll have the guts to enter a race next year. 

- MICHELLE

Week 7 of my Endurance Phase is the first week of my third mesocycle (click here for a detailed description of macrocyles, mesocycles and microcycles).  Once again, I was forced to make some modifications to the scheduled workouts because I was out-of-town.  Here are the actual workouts compared with the plan for the week of November 23 to November 29, 2009 (click here to download my plan for the Endurance Phase).  The scheduled workouts included Steady Spinning, Strength Intervals, Active Recovery and a Tempo Ride.  My actual workouts included a session on the elliptical machine in my hotel, as well as Strength Interval, Steady Spinning and Active Recovery sessions.

I had three good workouts (all indoors) on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.  I also felt good for Friday’s recovery spin, however I started to come down with a mild cold (slight soreness in throat).  I actually felt fine walking around but just died on Saturday’s ride.  No energy at all and was gasping for breath at times so I cut it short.  I should be fine for Monday’s workout.  As always, I’ll let you know how it goes!

NEXT POST – December 7, 2009

Cycle Log: Endurance Phase Week 8

2 wheels, some hills, and a lot of dirt. That’s what I got out of a hare scramble that I went to last month. Cos my photos weren’t worth a lot.
No really, it was very cool, I hadn’t even heard of a hare scramble before until I ran into Gary. Gary and I grew up in the same neighborhood – his cousin was my sister’s best friend, another cousin was my good friend. . . .but I digress, and I’d rather not go back to my awkward, pre-adolescence.
Anyway, Gary races bikes and is a part of his cousin’s husbands’ racing team. Gary had to explain to me what hare scramble is – bike racing in the woods. Like a rabbit (hare) running scared silly. He said I should come photograph them, which I of course jumped on. It had been YEARS since I did any action photography, and I was excited.
It turned out to be more practice for me than anything else. That’s ok, the scrambles pick back up this spring – hopefully by then I’ll have better tele glass, the one I have now just isn’t cutting it:

            Week 6 of my Endurance Phase is the third week of my second mesocycle (click here for a detailed description of macrocyles, mesocycles and microcycles).  I was forced to make some significant modifications to the scheduled workouts because I was out-of-town for 8 days.  The timing was good because this is a scheduled recovery week so missing a few days shouldn’t pose any problems.  Here are the actual workouts compared with the plan for the week of November 16 to November 22, 2009 (click here to download my plan for the Endurance Phase).  The scheduled workouts include Steady Spinning, Power Bursts and Active Recovery.  My actual workouts consisted of three, one-hour Active Recovery sessions on my indoor trainer and the stationary bikes in my hotels.

This was something of an off week since I had little opportunity to train.  The three Active Recovery rides were good but it is rare for me to miss three training days in a row.  We’ll see if this affects me next week when I begin the third mesocycle of my Endurance Phase.  As always, I’ll let you know how it goes!

NEXT POST – November 30, 2009

Cycle Log: Endurance Phase Week 7

Week 5 of my Endurance Phase is the second week of my second mesocycle (click here for a detailed description of macrocyles, mesocycles and microcycles).  I made some alterations to the scheduled workouts, primarily because I was able to ride outside several times (and because I get bored very quickly).  Here are the actual workouts compared with the plan for the week of November 9 to November 15, 2009 (click here to download my plan for the Endurance Phase).  The scheduled workouts include Steady Spinning, High Cadence Spinning and Power Bursts.  I replaced Tuesday’s Power Burst session with an Active Recovery workout due to fatigue from Monday’s 2.5 hour ride.  I replaced Thursday’s High Cadence Spinning workout with a Strength Interval workout and Saturday’s Power Burst session with a 1.5 hour Zone 2 spin.

I had a great week.  I was very strong for three rides with a little leg fatigue for Tuesday’s Active Recovery session.  I had my longest ride yet with my 2.5 hour ride on a hilly course.  I also had a great Strength Interval workout, which was my first interval workout of this Endurance Phase.  Next up is a recovery week.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

NEXT POST – November 23, 2009

Cycle Log: Endurance Phase – Week 6

The fourth and final day of the Pisgah Stage Race came early as we shuffled out of our tents to find freezing temperatures in the 30s (record lows again).  We got through breakfast and rode to the start line, rest stop bags in tow.

Once we lined up, the race organizer, Todd, started the morning announcements.  He said that even though many of us would be disappointed, they would be removing the Farlow Gap loop from the ride today.  He was apparently out there at 2 AM that morning (we’re not sure when he actually slept during the weekend) and said it was completely frozen over with snow on the ground (and mind you that this was apparently the gnarliest and toughest trail out there even in the best conditions).  Applause broke out in the waiting riders and someone behind me shouted, “Look at all these disappointed riders!”  Yeah, we had been through the ringer already and finding out that the final stage would be “only” 40 miles and 9000 feet of climbing was a bit of a relief.  Here’s the map and elevation of the stage:

But as soon as we started the first gravel road climb of the day, I knew that today would be a struggle as my ankle was killing me.  I don’t remember injuring it on any of my myriad tumbles during the earlier stages, but basically my left achilles was just aching the entire day.  So our last day definitely turned into a test of survival, as David and I just rode along together at a steady pace (while I grabbed some Advil at every rest stop).

Since the organizers had removed Farlow Gap, this last stage was really a series of long fire road sections (both climbing and descending) interspersed with some great flowy singletrack.  After a 6 mile fire road climb, we  descended back down to a paved section of highway and then dove back into the woods to hit the Cove Creek and Daniel Ridge Trails.  More gravel road riding dropped us down to the Davidson River Trail, which was a beautiful stretch of fast singletrack by the river; we even stopped riding for a minute just to take in an awesome view of a huge waterfall cascading down the hillside next to the trail (we figured that we might as well enjoy the day).  But then it was back to more fire road; in fact, it turned out that the way back to the finish involved riding almost all of the fire road we had ridden that day, except in the opposite direction.  Great, just what my ankle needed.

So back we rode, spinning along and churning up the miles.  We had one last blast of classic “It’s like… Pisgah” action when we tackled the Bennett Gap Trail.  It was rocky & rooty fun along a ridgeline, and then (of course) you hit death-defying rock ledge dropoffs at the end.  We’ll have to go back and try this trail again (maybe with my GT Force Carbon next time) but on this day we just wanted to make it back in one piece.  That left us with one last (and really long) fire road climb up to the top of Black Mountain, but then it was all downhill (well, except for that last hike-a-bike section) to the finish.

David and I crossed the finish line together with a time just over 5 hours, exhausted but proud of hanging in there to complete all the stages.  And the best part about finishing when we did was that they already had the grills all fired up and the beer nice and cold.  Here I am getting ready for my burger and hanging out with Harlan Price, a super-fast (he was sixth place overall, but he was also blogging and documenting the race for Mountain Bike) and super-cool pro rider:

After getting cleaned up a bit, we headed back over for the awards ceremony.  On our way over we ran into fellow racer Denise, who, in addition to sporting a sweet Pisgah jersey, we saw a lot of during the race as she finished in about the same time as us most days (although she was second in her category, while we finished fifth in ours):

There was also the requisite pack of dogs at the finish as well (as with most mountain bike races).  Here they are tied down and acting well-behaved (mainly because they are tied down, of course):

We soon crowded around to see the awards presentation.  Despite losing the last stage to local hero Sam Koerber, Jeremiah Bishop held his overall lead to bring home the big check for his efforts:

“Retired” pro rider Susan Haywood left no doubts about her “post career” fitness by winning every stage on her way to the overall womens’ victory:

One of the great things about being at an event like this is that it’s too small for the pros to hide afterwards.  Here we are ambushing Jeremiah Bishop for a photo op after he got his award.  He, like everyone there, was super friendly and was all about posing with his comically large check:

Here we are with Susan Haywood.  Having recently watched “Off Road To Athens” for the first time, I was super stoked to meet both of these mountain biking legends:

The camaraderie shared by all of the riders in an event like this can really make the experience.  Here we are with one of the other teams, Stephen and James (or “The Brits” as everyone took to calling them).  Nearly every day we touched base with the other team riders just to check in and see how everyone was doing.  In my experience this is one of the principle differences between road racing and mountain bike racing: even at the top levels of the sport, mountain bikers are essentially out there to have a good time.  Sure, there are exceptions to this rule, but for the most part we all enjoyed the company of our fellow sufferers stage racers:

Here are the Brits grabbing some face time with Susan Haywood:

Another cool thing about this race was the trophies.  They had custom trophies made for all of the top finishers.  Sadly, we didn’t win one of these (this year) but here’s Denise showing off hers:

The podium wasn’t exactly built with the team finishers in mind, so it was a bit cramped.  Unless, of course, you took 5th place and got to stand on the ground.  How about that!  I’m sure you can see the jealousy in the eyes of the other teams:

With two large burgers consumed and our awards collected, we loaded the car and started the final leg of our journey by heading home.  As we were leaving, people kept asking us what we thought of the trails and if we would be back.  “The trails were incredible,” we assured them, “and of course we’ll be back, we haven’t ridden Farlow Gap yet!”

Week 4 of my Endurance Phase is the first week of my second mesocycle (click here for a detailed description of macrocyles, mesocycles and microcycles).  My two weekly endurance rides are slightly longer during this mesocycle (1.75 hours) and I continue to do two Power Burst workouts each week.  I was only able to ride outside once this week due to our cold Michigan weather.  Here are the actual workouts compared with the plan for the week of November 2 to November 8, 2009 (click here to download my plan for the Endurance Phase).  The scheduled workouts included Steady Spinning and Power Bursts.  I replaced Saturday’s Power Burst session with a Zone 3 Tempo workout outdoors.

Overall, I had another good week.  I was very strong for all four rides.  My aerobic endurance is getting better.  So is my muscular endurance since I can spin bigger gears now than I could a month ago.  I rode a hilly course in fairly big gears for Saturday’s Tempo ride.  I also performed two ‘off-the-bike’ strength training workouts.  This week’s schedule is the same only it has warmed up here so I should be able to get outside for a few workouts.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

NEXT POST – November 26, 2009

Cycle Log: Endurance Phase – Weeks 5 & 6

1999

Height: 6ft 2 inches/1metre 88cm

Weight: 11.5 stone/161 lb/73kg

2009

Height: As above (as far as I know)

Weight: 14 stone/196 lb/88kg

Well here I am in November pondering just how I am going to get myself back into race shape

As I have mentioned in my introduction I used to race seriously about 10 years ago now but what with one thing or another it has gone on the back burner for some time along with my fitness to boot!  I used to race 1-4 times a week in the height of summer in the old days and racing was a large part of my life. 

Even though I have lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle for the past few years I am fortunate in that my diet has remained relatively healthy so I am not carrying too much excess weight.  However, 10 years of relatively little strenuous exercise will have taken its toll on my body.

My approach would probably be considered old school by todays standards but I dont intend to use a hrm or power-meter for my comeback.  Whilst I can see their place in todays cycling I know my body well enough to succeed without these aids and some fairly basic fitness tests can be carried out to assess where my fitness is, how far it has come and where I need to be.

My aim is to get myself back into race shape by the end of March (UK weather permitting) and complete a full season of races in the South East area.   This blog will chart my progress and I will try to include some routes, pictures and related content to boot.

Stay tuned as I map out and embark on those first few pedal strokes back to championship winning fitness! (I exaggerated that last bit).

Greetings, I have a very quick tip for you today.  It is short, sweet and simple, and can go a long way toward helping you improve your cycling performance while avoiding overtraining.  It’s called the 10% rule and it simply states that you should never increase training volume (either distance or time) by more than 10% on a weekly, monthly or annual basis.  For example, if you are currently riding 70 miles a week and want to work your way up to 100, you should ride 77 miles the first week, 85 the second week, 93 the third week and 102 miles the fourth week.  Keep in mind that these are maximum amounts.  It would behoove many cyclists to reduce those amounts slightly and take five or six weeks to work up to 100 miles.  Likewise, if you ride 3,000 miles in 2009 and want to increase your volume in 2010, you should ride a maximum of 3,300 miles.  By following the 10% rule, you can ensure you improve your performance while decreasing the risk of excessive fatigue or injury due to overtraining.

NEXT POST – November 9, 2009

Cycle Log: Endurance Phase - Week 4

Week 3 of my Endurance Phase is a recovery week.  The week began with two hard workouts and finished with two easy recovery rides.  Fortunately, I was able to ride outdoors early in the week and once again, rode my Trek 7300 hybrid over terrain with lots of rolling hills.  The two recovery rides were performed indoors on my Trek Madone 5.2 and Lemond Rennes Time Trial bikes.  Here are the actual workouts compared with the plan for the week of October 26 to November 1, 2009 (click here to download my plan for the Endurance Phase).  The scheduled workouts included Steady Spinning, Power Bursts and Active Recovery.  I replaced the Power Burst session with a Hill Ride for Tuesday’s workout. 

Overall, I had another good week.  I was very strong for the two hard rides.  Tuesday’s ride was on very hilly terrain.  I was not fully recovered by Thursday and had tired legs, but felt much better for Saturday’s ride on my time trial bike.  This week I begin my next mesocycle (click here for a detailed description of macrocycles, mesocycles and microcyles).  I’ll let you know how it goes!

NEXT POST – November 5, 2009

Cycling Performance Tip #2

This is scary stuff.

The annual UCI Halloween costume party for all ProTour riders, hosted by none other that the always quotable president Patrick McQuaid.

Twisted Spoke was given a behind-the-scenes look as riders tried on their outfits for the invitation-only bash. Funny how all the costumes seemed to match the personalities.

This is Part One. Look for Part Two, tomorrow, my cycling ghouls.

Blood doper Vinokourov is Dracula.

It's the Russian Bear, Denis Menchov.

Andy & Frank Schleck are Thing 1 & Thing 2

Alberto "Bert" Contador from Sesame Street

Tom "beer man" Boonen.

Show-off Mark Cavendish goes as a hotdog.

Valverde, di Luca, Schumacher, Astarloza, Ricco and Rebellin all picked the same prison costume.

David Millar, the flying Scot.

Greetings, I am starting a new TIPS series designed to help you improve your cycling performance.  Whether you are a serious competitor with a desire to compete at a national level or a cycling enthusiast who just wants to hang on during local group rides, you will find some extremely useful tips over the next few months.  Keep in mind that not every tip will apply to every cyclist.  Some of these tips may include activities that you are already doing.  However, many of them will be new and will provide a significant boost to your training program.  

My first tip for you is “Follow the 75% Rule”, which states that during a given training week, at least 75% of your miles (or time) should be at or below 75% of your maximum heart rate.  In other words, at least three-fourths of your weekly training should take place in Zones 1 and 2 (click here for more information on the Training Zones).  That’s right, most of your cycling should consist of easy recovery and endurance building rides.  So how will you get faster?  That’s the other part of the 75% rule.  10% of your weekly mileage should be in Zone 5 (90 to 100% of maximum heart rate).   In other words, it should consist of really, really intense riding.  The other 15% will vary depending on your training phase and goals, but will often include some training in Zone 4.  This is what allows cyclists to modify their physiology.  A relatively small amount of very high intensity work combined with lots of endurance and recovery.  

This approach will help you avoid the biggest mistake made by serious cyclists.  I call it the Zone 3 Syndrome.  This happens to cyclists that spend too much time riding at a moderate intensity (i.e., Training Zone 3).  At this level, they are riding too hard to promote recovery and not hard enough to facilitate the physiological change needed for significant performance improvement.  I never ceased to be amazed at the number of cyclists who make this mistake.  You feel like you are working pretty hard (and you are – sort of), but you’re just not working hard enough to modify your physiology in ways that will make you faster.  For that, you need Zone 4 (80 to 90% of maximum heart rate) and Zone 5 workouts, and they require a significant amount of time for recovery.

NEXT POST – November 2, 2009

Cycle Log: Endurance Phase - Week 3

So yesterday Mrs. Stallion and I were spectators at our first cyclocross race.  It was the Saratoga Spa ‘Cross held at the Spa State Park.  Up until Sunday, my only impressions of cyclocross were from online reports, podcasts and pictures.

It was an awesome event.  It’s a real intimate setting for a race, and there were no bad vantage points along the course.  Adding to the parcours was the fact that the day before the area was treated to about 3 inches of rain.  Race day conditions were great for racing with sun & clouds and about 55°F.

The terrain added something I wasn’t expecting – quiet.  I never thought about it, but when you ride a ‘cross bike with what looked like tires at around 40psi on mud and pine needles, it really deadens the sounds of the bike.  Braking was the complete opposite – those rims screamed for mercy when the pads forced the mud on them!

It was a great time.  It was the first year having the races there and I really hope they come back.  I felt inspired by all the action – the riders gave it their all; even guys 5 minutes back were drilling it over the course.  I don’t think I’ll be racing anytime soon, but who knows?  It might make its way on to my bucket list.

Greetings, I had another good training week.  What made it so good is that it finally warmed up here in Southeast Michigan and I was able to ride outside for two of my workouts (Tuesday and Thursday).   I performed my outdoor rides on my Trek 7300 hybrid (my slowest, least expensive and favorite bike) over terrain with lots of rolling hills.  The two indoor rides were performed on my Trek Madone 5.2.  Here are the actual workouts compared with the plan for the week of October 19-25, 2009 (click here to download my plan for the Endurance Phase).  You’ll notice the goal workouts are the same as last week (SS = Steady Spinning; PB = Power Bursts; HCS = High Cadence Spinning).  

I had very good workouts.  Once again, I felt strong for all four rides and had no problems completing the sessions.  In fact, I can already feel the results from my Power Burst workouts.  I am able to pedal larger gears more easily.  My cadence for the long indoor ride was consistently 90 to 100 RPM after warm-up (it was lower for the 2.0 hour outdoor ride).  For both Power Burst (PB) workouts, I completed 10 x 15 seconds PB with a gear combination of 53×13.   Once again, I completed two strength training workouts.  

This week (Week 3) is my first recovery week.  However, I perform my longest ride of this mesocycle (the 21-day training blocks in my Endurance phase) on Monday and another Power Burst workout on Tuesday.  The rest of the week consists of short Active Recovery rides.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

NEXT POST – October 29, 2009

Cycling Performance Tip #1

As promised, I will be keeping a weekly online training log so you can observe how effectively (or ineffectively) I maintain the periodized training program I developed for myself for the 2010 racing season (click here to download my plan for the Endurance Phase).  Here are the actual workouts compared with the weekly plan (week of October 12-18, 2009).  Please note that all four cycling sessions were performed with my road bike (a Trek Madone 5.2) on an indoor trainer because it is really cold here in Southeast Michigan! (SS = Steady Spinning; PB = Power Bursts; HCS = High Cadence Spinning):

I had a very good first week.  I felt strong for all four rides and had no problems completing the workouts.  My cadence for the longer rides was consistently 90 to 100 RPM after warm-up.  For both Power Burst (PB) workouts, I completed 10 x 15 seconds PB with a gear combination of 53×13 (the 2nd biggest/hardest gear on the bike).   I also completed two strength training workouts with 8 to 10 exercises primarily focusing on my core (abdominal, side oblique and lower back muscles) and upper body.  This is particularly important for cyclists since a strong core is vital for long days in the saddle.  This week’s training schedule is identical in terms of workouts and time.  However, I will focus on increasing gearing while maintaining cadence in spots to ramp up the intensity.  I think this is necessary because my heart rate for Monday’s ride was Zone 1 and it was barely Zone 2 for Thursday’s ride.  I need to push a little harder.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

NEXT POST – October 26, 2009

Cycle Log: Endurance Phase - Week 2

If you have read my last three posts, you understand that developing an annual training program is a relatively simple process for cyclists.  It involves two basic steps: developing SMART goals (outcome and/or process) and creating a four-phase plan that will allow you to achieve these goals.  Once you are clear about your objectives for the 2010 season, you should begin by crafting your plan for the Endurance phase of the periodization cycle.  This phase will last from 12 to 16 weeks and is designed to enhance your aerobic and muscular endurance.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I have attached my Endurance Phase training program as a guide for developing your own.  Please note the following:

1. The training plan is composed of my High Impact Cycling Workouts.
2. I am using a 16/5, 21-day mesocycle.  In English, this means my Endurance phase is based on five, 3-week blocks for a total of 15 weeks.  Each block (i.e., mesocycle) consists of 21 days.  The first 16 days are for hard training, while the last 5 are for recovery.  I have found this works really well with my soon to be 48-year old legs.  Younger cyclists may want to use a 23/5, 28-day mesocycle.  This consists of 23 days of hard work followed by 5 days of recovery.
3. The first two mesocycles consist solely of Active Recovery (AR), Steady Spinning (SS), High Cadence Spinning (HCS) and Power Bursts (PB).  The third mesocycle replaces Power Bursts with Strength Intervals (SI), while the fourth adds Cadence Intervals (CI) and Tempo Rides.  The last mesocycle replaces Strength Intervals with Pyramid Intervals (PI). 
4. As you can see, the Endurance phase starts easy and gets harder as it progresses, going from primarily Zone 1 & 2 rides at the beginning up to Zone 4 at the end.  By the time I am at the end of the 15 weeks, I will have improved my aerobic and muscular endurance, and should be ready for the much higher intensity rides that will take place in the next phase.
5. The hours listed on this training plan are based on indoor training (we have long, cold winters in Michigan).  To follow this plan while riding outdoors, increase training time by one-third.  For example, a 60-minute indoor ride is equivalent to a 90-minute outdoor ride.

In my next update, I will post the results of my first training week!  Click below to download the training plan.

Endurance Training – 15 Week Program

NEXT POST – October 19, 2009

Training Report for Week 1: Endurance Phase

In my last two posts, I described the two steps cyclists need to take to develop an annual training plan and discussed the first of these steps, developing SMART goals.  Before I describe the second step, (drafting your training program), it is important to understand the structure upon which periodized training programs are built.  This structure includes the three cycles: macrocyles, mesocycles and microcycles.

1. The macrocycle consists of all 52 weeks of your annual plan and therefore includes all four stages of a periodized training program (endurance, intensity, competition and recovery).  Because of its length, you will almost certainly make changes to it throughout the year.  Think of the macrocycle as a “birds-eye” view of your annual training plan. 
2. The mesocycle represents a specific block of training that is designed to accomplish a particular goal.  For example, during the endurance phase, you might develop a mesocycle that is specifically designed to enhance your muscular endurance (the ability to pedal relatively big gears at a moderate cadence).  This mesocycle might consist of 3 weeks of strength training and big gear spinning, and one week of recovery.  Mesocycles are typically 3 to 4 weeks in length but can be a bit longer.  Two very common mesocycles are 21 and 28-day training blocks.  I will provide an example of a training plan with 21-day mesocycles in my next post.
3. A microcycle is the shortest training cycle, typically consisting of a single week or two with the goal of facilitating a focused block of training.  An example of this is an endurance block where a cyclist strings three or four long rides together within one week to progressively overload training volume (with the objective of improving aerobic endurance).  Generally speaking, two or three microcycles are tied together to create a mesocycle.  

In my next post, I will describe how to create your annual training plan by providing you with the Endurance Phase of my 2010 Training Plan!

NEXT POST – October 19, 2009

Creating Your Periodized Training Program

The last thing you want to be doing is crouching by the side of the road for hours trying to patch up or change the tube in the tubular wheelset. By the time you do that the race will be long over.

And for me that is reason enough to go for a clincher wheel, they are a dream to change should you need to. Nowadays most cycle racers are happy to accept the slight downside of a heavier wheel against the lighter wheel simply because clincher wheels are now made with modern alloys and other composite materials added to which, the clincher wheel is generally more reliable and easier to maintain than a tubular wheel.

Find more ways to save money on clincher wheelsets and find out which are the best wheelsets for your race bike.

Tour of Missouri, which included a leg through Soulard , began in St. Louis on Monday, Sept. 7, Labor Day. Mark Cavendish won the first 75 mile stage of the race, billed the third highest profile domestic race in the United States. Many area residents turned out to see the bicyclists ride through the city. Well with out doing a lot more research I can not write much more. However I am just doing this to test text flow.