River Park Cafe to Open by Feb. 15

Many of us have bemoaned the loss of The River's Edge at 19th and Riverside since its closing. How many times have we completed the Monday Night Ride wishing we could wander over and grab a cold beverage? It was announced earlier that the Blue Rose Cafe won a bid to open a restaurant in this location and it sounds like plans are moving forward. The hope is to complete construction and be operational by February 15, 2010. The best part about this facility is that it should be operational all year whereas The River's Edge was closed during the winter. You can read about it and see an artist rendering of the building here.

Colorado or Bust

A majority of the team is off to Colorado where they have planned a fun long-weekend of mountain biking, white water rafting, and riding the Colorado Cyclist Copper Triangle.

The Colorado Cyclist Copper Triangle course is a spectacular 78-mile loop cresting three Colorado Mountain passes - Fremont Pass (elevation 11,318’), Tennessee Pass (elevation 10,424’) and Vail Pass (elevation 10,666’). The course passes three ski areas and is littered with historic mining outposts and camp Hale, the training ground for the famous 10th Mountain Division. The total elevation gain for the course is 5,981 ft.

Power Drills

I was watching a video on Saris's website about the benefits of training indoors when I stumbled upon this workouts to focus on power boosting efforts and strengthen pedaling muscles. It doesn't look like you need a power meter to perform these workouts.

Warm Up 5:00 – Easy

Single Leg Builds to develop your pedaling efficiency and technique
With both feet attached at the pedals, perform 3-5 repetitions
Begin at appx 65-70% of Threshold Power

• Right leg dominate 30s slow RPM; 30s fast RPM; 15s Both legs
• Repeat on left leg
• Recover for 1:00 and Repeat

Descending Ladder to develop your pedaling efficiency and technique
With both feet attached at the pedals, perform 3-5 repetitions
Begin at appx 65-70% of Threshold Power

• 30s Right leg/30s Left leg Now add more load and proceed to 25s each leg; Add more loadand proceed to 20s each leg; Add more load and proceed to 15s each leg; Add more load and proceed to 15s each leg; Recover for 1:00 and Repeat

Power Ups for developing the pedal stroke
Begin at appx 65-70% of Threshold Power. Perform 3-5 repetitions

• 30s @ 60 RPM; 70 RPM; 80 RPM; 90 RPM; 100 RPM; 1:00 recover and repeat

Super Power Ups for developing the pedal stroke and boosting power
Begin at appx 65-70% of Threshold Power. Perform 3-5 repetitions

• 30s progressively building RPM; 30s progressively building load
• 1:00 sustaining heart rate intensity, adjusting cadence and load as necessary
• 2:00 recover and repeat

Power Accelerations to boosPublish Postt power

Begin at appx 65-70% of Threshold Power. Perform 3-5 repetitions

• 1:00 with 3 transitions, increasing load with each
• 30s progressively building RPM; 30s standing; 30 seated progressively building RPM
• Recover 2:00 and repeat

Explosive Efforts to boost power
Begin at appx 65-70% of Threshold Power. Perform 3-5 repetitions

• 1:00 progressively building load
• 10-15s transition and accelerate hard, with the goal to put out the highest wattage
• 10-15s seated, sustaining effort; 2:00 recover and repeat

Absence

It has been about 2 weeks since I have been on the bike or updated this blog. My hope is that you are getting antsy for the next update; after all, they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Whoever coined this phrase was spot on. Two weeks without riding with my team has made me realize what an important part all of you have become in my life in less than a year. The friendships I have made--on and off the road--in the last 9 months have been forged by common goals, suffering, and celebrations. This makes for some strong bonds that are second only to my marriage.

I should be back on the bike next week and similarly updating the blog in a more consistent manner. I actually look forward to the Tour de France to be over so that cycling coverage will be less myopic. Stay tuned for new updates, keep training hard for upcoming races, start thinking about goals for next year, and be sure to have fun.

Tour de Payne Ride Report

At 4:00 AM my alarm went off and I asked myself for the hundredth time why I was going to Stillwater with Scott to ride 105 miles. However, my training plan said I needed to ride 5 hours on Saturday, so I might as well have some company (but I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to keep up with Scott at this distance).

As Scott and I approached Stillwater it became clear that we would get rained on during our ride. Little did we know that it would rain on us the entire ride. We stopped at the McDonald's on the highway where we ran into several BOT riders who were looking at the radar and a massive red/yellow/green cloud covering the state. Ignoring the warning signs, we pushed on to Stillwater.

As we registered for the ride, we ran into Monty. I had not seen Monty since he left on his vacation several months ago, so it was nice to see him again and I was thankful that there would be at least one more person taking pulls during the ride.

Before the ride could start, the rain really started to fall. Lots of people decided not to start and many others began to rethink their plans for the day. Scott and I decided that we would start the ride with the knowledge that we could turn along the way and make it shorter if need be.

When the ride started, it was obvious people were in a hurry to get going. We started out at about 25 MPH and the lead group was soon whittled down to just a few. After 30 miles it was down to Scott, Monty, "Yellow Jersey Guy with the Schwinn from NWA" (you Cat 5's know who I am talking about), and me. The rain never let up, but we were already wet and making good time, so we pushed on past the 100k turn-off.

It rained on us the whole time, but this was probably a blessing as it kept the temperature down. The route was undulating and twisty and felt as if you were always going up or down and into the wind, but never had the wind to your back or a nice flat straightaway. Despite the constant rain and the road grime, we pushed on for the entire 105 miles. In the end we did 105 miles in 4 hours and 50 minutes (100 miles in 4:34) while averaging 21.7 MPH and burning 2475 calories. Not a bad way to get in some good training.

Cervelo Videos

The Cervelo Test Team has been publishing videos throughout the year with a "behind the scenes" look at a Pro Tour team. All of these videos have been interesting, but I think this latest,"Flanders", has been my favorite. It is humbling to listen to Haussler talk about how hard this race is and how much he is hurting in the end. "Milan - San Remo" is also very good but a little depressing.

Bryan Rides Over the Competition

Bryan is riding so fast these days that he literally rode over the competition at the practice crits.


Unfortunately...It looks like Bryan took the worst of it.


BTW...did you notice those sexy legs behind Bryan's?