New FUN Thursday TS rides for 2014

[Lister Farrar]

Rolf, aren't you the new owner of a 'cross bike? Field and stream would be appropriate then.

I sense elusiveness. If I make those the prize Thursday, THEN will you come and tickle the anaerobic monster with the other proficient practitioners of pacelines?

[Rolf]

Keep up the alliterative allegory and I'll do anything you ask. I'll even bark like a dog. WOOF!

p.s. No new bike yet. My languidness is not confined to the actual riding of bicycles.

[Lister Farrar]

Crazy train team intervals tomorrow anyone?

All abooooaaard, ahahahahahahaha!!
http://youtu.be/3MLp7YNTznE

More delicious packaged sport food prizes on offer.

6 sharp, ring road east of Henderson. Let's beat the record of 14 members of the loyal order of Lead out trains.

[Lister Farrar]

16 riders, new record. Nice to see Joe, Jenn, and the other new riders out. 'Best team' (by arbitrary coach whim) this week was Chris M's team who went 15-30 seconds faster every interval, 15:08 their last, closely followed by Mike, Jenn and Joe who rode steady 15:00ish each rep. My team had a fast middle one but it might just have been that pick-up truck that drove at 40 kph in front of us for a lap and a half.

Now, if I could just get Ozzy Osbourne out of my head.

Barton is still interested in varying the distances, then coming back to 5,5,5 to see if it improves. (Or 6,6,6 on devil worship day?) He's proposed 7, 5, 3 laps, to warm up well and add some real speed to the last. He's not coming next week, but what do you think, for in two weeks?

Another discussions I heard that was interesting: what's faster?, shorter, faster pulls, or longer, steadier pulls? How about we experiment next week with 15 sec pulls one rep, 30 sec pulls the second rep? For this to work, you'll have to choose your group carefully. 15 sec pulls doesn't give as much recovery time. Or sit on sooner. An upside to short pulls is you stay closer to threshold, and not so far over, after a pull, or under, as you wait to do your turn.

edit: Sorry forgot the prizes yesterday. Will bring more next week.

[Lister Farrar]

It's Barton Made Us Do It morning tomorrow. 7 laps, 5 laps, 3 laps. Start hard and then go faster. If he doesn't make it, we'll do 3, 3 lappers and go early for coffee.

Jesting aside, Barton's suggestion has merit. While 7 laps seems longish, we'll be forced to pace well. And the main benefit, we'll be forced to pick up the pace each rep until the screaming three lap go-like-you-made-the-break-in-the-last-6km-of-Flanders-and-Cancellera-doesn't-feel-like-chasing.

Coffee will be good once we can swallow again.

[barton bourassa]

That was pretty cool. Seven was a bit tough having been used to five laps, requiring a bit more discipline. Alan (along with Lister and Christian) felt he wasn't working as much as usual. We invited him to pull longer next time! The second set, five laps was quicker, the fastest five I have taken part in. Then came the third set, three laps! This was quick with short pulls and fast pedalling. As we climbed up the little hill on the south side to the stop sign (the finish) on the last lap every group was there. It was pretty darn neat! It could have been chaos but it was rather controlled, fast, scary fun! It seemed everyone knew where their team mates were and where the other groups were. Rather than chaos disintegrating into a cluster f*%#, it was much more controlled. It felt to me a bit like race simulation.

One of the keys for me with this ride is good communication in your group. If you aren't working as hard as you wish, let folks know you are going to pull longer and harder. If you are flagging, let your group know you need to pull a little shorter time. Too long on the front and you slow your group down unless you are very strong (Alan, he who needs to pull longer, at least in this morning's group!). Too short and you are spending too much time in a comfortable HR zone rather than in a tempo HR zone or higher.

Good Ride! Thanks Lister!

[Lister Farrar]

last week was a new record, 20 riders. five full teams. Can we beat that tomorrow in true TS rainy day gloating point fashion?

ttt intervals tomorrow, rain or shine, but with flaps please. 6 sharp uvic ring road just east of Henderson entrance. We've done 5,5,5 laps, and 7,5,3 laps. How about 4,5,6, to see how well you warm up?

It would be great if one person on each team could watch a computer and report the average speed for each interval.

Gel prizes for the rider on each team who contributes the most to the team, as voted by the team. Could be the one who pulls the longest (while going fast; no snoozing on the front), or one who's struggling, but hangs on despite their own personal sufferfest. Or the one who brings coffee to the start for his her team.

Jay has been tweaking his tt position and wants to see how fast he can go alone. Also, he's guaranteed the gel. OK, ok, its because it won't have fenders.

Who's up for the A team to give him something to chase?

[chrisb]

here's my strava info from today's ride:
http://www.strava.com/activities/131165651
it includes part of the second set, the full set of 6 (or 7) + 1 cooldown lap and the trip to coffee

[Lister Farrar]

Well, 14 people out, not bad for a thoroughly rainy am. 4,5,6 is harder than 7,5,3. So hard, the fast team went a little hypoxic and did 7 laps by mistake. And rolled in after coffee was served wondering what happened. Either that or the other two teams were hypoxic and did 5 by mistake.

Voted best contributer to their teams were Paula for clinging on when kenji drove the pace, but not giving up. Mandy, for jumping up a team and not only matching the speed, but setting it. And kenji for, dang can't remember, that last interval was hard. He did however jump from the slowest group to fastest group. Or, as his first team put it, voted off the island.

Next week, we'll see if jay can try it solo. His sore knee was earned. 2nd in A at VCL Wednesday night. Fast A's also requested by Jay. If you dare.

[Lister Farrar]

Hey Nineteen, (who says) We Can't Jam Together?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzfwtX2kgOA

Tomorrow am will be Race Jay day, who will do the intervals by himself vs the teams. Now, he might be faster anyway, but we will handicap after the first effort, and see who steps up more in rep two and three. 3 x 5 laps so there can be accurate bragging rights for that.

[chrisb]

anyone want to come out earlier to do a couple sets - I have just been handed the in-the-office-at-your-desk-by-7am shift so I can't make it out to as much of the ride as I would like.
Thought that I would head out to uvic for about 5:20am tomorrow and do the first two sets of five solo, then join one of the groups for the last set...

[sylvan]

Whoa. I was just playing some Steely Dan youtubes. Larry Carlton stuff mostly. I haven't really been on a bike in about a month or something but I might be there to ride with the most handicapped group.

[Lister Farrar]

I haven't really been on a bike in about a month or something but I might be there to ride with the most handicapped group.

Now a month and day.

You weren't alone; I think lots of folks heard the rain at 5 and rolled over. But it cleared before the ride to UVic, and we actually had the nicest part of the day. Mandy (UVic strava QOM by the way), Curran, Christian, Marcus, Steve and yt. 3 x 5 laps. Fast start, 15:40ish first rep.

Then Steve joined us and we slowed us down to 16:04.

When I made the mistake of noting that, Steve started in anger the next rep before peeling off to work, but launched us to 15:47, with a deer pause. Thanks Steve!

L

[Curran]

It was a great ride! Thanks for the water... next time will be sure to remember my bottle.

Our lap times were actually pretty consistent at 3:00-3:15
http://www.strava.com/activities/133705406/laps

[Lister Farrar]

Giro ttt stage is on now, on steephilltv.com. TTT in the rain. Sounds familiar.

[Lister Farrar]

Tomorrow is TTT like Svein Day. Everyone bring a trailer with a 90 lb dog.

Some options for tomorrow; we could up the speed a bit tomorrow, 4x 4 laps, or 5x 3 laps.

Or make the teams smaller, 2 or 3. More turns on the front, more chances to hammer up that ceiling.

Viva la vida threshold!

[Lister Farrar]

Just had another thought. How about 9 person teams like the giro? :p

[Lister Farrar]

Now this is the weather and place for a ride. No lights, no tights, no heights (it's flat ). (That was for you Rolf.)

Lisa wouldn't let us change the routine, so 3x5 laps.

The groups switched up, as early starters at work (Christian, Paula, Jim) had to leave and late arrivals Pete and Mike arrived.

One good battle was Rolf, Lisa and me catching Jim, Paula, Marcus and Christian, who then caught and passed us back, just as Dylan, Chris and Rob caught both.

Coffee chatter included how to space the pulls so big guys can make the most of even the slight downhills on the circle. And how awesome it was Canuck Will Routeley won the stage in the TOC when outnumbered by healthnet taking turns attacking the break.

[Lister Farrar]

So, we have about 30 people who have done these rides. How about a little race?

Pete is interested in organizing a Ttt July 6. But he needs to know if there's interest. Details here in the racing forum. viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5036

Post there to show interest.

[Lister Farrar]

Ttt intervals are on Thursday 6 am sharp.

If you've been coming regularly you know your Tuesday and Friday ride companions are agog with your fitness.

If you haven't, the most common comments Thursday am is that this is different than the other rides and 'it's my new favourite'. (Not to diminish the others; if fact you need them all to be a good all rounder.).

And it works well for mixed ages competition. For July 6 we're still working on a formula, but unlike provincials, teams can be mixed gender and age (or not, one gender teams welcomed), but we will likely have a formula based on age and gender handicaps so teams can battle for overall supremacy. After they finish bidding for Mark Ford for their team. Stay tuned.

And one more note for Thursday. There are lots of options for distances and handicaps and team sizes. Some like variety, some like it the same each week. Speak up here or at the ride I you'd like a change, some coaching, or consistency. The only real limits are we need to be done by 7 as the traffic starts up, and the day is mainly about threshold efforts from 10-20 minutes long vs jumps or sprints.