Last night was more roller action aboard the Cannondale Six13. My last three rides (Sat., Sun., Tue.) have really given me the opportunity to get back into the roller groove. Now that everything seems to be ticking over correctly and my legs are ready for some base, I will start to increase the duration and effort of the roller sessions. The last three rides have all been a touch over 60 minutes long with nothing more than blocks being done for the efforts. Sat. and Sun. were both blocks of 15 minutes in each gear and then an upshift to the next gear. It's enough to mentally get me back into riding rollers. Losing focus and lying on the floor are not really my style and quite frankly I am not interested in experimenting with that aspect either. Last night consisted of slightly shorter 10 minute blocks for the first 30 minutes and then a few 5 minute blocks of tempo riding to get the heart rate up and get that snappy feeling back in the legs.
There is one key element to rollers this season that my legs have noticed too. I normally use a 12-23 cassette on the Six13 so the 39-23 gearing for the warmup block is pretty easy to turnover. This year however, I am using an 11-21 which isn't a huge difference but I have noticed that I want to get going through the gears faster now that I warm up in a 39-21 gearing. Not quite sure why it increases my desire to go faster but, I am definitely liking it so far. Comparing my post-ride stats so far this season to the same time last year, I am seeing an increase in speeds with a decrease in heart rate and perceived exertion. That has to be a good thing right?
I saw that some of the road races are starting to get scheduled for the 2008 season over at
Dice. I might be able to start getting my schedule together shortly. I'm not really sure what my "A" races are going to be as far as the road racing goes in 2008. I'll probably try to hit up the same races that I did during the 2007 season and maybe add a few more in such as the Old Capital Crit and Snake Alley. Time will tell though so stay tuned for that.
I hope to expand the cyclocross racing just a bit too. Plans are to do every possible race in the state of Iowa and maybe sneak over the border to Minnesota or Wisconsin for one or two. I have really enjoyed the MTB races that I have done in both states and might have to give their CX racing a go too. Tentatively planning on CX Nationals in 2008 also since I could not make it this year. The MTB racing season might be a little sketchy though. All of my bike purchasing/building funds have been allocated to
Project X-Fire and there will not be anything left to get a new MTB. Although, there is always the option of taking on some MTB races aboard a CX bike like
someone else that I know. You never know, it might just workout. They are 700c wheels so it's kind of like a
29er, right Ted? I'm thinking that it would almost qualify...kind of like the cousin of a 29er or something.
Picked up a 44 tooth chainring from Blue last night so I am going to set up the X-Fire with a 39/44 gearing for now and see how that pans out. I am thinking that it might just be the right ticket for me when linked to a 13-26 cassette. We shall see.
Read the complete post at http://carlosdajackal.blogspot.com/2007/12/rolling-along-to-nowhere.html