PLEASE DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME…WITHOUT A CYCLOPS

I haven’t ridden either of my Cannondales a single mile since before the 4th of July, and now it’s mid-August, but nevertheless I just requested – and was promptly approved – to upgrade from Cat 5 to 4 just so I can race the Hotter’n Hell 100-miler in two weeks.  (Cat 5s can only race the 100 km, or 62 mile course).

All things being equal and easy, I’d have preferred to have ridden RAGBRAI and a good number of 50-100 mile training rides by this point, as I’ve been able to during the past few years.  Then I’d have a lot more confidence about entering a known ball-buster of an endurance race.

But life hasn’t been so accommodating this year, and I’ve had a particularly busy summer, including buying and selling a house, moving out of state, starting a new job, and traveling pretty much every week.  With all that, as June faded and the chaotic month of July approached, I set aside any fantasies of spending much time on the bike until life settled down a bit.

So while my riding pals have been chalking up tons of miles – and yes, I’ve been jealous at times – I decided to test myself in a new way.

First, I needed an event to focus on.  Ideally, a truly audacious end-of-season ride.  And it would have to be a century.  Preferably it would be one of those races everybody has heard about — and fears.

Fortunately, the minute I arrived in Dallas, people started asking, “Ever done Hotter’n Hell?”

A couple phone calls later, my riding/racing pals said they’d drive in for it, and that was that.

The second response to my mid-season hiatus, was to decide that I would do the race without worrying about how much time I’d get on the bike between now and then.  And so I haven’t, and nor do I intend to.  For one thing, the race is 13 days away, so there just isn’t that much time left to become the rider I might wish to be.

Notwithstanding the distinct lack of miles in the legs, nor the oft-stated misgivings of my uber-miler pals who seem duly concerned on my behalf (incoming text:  ”50?”, outgoing text: “no.”) I’m not exactly in despair.

To get as ready for this event as time would permit, I decided weeks ago to dive back into my time-condensed winter-training routine (http://www.bicycle.net/2008/diary-of-a-cat-5er-part-i), focused on getting fit fast, and building back critical biking muscles through high-intensity interval training.

So for the past few weeks I’ve been getting on the treadmill 2-3 times a week for 10k runs to shed the beer weight I put on this summer.  Say all you want about cycling, but nothing sweats off the pounds like running.  In the past 7 weeks, I’ve shed about that number of pounds, to the point that my wife keeps saying, “you feel dainty,” and “even your shoulders are getting smaller,” and other such supportive statements.  This to a guy who still weighs in just a shade under 175.

Anyway, taking a page fresh from last winter’s training routine, I began hitting the Cyclops trainer for 60-90 minute sessions, 2-3 times a week, battling the dreaded wattage-meter.  I won’t belabor the mix of high-cadence sessions versus max-power intervals (see my other posts for discussion of that), but the workouts to date have been hard enough to notch a new max-heart rate reading (189, up from 187 previous), and sometimes I can barely climb a flight of stairs the day after one of these pleasant little indoor spins.

I’ve also notched a new PB average wattage (230 watts) for a one-hour session, and I’ve also sustained PB wattage levels for 5, 30, and 60 second periods.  Finally, whether it’s a harbinger of good luck, or not, I still looked favorably upon the moment yesterday afternoon when I was grinding away at high-cadence (130+) work, and the chain on the Cyclops busted.

Man 1, machine 0.

For what it’s worth, all this gives me some confidence there’s enough power in the legs to stay with the pack.  The question, then, is more around how long the power will last.

From what I’ve heard, the critical link in this long, hot, windy event is physical endurance in harsh conditions.  People who’ve ridden it speak about how essential it is to pack salt and and enzymes, in order to prevent cramps brought on by dehydration, and to bring calories in more forms than just a pocketful of gels.

In short, fitness helps, but if you blow the diet, you end up at milepost 90 with an IV bag hanging from a metal post dripping saltwater into your system. I think I’d prefer to get my via a well-stocked Camelbak, thank you very much, and am heading to the LBS at lunch-break tomorrow to purchase appropriate survival foods and elixirs.

Back to fitness, though, I’m counting on replicating last winter’s protocol of focused training to more than replace hours in the saddle.  In early outings this past spring, my worries were alleviated when I got on the bike and found that my post-winter legs were better than ever, and quickly notched my first top-10 finish (http://www.bicycle.net/2009/diary-of-a-cat-5-first-race-of-the-season).

At the time, I wrote glowingly about this scientific approach to training.  Now I’m counting on it again to deliver me to a higher level of fitness and race-readiness than I would otherwise be getting through long, tough weekend rides with the club.  I’ll let you know in a couple weeks if this recipe works, or if time in the saddle will prove to be an essential ingredient.