Tuesday, February 7, 2012

US Military Cycling Team Camp: Day 2

Each day I find this team more and more interesting.  As always, on a 4-hour ride, you have to make the time pass by talking to those around you.  So as I was struggling to keep a close to 26 MPH pace along side Jim Elliott, I decided to inquire about a few things that were said during the introductions.  So on Monday night, when everyone was telling thee story, Jim was a little laissez faire about his background. I caught the idea that he was a former Marine, now Hartford Connecticut Police Officer, but not much more.  As I have remarked before, Bill had started naming off a few accomplishments of some of the riders.  He brought up Jim. Apparently Jim’s passion for cycling has carried him great distances. I mean like from Boston to New York, 220 miles in 11 hours to bring awareness for Livestrong   (video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw0BfyYhomc).   Funny thing is the 220 was probably easy due to the fact the he has also ridden 343 miles around the perimeter of the state, yes in one continuous ride.

So the morning started off with the normal 0630 wake up and grab breakfast.  I deviated a little and headed out to grab a Starbucks.  Twenty minute walk to and from to have a cappuccino. Probably will not do that one again, but figured I would give it a shot.  Made it back to hotel for a photo op, then out on the road.


The plan was to head out for about a 80-90 mile ride.  The weather was a little crappy, but we were all styling with the new kits. I will say, the Primal Wear kits look great.   I also tried the Chamois BUTT'r Eurostyle, pretty impressive.  In the past, I have seldom used anything, but…  this is one that I am going to keep using.

The ride left and we immediately went into pace lining.  Bill split us into two groups of five, from there we took turns simulating the front group rotating and the back group just sitting in.  We did this for almost four and a half hours.  The last 20 miles, my group was sent off the front while the other group was held back, then released to catch us.  So for 47 minutes, five of us went as hard as would could, while maintaining the integrity of the group. We tried to keep it at about 27 MPH, but ended up averaging 25 MPH.  My Normalized Power was 253 over the 47 minutes.  We held off the other group, but only by a mere 30 seconds or so. 

After getting back to the hotel, we showered up, talked some long term strategies, had a fantastic nutrition discussion with Jim Weinstein and now calling it a night.  Tomorrow’s schedule…  80-100 miles ride, I am sure that Jim and Bill will have plenty of pace lining and learning to feed from a vehicle.

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