Speed Interval Training

My next race is the San Ardo Road Race on Saturday, August 22. With such a big gap in my racing schedule caused by my relocation to Northern California, I've had a lot of time to work on my endurance and stamina. My workouts of late have been to get a couple of hill climbs (see Howell Mt. Road in my Hills of Napa series) in during the week, followed by long rides on either Saturday or Sunday or both (rides to Davis, Bodega Bay, etc.) So stamina is not an issue right now. What I really need, with a race just 3 weeks away, is sharpening or working on my speed. San Ardo is a pretty much flat course anyway and ends in a slightly uphill sprint. So now is the time to drop some of my threshold workouts/week and replace them with speed.

For the most part I follow Training Peaks workouts as I've been a paying member for several years now. I am also very much a student of Joe Friel and his workouts in both training Peaks and his "Training Bible." But this week I chose a workout from Chris Carmichael, as laid out in the August issue of Bicycle Magazine)see page 42 of that issue for a complete discussion. But here's how I completed the workouts in a nutshell:

Monday: Core Day (I do light weight lifting and stomach/lower back work

Tuesday: Interval Day (Descending Ladder) - 2' hard/2' recover, 1:30' hard/1:30'recover, 1:00' hard/1:00 recover, 45" hard/5 full minutes to recover between sets. I do this workout over my 21 mile circuit around Calistoga.

The above makes one set and after 5 mins. I do another, followed by one more, so I do three sets of the above. Coach Carmichael advises beginners to do only 1 set, intermediates 2, and advanced to do 3. I start each interval by going as hard as I think I can maintain for the full allotment of time for that interval. In other words, as I start the first 2' I ramp up to the highest power I can maintain and not lose power over the complete 2'.

Wednesday: recovery day - I do my usual 21 mile circuit around Calistoga but back off on speed and complete the 21 miles in around 1:07 or so.

Thursday: Interval Day (pure speed) - I alternate between going full out (maximum speed and power) for 30" followed by 30" of recovery. I do 7 of these and then recover over 4 minutes to do the whole thing all over again. It would look like this in my workout journal:

7 X 30" (30" RI) X 2 (with 4' RI between sets)

Carmichael advises that beginners 2 sets of 5, intermediates 3 sets of 5, and advanced 2 sets of 7. Again, I do this over my 21 mile course.

Friday: recovery day (same as Wednesday)

Saturday: Long ride. I like 3 - 5 hours for this ride.

Sunday: Easy ride of around 1.5 - 2.5 hours.

This should get me peaked for San Ardo. I also have a couple of races right after, one just the next week; the Winters Road Race, so I hope to maintain my peak for this race too. The last race is the Henleyville Road Race and it is also the last race of the season (not counting Tour of Tucson in November which is kind of a special thing for me) held on September 19th, and it is a class B race for me so I'll start tailing off on intensity and working on endurance again to prepare for the 109 miles in Tucson.

Calistoga to Bodega Bay

I shot this pic of Bodega Head at the end of my ride...

The variety of the type of rides available to Napa Valley roadies is amazing. On this ride I decided to leave the warm valley behind and head for the cool coast, which is much closer than you think. This Sunday morning I headed both North and West to finish my ride in Bodega Bay, roughly 44 miles (70km) away. I made it a one-way trip as my wife and Jade would meet me at the bay for lunch and a sight seeing trip. Then with the bike safely on the bike rack we would drive North and work our way back home by driving next to the Russian River.

You have a couple of choices on getting over the hills that separate Calistoga with Santa Rosa but I don't recommend most of them. The most direct way is via the Petrified Forest Road all the way down to Calistoga Road as it enters Santa Rosa - this was the route used by stage one in the '09 Tour of California. But the pros had the advantage of a closed route; you don't. The Petrified Forest Road is narrow, steep, and has a lot of traffic that does not want to give up an inch of space, especially to a bicycle rider. With this said, I decided on taking Franz Valley School road to leave the Napa Valley. This road is right off of the Petrified Forest Road as you are leaving Calistoga. You're only on this road for less than a mile and you make a right turn onto Franz Valley School road. You can check out the route, as usual, below via MapMyRide and the data provided by my Garmin Forerunner 305 unit.

Franz Valley School road is the first major climb of two climbs you will face on this trip. I could also do a Napa Valley Hills post on this road. It is a sustained climb of around 2 miles with a grade higher than 7% at times. At just over 9 miles you come to a T-intersection with Franz Valley road, make a left turn and you immediately start the 2nd major climb of the route. You crest this climb at around mile 11 and face a 8%, technical descent for around 1.5 miles - be careful here. I locked up my rear wheel on a nasty right hair-pin turn and almost got myself in trouble. Thank goodness that no car was coming up the road as I needed the whole road to save myself.

You now descend into Santa Rosa and here I took Fulton road to travel South to Highway 12 and the trip West. The 12 has a lot of traffic and you can avoid it by taking a bike path just south of 12. I did take the path after riding the 12 for a short time. I'm not sure I would do it again as the bike path is loaded with recreational riders and people walking their dogs. The path is limited to 15mph and going any faster would be hazardous due to the above mentioned traffic. In the future I would probably stay on 12, where the bike lane is wide and you can keep your speed up all the way into the town of Sebastopol. You now have several miles of light climbing as you leave Sebastopol. The climbing actually surprised me as I figured I would have a gradual descent all the way down to the coast. The grades are light but you will certainly notice them. Your other problem as you get close to the coast is the traffic, so watch out for the huge motor homes that will pass you a foot away!

Eventually you'll see a restaurant with picnic tables on the left side of the road just before you enter the actual town of Bodega Bay. I swung left here and patiently waited for the wife and kid - lunch of fish & chips tasted great and we had an enjoyable trip back home via the Russian River - enjoy.

Napa Valley Hills - Mt. Veeder (Dry Creek Side)

Looking down Dry Creek Road
Photo Credit: http://srcc.memberlodge.com

With my next race still 4 weeks away in August (San Ardo RR) it's time for more travelogues from my weekend long rides. Each day I put in about 21 miles around my town of Calistoga, Ca but the weekends are for the long rides, and I usually want this ride to be hilly.

This ride actually encompasses two climbs listed on Bruce DeBell's web page, "The Hills of Napa Valley" where he lists 17 climbs in the Napa Valley, from the most difficult to the easiest. Mt Veeder, Dry Creek side is #10 on his list and at the top of Dry Creek you do a short climb, Oakville Grade which is #16. This post is the second in my series called Napa Valley Hills - see my first hill, Mt. Howell Road here. And as usual, I've included a MapMyRide map at the bottom of this post; MapMyRide will give you all kinds of data, from Satellite views to full elevation, profile data.

To start this climb, I have to ride almost 25 miles to the town of Napa, located to the South of Calistoga. A long way to go perhaps for a single hill or two but 25 miles on the Silverado Trail is a great ride in itself. After I enter the town of Napa, I've got about 3 miles or so of traversing the town from East to West, and then I turn North onto Dry Creek Road for the start of the climb that will peak out 10 miles closer to Calistoga for my return trip on Ca-29, the road that links all the towns in the Napa Valley.

The climb itself is not that tough. About 4 miles long with over 700' of elevation gain. The road is very scenic however, and under a lot of shade - in short, it's a beautiful ride. The toughest pitch in my book was not even on this road but rather at the top of the road where you make a right turn onto Oakville Grade. This is my 2nd hill of the ride, and though short, a little over a mile, is relatively steep. MapMyRide shows an average of around 4% but I remember pitches of up to 8 - 10% during the short climb. Hang onto your bars when you crest this hill - the downhill is steep and somewhat technical but not too bad. I hit a speed of over 43 mph on the downhill and that's while I was sitting up and feathering the brakes as it was my first time on this road. This descent is Bruce's #1 toughest climb in the Napa Valley going the other way - I've got to check this hill out soon.

That's it for this training ride, around 54.5 miles. Check out the map link below:

Napa Valley Hills - Howell Mt. Road

A view from Howell Mt. Road
Photo Credit: http://wine.appellationamerica.com/images/appellations/features/Craig%20Howell%20web1.jpg

I did a great hill workout today climbing Howell Mt. Road right off the Silverado Trail. There are a lot of great hill workouts in the Napa Valley so I thought I would start a series describing the climbs after I've ridden them. A very good web resource is a page called "Hills of Napa Valley" where author Bruce DeBell lays out his 17 hill rides in the Napa Valley. Howell Mt. Road is #14 on Bruce's list. Bruce does give a very brief description of the ride but not a lot of location information, which could make the ride tough to find for an out of town roadie. I've provided a MapMyRide map that should get you the hill in no time.

You can find the start of this 4.2 mile climb right at the junction of the Silverado Trail just North of the town of St. Helena. St. Helena is located just South of Calistoga. Look for Howell Mt. Road 1.7 miles South of Deer Park Road. The climb is moderate but very scenic (see pic above.) My Garmin showed several pitches above 7% with a total elevation climb of over 1100 feet. I completed the climb, without working too hard, in exactly 23 minutes. This will be my baseline, and I'll now work on lowering that time in future rides. The road is narrow but traffic is very light. The road surface is fair to good. The descent down Deer Park Road is a lot of fun and was also used in stage 1 of the 2009 Tour of California.

Here's my MapMyRide map of the route:

Castello di Amorosa - Calistoga, Ca

Just a quick post to show the cool "12th Century Tuscan castle" on the South side of the valley floor. I took this shot on an early morning ride on the North side of the valley. The castle is a winery, one of many, in the Napa Valley.

Calistoga, California

Photo Credit: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1-KQaSii290/SC8qqNe69TI/AAAAAAAAEZw/9bSARGRzecI/s400/Calistoga.jpg

As of last Thursday, July 2nd, I've been residing in Calistoga, Ca. My move to Northern California almost complete, as I continue to unload boxes and hang pictures on the wall. I went almost two weeks with very little bicycle riding; 5 hours one week, and only 1.5 last week – just too much going on with the move. My wife actually moved the whole house a week before I could leave. I was teaching summer school and it didn't end for me until July 1st. But starting last Sunday, I've hit every day on the bike. I only have time for an hour ride in the morning as I need to be here when my wife leaves for work as Jade is usually still sleeping. But what an hour it is. Days are warm here, with highs in the 80s and low 90s but the mornings are terrific, if not a little too chilly. The last three days have found me pedaling away with temps in the high 40s to low 50s – but the summer is young.

I have found the perfect 20.7 mile loop that takes me clockwise around Calistoga which I complete in around 1 hour and 6 minutes. The scenery is breathtaking, with redwoods and other pines in the hills competing with the grape vineyards on the valley floor. I promise to get my camera out and start taking pictures of the many rides in my new neck of the woods. Yesterday and Monday I was riding by when the “Old Faithful Geyser of California” was erupting. This geyser goes off about every 30 minutes or so, with a 60 feet tall eruption of scalding water and steam – quite a treat.

The picture above, by an unknown photographer, shows the geyser with Mt. St. Helena in the background

The morning ride also goes past a balloon launching site on Lincoln Ave. Here's a few pics of a couple of hot air balloons launching I took back in April when we were first checking out the town:


Another with my 8 year old daughter Jade in the foreground:



Here's my route via MapMyRide:


Though I now ride this loop clockwise as I find less traffic on my side of the road at this hour when most people are heading off to work.