Macon Cycling Classic joins SEW Race Series

The Macon Cycling Classic Criterium, held next Saturday, May 1st, will now be a part of the Southeast Women's Cycling race series.

 

It's also a part of the Georgia Bicycle Racing Association Best All-around Rider Competition and the Lance Armstrong Junior Olympic Race Series.  We look forward to a strong women's field and a great event including food and beer vendors, a first-and-out fat tire crit, a kids race, good payouts, and lots of product primes.  A 5K running event will cap off the evening after the P12 men's event.  Join us for a great race.

TT Basics

I have sucked at TT efforts this year.  It's mainly becuase I haven't trained much on the TT bike (funny how that correlation works out).

Here is a nice summary of an old-school, non-technical method of setting up and training for TTs.  I stole the Andy Coggan quote from Stuart Lynn's blog.

If my goal were to set myself up in an aero position with minimal drag and I didn't have access to a wind tunnel, I'd just drop the elbow pads far enough down below the saddle that my shoulders (acromion process) were within a couple of inches of being level with my hips (head of greater trochanter), move the elbow pads in to where my arms were as narrow or perhaps narrower than my thighs when viewed from the front, tilt the aero bars up ever-so-slightly, and keep my head down. I'd then go out and ride the bike - hard - in that position and see how far foward (and thus up) I needed to move the saddle to where my thigh-torso angle was similar to the "working position" on my road bike. I'd then ride the TT bike for at least one hour - hard! - each week for at least 6 weeks before any race. Sounds crude, I know, but for a flat TT this neandrathal approach will probably get you to within about 1 km/h of your maximal speed.

Since we're talking old school, here are a few shots from my triathlon days in the early '00s:

Il Porcellino

Italian renaissance art in Bradley - It is a replica of Tacca’s “Il Porcellino”. The original bronze was cast/made by Pietro Tacca in 1612 and is in the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy. Tacca supposedly created a bronze copy of a Hellenistic marble statue from the 600’s, which was destroyed. It is a copy from Tacca’s original mold and was cast by Giuseppi Benelli in 1857. There are very few of these in the world from the original mold because the Florentine galleries don’t just let anyone get their hands on a mold. The most famous “original” copy is near Mercato Nuovo in Florence, Italy. The date in Latin is cast on the side. It is supposedly good luck to rub its nose. And as you might be able to see in the picture, the nose is shiny from rubbing.
 
Above info compliments of Jake Andrews, Italian Art Specialist, Gray, GA.

Keep it Simple Stupid

I'm brainstorming myself a new training method.  It'll basically be Friel Lite.  It'll keep a three-hard, one-easy weekly periodization cycle, and will have three yearly macrocycles:

• Preseason
• Early Season
• Late Season

and three training levels:

• Easy
• Hard
• Attack

The main caveats: in order to use it successfully you'll have to know what threshold feels like, know yourself, and be experienced in training yourself.  No power meter required.

Friel's plan is great and it works.  But I think I can get indistinguishable results with 30% of the structure.

This is gonna be fun - I get to make up names for stuff.  I'll keep you posted.

Walthall Oil Cyling Team

Fools

Things are strange in Macon - seem backwards and upside down,
not sure what to make of it all - let's take a look around:

Todd says he wants three more kits - John says to make his smalls.
Robert's giving up road races - only crits from here till fall.

Jeff and Drew are halving a Power Tap - need numbers for their new blogs,
Bill's gotten back to just swimming - he's got no more bones for the dogs.

Jakey's lettin his legs grow out - to fit in better with Freds?
Douggie's into the doobie hard - to market the old rich heads.

Chad's given up on that Apple crap - thinks PCs are the Bomb!
Ron cries himself to sleep every night - learning Campy's moving to Guam.

Trey's back up to 15 a week - he's built up a cast-iron taint,
Eddie's Georgia Cup only now - if you're racin the classics, he aint.

Happy April Fools day, Blackshirts.