I wanted to get back into the training. Are you guy's still training in PP? Do you train through the winter. Would love to get back into. thanks.

Murray,

Some of us will be out at least through November. Many of us are racing cross so we may be doing some skills days on the cross bikes but other days will be intervals and other painfull stuff on the road. Can't guarantee summer time turnouts but often there will be a small group. Past that it will depend on temparatures for me. If it's down into the 30's (pretty common in winter at 6am) then I am usually in the basement. Hope to see you out there (In the park, not in my basement. That might surprise people.)

Jim

@ Murray

As the winter rolls in the numbers will dwindle. But if you (or someone else) can commit to being regulars at the ride, it will improve participation. Lots of folks are worn and bruised from the road / cross season and will be looking for rest, but there are many others in the same boat as you who'd love to have a regular workout. Would you be will to "lead" the ride? It'd mean little more than posting on the forum to remind folks that the rides are on, and then showing up and explaining the plan to those who didn't read it online. I'm sure someone would be will to suggest workouts, etc. if you are not into that part of it.

Mike

Thanks for the reply fellas (Jim & Mark)

I'd be very happy to lead things through the winter. I have a coach in the UK who set's me regular sessions and posts them on training peaks for me to follow so I'd be happy to use those as a baseline or work with one of you guys to arrange stuff.

Anyone planning on being @GAP at 6 in the morning? If so I'll be there.

Sweet! I won't be there tomorrow, but I hope to start transitioning over to occasional AM workouts, especially once it gets darker in the evenings.

About the name RAVel, it is not about the French composer Maurice Ravel, famous for the Boléro, although it may have played a part in the choice of the acronym, which stands for "Réseau autonome des voies lentes", rendered in English on the Belgian websites by "autonomous network of slow ways".

http://www.ardennes-info.be/directory/view/709/ravel-autonomous-network-of-slow-ways.en.html

I've created "Kissena's Around the World" thread. So we can continue to talk about Belgium or any other countries' topics there.

Thanks Murray to lead the ride. Since I don't cross the season, I will keep on road training and come to PP as long as I'm available.
But I'm not sure for tomorrow. it depends on weather (50% of rain at 6 am).

After a warm-up, Joji and I did alternate some Threshold Laps with surges and endurance laps. Joji whipped my arse. Fun though. Thanks Joji.

Pretty sure the weather forecast is good for tomorrow so I will be there but planning to do easy laps after todays effort.

Thanks for today's training, Murray.
I'll be there tomorrow, too.

Murray brings up a point that I often make during the winter/spring as guys are getting geared up for the road racing season, but is worth repeating here again, now.

He said, "Looking at my data though it was more like VO2 max with surges for me."

I love the idea of the PP training crew, but you have to understand that keeping up with others may send you into other workout zones than those on your training program. Of course, for road racers, if there's any time of year just to go out and just have fun doing whatever feels right, fall is it. Ride on y'all!

very good point Marc - I was actually exaggerating for affect - (hence I edited that out) although I was top end Threshold for sure!

@Joji

Looks like I'm out in the am after all. Sorry.

Murray

OK Murray, see you another day!

Anyone up for some intervals in the dark tomorrow morning. I'll be out there.

I gotta ride tonight, will be out there from about 8pm-9:30pm. Just riding slow and even, about 12min laps.

I'll be getting out there around 9:30 tonight. Maybe Ill get to ride your final (for the night) lap with you Norm.

Heading to P-park for a few laps tonight starting at 7pm... hopefully it won't just be me and my moonlit shadow doing 20 10's.
(Roll the Cat Stevens)

Taking the cross bike out in the morning if any wants to join. Couple laps at 6am and then some skills stuff.

I'll be there in the am, probably just riding in circles though; need to rebuild some base

Hey gang,

So I'm thinking it's light enough these days to start up the 6am training group in PP.

In the past, Eric has posted (when he's not able to join us) a weekly training plan on Sunday or Monday to carry us through the week with some long term planning built in.

Eric, you still up for that this year?

We generally meet Tues, Wed, and Thur for the prescribed workouts and then often Friday for recovery and openers for the weekend racing.

6am at the grass triangle inside the park at GAP. Roll at 6:05.

And some of us get out earlier as well to get more time in before the 7am cars (though with the new traffic plan this will be not so critical unless you have one of those job things).

2012 Week 1 of teh PP Morning Training Plan

Tuesday - Sprints - do 9-12 sprints rolling from 10mph and accelerating for 10 seconds. Seated and standing - an equal number of each. Gear - 39x19 or 39x17.
Wednesday - 2x2lap TT efforts. Start anywhere in the park (DO NOT DRAFT), Warm up for 15-20 min of riding. Then do 2 two lap TTs as hard as you can. Record your times for each TT. Take a lap easy in between. Ride after for as long as you wish.
Thursday - Ride a single or double paceline together. Ride relatively hard as you are trying to achieve that mythical "tempo."
Friday - do some openers - 3x1min, 5min rest in between each, 3x30s,5.
Sat / Sun - race / ride.

Have fun.

see you tuesday morning at 6AM @ GAP

Thanks Eric.

See you all Tuesday morning.

For the Tuesday sprint workout there are some traditional spots around the park that work well for the starts/finishes. For anyone not familiar with them we can point them out as we take a warm up lap.

Hi all. I'm new to the club and looking for a mentor or training partners to introduce me racing and give a fitness assessment of sorts. Initially, I'd like to benchmark myself against the level I need to be at to compete in cat 5 races. I've been doing the A-19 SIG with NYCC and it's great, but I want to ride faster and harder than that sort of group riding permits.

Is there a benchmark for Prospect Park that I could use to assess myself? For example; have an average pace of 20 mph over 30 miles, or Prospect Park lap times under 10 minutes, etc?

I also have the unfortunate pleasure of being between jobs. Does anyone train mid/late mornings or ride out of town during the week? If not, I'm very flexible at the moment.

Lastly, I'm not really sure where in the forum to post this so please let me know if it's better off somewhere else.

Thanks,
Carey
careydematteis@gmail.com
917-887-4730

Hello Carey,

Come out on Wednesday morning at 6AM for the TT workout to get your benchmark for racing. Also it will be a good chance to meet with some of the Cat5s that you'll be racing with.

If you can keep up with the A19 or A21 SIG then you're going to be able to keep up with most PP and CP races. What is different between racing and the SIGs is that racing is not steady state riding, sometimes you're going full gas, and other times you're just cruising. it really depends on the mood of the pack.

Also look to the Weekday Palisades/GWB thread, that is the group of Kissena Un/Under-employed members who do long weekday hammerfests over in NJ.

Welcome, Carey!

You should definitely cross-post this to the "Introduce Yourself" thread.

As for your assessment question:
If you've been comfortable on the SIG rides, then you're in pretty good shape to at least try out a Cat. 5 race in terms of riding in a group and base fitness. It's the surges that happen throughout the race that you might not be ready for. Obviously, we all can give you some better feedback after riding with you.

JP Partland (his name on the forums is mugwump) generally has a weekly ride Fridays at 11 a.m. in Central Park. He is one of our club mentors and I'm sure he'd have plenty of guidance for you. But in general, visit these forums often and don't be shy about showing up to rides announced on here.

Hi Carey, welcome!
Im a 5, just got my first couple of races under my belt recently with Kissena. Regarding times of prospect park, it depends how many laps you budget for with of course faster laps coming from lower lap counts. Related to racing, the pack was moving relatively slowly during my first race, just shy of 9 minutes per lap (7 lap race for the 5s, not sure if its more now were a few weeks in). I did a solo break away after 3laps in the pack during my first race in prospect park and was alone out in front for just over 3 laps, my laps were between 8.21 and 8.30 per lap for 3 laps @ on or around 39.0km/h ave speed

Im going to try and get onboard these early morning rides so ill see you guys tomorrow!

A

I'm new, so I'll accept as many tips as you can offer. I'll see you all in the morning.

Nice pace line training this morning with Jim, Eric, Jeff W., Jules and...Adam? Jules and Jeff then peeled off to do their own thing...and a bit later we saw Jules parked - having spiked the power so high he busted his chain.....sorry Jules! My first time out for a morning ride this spring, and plan to do many more (I've been doing more evenings - but morning is better - great way to start the day). Spin and openers tomorrow?

My legs were mush today, but the pace line was great. I'm out for tomorrow's ride, but I'll see you guys on Tuesday.