This idea seemed great when conceived in October. As time progressed, it has become a pinch more stress inducing. The idea: in conjunction with our coverage of the Project Echelon men this year, I will join them, pedal-stroke-for-pedal-stroke, at their Spring Team Camp in Winston-Salem, NC. In other words, my 43 year-old body, with the ego of a 22 year-old, is now packing his bags and loading up the Tesla on his way to 7 days of riding with the likes of Tyler Stites (racing age 24), amateur national TT champ Zach Gregg (age 29), and Will Hardin (age 24). At least I will have the relatively aged Dr. Stephen Vogel (age 33) alongside me.
Here is the plan for the week ahead for you, gentle readers of The Chronicle. I leave for team camp on Friday and we start in earnest on Saturday. The week will consist of hard rides, breakaway training, a simulated criterium, and bridge attempts. The camp culminates in the Project Echelon Gran FUNdo the following Saturday. We have prepared a lot of coverage for you, including Instagram Lives on Tuesday and Wednesday evening with members of the team. We will also share some of the lighter moments on IG stories.
In The Chronicle, we will recap - a couple days at a time - what it feels like to train for a week at the level these guys train at all year. Remember that boast some make at parties to their non-cycling friends when they are two drinks into the evening? The one that goes, “I could be a pro bike racer if I did not have to work a day job”? I am going to test that theory for you.
Before we begin, I thought I would lay a foundation about where my fitness currently stands so we all have a starting point. My coach, Zack Allison from Source Endurance, has been building my base since October. If you are a fan of the show, you will recall that I had to take some time off in October, as I prepared for and handled a trial in my attorney day job (I also had a broken thumb from a CX race in September). After that trial was done and dusted, I started in on base along with strength training. We have built on that fitness throughout the late autumn and into winter.
During that time, I have only had 1 unplanned day off. I have done the Source Endurance Belgian Waffle Ride Survival Camp and taken two vacations. The vacation to Puerto Rico in late February was perfectly timed, as it coincided with my all-time highest chronic training load (CTL) of 107. I have recently started building higher intensity group rides into the weekly training and dialed back on the strength work. We have even made sure that the couple of days pre-camp are spent at lower intensity levels so I enter fresh, a “taper” if you will.
Since October, I logged about 290 hours between riding and strength training. Here in Washington, D.C. (and occasionally in Watopia) that produced 7,276 km (4,522 miles). This is roughly the distance between DC and Sao Paulo, Brazil. During this time, I averaged 7,457 kj per week. In 15 of the last 22 weeks, I exceeded that average with the lowest totals coming on the weeks I was on vacation. The longest ride I have done was 140 km (87 miles), coincidentally with Frank Cundiff who will be at this camp with me.
Stay tuned, if for no other reason than to watch me go through this experience and to take some amount of joy in seeing what it is like to bite off way more than you can chew. But, you still have to pretend you are perfectly fine or else the sharks will smell blood in the water. The good thing is that our friends at SnowyMountain Photography will be there to grab action shots along the way.