Eagle, ID — We had a good showing at today’s team ride. I think we had around 15-20 riders to start out with. We headed out on Floating Feather in a double-paceline and just took it easy and chatted until Hwy 16. On Hwy 16 we headed north, single-file and gave the opportunity for people to push it on the way up. We had already established that we’d regroup at the top of the hill before Emmett. Things got spirited on the climb with a couple riders going off the front early. I was in the second group of about 6 of us and worked on getting us organized and into a smooth rotation. I tried to give tips to everyone and get our group to work well together. About halfway up we caught the two off the front and then we just tempo’d to the top, keeping the smooth rotation. Even though it was just training, it was fun to work together as a group, like you would in a breakaway.

We waited at the top for the others who didn’t want to push that hard up the climb. We also figured out that we’ll be splitting up after the downhill. Most of the riders will head back towards Eagle, while a few of us were going to Hwy 52 and go east towards Horseshoe Bend. That’s the stretch of road we decided to practice our 2-person TT. It’s about 20 miles and has no intersections or stop signs. We stopped at the park right by the dam for a bathroom break and then split up into pairs. Ted and I paired off and started our time trial at the top of the hill by the dam. He went out pretty hard, and it was a shock to my system right after stopping. We decided beforehand to try 45-60 second pulls. I got my power up to 320-340 when I was pulling and my legs felt pretty good, although still a bit tired. As we progressed, I realized Ted was a little fatigued because his pulls were slower than mine. So I tried to compensate by taking longer pulls and increasing speed slowly once I was in front.

At about halfway to Horseshoe Bend, we decided to try shorter pulls. This didn’t work too well as anything less than 45 seconds doesn’t give you any rest nor allow you to get into any sort of rhythm. I think 1-minute pulls will probably be ideal. We made it to the Horseshoe Bend sign in 38:18. It was only 16.08 miles, so we’re looking at almost twice the distance for the actual TT race next weekend! Still, it was a great threshold workout. We stopped at Horseshoe Bend and waited for the others. I also had to change a flat at the Chevron, darn thorns!

Then we headed up Old Horseshoe Bend Rd. This used to be a nice road but the chip-seal they put on it last year made it real bumpy. I had done intervals on it already this year, but I haven’t done a good effort all the way to the top yet. So today I did an interval from cattle guard to cattle guard. My best time before was 23:28. That was with my former teammate on Lactic Acid, Kelly, pacing me up the first third. Plus we had a tail wind that day. Today, with the new chip-seal and a headwind I only managed a 26:50. But looking at the PowerTap data (which never lies) it still shows that it wasn’t as strong as an effort. So in other words, it wasn’t just the wind and chip-seal slowing me down. Of course, my record from 2003 was done during my peak fitness in July, while it’s still only February! So wattage-wise, my threshold power is coming up pretty well.