We enjoy our work here at the FasCat Performance Center and like to have fun on occasion.  It’s not all serious all the time.  OK, most of the time because we take your performance seriously!  In any case, enjoy:

Hi Jimmy –

Thanks for the email.   Congrats on getting back into the bike.  It sounds to me that with all your riding & recent vacation you have a solid “base” built up.  In that case I recommend VO2 Max intervals.   These intervals will help raise your threshold power and are specific to the length of climbs you have in the Northeast.

An introductory VO2 Max workout would be:

2 sets of 2 x 3 min ON* (as hard as you can go) 3 min Off.  Take 6 minutes in-between sets and then repeat.  Warm up for 30 minutes, perform the intervals and then ride for 1 – 2 hours total ride time.

*if possible do these intervals on a hill because you will be able to work harder and its specific to the climbing you want to do.

For a more advanced VO2 MAX workout try 2 sets of 3 x 4 min ON 4 min OFF (as hard as you can go) with 8 minutes off in-between sets.

Perform a VO2 Max workout once in the middle of the week always following a rest day(s).  Allow ample recovery afterwards because these are very difficult workouts.   The trade off is that they make you much faster!

Hope that helps, good luck and please let me know if you have any more questions.

Frank Overton
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
FasCat Coaching

Boulder, CO 80304
p. 720.406.7444

c. 720.273.1675

FasCatCoaching.com

Twitter.com/FasCat

blog.FasCatCoaching.com

From: James Jung [mailto:jamesjjung@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 5:10 AM
To: frank@fascatcoaching.com
Subject: Interval Question

Hey, Frank,

Love your stuff on Velonews.com. Had a quick question about intervals. I just got back into cycling last summer after nearly 10 years away from the sport. I’m 30 now. As a teenager I was a junior expert mountain biker, did some junior road races and a lot of weekly rides with cat 2s and 3s. I was pretty quick. After easing back into things last summer, losing 50 pounds (I was not healthy in my absence from the sport!) and buying a new bike, I’ve been riding about five days a week since early April. I typically hit Central Park in the morning for an hour to an hour-and-a-half, then do 5 hour + ride every Saturday. I just wrapped up 10 days in the Italian and Swiss Alps (was here for vacation) and logged in lots of long rides. Yesterday I did a 105 mile tour that went over two big passes (one being Passo dello Stelvio) and rode hard. Now that I am returning to the States, I want to start incorporating more intensity into my rides (as well as more miles) but don’t really know where to start. I’d like to be in race shape by the end of July or August (for hilly races in northern New York state and Vermont). Got any advice for a born-again rider?

Thanks!

Jimmy

FasCat Coaching has started a group ride for Category 3/4 & Collegiate riders on Tuesday evenings at 5:30 pm.  FasCat coaches Matt Rossman and Tom Zirbel will lead this group ride for racers who would like to get race-like intensity with riders of similar ability level during the week.  We will work on different skills each week such as pacelines, bridging, attacking, lead outs, etc.  The plan is to regroup after every sprint/climb that separates the bunch.
We will be departing from the new Fascat Coaching Performance Cycling Center at 4550 N. Broadway (next to Boulder Cycle Sport) in Boulder at 5:30pm every Tuesday.  We will be posting the planned route each week via twitter and this blog.  So bust it home from work, throw on the chamois, and get ready for some mid-week throw down!

Tonight’s route can be found here.  Hope to see you for the ride!

I’d like to share with you the adventure that I’ve been on the last 6 months with the build out of FasCat Coaching’s new Performance Center.  First,  anybody who has had the kohanies to take on a project and see it thru, I have muey respect because it was not easy.  Unexpected delays, budget shortfalls, and general problem solving have been a party of my daily routine for the last half year and I am thankful to have this project completed!  Nearly…

Here is a slideshow with pics of the space from December 2009 till present day June 2010:

Way back in the Fall of 2009 I identified the 1500 square foot simply by calling the phone # on the door.   It was skeleton space of just concrete, windows and 2 x fours.   The location was so good, that I decided to bankroll the build out of  the space from scratch.   I’ll have to blog later about the buying process but fast forward to December 2009 and my initial design meeting with Mike Moore of Tres Birds Workshop.  I choose to work with Mike for a couple of reasons: 1) he built out my neighbor Boulder Cycle Sport’s space, had a space of his own next to me and knew the in’s and out’s of the building. Plus, his portfolio was amazing:  Burton Concept stores in Tokyo, Chicago, LA and New York.

So off we go, there was the initial design phase which I’ll relate to the honeymoon phase.  Life’s good, exciting plans are developed.    Then some plumbing work, and general sheet rocking, blah blah.    The shape didn’t really start to happen until late March early April when we installed the marmoleum flooring.  All along the m.o. is “oh yeah, we’ll be done April 30th.”  Well that went into May and then the general contractor’s wife was due to have a baby and Gregg was going to take a month of paternity leave.  So space is not finished, my general contractor goes M.I.A. and I have a training camp scheduled for June 10th that never in the longest delays did I imagine we wouldn’t be finished by then.  Long story short story, the space got down but we haven’t had a chance to dial in our physiological testing, our bike fitting nor our retail space.

Back up to late April when I called Comcast to install the internet.   Turns out they have to run a cable from my place thru 4 other businesses to get to the main hub where the internet comes into the building.   Something about there not being a “conduit”.  4 different installers came within the hours of “8am to 1pm” and all left without getting the job done and wasting my time.  Passing the buck.  Comcast put it on me to get permission of the businesses next door to drill holes in their walls and run cable thru.  Thus I met my neighbors.  nice folks by the way.  For comparison, First Call (the fire alarm installers) did this on their on without any hand holding.

Then there was the Best Buy TV & Sound System install.   What a disaster.  I should have called a small local stereo company like Listen Up.  The Best Buy price was right but their Geek Squad install was the weak sauce.   Did you know the Geek Squad is a separate company from Best buy?  So when you have to reschedule an install you don’t call the store where you bought the product but some 800 #.  No accountability.

Then  when it came time to hang the 58″ Plasma on the wall, the Geek Squad balked because there were no studs behind the drywall.  We had installed hat channels behind the sheet rock for sound dampening unknowingly.  Total cluster.

Again like Comcast, 4 different installers came and left each time passing the buck and leaving me with no TV up on the wall.  Enter Mike (my architect) who came to the rescue with a custom welded pole which we dropped from the concrete ceiling and welding the TV mount to a plate on the end of the pole.   Best Buy wanted $1300 for such a pole and Mike did it for me for free.  This all happened the week leading into the June 10th camp and the actual installation occurred on the first day of camp.  Can you say stress & frustration?

Last week the exterior sign was hung and I am thankful that I didn’t have to lift a finger for that thanks to BSC signs.  Excellent sign, customer service & hands free installation.

As of June 20th  we are waiting on the “white clouds” to be hung.  A cool note about that is that the welder, JP, makes bicycle frames as a hobby.  For that matter, Mike my architect is a nordic xc ski racer and the general contractor/architect Gregg Uitto is a burgeoning cyclist.

That’s the short story of the long build out.  Thanks for reading!

-Frank

We had a great weekend of riding here in the gorgeous Colorado Rocky Mountains.  In preparation of our 4th annual Boulder Summer Training Camp we went out and rode the crown jewel route this year: Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park, CO.  I have posted the route on Training Peaks here.

And with that route published, I give you the other routes, rides, elevation profiles, distances, etc… that we will be riding on Days 1, 2 & 4.

Day 1: Fruit Loops:  45 miles, short, primarily flat, easy pace, 2.5 hours

Day 2: Lefthand Canyon to WARD and the Peak to Peak Highway: 68 miles, moderate climbing but significant elevation gain, 4 hours

Day 3: Big Thompson Canyon > Estes Park, CO: 96 miles, moderate to hard climbing, 6 hours

Day 4: Boulder City Loop:  27 miles, easy climbing, zone 2 pace: 2 hours

It’s gonna be a good time and highly productive!