# Return to racing after 5 yrs off the bike



## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

A little bit about me..

I rode and raced from about 1992 through December 2004. Starting pretty much from scratch in 92 at the age of 29 with nothing more than my childhood BMX handing skills and mom's endurance genes, I reached a pretty high level for an amateur. Two national championships, a bunch of state titles in 'cross, TT and XC. Started a business selling race car wheels and parts by myself in late 2005 and have been pretty much consumed by it since. When I was riding, finances were always tight so I worked 40+ hours a week and raced on a shoestring. Training was often regular commuting with a ride at lunch then the most volume I could stand on the weekends.

Over the years, I learned my body well and was never surprised by my fitness level or how I felt day to day, good or bad. I knew what activities what create what results and planned my training 8-10 months ahead. Day to day I didn't have a specific training regimen beyond a typical recovery ride on Monday. I would work backwards from my next event, planning the best possible training for it that did not interfere with my larger season goals. Sometimes that logic provided an unorthodox training schedule. Like ramping up LSD miles right at the end of 'cross season. My larger goal was always the early season SoCal road races and I would sacrifice my peak 'cross potential to that. On the side, I did some coaching but it was never my focus.

So that brings me to September 2010. I've always kept tabs on the exploding local cross scene. Now with a wee bit of time to get back on the bike now so I'm anxious to dive back in. Just ordered a spanking new cyclocross race bike (Crux Carbon with D/A) with a few special parts from Rock n' Road Cyclery in Laguna Hills. Thanks Carlos, Jeff & Matt!

*Start with basics*

I'm 6-3", 180 lbs now. My old race weight was 162-165. Yes I was a string bean. So my first order of business is base miles to shed weight and jump start the aerobic engine to start rebuilding. I used the stretch constantly, now, not so much. So I'll get right back to twice or thrice daily deep stretching routines to increase circulation, help stave off injuries and just feel better. I recall an old study that showed that a well stretched muscle will produce a bit more power than one that hasn't been stretched. I believe that, whether its true or not.

The work I do involves lifting stuff quite often. So I actually put on a little bit more upper body muscle than I had back then. I won't need this extra upper body muscle mass for cycling but I could use some additional core strength. To that end, I'll experiment with some core strength specific excercises and avoid anything that works the arms or pecs too much. For leg strength, I'll just start with riding and see how it goes. In the past, I would always take 4-6 weeks in early winter for gym work, focusing on leg and core strength before phasing into the really big volume LSD rides.

*Food and lifestyle*

Diet wise I was a _very_ healthy eater when I raced. Now, uh well, I have some adjustments to make. The almost nightly beer with dinner will have to go. Ditto the chili burgers I love so much. No more white foods: white flour, white sugar or anything stripped of its nutrients to lengthen its shelf life. Diet will start cutting back on fat a little and replacing it with high quality protein. After cycling, I stopped eating big healthy breakfast, often running flat out at work until 3-4 pm on little more than a bagel and double shot of espresso. Not healthy! So I'll get back to eating a solid breakfast with some protein. The other major adjustment will be my body clock. If I'm to train on any realistic schedule, it'l mean getting up a lot earlier than I do now. Back then, up at 6:30 without an alarm, out the door at 7:15. Nowadays up at 8 and not out the door until 9:15. That's two hours I can't afford to waste so no more late night movies and 'net surfing (like this post, oops)

*Goals?*

Well, I'd be sandbagging to not admit that I'd like to win a master race before the season is over in February but I think that's a bit of a moonshot. My style though, is to set impossibly high goals the be OK with myself if I fall a bit short. In the real world though, I'd be absolutely ecstatic if I could hang onto the lead group of a 35+ 1/2/3 cross race before the last race of this season.

I can't tell you how exciting it is to be at this particular spot now. To now be the underdog, with a serious mountain of work to climb before I can even see the tail end of the peloton, well, the challenge just lights me on fire inside. 

Hopefully along the way, this might inspire some of you to either ratchet up a notch, or jump back in after leaving racing/riding at a high level.

Cheers!


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## bmxhacksaw (Mar 26, 2008)

There's no hot chicks on your website.


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## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

There's no hot chicks because its a shop for serious racers. You can tell its serious because the parts are for Miatas. Only hard core racers race underpowered "chick" cars.

Emilio, it sounds like you have a lot of natural talent and you know what to do. If you have not done so already, get your SO to buy into the idea, especially if the were not in your life when you were racing before. Having you suddenly spending 10+ extra hours a week doing something new may cause friction. Divorice is common in my racing club.


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## Doctor Who (Feb 22, 2005)

I'm interested to see how you progress. 5 years away isn't too much -- you'll have a rough time at it, but maybe for a few months. 

Spend some time reading Joao Correia's blog: http://www.joaoisme.com/

He was once a pretty accomplished pro, got a "real" job and gained 45-50 pounds, and decided to get back into the sport. Now he's racing for Cervelo Test Team 

Pretty cool and an interesting perspective.

Keep us updated.


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

ericm979 said:


> There's no hot chicks because its a shop for serious racers. You can tell its serious because the parts are for Miatas. Only hard core racers race underpowered "chick" cars.
> 
> Emilio, it sounds like you have a lot of natural talent and you know what to do. If you have not done so already, get your SO to buy into the idea, especially if the were not in your life when you were racing before. Having you suddenly spending 10+ extra hours a week doing something new may cause friction. Divorice is common in my racing club.


For the last 6 years of my racing career, my then SO was also a racer. Quite talented one at that. I thanked the cycling gods on a daily basis for that stroke of fortune. Nowadays, I'm single so that part of the training equation is made easier. My business is my high maintenance mistress now. I'm sort of banking on being able to ride at least 8 hours a week. Back then, I averaged about 12.5 hrs a week year round, including the weeks I took off in the winter and my late Spring mini-break. We'll see how it goes.


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## QQUIKM3 (Apr 20, 2008)

*Why. . .?*



Emilio700 said:


> The almost nightly beer with dinner will have to go. Ditto the chili burgers I love so much. No more white foods: white flour, white sugar or anything stripped of its nutrients to lengthen its shelf life.


Seems you are a little too "gung ho." You're not paid to ride a bike so relax. There's absolutely nothing wrong with anything you mention in moderation. Jacques Anquetil was a serious partier, and he won 5 TDFs. It cracks me up when I read of amateurs "sacrificing" so much for no real reason. If you're not going pro; relax and focus on having fun.


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## Undecided (Apr 2, 2007)

QQUIKM3 said:


> Seems you are a little too "gung ho." You're not paid to ride a bike so relax. There's absolutely nothing wrong with anything you mention in moderation. Jacques Anquetil was a serious partier, and he won 5 TDFs. It cracks me up when I read of amateurs "sacrificing" so much for no real reason. If you're not going pro; relax and focus on having fun.


I understand what you're saying, but cycling is a relatively healthy way for some of us to direct a tendency toward a bit of obsessiveness. (Me? Well, maybe.)

Also, I'm not sure that any of us can know what qualifies as a "real reason" for someone else. Most of us wouldn't doubt that the sacrifices for a ProTour career are at least a plausible choice, but what about somebody who's trying to win their district or a national elite (amateur) title? If that's important enough for them to make certain sacrifices, who am I to tell them they're wrong? What about somebody who wants to put in one "all out" season to get their upgrade to 1? So on and so on. If competition is important to someone and they think they need to make any manner of sacrifice to achieve success, well, have at it. More beer for me.


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

QQUIKM3 said:


> Seems you are a little too "gung ho." You're not paid to ride a bike so relax. There's absolutely nothing wrong with anything you mention in moderation. Jacques Anquetil was a serious partier, and he won 5 TDFs. It cracks me up when I read of amateurs "sacrificing" so much for no real reason. If you're not going pro; relax and focus on having fun.


lol

If I had a fraction of Anquetil's talent, I could probably do crack and win districts. But I don't have that talent so I did what I needed to do to achieve the goals I had. Maybe winning local races comes easy to you, or maybe you're not the competitive type. In either case, your opinion is irrelevant.

As far as the "amateurs" jibe, I won quite a few pro and elite races and and one elite title, For a cash strapped 35+ guy that worked full time and didn't have the ideal cyclists physique, I'm proud of what I accomplished and make no apologies for the "sacrifices" I made to achieve them. Some of us enjoy the hard work  

To me racing _is_ fun. I really enjoy training and group rides, some times even love it, but I dream of racing. 

You and I get different things from cycling. I wouldn't be so naive as to suggest you change your outlook, attitude or goals to more closely match mine. Like perhaps erroneously suggesting you're a little too "laid back"


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

First ride yesterday. Rode a bit harder that I should have but felt great. About an hour and a half on the MTB. Urban with some medium difficult local trails. Surprisingly, my arms were hurting but my legs weren't. When I tried to ride quickly down a steep lumpy singletrack, the lats were at their limit and despite not going very fast, nearly lost control of the front wheel. oops. The other thing I forgot about was the ah, posterior. I'll have to break that in as well. Bit tender this morning despite god Castelli bibs and chamois butter.

Got off and walked the steep (15-20%) uphill grades on the trail to keep from overdoing it. Kept the perceived effort low. Funny spinning up hills in the 22x30 that I had once rode in a 46x28 on a 2.5" tired 7" travel downhill bike. While I'll never get to my old level, I'll be happy to ride that particular hill comfortably in the middle ring again.

Overall, it was magic. The hot damp air under the forest canopy in Whiting Ranch was rich with the scents of the wild grasses, sage and must Oak. The tiny crunch of the tires as they roll over the dirt and rocks. It felt like the last time I rode was a few days ago, not a few years. I'm psyched!


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## KyleH (Oct 8, 2010)

Not to sound weird or anything...

but you started 949racing??? I look at that site like a 12 year old looks at cleavage.

So many more things I want to say...you give me hope that I can have a track miata, a nice bike, and a job. 

Quite funny how you are more or less revered on clubroadster/miata.net...here, just another guy. 

(Not trying to blow your cover). Good god. My buddy just picked up his first miata. Unfortunately with bikes and school back and forth, I can't dd one, but I will have my project car someday. 

I realize I sorta thread-jacked with my first post on this forum but I couldn't help it. Can I have some wheels in exchange for unending moral (internet) support. Or a s/c kit. Although just for lawls I sorta wanna do the ls swap just so I can troll up to goodguys with the miata. 

/done.

back on topic.


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

Thanks for the props Kyle. Yup, 949 Racing is my baby. Good luck on the Miata. Best fun/dollar ratio of any 4 wheel track toy out there.

BTW, now you know where the 700 in my screen name on the car forum comes from: 700c

On a related note, I just picked up my Crux Carbon Pro from Rock n Road in Laguna Hills and went for a quick spin on a local walking path. What a rocket compared to the 29 lb iDrive I've been riding for the last week.


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## KyleH (Oct 8, 2010)

It def is. Rocking the awd of a subaru for now...but soon...track ***** will happen.

Just finished the suspension on my buddies. agx's and nb tophats all for free..sorry back on topic. I'm miata desperate.


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## Sherpa23 (Nov 5, 2001)

You can do it. It won't be too difficult but it will be trying at times.

I retired in 2002 after a bad accident and more or less didn't ride a bike for 5 years. I started riding in 2008 and returned to racing in 2009. in 2009, I got a couple of second places at elite national championships and this year I got another second place and also won an elite title. It is hard at times, especially when I was getting going but you just sort of grind through it. And people always laugh at you when they realize that you want to be more than just an average local bike racer. But don't give into any of that. You know that you can do it. Just take it one day at a time and remember the big picture.

One other thing is that you kind of need to train more than the people around you do. I have found that to be as good as the best guys in the US, I need to do a little more. I don't know if it's because of the time off or my age but it ends up costing me a lot of local races but makes me good for the national level stuff. Also, I always race aggressively, even to the point where it costs me safe but good finishes (top 5's). Because when you end up at a big race, all of the times where you reach beyond what you're comfortable with has given you the confidence and the knowledge to do extraordinary things when it counts the most.


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## goneskiian (Jan 13, 2005)

Wow. Some serious dedication and talent in this thread. Looking forward to seeing how well you do Emilio.

As for the guy giving you a hard time about taking racing and training so seriously, the new saying is AYHSMB (All You Haters Suck My [email protected]!!$). LOL! :smilewinkgrin:

That's why you've won (and will win more!) bike races while they'll only be able to read about winning bike races on the interwebs.

Cheers!


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## Sherpa23 (Nov 5, 2001)

goneskiian said:


> As for the guy giving you a hard time about taking racing and training so seriously, the new saying is AYHSMB (All You Haters Suck My [email protected]!!$).


I think I might ask Parlee to start painting that onto my chainstays. Thanks.


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

Sherpa23 said:


> You can do it. It won't be too difficult but it will be trying at times.
> 
> I retired in 2002 after a bad accident and more or less didn't ride a bike for 5 years. I started riding in 2008 and returned to racing in 2009. in 2009, I got a couple of second places at elite national championships and this year I got another second place and also won an elite title. It is hard at times, especially when I was getting going but you just sort of grind through it. And people always laugh at you when they realize that you want to be more than just an average local bike racer. But don't give into any of that. You know that you can do it. Just take it one day at a time and remember the big picture.
> 
> One other thing is that you kind of need to train more than the people around you do. I have found that to be as good as the best guys in the US, I need to do a little more. I don't know if it's because of the time off or my age but it ends up costing me a lot of local races but makes me good for the national level stuff. Also, I always race aggressively, even to the point where it costs me safe but good finishes (top 5's). Because when you end up at a big race, all of the times where you reach beyond what you're comfortable with has given you the confidence and the knowledge to do extraordinary things when it counts the most.


Sound advice and inspirational. Thanks. I can see that you and I share a similar perspective. Gotta aim high. I was known for blowing my brains out on the fast training rides, counter attacking, helping strangers bridge up then attacking them. Stupid stuff that made my racing better.

About 6th ride so far I think And I finally started to be able to pedal and not hurt. Was just doing short, very low intensity rides, stopping to stretch quite a bit until I though I could handle an "LSD" ride. I put that in quotes because it was only 3hrs and I was kinda done afterwards. But just as expected, two days later the legs were finally awake and ready to apply a bit of force in measured amounts. Rode a local doubletrack with some steep pitches and let my cadence drop to 40-60rpm seated on those. The normal 80-90rpm or so everywhere else. Probably 250-320w but it felt fine in little 15-60s stretches, no pain whatsoever. Two weeks ago I could barely muster what felt like 175w for more than about 15s. Felt like I could keep going today but decided to quit while I'm ahead and see what I can do tomorrow. Really looking forward to being able to ride with my old cycling buddies in a few weeks.

Climb in the pic is maybe 900' or so in the dirt, mostly around 7% with a few short pitches at 12-16% or so. Bike only has 36x27 so that's what I rode. Will stick to mostly to mtb for that climb as too much of that low cadence still will leave me flat and the engine doesn't repair tissue like it once did. When I'm fit enough, it'll be easy in that gear but that a few months away me thinks.




goneskiian said:


> AYHSMB


 Effing win right there. That needs to be a T-Shirt.


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

Little update, about 4 weeks since last post. Haven't been able to meet my goal of 8hrs a week but getting stronger anyway. First cross race 10/16 (35+,1,2,3), struggled to stay on top of any gear, had a little crash that rattled me enough I couldn't get going again, DNF. Skipped next weeks race to stay home and train. 2nd race (10/31) was much better. Stayed with front group about 3/4 way through first lap, finished on tail end of lead lap, dead last. 3rd race today (11/13) felt much stronger. 8th of 12 starters, 4 minutes off the leader (Brent Prenzlow). Had I entered 35+ 3/4 like a sane person I would have finished about 7th of 36.

As most of the SoCal cross races are bumpy, grass field slogs with no elevation, I've been focusing what little training on specifics. So no long climbs, very little out of the saddle, only a little high cadence anaerobic work. Basically, all the stuff I used to do for road racing is out. As at 47 it becomes much harder to regain lost muscle mass and basic strength, I've been doing a lot of low to medium cadence high force seated efforts. This has paid immediate dividends in allowing me to close gaps across the grass to guys who were jetting away just a few weeks ago.

The running sections just destroy me though so I'm going to have to find some time to do at least a little running to gain some desperately needed efficiency there.

There is a hill on my commute home, 200' or so, mostly around 7% with two little 9-10% kickers at the top. Two months ago it was out of the saddle in the 38x27, everything I have and nearly keeling over at the top. Two days ago I did it seated in the 46x23. Woot!

So I'm having a blast. Gaining fitness much like you all did when you first started riding years ago. Remember what that felt like?


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

*May 2011 update*

Did two more cross races late 2010. Had a total of about 30hrs training sprinkled over about 9 weeks. Pretty pathetic I know. Combination of work and no longer having the drive to train in the rain and cold. Despite that I rode to a 9th of about 24 guys in 40+ states held in Altadena. That without a warmup or pre-riding the course due to forgetting to bring cash for race entry and having to make a last minute dash to a ATM. Dumb!

*Renewal
*After states in December, work, weather and motivation conspired to keep me off the bike for until April. I know, I suck..
Along the way I decided I wanted to try endurance events on the MTB. I had finished 2nd in the Warriors Society Vision Quest once or twice back in the day and had fond memories of it. Ordered a Pivot 429 with Lefty, XTR and some other nice carbon bits just for the endeavor. Frame finally arrived and the bike was ready April 11th. Immediately fell back in love with the rhythm of daily training, the bike and just plain suffering. An old riding buddy sent me an email flyer for Crested butte 100K in July and that was it. If I ride fast enough there, we may get into the Leadville Trail 100 which is the ultimate goal.

*OTH
*I've been excited about the the Over The Hump series at Irvine Lake which had it's first race just this past Sunday May 24th. So with about 6 weeks training after 3-1/2 months off, I'm finally starting to get something like racing legs. Finished 3rd of 66 in S3 (Sport 40-49). While it is only Sport, the guys are fast and it's a big jump for me being about 7 years since my last MTB race. I suspect I'll officially be sandbagging by the 3rd of the 12 race series and want to move up to Expert. When I do that I'll get to race (get smoked by) my old friend/racing nemesis Johnny O'Mara. Looking forward to getting back to that level or at least close to it.
May 24 OTH Results

*Brief race report:*
My calling card in my XC winning days was a blistering start that would open an unassailable gap that I could almost always maintain by riding my own race. So I did it again. Well for about 400 yards at least . Looked back and saw I split the field up but had a handful of guys on my wheel. Knew any more effort would be wasted so I sat up and slipped back to about 5th. Clawed back to about 2nd over the first of 3 laps. Got a wheel stuck in a mud bog right before the finish and lost 2nd by 8 seconds. Much more than I had hoped for and hungry for more. Stoked and can't wait to do this short XC circuit race again.

To sum up. If you were fast once, it comes back quick. Don't second guess your instincts (bridging, attacking, sitting in). Stick to what you know works (long warm ups, stretching, good eating habits). Don't be afraid to take advantage of new tech (29'er with a Lefty fork).

Passed up spectating the Mt Baldy Stage of ATOC so I could do a 5-1/2 hour LSD ride with my old training partner who himself is coming back from a knee injury. That was a hard choice but I'm in the frame of mind to work hard and make sacrifices now and it feels absolutely fantastic


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## Rugergundog (Apr 2, 2011)

your competetive......i dig it!


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

*Late spring 2017*

It's been around 6 years since I updated this but it has been quite a journey. 

Short version: I have managed to claw my way back to being one of the top guys in my age group nationally, in XC, CX and now Gravel Grinders which I list in my personal bike race calendar as "GX".

After 2011 I struggled to maintain a consistent training volume. I would start to train low to medium volume for a month or two, start to build a base then pause because of work projects and be of the bike for a month or two. Of course, I'd lose almost all the fitness I had gained. I did this up and down through the end of 2014. By year end I had only trained 75 hrs, 21 of which were in December. It was really tough to just ride casually and no be able race anywhere near the level I did 12 years prior before my semi-retirement. I realized I had to make a choice and stick to it in order to be happy. Casual rider or racer. I decided to get back into full bore training. Facilitating this was my business growing, adding employees that could run things while I was off training or racing. Having one's schedule free to build around cycling is of course, a key component of a successful amateur bike racer.

So around Christmas 2014 I flipped the switch: "Racer"
-I would ride every day I could
-I would try to average 12hrs per week
-I would try to never go 3 days without a ride, always getting on the bike on the 4th day no matter what
-I would lose 2-4 more lbs and get down to pro weight of 159 lbs @ 6-3'

My annual hrs on the bike jumped to 379 hrs in 2015. So my weekly average was only 7.2 hrs, well shy of my 10hr goal. Despite that I started to be a factor in masters XC, CX, TT, GX and RR events. 2016 I upped my annual hours to 483 (9.2hr/wk avg), started training with more intensity more frequently. Results reflected the increased training. Now starting to win some masters events and nipping at the heels of the local elite riders.

In 2016 I won the 45+ Elite class, 12 race short course XC series "Over the Hump". Won CX districts in my age group. Placed high in several large grinder events and won several smaller ones.

2017 I made the goal of averaging 12hrs a week. Likely impossible for me but I have learned that aiming high produces the best efforts provide you are strong enough mentally to deal with not meeting those goals occasionally. I'm already well shy of that but should be able to average right at 10hrs a week. Even with a nearly open schedule, I find this is about as much as I can recover from and still run the business successfully. One key element, and I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I finally started doing structured intervals in 2017. I had always done hard efforts in the past and even repeated them but they were unstructured. Naturally, I started seeing results in my power curve and in my weekly Over the Hump XC races.

My focus these days is the big Gravel events, Crusher in the Tushar, Belgian Waffle Ride, Dirty Kanza 200, Rock Cobbler, etc. These are the events I live for. Second priority is the May-August 12 race Over the Hump short course XC series. These are a ton of fun, built good speed and recovery. Being relatively short I can recover pretty quickly and be back to doing hard training two days later.

When I left cycling in 2004, I didn't stop learning about training techniques, diet, supplements etc. Who knew beet juice was such a powerful thing for endurance athletes back then? I also learned that some of the VO2 you lose when you stop training never comes back as you get older. I was around 78 VO2 at 41 when I quit. It's climbed back up steadily since I started training hard again Dec 2014 but I'd guess it's barely 68 now at 54 years old. Bought a used altitude tent off ebay. Power meters on every bike, watch what I eat, race and have fun.


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## woodys737 (Dec 31, 2005)

Well that is awesome! As a 49 yo full career, wife and two kids I fully understand how much discipline it takes to do what you're doing. Honestly, you have more than most so chapeau to you sir!


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## jrider05 (Aug 19, 2015)

Man,

While reading this thread the whole time I hate to admit it but I was thinking everything from " this guy is crazy ". to " ah but he sounds knowledgeable ". Back to " this guy is just nuts and is gonna run himself into the ground ". back to " huh, well he's still got some determination. 

Then reading your last post sealed the deal. You're awesome man. And good for you! Inspirational. Even without the last post, good for you for going for it. 

As most of us here can absolutely relate to sacrificing things just to get that next ride in for the week.


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

*Another national championship*

After making the commitment Dec 2014 to stay consistent and train the entire year like I did 20 years ago, I've seen steady improvement back to the top. Picked up some hardware and a cool jersey at Cyclocross Nationals in Reno this week. 55+

Shiny
















Sprint
















Woot


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## acg (Feb 13, 2011)

Emilio700 said:


> After making the commitment Dec 2014 to stay consistent and train the entire year like I did 20 years ago, I've seen steady improvement back to the top. Picked up some hardware and a cool jersey at Cyclocross Nationals in Reno this week. 55+
> 
> Shiny
> View attachment 321602
> ...


Great job!!!

https://www.cxmagazine.com/emilio-c...s-55-59-2018-reno-cyclocross-nationals-report


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## Hellgate64 (Aug 7, 2017)

Nice job! Well done. 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk


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## Thomas10 (Jun 4, 2017)

Very impressive! Congratulations!


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

Video from pre-ride of Masters Cyclocross Worlds last week. Was gridded 50th of 62 riders so I had no illusions of winning. Even the podium would be a stretch. Made it up to 7th and was still closing on guys, just ran out of race! Passed 25 riders before the first pass through the beach. Proud of my ride, even if the final result was nothing spectacular.

CX Nats in Louisville next week where I go in as the defending champion. I get 1st call up there so my odd are a bit better


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## serious (May 2, 2006)

I really enjoyed reading all this. Thank you for sharing your experiences. 


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

*2019 update*

After deciding to train full time again in December 2014, my weekly average hours have been thus:
2014 .64 hrs/wk
2015 7.36 hrs/wk
2016 9.32 hrs/wk
2017 10.73 hrs/wk
2018 11.8 hrs/wk
2019 YTD 14.76 hrs/wk

Before I started my business back in 2006, I would typically start my winter base training with a block of two 300 mile, 16-17hr weeks. Then settle back into my usual 150-200 mile 10 hr/wk habit.

For 2019 I decided to try a big jump in hours. In the past (1998-2003), I had a few jobs (long commute) where my weekly hours went way higher than usual. Those were always my best periods. I knew the simple answare was to train more, no magic there huh?

So the plan for 2019 was to simply keep doing those 300 mile weeks all year, if possible. I knew there would be interruptions because of work and tapering for certain races. So the plan was to go well over 300 miles, close to 20hrs/wk when I could. As a business owner, I now have the incredible luxury of simply taking half a day off to go do a 6hr Z2 ride mid week.

I started this plan immediately after getting back from CX nats in Louisville 2nd week December 2018. I started seeing some of my best Z2 numbers and great recovery before the end of December. By early January I was riding stronger than I have ever done at that point of the year. So far in 2019, I have had some breakout performances. 3 road race wins in a row, 2nd GC in a stage race, best ever finish (top 10!) in the grueling Rock Cobbler gravel race in Bakersfield, CA.

The surprise to me, the real eye opener was that I actually began recovering faster, not slower. I had this plan for 300 mile weeks back in November 2018. My expectation was that this 56 year old athlete would find a ceiling for just how much training load I could absorb and recover from. I thought I'd crack, but wanted to see how much I could take. The surprise came when 3-4 weeks into this bigger mileage plan I was actually recovering faster and some days feeling really good at the 6hr mark, enough to nearly hit my best 5min and 10m power. 

I came to the realization that after a few week adaption period this new, larger training load became my new normal. I was adapted to it so I would only get really tired if I did a 330 mile week with a race thrown in there. Even then, I'd recover much faster than when I was averaging closer to 190 miles a week. 

This newfound engine capacity has changed the way I train profoundly. No longer focused solely on recovery like a worry wart. I now focus on maintaining this high workload. This keeps the engine big and allows me to tack on races or a few days of interval workouts during an 18hr week and still recover.

I'm hoping I can stay focused, manage my schedule and maintain this training volume for the whole year. I'm getting stronger week by week instead of leveling off as a I do most years in late spring. I don't have detailed data from the 98-03 period except two VO2 tests. Near as I can tell, I'm within 1% of my best numbers from 2003. Massive confidence booster!

Marathon XC nationals in 2 weeks, Dirty Kanza, State TTT champs (2 man) then XC nats.

Oh and I decided to finally get a track bike. Focusing on individual pursuit, which is 2K for my age group. 32mph for 2:20. Ouch.

Off the front at San Dimas Stage race, stage 2 road race. For the win.








Off the front next week at Sea Otter road race, final climb.








And the track bike. Medieval torture device but gawd its fast.


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## Emilio700 (Sep 28, 2010)

*Fall 2019 update*

Been a while since I updated this. Initial post was 2010, when I decided to start riding again. Only in 2015 did I really start regular year round training. It's taken roughly 4 years to get back to about the same level as I was back in '98-04 when I won XC nats. My ultimate goal is to win a UCI masters world championship in XC or CX. To do that I would have to reach a level even higher than back in 98-04, age corrected. I know that everything else being equal, higher Zone 2 volume has always been the key to any success I've ever had on the bike. The big jump I made in 2019 was maintaining the highest weekly average hours I have ever done in my life. It's worked. Even with a full 6 day break at the end of September, I have consistently gotten stronger as the year has progressed.

Closer to my ultimate goal, 3rd at XC worlds and 3rd at US road nationals.
In both races, guys ahead and behind me on podium are former and current world champions, former pros, a former Tour De France competitor, many national champions. I feel like an outcast amongst such accomplished bike racers. Maybe I can win one of those rainbow stripe jersey one day.

US Road nats. 

















XC worlds. Yes that's Tinker Juarez. 2nd is Tommy Olson, last years winner.


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## JohnRambo1 (Oct 23, 2019)

Great, I enjoyed reading it !!!


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