Updates from Clermont Florida

[Chris Helwig]

As some of you may know I am lucky enough to be heading to Clermont Florida for Camp on Wednesday. Janice, Taylor, Mike Lewell and I will be driving down to Detroit to catch a flight to Florida. We will be meeting Bob Sica in the Detroit Airport. Once in Orlando we will drive to the old bicycle inn and meet up with Chuck Fortier and Cathy Ross two clients from Vancouver who are escaping the rain to train for the Cape Epic MTB race in South Africa at the end of March.

I will post daily updates from Florida for those that are interested. Check back starting on Thursday January 24th for the 1st update!!

[Chris Helwig]

Our travel day was successful. Arrived at the Old Bicycle Inn around 7:30 pm after hitting the grocery store for supplies. Temperature at the Airport when we landed was 76 Farenheit. 20-40% chance of rain tomorrow, but temps will be good so a bit of rain isn't a big deal. I will update after the ride tomorrow, a 3.5 hr Z2 ride.

[Chris Helwig]

A great first day in Florida. Temperature when we left at 9:45 am was 17 degrees. I started out in knee warmers and arm warmers. The arm warmers came off after 5 minutes and the knee warmers were off at the stretch break 30 minutes in. It was a humid day. Threat of rain all ride, but we got lucky and not a drop. We did 3.5 hrs. My heart rate seemed elevated, likely from the heat and dehydration from the flight and two morning coffees. Ended up with about 1.5 hrs of Z3 with the rest mostly Z2. Power was 138 average watts for the 3.5 hrs which is lower Z2 power for me, but a pretty long ride. My TSS was 175 which is on track (250 and more is a very hard day that requires 48 hrs recovery).

Overall a great first day. My fitness is about what I thought. Purposely came into this first camp a little less fit so I can build up over the 3 camps and then have a good sprint.

[Chris Helwig]

Day 2 in Florida, another great day. Started out a bit colder at 10am, around 9 degrees when we left, but the sun warms things up and the temp came up quite a bit.

Today we pre rode the hills for tomorrow's metric century. There are some big climbs north of Clermont, way harder than anything around London. Pre rode Buckhill which is a series of 3 tough rollers and Sugarloaf. Sugarloaf is almost as tough and very similar to Saylor's Hill. Pace on the flats was pretty good, the hills hurt me a bit with my heavier weight.

The numbers were as follows: 27 kp/h for 3.5 hr ride. Not as much Z3 as yesterday, but 20 minutes of dead zone, 10 minutes of Z4 and 3 minutes of Z5. Average power was 145, only slightly higher than yesterday's 138, but the normalized power that takes into account the higher wattages on the climbs was 209. This made my TSS (Training Stress Score) 278. Anything over 250 is considered quite hard. Tomorrow we have the metric century with the same hills as today. We will ride fairly slow on the flats. After tomorrow I have a rest day and then next week will likely stick to the flatter rides were my power can stay down.

Everyone else seems to be having fun. Mike Lewell was floating up the climbs today. Chuck from BC is riding well as is Cathy. Bob is having a blast riding and doing his swims and runs as well. Tony Frosst has been riding with us and led the ride today. I am sure a bit slower than normal from him, he has been a good ride leader.

Stay tuned for the update from the metric century tomorrow.

[Bermuda]

Metric century?! whats that ? like a ride to clearwater beach stop for a snowcone and head back?!

Imperial is where its at!
and btw saying 100k sounds way more impressive than metric century.. sounds like a grade 3 math problem!

[Chris Helwig]

haha. We already did 100 km on the first day. Today was only about 95km as our average speed was a bit slower in the hills. Tomorrow will be about 110 km as we will warm up a bit first as the first timed hill section is only 1km into the ride.

[Suprvedov]

haha, Bermuda-you dah man!

[Chris Helwig]

Day 3 was the Tour de Orlando. A 100 km ride with 3 timed hill points.

Only the hills are timed, the rest of the ride you can ride at whatever pace you like. We warmed up for about 15 minutes in the parking lot before the 8am start.

The first hill was only a mile in, so it was a rude awakening. Short climb, my time was 48 seconds. Mike was almost exactly the same time. The second climb was long with 4 hills in succession. My time was 6:10, pretty much all in Z5. I lead out Mike and Chuck, they both placed very well. 3rd climb was sugarloaf. We were all feeling the first two efforts, but still did well.

All 3 sections were done about 35 km into the ride, but I could tell I was in trouble. My legs felt like two blocks of wood. Luckily everyone waited for me, the last 30 km was super tough. My normalized power was 229, only 1 watt below my threshold for the 4hr and 20 minute ride. That put my TSS at 417, which is extremely high.

We did get some rain in the ride. It was steady rain on and off, but wasn't too bad.

Good news is everyone placed well. There were about 100 riders. Mike Placed 3rd, Chuck 5th, I was 8th, Sica was 23rd and Cathy was 2nd women. Full results are at www.buttar.com Note they messed up Mike's results, but he was definately 3rd.

Tomorrow is a complete day off for me. Janice, Taylor and I are going to spend the day together. We are going to go swimming in the am and then some shopping in the afternoon.

The last 3 days Mon, Tues and Wednesday we are going to still do some big hours, but keep the intensity down. Stay tuned for a Monday update after our 3.5hr Cowboy's Ranch ride.

[bozhelwig]

congrads to the coach chris touristos

boz

[Colin]

congrats on the strong riding in clermont...... i have been there for a couple of training camps and a great area to train!
Sugarloaf is a great climb!
have fun enjoying the weather

[Chris Helwig]

Here is a link to some pics from today's ride. Ride report to follow after dinner.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Bob.Sica/ClermontJan2808

[Chris Helwig]

Another good ride today. Temp was about 12 when we left, by the time we got home it was about 16 degrees.

Headed out to Florida Cowboy's Ranch for a fairly flat ride. Did 100 km in 3 hrs and 37 minutes, average speed 27.8 km/h. I was mostly in Z2 with a bit of Z3 (about 40 minutes) Average power was 128 with a normalized power of 178. Did a couple sprints, which jacked up the normalized power.

Everyone was feeling decent. A little bit of fatigue, but nothing major.

Tomorrow will be another flatish day. Will look at the maps for some variations in today's route. Tomorrow will be 4hrs for Bob, Mike and I and 5hrs for Chuck and Cathy. Forecast is for a high of 24 tomorrow :)

[Chris Helwig]

Warm and Sunny today. Temperature was 15 when we started and over 20 by the time we got home. Most of us were riding in shorts and jerseys.

Today we did Florida Boys Ranch again with a bonus loop that went up to the North end of the Van Fleet trail. Bob, Mike and I did 4hrs, about 112 km at 28 km/h. I sat in the office a lot, so my average power was a bit lower at 128 watts. Mostly Z2 ride with about 40 minutes of Z3.

We did a couple sprints for fun. We sprinted for the Groveland sign. It was our first time sprinting for the sign and it came after a sharp left bend. We didn't know it was coming up, we came around the bend and it was literally only about 50 meters away. Sica was at the front and took the sprint as it was super short. We did another one for a mailbox after our store stop. I misjudged the distance and Mike got a got jump to take the win.

Another good day. Tomorrow is the last day. I am planning on only doing 3hrs while everyone else is doing 3.5 hrs.

[Chris Helwig]

Our warmest day yet for the final day. Another flattish day on Florida Boys Ranch Road to finish things off. Mike and I did 3hrs while everyone else did a bit more. Solid average speed of around 29 kp/h. I sat in the office and averaged 137 watts. Heart rate was a little depressed today.

Overall a great camp. Everyone rode well and increased their fitness. For me it was the perfect length. Today I am pretty tired and happy enough to head home to a regen week. February SC camp here we come!