OOZI Week 1—Upstate NY Musing
TLDR: This musing is about the growth and evolution of over a decade of training. What it looks like for me as I look back, on the roads where it all started.
A 30+ hour week, reconnecting with sprint intervals, recovering from injury, and getting back to writing. Ah, I’m on a nice instagram detox.
Future of this: hopefully I make the time to continue it, like the 2010 blog posts. Maybe a separate podcast for personal musings like this…and some off-cycling topic conversations.
Unless you think those are part of EVOQ as well??
Read Time: 10.08 minutes
Helene Evacuation
Sadly Hurricane Helene ripped through our area of North Carolina, but we were so fortunate to only lose power and have no damage. The scenes seen were terrible.
Chris was planning to be out of town that week, and with him leaving, Lala and I decided that we didn’t want to sit in the dark for what was sounding like at least a week. While we had water, no electricity meant a lot of necessary things not happening. The lack of basics like washing clothes and keeping food cold, to the now-learned luxuries of wifi, internet, and a cell phone (no cell service at our house in the mountains, it runs on wifi) made me shutter a bit after a few days, so we decided to head north.
First stop: East Aurora, NY, to see Craig and Crissy!
Last stop: Webster, NY—on the south-east-ish edge of Lake Ontario, for my dad’s birthday and to hunker down for a bit.
What I knew this meant: bachelor life and mega miles.
What I’m drinking while writing this: Hatchet Coffee Guatemala Finca Pampojilá Anaerobic Natural. Is it apple? It's bright. not overly fruity, but sparkling. idk i like this one a lot as the bag aged. *Tart and juicy!*
Body Prepared? Post Injury
I was physically and mentally energized for this training block, but wasn’t sure how mega it would get.
We used to call a 1500 TSS week an OOZI….1500 backwards. But that is SO MUCH. Five 300 TSS days? Or 6 x 250? Either way, it’s big.
Or shall we say mega Mega MEGA? We also used to classify big rides by TSS.
mega = 250 TSS
Mega = 275
MEGA = 350
The biggest question in the back of my mind, can my body take that load? Is it ready? Am I fully recovered from this glute injury? Still crazy to think back how broken my body was in February, when I tried to head to the first race—Swamp Classic. Just terrible!
I had some intensity sessions planned…two things that really irritated my body: going hard like VO2Max, and going long, like 15min of tempo or anything of that intensity.
I would test the VO2 in East Aurora on some KOM routes. The longer consistent pushing, coming soon.
Should I Train Less?
Another thought swirling: Do I even want to do this, as I recently told myself I was going to move in the other direction: less hours, maybe 15 a week, instead of 20-25. Make time for more things: more podcasts, more art, more reading, more husband, more life (Drake link anyone?)
But then in realizing I spent 3-5H a week on my personal Instagram making videos or doom scrolling, what if I took a detox from that, and just trained more!?
I’m currently at 920 hours for the year.
This block was going to be the first one that has been truly pain free since….thinking….late 2022? I ignored a lot of pain signals for a while because it wasn’t forcing me off the bike, but that’s a story for another time. Or maybe a good podcast musing.
I do have a newfound appreciation for those dealing with chronic pain. All I can say is: keep fighting for a solution.
Memory Lane Brain
A quick sidetrack here:
I was really in my feels on this trip. It felt like a homecoming or return to training IN THE PLACES WHERE I STARTED TRAINING.
Even before I got to Craig’s house, I saw signs for exits where we used to race outside of Buffalo, NY and so many memories of Mt.Borah/Nalgene came rushing into my brain.
Cycling meant so much to me, especially as I despised my day job and was heavily drinking and drugging. I’m not proud of it, but it’s a part of my patchwork. Hey, sometimes there are some shitty squares that get sewed in.
BUT, with that chaos came clarity from riding. Maybe I wouldn’t love this sport so much if it wasn’t interwoven in finding a new way of living. I never knew endurance sports until I was 26 years old…I’m just grateful I found it at all!
Nostalgia can hit hard on an open heart. 💗
Then heading to Rochester, really more Webster-Mendon-Bristol, where I started cycling back in 2008. Racing in 2009.
And started blogging…wayyyyy back in 2010. It’s a shame I deleted all those old blog posts…
Well, here we are again. Welcome. Welcome back to some of you.
I hope to continue this blog and soon podcast. I feel like Megajoule Giraffe sums it up pretty well.
Got that grizz in us still.
Racing is great, training is greater, mega is the best.
So, this will be some:
Reflections on training.
Thoughts about racing.
Thoughts about life/perspectives/ideas/concerns/etc.
Back to the old vibes.
Something longer lasting than an Instagram post. Wonder how long I’ll put that down for.
Big Week 1 Feels - 32H, 1670 TSS
What I did not expect in East Aurora was pitchy, pitchy hills!!! Just south of east aurora it is HILLY. You could almost hit 2,000 feet of vert for every hour. 4.5h on a vo2 day was just over 8,000 feet.
I also had 2 VO2Max days in sight as I’ve been trying to go hard to continue to ensure that this glute problem is “gone gone” and to get some high intensity fitness back before shifting towards base.
It feels odd going into base season again without really having raced this year. While I’ve been at some races in 2024, the last 50-75% of the race (lol basically the whole thing) was with searing pain in my hips and glute. It sucked; but PT said I could keep going, which is a whole other story.
I needed to shake things up. VO2Max, some anaerobic capacity, some long sprints–oh those are going to hurt.
I do feel that I’m coming back a stronger cyclist—mentally and physically. Spiritually. Definitely a more motivated one! This injury helped me to realize how much I LOVE TRAINING, and RACING, and just going MEGA. Reduce to 15H a week, lolololol.
Hmmm, this week would probably be insanely mega. YO CRAIG, much love.
VO2 Day 1. Strava Link
The East Aurora barn burner went off as planned:
31m at VO2 or higher (z5: 16.5m, z6: 14.5m)...if you use WKO, 30min at FRC/FTP…30.5m @ 85% Vo2 and 21m @ 90% VO2. Quality day!
Strength session 1 of the week was great as well. Kettlebell life has been treating me well. Maybe I’ll make a post on that, but have a YT video coming out on EVOQ.BIKE soon.
Big day Wednesday, and we were already at 12H.
The trip to East Aurora was an absolute hit.
When I am training mega, surrounded by amazing friends, and eating great food, life is phenomenal.
VO2 Day 2. Strava Link
I don’t often do two vo2max days in the same week anymore, but have considered really bringing this back for 2025, especially with KOM efforts if they line up well.
Why? I can bank so much time without feeling like I’m “doing intervals”.
Starting the backside of week 1 would be a solid day down to Bristol. OMG THE OLD ROUTES!
In terms of training: Similar % and TiZ across the board.
BUT THE BRAIN WAVES:
Riding on these open farm roads…I don’t know if it’s the nostalgia or the lack of cars that lets the brain just wander…meander…endless road combinations. Small rollers. Little effort here, little kick there.
Bringing back memories when my first coach (Mike Minerva) took me to Bristol/Naples and showed me Gannett Hill. It seemed like the BIGGEST HILL EVER. It’s an 11 minute climb lol.
Strava side note: I was shocked to get 4th on the leaderboard because the watts weren’t that great. 11:11 @ 388W…I should be doing that at 420+ for sure. Hmm, gotta go back!
Holy shit we were descending that on 23mm tires at 110-120psi. No wonder that felt like a death wish!!! 32s at 75psi now. Wonder if that will ever change. Or, what will it change to? Gosh I hope I’m climbing that again in 10 years.
It’s so funny thinking back to how I used to climb versus a decade later— go hard above threshold when it pitches, and be able to fall back into threshold even more efficiently. A deeper understanding of the red line which allows one to stomp more, at the right times.
The growth over a decade. The evolution!
Snagged a few KOMS but honestly the endorphins of the memories were flooding my brain. Remembering what I thought about training and racing back then versus what I know now… thinking back to how much I’ve LEARNED. About bikes, about life.
It makes me extremely excited for the memories of right now. This.
Ah, man, gushing a bit.
What I’m listening to while getting ready for these rides? Clearly, some 2018 Drake.
Three Days On, One Day Off
I had been following this pattern, which I honestly don’t think I’m vibing with. I wanted to try it as the idea of a rotating schedule sounded interesting and refreshing...sometimes a Saturday would be off, other weeks a Tuesday.
But I just don’t know if I recover fast enough after two weeks of this.
But anywho, the 3 day ROC BLOCK was on.
We already talked about the Bristol day, but the GVCC banquet ride was Saturday. I was a bit gassed, but knew it would be a lot of miles. Strava Link.
I had plans to ride south with the gang, then keep going more south.
It was great to see so many racers out to celebrate the end of the year, and special guest Magnus Sheffield from INEOS was there! There was a KOM on the ride and he and his super fast brother Haakon ripped it. I didn’t get to meet Magnus until the next week, but FFWD and he seems like a really nice and humble cat. Haakon races with Good Guys Racing, with a friend Jake Castor, who was a “whoa that guy is a fast cat 1” person to look up to when I first started riding. If you see this: looking forward to more miles next visit Jake.
More on Powder Mills Road Race vibes in the next blog, this is hitting a good length…
End of Day Sprints
These were my sprint efforts at the end of almost a 6H day. They were some of the best fatigued sprints I’ve had after putting 3500-5000kj in the legs. I’ll take it for the comeback tour!
I also realized another thing…on long endurance days when my brain just wants to ride ride ride, a couple sprints makes me realize how tired I actually am, and that it’s probably time to go home. Nice to be instantly humbled. Talk about immediate feedback!
In next write ups, maybe I’ll include this format:
current challenge
what am i listening to
What am I reading: Just finished this. Might get Walle on a podcast.
what am i eating
Nutrition updates?
strategy thoughts?
Coffee I’m Drinking
If you’ve made it this far, one thing I definitely was using for recovery were ketones.
If you want an awesome discount, click here.
If you want to learn more about ketones, click here.
Thanks so much for reading! Lmk if you liked it. Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE
Next up will be week 2!!! OMG, spoiler: 3 weeks wrecked me LOL