Hanging with the ACE team

For some reason, the attendance for training tonight was really small. We were down to one coach where there are usually 2-3. Anyway, tonight's spin leader was Coach Phil, the head coach of the ACE team. ACE stands for Altitude, Climbing, Endurance. They are also part of TnT but are a specialized team that is training for more mountainous rides.

Here's a really blurry photo of me taken with a camera phone at the start of training before I got too sweaty.


The workout was shorter than Tuesday's but it was very intense.

We started out with a spin up starting at a cadence 80 RPM and slowly increasing speed until we got to 120 RPM. On the regular team, we had only ever gone up to 105 RPM. That extra 15 was tough.

We then moved on to ILT (individual leg training) where we pedal with one leg at a time for three minutes at a time in the highest gear you can crank while maintaining a cadence of 80 RPM. This got the quads really burning.... We did two sets with each leg.

Next was everybody's favorite, the standing climb. The regular team did 12 minutes of standing/sitting. Stand for 3-minutes in your highest gear and then sit for the next 3 minutes without shifing gear. Repeat. It's very hard to crank in that high of a gear when you are sitting. It's easier when you are standing because you have your body weight to help your crank down.

The ACE team did 15-minutes of all standing with the last 5 minutes including rushes. In each of the last 5-minutes, 15 seconds were spent "rushing" which is sprinting while still standing. I decided to see if I could hang with the ACE team and gave it a shot. I was able to do the entire 15-minutes without sitting or stopping including the rushes but it was an ass-whooping. I was pouring sweat by the end of it.

Next was a modified 3-3-3. Pick a hard gear and go 80 rpm for 3 minutes, then upshift to the next hardest gear for another 3 keeping the same cadence. Then 3 more at a gear where you can barely keep that speed up. The ACE team does a 3-3-1.5-1.5 so they shift 3 times. It's tougher than it sounds.

Last was another spin up to cool down. Progress through various speeds up and down. Something along these lines 80-85-90-95-100-105-110-105-100-95-90-85-80. Then stretch, wring out your bandanna, pack up and eat.