Quarq, a new age

I recently bought a Quarq power meter to replace one of my powertap hubs. I just couldn't help myself with the allure of no wires!!

I matched the Quarq to a Garmin 705 headunit, a fantastic feature stacked cyclo-computer / GPS.

Quite simply they both work. I judge my equipment based on how easy it is to install and how functional and stable they perform. The Quarq and 705 - so far - have performed as advertised. 

Now its just a matter of putting the miles into both of these units - but so far i'm very impressed!

VO2-Max Part 3

The final installment was performed yesterday. This time the supplement was not the sweet pineapple juice of last week but a disgusting brown murky concoction that smelt like vineger and tasted horrendous.

I didn't feel well from the start of the test, a very hard weekend of riding left quite a bit of fatigue in the legs.

Strangely this last test had me record a VO2Max of 56 (best yet) but I went for 2 minutes less than last week.. BUT my lactate readings were very very low on this test, something like 1.9m/mol @ 70% vo2max and a resting lactate of 0.8m/mol.

So there you have it, lower lactate, higher VO2 but I didn't last as long (? muscular fatigue as the overriding factor)

Below is a snap shot of my actual time @ 95% VO2:

Test 1 -> 6.11min (nil supplements) 55 Vo2

Test 2 -> 8.20min (pineapple juice tasting supplement) 55 Vo2

Test 3 -> 6.40min (ghastly concoction) 56 Vo2

Hopefully I will be receiving more detailed analysis early in the new year whilst will provide a better insight into the number and what they potentially mean....

VO2 Max - Part 3

Placebo or the real deal?

I'm not sure entirely - I did feel better, and by my calculations I lasted about a minute longer than last time (>20% improvement if true). My VO2 was hovering around 1-2 points higher on this test also...

One of the problems with a test like this is you stop when you are completely fatigued. The issue is that when you are almost at THAT point you can continue but your wattage slowly starts to drop... Then you get yelled at to keep going (MORE MORE MORE damn it!) and the wattage spikes up again before the inevitable drift downwards..... So when you've finished the test - you are hurting - but you also feel like you could have kept going.... just say pushing 30 watts less...

This kinda leaves you feeling like you have whimped out a bit and not really subjected yourself to max pain.... One more test next week then we get to find out all the results!! Some cool blood analysis will be given as feedback also which should make for some interesting geeky probing...

VO2 Max - Part 2

Part two of testing was a different protocol that used my final peak power from the first test (383W) as the basis for this test. The ramps were as follows:

4 min @ 50% Peak Power (197W)
8 min @ 70% Peak Power (256W)
95% Peak Power (356W) until fatigue.

Looking at WKO+ my previous best ever time for the sustained average of 356W was 3.56minutes. I wasn't allow to know the exact time I did today, but I'm quite sure it was closer to 5 minutes. Not bad considering it was 112% of my current FTP.

Interestingly my VO2 Max number didn't change from test 1. Which was a little disappointing. Next test is on tuesday and will involve taking a placebo or the supplement (double blind so no one knows what is what) and we'll repeat the test again... Shall be very interesting!!

VO2 Max

I've been signed up to be a guinea pig for some research that is being conducted at one of our major universities. The details are quite boring but they are testing some new supplementation and its effects on athletic performance.

One of the main reasons I have signed up is that part of the protocol is measuring your VO2 MAX. Or, the amount of oxygen your body can consume / kg / minute.

A sedentary person may have a VO2 max of around 20-30 ml/kg/min. Super star athletes like Lance Armstrong have a VO2 of between 83-85ml/kg/min - which is pure freak show stuff.

The testing protocol is on a cycling ergo fitted with SRM pro, gas analyser and heart rate monitoring.
The actual protocol is a 3min x 30watt step with a starting ramp of 2xweight(kg), or for me 166w.

Cruised through the first stages and things started to get interesting from around 350w. One of the problems with doing this test is that you can only breath through your mouth, which is plugged up onto a rubber bite shaped like a snorkel, the problem is that your throat gets very dry quickly and you also produce a lot of saliva that you would normally swallow - but in this case - it just dribbles down. Certainly not very attractive to watch.

I finally blew up in spectacular style after completing the 380w ramp. Peak HR 190bpm. VO2 MAX 55ml/kg/min.

55 isn't a terrible number but it isn't a brilliant one either. One thing I was told was this particular ramp test was not a very accurate way of calculating VO2 due to some factors with the testing procedure. The next test apparently is much more accurate apparently and they usually record an increase of around 5-6 ml/kg/min which would put me around 60ml/kg/min.

The next test is on Thursday and I look forward to a day recovering from the effort!!!!!!

Track Work

Made my first appearance at the track on Thursday. A 300metre concrete track that has pretty steep banking.

I've never ridden a fixed gear bike prior to this so I was pretty nervous to say the least.

Got a few good tips from some of the more experienced riders and was given the nod of approval at my 88inch gear.

After a few laps to get accustomed we started on a 100 lap training session. Starting off reasonably slow and rolling off the front of each lap the pace gradually picks up. Felt pretty good and comfortable for the first 60 laps, but as the pace started to increase with each of the remaining laps my legs were having a hard time responding to the surges in higher speeds until I finally got dropped.

Hard to explain the fatigue fixed gear riding generates in the legs, something that only lots of practice will get me used to. Needless to say I had a blast and am hungry for some more track time!!!

Heffron - again...

Rolled up for my first B grade start yesterday, wasn't feeling very spritely due to a lack of miles in the legs - and I had a bit of stomach troubles with two killer pythons not wanting to sit down and stay...

Lasted for 9 odd laps before I had to stop and let the pythons escape... Bit of a shame really, NP was only 309w.

Until next week....

Money bags

Heffron Park 1/11/08

(t) 52.15m
(np) 316W
(s) 36.2 km/hr
(c) 86 rpm

First Crit in 6 months and managed to pick up a second place.

There was a ferocious southerly blowing which made the main straight section very hard, and with no one wanting to work I decided that I wanted a good workout and wasn't really fussed about the results.

Drove the bunch for at least half of the race, occasionally retiring to the back of the bunch to rest. The last couple of laps were pretty hard going and the fatigue of working too hard was starting to take its toll. Thankfully the paced slowed down on the last lap and the fox and hound game began in earnest. Was sitting 4th wheel and feeling quite indifferent to any potential results. Got on a good wheel for the sprint, but didn't have the strength to get out of the saddle and power away - managed to hold second place.

Quite surprised by the WKO+ data. 316w NP is my best ever effort at Heffron Park. Managed a 1333W 5second peak - but it wasn't on the final sprint - it was me playing silly buggers bridging to a break. My sprint was only 900w - which just goes to show the fatigue I had in my legs by that stage.

All in all a good result - and a great training session - rode my bike to the race and back all in for a TSS of 192 in 76km. I think i'll force myself to ride B grade next week and really put myself in the hurt box.

No news is.... no news

Very little to report. Calga 25km TT is this Sunday, but my legs feel absolutely inadequate for an attempt at breaking last months PB. Instead I may head out for my first criterium in 6 months to try and sharpen up the legs a little.

Training hasn't been ideal over the past 3 weeks, lots of work and family stuff consuming too much time to focus any decent effort into consistent training.

In more interesting news, I almost have all of my components for my new track bike and am hoping to get out onto the track in the next few weeks to see what all the fuss is about with this fixed gear guff!!!

Cant wait as I've heard lots of positive comments about track work and the benefits it can translate to road riding too. My body habitus is also much suited to the track than road so hope to take advantage of those extra kilos :)

Keep those legs turning!

Get in the drops and give me 2x20!

A favourite of the training with power brigade is the 2x20. Basically two - twenty minute intervals at your functional threshold.

The first one usually is fairly easily. The second one introduces pain that you typically dont usually inflict unless in a race situation. If the second interval is easy - then you FTP estimate is too low!

Pretty happy with my effort this morning, I also wore a heart rate monitor to give myself some feedback on my HR pacing from my last Calga TT, my HR hovered around 170-175bpm throughout the intervals which means my pacing was pretty much spot on ~ 300w average.

What was also very interesting was my cadence, i averaged 89rpm, which is identical to my Calga TT cadence. I wasn't focussed on maintaining a particular cadence so find it interesting that I gravitate towards this number.. Have to think about that a little more in future...

Calga - 25km TT - PB!

40.58m av hr 170bpm.

Chopped 2 minutes 30 off last months time, and 30 seconds off my previous best ever time.

Had a few extra aerodynamic goodies this time around: 85mm tubulars front and rear, Limar Speed Demon aero helmet, and tossed the final 2cm spacer under the handlebars, so the bars were right down as low as possible on the headset.

Felt ok on the way out - no power data so I was just hammering away at an uncomfortable pace - but never in the red zone. Got to the turn around in 22minutes,had a slight head wind on the way back and was already starting to fatigue a little as I couldn't turn it over as much as i would have liked to on the flats/downhills. Still, I got to the finish in just under 41minutes, completely shagged.

I don't think my power output has gone up significantly, i'm attributing most of the gains to the aero-toys that I have. Any further improvements are going to come from hard work. I would dearly love to crack 40 minutes before the end of the year, that would be a _massive_ milestone. I need to do it within 2 months to succeed.

More TTI's and some specific 2x20min intervals coming.

Happy daize.

Get me to the doctor STAT(in)

This post is an interesting observation of where health meets athletics and its possible interactions...

I had a blood test a couple of weeks ago for a routine checkup. My cholesterol has been persistantly high over the past few years, and no matter how much I pay attention to diet and exercise I always seem to have numbers that are outside normal.

My family history for cardio-vascular disease is quite poor. My father, grandmother and grandfather all have/had ischaemic heart disease along with risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol all ingredients for a heart attack. My cholesterol lobbed in at 6, just above the normal range of 5.5, but way over safe limits for those with increased risk of heart disease (target below 4). I had a chat with the cardiologist and it was decided that it would be best to get onto a statin now and get the cholesterol in check.

Statin drugs work by blocking a key enzyme in the production of cholesterol in the Liver. There are two main side effects of these drugs however:

1. Liver functions can become deranged.

2. Creatine Kinase level can increase dramatically - causing some interesting side effects.

Creatine Kinase (CK) is an indicator of muscle damage. Combining high levels of exercise in the presence of a statin can cause long delays in recovery from activity due to the double effect of exercise induced muscle damage along with the damage caused by the statin. This is exactly what happened to me after my epic ride last Wednesday over Mt Keira and the 3 Deadlies - I was exhausted for days sleeping up to 12 hours each night and simply having no power on the pedals.

I was perplexed at this level of tiredness as it was something I had never experienced before for this length of time. It was only after a few days that I drew a link between the statin and my new found lethargy.

A google on the topic reveals lots of literature on the subject and the very high incidence of myopathy in athletes who attempt to undergo statin treatment!! Sadly - it seems - the entire statin family of drugs have the same effect, the only other possible treatment plan would be to go on a drug like Ezetrol, this drug works by blocking the absorption of cholesterol in the gut - however it has some pretty nasty side effects such as explosive diarrhoea.

I've been off the statin now for 2 days and am starting to feel like my old self again. Brilliant ride this morning with no muscle soreness. As for the cholesterol, i'll try and approach it from a homeopathic way and see what happens....

The key session - 3 deadlies

Had a great session yesterday. I got in a 2hr session in the morning riding to Wollongong. Then - post work - I rode back to my car taking in Mt Keira and what is known as the 3 Deadlies. Three short sharp climbs that take are around 9% gradient and put the sting in the legs.

Felt really well going over Mt Keira, and kicked arse over the 3 Deadlies. I have not felt this strong in a long time. Have been paying a lot of attention to keeping a higher cadence whilst climbing and focussing on unweighting the pedals on the upstroke and am feeling smoother and not fatiguing as much.. It takes more concentration maintaining the rhythm, but pays dividends.

Kept the pressure on the pedals all the way back to the car, clocked up 40km in 1hr 25min ~ 28km/hr average. Not bad considering the terrain (750metres total ascent). Normalised power 270w !!!

Feeling fatigued now, recovery ride friday, then another key session on Saturday. Either a tempo 3hr ride or a criterium. Then taper for the Calga time trial the following week.

Coming together nicely...

Mt Keira

22.30m FTP 315W, 80rpm ave.

My second best time ever up Mt Keira this morning. To be honest I didn't think I would even come close to this time as I was only holding 300w for the first 2km which usually indicates i'm off form.

I think holding back initially helped in the later part of the climb.

I held a _much_ higher cadence than usual, I felt a lot better and was able to accelerate through the different ramps rather than power grinding.

Power data just in, FTP of 315W with an average cadence of 80rpm. Power delivery this run was much smoother than previous attempts.. Probably something that has aided the better time.

Has given me a big morale boost!

calga

43.26, NP 294w, ave speed 33.8km/hr, ave cadence 88 rpm

Felt average today, legs felt heavy. Usually when i'm onto a good time I can taste a bit of blood in my mouth, thats when i know my lungs are at capacity.

No blood today.

No race wheels either, sold those unexpectedly last week, so I was able to get some good data with the standard training wheels. Probably cost me at least 30 seconds I'd say without the deep rims.

This is the first time the powertap has recorded the entire course, last time I had some dropout problems.

Power graph shows that I started off ok, perhaps a touch too hard for my given FTP, and i dropped the ball half way from home, power went down significantly over the fastest part of the course.

Also I had bad gearing with a top gear of only 50x12, so i was coasting on a few of the downhills.

Finished off strongly, but too little too late.

At least I have some good data now that I can mull over and focus on. I'm going to spend the next month focusing on my TT'ing.

5 minutes

5 minutes isn't a long time, but it can seem like a lifetime when you are hurting.

Managed to pump out a few 5 minute intervals at my FTP of 300w. Not impressed? Yep, neither am I. But to add some flavour I did this 8 times (with 2 minutes z1 recovery in between) all on my brand spanking new time trial machine pictured here:

Managed to get through the first 6 intervals without much effort, but interval number 7 and 8 sure did hurt. Adapting to my TT position has been pretty straight forward, I'm in a comfortable position which is the most aerodynamic i have ever been, my effective head tube height is 12cm, i'm sure with some more time I can get down to the top of the head tube which is 10cm. 

The only thing I'm bummed out about is that I don't have a set of race wheels with a powertap installed. This is where crank based power measuring has its advantages as your not locked into one wheelset. This means the time trial next week will be on race wheels, and i'll be judging my effort levels with heart rate and perceived exertion. My interval training will help me judge my perceived exertion and hopefully i retain some muscle memory of what 300w feels like.

Time (no pun) will tell!

New Sensations

The wheels have been turning over consistently for me over the past couple of weeks and this week i've really started to notice some improvements.

My peak power is back to my best for times between 0 and 5 minutes, then there is a slight divergence downwards, but this should improve as my aerobic fitness improves.

I can certainly tell my spark is back on those short stints, the legs are not hurting from the get go and I can turn the cranks over effortlessly...

So I'm not back to my best, yet, but its only a couple of weeks away if I continue punching out solid sessions.

Now that i have my time trial bike built up and wired with a powertap, i'll be focusing on some intervals varying from 5-20minutes. My first goal for the near future is to break 40 minutes for the 25km time trial at Calga, I won't have the legs to do it this month, but i'm focusing on the october time trial to crack that elusive 40 minute barrier.

Current FTP stands at an estimated 290w, the second goal (and one that i hope follows on from the first) is to get my FTP up to 330w in the short term and 350w in the long term. That, in combination with a 3kg weight reduction should get my power to weight ratio into a fairly competitive position.

Now my legs just need to put the above into action.....

Criteriums and why they are good for you.

I have found my best cycling fitness evolves when I regularly participate in criteriums. I think everyone can benefit in some way from criteriums as a way of improving as a cyclist in general. The standout benefits for me are.

• Great threshold training
• Improved bike handling in group situations
• Ability to put myself in the hurt box for extended periods
• Improve race craft

Consistent weekly racing will dramatically improve your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) which is what all cyclist aim to do with regular training. Criteriums are also short enough in duration (45-60minutes) that you should also be able to back up for training the next day. Learning race craft and being able to control a race is very satisfying, but takes time to master. But what I believe is the most important benefit of racing in general is the ability to put yourself in the hurt box for extended periods of time, I find that I am only motivated to really hurt when I am hurting those around me :) There is nothing more satisfying than destroying a field of riders and its primarily for this reason that I race - winning is a bonus. I guess in this respect I follow the Jens Voight school of thought. `shut up body and pedal`.

I highly encourage people that haven't raced to give it a go. It is very addictive. See you out there!

Cold start.

The wheels are starting to turn again, albeit rather painfully.

Have managed to get out and start doing some longer rides on the weekends to build up my endurance base and get some basic fitness back. I usually manage around 160km split between a Saturday and Sunday ride.

The biggest problem i'm having at the moment is keeping my toes warm. Sydney isn't normally this cold in winter, but starting early and with some wind chill (and an ambient temp of 6 degrees) my poor toes are going numb and it creates some problems pedaling.

Time to invest in some booties.

Anyhow, its good to be back on the bike, but geez doesn't it suck building back up that base!

The wheels fall off.....

I don't know why it happens at this time of year... But every year, around June, I hit a complete form slump.

Its not from lack of training, i have been fairly consistent, but at the weekend criterium I just suffered like a dog. I'm racing up a grade/category now, and felt fine for the first 5 laps, then a break went away and I spent an entire lap on the front dragging the chase group back up to the leaders. This did 2 things, it completely destroyed the chase group and it also burnt a sizable match from me. So now here we were 4 in the break and working fairly well.

The pace was pretty fast, and a stiff westerly was blowing which was not doing any favours to the legs. With 4 laps to go and after a big turn at the front, I just faded. I couldn't hold a wheel any longer and I wasn't motivated and not in the right mental frame to put myself in the hurt box. I also knew that I wasn't the strongest so I just soft pedalled and watched them roll away from me.

The next day was our club hill time trial champs. I set a low 14minute time 2 years back, and felt that even with the sting of the prior days racing in my legs, I would be able to match - if not better - my previous time.

Boy was I wrong.

I ended up coming in close to a minute slower. Its not that I felt bad up the climb, on the contrary, I actually felt ok. I had to really watch the powertap to keep the effort constant, but for some reason I was just slow!!

So how do i tackle it? How do I get back `on form`. I think I have to go back to basics. Lots of Z1 training to build up the base. And some specific interval training sprinkled in between. I think I may be doing too much intensity work and am just rolling around on very fatigued legs.

Another issue is where I want to go as a rider. My problem is I love hills, I love criteriums, road races, time trials (and I'm tinkering with getting a track bike!).. I can't be great at all of them. Due to my size, I'll never be leading people up hill climbs, even though this is one part of cycling I truly love, but completely suck at.

My strengths are in criterium racing and potentially I think I could do ok time trialling. So why not focus on these and hopefully the rest of my cycling may improve too?

More Keira More?

22.50, a paltry 10 seconds better than last week.

Tried a different tactic of holding 300w for the first 1km where it is 10% and not try to blow up too much. Certainly felt like it worked, but the time suggests not by much.

The other test was to hold a easier gear at a higher cadence. Felt a lot better than grinding a bigger gear - but simply - I need to increase my FTP and lose KG's to get up this puppy faster.

Managed to do 2 repeats today, the first all out, the second @ FTP. More work on aerobic endurance and a focus to drop some pounds in the coming months...

MAP + Keira

My MAP hasn't changed - punched out an identical 380w to my last MAP.

Tried to see if my Mt Keira PB would fall this morning. I was on my heavy bike which is around 3kg heavier than the race bike. I managed a 23 minute flat time which is on par to my best time this year.. My NP was 333w which was quite high thou around 25 watts more than usual.

I wonder by how much those 3kgs of bike slowed me down? My wattage was certainly up... I wonder if the weight and extra watts cancelled each other out :)

Wheres the Watts?

There really isn't any thing spectacular to report on this front. I learnt very quickly to be ultra conservative on these rides. With an average of 5 hours in the saddle each day, my average power on climbs was only around 250w. Caution had to prevail as the mountains can bite back very hard!

The only day I threw caution to the wind was up the Mortirolo where the NP went up to 272w.

Will be interesting to see if the altitude and large volume block improves my cycling in the future... I'll guess we'll have to wait and see!

Back - Part V

Day 5 saw us challenge the infamous Mortirolo. Lance Armstrong said it was the hardest climb he's ever done. Its hard to argue any differently.

A point that needs to be made about these rides. You really have no choice but to get over these climbs. There is no flat way home. There is no sag wagon. This removes the soft options of  stopping half way after you've had enough. You simply have to suffer.

Day 5 was a day of suffering. The Mortirolo averages 10% over 12km. With very very  long ramps of 16%. I was fortunate to be feeling strong so was able to tap out a decent pace. For a comparison the lead group averaged 11km/hr up the Mortirolo, we averaged 8km/hr it was nice to see the pro's suffering like us!

Made it to the summit in 3rd spot behind Lazye and our Ex-Pro tour guide with a time of 1hr 28min. The last finisher scaled the climb in 2.5hrs!

The Mortirolo is a nicely paved goat track.
The Pantani memorial was very touching, and located smack bang in the middle of the 16% gradient. Right where he would have loved to launch an attack.
Relief!
The obligatory photo snap.
Just one of the many funny road paint marks littered on the way up!

Back - Part IV

Day 4 saw us do a single climb up the Gavia. With its summit at 2652 metres it is one of the highest in Italy just behind Stelvio. The climb is about 16km with the first 4km flat. The road then pitches up to its average gradient of 8% with plenty of long ramps at 14-18%!

You certainly could notice the thin air at altitude, although not debilitating I'd hate to be trying to race up this climb!

Around 4 km from the summit was a 800m tunnel which was not internally lit. We had no lights on our bikes so were riding in total darkness, felt very weird and the mind started to play games a little bit.

The Lazye climbing machine made it look all so easy.
This was the Gavia on the day the Giro passed through. The Gavia is completely enveloped in a cloud. It was a miserable day up there for the riders as it rained and the temperature was close to 0 degrees.
The snowline in the Italian Alps is at 2000 metres at the moment. We got to see a lot of snow!
You can just make out the road way way down below. The Gavia's backdrop was the most dramatic of all the climbs we did.
I highly recommend the Speck and Cheese panini at the top of the summit. There is no ski resort at the top of the Gavia, so the single shop at the summit caters mainly for cyclists and has a great memorabilia section and amazing photos of when the Giro passed over the Gavia.

Back - Part III

Day three saw us move from our hotel in Bolzano to our next base in Ponte de Legno located around 120km away. We elected to ride instead of taking the bus... mainly to avoid being bus sick, again...

This saw us take in 2 decent climbs. The first was the Passo del Mendola 10km @ 6% gradient. Then a gradual downhill for 50km before the start of the Passo del Tonale a monster in its own right with an average of 4% over 40km!!!!!

The after noon temperatures cooked us reaching over 30 degrees for most of the final climb. I felt  pretty strong and out of the 15 riders that start this ride only 6 finished.. So i was pretty pleased to survive the day.

Beautiful rolling orchids were littered everywhere on the climb through Mendola.

Self-Portrait
Insanely beautiful vistas dulled the pain.

Halfway. Over the Mendola and on our way to Tonale!

At the top of Tonale with `LazyE`, the climbing machine.

Back - Part II

Day two took in two awesome climbs. The Passo del San Pellegrino and the fearsome Marmolada. Our route took us around 100 km and once over the San Pellegrino (800m climbing) the only way back to the hotel was either to retrace our steps over the Pellegrino or get over the huge Marmolada!

All started reasonably well, however a lack of nutrition kicked us in the butt when we finally got to the climb of La Marmolada. Like most climbs in italy - it starts fairly easy with ramps of around 4-6% the end ramps are always way above 10% in this case 15% for the last 2-3km or so. This climb kicked my butt like no other. It took 3 cans of coke and some hearty ham and cheese panini's to get over this climb... 

The red blob in the distance should have checked into the starting house pictured for a bit of advice and reflection prior to starting the Marmolada... I now know why it is at the foot of the climb!!!

The start of the Marmolada is deceptively flat.
Extreme beauty masks the pain about to unfold

Ski lifts and snow... and the obligatory cyclist pushing his bike up the Marmolada... for some it was the only option of getting home..

Back - Part I

Well i'm back!

Had a blast to say the least. Those mountain passes we both ecstasy and misery all wrapped up in one. In total 500km with 12000 metres of climbs in 6 days. Here are some pictures and comments of my journey!

Our first day was based in the northern city of Bolzano which provided us access to the first 3 mountain stages. Including the first won by Emmanuelle Sella up the Pampeago. We did a 90km circuit that took in the passo del santalucia followed by rolling hills to the base of the final climb which was around 8km at an average of 10% with the last 2km being at 16%!! Tough way to start the trip - but this was just the tip of the iceberg!

Check out the gradient. May be hard to appreciate from the photo but your staring down 16%

The crowd went nuts for Sella - the road up the final climb looked like this pretty much the whole way up! More crazy days to follow!

Mediocrity at its best

Just over a week before I head on a plane to sunny Italy to enjoy some pain in the Dolomites.

My preparation has been less than ideal - but given the circumstances, I couldn't have possibly done more kilometres. In hindsight I would have liked to do more climbing and strength work - as i'm just starting to reap the benefits of my intense strength work from the past few weeks.

Picking up a bug also set me back substantially... I feel at the moment, my fitness is at a plateau and I haven't stepped up to that next level. Weight is down an average of 1.5kg to 81.5kg - I'd like to get down to a flat 80kg sometime within the next 3-6months.

I hope my time in Italy pushes me up into that next level - i'm sure those massive mountains, altitude and big mileage in 9 days will have a positive effect on my overall cycling fitness.

It has been an interesting journey. I can't wait for the pain to start!!!!!

25km TT - New PB

41.30m - 2.30 PB. (173bpm ave 35.3km/hr ave)

No power data as I was using a new set of aero wheels (85mm deep front and rear tubulars).

Interestingly I paced by HR, and i felt a hell of a lot better for some reason. Was able to keep a steady rhythm the whole way through. Feels like the fog is lifting from my chest and the lurgy is behind me now... Thank goodness!!!

Totally new position on the new bike seems to be working wonders, i don't think i would have been putting out more power than my previous run, so i'll put this PB down to efficiency over an increase in power.

I'll be back next time with power installed on the rear wheel to see what the numbers are telling.

Lurgy - part II - the return of the bug

Finally got over my bug at the end of last week only to pick up another one over the weekend.

:(

Thought i'd still be able to go out and clock up a decent session, but this bug has got a grip on my lungs - no power - no energy.

So more down time for recovery.

This is very frustrating! Only 3 weeks to go to Italy, and I am missing out on the most important sessions!!!!

Hopefully the bug passes quickly. I'll have to stay patient in the mean time and not try and make things worse!

Strength Works

After a week off from the dreaded lurgy, I set off this morning starting my strength preparation for Italy.

The aim was to keep the cadence at around 60rpm and the power at around 400w. I used a 500metre length climb of around 6% gradient.

The weather was miserable, constant rain, but I was very focussed after a week off!!

Started off with a 1/2hr warm up, then began the repeat intervals. Felt very strong through all of the intervals, easily held the 400w - in fact i had a lot of trouble keeping the cadence and power down.

After a hour worth of this my legs felt pretty trashed. Which I took as a good sign. So i shall be alternating strength work and TTI work on a daily basis for the next 2 weeks. I want to make a good showing at the next Calga Time Trial with the aim to smash my 44minute time down to 42minutes.

I have a new TT bike, which I hope will allow me to get more aerodynamic than I ever have been. This is my first proper TT geometry bike and the new position is both comfortable and quite powerful! here are a few pics

sickness

The lurgy i had before blayney -> bathurst has been made worse by racing..

off the bike to recover for a few days...

Blayney to Bathurst - Post race carnage

I'll start with stats.

TSS 254

261W NP

3hrs 20minutes - 110km ~ 32km/hr

Miserable condititons of rain and hail. Was not a fun out there today. 2 serious climbs, the first was a 5km climb with the last 2km (and also the steepest) on unsealed road, coupled with the rain it made for an interesting climb. The second was the end of the stage up the famous Mt Panorama, in stark contrast to the first climbs unsealed roads, Mt Panorama is a car race track with silky smooth hotmix - however the last km is at gradients of at least 10% from my reckoning (and cadence of 45rpm!).

So what happened?

Everything started out reasonably, was in touch with the leaders for the first 10km and then i hit a large pothole. I hit it so hard my handle bars rotated downwards by around 20 degrees, and I couldn't re-straighten them. I was leaning way forward in my new position, and my lower back started to give me hell. Inevitably my power started to drop and I was finding it hard to stay with the lead group and finally got spat out the back after 20km... The next 60km was with a decent group who worked well together but even this group became too much for me and I was spat out again. 

I pretty much well rode solo for the rest of the way, I was doing well on the flats and rolling terrain, but any decent climb put me in the hurt box and I was barely able to generate 250w up them.

Grovelled up Mt Panorama and was glad the day was well and truly over.

Stats say I didn't have that bad a day but I was expecting a lot more from myself. I'm going to spend the next 4 weeks focussed solely on strength and hill repeat work. This is the area which I need to improve _dramatically_ and is my true achilles heel at the moment.

Blayney to Bathurst - Prerace

Strep throat this week, so have tried to get better and well rested for Sunday. In general I feel ok. I'm racing on a old bike due to my race bike snapping - so i'll be 2-3kgs heavier which won't help that much over the hilly terrain.

None the less, i look forward to 110km of pain. I'm treating this as a training ride first and race second. Not going to do any silly breakaways or the like, just want to sit in and stay with the lead guys. I'm racing off scratch, so the pace will be smoking from the start.

The terrain is rolling, so i should have enough juice in the tank to get over the climbs with the lead guys and then just sit in and recover on the flats - the finish is up Mt Panorama, which i've been told has some steep ramps ~ 10%.

Can't wait to get those legs pumping!

The Park, Part III

Another park ride this morning, this time with some Cat I riders. Oh the pain!! Managed to hold onto wheels - just.

The stats from the previous two rides:

TSS 233, NP 216W, 25.3km/hr 101km, 4.01.36 (oct 07)

TSS 273, NP 238W, 29.3km/hr, 128km, 4.23.00 (feb-08)

TSS 292, NP 249W, 30.2km/hr, 128km, 4.16.17 (april-08)

Pretty happy overall with my progress thus far, but I still suck at hills. I just cannot sustain ~350w for any reasonable amount of time. My next block of training will focus on this exclusively...

Just a short one

Had a great session yesterday. Clocked up 90km through some brutal terrain, NP 250w. Probably the hardest ride I've done all year and I felt great at the end of it.. However I was quite spent.

One thing I haven't kept a check on this year was my TSS/d - I was hoping to get up to around 100 TSS/d by around this time, but I'm just a shade under  70 at the moment. I really need to get those longer harder rides in to keep the CTL trucking north.

So lots of quality FTP work to come over the next few days. I'll also do a 43km TT next Sunday followed by a medium taper for my next big race the following Sunday. The course should suit me and my training has been on similar terrain so we'll have to wait and see what happens!

Good news never lasts

Well after a dream month of training and racing I had 4 days of hard riding planned for the easter weekend and then a taper for my next big race - Blayney to Bathurst - a 110km race through the west of regional New South Wales.

I set up a training base in Wollongong where I was in easy reach of 3 good climbs and lots of great terrain to train on. Mother nature stepped in a bucketed down a good dose of rain and flog so I was trapped in my hotel room for the entire weekend.

Bit of a bummer but these things happen. Nevertheless I have a day off tomorrow and am planning a whopper ride in the order of 180km over some nasty hilly terrain to test the legs and get some good interval training up some nice climbs.

I hope the weather holds out for me....

First blood.

Nailed my first win for the season. 30km criterium at Heffron park. What made it special was the way in which it was done. I attacked with 10 laps to go, just put my head down and pounded away. Managed to drag along one friend who just wheel sucked and didn't help at all - so with 8 laps to go I attacked him and got him off my wheel. Now i'm in no mans land with a pack of angry riders chasing after me.

One guy managed to bridge the gap to me and dragged old WheelSuck with him - we worked well together and kept the gap on the bunch. Then another rider bridged the gap and we had a powerful trio - and one WheelSuck. With 5 laps to go I was starting to get pretty tired. The last guy who joined us did a few big turns, and we lost the other worker - but not WheelSuck.

2 laps to go and we knew we had it in the bag. I held second wheel coming onto the straight with WheelSuck glued behind me. Started my sprint a little late as I was hoping WheelSuck would try and bolt and go on his own - but true to his name - he just sucked.

Wound up a big sprint and thought I had it in the bag easy, but ole WheelSuck was well rested and started to make ground rapidly - i continued on my sprint and manage to hold him off by around a wheel length.

Great victory - couldn't be happier. NP 314W which i'm very happy about. Commissaire's suitably bumped us up a category so we'll be riding with the fast boys next time...

White vertical line shows where I attacked!!!

You can see where I had to restart my sprint - note the spike in cadence! 125rpm, peak power ~ 1100w

Felt really stretched out and flat on the bars, could still generate decent power, bless that 130mm stem!

Pretty happy with that sprint!

To the victor go the spoils... B grade next time!

Perceived Exertion - Update

Mt Keira - 0.22.59 - pacing by Perceived Exertion - Update.

Almost a minute better than my previous attempt using pacing by Power.

Felt very weird not having a guide of some sort to reference back to. I decided just to pace at an uncomfortable level for as long as i could. I had no idea of power or speed data - only cadence, which i decided to keep as high as i could.

16 minutes in and i blew up, I simply went too hard too soon, by this stage I was barely turning the cranks over... after a minute or so, my legs started to feel good again and i got into a easy rhythm and continued up. After a minute or two I looked down at my watch and noticed that i would probably come close to my previous best time, so i decided to dig in for the last kilometre or so and try and at least match my previous time.

So what does it all mean?

1. Pacing by FTP is only good if your FTP is correct!
2. Pacing by power boxes you in and doesn't let out the inner mongrel.
3. Blowups from perceived exertion are to be expected, but may be worth the punt.

I think there is a middle ground somewhere in all of this. Sometimes the power meter has to be ignored - and be used more as a reference not a limiter. This probably holds true for short bursts like the Mt Keira TT which is only 20 odd minutes of effort. I would expect that power pacing would be far more valuable for longer durations.

- Update: Well the power graph below tells a strange story, there really isn't a significant jump up in power between the two passes i made up Mt Keira. What is startling is the large variation in power throughout the climb - both graphs have identical smoothing!

1/ - 12/3/08 - 22.59min

2/ - 06/2/08 - 23.50

You can see on the `fast` graph where I bonked, and the wild fluctuations in power and speed. The second chart is more `flat lined` where power and speed are both fairly constant - probably something not conducive to a fast time.

The unscientific best pacing test.

I've been wondering over the past weeks whether pacing by power can sometimes not lead to the best overall time for a Time Trial.

I'm going to conduct a crude experiment using pacing by RPE (Perceived exertion), Power and Heart Rate on my weekly hill time trial up Mt Keira. I have plenty of baseline data on my usual times up this climb.

I'm going to record the times with the powertap regardless, but just cover up the screen with tape.

I'll post the findings here... I've got a funny feeling the results may surprise!

D

Return to Crit

Headed out for an afternoon race yesterday to test the legs. Felt fine sitting in the bunch just turning the legs over. With 5 laps to go i got a nasty cramp in my left quad and couldn't apply any power. Took a lap out and rejoined - but same thing happened again with 3 to go. A bit peeved as I probably could have got a result.

At least there will always be next week.

NP only 245W