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...