Mt Keira

20.11 NP 326W, CAD 76rpm, Speed 17.3km/hr

a new best, if only by 1 second.

Felt really good for the first 3km, but think i went out a little to hard, suffer for the back 3km.

Form is coming along nicely!

Alive

Yes, still alive... But not cycling as much as i would like.

Mt Keira this morning was a healthy 21.22m NP ~ 300W

Fairly happy with this, but more work needed to get down to the PB of 20.10.

Back

Back from Spain. Wow, what a trip!

700km ridden, 12km climbed. Met a few Spainish cyclists who showed us the back roads around southern Spain, had fabulous weather and an overall brilliant time!

Unfortunately, I can't say I've come back fitter. Another bout of tonsillitis is testing my nerves and has put a serious dent in my training.


My MAP test this morning was a stagnant 380W, which is not impressive. Still my main focus is to get healthy then get fit... in that order.

Anxiety

The mind is a powerful force.

For the past month or so, my training and health has not been 100%. Tonsillitis and more recently infected saddle sores and waking at midnight and not being able to go back to sleep. As a result, my training really suffered and one of the disappointing aspects was not being able to back up after a hard days training to ride again.

Took a trip to the doctor to get the saddle sores checked out and left with the usual antibiotics and steroid cream, but to treat the sleeplessness I was given a referral to a 'horse whisperer'.

Needless to say I was experiencing - unknown to me - anxiety, which results in altered respiration (shallow breathing) the result of which was I was training, sleeping and generally living in a hypoxic state.

Currently at day 4 of the 'program' (regular breathing sets to retrain my brain to breathe properly) and things are fantastic! I'm sleeping well, i've gained another 50watts that were missing from my life and my general mood has improved immensely.

I'm so glad i've fixed this prior to Spain.. should make things much more enjoyable!!!

The final week

Nothing sensational to report.

I did an excellent session yesterday taking in some serious climbs which with some serious head/cross winds made for a very honest session out in the saddle. To make matters interesting, my powermeter battery failed just prior to the start of my ride so I had to just concentrate on the pedals. Rode out with a friend as hard as I liked and the legs responded well.

Final long ride and race this Saturday. I am really hoping for a result at racing to set the mood for Spain.

Back

Amazing what a 10 day course of antibiotics can do. Starting to feel human again.

A welcome side benefit of the tonsillitis was a drop in weight ~ 2kg. So now i'm back under the magical 80kg mark.

Now I just need the legs to start firing up and everything will be sweet for Spain.

grrrrr.....

F*&%king bacterial tonsillitis - again - second time in 5 months.... These suckers are coming out!

Certainly explains why i was not in form today.... back to ENT this week.

Calga 43km TT

New PB, 1.14.26, NP 290W.

Felt like crap from the word go, just tried to keep a steady rhythm and keep the power under 300W on the flat and 350ish on the hills.

Stuck to plan for most of it, but the power dropped quite a few times where I just couldn't get over the pedals. Chain wasn't moving all the way down the cassette which also lowered my top end speed dramatically.

All in all, a 7 minute PB from last time, a lot of benefit this time round with aero wheels, helmet and skin suit. I think a 1.10.00 is possible, but I need to figure out why my legs have not been responding of late.. I had a big rest week this week, but any efforts are quickly met with fatigue... Could still be overtrained - or - not trained for this kind of event whatsoever!!!!

5 more weeks until Spain, I need to sit down and look at what I need to do to get some improvement from the legs as I only have a couple more weeks of intensity before I start to back off..

Track and TT fun

Raced for the first time last Friday night down at Dunc Gray Velodrome for the RAW track meet. Had a lot of fun and feel the legs burn. Managed a few places and returned home with very sore legs.

The following Sunday I did a 20km TT at Penrith regatta centre, last time i did this was in 2006 and did a time of 33.06 (36km/hr), this time i managed a 30.35 (38.6km/hr) so whilst I was pretty happy, I was a bit disappointed not to get over the magic 40km/hr.... maybe next time. NP was 309W, which was ok, given the fatigue in my legs from the previous 2 days riding. Here is a pic of me at the start line with all my geeky TT setup...

Heffron

Did a lazy 110km in the morning followed by a Heffron Crit in the afternoon. The legs were a little soft from the mornings ride, but I was quite surprised to feel comfortable in the bunch - even with a relatively high pace with some big hitters coming out to race.

Did a few turns on the front, and even tried to bridge to a break, but everything got shut down quite quickly. My chances at a sprint win were close to nil, so i tried to get away with 2 laps to go, but again, the strength of the bunch prevailed and I just had to be content with finishing with the bunch.

NP 300w, so pretty happy that the numbers are heading north again, especially as i've been doing no intensity work, but lots of long miles in the hills.

A few more weeks of this type of training, and then its off to Calga for the 25km TT to see if we can finally get under 40minutes. Barring illness, I think we should get there.

D

Slow progress

Mt Keira this morning, 20.44. 30 odd seconds shy of my all time best recorded in April '09. Still, i'm quite happy, the volume has been very low lately with other commitments, but i'm starting to put together some quality sessions that are making a difference.

I'm also 2 kilos heavier than in April, which definitely needs some attention. Need to focus on this as much as training... high quality, lower volume!!!!!!

Training has been a mixed bag of hill intervals (eg, wednesday last week 50km with 1300metres of climbing), and long endurance rides through hilly terrain at moderate intensity. A few more weeks of this and I think i'll be back to my April form.

Hard to come by, easy to go by.

I knew the gravy train had to stop sometime. I kept kidding myself that there was one more good week left in the tank... Alas this week the legs have fallen apart and i'm back to square one.

Not that I am complaining.

Actually the opposite, the past 5 months have been my best ever on the bike. New FTP record, new Mt Keira record, PB's in the two big open races I raced in. Almost a podium in B grade until the camera snapped off (bugger!!).

I probably think its a good thing to get back to basics for a month or so, rebuild the engine, and start the ramp up to Spain! Have I mentioned that yet? In September I'll be following La Vuelta Espana for two weeks taking in the big climbs of the south... Sierra Nevada.. La Pandera and plenty more ball breaking climbs at high altitude (3400m!).

This year i'll be focussing quite a bit on my weight, ideally i want to get over to spain weighing a healthy 78kg (currently 80.5kg). I raced the Canberra tour at 79kg and felt very very strong. I'm sure I could lose another kilo or so and maintain my power.

During the winter, i'll also be keeping busy on the track bike racing friday nights at RAW - Dunc Gray Track is something I want to focus on next year and hopefully get some quality results in some big races.... Time will tell....

Heffron Park

Raced at Heffron park over the weekend. Ended up in a 3 man break that was going very very well. Normalised power ~ 320W and I was pulling some big turns.

Conditions were very hard, very strong northerly wind.

Unfortunately my camera snapped off it mounts ending my race - The Break ended up being success with my two escapees taking line honours..... you can see the race below...

Heffron Park - B Grade Crit - 16/5/09 from Dave on Vimeo.

Il Grand Bel Giro

21 days of cycling on Italian soil. This edition is the 100th of the Italian tour. And whilst is plays second fiddle to the Tour de France, the Italians have a _big_ love affair with this race.

Most of Italy's best take this race more serious than any other as the $$$ from endorsements from potential sponsors/advertisers is very very lucrative. In Italy public profile = $$$$.

You can watch the giro online @ http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=38268&part=sports pick a feed and get watching.

But lets make it interesting. How about 21 days of following the giro live on the net, whilst riding your own Giro on the home trainer?

Lets put the frame work up like this.

1. You have to ride everyday the Giro is on.
2. Time in the saddle should match length that it is live on tv (easier just to ride whilst watching).
3. Intensity ridden at is your choice, however the idea would be; easy on the flats, threshold on all the major climbs, and what the hell, sprints at the end to beat Cavendish to the line.
4. You are allowed a rest during the ad breaks.

I would think the hardest part of all this is the mental barrier. But given the inspiration of watching your favourites riding live should be a pleasant distraction.

So are you up for it?

Canberra Tour

Canberra Tour.

Race 1.

Road Race - 38km - 01.06.23 - 34km/hr - NP 318W

The first race was an out and back course taking in two climbs. Kept myself up front and out of trouble, found myself as pacesetter for the first 10km which was good. Jockeying for position for the first climb I maintained a good position and kept with the lead bunch which splintered the rest of the peloton. 

Hit the turn around and we came back to the base of the final climb and the attacks started coming thick and fast. Managed to keep a steady tempo and reel in all the escapees. I probably have never suffered so much on a climb before, i didn't see the powermeter fall below 400W and there were a few 500W ramps in there also  (5-6W/kg).

Over the top with a group of 10 the fox and hound game began, I made a big mistake attacking the group with 6km to go... held them off for 10 minutes (360w) but just couldn't stay away. Legs were truly burnt out by this stage so I couldn't compete for the sprint, so was happy to roll over the line with the bunch incurring no time penalties.. 10th on GC!!!

Race 2

Criterium - 25 minutes + 2 laps - NP 313W, 41 km/hr.

50 people on a fast criterium certain requires very good bike handling by everyone, especially when there are tight curves. Lets just say that this group didn't have adequate skills at this speed. There was plenty of bumping and touching of bars as people weren't keeping it smooth through the corners.

I was nervous.

Decided to stay at the back and keep away from the dangerous riders... 15 minutes in I decided that I wasn't going to win a sprint with this bunch as it would require a very dangerous position up front, so I attacked the bunch. Now usually the attacks had been shut down quickly - but they didn't mind letting me go. No one bridged up to me so I was out in the wilderness by myself.

Dug very very deep and held them off for 8 minutes, finally I hit the wall and just couldn't maintain the pace, decided to re-integrate with the bunch with the hope of holding on and not losing position on GC. Managed to do that, so ended the day 10th on GC.

Would have been interesting to stay for the final day, but unfortunately other commitments meant that I had to return home.

Overall very happy with my performance. 2 years ago at the Tour I failed badly, not being able to stay with the lead bunch over the climbs. This year my hill climbing has improved immensely, but perhaps my time trialling has suffered as a result. 

Time to rest now and work out what i'll be doing over the winter months!!

Below a short clip of the crit from my GoPro Video

Canberra Tour - Trimmed from Dave on Vimeo.

Mt Keira

20.12, NP 310W, ave CAD 77, ave SP 17.1km/hr

New record by 22 seconds. Felt terrible going up - barely could hold 300w... didn't think i was in for a good time, then i looked down and saw i was in the 21 grinding it out.. did some maths in my head and figured I would get pretty close to my best time, put my head down upp'ed the cadence and rolled in.

Data just in, power wasn't up hugely - could be some efficiency and pacing improvements, also a bit more weight loss from last time...

Have pursuiters cough now.. Will be VERY interesting to see the WKO+ file on this effort... Also have some video footage i'll add later :)

Canberra Tour this weekend, unsure how I will go....

Blayney to Bathurst

I'll just preface with last years stats for this race from last year.

Blayney '08

TSS 254

261W NP

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

Blayney '09

TSS 237

267W NP

3hrs - 110km ~ 37km/hr

So where did I save 20 minutes if my output was almost identical to last year?

Well it comes down to hiding in the bunch and keeping my nose out of the wind. Last year I got dropped from the bunch after an hour (NP 300w). This year there was a block headwind for most of the course, which kept the pace down, and being in a good position in the bunch, my overall output was fairly low.

This meant I was fresh to get over the climbs with the lead bunch and then recover on the flats. In the mid section of the race there was a 30 minute segment where we averaged 45km/hr, that might not sound very impressive, but when you are constantly bridging gaps when other riders are getting spat out of the bunch, it sure as hell takes a toll on the legs!!!

I managed to stay with the main bunch until the main climb of the day (90km in), the 5km ascent up Mt Rockley. I started to cramp with 1km to go and lost touch with the bunch.

Reformed with a smaller group and we limited our time gap by around 3minutes from the main field.

I am very happy with the results, especially as I came into the race very under done.

Will have a think about where I need to improve over the next week or so and then fine tune for the Canberra Tour in 2 weeks.

Track + More

Had a great race at the Track on Thursday night. Managed to take out a big win in the 20 lap race. Attacked off the front with 3 laps to go and pedalled like my life depended on it.

The chasers did not organise themselves quickly enough to give chase and I managed to stay away. The last half a lap my legs imploded, but I had done enough work to get myself over the line quite comfortably.

Would have been nice to look at the power data, but unfortunately only speed... managed to hold 57km/hr for 2 laps (330m track) before the speed trailed off to low 40's...

More hill work this morning up Mt Keira.. Got a little excited and really tried to attack the first kilometre holding ~ 400W, but I cracked myself - couldn't recover so I just set a steady tempo to the top. Managed to climb up to the Lookout where the gradient in the mid section varies between 18 and 25%

Pace work tomorrow, then 100laps at the track and that will be it until Race Day on Sunday!

Mt Keira

20.37, NP 318w, average cadence 76rpm

Felt ok, rode a 23/11 cassette today so the cadence was down quite a bit, found it difficult to maintain a decent rhythm. Found myself out of the saddle for the gradients that were >10%.

Legs are coming along nicely, will be resting them over this weekend with some final tune ups next week.

Heffron.

NP 306W, 37km/hr

First race back at Heffron for the year... Raced in B grade. Felt pretty good all the way through, just sat at the back for the first 9 laps and watched. Legs felt great. Lap 10 I went to the front to chase down a break which looked dangerous, the chase ended up turning into a breakaway and soon I was with my fellow escapees. Did a lot of work (5 minute peak power = 380W), but ultimately I was the only one willing.

We reintegrated with the bunch, and with all my matches burnt I thought I would just stay on the front and keep the pace as high as I could. Felt good, even with the legs burning, I dug very deep on the last lap to setup the sprint.

All in all, rather happy. Total TSS for the day 244 which comprised:

80 TSS - morning ride

60 TSS - ride to and from the race

104 TSS - criterium

Will get out for an easy ride in the morning.