A world of pain.

The rolling road to Thredbo

More rolling....

Swapping turns on the way to Charlotte pass .... cruising through Perisher ski station....

The Brief:

3 days  ~ 290km total

6000m total climbing

13 hours in the saddle

205W NP average for entire weekend

The long story:

Travelled down to Jindabyne 5 hrs south of Sydney for a training camp with my Cycling Club. Arrived Friday afternoon and was convinced by a fellow member to ride up Charlotte Pass a 32km climb to the highest point in Australia. The Gradient ranges from 5 to 7% and is there is little to no respite. We cruised up in a leisurely 2hrs and the legs were feeling fine. We rolled back home in a bit over three and a half hours.

Day 2 was a club ride from Jindabyne to Dead Horse Gap via Thredbo. The 43km to Thredbo are _TOUGH_ dead road surface and lots of climbing. Once at Dead Horse gap we descended  down the other side towards Tom Groggin to begin our climb back up to the summit of Dead Horse. This is a 18km climb where the first 7km average over 10%. I decided not to descend all the way, and miss this section. Still a 10km climb with gradients around 8% was enough to put a fair bit of sting in the legs. A quick stop a Thredbo for food and coffee and it was time for the fast ride back to Jindabyne. I was again ultra cautious about keeping the pace down to Z1-Z2 levels as to build my endurance base. Rolled home in 5 hours for a total of 110km.

Day 3 was a repeat of day 1 up Charlotte Pass. This time down with the club. The pace was a little higher in the range of Z2-Z3 and I was happy to keep this pace all the way up. The legs were fine although my ITB's were starting to get quite tight after all this climbing. Once again 90km done in around three and a half hours.

What I learnt:

1. My endurance has improved significantly. There is no way I could normally do these kinds of rides back to back.

2. My climbing threshold power is poor. This is an area I'm going to focus on in the coming months. I am going to begin some hill intervals, and some specific strength sessions.

3. > 300km weeks is approaching my structural limit and I'll need to address this with some Chiro sessions and some core strength session in the form of pilates/yoga.

I Hope to be able to repeat a weekend like this somewhere mountainous around Easter time which is 6 weeks away. The goal will be to climb at a much higher threshold power every day without fatigue.

Tranquillo

Another good week under the belt.

Brought some intensity in on Wednesday with my Mt Keira repeat efforts. This mountain is a great way of telling me where exactly i'm at with my fitness. Felt like I was just cruising sitting on a steady effort of 300w, the legs and lungs were fine all the way up.

This next week will be low intensity as I have a 4 day stint in the mountains coming up. Will be good to build some strength and get some serious climbing in which should provide a nice base for my next block of training.

More of the same

Bit of soreness creeped in this week, so i scheduled in a rest day, and kept the other rides easy. Except thursday which was a very fast club ride - NP 254w.

Hope to get the volume back up over 300km this week with lots of Z1 rides. I'll be heading to the snowy mountains with my cycling club over the Australia day long weekend. Climbs should include Charlottes Pass and Dead Horse Gap. Always very motivating riding the mountains with other riders of similar abilities.

Keep those legs turning!

Solid Start

13 hours in the saddle, 332km. Good start considering i missed 2 rides during the week.

In general am feeling good, and there is no soreness as the intensity has been pretty low. Another week like this and then i'll repeat the MAP test and also do a 16km TT to set my FTP.

The only down side has been my arse, the saddle sores are a little tender - so i think i'll have to find the lube and start looking after that department a little better.

You've probably noticed the stats column to the right. Basically i've put up my weekly training schedule and the stats from those along with my training zones. Has been a good way to motivate myself to get out of bed and ride. Seeing lots of green ticks makes me happy!

143 Days and counting

Thats how many days there are before i step on a plane bound for Milan.

Its now that I'm starting to draw up a training plan to get me to Milan in the best form of my life.

Anything less than 5000 km of quality training and I'll be disappointed. If i can get close to 7500 km without getting injured I'll be in awesome condition. That means an average of 370 km/week.

Now that i know what needs to be done I really have no excuses. There will be no where to hide in 143 days.

The journal of a thousand miles... Vertically...

`Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.` - Lao Tzu

I thought i'd get a bit philosophical with the end of the year nearing. I've set myself some very exciting challenges next year - by far the biggest can only be described with an image.

True cycling nuts will recognize this image instantly. The 48 switch backs make Alpe D'Huez's 21 look like a recovery ride. The 2758m ascent may also give another hint to the location of this beast. Some may even recall the grueling time Ivan Basso had up this pass in 2005 when he was feeling a bit off one day. It is called Il Stelvio. And i'll be peddling up this puppy come May when I head over to watch the last week of the Giro D'Italia.

Going to europe and cycling has been a dream of mine for a long time and 2008 looks like the year i'll be finally realizing the dream. I was given free reign by my wife to pick any of the big 3 euro tours next year to follow. La Vuelta is too late in the season, Le Tour whilst the biggest cycling show on earth isn't as easy to plan around other family commitments. The Giro is the first grand tour on the calendar and its at the end of our Summer so hopefully i'll be at peak fitness before winter kicks in. Also i have a fair grasp of the Italian language, and friends that have ridden all three tours have made a special point that the Italian food and coffee is by far the best out of the three.

That sold it pretty easily.

The last 9 days have me doing around 900 km riding with over 36,000 metres of climbing.

Training will have to be pretty specific, and to save my knees from exploding i'll be packing a 50/34 chainring with a 27/12 cassette. This will let me get up the climbs at a decent cadence and also let me hit 60 km/hr on the flats which should be more than enough.

I can't wait to get into it. My first step starts tomorrow - just getting out there and turning the legs over. I need to develop an engine over the next 4 months so that i can backup day after day. Consistent time in the saddle is the only thing that will make the experience pleasant rather than punishment.

Have a great break over the holidays!! I'll leave you with the downhill view of the Stelvio... Impressive!!!

Steep curve ahead

Have recently moved out of our house and into a rental unit. After around two pedal strokes this is what i have to climb out of!!!

The trusty polar says the gradient is a huge 13% !!! Lucky its only 150metres.

None the less, after a long layoff from the bike, this is how even the flat stuff feels whilst that base is brought back up to speed. I find those base weeks pretty dull, keeping motivation up on those slow lonely rides can be a task.. But certainly patience and consistency pay dividends.