Taking the step UP.

The thin blue line continues to advance!

Currently at a TSS/d of 55, which is not fantastic. I'd like to be around 65-70 at this point of my build phase. Starting to sharpen the rides now, yesterday was a grueling day doing 10 second seated sprints. Managed to reel off the majority at over 1000 watts average.

A lot of my sessions from now will be very targeted on raising my lactic threshold as well as my FTP.

Tomorrow is Mt Keira repeats. Which should be a lot of fun, and should also indicate what my current fitness level is like. I'd like to think I will do well given my weight has stabilized just under 80kg. I hope I can keep the power over 300watts as this will result in a good time....

Thursday will be another interval session focussing on some TTI's ~ 5mins @ 320watts. Friday recovery, followed by long and fast ride Saturday. If I can nail these sessions I'll be doing well and on my way to beating last years effort @ Bathurst.

Trackstar

Track racing again last night.

Felt ok going around and was able to keep up with the changes in pace, but when it came to the sprint my legs just simply couldn't wind up.

Did ok in the elimination race racing off for first. The money race was similar with the legs just not firing up for the sprint.

Legs feel like jello now. Unsure if i'll be sufficiently recovered for a hard ride tomorrow. May take it relatively easy and then try an afternoon criterium to sharpen the legs up in a race simulation...

456km

7 Days of riding, 456km.

Not a bad effort, lots of base in there, now time to get the engine running hotter!!!

Today was a 90km loop out to wollongong and back, taking in some undulating terrain which makes you focus on your pace and effort levels.

Felt very good the whole way, pretty much kept it in the big ring the whole way powering over the tops of small rises and only changing down for the longer climbs.

Finished the ride with a hill TT up Waterfall hill. My previous best was 12.30 and with tired legs today I manage 13 minutes flat. Not bad.

Tomorrow is a HARD club ride followed by track racing!!

190km

First time in several years that I have actually been on the bike for this long. 190 quite painful kilometres.

The route was Sydney - Wollongong return, taking in the National Park on the way down to the 'Gong and returning via Mt Keira and the three deadlies.

Humidity was atrocious and the heat pretty hard to deal with. The wheels started to fall off at around the 140km mark. Coke and Mars bars saved the day and we managed to roll back with no major troubles.

NP was 222w for the ride of just under 7 hours, total ascent was 2200 metres.

A few more rides like this should get me back into form. I'm hoping to repeat this ride again on Wednesday and then again this coming Saturday.

The next phase will be introducing some speed work in and some intervals to bump up my FTP and get me used to 5-10 minute threshold efforts. I think this is absolutely critical for the racing i'll be doing in the near future.

Happy Daize

Back on Track

Title is so cliche... but it just had to be said!!!

Got out for my first race start at the track tonight. Boy what a blast!!!!!!

Was very unsure of what to do, so for the first race (all in scratch) I just sat at the back of B grade and watched... rolled in last, happy to have completely my first track race!!!

Second race was a 10 laps points race with a sprint every second lap. The idea is to get the least amount of points.

First sprint I was second over the line, Second sprint I was first, Third I was second, Fourth I was second.. By this stage I didn't know who had what points, so just tried my hardest and managed to get to the line for another first... Lucky for me I did as I needed the win to take out the race!!! WOOHOO VICTORY!!!

The last race was a 16 lap A and B combined scratch race with prizes for first A and B rider over the line. I started right at the back just to keep out of the way and get a feel for what the pace was going to be like. 10 laps in and the legs are absolutely screaming and I'm the only B grader left with around 7 other A graders. Manage to swap a few turns and try and conserve some energy... Unfortunately I was at the front on the bell lap so just wound it up as hard as I could and managed to hold onto third place overall!!!

Pretty stoked in general. Track racing seems to come pretty easy for me. I love the short sharp stuff... And having a bit of endurance base sure does help. Looking forward to next week!!!!

Where'd Dave Go

Dave has been sick.

Dave has been very sick.

Dave is starting to get better.

Training has been very slow. I've lost all that wonderful base that I accumulated at Jindabyne. I don't think it'll take much to wind it back up again, but my early season goals have been destroyed pretty much.

On the bright side I've lost 3kgs. And I seem to have stabilised at around 80kgs. I'm going to focus on keeping myself this lean and try and build the same engine as before.

Goals for the short term are Blaney to Bathurst (116km), then the Canberra tour (3 x 40km road races). I'll be happy if i can match last years time at Blaney, and i'll be even more happy if I can stay with the main pack at Canberra...

Have to keep the goals realistic.

Keep turning those wheels.

D

Jindabyne the break down

Ok, long while between posts.. So how was it?

Well in the lead up to Jindabyne I came down with Strep throat and had no legs... so i didn't ride for a week... So I went into the camp with no idea of form..

The first day was a short warm up to Perisher, legs felt pretty heavy but were turning over ok, and my lungs and throat were feeling much better... turn around 15km in and zoomed back.

Day 2 was the real test. Jindabyne -> Thredbo -> Dead Horse Gap return (115km 2500m ascent). Weather was good, not too hot and the legs were feeling fantastic... rode up the front and set tempo for the bunch for the first 20km in a howling headwind. I decided to bring my 50mm deep wheels and was starting to get blown around quite a bit at high speed and had white knuckles down the steep descents...

Around 25km in the group broke up and the attacks started to come thick and fast... I was able to stick with the trouble makers up the front and we settled into a nice 5 man paceline which was peppered with attacks. Fantastic training and real riding on the limit stuff. On the climb up to the western face of Dead horse gap I rode tempo at the front and whittled the group down to 3 and that is how we rolled into check point 1. Quick photo snaps, refilled water bottles and it was down the eastern face of deadhorse which is VERY steep and is a 12km climb with average gradient of 8% with long ramps of 10-12%.

Last year climbing up Dead Horse I suffered like a dog... it was disgusting. I had to stop multiple times and i couldn't get the powermeter over 220watts. In contrast, this time around I did it quite easily and had some in reserve and cruised up steadily between 280 - 300w.

Zoomed down to thredbo, for a ham roll, washed it down with coffee, choc milk and water. Then headed back to Jindabyne, with the wildest tailwind I have ever rode in my entire life.. I was hardly turning the pedals over and cruising on 50km/hr for large parts.. even the hills were no troubles with the tailwind allowing me to stay in the big ring... Truly an amazing experience.

Day 3 was Jindabyne -> Charlottes pass and return. (90km 1500metres ascent). Once again legs were feeling great and rode up the front pacing the group. After 5km of steady climbing up Charlottes a few edgy souls decided to move off the front we let about 5 people go and get a good gap on us before myself and Crazy E set off on our chase.

We had the company of one other person and were setting a good tempo up the mountain. We slowly started to reel people back in catching all the escapees with about 5km to go. At this point the tempo starts to get very uncomfortable as we try to crack each other, no one does until the last kilometre when I let it all out... Just held 400watts on a 4% gradient for as long as I could and managed to break Crazy E.

Day 4 was Jindabyne -> Berridale and return. This was a fairly flat ride, but the legs were well and truly screwed by now with the tempo up the small climbs almost enough to eject me straight out the back... After 20km or so the legs came good and I started to feel comfortable again. On the run into town there is a large slight downhill run of 8km or so and the bunch turned into a ferocious paceline and we were averaging 47km/hr quite comfortably.

Great training weekend, good company and quality miles. The legs are still a bit fatigued but they'll come good again soon.

Plans are for a road race this sunday, should be interesting to see what the legs can do.