This blog/site is a collection of my thoughts, articles and
other general excitement tied into cycling, training and competing
as a vegan bike racer and athlete.
Been uber-busy, so much work to do among other things, like apartment hunting....know of any places within a few blocks of Oak Bay & Foul Bay?!
There's a lot i'd like to catch up on, hopefully soon... I'll start off with last night.
Headed out to the OA-TT, just Stephen Price and Don 'The Immortal' Gillmore were out (Emile's been racing at the AVC, and FSA this weekend - good luck!) I haven't been out to do a TT since May.
Anyway, somehow i dropped a HUGE chunk of time - over 30 seconds! I finished with a 21:55, and my previous efforts were in the 22:30 range....wow! I didn't change any gear, although my aero bars were spaced about 4mm wider on each side...hahah..
Weather conditions were fairly typical - a bit of a wind, although it was blowing more towards the water (seems to usually come off it), and a few degrees warmer, but not a *lot*.
Let's take a look at the numbers:
Effort #4, June 20th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:12 8:49 4:53 21:55
Watts: 281w 260w 265w 269w
HR: 179 187 188 184
RPM: 99 103 107 103
Spd: 35.5 37.5 42.0 36.9
Now, compare the previous three results:
Effort #1, Apr 20th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:30 9:10 4:56 22:36
Watts: 305w 267w 274w 283w
HR: 174 182 184 180
RPM: 97 97 99 97
Spd: 34.4 36.4 41.5 36.8
Effort #2, May 4th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:24 9:01 5:08 22:32
Watts: 291w 278w 286w 285w
HR: 174 184 186 181
RPM: 99 99 102 100
Spd: 34.7 36.7 40.7 36.8
Effort #3, May 18th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:36 8:57 4:56 22:28
Watts: 281w 270w 268w 274w
Est.Wts: 292w 281w 279w 286w
HR: 175 185 187 182
RPM: 101 102 103 102
Spd: 33.8 37.1 42.1 36.9
I totally killed it, at least relative to myself!! Yet i didn't go as hard... (My HR was a lot higher tho..?)
Well, maybe not. Normalized Power isn't really very accurate at efforts under 1hr, so i can't really compare the numbers, but i did a bit more coasting this time. There are a few fast & short descents, and instead of pedalling in the aero bars as i normally do, i opted instead to tuck...and that's on the first section, where i made the most dramatic gains. There's a couple short drops in the 2nd stretch, but i didn't coast much for those..
I felt like i pedalled a bit harder in the spots where there were more resistance, and eased off more when there weren't...but i can't really put my finger on what was really different! I'm pretty sure the wattage is correct, i checked shortly before and a little while after, and it was zeroed. Looking at the file, however, in the spots where i coasted, it hit zero, but mine actually shouldn't (oops!) Due to resistance from the old, gooped-up freehub, it should usually register a few watts - literally the resistance of the cassette itself! So maybe it isn't accurate, and is actually low....that would make more sense given the time and HR.
Don had an off night, not feeling very well. Stephen rode well, but when both passed me, it wasn't very dramatic...when Don normally goes by, there's a big WHOOSH! For Stephen, he got by and made a little ground, but didn't really get away too far...maybe 50-80m ahead by the line..
I dunno, maybe the wattage was off! hahaha... We all agreed i was moving pretty well out there.
Anyway, that is the mystery that is the time trial. I'll take a 30 second improvement, even if it doesn't make sense. =)
Bastion Square has come and gone, i'm a bit disappointed in my performance, but hey..
Let's pick up from whence we last blogged..
Took the Monday after the Master's races off, as usual. (Monday is a regular rest day.) Tuesday went for a fairly chill 1.75hr ride. Wed was Kid's Club, out tooting around the Dump for under an hour. Thursday chilled.
Friday, May 28th - Bear Mountain HC
That was a laugh!
I thought i'd try a different strategy...i'd go extra hard (ie, 350w) in the steeper parts, and easier (220-240w) in the faster sections.
Well, i pulled off the latter no prob. The funny part was that i didn't really go all that harder on the steeper sections, and had WAY too much come the end. For the last 14 seconds up the final steep bit, i blasted away at nearly 600w. That shouldn't happen in a 10min hill climb...i should be doing everything i can to be pushing 350w!!
So yeah, i went at it waaaay too easily. 311w average over 11mins. Yes, 11mins. I know i`m not a hill climber, but that`s just awful. I should have easily been under 10:30 (previous two times under this), and the watts should have been over 325w... I think i was thrown off with my cadence, which was actually well over 60rpm, and somewhat closer to my `comfort zone` (although really it`s up over 100rpm!) Feeling like i could sit and pedal, i remained seated and didn`t stand up, which would have boosted my output.
Oh well. I`m not going to beat myself up over a hill climb, although this was pretty ridic. =P
One other funny story from this: I`m just getting over the first hump and i hear heavy breathing and creaking behind me, and my 30 second person caught me. What`s scary is that it was only 1:24 into my effort. Dude caught me in literally 54 seconds!!! Predictably, he made it about 20m in front of me, and then hovered there for a couple minutes. Then he started to make some ground again... Hilarious tho. =P
Sat - Solo Ride
Pre-Bastion ride, just did an hour, with a couple all-out 1min efforts. By now i was looking at my WKO+ numbers, worried i hadn`t quite logged enough time in the lead-up week...TSS was pretty low.
Sun - Bastion Square (Cat 3)
Got in an okay warm-up. Weather wasn`t too great, cool, wore arm and leg warmers.
Started in 2nd row, on the inside (left) side. About 30 peeps in the race.
Started great, got around the corner quick and in the front of the pack. Cruised around, felt comfortable. Pace was good. People were cornering pretty well, although i`d take a better line through the corners and save energy. Occasionally people would try to corner 2-3 abreast..gaaah..
At about 10`08 in, there was a crash at `Kitty Crash Corner` (corner 1, just around from the start line, could tell due to huge drop in speed in my power file) that happened right beside me. Heard carbon crunch, dodged a falling body...got thrown off a bit, and the pack accelerated, and so i chased for a lap or two, and caught back on. Hung in for a lap, then another jump for a prime...gaaah! I started to fall off the back, and lost contact and chased for a couple laps, just off the back.
Now this is the part where doubt really comes in....i`d been pushing it to hang in there, NP was around 300w of chasing...and the first 10 min was 285w AP...! Not out of my range, but certainly close to my limits. So, if i really gunned it to reconnect, would i have been able to get into the pack and recover? Or would i have been shot out even harder?
Who knows... Anyway, i chased for over 4mins, looked back and saw Chad and another rider chasing me, so i eased off and joined in with their chase. We kept it going for another 11mins, my AP was 253w there (NP284w). Maintained 38.1kph, the first 10mins was 39.9kph, to give an idea of the pack speed. Chad was responsible for keeping the pace up, long and strong pulls! I tried to keep it up as well.
Anyway, we were pulled about 28mins in. Here`s the full power data:
Oops - guess i forgot to make sure the PowerTap CPU picked up my HR...it really sucks at reconnecting if the signal is lost (ie, you walk away from the bike a minute.) The Garmin Edge500 picks it up very quickly and easily..
Pretty good numbers for me, peak 5min was 312w (AP), so wasn`t a walk in the park..
Sucked watching, but happy for my buds Zach who got 3rd, and Tom who finished 9th - he`s having a tremendous first year of racing! The results from my race are here, and all the details here.
My summary was `Not Racing Makes Racing Hard`...perhaps if i`d had a few more solid races under my belt, this would have gone better (pretty much my only prep was the Master`s crit the day before.)
Whatev`s, it`s just bike racing!!!
And a pic, courtesy of Duane:
Tue - TTT Practice, 2.5hr EM
I think i`ve mentioned the Tripleshot/Masters Team Time Trial (TTT) in a previous entry..it's this next Sunday (June 13th), and i've got a solid team for this, with Chad, Steve Doreen (he's back!) and Zach Young (who got 3rd at Bastion.) I'm a little worried i'm going to slow these guys up!
Anyway, we practiced the TTT turn, which is pretty cool. The front rider goes wide, and each rider behind goes one more 'slot' inside, so the 4th rider is doing the most sharp turn, but takes over the front of the group, and then everyone slots back in. Pretty fun! We'll have to do several of these on the Nanaimo River Rd course (i raced it in the ITT last entry, you can check the course profile, there's a fair bit of ascending...) It's 60km total, and a 20km out-and-back route.
After practicing this for a while, Steve and i continued on, did the Lagoon Loop, plus rode the OA-TT course. Got sprinkled on for the return ride...just light tho.
Here's the Garmin file:
Wed - Kid's Club, MTB Ride
Was out at the Dump for another Kid's Club session. Led another Skills class, and they pick up skills pretty quick! Fun to watch them progress, and ride down pretty scary stuff!!! (Including the descent into the TTA.) I know adults that won't ride that! And they're Grade 4-5 kids on fairly dinky bikes...haha..
Met with Steve and Chelsea afterwards, and we got out for more trailtime, did the typical 'Dave's Loop', which was nice, as i haven't been out there forever!
Rode back as well. Happy to get in another MTB ride. More Garmin nonsense:
If you're looking for a non-road ride out, you can see a lot of the trails we took on there.
Thu - 300w Returns
You may recall last summer i spent a lot of time riding at 300w, and i thought i'd jump back into it. Aimed for 2x 2x8mins@300w, 1min rest, 10min rest between sets.
Opted to try out the Tripleshot morning loop, which is around the Uplands/Iroquois golf course near UVic (see map). It's a bit busy during the day, so waited until after 6pm. I headed out on the water to catch the Russ Hayes group, and played with them until we hit the Uplands. Lysanne was shelled, so i waited for her at the top of the hill, and invited her to tag along with me...misery loves company. =)
Headed up, and got started. First one didn't feel too bad. Second was tough, nearly quit halfway through, but carried on. Took the longer break, started the 3rd, felt pretty good. Took another longer break, but Lysanne talked me into doing a 4th, which was good. Mission accomplished! The last didn't feel too bad either.
Thought i was holding the wattage, but it turned out i was a bit low, averaging 280-284w. Not gonna complain tho, still good efforts, and getting back into these. I think i was thrown off by the speed tho! We were averaging over 38kph most of the time, and i'm so used to slower intervals now...haha..so i think i held back a bit. Will pick it up next time. ;)
Anyway, here's the #'s for each effort:
#1
Ave Wts: 283
Ave HR: 173
Max HR: 181
Ave Cad: 106
Ave Spd: 37.4
#2
Ave Wts: 282
Ave HR: 179
Max HR: 184
Ave Cad: 107
Ave Spd: 38.5
#3
Ave Wts: 282
Ave HR: 172
Max HR: 180
Ave Cad: 100
Ave Spd: 37.6
#4
Ave Wts: 280
Ave HR: 168
Max HR: 177
Ave Cad: 98
Ave Spd: 37.4
It was also getting colder, dropping from over 17C down to 14C...happy with my cadence for the first two as well! Really dropped at the end.
Sat - OBB Ride
First time back in a little while. Thought i'd just keep it relatively chill, save some TSS for Sunday (i'd tally over 700pts for the week by the end of the ride, and 700 is a good place to stop..)
Some good efforts on the ride out to Sidney. Stuck with the front through Land's End...was going at a pretty good clip. Looked back as we approached the Panorama hill, and it was just 'us', a group of about 12 (there were over 30!!)
The drive up Panorama wasn't too hard, so i decided i'd try and stick in for the sprint. Conserved as much as i could, although i didn't slack off and did my fair share of pulls.
We were carrying good speed past Interurban, shelled a few more people along there... I slid to the back of the pack, there were several strong riders to watch out for, Craig, Tom Skinner, Ryan, Scotty and Steve Bachup.
Ryan ended up at the front and lead the group over the hill...he slowed it up a bit..
It picked-up down the hill, and there were a couple attacks...i stuck to the pack, i felt good and we were still too far out to make a successful sprint - plus there was quite the headwind!
Nothing was happening...then Steve jumped on the left/outside, and i snapped to his wheel - it was a weak effort tho, and he started steering to the right and easing off...yikes!! I was on the inside! I braked and jerked to the left, and started smashing the pedals!! WHAM - i was at the front!! I could feel it was a bit of a low cadence (~94rpm), but i powered through confident with my effort!
The line was coming up quick, a few more pedal strokes. I saw Craig out of the corner of my eye on the right, i pushed harder! Heard someone else coming up quick on my right...yikes!! The line was a few meters away, but i was still in the lead!
One more hard push and i dove for the line!!! But Craig's wheel inched ahead and he just barely snagged it. Scotty flew by on my left, but it was too late.
I was happy with second that day. =)
Unfortunately there's a fair bit of electrical interference in that spot, so i didn't get all my wattage data for the sprint, but i did manage to collect a new 20sec PB of 930w (up from 911w). The 10s and 30s were also very close...
The hour leading up to the sprint was pretty speedy, averaging 38.4kph. The final 30mins averaged 40kph, and the last 5min was nearly 47kph. FUN!
Some select data:
Hour Leading To Sprint:
Duration: 1:00:01
Work: 819 kJ
TSS: 101.9 (intensity factor 1.013)
Norm Power: 272
VI: 1.19
Distance: 38.12 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1140 229 watts
Heart Rate: 92 189 167 bpm
Cadence: 32 131 99 rpm
Speed: 0 61.4 38.4 kph
Funnily, the Peak Hour finished 10mins after the sprint (i turned around at the Goose to catch one of the dropped groups, and when i caught them there was a lot of traffic for my U-Turn, so had to chase over 300w for 1.5mins to catch..haha)
Where were these legs for Bastion? Gaaah..
Took today off, wanted to get out for an hour, despite my TSS of nearly 750 for the week, but it was rainy all day, so i just kicked around the hour and relaxed. Not a bad idea.
Next week should be fun. Tuesday is the next OA-TT (now called the Time Trial Championships of the Two Known Universes) - click here for details.
Wednesday i'm hoping to get out to Nanaimo for another Boxwood Crit, though might be tough with the Kid's Club stuff. Caleb instead? Thursday will hopefully hit the road with Steve and Chad for more TTT practice (if not, more 300w efforts.)
Not sure what riding i'll do Sat morning, but a group of us are heading to Crag X on Sat afternoon - yip! Then the TTT on Sunday.
Got a bunch of links i want to post, but this is long enough! More on the other side...
Been busy training and racing, feeling pretty good right now! My first 'big' event is this Sunday, the Bastion Square crit, i'm pretty excited for this! Lots of good events the last week+, let's do a quick recap:
Wed, May 12th - BMX!
First time riding a BMX course on an actual BMX bike for the Kid's Club day! Super fun, got a wee bit of air, but moved through pretty quick. Legs fried from the Tue 1min efforts the day before, but hey. I put my Garmin Edge 500 on it, hilarious map:
The kids just rode around doing their own thing...most don't seem too eager to actually race, so kept it casual.
Fri, May 14th - Capital City Cycles Street Sprints
Another night of drag races thanks to CCC! This was day 4 in-a-row for me. The 1mins on Tue, BMX (sprinting) on Wed, and a 2.5hr EM ride on the Thu...
First one felt alright, but second one against Mitch and Jordon (Mitch was previously the overall champ, and Jordon raced me in the final last time, tough match!!) i had no 'overdrive', and was eliminated. Made them work for it tho! Final match was trackie Marcus and Pro City Jamie, and i told Marcus 'don't underestimate him, just GO.' He didn't listen, and Jamie kicked it in the last 100m and took it - nice!!
Anyway, here's the wattage from my two efforts, both in the 50t x 15t:
#1 - ?? (Only 200m) Duration: 16.4 Ave Spd: 40.1 Max Spd: 49.4 Ave Cad: 112 Max Cad: 124 Ave Wts: 890 Max Wts: 1212
#2 - Mitch & Jordon (Full 300m, i stopped pedalling ~20m to go) Duration: 27.7 Ave Spd: 38.8 Max Spd: 51.1 Ave Cad: 115 Max Cad: 128 Ave Wts: 808 Max Wts: 1184
For comparison, here's the best effort from last time:
#2 - 3-up Mitch & ? Duration: 26.46 Ave Spd: 43.7 Max Spd: 51.6 Ave Cad: 111 Max Cad: 122 Ave Wts: 828 Max Wts: 1177
Pretty similar!
Sunday, May 16th - Island Cup MTB Race: Cobble Hill
Day 6 of 6 riding...did a shorter OBB ride the day before.
Race went surprisingly well, i'm getting rather 'tough'. I'm very surprised that after 6 days of pretty solid riding, i had *any* motivation. Well, i had quite a bit!
Got a lift out with Halldor (thanks!!) and we pre-rode the course together. An improvement from last year which was basically up and up and up, then a wee bit of singletrack, and a quick fireroad drop to the bottom, and repeat!!
There was a lot more singletrack at the top, and much more on the descent. Still, not quite enough to really allow for too much make-up on the descent...ahh well.
We finished our pre-ride just in time to get in line, not a prob, nice and warm!
We started off, and i was in the top 5 off the top. It went pretty much straight into a steep climb... Scott Mitchel(Pro City) launched and flew up the hill, never to be seen again. Jamie Emery(Pro City) lead the chase (well, i wondered if he was blocking/defending, but i wouldn't have wanted to go much harder.)
I sat on his wheel and we climbed and climbed and climbed... About 2/3rds of the way up, Roland made a move and i let him by (i'm such a sporting fellow. ;) There was a small group of about 4 that pursued. Roland thought he had the front, and was going for the King of the Mountain prize...sucker! =P
With 3/4 of the climbing done, i was pretty fried, and had to ease off...our small group, including Halldor(Capital City Cycles) eased by. I cheered him on. =)
Kept climbing, i think another rider passed...then hit the top, and kept the speed up, dropping a wheel that was getting too close for comfort behind me. On the way down near the bottom i saw Jamie Emery off his bike, turns out he busted his collarbone. =(
Started my second lap, not quite as peppy as the first, but i put in a good effort. A few more bikes eased by, and my climb was a fair bit slower...by about 2mins. I actually shaved a few seconds off on the descent.
Finished 10th (out of ~30) in Intermediate, pretty happy with that on a course that did NOT suit me.. With the exception of Scott, the Top 12 or so were all within' a few minutes of each other, so it was actually a pretty well matched race.
Thanks to the folks at Cobble Hill for organizing it, i love the Island Cups. =)
Here's my power data:
MTB Race: Duration: 1:05:44 Work: 878 kJ TSS: 109.3 (intensity factor 0.999) Norm Power: 267 VI: 1.2 Distance: 13.459 km Elevation Gain: 474 m Elevation Loss: 481 m Min Max Avg Power: 0 825 223 watts Heart Rate: 127 191 182 bpm Cadence: 42 201 81 rpm Speed: 0 42.2 12.2 kph Altitude: 97 291 202 m
Yep, held threshold (NP) for over an hour. Not bad after 6 days. I managed to average 294w (actual power) for 16.5mins, up the first lap. Can't complain. Fun day, anyway. Enjoyed the day off on Monday. Here's the Garmin data:
Tuesday - OA TT
Okay, time for ANOTHER race. The third instalment of the OA-TT (email if interested in joining us!)
Warmest night so far, but just as windy as the first session, and same direction. Don Gillmore (The Immortal!) made it out. He flew by me, set a new course record of 19' flat!
I managed to shake off a few more seconds, down to 22'28. Unfortunately my wattage data is screwy, i zero'd it before i went, but the bike had been sitting in the sun, and i think it warmed up and that threw everything off, cutting the actual wattage by quite a bit. The times are accurate, and i'll include estimates of what i think i did. I'm guessing i averaged 286w (rather than 274w), one more watt than last time...a fair guesstimate. (Weird, spellcheck isn't complaining about 'guesstimate', but it is about spellcheck...haha)
Here it is, broken into the three portions of the course, at each corner:
Effort #3, May 18th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:36 8:57 4:56 22:28
Watts: 281w 270w 268w 274w
Est.Wts: 292w 281w 279w 286w
HR: 175 185 187 182
RPM: 101 102 103 102
Spd: 33.8 37.1 42.1 36.9
So the Est. Wts are bumped up about 4.2% (ie, 274w to 286w.) It looks about right compared to the other efforts... Note that i kept my cadence a lot higher! For comparison, here's the last two times i did this:
Effort #1, Apr 20th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:30 9:10 4:56 22:36
Watts: 305w 267w 274w 283w
HR: 174 182 184 180
RPM: 97 97 99 97
Spd: 34.4 36.4 41.5 36.8
Effort #2, May 4th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:24 9:01 5:08 22:32
Watts: 291w 278w 286w 285w
HR: 174 184 186 181
RPM: 99 99 102 100
Spd: 34.7 36.7 40.7 36.8
That's the fastest 'middle' portion and closing i've done. I felt better this time too, esp. with the higher cadence. I felt like i was holding the pace with a bit of comfort, instead of struggling to maintain the watts...i like that better. ;)
Sunday - Masters TT & Crit (in Nanaimo)
So i took Thu & Fri off, did a short OBB ride on Sat, and headed up to Nanaimo for the Master's TT & Crit.
The River Road TT was pretty tough, similar rolling course to the OA-TT. It was 20km, and i was hoping for a 30min time. Checked my wattage PB for 30min, and it was 274w, so i decided to aim to average 280w.
Went out, did it! Actually managed 284w, new 30min PB! Here's the #s:
Pretty happy with that. The time recorded was 31:23. Managed a nice high cadence as well. Finished a fair bit down in the 'overall' (fast old guys!), but i got a gold medal in my age group (30-34).
The crit later in the day was really much more up my alley! We rode a few laps and i was a bit concerned with the elevation on the back side...something like 6 or 8m per lap, with two little pitches. This is the new Boxwood crit course in Nanaimo.
Anyway, the group of 8 of us took off. Emile was the known 'threat', i didn't really know anyone else in the bunch... We kept together for a few laps, and then Emile began to pick up the pace, and attacked on the front. I 'chased' up the back and around the corner, and let him get away.
Andrew Brown (riding for the new Eatmore team! He raced the BC Cup MTB race earlier too) lead the chase after that, and tried to get the troops going. Took them a few laps to realize that i wasn't going to do any pulling, and that the other guy in green was my teammate. ;)
It was pretty disorganized tho, and no one besides Andrew really felt like doing any work.. I just sat in, enjoying the draft.. I let a bunch of laps go by, and at about 25min in, during a lull on the fast front section, i sprinted away!
Hit my peak watts there (1198w), and for nearly 3mins i powered away at 360w, trying to drop the pack. There was one rider who sort of bridged up (didn't quite make contact) - i kept looking back hoping he'd be able to help...but no dice... When the chasing pack was ~30m away, i eased off and sat back in. 3mins later, Emile turned up! He lapped us, woot!
So we played at the front a few laps, doing a few small attacks, to see how the field would respond. And a few mins later we broke away. Emile started it, and i took a turn or two. One other rider came with us. Unfortunately, he didn't do any work, so i was splitting the effort with Emile to enlarge the gap....and when Emile picked it up a bit, i got dropped! Gah!! I didn't really have time to recover fully from my previous big effort!
I watched them ride away, but put my head down and continued to chase. Who knows, maybe i'd be able to stay away...or more likely, the other rider would get dropped. (Well, you'd think Emile would drop him on purpose to allow me to catch him!)
I settled into a nice rhythm, i'd ease up a bit on the front/fast section, and then power up around 325-350w up the back/hilly side. It was about 35mins in, and the race was 40min plus 3 laps. Hmmmm.... I'm not really much of a solo artist....but was curious to see what i could do.
Each lap i would look back as i turned onto the front straight...but never saw the pack.. Kept it going... 3 laps to go... Oh boy! I'd lapped Andrew Brown somewhere in there...poor guy...doing an MTB race before must not have been very fun! Brutal course too from what i hear, well over 1000m of climbing.
Anyway, final lap, i powered up the back straight, completed the final corner, looked back...still no one to be seen! Finally, i relaxed and cruised across the line. 3rd place - yay! Again, Gold Medal for my age group.
Turns out the other rider stuck with Emile, who didn't bother trying to drop him....some team mate!! =P
Hugh Trenchard was out as well, but slowed-up when it started to rain (yes, another rainy race!) Turns out we nearly lapped him! But he rallied, and he actually caught the group (while i was off the front) and was in the process of chasing me down..! Eeeep! Emile also caught and passed the group a 2nd time. I remained only one lap down...heh..
Some pretty decent wattage numbers.. While i was soloing, i averaged 281w for 14mins. Certainly not a record for me, but pretty solid after a longish TT, and not really having recovered a previous hard attack, and that was also 'recovering' from getting dropped by Emile. Here are the numbers from the whole effort:
Pretty surprised with the NP, 296w! Not sure if it was the rain after the TT, but my cadence crapped out..gotta figure out what's up there.
Crazy that my TSS was 97 for 48mins of riding... I felt really good in the crit tho. My position on the bike is PERFECT. (I'd say about 90% for TT's). I'm super-comfortable, and the bike handles amazingly. Super-happy with the Noah for crits. The corners were a breeze.
Okay, it's late, and this is very long!
I'm quite excited for Bastion next Sunday, come check it out if you're in town, my Cat3 race begins at 9:45am!
Got some good efforts in the last couple days, and some new pics for the blog. First up:
Sat - OBB Ride
Ouch. It was a bit slow around Land's End, so i jumped to the front to pick up the pace.. That went fine until we got close to the airport, and i did a big pull, holding ~410w for nearly 2mins. Then British John got on the front and did a monstrous pull. I was on his wheel, and was getting not a lot of draft, and no recovery...soon enough we're at the bottom of the Panorama incline...i hung back trying to get my HR down a bit, but the group kept the pace up the hill, and i got shelled there..yikes! I had burned all my '1mins' matches on Thursday...just nothing left in the legs. Prolly would have been fine had i moved up in the pack, closer to the front, but i thought i'd muscle it up..d'oh.
Ended up in a very disorganized small group, people didn't know if they were doing 30sec pulls or rotating paceline...gaah.. We had a window where we stood a chance of regaining the group, but that was all for naught. Got in a great workout either way.
Again, a very high NP (i figure my threshold is actually around 267w..). Also pretty high was my 30min NP, at 293w, but NP values under an hour aren't really reliable..still, my HR was 179bpm. Cut out the water on the ride back, figured i'd ridden enough and wanted to leave a bit of TSS for Sunday!
Sunday - fun MTB urban ride
Decided to stick to the original plan of getting on the MTB, and went up to investigate Haro/Queenswood park. I got there and laughed my ass off!!
There were all these MASSIVE dirt jumps - it was insane!
Yeah, there's no way i'm going to ride that! hahaha..
Had a fun time riding around tho, rode a few of the smaller jumps and enjoyed some of the berms (that actually work!) Also rode along the beat at Gyro Park:
Saw a few feathered friends, and their very cute youngin's.
Various footprints... Ducks, geese, and a Nano Raptor. ;)
Really nice ride.
Tue - More 1mins Ouchies
Headed out with Emile to Sidney to do more 1min efforts. The plan was 3x3x1mins, that is, 3x1mins (2mins rest between each) and repeat that three times, with an extra 5mins between sub-sets. It's one more than the last two workouts, but bigger rests. The day was LOVELY, btw.
First one felt alright, but wasn't really feeling great... Finished the first set, and went on to the second, got through the first two, and the third felt like a pretty weak attempt, and it didn't look like i was holding very good watts at the 40sec mark, so i called it off..
Emile was doing 1min efforts too, although waiting 5mins between each. He had two left, so i rode up to where he was, and finished them with him, he was riding very strong. I guess it makes a difference getting that much more recovery between efforts. ;)
After the final one, i developed a splitting headache! Middle of my forehead..yuck. Luckily it only lasted about 10mins.. I think i might have been a bit dehydrated, i downed nearly an entire water bottle! We took a different route home, hitting a bunch of roads i haven't been on for a while, just over 2'30 ride.
Felt a lot better about my workout when i checked my numbers tho! I got a new 1min PB!!!! Up 10w(!!!), i held 540w for 1min...!!! Insane! I guess i just overdid it on the first one. HR hit 193..haven't been up there for a while i think. Pretty crazy as i wasn't quite going 100% (knowing i had plenty more to do.)
Anyway, here's what i rode:
#1: 540w
#2: 430w
#3: 403w
REST
#4: 423w
#5: 362w
#6: 412w (35 seconds)
Ouch.. Prolly a good idea to call it off...normally i'm holding 450w at that point...
Jumped on Emile's wheel for the last two:
#7: 499w (40sec)
#8: 488w (43sec)
That's a bit more like it...i dropped off tho, was feeling pretty gross. Solid number to there tho. Cadences were a bit lower this session, down in the 111rpm range for most. (Tho 117rpm for #7.)
So i ought to take a little break from these... I've done like 24 Kilo-level efforts in the last 9 days or so...i'm feeling pretty wiped by all these. After about 15mins i felt 'normal' again tho, and put in a good effort for the ride home. Here's the full ride:
Funny how the recovery sections kill your average speed..heh..that's about 3kph lower than i'm used to seeing!
Tomorrow i'm headed out to the BMX track with the MJ Bike Club kids, will be riding Derek's Barney bike again (need to get some pics of me on that thing!) Thursday may just be a 3hrs ride with no big efforts...unless i'm feeling like He-Man, that's the plan. Sat will be a shorter OBB ride, and Sunday i'm planning to head up to Duncan/Cobble Hill for the Island Cup #5 MTB race. If it's anything like last year, it's a brutal course (for me), as it's mostly climbing, and then a very quick descent...and back to climbing..blarg.. Haven't spent much time on the MTB tho, feels kinda strange!
A few more recent pics:
Shot from when i took Lysanne riding. Yep, that's my old RIP9 frame she's riding!
Descending the drop into the TTA.
Was out at the new Westshore OBB shop - congrats to Geoff, Dan, Chris and others!!
A ride with Chad, and yet another ride with an ex-bike! You might recall the Blue was my loaner road bike (thanks again OBB!) until my fated Noah arrived.. Chad got a wicked deal, and has been pretty happy. It matches his AviaWest colors as well. ;)
Kenyon took me riding out behind Durrance Lake a month ago, my first time up there, we found this interesting spot... My bike blends in..haha
This pic cracks me up...hahahahah
I was rolling up my winter tire (swapped my front tires, back to the summer Prowler), and felt a prick - there was this massive thorn in there! Hurray for Stans! =)
All the shots from my RideCam #29 can be found here.
Two good training days since last i blogged. We did our 2nd 'OA TT' trial, and back out for more 1min efforts today. Let's check it out!
OA TT #2
As mentioned in my last post, we're checking out a potential TT course for peeps in Vic, since the Sidney Velo TT is no more (due to construction on the course, and being unable to find a replacement.) I was a bit choked, as i was finally starting to dial in my training to do half-decent at a non-track (velodrome) cycling discipline!
Roland had suggested this as a potential course, (we wanted something with minimal interruption, stop signs, corners, etc..) and a couple weeks ago we did our first trial with five peeps, and it went pretty well! Read the previous entry for more of a description of the course.
My first effort had me finish about 22:36 with an average wattage of 283. Improved on both last night, dropping a few seconds to 22:32, and 285w. Results from all participants here. I'm happy with that!
Since it's only one lap, there's no real natural split, but there are two corners, and they're fairly easy to spot on the wattage file, so i'll break it down thusly. First corner is about 4.9km in, second corner is about 5.5km, and the distance from there to the finish is about 3.4km (13.8km total, it actually added up!)
Effort #1, Apr 20th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:30 9:10 4:56 22:36
Watts: 305w 267w 274w 283w
HR: 174 182 184 180
RPM: 97 97 99 97
Spd: 34.4 36.4 41.5 36.8
Alright, so that was a windy night (headwind most of the way, huge tailwind on the way back). Second time, much less wind, but a few degrees colder.
Effort #2, May 4th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:24 9:01 5:08 22:32
Watts: 291w 278w 286w 285w
HR: 174 184 186 181
RPM: 99 99 102 100
Spd: 34.7 36.7 40.7 36.8
So that's interesting.. I chilled a bit on the first section, since there wasn't as much of a headwind, although i still jammed it (420-490w for 15-20sec) on the four hills (about the same last time). That gave me a bit more juice for the 2nd and 3rd parts, which were pretty smooth. Last time, i ran out of steam on the 2nd part a bit, and also faced the wind. Slower finish this week, but i put out a lot more watts and didn't have a huge tailwind..so i think i raced both pretty smart. Now to improve on this!
And speaking of improvement, Lysanne took nearly 2.5mins off her time! Guess a couple weeks of training, and riding her TT bike (instead of road bike in the drops) makes a bit of a difference. ;)
Thanks to Brian for making it out this week (just happened to run into him on the way out!) And to Emile, Jamie, Halldor and Lysanne on the first effort. Again, all results here.
Another 8x 1mins PI Session
These things don't get any easier...although this session i totally cleaned up and kicked the wattage! Doing 4x1mins, with 2min rests, then 5min rest and repeat. Again, the last entry has my #'s from the previous go, my best one was 488w, and worst was 410w. The average was 435w. Let's see what went down today:
#1: 505w
#2: 474w
#3: 434w
#4: 415w
Pretty good! First one was actually really high! My all-time PB is 530w!! The 2nd was 14w lower than the best effort from last time! The 4th was a fair bit of a drop, although i completed it (last time, stopped a bit short on #4.) Continuing:
#5: 470w
#6: 440w
#7: 386w (ouch!)
#8: 437w
Not sure what happened on #7...lowest one ever! (Last time, lowest was 410w..) Still, the other three were big improvements. Very surprised with #5! Very happy with that. Average for this session is 445w - that's a pretty nice improvement! HR only peaked around 188bpm today..should be over 190..hmm..
Cadence nice and high for all, in the 110rpm range (first couple at 116). I did have some trouble with this in a few spots, i couldn't find a good gear, i was either over-spinning or grinding.... Well, grinding at 102rpm...this is a real reminder of 'where' my power is: at higher cadences... If i tried to do this at, say, 90rpm, it would be MISERABLE. This is exactly why i can't fair as well on the hills....cadence drops too low, and i can't tap into the power i've got.. These efforts would have kept me in the Spring Series road race, for example...but i couldn't because i was grinding at 50rpm up Snake Hill... And then my repeatability goes down dramatically as well.. I'm such a trackie..haha
One other good thing i pulled from this training session: dig deeper and keep it going! There were a few times where i looked down at my timer, and there were 10 or 20sec left, and i was FRIED. I felt like i should just stop. I did once last session with 5sec to go....but i rallied my will-power, and just kept jamming the pedals, and ignored the hurt. I was pretty happy with myself, in most cases i kept up the strong pace, and it actually began to hurt a wee bit less.....!
Ride back was good, solid effort once my legs returned to normal! Rode in along the water, thought i might catch the Russ Hayes ride as i passed downtown...i motored along until Moss St, and guessed they must be behind me, so turned around, and found them just past Cook, and rode to Richmond with them, chatting with Jamie a bit. It was a huge group, almost 40 people! Lovely evening tho, nice and sunny.
So that was a fun couple days! Rest for tomorrow, and then back to the OBB ride on Saturday (it's been a couple weeks!) And again hoping for some trail time on Sunday.
I heard of this guy, George Laraque, some time ago. Says he's vegan, but he's known as the toughest guy in the NHL (aka a fighter/enforcer).
I pretty much wrote him off, described his as just being a bully (i'm not a hockey fan), etc..
But, just a few minutes ago, i decided to listen to what he had to say:
Okay, he got me. I take back what i said. This guy seems pretty cool. Now, when he talks about veganism and animal rights, i hope he has the good sense to stay away from groups like PETA...
Now, back to me! =)
I've been quite busy, training hard! Raced a Caleb Pike last week, but was pretty poached from my training before (including sprinting on my MTB with the Kids Club for 90mins earlier in the day), so when it kicked up a bit a few laps in, i got shelled... Still, about the best i've done on that course, and i think were i feeling a bit better, i'd have been able to hang in there.
I'm also working on developing a TT for Vic, since the Sidney Velo was shut down. The loop is here, and this is the elevation profile:
We were wondering why it was so slow... It's only 13.8km, but Emile took 20:59 to complete, and my own time was 22:36..barely 36.5kph average speed - that is *slow*!
Looking at the profile it makes sense, we're climbing most of the time! There's about 120m of elevation, and it doesn't feel like it (at least, once off Metchosin Road's rollers), but yeah, it is. So it's a tough course! Just testing it for now, but get a hold of me if you're interested in being a part of this..
Also, for my effort, i averaged ~283w, which was a bit lower than i thought i would get, but then again, i punched it on the rollers, holding ~450w for 30 seconds a few times, and ~550w for 20 seconds on one of them. It was funny, Pro City Jamie started ~30sec behind me, and caught me about 4.5km in..he passed me, gained about 50m, and then was stuck there for the rest of the race. Finish time was ~22 even. So he made 30 seconds in the first 4km, and then only six after that...hehe.. =)
Intervals - PI, Power Intervals
So, my own training right now are nasty 'blood samplers' as i call them, 1min efforts, all-out... 2min rest, then repeat. After 4, i take a few extra mins rest, then repeat. Wattage looked something like:
Not too bad.. My 1min PB is 530w, and i wasn't trying to peak it, but hold a steady high-output (ie, not jam 700w for 30sec, and limp the rest). After the first couple, i was just hoping to hold ~450w. HR peaked at 191bpm. Bleh! Kept going:
#5: 417w
#6: 445w
#7: 410w
#8: 414w
Cooked! HR was only going up to around 185bpm at that point...it hurt.. Kept the cadence high too, most efforts averaging over 110rpm. Nice to get back to doing efforts in that range...
That's the main excitement for the week! Saturday night i did a short ride because during the day i was busy with:
A Vegan Bakesale!
For World Vegan Bakesale Day Victoria, Sarah Kramer helped me organize a fundraising event here for Friends of Animals, and it was a smashing success! Thanks to nearly 20 bakers, super-volunteers and OrganicAthlete Victoria members Scott and Mary, and over $700 in raffle prizes raised by OA Vic, we raised over $1,000 for FoA to print more Vegan Starter Guides (download PDF) for local distribution. It was pretty awesome, check out Sarah's blog posting, and below is a pic from volunteer Jessica:
Om nom nom... Thank you Victoria for helping out!! Craig Richey and Tom Skinner also swung by for some goodies, thanks guys, and congrats on your Blue Team fundraiser! ;)
Training this week: hopefully we'll pull off the 2nd OA-TT Trial (if not, probably more PI efforts), and definitely more PI's on Thursday. OBB ride on Saturday (i've missed two in a row! Previous week tabling for FoA and OA at the Earthwalk), and Sunday will prolly be a shorter road ride, or maybe some time in the dirt if some peeps would want to hit the trails...
In the mean-time, there are links i need to fix on this site. I might try out a new style/look...i designed this one myself, but it's incompatible with all Google doodads and gadgets...so might try something else for a bit, and see how that works...
The thoughtful folks at Blogger decided to drop FTP support, so now my blog is hosted on their server, rather than my own....which means all sorts of stuff is now fouled up...i'll be fixing it as i detect it, but some pages may not load in the meantime.
Well, that was exciting! Last weekend i went over to Vancouver for my first real road racing experience, the finale of the dEVo Spring Series, their stage race consisting of a crit, TT and road race (circuit).
First tho, let's catch up...from last we heard, it was Operation Overkill a week from last Saturday. On the Sunday, i went out to Newton Heights to watch and cheer the 2nd VCL race. (Speaking of VCL, if you're on Facebook, join the group!) Rode longer than i really wanted, back into town with Shailie, Cory and Simon, but hey... TSS for the week was 981 - a new record!! I burned over 8,600kJ of energy, and 375km in 12hr45mins of riding.. *phew*
Tue & Thu were pretty easy days, i think 3hrs between them. I also went for a climb, checked out all the new routes (about 8), fun!! Cleaned several, some gave me some grief!
And then it was Friday... Chatted with Roland, debating whether or not to go. Also chatting with my friend and tv/movie star Stephanie Belding, who's leaving Van to go back to the T-Dot. Wanted to visit her before taking off, and this weekend seemed perfect (and she's into bike racing to boot!) Weather was looking like crap, so i finally decided to commit, and i'd head over, and if it rained, i'd just not race, and watch instead.
Saturday (Apr 3rd) - Crit - 5:30am, alarm goes off. 5:45am - Roland is early. Yip. 6:30, nice and early for the ferry, roads wet but the sky opening up. 9am, on the mainland, roads totally dry. I start to realize that i might be racing...!
We get to Abbotsford and the race course..still dry! Damn, this is it. Sign up, i'm #381 in the B race. Get geared up..it's COLD! Saw Alex Pope, chatted for a bit. Didn't recognize most of the people there... Did a few warm-up laps, legs felt kinda blobby.. They were completely hammered the prior week, and than this week did NOTHING. Far from ideal prep...ahh well. Course was good, one tight turn, the rest of no concern. Very strong wind tho.
Went through staging, the race begins..nothing much to report except it's the typical BC crit. Everyone brakes in the corner, and sprints out. No smoothness. Looking at my power file, i crest 900w over 30 times in 60mins. 600w is peaked nearly 3x that. Gaah. I was fine tho. Made a little attack with 10 laps to go, just as it started to sprinkle. Wanted to see if anyone would make a move, but when i pulled off, the group just recollected itself. Not much fun. I sat back in, practiced getting to the front a few more times, and then dropped back on the final lap to let them duke it out - i had no intention of contesting the sprint on a rainy day..
Result: maybe 20th? About 15 must have been shelled.. Roland finished behind me as well.
Nothing too exciting to report, average speed just under 40kph, 50mins..NP was 262w, but didn't feel particularly maxed out.
Saturday (Apr 3rd) - TT - 4pm, TT out in Fort Langley, lovely countryside.
Course was L shaped. Flat course, nice. Windy as hell tho. You head out in a cross wind, turn right directly into it....then turn-around, and back. My plan was to go hard to the corner, then bury it to the turn-around, try to recover a bit in the tailwind, and then hammer the final section.
And that's what i did! My goal was to average close to 300w.
So - ride to corner: 292w. Ride to turn-around: 301w. Ride back to corner: 280w. Final stretch: 305w. Managed to hold 341w for the final minute as well. Total average was 295w - a new PB for that length of time! Yay - i'm stronger!
Not bad...wish i'd put out a bit more just before the turn-around, but otherwise that was well-ridden. Unfortunately, my time and result did not reflect this.
Even looking at the C's, i wouldn't scratch the Top 10. 19th if i raced A. WTF?
All i can blame it on is aerodynamics. Typically in the Sidney Velo TT, on an ideal day, i'd end up 30 seconds behind Peter Lawless (Tripleshot), and Roland would finish 30 seconds behind me. On this day, Peter was ahead by a minute, and Roland was ahead by 30 seconds. The difference being that i didn't use an aero helmet or front wheel (never have for rear wheel.) I also chose a more 'comfortable' position for my aero bars, rather than lower.. Rollie and Pete both had helmets and wheels (and full TT bikes..but i'm used to competing with them on a road bike.)
Spoke with the A winner, Mike Sidic (H&R Block) - he finished with a 15:31 - insane! Over 3mins faster. Now get this - his average power was 380w - 85w higher than me. It's not really *that* much. Yet it made 3min difference over 12km. I really think it must have been aerodynamics, because that's fairly decent output..
Sunday - Road (Circuit) Race - Actually felt pretty good. Course was tough. 10 laps, just over 10km per lap. Wind. Lots more wind. And a climb from hell, called 'Snake'. For Victoria people, imagine doing the main steep section on Newton Heights, then there's a steeper switchback that connects to the south side of King George Terrace. BROOOOOOTAL.
This course required something i haven't been working on at all..being able to punch it (400w in my case) for over a minute to speed up the climb.
I held on for 3 laps, but then fell off. After the hill was a long section that slowly descended, then the 'drop', and back to the flats. That descent was about the only place there was no headwind. Hurray.
So yeah, i was off, caught a few other shelled folk, and we worked together. Some others came and went..ended it with one lap to go, no point in doing another lap. I was pretty fried by the end, did a lot of work. Fun to chat with Rachel Canning for a bit, who i haven't seen in a long time (we won a Bronze medal together in the '08 Track Provincial Championships in the Open Madison. ;)
I was rather disappointed with that, but when i got home and looked at the numbers, i wasn't so sad. I got a new 1hr PB: 257w (up from 253w). The Normalized Power for that hour was 284w. WOWWIE. (My threshold is at 265w.) Looking at the file, there wasn't much coasting...and that include the last lap i hung in with the pack, and then was solo/chasing for the rest of the time. 2hr wattage was a PB as well, at 240w (up 4w.) NP was 268w. That's pretty freaking big for me, next highest is about 246w NP over 2hrs. If the hill were a bit shorter, i prolly wouldn't have had any trouble hanging in until the finish. It was jamming 400w for a minute that got me..but i'll have that in my toolbelt later this summer..
So, overall happy with my performance!
Results: unsure, maybe around 15th? Looked like a LOT of people dropped out.
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