Sprinting Hurts! -- Log

So this week i'm focusing on sprints...ouch..they *hurt*!!

I go out for a regular 2hr EM ride, and throw in 6 sprint efforts, leaving 10mins between each one for recovery (very important - you can sprint better, and thus train better, if you're recovered.) Each sprint is 12-15 seconds, biggest gear, as hard as i can...it's bizarre how this can tire me more than riding for 4hrs...!! After each effort, i sit there watching my HR, as it just sits at 190-193 for several seconds....pretty wild!

Seems to be doing something tho - legs seem to be taking on a new, bigger shape, and i feel stronger..should have started doing this long ago..ahh well! Legs are much more achey afterwards too...

Got another week of these, then will focus on hill climbs for a couple weeks...eeep...

Also, been resting at least 2 days a week, that seems to be a remarkably helpful thing too...i feel much more strong when i head out now. Guess there's something to that..hahah.. Still tho, i enjoy getting out 6-7 days a week, what can i say!!!

In the last week:

Sat (Sept 17th) - went to watch the Oak Bay crit, it was a short course (750m), and riders kept pedaling through the corners (clipping..) - no accidents tho.

Met with Kevin there, and we headed up the waterfront (frozen!! Starting to get cool here..) and did that loop. On the way back into town on the Goose, we ran into Sarah, who was just heading out for a ride..funny that! So she hooked up with us, and i was just gonna ride down to K's and head home, but i ended up doing the water again..haha.. My planned 2hr ride turned into 3.5hrs - pretty cool.

Sun - Jumped in with the BSide ride, nothing too exciting to report, did the full route.

Mon - noodled out to the track in case anyone else went out, it was booked by the Lacrosse folks, so i kept on riding and got a nice Recovery ride in.

Tue - did a 2hr EM ride w/Sarah and Andy (good to have him out again! He's now training for a half-marathon..gaaaaah), did my first six sprints, felt pretty good! I had my arms in a bit of a strange position (basically straight at the elbow in the drops) which is handy when starting a sprint, but not so great when you're already rolling.. The way my bars are shaped, i ended up getting bruises just above my wrists, since i was pressing there on the bars..d'oh!

It's getting dark early now, gonna have to bring lights, and dress more warmly..

Wed - rest day!

Thu - another 2hr EM w/6 sprints, with Kevin. Pretty high-pace most of the ride, my average was 157bpm...which is pretty high..usually closer to 145 for this type of ride. Felt *great* tho, so just went with it.

Rest day Friday, then prolly gonna ride Shawnigan with these guys on Sat, and BSide on Sun...then more sprints Tue and Thu.

Gonna add a new feature to my entries, since music is a big part of my riding, should be interesting to see what sticks over time:

Current Albums in the MuVo

Listening to recent albums mainly:

* Beck - Guero
* Death Cab - Plans
* Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better (new one)
* Pinback - Blue Screen Life
* Trail of Dead - Worlds Apart (love, love, love it for rides!!)
* Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site

(These are the albums currently in my Creative MuVo, 512mb MP3 player. I just set it to 'random' and soak up the tunes on my rides.. The MuVo is the best flash-based MP3 player on the planet, btw!)

Days of Rest -- Log

Hello world!

Been taking a bit easy the last few weeks, taking a couple days off a week, as track season is ending. There's a crit in Oak Bay tomorrow, but i've decided not to enter.. Seems like it could be rather sketchy (Cat 1,2,3 both men and women together), and i'm not sure what Cops for Cancer spends their donations on (ie, vivisection) - and it's a fundraiser for them. So, best to just sit out and watch.

Lessee what i've been up to..be sure to read about the races from last night, very fun!

Tue (Sept 6th) - whoa, gotta get in the way-back machine!! 2hr EM ride w/Kevin, inc. 40mins Temp

Wed - rest day!

Thu - race night at the track! Last night that counts towards points... I'm far enough ahead that i'm guaranteed 3rd place overall in the local standings, woohoo!!!

The night was good, got 2nd in the Scratch race - Chad took off (twice), on the second time we let him go ahead...with four laps left, Kevin was in front of me and gunned it, and we broke away and pursued Chad, tho didn't get more than 5 meters close...still, got 2nd! Good call by Kevin! Also got 4th in the Points race (tied with Matt, but he had more 1st's), nothing to recall, was a good race...and the end of the season pretty much!

Fri - rest!

Sat - did half a BSide ride, had to be back in town to tell people Canada needs to stop killing seals, and also promote that Paul Watson was in town. He gave a talk on Sun nite, and it was surprisingly good. He said 'i believe eating any creature from the sea is a crime', and at the end of the talk, i asked if he could speak on this more, and how veganism is direct action. And he did. =)

Sun - full BSide ride, only Kevin and i carried on for the water, and i did the full route around.

Mon - went to the track, did a few sprints, including Matched sprints, was fun.

Tue (Sept 13th) - did my third CTS field test. Kind of a weird one.. My average HR went up a few BPM (this is what i use to base all my training on) but i actually rode a tad slower, and not quite as far... I'm guessing it might have been the cooler weather. New #'s mean i get to ride a little harder when i train now, woot!

Wed - rest-a-roo

Thu - Fun races at the track, plus BBQ! Since it's our last official night, we did all fun races (some of which i'll move over to Mystery Nights!)

First up was what we called a 'Chuckwagon' Race! We split the bunch (~20 peeps, all levels) into three teams, and the idea of the race is that the team that has all their riders cross the line first wins!

We started off just blocking...we lined up in front of the pack..pretty funny! After that, i got all my guys (the Blanks, since we didn't get the green or red armbands) all lined up behind me, and we just rode as a train. It was a 15 lap race, and off the top there was a small break...which of course is pointless in this race -- you need to keep your team together!

So i just pursued at a steady rate, and caught the guys at the front (towing my Blanks, as well as a ton of riders from the other teams.) They pulled through, then there was another attack, and again, i just towed the line back up... By then, there were maybe 4 laps to go, so i just sat at the front, with all my guys behind me, and slowly upped the pace.. Started at about 40kph, then by the last lap had it over 45kph....and my plan worked perfectly!

All the other racers were trying to get by my 'Chuckwagon', and we won pretty handily. =)

Next up was the 3 Minute Race. It's where we do a neutral lap, then the bell goes, and the timer starts. No one has a clock or computer, and what happens is after the next bell (at 3mins), it's one more lap.

Thing is, if you cross the line before the 3Min mark, you're OUT! So it's sort of a 'slow' race. Well, not really.

I was keeping track of the time in my head..or trying to. Oddly, i got it wrong, and crossed the line a little too early...gaah! (Last year i believe i won this race..heh..)

The third race of the night was a Reversed Order Win'n'Out. It's a Win'n'Out (first person over the line every other lap wins, starting with 1st, etc..) except the order is reversed - the first lap gets you 5th, then 4th, etc..

Unfortunately a few people got this mixed up, and thought they had to be, say, 4th over the line. That seems like crazyness to me!!

Anyway, i went for 2nd, and got it uncontested due to this misunderstanding from others. Ahh well.

Final race was a 2 Lap One-Legged Race, which was HILARIOUS! If you're ever out on the road, and wanna do something really different, get the other riders with your to have a 1 legged race to a signpost or something, it's really worth it..!!

We started the race pretty steady, some guys were actually bobbing out of their seats trying to 'sprint'. Chad was up at the front, which was no surprise, as he's had the most experience doing this. (He toured across Canada, and had some sort of malfunction with a crank, and ended up riding an insane THREE DAYS through the mountains with one leg..!!)

So after the first lap i had cruised by everyone else, and caught up to Chad....got in his draft for a few seconds to recover. (We were going about 18kph..heh..) I then attacked!! Okay, pedaled harder. You can't really attack with one leg. I got beside him, but then i started to run out of steam...we were coming through the final corner..prolly topping 21kph..!!! I started to drop off a bit, and came in second again behind him...good job Chad!!

And that's probably it for racing on the track this year!! Had a great time, got some pleasing results, and it was really good to race against all these guys. =)

So, now it's time to nestle into some fall/winter training routines...

On another note, there were a couple interesting articles in the latest newsletter from Chris Carmichael:

• Interesting article on caffein, and how it can improve your performance...i was very surprised by this, and will prolly try it out.
• Also, an article on carbohydrates and mood, and how they can affect you, and actually make you happier..!! One more reason to avoid low-carb diets.

Looking forward to a couple good rides this weekend!

In Pursuit of Trackie-ness -- Log

Howdy howdy howdy!

Been a little while since the last update, i've been busy...moved, and other going-ons to make life busy and blogless!

So, lessee what's been going on:

Fri (Aug 26th) - 2hr EM ride, nothing special.

Sat - 3.5hr EM ride w/Sarah and Marcus, had some good sprints in there.

Sun - 2.5hr BSide ride, had to cut it short, blew tire sidewall...

Mon - off/rest/rainy so no sprint nite

Tue - 2hr EM ride w/Kevin

Wed - off/moved!

Thu - Sprint Nite @ Track, felt wiped because i hadn't eaten much for the last couple days... Got 5th in a short scratch race, somehow got a 3rd in the Chariot, and 5th in the Win'n'Out (gaaah!)

Fri (Sept 2nd) - light spin with a few other trackies, did an hour or so solo as well.

Sat - BSide ride, good clip (~35kph) for the first 2hrs, then solo for the last (no one wanted to do the waterfront - wusses!)

Sun - BSide Part Deux, rainy day, faster guys took off, i sat on for a bit, sucking wheel splash, decided it wasn't worth it, so rode solo, doing some Tempo work...then somehow met up with them again on Land's End (maybe someone got a flat..they were quite a bit ahead of me..) sat in for another 30mins, rain (and splash) started again, and i realized i forgot my water bottles!!! Took the Lockside paths back into town, still managed 75km..with no water..heh.. Of course it was raining!

Mon - Pursuits at the track..they messed-up my timing, but tell me i got a 4:04 (or so) on my 3km pursuit...!! My previous record was 4:26, so i'm a bit doubtful....but unofficially my 3km time is around 4:04...wowwee..! It actually felt pretty good. No aero bars, but i didn't go out too hard, and kept it nice and steady..i believe i managed to maintain ~44kph...which is pretty good for me. Now i gotta get that up to 50kph, and i'll start to do alright in the event. =)

So, times are changing around here.. Only another week or two of track racing..which is a shame. Then i'll be settling into my fall/winter training schedule...which should be pretty good.

Got a couple weeks of Tempo rides coming up...then prolly hills (hello Observatory!) and sprints (hello Durrance Lake hill!) Rinse and repeat!

Also, i finally got myself a flash-based MP3 player! A real simple unit, the Creative MuVo, Basic Version.

It has all the features i was looking for:

* 512MB (over 4hrs of MP3's, enough for most rides)

* AAA battery (easy to change, unlike Shuffle, etc..)

* No Software required! (It's recognized by computers as an external drive, so you can just copy over the music files you want, since i sort them myself.)

* Flash drive!! (Can use to easily move files around, etc.. Handy to transfer songs to too, since i've got a USB port built into my keyboard.)

Wonderful little beastie! And just for fun, i'm gonna try out listening to audio books...i've already got a Star Trek one, as well as The Dancing Wu Li Masters. I'm a little worried it might come off as uninspiring tho, listening to a book while riding... We shall see!

Some time soon i'll start a page listing albums which are great to listen to while riding...maybe books too...more soon!