The Wheels on the Bike Go Round and Round -- Log

Happy March, gentle readers!

I'm still a busy bee on the bike...now moved into the second 'section' of my bike training, which involves mostly muscle-building excercises - hill repeats and lower-cadence riding. I think this is my most favorite part of training...for some reason i really enjoy hill repeats. (I guess that makes me a really baaaad trackie..)

Had a weird experience on Thursday as well - i'm at the Obervatory, doing my repeats there...and for my first, third, fourth and fifth repeats, i ended up hitting my turn-around point within' the same few feet (i ride up for six mins, then go back down and repeat.) Last one i came up a little short... This is me trying to maintain the same cadence and heart rate.... Maybe only i think it's weird. ;)

It was snowing on Thu as well - i managed to escape into a 2.5hr window of sunnyness. =)

Here's some other oddness - on Wednesday i was on the rollers, and watching part of the 2005 Giro. It gets to a section with lots of downhilling/decending...you know, where the camera motorbike is right behind the racer, and all you see is this guy in front of you, and the road flying at you....

I nearly flew off my rollers!! It was so bizarre! I see a corner coming, and instinctively start to lean over...eeeps! I eventually had to stop watching for a few seconds at a time to avoid this...hilarious!

While i'm going through exciting moments during my riding days, i should also mention that on Tuesday my front wheel finally blew! I'm really surprised it lasted this long.. It came with my bike back in Oct 2001, and i've been riding it ever since! The rear died about a year ago, i guess that says something about my braking habits, eh?

Anyway, i was luckily just starting to accelerate from a stop, and BOOM - it crackles, part of the rim peels off, and of course blows the tube. Luckily, the tire is fine. (The rear ended up shreadding the tire...of course i was going downhill at the time and had to run into the ditch to stop!) I ended up bussing home. Felt kinda funny decked out in spandex, sitting there..heh..

I'll be replacing it with the same hoop, a Mavic Open Pro. Gonna get some lighter double-butted spokes this time tho, from the fantastic wheel-builders over at Fairfield Bikes. (Thanks to Kevin for lending me a rim in the mean time!)

I'm also getting my 'Klingon' markings on my forehead with all this sun. You know. Where the sun shines through and gives me a tan where the vents are. So i have these weird pointy sections of tanned skin on my forehead. Wonderful!

I've also started working on my Goals For 2006 - fun stuff! I have no idea how much i'll be able to accomplish, if i'm even capable of it....but why not try!

So, here's what i've got so far:

* get under 5:25 in the 4km pursuit on the track (pb is around 5:40) (UPDATED to reflect realistic times..heh..)

* finish in the top 3 in weekly racing several times, if not consistantly!

* get well under 25min in weekly 18km TT (pb 26:03)

* starting road racing, esp. bigger races....if i get to enough, break out of Cat4

* get enough REST this year!! (I rode a lot last year, several times over the summer would ride /race 14+ days in a row without a break!)

* get much closer to a podium position in the Provincials in late Aug

* get some much longer rides in...160km is around my 'top', would like to hit 200-250km. (Longer rides feel fine, i just haven't actually tried, usually no one wants to head out that long!)

These are off the top of my head...let's see how it goes!

What have i been doing:

Tue (Feb 28th) - 2hr FM ride, plus a workout at the gym, hammering the legs, bi's and tri's.

Wed - 1hr on the rollers, had some ankle/achilles pain, seems fine now

Thu - 2hr FM w/stomps, plus gym, more legs plus back and shoulders.

Fri - Rest day!

Sat - 3hr FM w/60m RS (race sim) - holy crap, i went out and spent an hour riding as hard as i could!! I managed to keep my HR in the 176-184bpm range the entire time, and threw in a few sprints, including a final one i thought i was going to die on...haha.. I wasn't particularly fast, but i am feeling steady and strong...i think i'm where i should be, training-wise, lots of time to get into intensity.

Sun - 2hr FM, my last FM ride until the fall...back to EM intensity!

Mon - rest day!

Tue (Mar 7th) - 2hr EM, (well, actually only 1:44, since my rim blew. ;) - first MT (muscle tension) workout, did 6x5min reps.

Also went to the gym, stepups are coming along well, i'm up to 80lbs, and i was finding 12 reps a challenge.. I'm only planning on spending a few more weeks in the gym, so it's time to crank the weight, and get into the 3-6 rep range...

Wed - 45m EM on rollers, cadence up around 115rpm the entire time, good legwork.

Thu - 2.25hr EM w/6x6min MT, only supposed to do 5min, but i like so much i did 6..ha! Took it easy at the gym, didn't do any leg weights, aiming to recover as much as possible from the MT's...but that's all the rest i get until i'm outta there!

Fri - rest day!!

Sat - 2.5hr EM w/45m Tempo. Ride w/Kevin. I thought we were going slow, but i just logged my #'s, and we averaged over 29kph. There was also a moment of funny where we were on a slight descent, and had a tailwind, and i couldn't keep my Tempo state (70-75rpm, ~157bpm hr), i was in my biggest gear and spinning ~90rpm, and my HR was down around 130...so Kevin, being the smart guy he is, held onto my vest and slowed me down. What a great guy, sacrificing the quality of his ride so i can maintain mine. ;)

Tomorrow, and next week has a bunch more MT and Tempo rides, woohoo! There's a road race tomorrow as well, the first of the weeklies season, but i'm gonna pass and stick with my training program. I'm guessing i've got hills this week instead of Race Sim for a reason, and will likely cash in that card next week. ;)

Hey, if you're still reading, do you actually read my 'Muvo' music reports? No one's really said anything, so if you're out there, and care about what i'm listening to, lemme know...otherwise i think i might just skip on that part of my update....

Over and out, keep on rolling!!

PS - I found this photo in my the old GVVA files, it's Tanya Dubnicoff, Canadian Track Champ, riding my track bike at the Victoria track in 2001. =)