2010 Training Has Begun

Just rolled through a solid patch of training, and i can now say that my training plan for 2010 has officially begun!

I'm happy to say that i've managed to carry a lot of my fitness over from the fall/winter, although it wasn't really 'intentional'... Through December, my plan was to ride when i felt like it...i didn't do any intervals, or any big efforts besides a few Saturday rides, but whatever i did, i'm feeling pretty solid right now...hopefully that's a good thing!

Here's how the last few days played out:

Wednesday - Climbing Gym


Another session with Kelly, felt surprisingly good! Started working on the 10d's....owie.

Thursday - 25min Tempo

So this is the 'beginning'...i dipped my toe into the water with a 25mins Tempo session (in the CTS training program, Tempo workouts are lower-cadence, long efforts. 70-75rpm, and go from 25-60mins, 80-85% of Field Test power.)

It's a good workout for building up leg strength, muscular endurance, sustained power, etc.. The power range i'm aiming for is 270-280w. It might be a little high for me, i haven't done a field test in ages, but i've got a pretty good idea where i'm at. It's hard to do as subscribed, not because of the workout itself, but finding a long stretch of flat or uphill terrain. Once you're going downhill, your cadence goes up too much.

Typically i start these at the bottom of the hill on Martindale (takes me ~40mins to get there, good warm-up), and then ride out to Sidney. Unfortunately, i usually have to stop at the lights passing through Sidney, but that's about 20-25mins of the interval, and quality ride-time there. Once across the highway, will continue either out and around, or up towards Panarama, depending on how long i need to go for. I can get a full hour in somewhere around Brentwood.

Anyway, my 26mins Tempo interval looked something like this in the end:

Ave Wts: 265
Ave HR: 169
Ave Cad: 71
Ave Spd: 33kph

And the full ride:

 Entire workout (227 watts):
    Duration:      2:17:54 (2:20:34)
    Work:          1863 kJ
    TSS:           194.9 (intensity factor 0.925)
    Norm Power:    240
    VI:            1.06
    Distance:      70.951 km
                        Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    812    227     watts
    Heart Rate:      87    182    160     bpm
    Cadence:         27    126    89     rpm
    Speed:           0    59    31.0     kph

Felt really solid riding, got out on the Ridley as well...it's feeling REALLY good to ride. I was pretty happy with these numbers. Damn fine bike.

Note that i got a new PB! My 2hr PB has gone up from 233w (on July 1st) to 236w.

Friday - Rest Day!

Opted to take it off completely...phew!

Saturday - Brain Train and Partial OBB

Sat morning the PCC offered a free seminar on training with power, it was pretty rudimentary, but i was keen to see what they had to say.  As i suspected, i was already familiar with virtually the entire presentation, but i did get a few tips, including one that i've already been doing: keeping the HR strap on...it's a good idea to check to see if the HR is too low (or high!), as indications of under-training, or over-training. Watts are amazing of course, but sometimes it's helpful to keep an eye on the other data too.

So i rode out to the PCC, which was ~35mins, and from there at 11am cut back across to Interurban and rode the route 'backwards' to meet up with the OBB ride.

Caught the first smaller group that had taken Wain Rd in Sidney, rode with them a few min, then turned around, and went back to ride with the 'main' group, and it was big with lotsa strong peeps! Nice to see!

I was feeling pretty darn fresh, so i discounted myself from contending for the sprint...

When we got up around Hartland, Emile took off of course.. Steve Bachup was sort of floating in the middle...i was several bikes back so i watched him launch off...no one else was responding, so i figured i'd give it a go. Sprinted away, and quickly found myself on Emile's wheel.  Sat there for a moment, noticed he wasn't moving *too* fast, and i was still feeling peppy, so i pulled up past him and led him (and Steve, who had also bridged) up the hills past the Observatory. We had a sizeable gap, tho Mike Elkink was chasing and obviously wanted to play.

At the top Emile took over again, and i pulled off, and onto Steve's wheel...blech! No fender extender!! I hung back a few feet to avoid the spray at 50+kph down the hill. We turned onto Interurban, and i believe Mike had bridged up by then, the group was a ways back.

We worked around a bit more, but i was getting grossed out by the spray (Mike was another guilty party!), and so pulled out of the group and eased off to wait for the main pack. By Camosun Interurban, they were caught up, and so i began another pull, to bridge them up to the leaders.

We hit the corner leading into the first hump, and i look back, and no one's there!!! The group is charging towards me ~50m back! WTF? I did a pull for nothing..hahaha..  I just kept riding, and they all bomb past... Didn't see who won the sprint, but i'd guess it were Mike, he's a very strong sprinter.

Continued in and around the water, and up to the Uplands to try and get a few more miles in for the day. A fair bit shorter, km-wise, but the TSS for the day was up there with an easier OBB ride:

 Entire workout (203 watts):
    Duration:      2:24:59 (4:32:27)
    Work:          1749 kJ
    TSS:           199.5 (intensity factor 0.913)
    Norm Power:    237
    VI:            1.17
    Distance:      72.036 km
                       Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    1132    203     watts
    Cadence:         25    131    90     rpm
    Speed:           0    62.7    30.0     kph

Sunday - 3.5hr EM w/Kevin

Kevin Park's back in Vic, yay! Got out for a great ride with him, nice to catch up. Also got to show off the Ridley..hehe.. Rode the main 'Burnside' loop, cutting early onto Wain Rd to keep it from getting too long. Looking forward to more rides with Kev.  =)

This was also the first 'metric century' ride on the Ridley, over 100km. Felt great!! Legs starting to feel tired in the final hour, but that's to be expected (and somehow held solid watts..peak hour was actually the final hour! Averaged 222w for that period.)

Entire workout (194 watts):
    Duration:      3:33:08 (3:48:52)
    Work:          2475 kJ
    TSS:           245.6 (intensity factor 0.833)
    Norm Power:    217
    VI:            1.11
    Distance:      104.318 km
                        Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    922    194     watts
    Heart Rate:      88    176    145     bpm
    Cadence:         25    126    91     rpm
    Speed:           3.7    58.1    29.5     kph

It's amazing how much doing a 10min cool-down does to drop the numbers! If i select the 100km before i end the ride, the numbers look like: 3:21, ave 199w (219w NP), 29.9kph. 10mins can really drop the #'s!

Anyway, nice to get a long ride in on the bike! It's gonna be a wicked summer.

Planning to climb this afternoon, another Tempo session tomorrow, maybe 30mins, climb on Wed, 35min T on Thursday, and then prolly rest...

Oh, i've also had my PowerTap (SL wired) for over 3yrs now! The rim has held up amazingly well, i got a ceramic-coated Mavic OpenPro. The ceramic is wearing off a bit in one spot, but otherwise that's 3yrs of solid training and racing...not too shabby.

I was thinking that they could *easily* devise a way to turn a wired PT into a wireless.. All you'd need is a transmitter that has a 'fin' (that reads the hub) and a cadence sensor, both could sit on the non-drive chainstay, and that could take the signal and transmit it via ANT+. A little unit like that could turn any wired PT into a wireless...i'd *totally* buy one or two of those things.... Anyway..

Keep it rolling!!

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