Working Hard to Get Dropped

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.

Fun number are my peak hour and the entire ride:

Peak 60min (236 watts):
    Duration:      1:00:16
    Work:          848 kJ
    TSS:           105.3 (intensity factor 1.026)
    Norm Power:    274
    VI:            1.16
    Distance:      36.087 km
                     Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0      781    236     watts
    Heart Rate:      119    189    171     bpm
    Cadence:         35     124    98     rpm
    Speed:           4.4    60.7    36.1     kph

274 NP - yow! That's some serious work, as indicated by my average HR: 171bpm.

Full ride:

 Entire workout (194 watts):
    Duration:      2:55:36
    Work:          2031 kJ
    TSS:           238.8 (intensity factor 0.908)
    Norm Power:    242
    VI:            1.25
    Distance:      94.295 km
                     Min   Max    Avg
    Power:           0    1033    194     watts
    Heart Rate:      91    189    158     bpm
    Cadence:         26    126    94     rpm
    Speed:           3.7   65.2   32.5     kph

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:

 Entire workout (174 watts):
    Duration:      2:37:58
    Work:          1638 kJ
    TSS:           196.6 (intensity factor 0.869)
    Norm Power:    232
    VI:            1.33
    Distance:      72.549 km
                    Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0     954    174     watts
    Heart Rate:      71    193    157     bpm
    Cadence:         23    128    86     rpm
    Speed:           4     66.9   27.8     kph

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.

And the final feature for this blog entry:

Links To Other Thinks

3 Race Weekend
http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=18934
I'm excited for this weekend! I think i might skip the Saturday road race, and focus on the TT and Crit on Sunday.

Grill Baby Grill
http://janinebandcroft.blogspot.com/2010/05/grill-baby-grill.html
Not often i find a piece discussing 'saving salmon' that i agree with, but this one hits the vital point everyone else misses: stop eating salmon. I Tweeted this as well:

If @SalmonAreSacred, why are they stolen from their homes, murdered, and their flesh consumed? Is that really 'sacred'?

In 2009 PETA rakes in $34 million, but only saves 8 animals
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/03/17/peta-rakes-in-34-million-but-only-saves-8-animals/
I hope no one ever mistakes me for a PETA supporter. This group is a fraud in the animal rights world, killing nearly every animal they 'rescued'...not to mention all their other hair-brained ideas.

Anyway...

Keep the rubber side down, fuzzy side up! =)

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