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Thursday, May 06, 2010

Long Interval, Short Interval, 100% Either Way!

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.

A few links in the meantime:

Neato Clicky Clicky Time

RIP9 Vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4QKXO01fvc
Hey, it's my MTB! Same color too! Find out why the RIP9 is simply the best MTB.

Ben Day's Tapeworm
http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/05/news/ben-days-unwanted-passenger_114040
This is disgusting. Vegans rarely get tapeworms, btw.

Maple Syrup Anti-Oxidants
http://www.thisdishisvegetarian.com/2010/03/0263canadian-maple-syrup-found-to.html
Kinda neat, more reasons to enjoy this sweetener. =)

Podcast: Sam Harris picks a fight with God
http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2010/02/12/sam-harris-picks-a-fight-with-god/
Love how consistently concise and clear Sam Harris is.. Talking about religion and morality, worth the listen.

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    Name:
    Dave Shishkoff
    aka Dave Noisy
    Location:
    Victoria, BC
    Canada

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