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Sunday, June 06, 2010

Not What I Was Hoping For

Bastion Square has come and gone, i'm a bit disappointed in my performance, but hey..

Let's pick up from whence we last blogged..

Took the Monday after the Master's races off, as usual. (Monday is a regular rest day.) Tuesday went for a fairly chill 1.75hr ride. Wed was Kid's Club, out tooting around the Dump for under an hour. Thursday chilled.

Friday, May 28th - Bear Mountain HC

That was a laugh!

I thought i'd try a different strategy...i'd go extra hard (ie, 350w) in the steeper parts, and easier (220-240w) in the faster sections.

Well, i pulled off the latter no prob. The funny part was that i didn't really go all that harder on the steeper sections, and had WAY too much come the end. For the last 14 seconds up the final steep bit, i blasted away at nearly 600w. That shouldn't happen in a 10min hill climb...i should be doing everything i can to be pushing 350w!!

So yeah, i went at it waaaay too easily. 311w average over 11mins. Yes, 11mins. I know i`m not a hill climber, but that`s just awful. I should have easily been under 10:30 (previous two times under this), and the watts should have been over 325w... I think i was thrown off with my cadence, which was actually well over 60rpm, and somewhat closer to my `comfort zone` (although really it`s up over 100rpm!) Feeling like i could sit and pedal, i remained seated and didn`t stand up, which would have boosted my output.

Oh well. I`m not going to beat myself up over a hill climb, although this was pretty ridic. =P

One other funny story from this: I`m just getting over the first hump and i hear heavy breathing and creaking behind me, and my 30 second person caught me. What`s scary is that it was only 1:24 into my effort. Dude caught me in literally 54 seconds!!! Predictably, he made it about 20m in front of me, and then hovered there for a couple minutes. Then he started to make some ground again... Hilarious tho. =P

Sat - Solo Ride

Pre-Bastion ride, just did an hour, with a couple all-out 1min efforts. By now i was looking at my WKO+ numbers, worried i hadn`t quite logged enough time in the lead-up week...TSS was pretty low.

Sun - Bastion Square (Cat 3)

Got in an okay warm-up. Weather wasn`t too great, cool, wore arm and leg warmers.

Started in 2nd row, on the inside (left) side. About 30 peeps in the race.

Started great, got around the corner quick and in the front of the pack. Cruised around, felt comfortable. Pace was good. People were cornering pretty well, although i`d take a better line through the corners and save energy. Occasionally people would try to corner 2-3 abreast..gaaah..

At about 10`08 in, there was a crash at `Kitty Crash Corner` (corner 1, just around from the start line, could tell due to huge drop in speed in my power file) that happened right beside me. Heard carbon crunch, dodged a falling body...got thrown off a bit, and the pack accelerated, and so i chased for a lap or two, and caught back on. Hung in for a lap, then another jump for a prime...gaaah! I started to fall off the back, and lost contact and chased for a couple laps, just off the back.

Now this is the part where doubt really comes in....i`d been pushing it to hang in there, NP was around 300w of chasing...and the first 10 min was 285w AP...! Not out of my range, but certainly close to my limits. So, if i really gunned it to reconnect, would i have been able to get into the pack and recover? Or would i have been shot out even harder?

Who knows... Anyway, i chased for over 4mins, looked back and saw Chad and another rider chasing me, so i eased off and joined in with their chase. We kept it going for another 11mins, my AP was 253w there (NP284w). Maintained 38.1kph, the first 10mins was 39.9kph, to give an idea of the pack speed. Chad was responsible for keeping the pace up, long and strong pulls! I tried to keep it up as well.

Anyway, we were pulled about 28mins in. Here`s the full power data:

 Crit:
    Duration:      27:50
    Work:          437 kJ
    TSS:           57.2 (intensity factor 1.111)
    Norm Power:    299
    VI:            1.14
    Distance:      17.933 km
                    Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    999    262     watts
    Heart Rate:      n/a    n/a    n/a     bpm
    Cadence:         38    133    101     rpm
    Speed:           8.2    51.6    38.7     kph


Oops - guess i forgot to make sure the PowerTap CPU picked up my HR...it really sucks at reconnecting if the signal is lost (ie, you walk away from the bike a minute.) The Garmin Edge500 picks it up very quickly and easily..

Pretty good numbers for me, peak 5min was 312w (AP), so wasn`t a walk in the park..

Sucked watching, but happy for my buds Zach who got 3rd, and Tom who finished 9th - he`s having a tremendous first year of racing! The results from my race are here, and all the details here.

My summary was `Not Racing Makes Racing Hard`...perhaps if i`d had a few more solid races under my belt, this would have gone better (pretty much my only prep was the Master`s crit the day before.)

Whatev`s, it`s just bike racing!!!

And a pic, courtesy of Duane:



Tue - TTT Practice, 2.5hr EM

I think i`ve mentioned the Tripleshot/Masters Team Time Trial (TTT) in a previous entry..it's this next Sunday (June 13th), and i've got a solid team for this, with Chad, Steve Doreen (he's back!) and Zach Young (who got 3rd at Bastion.) I'm a little worried i'm going to slow these guys up!

Anyway, we practiced the TTT turn, which is pretty cool. The front rider goes wide, and each rider behind goes one more 'slot' inside, so the 4th rider is doing the most sharp turn, but takes over the front of the group, and then everyone slots back in. Pretty fun! We'll have to do several of these on the Nanaimo River Rd course (i raced it in the ITT last entry, you can check the course profile, there's a fair bit of ascending...) It's 60km total, and a 20km out-and-back route.

After practicing this for a while, Steve and i continued on, did the Lagoon Loop, plus rode the OA-TT course. Got sprinkled on for the return ride...just light tho.

Here's the Garmin file:



Wed - Kid's Club, MTB Ride

Was out at the Dump for another Kid's Club session. Led another Skills class, and they pick up skills pretty quick! Fun to watch them progress, and ride down pretty scary stuff!!! (Including the descent into the TTA.) I know adults that won't ride that! And they're Grade 4-5 kids on fairly dinky bikes...haha..

Met with Steve and Chelsea afterwards, and we got out for more trailtime, did the typical 'Dave's Loop', which was nice, as i haven't been out there forever!

Rode back as well. Happy to get in another MTB ride. More Garmin nonsense:



If you're looking for a non-road ride out, you can see a lot of the trails we took on there.

Thu - 300w Returns

You may recall last summer i spent a lot of time riding at 300w, and i thought i'd jump back into it. Aimed for 2x 2x8mins@300w, 1min rest, 10min rest between sets.

Opted to try out the Tripleshot morning loop, which is around the Uplands/Iroquois golf course near UVic (see map). It's a bit busy during the day, so waited until after 6pm. I headed out on the water to catch the Russ Hayes group, and played with them until we hit the Uplands. Lysanne was shelled, so i waited for her at the top of the hill, and invited her to tag along with me...misery loves company. =)

Headed up, and got started. First one didn't feel too bad. Second was tough, nearly quit halfway through, but carried on. Took the longer break, started the 3rd, felt pretty good. Took another longer break, but Lysanne talked me into doing a 4th, which was good. Mission accomplished! The last didn't feel too bad either.

Thought i was holding the wattage, but it turned out i was a bit low, averaging 280-284w. Not gonna complain tho, still good efforts, and getting back into these. I think i was thrown off by the speed tho! We were averaging over 38kph most of the time, and i'm so used to slower intervals now...haha..so i think i held back a bit. Will pick it up next time. ;)

Anyway, here's the #'s for each effort:

#1
Ave Wts: 283
Ave HR: 173
Max HR: 181
Ave Cad: 106
Ave Spd: 37.4

#2
Ave Wts: 282
Ave HR: 179
Max HR: 184
Ave Cad: 107
Ave Spd: 38.5

#3
Ave Wts: 282
Ave HR: 172
Max HR: 180
Ave Cad: 100
Ave Spd: 37.6

#4
Ave Wts: 280
Ave HR: 168
Max HR: 177
Ave Cad: 98
Ave Spd: 37.4

It was also getting colder, dropping from over 17C down to 14C...happy with my cadence for the first two as well! Really dropped at the end.

Sat - OBB Ride

First time back in a little while. Thought i'd just keep it relatively chill, save some TSS for Sunday (i'd tally over 700pts for the week by the end of the ride, and 700 is a good place to stop..)

Some good efforts on the ride out to Sidney. Stuck with the front through Land's End...was going at a pretty good clip. Looked back as we approached the Panorama hill, and it was just 'us', a group of about 12 (there were over 30!!)

The drive up Panorama wasn't too hard, so i decided i'd try and stick in for the sprint. Conserved as much as i could, although i didn't slack off and did my fair share of pulls.

We were carrying good speed past Interurban, shelled a few more people along there... I slid to the back of the pack, there were several strong riders to watch out for, Craig, Tom Skinner, Ryan, Scotty and Steve Bachup.

Ryan ended up at the front and lead the group over the hill...he slowed it up a bit..

It picked-up down the hill, and there were a couple attacks...i stuck to the pack, i felt good and we were still too far out to make a successful sprint - plus there was quite the headwind!

Nothing was happening...then Steve jumped on the left/outside, and i snapped to his wheel - it was a weak effort tho, and he started steering to the right and easing off...yikes!! I was on the inside! I braked and jerked to the left, and started smashing the pedals!! WHAM - i was at the front!! I could feel it was a bit of a low cadence (~94rpm), but i powered through confident with my effort!

The line was coming up quick, a few more pedal strokes. I saw Craig out of the corner of my eye on the right, i pushed harder! Heard someone else coming up quick on my right...yikes!! The line was a few meters away, but i was still in the lead!

One more hard push and i dove for the line!!! But Craig's wheel inched ahead and he just barely snagged it. Scotty flew by on my left, but it was too late.

I was happy with second that day. =)

Unfortunately there's a fair bit of electrical interference in that spot, so i didn't get all my wattage data for the sprint, but i did manage to collect a new 20sec PB of 930w (up from 911w). The 10s and 30s were also very close...

The hour leading up to the sprint was pretty speedy, averaging 38.4kph. The final 30mins averaged 40kph, and the last 5min was nearly 47kph. FUN!

Some select data:

 Hour Leading To Sprint:
    Duration:      1:00:01
    Work:          819 kJ
    TSS:           101.9 (intensity factor 1.013)
    Norm Power:    272
    VI:            1.19
    Distance:      38.12 km
                     Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    1140    229     watts
    Heart Rate:      92    189    167     bpm
    Cadence:         32    131    99     rpm
    Speed:           0    61.4    38.4     kph

Peak 60min (230 watts):
    Duration:      1:01:22
    Work:          829 kJ
    TSS:           108.8 (intensity factor 1.043)
    Norm Power:    281
    VI:            1.22
    Distance:      38.128 km
                     Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    1140    230     watts
    Heart Rate:      125    189    169     bpm
    Cadence:         32    131    99     rpm
    Speed:           0    61.4    37.7     kph

Entire workout (191 watts):
    Duration:      2:53:02
    Work:          1948 kJ
    TSS:           233.5 (intensity factor 0.908)
    Norm Power:    244
    VI:            1.28
    Distance:      96.54 km
                     Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    1140    191     watts
    Heart Rate:      76    189    155     bpm
    Cadence:         28    131    94     rpm
    Speed:           0    65.2    33.9     kph


Funnily, the Peak Hour finished 10mins after the sprint (i turned around at the Goose to catch one of the dropped groups, and when i caught them there was a lot of traffic for my U-Turn, so had to chase over 300w for 1.5mins to catch..haha)

Where were these legs for Bastion? Gaaah..

Took today off, wanted to get out for an hour, despite my TSS of nearly 750 for the week, but it was rainy all day, so i just kicked around the hour and relaxed. Not a bad idea.

Next week should be fun. Tuesday is the next OA-TT (now called the Time Trial Championships of the Two Known Universes) - click here for details.

Wednesday i'm hoping to get out to Nanaimo for another Boxwood Crit, though might be tough with the Kid's Club stuff. Caleb instead? Thursday will hopefully hit the road with Steve and Chad for more TTT practice (if not, more 300w efforts.)

Not sure what riding i'll do Sat morning, but a group of us are heading to Crag X on Sat afternoon - yip! Then the TTT on Sunday.

Got a bunch of links i want to post, but this is long enough! More on the other side...

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

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