Four Rides in Five Days

*phew*

Been a solid few days of riding! Got a little catch-up:


Monday (Jan 11) - Climb

Been slacking off in keeping track of my climbing...mainly working on the tougher 10c's and d's.

Tue - Ride w/30min Tempo

Just out of interest, looked back to last Feb/Mar to see what i was doing for my Tempo workouts, and i was holding ~255w. So up 10w a year later, not too bad!

Tuesday was MISERABLE - it held off until i got to Martindale, but when i began my interval, it just started to dump..it was weird, the rain splashing in my face was REALLY distracting!

I've managed to find a good 'loop' tho..basically following in the OBB route to the stop sign in Sidney, then turn around there and head back out Lockside, up through part of the old TT course, then turn around at the stop sign there. At my Tempo pace, it takes 20min to do a full loop...not ideal, but it works.

The Tempo effort this day was a bit lacklustre:

Ave Wts: 255

Ave HR: 163

Ave Cad: 70

Ave Spd: 35.4kph

Full ride:

Entire workout (218 watts):

Duration: 2:23:20 (2:35:01)

Work: 1859 kJ

TSS: 189.3 (intensity factor 0.894)

Norm Power: 233

VI: 1.07

Distance: 75.242 km

           Min Max Avg

Power: 0 721 218 watts

Heart Rate: 67 175 155 bpm

Cadence: 30 120 86 rpm

Speed: 0 56.7 31.7 kph

Kinda strange, but it was a pretty fast ride, averaging nearly 32kph..

Wed - Rest Day

Opted to take the day off, climbing didn't work out. OA meeting in the evening too. Rest days are good.


Thu - Climb

Got in 2.5hrs, felt pretty good, improving on the climbs i'm working on.

Fri - 1hr Ride

Well, under an hour really... Day started awful, full rain, etc.. Afternoon got pretty nice. Didn't have a lot of time, but knew i'd feel gross on Sat if i didn't get out and work the legs a bit, so did a short ride when it was pretty nice:

Entire workout (204 watts):

Duration: 50:39

Work: 618 kJ

TSS: 68.5 (intensity factor 0.902)

Norm Power: 234

VI: 1.15

Distance: 25.029 km

          Min Max Avg

Power: 0 1253 204 watts

Heart Rate: 73 189 158 bpm

Cadence: 36 222 93 rpm

Speed: 3.9 54.5 29.7 kph

Worth noting: did a couple short sprints, and nearly topped my 1sec and 5sec PB's!! I have no idea why my legs are still able to turn over this kind of wattage, but they're able to pull it off for some reason...i'm not gonna complain! ;)


Sat - OBB Ride

Bit of an odd day, it was pretty dry, so took out the Ridley on a group ride for the first time. Lots of peeps from the Burnside group turned out, kinda odd. I rode with many of them out to Sidney, a few good efforts in there. They didn't want to wait for the rest of the groups to turn up, so left..i opted to stay. Formed a 'firm' group to ride with, and continued on.

Oddly, when we got around the airport, we caught the BSiders, and there had been a crash.. Turns out Anatolli dislocated a hip...ouch..hope he heals up quick.

Our group continued on, and we were then in the 'front', so the sprint was our..haha.. Did a fair bit of work along W. Saanich to try and break things up a bit, and on Interurban...solo'd for a bit, as did Mike Elkink, although Scotty shut him down just before Camosun. Group was together for the sprint..

There were a couple peeps in front of me, leading the charge, i felt them slowing down as we hit the hill, so i swung out wide, got out of the saddle for a few pedal strokes to jam up the speed, and sat to get up the hill..crested the top, no one near me, so got out of the saddle and continued to huck it..odd being out there alone!! Line was closing, but then Mike and Scotty flew by w/15m to go...no was i was going to be able to pick up any more speed...bleh.... '3rd'.

Apparently i split away and launched pretty quickly..but couldn't hold those two smaller guys off, who have much favorable power-to-weight ratios going up that hill... Worth noting that i held 900+w pretty steady, for nearly 20 seconds...so i did *something*! haha

Turns out my 3rd was really 6th tho, as there was another small group that had taken off ahead of the BSiders before their crash. D'oh.

Entire workout (180 watts):
Duration: 3:08:52 (3:28:37)
Work: 2016 kJ
TSS: 242.4 (intensity factor 0.882)
Norm Power: 229
VI: 1.28
Distance: 98.904 km
          Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1086 180 watts
Heart Rate: 79 190 147 bpm
Speed: 0 63.5 31.6 kph

Cadence magnet got bumped at start, so no readings. Peak hour NP was 253w, about normal.. I did a fair bit of work in our group.

Sunday - Hilly Ride w/Kevin

Managed to catch him before he headed out! Was supposed to go for a MTB ride, but it didn't materialize.. Kevin wanted to do the Up'n'Over (Ross-Durrance) so we headed out towards Saanich. Felt a hilly ride was appropriate if skipping the usual MTB ride. ;)

Roads were dryish, so took out the Ridley again. =)

Fun to do the U'n'O, it's been a long time since i last rode it, and it seemed much shorter and easier...how odd. Kevin started with a pretty firm pace, so i just stuck to his wheel...but as we were getting to the top his lack of time on the bike was oozing out, and i found myself powering away...unexpected, but it will likely be one of the few times this occurs!

Love that section tho, beautiful road and nicely enclosed in the forest. =)

Ripped back into town along Millstream and back on the Goose near Colwood (it's paved out there now, surprisingly!) Rode back in and around the water. Great day, and fun to spend it with Kevin.

Entire workout (194 watts):
Duration: 2:32:43 (2:46:41)
Work: 1772 kJ
TSS: 211.1 (intensity factor 0.913)
Norm Power: 237
VI: 1.22
Distance: 71.458 km
          Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1191 194 watts
Heart Rate: 85 184 144 bpm
Cadence: 23 136 87 rpm
Speed: 3.7 52.9 28.2 kph

Interesting to note that my Peak 60min Normalized Power was 265w, which is actually higher than what i've got for my 1hr Threshold... I've suspected it's gone up, and of course Normalized Power isn't a perfect calculation...but i'm going to bump it from 260w to 265w...i think that's a safe bet.

Monday (Jan 18) - Climb

Rough night at the climbing gym...pretty knackered from the riding...hands just hadn't recovered...made the most of it, 2hrs out...

Tuesday - Ride w/35m Tempo with Chad

Gotta keep bumping my Tempo workouts up! Today Chad joined me. He pedalled on ahead to do his own workout, which was nice as i had a carrot in front of me to chase. We also rode up Mt Doug - i've been curious to see how much of it had been repaved...the descent is much improved, but near the bottom is still like a battlefield, having to dodge numerous potholes.

Solid effort today, managed over 34:56:

Ave Wts: 264
Ave HR: 167
Ave Cad: 72
Ave Spd: 35.9kph

Happy with that! It's such a weird workout, pedalling at 70-75rpm..legs get maxed out, but i'm hardly breathing any heavier despite the bigger watts.. It's funny because as i'm going, it looks like i'm in the 280-300w range a lot, but when you get it home and download it, it's another story.. Still, i'm holding 10w more over 35mins that i could last year in late Feb. That's pretty solid.

It was such a nice day, there was a steady breeze, but it felt WARM. 13C out, had leg warmers on, but just arm warmers, a jersey and vest. Very unusual for this time of the year.

Legs feel shot right now...mission accomplished!

Entire workout (211 watts):
Duration: 2:47:49 (2:57:50)
Work: 2109 kJ
TSS: 218.1 (intensity factor 0.886)
Norm Power: 230
VI: 1.09
Distance: 83.138 km
          Min Max Avg
Power: 0 683 211 watts
Heart Rate: 81 176 151 bpm
Cadence: 32 122 82 rpm
Speed: 0 63.2 29.9 kph

That's a pretty long ride for me for a weekday! As i was riding home along the water, i actually felt like extending my ride...very unusual.. After 2hrs, i'm usually itching to get off the bike. I'm insanely happy with my Ridley Noah! It's really something else to ride. =)

So, that's four rides in five days...TSS is getting up there - hopefully i can sustain this, and when it comes to doing even harder workouts, i can maintain the through the summer...

Tomorrow, prolly a rest day. Thursday will be another Tempo session, maybe 40mins. Climb Fri, OBB Sat, and hopefully MTB on Sunday. Yip!

Have a great week! =)

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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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Happy Old Year!

Yes, that's right - HAPPY OLD YEAR! Or, at least, i hope you had one! How was it? Did you do many of the things you wanted to? Were you happy with what you got up to? Sure, it's nice to say 'Happy New Year', but there's not much of a commitment to that..and literally ignores the fact a year just went by and perhaps deserves some reflection...

Anywhat, enough of the Dave-style mental deconstructionism, what's been going on? Lots!

Tuesday (Dec 29th) - 2.5hr Ride w/Emile

Another dry day, made it out on the Noah again, Emile joined me for the spin, nice to have some company during a weekly ride.  Not much to report, here's the numbers:

Entire workout (194 watts):
    Duration:      2:19:21 (2:28:19)
    Work:          1603 kJ
    TSS:           155.9 (intensity factor 0.823)
    Norm Power:    214
    VI:            1.11
    Distance:      65.986 km
                        Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    889    194     watts
    Heart Rate:      73    174    148     bpm
    Cadence:         33    126    90     rpm
    Speed:           3.7    56.7    28.7     kph

Wed - Climb!

Another 2.5hrs hang time with Kelly, i was pretty fatigued, nothing much to report.

Thu - Rest Day!

haha - it had been over 2 weeks since i had a full day off, and it was POURING out, so i took this one off.

Fri - MTB w/Halldor

New Years Day - time to ride! Went out for a short session with Halldor, planning to hit Hindgrinder (it's off Breathless.) When we got to the top at Sofa King, we were surprised to find Roland, Katie, Glenowyn and Emily (who i know from the Durian Cup MTB race OA Victoria organized, the 'B' winner!) It was a pretty wet day and Halldor suggested cruising back down with them, and so we did! Fun ride! No broken bones for Roland, maybe he'll MTB with me again some day..

Entire workout (162 watts):
    Duration:      55:14 (1:34:37)
    Work:          538 kJ
    TSS:           61.9 (intensity factor 0.82)
    Norm Power:    213
    VI:            1.31
    Distance:      8.267 km
                        Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    1041    162     watts
    Heart Rate:      70    187    152     bpm
    Cadence:         33    196    72     rpm
    Speed:           3.9    36.5    9.2     kph

Sat - OBB Ride

Decent sized group, lots of the regular offenders. ;)

Pretty mellow overall... We took a slightly skewed route outside of Sidney, hitting some roads i'd never been on. Pancake flat too, i liked them!!  Alex had a flat at the Sidney stop, but unfortunately we never saw him again.  On Daffodil Road, Emile's bottle and cage fell off, so i fell back with him to collect it, and we did a little bit of work to catch back up to the group.

I was actually feeling pretty darn good, and did a fair bit of work up W. Saanich and on Interurban. Dave MacLeod once again gave a strong lead-out, and come the hill i was 3rd wheel, with Matt Dilay in front of me, who i was keeping an eye on... We started up the hill and i began the work of inching my way up beside him....i was actually making progress, jamming the pedals hard as i could....the line was fast approaching tho!

I'm sure i grunted a few times, didn't see anyone else around, so it was just us fighting for the line....a few more hard pedal strokes, and we hit the line......i'm not sure who got it first, so we agreed to call it a draw. I can live with that. =)

Held nearly 900w for 20 seconds there (897w), peaked at 1043w...just a good, hard, effort...got it up above 800w, and held it as i worked my way up beside Matt. Peter Lawless was apparently behind us for 3rd, i jumped on Matt's wheel before he had a chance..haha.. ;)

Bit of an easier ride overall... Took the Overpass uncontested once again...haha..

Entire workout (169 watts):
    Duration:      2:59:57 (3:12:01)
    Work:          1802 kJ
    TSS:           219.6 (intensity factor 0.861)
    Norm Power:    224
    VI:            1.33
    Distance:      88.574 km
                       Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    1043    169     watts
    Heart Rate:      88    195    141     bpm
    Cadence:         25    236    89     rpm
    Speed:           0    63.8    29.7     kph

Sunday - Ride & Climb

Headed out around 11am, went the 'reverse' route of the Burnside group, B-lining it up to Gorden Head & Arbutus, and then riding 'towards' them. Oddly, never found them...made it out to Mt. Newton, and then came back.

 Entire workout (197 watts):
    Duration:      1:48:29 (1:52:04)
    Work:          1269 kJ
    TSS:           120.3 (intensity factor 0.819)
    Norm Power:    213
    VI:            1.08
    Distance:      50.873 km
        Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    911    197     watts
    Heart Rate:      83    177    153     bpm
    Cadence:         20    118    90     rpm
    Speed:           4    61.4    28.4     kph

Also met up with Tom Skinner and friend (Eva?) in the late afternoon for a shortish 2hr climbing session. My plan was mainly to keep it easy, as i was going out again the following night. Played around on easier climbs getting warmed up, and then finally cleaned the 'Orange 10b' that had been confounding me..got my footwork right and made it up and over - yip!! I think that was my first 10b cleaned since i've been back. Nice.

Also started working on a 10c overhang i'd been ignoring... It's a long route, which finishes overhanging, and there's a 5.8 on it as well. I figured i'd get a few holds in on the 10c, and then switch over. Turns out i made it nearly to the top!!! The final two holds are KILLER, but it was a very nice climb leading up to that. Will be looking forward to cleaning that one soon too...

Tom's a solid climber considering he's pretty green to the sport. Showed me a cool way to avoid a spot i disliked on a 5.9, one of the nice things about climbing with other people...they can give you ideas. Eva(?) also climbed very well, also pretty new to the sport. Hopefully our schedules will mesh for future sessions!

Monday - Climb Part Deux

This time with Kelly. Another shorter sesh, around 2hrs. I was afraid i'd be wiped, but the fingers were holding up surprisingly well! For lunch i'd had barley, corn and shitake mushrooms, gotta remember that for the future! (Note that Roman Gladiators apparently ate vegan, and barley was a mainstaple..maybe there's something to that..)

Warmed up and played around for a while, and decided to give the 'yellow' 10c a go. I've nearly cleaned this a few times...theres's a spot 3/4 of the way up, where i end up getting my feet too high, and it makes reaching the hold a very awkward manoeuvrer...so i was mindful of this, kept low, and made the hold! I kept pushing, and WHAM! 10c cleaned!

YEAH! Very happy with my progress, esp. after a slow week last week. Confidence is up, and it turned out my muscle endurance is looking up as well, i kept climbing 10a's, expecting my hands to fail, but they just kept on going.

Still a few other tough 10c's to work on...and there's a shortage of 10d's, only one i can think of.. And then the scary 11's....eeep!

Tue - Ride to the Velodrome

Lucked out with another dry day....overcast and wet roads, so not a day for the Ridley, but got out for nearly 2hrs...was a bit of work talking myself into it.

Opted to make it a destination day: checked out the new paved section of the Goose out in Colwood - it's very nice! Leads nicely to the velodrome, which was my destination.

Wanted to check it out, see how it's holding up.. Looks like someone snapped the cable that was strung across it...scofflaws and ruffians...haha..although no one's going to be able to ride it until mid-Feb at the earliest, it'll be wet until then.

I also rode up and around to the Wildplay Park, behind the track in the trees. I was very surprised to see that it's completely 'open' - as in i can get off my bike and walk/climb up into the bridges and lines....

Isn't that a bit of a hazard?

Like, the gashole Mayor Dave Saunders and West Shore Parks and Recreation Society have declared the track facility a national state of emergency, fencing in the whole track, for fear of people dying by tripping on a seam on the Astroturf....but this zipline contraption can sit there open and exposed?? This makes no sense to me. The reason Saunders and the WSPRS say the track is closed is because it's dangerous. What about this new facility?! Or the BMX track? There are crashes EXPECTED on the BMX track every time kids get on it...yet the velodrome is Public Enemy #1 at the Juan de Fuca centre?

This makes NO sense to me. (What makes this all the more frustrating is that it's never been more bike-friendly to actually GET to the track. There's full bike lane on the highway up to the JdF, and this new paved section of the Goose is also an excellent way to get there avoiding 99% of the roads.) GAAAH....

Anyway, here's what does make sense, my numbers from the ride. I rode back in the way i came out, and rode the water up to Haultain to get a few more kms in.

Entire workout (202 watts):
    Duration:      1:48:08 (1:55:36)
    Work:          1295 kJ
    TSS:           133.1 (intensity factor 0.865)
    Norm Power:    225
    VI:            1.11
    Distance:      51.287 km
                        Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    991    202     watts
    Heart Rate:      81    179    154     bpm
    Cadence:         23    131    93     rpm
    Speed:           3.8    52.5    28.8     kph

The rest of my week is pretty straight-forward, climb tomorrow (Wed), another ride Thu (looking like it might be a Ridley day!) - time to start figuring out some training-specific intervals.. Perhaps climb on Fri. Skipping the OBB ride on Saturday, as there's a free seminar on training w/power at the PCC. Prolly will ride out, and continue my ride after that.

Sunday, hopefully back on the MTB!

Keep them wheels spinning! =)

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