This blog/site is a collection of my thoughts, articles and
other general excitement tied into cycling, training and competing
as a vegan bike racer and athlete.
Back up to the Ob for my pre-CX prep, the lovely Over/Under intervals. Tonight looked something like:
2mins U (260w) - get's me past the second gate 1min O (350w) - ends a bit before the first little steep bit before the switchback 2min U - gets me about 1/2 way up the first steep bit after the switchback 1min O - gets me to the first level of buildings 1min U - gets me about to the fire hydrant 1min O - top!
4mins rest ride back to the bottom...
293w total average suggests a 'perfect' effort (ie, 5x260w + 3x350w /8), and they looked a little like this:
#1 - 298w
#2 - 292w
#3 - 290w
#4 - 289w
Slacking a bit for the final one, but overall pretty happy with my first set for the season.
Sat, Aug 7 - CCC Dallas Drag!
Another awesome event from Capital City Cycles, it was a wet night (after a couple days of rain) but didn't actually rain. Rode the OBB ride in the morning, logged 1.75hrs there, went moderately hard...solo'd away from the pack, made it to the sprint point with lots of time to spare, so stopped and took pics of the rest of the 'sprint'...no one really very eager in the rain...haha
But the Dallas Drag was a hoot, about 20 peeps out, mostly fixies. Course started at the top of Beacon Hill, and then basically along Dallas and Beach Dr to the Gyro Park in the Caddy Bay village.
I was expecting an ITT, but turned out to be a mass-start event...wooot! I wasn't feeling terribly motivated, so this was prolly helpful for results...hehe..
We all took off, and after a minute a group of us formed along Dallas, strung out..sat in for a few mins, then got to the front and eased up the pace, pulling up by St Charles, and pulling off there. Halldor and Colin were still in contact, i got on the back..
On KGT (King George Terrace) Halldor hammered up (he was riding fixed). I wasn't too worried, i knew he'd lose speed on the descent so i just maintained a strong chase. Unfortunately Colin underestimated how hard we'd hit it, so he fell back..
Came down the other side, and caught Halldor fairly quickly, passed by and maintained a steady pace. Colin had just about bridged up, but we were heading up the hilly by the golf course, which is deceptively tough...not a lot of elevation, but long enough to make people suffer.
Halldor set the pace up the hill and Colin fell further back. We rolled along Beach Drive, exchanging pulls, keeping a nice steady pace. We were approaching the incline by Willow's, and i was contemplating making a move there....we got up the hill and decided to leave it for the final...i was feeling fairly good, but Halldor had lasted this long, so i would really have to hurt myself to get away, and then have to sustain that...hahaha
I figured early on the race would be won on the final, Uplands hill, if there were anyone still together....
Halldor pulled off for me to lead the beginning of the ascent. That made me a little nervous, i wouldn't be able to see him if he attacked... But given that he's riding a fixed, and pretty big gear at that, i eased up...harder to spin up a big gear like that. ;)
He didn't like that tho, and picked up the pace, expressing concern about Colin who was gaining on us.
The thing about the Uplands hill is that the incline isn't what gets you, it's the 250m or so at the top before the ascent...so i sat on Halldor's wheel and planned my move for that. He was really hoofing it at this point, 20 seconds above 500w. He would have to be a monster to be able to sustain that, so i just stayed on him....
At the top he pulled off, and i responded by maintaining that pace. I put it all on, averaging nearly 400w for a minute and a half, and pulling clear of Halldor and making some solid distance as i hit the final descent.
I looked back, and had 50m on him - woot!! Who loves what's essentially a sprint after a hard climb? =P
I eased off and was able to coast pretty much the rest of the way...
Entire effort was 22:21, averaged 276w (321NP), but i coasted the last minute plus. Up to then, i averaged 295w for 20mins, which is a new PB for me! (NP 327w.) Course was about 13.9km (just a hair longer than the OA-TT.) Less elevation on this one tho.
Halldor finished maybe 30 seconds off, and Colin, who worked his ass off all alone, was pretty close just behind him. Lot's of great efforts from the other fixies and riders, great to see peeps putting it out there!!
Looking forward to doing this again some time. =)
Tue, Aug 10 - OA-TT
Speaking of which, back at it! A little bit slower, but i was feeling fairly fatigued...
Anyway, here's the breakdown:
Effort #6, Aug 10rd
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 7:43 8:36 5:08 21:21
Watts: 290w 266w 279w 278w
HR: 174 182 184 180
RPM: 102 104 105 103
Spd: 38.1 38.4 40.1 38.8
I got really hung up at Corner #1, a truck towing a boat was turning right in front of me, had to slow down quite a bit... Scroll down to the last entry to compare my previous five efforts. HR was a LOT lower than the last few times...another sign of my fatigue. Watts were a bit lower, but again, i think i'm putting out more when needed, and easing off when not....NP was 291w, so where they ought to be.
Good efforts from other riders, nice to see Hugh out! Don set a new course record, down to 18:23... If this heat continues, it may fall again this Tuesday! Details here: http://bit.ly/oavic-tt
Sun, Aug 15th - SIMBS Poker Run
Rode the Russ Hayes ride on Thursday, decided i was a bit too tired to do intervals, and would just try and sit in... It was a slower ride overall, but still went harder than i would have liked...haha Sat planned the same thing, some big efforts around the airport and up Panorama, but managed to hang with the front. Eased off quite a bit after that.
Sunday rode out to the Dump with Chelsea and Halldor for the SIMBS Poker Run, a fun 'orienteering' type event where you ride to four different points at the Dump, and collect poker cards at each one, and then play at the end. Rode with Chelsea and Emily for this (Halldor wanted to hammer, and took off like a bullet!) We cruised and rode most of my regular route, getting cards along the way.
Got back, and had crappy cards, which worked out fine as i won 'Worst Hand', 9 high! hahaha
Fun day:
Lotsa riding this week, got my TSS a bit too high, so will suffer next week, methinks:
Ending Duration Distance Weight HR TSS kJ
15/08/2010 11:36:58 313.48 72.0 152 779 7164
Yerp...better off just edging over 700, not working my way through it...hehe..
So this week, OA-TT on Tue, more O/U intervals on Thu if feeling decent, easier OBB ride on Sat as i'm hoping to jump in on the Pro City Hurricane Ridge ride.....yip! Gotta get up that hill some time this year...
It's been a slow couple weeks since the last update..
Let's see:
Sun, Jul 25th - Windsor Park Crit
My favourite race course, but i was having an off day... Stuck with the pack for 10mins, but then got dropped...the surging was killing me. And we were averaging over 44kph. Hit over 800w nearly 30 times in that period. Gah.
Long story short, fell off, rode solo, caught another shelled rider, worked together, pack came around..lasted 6mins, again, jam after jam... The guys at the front were keeping up a punishing pace, and it was impossible for me to move further up in the pack at that point... Solo'd again, and then found Peter Lawless, we chased for a while, then the pack came back, but i couldn't even stick at that point, rode solo for the rest of the race. Luckily not a 'big' event, so i finished DFL, which i'll gladly take over DNF! 50mins of pain tho.
Kinda sucks, as i should have been in there...the lack of having a track is really cutting into my high-end. =(
The following week i took off completely, chilled, no riding except for some commuting. A bit of a 'reset' as i start my build for CX.
Sat, Jul 31st - OBB Ride
Plan was to take it easy. Didn't. First day back on the bike after 6 days off..silly me. Hung with the (big!) pack until Brentwood, and i was really starting to feel like crap, so dropped off. A small group of us rode tempo back into town, it was what i needed at that point.
Thought i'd hook up with this group, hoping they were going for an easier ride...and hadn't ridden the MTB for a while.
Fail.
Hammered out to Partridge Hills (up by Durrance Lake), the road aspect was fine as it was relatively steady, but i didn't really want to hammer in the trails....it seems these guys go at race pace once they're off-road! We enter in a spot i've never been - some sweet singletrack in there! (Check the map, you can go in and ride, there's only one trail.) My tech. skills were sucking, plus it's something i'm bad at: the loose dirt and crumbling wood/'sawdust'...so they were gone pretty quick. There was a hike-a-bike portion up to another road, and i just told them to go ahead. I didn't want to slow them down, and wasn't feeling like a hammerfest.
So i rode back the way i'd come, and really enjoyed the trail in there. Got back to the road, and headed further up to the 'back' entrance to Hartland, and climbed up the back side of the Regional Trail. Bombed down Who's Yer Daddy, went up Inventive, across to the far side of Rollie Ridge, and then cut back down, Skull Trail, over to Shock Treatment and then out Executive, and the road home.
Started rather unpleasant, but ended well-enough. =)
Here's the Garmin data:
Yip - nearly 750m of climbing...haha.. I guess there's a 'mountain' in mountain biking for a reason. ;)
Tue - OA TT
Yay - some more success!
Managed to shave ANOTHER 10 seconds off my previous times!! Down to about 21:18.
A few more peeps out this time, 7 in total. We timed the start pretty well, most of us finished in the same minute..haha..
Wattage much more accurate this time around, let's take a boo - weather conditions were great, btw, ~21C and a slight breeze (~3kph) that seemed mainly in my face on section #2:
Effort #5, Aug 3rd
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 7:42 8:31 5:08 21:18
Watts: 295w 278w 280w 285w
HR: 179 190 190 186
RPM: 100 102 103 102
Spd: 38.0 38.7 40.3 38.8
This reflects how i felt after the 2nd corner - really suffered around that portion... HR was quite high, and kept my cadence up too. Here's the others for comparison:
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
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
Effort #3, May 18th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:36 8:57 4:56 22:28
Watts: 281w 270w 268w 274w
Est.Wts: 292w 281w 279w 286w
HR: 175 185 187 182
RPM: 101 102 103 102
Spd: 33.8 37.1 42.1 36.9
Effort #4, June 20th (watts kinda wacky)
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:12 8:49 4:53 21:55
Watts: 281w 260w 265w 269w
HR: 179 187 188 184
RPM: 99 103 107 103
Spd: 35.5 37.5 42.0 36.9
Wattage was a wee bit lower, although my NP was actually a bit higher, at 292w, and keep in mind that i coasted for a fair bit down a few of the hills....so those zeros bring it down quite a bit!
I crushed the first two portions, i had to double-check the first one! But i suffered for the effort at the end..
Gonna keep the TT's rolling each Tuesday until the end of August, check out http://bit.ly/oavic-tt for more details (and full results) if you'd like to join us!
Will likely take tomorrow off, and on Thu head up to the Ob for a return to the Over/Under intervals....yip!
Been uber-busy, so much work to do among other things, like apartment hunting....know of any places within a few blocks of Oak Bay & Foul Bay?!
There's a lot i'd like to catch up on, hopefully soon... I'll start off with last night.
Headed out to the OA-TT, just Stephen Price and Don 'The Immortal' Gillmore were out (Emile's been racing at the AVC, and FSA this weekend - good luck!) I haven't been out to do a TT since May.
Anyway, somehow i dropped a HUGE chunk of time - over 30 seconds! I finished with a 21:55, and my previous efforts were in the 22:30 range....wow! I didn't change any gear, although my aero bars were spaced about 4mm wider on each side...hahah..
Weather conditions were fairly typical - a bit of a wind, although it was blowing more towards the water (seems to usually come off it), and a few degrees warmer, but not a *lot*.
Let's take a look at the numbers:
Effort #4, June 20th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:12 8:49 4:53 21:55
Watts: 281w 260w 265w 269w
HR: 179 187 188 184
RPM: 99 103 107 103
Spd: 35.5 37.5 42.0 36.9
Now, compare the previous three results:
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
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
Effort #3, May 18th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:36 8:57 4:56 22:28
Watts: 281w 270w 268w 274w
Est.Wts: 292w 281w 279w 286w
HR: 175 185 187 182
RPM: 101 102 103 102
Spd: 33.8 37.1 42.1 36.9
I totally killed it, at least relative to myself!! Yet i didn't go as hard... (My HR was a lot higher tho..?)
Well, maybe not. Normalized Power isn't really very accurate at efforts under 1hr, so i can't really compare the numbers, but i did a bit more coasting this time. There are a few fast & short descents, and instead of pedalling in the aero bars as i normally do, i opted instead to tuck...and that's on the first section, where i made the most dramatic gains. There's a couple short drops in the 2nd stretch, but i didn't coast much for those..
I felt like i pedalled a bit harder in the spots where there were more resistance, and eased off more when there weren't...but i can't really put my finger on what was really different! I'm pretty sure the wattage is correct, i checked shortly before and a little while after, and it was zeroed. Looking at the file, however, in the spots where i coasted, it hit zero, but mine actually shouldn't (oops!) Due to resistance from the old, gooped-up freehub, it should usually register a few watts - literally the resistance of the cassette itself! So maybe it isn't accurate, and is actually low....that would make more sense given the time and HR.
Don had an off night, not feeling very well. Stephen rode well, but when both passed me, it wasn't very dramatic...when Don normally goes by, there's a big WHOOSH! For Stephen, he got by and made a little ground, but didn't really get away too far...maybe 50-80m ahead by the line..
I dunno, maybe the wattage was off! hahaha... We all agreed i was moving pretty well out there.
Anyway, that is the mystery that is the time trial. I'll take a 30 second improvement, even if it doesn't make sense. =)
Been busy training and racing, feeling pretty good right now! My first 'big' event is this Sunday, the Bastion Square crit, i'm pretty excited for this! Lots of good events the last week+, let's do a quick recap:
Wed, May 12th - BMX!
First time riding a BMX course on an actual BMX bike for the Kid's Club day! Super fun, got a wee bit of air, but moved through pretty quick. Legs fried from the Tue 1min efforts the day before, but hey. I put my Garmin Edge 500 on it, hilarious map:
The kids just rode around doing their own thing...most don't seem too eager to actually race, so kept it casual.
Fri, May 14th - Capital City Cycles Street Sprints
Another night of drag races thanks to CCC! This was day 4 in-a-row for me. The 1mins on Tue, BMX (sprinting) on Wed, and a 2.5hr EM ride on the Thu...
First one felt alright, but second one against Mitch and Jordon (Mitch was previously the overall champ, and Jordon raced me in the final last time, tough match!!) i had no 'overdrive', and was eliminated. Made them work for it tho! Final match was trackie Marcus and Pro City Jamie, and i told Marcus 'don't underestimate him, just GO.' He didn't listen, and Jamie kicked it in the last 100m and took it - nice!!
Anyway, here's the wattage from my two efforts, both in the 50t x 15t:
#1 - ?? (Only 200m) Duration: 16.4 Ave Spd: 40.1 Max Spd: 49.4 Ave Cad: 112 Max Cad: 124 Ave Wts: 890 Max Wts: 1212
#2 - Mitch & Jordon (Full 300m, i stopped pedalling ~20m to go) Duration: 27.7 Ave Spd: 38.8 Max Spd: 51.1 Ave Cad: 115 Max Cad: 128 Ave Wts: 808 Max Wts: 1184
For comparison, here's the best effort from last time:
#2 - 3-up Mitch & ? Duration: 26.46 Ave Spd: 43.7 Max Spd: 51.6 Ave Cad: 111 Max Cad: 122 Ave Wts: 828 Max Wts: 1177
Pretty similar!
Sunday, May 16th - Island Cup MTB Race: Cobble Hill
Day 6 of 6 riding...did a shorter OBB ride the day before.
Race went surprisingly well, i'm getting rather 'tough'. I'm very surprised that after 6 days of pretty solid riding, i had *any* motivation. Well, i had quite a bit!
Got a lift out with Halldor (thanks!!) and we pre-rode the course together. An improvement from last year which was basically up and up and up, then a wee bit of singletrack, and a quick fireroad drop to the bottom, and repeat!!
There was a lot more singletrack at the top, and much more on the descent. Still, not quite enough to really allow for too much make-up on the descent...ahh well.
We finished our pre-ride just in time to get in line, not a prob, nice and warm!
We started off, and i was in the top 5 off the top. It went pretty much straight into a steep climb... Scott Mitchel(Pro City) launched and flew up the hill, never to be seen again. Jamie Emery(Pro City) lead the chase (well, i wondered if he was blocking/defending, but i wouldn't have wanted to go much harder.)
I sat on his wheel and we climbed and climbed and climbed... About 2/3rds of the way up, Roland made a move and i let him by (i'm such a sporting fellow. ;) There was a small group of about 4 that pursued. Roland thought he had the front, and was going for the King of the Mountain prize...sucker! =P
With 3/4 of the climbing done, i was pretty fried, and had to ease off...our small group, including Halldor(Capital City Cycles) eased by. I cheered him on. =)
Kept climbing, i think another rider passed...then hit the top, and kept the speed up, dropping a wheel that was getting too close for comfort behind me. On the way down near the bottom i saw Jamie Emery off his bike, turns out he busted his collarbone. =(
Started my second lap, not quite as peppy as the first, but i put in a good effort. A few more bikes eased by, and my climb was a fair bit slower...by about 2mins. I actually shaved a few seconds off on the descent.
Finished 10th (out of ~30) in Intermediate, pretty happy with that on a course that did NOT suit me.. With the exception of Scott, the Top 12 or so were all within' a few minutes of each other, so it was actually a pretty well matched race.
Thanks to the folks at Cobble Hill for organizing it, i love the Island Cups. =)
Here's my power data:
MTB Race: Duration: 1:05:44 Work: 878 kJ TSS: 109.3 (intensity factor 0.999) Norm Power: 267 VI: 1.2 Distance: 13.459 km Elevation Gain: 474 m Elevation Loss: 481 m Min Max Avg Power: 0 825 223 watts Heart Rate: 127 191 182 bpm Cadence: 42 201 81 rpm Speed: 0 42.2 12.2 kph Altitude: 97 291 202 m
Yep, held threshold (NP) for over an hour. Not bad after 6 days. I managed to average 294w (actual power) for 16.5mins, up the first lap. Can't complain. Fun day, anyway. Enjoyed the day off on Monday. Here's the Garmin data:
Tuesday - OA TT
Okay, time for ANOTHER race. The third instalment of the OA-TT (email if interested in joining us!)
Warmest night so far, but just as windy as the first session, and same direction. Don Gillmore (The Immortal!) made it out. He flew by me, set a new course record of 19' flat!
I managed to shake off a few more seconds, down to 22'28. Unfortunately my wattage data is screwy, i zero'd it before i went, but the bike had been sitting in the sun, and i think it warmed up and that threw everything off, cutting the actual wattage by quite a bit. The times are accurate, and i'll include estimates of what i think i did. I'm guessing i averaged 286w (rather than 274w), one more watt than last time...a fair guesstimate. (Weird, spellcheck isn't complaining about 'guesstimate', but it is about spellcheck...haha)
Here it is, broken into the three portions of the course, at each corner:
Effort #3, May 18th
Section: #1 #2 #3 TOT
Time: 8:36 8:57 4:56 22:28
Watts: 281w 270w 268w 274w
Est.Wts: 292w 281w 279w 286w
HR: 175 185 187 182
RPM: 101 102 103 102
Spd: 33.8 37.1 42.1 36.9
So the Est. Wts are bumped up about 4.2% (ie, 274w to 286w.) It looks about right compared to the other efforts... Note that i kept my cadence a lot higher! For comparison, here's the last two times i did this:
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
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
That's the fastest 'middle' portion and closing i've done. I felt better this time too, esp. with the higher cadence. I felt like i was holding the pace with a bit of comfort, instead of struggling to maintain the watts...i like that better. ;)
Sunday - Masters TT & Crit (in Nanaimo)
So i took Thu & Fri off, did a short OBB ride on Sat, and headed up to Nanaimo for the Master's TT & Crit.
The River Road TT was pretty tough, similar rolling course to the OA-TT. It was 20km, and i was hoping for a 30min time. Checked my wattage PB for 30min, and it was 274w, so i decided to aim to average 280w.
Went out, did it! Actually managed 284w, new 30min PB! Here's the #s:
Pretty happy with that. The time recorded was 31:23. Managed a nice high cadence as well. Finished a fair bit down in the 'overall' (fast old guys!), but i got a gold medal in my age group (30-34).
The crit later in the day was really much more up my alley! We rode a few laps and i was a bit concerned with the elevation on the back side...something like 6 or 8m per lap, with two little pitches. This is the new Boxwood crit course in Nanaimo.
Anyway, the group of 8 of us took off. Emile was the known 'threat', i didn't really know anyone else in the bunch... We kept together for a few laps, and then Emile began to pick up the pace, and attacked on the front. I 'chased' up the back and around the corner, and let him get away.
Andrew Brown (riding for the new Eatmore team! He raced the BC Cup MTB race earlier too) lead the chase after that, and tried to get the troops going. Took them a few laps to realize that i wasn't going to do any pulling, and that the other guy in green was my teammate. ;)
It was pretty disorganized tho, and no one besides Andrew really felt like doing any work.. I just sat in, enjoying the draft.. I let a bunch of laps go by, and at about 25min in, during a lull on the fast front section, i sprinted away!
Hit my peak watts there (1198w), and for nearly 3mins i powered away at 360w, trying to drop the pack. There was one rider who sort of bridged up (didn't quite make contact) - i kept looking back hoping he'd be able to help...but no dice... When the chasing pack was ~30m away, i eased off and sat back in. 3mins later, Emile turned up! He lapped us, woot!
So we played at the front a few laps, doing a few small attacks, to see how the field would respond. And a few mins later we broke away. Emile started it, and i took a turn or two. One other rider came with us. Unfortunately, he didn't do any work, so i was splitting the effort with Emile to enlarge the gap....and when Emile picked it up a bit, i got dropped! Gah!! I didn't really have time to recover fully from my previous big effort!
I watched them ride away, but put my head down and continued to chase. Who knows, maybe i'd be able to stay away...or more likely, the other rider would get dropped. (Well, you'd think Emile would drop him on purpose to allow me to catch him!)
I settled into a nice rhythm, i'd ease up a bit on the front/fast section, and then power up around 325-350w up the back/hilly side. It was about 35mins in, and the race was 40min plus 3 laps. Hmmmm.... I'm not really much of a solo artist....but was curious to see what i could do.
Each lap i would look back as i turned onto the front straight...but never saw the pack.. Kept it going... 3 laps to go... Oh boy! I'd lapped Andrew Brown somewhere in there...poor guy...doing an MTB race before must not have been very fun! Brutal course too from what i hear, well over 1000m of climbing.
Anyway, final lap, i powered up the back straight, completed the final corner, looked back...still no one to be seen! Finally, i relaxed and cruised across the line. 3rd place - yay! Again, Gold Medal for my age group.
Turns out the other rider stuck with Emile, who didn't bother trying to drop him....some team mate!! =P
Hugh Trenchard was out as well, but slowed-up when it started to rain (yes, another rainy race!) Turns out we nearly lapped him! But he rallied, and he actually caught the group (while i was off the front) and was in the process of chasing me down..! Eeeep! Emile also caught and passed the group a 2nd time. I remained only one lap down...heh..
Some pretty decent wattage numbers.. While i was soloing, i averaged 281w for 14mins. Certainly not a record for me, but pretty solid after a longish TT, and not really having recovered a previous hard attack, and that was also 'recovering' from getting dropped by Emile. Here are the numbers from the whole effort:
Pretty surprised with the NP, 296w! Not sure if it was the rain after the TT, but my cadence crapped out..gotta figure out what's up there.
Crazy that my TSS was 97 for 48mins of riding... I felt really good in the crit tho. My position on the bike is PERFECT. (I'd say about 90% for TT's). I'm super-comfortable, and the bike handles amazingly. Super-happy with the Noah for crits. The corners were a breeze.
Okay, it's late, and this is very long!
I'm quite excited for Bastion next Sunday, come check it out if you're in town, my Cat3 race begins at 9:45am!
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.
I heard of this guy, George Laraque, some time ago. Says he's vegan, but he's known as the toughest guy in the NHL (aka a fighter/enforcer).
I pretty much wrote him off, described his as just being a bully (i'm not a hockey fan), etc..
But, just a few minutes ago, i decided to listen to what he had to say:
Okay, he got me. I take back what i said. This guy seems pretty cool. Now, when he talks about veganism and animal rights, i hope he has the good sense to stay away from groups like PETA...
Now, back to me! =)
I've been quite busy, training hard! Raced a Caleb Pike last week, but was pretty poached from my training before (including sprinting on my MTB with the Kids Club for 90mins earlier in the day), so when it kicked up a bit a few laps in, i got shelled... Still, about the best i've done on that course, and i think were i feeling a bit better, i'd have been able to hang in there.
I'm also working on developing a TT for Vic, since the Sidney Velo was shut down. The loop is here, and this is the elevation profile:
We were wondering why it was so slow... It's only 13.8km, but Emile took 20:59 to complete, and my own time was 22:36..barely 36.5kph average speed - that is *slow*!
Looking at the profile it makes sense, we're climbing most of the time! There's about 120m of elevation, and it doesn't feel like it (at least, once off Metchosin Road's rollers), but yeah, it is. So it's a tough course! Just testing it for now, but get a hold of me if you're interested in being a part of this..
Also, for my effort, i averaged ~283w, which was a bit lower than i thought i would get, but then again, i punched it on the rollers, holding ~450w for 30 seconds a few times, and ~550w for 20 seconds on one of them. It was funny, Pro City Jamie started ~30sec behind me, and caught me about 4.5km in..he passed me, gained about 50m, and then was stuck there for the rest of the race. Finish time was ~22 even. So he made 30 seconds in the first 4km, and then only six after that...hehe.. =)
Intervals - PI, Power Intervals
So, my own training right now are nasty 'blood samplers' as i call them, 1min efforts, all-out... 2min rest, then repeat. After 4, i take a few extra mins rest, then repeat. Wattage looked something like:
Not too bad.. My 1min PB is 530w, and i wasn't trying to peak it, but hold a steady high-output (ie, not jam 700w for 30sec, and limp the rest). After the first couple, i was just hoping to hold ~450w. HR peaked at 191bpm. Bleh! Kept going:
#5: 417w
#6: 445w
#7: 410w
#8: 414w
Cooked! HR was only going up to around 185bpm at that point...it hurt.. Kept the cadence high too, most efforts averaging over 110rpm. Nice to get back to doing efforts in that range...
That's the main excitement for the week! Saturday night i did a short ride because during the day i was busy with:
A Vegan Bakesale!
For World Vegan Bakesale Day Victoria, Sarah Kramer helped me organize a fundraising event here for Friends of Animals, and it was a smashing success! Thanks to nearly 20 bakers, super-volunteers and OrganicAthlete Victoria members Scott and Mary, and over $700 in raffle prizes raised by OA Vic, we raised over $1,000 for FoA to print more Vegan Starter Guides (download PDF) for local distribution. It was pretty awesome, check out Sarah's blog posting, and below is a pic from volunteer Jessica:
Om nom nom... Thank you Victoria for helping out!! Craig Richey and Tom Skinner also swung by for some goodies, thanks guys, and congrats on your Blue Team fundraiser! ;)
Training this week: hopefully we'll pull off the 2nd OA-TT Trial (if not, probably more PI efforts), and definitely more PI's on Thursday. OBB ride on Saturday (i've missed two in a row! Previous week tabling for FoA and OA at the Earthwalk), and Sunday will prolly be a shorter road ride, or maybe some time in the dirt if some peeps would want to hit the trails...
In the mean-time, there are links i need to fix on this site. I might try out a new style/look...i designed this one myself, but it's incompatible with all Google doodads and gadgets...so might try something else for a bit, and see how that works...
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