718TSS on 9.45hrs
Came down with a cold yesterday ... thanks, people who come in sick at work. Just in my head so far *crosses fingers*.
Today (Sunday) was the start of the 8 Days of California virtual tour on Trainerroad, which is supposed to mirror the Amgen Tour of California. It's also in the middle of the Giro d'Italia, which is what I'm watching while riding this tour. Interesting side note, Amgen was the biotech company that originally brought EPO to market...
You say, whaaaaat, indoor training? Yeah, well, it snowed today. So yeah. Indoor rides all next week (except for Tuesday, which will end up being a double -- 8DC morning, WCC ride in the evening).
I got my new wiring harnesses for the wired powertap, installed on the road bike, still waiting on the TT bike, though I should probably get on that, as I've got Victoria's Du a week Monday. If I'm not totally fried from 9 hours of cycling (+5 of swim/run), I think I should do okay, my run was good at the Mudpuppy last week, and last Tuesday I time-trialled back up to my group (20 minutes), so I feel positive. We'll see if reality is going to lay the smack down on me or not.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
Week 32 Summary and MudPuppy Chase 10k Report
615TSS on 7.68hr
CTL slide has been reversed! Some solid training this week, moving into week 3 of the GetFast plan ... 8 days in California trainerroad challenge starts May 12, that'll be a nice bike focus, ending on Victoria's Du, which may require some tricky timezone justification to get that last ride in on the trainer.
I was hoping that this would be the magical 10k in which I would break 40 minutes, something which I've been trying fairly half-heartedly to do for a few years now... spoiler alert, it wasn't.
This course was two loops of a 5k circuit with a climb on each side of the loop, the first is long and slow, the second short and steep. Once you're over the steep part, it's downhill for about 1k to the finish. My "plan" was to keep the pace around 3:55 for the first lap. I quote plan because I didn't really know how I was going to feel on the second lap. As the saying goes, wishful thinking is not a plan.
The first lap went well: I was near the front, while breathing hard, not totally gasping yet and feeling like my legs might make it. Halfway through the second lap, things started to hurt. The long gradual climb into a headwind really took me to a zone I didn't want get to yet. I was in 5th for most of lap, and moved into 4th on the downhill after that climb, and was hoping to recover enough to handle the coming climb into the finish.
I could hear the runner I had passed coming up behind me on the flat, so I eased up slightly to let him catch me, hoping that I could get out of the red zone enough that I could still handle following him up the hill: on the previous lap, he had out-run me up the hill, but then I had caught him on the long downhill leading into the second lap. I hoped to repeat that. He caught up to me just at the base of the hill, and I managed to stay with him up the first half of the hill, then cracked. I fell rapidly off the pace and limped up to the top, then decided to salvage what I could of the race.
My pace slowly picked up through the last km, but the first I saw of the timer at the finish line was 35:56 ... 57 ... etc. I came in 18 seconds later, all grace and poise, as illustrated below.
CTL slide has been reversed! Some solid training this week, moving into week 3 of the GetFast plan ... 8 days in California trainerroad challenge starts May 12, that'll be a nice bike focus, ending on Victoria's Du, which may require some tricky timezone justification to get that last ride in on the trainer.
I was hoping that this would be the magical 10k in which I would break 40 minutes, something which I've been trying fairly half-heartedly to do for a few years now... spoiler alert, it wasn't.
This course was two loops of a 5k circuit with a climb on each side of the loop, the first is long and slow, the second short and steep. Once you're over the steep part, it's downhill for about 1k to the finish. My "plan" was to keep the pace around 3:55 for the first lap. I quote plan because I didn't really know how I was going to feel on the second lap. As the saying goes, wishful thinking is not a plan.
The first lap went well: I was near the front, while breathing hard, not totally gasping yet and feeling like my legs might make it. Halfway through the second lap, things started to hurt. The long gradual climb into a headwind really took me to a zone I didn't want get to yet. I was in 5th for most of lap, and moved into 4th on the downhill after that climb, and was hoping to recover enough to handle the coming climb into the finish.
I could hear the runner I had passed coming up behind me on the flat, so I eased up slightly to let him catch me, hoping that I could get out of the red zone enough that I could still handle following him up the hill: on the previous lap, he had out-run me up the hill, but then I had caught him on the long downhill leading into the second lap. I hoped to repeat that. He caught up to me just at the base of the hill, and I managed to stay with him up the first half of the hill, then cracked. I fell rapidly off the pace and limped up to the top, then decided to salvage what I could of the race.
My pace slowly picked up through the last km, but the first I saw of the timer at the finish line was 35:56 ... 57 ... etc. I came in 18 seconds later, all grace and poise, as illustrated below.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Week 31 Summary
505TSS on 6.3hrs
A week of Life Happens, so ... yeah. Had a good Sat/Sun, gorgeous weather for the long run on Sun, Saturday's training was all indoors, but solid.
Still hoping for a sub 40 at the Mudpuppy, it's going to be painful though.
A week of Life Happens, so ... yeah. Had a good Sat/Sun, gorgeous weather for the long run on Sun, Saturday's training was all indoors, but solid.
Still hoping for a sub 40 at the Mudpuppy, it's going to be painful though.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Week 30 Summary
463TSS on 6 hrs.
Not a great week, even as a gap week before starting 8 week block leading up to Guelph Lake Olympic. The Boy is sick (thought we could make it to spring before it happened again). On the plus side, my fund-raising efforts for the MudPuppy chase are going well. This is the last week to get some training in...
Not a great week, even as a gap week before starting 8 week block leading up to Guelph Lake Olympic. The Boy is sick (thought we could make it to spring before it happened again). On the plus side, my fund-raising efforts for the MudPuppy chase are going well. This is the last week to get some training in...
Monday, April 15, 2013
Week 29 Summary and Paris to Ancaster race report
418TSS on 5.2 hours
It was a light week, mainly short, intense sessions (20-45 minutes, IF ~0.9) on the bike getting ready for Paris2Ancaster on Sunday.
10 days of rain/freezing rain/snow preceded this race, creating conditions so poor that the organizers had to chop 10k of off-road sections out (reputedly they were mostly still underwater).
Online discussions regarding tire / pressure selection were mainly "it's not going to matter; the mud will make it irrelevant, just put enough pressure in so you don't pinch flat, and make it easier to get through the road/rail trail sections."
I left Waterloo at ~6, stopped to get a coffee en route, and arrived at the Ancaster Community Center (the finish line) to park and put my bike on the shuttle van to the start line. I had my race kit already thanks to a generous friend who was picking them up en masse for other riders, so the only standing around was waiting for the shuttle van guys to show up.
I lucked out with my clothing choice, it matched the weather well: cotton undershirt, jersey, wind vest (plus a foldable jacket to wear waiting at the start line), arm warmers, cap, cycling gloves, wind mitts, tri shorts underneath bibs and knee warmers (plus my new XC30s, which probably still don't know what hit them).
Race start in Wave 1 was smooth, and we were soon blasting down the rail trail beside the Grand River, dry and fast. I was glad to have glasses, I took a couple small stones off them.
Heading into some of the single track sections, there were actually a few rideable lines left, which shows that starting as close as possible to the front really paid off. I've seen some video from later riders and it quickly turned into a quagmire
Speaking of quagmire, I managed to ride down all the mud chutes, which left my arms burning from throwing the front wheel around as I bounced off all the rocks buried in the mud.
Hooked up with a few small groups on the roads and shared pulls, which was nice. In summary, the weather was ideal (I started on my jersey tan lines), the fast sections were dry, and I managed to make it up the last hill, though I ended up looking like this after the finish line.
Finished in 2:25:09 (23.6k/h avg) (40:52 behind the winner), 275 O'all, 105/447 in M40-49.
It was a light week, mainly short, intense sessions (20-45 minutes, IF ~0.9) on the bike getting ready for Paris2Ancaster on Sunday.
10 days of rain/freezing rain/snow preceded this race, creating conditions so poor that the organizers had to chop 10k of off-road sections out (reputedly they were mostly still underwater).
Online discussions regarding tire / pressure selection were mainly "it's not going to matter; the mud will make it irrelevant, just put enough pressure in so you don't pinch flat, and make it easier to get through the road/rail trail sections."
I left Waterloo at ~6, stopped to get a coffee en route, and arrived at the Ancaster Community Center (the finish line) to park and put my bike on the shuttle van to the start line. I had my race kit already thanks to a generous friend who was picking them up en masse for other riders, so the only standing around was waiting for the shuttle van guys to show up.
I lucked out with my clothing choice, it matched the weather well: cotton undershirt, jersey, wind vest (plus a foldable jacket to wear waiting at the start line), arm warmers, cap, cycling gloves, wind mitts, tri shorts underneath bibs and knee warmers (plus my new XC30s, which probably still don't know what hit them).
Race start in Wave 1 was smooth, and we were soon blasting down the rail trail beside the Grand River, dry and fast. I was glad to have glasses, I took a couple small stones off them.
Heading into some of the single track sections, there were actually a few rideable lines left, which shows that starting as close as possible to the front really paid off. I've seen some video from later riders and it quickly turned into a quagmire
 |
| My poor bike |
Hooked up with a few small groups on the roads and shared pulls, which was nice. In summary, the weather was ideal (I started on my jersey tan lines), the fast sections were dry, and I managed to make it up the last hill, though I ended up looking like this after the finish line.
 |
| I remember thinking I'm hearing a camera |
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Week 28 Summary
884TSS on 12 hours. Bit of a bump in volume, the majority of it was on the trainer. Next weekend is P2A, so erm, panic training, I guess. Yesterday's 3-hour session was sort of reassuring that I won't totally suck, but I'll need to take it easy.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Week 27 summary
467TSS on 7.2 hours. CTL isn't going down as fast... I guess it's the right direction. Easter weekend also put a hold on any further weight loss.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)