Training over now to the airport

Penultimate days training

Today was V02 intervals, despite being a brilliant sunny day it was very cold, so not wanting to force cold air into my lungs a few days before leaving for my trip and the fact that earlier in the year I decided that I wouldn't do more than two consecutive weeks of quality work without a backing off for a recovery week before pressing on.

Knowing that I would lose two days of riding in the journey it is tempting to keep hammering right up to flight time, however I reason that journey will be hard enough without my body trying to recover from a hard week of training as well, in anycase particularly the last week was very pleasing so no point in pushing over the top now.

So I reduced the workload to 2 x 3 mins, 3 x 2 mins and 4 x 1 mins, upping the power as the interval time reduced and keeping the rpm right up to force up the heart rate, job done and power and heartrate just where I expected them to be. Next week will let me know whether it is good enough!

Tomorrow I will do half a sprint session and on Thursday just a couple of hours easy endurance, hopefully that way I will cruise through the flights on Fri/Sat.

My bike is ready, new chain, new cassette, new cables, new brake blocks and of course new tape. I will ride it the next couple of days to make sure everything is as I expect, then final adjustments, a clean and polish on Thursday before I pull it apart to pack in the hardshell case that although cumbersome in the airport has done a sterling job in getting my bikes through many journeys unscathed, hope this one is the same.

One week to go

Well technically 5 days actually.

Had some scary news from my pal Tommy, we're the same age and race a lot together in both age group and graded racing. If you thought about a couple of blokes our age you would think we're as fit as they come, results would generally back up that view. However Tommy told me that he had a heart attack after his race last weekend, not a super serious attack, but a heart attack nonetheless. Scary stuff and I hope that Tommy can come back to racing soon.

This week has been really good from the training perspective. A full on sprint session on Tuesday. An easy endurance day on Wednesday where my legs felt like putty. a V02 day on Thursday, 3 x 3 mins, 4 x 2 mins and 5 x 1 mins, which was probably my best session since before Easter, hit all the power numbers except the last where I was 3! watts off and really worked the heart rate. A day of threshold intervals on Saturday which saw me 15 watts up on last week. Level 6, 60 second hill sprints on Sunday on a 6% climb, steepest towards the top, sprinting as hard as I could over the top for the conveniently placed road sign. I was going to do 8 repeats but since I threw up after 7 repeats I decided that was enough for the day.

So I'll take Monday off, train on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a recovery day on Thursday then packing the bike etc. I fly to Amsterdam on Friday. Whoo Hoo!!!!

JUNE 16TH

Well the Queen's Birthday weekend Tour didn't quite go as well as past years. Partly I think because I hadn't raced over the last 3 weeks, race tempo and efforts are always different, partly because the quality of the entry this year was significantly higher than recent years both in quality and ages! It unfortunately meant that I was giving away a lot of years! to a very strong field.

So one third place was all I managed so not a total right off and in the process of launching a counter attack I managed my highest power output since the day after the ICF worlds where I was convinced I was a medallist until I punctured with 15km to go, the next day I got angry and powered it up in a sprint. The weekend gave me a power figure pretty close so I take that as a positive.

The last two weeks training is going to consist of mostly 'quality' sessions, my base is strong, I feel I just need to get those high power V02 efforts and some sprinting underway, maybe a couple of sessions of 90 second hill sprints. All very painful but I think necessary at this point with only two weeks to go.

June 5th

I've clearly been a bit remiss with the frequency of my posts over that last month or so!

However a quick recap of the training and racing. Having moved from 'Base' to 'Build' then to a combination of 'Build and 'phase', I'm moving pretty much into pure 'Race' phase stuff now to try and bring out some speed to lay on top of the endurance base I have built since last December. It was very rewarding to note that after just one pure sprint session I had added to 50 watts to my peak power from that session, of course I now have to work on pushing another that 100 watts and stretching the power out over say 12 seconds.

The racing has gone very well, after the first 'Open' event where I struggled a bit I really managed to step it up and although my bunch never seemed to get up, which I put down to the handicapping, I was pretty pleased to still be up there at the end pushing as hard as I could. Maryborough went OK, won the State Road championships by being as aggressive as I possibly could but I paid for it over the next couple of days in the TT and the criterium, I was pretty legless. I did bounce back for the Cec Cripps on the Monday riding strongly but again we weren't able to get up (or get caught).

National Championships in Adelaide was OK, my head wasn't really 'on' properly for the TT so I could have been better, the road race finished at the top of a very 'Ray unfriendly' climb with 9% ramps and was blocked at the finish of the criterium by a rider more interested in seeing me slowed than winning himself, I did briefly think about riding through him but decided I wanted to go to Belgium more! So a collection of bronze medals was my reward for that long boring drive but I guess that was more than most and I already know my sprinting is better.

I've picked up a bit of a cold this week so I've throttled back quite a bit, I know I've got a huge base so a few days off of the bike isn't going to cripple me so a few days rest and recovery its going to be this week.

April 8th

Two solid weeks training completed, the last of the "build" phase and I am now moving into a pretty busy racing phase. I'd like to ride well and get some results but to be honest its still all about being as good as I can be to go to Belgium on July 1st.

So far I'm really pleased, a few down days with a little bit of a cold following some of the changeable weather we've experienced over the lasy week or so but nothing to worry about.

I have some ITT's coming up and I'd like to do some specific training for those, I'm far from a great time trialist but when I can focus on the power meter I'm a lot better but I think I tend to be too conservative and have power left at the end when I shouldn't! Hence the need for specific training, but I don't think I have enough time to be honest with the racing that's coming up, those sessions are pretty hard and take a few days to get over properly.

With so many aspects of training to work on its some times difficult for me to schedule enough sessions to create the adaption that the body needs to go through, I probably won't work on my sprint until the last 3/4 weeks before I leave for Belgium, my sprint worked really well the last time I was there so it seems sensible to repeat that formula.

March 30th

Logistics for my trip are just about sorted. Flights booked, hotel booked, rental car booked, doesn't leave too much to on the organisation front except the things that I can't do until much nearer the departure date like preparing my bike, packing etc.

Training has been going well, I'm just coming to the end of "Build" after which I will switch to some race specific stuff for the final push so to speak. There are a couple of mini peaks in the next couple of months, for Maryborough at Easter which is always good racing in a concentrated period and the Australian Titles in Adelaide in May and probably the Benalla Tour in June. Loose plan is to back off a little after each of these events then put in a hard week or two with the aim of lifting the form to be really good in July when I will be in Belgium.

I've now had 2 or 3 races and whilst they have all been hard in different ways I've been reasonably pleased with how I've gone in the race. Rochester was frustrating in failing to get up by around 200 metres! and Warrnambool since I broke my back wheel with about 5k to go and whilst I am under no illusions that I would have won that race with Scratch already "up', I did feel pretty good and that I would have been in the money. Oh well plenty of races to go yet.

11th March 2011

After a few disrupted weeks due to entertaining overseas visitors I feel I'm back on track and moving forwards. Of course how I move in races will be the acid test and I have to admit my second race didn't leave me feeling as happy as the first but interestingly my last 20 minutes of the race, after I got shook out, was actually my best power output over 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes. So the analysis that I made was that I'm still shy of the 'peaky efforts but the basics are pretty solid.

On the strength of that I've entered the next series of Open events up until and including Easter, hopefully some more racing will bring me on a bit more.

In the meantime I'm continuing with a block of 'build', which is a mix of continued threshold intervals and shorter (far) more intense intervals and some 'form' sprints. Form sprints are not at full gas but concentrate on getting the power down whilst maintaining 'form' and style, probably no more than 90% and without the explosive jump at the start. Which is good for me since I don't have what you would call a 'jump' anyway!

So I think I'm still on track to not make a fool of myself in Belgium and to that end the racing calendar for Vets in Belgium has been published for the 2011 season. I'm getting excited already, remembering the courses that I rode well and the few that I felt didn't suit me, wondering which race to choose on the (many) days where I have multiple choices. In truth I will go with a plan but vary it day by day depending on how I feel, the weather etc etc.

23rd February 2011

First block of build completed and the first race for 2011 in the legs.

As usual for me when I switch to those killer two and three minute intervals it takes me a couple of seesions to be able to cope with the full set at the required intensity. The block went well and I can feel I am progressing well with a hoped for slow steady build up. My theory is if I don't rush it I can get to a better level and hold it for the whole of July, my target month when I am going to be in Belgium.

I was over the moon with the race outcome. It was road handicap so no sitting in the bunch in a road race or criterium and potentially fooling myself that I got around OK. In a handicap no missed turns, working all the way, although I started a little tentaively - not sure how I was going to travel, the further the race went the stronger I felt. Even had a little dig towards the end, just to make sure I tried as hard as I could for the whole race. So very pleased with my first outing for 2011.

Because I didn't train the day before the race, just completed my pre race day ride, some short sharp intervals to get my body ready for race type efforts and the race day 'effort' score was a little down on what I would have achieved in training, high intensity for sure but not quite longe enough, I elected to do a fourth week of build before taking an easy week.

To be honest it also seeemed to work in well with some relatives visiting from overseas for a month and to fit with the races I am planning to ride up until Easter.

However it didn't turn out brilliantly, firtsly I don't think my body copes well with four full on weeks in a row and a we had a very sick puppy that kept me up for four nights so I wasn't really recovering very well between efforts. The week wasn't a complete waste but didn't go quite how I had planned, the tiredness excaserbated by some very hot days, one in particular I didn't get out early enough and as the hot North wind took the temperature very quickly from 28c to 40c, exactly 12 minutes. I was 9 minutes into a 20 minute interval at the time and my power just plummeted and although I manged to complete the interval I really had to go deep to finish it, too deep really I still wasted the next day!

Its OK this week I'm taking a recovery week this week and another race, on a much harder course, on Sunday.

1st February 2011

First week of the next phase of training completed. I'm now in the "Build" phase, I will do two, possibly three, blocks of Build before moving onto "Race" phase in the middle of the year.

There is a world of difference between the 20/30/40 minute diesel type intervals carried out in the Build phase and the 2/3 minute intervals at 125 - 140% that are now included in this phase. Those long intervals really wear you down because they are so long but the short ones can be excruciating! You think you are almost done, then you look at the timer and you are only 30 seconds into the interval and then you seem to be edging forward on the clock so slowly, while your legs are screaming and you're lungs are heaving! Lots of fun.

Coupled with lots of twenty minute intervals in the 'sweetspot', defined as between 88% - 94% by the experts, and a long endurance ride in the mountains, makes for a pretty solid week of training even if its only around 15 hours because I have kept an extra rest day in the schedule. I know this will pay off in the long run and my slow steady build seems to be working well as I see the power output slowly rising.

Mind you we've had a run of hot days, 38c, 38c, 40c, which my old body doesn't seem to cope to well with anymore. Even getting out at 6.00am doesn't mitigate the heat too much, it was already 32c by 9.00am when I finished today, those temperatures just drain me and even worse definitely slow my recovery between sessions since the body is working so hard on temperature control! My heart rate and power output were almost the same at the end of today's ride, not good at all.

I may have to review the plan if the current forecast of another week of this hold good,