Lactate Threshold test
Posted by: stevecaddy on: Monday January 9, 2012
As you can see by the map above, tonight’s training session was a tough one. The new LTHR test method involves a seemingly endless series of maximum power sprints into super tight switchbacks. It’s a demanding session, incorporating some very short, sharp climbs to get over the neighbours’ fences, and high speed, tight radius turns under heavy braking before smashing hard out of the saddle into the next one.
It wasn’t easy keeping it up for 30 minutes, but here’s the result:
LTHR: 162 176 (Max 192)
Closing out the week
Posted by: stevecaddy on: Monday January 9, 2012
After the early morning in the rain, I stayed up late (11:30), got up at six-ish and rolled the commute with very heavy legs and flatted again on the way home. MTB (heavy legs again) commute on Friday. No riding at all over the weekend. Yesterday (Saturday) I felt heavy, tired and grumpy all day. At one point I sat down on the couch, and tilted my head back. My eyes closed themselves and I felt that thick nap-gravity sucking me down into the leather. Bad news. I closed out the evening with stomach cramps. Some kind of bug. After a big bunch of sleep I thought I’d be good to go, but decided to have a quiet day in the garden.
That makes a bit of a waste of the first week of Build 1, but I shouldn’t be far off settling into a groove.
Pleasantly wet
Posted by: stevecaddy on: Wednesday January 4, 2012
Up at 5:00 to meet Andrew at REA at 6:00, and then on to meet Jim and Keith at Rosanna Safeway at 6:30.
We rolled out for an extended Mt Pleasant loop under dark skies. Heading up Rosehill Rd Andrew’s chain jammed badly between his cluster and spokes. Heavy drops were beginning to fall by the time he got it working again but we pressed on in good spirits. Within the half our conditions had turned cool and dim but lit with flashes of lightening. The descents weren’t a big ball of fun with hard rain feeling like shot in the face and fuck-all visibility. Although they seem very close to the Pro3 Races in dry conditions, I don’t feel a lot of trust for the Ultremos in the wet.
Jim took us home via Bridge St and Grand Blvd, which is a good return route. Keith picked up a flat somewhere along the line and I did too on the home stretch. By all accounts it should have been a shitty ride but we all had fun and felt good – possibly with the exception of Keith, who was just a little short on experience. Considering the slim sleep and last night’s TT I felt really good.
74.7 km / 673 m / 2:51:03
~89 / 773 / 3:31 including the roll home in soggy britches.
Test: Aerobic TT
Posted by: stevecaddy on: Tuesday January 3, 2012
On the trainer, 43:15 (5th from top) 43:14 (4th from top), flywheel pressure at contact + 12 half-turns:
Ride 8km at 5-7bpm below LT (tempo).
= 16:43.5 15:43.6
Avg speed: 28.7 30.5 km/h
Other details at Garmin Connect and in a slightly botched format on Strava.
Commute: ~ 28 km / ~188 m / ~1:20
Totals for today: ~36km, ~1:46
Good news! Base training has netted me a 1:00 or 1.8 km/h (6.2%) gain in aerobic performance.
Now let the hurting begin.
Gardening
Posted by: stevecaddy on: Wednesday December 28, 2011
Yesterday
Dig dirt, bust concrete, carry slabs of stone, paint.
Today
Dig dirt, push wheelbarrow (full of said dirt), cut metal, dig dirt.
It’s not training per se, but I’m definitely tired at the end of the day. Oh, and that prediction about DOMS last post? Bearing fruit as we speak.
Merry Christmas
Posted by: stevecaddy on: Sunday December 25, 2011
The commute each day. No weights or extras except for a really nice Thursday morning ultra short Mt Pleasant loop with Andrew Logue from work, before work. Lucky I invited him along because Jim bailed (again). Such is small baby life.
Today I watched others utterly stomp the Festive 500, and ate as much junk (read: tasty) food as I have in the previous two years combined. Now I need to sleep it off. Sleep it off and ride and throw heavy things around. Hmmm…
Mt Pleasant Shorty:
58 km / 814 m / 2:11:00
Weekly totals:
126 km / 1,566 m / 8:11:00
So ends recovery week. Even though it’s been light and low volume I’ve been without any zap in the legs at all. Each day feels a little like I did a big ride the day before. It’s either accumulated volume (unlikely) or the hangover of coming up to speed with the new (much larger) job. Either way, I’d love to get under a rack and do some squats. It feels like that might help shake it.
Next week wraps up the base period and then it’s into the hard stuff. It’s going to hurt a lot, but it’s a comforting kind of hurt. 10 and 11 hour “base” weeks with scarcely one long ride a have been making me nervous.
Work is crazy as hell. Exciting, but tiring. Which is about right; if you recall my last successful Odyssey attempt it occurred about the time of the most intense period of work I’ve ever had.
The week in review
Posted by: stevecaddy on: Sunday December 18, 2011
It’s Sunday night and I’m le tired, so here’s a quick re-cap:
Mon
Commute, easy pace.
28km / 1:20
Tue
Commute, easy pace.
28km / 1:20
Wed
Commute, tempo home.
28km / 1:20
Thu
Commue, temp home.
28km / 1:20
Fri
Commute, home via the Boulevard
34km / 1:40
Sat
Long, uninteded loop with a few guys from the Syke team and, just randomly, Graeme P, after Jim bailed on account of hangover.
Ivanhoe, Mt Pleasant Rd, Kangaroo Ground, Yarra Glen, Lilydale, Croydon, Mitcham, Blackburn, Balwyn, Ivanhoe.
100km / 1,524m / 3:30
Followed by the Yarraville Carols by Candelight. Big night for all, ending in fireworks!
Sun
SKCC Crits, C Grade
Sketchy bunch conditions – one guy went down at speed going hard into corner two about three wheels up from me and slid hard along the road. Another dude in BMC kit narrowly escaped the same fate a couple of laps later. Two guys hit cones but didn’t come down and some deliberate accordianing of the group by someone up front towards the end had bars touching bums. I crossed the line in about 8th place and would have needed to be more agressive in the straight before the last turn to contest the win. I think I have the power but I’m lacking the judgement to find the position.
Simon Gerrans took home A Grade honours, but the real star of the day was Claire, who toed the start line for the first time ever and came away with her very own SKCC jersey, cap and a fat ass bag of lollies. Not a bad haul!
34km / 40.9km/h / 0:52
Followed by filling in the trench for our new carport’s electrical cable. Maybe three cubic meters of pretty nasty clay shovellin’.
Totals:
11 hrs, 246km
3m3
Looking back at the training plan, I see that next week is not the recovery week I thought it was. This week was supposed to be recovery. I see no reason not to swap, what with it being Christmas and all. This is probably not a great time to admit that I’m already way down on hours compared to the plan – which was for daily commuting with 7 hrs of big-ride extras on top. But it is a good time to think about how the last Odyssey I rode in was race on the back of about four and a half hours of (admittedly high quality) saddle time a week.
