14:05, including one 400m run.

Not as God-awful as I expected, but certainly not easy. At rep 75 the bar felt heavy enough that going for a run seemed like a good idea. Turns out it was a bad idea. I wanted to run again at 85 but thought much better of it.

FWIW, this was prescribed at 50% of 1RM Thruster weight, which should have made it 30kg for me. I’m pretty happy with how I did with 25 kg considering how little heavy work I’ve done lately. 30 would have been very tough, and at 100 reps, 25 was probably too heavy for the pace the designers intended for it. Would also be “fun’ with just a broomstick.

Rest days this week have all included the straight commute, but on the MTB as I burned out my back tyre on the trainer during the LTHR test.

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)

Strava / Garmin

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.

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.

All the gory details are on Strava.

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.

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.

KB Complex @ 16kg KB
10 RTW clockwise
10 RTW anticlockwise
10 Air squats
10 1H swings L
10 1H swings R
10 C&J L
10 C&J R
25 Air squats
10 Goblet squats
7 Cossacks (e.s.)

Workout
25 x The Bastard @ 16kg KBs
= 21:50

I think I’ll get in this end. Oh, it’s a little deep! Do you have anything shallower? No? Just this here deep end? Ok then, sure. Why not? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen – get to rep 8 and realise that you’re going to be all kinds of torn up tomorrow? Ha!

The overhead lunging component was much better than I expected. First 5 reps had the renegade rows on the horns, but in the interest of safety I settled for planting my hand on the top of the ball of the bell.

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.

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.

Then…

20 Swings @ 24kg KB
20 Snatch left hand
20 Snatch right hand
20 C&J left hand
20 C&J right hand
20 Two hand push press
20 Burpees

Run 360m between movements

= 25:50

Before CrossFit, Jim used to take me to Jeff’s place, where I had the shit beaten out of me at the oval down the street from his place. He’d line up sandbags, slam balls and kettlebells, each one with a movement, and have us run to the other side of the oval and back in between stations. I did push-ups from the knees. I stumbled and walked. I spew-burped and tried not to bruise my forearms with the bells, but I kept coming back. I remember thinking that Jim, John, Jeff and Jase were the strongest, most hard core mother fuckers and nicest all round blokes I’d ever seen.

After being away from the conditioning work for a little while it seemed fitting to go back, sort of, to where it all began for me and heavy things.