A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

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ldrcycles
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Feb 23, 2012 10:53 am

Not much riding this week, partly due to catching up on sleep (and feeling better than i have for a while) and partly due to weather like this Image

Tuesday morning was hill repeats at Tinbeerwah, 4 runs and none under 7 minutes, a little disappointing (bearing in mind i'm on the Apollo which is pretty damn heavy, and my pb on the much lighter and stiffer Scott is 6:48) this morning i did another 3 runs and managed a 6:59 along with 2 around 7:10. Not too bad but i need to get a LOT better before the Coot-tha.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:06 am

Another 3 runs this morning, in spite of the rain, and managed one 6:55 (the other 2 we don't need to talk about ok? :) ). Found it amusing that my highest speed was 50.2kmh, and that was sprinting along the flat on Eumundi Rd, not coming back down Gyndier :) .
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:49 pm

Have officially burned myself out. 2 jobs, preparing my farm for running goats, secretary of the pistol club, maintaining a relationship (which is at least 50 jobs in itself, but i love her anyway) and bike riding was just too damn much and i cracked. The camel-back-breaking straw was the storm that flooded much of Noosa, Pomona and Kin Kin last friday, a huge number of pools were filled with mud and god knows what else, and the ones that weren't filled with mud just had all the chemicals washed out, so work has been ridiculously busy. Add to that being short staffed on Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday and it was too much, even after going to bed at 7pm. Luckily my boss is fantastic and didn't hesitate to give me today off, which entailed a lot of resting, and reading a book i got for Christmas (and hadn't had a chance to read) about the Australian of the year awards and i'm pretty well recharged and reinspired.

However i'm now only a little over 2 weeks out from the Coot-tha Challenge and virtually back at square one, still no base to speak of and sweet FA in the way of climbing power. With some radical rescheduling of activities i should be able to get things back on track. Watch this space!
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A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby toolonglegs » Fri Mar 02, 2012 5:13 pm

You don't lose too much base in a hurry... Rest up and take it easy before your big ride... Can't change much in two weeks so not worth stressing over it.... Especially when you have so much else on your plate.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:25 am

Thanks as always for the kind words TLL, not for the first time i'm thinking this cycling gig is at least 90% mental. FINALLY managed to get a massage this arvo, and wasn't that an experience. I soon learned that with this bloke 'Is that tender?' meant 'Cos if it is you ain't seen nothing yet', and 'Just relax' = 'This is going to hurt a LOT'. I didn't even know what a hip flexor was until he poked the bejeesus out of it and got me to bend and then straighten my leg while keeping as much pressure as possible on that spot. Holy mother of god. Even worse than doing the sides of my knees (i forget what he called that but i remember quite clearly what it felt like :twisted: ).

Confirmed my suspicions that while all my muscles were shamefully tight, all the ones on my right side were worse than the left, surprisingly though he thought the alignment of my hips was pretty reasonable and in spite of the tight muscles, thought the range of movement i had was also not too bad.

Gave me a few pointers on my stretching while he was at it which i will be applying tomorrow. The interesting, and very pleasant thing is that after a very difficult day and night of work on friday, limited sleep, and then another very difficult shift this morning, i felt GREAT after the massage, better than i have for quite some time. Might make a habit of it then :) .

As much as i want to go on the bunch ride with spinner, duds et al tomorrow morning, i've had a sore throat the last 2 days which is almost sure to be a full blown cold tomorrow or monday. Sigh. Patience...
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby foo on patrol » Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:20 am

Rub downs are a great thing when your muscles are all tight and the difference after is unreal.

Sport specific masseuses are totally different to relaxation therapists and they do like to make you suffer. :twisted:

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:30 am

VERY different, i got my girlfriend a swedish massage at the same time (earned some solid points there :) ) and where i came out looking like i'd been hit by a bus, she came out looking like she was high hahaha.
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A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby toolonglegs » Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:36 pm

That massage sounds fantastic!... I actually dream of seriously hard massages in my glutes and hips. I have to sit on a ball till I finally find someone like that.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Wed Mar 14, 2012 7:43 am

Back again after my little break, feeling a lot better and finally managed to get back on the bike on Sunday morning. The noosa bunch headed down the coast before heading inland to Woombye, and then up the Blackall Range. 2.7k at an average of 8.7% on a 96 Apollo steely with 42-26 granny hurt quite a bit :) . That was followed by a very enjoyable descent into Nambour though. By the time we reached Eumundi after 90k my legs were completely cooked, so i stopped and got my girlfriend to pick me up (and scored points by meeting at the bakery for a late breakfast :) ).

Was going to ride today for Ride To Work Day but it's raining and doesn't look like clearing much.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:25 pm

About 30k this morning, hopped on the Apollo and rode over to the Kin Kin Range and went up it twice. The bike feels MUCH better now with the new 53-39 cranks i've put on, even though the big ring has a wobble in it which causes the chain to rub a little. Rode pretty well and had one of those moments on the way back, in the drops, chin almost on the bars, out of the saddle in about 53-15 pushing hard at around 46kmh and the most wonderful feeling of my legs and the bike just working together. Bliss.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Mar 18, 2012 11:21 pm

Well i'm choosing to take a lesson from today in order to lessen the pain. Brisbane Coot-tha challenge time, and i rocked up feeling pretty good but unsure after the poor leadup. Charged off fairly happily and then about 10k in my pump bracket somehow fell off. I tightened the thing very securely just last night so i don't know how it happened but riding past the gabba i heard a horrible noise as it had a brief passionate encounter with my back wheel. Wheel ok and pump damaged but still usable, carried on to Coot-tha and set off up it. Got the first k down without any hassles, feeling very good and going well but remembering to pace myself. About halfway up to my horror i realised my front tyre was flat, rode on it for another hundred odd metres before admitting defeat and climbing off to the side of the road.
I sat down on a rock, absolutely heartbroken, pulled out my spare tube and set to work. Ended up with a 'time' of 28:27 :( . Aside from rolling across the finish line with the front tyre flat again, the rest of the ride went very well though, and instead of focusing on the puncture, i'm choosing to take it as a lesson that every now and then horrible things are going to happen, and the way i respond to them is what matters. There's always next year.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby duds2u » Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:25 am

Just put it down to experience.
I had something similar happen in another life. Paddy Pallin cross country ski race at Mt Perisher (I think it was 30K) quite a few years ago. 5k from the finish I hit a hole in the course and broke a ski.
It hurts like hell to watch 50 people pass you and not be able to do anything about it. I was having a really good race until then.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby foo on patrol » Wed Mar 21, 2012 9:06 am

Bugger!

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Mar 25, 2012 4:23 pm

An entire week but i've managed to get on the bike again, for an hour of relatively high cadence work on the fluid trainer. The weather was looking a bit uncharitable (especially with a solid headwind, which i HATE riding in) so i thought the stationary trainer might be a more efficient use of time. Stayed above 100rpm the whole time, which is pretty fast for me, i tend to grind around all the time (which i know i need to change), threw in a few 1 minute hard efforts as well and felt pretty good by the end. Trainer got too hot to touch and the tyre is noticeably lighter on tread :) (even with making sure the roller pressure was right, learnt that lesson the hard way when i turned a new tyre into little black beads in 15 minutes) . Looking to ease back into some heavier training with a few long commutes this week followed by a couple of hundred kilometres plus hill intervals next week.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Wed Mar 28, 2012 9:36 pm

Had a ripper of a day, i wasn't able to get all the work done on my Scott (new headset, front tyre, BB, and some general tweaking) so hopped on the Dawes singlespeed instead. Was surprisingly brisk setting off, even to the extent of popping on the arm warmers for the first 15k, rode reasonably well on the way in, and the only negative was a bus pulling out in front of me at a roundabout. But i like buses (drafting them not joining the dregs of society that go places in them) so i can let that go :) . The ride home went surprisingly well, was quick all the way back and felt fantastic. I really like the feeling of being on top of the gear (when it happens haha) everything flows and works together beautifully, virtually no noise from the bike, just the wind in my ears and the swish of rubber on blacktop.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby foo on patrol » Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:52 pm

Good to see you being positive again Idrcycles! :wink: :)

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:11 pm

What a ripper of a week! After the great commute on wednesday i bought a new Repco single speed flatbar (for $98!!) on Thursday afternoon, and rode the short commute from coolum on saturday morning. To my utter shock the bike was an absolute bottler and ripped along, an average of 31.8 for a hilly 26k is acceptable going for anything, let alone a steel singlespeed for less than a hundred bucks. Even managed to drop 2 roadies, and stick with a carbon TT bike for a few k after he passed me. Of course he was running quite a steady pace and i was way into the red but it still counts :D .

This morning the Sunday bunch headed from Noosa out through Cooroy and Belli Creek to Kenilworth, via Moy Pocket and Kenilworth Bluff. A very tough ride, lots of hard climbs and some ripper downhills, and gorgeous scenery to boot. Not to mention great company as always :) . As i'm having issues with the Scott i took the Apollo, very thankful that i swapped the original 52-42 cranks for some 53-39 1st gen 105s i had. Had plenty of really enjoyable moments doing this one, climbing the gap from the north of Kenilworth was one, and taking off on a solo breakaway from the top of Eerwah Vale to Eumundi, 6k at maximum effort with 100k already in the legs. I really surprised myself with how well i did at that. The ride ended up at 133k, the longest i've done in a loong while. Also got me to 246k for the week, and 1739k for the year so far, 130 ahead of schedule for my goal of 4000 miles (6437k). Finally feel like things are getting back on track :D .
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby duds2u » Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:09 am

Hey LDR, you forgot to merntion your urgent need to get to Eumindi that caused the solo breakaway. :twisted:
It was a good ride though. As Old Tony would say - a quality ride.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:47 pm

Twas but a minor detail duds hahaha :D . Gotta love tony, what a ripper bloke.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:07 pm

I had intended to do the long commute on the Repco single speed today but woke up feeling less than 100% and hopped on the Apollo instead. Turned out to be a good move, as even with gears i struggled a bit. The first 25odd k were pretty unimpressive, and then the legs seemed to get the idea and spluttered into action. Managed a reasonable effort for the 150m finish sprint along Eumundi Rd, but there was a noise. One of those ones were i'm not sure if i felt it, heard it, or sensed it through the force (which of course is really really strong within me :lol: ) but it turned out to be another spoke pulling straight out of the nipple. Damn cheap junk Apollo, only 16yrs old, with a young solid bloke doing sprints on it and it can't take the heat, pffft :P .

The ride home wasn't too bad, slowish start, cracked on a bit through the middle and then bonked a bit towards home. As i was making my way up Gyndier cotterpin came rocketing down, on sundays ride he was in front of me coming down there and try as i might i couldn't even hold onto him. I had lunch a bit earlier than usual and a banana and orange juice at knock off evidently wasn't enough. I noticed today that my singlespeeding has had the very welcome effect of getting me into the habit of spinning much faster than usual. It is also threatening to get me into the habit of tackling every upward gradient out of the saddle, hands in the drops and smashing it out at 20rpm :) . Mind you Eddy Merckx knew a thing or two about going up a hill and he had more grind than an adult film star.

Tomorrow i will have to drive, to take the stricken Scott, wobbly Apollo wheel, and rims and hubs that need lacing for my Tom Wallace to the shop.

EDIT: and i forgot to mention, over 2500 views for this thread now! Feels great to know that it is keeping people interested.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Apr 08, 2012 8:33 pm

An absolutely spectacular day today, one of those moments where i could almost cry with happiness.

Thursday i was only able to get out for 18k on the Dawes, to the top of the Kin Kin Range and back, not feeling particularly strong but still managed 32.7kmh avg.

Saturday morning i had the short Coolum-Noosa commute on the Repco, and while it again went exceptionally well, with an average of 32 for the 26k run in, the flat bars were literally a pain. Trying to tuck down with such an upright position lead to a ridiculous amount of pain from my elbows, so i flipped the bars upside down for the return, which helped quite a bit. The round trip of 52k ended up at 31.7kmh.

Overnight i flipped the bars around so they were upside down and backwards, and popped on a road stem from an old Malvern Star, and all was ready for the Sunday morning bunch ride. After only 2hrs sleep i woke up just in time and got to the meeting point at the noosa river 5 minutes late, with no-one around. Knowing which way there were headed, i jumped on the bike and tore off up the road, hoping to catch them. Just as i was about to give up hope (after about 6-7k) i spotted them up ahead. Now the usual procedure would be to get on the back and mumble a breathless 'morning', but what kind of an entrance is that?
No, far better to wind it up to 50kmh (on a 44-16, so something like 175rpm) and roar past in a blur of supersonic legs. :D

The ride that followed was one of the best i've ever been on, a quick blast down the highway (with a max of 65kmh, very quick for the Repco, which tends to be rather nervous), spinning up from Eumundi to Eerwah Vale with mist and soft early morning sun making for an extraordinarily beautiful sight (the highlight being 2 horses running alongside the road with a backdrop of a misty dam, i mean you couldn't make this stuff up), some hills which were obviously not especially enjoyable, and finishing with a ridiculously quick run up the coast which almost made my legs explode (sustained 110rpm pedalling is not familiar territory for me!). In total, 94k at an average of about 30kmh.

A priceless morning, made only better by the particularly attractive young lady who served the magnificent tomato cheese and ham omolette i got afterwards :) . Of course if my girlfriend asks, the waitress was old and hideous :wink: .

With the Noosa Century (the most important event of the year for the wannabe racer) less than a month away, i'm very pleased with how the legs are getting along, whether that translates into an improvement on last years placing remains to be seen. Once i get the geared bikes back on the road i'll be hitting up gyndier for some solid hill repeats (as that was where i was dropped last year) and at least 2 runs of the full course to get an idea of where i am in relation to last year.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:43 pm

Absolute corker of a ride yesterday morning, a fast flat ride from Coolum to Alexandra Headlands and back on the Dawes. Mentally i was feeling particularly good, and the legs were in fine shape. The first 15k took exactly 26mins (34.6kmh average), in spite of a red light and a small hill i used to warm up. The entire 46k took just under 1:21 or 34.07kmh, it good have been much better but for a ridiculous number of red lights coming back through maroochy, as i spent a lot of time sitting on 36-37 and popped into the mid 40s a few times. On the way back to Coolum i decided to have a crack at a sprint and managed to hit 50 and hold it there for about 50metres. Definitely need to do some work on being able to hold a longer sprint.


Sunrise over the maroochy river.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:06 pm

You may have gathered from my posts that good days usually involve a feeling that the bike, the road, the weather etc are all working with me. Well a bad day is when it feels like those things are working against me, like this morning.

Managed to drag myself out of bed at 3:45 :shock: , and head down to noosa for the 5:30 group ride. Only 2 other blokes turned up there due to the rain and wind, so we headed over the other side of town to meet the 6:00 group. It was raining lightly, gusty winds and about 17 degrees, very difficult conditions and potentially fatal for a queenslander!

We eventually set off, the legs feeling pretty poor, and i hung off the back for the first 25odd k. My legs felt reasonable after that and i was able to sit in the bunch at 37ish for a while.

After the turnaround a few blokes took off from the front and i naturally followed hanging on ok for a few k but ended up getting dropped off. The ride back was into a very stiff headwind so i suffered quite a bit on my own, at one stage down to a pitiful 21kmh. I eventually made it back into town very disheartened. On checking the sppedo and working out my average was 31.4kmh i felt a little better though, but i'll be doing some hill repeats this arvo to make up for it :) .
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:23 pm

After a long and trying day at work, i was in two minds about doing hill repeats but managed to convince myself to get over there and do it. I set off up the hill with my bike making a fair few creaking noises (like most of my bikes do, it isn't something i'm very good at fixing...) until halfway up it became so infuriating i had to stop and have a look. It turned out the front derailleur had slipped down the seat tube slightly and was rubbing on the chain especially in the big ring and larger cogs (and the chain is stretched to a laughable extent and is being held on by little more than gravity). I noted the problem and carried on but only got to 3/4 up before it just became too much and i had to give up and head back to the car. Naturally at this point i was again thinking about heading back home but decided after i had gone to all the effort of changing my shoes i couldn't possibly give up before doing a single run.

So i grabbed the multitool, did some tweaking and hopped back on. After one run up and down i had warmed up alright, although i felt fairly ordinary, and gave it a good go for my next run up. By about halfway up i felt i was going reasonably well and started to really knuckle down and focus on my time. I threw myself across the line at the top and hit the stopwatch, then spent a good half minute desperately sucking in some air. Looked down at the speedo and it showed 6:31. My previous pb was 6:48! :D . Absolutely over the moon with that, the previous time had been looking pretty damn good, just getting under 7 takes a bit of doing, and i reckon there is still more to come :D . Very encouraging stuff for the Century.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby foo on patrol » Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:35 pm

Don't flog youself every day Idry and when coming up to an event....tapper a bit! :wink:

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