A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

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ldrcycles
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A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:57 am

I've been entering races (mostly MTB) for a couple of years now at a VERY amateur level and my main new years resolution this year is to get serious about it. So i thought it might be interesting to write about the journey (and to provide a little extra motivation).

Starting the year, i am reasonably strong (easily able to get into the 50s in a sprint) but very short on aerobic fitness, so my focus for January and February is on high cadence training, along with plenty of cross training, particularly running and swimming. Last year i had some issues with lower back pain, which i am hoping to address with a daily stretching routine, and regular massages. Once i have made a dent on the awfully tight muscles i have at the moment i'm intending on going to a chiro/physio to sort out some misalignment issues. At the moment i am sitting on 87 kgs, i'm not intending on losing weight, as all going well i should be putting on some nice heavy muscles but it will be interesting to see what happens.

Today i was intending to do a 100k morning ride but events conspired against it and i had to settle for a 10k ride at 10:30 this evening. I threw in a couple of what could laughingly be referred to as efforts to make myself feel better about the distance :) . If tomorrow goes according to plan i will be heading north from Coolum to Peregian, then south to the southern side of Buderim for a bit of climbing, probably about 80-90k. Following that up with a stretch, jog to the beach for a swim, then another stretch, shower and a good lie down :D .
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A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby RonK » Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:08 am

I've just returned from a week on the Sunshine Coast, where I enjoyed a daily ride on the Tinbeerwah circuit from Noosaville. Have fun playing in the holiday traffic.

It intrigues me what route you would take from Perigian back to Buderim without backtracking.

It's such a pity that the Easter Suncoast tour is no longer being run - it was an excellent event.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:29 pm

RonK wrote: It intrigues me what route you would take from Perigian back to Buderim without backtracking.

It's such a pity that the Easter Suncoast tour is no longer being run - it was an excellent event.
I've never heard of the Suncoast tour? As for backtracking, i usually try to avoid it but as i decided the stretch between Coolum and Peregian would be a good warmup i wasn't bothered. It also meant i got to pass a rather attractive lass on a very nice Bianchi :) .

The legs didn't feel great today, i think my seat may have been a little high which wouldn't have helped. Quite a lot of wind about which had me down to 21kmh at one stage :evil: . From Maroochy through to Kawana i was joined by a bloke called greg on a nice old Cannondale CAAD2, had a nice chat. Took a few wrong turns heading for Buderim and got lost but eventually made my way to Dixon Rd, i found it on Cycle2max and while it isn't long it is jolly tough. I'm going to pop the latest time in and see what power estimate it comes up with (2/10ths of bugger all i'm guessing :) ). The run back down to Maroochy was fun and i had a nice little race against a motorbike on Bradman Ave :) . All up 82k in 2:55. Decided not to bother with the jog and swim, just a little ambitious i think. Had a very good stretch and a protein shake, now for a lie down.

Tomorrow will be 25k each way to work up the David Low Way, which is as lumpy as cold porridge, a good way to wake up. If i'm feeling up to it i might pop over to Tinbeerwah after work for some hill repeats.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:39 pm

248 watts, a long way to go.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ratter » Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:14 pm

was up at Noosa back in august, the wife and I hired some MTB, a bit knocked about as you'd expect from hire bikes, anyway we went for a bit of a ride following the map they gave us, ended up at timbeerwah, rode up the hill while the wife walked it, then continued to ride up to the look out, that was a workout by itself.

good luck with your training etc
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby Ken Ho » Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:37 pm

ldrcycles wrote:248 watts, a long way to go.

Would it cheer you up to think of that as 1/4 of a chicks hair-dryer ?
No ?

........giggles and runs for cover
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby toolonglegs » Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:50 pm

What sort of mtb racing you into ldrcycles ?.
I am thinking of doing a bit again this year.If I can get skinny again!...although it is a long time since I was 87kgs :lol: .
Will watch your progress! :D !.

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

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:35 pm

Ken Ho wrote:
ldrcycles wrote:248 watts, a long way to go.

Would it cheer you up to think of that as 1/4 of a chicks hair-dryer ?
No ?

........giggles and runs for cover
LOL, good call :D .
toolonglegs wrote:What sort of mtb racing you into ldrcycles ?.
I am thinking of doing a bit again this year.If I can get skinny again!...although it is a long time since I was 87kgs :lol: .
Will watch your progress! :D !.
Olympic XC and enduro, i did the state XC series in D grade last year, and went pretty well but was kept back A LOT by my appalling lack of technical ability. Changing my forks from 14yr old elastomer Manitous with so little movement that it was almost negative travel for 12 yr old Manitous with an air spring and just on 100mm travel will help, as will some better brakes and wheels. That and MUCH more regular MTB rides, i spend about 98% of my time on the road at present.
After the XC series last year i started doing the technical trails at Tinbeerwah on a rigid singlespeed to force myself to improve, there will be plenty more of that.

I'm also intending to join the local road club and get into some crits and road races as the year goes on. I haven't decided yet which way to go, the 'teams' part of road racing sickens me (i mean if you're in a race you should be trying to win, not being some other guy's manservant, although i do acknowledge it's not that straightforward) but XC racing calls for explosive efforts in climbing, which has not really been my style, more of a diesel. Time will tell.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Jan 03, 2012 9:01 pm

Well the spirit was begrudgingly willing, but the flesh, oh the poor pathetic whimpering flesh. Took about a kilometre for the legs to realise what i was up to, upon which they cried "How dare you! How very dare you!". My legs had all the strength of one of those miniature toy pocket handkerchief barking rats, the ones that sound like a car with broken remote central locking, all yip yip yip yip. Managed to go ok over the last few little hills going to work, and felt surprisingly good afterwards. The return was much of the same, although i remembered to drop my seat a little before leaving work and it definitely felt better. Threw in a couple of sprints for good measure, topped at about 51kmh. Sometimes i just can't help but take off (or attempt to do so), tucked in the drops pushing hard, feeling that vibration through the frame, and listening to the tires hissing on the road, it just makes me happy :) . So 55km for the day, and while i'm tired, i'm not really sore.

Tomorrow is a day off, due in no small part to the fact i need to get home quickly after work to have a crack at mowing the lawn (cross training?).
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:32 pm

This morning's ride in to work went reasonably well, 1hr21 which is pretty average, but some pain from my knee. As both of my brothers have had problems with their knees (one had a reconstruction only a month ago) this is more than a little concerning, hopefully i've just been pushing a little too hard too quickly and i've just strained myself a bit. Just had a twinge of cramp in one of my hammys as i wrote that so certainly a possibility!
The ride home was somewhat eventful, i rode fairly well (though with the pain from the knee almost constant) to my brothers place about 15k from home, then when i left for home i realised quite quickly that i had hunger flatted. Stopped before the range that separates my town from the next to dig into the emergency stash. The emergency stash is so important and valuable that i have actually never used it, so the 2 muesli bars that it consists of were somewhat fossilized. Still tasted great and i felt a heck of a lot better, and got home without any issues.

So 104k all up today, 252 so far this week. Tomorrow i have to drive to work as i go straight from work to my night job delivering pizzas (sadly not on a bike, think of all the extra training!) which will be a good thing, giving my knee some time to rest. I want to do the short commute on saturday but i'll just see how the legs feel, no sense in pushing too hard too soon.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Jan 10, 2012 9:57 pm

Back on the bike today for the long commute, 95k all up. Still a little bit of niggling pain from that knee, i'm going to have a go at moving my cleats around a little, although i think it may just be due to my pelvis being ridiculously out of alignment. It feels like my right side is sitting about an inch further forward than my left, i need to see a chiro/physio lickety split.

The riding was ok, went fairly well this morning and put in an average time, as i started climbing the range there were cicadas making a din all around me, the angry sun blazing down from a cloudless sky, and it was only 6:30am :shock: . To my surprise it got fairly cloudy for the latter part which kept things reasonably cool, still had a good shower under the hose at work though, if for no other reason than to avoid inflicting too much suffering on my co workers. :) .

Late finish at work meant i had very little time to get over the other side of town to the bike shop for a chain tool (i can't find the one i had :evil: ) so smashed it and felt great. Was able to keep it over 50 for a little while on a flat stretch. The ride home was fairly uneventful, started to fade a bit toward the end but not much more than usual.

Had something of an epiphany this afternoon though, my bike has been making all sorts of creaking ticking squeaking noises etc, i stopped at one stage as i thought i may have had a flat, the ride was very rough. In hindsight that may just have been the heat melting the bitumen, i'm glad i stopped though, as i checked the rear tire and found it worn down to the puncture belt in quite a few spots! It really is WAAY overdue for me to strip the bike to the bare frame and give her some tlc, i can't decide whether to just give it a service, go for a whole new groupset to match the new wheels i want to get, or wait and save (and wait and save...) and get a new carbon. Decisions, decisions...
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby Thunderthighs » Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:47 pm

Great thread, by geez you cover some k's mate!

Just as an aside though, I have had a few tendonitis issues in the past (guitar player) and I strongly recommend that you get to a physio/chiro as soon as possible. I left it too long and semi-permenantly lost strength in my right shoulder as a direct result.

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

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Jan 12, 2012 5:02 pm

Thunderthighs wrote:Great thread, by geez you cover some k's mate!

Just as an aside though, I have had a few tendonitis issues in the past (guitar player) and I strongly recommend that you get to a physio/chiro as soon as possible. I left it too long and semi-permenantly lost strength in my right shoulder as a direct result.
Riding last night and today i had no pain from the knee, but i'm still going to ask my doctor who he recommends and see them next week sometime (hopefully). As for k's i'm trying to get them up there, as an indication i heard Craig Gordon (a very quick MTB racer) does 900k a week, and there are plenty of roadies who would be getting towards that. I'm hoping to get in the region of 500-600 a week in due course.

Last night was a social MTB ride with the local club, and i didn't enjoy it at all. Obviously the company was great, but whether it was the fact i haven't ridden off road for a fair while and my already laughable 'skills' were even poorer or the heat, or being tired but the roots and rocks were frustrating the heck out of me and i just couldn't get any flow happening. About 30k altogether and a reasonable workout but i'm contemplating leaving MTB and just concentrating on the road.

This morning i did the long ride to work, i was going to meet a group for a ride but woke up 2 hrs late :evil: , rode reasonably well and did the 42k in 1:18:30, first time in a little while i've done it in under 1:20. Will be interesting to see how i do riding home.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:08 pm

Rode well home, felt reasonably strong all the way. A couple of little twinges from the knee so i may have been speaking a little soon. 85k total for today. No riding tomorrow as i have the pizza delivery after finishing the day job, intending to do the short commute Saturday which will get me around 260k for this week. I'm wanting to really ramp things up next week and aim for about 350, should be achievable (assuming no issues from the knee).
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:05 pm

Well today was absolutely fantastic!! Set off from coolum a little late, so i was going to be pushing it so i could reach work on time. Was feeling pretty good, and at Emu Mountain (about 7k into the ride) i heard bikes approaching fast. I got ready to try and hop on (to get to work a little quicker) and as the 6 riders went past i stood up and jumped on the pedals. And didn't get on. I jumped harder, and just caught them as my speedo ticked over 52kmh. I simply couldn't keep up the pace (especially as they were riding 'loose' ie not in a tight group/line, so not a great draft) and had to drop off. The youngest would have been late 40s at a guess, and at least one was a woman. Apparently they are a well known group, ride from Noosa to Kawana and back, and are impossible to catch.

A couple of kilometres further on i was caught by another group of about 30 coming into Peregian, one of whom i knew. I was able to slot into that group ok and had a nice chat while strapping along at a nice clip. I was keeping pace just fine until we hit 2 short, sharp hills near Sunshine Beach where i was dropped (and have also been dropped in the last 2 Noosa Centuries, i just haven't got the punch needed to keep pace over them, yet...), but kept pushing and with the help of a red light i was able to get back on a few k later. At this stage i was about 6k from work and feeling jolly good. After a couple of ks sitting on high30s-low40s in the bunch we got to the top of a slight rise, and i felt like taking off (i feel like that quite often, even when i'm riding by myself). So i tapped up a few gears and swung out. I hit just on 60 and held there for a few hundred metres before dropping back to low50s, i then kept pushing hard up and over a bridge and through the roundabout on the other side. By this stage i was feeling pretty 2nd hand and looked around, expecting to see a bunch looming right behind me and saw....nothing? Well i must have done ok i thought so kept pushing (by this stage only doing 35-37) and didn't see them again :) . And this was while wearing my Backpack of Courage, full of clothes, spare tubes and work boots :D .

Now yes, they had done 50-60k more than me, and probably didn't have any interest in chasing me but i've NEVER been able to keep away from a group, especially one as strong as this. To top it off, i then rode very well back home after work. Things are looking good.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby trailgumby » Sat Jan 14, 2012 4:01 pm

Knee twinges shoudl not be ignored.

I'd suggest upping your training volume by no more than 10% a week, and having a regular scheduled recovery week one week in four (if under 40) or one week in three (if over 40).

Do you have a proper program you're following? I've found I got much more out of doing less, believe it or not, as it allowed for recovery and supercompensation. Previously I'd been doing too much and was not recovering enough, so got into a downward spiral. Unsurprisingly, injuries and illness followed.

Some coaching and getting a proper program done might help.

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

Postby ldrcycles » Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:41 pm

trailgumby wrote:Knee twinges shoudl not be ignored.

I'd suggest upping your training volume by no more than 10% a week, and having a regular scheduled recovery week one week in four (if under 40) or one week in three (if over 40).

Do you have a proper program you're following? I've found I got much more out of doing less, believe it or not, as it allowed for recovery and supercompensation. Previously I'd been doing too much and was not recovering enough, so got into a downward spiral. Unsurprisingly, injuries and illness followed.

Some coaching and getting a proper program done might help.
I'm contacting my GP on monday to get his recommendation for a chiro/physio to get the knee checked out, especially as both of my brothers have done ACLs (one has done both, and had 2 reconstructions).

At the moment my thinking was to get a solid base of kilometres up, currently i can do up to 120k at a respectable pace but any more than that and i drop off dramatically. My idea was if i got a lot of k's in, and built up to rides of up to 200k, it would help with races of 100-160k. With my current workload though, i may have to concentrate more on intervals etc?

I'm going to join the local road club soon, and i'm expecting there will be a few experienced riders in there willing to share a few tips.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby foo on patrol » Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:16 am

The area you live in Idrcycles, has some good hills for training and it could be that you are hammering yourself a bit much. :wink:

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

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:08 pm

foo on patrol wrote:The area you live in Idrcycles, has some good hills for training and it could be that you are hammering yourself a bit much. :wink:

Foo
:) , certainly a possibility, but there's no harm in getting it checked out. Especially as i want to do a ride around Mt Glorious-Mt Crosby on the last sunday of this month, and have set the goal of doing a ride from Coolum to Maroochy, then up and over Kiel Mountain (max about 25%), through Palmwoods to Razorback Road, then along the Blackall Range, back down through Nambour and Bli Bli to Coolum again. That one will be an absolute killer :D . That and doing hill repeats of Gyndier Drive at Tinbeerwah should have me pretty well prepared by the time the Coot-tha comes around.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:52 pm

I found this link in another thread, and i like what i see http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... t-2-17445/.

"Posterior knee pain. Pain behind the knee is far less common, and much more straightforward. It’s almost always due to over-extending the knee."
ldrcycles wrote:
The legs didn't feel great today, i think my seat may have been a little high which wouldn't have helped.
So i'm thinking if i make this week one for very easy spinning recovery rides, and really concentrate on my stretching, it should sort things out. I am still going to organise a medical appointment to get things checked out to be safe of course.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby foo on patrol » Mon Jan 16, 2012 5:01 am

That second ride will be a killer! :mrgreen:

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

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:07 am

I've done Razorback Road once before and it was absolutely vicious (just as you would expect from the name), doing it AFTER going over Kiel Mountain? Ohhh yea :twisted:
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby duds2u » Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:02 pm

ldrcycles wrote:I've done Razorback Road once before and it was absolutely vicious (just as you would expect from the name), doing it AFTER going over Kiel Mountain? Ohhh yea :twisted:
Lockie, you are a potential Monster. Sh++t, Kiel Mountain and Razorback on the same day, that's serious. Man you have my utmost respect. Shadbolt will be a pussy for you next time.

We rode Razorback a while ago on the hottest and highest humidity day of this summer and we all blew up. We're waiting for Autumn to have another go to do to it properly. I know it's not a long hill but we started at Palmwoods and as you know we hadn't even warmed up before we hill the hill.

Mate, you have to come play with us any Sunday at 5.15 am at Raw. We did a little fun ride to Kenilworth and Cooran via the Blluff and Boreen Point last Sunday, about 140k.

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

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:48 pm

Emphasis on 'potential' :) .

I'm mad keen on doing some rides with you lot, only problem being i coach new shooters at the pistol club every sunday, what time do you usually finish?
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

Postby duds2u » Tue Jan 17, 2012 6:48 pm

ldrcycles wrote:Emphasis on 'potential' :) .

I'm mad keen on doing some rides with you lot, only problem being i coach new shooters at the pistol club every sunday, what time do you usually finish?
It depends. Last sunday was a bit late being 140k. Normally we do about 100 and are home about 9.30.
PM me with your email address and Í'll get spinner to put you on the email list. There's normally an email goes around Thursday or Friday night with Sundays ride route.

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