A year in the life of a wannabe racer.

[ldrcycles]

Hearing you loud and clear foo, I deliberately had a bit of a sleep in and no riding on friday. With my illness earlier this year i'm very concious not to forget the lesson i learnt of not overdoing things.

[ldrcycles]

With the Century fast approaching, my thoughts are becoming more and more preoccupied with how fit i am compared to last year, how will i do, what sot of strategy should i look at and so on. Comparing how i feel at the moment with how i think i felt last year is one thing, but i came to the conclusion that there was only one way i could get a proper idea of how i will go in the century, and that is to do the century. So this morning i got myself up at 3:30 (which didn't hurt as much as it usually does ) and off to Noosa i went.

From Noosa up to the top of tinbeerwah i wasn't feeling my best but once i'd warmed up i started to get along fairly well. The descent from Cooroy to Eumundi is a little bit sketchy at the bet of times, and before dawn on a wet road is not the best of times! I took it very easy though and i didn't die, which is always a nice result.

I went well on the rolling roads between Eumundi and Yandina, passing through a few patches of very cold fog, and then it was time for the wall- Dunethin Rock. After a flat straight through canefields, the road rears up in front of you, it's a fairly short climb but jolly steep and manages to take the wind out of my sails pretty effectively. Once past that, through Bli Bli to the David Low Way up the coast, and the next obstacle was a short steep hill just north of Peregian, where i was dropped by a group last year. My commutes from Coolum have been helping though, as i got over it reasonably well, and also managed the 2 sharp hills further north towards Sunshine Beach.

My biggest concern though was Noosa Parade, the final few kilometres before the finish line. In both the years i've done the century, this section has seen me inching along at well under 30kmh, crying from the physical and mental pain. This morning, no such problems, i was hurting quite a bit but still managed to sit in the mid to high 30s and sprint (sort of) for the finish line. My time for the race last year was 2:42, this morning with no other riders to draft or chase, and the dark, wet roads holding me back on some of the descents, i managed 2:53. Very positive indeed.

I also remembered to pop on the heart rate monitor for a change, and while my average was 159 (a little bit lower than usual) my max was 219! I've seen 215 once before but that is starting to get very quick indeed, i just wish i had a garmin so i knew where i was when it hit that peak.

Tomorrow will be an enforced rest (i have work to do that requires four wheels) so wednesday i will either do the long commute, hill repeats, or get some time on the fluid trainer, depending on what the weather is doing.

[zakka101]

pretty awesome stuff man far out, an 219 max HR? that is outrageous!!! cant wait to hear the race report.

[greyhoundtom]

While it certainly depends on your age and general state of fitness, a peak heart rate count of 219 bpm is certainly very high.

In my own case wearing a heart rate monitor while riding and doing sprints I found my heart rate nominally sat at around 145 bpm while riding hard, but during high intensity short duration sprints would show peaks of 185 to 190, which for my age I considered far too high.

After various heart investigations it was found I suffered ectopic heart beats which the heart rate monitor measured as an excessively high heart rate.

At that time various other heart defects were found that while they are of some concern none are severe enough to stop me from cycling, but they have stopped me from doing the HTFU bit.

Prior to having my heart health assessed I used to push myself extremely hard at various times, but then also suffered unexplained sessions where I could not ride up to my previous best, and yet the next day would come good again.

I’m an old guy 68 this month while you are obviously young and fit, however before pushing yourself too hard and hitting highs of 219 bpm again, I still think a regular checkup of heart health is essential to any athlete trying to push the boundaries of endurance and peak performance.

[ldrcycles]

On thursday morning i was intending on doing the early Noosa bunch ride but woke up 2hrs after my alarm . My first thought was to hop on the singlespeed and just nip to the other side of town and back (well my very first thought was "it's dark and cold and i want to go back to sleep" but we'll ignore that) and then for some reason i decided to get on the Scott and ride to work instead. By the time i had done that i was very late so i had to smash it all the way, despite not feeling particularly strong. Managed to get it done in just under 1:15, compared to my usual of 1:18-1:20 (my best is a bit over 1:11). After that though i felt pretty poor for the rest of the day and when 4:30 rolled around i couldn't face the prospect of riding home. I stayed at my mother in law's in Noosa, thinking that i could ride back home in the morning, all fresh after a sleep.
No such luck though, as the ride on friday morning was horrible, taking nearly 1:45. For all but the last 7-8k i had absolutely nothing in my legs, and even that last bit was only average.
I've been getting a reasonable amount of sleep, and i wouldn't have thought i've been overtraining but maybe the ride on monday took more out of me than usual? Either way i'm playing it safe for the next week or so, sleeping as much as possible and not overdoing it. I didn't ride this morning, i may do Coolum-Alexandra Headland-Coolum tomorrow morning if i'm feeling good.

[vander]

I was going to say it seems like you are doing too many rides too hard you need to have easy days. I hope for you you arent overtrained just went through it took over a month to come back.

[toolonglegs]

You have to walk on the edge a bit to see the view .
Just don't lean over too far.

[ldrcycles]

Well last night at the pizza shop the other driver broke down (apparently the previous owner of his car saw fit to attach the fuel line with duct tape ) so things got challenging. The late finish meant i woke up FAR too late this morning to ride down the coast like i wanted. On the plus side though, i had a massage this afternoon, and boy do i love massages. There's only one lady there on sundays (who did ballet with my girlfriend years ago) so it wasn't as brutal as my last massage but it still felt fantastic. I was able to arrange a massage for the other half as well, which gets some serious points.

So total riding for today was a 'totally epic' 8.5k on the footpath with the gf, which must count as an easy day . Hopefully an early night tonight will make a 1.5hr spin tomorrow morning feasible, maybe a short run around Kin Kin on Tuesday, and then Wednesday is Anzac Day, which to me means it is my inescapable duty to ride a bloody long way after going to a dawn service.

[ldrcycles]

Well last night my darling ball and chain decided like having a deep and meaningful conversation before going to sleep, so i was asleep a solid hour later than i wanted . That meant i was late to get up this morning, and had to cut my ride a bit short. How inconsiderate of her! .

Hopped on the Dawes for an easy spin from Coolum to Maroochy and back, the only problem with an 'easy spin' is that i'm like a dog choking itself on a leash, if i see an excuse to take off i have to grab it . On the way through Marcoola a ute overtook me before a roundabout (whereupon he needed to slow down). I thought 'buses have wheels. That thing has wheels. Therefore it is a bus', and gave chase. I managed to hit 50kmh but couldn't get the draft, utes are not buses, and consequently they accelerate a lot faster. Oh well.

After turning around in Maroochy, a bus (a real one this time, not a ute) passed me and stopped up ahead at a red light. Timed everything perfectly and managed so slot in just right (obeying the 2 metre rule of course, i'm a very sensible drafter ), and managed to sit there spinning insanely fast at up to 56, oh yes. Just checked Sheldon Brown's gear calculator and with the 46-16 55kmh is 150rpm, it felt a lot faster than that! In due course i turned off and (sadly) left the bus to go on it's way. Remembering i was on an 'easy spin' i settled down for the ride back home until a group of 5 overtook me just north of Marcoola. I sat with them comfortably until Seaside, which is where i like to let my legs off the leash for a sprint. This morning for a change i had an audience, so it needed to be good. Off i go, legs blurring, and sat on a smidgen over 50 for about 200 metres, and resisted slowing down much for a bit further. In contrast to my last ride, i felt great after this one, and felt good all day . I've decided not to ride tomorrow though, just to make sure i'm not overdoing it.

[RonK]

So, the burning question is - was the deep and meaningful conversation about the amount of time you spend obsessing about bikes and training?

[ldrcycles]

It may have been . She's cool with it, she just loves talking hahaha.

[ldrcycles]

Holy mother of god it was cold this morning!! . I rode the Dawes to Alexandra Headlands and back, and didn't warm up at all, it was bitterly cold. When i first walked out the door i thought, "it must be 15-16 degrees, you're being a wimp", but it was actually 10 or less, and the wind had a hell of a bite to it. Rode very well this morning, mostly taking it fairly easy, still managed the 42k in 1:15.

My planned 190odd k ride for Anzac day didn't happen, i woke up tuesday feeling a bit crook (i've been hitting the vitamin c hard since then) so i decided against doing much riding. I was very disappointed but i would be a lot more disappointed if i was too sick to ride the Century. Probably won't be able to ride tomorrow, so looking like commute saturday and then maybe group ride sunday.

[ldrcycles]

So the weekend was a write off, belting down rain on saturday, so no commute, and after a late night at work i woke up far too late on sunday to get any riding in (although by way of compensation i was able to adjust and regrease the hubs off the Dawes, among many other things).

This morning i did the Coolum-Alex run, could have used the old Apollo but as i was going to ride into a howling head wind, i decided the Dawes would be a better bet. I think it was, as my slowest speed slogging into the wind was 26kmh, i suspect if i had gears i would have just kept clicking down and ended up at 20 or less. Of course the other side of it was a decent tail wind once i turned around, and i managed 1:21 for the 42k.

Highlight of the morning was sprinting to try and catch a draft from a truck and hitting 56kmh before admitting defeat. Only a few k later i did my usual effort and managed to hold 52 for a full 15 seconds . In spite of those efforts i felt great afterwards, fingers crossed this keeps up for the Century on sunday.

[ldrcycles]

It was quite cold this morning, and rolling over and going back to sleep was FAAR too tempting . Decided instead to do some hill repeats after work and had a great time. I wasn't able to get underway until it was getting dark, so i set off into the gloom with an $8 LED torch i grabbed from Super Cheap Auto on my way over (i already had a bar mount to suit in my car) and was pretty satisfied with it. On my 2nd run up one of the local sponsored MTB racers went past near the bottom so i swung in and held him very well all the way up. On the 3rd run another rider passed me in the opposite direction near the top, so after turning around i gave chase and caught him by the bottom, in spite of VERY poor visibility (it had started raining).

Turned out it was another racer from the Venture Cycles team (i know him pretty well, great young bloke) and after a short chat i joined him for the rest of his ride, which was a loop round Noosa. In spite (or perhaps because) of the rain it was great fun, and he pushed me pretty hard. Held my own though, and after he turned off for home i popped back over to Tinbeerwah for one last run. The climb up Tinbeerwah is a critical point in the Century, so i'm delighted that i'm feeling good up there.

Thursday morning i'll do the early group ride, weather permitting, and then some light spinning on saturday arvo. At this stage the weather is supposed to be clear for the race, fingers very firmly crossed it stays that way, i do not like the thought of descending Eumundi Range Road at 70+kmh in the wet.

Oh and on sunday arvo my mum and girlfriend were talking, mum asked if i had any races coming up, when my better half said "yes why?", mum replied "well der he's irritable as hell, there must be a race on" . Not the first time those 2 have made that observation .

[ldrcycles]

T minus 45 hours and my guts are churning up, i really need to learn how to relax . Yesterday morning i did 20k just to warm things up (ended up chasing a scooter and a bus, had quite a bit of fun heehee) and found the small cogs on the back skipping a bit under load. If there is any sprinting on sunday that is not going to be ok so i've decided to swap the cranks, rear derailleur, cassette, gear cable and wheelset just to be sure .

If in doubt, tinker!

[foo on patrol]

Trying to relax off, is a personal thing Idry, a bit like closing out the pain barrier but once you find it, it's a God send.

I found the deep breathing slowly and trying to think of nothing and I mean nothing at all was helpfull.


Foo

[duds2u]

LDR. Enjoy Sunday regardless of how it pans out. Ease up on the personal stress and you will perform at a higher level than you thought you were capable of. You've ridden the course so on Saturday night just visualise and then go to sleep. Sundays ride will be however it pans out.

Sometime on a ride ask me sometime about visualisation and I will make your hair stand up about the power of it.

I'm not riding on Sunday as I've stuffed my right knee. I had been planning on the 160k on my new bike that hasn't arrived yet. At least without the new bike I'm not tempted to ride it anyway and have given my entry to Spinner. At least I should post a good time for the ride.

[durilium]

I had planned to do the Century but got hit with exaustion last week so bad i needed two days off work and had the chills and wobbles along with it, i've learn't my lesson now i think I am still going to ride up on Sunday and watch the finish though so if you see a bloke on a white Giant defy with blue helmet and Nike backpack be sure to say gidday

Good luck LDR!!!

[ldrcycles]

So, crunch time for the wannabe racer. The day dawned crystal clear with little wind, and only a little nippy early on. I was able to ease the nerves a bit on the line by adjusting my front derailleur cable (remarkably it did the trick and it worked perfectly all morning). My mind was running at a million miles an hour telling myself to stick near the front, to make sure i didn't get dropped on Gyndier like last year, should i try and breakaway to give myself some room or stick with the bunch, if i stick with the bunch should i drop back as the climb goes on or try and maintain my position!!!!!!
Well as it happened, the pace car and police motorbike seemed to settle things for the first few k, i sat very comfortably with the group, and when gyndier came i was able to hold on with only a little work near the top. The hill repeats i've been doing must have done the job!
After getting over Gyndier, as i expected the flat run to Cooroy was a piece of cake, and i was able to focus on the next challenge, which was Eumundi Range Rd. Last year it was a hard slog as i had made a stupid break from a group coming into cooroy and burnt myself. This year i concentrated on riding well, no standing and smashing, and no sitting down slogging too high a gear, just sit and spin and stay comfortable. It worked really well and i held on nicely until the descent, which was my other concern. It is pretty damn sketchy, and the Shimano R500 wheels i put on in place of the Mavic Aksiums were really pinballing off all the bumps. Even though i pinned it pretty well, the group got away from me, and as i rolled into Eumundi it was obvious that they had dropped me and i wasn't going to get back on. Somehow even on a downhill i managed to put in enough effort to go into the red, and with the pace they were pushing i couldn't catch them.

I kept giving it what i had though, and the next 15odd k i sat between 36-39, the first hour came up after 36.5k. The dreaded Dunethin Rock wall was as unpleasant as i expected but i got over it fine. Coming into Pacific Paradise i was starting to fade a little, and on looking back for traffic i saw a huge pack bearing down on me. It was only then that i realised the group i had been with was a breakaway, and this was the main group. I filtered into them and sucked wheel for a while, waiting to see what would happen on the David Low Way climbs. Last year i was dropped like a very attractive sack of potatoes on the first climb north of peregian, this year it wasn't until after the last one at Sunshine Beach that i dropped off the back. I was starting to get just a little bit of cramping at this stage and was getting pretty weak. A red light got me back on, but not for long, and i was on Noosa Parade by myself again. I was at least faster along there than last year, and ended up with 2:38 compared to last year's 2:42.

In all, i'm over the moon with how the day went. I rode smarter, faster and stronger and it felt damn good.

My brother was also in the race (after having a knee reconstruction in November for a torn ACL from footy) and went from 3:15 to a fantastic 2:56, the last time he did 100k was last year's century!

Some bad news to relate though, apparently Spinner came down along with a whole bunch of others as the lead group came into Noosa Parade, all i know at this stage is his bike is damaged, hopefully he isn't. I saw one bloke who came down in the same crash and although he was barely scratched his helmet was absolutely smashed.

[foo on patrol]

Good for you Idry and all that training is paying off and plus, you're riding smarter.

Foo

[duds2u]

Spoke to Spinner last night. He's Ok but his bike is in a bad way, front down tube damaged where the watter bottle carrier was torn off, both wheels damaged.

Funny part is both duds pranged yesterday. I came off my bike in Coolum when a car started to turn in front of us(I wasn't in the ride) and so did Spinner. He was actually riding on my entry in the 100K as my knee wasn't up to the distance so I had given him my place. At least my bike is OK.

[durilium]

Well done man, apparently many were fairly cooked by the finish and thought it was a good hard course, i am keen as to give it a go next year.

[ldrcycles]

Well the week that followed the Noosa Century saw me notch up a total of zero kilometres on the bike. Try as i might to explain it as a 'rest week', the fact was i was just too busy and stressed to get any riding happening, and i felt pretty poor about it. I'm now 25 and time is ticking very loudly for me to really achieve something.

So i decided the time has come to make a change, and get really serious about everything, the way i train, the way i eat, the way i recover. Instead of riding to work Saturday morning, i spent an hour and a half stretching and doing situps and pushups (my chest is still so sore it hurts to laugh, from only 150 situps). On sunday morning i hopped on the Dawes and pushed my familiar Coolum-Alexandra Headland-Coolum ride out to the suthern end of Kawana, a total of 71k. I had a few drag races with cars away from the countless red lights, and even though i took things steady overall the average speed ended up at 32.7kmh.

That 71k has me at exactly 2500k for the year so far .

This morning was just more stretching, tomorrow will be the long commute, probably on the old steel Univega (just for a change ).

[ldrcycles]

Forgot to mention, saw the doctor on friday about the pain i've been having in my knees, and the balls of my feet (sesamoids, thanks to the latest Bicycling Australia for giving it a name for me) which have been hurting intermittently for most of this year. He did a fair bit of poking and prodding, the feet are fine, the knee ligaments are strong (PHEW!) and the only thing which may be amiss is platella something or other-my kneecaps not moving exactly the way they ought to. He gave me a referral for x rays of knees and feet to make sure, got them this arvo and my untrained eye can't see anything out of the ordinary.

[ldrcycles]

Today i did the long commute for the first time in a while, and just for giggles i took the Univega (which weighs in at 16.2kgs ).
Very cold even with my winter gear but the first hill got me warmed up ok, i had forgotten just how bad this thing is at climbing, i mean it just doesn't. You come along a gentle rise and it's like dropping anchor, it just dies. As i have said to my girlfriend, 'The univega doesn't go up hills, hills go up the univega'!
On the flat it is a corker though, it will roar along at 40 with ridiculous ease, and the stem shifters are strangely enjoyable.

So long story shortened slightly, today was a pretty hard 85k, the run in took 1:22:50 which is reasonable, and the run home went pretty well too.

Rest day tomorrow, then Thursday morning i'm going to do a loop i've found near Cooroy which should be really fun. Not overdoing things and trying to stay calm before the Ride the Range in Toowoomba this weekend, the usual pre ride jitters are already in evidence.

And i just missed out on a 2nd hand Scott Addict R2 frame for next to nothing on ebay, so very sad .