Vander's Tour to Canberra

[Porridgewog]

Hi Vander. Have you raced eastern creek yet. I'm off there tomorrow night for first time. Manage to get points at penrith in "c" but bit pissed with the twistys at the end after racing at narellan (been put up to "b" there) after winning first c on a break. Just looking for your thought regarding grade speed at eastern really.
And soooooooo jealous of you being able to train without the grief of a job and family. Lucky git. Are you doing blaney to Bathurst too?

[vander]

Ft he does know I am doing track and I also think the plan is pretty intense but its working so far. He doesnt coach cyclists he is a rowing coach but doing the coaching for free so I cant complain and as I said its working really well so sticking with it. I am aware of all the stuff I will need soon not sure how I am going to be able to afford it all disadvantage of being a uni student (although I already got a new chain and just put on new tyres).

@Porridgewog I raced B grade there a few weeks ago. It was fast but cause its so flat and no real corners it wasnt too bad. I think our average speed was about 41 but sitting in it felt easy on the front and trying to break away was impossible for me, that is the B grade race I got second in. It is a really fast sprint and a little longer then what you think, leave it till what you think is too late and you are probably jumping at the right time. I dont think I am going to do Blaney to Bathurst as it will be too expensive once you add in accomodation and moving you or your stuff around.

[vander]

The lead up open events im planning to hit are:
31/3 - Orica Kermese
1/4 - Either Calga TT or Macarthur open crit (probably Calga TT)
21/4 - Hill Climb Champs + Bathurst Crits

I dont know whether to do Butch Menz Road Race on the 15th but its a long way away. Are there any others that you guys think I should do? Or any changes to this?

[Addictr3]

Hey dude, if you're riding west head akuna or bobbin this week let us know, im riding with univelo at TOC either C or B grade

[Porridgewog]

Well I might see you at the Bathurst crits( day before the blaney). We might even sort you a lift as a few going down with good racks and stuff. Gotta help poor students after all. Will sort something if you like. May have a opertunity to get you a borrowed proper tt bike too ..just uploaded my first proper intervals into my garmin for my commute tomorrow. Will keep you posted glean advice later.

[vander]

Porridge I will be driving my own car down there as it fits me and my mates bikes in it. If i could get a proper TT bike that is something I would be very interested in but that is a little way off.

Addict I will probably do bobbin or something this weekend, its a little hard to get out to on weekdays.

Damn Monday being weigh in day. It seems Tuesday is my light day. 76.4 this morning.

[toppity]

Enjoying the read. Thanks Vander and others. Hope you reach your goals Vander, it's one of life's pleasures the times that it happens. This thread also makes me now understand why I'm no good. I don't do enough training, I don't do what I do with much/any planning, I don't eat right. Anyway...best of luck mate.

[Addictr3]

Porridge I will be driving my own car down there as it fits me and my mates bikes in it. If i could get a proper TT bike that is something I would be very interested in but that is a little way off.

Addict I will probably do bobbin or something this weekend, its a little hard to get out to on weekdays.

Damn Monday being weigh in day. It seems Tuesday is my light day. 76.4 this morning.

Seems you have added me on Strava, haha awesome. Whats your facebook? Maybe add us on there and we can talk about Training rides

[vander]

So I was almost a good boy and just rode recovery. Did about 2:45 (2:25 by my garmin cause I forgot to turn it on.....idiot) normalised power surprisingly 180W but that might of been cause I was bad. I did a few sprints just to see what I could do, I hit 1291W and for 10 seconds I held 1180W (about a 10sec effort). While I pushed hard it was probably not completely max. I was hoping to hit 1500 so a bit of a disappointment, should be good to see what I hit in a race.

[toolonglegs]

We have vastly different ideas of what a recovery ride is .

should be good to see what I hit in a race

probably a fair bit less...but still good numbers considering you are not fresh, if you up that a bit and drop weight you will be winning a few sprints in the future .

[Porridgewog]

Well this thread is working as it spured me to upload a interval session into my garmin. Similar to you I felt the need for a sprint up a incline on my commute to work(21km). I hit 200 bpm. And I'm 45 now Gobsmacked how good I felt doing the intervals though. Would you recommend daily on my commute. Was 3 mins at zone 5 back to 110 bpm an repeated 4 times.

[vander]

We have vastly different ideas of what a recovery ride is .

should be good to see what I hit in a race

probably a fair bit less...but still good numbers considering you are not fresh, if you up that a bit and drop weight you will be winning a few sprints in the future .

I averaged 120BPM pretty much a recovery ride I would say. I just get too tempted by having the power meter. Also gotta get the buckle fixed on my shoe almost pulled my foot out of the shoe . Where do you reckon you would hit your max power as this was just a sprint up to speed then I eased off I never even hit over 100RPM, looking at my graph my power was just starting to go back up when I sat up, as I was in 2 minds as to whether I should be doing it. Do you think as I got up to 120-140RPM it would of went higher again?

@Porridgewog: Depends on how you handle it. Every second day would easily be fine I would say. Do a week of 2 of every day and see how it goes. It shouldnt be max intervals though. Nothing wrong with doing some endurance intervals like my aerobic shuffle. If you want an interval to really smash you I would recommend 5min on (not your max 5min effort but close to it) 1 min rest, first week do 4 then next week 5 3rd week 6 then last week I usually go back to 4 and up the watts a bit. That is probably my favourite interval, it really hurts but I feel it works really well. With intervals I would never say wait till it get backs to a certain HR I would always do it with a time waiting for a certain HR is too unpredictable spinning easy for say 2-3min is a lot more accurate.

[vander]

The workout today was absolutely insane 30on/30off for 80min! Somehow managed to get through it and not be totally spent. Garmin does not do the graph justice which just looks amazing on training peaks.
Average power for the session a huge 276 (normalised) for a bit over 2 hours.
For the 80min, AP: 234 NP: 302 for 170BPM.
This was insane. Most time getting up to speed I would be doing 800-900W and in the last 5 I put in a bit more of an effort hitting over 1000 for most of them with the last one hitting 1180W. Best 30sec power was 600W and I think there would of been a bunch close to that. I did it around the tennis centre at SOP which is pretty good but when you have the corner in the middle it does make it hard and I got stuck behind cars for a couple of them (going slower then what I was). I did loose power for a big portion (after about 40 to about 75) some would say that is when you should stop the training but I think it is the ability to push through that which makes you strong mentally and physically. Until the last 5 (from about 40) I would be pushing real hard and not be able to get my HR to over 180, somehow found something for the last few.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/148009610

[Toolish]

I have never used power, but there seems to be some big differences in th power produced during the on phase, or is that just he way the Garmin website shows it as it only seems to show one sample every 30 seconds or so.

Either way, nice work out, it is amazing how long 30 seconds can seem when going balls out!

[vander]

I have never used power, but there seems to be some big differences in th power produced during the on phase, or is that just he way the Garmin website shows it as it only seems to show one sample every 30 seconds or so.

Either way, nice work out, it is amazing how long 30 seconds can seem when going balls out!

Yea garmin kind of flattens it all out which is why it looks so much more impressive on training peaks. If you roll over it on garmin the numbers arent very high but even garmin shows a peak wattage of 1180.

[vander]

Did a solid ride out akuna today. Aim was T2 (130-140hr) for 3 hours. I ended up doing 2 hours 35min at 140avg. I went out there to do a climb I havent done in a while, I have a few times timed myself up the first climb on the way out (Akuna East) and did so again today. I got 8min 54 according to strava which I was quite happy with, on strava my average power was 346 (I wanted 350W) but when I looked on training peaks for the bit that I smashed it up there (I didnt know where it started and stopped on strava) I averaged 354W and that was for 9min 25sec so very happy with that, almost a 15W improvement on my effort up bobbin just last Saturday.

I also tried something on the ride I didnt eat anything and drank only water and was happy to find at the end of it I still felt ok. I was starting to get hungry but I think I could of made 3 hours of pretty low-moderate intensity stuff on just a light breakfast.

[Chuck]

Your enthusiasm is infectious wish I wasn't at work

[ft_critical]

I went out there to do a climb I havent done in a while, I have a few times timed myself up the first climb on the way out (Akuna East) and did so again today. I got 8min 54 according to strava which I was quite happy with, on strava my average power was 346 (I wanted 350W) but when I looked on training peaks for the bit that I smashed it up there (I didnt know where it started and stopped on strava) I averaged 354W and that was for 9min 25sec so very happy with that, almost a 15W improvement on my effort up bobbin just last Saturday.

Hi Strava buddy, 1 below me on that segment. 8 higher and you will be with Philip.

The problem with Strava is it makes you all competitive. Which means if you go much higher, we might have to go out and have another go at Akuna ourselves. Just kidding.

"is this a strava segment?"

[vander]

Hi Strava buddy, 1 below me on that segment. 8 higher and you will be with Philip.

The problem with Strava is it makes you all competitive. Which means if you go much higher, we might have to go out and have another go at Akuna ourselves. Just kidding.

"is this a strava segment?"

When I saw that I did think I so should of gone 1 second faster Give me a few weeks. If I had someones wheel to sit on it would of been a bit easier.

[vander]

Sad day started with me forgetting my garmin ended with me with an injury. Did probably 150+ km in a 6.5 hour ride this morning. Rode pretty fast with a strong A grade mate of ours. Was a very good ride. 2 Laps of RNP (only doing garie beach on 1 of them for time reasons). Had a good chat to my mate and he was giving me a few tips for Canberra, the biggest one was we have to have the ability to respond to attacks on the climbs so he put me through my paces on the last climb out of RNP and I held all his attacks(though they werent too hard) and had a good one myself. He just blew me up I started to loose his wheel then we came over the top of the hill. Most the other climbs were him riding a good tempo and me struggling to hold on to him but it was good fun pushed myself pretty hard maybe too hard.

Towards the end of my ride with him me knee started to hurt but from there I still had a pretty long ride home. So I battled on through and it got worse and worse. When I got home I luckily had my physio friend over and he took a look at it and thinks it wont be too bad I just need to maybe cut back the really long rides (6 hours back to around 4-4.5) for a few weeks and build up again a little slower, he thinks that my technique started to struggle towards then end and so I started to develop a bit of PFPS (patella femoral pain syndrome). I was just thinking I start a thread and I get injured straight away that would be right. Anyway that bit was good news and now after a bit of ice and pain killers it feels much better ill take it for an easy spin tomorrow and see how it goes, I wanted to race out at north sydney but think I will give that a miss now. Anyway does anyone know a good physio that does bike fitting? My mate also recommended doing this to just make sure its all good, any advice would help.

[wardie]

Parkside gets good reviews. You would of rode past it today on your RNP loops:

http://www.parksidesportsphysio.com.au/ ... fault.aspx

Or why don't you book in to see Steve Hogg at http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/

Everyone seems to rave about his services.

[foo on patrol]

I would cut back the intensity levels a bit and roll a bit more until your knee recovers Vander!

Looking a what you're doing, I think that you are over cooking it a bit for your level of fitness.

Foo

[ft_critical]

Hi Vander, that is bad news. I go on about it a bit, but you need a proper fit. Given your aspirations, including those beyond the TOC, you need a fit. To be honest this is the start point of riding, even before buying the bike. I recommend you go see Steve Hogg. It is expensive, but it is worth it. When you push hard in training it amplifies all the biomechanical compensations you are making. My favourite Steve line, which I paraphrase, is that we want all the propulsion muscles propelling, not stabilizing.

I know you are a poor uni student, but you don’t want your cycling career to end he same as your AFL one. So get a fit now. The problem is, he will make you ride 2mths at tempo (max) after the fit.

[donncha]

Blair Martin in North Sydney http://thebodymechanic.com.au/ is meant to be good. I've an appt with him on Wednesday to get a fit as I've been having knee issues as well.

Heard good things about Parkside too.

[toolonglegs]

Knees need conditioning... If you have amped up the km's quickly then often knees are the first thing to go.
Another vote for Steve Hogg... Expensive but the best.
Patella can be helped a lot by taping... But best to lay off the km's a bit first.
Depressing all the same.