Sponsorship, speed and Saturday's bunch ride

So I thought I would post about what for me was a really satisfying weekend on the cycling front.

It started Friday night at Siren Bar and Restaurant (http://www.sirenbar.com.au) where we met our new sponsor, and officially became the Siren’s!! I think that place is AMAZING! Worth the drive if you are not from the north side – really modern with an awesome deck and open fireplace. Can’t wait to ride there for breakfast in our new kit!!! - and can’t wait to try some of their cocktails.... they looked amazing!!!!!

Saturday we met at 9am for the Cotter/Urriara loop and it was my first time. See Ange's post below. Thanks for the post Ange – I totally forgot about my little outburst going up the three sisters... in my head I had planned a more appropriate expression of my difficulty but somehow in the time it took to get from my brain to my mouth it had been converted to something a little more passionate! I don’t necessarily think the 3 sisters alone are that much of a big deal but more because they are at the end of the ride that makes them challenging. I was also surprised at my efforts up Mt Macdonald.... while I LOVED the decent I was partly dreading the fact I’d have to climb back up, but it really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be (and no where near as bad as Red Hill... (my nemesis!). Thanks so much for the ride ladies – and Simon! We had a really good bucnch going and was REALLY good to have Linda with us again. I had sooooo much fun!

I was down the coast Sunday so didn’t do the PROD – would love to hear how it went though - but I did get out for a ride from Broulee to Moruya along George Bass Drive. Not a long ride (hour) but I was happy to have my legs ticking over given I was only there for the day after arriving late Saturday night. I felt good on the bike – and, Simon, I think I’m starting to see some of our sprint training translate into my riding speed which is really motivating! Am really looking forward to tomorrows session!

So, all in all, a really good weekend – sponsorship, excellent bunch ride Saturday and noticing improvements in speed Sunday. The only disappointing thing is that I have acquired a (faint) jersey tan line on my arms! NOOOOOOOOOO!

See you all tomorrow!

Uriarra Cotter - fun in the sun (and an impromptu TT)

Today's ride was pretty awesome, for a few reasons;

• For Teagan, Maya and I it was first time for the SFP - Three sisters- Uriarra- Mt Macdonald - Cotter Dam and return ride
• Linda back on the bike (and off the windtrainer!)
• It was just great to be out on a long ride on a perfect morning for riding.

Ingredients:

Perfect late winter day

Sunscreen (dusted off after 5 months at the back of the cupboard)

Awesome teammates - Ches, Anna, Maya, Linda, Teagan, Ange

Supercoach Simon

3 sisters

random bunch of guys with fortuitous flat timing.

Damn good scenery! (the hills, not the guys... okay - the hills and the guys..)

Method:

Setting of from SFP sliiightly after 9am Anna and I set the pace at the front (a little eagerly perhaps) as we headed away from SFP. Maybe it was the nervous excitement about the ride I'd successfully avoided in 3 years of triathlon training?? But I must have pushed too hard or something, either way after 6 or so kilometers I started getting really bad cramps (damn girly bits!! - it's something that happens to my from time to time, and it literally takes my breath, and my legs away - and not in a good way) Thinking that I could not possibly push on for another 50kms with this discomfort, I told Maya what was going on and turned around and starting rolling slowly back towards SFP.

After about 3 or 4 minutes of rolling slowly along, spinning my legs pretty lightly and relaxing, the cramps had completely gone. It was then I though to myself, well, the only way to get better at cycling, is by cycling. Plus it was such a beautiful morning, and I did not want to miss out, or cop out, of finally doing this ride. Going home and missing out on the ride was not an option!

So I turned around and as I picked up the pace I calculated that I had probably lost about a km or so (turns out it was more like 1.8kms) and that I could probably make up some time on the descent into Uriarra as the bunch would wait for the lighter girls, and as far at the climb out - well I just didn't think of that, I figured at worst I would chase them all day and then they would catch me on the way back - if I didn't get lost in the meantime...

So I rode along, pretty carefully down the three sisters - well for me anyway, (fun! can't wait to do it again when the road is that bit more familiar) through Uriarra crossing, and paused for a moment- T intersection! Thank god for road signs, and I dutifully turned left and slowly wound my way up out of the crossing. Despite being eager to catch up, or catch a glimpse of the bunch, I took it pretty easy up out of the crossing, as I had absolutely no idea how long the climb went for. Turns out it's not so bad and I followed the flattening road around to the right and as I picked up the cadence, speed and gears I caught a glimpse of the bunch - maybe they were only just over a kilometer ahead from me now!

The road flattened out and I figured this must be the 'false flat' Rach was talking about. All I was trying to do now was catch glimpses of the bunch, and figure out if I was gaining. Using some of the things I've learnt from the Vmaxxers and Simon, I thought I'd see how high I could sustain my HR, and keep my pace up that way, so I kept it at 85% (according to my Garmin which is at around 155) This I kept up for about 30-35 mins, until I had chased the bunch down. I was also working on 20 pedal strokes in a harder gear, 20 back in the less painful gear, 20 up 20 down, then 30 up and 30 down, gradually working my way up into harder gears, and really making some good speed along the false flat.

I even remembered to eat at the 45min mark. Not my neatest meal but much needed. Gu is my friend:-)

I realised that I was actually gaining on the bunch and this buoyed me along the false flat as I got nearer and nearer. I thought - should I call out?? But to be honest, I wanted to see if I could catch them myself. I finally got a bit of a help when I went past a bunch of guys who had fixed a flat and were just getting back on their bikes, a moment later they passed me and I asked them to tell the bunch ahead that I was trying to catch them, they told me to get on but I told them I couldn't - the leaders seemed to be were flying along! One of their guys didn't ask, he just rolled past me and sat in front, I jumped on his wheel straight away and when he was happy I was there he just told me to yell out when I could go faster - pretty soon we were smoking along!! The last 150m of chase down was great, the bunch had just rolled to a stop around the corner when I showed up after thanking the guys (perhaps I little too profusely but I was a wee bit elated to be back with the group).

After that the ride was great, more new stuff - down Mt Macdonald with Ches and Maya taking the lead and zooming down. After a short break at down at Cotter reserve thingy we headed back up, I took it nice and slow, I just wanted to get back to the top without stopping. I was just so in awe of Linda who was riding ahead of me, her bike was like a rock under her and her cadence didn't falter, meanwhile I was all over the shop, my legs were heavily rolling over, and I was breathing like a freight train! But slow and steady (that was Linda) and laborious and wobbly (that was me) made it to the top in not too bad a fashion, as the uber climbers Anna, Ches, Simon and Tegan took a second wicked turn at the climb (not exactly incentive to get better at the climbing Simon - just my thoughts...) Anywho, then it was time for me and Maya to go back down to the intersection - Siren style, and we belted back down to the T Junction. It did occur to me that we were only just over halfway and still had to climb the three sisters and get home, and smashing or legs probably wasn't the smartest thing.. buuuut -as they say. When you can descend fast - do!

Back on the road the false flat in reverse (with Anna and Ches on the front and me in the bunch- yay!) and the descent into Uriarra crossing was pretty damn good.

The three sisters, not so. Once again focussing on my own speed (9.2kms per hour - is there another term, maybe pace-lack thereof would be more appropriate??) I was about 15m behind Maya as we both made our way up the climbs in our own heads. Maya was a little outspoken about halfway up the second climb, (this is a family forum so I wont repeat it here - needless to say she was not a bit fan of sister number 2 at the time...) and I burst out laughing - not recommended when you are riding uphill, makes it hard to breathe. But we made it and had a break at the top as the bunch regrouped. Another bunch of girls caught up and were pretty keen to hear whether we were training for anything (we looked pretty flash in our Vikings kit) asking us if we would be doing crits etc, (they were totally sizing us up. When we get to A grade - we'll kick their butts!!!)

Riding back to SFP Maya did a great turn on the front and Ches, Anna and Teagan took us home.

Things I learned today:

I love to chase and TT! (Caveat - not up hills!) And actually like pushing myself along by myself mentally and physically (yeah I'm crazy).

Laughing whilst trying to slowly pedal up the second miserly sister is not recommended, you need your energy and breath for pedalling.

Even if you are only doing 9km per hour up the crappy hill, you do get there.

Baked potatoes are a fantastic recovery food!!!

Sorry for the epic post, but I am still buzzing, I had a great day, I'm so glad I went, so glad I turned around when I felt better and made the effort to catch up. I hope that the others had a great ride too and post about it as I'm sure I've missed heaps and I can't wait till the next one.

Week 1 Sprints OPH

This morning’s sprint session was fantastic!! It was so good to have so many people to train with!

Attendees

Cheska, Anna, Cherrie, Jane, Rach, Ange, Liz, Tegan and Maja

Most of the group met at ANU and rode over to OPH however I met the girls there. I think I was a little late and missed the first drill however when I arrived we paired up and did a few loops working on bike bending around OPH – basically being in a hard gear and slowing down to the point of nearly stopping before pushing out a standing sprint in the drops. We then rode up to federation mall where we did 3 by 10s (again in the drops) up the incline and recovered the rest of the loop (10 revolutions in standing attack sprint, 10 seated sprint and the final 10 out of the saddle again). This was lots of fun as we did it in pairs however I noticed my loss of power as the reps went on! We then headed out to Mugga Way and did some bunch riding. I found myself at the front and Rach was by my side keen to control the pace with little sprints every now and then – I held in for a few but it got me a little unstuck and I dropped off on the last little ascent of Mugga way. Needless to say, the descent back to Deakin shops was a lot of fun with some friendly sprinting rivalry between Liz and Ange – great to watch!

We met up with the Vmaxxers at double shot and ended the session with a well earned breakfast and (for the first time for me) a few stretches!

Was a really great session today – thanks so much to everyone! Was one of those sessions that got me really pumped!

VMaxxing it up

As Rach noted last week, I'm attempting to fly the Valkyrie flag with the new Vikings VMaxx squad. This is the first week of the VMaxx training program and so far so good. But let's take things back a step.

A key part of the VMaxx program is knowing your heart rate zones. To assist with this, Jason Mahoney (Argonaut Cycle Coaching), who wrote the VMaxx training program, offered the squad the opportunity to undertake lactate and power testing. The idea of this is that you'll get a better idea of what heart rate / power zones to train in to maximise your training. So it was with mixed feelings that I emailed Jason and asked if I could undertake a lactate / power test as part of the VMaxx squad. Yes, I want to improve and make sure I'm maximising my training, but I think it hurts everyone to obtain objective evidence of their (lack of) fitness. I was half hoping Jason would say he was booked out for a few weeks so I wouldn't be able to do my testing until I'd actually done some training, but alas, he responded and said he had a vacancy the next day. So I Valkyried up (which is way stronger than manning up) and headed off for my lactate / power session on the Sunday just gone.

For those who haven't done a lactate / power session before, here's brief outline of what they involve. After a bit of a warm-up (and yes, I certainly got puffed during the warm-up!), the computer sets a specific resistance that requires a certain wattage that you have to pedal against. The rider pedals for a time against each resistance before the resistance increases (requiring you to put out more watts) as the time goes on. To obtain the lactate, the tester pricks your finger just before the end of each resistance stage to find out how much lactate you have in your blood (the lactate increases during the test, until you basically get to the point that your body can't process the lactate without diverting energy away from the rest of your body). I apologise to all of the scientists out there from my basic description of this, but that's kind of how I understand it works.

So anyway, I did the test and yes, I did obtain objective evidence that I am unfit. My power output was better than I expected, but my lactate was very high (which Jason noted could be because I am unfit, or because I eat too many carbs based on the level of exercise I have been recently undertaking). Apparently the significance of this is that my body is almost always burning carbs rather than fat, which isn't ideal from an endurance perspective as it effectively means I'm always needing to refuel. Or something... (again, apologies for the lack of scientific explanation here). Jason suggested I come back and re-test in a few weeks after I have a solid training base behind me to make sure my training zones are accurate once I regain some basic fitness (and try and eat less carbs in the meantime!).

The VMaxx program started yesterday and I can honestly say that I 100% nailed the first day, which started with a rest day. My resting practice came into its own and I excelled in my ability to not ride my bike on the first day. (Rach would struggle with this!).

We then had our first real training session this morning, which involved a coached session and some power testing. It was a little brisk this morning, but nothing compared to my ride with Leonie and Eleanora last week (see - the Valkys are way tougher than the VMaxxers!). We headed to Stromlo first to do a maximal effort (ie, as fast as you can) up Stromlo and then back to Red Hill to do the same. It was a little strange riding with a group so big (I think there were maybe 16 - 18 of us?). My proper bunch riding is a bit rusty, and I felt a bit nervous in the group on a few occasions. I was the last wheel and the pace was really surgey from the back of the bunch and I struggled to let go of my nervousness to be able to sit close enough to the wheel in front to get much of a draft. I changed positions in the bunch on the way back from Stromlo to Red Hill and this made me feel heaps better. I guess like all things, I'll need to re-skill in my bunch riding before I'm really comfortable in a big bunch like that again. That said, the hill climbs were pretty good and the guys were really encouraging. I definitely have quite a way to go before I will be proud of my efforts up there, and I learnt an important lesson about pacing myself!

So all in all, I'm feeling fab with a 100% strike rate on my training after day 2 of the new program. I'm totally motivated for more and think I may be turning into Rach a bit at the moment with not wanting to waste a minute and train, train, train some more to regain some of my fitness as quickly as I can. But I'm trying to be good and disciplined and stick to the program as much as I can - it's a long 20 weeks until Bright and I can't afford to burn out now. Stay tuned for more! :-)