Climbing Reps - Variation

This morning was an awesome and really fun training session.

Maja showed some great gains on her hill fitness, Anna and Verity were attacking each other on Redhill then sprinting it out in the end, and I put in six efforts - most of which I was pretty proud of including one real attack that managed to surprise our brilliant mentor Brad.

New skills tried today were sprinting up a hill whilst holding the drop bars - thought it would be really shaky but actually wasnt too bad.

For me, after I had such a lame week last week - with bad weather in the first few days and then total lack of motivation the rest of the week (although our Coach did remind me I did pretty well in the ITT on sunday so not all bad), but it felt good to be training properly and with the group again today.

Post training coffee at Double Shot in Deakin was a nice catch up and we all agreed that having people to ride with makes it so much better - the dual effect of friendly company and the competitiveness of thinking "she's doing training, i'd better go too so she doesnt out pace me" are pretty beneficial!!!

There has also been a bit of Secret Janing* although we might have to rename it Secret Veritying, I did extra hill reps on Mon and Tues to make up for last week (which is why Coach is currently threatening to confiscate my bicycle unless I promise to rest on Friday) so I thought I was leading on secret hills, til Verity revealed she was doing secret BLACK MOUNTAIN reps yesterday!!!!

Super hard woman award goes to Verity attacking hills and sprinting with needles in her legs?!?!? Jens Voigt isn't even that hard.

Thanks Brad for writing a training report on Facebook for me to plagiarise.


Note:
Secret Janing*

*The not very secret practice of doing extra hill reps because you are hardcore. Usually involves inviting people along and telling everyone about it afterwards. May result in climbing hills like Lisa Keeling, who is an expert at Secret Windtraining.

My first time up Ainslie

Firstly before I start - apologies for the delay in this write-up, it has been a mad week/weekend and secondly congratulations to all the Valkyries who braved the cold on Sunday and posted some great times (and speeds!) at the ITT!!!

Ok, on with the blogging...

The beginning of last week was pretty terrible for training, both bike running and so I must admit to not being overly devastated that the planned Mt Ainslie CR's on Tuesday were cancelled late on Monday night as armageddon approached. Wednesday morning I felt similar relief, though I did manage to get out for a cold, (but fortunately sheltered from the wind) run around the lake on Wednesday night. I will be a very happy woman with not-so-sore hips as of 4 July when my half marathon running madness is over and I can concentrate on the bike.

Thursday morning was much nicer and as I had packed my bike in the car on Wednesday night, I had no excuses not to get up, get dressed (how cold was it going to be tearing down the hill? - assuming I could get up it in the first place..) and get out the door.

Driving to cycling in the wee hours of any given morning I always find myself peering at other motorists, checking to see if they too have their bike in or on the back of the car and are rugged up in their winter gear as we all make our way to our different meeting places. It's kind of a solidarity thing, as if we are all in on some big fantastic secret, why else would be be up 2 hours before sunrise in the freezing cold of another Canberra winter?

But I digress..

Arriving at the base of Mt Ainslie I was not thinking about the task ahead, I have always said 'I can't climb hills' 'I'm too big to ride up hills' and other such things and I didn't want to psych myself out. So I was just thinking about getting all my kit on, and going over to the others who were gathered in the dark.

And then we were off, Rob was riding with me and I was just concentrating on keeping a nice steady pace as the road started to wend it's way up, already Anna and Brad were about 50m in front and working their way up the road nicely. But I didn't let that worry me, I had never done this before, and I didn't even know how far we had to go, or really what the road was like. Today was not a day to worry about cadence or my speed and I had left my Garmin in the car anyway besides I knew my heart rate was up - I could feel it pounding in my chest.

I was about halfway up when I started apologising to Rob who was still patiently riding next to me, "I don't think I can do this", "I'm sorry for being so slow'", "I'm sorry for apologising so much" I said, as my legs just felt like lead, and what was worse, (I think) was that I had no real idea of how far I had to go, or what was ahead, or if it was easier or harder. I think it flattened out for a little bit and I was able to keep going, still apologising profusely for being so slow and despite my insistence that he take off and ride with the others, Rob still rode beside me. He kindly pointed out that plenty of Vikings don't make it to the top on their first time... I think I may have apologised for that too.

Then we hit the uber-steep bit just before the end, but I didn't know it was the end at that stage and about half-way up here was where it ended for me. I said to Rob that he should go on, and that I just couldn't keep riding. I unclipped and started walking up the rest of the way. As I neared the bend at the top (was it??) of the uber steep bit I noticed a yellow 50kmph sign tucked away in the scrub. I kept walking, and when I got around the bend I saw up ahead, a 40kmph sign, and then the road flattened out. I had almost made it, had I just gotten past the 50kmph sign and around the corner, I would have seen the end - damn! I kept walking to the top, meeting the others who had finished their recovery and were just starting their way down. I hopped back on my bike and followed them down the hill.

Time for round two.

This time I kept up with Anna and when I again reached the uber-steep part, I was going so slowly that when I stood up out of the saddle for a couple of seconds, my rear wheel slipped with the force of my pedalling - whoops - I really was going slow, but I was still going. I started negotiating with myself - 'if you just make it to the 50kmph sign, that's further than last time' and I passed the sign. 'okay, you're not dead yet - just make it to the 40kmph sign and you're there' and I passed the sign and I was there. I was so happy and proud and grateful to the guys who knew that I could make it, even when I didn't.

So I want to say thank you to Anna and the V-Mobile guys who were so patient with me and for not slapping me on the back of the helmet for all the apologising I was doing. I learnt a valuable lesson for future new rides, particularly hill climbs - I need to have either driven or walked them, or (if in a race) ridden them, so I know the milestones, and I can count them down. If I do this, I know I can make it without giving up on myself, even when my legs are screaming at me to stop. I was on such a high for the rest of Thursday, I never thought I could ride my bike up Mt Ainslie, after all, I'm way too heavy and I can't climb hills - or so I thought.

And so this coming Wednesday at 05:30am as I make my way to the base of Red Hill, and I see other cyclists heading into town, and all the motorists with their bikes on their cars at that crazy hour, I know why we are all there, because the feeling when you climb that hill for the first, or fifth or fiftieth time, is just so worth it.

ITT Race Report

Individual Time Trial results (30km distance)
Women's Elite:
1. Rachel Green 1.01.15
2. Anna Peterson 1.05.34
3. Verity Linehan 1.12.32

Today's race was out along the false flat in what started out as very cold and extremely foggy conditions. The race start was actually delayed by a bit just to get a bit of the fog to lift as the visibility was extremely low.

Verity gets the 'hardwoman' award for riding out to the race start from Mt Stromlo, Anna and I on the other hand, were feeling a bit soft upon hearing of the -3 (or depending on which weather app you use, -6) temperatures.

Although there were initially some plans for a team time trial approach, the exodus of all the other women from the Elite category leaving only us three, convinced us to use the ITT as a practice for the ACT championships next weekend so we decided to all do it solo.

We started in order of registration, Anna, Verity and then me. Possibly the ride out and then the big chill waiting for the start of the race had tired Verity out a little and I passed her on the first hill. Anna took a fair bit longer to catch and I worked fairly hard up the unforgiving false flat (so named because it is just enough of a climb to be soul destroying).

I caught her somewhere around after the spot where the juniors were turning around and i was pretty pleased to hear her say 'Go Rach!' - unfortunately i didnt have a single bit of energy for speaking so i couldn't say anything at all..

My next hurdle was the hotdog turn which i knew was coming soon was the hotdog turn (around a witches hat in the middle of the road, a basic U-turn). I am really bad at these - and have gotten significantly worse since i fell over sideways recently while turning a corner at slow speed. That feeling of the bike tipping over sideways has really stuck with me :(

But I slowed right down, FORCED myself to look around the corner to where i wanted to go, and miraculously - made the corner.

And boy was that a 'turning point' the last section to the turn had actually been downhill but the headwind we were pedalling into had made it feel like a climbing repeat!!!

Once turned, even though it was uphill, I was flying. I wasn't more than 150m past the run when I passed Anna so I knew she wasn't far back. Determined to open the gap up a bit more, I tried to really put some pace on at every opportunity, and maximise my speed by staying in the drops, since I'm yet to try using any proper TT rig (for the uninitiated the key difference are TT bars which put your body into a more aerodynamic body position, shaving seconds off your time).

I kept pushing all the way back until I realised with horror that I had to do another Hotdog turn - but this time in front of a whole group of guys :(

It got pretty wobbly, but fortunately I stayed upright and began pushing back up the hill. On the final lap out I tried to keep the pace up as much as possible, never quite sure how far back Anna was. The last hotdog turn, as I flew back up the hill I was releived to find I had opened up the gap quite a bit, and all that was left was to hang on to the lead.

It was really helpful to have other Viking teammates like Brad Drew, Paddy Quiggan and Chris Drew out on the course, every time I saw them it gave me a bit of a boost and when they passed me I used them as a goal to just try and keep them in sight in order to hang on to the pace.

The final stretch I went for a sprint and clocked just over 51km/hour heading for the finish line.

Felt pretty proud to get a result after what has been a really tough week where I wasn't able to train properly.

Red Hill Repeats (why oh why?)

So the morning started well, I got out of bed easily (strange, but it is getting easier), it was a pretty warm morning and it was still – especially compared to the gale on Stromlo on Tuesday morning!!

Having completed 3 repeats of Stromlo on Tuesday, staying in the saddle the whole time and being chuffed I made it once let alone three times I was pretty confident this morning would be just as manageable… I was also convinced that since it was a lot shorter than Stromlo it was most likely going to be easier which is why we were down to do 6 repeats and not 3……. hmmmm.

Only three of us rolled up the hill at 6am, incidentally just as Tony Abbott was finishing his last repeat, and the other Valkyries arrived a little later. My recovering quads noticed straight away that the hill pinched up very quickly and before I new it I was dropping gears to try keep my cadence right… until I couldn’t drop them any further! Hats off to you girls that managed a harder gear! I welcomed the ‘flat section’ at the turn off half way up the mountain – didn’t feel all that flat to me! And before I knew it the hill pinched up again. I had some time out of the saddle during the last straight before the top, not sure how much it helped though! I was stoked to get there– and the view was well and truly worth it – its been a long time since I’d been up red hill at night. Brad took us around a little loop at the top of Red Hill as a bit of a recovery before we rolled back down the mountain. I’m looking forward to joining the v-mobile boys for their descending skills session on Saturday morning because it was a quick and tight descent, and sure enough, there were pedestrians and bikes everywhere.

My second lap was an effort. Had to stop on the flat at the turn off this time – surprising what a little rest does – but unfortunately was out of the saddle for the most of the ride up to the top and had to recruit every muscle and bit of heart I had… It was hard!! We passed Rach and Cheska on the way down – both in fine form I must say – and I’m sure there were other Valkyries but I called it a day there. Not sure I went home with one rep left… maybe a half… but either way, I’m stoked with my effort - sure I have a bit to go but am certain it wont be nearly as hard next time; and fingers crossed, next time I’ll be punching out three.

Training Report - Stromlo Climbing Repeats

Today definitely felt like the workout it was intended to be; my brief report:

Up at 4:55 (I must be insane)

Got every single red light along Northbourne, so i was heading into town swearing at each intersection - apologies to Tom Behrens who (it turns out) was behind me.

Rolled away from the City with LindaR and Verity at 5:33 and formed a single line out to Stromlo, with some nice pace along Adelaide Ave. Felt smooth and safe, thanks Ladies.

Arrived at Stromlo to find a bit of a party there were so many of us there -

Valkyries:
Rach
Verity
LindaR
Lisa
Maja
Anna
Angie
Liz
Jane

Mentors:
Brad
Rob

We all got in our big gears for the climbs, I was convinced Lisa was in her small ring she was climbing so fast - but alas, she was in fact in the big ring.

I then comforted myself that she probably has compact gearing, but no win there either as she's on full size cogs just like me :(

Felt pretty proud of myself climbing the whole thing, in the saddle in my big ring - haven't done that before.

I think most of us got three reps in, including Maja - huge effort on your first time climbing Stromlo so well done (and look out Lisa!!).

The descents felt SUPER sketchy thanks to a brutal cross wind and big gusts on some of the corners. Tried to work on good lines, but some 4WD morons were driving up the center line so I took it pretty easy. Tried to practice not reacting when leaning into a corner and suddenly a big gust of wind blows you upright. Not Fun.

Thanks to the blokes for coming out, and DaveP for getting us back to the City, I was feeling pretty tired and sketchy on the way back so it was nice to have you and Verity for company.

Excuse me now while i go sleep under my desk.

Quick Stats:
Time: 2:39 on the bike
Calories: 960
Hill reps: 3