Time trialling on a windy Saturday morning

A belated report.

Saturday was day eight of my life as a member of the Valkyries squad
and it was time for my first time trial effort. And what a great time to
do it - I'm as unfit as I've ever been so I can only improve.

I got to Stromlo Forest Park in plenty of time to do a few warm up
laps around the crit track. I expected there would be other Valkyries
doing the same thing but instead I was all alone. At 9.25 I rode up to the
gate expecting to see someone there but still I was alone. I have to
admit it was about this time that I started to doubt myself. Had I
gone to the right place? Did I get the time right? Then I spotted
Simon. He was as perplexed as me at the lack of starters and we just
agreed to carry on when Francesca and Anna turned up. Yay, some company!

Simon took us down to the track to do some drills. The first was one
legged pedalling. I had heard of this before but I hadn't realised how
difficult it would be. Not just the coordination element but the pain
factor - my thigh started to burn almost instantly! The second drill
was fast pedalling. We put the bike in the lowest gear and tried to
pedal without bouncing - without much success. More practice is
definitely needed.

And then it was time for the time trial. Francesca and Anna went off
first and after some nerves over Simon holding the bike for my start,
I was off too. Up until this point, my only experience of time trials
was watching Fabian Cancellara cruising along some lovely cobbled
streets or similar at about 60 kms an hour. Mine was not like that.
I struggled badly on all of those hills. Luckily the saturday morning riders where
very friendly as they overtook me. Waiting at the six km mark was a
cheering Anna and Francesca - thanks guys. We were met by Simon half
way along the ride back to the gate. And he was kind enough to give me a
little push up the hills so I could keep up with the other girls. I
could have used the help during the trial :)

We made it back to the gate and then came the bad news. We had to do
it all again! My legs were very tired and not surprisingly my time
was slower the second time around. We were even slower on the way
back riding into a horrible headwind. It was about then that I was
thankful I hadn't ridden from home and I was very happy to put the
bike in the car and head home for a nice warm shower.

Thanks again to Simon for the session and thank you to Anna and
Francesca who were happy to keep at a pace I could handle.

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

Descending Skills session

Please note - this is not Mount Stromlo ;)

It was a small group of us (6) that met up on Mount Stromlo on Sunday 12th June to do a descending skills session with Michael (Doc :) ) Hanslip. Aaaah, long weekend in Canberra!

Attendees: Liz, Verity, Rach, Anna, Eleanora & Linda.

As we negotiated more traffic than I expected on Stromlo - I guess it must have been the cafe plus there was apparently a downhill MTB race next door at SFP - and a strong wind, we cycled up and down the hill (mountain?)several times learning how to descend using Michael's techniques and advice for safety and stability.

Before our first descent, Michael explained to us firstly the importance of using the drops, rather than the hoods, for descending. There are several reasons for this, including increased stability due to a lower centre of gravity, more braking power when needed (with the emphasis on when needed!) and to protect the bars and brakes when riding close to others. The idea of this was somewhat discomforting for some of us, who were used to riding the hoods mostly.

Michael also explained about the judicious use of brakes, as he said it is actually safer to brake as little as possible when descending in a bunch. He told a story of women that he recently coached in the same spot being disbelieving when he said that he set them a challenge to roll down to the bottom without using the brakes at all if possible. I was disbelieving too, and didn't quite manage to do any brake-free descents, but was using them a lot less by the end of the session.

Some techniques we learnt that help with keeping off the brakes, and maintaining stability, are looking ahead rather than down (this sounds familiar doesn't it!) as this helps with feeling more in control and a change in perception of speed, and using the front brake mostly when needed rather than the rear, 'feathering' rather than grabbing it hard.

Some other things that Michael got us to practice were following a 'good' line through the corners and keeping our feet level on the straights rather than coasting down with one foot up, one down the whole time. I think I need to do lots of work on remembering this one! Also on this point was the tip to practice with a different foot forward each time, as we tend to favour one leg over the other, which becomes the stronger one.

One final, very useful piece of advice passed on to us - if you get the 'speed wobbles', a phenomenon where the front end of the bike sometimes 'shimmies' in a very scary manner at higher speeds when descending - clamp your knees against the top tube. This dampens the vibrations that cause this to happen.

While I wouldn't say I'm now a great descender, I definitely felt more confident and safer doing descents at the end of the session, and more at ease with riding the drops, than I did at the beginning.

Thanks to Michael for running the session!

Linda H.