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.

My first cycling tick – an ITT

Saturday’s time trial was over the same course as last weekend’s club time trial (see Rach’s post from last week). The women’s elite course started at the top of Urriara Crossing, headed straight down Uriarra road, past the homestead with a hotdog turn at 7.5kms near Condor Creek. This made for a 15km lap which we completed twice.

I was sooo nervous as I parked my car at Uriarra Crossing but was greeted very quickly by Pat from the V-Mobile crew and he helped put me at ease and helped me find my way up the hill to the registration desk. One by one the rest of the Valkyrie’s arrived – I was really pleased when I saw Linda as I knew this was her first ITT as well. In keeping with their excellent form Verity and Ches rode out to the start and Rach arrived a little later.

I was a little bummed we didn’t start until 1030 (the juniors started first), especially as I had to be showered and at work by 1pm, but it was really good to have a group of Valkyries and V-mobile guys to wait with. The guys were called up pretty quick and before I knew it we were on. It was my first ever held start (hadn’t even practiced one!) but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

I had read Rach’s post from last week so I was in the know about the “soul destroying” false flat at the start, so I didn’t find that as too much of a shock... I also may have driven the course during the week to see what was in store for me ;) haha. What I found really surprising, however, was that most of the ride out to the turnaround point was really hard! I don’t know if there was a wind or if it was up hill but I was about ?500m away from the turnaround point when I started to think I would not be able to make two laps of the course. I was feeling pretty disappointed but I think that only lasted about a minute as I saw Pat and Brad coming towards me on their way back from the turnaround point and, with the loudest booming voices, they both yelled “GO MAJA GO GO GO!” It was so encouraging!! So I had a bit more heart pumped into me and once I turned around I was surprised at how easy the return ride was. I held a good speed, not quick enough, however, as Ches and Verity managed to catch and over take me, always in fine form these girls!! I also saw Rach heading out on her first lap after starting late – she was so focused!!!!

By the time I got back I felt strong enough to do it again. I couldn’t remember seeing Linda (she started a fair bit after me) however I found out later she missed the turnaround point at the end of the first loop and nearly rode down to Uriarra crossing. It wasn’t until the final turnaround point at the Condor Creek end when I again heard Pat and Brad’s booming encouragement for both me and Linda that I realised Linda was right on my tail. She passed me at some point on the way back but this just gave me something to target, and for the last k or so I got down into the drops and gave it everything I had and managed to just pass her near the end. She obviously still got a better time but I wouldn’t have pushed that hard if she wasn’t in front of me – thanks Linda, you were my rabbit to chase!!

Things I learned:

1) Just because there are signs everywhere on the road indicating a cycling race is on and the speed has been changed to 60kph doesn’t mean a crazy 4WD with a trailer wont race through the marshalling area at 100kph and knock out a witch’s hat. In short - stay off the road if you’re not riding.

2) I can ride at 30kph and drink at the same time

3) I can do both a held start and a hotdog turn

4) It is so good to be part of a squad and have the V-mobile guys to mentor us

5) Linda – missed the first turn around point and still got an awesome time for her first ITT; she may be quiet and sweet but she’s a tough little gem on the bike!! (Though this is becoming more and more apparent)

6) I need more ks in my legs!!!

Valkyrie results - ACT Time Trial Championships

30km course, two laps along the false flat and back. Conditions were a bit better than the week before - not as windy and no fog which was nicer to race in.

I was having a rough morning and actually missed the start, I think not having Ches in front of me meant it was hard to keep the pace up - certainly having a target really helps in an ITT.

Big well done to Linda H and Maja in their first ITTs - great results girls!

7th Rachel 675 01:01.35
8th Francesca 671 01:07.05
9th Verity 676 01:07.35
10th Linda 715 01:09.02
11th Maia 290 01:12.29

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.

Club TT Champs

5 merry Valkyries took part in the Club Time Trial Champs this afternoon. And I, for one, can honestly say that I'm now well and truly shattered.

Let's set the scene: the race started at 1pm. It was about 10 degrees, although the apparent temperature was 2.2, with a fresh and fierce NW wind blowing at around 35-45kph and blackened sky (wish we'd taken some photos!). Great conditions for my (and most, if not all, of the other girls) first time trial. Brrr!

We took off in 30 seconds intervals from Casuarina Sands. It was a "held" start (where the organisers hold your bike until your time is up and then you roll away). I know a few of us were a bit nervous about this having never done it before (I was really wishing I'd attended the skills session where this was practiced!). It was a little strange when I initially took my 2nd foot off to clip in, but I trusted the nice man who was holding my bike when he said that if he let me fall he'd make sure I fell on him so my landing was well cushioned. Or something... It was actually quite good doing the "held" start as, according to my Garmin, the incline coming out of Casuarina Sands to Cotter Road is up around 20%!

From Casuarina Sands we turned left onto Cotter Road and went straight uphill. Strangely the uphill sections were the pleasurable parts of the ride! After climbing up from the Cotter we proceeded past the Mt Stromlo turn-off to Uriarra Road where we turned left. It was all good until the sweeping bend to the left before the turn-off to SFP at which time we went straight into the most massive headwind. Ouch! I was grinding those gears in a way that Simon would have been proud if it had been a hill climbing session. But it wasn't. It was a TT. :-(

Things improved a bit going down towards Uriarra Xing, thank goodness. And it was nice seeing the familiar face of Paddy, our honorary Valkyrie, riding in the opposite direction giving us all a cheer as he went by. Next time you race with us Paddy!

It was after we climbed out of Uriarra Xing that things got really tough. It was a brutal headwind the whole way along the false flat towards Uriarra Homestead. I was going slower along there than I'd been climbing out of the Cotter! I was watching the odometer pretty solidly during this stage, trying to break the distances up to make them feel more achievable, as it was really tough going.

Turning up onto Mt McDonald for the final couple of kms was welcome relief. The wind was finally behind us again and we were all travelling faster up Mt McDonald than we had been going on the false flat! Phew! The only problem I had at this stage was figuring out the finish. I'd relied on the published 31km to get me through that false flat pain, but come 32km I was still going. When was the suffering going to end?! Finally at 32.5km it was over. It was such a relief, but also a bit anti-climactic, as there was no one other than the race organisers at the finish (everyone rolled back down to Casuarina Sands rather than waiting at the finish). Finishing was a bit of a double-edged sword. Suddenly we all started to realise how cold it actually was out there. Rach asked what the "stuff was floating through the air that looked like floating rain". We decided it couldn't actually be snow as it was still technically a little too warm, but it really wouldn't have been far off. My teeth were chattering and my whole body was shaking on the descent down Mt McDonald back to Casuarina Sands. I think I actually got quite a good ab-workout today from clenching my gut while shivering so hard!

And us Valkyries dominated! There were I think 9 women racing, of which 5 of us were Valkyries (go team!). And we posted some v impressive results:
* WB - LisaK 2nd; and
* WC - Rach 1st, Anna 2nd, Cheska 3rd, LindaR 4th.

And of course half of this is because of Rach's enthusiasm and encouragement which got not just me out (which believe me is no mean feat!), but another 3 of the Valkyries too. So cheers Rach - not only club TT champ, but great ambassador to boot. :-)

And now to back-up for the Wagga handicap tomorrow...

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.