Well, it's been 19.5 weeks since I started cycle training again and I thought I'd take a minute to reflect on where I'm at and how I'm feeling now that the Tour of Bright (ToB) is only a couple of days away (before my feelings are influenced by the results of the ToB).
During the middle of the program, I felt stressed and anxious that I would never have enough time to get properly fit. I thought that in the week leading up to the ToB I'd be going a little bit insane with stress about the looming race. But instead I feel strangely serene, resolved even. I think this is for two reasons: I've done the best I could possibly do in hitting the training sessions over the past 20 weeks; and I'm aware that the training is done and there's nothing I can do now to change my riding to influence the results this weekend.
Thinking back to where I was 20 weeks ago I can only describe myself as proud of what I've achieved over the past 20 weeks. I had a pretty low-level of fitness after an extended period off the bike, was a nervous nelly in a bunch and bike generally and didn't know whether or not I'd be able to commit to the training due to competing demands on my time. But I think I'd now describe myself as probably the fittest I've ever been, comfortable in a range of cycling situations (including descending and cornering at speed) and proud of my training strike rate (although my boss may use a difference adjective to describe my commitment to my training...). I know I've still got a lot to learn (like Rach I'm waiting for my hotdog turn epiphany) but it's still nice to know I've improved during the program.
Gamin Connect provides me with the following rough stats of what I've been up to since I started training again on 19 July:
* I've spent over 223 hours riding (lucky Garmin Connect doesn't provide me with a stat for how much associated time I've spent having cycling-related coffee, or beer for that matter!);
* I've ridden approx 5,700km, which included 67,684m of elevation; and
* I've burnt nearly 90,000 calories.
But what Garmin Connect can't portray is how much fun I've had riding over the past few months. Here's a snapshot of some things that I am now recalling from the program:
* epic 4 hour ride to Corin from SFP with Andrew, Brad and Tim, where it rained for 3/4 of the ride and we all ended up slightly disoriented (probably hypothermic!) and all conversation ended up consisting of words ending in "y" (eg, Brad being pleased to have fixed his weird "squeaky, squeaky, rubby, rubby" bike);
* coached session with Jason Mahoney (also in the rain), with half the squad singing as we were going up Red Hill;
* chilled out E1 Wednesday sessions, where it's all about the company and catching up in a relaxed atmosphere;
* getting stuck in a hail storm on the return journey from Collector;
* turning up to ANU for another coached session with Jason Mahoney to find him doing his best impression of a commando with chain grease all over his face (yes, I honestly thought he was instigating his own "boot camp" style of training and was most disappointed to find it was just from a mechanical);
* doing a coached session while suffering from food poisoning, and leaving a trail of fluorescent green vomit on the lawn of a random embassy on Mugga Way;
* head / shoulder butting a car in O'Connor on my way to a training session and not getting completely freaked out about it;
* doing Red Hill repeats without closing either of my brakes and doing Stromlo repeats with my back wheel rubbing (yes, it appears that I haven't learnt much mechanically while doing the program - might try and rectify that for the next program!); and
* changing a tyre all on my own on the side of the road for the first time ever (even if it did take roughly 25 minutes).
Some of the above would have been absolutely horrendous if not for the awesome group of people I've been training with. Everyone is fun, quirky and entertaining, and they've all pushed themselves to their limits over the past 20 weeks. We've gotten to know each other and respect each other as individuals and cyclists as part of the program, and I know this is a group of people I will stay in touch with forever (and yes, I am getting soppy and sentimental with old age, or maybe it's just cycling-related fatigue). But what's so awesome about cycling is that we're all equals: as one squad member said, he knows pretty much everyone in the squad's heart rate zones, their climb times for local climbs, grades they race, what their cycling goals are, etc, but doesn't necessarily know what they do for employment. I kind of like that about cycling (although that's probably because I'm a lawyer and everyone generally hates me for it). :-) I hope everyone in the squad (including Jason M) knows how grateful I am for all of their support and friendship over the past 20 weeks (if they don't now, I suspect they will at post-Bright drinks on Sunday afternoon ;-) ).
I'm not sure what I'll be doing after the ToB. At some point (generally before I fell in love with training again) I thought that completing the ride would be enough for me, and I'd retire from cycling (or maybe more from training) and get back to the reality of being a lawyer-mum-wife-friend-occasional cyclist. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss it (and the squad!) when it's over and done with. I will enjoy easing back the training a little from next week and into Christmas, but I love the discipline, pushing myself and getting fitter and faster (not to mention being able to eat anything I want!). And I'd miss all my cycling buddies way too much to not train with them as well.
But I guess I don't need to worry about what I'll do post-Bright just yet: I should really focus on achieving my ToB goals. What else is there to say but thank you and bring on the ToB!
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Not training. It's a lot like training, but without the training.
Talk about all dressed up and nowhere to go.
I was planning for a couple of smashfest reps of Black Mountain this morning, which has an average gradient of about 8% I am told, but sections of around 13.5% and pending wet roads I had reasonably firm intentions of doing it.
Well actually, to be honest I didn't feel like it at all last night, but I got to bed early enough. Alarm goes off at 5:15, quick check of the weather reveals that the roads wont be wet and conditions are pretty good at about 9 degrees celcius (my idea of summer kit), and i got out of bed.
It's at this point that my complete lack of motivation became obvious. Didn't feel like moving much, tight, stiff and sore and zero enthusiasm.
Normally a bit of lady gaga on my iphone fixes that so I ignored how I was feeling and got kitted up, tried some stretching, but just felt like I got more sore.
Got all the way downstairs and standing in the car park of my apartment, and was making mental deals with myself "ok so, just go do two reps and theyll probably be crap but you can do two more on Thursday" when I decided to call it quits.
REally sore back, tight and tired legs and just felt like curling up in bed.
The problem is, I have this idea that I should train all the time and not miss a minute of training and no excuse is really a good excuse and all this sort of "Anti-Coach" crap in my head. Some of it comes from things I've been told in the past "stop whining and being lazy and just do it" and to an extent I think you need a bit of that or you'd never train really hard - but where to draw the line?
It's a tough one, because as our Coach tells us, rest is really important - and we are supposed to rest hard and train hard. It's a bit of a struggle though not feeling like I just copped out of training, but I am thinking of it like an experiment.
I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have taken any time off my climb this morning, and if I feel better tomorrow, there is every chance I could take some seconds off - especially since I'll have Valkyrie company from LisaK on the hill....
So lets see what happens.
Now if this heat pack could just make my back stop hurting.......
I was planning for a couple of smashfest reps of Black Mountain this morning, which has an average gradient of about 8% I am told, but sections of around 13.5% and pending wet roads I had reasonably firm intentions of doing it.
Well actually, to be honest I didn't feel like it at all last night, but I got to bed early enough. Alarm goes off at 5:15, quick check of the weather reveals that the roads wont be wet and conditions are pretty good at about 9 degrees celcius (my idea of summer kit), and i got out of bed.
It's at this point that my complete lack of motivation became obvious. Didn't feel like moving much, tight, stiff and sore and zero enthusiasm.
Normally a bit of lady gaga on my iphone fixes that so I ignored how I was feeling and got kitted up, tried some stretching, but just felt like I got more sore.
Got all the way downstairs and standing in the car park of my apartment, and was making mental deals with myself "ok so, just go do two reps and theyll probably be crap but you can do two more on Thursday" when I decided to call it quits.
REally sore back, tight and tired legs and just felt like curling up in bed.
The problem is, I have this idea that I should train all the time and not miss a minute of training and no excuse is really a good excuse and all this sort of "Anti-Coach" crap in my head. Some of it comes from things I've been told in the past "stop whining and being lazy and just do it" and to an extent I think you need a bit of that or you'd never train really hard - but where to draw the line?
It's a tough one, because as our Coach tells us, rest is really important - and we are supposed to rest hard and train hard. It's a bit of a struggle though not feeling like I just copped out of training, but I am thinking of it like an experiment.
I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have taken any time off my climb this morning, and if I feel better tomorrow, there is every chance I could take some seconds off - especially since I'll have Valkyrie company from LisaK on the hill....
So lets see what happens.
Now if this heat pack could just make my back stop hurting.......
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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! :-)
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! :-)
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