If I'm honest, it was disappointing....

I've been debating with myself whether or not to include this blog but the point is that we're a diverse group and there may be others out there feeling the same way.

Last Saturday I decided that Rach's advice on riding Mt Stromlo and Red Hill in daylight before training on them was an excellent idea and I would head off and give them a go. All keen and feeling confident because I'd had a couple of good commuter rides with a new compact cassette on board I headed off. I also took the advice on board that you should really drive the hills you are attempting for the first time so you have an idea of just what you're in for.

Arriving at Stromlo I started the drive up thinking, yep this looks ok. I figured I could get to 1/4-1/2 way up with a fair bit of effort, remembering of course that I'm coming back from a base level of fitness of zero! But as I progressed up the hill my spirits sank. There are some quite sharp turns further up that made my back ache just looking at them. I continued up to the KOM sign thinking the last 1/4 of the ride just got more intense. :(

I know I have to ride within my current limitations, it just sucks to be impatient.... So rather than waste the morning I went and did a couple of Yarralumla Loops, which I improved on so that was a bit encouraging.

I've wondered since if I should've just gotten on the bike and had a go, but if I'd gotten into trouble I could've wobbled into one of the tourist cars driving up. My core and back strength is still building, but it's slow.

So where to from here? More commuting as I can feel my back and core strengthing as I do it. Back to Yarralumla to test improvement and work from there. My debate on blogging this was that this is really just my issue but I remembered that a couple of the skillez girls were anxious on the downhill run on the Federation Mall circuit, so in comparison Mt Stromlo would seem out of reach for them too.

I want to keep working on this so any interested training companions are welcome and all advice on how to reach my new goal of 'Ride Mt Stromlo!' are welcome.

And I commuted to work yesterday in the ridiculous cold, so feeling a bit hardcore after that!


Cherrie.

The coldest Norman in history

The title of this post says it all: -8 on the Norman this morning, with an apprent temp of -11.8 (by the time we got back for coffee). I have never ridden in conditions as cold as this morning, and to be honest (and at the risk of being shouted at by everyone else who was there), it didn't feel anywhere near as cold as it did when Leonie and Eleanora and I headed out to do Mugga Way a few weeks back. It was clear and crisp and completely stunning. The only time I was really cold was out the back of the TGA, when my bum seemed to suddenly freeze over and I had one of those "am I still wearing knicks" moments (fortunately I was!). The pace was not too fast as we were all aiming for an E1 ride, so we tried to take turns on the front so no one froze while sitting on the back. I struggled to get my heartrate into my E1 zone and I'm wondering if that's because of the cold (although it could also be because I've just got a really high E1 zone given my current state of fitness). All in all, it was an awesome ride. Cold, yes, but also epic and I'm really proud of myself for getting out in it. It'll certainly give me something to talk about for years to come, and I've definitely earned by "hard core" status. Woohoo!

Mountain Biking across Bali

So I am not 100% sure this counts as training, but yesterday I embarked on a 40km ride from the top of Bali, down to a village called Ubud.

We drove from Kuta for about two hours towards the Volcano, and up into the hills of Bali, and we provided with 'Polycon' mountain bikes, in pretty reasonable working order, including disc brakes which made me mildly nervous considering the added stopping power when compared with calipers on my road bike.

It was downhill from the outset and while it took me a few minutes to get over the totally weird sensation that I was driving a truck rather than riding a bike (giant MTB handlebars, seat way too low, flat pedals and front suspension)  pretty soon I was pushing the pace!

Fortunately there were only two other aussie girls in my group and they were both keen to go at a decent speed - I think it might have been a bit annoying if there had been a bigger, dawdling group but soon we were overtaking the other tours. (Ok i know it wasnt technically a race, but I was still pretty pleased when the guide looked back, grinned and said "you're a strong rider!!").

The tour had been advertised as 40km of downhill and they werent lying. The roads were generally pretty great, with some slightly bumpy bits and we rode through village after village, all decorated for a recent festival. Cute kids lined the road and held out their hands for high fives and in every village people were smiling and waving.

The guide mentioned something about having a big challenge for us - two hills. I was quietly confident, figuring that this being a touristy thing - hill was likely to mean gentle incline at most.

Boy was I mistaken!
Our guide stopped us before the first descent into the first climb to forewarn us and get us into a low gear, then we tore down into a gully and were faced with basically a wall on a 45 degree angle. I think I got maybe five pedal strokes in and then actually had to stop and walk the rest of the way!

Jane would not have been impressed!

The second hill though I was determined and was first to the summit again getting a "wow, strong woman" comment from the guide so I felt like I redeemed myself there!

The kms of downhill, out of the saddle for a fair bit trying to aero tuck and pick up speed actually left me a bit sore today, but the ride was so worth it - it was just fun all the way.

So excited about getting back into proper training, which is exactly what this holiday was about. I'm already planning next year to take two weeks in Bali right after DBR 2012. Except I'll time it better so I can watch the whole TDF from here. In fact - lets make that a squad excursion!!!

See you guys soon!

The lofty heights of Stromlo in Winter

4 hardened Valkyries (me, Deciana, Leonie and Jane J) hit the slopes of Stromlo this morning for an "E2" session (which is basically just above your endurance threshold) training, which was a combined session with the Vikings V-Max squad. It was actually quite warm this morning (I think around 6 degrees!) which was a welcome change, although the first rep in particular was very foggy. I had a few incidents with my lights unplugging themselves on my first rep, but then found a spot on my frame where the battery pack wouldn't slide and rode without "light" incident from then. I did have a near miss with a large kangaroo towards the top of Stromlo on my first rep. It was quite disconcerting to see such a large creature appear almost without warning through the fog, nearly hitting me. Needless to say I took the descent very easy on my way down from that rep!

As I was on my way down, I saw the rest of the V-Max squad making their way up for their first rep. It was quite a cool sight to see so many "trails" of headlights in the fog coming towards me, and nice to know that we had such a large crew out there doing similar training.

At the bottom of my first rep I found Leonie who was setting off on her first rep. Talk about hardcore! She's only had her bike for a month or so, and there she was ready to take on Stromlo as one of her first proper rides in the middle of Winter! V impressive! Leonie and I rode up together on that rep and spent pretty much the whole time commenting how stunningly beautiful the scenery was from the lofty heights of Stromlo. The fog around the top of Stromlo had pretty much cleared by this time, but the fog in the valleys below was still thick. Even the Molonglo subdivision / Cotter roadworks looked beautiful from up there! Just stunning.

Leonie and I waited for the rest of the VMax squad at the top and then descended together. We took it pretty easy again, as the roads were a bit damp from the fog and we thought there was not much point pushing the descending boundaries in such conditions. We passed Jane on her way up for another rep while we were on our way down. Jane was practically straight off the skiing slopes and was looking v strong (so much so that she did her last rep with a flat tyre and didn't really even notice the extra resistance!).

We all did one more rep after that to complete the session, before Leonie and I hopped into our cars and the rest of the crew headed back to Deakin for work / coffee. It was a great morning all in all and hopefully we'll see a few more Valkyries at the next combined training session.

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! :-)

When can I ride my bike?

That is the question I have been asking my torture therapist on a weekly basis for a bit over a month now.

I've finally succumbed and have decided to write my first blog; I guess it will explain why I haven't made it to any training sessions. I've managed just one, which as I was tapering had to finish early. I also got to one skills session and that's been about it for me. My plan was to do a triathlon and come back and focus on riding for a while and try and get some confidence bunch riding, descending and generally work on becoming a stronger rider. Unfortunately that plan slowly unravelled as the hours passed on the 5th of June.

Two days before the event I knew something wasn't right with my foot and I knew exactly what it was but couldn't figure out how it could be possible. How could I possibly have another stress fracture?! I'd been reduced to pool running for the previous 3 weeks due to a different foot injury so tried to convince myself that it wasn't a stress fracture. I got my confirmation on the bike leg though, each time I had to get out of the saddle that familiar and unwanted pain was there. Doubts entered my head, would it survive 180km and a marathon after that? I pushed the doubts aside; I couldn't let them take over otherwise I really wouldn't finish.

Just 200m into the run I realised I could no longer land on my mid foot and I was forced to land on my heel, which was already inflamed by a different injury. Why oh why did I decide to do another Ironman? Some have questioned why I pushed through knowing there was a stress fracture and there was likelihood that the marathon would inevitably make this worse. I think anyone who has invested so much into preparing for something would find that making that call to pull out hard to make. Yep it was painful, but at no point did I think that I wouldn't be able to finish. I finished and now have a fractured 4th metatarsal. So the past 5 weeks have been about recovery, getting treatment to the Pandora's Box of issues with my feet and getting over having such a disappointing race.

It took me 3 weeks to unpack my bike and put it back together as I knew the desire to ride would be hard to resist once it had been reassembled. Even though I'd been told I couldn't ride not even on the wind trainer I set it up anyway and thought I'd give it a go. I mean I had to make sure I'd put it back together ok :-) Besides 3 weeks had passed, surely I was healed enough to sit and have a little spin? How wrong could I be (hate admitting that). I could barely push through a peddle stroke, obviously I hadn't managed to increase my pain threshold quite high enough. So my bike is continuing to gather dust, but remains set up on the wind trainer as the carrot to get better and get back on it.

The fear around the lost fitness is the hardest thing to deal with at the moment. Swimming and deep water pool running is my exercise at the moment. Not just to try and stay fit but also keep some sanity. This is the longest stretch I've had off the bike; foot surgery didn't even keep me off this long! In my opinion there is never a good time to get injured and am pretty scared about re-joining the group once I'm able. I've missed so many skills sessions and since bunch riding and descending were never a strong point for me I feel I'm going to be behind in fitness and skills when I return.

Maybe next week when I ask the question; 'when can I ride my bike' the answer will be more positive and I can get back out there again soon.

Brrrrrr...........

Leonie, Eleanora and I toughed out the freezing conditions this morning to take on Mugga Way. The fog was thick, which created a somewhat eerie atmosphere, particularly when heading over Commonwealth Avenue bridge. Unfortunately the fog left us damp which made us all soooo cold. It was -3 when we started riding, and apparently the temp increased while we were out although I didn't feel it at all. I've ridden in colder conditions than this morning, but I can honestly not remember ever being as cold as I was this morning. Just in case anyone was wondering, it's definitely Winter! Brrrrr!!!

We cruised down Adelaide Ave to Hopetoun Circuit, and then up Mugga Way. It was both Leonie and Eleanora's first times up Mugga Way and they both excelled, rolling through the undulations and then getting some climbing practice in when the gradient went up (not to mention some descending practice on the return journey, with Eleanora commenting when we got to the bottom of Mugga that she'd barely touched her brakes and was right down on her drops for most of the descent). We then headed down into Deakin and then up around the embassies before returning to the ANU for well deserved coffees.

Big high 5 to Leonie and Eleanora for not only making it out in the freezing conditions, but for completing their first Mugga Ways. Go team!

Post Race...what next

So this is the first time I've been in a post-race phase - i.e. we built up the training over 8 weeks (well really several months for me as I've been training regularly since February) and we did the tour and no i feel .....flat.

Local racing legend Bec Doolan provided us with some very helpful advice below about what to do post tour which I will be following up with some "Lessons Learned" posts (although I'm sure you can all guess from my tour blogs what those lessons are going to be...): 

• First up, enjoy the night at the end of the tough. Congratulate yourself on getting through and enjoy the company of those around you.
• Next up, go for a recovery ride te next day. I am being deadly serious.  You may think having the next day off is the best idea ever, your body will thank you for the rest of the week if you do it the day after the tour.  Take the following day off the bike, but definitely recovery ride right after.  In fact, you should all have a very easy week training wise.  Start again on the next block next week.
• Now the hard stuff.  There was a lot to learn from this weekend.  Get a notebook and jot a few things down, but be careful not to be too hard on yourself.  For every negative thing, think of something positive that you did, doesn't matter how small.  For the things you did well, replay that in your mind.  Think about why it was good and really enjoy it.  Then pick one thing that didn't go so well.  Think about it.  Then think about it as if you were doing it correctly. Focus on the improvement and only how things would have been if you had done that one thing correctly.
• Now, pick your next target event. When that event rolls around, go back to your notebook and pick something(s) (but no more than 3) to get right in that event.

In the meantime, revel in the fact that you got through one of the toughest bike races on the calendar :)

DBR Results - General Classification

GC RESULTS:
6th Rach
8th Verity

DBR Tour Final Stage - 30 min Criterium

V is for Valkyrie Vikings

The apparent temp was minus 2 or something, and it was beginning to rain as we set out on the last stage of the DBR Tour.

Exhausted, the Valkyries lost the main bunch on the first lap, and there was some serious confusion between the pre-race briefing which had said we would get pulled off if we were lapped by other riders so once I got lapped by the main bunch I basically stopped pedalling thinking it was all over. The other two B graders I was riding with continued on and it took me about five more laps to work out that they weren't pulling B grade out and were expecting us to finish.

I'm afraid the confusion and frustration of not knowing what was going on proved really challenging for me, so i had some pretty dirty looks on my face coming past the line - apologies to our team mates, supporters and coach who were standing there, it really was awesome to have you guys cheering us on.

At any rate, we actually finished the whole thing so im pretty proud of myself for completing the whole tour, and of my teammates for their awesome work.

I'd like to thank (in no particular order):

Our coach Simon Dwyer, for getting us here
Deciana for leading me out for 40.1km in the road race earlier today (i owe you many beers)
Anna for her inspirational finish despite a serious bonk that lasted her for about 20kms yesterday
Verity - if you hadn't entered, I wouldn't have had the guts
Andrew for helping me after the 80km RR when I completely lost my shit
Our sponsors; DBR & team fitness
Steven for keeping the bikes slick
Angie & Rosemary for all the efforts in the RR this morning
Cheska for the enthusiasm (and quality sledging - I'm pretty sure you won)
ALL the VIKINGS who were hollering from the course and waving from the lead and spares cars while marshalling - im pretty sure the out of towners knew we were famous
All the V-Mobile and VCC blokes who have supported us and mentored us through our training over the last 8 weeks
All the volunteers and marshalls everywhere and especially Cherrie for making it happen
Nige Huckstep for making us famous over the PA
Ross and Milto for the loan of TT helmets
Lee Sheather for your messages of support
Brad Drew for the loan of awesome Europro shoe socky things and knee warmers
Ian Downing for fixing my headset and putting my bike together so it just rides like a dream...
Simon's dog Watson
Mum, Ramsey, Alexandra & Kieran for coming out to watch
Jane and Sue Powell for the encouragement (and directions when i realised i had messed the course up)
the people who made the Bolognese for the OM NOM NOMs
anyone at all who has helped us over the last few months that i may have inadvertently forgotten in post race fog
the marshall at Coppins Crossing who gave me all his water when i was about to keel over
Bec Doolan for her support
All the Valkyries for cheering us on
Ben Long, for letting me join V-Mobile when id never climbed a hill before
the Vikings Cycling Club, for being Rad

And I'd like to give a very a special extra mention to Chris K for tirelessly turning up to the Valkyrie Skills group for the last 8 weeks so i could concentrate on hills, I really wanted the squad to keep going but I couldn't have trained properly without a trusted mentor to work with the SKillez girls.

And my last very big giant thanks goes to Brad Drew - lets just say we couldn't have done it without you, your enthusiasm, your mentoring, your encouragement and your sprints on the hills are what helped us survive through the tour.

We did it.

DBR Tour Stage 3- 40km Road Race

Big mental challenge for this one being tired plus early Start in the morning.
- great teamwork on the way out, thanks to Angue and Rosemary for pulling turns, the first 10km I thought I might not even make it at all.

Awesome race bunch work out to the first QOM up uriarra, we had those girls working really well.

Race champ award goes to Deciana for leading me the whole way and letting me have the final sprint.

Strong finishes from Verity, Ches, Angie and Rosemary.

One stage to go. Post race beers- 530 at All Bar Nun.

Stage 2 - 80km Road Race

Major points to Anna who finished despite an epic bonk an an absolute world of pain.
My bad luck continued with an almost DQ at the start line, turns out my brand new, warranty replacement helmet has no Aus standards sticker, then I got the course wrong and rode in to SFP and stopped for a good ten minutes - not taking off agai til Angie, Rosemary, Ches and Verity had passed me...sigh. I then set off again with no water Gavin sculler all mine thinking I was done. Oops.

Well done to Dec, verit, Ches and Angie all finishing strong.

Today I am using two good luck charms; one being my lutle fellas dog tag and the other being a plan to hang on to the D Train!

Brrrrr it's cold out there.