Catch up

Well I got a bit of training in over the weekend. 5.5hrs on Saturday that consisted of the Bakery Bunch, a long loop home including a climb to the top of Corin.
Sunday was bit of ramble on the MTB through the fire roads in the foothills of the Brindabella's. Again it turn into a good 5.5hr ride for the day.
Come Monday all that good training was starting to catch up with the legs and it's been a steady downhill slide till today when I cracked and bought the ute home from work rather that ride the 1.5hrs from site.
Hopefully with the two easy days this week I should be able to keep up a high work rate for the rest of the week. The plan was to go and ride the WWS 8hr at Nowra but given that no one is even still sure if it's on it's looking like another play day on the HT through the mountains again.

New Gear

Have got a couple of new bits of kit in over the last couple of weeks.

The first is one of these, a Suunto Core watch. They have a fancy name something like an "outdoor advisor" but it's a watch with a number of cool functions. The best being the altitude/ barometer. It's great for tracking all the climbing I do during training


The next bit of kit was a new pair of MTB shoes. I have using Sidi Dragon for the last 9 months and to be honest haven't been that impressed with them compaired to their road shoes. So I found a cheap pair of Lake CX401's on ebay to try.
After reading the instructions I spent last Saturday night cooking my shoes in the oven for 5 minutes to heat mould them before the ride on Sunday.
The fit of the shoes is quite wide in the toe box with no pressure points due to the Boa lacing. After the ride on Sunday I'm giving them the thumbs up very comfortable and you don't notice your even wearing them.

The final item was a new tire a Continental Race King 2.0 UST. To as I was underwhelmed would put it mildly...one ride and it's off the bike again.

Feeling like a Hobbit....

Well just a quick update. I'm back from my confinement in Braidwood and feel absolutly stuffed. I have walked over 35k this week inspecting culverts (how do I know? I was pushing a measuring wheel!) So the legs are a bit tired from all the walking, and I have a weekend of crash training on the cards to catch up for the week of non-riding.
Tomorrow will be a ~6hr road ride and Sunday a ~7hr MTB ride....weather and wife willing ;)

Quiet Weekend...going to be a busy week

Well it turned out to be a quiet weekend after life got in the way of my plans for the weekend... Woke up yesterday looked at the temperature outside, -4 and went "Screw this I'm going back to bed and not riding in this till it at least reaches 0!" So I ended up going for a couple of laps around Stromlo at about lunchtime with a balmy temperature of 10ish. I got the Magura forks back this previous week and threw them in the El Salt to get them dialled. So all up 3hrs for Saturday and alot more fun then riding in freezing conditions.
I was supposed to go race the 6hr at Nowra today, but the wofe made plans with friends so the use of the car was out for the day. So another few laps of Stromlo. I tried picking a few of the trails I haven't ridden before to get a better understanding of all that's on offer. It's all to easy when you have great local tracks to just do the same loops over and over again till your just sick of the place. So I've started to mix it up a bit.

The Week Ahead
I'm off to Braidwood or as I like to call it "the second circle of hell" tomorrow for the week to do more culvert inspections for the RTA. So no riding for me for the week till I get back. I have a couple of giant rides planned for next weekend to compensate for the lack of riding. I should say it's never good to try and do this type of training unless you absolutely have to as it just trashes your body trying to compensate for the overload for the next 3-4 days.

Shout out
Shout out goes to Big Jase and Kevin Wells who are both off to the 24hr of Adrenalin in Canada. Jason managed to crack a bone in his wrist 2 days before leaving and will be racing in a cast for the event. I'm just thinking this will give his competitors a fairer shot at the title ;)

Photochromics

Well for the last 2 weeks I have been rocking a pair of Rudy Project Rydons with racing red photochromic lens, so I thought I would write up a bit of brief review of how they have been performing.
Previous to getting the new lens I had been using standard racing red lens which are similar in gradient to Oakleys VR28's. Now this shade is great for changing light conditions ie mtbing in and out of trees. But in full sunlight you end up squinting because they are too light. The was a number of time when riding I would come blasting into a clearing in the trees and cope a face full of direct sunlight and not be able to see the trail ahead. So I had been contemplating trying a set of photochromics out to see whether these would be a good solution to the problem.
When I got them initially I tried playing with them to see if I could get them to change colour, holding them up to the ceiling light, shining a torch at them, but I couldn't detect anything. So with a shrug of the shoulders I kept them in reserve till trying them on the two sticks ride a couple of weeks ago.
Riding out to meet Jase, I had them on and couldn't detect anything. By this stage I'm starting to think that they were faulty....It wasn't till I stopped and took them off to clean the sweat, snot, spit off them I noticed that the lens were now about 8 shades darker. The had gone from a bright orange to a dark blueish hue.
So the first lesson is they do change but it is imperceptible to the eye while wearing them. During the ride I found that I wasn't squinting at any point despite getting blasted in the face by the sun a couple of times.
The first ride through very variable conditions was Sunday's XC race at Sparrow. The light conditions for the day weren't super bright, but the difference between being in the trees and in the open was enough. Again no squinting!

In summary these do their job really well and subtle enough that the user cannot notice them working. So I'm going to give them the two thumbs up.

New TdF support Vehicle

Only in South Auckland....Makes me proud to be a Kiwi

CORC Sparrow Hill

Almost there!
Today turned out to be a good result despite a somewhat ordinary start. The family came out to the race today turning it into a bit of an outing. After getting everyone organised we only left 10 mintes behind schedule. As we we were leaving I chucked the keys to the wife and asked her to drive...no idea why, but I did. Halfway out the race, we we're pulled over for an RBT (Random Breath Test). Now I knew if I was driving I shouldn't have blown positive, I had 1/2 a bottle of white with dinner the night before and had eaten breakfast...but these things always make me nervous. But today my luck was in, I wasn't driving!
Out at the course I threw in a quick blat round the loop to make sure there were no surprises lurking anywhere. The weather was a bit average with a very cool wind blowing before the start so I kept rolling aorund till we got the call up.
When the go went I positioned myself so that I ended up about 5th into the single track without having to be too explosive off the line. Through the first section and I jumped Rob Cooper to move into 4th on the fire trail. Next couple of sections and I worked my way up into second place without having to hit the wind too much... I need to be very explosive to get around people and close a couple of gaps but I still wasn't red lining like the last race. And this was the way it stayed for the next 3 laps I would trade places between 2nd-3rd place but never drift off the lead by much but also never having to expend too mch energy. On the last lap I opened the taps to gap one of the Vet riders who had gotten mixed up in our "race train" and get back onto the wheel of first place. The look on his face when I closed the 100m gap up the fire road climb was priceless! I don't think he thought he could be caught again and not in the space of 300m.
Unfortunately my biggest problem for the day was my descending, I was riding even more like a girl than normal. I'm putting this down to the forks I threw onto the bike, they had way too much rebound and I got bounced in a number of corners I and it just shook my confidence a bit.
I ended up holding on for second place by about 20 seconds, my best result for a XC race this season. I put the result down to better tactics, because it sure wasn't better form. I felt very ordinary before the race, and never really lifted during it. I think the course at Sparrow with more climbing suits my skills alot better. In fact I could have gone for another couple of laps as I wasn't feeling that taxed at the end.



The normalised power is the same as the previous XC race at 278w, but the lack of alot of surges mean't I felt alot better. Just need to build a bit more base now for the Angry Doctor and the Fling.

Highland Fling

Entries opened this morning and didn't crash out. So I'm in...for the 100 miler!
Still not sure what I was thinking.

Pic of the Day

I love a good Cyclocross picture!

Cold Weather Food

mmmm Steak & Cheese pies
Training food for -3 degree days.

Hypocrisy

Two Sticks Loop

Well today was a mtb ride with Big Jase in the Brindabellas. Warks Rd/ Two Sticks Rd. Given Jase's form recently I decided to ride out to Uriarra Homestead to met Jase to add an extra 1.5hrs to the ride and also take the sting out of the legs...I was later started to regret this decision towards the top...
It was looking like a good day from when we rolled out at 9.00ish a bit cool but we soon warmed up once we hit the climbs proper after rolling through the foothills for about 20mins.
The weapon of choice for the day was El Salt and Ergon BD2 backpack, so I was immediately giving Jase about a 6kg advantage for a day that involved hauling our arses up a couple of big hills. The first climb is approximately 1hr and the second about 0.5hr.
Up the first climb despite complaining earlier that he hadn't been training all week I couldn't drop him by more than 40 seconds at the top. The second portion and we were definitly level pegged. Towards the Two Sticks intersection, I wasn't getting anymore love from the legs, not enough long rides recently and 3hrs in the legs at this point was beginning to show.
At the top we were intending to ride up another hill for about 1/2 and hour but it was signposted as shut due to re-sealing. So it ended up being a flat cruise across the top before bombing down Two Sticks for about half an hour. I was intending to ride home from here but I was feeling a bit secondhand at this point so grabbed a lift homw with Jase.
So all up for the day 5hrs and 100k's


Power Tap File

Check this bad boy out!

Exposure MaxX D

Postman arrived yesterday with this. I have been considering a new set of lights for about a month now and after doing alot of research settled on this bad boy. Previously I had been using a set of Ayups, but always felt they were a bit underpowered. Now don't get me wrong I do like the design of the Ayups, and especially the price ($450 for a set of 2) but with only have 2x led's per light they but out about 260 lumin.
Enter the MaxX D, on high this throws out 960 lumin for 3hrs and 600 lumin for 10hrs!. But the best thing about it is that there is no separate battery back. The whole unit is like an over sized child's gun. I weighs about 300gms and I have to say the machining detail on the light is fantastic.
So there is the good parts out of the way, what's the down side? Charge time is the answer. 12hrs to charge the unit! This is a result of the technology used in the battery to give it it's long run times. As a bonus though for those needing longer run times (think 24hrs), exposure make piggyback batteries to push the run times out. So it is possible to get 6hrs on high (960 lumins).
Cost? $US349 (I got mine for a bit less)

I haven't had a chance to go for a ride with it yet. So other then shining in at the neighbour's house in the dark, at the wall in the garage, and in my eyes (Why is it always the first thing I do with lights? Idiot!) I can't really comment on it's riding performance yet. I will post an update on Monday after riding with it.

My legs are evil and must be punished! (aka Tabata Protocol)

You really have to hate yourself to do these as the title indicates, short but rediculously hard. The Tabata Protocol is a series of short intervals ridden at a ratio of 2:1 ie 20 seconds on 10 seconds off. Wash and repeat 10 times for 1 set.
The power rate is 170% of ftp or for me 470w.



Well I got it done, hate the last two they just about killed me. The theory is you are supposed to complete 2 sets, but I opted for one first time through. The training program is this workout every day for 6 weeks.
The gains are 15% for ftp 26% for VO2 and 20% for anerobic capacity.

So bring on the pain!!