Another Saturday in Paradise

Two Saturdays in a row in the Hills- this must be a new record, at least for the last couple of years.

I arrived at Surrey Park after taking the soft option of driving from home to the meeting point. I just don't see the point in riding out through the inner east to get to the rendezvous point and having to chop off some of the good bit- that is the hills themselves. So, drive I did. I was there on my lonesome until 0645 when Les rolled on by, chasing a couple of blokes up the road. I was pretty sure they weren't the TE bunch, but hey, on my second week back, I wasn't going to argue. The tires I put on yesterday felt like they had lost some air overnight, but on reflection, that was just me. Les promised a scenic route through the wilds of Ferntree Gully, and after seeing tantalising glimpses of 3 riders ahead who didn't look sharply dressed enough to be from TE, we turned right off the Burwood Highway. It was indeed scenic, with a few sharp hills to whet the appetite prior to the Tourist Road, which we reached soon enough. No 11-23 this week, but I was soon on the 27, ticking the legs over at my max. The speed doesn't seem to change, only the cadence alters. I lobbied Les to head straight on up the tourist road, and being the obliging fellow he is, that we did. There was pea-soup fog up the top, which lessened as we went down towards Sassafras. I was thinking seriously about turning and rolling down the 1 in 20, but my spirits lifted on meeting Greg and Leigh in sassafras. A second ascent for them, with Les and I in tow, and we were off to the Northern Dandenongs, where I was going to descend Inverness and return home. I could wax lyrical about the descent, but I already did that last week. At the bottom, it just seems such a shame not to ride back up again, and the busy-ness of the road down to Montrose did not entice. The others headed up the hill, and I followed a little later. The 27 cog made it bearable but far from enjoyable- the roll down to Montrose was welcome.

Out on my own, I had forgotten that it is a fair ride back down Canterbury road to Surrey Park. Initially it is downhill, but soon there are a few pinches, like Heathmont Hill, which just hurts after the hills earlier in the ride. Every traffic light knows my name and wants to say hello, and on this rolling road, extra stops and starts are really not welcome. Finally the rise up to the start point looms, and I wring a few more pedals from my protesting legs and take it home.

Looking at the power file at home, my 20 min power is about 10% down on its peak last year, and longer periods are even worse. Hopefully I can push it up a bit for old time's sake. I miss the feeling of strength, and the ability to repeat. After I have done a couple of good efforts, these days, that's it. Still, with a good couple of months prior to Bright in January, there is plenty of improvement to be had.

The morning after

Just to prove that nothing lasts, my resolve yesterday seems to be evaporating rather quickly. Whilst I am still going to ride, it will be a roll on the rollers on the track bike, as my legs feel like jelly from yesterday. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Perhaps I was a little ambitious to be planning a hard interval session after failing to finish a crit.

Raspberry

Having had a couple of admittedly glorious months of doing baby and work to the exception of most riding, here I am weighing 87.5kg, with absolutely no top end, and not much bottom end either. I have moved onto yet another seat and have been eschewing my power meter for all riding until today.

I ventured down to Port Melbourne today "just to have a look" and was unfortunately tempted to have a go. Nothing drastic happened, in fact not much happened at all. Stuck in there at the back of the field for the first few minutes, I was rapidly using up my energy with the concertina-ing of the field. Haven't I said before, stay at the front! I should listen to myself. Out the back by ten minutes gone. D-oh!

Power meter told the story- OK peak powers coming out of the corners at 950watts, compared with about 1000watts last year, the normalised power at 311, reflecting the stopping and starting. I can't do that at the moment.

Time to get back to it. Need to do some time on the ergo and get some top end.

Still no beans

After a promising couple of hours, labour was averted for the next little while. Perhaps it was the fact that E woke up with diarrhoea and vomiting that discouraged J from continuing to labour. But like Contador gapping his own teammate Kloden in the tour last night, and noone doubting that he is going to go on and win the tour, J's contractions can only be held off for so long...

Cadel continues to endear himself to his fans.

July is Waning

Late july. Riding is low on the lost of priorities. Still doing "Les deux boulevards" to keep my legs supple and my affect in equilibrium. Had an outing to the track on sunday for the "roast" and was well and truly roasted, just to prove that riding at an easy pace does little to keep your top end in any sort of order. Internet has replaced actual riding- following the Tour, buying small parts for the bike (in lieu of buying big things).

Euan is getting a "chain bike" when the new baby comes. I am pretty exctied to see how he goes on it. If the First Bike is anything to go by, he will be like a duck in water.

Two days overdue. Don't know if it is a boy or girl. Will soon.

Training trash and treasure

Having been training in some systematic fashion for a couple of years now, I have come across a lot of ideas, either from others or in my trawling of the training "literature". I use the term literature loosely, for come from the field of medicine, evaluating scientific literature is just part of working life. I can tell you that of the medical literature, at least half of the papers that you read are just plain worthless, half of the rest are critically flawed and you might get an idea of something that is useful but you can't be sure, half of the rest is sound but the answer you get is only useful in a limited fashion. The remainder is genuinely useful on a day to day basis- and I am being very generous. Now... the training literature is generally written by folks who do not have the dollars (and subjects) available to them that medical researchers do, and seem to have a limited grasp of statistics and even how to ask a question that can be answered. So... most of what you read is nigh on unintelligable. Unfortunately it is all we have.

Questions I think are interesting and worth answering:

What is the real benefit of "base KMs"- once you have been riding for a period of time, how much and how frequently do you need to include them in your training? It seems to me from anecdotal experience (what much of the literature seems to be based upon) that less frequent high intensity work can maintain fitness and high performance, in a much more time efficient manner. 

What cadence is optimal for a given circumstance? There seems to be some suggestion that higher cadences are better for shorter events, but may even be deleterious in longer events. How much individual variation is there in optimum cadence?

What is the most reproducible and meaningful measure of lactate/anaerobic threshold? It seems to me that there are a ridiculous number of ways of calculating this number, many of which seem pretty arbitrary. What is the significance of 4mmol of lactate, anyway?! Why not 3.98 or 4.23?

Which situations are watts/kg more or less relevant? Clearly in flat events, weight is less important than sheer power and aerodynamics. Yet everyone bangs on about power to weight for everything. I would like to see a relationship expressed as a graph or something vaguely meaningful.

This is just the beginning of the questions that I ask myself. Don't even start to go to nutrition and tapering/pre-event preparation...

Does this strike anyone else as a weird thing to do?

Prisoners get own Tour de France

Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do contest the Tour de France.

The first penal version of the Tour de France will be held in June, with some 196 prisoners to complete 2,300 kilometres of racing. Some 124 prison officers will guard the would be athletes as they start racing from Lille on June 4, but no break away groups will be allowed, meaning only sprints will be contested by the riders.

"It's a kind of escape for us, a chance to break away from the daily reality of prison," said a 48-year-old prisoner at the event's launch in Nantes. "If we behave well, we might be able to get released earlier, on probation."

While each of the 17 host cities have prisons, the riders will be staying in hotels. The prison authorities believe the program will have a beneficial impact on the rehabilitation of its prisoners.

"This project aims to help these men reintegrate into society by fostering values like effort, teamwork and self-esteem," said prison representative Sylvie Marion. "We want to show them that with some training, you can achieve your goals and start a new life."

Like the professional version of the Tour de France, the prisoners will finish in Paris. There will be no general classification for the event.

Dealing with it...

What do you do with an anxious day? One of those where you just feel a sense of doom, that there is no point starting, that you should just stay home. I have these often when I have prepared a long time for an event and have a lot invested in it. I have read quite a bit about the mental aspects of cycling, and would recommend reading the series of articles in pezcyclingnews by Marvin Zauderer- http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/default.asp?pg=fullstory&id=5644 . These make some sense and really add something to your training. I have also read biographies of both Chris Hoy and Brad Wiggins in recent months, in which there is discussion of how the British team employ a psychiatrist, Steve Peters to maximise the performance of the team. One of the things that Wiggins relates is taking all of the negative thoughts that you have and addressing them for a short, defined period of time, so you don't have to carry them around with you. What follows is the process I went through on the day of the pursuit at the Australian Master's Championships prior to heading to the stadium. I first wrote down all my negative thoughts, then addressed them one by one.

Australian Master's Track- Pursuit Day 2/4/09

I'm not having a good meet.

I'm not as fit as I could be.

My mind is not in it.

My start is too slow.

I can't hold the pace to the end.

I feel anxious and a bit sick.

The competition is too fast.

I feel nervous riding double discs.

My TT was what it sould have been- a hit out to get used to the track. The time was irrelevant.

I am fit and strong enough to have done a fastest time in the TT and pursuit one week ago.

I am here, focusing right now and can give it 100% today.

My start is solid and fast enough for the pursuit. I don't need it any faster.

The end will hurt but my form is good and I can give the bit extra in competition. I will hold it.

The anxiety is my adrenaline, which will make me faster, and the sick feeling in my stomach is just part of it. It means this race is important and I am giving it my all.

There are 6 riders in M2 and on my day, I can challenge the best of them. I can go sub 3.40.

I have ridden double discs in training, racing and starts and can ride them well. They are part of my bike and I control it.

At the start I will be as ready as I can be. The bike will be right. I will be warmed up. I will have the right gear on. I will race well.

 I should say that I didn't do the event as well as I might have, but the reasons for that are another story.

Just a little peek into my tortured soul...

Mythology

Myth 1- I can mix it up in A grade at club level, and hold my head high.

Experiment A- Scratch race: A big field with some obvious quality, led to some misgivings that the past couple of weeks' of finishing solidly in the bunch might be over. Pedal to the metal from the first lap softened up the crowd. Not phased, I kept the pace. Unfortunately, at the end when the sprinters went, I was left going backwards. No jump.

Experiment B- Points race: Two sprints down and I was hanging in there, but then a split formed and I was left wrong footed. No chance of brdging back to it and after the 5 leaders got about 1/3 of a lap, it was time to go back to the seats to watch the finish. Too slow.

Experiment C- Motorpace: This should be my event, and I have come second on a particularly lean week in A grade. I am certainly better at avoiding getting stuck on the wrong wheel, which can be fatal, but I still swung off at five to go, assuming my race was over (It is in any decent sized field). Unfortunately there were only five left on the bike, so I could have been in the contest at the end. Dumb.

Myth- Busted!

Myth 2- 2 years of intervals and track racing, with a few summer criteriums for variety, translate to good road-racing form.

Experiment- Preston Mountain Classic: Under the misapprehension that this was a scratch race, I entered, expecting a good day out with a few companions. Unfortunately, I was mistaken and it was a handicap. Even more unfortunately, the handicapper had been chewing some mescalin, and thought that my dubious excursions into A grade at the track justified putting me off scratch. Mick Hay was off 2 mins, and Pete Knight was off 14 mins. No worries. 5 mins at 400watts put paid to my day by the top of the climb out of Broadford- should have done what JB suggested and sat on up to the climb. I always was a slow learner. Nice training ride thereafter, aided by a mars bar and banana from the broom wagon. Probably the only time I will get to wear number three... Back to the track.

Myth- busted!

Myth 3- My TT form is undimished from the heady heights of 2008.

Experiment- Back up from a successful campaign at the Preston Mountain Classic, and put in a triumphant couple of laps around my home course of Kew boulevard. Smash the opposition. Well... I refer to myth 2. Woke up too late to start. Rode down with Euan in the chariot behind the bike. Almost fainted riding up to watch the race. Glad I didn't wake up early.

Myth- busted!

Glorious sundays

No, nothing to do with God. Just a fine morning for a ride. Cold, very cold, but fantastic conditions. No avoiding the winter tights for those who wanted to keep their knee joints from freezing into immobility.

At last I managed to make it out on a group ride with TE. The pace was pretty reasonable, so I didn't suffer too much on the bumpy bits. I elected to take the part KL, in the name of discretion, and it paid dividends with a good ride home and pleasantly sore legs.

The Kinglake climb is pretty sobering- lots of burnt out shells of houses, and bare tree trunks. Some views have the eucalypts sprouting in their irrepressible manner, whereas other areas seem to be totally burnt to matchsticks. It must have been incredible when the fire was there. You really get a sense of how much more intense it was than most bushfires.

On a lighter note, Stu send around a fine photo of a stack, complete with brolly.

Back to club racing

Raced last night at DISC in the regular Northcote races. Had a lazy day leading up to the races and really had to haul my ass there. Initially registered for B grade, but felt bad about it. Went back and got A grade. Winter A grade is not quite the slugfest that summer is, but there was still some quality there. I could not be bothered to change my chainring, so decided to ride 91.8, 51-15, which turned out better than I thought it was going to. The racing in general was better than I expected. In the scratch, it was a good bit of fun. Got stretched out and crunched up, as is usual, though one of the juniors goes a bit far in slowing down the field every time he gets on the front. It is brakes on whenever it comes round to him. I found the speed wasn't too much of an issue and the smaller gear made following the surges so much easier. There were sketchy moments when one of the other guys squeezed me out from underneath. Not a good move and I let him know it. He promptly tried to push under again next time round, but I was prepared and he had to decide between the blue and staying back. He stayed back. As to the end, I came in 4th, but was really happy that I didn't just drop back like I usually do. 

The points race was similarly gratifying. Again, my legs were far from a match for the true A graders, but I felt a lot more zip. Leg speed seemed heaps better than it usually is. I even managed to take a few points, including a second to Madison, who pretty much won everything on the night.

Onto the motor pace, and the derny took off at a brutal pace, leaving us with no illusions that this was going to be a pleasant roll. Indeed, the pace kept climbing and the guy whose wheel I was following seemed to be flagging, and popped when he rolled off the next time around. Lots of pacing in training meant that I could be pretty efficient in my changes, and as the laps passed, others popped. It got pretty hairy at one point when someone tried to get back on, but I held it together, and kept spinning away until at 5 to go, I was done. Second overall, and quite happy with it. Felt good not to be the worst in the race!

Omnium

Have just got back from the omnium, which was a beast of a day of riding. 5 events, starting with the flying 200, then the scratch, the individual pursuit over 2000m, the points race over 15km, and finally a kilo just to round it all off.

How was it? Tiring. I felt like I was going fast in the kilo at the end, but could only pull a 1.15 out of the hat. Pretty slow stuff. Gearing becomes a big issue through out the day, as you have to take account of the previous racing in your choices. Pushing a 100 or 102 just seemed a bad idea for the final event, wheras I would not think twice about it normally.

Standout performances in my grade were Lou Pascuzzi who lost to Matt Chessum on a countback. He has come a long way in a short times. Just beat me in the pursuit, which hurt a little. I think that I came in 5th or 6th. Will find out in the next couple of days- I couldn't come at hanging around longer than I had to just to find out.

One of the harder days of cycling I have done. Maybe when I have got back a bit of energy I might do a proper report!

Night before...

The masters omnium is on tomorrow. I am coming off a period of a few days of feeling really flat, but hopefully am starting to feel better. A large part of it has been psychological, with a lack of willingness to push myself as I was before. Part too had been a falling off of form that I had managed to hold pretty well for the period up to the Vics and to a lesser extent, to the Master's Nationals. A good sign is that I am feeling keen for the start tomorrow (and even that I am keen enough to write this).

Gearing... well, it will be a cold day, so not too much point pushing anything too massive. That said, my leg speed is ... well... pathetic, so on with the big gears. I am thinking 98 or 100 for the flying 200, as I seemed to spin out on the 96 the other night (only 125rpm. So sad...). For the points, maybe 93 or 94. Probably the same for the scratch, but maybe a bit more. I will ride 100 for the pursuit, and probably 96 for the TT, as it is only 500m, and is at the end of the day.

A Chance Meeting

This afternoon I was in the park with my son, who was playing with a neighbour's daughter and I met another dad who was there with his daughter. He had a Blackwell Composites T shirt on and that slightly hungry look that indicates a cyclist or runner, so I introduced myself. It turned out that he was not just another recreational cyclist, the likes of which flourish in Melbourne's leafy suburbs, but had his own company that fabricates carbon parts for cycling, rowing and other sports, as well as consulting on aerodynamics, and doing testing at the Monash wind tunnel. He had preeviously been employed by the AIS doing a lot of their technical work with SRMs and other technical issues. I, of course, was very interested by all the things he did, and fortunately he seemed more than happy to talk about his work.

Some of the highlights were talking about the powertesting he had been involved in with the Australian track cyclists, such as Brad McGee and in the new generation, Jack Bobridge, who reportedly can do 470watts for the duration of a pursuit, and has done 4.18 recently. We also talked about aspects of the different powermeters that were about, and his experiences with them. Apparently some of the AIS ones that they still use on the track are from early 90s when they were first brought out. They need recalibrating every so often but if they are installed and maintained well, can last for a long time.

We also talked about aerodynamics, and how important it was. He had a fairly low opinion of Zipp's dimples and also of ceramic bearings, having not been able to demonstrate any difference at 600watts, down to a resolution of 0.5watts, between normal and ceramic bearings. His experience was that the leading edge- hands, aerobar position, forks and front wheel were overwhelmingly the important factors. Apparently Bridie O'Donnell was able to gain 20watts by changing her aero position in the tunnel, a gain of 7%! He also was impressed by Edge composites wheels- thought they handled beautifully, largely due to the materials. 

I asked about front disc wheels, and he thought they were far and away better than trispokes and the like, if you could use them. He thought even outside on a still day was worth considering. The other thing was that an aero helmet was of even more benefit.

Oh, I could go on...

The people that you meet...

Vic Masters Track Championships 2009

My preparation for these championships differed somewhat from the last big meet that I had gone to, being the Worlds in Sydney, October 2008. At that point, I had a winter of interval ergos, combined with 2-3 track interval sessions, that had me jumping out of my skin over the period that the championships were on. When people talk about peaking, this was what they meant. PBs ensued, but still a ways off being truly competitive. This time round, a combination of the time of year, work going bananas and the usual family commitments meant that my total hours to train was curtailed, and my motivation to do those ergos that just hurt was not there. After a January with a fair base in the legs, largely due to a holiday in Bright, I decided that the way forward was to prioritise racing above all else, and just do road kms as I felt like. Hence, I made it to most Thursday track races at DISC, and did the Austral, and tried to do a crit each weekend. The general approach to all of this racing was to either win or cause maximal pain to other riders by leaving it all out there. As an approach, I have to say that his has been pretty enjoyable, largely because unlike last year, I have been racing in a recovered state. And racing is fun when you are doing more than just sitting in the pack.

Anyway, we come to Saturday morning just past, after putting work to bed for the weekend. My traditional approach to these meets has been to do the Kilo to work out the nerves, and this wasn't going to change. There was a fairly large field in masters 2, about 15 starters. I was one of the later starters, so I got to see most of the others. Despite the heat and what felt like a fast track, most of the times were in the mid teens, with the exception of Matt Chessum who rode 1.09 and looked the one to beat. A couple of others rode 1.11s. I felt good moving up to the start gate, and got the bike in without a hitch. Went around to the upper side and then mounted the bike, with the clock counting down from 30. Sounded 10 secs. 5. 4. 3. 2 and up. 1 and behind the saddle. Pop (not really a gun...) and throw the body forward. I always feel like I am going to storm out of the gate, but the combination of 100 gear inches and my paucity of fast twitch fibres means that I am also always dissapointed. Nonetheless I do get a bit of momentum going by half way through the turn and start really stomping on the pedals in the back straight. I sit as I go into the corner and try to spin up as fast as I can, and get into the pursuit bars smoothly (I still go one arm at a time- both together would be better) as I come back past the start. The second and third laps are all about pushing the cadence for me, and trying to stick low down near the black line on the track. The last lap is the killer in this event as the last vestiges of your fast twitch fibres have deserted you and your rising lactate levels are well and truly biting hard. Keeping up the cadence that was easy a lap ago becomes incredibly hard. Fortunately for me, my start is such that my fade is not so bad as some, and I push through in 0.6 of a second slower than the 3rd lap. The unfortunate corollary of this, given that your start speed is the strongest correlate of final performance, is that I am never going to win one of these against real sprinters. Nevertheless, I look up at the board and I have done 1.12. Super happy with a PB of one second. Only later do I find out that I have come fourth. It feels good to go this well in an event that I consider one of my weakest.

Sunday dawns after not enough sleep. Just how many different ways can you race a pursuit- there seemed to be too many while I was trying to get off to sleep. After a cafe stop and play in he park with my son, I headed into the velodrome. Sat on the road bike on the trainer, pushed out a warmup, and felt happy that the weather was still warm. Warming up takes me a long time, but less when the temperature rises. It feels better if you are dripping in sweat. Soon enough we have passed through the women's and older men's categories, and watched some great performances, by people that I have come to know over the last couple of years. Men's masters 3 and 4 are particularly strong. And Hawthorn's Meg Marsh sweeps all before her. The last few minutes go fast and before I know it, I am rushing up to wait by the start gate again. Let the previous race finish, take the bike up with the cranks in the right position, and walk around behind the bike (why behind? don't know, but it is always behind for me.) The start pops again and I am off. Pushing 102, so am even more sluggish than yesterday, but solid. Build speed through the first lap but hold back just that little bit. The second and third laps feel easy, but I know when I am seeing 17.6s that I where I want to be. Just got to hold it. I do a 17.8 as I coming up to pass my opponent at halfway, and I can't work it so I pass him in the straight, taking him in the second half of one of the turns. Not ideal and it plays with my rhythm a bit. Next lap is an 18.2 and I am on the slippery slope down, where you just keep scrabbling to hold on. As you get better you work out a few tricks- move about a bit, count pedals, focus one lap at a time. Mostly it is forcing your body to do what it doesn't want to do, and promising it that it will all be over soon. Holding it together til the end is at least as much mind as body, and today I manage to contain the bleed of time to 18.5 as my slowest lap. Pretty shattered at the end, but I deliberately did not totally leave it all out on the track, with the hope of making the final. 3.41. A PB by one second and into the final for the 3-4 race off. My opponent is my nemesis, who I have raced many times and have never beaten- Harry Fricke. He is so regular, with laps sticking within 0.2 of a second of each other, rides a huge gear and pushes out a 3.37. Still, I feel I have a sub 3.40 ride in me today, so I feel optimistic. Bring it on.

Without too much wait, I find myself back at the start gate, with Harry across the other side of the track. The count heads toward zero, and I feel good. The start is good, but as usual, not as fast as I feel. Through the second lap I try to hold a bit more speed than in qualifying, and stay down on the black line. My coach Simon holds up the numbers for the 3rd lap- 17.2. He is indicating I should cool it down, but  am feeling good, so I let the speed go.  By the start of the second kilo, I have gone out to 17.6, and it feels like I am holding it, legs good, not working too hard. Afterwards, people tell I have a couple of seconds on Harry. Somewhere around here, coming down the front straight, my front disc pulls me left without an warning. It is over in a fraction of a second. Wind from the entry doors. Straight away I am nervous, but tell myself to concentrate. Lose a few tenths of a second on that lap. It happens again, and I have to correct my line into the corner. I am thinking about holding my line through the back straight too, where I am worried will be another gust. I am bleeding time, with 18.8 flashing up. I can't hold my speed, I am thinking too much about what might be coming up in the front straight. There is no gust for a couple of laps- the fear of it makes my line through the curve too conservative, and in correcting, on the other side of the track (it takes a long time to change direction with a disc front wheel) I run down onto the blue. No big one in training, but today there are foam blocks to stop you taking a shorter line. I have always wondered what it would be like to hit them. Now I know. No worse than any number of bumps you might meet on a mountain bike, but definitely more embarrassing. The wind gusts at me one more time for good measure, and I roll in the last couple of laps at a mid 19sec pace. 3.45. Not good. I want to tell everyone what went wrong, so I start and as I do, I hear how it sounds. I tone it down. Harry did 3.39 and remains my nemesis. I am disappointed that I didn't get to ride a good race, but it is the first final I have made at this level, so I am happy.

The scratch race was later in the afternoon, but it will have to wait for another day!

Sunday sun... or not

Got out for a ride at Port Melbourne. It was raining a bit on the way down, but not enough to dampen my enthusiasm for a race. A strong coffee from the cart got me primed, and soon enough, Graeme, Peter and I were testing the waters in amongst the other riders. Graeme went off the front for a while, but got pegged back. A solid headwind in the back straight didn't help. Peter and I had fairly easy races, and when the call to pull out came from Graeme when it started raining with about 5 to go, and the field spreading itself across the road, it didn't take too much convincing. Vindication came in the form of a crash with two to go. Cracked carbon is never good. A relaxed spin back up through north calrton made for a good day's riding.

Fun Racing

Club teams pursuit was today, and it dawned sunny but soon came over stormy. The rain pelted down for a while, after a couple of glorious sunny hours whilst I was inside seeing  my patients at work. We headed up to DISC, only to find that the roof had leaked and the afternoon's action my or may not go ahead. A while later after spending a some lazy time in a cafe in Fairfield eating a light lunch, the call came. We were on, with a delay of about an hour. I got a warm up of sorts riding from home in the rain, and gathered all my stuff together at the velodrome. It turned out that one of the guys from my team (one of two from Hawthorn) hadn't turned up, so another guy who had come along for a quiet day's spectating was ducking home to dust the cobwebs off his track bike, all in the cause of the greater good.  The other blokes on the team had significant road TT credentials, but little experience pursuiting, so I was off first, from the starting gate, while they all had holders. Our other team had a messy but fairly strong ride, and had the strongest time of the day. Our time came, and our third rider broke, so it was back into the gate after a roll around the track. This time, I was focused, and got away to a strong start. Held a strong upper body into the first turn and powered into the straight. I looked around towards the end of this, and was gobsmacked to see the rest of the team coming out of the first turn. Much backpedalling ensued, and I sped up again as the team got back together by the end of the 3rd turn. Pulled up at the 4th turn, and onto the back. The other guys were holding it reasonably through their laps, but I could see that they were going to flag by the end. I took a 2 lap turn, modulating my effort so as not to gap anyone, and swung off again. As I thought, there were a couple of half lap turns and we got through again and I finished it off on the front for a couple of laps, but pulled through a bit hard. We finished in 3.51, which was not a bad time given how disorganised we had been and the lack of team practice. Kind of bittersweet as a ride, as I would have loved the opportunity to ride 3.36 with the others, but still had a fun ride with the team I had. Not sure whether it was a good thing for the individual ride coming up next weekend. Have to ride a lot faster than that on my own.

Long time between drinks...

I had a great time at the track on thursday night, racing the Northcote CC regular races. It has been some time since I have had a win on Thursday- in fact I don't think I have won before in B grade. There were a couple of good solid wins in C grade prior to my promoting  myself  in early mid 2008, when I figured that if I was going to be doing the worlds, I had better at least be contesting B grade at club level. The problem is that as someone who sees themself as entirely devoid of sprint ( perhaps this is too much of a crutch, and allows me to excuse myself from the hurly burly at the end of many races), winning in B grade has been rather elusive, as the increased pace has made it harder to make a decent break that sticks to the end. I had a few reasonable results over the past months, with the odd 3rd and 4th, including at the Austral carnival.

Great satisfaction then, when last thursday I pulled a first in the Scratch race. The joy was helped by the general feeling of the evening, having Pete S, Graeme and Ben racing the same grade with me. Definite sense of cameraderie, with a feeling of possibility for the evening. I have recently been paying much more attention to who I start behind and thinking about the wheels I want to look out for during the race. There were lots of juniors, many of whose wheels, I did not want as while they are often fast sprinters, plenty are pretty unpredictable and tend to fade if there is a decent chase (to be fair they are running stupidly small gear limitations). Knowing P, G and B, I was happy to grab an of their wheels. Ended up on a Carnegie guy, with the others behind me. The wheels started turning and some of the guys up the front turned on the gas right at the start, which is a very un-B-grade move. A gaping hole opened between the 2 halves of the field, but at this stage, there were lots of sprinty young-uns, so it was just wait until the fields rejoined. I couple of further surges went ahead, but again with no really solid conteneders to worry about. Some were getting jittery wen Peter V went off, but I have yet to be convinced of his ability to stay. He did not disappoint. My Carnegie guy was out the back, and the field had reshuffled itdelf a couple of times, as I found myself rolling up towards the front as Pete S was holding the pace after the last of the surges. This seemed an approriate time to try on a breakaway, so I got out of the saddle and hammered it. The new bike certainly accelerates, and when I looked back, there was not a lot of action at the front of the field, no doubt aided by the fact that Peter was not going to chase me down in a hurry. I was surprised however that no-one else seemed keen to come over the top of him. I had about a quarter of a lap in no time, which was good, given that the lap counter showed 8 to go. A long way to go, but most people will expect you to come back to the field whatever you do, so probably a good time to go if you can make the distance. After a couple of laps at my maximum, I consciously pegged it back a bit to a hard but managable pace, constantly monitoring where the field was. Graeme took off out the front, and I wondered whether he was going to drag a couple up to me, but he eased off again, and I kept my margin going. The chase finally got going in the final 3 or 4 laps, but by this time, I was feeling like I could hold it, with a bit of recovery happening for the last couple of lap effort. As they were starting to pull me back to within a quarter of a lap, the time came and I had enough left to accelerate and finish with a pretty solid margin over the rest. It felt like a really good win, and it comes in good time. It really was seeming that getting a win was just impossible. I rode well, but credit where credit is due, Pete blocking gave me the opportunity to really gap the field at the start of the break. Definitely felt like a bit of a team effort.

The rest of the night ran along more standard lines. I fluffed winning the first sprint in the points race, after breaking from the field and slowing just a touch too much. More my usual style! Still, Graeme got the points, and ultimately took the race. I pulled some more minor points to come in 4th. Good fun though, pulling a bit of weight for the others. The motor-pace was somewhat more disappointing, with the group of us ending up at the back when the motorbike came off- one of the peculiarities of the race is that riders have to peel off one by one, each lap until the bike comes off with 2 1/2 laps to go. If you haven't counted right or if someone has squeezed into a gap, and you come to peel off with 7 or 8 laps to go, your race is pretty much over, as you are not allowed to move forward again until the motorbike comes off. We all made a bit of a tilt at getting toward the front, but it was just too far, with the front runners accelerating and others giving up as they ran out of pace, preventing our easy passage. Rolled in with the bunch.

A good night's racing.

To hot to breathe, to hot to ride...

Had a trio of ridiculously hot days this week. 43, 43 and 44 degrees. Ouch, it was hot. Put up a tarpaulin over the back courtyard to reduce the heat from the sun coming in throught the windows. Kept the aircon going whenever the power was on (OK, we only had a couple of hours of power outage due to the heat) and used a fan to go to bed. Despite this the terrace house we live in heated up and remains hot- hotter than outside now. Thankfully the week ahead is looking pretty pleasant. The lack of rain- driest January since 193osomething- has meant that some of our garden is looking the worse for wear. I think the gardenias are on the way out and some of the box is heading there too.

My riding km were under 100km for the whole week. Despite it all I feel pretty OK, having got my swiss-ball work going again. Feeling reasonably strong when I do get out, and really enjoyed the riding I did do this week. Maybe that is the rest...

Last week was spent in Bright doing my last minute training camp for the Alpine Classic, which was on Sunday in great conditions. I started the week with only one hill of more than 1km under my belt for the past 6 months, and suffered up Tawonga early in the week. Thankfully, muscle memory is a wonderful thing and I improved rapidly. Climbing Buffalo with Rod and co was better and I was feeling strong for the rides to Harrietville. I even spent about 5km at 10% above anaerobic threshold. Not too bad for someone in base training, I reckon. The Alpine itself was my usual affair of doing one of the shorter events, though I tried to minimise my time at the stops and do a good time. 140km in 5.12, with 5.01 ride time was good and I think got me 4th in the section. Climbed Buffalo in 1.06.30, which I think is a PB for me. The other climbs were pretty good, but not personal bests. Climbing Tawonga from Mt Beuaty without doing Falls Creek was rather pleasant though. All in all a great week's cycling, getting in about 480km.

Hopefully I can get a few more km in this week, and start to build things up again. Aiming for the Vic Masters in late March and then the Nationals in the first week of April. Launceston sounds like a good place to be for a ride and bit of a holiday.