Day one of the Raid de Pyrenee!

Today was day one of the Raid ride and began with a gentle ride down to the start point in Hendaye, Spain. We got our 'passports' stamped at the tourist office (a condition of being officially registered for the Raid ride) and we were off on our 160 km first day.

There are some great buildings in Hendaye, here is one! 

The ten of us doing the Raid ride. I continued with my pursuit of the goal of swimming in the Indian and Atlantic oceans, and the Mediterranean sea in my three week journey!

Out guide says today was an easy day - if so, I am a little concerned about tomorrow and the next three days! It was a solid 160 km with 2500 m of climbing, mostly in short power climbs but with a couple of slightly longer cols included. For me, it was punctuated by another unneccessary fall, landing again on the hip I hurt in the fall in Australia - pretty uncomfortable but no real damage done, I don't think. Some amazing scenery, impressive architecture, great roads and several terrific descents!

Village square in one of the many small Spanish and French towns we rode through.

A restored, original 2CV Citroen!

We are currently in a hotel (Au Bon Coin) above the village of St Christo, and reflecting on today while being slightly (!!) concerned about tomorrow. Tomorrow's day is short on kms (only 130) but big on climbing (near 4000 m) with the Col de Marie Blanc, followed by the Col d'Aubisque and then the Tourmalet. There are some other, smaller cols too but not worth listing in comparison to these three!

It will be an interesting day, with the goal of leaving early and just maintaining a steady tempo through the day. It will be about 7 hours in the saddle with a stop for lunch making it an 8 or so hour day.

Day one in the Pyrenees - Saint Savin, now that's my sort of town!

I arrived in Lourdes at 10 pm last night after 34 hours of travelling, sitting in airports . . .... oh, and eating in a restaurant in Paris, which wasn't too hard! I am staying in a cycling lodge in a very small medieval village at the foot of the Tourmalet, called Saint Savin. The lodge is run by Paddy Sweeney and his wife Olive (Google "velopeleton" or "Lanterne Rouge", which is the name of the lodge), and it is terrific! Great food and hospitality and an amazing location! Anyone interested in coming to this area for a cycling holiday (the cols of the Tourmalet, Hautecam, Luz Ardiden, Aubisque, d'Aspin, Peyosorde and many other iconic climbs are all close by) or wanting to do the Raid Pyrenee sportif ride that I am doing, this is the plum location to stay at very good prices - thoroughly recommend it after 24 hours!

A panorama of the view from my bedroom window!

The town square in Saint Savin

Anyway, onto events. I will include some photos and video over the next 10 days, at least when I have decent broadband! Today I rode down to bike shop in the next village as my bike arrived with a broken seat - more expense - and then rode back up to the village to adjust everything, fill bottles and prepare for a hill!

As the photos show, I rode along the valley to Luz, where I had lunch and then rode up Luz Ardiden, a 12 km 8% climb full of the classic switchbacks, that has featured many times in the Tour de France. The sun was out, the temperature was warm but not hot and it was an amazing ride - cue photos!

Link to ride data (for riding nerds!): http://app.strava.com/rides/20177293

How about those switch backs!

At the top, the Danish bloke next to me
looks surprised I made it!

The trip up Luz Ardiden was one of the top half dozen rides ever! Sun, scenery to match the best ever, and the added bonus of cruising past the Danes in the last 2 or 3 kms!

Tomorrow, I am riding down to Lourdes to seek a miracle in the form of some legal outside assistance, before riding back up the valley and riding the Hautecam, which has the reputation of being a very solid ride indeed - I will report back! Also tomorrow I will post some video of the valley road and the descent of the top part of Luz Ardiden, which doesn't really do either justice! However, currently running out of battery!

Race day - the analysis, the strategies and the goals.

So,  after 9 months of training, all those numbers, bike theft, bike breakage and all the rest here it is!

I am lying in bed in PMB with a cup of tea on the morning of the Masters' World Championships Road Race and pondering the journey completed to get to here, and of course the journey to come at 1 pm today as well. I have decided that I will post this before I leave for the race start, so there is no temptation for a revisionist approach to history in the light of the result!

The race will be very hard - that is one of the few things I can be certain of today. Phil Anderson was once quoted as saying that anybody can be a professional cyclist, you just have to be willing to suffer. While I'm not sure about that, I suspect that regardless of the result today, I might well find a new level of suffering! As we are racing with the age group below (45-49 years old), the pace will be very high at some stages at least, if not for it all.

The race course is flat for the first 7 km as we ride out of town until we reach the base of the first climb (about a 7 km, at 4-5% climb with a false flat in the middle). There has been some talk that the commissaires may make this section neutral (not raced) for safety reasons. While I hope so, as the roads out are very bad in this section and the bunch will be 90 riders, starting the race proper at the bottom of the climb will be uncomfortable as there is always someone who wants to race flat out from the gun, and I would rather that was on the flat - but it will be what it will be! After the first climb, there is a long (nearly 10 km) descent followed by a steady up hill drag punctuated by genuine, but shorter hills, to the half way point. There are a couple of descents but if I am off the back, they don't present opportunities to get back on as they are not technical or difficult enough that taking risks to go fast will make much difference to speed.

On the return trip (it is basically an out and back course), it is the reverse of the above; mostly slightly downhill with some short descents (so really fast) and then a nearly 10 km climb, where I think the final selection will take place, before we descend down into town and the finish, which will be a VERY fast descent indeed.

My two general strategies over the race will be to conserve, conserve, conserve energy at all times and to try to stick on the wheel of an Australian bloke called Michael Bonner. He came 12th, and very close behind, last year and is the only guy from the top 25 who is here this year. Both these require a lot of concentration, which is hard to do when breathing out your ears!

So, what are the goals? Well, it is complicated by being with the younger age group, but essentially as follows:

Firstly, to get to the false flat of the first climb 10 km in) with the front of the group (it should not have split too much at this stage, I don't think). If already dropped by the younger guys, get there with the front group of my age group (we wear different colour numbers).
Second, to get to the top of the first climb (14 km) as above
Third, so survive the descent without crashing - this is not an automatic assumption given the road quality, the speed humps and the rumble strips, which are placed at the bottom of the long descent and will cause people to drop drink bottles as we will hit them at 70-80 km/h.
Next, to get to the high point of the course with the group. By this point, there will have been splits in the group as the better guys will have attacked each other, so it is hard to say what "the group" will be. If it has not gone well, it might well be a case of suffering through the next 50 km in a small group off the back - not much fun in that!
For me, from here will be all about conserving to the bottom of the long climb. I have a small Coke to drink 10 mins prior to it as I think I will need to magnesium, to say nothing of the sugars and caffeine! I will need to go pretty deep on that climb, as that is where the fractures that haven't happened already will occur but wil hope to stay on the group I am with to the top.
The race down into town will be fun - super fast at 80+ km/h or so, with some technical stuff which might give opportunities to get back on if I have been dropped on the climb.
Once in town, jostling for position without working too hard in preparation for the finish. There are numerous tight turns and opportunities to make good position it the last 2 or 3 km and I am looking forward to that!

So, there it is, 2 hours 40 mins or so, all analysed and mapped out and with the potential to be turned absolutely upside down in 2 mins flat if something happens that I don't expect! I am certainly looking forward to it but not exactly relaxed, it would be true to say!

Carpe diem

Worlds Individual Time Trial day - or wake up Brad day!

So today was the individual time trial. Although not the event I had set myself for, it's always hard not to hold a bit of optimistic hope for a reasonable result, even when your head says it's not going to happen.

Well, the head was right! While my division ran deeper then the two older and younger ones either side of it, the standard generally was super high and my result reflected that. I was 14th in my age group (out of only 15) and about 2 mins off a top 10. So, on the face of it, absolutely smashed!

Some mitigating factors are that I was the only rider in my division not on a specialist TT bike with deep dish or disc wheels, which on the flat into the strong head wind (conditions for the first 9 km of the 25 km loop), was making a huge difference. On the  uphills and particularly on the descents, I was comparable with guys in the top 5 but on the first 9 km section they were doing 4 or 5 km/h faster than I was. I passed 3 guys who started in front of me, all from the division above (older), two of whom were on TT bikes but was passed by 4 guys in my division who started behind me - a bit demoralising!

Looking at my rides since my crash 10 days ago, it is apparent that I am working harder to put out the same power than I was before it. My HR average for the last 10 days is higher for a lower average speed - not the equation you want to see! Part of it is still likely to be jet lag, part of it the effects of the crash, part of it the kilo I put on last week when I really didn't train much at all and part of it probably the 1000m of altitude at the start line today. However, I'm still hopeful of getting my form back to where it was 10 days ago for the road race on Saturday and I will be working towards that in the intervening 48 hours. I will go out this afternoon and roll over the legs for 10 km or so and then do the same for 20 km or so tomorrow morning.

Over the course of my preparing for this trip, people had reminded me that it was the World Championships - even if the location would tend to exclude some people - and this was certainly evident today. A real wake up call! In the end, I will look back on this with a perspective about the journey and the experience being the thing that matters but it's always a bit harder to see that at the time - right now I just want to be 10% healthier, 3 kgs lighter and on form. If I'm lucky, I might need to settle for the last one!

There are other people here too!

Greetings from the home of the enormous speed hump and savage rumble strip.

Well, there are some other people here – how about that? So much for the plan of winning because nobody else shows – I will need to go to Plan B!

Rode with some of the (large) Australian contingent over the whole course yesterday as in the pictures. Lots from WA, a few from the east Coast and one from Singapore (part time Asian Continental team rider, and a rider of substance). Am getting the idea that there are some good guys here (surprise, surprise, as Gomer Pyle would have said!). 

Australians with a random South African or two

Some more Australians

And even more!

The course has two climbs varying between 3 and 7 % both with false flats, one of 7.5 km and one of 9 km, and another one of 4-6% about 4.5 km long - a steady drag. There would not be two consecutive flat kms once out of town, so undulation is the name of the game. I won’t go on about the roads but my God, the roads!!!

Also attached for your viewing pleasure is my foot today after the stack 10 days ago – it doesn’t hurt but it sure is a technicolour extravaganza of bruising and swelling!

 The best news of all is that beer is ridiculously cheap - Peroni stubbies for about A$1.50! Worst news is that I am rationing myself to one a day (not at all in true Australian tradition!).

TT tomorrow, very hilly for a TT course. Guys here with amazing kit for the TT - Cannondale Slice, Specialized Shivs, you name it! We were passed by a guy going full gas yesterday on a flat, downwind section. We were doing a relaxed 35 or so with the breeze, he must have been doing 60+! Full sponsor vehicle behind him, US National Champion jersey with rainbow sleeves. After a brief consultation amongst the boys, the consensus was that he was the real deal. I would have got a photo but I missed the millisecond opportunity as he went passed.

Hot and humid here but great bike tanning weather! I am certainly looking forward to returning to the cooler weather of Ballarat – yeah right! 

Was it John Fogarty who wrote "Baby I'm A Travelling Man"? Well, I know what he means. Longer layovers between flights slow the pace of things (good, for me anyway) but they mean it takes a long time for the journey to finish (less good). Sitting in Johannesburg airport waiting for my final flight to Durban (an hour and a bit) and then a bus to Pietermaritzburg (2 hours or so). That will make it about 33 hours of moving or waiting - long enough I think!

Flights have been good; to Singapore, my first flight on an A380 and on the upper deck is great, lots of room, quiet and it's all new, so it all works! Conversely, after Singapore, on the old 777, tight for room, smelly, and worn . . ...... but the best airline meal I have ever had for breakfast this morning! When I had finished it, I though I should have taken a photo of it, but instead I wolfed it down! Seafood noodles with two prawn dim sum, plump fresh prawns, bok choy, fish pieces, sliced fresh red chillies and a side of pickled jalapeños - just fantastic! It was preceded by fresh fruit salad and followed by a fresh roll and coffee. a real change from the usual dross on a plane.

Anyway, away from the gastronomic and onto the astronomic. On arrival he I saw my bike for the first time since Melbourne and it's OK! I ought not be surprised but I was, given the way things have gone lately. On that note, the road rash is healing well in most places but a couple are still weeping out of the dressings in the most disgusting way! I are ally hoping to get a short ride this afternoon in Pietermaritzburg (just PM from now on, OK?), as I am nearly stir crazy with inactivity. No ride since last Tuesday may yet turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Let's say that motivation is pretty high! I just need to use the engine management system this week to not cook myself with my enthusiasm or getting caught up in the occasion, particularly in the Time Trial on Thursday.

So the plan for the week is as follows:
Today - assemble bike and 1 hr easy if time before dark
Monday - sleep in, stretch, assemble lunch and recce the whole 100 km course in two, slow, parts
Tuesday - ride twice, one 20 km slow recovery and second session being 6 flat out kilo intervals
Wednesday - single recovery roll of 20-25 km
Thursday - steady pre-race warm up session early then slow ride out to the time trial course and compete the ITT (28 km of basically flat terrain)
Friday - easy 20 km recovery
Saturday - pre-race, warm up in the morning and race at 1 pm (9 pm AEST)

More details on the race, and hopefully a bit of colour and movement, rather than just words, in the next installment.

Musings from the day before departure!

Well today is the day before I leave and perhaps a good time for some reflection. Some numbers first:

• Training program duration - just over 8 1/2 months
• Number of sessions completed - 273
• Number sessions missed - 13
• Kilometres ridden - just shy of 11,000
• Meters climbed on the road - 65,000 (and about half again on the trainer!)
• Ave speed- 28.4 km/h
• Ave HR - 117 bpm

It has certainly been a learning journey and has gone almost without a hitch - at least until last weekend!

So, I was racing in the Rob Vernon Memorial Open in Bendigo (108 km Handicap race). I had been handicapped 2 groups back from my Melbourne - Ballarat mark, and was expecting to really struggle. However, it was very rewarding; I raced strongly all day with no problems staying on through the many climbs in the first half of the race. Interestingly, they were similar gradient and frequency to the climbs in South Africa, although shorter. from the high point of the race it was very fast for the last 60 km, with an overall average of 41.1 km/h - a speed I would never have had a hope of riding 9 months ago!

Anyway, we had just past the 1 km to go sign in a group with about 16 or 18 remaining in it, with no hope of getting to the limit group, and with the finish nowhere in sight, when a bozo rode past me on the inside and then cut across to grab a wheel and took my front wheel out from under me! I went down hard, as did three riders behind me. Acres of skin loss, plenty of blood and lots of bike damage. More than hurt, I was both angry at the idiot, but also offended that after all those kms, I had gone down with 800m remaining of 108 km in the last race 6 days before I left! I drove home feeling sore and angry and pretty sorry for myself.

The next day, other than the weeping road rash, I actually felt OK until I took my bike to get serviced/put right. Cracked frame, broken shift lever, broken pedal, knackered rear wheel, broken seat - the list just got bigger and bigger! In the end, it is an insurance claim and I am taking my training bike overseas - super disappointing! I have had the bike for three months and ridden it 9 or 10 times!

Since then, to some degree, it has just got worse and worse. I rode gently Monday night on the trainer to see if I could do Tuesday's session. As that was OK, I went out on Tuesday am and did sprint intervals. Still tired from Sunday so not super fast but went OK. Then my leg and hip swelled up, the grazes got sorer, I haven't really slept much and I haven't ridden since!

So what went so well for so, so long has been really impacted upon by one careless act. I now that 9 months of work will not be harmed by two extra days off but I must confess to some concerns about my ability to ride well in 8 days time given how I feel and the slow repair rate of some of the injuries - it will be interesting!

Anyway, I will post again pretty much daily from now and also include some photos as we go!

So, a month to go!

After nearly 8 months of training, it is now under 4 weeks until the Worlds! I haven't blogged since late April both because I am too slack and because I have struggled to manage work, family, riding and sleeping. It seems to me that one has invariably be short-changed at all times, particularly sleep!
My replacement bike has fitted me better and better with every tweak, every ride and every race and it now feels even better than my long lost Cinelli!
I have raced two big Opens since that last entry and a number of smaller races. Almost all have been handicaps, which are great for training as you go pretty much full gas the whole way. The trajectory of my performances has been a steady upward one, which has been pleasing. I have been able to ride higher and higher average speeds, gradually beating riders who were beating me in February and March. While all that is good, and shows my capacity is significantly increased, the race craft of scratch racing is still where I am going to struggle the most.
At the moment I am aware that I am very tired in a deep way, and really looking forward to travelling in three weeks, as I will have four consecutive days off! The recovery rides are only enough to bounce me back a small amount before the lactic tolerance sessions smash me entirely again. It shows in my lack of top end when I race, and I really need the races to be long, as then everyone else gets down to my level of fatigue and I get no worse - a bizarre set of circumstances! Nonetheless, even this is a good sign!
So, only two weekends of racing before I leave. Both are Opens; the Victorian Masters Championships next weekend is only 60 km but is a hilly course and a scratch event, so good tactical practice, provided the course is not too hilly for me to stay on - beware the anorexic climbers!! The last race before the worlds is in Bendigo, the Rob Vernon Memorial race, about which no one knows anything except that it is 110 km and a handicap, which will be a good one to finish on. However, given it is Bendigo, there will be no hills!
When I leave, the plan is to blog every day, so look out!

Ciao for just a while!

A really good week of training and a positive outlook in terrible weather!

On the back of a solid race last weekend, I've had a cracking week of training this week, despite some awful weather! Nearly 400 km of volume and some real intensity over the week. Two very solid TT intervals sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, two slow recovery rides Monday and Friday, one hard, Wednesday ride with Josh and the young riders and a 130 km ride on Saturday, with 65 km rolling at 29.5 km/h average then a race for the second half in the Ballarat Recreational Team Time Trial - 65 km averaging 35 km/h! Finished the week with the Sunday Mass ride with Josh and three others. 85 km all up, very solid but bent my chain when it dropped off the outside of the big ring, so a really very frustrating ride after that with the skip, skip, skip of the chain punctuating about every third pedal stroke - aaarrggghhh!

Next weekend is a race weekend for me at the Cashin Memorial race in Ballarat, which is another handicap, and I am hoping this is another good race under the belt before the Ballarat Masters. The Masters is a scratch race and competed for in age divisions, so I won't have to race all these 25 to 25 year old hot-shots for a change! Projecting forward, it feels as though I will be in good shape for next weekend, so it will be interesting to see if that is fulfilled in the race.

Light in the tunnel (or perhaps a ghostly apparition)

Well, hard to believe I have not posted for two months! It has been an interesting time, with plenty of ups, downs and in betweens. Since the last post, the strength training phase continued until the end of March, by which time I was a little sick of it. I was also absolutely flattened by the training; I raced poorly again late in March (with no vaccinations the day before to blame it on this time!) and I felt I was unable to bounce back from hard sessions after completing light ones to supposedly recover.

Speaking to the coach about this at the end of March, it became apparent that I was working too hard during the easy sessions, so not recovering as I ought to have been, and then not having the gas to work hard enough in the hard sessions - not enough amplitude between the highs and lows of the training load. In retrospect, I was also sleeping very poorly and for too short a time, so the conclusion is that I was probably over trained, or at least getting that way. Fortunately, the end of March coincided with a trip away for work to Africa for 9 days, so no riding at all for that period. I swam a couple of times but as we were at 6000 ft in Nairobi and surrounds, this was very difficult. Many rests and short sessions due to HR going through the roof  (I am a terrible lap swimmer!).

Hearteningly, just before I left, my training bike was assembled and I returned the Trek to its owner with thanks, I am much more comfortable on this bike (an aluminium-framed Cinelli Experience) as it is the correct size. My race bike is still a week or two away (see picture at top of page) but promises to be really something! I was surprised how much this improved my state of mind, even though I was still physically flat.

So for the new training phase, which began on my return, we have made a number of changes to the program. No more gym, unless I can fit in some second sessions Mondays and Fridays. Instead, I ride around the lake on my fixie at 25 km/h for 20 km! This has had the effect of freshening me unbelievably twice each week - a great initiative, from my perspective! Also, the specific strength training has gone and in its place are MVO2 interval sessions (approx. 6 mins duration and one session per fortnight) and TT intervals (10 to 14 mins duration and 3 sessions per fortnight). Additionally, weekday kms have gone down but weekend kms and intensity have gone up. On race weeks (now fortnightly), ride to race, race and ride home then 120 km on Sunday, make for 200+ km over the weekend. On non race weeks, hard Saturday rides of 75 to 95 km then finishing with 8-12 km of climbing at race pace, then 120 km really hard on the Sunday. So far, I am tolerating this (2 weeks in) with much more resilience than before the break, even though it is much harder in some ways.

So, what is the effect on me? Well yesterday I raced after 9 days off and then 12 days of the new program. It was a flat course, a handicap event and the group (9 riders to start) standard was about the same as the previous two races this season. The difference in my riding was enormous! Riders who had dropped me with ease in my last two outings were dropped in the last third of the event, while I was concerned we weren't travelling quickly enough. I felt strong all day and although my group did not get to the limit group, I felt I was one of the two drivers of the group. Sadly, I flatted with 14 km to go but managed to get the tube changed and inflated in time to pick up the group behind. In the finish I felt good with this (stronger) group and finished third in the sprint, despite going to the line far too early. As I rode home, I mused on the last 8 weeks and certainly feel mentally stronger and more confident for having gone through a difficult patch. I doubt it will be the last!

So all up, some light at the end of the tunnel. There are some scary sessions on the way in the next few weeks but I am approaching everything with real confidence after the break and a good race.

No bike (and other disappointments)!

Well I had planned for my next post - it's been a while - to be all about my bike. I own a Cinelli Best Of Pro, or rather did own, as it was stolen last Sunday in Melbourne. The bike is pictured at the top of the blog page (although it wasn't stolen with the very shmick wheels!) and it would be great if any readers in Melbourne could keep their eye out for it. It is pretty much unique, so if you see it, any information can be emailed to brad.fry@bgs.vic.edu.au . Thanks.

Some other real downers happened this week; On the day before my bike was stolen, my wife's horse was found dead and I carved up my hand removing a pedal from a borrowed bike (many thanks to Terry for the loan of his Trek) and needed 7 stitches. If bad things really happen in threes, we should be OK for a while now.

However, I went out today to race for the first time with Ballarat-Sebastapol CC and that wasn't good either! I didn't feel good on the bike and was dropped after 20 km, having really been struggling for the last 10 just to stay on. I found Josh's pre-race warm up on the trainer very hard, had not felt good on the ride out and felt even worse when the race started  - no good signs there! Still, it was some good training and I will try again when I have a bike that fits (the Trek is a lot too big) and see if I can do a little better.

Not much else to say but I'm sur ethe next post will be more positive!

A second little test!

Today is about the last really significant ride of the summer holiday training block, as we go back to Ballarat and work this week. It was a ride with the Hendry's Cycles group, an occasional training group for Cadel Evans when he is at home, and one that varies quite a bit in standard. The standard Hendry's ride is out from Ocean Grove to Torquay riding at a steady tempo (30 - 31 km/h average) and then the group splits into fast and slow in Torquay with the ride home essentially a race but with some co-operation in rolling turns. 12 months ago I wasn't always able to stay on for the trip home but in recent rides with the group I have found it a little less taxing. I have not ridden with the group this summer, so it was going to be a good test. Also, the level of the group can vary a little and and I had hoped it would be a strong group today so I could really get  feel for where I am in terms of condition.

Having yesterday ridden the 5 X 5' SE intervals on max resistance on the trainer and riding 53/14 before a 55 km group ride, I didn't feel exactly tapered for today! In any event, when I got there, the group was a strong one today and the outgoing pace was quite fast. Like the last test two weeks ago, I could feel the week's training in the burn in my legs when the road tilted up or the pace changed.

From the turnaround in Torquay, the pace was continuously very high, with about 10 or 11 rolling turns in the cross-wind at 38 to 44 km/h. During the course of the ride I was trying to do what my coach urges, which is to be the 'ticket collector', assessing the condition of everybody else, while also trying to bank a bit of energy each time I rolled to the front. On the rises of 13th Beach Rd, as some were finding it hard to roll over to do their turn, for the first time ever I found myself impatient for the pace to rise. My heart rate was down a little on similar rides from the past, and I felt much stronger than I have in this group previously.

Two or three of the riders were struggling in the final few kms and the group started to stretch and fracture a little. With about 1.5 km to the finish point, I sat at the back and called two riders through in front of me in order to change my position in the bunch and get behind the biggest rider. This also dropped my heart rate further prior to the 1 km final uphill drag before the sprint. At the top I was able to take advantage of a gap that opened up with relative ease and ride away from the group. Certainly it was a very small triumph but it did provide some positive reinforcement of the training program and some confidence that there is improvement occurring.

Some interesting measures from the ride are that both average cadence and average HR are down. The lower HR confirms how I felt when it was busy towards the end of the competitive part of the ride, so is not a surprise. The lower cadence is interesting though. Josh has expressed a view that I need to cadence lower generally and that lots of riders cannot ride like Armstrong, Evans, Basso etc and cadence very high. I have been endeavouring to stay between roughly 85 and 95 rpm. Previously on long rides, my average cadence would be 87-89 rpm and recently it has been in the 83 to 86 range, with today being 84 rpm average. I'm not really sure what to make of this but I suspect that time will tell.

So I will return to work boosted by my perceptions of improvements and changes made over the first 6 weeks of the program. Back at work, volume and time will drop but I will also get to measure improvement against known riders over known courses - and racing starts soon too!!

A light week and "What training is that?"

After yet another morning of rain, and yet another session on the trainer, I am reflecting on my growing fondness for the trainer! The thing I like about it is that it provides an objective measure of your output on a given day. So progress (if there is any) can be seen when doing the same session after a period of training. I think my attitude is also framed by a lighter volume week overall.

Thinking about that, an explanation of my training program might interest some. My coach Josh's view is that strength and power are the most significant things to train at this stage of preparation (now 8 months to the event) for someone my age. Although I am a bit over that phrase about age already, I suspect I might be hearing it a bit more yet! So each week for this 8 week strength phase of the training program, I do three different types of strength training on the bike.

Firstly, the least stressful are the short neuromuscular intervals (referred to as NM intervals elsewhere in this blog). These are 30" intervals with 2'30" recovery and I do 6 of them at this stage once each week prior to a long group ride. I start at walking pace on 53/14 and accelerate as fast as I can (staying seated) clicking up through the two remaining cogs as soon as I have more than about 40 rpm of cadence. I usually finish on about 50 km/h and with a bit of lactic acid developed. I try to do these on the road on the way to a group ride.

Second are the short strength/endurance intervals (referred to as short SE intervals). These have just gone from 6 X 1' duration with 5' recovery to 4 X 2' and 5' recovery this week. The cadence for these has gradually dropped from 60-65 rpm initially to 50-55 rpm now. The number of intervals will now gradually increase over the next 4 weeks. I do these once each week and then go out to either a solid 50 km solo ride or a group ride with some speed. Where possible these are done on the trainer as you need an uphill of consistent grade and down at the beach, where I am now, there aren't many that are suitable. On the trainer 5 weeks ago I was doing 1' reps of these on 53/15 on the hardest setting on the trainer. Yesterday I did the 2' reps on 53/13 - measurable progress, I think.

The third strength sessions are long strength/endurance intervals (long SE intervals). These too have just increased from 6 X 4' duration with 5' recovery to 5 X 5' and 5' recovery this week. The cadence for these is the same as the short SE intervals. The number of long SE intervals will also gradually increase over the next 4 weeks. These are done on the trainer and I began doing the 4' reps on 53/17 and today did the 5' reps on 53/15. Again, good progress.

I am also looking forward to getting back to Ballarat and riding with my usual groups over the usual hills. This will give a gauge of progress against known other athletes. However, in the interim, I will keep chipping away at the intervals, the long endurance ride each Saturday and race the Sunday, Hendry's group ride to Josh's instructions. It's very pleasant to not be so tired for a change but looking at the program for the next two weeks, I have a feeling it will not last!

Rainy Sunday and Australian Road Championships

Well, it has rained pretty much all night in Point Lonsdale, so the scheduled session is going to be adapted. There was to be NM power intervals followed by the Hendry's group ride. Instead it is onto the trainer - oh joy! Some good things come out of this, though. Early breakfast with the family, a bit less whacked than if I had done the 80 km session and off to the pool with the kids for a recovery swim. I might also be more inclined to watch the Australina Mens Road Race without falling asleep on the couch! It ought to be a cracking race and I'm not convinced that the Greenedge boys will be able to dominate as some seem to think they will.

Completing the intervals and the remainder of the trainer session sends me the message that I need to use the recovery sessions more intelligently. I have profoundly deep fatigue, and can't get my heart rate up at all on the trainer. I have to ride one level of resistance easier than usual of the trainer to keep any reasonable cadence and motivation is pretty low, really.

Tomorrow is a day off or 15 km roll around on the single speed and the next day is an easy recovery day of 15 to 25 km of E1. In the past I have taken recovery pretty loosely and done quite a lot on some days (up to 65 km and picking up a quick group while riding the single speed on one occasion) - not very smart, I think, based on how I feel today. I think I will stay off the bike but go for a swim both tomorrow and do the very easy recovery and have a swim the day after. It will be interesting to see how I feel in three days. This week has three killer sessions and also substantial volume, so I think I will need the recovery to get the most out of the week's training. I will post the results of both the recovery strategy and also the training week outcomes later this week.

My first little test (and a day off - awesome!)

So here I am on my first day off for a while. Continuing the theme of the last post, I have just completed another 'PB' of 500 km in a week. Now I know that for the pros and others, 500 is small beer but I can say for me it's an absolute yard glass!  The day off is very welcome after the training load and also 41 degrees C yesterday (it was 35 when I finished riding at 10 am). I have also acquired a really painful saddle sore, so a day to get that under control will also be welcome! No more details are needed on THAT!

Yesterday was my first semi-competitive group ride since starting the program, so it was a good quasi-test of the effectiveness of the training. It is not a particularly strong group but in the past I rarely been able to do more than roll my turns in the last 10 km or so when it heats up and then be a part of the final sprint. When the group has lacked its stronger members I have been competitive for the win but mostly just making up the numbers when the better riders are there. From the beginning of the ride my legs were really feeling the cumulative effects of the last month's training and I was not hopeful of being able to be a player when the pace went up at the end. However, in last 10 km when it got busy I was comfortably able to be one of the three or four driving the bunch, particularly on the rises, and I won the final sprint by 10 or 15 m relatively easily. It was an interesting thing that although my legs felt pretty ordinary for the whole ride, and particularly when the pace went up, I was able to maintain power output without lactating up too much.

My coach is always on me about race craft and the need to be practising it in these sort of rides. Yesterday's group contained a guy who is a good sprinter and who always sits on for the whole return trip then tries to win the sprint - there's one in every bunch, isn't there? Anyway, with about 1500m to the line, I rolled off my turn and went back to fourth wheel, where he graciously left room for me in front of him (!!) and then I slowly let the gap open up to the rider in front, as if I couldn't maintain the speed. I heard him say"You OK?" and when the gap opened to just over a bike length, he came around me, as he clearly thought he was going to get gapped in the lead up to the sprint. He took another guy with him and then I closed the door on the others behind by pushing in to the single file. Mission accomplished as I now had the sit on him as a really good rider ramped up the pace in the lead out. With 300 m to go as the sprinter changed gears and looked to move out, I had already moved out sitting down and was accelerating slowly as he came out and I pick up his slipstream. As he accelerated and our speeds matched up I pushed hard to go past and then stood up and sprinted. It worked perfectly as I went past him going a lot quicker than he was and he had already pushed hard to increase speed. As the A Team's  'Hannibal' Smith would say - "I love it when a plan comes together"! The next test will be next Sunday, when the same sort of ride will be with the Hendry's Cycles group in Ocean Grove, the group that urban myths say Cadel used to ride with a bit when at home. The locals say it's true but I'm not sure anybody would put their hand up to say they were in the bunch that day!

After today's rest, it will be back to the capacity building. The next 6 or 8 weeks will be much the same but my volume will drop when we leave the beach an go back home to work. In the meantime though it is good endurance building without compromising the strength and power work. I am feeling more positive about the potential outcomes after yesterday, tiny test though it was.

The first four weeks - a review

So today is the 28th of December, the Christmas feasting over, and a good time for a bit of a review after 4 weeks of training. Some interesting things come out of undertaking someone else's program. For instance, Josh says "don't worry to much about the kms, it's more about how you do them than how many". Well, I've just finished the third consecutive biggest volume week since I first began cycling in the late '80s! My rolling 7 day total is consistently in the 410 to 420 km range, which is massive for a guy who is usually in the 190 to 230 km range! Add the intervals and power sessions and it's no wonder I feel knackered all the time. I'm hoping some adaptation starts to take place before the workload goes up again!

Some highlights and low lights of the first 4 weeks:

No better place to start than this morning! First up on the trainer I did 3 X 2'/4' big gear/low cadence strength/endurance intervals, followed by 4 X 1'/4' of the same. The rest is long (TQM!), although it should have been 5' but I was going to be short of time. I rode a heavier gear than ever before, with the 2' intervals on 53/15 on resistance 10 (max) on the trainer, and the 1' intervals on 53/14 and setting 10. After that it was out with the Point Lonsdale group, for the first time on the single speed. The goal was to do 65 km and completed this averaging about 32 km/h. The group split mid way through when three of us went back to pick a first timer who had been dropped. The pace picked up and we couldn't ride back to the group. The limitations of the single speed became obvious (riding 44 and 17), as I couldn't spin fast enough to do a turn as we tried to ride back. In the end I was dropped from the chase as we got the tail wind and I ran out of rpms!! All in all it was a sobering, 85 km, morning, and made me realise I need a 15 on the freewheel side of my single speed! I also still have to do my gym work today.

There is certainly a part of me wondering if this whole thing is a bit ridiculous. In the group this morning, after everyone had a laugh at me on my single speed, a guy asked what I was aiming for in South Africa. My response was to say the goal was to make the last selection and be in the group at the 100 km mark (11 km to go). He smiled and asked politely how much weight I was planning to lose - whack, I thought, right between the eyes!!

In the last post, I referred to measuring progress. There will no doubt be other measurements, but the Strava segments are showing my improvement consistently. I am riding PB's for segments, particularly climbs, when I am really worn down with training, which has to be a good thing. On Sunday there will be a good test too. I will ride Ocean Grove to Torquay and back with the Hendry's Cycles group which is very competitive on the return. It is only 12 months since I first rode with the "A" Grade group and stayed on all the way back. This week it will be interesting to see how I stand in that group. In the summer, lots of young fit holidayers ride in it, so the standard tends to go up a bit. I will blog the result on Sunday.

And then there was the training!

The first meeting with Josh went badly. I had written an overview of a program and had attempted the first 6 weeks in some detail. It was based on pretty fundamental principles of physiology and training (admittedly drawing from a rowing (5 1/2 to 7 min ) event, but I thought it was a good starting point. I confidently emailed it to Josh before the meeting and printed it off to bring and make notes on during the meeting. I turned up early, the keen mature athlete ready to engage in a dialogue with a like-minded adult with the goal of being coached according to principles I already knew and had used to coach hundreds of others - easy!

Josh's first words were encouraging - "I like what you've written; we'll basically follow it but I might make a few changes". Internally I rejoiced, I still had it! I could do this program thing, as I had done it in the past! But as the conversation went on, I became more and more confused. Josh idea of "a few changes" amounted to a complete 180 degree view of what I had planned! This was the first lesson of moving from the coach to the being coached role!

I had envisaged a huge (6 months or more) foundation phase of long slow distance training, with a gradual introduction of more intense training and racing in mid-2012. Josh turned that on its head with some of his fundamentals:

• At your age (you can imagine I loved that!), your strength is fading and this is the biggest immediate issue. This means lots of specific strength training (on the bike not in the gym).
• Kms are not a bad thing but don't focus on volume, focus on quality. This also extended to "it's not what you do that matters as much as how you do it. As much as I initially thought this was rubbish (how many ways are there to ride a bike, after all?), this became the theme describing how I thought about Josh's ideas - TQM or Total Quality Management.
• At your age (yep, loved it again!), you need lots of recovery. The hard part will be staying OFF the bike. My response to this was to feel like I needed to reach for my walking frame to head to the nearest nursing home.

We then had a period of me limping through the end of work for the year, Josh writing the first draft of the program, phone calls about what his labels meant, some readjustment for my routines, and we were away!!.

So, where are we now? Well, I am mid way through week 3 of Josh's program and there have been a LOT of changes.

1. I spend a lot of time feeling REALLY tired! The difference between being coached and coaching yourself. This might not be the same for everyone but it is certainly how it is for me.
2. I do three different types of strength intervals either three or four times each week on the bike.
3. In between interval sessions, I loaf around at 25 km per hour!
4. My strength work in the gym is no longer predominately lower body development-focussed. It is entirely different and based almost totally around core strength for power transmission.
5. There is no focus on getting kms done but I have never ridden so many!! I have just completed two consecutive "never done this many kms in a week before" weeks.
6. I now train bigger gears ALL the time, with a lower cadence.
7. I now think about how I pedal the bike very differently - more on this later, I suspect.
8. Sometimes I go to bed a bit anxious about the work I have to do in the morning. Strangely enough, this never happened when I wrote my own program!!

BUT, the biggest thing has been the absolute, measureable, effects of the training. While I have dropped a bit of the weight (goal weight loss is 7 to 10 kg and have lost the first 1 only), my power output has already increased noticeably. I can climb better and sustain efforts for much longer - amazing in such a short period!

In the next post I will give some detail on how this is measured, together with some of the training. ciao!

And so the lunacy started - Part II

OK, so we need to fast forward a bit. Just to explain, I had intended to start to blog on December 1, when my training program began, figuring that I would then have time to weave in the journey from where the last post ended to there. As with lots of things in life, it didn't work out that way as work and things took over for two weeks - c'est la vie, I suppose!

So, Readers Digest version, to save you having to wade through the events. Club racing carrying 6 to 10 kilos last winter went surprisingly well, with a win, and placing consistently in the top 5 or 6 in handicaps. I found I could ride with the scratch group when my groups were rounded up in handicaps and more than anything, I was revelling in the competitive outlet! Racing in the Eureka Open (all vets eligible to race, for those not in the know!), I found I could compete with the scratch group relatively well. I then rode the Amy Gillett Gran Fondo, a qualifier for the Masters' Worlds. With two punctures, I qualified in the necessary percentage of my age group, and the idea was born! When I said I had qualified for the Worlds, my wife said "that's great, you ought to go" - so 'nuff said!

The first step was working out if it was feasible (leave from work at a difficult time, finances, trying to tie it to something else to make the investment of time and money more meaningful etc. etc.). Then looking at what the realistic race goal was, and how to best achieve that. The end result was the following:

Race the Masters' World Championships (or more correctly now, "The UCI World Cycling Tour Final", as it has been re-badged!), then go to Spain to ride the iconic 5 day Raid de Pyreneen (link http://www.velopeloton.com/raid-pyrenees ), a mouth-watering prospect! If you follow the link, you will see why the Raid is a terrific ride, but for me the Worlds race became the fixation.

So, from December 1, I had 9 months to prepare. On the basis of my rowing coaching experience, this was a luxurious preparation; 9 months to peak once! I felt I could write a good training program but wanted someone to bounce ideas off (how little I knew!). I cast around my cycling friends to find a suitable coach/program writer willing to take me on for a price I could afford. I was very fortunate to stumble on Josh through Ballarat connections. Josh has placed in the Melbourne to Warrnambool, raced and won in Europe and is putting himself through medical school as a mature-aged student. He came highly recommended as someone who could get results without having to devote 20 or 30 hours each week to training (good for me!!) but for the first 10 days of December he was doing his medical finals, so was unavailable (bad for me!). So I started without him but with a promise from him to meet after exams.

And so the lunacy started - Part 1

It all started with a bike ride - and look what's happened now. In four short weeks I've gone from a keen recreational cyclist who raced a bit this winter for the first time in 20 years or so, to a coached, directed, weight-losing single-minded narcissist heading to the Masters World Championships with designs on a result.

So let me explain how the addiction began.When we moved to Ballarat, about 5 years ago, for some reason I decided I needed to return to road riding. For 6 or 7 months I occasionally rode around the lake and quite enjoyed it. I was then introduced to a group of mature-aged, good-natured twits called "The Ballarat Yabbie Divers". Since then I have steadily progressed to riding more often, further and further (and further and further afield). The group organises some largish scale rides and I have taken part in more and more of these.

All in all this is a pretty familiar story for 40+-aged men who have gained some kilos but not lost the urge to be with their friends. With kids golf is too long, we can't play football or cricket any more and booze buses and family responsibilities mean we don't go to the pub much any more!  Some reading this might have been here but I would urge yo to consider carefully before you go the next step!

Returning to racing was what what tipped me over the edge! There's no greater fool than an old (washed-up, ex bike racing who still believes he can do it even if he wasn't much the first time round) fool!

One Masters 'try it once for free' race at the end of 2010 reeled me back in like a trout to a fly. Able to compete on no training, I instantly had delusions of grandeur!