Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Tour de Pierre stage 19a

Rushed out early to get a good bite out of today's stage time before it got really hot...and to get back in time for the HC climb. I forgot sun screen in my rush out the door so biased the morning to the woods. It was very quite this morning with the GO lot only half full after the last train went south. I didn't even see a Pokemon player for the first 2 1/2 hours and he was riding his bike staring at his phone.

I was out early enough to see a fox carrying home a large black squirrel.

Nutrition: 1 tailwind, 1 fruit roll up - the last of the healthier Halloween options not given out last year.

Tour de Pierre stage 19b

Spirit Tree Cider ride

Mrs. didn't want to skip the last chance for Friday cider even though it was going to unbearably hot, so we took two water bottles each and left two more in the car. I planned to do 40 minutes out and then turn back, betting that the climb up to the cidery would take 3 minutes more than the decent.

At 35 minutes Mrs. was looking about to boil so I suggested she pause, guzzle a water bottle and start back at an easy pace. I picked up the pace to finish my outbound and then headed back at a good speed. When I caught her, she was riding 21 km/hr, noticeably faster than when we were riding out together. I slowed her to 18 and reminded her to keep drinking. She ran out of water with 5km to go so I took one good drink from my second bottle and poured the rest (about 1/2 a bottle) into her bottle and had her take a good swig of it, sit on a log in the shade for a few minutes to bring her heart rate down, then paced her to Boston Mills at 15 km/hr. On days like these, clearly it is good to have someone with you to see if you are suffering more than you realize.

Half of our elevation was the climb from the trail back up to Spirit Tree so I reminded her to climb at her own pace and if she fell a long way behind, I would come and pick her up. The climb has three main chunks: the first runs up to 11%, then what feels pick a false flat at 4%, back up to 7% to a short flat at a stop sign. A tiny downhill and then the man event going briefly up to 17%, but mostly 10-11. I was a little short on time so carried on to the next intersection and looped back - to see Mrs. cresting the hill to the Spirit Tree entrance.

A quick change out of sweaty bike clothes (38C according to my Garmin) and went in for chocolate milk, a litre of water and a selection of ciders. No pizza until 4pm, so we ate other stuff including one of each type of butter tart they had made.

Nutrition: 1/2 eload

C • No Pizza! 2

53.6% water, 60.7kg muscle

Day 2 soloflex

Tour de Pierre stage 18

The plan was to do some hot laps on the Bacchetta, but Mrs. got up early and dressed up in her bike kit to join the morning ride. I couldn't turn down that offer so we headed out along the river. I took her south to see the now completely dry marsh, then north for a loop that would cover the distance of the time trial in France. There were numerous construction detours to slow us down, but it was a nice ride.

Nutrition: nada

53.5% water, 61.1kg muscle

Tour de Pierre stage 17a

I forgot to put K tape over the popping veins so stuck with a long distance pace and enjoyed the scenery. While the path wasn't especially busy, there were quite a few groups that didn't feel they should share.

Nutrition: 1 tailwind, 1 oatmeal raisin cookie heading out the door

Tour de Pierre stage 17b

Went closer to my natural pace on the trike for a relatively short afternoon ride. My knees are starting to notice the effort late in the day.

Met half of the Olsen crew today: mom running while the eldest rode. We chatted a bit and I demonstrated how the trike steering worked.

Nutrition: 1/2 eload

54.6% water, 61.7kg muscle

C • Happy Rest Day! 2

Day 1 soloflex

I stopped by the bike shop to pick up a few things and the owner insisted I try out the latest electric bikes, which I did for a bit over an hour - much of the time I might have logged 30 minutes for the time I operated in human power only, but I don't want to interfere with my Tour metrics.

Some of these bikes are getting really good. By far my favourite was the Canadian Elby with a belt drive and the latest pancake BionX motor. Super smooth in all 4 assist levels and a friendly all battery mode. Very nice ergonomics and built in headlamp. Perhaps the Tesla of bikes. I tested the first of this model delivered in Canada a few days ago. Euro spec versions have a much higher speed cap at 45 km/hr than the Canadian 32 km/hr. Battery range is 90 km. You can always run in regenerative mode (4 levels) to give yourself more range.

53.7% water, 61.3kg muscle

Tour de Pierre stage 16a

Banished from anything other than incidental climbs for a few days and restricted to an easy cadence. I tried putting K tape over the veins trying to escape the left side of my torso. If that works, I'll it on my lower abdomen.

The mesh on the upper left of my seat shed the duct tape that I had put on to minimize the spread a tear in the seat - it does have a lot of miles and might be due for a replacement.

Nutrition: 1 tailwind, 1 solo gi (peanut butter, chocolate and quit good)

Tour de Pierre stage 16b

A relatively short afternoon in 31C and steamy. Also a pretty good wind - hopefully we'll get a blast of rain as the cold front pushed through. I ran a somewhat higher cadence this afternoon, which felt more satisfying.

I ran into an adventurous family of 4 from the north end of town and paused for a wee chat with Marcus while the boys put the pedal to the metal.

Nutrition: 1/2 eload in diluted lemonade

C • Marcus Olson? 3

53.5% water, 61.1kg muscle

Tour de Pierre stage 15a

Road ride similar to the first Sunday of the Tour. 10C to start but loads of sun. I seemed to be timed to the red lights today - I think 2/3 of the lights on the route were red. This did encourage a moderate pace and lots of time to contemplate the growing surface veins around my abdomin. The big cluster that has been fairly stable for a number of years may be about 50% bigger.

I've stubbornly avoided most things that would increase the strength of my legs so as not to increase their vascular requirement. I think I have found the limits of how much cycling I should pack into a short time period: something on the order of 6 hr/day and 20 hours over four days before a day off is probably about right.

I'm less sure about the impact of elevation, but may set aside the notion of fitting an Everest into the Tour de Pierre - yesterday I had noticed that 600m a day for the rest of the Tour would do it. I started by bypassing an extra 80m climb before turning home.

Nutrition: 1 tailwind, 1 detour bar (1/2 on the way out the door and half getting off the bike - too messy to eat on the fly)

Tour de Pierre stage 15b

Lazed about for a fair bit before going out for the afternoon segment in mostly cloudy skies rather than a full sun fest. Very crowded on the path and a good number of people not inclined to share it - but most of them will be back at work tomorrow.

Nutrition: 1/2 eload in diluted lemonade

53.6% water, 60.8 kg muscle

Tour de Pierre stage 14a

Unexpected wet this morning and a bit chill at 13C. Radar showed no rain, nor did the forecast, so I went with the original plan to shoot up Wardem to Ravenshoe. The road was quite damp for the first 10km and then dried up some as I went north. By the time I made the turn back home other cyclist started to show up. There were probably 100 of them going north in various sized groups as I went south. I opted to extend the ride south a bit, which had me wait for a giant peleton to pass before I could cross Vivian.

At 44km I finally got some sun. Nice ride, but it might not have taken a big enough time out of the days Tour stage time so it is likely to be a long afternoon.

I was a bit surprised how low the heart rate came out. I'm pretty sure it was a good 15 bpm higher when I did this route last year on the Greenspeed. I think pace was comparable, though I did have a fair number of delays crossing intersection today.

Effort was easy enough to ponder the Bash equivalency: is there a daily elevation that would be equivalent to riding your age (in kilometres) daily.

Nutrition: 3/4 tailwind, 1/2 solo gi bar (quite good and easy to eat, though the coating is a bit sweet). And I gobbled an oatmeal raisin cookie while knitting up

C • faster and lower heart rate than last year 1

Tour de Pierre stage 14b

Today's stage was longer than I had expected by a good margin. At a bit over 100km for the day, my left calf started to heal quite heavy so I eased back and looped fairly close to home. As I approached the time mark for the day, I was getting very close to riding double my age. If the bathroom in this area hadn't been closed for construction, I probably would have added the extra few kilometres - it seemed kind of silly to go back out for 4 minutes after stopping at the house so that will have to wait for another day.

Nutrition: 1/2 eload, 1/2 solo gi.