Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Ride your age session 4

AND completed the Bash Challenge
Granted I took a liberal interpretation in that even though consecutive days was probably implied it wasn't specifically stated.

7C and still air to start the northern ride. From 10-14km I played leapfrog with a hospitality staff bus. If one person got off I sucked deisel fumes. If two got off, I passed it. If more got off, I broke free for a while. At 15 km I light north breeze started, but just enough that I was riding in Flight's wind resistance instead of my own.

I roamed around the wealthy neighbourhood at the north end for a half hour before heading back. The plan was to get the extra distance in while sheltered by old growth trees and then milk a Tailwind all the way home. At 36km I paused to: message Mrs that I wasn't in a ditch; remove some clothes; eat my snack and guzzle my drink. I also tightened my heart monitor strap. I had noticed it drop out a couple of times, so my average rate might be slightly off. Jacket pockets all stuffed I started back.

The 8 minute pause and the help of the wind let me catch a couple of riders early in the return. They escaped riding through a closed road while I took the detour, but I was able to whiz by a couple of blocks later. They looked about my age on decent bikes with road rubber.

About 5km into the return the wind shifted to a predominantly cross breeze, but not a problem because it nudged me towards the shoulder rather than towards traffic. Two different drivers along hotel city thought they should right right beside me for a few blocks. In both cases I had to grab a gear and surge to get away from then. It seemed quite odd.

I maintained a nice pace all the way back with the wind giving me a little nudge and hit my age right at the bagel shop. Paused to pick them up and then navigated across the highway to finish up spot on the 63km I needed to complete my first 250km of the month.

I should note that the 1cm tear in my foot and the rashly abrasion where my compression gets glued to my left leg proved to be a non issue. This was my strongest feeling ride so far, but I'll still probably take a rest day tomorrow.

Nutrition: 1/2 Awake - goodness these are good. If they didn't have so much caffeine I'd probably get a decent supply of them
- Huma chia gel - a bit of an odd consistency but quite good and far more liquid than traditional gels
- 2/3 eload

C • Impressive! 6

Ride your age session 3

I went out right at sunrise while the air was still - for the first time since we arrived. It took a while to warm up in the 2C. I didn't really feel like the legs were ready to do there job until about 7km into the ride. Today was the south route, which wasn't nearly as lightly travelled as I hoped for a Sunday morning. Church traffic caught up with me at about 20km and stuck for the rest of the ride.

The wind started to show when I turned back north at 26km, which meant I would have 12km more headwind than tailwind to finish up. But the wind was much lighter than previous days, so that was mostly an excuse to slack of north bound. I opted to break up the headwind by doing shorter loops back south periodically. That worked out nicely, but didn't keep my legs from feeling a bit jelly like by 55km.

I've observed each ride this year that I'll have to switch to recumbent for age rides pretty soon. I noted that to Mrs. when I got back and she responded 'Well it's self imposed. You don't have to do it.' Some of us know otherwise.

Nutrition: Buddy Fruit - really nice fruit mashup
Honey Singer waffle
2/3 Tailwind

Long version of my normal routine + Caron's 10 minutes 2 Zen, about 1/3 of which overlaps with my normal routine.

Ride your age session 2
Brought to you by Bob Seeger

It was a chill 5C this morning so I waited to ride after going with Mrs. to get the cupboards stocked.

The weather channel was promising the worst wind scenario for the ride I wanted to do today: NW to start, then switching to SE. It would be a crap shoot when the shift came about.

I started NW to do my favourite ride in the area. At about 8km I caught up to where tomorrow's marathon was being set up. That made for a few slow spots, but I just took them as a pause from the wind. The wind wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday and only slowed my pace by 1.5-2 km/hr. at 17-20km the wind started to shift and gave me a brief tailwind as I reached the turnaround.

A 2 minute pause to let Mrs. know I was at the north end and heading over to Black Dog Running. As soon as I made the turn back I knew it was going to be a tough ride home. It was mostly a straight on head wind, which is less stressful than yesterday's cross winds, but still an exercise in leg strength. 12 km straight into it then the restful turn inland to Black Dog.

I stocked up on some nutrition, gave the old guy there a tour of the Wilier, which he seemed to think was the best bike ever. He encouraged me to ride behind the race tomorrow, since I'd already done the whole course. Hoka sponsered a dog aid station at the store, which was fun. I finished my power bar and declined Mrs. offer to pick me up so I could get my last 15km in.

The pause at the store freshened my legs more than I expected so I managed a nice pace into the wind back to the shore (about 3km), then fended off traffic that was much heavier than the time I normally ride along a 5 km stretch of highway. This was a bit inland so the wind wasn't too bad.

Back to the shore where the low rise beach houses gave no shelter from the wind. I decided it was a good time to call a cool down interval and just spun my legs at a comfortable effort. I shot past the house and returned with a strong tailwind pushing me at 30+km/hr at cool down effort.

I'll try to rest the legs tomorrow.

C • Great outing! 2

Ride your age session 1

I was quite late getting out after waiting for a storm to go off to sea. Once I got out I was in a fierce and chaotic wind. It was as if the cold front and the sea air were fighting it out. The odd tail wind easily pushed me over 30km/hr and if I was straight into the wind it was had to maintain 20km/hr. Mostly it was a cross wind that made it hard to grab my water bottle. I took a 2 minute pause at 35km to eat a waffle and guzzle some water.

The last run into the wind was improved by a pause for a flagman; following a front end loader; a red light - the only one of the day. My legs did start to notice the absence of many long sessions in the last few months.

Nutrition: Stroopwaffle - berry is excellent though I wish I had noticed the caffeine content before putting it in my pocket for a noon ride
- 2/3 eload

Last travel day. Poorly equipped hotel gym today. Contemplating taking the least convenient bike off the roof for a ride in a strange town while Mrs. sleeps

After unloading and some unpacking, Mrs. needed her beach walk before the sun went down. We used every second of remaining daylight.

I took the bikes off the roof in the dark because rain was threatened overnight. The fattie was the last onevoff and I couldn't resist a quick test on the beach while the tide came in. I've really liked the snow, but this beach sand is brilliant fun. I probably shouldn't have been surprised how much sand the rubber wanted to bring into the house.

Day 2 free weights and push-ups

Shoulders rebelled a bit against making the inclined push-ups very deep