Training Log Archive: veinbuster

We had an interesting group at Habitat today. Half wanted to work hard and half were more interested in photo opportunities. This might have been encouraged by the 4 full time media staff their company sent. That was reasonably easy to work around.

What was most frustrating was the number of people who drank half of 3 single use water bottles. They kept leaving half a bottle on a window ledge or somewhere and going to get another one. We keep water coolers so you can fill anything with as much cold water as you want from 18l jugs. Oh well.

A bit of a walk about to loosen up the construction kinks before driving to Quebec tomorrow to watch some racing. Lucky I had a room booked because somehow Flight’s reservation wasn’t made when the rest of the team’s was - she needs a change of direction in the mojo trend.

C • So... 1

Day 1 soloflex and free weights

Extremely busy at Habitat doing some last day prep before big groups come in.
Garage is being painted tomorrow so, I had a team prep it.
No access to the garage tomorrow meant I had to get all the material needed by 50 volunteers out of the garage and staged into houses today. Much of the packaging looked similar, so I ran back and forth to make sure the right stuff got delivered to the right location.
Then just before quitting time, the site supervisor noted that two houses were being inspected tomorrow but still need to be fire proofed, so I got that tended to.
My legs are as ready for a nap as they were after riding last Friday.

Day 3 soloflex

River ride with Mrs. Two racer boys tried to steamroller her on the one really tricky bit of single track and I forgot to restart my timer after getting her back on track. It didn’t really bother her.

She’s getting a bit techie in that she stops to switch her suspension as we switch between groomed trail and single track.

It might be a short single track season on the local trail, because the side growth is over my shoulder already and there isn’t enough traffic to not having it brushing on both sides.

C • Tall grass 2

My legs feel better today than expected, but as I was stretching I kept noticing other muscles that had a hint of sore in them - not like an over worked weight bench after a month off or anything, just "oh, that one knows it worked hard".


Most noticeable is the back of my thighs.

Mrs river walkabout

200km attempt.
This is just a place for me to record notes as I go, which might encourage me to pause periodically. Packed for my cache:
7 litres water (1/3 of it frozen)
2 Gatorade
1 20 gram protein shake
1 meat sandwich
2 strawberry waffle PBJ
6 energy bars
4 packs of chews
1/2 bag of Tailwind.
I expect to ride with 1 1/2 litre of bag water I can drink as I go, one bottle of Tailwind and a couple snacks that I have to stop to reach. I will likely stay within 20km of my cache.

Tentative plan is to start in the 130s bpm, with a hard ceiling of 145 (except perhaps on a short climb). Longish rests with legs elevated at 3, 5, 7 hours and wing it after that.

C • Have a great day! 7

oops. bad CTRL C, CTRL V sequence deleted my wordy commentary. My punishment for trying to save a step. I'll try to catch the essence for me to look back on.

63km Leg 1 to breakfast.
My heart rate management plan was shot very early. The wind was strong enough that I was averaging fairly close to my target cap. Much later in the day I concluded that it was more me not handling the situation as well as I could. The Bacchetta has a pace that feels natural, and I think I was stubbornly going with that pace rather than truly managing my heart rate. I've been wanting to put power on this bike and that might make it easier to see the truth.

It was a bit cool starting at 12C and only warmed to 14C this leg, so I kept all of my layers. I chased rain on the eastbound run, but didn't catch it. I did pick up some light rain for the last 5 km or so and it rained through my first break. Thinking back, I believe I shorted my leg elevation by as much as 10 minutes.

nutriton leg 1: 1/2 Cliff Blok, 1 Bounce bar, 2/3 Tailwind

113km Leg 2 to lunch
This leg went really well as it warmed a bit and stayed largely overcast. My heart rate did escalate a bit and I ended with an average of 144 for the day. I wore light regular shorts over my tights so that I could pull chews from my pocket from time to time. I had lots of water through a hose to a big bladder in the pack on the back of the seat. I had to stop to drink Tailwind from a regular bottle. I've been reluctant to put anything but water in the bladder because I'm not confident I can clean the drinking hose well.

My legs started to feel a bit heavy as I pulled up to the truck. I made sure I checked the time and elevated my legs for a full 30 minutes. And brought my calorie intake up to near half of the 2500 calories burned so far. I expected to need 2 more stops to finish 200km.

nutrition leg : 1 Honey Stinger Chew, 1 Bounce bar, 1/2 Tailwind


147km Leg 3:

The long break reset my mind a bit - to be smarter about what it would take to finish. Also the wind was largely off the water, which might have made it easier to manage. Regardless, my heart stayed mostly in my orignal target zone. I finished this segment with my average rate for the day down to 142.

On my westbound, I saw Mrs with a bike on her roof. She had started towards me, but lost confidence in her direction choice so consulted her live track to see where I was. Good thing I had plugged my phone into my large spare power pack. I had recharged a light on leg 2, and was recharging my phone on leg 3. Live track, and Internetting during breaks had run it down to 15%. I met her walking about 1/2 km from the truck - on the phone to the west.

Nutrition leg 3: 1/3 tailwind, 1 bounce bar

171 km leg 4:

Mrs headed out first while I got my shoes, helmet etc back on. She had a decent pace, so it took me 5 km to catch her. Then I slowed to keep her with me. I looped her around a bit early while I went to a better turn around for the Bacchetta - it needs a wide space for a U turn unless you take your feet off the pedals. About 4km to catch her again, but by then she was gassed and stuggling against the wind. It was hard to slow enough to keep her behind me, but I did get a good picture of how happy my heart was with the day as it dropped down to a relaxed pace as I cut my calorie burn to about a 1/3 of what it had been most of the day.

I noticed I was psychologically drained starting out on this leg, so packed it in when we got back. My legs were feeling the day, but weren't dead yet. I think the last 15-20km would have been a battle of stubornness.


REVIEW:

200km is in range for me, but I would have to manage better. Some longer rides leading up to it, say 4-5 hours would remind me about early pacing. It took me far to long to really get a handle on managing the wind and getting my heart in the zone I KNEW it needed to be in.

I think I would need about 3 hours of down time in a 12 hour race. I may still do one for myself, but starting with some 6 hours might make more sense. I think I could manage a 6 hour with 20-30 minutes of down time, so much less of a penalty

Looking at the actual heart rate breakdown, I'm surpised how little time it was in the 150s. I looked like more as I was riding.

I think I had more thoughts when I wrote the original last night, but this is what I remember today.

Day 2 soloflex and free weights