Training Log Archive: brycec

Not bad for first session - had to drop cardio - that may be permanent feature - a bit of time dicking around with app and getting used to new gym layout.

Have a feeling going to be sore #weaknesswithin

Attempting to paste app output but it looked crap so go here if you want to see: https://reps.io/werc

Short sleep because went back to gym this morning - however felt pretty good on the bike and had planned to give may drive a good crack.

Cyclist was down at karakatta station on the ramp i join on with transit guards in attendance - looked a bit shaken but not much blood - not usre how he came off but he was well looked after so I continued along until the next on ramp.

Not a bit of wind out there and that was going to help with my may drive assault. Felt reasonable on the start - started to flag as I ascended saw ave found second wind just before hill and flagged again on the first bit of the climb - found a target for the second half and powered to the top. Was hard to really gear up and drive from here - but gave what I could. Took 25s off my pb which would have been enough to take Craig had he not gone for the seabreeze run yesterday afternoon - cheeky monkey. I am coming for you wind or not. Feeling like we are quite balanced. I need to find another 38s to match. I am sure its possible once I ditch the backpack and come at it fresh.

C • No 5

Wanted to go for a longer ride and take some segments but by the time I was up mount st I was feeling lack luster and uninspired - I pushed on. Set a few PRs but only by small margins

went to go for nedlands loops and effort -1, almost got cleaned out on steve round about when a car decided braking for traffic to the right is not mandatory and cruised through at 50--60 km without blinking. slammed brakes mid roundabout as I was already going through and screamed at him through his open window - he just turned and smiled - what a tosser - I swear it never used to be this dangerous I am getting an incident a week and I used to ride more and further and get an incident every few months if that.

Anyway was clearly not going to happen on effort -1 because of the wind so took it easy and focused on my pedal stroke and getting off my toes and enjoying ride.

Geez the back session this morning and 2 rides took it out of me and could feel pulling all over by the time I got home.

Also Tooms will be displeased I am considering stopping the glute exercises as I am becoming inconsistent at doing them at best feel like they are binary I either do them or I dont and I am slipping towards the 'dont' mind you I have been consistent daily for about 6 months which isnt bad.

C • I swear it never used to be this dangerous I am getting an incident a week 15

Felt lethargic out there - but given its the only metro event ive done this season there probably good reason for it - still pushed through nicely.

Actually maintained reasonable contact with Paul for over half the course which i was surprised with.

Went 5 - 16 - 7 - 11 - 19 - 21 - 14 - 1 - 4 - 9 - 23(died here) - 12 - 15- 18 - 6 - 3 (didnt appreciate these stairs) - 22

Generally happy with how I went - felt like I had juice in the tank just wasnt able to convert that to speed or momentum - some regular running would no doubt sort that out.

William and Emma came and had a blast at the start/finish.

Pace on par / within reason of all my previous metro events over the years - so certainly havent lost anything.

Shins a bit of a tingle but meh - no real complaints - stretching would help.

Feeling very average - gut still having issues from last week and didnt have a great sleep - wasnt feeling like smashing myself... but someone had to go poke the bear by putting 7s on my time.

Went pretty hard at the start - but realised it wasnt going to happen today before I even hit saw drive - never the less went as hard as I could up the hill.. that wind felt stronger than craigs described light. got to the top and looked at the clock - hold on might actually have a chance here. busted out the big gears and put in what I had.

alas too little to late - didnt even get a PR. valiant effort but will have to wait until im fresher next week to have another crack. Well played sir - you may carry the best time to the weekend.

Annoyed I had a crack at mount st - felt sure I had done a pr on it breaking late and pedaling the full distance - strava trolling me saying I equaled my pr.


Incidentally - I think this is a war that must be fought on many fronts... hey craig I have 13s on you on this segment :) http://www.strava.com/segments/2497251

C • Effort - 1 7

Discovered my rear taillight has died even though I checked in about a week ago. Made for an anxious ride home - deployed rain cover as the only bright colored thing I could have on my rear - took the park to minimise traffic - not fast because I had eaten my worth. Didnt enjoy not having a light was not fun.

Despite taking 1min 6s off my may drive ascent - Craig still has 5s on me... guess I will have to go harder tomorrow to rectify this situation - thought I had done enough today.

Otherwise a good ride in with a few other PR's along the way inc mount st descent by 2s.

Didnt blast myself on the way home - still managed to clock up a few prs - more a consequence of riding more often than actually trying.

Car attempted a turn it shouldnt have on KPR which was annoying but hey he got a wave from me for his efforts.

Weight up - belt in 1 hole... hrm muscle gain?! doesnt seem right

Had a shocker of a sleep last night which ended in me actually leaving a little later than normal. Was deciding if I should smash myself or not but resolved to not do so - then Richard called out to me at the traffic lights on abedare/thomas. He was going into the park so I went with him - thought we may have gone lovekin or forrest but he came over to my normal entry angle and we ended up doing may.

He kept me honest on the hill no slacking off today! had a good chat about all things bad (WARA epunching) before I turned off to go towards work. Was nice having some company on the ride in for a change though!

Reasonably quick down mount but no records I dont think. Questioning how much more I can eek out - I think i might be getting close to the top end of the speed range I am comfortable with on this particular bike.

***edit - kept me honest indeed - only 5s off my may drive full PR!

C • 5 sec 26

Went for an assault on Mount st with no warmup and tender legs from the weekend... despite Tooms thinking ill be a push over - I managed to move up from 6th to 1st on the people I am following leader board so reasonably happy with that effort :P

Plenty of other PR's in the session inc taking out a Tooms PR on may drive downhill. :P #gameon :P might have a full crack on the leg next time :)

Sleep 3-4 hours yesterday afternoon.

Had compression socks on from end of race (well +5 mins until 730am) so practically 24 hours minus the shower time. Calves feel good as gold compared to normal.

Last night crashed hard - got 10 hours sleep with 3hrs 45 deep - practically unheard of for me I rarely get about 8:30 usually with 2hrs being max deep.

Feet not too bad - a few sore spots but pulled up really well.

Had a critical meeting to be at this morning but hadnt got myself into gear to get going early so had to push it a bit - which legs didnt agree so much too but didnt have the soreness that I expected.

I had read in rachels log that she got rained on this morning which put me into a diz as to whether to go mount on the roadie or not - I hate it when its wet. Time dictated shortest route so there wasnt a river diversion on the cards - luckily ground was pretty dry by the time I got there - but certainly wasnt going for a speed record down it incase some slick was still to the surface.

Hammys felt a bit sore in the end of trip facilities and I forgot needed to have a cold shower to cool down - so spent the first part of this morning feeling uncomfortably sweaty damn it.

Otherwise killer good ride in - I am expecting some PRS.

Legs felt like trash this afternoon - calves feeling a lot tighter.

Stomach ache has returned this afternoon / evening #annoying

Ride home was interesting had a bus indicating to turn out of bus bay on kpr so put on my brakes and came to a stop to find the bus just stayed - looked in its wing mirror to see the driver just blankly staring out his front window - went past and looked in - driver was in another world - not serving anyone just sitting with indicator on no intent on moving.

made it down to bagot roundabout where a car did a uturn around the round about and indicated out - I was on its left rear bumper as it indicated out... well not indicating out it seems - indicating to turn into the first drive away not far past the round about. I realised this very quickly and had to take some quick action to allow the driver to safe turn infront of me. in fairness they did everything right and even almost let me go past on their left before I waved them through while holding a low speed balance. I just dont get why they did a uturn around round about to go into a driveway they could have simply turned into. meh.

otherwise fast smooth ride home.

Event: WARA USD Rogaine
 

USD with tRicky and Tash.

I had planned 3 courses for them for when they arrived - 49km straight line, 59km and 62km - Quickly decided against stupidity and took the shortest option. Prepped and ready to go pretty quickly from that point.

HH - 34 - probably should have gone down to fence but cut in early and hit it reasonably flush

34 - 96 - Already had something annoying my right foot as if something digging into it - I tried clearing it a number of times - it appears (in post rogaine light) it may have been a bite of some type and was annoying for the full race. 96 was easy just straight up the hill was a bit painful.

96 - 72 - I was still getting head in game and tried to go up wrong watercourse - but Ricky put us right. sadly the next niggle started being an issue - had a stomach issue all week and it clearly decided now to be the time to fix - and was crampy as hell/ pretty unpleasant this continued for the whole race. We looped around 72 - we must have just gone in before we hit it before.

(looks at the map - 64 might have been a better start - oops)

72 -82 - 53 -104 nothing really remarkable from memory hit these all pretty cleanly and we had settled into our groove.

104 -94 - on the cut through the plantation got a bug in my eye - which was only removed at around 4pm on the Sunday - needless to see - this annoyed me as much as the gassy tummy.

94 - 101 The earlier part of the eastern track wasnt there - we used farm land most of the way up - came into the control and went back up hill rather than further down - felt maybe slightly outta pace but generally happy with it.

101 - 71 - 106 - 24 - 91 - 43 - 62 - Very clean and making decent pace to our first water drop. I think at this point we where about 10-15 down on schedule but in good form.

62 - 93 - 52 good grabs - but here I started to notice that Tash was beginning to struggle - she had flagged much earlier she had a bad foot codine had taken care of it for a while but I think it was starting go but a challenge and she was starting to drain.

52 - 100 probably our poorest nav of the night - and really not bad - we missed to the north did a bit of a hunt and then headed south behind Ricky - found the control pretty quickly and gave it away to a few other teams.

100 - 66 Contoured around perfectly

66 - 51 nothing remarkable except the steep bloody rocky spur.

51 - 21 played dodge the electric fence got 21 and headed back to fence again

21- 42 I knew now we where about 30-45 down - and I was assessing cuts - after diving under the electric fence again we made our way across to 42 - I think this is when Tash and I both hit the Gel's for a bit of extra umph. I know I was certainly feeling the 2-4am blues about now.

42 - 90 after a short debate as to whether to cut 90-50-70 and go 30 - 61 Ricky had confidence and pushed us on relentlessly :P It was at this point I realised if I ever did a solo with Ricky I would have to accept/expect to be completely broken by him because there is no early cutting haha. as it turned out 90 was easy grab

90 - 50 - 70 - 61 - all these went very smoothly and by 61 we had been chasing a team for a while and had wheeled them in considerably - we were now about 30 mins off pace so not as bad as I had thought with sunrise not too far away. We had resolved to drop 76 which would get us back about 1.5km which was a good chunk of that 30 mins potentially.

61 - 81 I looped us a bit far east on the climb but generally pretty clean

81 - 65 got within 3 minutes of team we where chasing, so they went to another control #rude.

65 - 74 Tash starting to really fade with her knee causing some grief.

74 - 86 apparently we never came here on the e-punch - bs - that was the open riverbed that looked like a fire had gone through it - broad with the hill to the east. Control on 1 tree int he open middle of the river bed. Take that e-punching.

86 - 105 I got severely geographically challenged and had to sit back and not nav and completely trust Ricky on this leg - I think I got thrown by taking off night kit and eating a sandwich. tisk tisk.

105 - 45 - horrible bloodly leg! that bush was crap - was glad to be through it and onto trail to 45.

Dropped 95 - 73

45 - 63 Long downhill leg - Tash was looking sore now and I was really feeling for her. I had the obvious foot pains and my ankle had tweaked a tad on the bush leg but generally wasnt an issue - my left eye was still bugging me :P and my stomach was really the biggest challenge. This cut should put us right back on time. 63 was an easy grab.

63 - 75 looking right on time schedule for this leg. The patrol car hadnt been to 63 for 4+ hours - lucky no one had been waiting there! On the section of pine plantation at the start of this leg I decided I needed to stop trying to make it to the finish before sorting my tummy out - told the others I would catch them up. A large contribution was added - which was instantly relieving - but I had to run to catch up to others which wasnt ideal and actually re unsettled my tummy by the time I caught up :( We made good time to his point getting there as I predicted on time budget to get our final two points.

75 - 83 good and clean I was debating 55 or HH Ricky thought we could make 55 and I technically agreed - but I wasnt sure ti was worth the pain and Tash was really struggling - asked her what her preference was and it was a clear response - HH we went.

83 - HH - nice road march home.

Post mortem - everything seems to have held up pretty well which is great. really thankful for Ricky and Tash for letting me join their team - really enjoyed the race with them. The pace was nice for me - challenging enough without breaking self. I felt like I had 5-10 more in the tank but would have been a mighty effort on my part to execute those 5-10.

New kit - Spike light was nice for flood and never ran out of batter - spotting with it on the move just didnt feel practical at all as it was way too bouncy - the hand torch however did a fantastic job. Watch performed well - but wont make a 24 hour race will still have to use two for that - interestingly pretty close on the gps accuracy between the two of them.

Didnt say good bye to anyone as I knew I needed to get going asap post results to try make it home before imploding - however before I got to end of Albany highway my tired levels had slipped to dangerous and I couldnt let myself continue and pulled over for a rest. after an uncomfortable cat nap I continued and was good until the freeway roadworks which almost got the better of me with the slow speeds. home safe though and after a few hours sleep - right as rain!

Well done to setters and vetters really enjoyable course/race real shame on low numbers - wonder how many there were last year before this got canned. be interesting to see if the $40 dropped numbers further.


oh and 6th over all 2nd mixed - exceptionally happy with that given our effort s- was expecting 5th or 6th and one of the mixed levels. so met's expectations there :)

C • TBT 5

Uneventful - only a 1 way journey today most likely.

C • Unidirectional journey 4

Took it easy and it seemed to go faster - go figure!

Starting to enjoy this light smash home - if only I could fit in more distance and still make it home before 6.

Slow and steady - low cadence sadly because of how slow it was. 67. ouchies. need to go long and falt and get some 80s happening again.

C • Reminiscing 3

Went home via lovekin as had a work colleague point out she was faster on the descent than me and I couldnt have that - Went hard at it and relatively sure I smashed that out of the park.

Dicey moment when a cop car pulled past me as I exited my sprint component - hoping they came down forrest because otherwise I am a lucky man - I was definitely over 40.

Otherwise cruisey ride home - bit warm out there.

C • Over 40 2

Well - almost saw a bike get cleaned out on a round about - 30cm would have been generous as the car decided to attempt to overtake at the start of and during the round about.. - he had some fierce words with the 4wd post the round about then the 4wd who almost cleaned him out again when trying to turn left across his path - well across him as he was next to the car. at that point... I think ti would have been well worth a double juffy slap in the side panels - but he rode on.

Otherwise uneventful ride.

A few strains and pains from yesterday and the numerous times a rolled my ankle over was showing a little today.

Took Thomas road rather than subi and train line - feels decidedly more dangerous but certainly quicker. Something about cars going past at 70km/hr makes you cycle faster.

Incident free huzzar.

Legs feeling a tad sore post the weekend :(

Good fun training session thanks to Rachel!

1st was standard orienteering up to the top of the hill. Was nice just to get going again.

Then an attack point drill - did fairly well at this - but I was already highlighting to myself just how bad my fitness is!

Third activity was map memory - I did 1 control and return then did another 3 in reverse order - good each time - nav and map memory was pretty solid just fitness and speed letting me down

Finally - straight line course no controls - felt I kept pretty good contact during this - just went slow and steady.


Feel like fitness could be a challenge next week - also have a stonking headache post that session even though I went through 2L with electrolytes.

On the plus side not a bad effort on 5 hours broken sleep - my own doing not Will's

C • Next week 20

It appears I moved to Singapore overnight #humidty+

Kings Park had a road closure for road repairs - annoying used footpath instead.

Above 60 on mount street now.

C • Hay bales? 13

Nothing to report - pretty bog standard ride home.

Not hot enough for the park to be closed - yay - made no real difference to me haha.

So car decided to cut me off on KPR to get to the roundabout - god knows why it was fully congested and the silly twat had her boot hanging into KPR. if I was a tad closer she would have got a JuffySlap tm.

Speed was generally pretty good until railway parade/bagot lights caught me followed by the train crossing gates.

Bike computer was being dickie again - annoying.

Pretty sure my brakes cooled my wheels down when applied during the mount st decent.

After being caught at the lights for ages - took the rest of the ride easier - was going to be no records made today.

It was hot - so I went slow - Kings Park paths are closed blah - still used one to get to the internal road.

Geez it was a bit nippy out there was considering pulling on the arm warmers.

Speed home is building - wont be satisfied until its much nearer to 30

Had to get in early today - was a nice ride in not much traffic - went via railway to bagot then KPR. Cadence is on the improve even with all the stops.

Legs feeling a bit heavy but apparently my recovery check is good. yesterday it was only fair - obviously didnt go hard enough last night lol.

All felt pretty good - light were reasonably kind - cadence good - mount street hard but no chain jumping as I purposely didnt gear reach - maybe a tad hot and head windy.

Legs feeling heavy from the daily rides - not even thrashing self - needs conditioning!

Went faster down mount st. apparently peak speed 56.4 will take watches word for it because I certainly wasnt looking at anything but what was going on.

I went home via Thomas rather than subi and railway - for some reason I find Thomas really nice to ride on even though the risk is probably higher.

Cruisey ride home - one day ill get a ride with no headwind. that day it will either be cold or raining.

Also annoyingly my chain jumped off rear bracket twice on mount st climb - something about my gear reaching :( either way quite frustrating - need to tune that abit - probably also need a new chain that ones done ten years and countless thousands of km.

Bike computer just randomly starts working 1 minute in - excellent!

Maybe im more risk adverse or doing trust my kit as much but mount st is a hairy stop at the end even when you are braking on the decent... reinforces my desire for disc brakes on a road bike.

I used to fly down that hill slam brakes at bottom and weve onto bridge - not anymore.

Otherwise uneventful.

C • Mount St 12

Its hardly worth donning lycra for such a short stint - I am going to have increase the morning or evening session to justify. Nice being faster than the bus though. Mount St. still a pain in the ass < this wont change for a while.

Traffic lights were friendlier tonight.

Wanted a nice uneventful ride for my first commute in so decided to take the railway path in...

That way is officially shit for the following reasons:
- on the way to shenton park had shcool kids riding all over the path because they couldnt ride straight

- once past the school - nice fast decent - which was when I probably hit +40km/hr only to find a student enter the path from one of the joining paths without looking - once entering the path completely blocking my lane he looks up and sees me and puts on brakes (clearly logical response) now blocking 80% of both directions and standing still in middle of the path - I was heavily braking and swerved missing him by a few cm otherwise that would have been a really nasty accident for both of us. got an "oh sorry" as I passed.. sigh - doesnt this shit only happy to tricky?!

- got caught at every single traffic light and also had a car indicate to turn into a road so i stopped for them only for the m to drive straight - quite frustrating.


I also in trying to bike bike computer managed to pop it off and had to stop to get it - cadence sensor didnt get picked up by new watch - will need to look into that!

In good news - the bike fit felt really good the pedal stroke felt strong and fluid and I felt well connected to the bike. I did find myself fighting it a fair bit though and trying to move myself back and stretch myself out - going to take some getting used to.

Also omfg the showers at work have been maintained and there is more than 3 jets of water from the shower head huzzar - excellent!

God mount st is a biach!

Fixed cadence sensor - just needed to pair it - silly of me this morning - couldnt get bike computer working sadly - its been dicky for ages maybe a new one required - this one is like a decade old.

Top speed just shy of 50km/hr from flat start after KPR towards subi.

Otherwise pretty light ride home feeling the pinch on day 2.

Home from work -

interestingly into a massive headwind and felt reasonable even though it was a challenge. Mount st to start is always a biach. and was playing - lets see how low we can get the average pace from there. wanted sub 6 - fell a tad short but the pace was still dropping as I was going so thats encouraging.

Might you think it wouldnt have got much below 6 had I gone long enough - pace felt about that realistically.

First time I have played with the stats from the garmin - pretty interesting stuff in there - will have to see if I can work it out and track improvement < suggests more training.

Sad but true - was also the fastest I have done that course - have 4 logs in October 2012 and 1 from 2013 all slower on time - mind you recorded on the iphone and run keeper so some of the distances vary wildly and 1 has a faster pace. still will count it as a win - even though its kinda depressing that speed is similar and badly slow for 3+ years. Some would call my faster efforts the non norm!

C • I can see 4