Training Log Archive: emilyr

Last long training ride before the Gran Fondo! Phew, that was far, and long, and high! Felt strong to Whytecliff, then there were some super unnecessary really steep hills before Cypress (some had brief sections that were 30% according to Strava!), Cypress climb itself was pretty good. Quite tired on the last loops around Stanley Park and there was also too much traffic. Don't do Stanley Park on a sunny, summer, weekend afternoon. Should have brought a little more food though. Oscar bonked a bit going up Cypress and was much speedier at the end after he got a chocolate cookie. My right knee was a bit twingey and my shin was hurting a bit in the last 10km (the shin thing is new). Feel accomplished having done this and a little more confident about the Fondo although we were a little slower than expected today. One of the instructors at my spin studio who bikes a lot and coaches cycling says that this ride is a good predictor about whether you can do the Fondo, so nice to have checked that off. Absolutely exhausted after this and my dragon boat regatta yesterday though.

Steveston Dragon Boat Regatta! Last regatta for the year. We did 2 x 200m races and 2 x 500m races. Dragon boat regattas sure are exhausting for about 7 minutes of effort. We were there from 7am until 4:30pm.

The race results aren't up yet, but I think our times were 57 seconds, 54 seconds, 2:12, and 2:07 (fastest time of the season! There might have been a little wind and tide assistance, but still counts). We also made it to the A final and came fifth in the last round. We were all pretty happy to make it to the A final for a second regatta in a row. Our team thought we might be in C or B finals at the start of the year, so it's pretty impressive to see how far the team has come! Our first 500m at Concord was 2:48, so massive improvements. I still think our pace is a bit too fast to really get power into our stroke, but at least we could hold on. Dragon boat races sure are tough. It's a different dynamic for me because you're dying but also trying so hard to hold on because if you mess up, you screw up your whole team. That's definitely incentive.

It was nice to end our season on a high. I'm not continuing on next year as I found it a bit too much to balance the required commitment, but I did enjoy my foray into dragon boating. Maybe I'll be back sometime in the future!

Fondo Clinic Week 10! Felt slow on everything tonight except for the bridge home. Legs must have been a bit tired from spin class yesterday. Nice evening for a ride, but it's starting to get dark so early now! We went up to the forest demo road, but unfortunately, there had been a fatality about 7km in and the first responders were still there. The trail was closed after a couple of kilometres. Not sure what happened (crash, heart attack), but everyone was definitely biking a little more somberly and cautiously.

First class with Shelley in a couple of weeks--ouf! We did a lot of work at 90 rpm and then staying on the same gear but going to100rpm. I find these drills hard, which probably means they are good for me to practice. I think she plans her classes to be about 6 weeks working on one thing before switching it up, so I'll likely run into these again! We were a small class of regulars, so I think she made the class a bit harder.

Our last practice of the season before our Steveston regatta on Saturday. Did 2 x 200m and 2 x 500m. The 500ms felt pretty long tonight. Kate H and I got creme brulee at Crackle Creme pre-practice, which was great.

Spin class at Cyklus during volunteer shift. This instructor has a lot of variety of drills, so classes normally go by quickly. Legs definitely felt fatigued from my bike ride yesterday, but seemed like an efficient use of time to do a class.