Training Log Archive: devil

Norman - Meant to be a nice easy recovery ride, which it was until someone in front had a wheel touch and went down along with the rider in front of me, I went over the top of them, somehow executing a good forward roll on my left shoulder (the less dodgy one). Lost a bit of finger skin so hung around the side of the road for a while as we waited for someone to take the broken bike away then rolled to coffee with Sim.

C • ouch 1

Ride into the crits, massive headwind so was well warmed up when I got there

A windy night for the crits, D grade again with quite a few riders outths evening. I was on the old metal bike again so wasn't sure how I'd go so decided to stick with the main bunch and watch out for any good breaks. Pretty much went to plan, I wasn't that near the front for the intermediate sprint so didn't contest it but got into the front group afterwards. There was a bit more sharing the work this week with a few people racing down a grade doing some big turns. With about 6 minutes to go a guy broke away with a little kid in tow, they'd got a gap of 50m or so and looked strong so I decided to try and get across, a tall kid got on my wheel and we started gaining on them and no-one else came with us. The tall kid did a bit of work and we got across the gap after half a lap them hung on as the big guy was still doing a big turn on the front. We did a lap like that, then he rolled off and the kids and I did a bit. With 2 laps to the big guy started to tire so I took another turn to make sure we stayed away, the kids did a bit on the uphill straight too so I was sat at the back of the group on the way round the last corner before the bell. Te big guy dropped off and I had to work to get back on the wheels of the kids, my crappy cornering worked in my favour and I stayed at 3rd wheel round collarbone corner and up the back straight. The tall kid took the lead out round the last bend with the tiny kid behind him. The little kid had a good sprint in him and he got too big a jump, but I at least got 2nd. Good fun, but windy.

Back home from the crits

Golf course on the old metal bike, as usual a lot of people were dropped, ended up with a good group of sebba, aaron, james, luke and me doing the work with eliza hanging on at the back. Definitely harder work on the old bike.

Bilbies warmup with extra faffing due to novices

1x2km(400), 4x 600(200). Did 7.11 for the 2km which was respectable then did the 600s pretty easy, building the speed up to the last one. Legs were still heavy from sunday.

pilates at physiosport, new set of exercises to learn. Legs were pretty heavy from yesterday so mainly did the core/arms ones. Entered 6FT so had better do some running training over the next 3 months.

Lightning strike 30km, main reason to do this was to get a 6FT qualifier and ideally get into an early wave as well. Start was at 7.30 but did get time to do a lap of the xc track to warm up. Wasn't sure how I'd go after not doing a lot of running over the last few weeks but decided to have a crack at a good run. Set off just behind acejase and watched sean clearing out with no-one going with him. Once we started heading uphill I went past jase then settled in about 50m back from the 2nd to 5th place group. The first 10km were undulating and was good running, with effort on the hills and a chance to recover going down. At the 10km it was back through the event centre and I could see jase not too far back along with the lead girl. Once we were back on the fire trails we were into the back of the 10km field, I pushed on through here and made up two places before the turnoff to the 20km loop. I felt good through the first 10km of this, then started to tire a bit on the climbs on the back of stromlo but kept pushing on through Ollies drinks station and then to the top. Down the steep hill and got a bit hammered in the quads, then on the last of the two pinches liam went past and flew down the hill, so not much chance of holding onto him. The thought that acejase was probably not too far back was a motivator to keep the effort up down to the crit track. Nearly went the wrong way here as a lot of the 10 km runners and the guy in front went left instead of right, so wasted a bit of time following them then turning round and going the correct way. Very happy with my time, should be 6FT wave 1 and better than I was expecting.

C • great run 4

ACT hill climb championships. This was up Mt Maj, but met Sim and Kate earlier to ride there via pleasant and then up the parkway bike path. After a bit of hanging around to register we did a recco ride up the road to get an idea what it was like then a bit of spinning along the road in front of the winery. I started 1 min down on Sim, so kind of had a target. I think I went a bit too hard on the 1km of flat before the hill started so was struggling as soon as the road pointed up and was alternating between sitting and standing. Perhaps didn't help that I was on my old metal bike with the entry level shimano wheels either. I got glimpses of Sim before halfway and was gaining slowly and was maybe 100m down by the point where the triple tri run turns off. The rider behind me went past on here but he was way too fast to hang onto, but I did get past a skinny kid and one of the women. I was just hanging on in the top section and didn't make any more ground on Sim and hadn't got any energy to put in a bit of a sprint round the last corner so ended up about 15s back from him. I did get 2nd (and also last) in the M4 class (a bit like an ACT orienteering champs) which meant a medal that I got to take home and a bike shop voucher. There had been talk of riding to lake george after but it ended up being a cruise to A Baker for a late breakfast.