Training Log Archive: Mounty

All-day t-ball carnival at Penrith. Most enjoyable.

4 Gorges with Dari.
Had been up till 1am the evening before trying to remove some evil malware from my computer, which i think came from one of Max Adventure's web-sites. Thanks Gary. Feeling very not fresh for a 6am get-up. Running a tad late out the door after helping wake the kids up for Annika's t-ball tournament at Penrif, so had to ride solid thru' to St Ives to catch Dari.

Rode up some of Kalkari on the phone, trying to help with Katrin with some dodgy street directions before settling in to ride proper. Good tempo for the rest of it. Worked on maintaining pace on the flats while Dari ensured no let-up on the climbs. (The old Darr form is rapidly returning - great to see). 28+ average for Gorge ride not too bad. Together with nailing the berowra ferry, made for a quicker than usual loop.

Then magazines loop. Got a bit distracted at home, and didnt eat a decent lunch so hunger flat started to come on halfway round run. Made it home just in time and ate a large handful of mini-twix bars.

Then down to the river for a Pipeline. Form felt good in the boat (for me). Focus on straight arms helps. Once again large fish jumping all over the place.

Early Annika drop-off (for dancing) then rode in. Nice bruise on the hip.

Tired leaving work, but legs felt quite good on the bike. Straight to the pool for annika's friday night swimming race. She looked knackered.

Early morning Magazines loop blob. Wanted to get out for a trail run. Typical straight out of bed - half asleep and not loosened up type thing. Felt better running for the bus afterwards.

Another glorious morning.

Lunch gym.

It's a very small world....

Took the narrow overpass corner just before the observatory a tad tight, and met another rider around the corner who was a tad wide. Head-on collision and over the bars - other rider stayed up.

Suggested from the ground to the other rider that they might consider keeping left, with a couple of 'f' words thrown in for good measure. Suspect I knew that id probably cut the corner a bit, but hard not to let off steam from down on the ground.

When I got up, discovered that Id run head-on in to Orla. Felt rather guilty about the expletives, so stopped to chat for a bit and some apologising. Im claiming the 3 second defence - anything said within 3 seconds of hitting concrete doesnt count.

Fortunate to have backpack and baggy-shorts on to soften landing. Katrin lucky that I valiantly threw myself between the ground and her new commuter.

C • I hope you haven't undone a... 2

K1-tervals. Bewdiful misty morning again. 25min w.u then 1min, 2min, 3min, 4.5min, 3min, 1.5min @ 90% with ~1min rest. Then 10* 30sec on/off. Focus of the day was keeping arms straight.

Running late, so ate breakfast (buns and bananas) on the bike.

The slicke-micke roadies riding 2-abreast on the bridge did not appreciate being asked to get past by a hairy-legged, baggy shorts, backpack carrier on a hybrid.

Late-lunch Opera House trot. Well-timed to avoid a fire-drill.

Rode to work. Took Katrin's commuter.

Rode home. Got rained on.

Couple of Manly Dam loops, then home via Echidna track. Easy first lap (40) then quicker second (34). Once again got dark on me. Good fun.

Pit crew report

Weekend on the support-crew side of the fence for Katrin's 24 hour. Not quite sure how to log 24 hours of standing up and walking around, but legs pretty tired the next day.

Pretty impressive support crew setup this time around. Trek team manager (Chris) came down to work as wrenchman, brought a mate with him and my Dad was there too. Chris turned up with the 6m * 3m Trek tent and a Transporter full of kit. With bike rack out the front holding Katrin's 2 bikes and our 3 (support crew gotta do some riding), made for an outrageously over the top set up. With the Trek emporium all for her (not to mention a box load of top-of-the-line Lupine lights), Katrin was rather nervous that she would look like a tool if she didn't deliver. Good motivation.

Up early while Katrin slept and drove back and forth from hotel to event 3 times (once because I forgot something), then devoured a huge Olims hotel buffet brekkie (discovered it last year). Nice.

Settled in to a nice routine after the start with Katrin knocking out nice even laps - 30 31 31 30 31 31 31. Alternate lap bottle swaps without stopping, with food attached to the bottle.

Homework suggested one other rider with form to threaten, had settled in on Katrin's wheel with a couple of others for company. Got a small gap at end of 4th lap when the others stopped for a few seconds to grab food while Katrin grabbed her bottle with hot-cross bun impaled on the nozzle and rode thru', then kicked to lose them. Good move as their lap times dropped off without a wheel to hold.

10 second stop at 3hrs to swap bikes, glasses and clean out jersey pockets. Then back to nibbling on the race lollies and watching the action while Chris and Matt went off to clean and service bike (soo glad i didnt have to do that this time around).

Slight mishap just before dark when Katrin ran up the back of someone in the pit-lane (watching for her bottle) and went over the bars. Lucky soft landing on the safety bunting fence so no harm done.

90sec stop at 6pm to swap bikes and put on lights, and the banana frenzy began. From then until 1am she ate 9 bananas - sports dietician input would have been handy - never seen so much banana action before.

All important support crew run to pizza shop at 7pm, then time to supply first of the nurofen and no-doze for the evening. Had debated the best way to do this without stopping - put together a prototype banana with a couple of pills embeded into to the top of it, but got a bit worried she might choke it she didnt hear the call of what was in it. Taped them to the outside of the banana instead.

First real stop of the day at 10pm. 6 minutes to put on warmer clothes, relube, battery swap and eat some more substantial food. Slightly nervous moment when she grabbed a coke can off the table, and took a second to confirm she hadnt taken the one with scotch in it.

Took a 2nd lap out of second place around midnight, eased up a bit and on to a defensive race plan to avoid risk of blowing up. No Rob to chase this year.

Still in good form at the traditional 3am-4am low point. Support crew hodling up well with the latte van working through the night.

Little bit of a hunger flat/over it hour at 7am. Getting harder to find food that was acceptable. Rescued by the bubbly Aroc Celia with mandarins right on cue (Id forgot to include the all important oranges in the race kit). Also took the opportunity to experiment with a different motivation technqiue (had plenty of lead to work with). Responded to complaints of difficulty eating with a suggestion that she was much fresher than in the past and thus might consider the option of hardening the f*ck up. For future reference, dont think she appreciated the humour.

Bit of excitement around 10am when Katrin turned up unexpectedly in transition with a broken bike. Confirmed with race umpire what the rules were, before handing over the other bike (she had to restart the lap). Then it was just a matter of getting around for the last couple of hours without crashing or breaking bike again.

Short stop before final lap to avoid having to do an extra one. Loaded up jersey pocket with extra tube and bike fixing tools just in case, and support job for the weekend done.

Solid ride to collect the dough and trip to Canada in July. She's getting better at these things.

I felt a bit guilty about how much of the hard yakka was handled by the boys - 10 bikes swaps - with a fully cleaned and serviced bike for each of them.

Nice photo...

C • Pass on our Congrats! 3

3 laps of the majura solo course.
- First lap cruisy on the commuter bike.
- 2nd lap with katrin on her race bikes. Knew that Katrin was ready to race based on the pace of the 2nd lap.
- Final lap in the dark to sort out light setup. The Lupine lights Katrin had been given for the race were insane (2 Wilma 15W LEDs). I back-to-backed one of them with the HID light, which made the HID look like a hokey little spotlight.
Decided on 15W (full power) on the helmet, and 12W setting on the bars for race config. Felt like I could see pretty much as well as during the day on the singletrack. Impressed until I worked out that there was $2.5K worth of lights on the bike (and thats without extra batteries), in which case you'd hope they were bloody good.

Had planned to go downstream but nice high-tide so did a pipeline - still dark at 6.20. 5min w.u then paddled pretty hard. Split 40:00.

LMC intervals: 2:41, 2:30?,2:26,2:31 Recoveries a tad long.

Had planned a rest day, but went to the gym to wake up after suffering from 'a couple of beers at lunch snooziness'.

Rest Day. Legs feeling a bit unspringy & in need of a bit of a refresher, so going to take a couple of days rest.

Went to the physio to see what most needs loosening. He worked on area around the left knee and one of the right glute muscles (begins with p - piriformis?). Elbow to the glute ouchy, but felt much better walking back to office. Booked another sess for next week.

Nondescript ride until I got a puncture. Couldnt be arsed pumping, so used a cartridge.

Evening ride after watching Australia play Canada in softball (Annika played in the curtain-raiser). Suprisingly interesting.

Manly Dam loop. First dam loop for a while - always interesting discovering changes to the trail. A bit rusty but improved. The Racing Ralphs dont grip the sandstone as well as pythons.

C • I punctured my racing ralph... 2

Short magazines loop after the ride.

Roseville Bridge to Fort Denison return. Wanted to get in a longer paddle, and couldnt have picked a better day. Absolutely glorious morning.

Up tempo paddle, reasonably consistent pace. Butt a bit sore after a couple of hours but feeling pretty good at the end. Stopped for a bit of sight seeing at the fort.

Then off to the beach for the rest of the day. how good is sydney (public transport excepted).

West Head. Didnt start till 5:30, so was gonna be a dark one at the end.

Dunno what this ride was really. Pushed up some hills, spun up others, blobbed a couple, some fast sections, some cruising. Couldnt really make up my mind. Head a bit tired after the beach i think.

Cbf getting up early, so reversed the morning routine and headed out for a paddle at 7:30. Obscenely pleasant morning to be on the water.

Took the ski for a change. After a couple of k paddling, the spider that had been happily living somewhere in the footwell appeared on deck presumably thinking the spider equivalent of 'what the f*ck'.

Steady/relaxed first half, but feeling pretty good at tunks so speed up to solid for the return journey (just in time to catch a bit of a rising headwind). In hindsight breakfast beforehand would have been a good idea.

GPS tells me there is value on focusing keeping the arms straighter. It also tells me that the tidal currents on middle harbour are rather complex. Great big eddy off the eastern end of castle cove for example.

Blob ride home. In the mood for a slow leg loosener. Met Hugh Stodart on the bridge and yakked thru' to neutral bay.

Beautiful morning for a ride. Reasonably relaxed but gave the hills and the bridge some love.

Some weights and swiss ball in front of Summer Heights high episode 2

C • Box set ... 2

Early start Natural Bridge, Tracy rock, forestville oval loop (plus some extra). Still dark for the first part. Don't think I really woke up until after Id finished.

Easy ride in to town. The garage cricket beforehand was more fun.

Easy ride home. Problematic that my rear light had been borrowed.

10min w.u, then 3 * 1km (a tad under) 4:45, 4:33, 4:38 (low tide), then 10 * 30s on-off with 1TB, then 2 * 2 min without ball.
Rushed warm-up so first interval was crap, but then paddled hard and form improved.
Good session.

Late one - finished after 10:30pm. First run in the dark for a while. 25min of run throughs (bet. 50 & 100m) on the oval then 1k @ 4m/k on way home. Looking for a bit of snappiness practice in the legs. Felt good.

Some stretching with Annika. She taught me the stretches and core exercises that she's learning at dance classes. Wish I'd done those things at that age - good foundation for all sports i reckon.

She enjoyed patronising my relative lack of flexibility.

Early morning run with Damon from home. Cross Roseville bridge, up Nosh track, snake track (a.k.a. track that only half exists due to a wet summer) to Cascades, up Acron Hill, round to top then down Quarry Track, back to Davidson park along the river, Killarney track to Nosh grass then home.

Reasonably cruisy for the first couple of hours, but stopped for a stretch at acron due to some calf tightness. Wound it up from Cascades back down to Davidson park on the fun section of track - split would have been very respectable. Feeling pretty comfortable.

Enjoyable run, but my fault a bit stop start - was being extra cautious with the muscle tightness for a couple of stretch stops.

Early Saturday social ride Akuna loop. Guenter, PD, Cam, Jock & Wilko. The 'new' Akuna Rd surface is a disgrace. Usual feistiness from Forestway lights to St Ives cafe - big death or glory leadout from cam. Not sure about the marzipan in the apple danish - unnecessary.

Evening paddle to Tunks. Cross-chop from the autumn sea-breeze (lots of east in it) and plenty of big boat wash good to give the stabilizers a refresher. Felt I was getting value from the paddle so took a detour up in to Sugarloaf on the way back. Would have been nice to have a bit of food.

Working on technique - rotation from the hips and getting catch forward. Felt OK.

4 Gorges loop with Dari & wifey while the kids were at school. Respectable pace without getting carried away, with a sprint from St Ives to Belrose after Dari peeled off home. Pretty nice to get in an unrushed daytime ride.

Squeezed in a pipeline paddle between the kids gym class and annika's swimming race. Paddled pretty hard to get back in time - just made it. Awful lot of fish about.

Rode in solidly. Gradually increased tempo from start to end. Riding hard across the bridge.

Short but solid gym session. Getting that 'have been training hard' feeling.

Rode home, dark for 2nd half. A bit of balancing practice at the end.

Lunch gym action. Hip flexors a bit tight. Gave them a good stretch.

Rode Katrin's new commuter bike back form the city. Given that the seat was too low, handlebars too high & with flat pedals with sandshoes it was a genuinely unpleasant ride.

The time it takes katrin's regular bus to reach the city has degraded to the point that you might as well ride. Interesting case study of the increase in traffic from the northern beaches in the past seven years. A bus leaving at 8am has become significantly slower, much more so than a 9am bus.

Dawn run. 7.5min w.u across Killarney, then tempo Magazines trail loop. Legs pretty good. Conditions cant get better for a run. Luverly.

Interesting that running legs felt pretty good, but cycling legs still felt tired from sunday.

Need to get more loose mtb-style shorts. They appear to have more cred for the morning playground hangout than the lycra variety.

Ride home. Tired legs.

shagged.

Did a Desperate Housewives stretching session.

8Hr MTB, Nowra
Keen Race big training session #2. A very rare occurrence this one - I rode the 8Hr solo instead of Katrin with aim of improving MTB skills for Keen Race. Turns out I picked a good one to do. The course at Nowra is a cracker - 90% flowing singletrack and pretty flat.
Late to bed on saturday night - didnt get away until almost 10pm on saturday after a party for Thomas. Then got delayed for 20 min in Nowra at midnight due to the guy ahead of me at a Random Breath Test getting arrested. Grr.
Strategy for the day was to follow the advice Katrin gave me over dinner the night before. This meant taking it easy the first couple of laps, which is a rather pleasant way to do it. Pleased to find myself feeling healthy again and started to push a bit more after a few laps (flip-side: highlighted how weak i was feeling last weekend. Lesson for future reference - it takes a week to regain strength after you stop feeling sick from a gastro virus. Pretty obvious when you write it down - but I'm better at giving advice than heeding it).
Big suprise of the day was that the bike cornering tip I got the night before made a massive difference to ride thru corners. Couldn't quite believe how much it helped (make sure that weight/force pushing the bike down on to the ground for traction goes thru arms and legs, not just legs. I havent been weighting the front wheel properly). With new-found confidence that I was more likely to stay on the track rather than visit the trees started to really enjoy the day and rode around working on keeping lap times consistent.
Finished with 18 laps feeling good - negative split for the last lap - in 11th with 4 dudes within 10 minutes. Leader bit over a lap and a half ahead.

Happy with consistency of lap times
3 @ 25 min
9 @ 26 min
5 @ 27 min
1 @ 28 min
Total stoppage time was 6 minutes, including a 5 minute mechanical to fix buggered derailleur after 2hrs - so total transition stoppages 1 minute.

The number of bikes in the Maccas Nowra carpark on sunday evening was hilarious.

Most fun I've had on an MTB for a while. Thanks to wifey for her insights.

Pre-paddle jog up the river and back.

Headed downstream but heroically turned around in the face a of a decent headwind and headed upstream instead. Even pace paddle with a few surges to stop getting bored.