Training Log Archive: Dangerman

Back on the hard tail today with Boltboi, Tooms and Ben, no, Joe. It was nice to be on a bike that I had confidence in. The commuter tyres made things interesting but I made (mental) adjustments and it was fine.That was the highlight of the ride for me.

Body still not cooperating. I pushed myself just to the anaerobic edge, a zone I would usually be able to maintain for a few hours. No go. Legs full of lactate pretty quickly, HR through the roof. I mean, look at it! Inexcess of 50 min above 90%. Even the Genghis Session 2 weeks ago saw me in 90%+ for only 30mins. And I was the full length of Mongolia quicker too (made Tooms hurt as well).

Up the white tag I started to get concerned about my health. 95% on the way up with Boltboi walking behind me and catching up. Started to feel light headed at that stage.

Anyway, slow crawl home with a push from Tooms and Ben, no, Joe. Thanks guys.

p.s. hope that head/neck combo isn't too sore Boltboi.
p.p.s It appears I managed the best dismount for today. It must have been good considering both my palms have scratched on them from the ground presumably. Don't really recall what I did but I managed to avoid eating the dirt as per the others!

Event: NavDash 7 - City Beach
 

I don't feel like writing this session up in much detail. It would reflect my overall feeling pretty accurately. No complaints about the course of course Jen :-)
I made my first mistake on the first control. My second on the second control and so on. I couldn't help overhearing Tooms talk about his effort. It was kinda cheating but hard to avoid with big mouth near you :-p.
I actually figured out what Tooms had been talking about after I made a route choice and realised it was exactly what he said not to do.
Heart and lungs gave up on control 7 which was nice because the shins started failing then too. Could anything else go wrong?
Walking from control to control felt very demoralising. I decided I was going to get something from this event. I had too, otherwise... well.. otherwise I would say "poo" really loud.
I tried to get some fastest split times by running, nay, sprinting the really short legs. I think I got one. Yay.

p.s. stopped by home on the way to my paddle and my arse happened to sink into the coach (edit "couch")

C • Sink into what??? 2

Course 1 - Splits

My right glute doesn't work very well. As a result I get back pain when I ride. I need to fix this. But how? I've been shown a few glute exercises, ones that force the glute to fire (and I am very appreciative for the suggestions and the encouragement). But that isn't my problem. When I perform a movement that forces my glute to fire, it does. I can't really see any point (other than to strengthen my glute) to those exercises. How will they help me activate my glute when I am riding? They won't.

We hear Uncle Tooms rambling on about specificity all the time. If you want to be good at X, train X. Lets apply that to my glute and break it down. I want my glute to fire when riding. Part 1 - I want my glute to fire. I've got that one down pretty well. I can make my butt cheeks dance from left to right quite nicely now. (Hey Jen, what are you imagining right now?)

Part 2 - I want it to fire when riding. Well, go for a ride and activate it on the down stroke of the right leg.

I spent close to an hour riding around Lake Monger in a high gear with low cadence, consciously firing my right glute each time my right leg was on the down stroke. That's over 2,500 conscious thoughts just for the right glute. I couldn't manage a higher cadence as it was too hard to think so quickly (great opener there for people to call me slow - I await your responses!)

I noticed pretty early that the right side of my bum started to get sore. Initially I thought it was due to the glute fatiging and going beyond it's capacity. The pain caused me to move around on the seat to lessen it.

I decided to make myself central on the seat. I lined up my nix seam with the seam on the seat. It felt very odd, like I was falling off the seat. I continued with the activation of the right glute - pain gone.

It seems my odd position on the seat was causing the pain. Maybe that position that I have learnt has caused my glute to unlearn firing at the right time due to the pain it causes. I stopped the conscious activation of the glute and sat central on the seat again and prodded around the see if the glute was firing now on it's own.

Breakthrough! Yep - barely but noticeable. I'm not certain that the seating position has caused this. Nor am I certain that my glute will fire on its own if I sit properly on the seat. But I have a suspicion that might be the answer. Another ride this week will provide some more answers. Fingers crossed.

C • Oooo.... 15

Legs still sore. What the x 2...

Gentle long paddle in the Spirit in prep for Sunday. Launched from Banks Reserve. Ty Steadman's group was there doing intervals. I spoke to a friend in the group who suggested I join them next time. I doubt it. A 5pm start on a Tuesday - don't these people have jobs? And anyway, I'm not paying 10 bucks so that a verb can make me hurt for 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off. I've got myself to do that and judging from my sore legs, I think I do a pretty good job!

Water was so still that the reflections were almost perfect. At times I thought I wasn't moving, it was wonderfully relaxing. I found a waterproof torch in the river. Gave up trying to fish it out after almost falling in.

I usually get back pain when I paddle long distances and after my discussion with Dr Tooms and MTBJen, I tried to do something about it on this paddle. I tensed my right glute each time the right paddle was in the water. Took a lot of effort, both mental and physical but seemed to help. Still got pain but it wasn't too bad. But sooooo many things to think about. Tense glute, loosen grip on paddle, twist torso, push with leg, twist hips, keep the arm up, move paddle out to the side, don't forgot the tense, ahhhH!H!

Not having paddled the spirit for some time, it was good to get back into the boat and see what it felt like. It's funny how it felt very stable - very different to my first impressions last year. The steering was great too, much better than the Mentor. The seat was much better too as it allowed my bum to move around and take advantage of my leg drive.

I have to say that now, I really think the Mentor is more of a Menace than anything else. Sure, it is quicker, but the steering sucks. It is really difficult to go straight in it. Turning it is hard too for some reason, much hard than the Spirit. I'm glad I bought it though, it has given me a good base of experience to select an appropriate boat when the time comes. Now I'll know what to look for and how it should feel.

C • take it back . . . 3

Silly silly silly!
After my paddle I decided I would do a short jog of about 10-15 minutes. I just wanted to get on my feet and see how they felt. Keep the body on its toes and ready to adapt to running again. No problems with the run, wasn't out of breath or anything.

Right shin didn't feel great. No specific pains, I just felt it more than the left. Somehow though, I could tell it wasn't happy. Stopped at 10 minutes and went home. Now I have some pain in the right shin and some swelling in the top 3rd of the shin.

Why? I had no shoes on. I forgot completely about shoes and ran wearing my reef boots without orthodics in! Ooops....

Weird, my legs are sore today. What the?

C • MTB O Series Categories 10