Training Log Archive: arg

La route de jour

I had originally planned to ride long - highway up and over the Malahat, then into Shawnigan L, and back to home, but the clouds were threatening rain.

As in previous posts I had declared myself to NOT be a cyclist, therefore my plan B did not evoke any sense of shame in avoiding a possibly wet, cold and chafing long ride by my lonesome (noting I had awoken Saturday morning too late to link up with my IRC racing posse).

I opted to stay on the south side of the Malahat and brush it's ascent. I highway'd out to Goldstream Park, then took Finlayson Arm Road for my climb (10:20), then rested the legs to the beginning of Bear Mtn Parkway to climb the Bear Mountain Hill Climb course

I timed myself from the bottom of the parkway (12:02) which is longer than the hill climb route. That climb hurt. I wasn't enjoying the usual searing lung stress nor the usually benign hypoxic hallucinations in the latter part of the course. I was more concerned about not puking on my (to borrow BSNYC parlance) futuristic crabon fribé cycle.

The latter feeling subsided soon enough once at the top, where, incidentally, new monster homes are in the process of Viagara-like erection (the Bear Mtn Project is in the throes of financial difficulty and construction starts for housing require frequent 'assistance' to forego foreclosure) and the manly trades-folk were not accustomed to witnessing a lycra-clad bicycle fashionista, with snot streaming out of his nose, splayed over his two wheeled bike. I beat a hasty retreat downhill, freezing all the way and decided to wander the back roads into Victoria and ultimately ride along the waterfront back to home.

The rest of the ride went reasonably well, my motivation being a large yahmericano in a warm, dry, eclectic java boutique once done.

However, I managed to catch up with an equally clad fashionista cycliste who was riding somewhat uh, slowly and my mistake was to pass him. The game was on! He attacked and looped around me, hands in his drops, nose posed a quarter inch above his stem, and his helmet changed from a dorky Bell pro to the latest in TT aerodynamic efficiency. I let him go as I did not want to wheel suck and then tempo'd after him. He was a true believer in hi-cadence riding and the rate at which his legs were spinning, while impressive, was also hypnotic and I soon became confused and lost sight of my original plan to ride the waterfront at a leisurely rate and conserve some energy for watching the play-offs. I attacked on the uphill St George Terrace area, then dragged my nemesis until the Cattle Point Loop. He chose to not follow me, but continued along Beach. I then rejoined Beach, and saw Mr TT Helmet ahead and went after him again. Ah, the stuff of dreams. If only Bob Roll was there to provide commentary. At Sinclair, I came to a full stop at the 4-way, however by this time the silly antics had played out and my unknown soldier/cycliste had disappeared. I thanked whomever responsible for allowing me the respite from much too hard work and I recovered along the last of my route.

Done. Spent. Tired, even.

C • Paul Sherwen would be impressed! 2

C • The colour of Gravol 2

Warm up for Caleb Pike Crit.

Another hard race with the A group.

The weather in the afternoon was windy and rainy and I thought this weather pattern would remain until the evening. This usually leads to a drop in turnout for the Weds night events, which works in my favour as the fragile riders opt out and sip scotch or watch American Idol or something leaving opportunity for the bottom feeders such as myself to score points.

Of course, the weather turns out to be more than OK: near perfect for riding a bike at the Caleb Pike course.

A large turnout in the A group means fast laps and multiple attacks by the 6'2", 148 pound, 25 year old cycling machines.

My strategy, like always, is to hold on as long I can with the main group, then fall back into one of the splinter groups until I eventually succumb to anerobic hypoxia and or complete muscle/fuel exhaustion/failure, whichever comes first.

I spent most of my time at the last 1/3 of the train, which is subjected to the yo-yo effects of braking and acceleration as the pack rounds corners, descends or climbs. This usually means wasted energy for me, as I can corner with the best of them and thereby maintain my speed...however when the pack slows in front of me, the effect is to amplify the braking to the point where entering a corner is at a slow speed and then hard acceleration is required to rejoin the pack as it strings out. I pulled quite a few of we trailers back up to the pack, then would settle back in until the process repeated itself. At lap 9/12, I let the pack get away after we lapped the B group and I couldn't reel the A group back in. A few others had previously dropped off, as the lap speed was increasing commensurate with the attacks taking place at the bottom of the hill into a 90 degree corner and the hill climb as well.

So, it was no mans' land for me: I didn't want to lose too much time from the pack but there was nothing I could do - I was losing strength and my HR was red lining. My average speed dropped quite a bit without the combined drafting effect of the pack to help pull me along so they became untouchable. I then put my head down and tried to stay as aerodynamic as possible in the drops to fight the wind and hide my tears of being dropped shame.

The B lead out group (B's raced 9 laps) caught me in their sprint to the finish but I still had another couple of laps to go, so it was still head down and dig to the finish.

I've questioned my decision to race the A's, but really, it's only a fleeting concern as the racing is much better due to superior bike handling skills, higher speed and length of the races. While my whining portrays a negative side to the racing, being with the A goup is positive for training as this translates to better performance when racing in my age group.

Apparently a quarter hour of work on this machine burned 240+ calories. I can't remember the exact #, but I was surprised that my back and forthing on the erg earned me the right to eat 1.66 twinkies.

C • Yep 10

Light run to test out my ankle. Still sore and have limited ROM but it's holding out well.