Solo PB

Today being Tuesday, I was up early for the usual Tuesday Morning Loop around Gregadoo with the “fast group” I call them the fast group because they’re a group and they go fast. Too fast for me – I’m usually dropped about one-third of the way aroud the loop. On the rare occasion that I stick with them over the second hill, I’m always left for dust on the sprint, despite my best efforts. Just last week I was passed whilst doing 50kph along the straight. Insane.

Anyway, the catch with the Tuesday group is that they leave bang on 6am. They don’t wait. Today I was 4 minutes late. Which meant my group ride had become a solo ride. I’d planned for longer ride anyway, but I’d hoped to draft for the first 15km or so. At first, I entered thoughts of trying to catch them. I could see the flashing red in the distance, but those thoughts (which were always wildly optimistic) faded to nothing as I turned into the headwind.

South along Mitchell Rd is always hard work. It has a hold over me and I always find it tougher than I should. There is almost always some degree of headwind or crosswind, but for whatever reason, it always tests me. So I gave up on pretending I could chase them down and started planning a route. Triple loop? Out towards Tumba? In the end I opted for an out and back, through Ladysmith and along the highway into Wagga, before turning around at the 50km point. I’d consciously chosen a 100km ride, and had decided to take a crack at one of my holy grails – a century at 30kph. I’ve done one before, but it wasn’t solo. I’d started with the pack and drafted along Mitchell Rd, so I don’t count it as a solo, even though I was alone for over 80% of the ride.  I guess on that day, I got up on time.

All things being equal, todays course was relatively flat, with only 450m total of vertical elevation over the 100km. Saying that, the ride had four distinct trends – 15km uphill, 35km downhill and then 35km up and 15km down. I knew that the last 15km would be fast, and with the right conditions, the last 12km leading into the turn around could be pretty quick too, so I’d be able to make up some time if I dropped off.

The ride went to plan, mostly. Mitchell Rd was a bitch up to the top of Gregadoo Hill. According to Strava, my best time for the climb is 9m48, which is significantly better than todays 13m04. From there, the pace quickened as I took advantage of the overall negative gradient. Plus, my legs had kicked in by then and I was able to maintain my a higher speed. Not long after the left turn towards Ladysmith, I hit roadworks. Happy for a short break, I scarfed down an energy bar and some nuun and took off when allowed. The stretch towards Alfredtown was probably the most disappointing of the ride. It seemed a lot harder than I remembered and I struggled to maintain my goal speed. I did, just, and by the time I turned towards Wagga I was relieved. The road into Wagga is good and in the absence of winds and trucks, lends itself to some very enjoyable riding.

By the time I reached the turnaround point, I’d just snuck ahead on time. For the first time in the ride, my average speed was in excess of the 30kph mark. The ride in from Alfredtown, as expected, had been good to me. I was on time, but I knew the second half would be harder. I was starting from a different point and if I didn’t get my fuelling strategy right, I’d tire too early.

I travelled well back towards Forest Hill but then got smacked in the face by the sharp little climb towards the RAAF base. It was clear now that I’d left my climbing legs at home. Very careless really. Still all ups have a down and I practically rolled back into Alfredtown. A hard right and I was off the highway, heading back towards Ladysmith. From this direction, it’s a false flat through the next 15km, through Ladysmith and into Gregadoo Rd.

Once again I was obliged to stop and wait at the roadworks and as before, I took the opportunity to refuel. Out of habit, I gave my tyres a squeeze and they felt a little low. I contemplated thumping some air in but the lights turned green and I was away. It must’ve played on my mind because within a km I’d stopped to rectify the situation. My average speed had dropped down to 29.7kph and I didn’t want to fail on the account of soft tyres.

I have no idea if it worked or if I was just benefitting from the short break, but when I took off again, things seemed a little easier and faster. I maintained a decent speed until I hit the backside of Gregadoo Hill and wound back to a shade over 23kph on the climb. Once again, Strava tells me that my best time is 4m55 and today I did it in 5m08. Honestly, it seemed a lot slower than that.

Regardless, I was at the top, which meant that I could sprint to the finish. I’d dropped back to an average of 29.6kph by the top. By the end of the hill I was almost on par, and as I continued on, I advanced ahead of my goal. By the time I turned towards Red Hill Rd, I had a couple of minutes up my sleeve. This was important because I knew that Red Hill  would chew up that time, especially the nasty little 10% gradient before the peak.

But over I went and from there, it was all downhill, literally. I crossed the 100km mark a thirty seconds inside the 3h20 goal. An easy couple of kms to the end and I was done.

In all, a great ride for me. A new PB and another goal checked off. Final stats for the day: 101.97km in 3h22m41s. Average moving speed 30.2kph. Full details here.

January

It’s been a decent month. I’ve had a three reasonable swims and a bunch of good rides.

I was disappointed to DNF the Audax Alpine Classic for the second year in a row, but I’ve moved on and am contemplating my next challenge.

No runs for the month, but I’m going to start getting back into it next week.

STATS:

3 Swims for 5.5km

13 Rides for 603.22km

0 Runs

Weight: 90.0kg (9am 31 Jan 12)

GOAL PROGRESS:

Annual Triathlon: A bike total of 603km has me 6.5km behind on my swim and 120.6km on my run.

A Year @ 30: Average speed for the year to date is 25.59km. A couple of my longer rides have been significantly slower due to the number/difficulty of hills. Had I not ridden these, my average speed so far would have been 29.39kph. So the goal is very gettable. As winter rolls in and my rides get shorter and faster, the average speed should jump up pretty quickly.

Black and Red

I ride an Apollo Giro C 2009.

It’s a great bike. I love it. I love it for many reasons, one of which is it is not a Giant. You can’t turn around in Wagga without seeing a Giant bike. I have nothing against them, they’re great, but they are also common as muck (in the nicest possible way). Having said that, there are a fair few Cervelos around and I’d happily be seen on one of those.

Anyway, I like my bike. According to the LBS that sold it to me, there are three in town, although I’ve never seen another out and/or about. Which means that I can spot my bike in a crowd and I feel a little special.

The only thing about the bike that gets to me (on occassion) is the lack of colour. Apart from the splash of red on the rims and the seat, it’s just black and white. I like the carbon pattern on the frame, but I’d really like it to have a bit more colour overall.

So, I’ve been slowly swapping out components/accessories to a new colour scheme. I’ve gone for black and red. I’m not sure why, but I suspect the success of Cadel Evans and BMC last year has something to do with it. Saying that, I did pick the red Speedplay pedals before their victory, so who knows.

I started by swapping out the handlebar tape a few months ago. After that, I switched my Gatorskins over to Hutchinson Fusion 3s so that I could have a red tyre wall. Most recently, the red pedals have been fitted. So now the bike is very much black and red.

So it may be black and red, but it is not a BMC (as I was asked today). The “Apollo” on the downtube should make that obvious.

Adjustments

About half way through 2011, I found myself wandering around Sydney with time to kill. So I went over to Moore Park to the The Bike and Lifestyle Show. I had a great time eyeballing the best new bikes and gear, but left very depressed as I’d not spent a cent. The biggest mistake I made was not buying a BMC jersey that was massively reduced becasue about two days later, Cadel won the TdF. Anyway, not being overly familiar with the area (despite growing up in Sydney), I wandered and found myself outside Velosophy

By the time I left, I’d bought a set of Speedplay Zero pedals and cleats.

I have a couple of reasons for changing from the stock Shimano 105 that came with my bike. One reason – I’ve been through three or four sets of replacement cleats for the 105s. Now this is probably because I walk in them too much. As a general rule, I walk in them as little as possible, but even that seems to be enough to cause rapid(ish) wear and tear. One of the worst falls I ever had was a result of failure to clip in properly. The failure was brought about by degradation of the cleat. I resolved at that time to get more durable cleats.

Rather than immediately installing the new cleats and pedals, I waited. I also needed new shoes since my R105s were “snug”. I bought them when I bought my bike and I should have got (at least) a half size bigger. Added to that, I really really wanted a pair of triathlon shoes. As it happened, a few months later, a pair of TR52s came on sale and I snapped up a pair at a sizeable discount (before Christmas, but after my sprint Tri)

So I had a new pair of shoes, pedals and cleats sitting in my room. Now a wise man would give himself time to get used to the new combination before attempting any major rides, but I’m not a wise man. With less than a week to go until the Audax Alpine Classic, I’m still getting used to the new set-up.

I had planned to wait until after, but I found my feet extremely sore after a recent training ride and decided I’d had enough. I was no longer prepared to put up with shoes that were a bit tight, so I switched over.

So the last couple of rides have been all about adjusting to the new setup. The speedplay cleats have 15°of lateral float. I’ve also set them up so that the cleats are as close to the heel as possible. I’ve always had my cleat right under the ball of my foot but I recently read this blog article about cleat position and it made a lot of sense to me. Various other articles and reports reach a similar conclusion, but just as many refute it. For me, I’ve decided to give it a go.

It will take some getting used to and a bit of tinkering and adjusting. I feel like the right foot has too much float, and I’m not keen on that. My left foot feels good. I’m going to reduce the float on the right and then take another ride. I just hope I can find a satisfactory position before I hit Mt Buffalo on Sunday.

30

One of my earliest goals on the bike was to complete a 30@30 – that’s 30km at 30kph. It took me a while to complete it, but once I did, I wanted more. Eventually I reached another milestone – 100km at 30kph. Of course, I probably couldn’t do that today, but I could once.

The @30 goal has had me thinking. How far could I ride at 30kph? How long could I maintain it for? An hour, a day, a month. How about a whole year? Probably not. Since I probably can’t do it, I’m going to set it as a goal.

So, in addition to every other goal for the year, I’m going to set one more:

Average 30kph on the bike in 2012

Regardless of how many kms I manage this year, 500 or 5000, I want to average 30kph overall. Individual rides can be less, but by the years end, my average has to get up there. So far I’m on track. I’ve done 45.22km @ 30.6kph. Tomorrow I’m heading out on a hills training ride so I suspect that average to drop significantly. But it’ll get back up there – I hope.

As a point of comparison, in 2011 I covered 3,114kms at an average speed of 26.9kph.

The LogBook

On the sidebar I’ve added three widgets for keeping tracking of my training for the year. Apart from recording last swim/bike/run, it also keeps a track of my YTD kms and my position in the annual triathlon. I think it’s pretty self explanatory but hey, I’ll explain it anyway.

As of right now, I’ve swum 1.3km and rode 37.8km. At a 1:10:5 S:R:B ratio, for every 1.3km I swim, I have to run 13km and ride 65km. Which means that as of right now, I’m 13km behind on my run target and 27.2km behind my bike target.

Tomorrow, I’ll probably get out for a ride in the morning. If that happens, I’ll probably do about 42kms and my bike YTD would be almost 80kms. That would then place my annual swim target at 1.6kms and the swim would go from being the LEAD discipline to being 0.3km behind.

I’ll do my best to update the widgets regularly.

Clear as mud?

Annual Triathlon

My primary goal for 2012 is clear – complete a Half Ironman. To succeed in that goal, I’ll need to do some serious training, and in that, I’ve embedded goal number 2 for the year:

Complete a triathlon for the year. I’m calling it my Annual Triathlon, although that’s not the greatest name because it the word “annual” implies that it happens once a year, every year. Which it doesn’t. I thought about “circannual” because it implies a year long event, but then it also implies yearly repetition. I think the most apt word is “sidereal”, but it’s a little wanky in this context. So annual it is. If anyone can think of a better word, let me know.

So, what is it exactly? Simply put, it’s a training regime that meets the 1:10:5 swim:run:bike ratio (note s:r:b not s:b:r). For every 1km I swim, I want to run 10km and ride 50km.

Now it’s not a regulation triathlon ratio, but then what is? All of the official distances have different swim:run:bike ratios. A sprint is 1:6.6:4. A Half IM is (roughly) 1:11.1:4.3. The Elite Energy “ultimate” triathlon is at a ratio of 1:10.5:6, so clearly, there is no “normal”.

Other things to consider: I’d like to run at least 1000km this year, and I’ve been keen to ride at least 5000km in a calendar year too. So there’s the 1:5 ratio sorted. 1000km on foot would mean 100km in the water, which for me would be MASSIVE. Then again, that’s only two kms a week, which really isn’t that hard anymore.

So there it is: my ANNUAL triathlon.