I woke up this morning feeling half decent but I knew I was still not well because it was hard to get some breakfast down, when I'm feeling good I have no problem putting down a 5-egg omelet with veggies and some toast. On shitty days I have a hard time finishing a bowl of cereal with some toast. On my way to Jordan I felt even shittier and really didn't think I would make it to the first hill with the group but I pushed through and made it to the top of the first one by spinning a low gear.
Next up was a pretty tough climb called Park and I started to feel really good half way up so I put in a good effort for the rest of the climb but decided not to go up Moutainview to try and maintain my good feeling. That all went for a complete shit when Chown rode by in a group of 8ish and told me to get on, so I tried to bridge for a while and he dropped back at a turn to help me finish the job. I pulled through a few times but that was it, easy spin to Tim's.
On the ride home with Rob W. I was getting very discouraged about how shitty I felt which made me feel even shittier and I was in a downward spiral of shittiness. I had no confidence left in myself until I read the comment from De Cal on my last post, if I keep telling myself that I'm burnt out and I don't feel good then I'll never get out of this rut. It's all about being confident and pushing through the bad times like pushing through a great big pile of chicken manure, just get it done. So screw it, I don't care what my body is telling me tomorow because I sure as hell won't listen. I'm going to put the hammer down until I don't think I can go any longer and then I'm going to go even harder, there's no way I'm coming home tomorow knowing that I didn't put it all out there. If that means getting dropped in the first lap, then so be it.
I don't think I'll be racing the P2A next weekend. I'll be taking Monday off for sure, Tuesday will be an easy ride, Wednesday and Friday will be longer rides, Thursday I might do some intensity and I'm going to go hard on the weekend club rides. The week after I'll see where I am and hopefully hop back in my Base 2 block and we'll see how she goes for Mansfield.
Good luck to everyone racing tomorow at Mansfield, HoN, and Bronte.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
A new perspective on workload
So I've been putting in some pretty long ass days in the saddle hoping that lots of saddle time will result in quicker race times, not the case. Although it can work for some, everyone responds differently to various training methods. The fun part about training is finding the way that works best for you, at the same time, switching things up to adapt to what point you are in the season and to avoid a plateau. Going in to the Good Friday race, I had defenitely put in more training than 95% of the field but what does that mean ? So I've been on my bike a lot, big deal, maybe if we were doing a 6h endurance ride I would have been one of the strongest finishers. A 6h endurance ride !?!? That's not a race, so I've got to start training for racing and not for riding.
Since workload is durantion x intensity, if I were to keep putting in the same amount of time on the bike but just raise intensity my workload would be too much to handle and I definitely wouldn't make it to the end of a 3 week block before my body gives out. Less time, more kicking the shit out of myself then adding more time and more kicking the shit out of myself is how I hope the next couple months go if I respond well, if not, simply back to the drawing board.
Another thing I did wrong was putting in 15hrs in the last 4 days of my rest week while adding intensity and having a cold on top of all that. Coming into this week, first week of my 3 week Base 2 block, I'm fatigued and still trying to get over a cold. I'm cooked. A very wise man (The Coach) once told me; "Those hours, they don't come free you know." Words to live by.
Since Monday, I've put 5 hours on the bike and as I type this I still feel very tired. Yesterday was a good workout on the trainer, warmed up then did 5 reps of 5on/5off (minutes that is) and cooled down for a while. Today I was struggling trying to get some easy spinning done, both days were on the trainer because the temperature has done a huge drop and there's no way I can handle it the way I'm feeling now. Especially if I want to race this weekend.
Tomorow I'm going to meet the club in Jordan and push hard until Smithville then I will take in a massive amount of calories and spin home the flat way at a pace so slow I might even tip over.
Oh, and although I can take credit for some of the realisations, 90% of what I just wrote was what Nathan Chown told me. He doesn't read this so I could have taken the credit, but I told him that one day he will read it, and he will. Even if he doesn't get through a whole post, this page WILL be displayed on his monitor.
For those of you that do read, see you around.
Since workload is durantion x intensity, if I were to keep putting in the same amount of time on the bike but just raise intensity my workload would be too much to handle and I definitely wouldn't make it to the end of a 3 week block before my body gives out. Less time, more kicking the shit out of myself then adding more time and more kicking the shit out of myself is how I hope the next couple months go if I respond well, if not, simply back to the drawing board.
Another thing I did wrong was putting in 15hrs in the last 4 days of my rest week while adding intensity and having a cold on top of all that. Coming into this week, first week of my 3 week Base 2 block, I'm fatigued and still trying to get over a cold. I'm cooked. A very wise man (The Coach) once told me; "Those hours, they don't come free you know." Words to live by.
Since Monday, I've put 5 hours on the bike and as I type this I still feel very tired. Yesterday was a good workout on the trainer, warmed up then did 5 reps of 5on/5off (minutes that is) and cooled down for a while. Today I was struggling trying to get some easy spinning done, both days were on the trainer because the temperature has done a huge drop and there's no way I can handle it the way I'm feeling now. Especially if I want to race this weekend.
Tomorow I'm going to meet the club in Jordan and push hard until Smithville then I will take in a massive amount of calories and spin home the flat way at a pace so slow I might even tip over.
Oh, and although I can take credit for some of the realisations, 90% of what I just wrote was what Nathan Chown told me. He doesn't read this so I could have taken the credit, but I told him that one day he will read it, and he will. Even if he doesn't get through a whole post, this page WILL be displayed on his monitor.
For those of you that do read, see you around.
Monday, April 5, 2010
I'll take it when I get it
Planned rest day today turned into a 3.5hr mtb ride to the trails in Port. During the Mud Lake loop I seen the SHCC crew going the other way and joined them for most of the ride. We put out a small forest fire and then parted ways and I rode some more trails at a good clip before battling the crosswind home.
New thoughts on racing, making specific goals are pointless at this point of the season. Every race has the same main goal; to go beyond just draining the legs. Like nothing you would ever do in a workout or a group ride. Even if it means not taking the win.
New thoughts on racing, making specific goals are pointless at this point of the season. Every race has the same main goal; to go beyond just draining the legs. Like nothing you would ever do in a workout or a group ride. Even if it means not taking the win.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Down for the count
I felt much better this morning waking up at 6:30 than the past 2 mornings so I thought that ment today might even be a little better than yesterday. Not the case, by the time we met the group in Fenwick I had already been riding for almost 2 hours but I felt pretty good. We rode pretty hard into the headwind heading west and I started to feel the burn. Once we got to our traditional stop at the corner of some road and some other road the pack split into 2.
The echelon was really starting to kick the shit out of me, I pulled through every time anyways, I should have stuck in the back. Oh well, after a little while I completely blew up and had to drop back... way back and eventually lost sight of them as they were sprinting for signs. I made the wrong turn but was lucky to see another cyclist who was heading to Smithville.
I had to keep my head down in shame as I pulled into the Tim Horton's parking lot because I knew I was going to get it from Chown, and I did. If I could remember what he told me to put as my blog title then I would have made it that, something along the lines of "Riding your bike all the time doesn't do nothing and you don't know how to ride your bike". All in good fun, my boss on the farm sais worse to me when I do a good job.
I'm surprised at the legs I had for yesterday and half of today after Friday's race and being sick. Both days were 4.5hrs each, I think I'm gonna sleep for a few days now.
Peace
The echelon was really starting to kick the shit out of me, I pulled through every time anyways, I should have stuck in the back. Oh well, after a little while I completely blew up and had to drop back... way back and eventually lost sight of them as they were sprinting for signs. I made the wrong turn but was lucky to see another cyclist who was heading to Smithville.
I had to keep my head down in shame as I pulled into the Tim Horton's parking lot because I knew I was going to get it from Chown, and I did. If I could remember what he told me to put as my blog title then I would have made it that, something along the lines of "Riding your bike all the time doesn't do nothing and you don't know how to ride your bike". All in good fun, my boss on the farm sais worse to me when I do a good job.
I'm surprised at the legs I had for yesterday and half of today after Friday's race and being sick. Both days were 4.5hrs each, I think I'm gonna sleep for a few days now.
Peace
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Crack of Dawn
I was able to see the sun rise this morning while getting ready for my ride. I was out the door by 7:15 and headed for Fryin' Guys to meet up with the St.CCC crew, big turnout today. A chest cough was added to my massive congestion this morning so I wasn't too sure how the ride was going to go. It was the hilly route today on top of that.
There was a small break on the first climb that I was letting go but I started to feel good and bridged up before the top, the wind was so much warmer on top of the escarpment it was unreal, like 5 degrees hotter, maybe more. The next climb went much better and I stood up and put a good solo effort in and went back down to the last rider and came back up. My legs were feeling a little burnt and I was coughing and blowing out massive amounts of mucus but other than that I wasn't feeling too bad at all. The next big climb I followed an attack at the bottom and we battled it out until Nathan Chown came flying by us and there was no chance for a response. We did some good tempo into the headwind and I was taking some long pulls and there was still no sign of being cooked, if only I had rode like this yesterday.
We did a sort of figure 8 loop and made our way to Mountainview climb which would be the longest one of the day. I broke away early and stayed away for quite some time until a group of 6 or so caught me and I sat in for a bit and broke away again, this would end up being my best effort of the day. On top of the climb the 7 of us started an echelon and Chown put out a massive attack and would survive until Smithville. He had us working hard in the echelon to bridge and one by one people were dropped until there was 3 of us that joined him and we spun easy into Smithville.
After Tim's the group split up and there was 5 of us (including Rob Watt and Jeff Moote) battling the headwing until we climbed Saylor's and parted ways. When I got home I went right to my bed and was unable to move for half an hour until I got up to make some food and now I'm back in bed. Lots of fluids and vitamin C and we'll see what tomorow brings.
There was a small break on the first climb that I was letting go but I started to feel good and bridged up before the top, the wind was so much warmer on top of the escarpment it was unreal, like 5 degrees hotter, maybe more. The next climb went much better and I stood up and put a good solo effort in and went back down to the last rider and came back up. My legs were feeling a little burnt and I was coughing and blowing out massive amounts of mucus but other than that I wasn't feeling too bad at all. The next big climb I followed an attack at the bottom and we battled it out until Nathan Chown came flying by us and there was no chance for a response. We did some good tempo into the headwind and I was taking some long pulls and there was still no sign of being cooked, if only I had rode like this yesterday.
We did a sort of figure 8 loop and made our way to Mountainview climb which would be the longest one of the day. I broke away early and stayed away for quite some time until a group of 6 or so caught me and I sat in for a bit and broke away again, this would end up being my best effort of the day. On top of the climb the 7 of us started an echelon and Chown put out a massive attack and would survive until Smithville. He had us working hard in the echelon to bridge and one by one people were dropped until there was 3 of us that joined him and we spun easy into Smithville.
After Tim's the group split up and there was 5 of us (including Rob Watt and Jeff Moote) battling the headwing until we climbed Saylor's and parted ways. When I got home I went right to my bed and was unable to move for half an hour until I got up to make some food and now I'm back in bed. Lots of fluids and vitamin C and we'll see what tomorow brings.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Good Friday Road Race
Time: 1:24:12 (-59s) 39.4km/h Position: 18/190 (S4/M3)
Last night I started to get a little congested and this morning it got worse and I had a slight cough, not a good start. It took a little longer to get there then I thought so by the time I got to the registration tent I had 30min to warm-up, that's if they wouldn't have ran out of pind, which they did. If it wasn't for Brandon Etzl's mom then I might not have had a number on my jersey.
The start felt pretty good until 10min later where there was a huge crash with carbon and sunglasses flying everywhere that had me ride off the road. I slowed down a bit because I've never seen a road crash from slow close and some guy came by me and said the medical team was right behind us already. De Cal had taken off on a two-man break and I had no gas to bridge.
The next two laps felt very uncomfortable, I was having a hard time bridging small gaps and keeping up on the climbs. By the third lap I started to feel much better and we had realed in all but one, who ended up winning the race. I was right up at the front and had enough gas to pick up the pace when it was my turn to pull. About 3km away from the line I tried to get away but that didn't work at all and neither did my second attempt. Coming in to the last corner I knew my race was over because I had spent too much energy trying to get away rather than save it for a group sprint. I made my way through the cassette to my biggest gear and started to get a little momentum when there was a huge pile up right in front of me that I managed to miss but in the heat of it all I forgot I was still in my biggest gear and the top 15 or so were already across the line. I took it easy because there was no one around me and I managed to pick up another spot when Dan Dakin ran his bike across the line.
I will chalk this one up as a learning experience and hopefully things go different at the Burlington road in just over a month. I'm excited to compare our average speed to that of the S3 field, our winner was 40km/h right on. Huge congrats the De Cal for being in a break for so long and still managing to take the field sprint and to Etzl for his win in the Cadet field.
What a perfect day for a race, over 20 in April, nice. Now it's time for some fishing.
Last night I started to get a little congested and this morning it got worse and I had a slight cough, not a good start. It took a little longer to get there then I thought so by the time I got to the registration tent I had 30min to warm-up, that's if they wouldn't have ran out of pind, which they did. If it wasn't for Brandon Etzl's mom then I might not have had a number on my jersey.
The start felt pretty good until 10min later where there was a huge crash with carbon and sunglasses flying everywhere that had me ride off the road. I slowed down a bit because I've never seen a road crash from slow close and some guy came by me and said the medical team was right behind us already. De Cal had taken off on a two-man break and I had no gas to bridge.
The next two laps felt very uncomfortable, I was having a hard time bridging small gaps and keeping up on the climbs. By the third lap I started to feel much better and we had realed in all but one, who ended up winning the race. I was right up at the front and had enough gas to pick up the pace when it was my turn to pull. About 3km away from the line I tried to get away but that didn't work at all and neither did my second attempt. Coming in to the last corner I knew my race was over because I had spent too much energy trying to get away rather than save it for a group sprint. I made my way through the cassette to my biggest gear and started to get a little momentum when there was a huge pile up right in front of me that I managed to miss but in the heat of it all I forgot I was still in my biggest gear and the top 15 or so were already across the line. I took it easy because there was no one around me and I managed to pick up another spot when Dan Dakin ran his bike across the line.
I will chalk this one up as a learning experience and hopefully things go different at the Burlington road in just over a month. I'm excited to compare our average speed to that of the S3 field, our winner was 40km/h right on. Huge congrats the De Cal for being in a break for so long and still managing to take the field sprint and to Etzl for his win in the Cadet field.
What a perfect day for a race, over 20 in April, nice. Now it's time for some fishing.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Yep, race season is here
For everything to go wrong during a week there has to be a race on the weekend. Lets go back a bit for a good recap.
I got the tubulars mounted Tuesday night on the second try and they looked super sexy on my road bike. Big thanks to De Cal for swapping the cassette for me so I can take them out for their first ride yesterday for a 1.5hr loop, but 15min away from home the back tire got soft. By the time my ride came it was completely flat.
I went over to Chown's to see what was goin on and got a 36$ parking ticket for blocking the sidewalk for 5 minutes. After class, I drove to Liberty! and Derek helped me out with some Stan's, the guys there are sick. Nothing worked out so Chown hooked me up with some tubulars and I got those remounted today so I should be good for tomorow.
While they were settling I took the beater out down the Canal Path and L2L stuff to do a quick lap of the Mill trail then I took the roads home. I did a couple sprints to open the legs up and now I'm feeling pretty confident for tomorow.
Got my license from the OCA today to find out that I am signed up for Senior Elite. My receipt sais Sr.Ex so I'm not sure what happened, I thought about it for a bit and was super pumped for a whole 2 minutes to go and get destroyed at Mansfield. I realised that I want to earn my spot in that field and not get in from a typo.
If that was just an April fool's joke then it might take the award for best prank from Rob W.
Exactly 14 hours until the gun (or whistle?) goes off to start the first race of the season.
I got the tubulars mounted Tuesday night on the second try and they looked super sexy on my road bike. Big thanks to De Cal for swapping the cassette for me so I can take them out for their first ride yesterday for a 1.5hr loop, but 15min away from home the back tire got soft. By the time my ride came it was completely flat.
I went over to Chown's to see what was goin on and got a 36$ parking ticket for blocking the sidewalk for 5 minutes. After class, I drove to Liberty! and Derek helped me out with some Stan's, the guys there are sick. Nothing worked out so Chown hooked me up with some tubulars and I got those remounted today so I should be good for tomorow.
While they were settling I took the beater out down the Canal Path and L2L stuff to do a quick lap of the Mill trail then I took the roads home. I did a couple sprints to open the legs up and now I'm feeling pretty confident for tomorow.
Got my license from the OCA today to find out that I am signed up for Senior Elite. My receipt sais Sr.Ex so I'm not sure what happened, I thought about it for a bit and was super pumped for a whole 2 minutes to go and get destroyed at Mansfield. I realised that I want to earn my spot in that field and not get in from a typo.
If that was just an April fool's joke then it might take the award for best prank from Rob W.
Exactly 14 hours until the gun (or whistle?) goes off to start the first race of the season.
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