Urban Ride - 3 hour

So we decided to do something a bit different from our usual Mt Stromlo laps and decided an urban ride might be worth a shot.

I met with Ian and Jansen and rode from Curtin around Lake Burley Griffin.
Climbed Mt Pleasant then rode to the base of Ainslie, rode the Majura fitness loop to Watson zipped through the City and linked back up to the lake and proceeded back to Curtin.

The highlight was a nice steady climb to the top of Mt Pleasant. Unfortuanetly with a no guns blairing sulute :(

The decent on singletrack was fast and fun.

In total just under 3hours at 85% - 95%

2.5hr Moderate Sunday ride

I put a longer stem on the wifes Trance X2 and hooked up with Jamie and Ian for a 2 1/2hr ride at Stromlo today.

It's great to be able to jump on something different and go for a spin, the Trance soakes up everthing so well. We did a long lap then rode/walked the World Cup climb.
Being on the Trance I found it hard to get enough weight over the front especially on this climb so half way around when Ian ripped a hole in his tyre I lowered the stem that put me into a similar position to my Anthem.

I only got to ride the last half of the lap being fully comfortable but must remember this for April when I will be using this bike when I get tired.

Mt Taylor Thurday night crits

Mt Taylor Hill climb, Mar 2008 23:46, 13.25 Avr Speed
Mt Taylor Hill CLimb Dec 2008 22.26, 14.04 Avr Speed

Time difference of 1:20 and up about 0.8km/h
I started conservatively getting to my LT of 174 quickly then steadily sat on 182-184HR.
I didn't want to max on the start then have to recover and go again. The Stromlo crits I have been sitting in the top 3 for the first 3 laps then slowing down, should be interesting racing the next few crits with a HRM to see if not maxing so early makes a difference. Crits start again in January.

Im planning to slowly loose more weight and strictly stick adhere to the build phase this year.

Planning a 3 hour tomorrow.

Recovery Ride - 1hour

Well after last nights time trail and hill climb a ecovery ride was due.
I met up with Jamie and Ian and rode an easy Stromlo red lap.

I won't have a chance to ride again before this Thursdays Crits but am Planning a 3-4hour Long Slow Ride LSR this Sunday and will be building this up over the coming weeks.

Mountain Taylor

So I did Mount Taylor as a practice run for this Thursdays Crits. My average mean HR was 182 on the bike and down to 176 when hiking the two steeper sections. Im not expecting much from this Thursdays crit especially since I haven't trained for it. Dirt Crits are great fun but won't be interferring with my base training.

First Post - Lactic Threshold time trial

Wow so I have my own training blog.

I will be using this as a tool to track my cycle based training. In the past my system has been pretty minimal and haphazard. Lets just say marking up a monthly calendar hasn't been effective so far.

Since I am aiming to ride my first 24 this April at Majura Pines I am hoping this tool will keep me on track.

So far:

Well I started training after taking a two week break after the disasterous effort at the Highland Fling, 100km. After a total bullsup at the Fling thinking the track would come back through the start transitition, (I only brought enough food and water for 30k's!) The race from then on turned out to be disasterous. Two weeks was needed to get my head back, to recompose, to think and draft a plan for the upcoming season. Note to self next time plan and familiarise prior to the day of the event!

So I have done a few rides again marking them on my calendar which got me thinking if I am going to ride 24 hours I better start planning and documenting my training.
We all know that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. At least I will be able to go through my records and make changes as necessary.

So it starts tonight! What better way to start then to do a time trial to find out my Lactic Threshold LT. So in a 2 and half hour ride I aimed for a 25 minute flat time trial to determine my average HR that will form my Lactic Threshold LT.

Results:
Average HR = 174
Max HR = 189

After this I climbed Mount Taylor in prep for this Thursdays Dirt Crit and tried a fe different things like throwing the bike over my shoulder cyclecross style and running up the steeper sections.

Anyway having an annual documented time trial like this Thursdays Mount Taylor Climb is an easy way to check yearly progress. Ideally I would like to do this 3 or four times in the year.

Planning for a plan
So now it's time to build a solid base. With these figures, in hand, I will be able to train more efficiently and with a plan (to be posted soon)