Time trials=Tues Night

I met with Ian and Jamie at STromlo to commence 4 weeks of time trials.
The aim is to keep speed up on the flats and I think this is going to do it.
We linked sections of fire trail and minimal singletrack for a lap of about 5 minutes.

1st effort 5.21s
2nd effort 5.25s
3rd effort 5.35s
4th effort 5.24s

Well almost consistant but who cares these were a blast and we played cat and mouse with Ian and Jamie giving me a 20 sec head start, to even things out.

Sunday afternoon 1hour-Easy week ending

A crusy one to end the end of an easy week. I love easy weeks and just cruising! I threw in single track from Point Hut to Tuggeranong followed by another 40 minutes of riding.

Thursday Crits

Thursday crits at Majura an awesome track run at the back section incorporating a short section of car body. The race started Ok entering the single track 5th when someone decided they couldn't ride a pinch climb, calling track didn't seem to help any and the frustration kicked in. From here I took it relatively easy I was too bumbed.

Mental note chill out, who cares!
I got over it and just enjoyed the ride at a group ride pace.
Followed up by some flowy intestinal track a few times with Ian and Deb and a great wind down for my week off.

The 29er rocked on this track!

Wed 1.5 hours

Stromlo 1.5hr group ride

Sparrow Hill Tour on a 29er

I entered this race for the pure fun factor. Who doesn't like to ride Sparrow Hill. It's so fast and flowy and today Paul Cole linked it in reverse with a perfect mix of technical sections thanks to Spagetti Western bobsled and everything in between. 31kms total.

I've ridden the Paragon 29er a couple of times now and just love it. It shames other bikes for handling 29 or 26 inch and the corner grip, braking and traction are unbeleivable. Im converted!

I ran WTB Nano Raptors tubeless using Bontrager rim strips and valves. These rim strips are awesome and make Stans look like a KM-Mart kit! The Bontrager strips are a harder plastic that line the rim wall to the edge and are a hard plastic, once mounted they don't move. The tyre valve is all metal and mounts seperately to the rim strip, so in a race you could just add a tube if you flatted. Me likey!!!

Having said this I didn't bring a tube to todays race and tore the sidewall of my front tyre on a downhill rocky fire road just a few ks from the finish.

Oh well I had a blast anyway!

Wk 3/4 Hill intervals

Well I finished my Hill repeats.
Wk3 Sunday - I was on fire duty so I pushed a 40 minute session on the trainer, with focus on strength. I pumped the trainer up to max being level 20 This worked well because it was close to 40 degrees so to do hills would have been pure punishment.

Wk4 Hills We met and only rode climb. This did turn out to be a 2 hour ride though and a was hanging for a mtb ride. I will throw in another hill climb towards the end of the week concluding the strength build.

All hills done in hard gears pushing a low cadence with focus on strength build.

Week 2 Intervals Isaacs Hill

I drove to Torrens with the plan that this would make me focus on the task at hand and it worked.

I rode a solid 3 hill repeats at around 11 mins in length.

Max HR 187
Avr 183

Its the end of week 2 and Im feeling like everything is improving power, efficiency and definetely my out of the saddle climbing especially at the higher when at close to max HR.

Saturday 1.5hrs

I met with Ian at his place. I wanted to do a fun easier ride to get myself feeling good on the X0 Anthem. I m still getting that slower steering not as agile feel from the bike and just needed a standard short loop to add some faith in this bike.

It felt good and I think its all coming together. I dont feel as sluggish out of the saddle anymore. I was getting a feeling that the geometry of this bike favoured a seated rider but all that changing.

A good fun ride at 65%

Thursday Crits

Majura Crits an exciting place for the crits (I think) as it throws in some more technical variations than what the STromlo short track has to offer. I often feel strong technically so this type of track suits me.

The training is starting to feel as if its paying off. I started strong (as usual) and leap into 4th off the line and kept this position until the fire road at the start finish.

As usual this is where I start to fail but I felt strong I was out of the saddle and pushing fairly hard despite the heart rate. Anyway I think I had that feeling you get when you know your improving and things are looking up.....9th overall.