Sea-to-Sky highway closed for up to five days....
Full story here.
The only other way to get up there is to drive up through the interior of BC to Lytton, than back down from via Pemberton. Only about 10 hours... each way....
So it looks like pre-ride this weekend is out.
I was going to do one last weekend and didn't because there was a music festival in Pemberton which was causing (many hour) long traffic jams along this highway..
Sigh...
Out to Iona for EV TT clinic given by John Tolkamp.
After did Iona as 12km ITT from the east end. Reasonable effort, 320 Pavg, 42.8kph avg.
Yesterday I was out at Neaves Road, did three times out and back for 42km in just over one hour. I thought Pavg was down a bit at 290 watts. Avg speed of 41.6kph.
Weather was warm with high humidity and with a bit of a cross (diagonal) wind.
Because this is a short 7km course, there where a lot of turnarounds (5) and the average speed would be a bit higher without them. The 1:01:29 for 42.7 km would have been done in probably about 2 minutes less (30 seconds lost per turnaround, have to do them slow as there is traffic on the road and no marshals). Getting an overall speed close to perhaps 43kph.
I'm not sure why power was low. I did lower the bars a another 5mm a week or two back. I may be getting low enough that power production is being compromised. I'll raise it back up for my Squamish pre-ride next weekend.
Today was a 4 hour L2 endurance ride out to Silverdale and back via Stave Lake and Dewdney Trunk Road.... Nothing hard or fast.
Thanks to Helen Martindale for getting some pictures. More available here...
Here is Derek getting me at the line...
BCMCA Comox RR on Saturday. Beautiful day, managed a fourth overall, just getting pipped at the line by Derek Tripp. The 50-59 group went a lot faster this year, averaging 40.4 until getting caught by the 40-49 group just after the climb and at the highway on the fourth (last) lap. Last year we we averaging about 38.5 and got caught on the climb just before the highway on the third lap.
Overall I was feeling stronger on the hill than last year. And had no trouble moving through the field to follow the lead riders into the sprint finish. Don Gilmore rocketed by us at about 250m to take first with a big gap (former track champ, legs like tree trunks, BIG watts at high cadence...) I followed the lead rider in for second, but sat up just past what I thought was the finish, only to get pipped by Derek who knew it was actually just past the intersection...
Derek had a very good ride. Along with Mike Sevcov he dragged Duane Martindale and myself up the small climb at a furious pace. (With disgusted glances back at us when we refused to come up and take a turn on the climb.) Duane and I where just barely keeping up and then needed a minute or two after the top to get our breath back before we could start going to the front again.
Today was the Mt. Washington (Vancouver Island version) HC... Just over 1000m over 16km. Lots of sections > 10%, plus some short downhill sections. I was tired from yesterday and found it very hard to get any watts on the steep sections. Anytime cadence dropped below abou 50-60 watts went down to about 280-290. Anytime cadence (i.e. lower grade) rose back above 70-75 watts followed and 320-330 was easy... My time was 1:07:42, almost 8 minutes slower than last year (last year was not done after a RR though, so was rested.)
The dreaded 6m practice TT's tonight (start hard for one minute > 400watts, then average down to 330 watts overall). These are without a doubt the hardest workouts I do...
Shorter higher intensity (>600watts for 30 seconds); or VO2Max (350) for one minute, rest one minute and repeat; 2-3 minutes > 600 average down to 300, 6-20 minutes starting easy and doing L4 etc, All are easier...
Yesterday I was out for an easy spin up SFU with Michel Pelletier.
On Monday out to Iona for Escape Velocity TT clinic put on by John Tolkamp.
Sunday was also McNeal Road, on the TT bike. 2x20min at L3. Finished with 10x1m at 350 with 1 minute rest between.
Neaves Road for some more TT work today.
First 2x20m @ L3, then after a rest, 10x1m @ L4 with 1m rest between.
I had trouble getting power out for the 20m @ L3. Should have been up around 300w Pavg. About 267 and 269 Pavg respectively...
On the other hand the 1m intervals felt good. Easily keeping the power up for the full minute.. Some of the one minutes rests where a bit longer as I had to work around traffic etc.
Tomorrow I'm out to the Tour de Delta to drive a support car in the womens RR.
Yesterday was Ford Road, 6x5m TT practice. Start with two minutes at L3 (280+) then gradually move up to L5 (350+) at the finish. All at as high a cadence as tolerable... Did manage over 100RPM for at least two intervals.
Today was Anmore Tour. I managed to get a bad cramp in my right quad attempting to tighten my crank (torque wrench slipped) just before starting out.... First hour was ok. But combination of third hard day, sore shoulders AND sore quad made the second hour a bit of a dog...
Bit of fun this weekend. I'm doing some volunteer time with a fun gig, driver of a support car for the Womens RR at the Tour de Delta... as they say, the best place to watch the race. Looking forward to it.
Another Ford Road L2/L3 to open the week.
The trip to the physio yesterday seems to have helped. The shoulder pain (trapezoids?) that has been really bothering me for the last few weeks and making riding really unpleasant was almost absent today... It was making it very hard to keep any focus and effort etc. Which is why the TSS totals for the last two weeks has been falling.
The legs (probably because of the low TSS load last week) also felt great.
The higher cadence drills from the last few weeks also seemed to be helping. I saw a definite improvement in my ability to stay up around 95-100 RPM for extended periods... Still not getting a lot of power at high RPM... but it appears to be getting higher.
Best time this year for VVV 10km TT. But still about 22 seconds slower than best time last year (July 14, 2007, 13:48). But that was in almost perfect conditions. Today we had about 5-8km wind from the East (against going out, help coming back, very atypical for this course...)
Then I averaged 43.8 with Pavg 368. Today 42.6 with Pavg 42.6. Again more wind. But also today I was using the Zipp Disc and Aeolus 6.5 on the front (last year the 6.5's front and back.)
So I'm a little down year to year for power... (last year the steady diet of Ryder 8km TT's really helped). But I suspect CDA is a bit better (Zipp Disc and bars about 2cm lower.)
Not sure why, but the HRM kept dropping out...
Glued (finally) the Zipp Disc earlier in the week. So wanted to make sure it was ship-shape and break it in (Crr reduces a bit after the first 50km or so...) So it was out to Neaves Road and a little TT practice.
There was a bit of a wind from the south (maybe 5km/hr). I had already decided that I wanted to try going out with a lower Pavg and then increasing on the way back. I was reasonably successful doing that. But also overall about a minute slower than last weekend. It didn't help that I had a bad headache.
Pavg was 320 out and 331 back.
Too hot to go hard tonight. So Ford Road L2 with some L3. With some some high cadence work. About 5 minutes > 105RPM. Plus a slowish climb up Westwood on the return trip.
Bikerader.com has a nice daily podcast during the TDF. I enjoyed it quite a lot last year while out on my training rides...
Some others I found but havn't listened to (yet...):
