Sunday, April 26, 2009

Intervals and more intervals...

Friday was 4x3lap max, then 5x2lap max efforts at the track, plus a 20lap L5 (42km) interval.


Yesterday was 60m L3 with 10s L6 effort every 3 minutes.

Today 5x6m TT's at L3..

I tried the new 170mm cranks on the track bike on Friday (had been on 165mm.) Felt comfortable. I'll get another niight on them on Wednesday... Unless there seems to be a problem I'll probably use them next weekend for MayDays race.


Wednesday, April 22, 2009

BVC Sprint Clinic - mini competition


Some practice doing Match Sprints tonight... Fun but I do suck at them big time... :-)


We did a flying 200m (13.5)... And then three match sprints plus one rematch..

I decided to try the first two using a 84" gear (51x16). Lost both... to Scott and Emil.

Upgraded to my more typical 89" gear (51x15), won two... against Paul and Scott..

Probably not exactly scientific.... but...

I'm skipping RaceTheRidge this weekend. I want to focus on MayDays which is the week after... So a little less hammering on the road (which is what RTR RR would have been...) and see if I can do some more nights at the track... Get the legs back into track shape..

MayDays will have a two day B Endurance Ominium, plus on Sunday a UCI Ominium (flying 200, kierin, pursuit, scratch and points...) Good practice for the Track Nationals.

The Track Nationals will have two medal events this year. A Sprint and Endurance Ominium, each with three events. My focus will be the Endurance Omnium, points, scratch and 2km pursuit... I should be able to do well in all three events. I will need lots of practice with the pursuit. It is long enough to match my strengths... But to do well requires not only pacing it well but getting the individual parts of it right, including being very aero...







Sunday, April 19, 2009

BCMCA Phoenix RR


Great race. First time on this course.

Twelve laps, about 6.5km, 60m climbing per lap... Mostly rolling.

We managed about 38kmh for the first six laps... The 50's group was down to about ten riders (from 18?) by lap two. But only two or three of us where consistantly out front, the rest helping but not consistantly enough to pull the pace up. We would have needed to do 40+ to stay away from the 40's.

We ended up getting caught by the 40's group with three laps to go. Their pace was higher, but overall less work as I wasn't out front trying to set the pace.

It was easy enough to get to the front of the group for the final lap and lead out for the sprint. This was not well suited to my strengths, a small dip over 200m, then a rail crossing, and 200m uphill (4-5%) to the finish. I ended up getting passed over on the uphill out of the dip...

Overall a hard ride. About the same TSS as Atomic course.


Thursday, April 16, 2009

Ford Road - high cadence drills, 3x2TT 1x6TT

Out to Ford Road on the TT bike... Combine some high cadence drills, 2 minute L4 TT's and a 6 minute L3 TT with practice going through the corners ... Its a "fun" TT course.. some of the corners can be done on the bars at a reasonable speed. Others have weird camber and can be a bit freaky about halfway through..


Last night was the Spint Clinic at the track. Mostly classroom time. Jeremy Storey giving us a nice overview of sprinting tactics. Many (all) of which are useful for both two up class sprinting and mass start racing...

Both last night and tonight I ended up short workouts... Tongith just ran out of sunlight and I had forget to put some LED blinkies on the bike before heading out... So had to get back onto Westwood (local traffic) before it got dark.

I got a blowout on the final drop down Turner Creek Drive, about a km from home. This is the second blowout on the rear Bontrager Aeolus Clincher this year. Both times on a short descent, having to slow for a 4-way stop. Not a long enough descent to have heated the rim up (and 5C cold weather...) I'm not a happy camper...


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Heritage - Hill Reps 10x3 L4


Tonight I started with 10x3 L4 hill reps on my Heritage Mtn loop.. Goal was Pavg at about 300 watts.


Then finished with an 18 minute L4 HC up Johnson Road. Pavg 270 watts.

Tomorrow is Sprint Clinic at the track...

Sunday I wimped out.... It was pissing down rain at 9:30 when I arrived at the course... And cold... Jeff Ain had sent out a request for more volunteers the night before so I stuck my hand up... Spent three almost enjoyable hours stopping the occasional car and chatting with people (I was lucky to get the corner where everyone was parked...)

Next Sunday is first BCMCA RR for the year at the new Phoenix Thunderbird course.



Monday, April 13, 2009

Race the Ridge Thornhill RR pre-ride


Rode out and did a pre-ride of the revised 2009 edition of Race the Ridges Thornhill RR course...

Less climbing than last year... But you still can't say this course is about anything other than climbing... Just less than last year.

The four climbs:
  1. 102 Climb - 2.85km, 114m, 3.9%
  2. 100 Climb - 1.02km, 13m, 1.2%
  3. 98 Climb - 1.5km, 24m, 1.4%
  4. Finish Sprint - 400m, 28m, 7%
For a total of about 178m of climbing per lap... Its 10km per lap, so I suspect 6 laps (maybe 7?) for us Cat 4/5's... The EV Atomic was about 900m total climbing... 6 laps here would be just under 1200m... Ouch...

Doing (attempting) this gets the us the privilege to do the new Ford Road TT (with the 9 turns out and back etc etc...) and Harris Roubaix the Crit.


Saturday, April 11, 2009

Escape Velocity Spring Series - Old Yale Crit and River Road TT

This morning was the Old Yale Road Crit... Slight rain, coolish... not much fun. A handful of riders got off the front almost from lap one and stayed away.. I just managed to stay on the main peloton till the finish. Too cold and wet to try and push up and do anything



This afternoon was the River Road TT... No sunshine, but at least the rain had stopped and the road was more or less dry. A very small amount of wind from the North East... So against the wind for the first Eastbound leg, then a tailwind for the Southbound leg, headwind going North after the turn-around. And then a nice little tail wind for the final Westbound leg.

Managed 15:38. Which is almost 44 seconds faster than last year, but still only good enough for 2nd... First place was 15:34...

Looking at some of the other A/B riders times, this seems to be on par... Most people where getting between 30 and 50 second better times this year.

I think pacing was reasonably good. The peak 5, 10 and 20 second power zones where all START at the start line... All of the other peak zones, from 30 second up, all FINISH at the finish line.

I probably could have got through the turn a bit faster. I came up on the way out because I was on the inside... Coming back I was going to try and stay down, but there where two cars just getting stopped by the marshalls so I came up just to make sure I could maneuver if needed.

I also need to practice doing turn-arounds...

Complete TT results here.


Thursday, April 9, 2009

Heritage - Hill Reps 2x16 SST

Last night was 10x1 L6, hill reps on Heritage. Tonight was 2x16 SST hill reps on Westwood... Both nights where a bit short as I got late starts due to work and other chores etc...


Easy day tomorow getting ready for the Crit/TT on Saturday adn RR on Sunday... Should be fun...

Sunday, April 5, 2009

TT Practice - L3/L4

Traffic marshall at the EV Aldegrove RR today... lots of fun..


Since it was a nice day and the Aldergrove course is right next to the Zero Ave TT course (aka BCMCA 16K TT and from the other end WarpSpeed 22K TT) I dragged the TT bike along so that I could check everything out...

Had a nice run out and back... about 24 minutes for the 16km out and back. Not world beater pace but I wasn't pushing hard. Just L3/L4 pace.

Then I drove over to the River Road 11K TT course (EV Spring Series, next week.) Pre-rode that as well. Pretty good time, 16:24. Which is not actually a bad time. With luck I can do under 16:00 next weekend.

This year Race The Ridge is using a new TT course... They used the Golden Ears park road for the last few years... This year they had to move the Crit from downtown Haney (construction interfering) and decided to use the Pitt Meadows Airport roads... So instead of Harris Roubaix RR (which was cancelled this year) we have the Harris Roubaix Crit (about 1km on the dike..!!!) And the TT starts by the airport and follows the Ford Road circuit...

About 8km out and back... pancake flat, but with nine turns in each direction... The good news is I'll be able to get out and get lots of practice... and I could almost ride it blindfolded now. But still... NINE turns... in EACH direction.. The longest straight sections are 1 mile each.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Escape Velocity Spring Series - Atomic RR


After many (well three) years of getting dropped on the Atomic course I finally managed to get to the finish line.... And in the general confusion caused by the small group of us finishing (about 10-15) getting passed by the A's I even managed to get a 5th.


The C group started with about 50-60 riders. We lost about 20 in the first lap, about another 10+ per lap for the next couple laps... By about lap four we where down to 20. Lap 5 about 15..

The Atomic course has three main climbs spaced around the course, with a bunch of false flats added in for fun. The first climb is about 600m @ 5.3%. The second is about 700m @ 4.5%. And the third which is just before the finish line is 515m @ 7%.

Each of the above is followed by additional sections of either a false flat or a second not quite as steep section... Overall about 140m of climbing for each loop.

For various reasons the first climb was my bete noire for many years... I kept getting dropped on it, usually in the4rd or 5th lap... Today I was getting up OK.. But on balance I think I found it almost as hard as the third climb. The strategy here was to stay on and about half way up just get up on the pedals and push... I'd be out of breath at the top, but usually could get it back quickly as the pack slowed down on the false flat...

The third climb was the hardest and I think the one that dropped most of the riders... For each of the first four laps I was literraly the last rider up who managed to get back on... This was planned. I didn't want to commit to any more effort that was required to simply stay at the back of the pack going over the top. But it left a lot of other people back there and unable to stay with us.

I had a different coping strategy for the middle climb. It comes after about a km of a false flat, then long twisting descent with a nice 45 degree turn into the second climb. And today that section had a very nice tail wind. So the goal for laps 3-5 was just TT up to the front on the false flat (which was easy as everyone stretched out because of the wind) then bomb down the descent in the top 3-4. Then simply do as much of the climb as I could at my own pace... Typically by about halfway up the pack would be in front of me, and I would then only have to match their pace for the final half of the climb. Occasionally doing a bit of standing up etc... But generally not having too much trouble.

Going up the middle climb on the last lap the A's passed us... and then as is typical they more or less sat up.. So about 10 of us where sprinting up the final climb into the back of the A group... I think at that point there was also a solo rider who had been about 200-300m ahead of us on the middle climb, and he had probably stayed in front of the A's... Anyway, luckily they did move up the final climb eventually, but there was a lot of confusion.

At the top of the climb I more or less emerged from the small group of riders I was with, the A's where about 30-40m ahead... I had no idea who or what or where anyone else was... Rachel Canning and I continued to (sort of) sprint up the final little climb after the climb, and I was able to get to the finish 50m past that just ahead of her. Apparently other than the solo break away, there where only three other riders ahead, so I got a fifth!

Checking back to 2007 when I did this as the Atomic Road Race (sanctioned race, Cat 4/5) I see that I was dropped on the hill in lap 5. The pace today was a bit faster. Average speed per lap about 33.5 for the first four laps, compared to 32.4 then. We'll be back on this course in August for the BC Provincial Road Race Championships...



Thursday, April 2, 2009

Westwood - L3 (l2)

Westwood hillclimbs L3 / L2 tonight... too cold to push hard or long.


Last night was at the track. BVC Sprint Clinic. Practiced flying 200's and standing starts.