Training Log: tRicky

Event: HBF Run for a Reason
 

Event: OAWA Relay Championships
 

20km TT along the Roe Hwy bike path.

Easy pace out to Roe along Spencer, w/up out to Orrong with 30/60/90/60/30 hard efforts thrown in. With a slight easterly (I think) back, turnaround at 14km (Karel Ave) so I didn't end up miles from home at the end, then final 6km into the wind back to Nicholson.

20km in 32:38 @ 36.8kph

Don't know if I went hard enough but kept it at a sustainable pace that didn't hurt too much to make sure I made it through. Perhaps next one I will make myself hurt more before the flat out effort at Champion Lake in July.

C • No 5

The commute from Tash's new place was a bit short so I threw in a bonus lap of Herdsman Lake before I started. As soon as I hit the limestone though, another MTBer appeared behind me so I had to go slightly harder to keep him at bay. Surprised to be sitting on average 28kph by the time I got around to Selby St (7.5km) given my legs were shot.

Looks like the commute will be about 4km from there - pissweak.

C • Why don't you 4

Short session was too short. My pie still had ten minutes to cook by the time I'd finished.

This morning’s ride started on the ‘city side of the Narrows’, which I thought meant the north side but I rocked up there and there was only one person on that side and about two dozen on the other side so when an IOCC shirt went by and crossed over, I followed. Eight starters in our group, with one guy looking for the Broad group (he appeared to be well in the wrong place and about 15 minutes late) so he joined us, as did another pair that turned off a bit later. The pace along Mounts Bay Rd wasn’t overly severe, as Karl told me it was because Dan wasn’t there. River loop reverse of the Tuesday Floreat ride with a smash up Mead’s hill to the water tower for a customary regroup. I wasn’t prepared for the smash so two guys got well out in front. I stuck with another two and the rest crumbled off the back, with bonus guy saying he was ‘taking it easy’ on the hills but then his chain fell off anyway so we had to wait.

McCabe St to Stirling Hwy then over the bridge and follow the Red Rock route around the south side but the sprint seemed to happen over the top of that hill in Applecross so was a bit surprised when I rolled around the corner at the bottom and I had two guys smash past, one on either side, just as I was drifting wide and lucky not to clean one up! Still put the hammer down and caught back up.

Karl left us at Canning Bridge and we’d already dropped bonus guy earlier so just six of us for the Shelley loop. Amazingly we got a proper roll through happening for the length of it here at around 40kph and afterwards one of the guys commented that it was the best roll through they’d ever done – no doubt because I was there. Near the end of Shelley they did a Rota-M and went for the sprint but my legs were lactated by that stage and I fell off, not before another guy had been done though, so through under Shelley Bridge and we said goodbye to another guy “He works in Forrestfield”, “FORRESTfield???”, “Hey I used to live there!” and then the ride back via Manning and the freeway path, which seemed relatively easy but we were still doing just shy of 40kph (minus the roll throughs).

Good, solid effort. Discovered that my new light likes telling me after about 2.5hrs of use on the second brightest setting that it is going flat but I left it on at work on the highest setting later and it was still going 1.5hrs later.

Tonight I joined the ranks of people with broken Forerunner straps. Stupid pin pulled out through the rubber.

Easier ride this week since lightpole O was much closer, which was good because the legs were smashed from the morning ride. Had a guy jump in behind just before Hutton and figured it was a roadie but he smashed past just after and it was a guy on a MTB but he only got about 5m ahead then eased off and never shook me. Silly gimp blew up not far after going over a small rise but I stayed back, then when he did it again a bit later I finally went past.

Did okay until three controls from the end when I suddenly forgot that I was going to #1 so backtracked for it whereas Boltboi committed to a new route to get there and beat me to it - learned a lesson there. Didn't check for a new route to get there though after the initial error, which cost me.

Bad route to the last control over an unmapped hill, a wait for an unmapped car then two unmapped obstructions on the path, meaning BB smashed me by going the other way.

Tash blew me off at the first set of lights but I got my revenge on Herdsman Pde although the legs paid for it.

My rides have purpose once more! Commenced the Toomey 12 week training plan today with a fartlek commute, 2min on/2min off x 10. I'll take my own advice and get up early next week and just ride Roe Hwy to the freeway then along there for the efforts. The usual route sucks as an interval venue.

1st rep was fine along Roe, then the 2nd one included the right/left combo onto Willeri but I got a bit overzealous on the left hand turn, hit the left pedal on the ground and bounced the whole bike to the right. Narrow escape. 3rd and 4th both involved stopping at traffic lights so it was stop/start. Even the freeway path was a bit abysmal with other cyclists not knowing what they were doing.

Feel like I should do the session again properly on the way home but I know Tooms would be unhappy with that and I have IOCC tomorrow morning anyway.

C • Hurty Hills 2

I forget that board meeting week means LOADS of FOOD - apparently our highly paid US marketing person was annoyed at having to find his own dinner last night (must be hard not having your maids around for a few days) - so after not having to decline any offers to get me a taxi home, I rolled down to the bike and had pre-emptively opted for the Armadale train line route home just for laughs. Well no-one was laughing when I found that not only have none of the pathworks finished through Perth but there are now more than last week. Madness!

Pleasant enough ride since it was quite warm although I hit a sudden cold patch not far from Roe Hwy that did get a bit less cold afterwards but not much. Didn't manage to bounce my bike off the path on the way home but almost took out some deros just shy of Kenwick station.

So I, like, went to ride to work this morning? And it was cold? So I, like, put the arm warmers on? And I was still cold? And this girl asked if I could look after her wedding guest this weekend? And I was like, what...

C • like... 15

My Fletch's Teva's are still sitting at home so I had to do this session bare foot, which was slightly harder.

I was pleasantly surprised this evening to discover I still had a functional front wheel after I used it on the way in this morning to stop the car park roller door from closing.

Post-massage ride home. Had yet another person on massage duty tonight after I postponed the original booking from last night to do the windtrainer session (ha!) She says my hips are out of alignment and explained why the right shoulder cracked a lot when she gave it a bit of punishment but not the left one.

Nothing flash for the ride, just coasted. Legs felt better and I managed to hold off some person that got ever so slowly closer from just before Canning Bridge but never quite caught up.

Looking at maps of Estonia, just so I can get a general layout of the place and don't accidentally wander into neighbouring Latvia by mistake. I think I'm all good now.

C • Fishing 1

C • Wandering into Latvia 2

I got to work this morning in time to hear the Finance Manager complaining about a headache she had on Saturday night:

(imagine an upwards inflection towards the end of each sentence, also during the middle of each): ...and like, I had this headache, and it like, was in the back of my head? And it took me ages to get to sleep? And like, when I woke up I could still feel it, and like? It was the worst... thing... ever.

I thought about telling her of my Saturday night but it would have missed the mark.

Stopped in at the bike shop on the way home to pick up a new light since mine decided to not work anymore. Hope it is worth the money - it is very bright (I can actually see things now) and comes with a lifetime warranty. I don't know whose lifetime that is.

Managed to cop only one very brief, very light shower on the way home so the forecast was obviously wrong again. Headwind all the way.

C • Lifetime 3

Yep, this was my windtrainer session tonight. Moved my massage to Tuesdays so it would better fit in with Tooms' new schedule that he's sending my way. So it went like this:

W/up
3 mins in the damned thing came loose again so I stopped to tighten it all up.
SCR pyramid
9 mins in my legs decided they weren't going to cooperate and that the weekend had pretty much done them in, although I don't recall doing all that much so I figured if I couldn't even keep pace during the warmup, I wasn't going to last the session. Gave up in disgust. Hopefully this is not a common trend.