Training Log Archive: peterk

Event: Umuna
 

Very tight glut muscles and no amount of stretching seems to work. Head off anyway onto the H3 Course. Switching on and getting into the map was hard and I overshot #1. How many rock and cliffs are there on a big rock surface. Not many so where am I? wait a minute what is that brown dot? Duh. Slow around the steep western slope of the Umuna hill carefull not to sprain any ankles. A lot of generalisation makes this part of the map hard to read.

All fine until #7 where I drifted too far west and up the hill and had to double back to the control. Targeted the boulder hidden under the red circle and wondered why I could not find #9. Amazingly tRickey shows me where it is. By #10 my brain is not working that well and I misread the map and head south of the control before correcting. A lot of walking from then on with the tank on empty. Overall slow by my standards.

The hard push on Friday just followed through other activities on the weekend.

Hard 3 - Splits

Warm day and initially seemed to be ineffective. Just not swiched on. I appeared to be tired from Fridays harder commuting rides. Scored a goal in te second half to even the score. We should have done better. Sore right glutes after teh game

Fastest time to work. I would like to to say it was all due to improved fitness but it wasn't. Fitness has improved but virtually no stopping at intersections due to good timing and a couple of tails helped. The first guy was tall with long legs and 35-38kph seemed effortless. Lost him at Karrinyup lights. The next guy I caught up to at the Osbourne park overpass. He pick up his pace when I caught up and from then on we alternated in front. - Just so much easier.

No trip to work would be complete without a near miss story. This one almost caused by a police man. Police had set up a hand held rader on the freeway Hutton Street off ramp. He pulls a truck from the right lane of a dual carriage way to turn right into a side street just infront of a me and other cyclists. The irony is while catching the driver for one offence the policeman commited the driver to another (turning vehicles must give way)

Usual issues of cars pulling out and blocking the bike lane on Thomas Street. Slow start and intended to be a dawdle, but picked up when I got passed and got carried most of the way. Nothing much left for the last km. Times are picking up and the recovery is better.

Feeling the usual slow self early in the morning not helped by being slowed down at every intersection until I hit the bike path. Just near the Read Highway I get passed by a fast moving cyclist who had the advantage over me with momentum from a longer downhill leg. I just manage to pick up the pace to catch him, and work close to my limit to hang on. 36-40kph on the flat. I hold my own on the hills and catch a break with a favourable crossing of Cedric street. Traffic can be a bastard on that crossing and he missed the window. It took him to Scrarborough Beach road to catch up. I tried to hang on again but there was no spare and he left me at Powis Street from where I dawdled to work knowing I have had a work out.

fastest time to work that I can recall

Sun now setting late enough to take the coast road home. Head down Hay street to a full on trafic jam, a waste of a good downhill leg. So scrape past on the outside. No major incidents except almost taken out by a van allowed to cross Hay Street by "polite" Hay street drivers. Two major climbs to raise the heart rate and then down West Coast Highway to watch the magic sunset. In the dimming light quite a bit of shark bait out on their boards at the wave break. Then another trafic jam on West Coast road past Karrinyup. No compassion from drivers as I go past.