Riding around

[bob_summers]

Sean Kelly would've gone out in it! (read a quote from him once along the lines of he decides if the weather's too bad to train after he gets home!)

Nice work Al. Your bikejournal needs an update!

[Alistar]

Ha! Classic! S'pose thats how you become a cycling Legend! Us and them(well me anyway)...

Home again with my boy today, so enough time to update a few rides on bikejournal.
Shit I've been dragging the chain recently...even fallen below the average so letting the team down.
Only one thing for it...

Got out before tea. Had a pretty good session today. Lots of surges but nothing really structured. Had fun though! Had to get off and walk on the Summit Rd as had a 50m section covered in ice in a shady spot. Didn't fancy my chances of making it on the bike! Had to nearly stop when encountering some Bulls that had got out of their fences, and then shepherded them back up the bank so they wouldn't take off straight up the road. Then had to circle back and pick up a dropped banana, all taking up valuable seconds! Anyway 23:15 up the Gebbs/B combo. Kept sprinting for 10/20secs then slowing down and recovering, then going again. So still a pretty good time considering. Pretty quick up the last hill. So glad to get some form back so quick! The legs only started feeling it after 1hr40 odd heading to Purau so gave them a good workout.

13:01 Wheatsheaf
23:15 Gebbs/Bastard combo
1hr00:09 SOK
3:31 Last hill
1hr47:04 Purau

53.3km 2hr01:37 26.3kph Av 73.1kph max

[Alistar]

Wasn't feeling great this morning. Seem to have a bit of a raspy throat, and feel a bit off.
After pancakes and breakfast in bed from my eldest it was time to go on a Fathers day bike ride . Quite a nice warmish day 16C and wanted to do a few good efforts to see where I'm at. But didn't feel that great. Legs still hadn't quite recovered from Friday and a bit sore so wasn't expecting anything too great.
Went hard up Govs and after 17kph at the bottom seemed to be staying somewhere around 14kph after the effort caught up with me. Sometimes a bit above, more often a bit below but never under 13 which was good. Anyway did 12:15 which I was pretty pleased with. Next time will empty the water bottle

Afterwards did a few efforts up some smaller steep hills(town side) which didn't go so well as my legs were pretty stuffed from Govs. Then just cruised around Tai Tapu and home. A Northerly around Dyers, a Southerly heading out Tai Tapu and a Nor Easter around home. All pretty light but still a little annoying when you don't get the tailwind you expect in certain areas after the obligatory headwind. Wanted to go via the Bastard but legs were too cooked and it wouldn't have done me much good so I just came home in the end.

Kids are dropping like flies. Eldest has just came down with a temp and my daughter an ear ache which sucks as I really need to get to work having most of last week off looking after my youngest. If its not EQ's or Snow, or shitty weather, its sick kids! Have had such a disrupted year this year!

Govs 31:12
Govs Dyers 12:15 season(this yr) pb
Mj A 7min06 150m?
Kennedy's 5min05 100m?
Gebbies 7min03
Last hill 4min28

79.75km 2hrs59:34 26.6kph Av 74kph max (down Gebbies)

[bob_summers]

Have had such a disrupted year this year!

Kiwis seem to be masters of understatement!

Happy Father's day Al, now get those sick kids to fetch you a cold one out of the fridge

[Mr. Cleetus]

Have had such a disrupted year this year!

tell me about it.

It seems like most of Wellington is down with some sort of cold at the mo - some of them seem to last for more than one month.

[Alistar]

Happy Father's day Al, now get those sick kids to fetch you a cold one out of the fridge

Cheers Bob! Actually had a couple of cold ones in the fridge on Sunday for them to fetch for a change too! Drunk my partners strawberry dakari instead the night before But that "tiredness juice" in the fridge will have to wait for another week

Yeah Mr C flu's coughs colds are everywhere at the mo'. I have this weird lingering virus thing that isn't doing anything. Body seems to be at a stalemate with it. I'm not getting any sicker and its not going away. Just the initial stages of what the kids had. Just that its been hanging around since last week. Hate it when it does that. I'd rather be sick, or not sick. Not somewhere in between

Oh well tired again today. Very up and down. Probably just expecting to get fitter faster than is possible atm. At least after I recover I can put in some good timed efforts, not that far away from my pb pace which is encouraging.
HR low today so just took it easy to Lyttelton and back. Spinning up the hills in lowest gear. Did 2 short efforts that reminded me just why I was taking it easy .

Hadn't attached my CC properly and was wondering why it was reading 0kph. Until that is, it flew off its bracket onto my wheel while I was madly pushing it, and disapeared off into the grass verge after a couple of bounces. Luckily didn't take long to find it in the dark. Phew! Anyway wasn't much use anyway as it reset itself halfway along the ride. Then went blank. Pressed the reset button at home and it came back to life. Probably just needs a new battery but perhaps didn't like being dropped on the road? Spose I'll find out...

47km to Lyttelton and back Around 1hr52? but not sure exactly

[Alistar]

Legs body a bit tired so had Wed/Thursday off. Felt better today but still not 100percent. Guts still a bit off. At least the cough and raspy throat has gone Had 1hr30spare before tea/ and Rugby World Cup opening ceremony and All Blacks versus Tonga. So zipped out up to the SOK via the Big B. Had 2 sips of water which meant had to go to the toilet twice( bit cold) Then warmed down for five minutes. Got inside and said I'd been out for 1hr45min. Didn't take my CC so no idea how fast I was going but thought I'd been closer to 1hr30 than 1hr40. Although took it easy on the decents as couldn't see where the lines of grit on the road were and kept hitting them.
Felt better towards the end like I was going fast. But hard to judge speeds in the dark. Put a few efforts, sprints in to tire out the legs which seemed to work.

Man, massive guys in the Tongan team. Quite a few in the 120kg mark and one who was 130kgs. Our biggest guys are around 115/119kgs it seems. Actually rugby players at that level are mostly freaks if you see them in person. Saw Sonny Bill Williams at the mall one day. The other guys his height were tall and gangly, but he was in perfect proportion at 6ft3 and 110kgs and built like an adonis who looked like he'd been chiseled out of stone as the idealised human form or something. Without doubt the most impressive physique I've ever seen. Funny seeing all these women nearly falling over themselves to take a 2nd look though.

[Alistar]

Total 3hr04:22 76.25 km 24.8kph Av 77.1kph Max from Feb 13th

That took a bit of finding. Anyway did the same ride today. Out to Port Levy and back and then onto my "usual loop" up the Bastard. 3x Cat2 climbs in just over 2hrs really hurts the legs! Pretty close to the amount of climbing in Le Race so a good session.
Still a bit fatigued as seem to be having trouble adjusting to a sudden increase in volume and intensity( not that my volume is that big, or my intensity too intense ). However need to do a hard ride early in the week and an easier one later before my main WE ride, instead of the other way around. Should be riding 5x a week too. Just haven't been arsed the last couple of years following a training programme...

Really windy cold Easterly today and after a sudden sharp EQ reminder within 6k's of our place I was off. Very short and sharp so felt like a mag5.0 but only a 4.5 in the end. Big bang and a big rattle a few sec's later which shook the whole house, powerlines quite violently but only for a second or 2.

So basically a headwind out to Purau and a lot of the climb up to the top of the Purau/Port Levy saddle. Really steep and a real grind. From the foreshore took me 22min52. And from where it kicks up 18min28. A lot of grit on the corners so had to be careful descending into Port Levy. Went as far as I could to the turnoff to Pigeon Bay and at least I had a tailwind mostly back. Heading to the saddle from this direction is a real killer as the steep bit is in the middle 3rd of the climb which psychologically seems to make it harder. One of those climbs where even though in the compact you keep trying to get a lower gear on the shifter. Anyway got to the top in 21:05 but legs were feeling it. Reached home in 1hr34:07 and found the hills quite hard going to the wheatsheaf and then after hitting Gebbies. After hitting the Bastard was a real tough headwind most of the way up so heaps slower than when I start fresh from my house. So could only manage 27mins flat from the bottom of Gebbs to the top of the big B which is quite embarrasing! Lucky I only took a stopwatch in my back pocket as my CC still out of action.
Put my jacket on on the Summit Rd as getting cold, and didn't have a lot of energy left only taking water and a banana. This car pulled out just ahead of me on one of the faster down sections and with a decent headwind got lungfulls of "Indian cigarette" smoke.God knows how strong it must have been in the car! Down from the SOK was absolutely flying due to the wind somehow at my back(close to 80kph I reckon?) but I'm not sure if it was cause I was close to bonking or what but I felt really high off the ground speeding down the hill, getting strange feedback from th road and not completely in control, and it felt really weird? Felt the same down the bottom too but it quickly passed after a few minutes. Then had to ride into a decent headwind all the way home and didn't bother timing the last hill. But glad to get home.

14:53 Purau
19:17 kicker
37:45 Purau saddle
51:37 bottom of hill
1hr11:42 top
1hr34;07 home
1hr51:07 gebbs
1hr58:top
2hrs17:07 top of big B
2hrs39 SOK?
Hill 1:430m climbing 22min52
Hill 2:430m 21min05
Hill 3:460m 27mins flat

3hrs20:05 home 76.25km 22.87kph Av ?75kph+max

Crap!! just checked out old post again and was nearly 16minutes faster back then due to doing an extra 4km at the end( that I hadn't realised on 1st reading) and still being waay faster! Wheels fell off pretty badly after the Summit Rd, and conditions were tough etc, but didn't realise I was that slow(5mins slower at that stage but lost another 10mins on the "easy" homeward stretch! Crazy!). Endorphins must have covered up the leg pain and been responsible for my "out of it" perculiar feeling down into govs, changed my perception, and I didn't realise how slow I was going. Thats one good thing about not having a CC I s'pose!

Hmmm....Gonna have to do that ride again soon in better conditions just to make sure I'm not that useless...

[bob_summers]

... got lungfulls of "Indian cigarette" smoke.God knows how strong it must have been...

.... I felt really high off the ground speeding down the hill, getting strange feedback from th road and not completely in control, and it felt really weird?

Any chance these two things are somehow related
I used to get that in London when filtering through traffic jams. The stench of hydro first thing in the morning was enough to bring me out in a cold sweat! How do these people function when they get to work??

Seriously, I sometimes get this weird spaced feeling especially after or during descending. I imagine it's from being fixated on the road, lost in thought kinda thing...a bit like car sickness when you don't periodically orientate yourself with the horizon. I don't remember getting it when bunch riding, I guess it's after riding along in my bubble for too long.

[Alistar]

All the teenagers sneak up in their beat up cars, to get high on the Summit Rd and enjoy the views

Ha! I had such a tailwind up the top there and was picking up some scary speed, caught the cars way up ahead really quite fast so was a bit disconcerting to not be feeling sharp!

Another CRC debarkle. Sent me the right forks with the wrong lockout adjuster somehow. Without ordereing them I got the poploc specific ones, without the cable and poploc that is meant to attach to it(wtf?!) so of course can't lock them out by hand. God I've had some bad luck! People out the back filling orders on the minimum wage who know little about bikes?
Annoying thing was that a week after I ordered them this NZ online store for the 1st time in about 3yrs had wicked specials on the same model of these forks for a cheaper price.

Oh well finally managed a ride since Sunday. Went out and did some Hill repeats up Gebbies. Excellent hill for it as challenging and steep in places and a good distance for it at around 6min going a reasonable clip. Really dark with no moon in the sky and bloody cold. No idea how fast I was or what my HR was doing but was trying to keep it at around 90percent effort.
As I was nearing the bottom over the otherside another cyclist was doing a training ride like me. He probably had a minutes headstart and I caught him up at about halfway. Took awhile to get away from his spotlight and was worried he might be a decent cyclist and then just keep me in check the rest of way up, so my effort probably started creeping up to near 95/ 100percent. Pulled away by a corner few more 100m at the top so can't have been going too bad. Reckon he'd have been going my usual pace. Just did another 2repeats after that or 4 in total. Then just used the last hill as my last effort, another 4km lap on the flat then went home. Felt like a pretty good session at the end. Guts a bit funny for the 1st 30mins but came right and I felt good later.

1hr27 35km?
Last hill 3:45 (made sure I timed that)
1hr flat for 1st 4 efforts.

[Alistar]

Legs still a bit wrecked from Wednesdays efforts, so just had a flat ride out towards halswell and took it easy on the hills. My CC with new batteries is still freaking out. Seems a bit loose in its bracket and the constant vibrations from the course chip make it rattle around which it doesn't seem to like. Was sitting at 27kphAv at 50mins just before it reset itself so just kept going for and hr in the tail, then turned around.

Last Hill 4:45
54km 26.12kph Av 78kph Max

[bob_summers]

Bummer about the fork Al. Are they offering to do anything? It would be easiest all round to just send you the poploc cable, saves having to post them back and you get a fancier fork (not that you wanted one I suppose!)

Everything on track for le race? How's the ol body responding?

[Alistar]

Yeah there was no way I was going to send the fork all the way to the UK and wait 4 to 6weeks to get them back! Luckily they've come to the party and sending me out a pushloc. Don't know the real difference b/t them and a poploc or which is better etc... . Hope I can find enough handlebar space!

Pretty up and down really thanks Bob. When fresh I'm pretty much where I should be and feel pretty strong. But aren't recovering as fast as I'd like after an intense session. So one day I feel good, the next I've got nothing. Also think I'm fading earlier on a hard training ride than I should be. Still got a few weeks so think I'm on track though. Just need to get a bit more endurance to be able to climb closer to 2.5 to 3hrs well on an up and down course, instead of around the 2hrs I can at the moment.

[Alistar]

Much better session today. Started off warm and sunny and wished I left my baselayer at home, got cold when the high cloud rolled over a few hrs later and wished I'd taken a jacket. A moderate Nor East blowing. Did the same course as last week to try and improve, and this time didn't have to keep getting my stopwatch (with its broken strap) out of my back pocket to see how fast I was climbing. Just put a bit of tape around the bracket for my CC to stop it rattling around and it worked fine and didn't reset itself mid ride for once
Bit quicker to Purau as wanted to catch my daughter up before she made it cycling to the shops at D.Harbour( 80m) to try and inspire her interest in Cycling

Rode pretty well up the Purau saddle as still fresh. But man, coming up the other way from Port Levy, that hill is soo hard! Starts off around 8/9 percent which is quite nice. Then kicks up. After riding at 12percent for about 6minutes it kicks up again to about 14+ which just kills me after trying to keep a good tempo. Keeping it around 11.5kph on the 12percent section which was about as fast as I could maintain, but as soon as I hit the steep stuff was into the 9's! Got down to a 9.3kph and for the first time in age really just wanted to stop, and get off my bike! Quite demoralising. Was just thinking this is exactly the kind of place where guys attack in Le race. No way could I respond in that condition.

Rode hard back to home and the legs were a bit sore. But just wanted to keep it going for the rest of the way as its about how fast you can climb when tired and stuffed rather than fresh. Determined to do a respectible time up the Cat 2 Gebbies/Bastard combo. Legs more stuffed afterwards and was hard to keep a half decent pace up the undulating Summit Rd. Was slowly catching this strong woman up ahead, but was a bit worried that after i passed her i may not be able to keep away if she was determined to latch on. Luckily she stopped to put on a jacket as was getting bloody cold after a warm start. Just about came a cropper heading down towards the SOK. Thought there was no one behind me, but a couple of guys who'd had stopped at the top chatting had turned around. Was going to turn up this driveway to fill up my bidon, but luckily at last min heard this woosh behind me as I began braking. Was a split second from turning into the rider flying up behind which wouldn't have been pretty! Was a good reminder to always look behind you just in case.

Tried really hard to keep an ok pace up the hills on the way home which wasn't easy with leaden legs. Did a PB effort up the Last Hill but legs not up to going fast no matter how hard I tried
Lost a few minutes on loop to the SOK and home, but good to be a hell of a lot faster than last week(15mins). Less than 3mins slower than my Feb effort so pretty happy. But still would like a bit more go in the legs in that last hour.

13:53 Purau
17:47 Kicker
35:28 Purau/Port levy saddle
49:38 Bottom P/PL from
1hr10:08 Top
home 1hr30:44
1hr43:33 Wheatsheaf
1hr47:15 Gebbies
1hr54:04 1st Cattlestop
2hr12:12 Top of Bastard
2hr32:20 SOK
4:37 Last hill
Hill 1 430m 21min35 versus 22:52
Hill 2 430m 20min30 versus 21:05
Hill 3 460m 24min57 versus 27:00

3hr6:53 76km Home 24.3kph Av 1840m climbing
3hr18:10 80.69km 24.4kph Av 71.5kph max

[Alistar]

Couple of biggish aftershocks yesterday. A close 4.0 and a furthur away 4.3.

Was just thinking driving around today how depressing it was that Christchurch has missed out on all the 7 WC rugger games it had earmarked, due to it all being smashed and having no facilities anymore. Canterbury in recent yrs has been the most successful Rugby Provence in NZ btw. Mayaswell be playing in a different country. But also good cause less rugby heads, and less congestion on the roads Don't care about the tourist drivers though. Can't be any worse than the moron drivers who live here! Nearly got wiped out twice on my ride tonight

Energy levels felt good and felt rearing to go today. But legs not up to the party up the first rise, so no point pushing it, so just cruised around for 40km on the flat in recovery mode. Funny thing was that at the end of the ride I ambled up the last hill taking it easy in a small gear. And got to the top about as fast as on Sunday when I was giving it everything!

Which just shows you how inefficient you are when the legs are full of lactic acid
Last hill 4:40

40.26km 1hr28:36 27.2kph Av 67.5kph Max