Riding around

[Alistar]

Oh well legs are officially fried. Just have nothing and feel pretty flat up the longer hills, so still haven't recovered from Sunday ride. Legs have been quite sore all week even though I haven't done any hard riding since, so hope that means they're in the process of adapting and getting stronger? I need them to ,as still don't have very good endurance after repeated efforts. So think I'll just tick over some easy longish k's over the weekend and wait for them to come right.

Govs to SOK 15:13
Dyers 19:52
Last Hill 3:43

There 1hr00:44
2hrs00:37 51.3km 25.52kph Av 69.5kph Max

[Alistar]

Legs still cooked. Haven't been this bad since I did 7500m in 2days around the Peninsula. I'm sure they'll come right eventually, but seems pathetic to be like this after one hard hilly ride at race pace.

Dropped my Van at the garage and had to bike 20k's to work. Had to ride up the infamous Glenstrae Rd for the first time on the bike to get there. It's ridiculously steep, and the Van really struggles to even drive up there. Must be 18 to 20percent and it doesn't deviate for 600m (height 100 to 120m?) before flattening out a bit. It was hard enough in the 34x25 and think it'd be close to stalling in a 39x23. I was pretty much maxing out the HR just to make it to the top at 9.0kph. No chance of saving the legs up there, but cool to finally "knock the bastard off"

Constant headwind there. Nice tailwind back

43.15km 1hr37:45 26.5kph Av 66.2kph Max

[Alistar]

Nice flat ride today. Nothing too strenuous as legs are still recovering. Did feel alot better and legs are 3/4 better but still have no top end up hills. Although strength seems fine for short periods, but they're still tying up pretty quick so I'm not fighting it. Stamina seems good. Just my Lactate threshold (whatever that is for me) isn't too good, so can't go the speed I'd like up repeated hills. Up 1 hill I'm pretty quick, but by hill 3 I'm about as slow as I am when I haven't done any cycling for 3months and am on my 1st ride.
Anyway moderately strong headwind out to Little River. The opposite back

Magpie breeding season so got attacked by 3 magpies on the way out and the same 3 plus one on the way home. Quite scary 'cause they're built like attack aircraft, extremely fast and manoeuvrable, aggressive and dive bomb you repeatedly from the back and sometimes wack your helmet, depending on the bird. They follow you for about 100/200m just out of reach behind your head swooping randomly, before you get out of their territory. Saw them attacking lots of hawks as well. It's good when the Sun is behind you so at least you can see their position( shadows) and duck at the right time, but a little harder going the other way.
Wondering about Le Race now. I suppose they won't attack big groups of cyclists? but may not be so much fun for the stragglers who haven't experienced it...

Gebbies 7min10
Little River 1hr37:22
Gebbies(mot) 7min20
Last hill 4:15

3hr6:51 85.81 27.5kph Av 76.7kph Max

[Alistar]

More of the same. Felt really bad when starting today, still not right. Pretty frustrating as feels like I've lost a couple of weeks training. Want to be right for this W/E so I can do my usual LR training route, and to familiarise myself with all the twists and turns. Especially the last hill which usually(last yr was the 1st yr it wasn't needed!) causes a few people to get a free flight to hospital in the Recue helicopter. But need to get rid of this fatigue so the ride will be of benefit, rather than just wear me out more.

Last hill 4:40
1hr28:21 40.54km 27.5kph Av 72.0kph Max

[bob_summers]

Despite the fatigue it seems to be coming good though, considering the time you've had to prepare? I guess it's gonna be more about making sure you're fully rested for the race (comes a point where it's too late to add any more strength anyway!) and start thinking over your race tactics. Patience and cunning are sometimes as important as watts

[Alistar]

Cheers Bob! Yeah five rides June, six in July then quite a jump to Aug/Sept in volume and mainly intensity has meant I've done a bit much, a bit fast, trying to get up to speed. And have fallen off that edge.

Hopefully I'll come right soon and be able to do some efforts up longer hills to gauge at least where I'm at. Don't seem too bad on the flat but as soon as I hit even an overbridge or something and use my climbing muscles, I have nothing and legs tie up something wicked! Makes me think there's something wrong with me...Protein,iron, B12 deficiency? Or something overlooked like Co enzyme Q10 I know next to nothing about!
Yeah I seem pretty good at wasting unneccesary energy for no real gain, that hurts me in the end. Even when training well and feeling in pretty good form. Don't think I'll have any option but to hide and save as much energy as possible, for as long as possible this time around!

Shit things are taking there time though! However its not uncommon for me to be like this for a couple of weeks after a race or something before I bounce back. But because generally I have nothing else coming up afterwards I have 2 weeks off the bike, and it doesn't matter.

Dropped my Van off at garage and rode into work today. Running late and a headwind in, but made pretty good time. Then across town to another in a crosswind. Felt ok till I tried to blast up this overbridge in the big ring until admitting defeat and changing down Then a nice tail to pick up my Van. Damn thing needed quite a lot done so won't be able to order my shifters, disc brakes like I had planned. Thinking dual control atm but can only get an XT XTR mix on opposite handlebars that way( run out of LH XT rears). If I go just normal xt shifters/xt discs its only slightly cheaper...but at least there'll be no surprises....hmmmm...

38.43km 1hr25:04 27.1kph Av 41.6kph Max

[Alistar]

Oh well got my UST wheelset in the post on Saturday. Found a UST tyre I bought accidentally a few yrs ago. Crazy(well crazy to a person thats used to tubes) how I just put it on, pumped it up and viola! Athough need to get some of that self sealing glue stuff etc I hear about... Re. wheelset just got some shimano cheapies. Nothing flash but should do the job for the amount of riding I do. Just need brakes/shifters now.

Bit annoying as wanted to fit my new forks but couldn't for the life of me get the crownrace off the old rigid forks Hope I can get some spares...

Been feeling a little bit high up on the hoods recently(have long arms) so put it down to zero stack on Friday and feels much better.
Oh well drove to Little River for my Le Race hill familiarisation training route to Akaroa and back. Legs felt ok and at least I could ride up hills. Really windy today with lots of head and crosswinds along the course, so conditions probably a bit slower than usual. Rode pretty well up Hilltop (direct headwind to the base but a tailwind going up) but still a little bit off the pace to past years by about 90 odd secs. Constant hills afterwards and legs starting tying up a bit earlier than they should. But thats probably as much to do with not enough intensity recently, rather than anything else. Scary blustery crosswinds on exposed ridges and all over the place over 50kph down some of the fast exposed downhills, so had to keep on the brakes.

The hill on the Summit Rd I usually get dropped on(probably the longest of the Summit rd climbs) was tough as usual. Can't see myself holding on to a fast bunch up there, as don't think my legs will be in any state to have the power they'll need to push the bike fast enough. But if I get dropped I won't worry too much and just take it easy until the next bunch catches me up. Stashed/buried a coke bottle in a ditch past the steepist hill with 10kms to go, as unlike the team guys won't have people standing roadside handing out bottles Bet it won't be there on raceday though! Some farmer/cyclist is sure to find it and tip it out. Anyway even if it is I'll probably forget and ride straight past it.
Still off the pace a bit, but figured going a bit easy would be more beneficial than going too hard anyway. So 1hr04 to top of LongBay Rd. Couldn't get any speed up going down, as had a vicious headwind mainly, and crosswind in places. Made it too dangerous to go over a certain speed so again had to keep on the brakes to keep the speed down. So only got to a max of 70kph.
Felt better on the way home. Kept over 10kph on all the climbs home so pretty happy with that. Rode ok up Hilltop coming back the other way and got 26:12. Best is 24mins20 from memory.

8:08 base of hilltop
31:08 Hilltop
42 something Pigeon Bay turnoff
55:35 Little Akaloa turnoff
3min up steepest hill
1hr25:35 last turnoff
1hr35:34 top Long bay Rd
1hr42:55 Akaroa finish line
Biked around a bit left on Main rd 1hr45
2hrs16:08
2hrs42:20 top

2hrs54:38 home 70.31km 24.1kph Av 70.6kph Max

[bob_summers]

Archaeologists will dig that bottle up in 1000 years and assume it was some kind of offering to the gods...

So all the work's done then! Nothing you can do except sleep well and shave the old pins! Will you do an easy ride the day before?

I'm running my tubeless wheels with tubes atm, seems like I've destroyed the sidewalls of all my tyres so no point wasting sealant as they're never gonna go up. I've got a UST Nevegal in good shape, but not sure I like it :-/

[Alistar]

Oh well it was a nice idea anyway...
I'll have to practise jumping off and on my bike quickly before chasing back on my bunch just in case. Was going to open the top so it'd be flat but didn't want to ingest and kill a mouthfull of ants first sip. Getting a facefull of coke up the next hill could be quite hilarious though

Yeah think I'll shave the legs ahead of schedule this yr! Always feel like a "real" cyclist and so much faster with them smooth
Still got a week so probably just do a flat ride Saturday for 80k's if recovered. Will probably just spin the legs for an hr or so on Monday and Thursday next week and rest Friday. Might do a couple of short efforts on Tues for 1.5hrs, but overall easy riding.

Arrghh come down with the dreaded lurgy. Son #1 had a temp of 39 for a couple of days, and a cough but bounced back pretty quick. Son 2 has had a temp of 39 for last 3days, and now finally it seems I've sucuumbed and I have the same hacking cough and those horrible nervy flu aches especially in my lower/mid spine down the legs. The kind of annoying ones where you can't get comfortable. Could also be a combination of lowering the handlebars a bit and having slight backstrain.

Oh well enforced rest isn't a bad thing. Often I feel I have more energy after getting better from a cold/flu. At least I came down with it this week rather than next.

Anyway crap Wintery weather last few days so a good time to get sick.

[Alistar]

Had a big aftershock on Saturday. Definitely "earthquake weather" so was joking with my son there'd be this big aftershock and knock out the TV reception while we were watching the All Blacks play Argentina in the 1/4 finals. 10mins later big scary rumble like an approaching freight train and biggest shake we'd had for quite a while. A mag 5.5 only 11kms away from us But didn't cause any real damage. At least we won the Rugby!

Another f#$king NZ disaster! Bloody freighter steamed straight into this obvious reef which everyone knows about and is on every chart. Also is an awesome ecosystem for fishlife but the ship has crushed it, and now is leaking oil all over the beautifull Tauranga coastline! Response has been pathetic too. We had 4 calm days before a storm hit and the authorities sat around talking about what should be done etc instead of getting straight out there and pumping the damned oil off. They finally got the tanker out there yesterday which pumped a bit off before a valve blew and then the bad weather set in and now its impossible to do anything. Already 90 birds have been found covered in toxic oil sludge and thats before the main slick cause by the bad weather has reached shore. Just terrible!

Oh well that sucked. Proper flu this time and haven't felt this off for ages. Ache's were the worst thing and had to take painkillers to get to sleep for the first week. Funny how the aches were migrating around. Lower back. Upper back. Then lower back and down the legs, then gone for a few hours then back in muscles in weird places like the lats. But funnily never toughed the legs. Gone now thank god!

Still got a hacking cough, irritated throat, funny guts and still not 100pc.

Didn't feel like it but times running out, so went for a ride anyway. First since last Sunday! Power was pretty goood at the start and managed over 20kph up the first small pinch climb. Rode pretty hard to Govs. Kept on or over 12kph the whole way up to the SOK but struggled a bit more than I should have. Expected to get to the top in 13mins but took just over 14mins in th end. Hung a left(same way as race course) and reached the top in 20mins. Took it moderately easy from then on. As legs were pretty much gone which isn't a good sign. But hopefully just "flu legs" and are better in a few days. Quite twisty narrow fast roads in places and was thinking it could get a bit dicey with reasonable groups. Went for it down the Bastard. Heaps of fast technical corners. Cattlestops, lumps and bumps, rocks and the odd sheep escaped from their fences on side of the road. Easy to overcook some of those corners but lots of fun. I'm ok on the descents so will just try and gap the group and get some space and then wait for a decent group at the bottom. Easy to fly off with 4 or 7 guys and waste energy in a futile chase, and get caught 30mins down the road anyway.

I'm not going to have much on race day so have to conserve the little energy I have for as long as possible. Weather forcast doesn't sound that great(cold showers and headwind), which will make things even harder so hopefully I can get in the biggest bunch on the flat and hide in the back until bottom of hilltop. If I'm fast enough up Dyers that is Trouble with me is I always think I should be doing my bit pulling up the front. Will kill me this yr though so have to keep that ego in check. Usually I make my move up Hilltop and get in with the faster climbers but will try to ride back a bit with guys more my ability, and hopefully be able to stay with them and get a tow to the last steep pinch climbs and see if I can get a gap before the long 700m in six km descent. Challenging enough in the dry so could be really hairy in the wet. Last time it was wet I was lucky not too come off on the top couple of fast corners so could be heaps of crashes if it doesn't dry out.

[Alistar]

After putting in my secret weapons that will make all the difference( lightweight roadie tubes ), tootled up and down the road for half an hr on the flat. Found it hard and quite a workout to stay over 30kph
Should have taken it really easy, but my ego couldn't handle being so slow.

Going to be a laugh on Saturday

15.76km 32:44 28.9kph Av 41.5km Max

[Mr. Cleetus]

ahem...
http://kiwibrevet.blogspot.com/
I don't see your name there. You'd better get on to it!

[Alistar]

Oh great! I will be able to sit on my easychair watching your progress afterall! Go Mr C!

3weeks holiday in January means pretty hard to swing more time off unfortunately.

Just went over to Wheatsheaf and did some flat laps yesterday. Decent Southerly even though nice and Sunny, so half headwind. Felt ok but still pretty underdone. Just kept it easy up the hills so at least will be as fresh as possible. Lungs, legs are in for a shock though. Still a bit stuffed up with a residual cold. Rain forcast didn't arrive today, just cold and overcast. Meant to be just cold and cloudy tomorrow , so probably will be pretty hard going. At least it probably won't be wet!

4min37 last hill
41.05km 1hr27:44 28.0kph Av 65.2kph Max

[Mr. Cleetus]

That's not what I want to hear!!

[bob_summers]

Nice one Al, give it everything tomorrow!