World Masters Report Card......

Well, the 2008 World Masters Track Championships here in Sydney finished yesterday, and I've come away with a "mixed bag" of treats............ a PB, a broken bike, and a bent body.

My first race was on Wednesday and was my priority 2000m 55-59yrs Pursuit. My medium term goal is to go sub 2min 30sec for the eight laps, and my intention was to go "rip, shit or bust" and have a shot at this in qualifying.

But I had second thoughts when Wednesday turned out a little cooler than it had been in the days prior, and after discussion with a club mate, decided to go out on a 2.32 schedule. I had instructed Mike (Popplewell....750TT silver medalist at these Championships) to let me run if I happened to be up a little early on.....as long as I was able to settle back on scheduled lap times within a lap ot two.

As it turned out, I was able to ride virtually every lap within a .2sec range and still hold reasonable form over the last 500m or so. Finished with 2min 32.085sec for a two second PB.

Might have been a high 2.31 if I hadn't caught and had to go around my opposition going into turn 3 with 500m to go. Surely must have dropped .085sec minimum there :-)

I had no thoughts of getting close to the medal rides, just wanted to PB. Missed out on a Bronze ride off by .8sec .......which is still a decent amount, but much closer than I had expected.

So far, so good.

Next evening was my Scratch Race and unfortunately was involved in a crash about 7 laps from the finish when a rider higher on the banking, touched wheels and slid down into my path. Nowhere to go, so finished up T-boning him, breaking my forks on impact and hurting my right shoulder, hip and ribs.

Sat on the trainer for 15min the next morning, but was a bit sore. Spent the rest of the day icing all the sore bits and swallowing anti-inflamatory medication.

Went out on my road bike for an hour the next morning (Saturday) to see how things were. Was OK as long as I didn't have to change hand position on the bars. Things were looking up.

Did a couple of jumps of 30-45sec to see if my shoulder would hold up and while still painful, was manageable.

Unfortunately, these efforts stirred up my ribs more than anything, and by that night I was getting a sharp pain when I took big breathes.

So everything was good.....unless I rode my bike ....or breathed. Not the ideal combination with the prospect of trying to ride in a typical aggressive Points Race next day.

So for once in my life, commonsense prevailed and I sat in the stands to watch the action instead of participating. In hindsight, it really was the smartest thing to do (really unusual for me)

Finished the week a little frustrated, but satisfied that significant progress has been made towards the 2.30 barrier. Good thing is I will get 4 opportunities for quality Pursuits next year with State Champs in March, Nationals in Launceston, Tasmania in April, UCI World Masters here in Sydney again in October, plus World Masters Games within a week or so of the UCI meet.

Really happy with my preparation, although there are definitely areas where there is still "work in progress".

After Nationals earlier this year, I made a list of every aspect of my preparation where I thought gains could be made ...... from actual physical training, to equipment and aerodynamics. I'll post again shortly with details of the list, where things stand right now, and what I plan to target over the next 12 months of preparation.

I'd like to thank a few people for their advice, assistance and encouragement in my ongoing quest for this 2min 30sec thing.

Dr. Andrew Coggan has been generous with his time and provided some thoughtful suggestions and back up for some of my plans along the way......what else would you expect from this bloke.

Alex Simmons for his patient analysis of data from CdA testing at the velodrome.

Pete Barnard for providing me with my sweet NRT carbon frame, forks, and seatpost at a great price. http://www.tracknut.com.au/

Michael Popplewell who has helped out whenever he could with advice and loan and sale of various peices of equipment..... I used Mike's very fast front Fluid disc/Dugust tubular combo in the Pursuit.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your help.

More soon.

Mike

Inside the final week.....

Well my last week of training has gone pretty much to plan. Last weekend I was rostered on day shift with the Fire Dept., but was able to get KK trainer sessions done on both days. Saturday was a short 2 sets of 5 x 30sec on/off @ 380w / 120w, preceded by a "track warm up".

Sunday, after the standard warm up, I rode 2 x 2min @ ~350w (3min R), 2 x 1min @ ~375w (2min R), 2 x 30sec @ ~400w (1min R).......although these 30's got a bit ragged towards the end which surprised me a bit....but like the old saying goes..."all you can do is all you can do".

Trained on the track on Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday I ran the bike in full race set up with front and rear discs and race gearing. Turned out to be a good day.

After warm up, a couple of Flying 250's and a couple of half lap starts, I rode a Standing Start 1km in 1min 16.4sec, and that's about as good as I've ever done. Certainly in training it is. Followed up with 1 x FL1KM in 1min 12.5sec and a controlled FL500m in 36.7sec. Pretty happy with all that.

Friday just 1 x SS1KM (self timed with the last 750m in 55.9sec) and 2 x FL500m in 35.5sec and the second as a "paced" effort in 37.3sec. Legs a bit "heavy" feeling today.

With the World Championships starting on Tuesday, quite a few early arriving International riders were on the track on Friday, some who could do with a lesson or two in track etiquette.

Have just arrived home after 2hrs 45sec on the road with a few steady climbing efforts thrown in. Tomorrow, Sunday, I'll head out to the track after day shift to register and ride a couple of FL500's to top me off for my Wednesday Pursuit qualifier.

Looking at my WKO+ Performance Manager Chart, I'm sitting around CTL of ~95, with TSB of +9 and 803 TSS points for the last 7 days before this mornings ride.

All in all I feel ready for a good ride in my Pursuit qualifier on Tuesday. Smart pacing will, as usual, be critical for a good result.

On Wednesday I have Scratch Race heats and Sunday, Points Race heats. I'd love to make the finals for both but not sure if I have the horsepower to stay close enough in the sprints. Gonna be "fun" trying though :-)

So with three days to go, the plan is for a couple of FL500's on Sunday on the track, easy road ride on Monday and a couple of 1min "openers" on the road on Tuesday before my "test".

I'm rostered on night shift on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not ideal, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a quiet night on Tuesday at least, before my Pursuit the next morning.

Gee, it's kinda come around quite quickly after all these months of planning and preparation.

Stand by for results.

Mike

The last two weeks

Don't know how I did it, but woke with a very tight and sore lower back on Friday last week. Had trouble bending enough to pull on my shoes. Seemed to have a lot of referred pain in legs too. Not quite sciatic pain, but enough to make things uncomfortable.

Fortunately, my back loosened up over the next day or so. I was assigned to fill a Rescue Operators spot at Gordon Fire Station on the Friday and Saturday, so I commuted, and included a bit of SST/ low L4 work each way.

One route I took was around 2.5hrs all up, the other, around 2hrs.

On Sunday (28th Sept.) I trained on Dunc Gray Velodrome with all the usual suspects. I started with a Standing Start 1500m and timed the last 5 laps at 1.36.9....only 2m 39sec Pursuit pace for me :-( And it felt way harder than it should have!

I then joined three other riders and we rode a Team Pursuit formation for 1500m, 2km and 2km........well, that's as long as I could stay there anyway. Found myself really struggling to get into a rhythm. My guess is that I was still suffering the after-effects of that lower back drama a few days earlier.

Monday was just a "Track warm-up" on the KK trainer, which goes like this: 10min easy build up to ~250w, then off the bike and walk around and sit for 5min or so. I find this really helps reduce the soreness and tightness I often feel in hamstrings during the early part of my warm up. I then go into another build-up alternating 1min @ 235w, 250w, 270w, 290w and 320w with 1min @ 200w. I then take another two or three minutes easy, hit 3 x ~500w for 15sec with 45sec easy spin between, and then pronounce myself ready for action.


I decided to do my Tuesday L6 workout on the KK trainer to sort of look after my back, so repeated my track warm-up then went 3 sets of 5 x 30sec on / off with the efforts starting at 450w and decaying to 390w in the last couple of reps in the first set, 430w down to 390w for the second set, and the third set I "paced" and held a constant 380w for each rep. Still not feeling 100% but at least a bit better.

Steady 2.5hrs with 45min of low L4 work on Wednesday, and on Thursday trained on the road on my TT bike with 5 x 10sec Starts, 2 x SS500m and 1 x FL1KM.

I have a Power Tap set up on this bike and saw 486w and 475w for the 500's and 396w for the flying kilo....feeling reasonably comfortable. Seemed to be over the back thing now.

Back on the track today for a couple of Flying 1 lappers at the end of my warm-up, then 2 x Flying Kilos. First kilo was 1.16.5 and felt very easy....suppose it should at that pace, but as I've mentioned before, I have always seemed to have trouble producing good training times on the track, even though my Wattages are adequate when I train on the road.

Anyway, the second kilo was 1.13.3.........harder, but a bit short of all out. I don't ever recall riding faster than 1.15 in training before. I hadn't planned on doing much more, so I stopped after that second kilo. Trying to keep some semblance of "freshness" going into my last ten days before the World Championships start.

I've got another L6 trainer workout scheduled for over the weekend. I'm on duty with the Fire Dept. both days (and Monday and Tuesday nights), but should be able to find a quiet time to get my training done.

I'm planning to be back on the track on Wednesday, running full race set up with discs, "good legs", etc. From that time on, it will be just fine tuning my pace judgement and keeping legs fresh with short, fast efforts until race day. Can't wait.

Mike

Here comes some form??????

Since my last post, as the Euro pros say, "I have good sensations" in my legs. Pretty happy with last Sunday's training on the velodrome. We had warm conditions, which is a bit of a contrast to the usually cool mornings when I've been doing most of my training on the track, so that certainly would have helped my speed on the day.

After a 15min warm up, I rode 3 x Flying 1km reps with long 15+min recoveries, followed by 2 x Flying 500m and a Standing Start 500m.

Haven't been using my Power Tap on the track bike, just hand timing everything. Because I'm often on my own on the track in the mornings, I've taped a stop watch to my aero extensions to record each interval. Usually works OK ......except when I don't press hard enough or accidentally double press the buttons and get a time of 0.16sec for a kilometer :0

So after buggering up the timing of my first two reps, I saw a 1min 15sec for the third kilometer.
Now that's not going to make anyone nervous, but it's about as good as I ever see in training, so I'm happy, especially as I know the first two were definitely faster. At least according to the speeds I was carrying throughout each of them.

My 500's were 35.0 and 34.7, but the most satisfying was my final effort of the day, my Standing Start 500m, in which I went through first lap in 22.3 and the 500m in 40.3 ...both PB's for me. All the work was done on my expected race gearing of 52/15, and it's the first day I've had where I felt like I was finally getting on top of that gear. Probably the warmer conditions were responsible, but it still left me feeling much more content.

On Monday I rode a very easy 90min but included 5 x Standing Starts of about 10 seconds duration. Saw two new PB's here.....1034watts Peak Power, and 971watts Peak 5 second power.
Again, not earth shattering, but they are PB's nonetheless, and at around 65kg, they're edging closer to my pre-preparation targets.

Back on the track today (Tuesday) for 2 x Standing Start 1 km, 1 x SS 750m and one SS 500m.
I planned 3 x 1 km but speed was dropping away dramatically on the second kilometer, so I shortened up the next reps so I could sustain as close to race pace as possible.

Because I couldn't time the start lap, I just recorded the subsequent laps for each rep and got 57.4 for the last 750m of the first rep, 58.5 for the second, 38.4 for the final 500m of the SS 750 and 18.9 for the last lap of the SS 500m. A bit off the pace, but sort of ok after the last two days.

While at the track today, I dropped in to the Cycling Australia offices and picked up my International license and my Australian Team skinsuit which I'm entitled to wear after making the podium at the National Championships in April. Gotta say I feel quite proud to have the opportunity to wear the Aussie colours in competition.

Mike

More L6 suffering

Well the last week or so has gone along pretty well as planned, but the only time I managed to get on the track, last Monday, wasn't a particularly fulfilling session.

On the day prior, I had spent some time on a favourite loop of mine sprinting the short (10sec to 20sec) little hills as a "Points Race" type of workout and it left my legs a little heavy.

The track workout was planned to be a series of flying kilometers, but 500m into the first, my legs were saying enough is enough.....yelling pretty loudly actually. OK, these are supposed to feel hard, but when it was obvious I wasn't going to be able to sustain anything like race speed, I thought it better to pull back in distance so I could at least hold some semblance of quality.

So it was 4 x FL500m with ~ 8min recovery, all in the mid to high 36sec range, followed by 1 x FL 1km. This last rep, ridden as a paced effort instead of all out was a 1min 17sec. Not target race pace exactly, but it's rare for me to go fast in training .......probably 'cos of tired legs most of the time..........maybe I should be spending more recovery time so I CAN ride the speed I need to?

In the past, I can't recall ever going faster than 1.15 for a FL 1km in training, and really struggling to do that! But it all seems to come together on race day with fresh legs. Gotta trust that the same will happen in October :-)

I suppose when you consider that these times are ridden when tired, in the morning with temperature inside the velodrome of about 12 degrees, and on crummy training wheels and tires, then there's scope for improvement.

All the Pursuit specific work I've been doing on the road and trainer with my Power Tap equipped bikes have been within my target range of power, so I've just got to trust the process.

On Wednesday morning, I rode 3 x Standing Start 1km reps on the road (in the rain) with 10min recoveries. Not a particularly high start power, around 895watts, but averages for each rep was 400w, 396w and 389w. That's in target range but there was a drop in power towards the end of each. But again, that's what is to be expected the way I'm riding them, i.e. all out from the gun.

I'm riding most of my L6 reps in this fashion to REALLY create a high lactate environment. There seems to be reasonable evidence, and I've had good advice, that this method has shown in the past to provide a strong stimulus for adaptation. We're gonna find out soon aren't we.

Even though I've been running on tired legs most of the time, with a touch of freshness, in the last two weeks I hit an all time peak power PB of....and don't snicker, 1031watts, and twice have PB'd my 5sec Power with 934watts and 935watts. So I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the last week when I'm well tapered.

Tonight I'm heading straight from day shift with the Fire Dept. for the last of the Friday night RAW (Race All Winter) track series, then from night shift on Sunday morning directly to join the regular Sunday morning group back on the velodrome.

Put my entry in today for World Masters in the Pursuit, Scratch race and Points race. Stay tuned to see how things go in these last couple of weeks.

Mike

Getting down to specifics

Well it's only a month now to my target race, Pursuit qualifying at Masters World Track Championships here in Sydney, so recent weeks have been taken up with track specific work, done either on the Dunc Gray Velodrome or on the trainer or road.

I've been doing mostly L6 work in various formats along with L7 stuff to work on my starts. This has been filled out with moderate volumes of SST and low L4 work.

Have managed to get out to some RAW (Race All Winter) track meets on the last couple of Friday nights. I was rostered on night shift last Friday but arranged 4hrs leave to race, then rushed back to the Fire Station to begin my shift at 10pm.

Everyone gets about 4 races at these meets organised by Paul Craft. Paul always makes things interesting with unusual and "fun" race formats. For example, last week I had two scratch races, a Keiren and a race he called a Miss 'n' Out Points race.

We started the race with 23 riders, and a Derny following the field. Each lap, the last rider over the line was "eliminated" and dropped back to follow the Derny. You were awarded points as you were eliminated.....1 point for the first rider off, 2 for the second, etc, until it came down to the last two riders, with the winner taking 23 points plus a bonus for the win.

Remember, all this time eliminated riders were dropping back to the Derny. So after the final Miss 'n' Out sprint, it became the world's biggest Keiren with the Derny pulling off the track with two and a half laps to go. Points were again awarded for your finishing position with the overall winner being the rider with most accumulated points.

A very intense race with surges from 45-48kph each lap to try to avoid being eliminated, then tracking the Derny at similar speeds until the final sprint. Gee, it was almost fun :P

I had planned to train on the velodrome with the Sunday morning group but got a call to see if I would fill a Rescue Operators spot that came up as a result of another Firefighter calling in sick.
Overtime rates make it hard to pass up these opportunities, so I loaded my bike and trainer into the car hoping to be able to get a workout done during the day if we weren't busy.

As it turned out, I was able to get in a session of 3 sets of 5 x 30sec @ 400-410w with 30sec recovery @ ~100w. Pretty happy with this as in recent times, I've tended to fade just a touch in the last part of the last reps of each set. Not saying it was easy by any stretch, but manageable....just.

On Monday afternoon a session was arranged at the velodrome with a guy to operate the starting gates for us. So over 90min or so, I managed eight starts from the gates, mostly half laps, but included a couple of full laps and one 500m from the standing start.

Backed up on Tuesday with 2 x 1km and 1 x 1500m standing starts efforts on the road.
Didn't take too much notice of the times since they are affected by a little bit of breeze, different rolling resisitance on the road, etc, but power was 472w average for the first 1km rep, 498w for the second, and 382w for the 1500m. Happy enough with that since 380+w is what I'm targeting that level for my pursuit. With a bit of freshness in my legs it might just be within my reach.

Wednesday was my commute to and from the Fire Station, not ridden too hard, averaging 180w Normalised Power.

Thursday is another trainer workout with 2min L6 reps on the menu, backed up with another set of multiple 30sec on 30sec off reps. Can hardly wait :-)

Mike

Team Time Trial

August 24th was State TTT on the 43km Calga course. We finished up with quite a respectable ride in my opinion, since we were under no illusions about getting on the podium.

We "lost" one rider by quarter distance and our strategy was to protect our third man to help him get over the hills on the run back to the finish. So there were two of us doing the majority of the work, which was fine by me.

We finished 8th, but only just over 2min off a podium spot. We had some very strong teams starting behind us and I thought there was a distinct possibility of us getting caught. That didn't happen and while we did lose time, we were a lot closer to some strong teams than I thought would really hammer us.

I rode with my Power Tap and saw a Normalised Power for the 1hr 10min, and 43km of 255w which is pretty much what I've been calling my FTP in recent times.

Had my first Friday night track meet prior to the TTT and it was good to get some leg speed happening again. Paul Craft who started this RAW (Race All Winter) Series some years ago does a terrific job of providing a good night of racing for everyone. Mostly get 4 or 5 races a night, and Paul always creates some interesting race formats. I'm headed out there again this Friday.

Since the TTT, I've introduced some L6 work as specific training for my Pursuit in October. Ugly stuff!

Here are the details of my most recent L6 workouts:

#1: 4 x 90sec @ 380w (8min R) then 4 x 30sec @ ~ 500w (2min R) done on my trusty Kurt Kinetic trainer.

#2: 3 x 2min @ 380w but decaying to around 320w at the end of each rep (8min R) then 3 x 1min @ 390w (4min R) done on the road.

#3: This workout done on Dunc Gray Velodrome: Had planned for a series of flying 1km and flying 500m reps but had no legs on the day....they just wouldn't / couldn't produce the required speed / power, so I changed to 6 x flying 250's and 4 x Standing start 250's and went home with my tail between my legs.

#4: 3 x 2min @ 380w (8min R) then 3 x 1min @ 390w (4min R) then 3 x 30sec @ ~ 500w (2min R) on the road.

#5: 3 sets of 4 x 30sec @ ~500w (30sec R) with 10min R between sets) done on the trainer.

After some good advice, I'm trying the approach of very high (for me) power intervals. Short, with longer recoveries. Traditionally, AWC type training levels are done at ~135% of FTP, mine being ~ 255w at present, so it will be interesting to see how this translates to on track performance. As you can see, my minimum power for the above workouts is around 150%, with some decay of power in the last 30sec of longer (i.e. 2min) reps.

Did my commute ride to work this morning and sat up in SST / low L4 range at every opportunity for the ~ 50min. Gotta say, legs felt pretty good too. Will take it a bit easier on the way home, hoping to have something in my legs for my track workout in the morning.

Going to back up on Friday night for some bunch racing.

Current CTL is 104.1 with 682 TSS points accumulated last week. TSB is neutral or just in positive right now.

Mike

More CdA testing

Since getting my new NRT track bike, I've had several sessions at DGV doing mostly Flying 500's and Standing Start 250's. Times are starting to come down a little. Still not "comfortable" enough at this low 37sec to mid 36sec time for the 500's, but this is what I've found in the past. I struggle to hold target times in training, yet I'm able to ride as fast or faster on race day while feeling much easier...well, as "easy" as it gets in a Pursuit.

I reckon a big part of this is the crappy wheels and tyres I use in training. The front wheel is a 20year old Shimano with !#$%'d bearings....really lumpy. And I'm running some real slow feeling Kenda HP tyres. So I figure once I hit all my times regularly on this equipment, I'll get a real boost in speed with race wheels.

Last week I ran another CdA test comparing a slightly modified position on the new bike to my "new" position developed after Nationals (see previous post). Came out almost identical which sorta disappointed me a little as I was hoping the new frame might prove to be a bit more slippery.

However, I also did a back to back test using standard helmet and position, compared to using my Giro Advantage aero helmet and shoe covers. As usual, Alex Simmons did the analysis and showed a measureable reduction in CdA of ~ 1.7%.

I wasn't sure if there would be a measurable difference, but was pleased that the test protocol holds up so well.

Had another Team Time Trial workout on the road with my team mates last Saturday. We're getting to know each others strengths and limiters and we're getting things to work quite well.
The Championships are next Sunday on the Calga course. We're going to be right up against it as a couple of teams have some extraordinary Time Trialists in their squads, but we'll give it all we've got.

Have picked up a bit of a head cold in the last few days, but so far it hasn't hindered my training.
I'm back at work as a Fire Fighter now after finishing my annual leave and was able to slip in a trainer workout today during a quieter period.

It was an Anaerobic Work Capacity session today. Chose a work load perhaps a little higher than necessary (370-389watts......145% FTP) for 5 x 90sec with longish recoveries (3m 30s), but I wanted to see how I handled that wattage, seeing as I'm going to need to sustain something similar for the ~ 2m 30sec I'm planning to ride for the 2000m Pursuit.

Planning to compete at my first Friday night RAW (Race All Winter) track meet this week. Usually we get 5 races for the night in all sorts of formats. The guy who started this series, Paul Craft, does a terrific job of providing an interesting, enjoyable night of racing. Looking forward to getting some track "feel" back into my legs.

Mike

My New Toy

Here's my new track bike. Frame was purchased from Peter Barnard (multi World Masters Champion on the track) who is selling them under the NRT banner. Pete has recently started selling track specific bits and pieces through his web site http://www.tracknut.com.au/

Had a shake-down run on the bike already and it feels smooth and tight. It has a slightly longer top tube than my old frame and I've been able to stretch my position out to get a little longer and lower, but it feels even more comfortable than the position settled on after my CdA test series.

Next plan is to hit the track for more CdA testing to see if the frame and modified position are indeed more slippery. Stay tuned.

Mike

Photo of my new Pursuit position

Been a long time coming, but here is a shot of the position settled on after several CdA test sessions at DGV Velodrome.

Don't laugh at my bike either.....as a $200 special off eBay, it's served my very well...and doesn't the French saying go something like "ca toujour la jambe" .....translated as "it's always the legs".

Kurrajong Classic Road Race

Last weekend (Sun 3rd August) was the Kurrajong Classic, one of my favourite races of the year.
This year I was graded into Division 2 ......full of young bucks who aren't quite up to elite level, and all the strong Masters riders from M2 and up. There were only two of us M6 "old timers"in the race, the other being a 56kg climbing demon, Eugene Schilter.

Three laps of a 33km loop including one climb of approx 1.7km length and probably between 7 and 8%. Certainly not particularly long or steep, but there is always a selection made at this point. The rest of the course consists of rollers before a fast 10km run into the finish.

Perfect conditions on the day. Glorious winter sunshine and only a gentle breeze. First lap was quite tame. Eugene rode gently off the front over the climb and everyone seemed happy to let him go.

Second time up the climb and things livened up somewhat. The previous week I travelled out to ride the climb a couple of times and to remind myself of the rest of the lap. The two reps I rode of the climb were 5m 25sec and 5min 34sec at 322w average for the first (up by 18w on last time I trained on it). For interest, I set my watch to time the climb during the race. 4min 29sec on the second lap and 4min 38sec on the last lap! I wish I'd been running the Power tap to see exactly my wattage this time.

I ran the numbers through Analytic Cycling for an estimate, and it threw up something close to 400w! I reckon that's a bit optimistic knowing that my most recent 1min and 5min Power Profile tests were only 468w and 326w respectively. Still, I would never have believed I could get up there a full minute faster than those training reps.

Anyways, we didn't shed as many riders as I would have expected either time up the main hill, so when a break of three got away with less than 10km to go, and the field kinda shut down, it turned into a bunch sprint for 4th.

Had a good position and was following the right wheel as we built up for the final kick, when I was given a huge "hook" from a rider I was going around. Lost all momentum, and probably finished 10th or 12th in the bunch.

Sort of satisfied with my ride, except for the sprint. Was pleased to be able to hang on up the climb.

So apart from Team Time Trial championships in three weeks, that's it for important road races for me until after the World Pursuit in mid October.

Went out on Monday on fairly "heavy" legs intending to just ride some SST, but couldn't resist the urge to check 1 minute power, seeing as mine lags quite considerably behind that seen in the profile of better Pursuiters.

I'd set a target of something like 8 to 8.2 watts per kilo as my target before Worlds, coming off my last result of 468w or 7.2 watts per kilo. Surprise, surprise......494w or 7.7 w/kg.

Really pleased with that. Seems like my 8+w/kg might just be achievable when I devote some time to working on that area.

Oh yeah, last week I picked up my new track frame from Pete Barnard (multiple World Masters Champ and record holder). Very happy with it. Had a shake down run last Friday and it felt smooth and tight. Looking forward to doing some more CdA tests to see what gains there are over my old frame, and a couple of tweaks to my position.

This morning I did 4 x 4min "Team Pursuit" type intervals on the road. Rode at 380-400w for the first 15sec of each minute and 280-300w for the next 45sec for the 4min. Tough work bringing it up towards the 380+ mark at the start of each minute.

Current CTL in WKO+ is 107.4 with TSB at -12.5

Heading to the Zoo Hill at Mosman in the morning for some L5 reps.

Will get some photos up shortly of my new bike, my old bike and the changes I've made to my position since Nationals in April.

Time Trial week

Training has been going pretty good in the last weeks. Have begun to introduce some L5 (VO2max) work and it's feeling OK. Still working in the low end of time range for this sort of training, but as I said, it feels OK ....perhaps due to the greater volume of L4 (FTP) work completed over recent times?

I've made a fairly major decision NOT to race the Grafton-Inverell Classic this year. As much as I love the race, and I sorta do OK in it (generally), it really is just too close to World Masters Track Championships to be sure that I can regain my "track legs" and do myself justice in the Pursuit which has really become a focus for me right now.

Having made the decision, it feels like a bit of a load has been taken off my shoulders. Another factor weighing on my decision has been that my best mate on the bike was seriously injured in a training accident almost a month ago. Ray suffered a fracture of the C5 vertebrae and spinal trauma and is still in the Intensive Care Unit with very little movement in arms or legs. Of course we're hoping things improve dramatically for him, but he's doing it pretty tough right now.

Ray rode the Grafton for the first time last year and I was looking forward to preparing and racing with him again this year. I've coached Ray first as a distance runner, then in more recent times on the bike and he's a coach's dream, following workout instructions to the letter. One of the toughest cookies I know and a Champion bloke to go with it.

So Grafton and the whole trip wouldn't feel the same without him.

This weekend (27th July) I have State Individual Time Trial Championships at Calga, the same course (or part of it) as the Team Championships in a month's time. Feeling ready for it, although I haven't time trialled as well as I would have liked recently. Perhaps sitting up the night before to watch Cadel try to win the Tour in the final time trial will provide added inspiration?

Travelled to Kurrajong (will be racing there in on the 3rd. August) last Monday to look over the course and ride the main climb a couple of times. It's not long, or even steep, but there is always a selection made there and I'd like to make the split. The two reps I rode on the climb were up by around 18watts on what I did last year in training so we'll see what happens.

Had a bit of rain here in Sydney the last couple of days so I jumped on the faithful Kurt Kinetic trainer for a mix of L5 and SST/FTP work. The L5 stuff went better than I remember similar sessions in the last months. 5 * 3min @ 300-310watts (3min R), followed by 2 * 10min @ 235watts (1min R).

This morning I did 8 * 30sec @ 390watts (just over my target Pursuit wattage) with 4min 30sec @ 180-200watts between reps. This was to be a fairly easy day (with my TT in three days) and I felt good. Such short efforts generally leave my legs feeling quite "lively", and tonight that feels like the case again. Rode the 30sec reps at a Pursuit specific cadence of ~120rpm trying to relax as much as possible ..........not easy to do when I know I've going to attempt to hold similar power and cadence for FIVE TIMES THAT LONG in my Pursuit.

Current CTL in WKO+ is 109.3 with a TSB of -12.5, which will come back to around even with today's trainer workout and tomorrow's "openers" I have planned. Then I'll see just what I can do on Sunday in the TT.

TTT Training

Yesterday saw our first Team Time Trial training session on the Calga course just north of Sydney. My new club, Bicisport, is much better organised than my previous club, and have several team workouts scheduled between now and Championship time at the end of August.

This was our first chance to ride together and see where each others strengths and weaknesses were. On what is basically an out and back course, we were instructed to go out at about 80%, keep things together, and "race" the return leg.

We "lost" one rider on the way out, even at the moderate pace and needed to wait for our third rider on the longer climbs. This Calga course is quite testing and undulates all the way. We need to work on a strategy to keep at least three riders together through to the finish so we may need to share most of the work between the two stronger guys in the hope of having the third man hang on on the climbs.

Went into Sunday with 108.2TSS and +12.6TSB, back in positive territory after a couple of shorter days forced on me by work.

My last ITT at Calga produced a 254wNP and yesterday's 43km TTT came up as 246wNP. Should have bee somewhat higher 'cos I waited for over three and a half minutes in total over two of the more difficult climbs. Felt like decent enough work though.

This morning, Monday, I rode out and back to the Bottom Box and then along Wakehurst Parkway and over Oxford Falls climb on my TT bike with a "mixed bag" of efforts. About 5min of L6, 8min of L5 and 28min of SST/L4. Legs a bit "heavy" from yesterday, but felt surprisingly strong.

TSS was virtually identical to the TTT training.....140 V 141 for approximately one hour and fifty minutes of riding.

I have an "Hour Of Power" indoors with the squad I coach in the morning, not too difficult a workout, planning to make it SST with a few ad lib surges.

Mike

With my main goal being to go sub 2min 30sec for the 2000m individual Pursuit in October at World Masters, I've had to re-evaluate the priority of some of my previous main focus races.

Before my break-through PB in the Pursuit (2min 34.02sec in April), one of my two "A" races for the second half of the year was the Grafton to Inverell Classic in mid September. In past years I've managed several top 10 placings in my category (best being 3rd) in this race.

It's quite a unique event in that it is 228km with not much in the way of flat stuff. The first major selection happens 70km into the race when you reach the climb over Gibraltor Range. Almost 17kms of average 7%. We don't get too many chances to race over such significant climbs.

My problem of course, is that World Masters Track is only five weeks after Grafton. Not nearly enough time to recover my "track legs". So at this point, I'm still undecided whether to contest Grafton. I've still been doing the training for it (FTP focused work at the moment) but may opt out to concentrate on the track. Either way, I'll be starting Pursuit specific training in mid August, so Grafton preparation will be compromised somewhat anyway if I decide to go ahead with it.

The majority of my training in recent times has been heavily biased towards FTP with 15min to 30min reps at or near my FTP of slightly over 250w (estimated from best training reps and Time Trials using my Power tap SL).

This past Wednesday for example, I completed an undulating to hilly almost 12km rep to the "Top Box" from outside the Pittwater High School in ~26min @ 271w Normalised Power (259w av), then a partial return of just over 12min on the same course (McCarrs Creek to the School) @ 269w NP (260w av), with 10min easy ride recovery.

That's fairly typical of the FTP based work I've been doing, although in the past couple of weeks, I've added some "Bill Black HOP" variations on my Kurt Kinetic trainer. Also a smattering of VO2max type reps such as 6 * 3min at my 5MP power of 326w with same time recovery. Later these will build towards 5 * 5min ..........can hardly wait :-)

Last Sunday I went to the velodrome for the first time since my series of CdA tests in May. An "easy" intro session of 4 * 125m Standing Starts and 4 * Flying 500m in mid 37sec range. My new position felt pretty good. Wattage came out at 405w to 418w for the flyers, so it seems it isn't compromising my power output. Now all I have to do is keep up that power....or near it for another 6 laps!!!!

Tomorrow (Sunday 6th July), we have the first of our Team Time Trial training sessions on the Calga course. Alex Simmons is Team Manager/Coach (I'm sure he will be riding next year) so we're in good hands. TTT Championships are at end of August and ITT Championships on the same course are at the end of this month.

I swapped my PT wheel into my Colnago TT bike this afternoon, so will be intersting to see what numbers come out of this ride tomorrow.

Mike

Getting "Slippery"

After deciding upon the goal of attempting to ride sub 2min 30sec for the 2000m Pursuit, I sat down and made a list of every area of potential improvement from physiological (training) and technical (how I manage and pace my ride), to equipment (how "fast" and aero my bike, position and clothing is)

Turned out to be quite a list, and going through the potential time gains (using conservative estimates), it seems there are some places where I might even be able to eke out some "free speed"! Gotta love that idea.

First area I tackled was to try to reduce my CdA (coefficient of drag) by changing my position on the bike. Previously I had just thrown some TT bars on my bike and gone with that.

Knowing that at high speed somewhere between 80% and 90% of the power one produces is "wasted" on pushing through the air, this was an obvious starting point if I was ever going to find some of this "free speed".

I'm very fortunate to have a world class indoor velodrome about an hours drive from my home. The Dunc Gray Velodrome, venue for track cycling at the 2000 Olympics. Perfect for some controlled aerodynamic testing.

If you subscibe to some of the various power training forums around the place, you may have seen some posts from a couple of gentlemen by the names of Robert Chung and Alex Simmons. They have either developed or refined a couple of techniques for using power data to determine the effectiveness of changes to position and equipment.

Now Alex just happens to be a club mate of mine (I transfered to Bicisport last year) and somewhat of a whizz with maths and computers, so I prevailed upon him to help me out with analysis of the data I produced in several test sessions. Gotta say he was very patient, 'cos the first couple of sessions I spent on the track returned some inconclusive data which frustrated both of us a bit I think. But it was all a learning experience.

In all, I spent three separate four-hour test days on the velodrome. It was necessary to have accurate records of atmospheric conditions for each test, i.e. temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and to note any major changes to these during the testing.

I used my existing track bike (that's another story), standard 32 spoke training wheels with Power Tap hub and (very "slow") high pressure training tyres, standard helmet and skinsuit.

The two test protocols used were a regression method which involved quite a few runs at varying speeds, and the "Chung" method which is basically a continuous ride with speed not necessarily held to a constant.

Alex was interested in testing the two methods back to back to see how they fit, and it seemed to me that the more info we got from either method, the better off I would be.

So that is what we went with. Unfortunately the first two sessions resulted in some iffy data, partly due to the fact that I discovered (after the first session) some loose torx head bolts in the Power tap hub. This is apparently something that can happen when using a Power Tap in fixed gear configuration.

Anyway, after having seen my photos taken during the nationals, I thought my position was to "bunched", too high and too wide. So all I was testing on each of these days at the track, was a single change in bar set-up.

I went 1cm lower, 6cm narrower and extended the aero bars out to within 1cm of the UCI limit (the ends 75cm in front of centre of bottom bracket).
I'll try to get some before and after photos on here at some stage when I can figure out how to do it.

So, what did all this testing show up? Well the position I used at Nationals produced a CdA of 0.0245 and using the regression method, my "new" position yielded CdA of0.235. Using the Chung method, CdA 0.238 .......so .0003 between the two (~1%). That's as good a correlation as I would want.

So I'm now about 3% "more slippery", and just quietly, I reckon there might be a little bit more to be found (e.g. I can go narrower with my elbows with comfort, to more closely follow the contour of my thighs). But all the time spent was definitely worthwhile. Alex predicts that this reduction in CdA is worth ~.4kph of speed and ~1.5sec over 2000m (I was beaten into silver medal position at Nationals by .33sec!)

Incidentally, I did a couple of runs in each position at something approaching cruising speed for my targeted time and the "new" position required 15watts less at 48.9kph (429w compared to 444w).

I'm looking at purchasing a new frame and forks later in the year seeing as what I am using now is a $200 special I got off eBay. I got hold of a second hand rear disc and I used a borrowed front disc at Nationals. I've bought some lycra shoe covers and have a Giro TT helmet. Jeez, these are going to be the most expensive few seconds I have ever "bought".

Next post I will go into a little detail of the training I have been doing in recent times and the races I have pencilled in for the lead-up to the Worlds in October.

Where I am.....where I'm going.

I've decided to create this blog (my first try) to document my training as I attempt to get as close as possible to a sub 2min 30sec for the 2000m Individual Pursuit. Over the next little while, I'll fill you in with a bit of background so that you can see where I've come from in the Pursuit, where I'm aiming, and how I plan to go about getting there.

At this point in time, I could be described as fairly inexperienced in Pursuiting, having only ridden a total of 6 or 7 events. But this discipline has really captured my imagination.
For those who don't know what an Individual Pursuit is, well, it's one of the most straight forward of track events. Two riders line up on opposite sides of a track, and fastest to complete the distance, in my case 2000 metres (for Masters 6, aged 55-60) is the winner. If you are able to make up the half lap distance on your competitor and catch them, you automatically win. That's if you make a final. First there is a qualifying ride to determine the fastest four riders. First and second fastest ride off for the Gold and Silver, third and fourth fastest ride off for Bronze. Pretty simple, huh?

My first ride, at New South Wales State Championships in 2005 produced a 2min 52sec time.
At my second attempt, a year later at the 2006 Championships saw a 2min 42sec, then the following year, 2007, anotherPB of 2min 37.8sec.

In 2007, the Masters World Track Championships were held here in Sydney on our Olympic Velodrome. Having them so close, well, I had to have a ride. It turned out to be a frustrating, yet at the same time, encouraging experience. I pulled my left foot out of the pedal in the first 10m out of the start gate, somehow got it back in (a bit tricky on a fixed gear), and finished the ride, although my heart really wasn't in it after dropping so much time at the start. But my time turned out to be less then a second outside my PB! So, as I said, frustrating yet encouraging.

On to 2008, and at the State Championships in March, I rode a 2min 37.1sec effort to be fastest qualifier. Buggered up my pacing in the Gold/Silver ride-off to finish second.

We had the Australian Championships here in Sydney this year in April, and I again produced fastest qualifying ride with a new PB of 2min 34.02sec. This surprised the hell out of me, 'cos I thought I'd be just chipping away at my PB at this stage, picking up a tenth of a second here and there. Anyway, in the final I was beaten into the silver medal by .3sec.

After producing such a big PB, it got me to thinking that with a "bit of luck and a tail wind", the magic (for me at least) 2min 30sec barrier might be achievable.

So that's where I am right now. Gearing my training towards a fast time at this years World Masters in October. (Sydney has the Championships until 2009 I think)

I've had some advice and assistance from some extraordinarily astute and experienced people in analysing and planning my preparation. Don't know what the protocol is on Blogs, whether it's the right thing to mention names, but if it turns out to be ok, I'll sing their praises to the world later on.