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