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
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
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
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
Friday, October 3, 2008
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
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
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