Well I have managed to get back into training after being sick a couple of weeks ago. Lost 5 days completely and then slowly got back into it. The following week was a little lack lustre and had to take it a little easier. Certainly lost a bit of strength, and the top end appeared to be locked-out! It just was not even worth trying harder efforts! The start of this week has gone quite well (this week), and while I still feel slightly under where I was before I got sick, I feel the body is adapting to the training much better. I have even managed to get over 4km in the pool twice this week! Already! The longer run at the weekend was a struggle. I was after an hour and a half, and got to just over an hour and the legs were just hammered. 20 minutes for the quickest way home, but managed to get my ass around a bigger block to get the 1hr30min in. I think my shoes have gone! They were a "stop gap" pair, until I sorted out if they were worth continuing with that model. They seem to be working OK, just not lasting very long! Probably working out around $15 per run at the moment I think!! So have to sort that out in the next week or so! Darn it! Long rides have also been getting ticked off - nothing spectacular, and feeling a little average, but all good training I think. Having said that I am not really looking forward to K2 - I think it is going to hurt - perhaps more than I want it to...
The big daddy of Ironman has come and gone for the year. Ironman Hawaii is an interesting race, all the big names come with their A game (usually), some have great races, and for many the wheels fall off! It is quite brutal, and having been there once, I don't really have the burning desire to return. It just did not light my fire. It was a very desolate place, and probably not really that well suited for me. It is always hot, and always windy - and just the degree of the extremes that vary on the day. I, as with many other "bigger" guys that typically sweat a lot, struggle with the heat aspect. There is only so much you can do if you sweat 2-3 liters per hour and can only absorb around 1.5 liters of fluid per hour. For 8 hours plus you are going to struggle (the numbers just do not balance out!)! But it is the pinnacle of the sport for many. I thought this years race was great, a little bit of a shame that Macca had a mechanical, and that Chrissie Wellington punctured and had to get help with that (but she still won easily!!). Some outstanding performances, and some people really layed it on the line this year - great stuff. Very close racing in the top ten, when often there can be big time gaps.
One of the interesting things that has come up in the last few years, is that times have not really improved that much! There have been significant technical advances (supposedly), both in equipment and training (tools and knowledge). We have aero this, and aero that, powermeters, watches that give pace as well as HR and fatigue levels in training. Plenty of research has been done for the endurance athlete, yet times have not really improved. We are also a relatively young sport - so we should still be improving our performances quite regularly (especially relative to athletics and swimming). There are a few theories of course, from drugs, course changes/conditions, different athletes and their approaches. So what is the answer? Is there an answer?
My thoughts for the performance levels in Triathlon in general are (no particular order:
Competitive training and racing brings out the best in people. I have seen this in many areas in the last 20 years. In the early days, many of the big names in the sport trained and raced together often. That is not so much the case now. There are also many more races (particularly Ironman - form 7 up to 23 WTC events), so you get less head-to-head racing with the best. Where you have a group of talented and focused athletes training together, you often get the training bought to a new level - sometimes for good, and sometimes not!
Drugs are a factor in sport, there are probably less at the very top now than there was, but I would think there may in fact be more at the second tier, where there is no drug testing. I am sure there are a few athletes reasonably doped up, going around cherry picking races that have no testing.
I think sports science has been a bit of a cope-out in some areas. While it has certainly helped in the general knowledge in many aspects, it has also limited "pushing the limits" in some aspects too. For example, knowing the benefits quantitatively for drafting in swimming, cycling and running under different conditions is very useful. However a study (and there are a few) that show that "weight training does not significantly improve performance in endurance running" maybe a bit of a misleading statement. There maybe an improvement, but it is too small to be statistically significant, or there maybe those for whom there was an improvement and those for whom it was detrimental, and overall it averaged out even. Often studies do not let the truth get in the way of a good story! I feel those that rely heavily on sports science often play it very safe, and get modest improvements in performance. Break-through performances often come from a "risk it all" approach, that either succeeds or fails in spectacular fashion!
I think every generation has great athletes, so that is not so much of an issue, and on courses such as Hawaii Ironman, the changes in the course sort of balance out. there maybe some differences, but they are small. In fact we are probably starting to see the results of "triathletes" now - those that have started there sporting careers as triathletes, rather than swimmers, cyclists or runners that have changed sports.
The equipment side of things make me laugh a little. everything sort of goes in cycles - and many of the latest and greatest "developments" were around decades ago and went out of favor for what ever reason. Take Aero helmets - One of my first helmets was an aero Helmet - back in the '80's! It was effectively a fibreglass shell with a basic cradle and Velcro chin strap. It would probably not absorb much shock, but was probably a lot more aerodynamic that the current range of aero helmets. While HR monitors and powermeters etc are great tools, they are just tools - and I think the down side of many of these tools is that they are seen as some holy grail solution to peak fitness and performance. In reality they are just tools. Many of the great coaches and athletes of past eras, that did not have these tools available to them, found useful work-around that helped get a similar result instead of using these tools. I think the challenge with many new "toys" is to separate the marketing hype from fact.
Right - time to go and train! :-)
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
warning - man flu!
Last week was the first week without the school cycling - which was very different! It did free up a bit more time, which was appreciated, but did also drop a scheduled in not-really-negotiable ride. The week did not start very well, with a txt saying the pool temperature was 22 degrees - and I don't do cold water swimming! Took until Wednesday before I clicked that I could actually turn up with my wetsuit - which I did, but the pool was back to temperature by then. Missed two swims, gained one easy run in the process, and as I have Thursday morning free, did actually get to swim squad then as well.
The weekend had a bit of a longer ride scheduled in - as Maddog was keen to ride to "Mt Auckland". Not really sure why - it is not really a mountain, and it is in the middle of nowhere, or maybe just this side of nowhere. I have only ridden out that direction a couple of times since living in Auckland (it is only 50-60km away), and every time the wind has been a right pain, and the road surface leaves a lot to be desired! Half a dozen of us set off - heading north west, with a nice north west wind blowing... Great - creeping from the start - at least there is potential for a tail wind home - but experience says that is unlikely. Three and a half hours of hills and head wind we creep into Wellsford (83km covered), plenty of wind, plenty of hills, and the potential for a 5 hour ride to blow out to 7 hours plus! A scone and a coffee to build some reserves for the trip home, and there is one call home for a ride... Might not be much waiting around on the trip home! Head back, with what should be a tail wind - and yes we are still riding INTO the wind! Damn it! Five km's later and the wind is sort off to the side, but definitely not a tail wind. At least the hills are not as steep going home, and without the strong head wind, I can actually climb them without looking for "extra gears" - something I have not had to do this year until this day! It is a bit of a quiet ride home, the friendly banter goes pretty quiet, and a puncture does not really help lift the spirits. We make it back, feeling sort of OK - all things considered, for having ridden for 6hours and 20minutes. The hundred and sixty something km's felt more like 200 plus, which was a little more depressing. But with K2 (200km bike ride/race) in less than a month, it was a good ride to get done.
On the Saturday before the ride I did feel like the beginnings of a cold come on. I figured the long ride would either kill the bugs or kill me. Went swimming Monday morning and felt like crap - which I sort of expected after the long ride. A run was just not going to happen. Started sneezing and getting the sniffles quite a bit, but no flu symptoms - so figured it was hay fever. Took some anti-histamines. Tuesday got up to go swimming and the "hay fever" was not getting any better - then a bit of a nice chesty cough... Oh right - it is not hay fever then... So 2 days pretty much in bed feeling like crap! I think I am almost over the worst of it now - so hopefully one more day off and then into some light training. It is the second bug for the winter, which is good for me. Usually I get 2-3 bugs that lay me up for a couple of weeks each time. This time I have not been hit that hard (hopefully only x2), and have avoiding a couple of bugs that other have got - that I would also normally get. So perhaps the heath is quite good - touch wood...
Next week (what was going to be this week) is really the start of a new phase in the build-up, and I think I am going to have to sharpen up a little! I certainly feel that overall I am fitter, although not really any faster. I can back days up a lot better (not great - but better), and I am probably now at a stage that I am fit enough to train properly! I don't feel that I have been at this level for 6-7 years!! I think I have been faster in that period of time, but not generally fit. If I did do something hard - it would take a week or more to recover from (or more). I do get tired training at the moment, everything feels sore, and I still have some shocking performances in training (mostly in the pool), but I can get up most days and get something done!
There are at least two things I need to do far better moving forward - the long run and the weights! I would also like a couple of extra swims (to make 4 per week), but that is being a little picky! The other thing I really want to get into is a brick session. Now I run these every week as a squad session, but have not really had the opportunity to do them myself. I want to start with an easier swim-bike-run combo (small breaks between - such as breakfast is OK). Having said that, I think I am due for a bike TT, so I think that next week I am going to have to do a TT on my combo day, probably after a squad swim. I don't expect it will be fast, but hopefully it is not slow!
Time to make some goals for the up coming month! So here they are:
1. two runs over 2 hours
2. survive K2 (200km bike race) - I have had bad experiences here! I think last time I punctured at 15km and 195km.
3. 25km bike TT - I don't think it will be much different - but just need to do it.
4. 2 brick sessions (swim-bike-run sessions in the same day)
5. get on top of work!! I do need to get this under control or it will seriously derail my training! Not only the time factor, but probably more so the stress (I don't like being behind all the time!)!
6. I need to do something to spark my running up a little too - it is my weak link at the moment. I have not quite decided what that is, probably will be a bigger week of running... I do have a couple of test sessions I want to try, but more on that later...
The weekend had a bit of a longer ride scheduled in - as Maddog was keen to ride to "Mt Auckland". Not really sure why - it is not really a mountain, and it is in the middle of nowhere, or maybe just this side of nowhere. I have only ridden out that direction a couple of times since living in Auckland (it is only 50-60km away), and every time the wind has been a right pain, and the road surface leaves a lot to be desired! Half a dozen of us set off - heading north west, with a nice north west wind blowing... Great - creeping from the start - at least there is potential for a tail wind home - but experience says that is unlikely. Three and a half hours of hills and head wind we creep into Wellsford (83km covered), plenty of wind, plenty of hills, and the potential for a 5 hour ride to blow out to 7 hours plus! A scone and a coffee to build some reserves for the trip home, and there is one call home for a ride... Might not be much waiting around on the trip home! Head back, with what should be a tail wind - and yes we are still riding INTO the wind! Damn it! Five km's later and the wind is sort off to the side, but definitely not a tail wind. At least the hills are not as steep going home, and without the strong head wind, I can actually climb them without looking for "extra gears" - something I have not had to do this year until this day! It is a bit of a quiet ride home, the friendly banter goes pretty quiet, and a puncture does not really help lift the spirits. We make it back, feeling sort of OK - all things considered, for having ridden for 6hours and 20minutes. The hundred and sixty something km's felt more like 200 plus, which was a little more depressing. But with K2 (200km bike ride/race) in less than a month, it was a good ride to get done.
On the Saturday before the ride I did feel like the beginnings of a cold come on. I figured the long ride would either kill the bugs or kill me. Went swimming Monday morning and felt like crap - which I sort of expected after the long ride. A run was just not going to happen. Started sneezing and getting the sniffles quite a bit, but no flu symptoms - so figured it was hay fever. Took some anti-histamines. Tuesday got up to go swimming and the "hay fever" was not getting any better - then a bit of a nice chesty cough... Oh right - it is not hay fever then... So 2 days pretty much in bed feeling like crap! I think I am almost over the worst of it now - so hopefully one more day off and then into some light training. It is the second bug for the winter, which is good for me. Usually I get 2-3 bugs that lay me up for a couple of weeks each time. This time I have not been hit that hard (hopefully only x2), and have avoiding a couple of bugs that other have got - that I would also normally get. So perhaps the heath is quite good - touch wood...
Next week (what was going to be this week) is really the start of a new phase in the build-up, and I think I am going to have to sharpen up a little! I certainly feel that overall I am fitter, although not really any faster. I can back days up a lot better (not great - but better), and I am probably now at a stage that I am fit enough to train properly! I don't feel that I have been at this level for 6-7 years!! I think I have been faster in that period of time, but not generally fit. If I did do something hard - it would take a week or more to recover from (or more). I do get tired training at the moment, everything feels sore, and I still have some shocking performances in training (mostly in the pool), but I can get up most days and get something done!
There are at least two things I need to do far better moving forward - the long run and the weights! I would also like a couple of extra swims (to make 4 per week), but that is being a little picky! The other thing I really want to get into is a brick session. Now I run these every week as a squad session, but have not really had the opportunity to do them myself. I want to start with an easier swim-bike-run combo (small breaks between - such as breakfast is OK). Having said that, I think I am due for a bike TT, so I think that next week I am going to have to do a TT on my combo day, probably after a squad swim. I don't expect it will be fast, but hopefully it is not slow!
Time to make some goals for the up coming month! So here they are:
1. two runs over 2 hours
2. survive K2 (200km bike race) - I have had bad experiences here! I think last time I punctured at 15km and 195km.
3. 25km bike TT - I don't think it will be much different - but just need to do it.
4. 2 brick sessions (swim-bike-run sessions in the same day)
5. get on top of work!! I do need to get this under control or it will seriously derail my training! Not only the time factor, but probably more so the stress (I don't like being behind all the time!)!
6. I need to do something to spark my running up a little too - it is my weak link at the moment. I have not quite decided what that is, probably will be a bigger week of running... I do have a couple of test sessions I want to try, but more on that later...
Thursday, October 2, 2008
training camps and racing...
Last week was a funny old week this week. We had a training camp over the weekend (20/21st september), which included the north island interclub duathlon champs. The weekend was a one and a half hour swim Saturday morning, the duathlon at lunch time and just under an hour run in the forest that night. Sunday was a long ride and a short run after, for those left standing! Overall I think the weekend went quite well. I find training camps funny things, particularly the way in which different people cope with them. Usually you are out of your comfort zone at some point, for some that starts when you arrive and ends when you leave! A different environment is usually good for a change, and if not - then it just makes you appreciate what you do have! Training with others can also be a pleasant change - even if it is just to see others suffer with you.
My training week sort of went to pack a little during the week, loosing a little with organizing the weekends training. The main cause of "going to the pack" though was too much intensity and not enough easy! Pretty much every day had something solid or hard in it, and the sessions I missed were generally the easy ones! I don't really cope that well with that scenario. Once I am doing over 8-10 hours training per week, I need 2-3 days per week that are just lower intensity days, or at least half the training time is quite easy, and my easy is quite easy! So for the last week, Monday had a solid swim, and an easy run, missed the Tuesday swim and did the Tuesday spin class (hard), Wednesday morning swim was also quite solid - with a solid 1500m pull, trying not to get lapped more than twice - and just achieving that. Thursday was probably the killer, with the school team time trial training in the morning - with a few solid-steady efforts there, and then taking young Katie out for sprint training in the afternoon. That power graph looked good - plenty of recovery effort and then plenty of "supra-max" efforts too. Friday run intervals early Friday morning, duathlon race on Saturday, and finished off with a long ride on Sunday. The HR in duathlon was not really that high - 157, so I suspect I was a little fatigued at that point in the week. I should really be able to average high 160's or low 170's for an hour and 20min of racing.
The Duathlon itself was the first race in a while, and while I was a bit toasty going in to it, I still gave close to the best I had on the day. I knew the first run was going to be fast, and I was not up to pace. I chucked a pair of racing flats on in the hope it would give me a few extra seconds that might help get me into a better group on the bike. Well that plan went out the window in the first 200m when I was behind about 30 more people that I wanted to be behind (and that is without huge expectations!). We will move to plan B - move steadily through the field - hopefully. Narrow trails sort of cut that plan to shreds a little, and the un-even off road terrain did not lend itself to racing flats. Hmmm - I should probably race a bit more so I remember these things... I finished the run with a couple of others, and thought they might be useful to get up a little further, however I did manage a good transition, and was not waiting! The bike was draft legal, and went quite well. I think I actually rode OK, although riding on your own in a drafting event is usually not a good thing! Caught a few slackers toward the end of the bike, and another OK transition put a little distance on them going into the second run. I was pretty sure they would come past in the first 500m of the run, and was stoked to hold them off for at least 800m. Not sure if it is good or bad when people you coach pass you - I will take it that I am doing an OK job - perhaps they should have been in front of me all the way though... :-) All in all, I did enjoy racing - it was a nice day.
This coming week is the last week of the school cycling training. I will sort of miss that a little. Perhaps the time and a few of the frustrations will not be missed, but watching them improve and get good results when they do is kind of cool. So this coming week will be the last of this current block and next week it will be time to move to a new phase. I do need to improve my running, so that has to come on a little more and be a bit more structured. I probably need to do a few more injury prevention things with that - bit more stretching, massage, weights, and core strength. I know if I don't - I simply will not tolerate more training without getting injured at some point.
The HR graph for the Duathlon - not really revving freely and there were a couple of hills in the bike...
The Auckland city Tri club team photo - we even managed third in the teams!! where are our prizes Boys??
Here is the power profile from the cycling sprint session - probably not a threat in tour de France. The latter ones were in limited gears, adding to the diminishing power outputs...
My training week sort of went to pack a little during the week, loosing a little with organizing the weekends training. The main cause of "going to the pack" though was too much intensity and not enough easy! Pretty much every day had something solid or hard in it, and the sessions I missed were generally the easy ones! I don't really cope that well with that scenario. Once I am doing over 8-10 hours training per week, I need 2-3 days per week that are just lower intensity days, or at least half the training time is quite easy, and my easy is quite easy! So for the last week, Monday had a solid swim, and an easy run, missed the Tuesday swim and did the Tuesday spin class (hard), Wednesday morning swim was also quite solid - with a solid 1500m pull, trying not to get lapped more than twice - and just achieving that. Thursday was probably the killer, with the school team time trial training in the morning - with a few solid-steady efforts there, and then taking young Katie out for sprint training in the afternoon. That power graph looked good - plenty of recovery effort and then plenty of "supra-max" efforts too. Friday run intervals early Friday morning, duathlon race on Saturday, and finished off with a long ride on Sunday. The HR in duathlon was not really that high - 157, so I suspect I was a little fatigued at that point in the week. I should really be able to average high 160's or low 170's for an hour and 20min of racing.
The Duathlon itself was the first race in a while, and while I was a bit toasty going in to it, I still gave close to the best I had on the day. I knew the first run was going to be fast, and I was not up to pace. I chucked a pair of racing flats on in the hope it would give me a few extra seconds that might help get me into a better group on the bike. Well that plan went out the window in the first 200m when I was behind about 30 more people that I wanted to be behind (and that is without huge expectations!). We will move to plan B - move steadily through the field - hopefully. Narrow trails sort of cut that plan to shreds a little, and the un-even off road terrain did not lend itself to racing flats. Hmmm - I should probably race a bit more so I remember these things... I finished the run with a couple of others, and thought they might be useful to get up a little further, however I did manage a good transition, and was not waiting! The bike was draft legal, and went quite well. I think I actually rode OK, although riding on your own in a drafting event is usually not a good thing! Caught a few slackers toward the end of the bike, and another OK transition put a little distance on them going into the second run. I was pretty sure they would come past in the first 500m of the run, and was stoked to hold them off for at least 800m. Not sure if it is good or bad when people you coach pass you - I will take it that I am doing an OK job - perhaps they should have been in front of me all the way though... :-) All in all, I did enjoy racing - it was a nice day.
This coming week is the last week of the school cycling training. I will sort of miss that a little. Perhaps the time and a few of the frustrations will not be missed, but watching them improve and get good results when they do is kind of cool. So this coming week will be the last of this current block and next week it will be time to move to a new phase. I do need to improve my running, so that has to come on a little more and be a bit more structured. I probably need to do a few more injury prevention things with that - bit more stretching, massage, weights, and core strength. I know if I don't - I simply will not tolerate more training without getting injured at some point.
The HR graph for the Duathlon - not really revving freely and there were a couple of hills in the bike...
The Auckland city Tri club team photo - we even managed third in the teams!! where are our prizes Boys??
Here is the power profile from the cycling sprint session - probably not a threat in tour de France. The latter ones were in limited gears, adding to the diminishing power outputs...
Thursday, September 11, 2008
who stole the last month??
Blimmen heck - time is flying by!!
Training in general has been reasonably consistent over the last two weeks. I have got in to a reasonable routine for the last month or so, sometimes getting a little caught out with work etc, but on the whole the training is ticking along OK. I am swimming 3 times a week, between 3 and 4km. Have not got over 4km, as it seems to be getting quite hard to do so! The swimming speed is OK, just steady as she goes. Swimming pull is substantially quicker than just plain freestyle at the moment (at least 5 seconds per 100m I would say), and given I am slower with a pull buoy than without, I am guessing the strength is sort of OK. We have managed a couple of long rides on the road in the last two weeks - however it appears we have traded rain for wind! I find riding in the rain quite miserable, and generally avoid it, but the wind can really be quite sole destroying. You always get far more head wind than tail wind, and it is usually just plain un-relenting! A couple of spin classes - one being a hard interval and the other I am taking quite easy. Then the school cycling training session on the road. This usually has some effort in it - as those school boys can actually go quite fast when they put their minds to it. However they can be just plain shocking as well! Stopping for a crash this week I managed to stand in what must have been the biggest dog poop in the world. I now have a poopy shoe, bootie and pedal - and I bet that does not come out either!! Running has been consistent also - 4 runs a week, a couple of easier ones, 30 minutes to an hour, a run interval session - which is a little up and down (depending on the previous day mostly), and a long-ish run - mostly around 1hr30min.
If I was being picky with the training I would say I would "ideally" like to be doing 4 swims, one of at least 4.5km, 4-5 runs with a long one at around 2 hours, and 4 rides, with a longer one on the road each week or 4 hours plus. I am not that far away in reality, and if I take a little more relaxed view, there is probably some benefit to slightly less, rather than slightly injured. Once the school cycling finishes, the training will move to a different phase I think - a little more time, and a little more "me" specific training opportunity as well.
Here are a couple of other training "incidence" from the last two weeks...
Sometimes you just have days that you wonder whether you should have bothered getting out of bed. I turned up for swimming on Wednesday, went to do the togs up, and no string (it had pulled through). Fossac through the swim bag, and finally find the spare pair - so no major disaster. Do the warm-up and start the 1500m pull, and as I push off the left goggle fills up with water - OK, that is a little annoying, not sure I can swim 1500m with one eye closed. Stop and empty the goggle out after 400m, and it promptly fills up again! Sigh... A couple of hundred later and the paddle brakes - darn it - loose 50m re-threading what is left of the strap, and empty out the goggles again. Get going again, and then the goggle strap breaks - OK - so that is probably why it was leaking so much. 1300 out of 1500m done, but off to the gear bag for the back-up goggles... So that just leave the swim cap to break - but it didn't, so the entire world was not against me, just a minor conspiracy! Probably would not have been so bad if I was not swimming quite well, and holding the best pace I had for quite a while...
Last week I had Thursday morning off from the school cycling, so contemplated a test session. I want to build up to a sort-of half ironman simulation. After the school cycling is done, I am planning on Thursday morning being a swim-bike-run session. Initially it will be all easy, but then want to incorporate some efforts in the session. I was in two minds on what to do for this session - either an easy swim, easy bike and an easy run, or a steady bike and an easy run. I opted for the steady bike option, as I wanted to test a couple of things - my pace judgement and if I could in fact hold the relative power I should be able to for a half ironman, given my current fitness. a warm-up, and 3 simulated climbs up the col du Tormulet at a steady effort was what I decided, and I should be able to comfortably ride 90km at 300watts at my current fitness. So on the first effort I tried to focus on the effort I would go at if I were doing a half ironman. I had the powermeter hidden under a towel, so I was just going on perceived effort. I did take a glimpse after about 5 minutes and saw 330w - but was hoping that was just a little flick up due to actually looking at it. The HR was a little up on expected, but it was a little warmer, so I was happy with that. Each climb took just under 30 minutes, and I made a conscious decision that each had to be faster, to ensure I did not start out too fast. Around half way through the third effort the perceived effort did increase quite a bit, as I tried to maintain a slightly higher pace than the second. There were also a few twinges of cramp - not a good sign! I finished the session OK, each effort faster (around 30-40 seconds), and got through 4 bottles of fluid and a few gels in the ride, but I was a bit stuffed - certainly there would be no half marathon run, but I only wanted a 30-40minute easy run. I tried to put the running shoes on and that was not going to happen as the hamstring cramped up severely! Not quite as I planned - the run will have to wait. I downloaded the ride data to see what I had actually done, and my problem was immediately clear!! My normally quite good pace judgement was totally crap! I had started off at well over 350watts on the first effort and continued on averaging around 330 for the first 10 minutes - not the controlled 300 watts I was hoping for!! I am pretty sure that first 10minutes was the source of most of my troubles. Most of the steady efforts after that were a little over 300 watts, and the last 27minute effort was 319watts (required to descend the efforts). So the pacing needs work. The main reason for the test was equipment choice. I have a disc, but with that no power measure. So if I want to race with a power meter for pacing, I either need a new rear wheel or a powermeter in the cranks - either option starts at $3000... re-learning to pace myself maybe cheaper (it may not be too!).
Right - better write a note to stretch more too - even sitting down is hurting at the moment...
Training in general has been reasonably consistent over the last two weeks. I have got in to a reasonable routine for the last month or so, sometimes getting a little caught out with work etc, but on the whole the training is ticking along OK. I am swimming 3 times a week, between 3 and 4km. Have not got over 4km, as it seems to be getting quite hard to do so! The swimming speed is OK, just steady as she goes. Swimming pull is substantially quicker than just plain freestyle at the moment (at least 5 seconds per 100m I would say), and given I am slower with a pull buoy than without, I am guessing the strength is sort of OK. We have managed a couple of long rides on the road in the last two weeks - however it appears we have traded rain for wind! I find riding in the rain quite miserable, and generally avoid it, but the wind can really be quite sole destroying. You always get far more head wind than tail wind, and it is usually just plain un-relenting! A couple of spin classes - one being a hard interval and the other I am taking quite easy. Then the school cycling training session on the road. This usually has some effort in it - as those school boys can actually go quite fast when they put their minds to it. However they can be just plain shocking as well! Stopping for a crash this week I managed to stand in what must have been the biggest dog poop in the world. I now have a poopy shoe, bootie and pedal - and I bet that does not come out either!! Running has been consistent also - 4 runs a week, a couple of easier ones, 30 minutes to an hour, a run interval session - which is a little up and down (depending on the previous day mostly), and a long-ish run - mostly around 1hr30min.
If I was being picky with the training I would say I would "ideally" like to be doing 4 swims, one of at least 4.5km, 4-5 runs with a long one at around 2 hours, and 4 rides, with a longer one on the road each week or 4 hours plus. I am not that far away in reality, and if I take a little more relaxed view, there is probably some benefit to slightly less, rather than slightly injured. Once the school cycling finishes, the training will move to a different phase I think - a little more time, and a little more "me" specific training opportunity as well.
Here are a couple of other training "incidence" from the last two weeks...
Sometimes you just have days that you wonder whether you should have bothered getting out of bed. I turned up for swimming on Wednesday, went to do the togs up, and no string (it had pulled through). Fossac through the swim bag, and finally find the spare pair - so no major disaster. Do the warm-up and start the 1500m pull, and as I push off the left goggle fills up with water - OK, that is a little annoying, not sure I can swim 1500m with one eye closed. Stop and empty the goggle out after 400m, and it promptly fills up again! Sigh... A couple of hundred later and the paddle brakes - darn it - loose 50m re-threading what is left of the strap, and empty out the goggles again. Get going again, and then the goggle strap breaks - OK - so that is probably why it was leaking so much. 1300 out of 1500m done, but off to the gear bag for the back-up goggles... So that just leave the swim cap to break - but it didn't, so the entire world was not against me, just a minor conspiracy! Probably would not have been so bad if I was not swimming quite well, and holding the best pace I had for quite a while...
Last week I had Thursday morning off from the school cycling, so contemplated a test session. I want to build up to a sort-of half ironman simulation. After the school cycling is done, I am planning on Thursday morning being a swim-bike-run session. Initially it will be all easy, but then want to incorporate some efforts in the session. I was in two minds on what to do for this session - either an easy swim, easy bike and an easy run, or a steady bike and an easy run. I opted for the steady bike option, as I wanted to test a couple of things - my pace judgement and if I could in fact hold the relative power I should be able to for a half ironman, given my current fitness. a warm-up, and 3 simulated climbs up the col du Tormulet at a steady effort was what I decided, and I should be able to comfortably ride 90km at 300watts at my current fitness. So on the first effort I tried to focus on the effort I would go at if I were doing a half ironman. I had the powermeter hidden under a towel, so I was just going on perceived effort. I did take a glimpse after about 5 minutes and saw 330w - but was hoping that was just a little flick up due to actually looking at it. The HR was a little up on expected, but it was a little warmer, so I was happy with that. Each climb took just under 30 minutes, and I made a conscious decision that each had to be faster, to ensure I did not start out too fast. Around half way through the third effort the perceived effort did increase quite a bit, as I tried to maintain a slightly higher pace than the second. There were also a few twinges of cramp - not a good sign! I finished the session OK, each effort faster (around 30-40 seconds), and got through 4 bottles of fluid and a few gels in the ride, but I was a bit stuffed - certainly there would be no half marathon run, but I only wanted a 30-40minute easy run. I tried to put the running shoes on and that was not going to happen as the hamstring cramped up severely! Not quite as I planned - the run will have to wait. I downloaded the ride data to see what I had actually done, and my problem was immediately clear!! My normally quite good pace judgement was totally crap! I had started off at well over 350watts on the first effort and continued on averaging around 330 for the first 10 minutes - not the controlled 300 watts I was hoping for!! I am pretty sure that first 10minutes was the source of most of my troubles. Most of the steady efforts after that were a little over 300 watts, and the last 27minute effort was 319watts (required to descend the efforts). So the pacing needs work. The main reason for the test was equipment choice. I have a disc, but with that no power measure. So if I want to race with a power meter for pacing, I either need a new rear wheel or a powermeter in the cranks - either option starts at $3000... re-learning to pace myself maybe cheaper (it may not be too!).
Right - better write a note to stretch more too - even sitting down is hurting at the moment...
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Olympics - at least it is only every 4 years...
Gee these blogs have fallen a bit behind schedule! I can only blame the Olympics - certainly not training, possibly work - but not really. I was not really into the games as they were rolling around, but they have certainly grown on me this time. In fact I think they have been great! There have been some great performances, some great results, and of course a few disappointments. On the whole I have been pretty stoked with the kiwi's - they have thrown off the chokers shackles and stepped up and shown what a bit of hard work and perseverance can do. As with some most sporting endeavors there are the stand-outs and the disappointments. What I always look for is when an athlete crosses the line, and there is nothing more they could have done to do better. They trained as hard as they could have, and they races as the absolute best they could have. If they look back - there is nothing they would do differently! In my opinion, then that does not matter if you are first or last - that is where you are! That is what the Olympics are about - putting yourself out there and seeing where you stand - and that takes guts! Phelps is amazing - an incredible athlete who found his niche - he is able to totally dedicate himself to train insane amounts, and cope with that training. On top of that he really knows how to win. What ever it takes- what ever he has to endure to get there...
For the kiwi's - you have to feel for Mahe Drysdale- he obviously went as hard as he could, being sick absolutely robbed him of significant performance, and he still comes up with a medal. But four years of hard work to be undone by a bit of deli-belly (or a dodgy roast dog rib in the cafe..). The twins came in a little written off by some, but with the pressure of defending champs - and showed why you NEVER give up until you cross the line. If I was them I don't think I would be wanting to look at that finish photo too often either! On the other side, I thought some of the swimmers under performed - they train pretty hard, but many just don't appear to have that ability to step up on the really big days. Athletes like Beatrice Faumuina annoy me a little - from my perspective (and I am guessing - I don't have the facts), she has the ability to do what she wants, but does not understand what it does take. She has failed to prepare properly, and it also appears she was not prepared for the probably failure. Those giving out the money to support NZ athletes will not be happy with her attitude. I am sure others could have put in a better effort.
One of my swimming companions obviously had Olympic-itus. She was starting her training for the 2012 Olympics at Monday squad. I was not that impressed at all to be fair. After tanning my ass in the first hour of the session, she declared she was now stuffed and that I should lead. No chance - you bought that on yourself, and you can suffer the consequences!! Fortunately I had a relatively quite time the next day, with only a couple of young guys in the lane, and after the first few reps they have burnt themselves out, and you can cope with the session just fine! So managing to knock 3 squad swims out per week, which is OK at the moment. Performance is also OK, nothing spectacular, but a good base to kick on from I think (well - if I need to kick on).
Cycling is OK - although I am finally a bit sick of the rain! Almost to the point that I am not that concerned about getting wet - just to see what riding on the road is like again. A couple of spin classes last week, and lost Saturday (I swear, it just disappeared!). Sunday was raining (again!), and decided a long run (not done at this point) was far more productive than a long ride (which would be 2 hours on the trainer). It was a little later in the afternoon when I left, and decided to go and check some bush tracks I had not been to for a couple of years. Probably not the best plan after 6weeks of relentless rain. It actually went really well, and enjoyed the change. The tracks were pretty similar to last time - although one had gone from a clay mud-put to a reasonable gravel track. So I followed that along for a while - and it was a reasonably long track. Popped out on to a road - no idea where I was, possibly a vague idea of a general vicinity. Then thought to myself - this is a bit darker than expected, there was only one way to go back - but managed to get through the tracks without breaking an ankle on an unseen-due-to-darkness tree root. Overall, almost 2 hours, and it felt reasonably easy and much shorter! All good! Distraction from the task at hand is sometimes good. Nothing too spectacular with the other runs, but they did get done. Just under 5 hours running last week - so a good tick in that box.
This Just in from Ant Ham - he is the one behind Olympian Shane Reid - looking far more relaxed...
For the kiwi's - you have to feel for Mahe Drysdale- he obviously went as hard as he could, being sick absolutely robbed him of significant performance, and he still comes up with a medal. But four years of hard work to be undone by a bit of deli-belly (or a dodgy roast dog rib in the cafe..). The twins came in a little written off by some, but with the pressure of defending champs - and showed why you NEVER give up until you cross the line. If I was them I don't think I would be wanting to look at that finish photo too often either! On the other side, I thought some of the swimmers under performed - they train pretty hard, but many just don't appear to have that ability to step up on the really big days. Athletes like Beatrice Faumuina annoy me a little - from my perspective (and I am guessing - I don't have the facts), she has the ability to do what she wants, but does not understand what it does take. She has failed to prepare properly, and it also appears she was not prepared for the probably failure. Those giving out the money to support NZ athletes will not be happy with her attitude. I am sure others could have put in a better effort.
One of my swimming companions obviously had Olympic-itus. She was starting her training for the 2012 Olympics at Monday squad. I was not that impressed at all to be fair. After tanning my ass in the first hour of the session, she declared she was now stuffed and that I should lead. No chance - you bought that on yourself, and you can suffer the consequences!! Fortunately I had a relatively quite time the next day, with only a couple of young guys in the lane, and after the first few reps they have burnt themselves out, and you can cope with the session just fine! So managing to knock 3 squad swims out per week, which is OK at the moment. Performance is also OK, nothing spectacular, but a good base to kick on from I think (well - if I need to kick on).
Cycling is OK - although I am finally a bit sick of the rain! Almost to the point that I am not that concerned about getting wet - just to see what riding on the road is like again. A couple of spin classes last week, and lost Saturday (I swear, it just disappeared!). Sunday was raining (again!), and decided a long run (not done at this point) was far more productive than a long ride (which would be 2 hours on the trainer). It was a little later in the afternoon when I left, and decided to go and check some bush tracks I had not been to for a couple of years. Probably not the best plan after 6weeks of relentless rain. It actually went really well, and enjoyed the change. The tracks were pretty similar to last time - although one had gone from a clay mud-put to a reasonable gravel track. So I followed that along for a while - and it was a reasonably long track. Popped out on to a road - no idea where I was, possibly a vague idea of a general vicinity. Then thought to myself - this is a bit darker than expected, there was only one way to go back - but managed to get through the tracks without breaking an ankle on an unseen-due-to-darkness tree root. Overall, almost 2 hours, and it felt reasonably easy and much shorter! All good! Distraction from the task at hand is sometimes good. Nothing too spectacular with the other runs, but they did get done. Just under 5 hours running last week - so a good tick in that box.
This Just in from Ant Ham - he is the one behind Olympian Shane Reid - looking far more relaxed...
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Too much on TV...
Missed the update last week - so better get A-into-G and get writing! I was hoping to do a bit on Caffeine - but it is proving to take a bit more time than I originally thought (there is a lot of newer research coming out on caffeine). Just recovered from the tour de France, and now I have to get through all the Olympic games coverage! Sleep is certainly going by the way-side! Anyway an update on the training progress...
Last week had a couple of hiccups - had a "sleep through the alarm" on Monday morning and missed the first session of the week - which I hate! Already behind and it is only 7am on Monday morning - darn it! So only 2 swims for the week, OK for maintenance, but not really moving forward. Weights also went by the way side - mainly as I do it after Monday and Wednesday swimming. Missed Monday swim, and I was just plain stuffed after Wednesdays swim! So I think I am going back to square one on the weights - so this coming week will be an introductory week back to weights!
Cycling had something novel in it - the long ride on the road, and in fine weather!! Managed 3 hours, pretty cold to start with, but a very nice day once it warmed up (sun on your back, no wind...). Second Sunday road ride for in over 3 months - a long time between drinks! The long ride was not without incident. Obviously many motorists were not use to seeing cyclist, and there were a few incidence. We passed someone who was being looked after on the road who had obviously been knocked off his bike in a solid manner - not a nice sight to begin a ride with. After avoiding a few motorists who appeared to look straight through our bunch (always scary), Deno managed to get knocked down going around a round-about reasonably close to home. I am sure many motorists do not actually see cyclist - in that they are only looking for cars - and someone on a bike just does not count as someone you have to give way to! The group finished the ride as it had been most of the day - quite a pleasant pace with only a couple of little "hit-outs". Little Katie managed to give the boys a hurry up on the two climbs of the ride (either side of the halfway turn around). And as she had missed a few sprint training sessions, we finished the long ride with a few "pedestrian crossing sprints" on the way home. I was surprised to see that I managed to go over 900watts for most of the sprints (cracking 1000 a couple of times), as I am really not a sprinter! Spin classes where fairly unspectacular. The intervals were solid, but not record breaking, and I took the Wednesday class was reasonably easy. Taking the school kids out on Thursday morning ended up being a hill fitness ride - due to low turn-out! Tut-tut boys! Well done to the two that did turn-out, and attack me with vigour on the first two hills, forcing me to ride "tempo" :-).
There was a little progress running - new shoes! The last two pair were getting a bit past there "best by" date, and I was getting VERY sore legs and feet each run. Each run in the new shoes has been better, particularly in regards to the sore feet. I may have been pushing my luck a little with the shoes! I will run in the new shoes for a few weeks and check the new model is OK, then look to get a couple more pairs and rotate them each run. Got a little over an hour and a half for the long run, which did feel OK, probably better than most that have been over an hour. Although I did finish a little later in the evening, and had run intervals early the next morning, and ended up tweaking the hamstring a little in that, and suffered a bit in that run! One good and one average... Did get another hour and a bit run on Saturday, so not a bad run week overall, and the hami settled down with the very easy run on Saturday.
Next month will be 6 months to Ironman. While that may still sound a long way away, the last few months have really passed in the blink of an eye. I think at the end of the month I will need to set some monthly goals again, and really make sure I stick to my guns in achieving them, or it will be 3 months to ironman, and I will be doing the same thing still!
Last week had a couple of hiccups - had a "sleep through the alarm" on Monday morning and missed the first session of the week - which I hate! Already behind and it is only 7am on Monday morning - darn it! So only 2 swims for the week, OK for maintenance, but not really moving forward. Weights also went by the way side - mainly as I do it after Monday and Wednesday swimming. Missed Monday swim, and I was just plain stuffed after Wednesdays swim! So I think I am going back to square one on the weights - so this coming week will be an introductory week back to weights!
Cycling had something novel in it - the long ride on the road, and in fine weather!! Managed 3 hours, pretty cold to start with, but a very nice day once it warmed up (sun on your back, no wind...). Second Sunday road ride for in over 3 months - a long time between drinks! The long ride was not without incident. Obviously many motorists were not use to seeing cyclist, and there were a few incidence. We passed someone who was being looked after on the road who had obviously been knocked off his bike in a solid manner - not a nice sight to begin a ride with. After avoiding a few motorists who appeared to look straight through our bunch (always scary), Deno managed to get knocked down going around a round-about reasonably close to home. I am sure many motorists do not actually see cyclist - in that they are only looking for cars - and someone on a bike just does not count as someone you have to give way to! The group finished the ride as it had been most of the day - quite a pleasant pace with only a couple of little "hit-outs". Little Katie managed to give the boys a hurry up on the two climbs of the ride (either side of the halfway turn around). And as she had missed a few sprint training sessions, we finished the long ride with a few "pedestrian crossing sprints" on the way home. I was surprised to see that I managed to go over 900watts for most of the sprints (cracking 1000 a couple of times), as I am really not a sprinter! Spin classes where fairly unspectacular. The intervals were solid, but not record breaking, and I took the Wednesday class was reasonably easy. Taking the school kids out on Thursday morning ended up being a hill fitness ride - due to low turn-out! Tut-tut boys! Well done to the two that did turn-out, and attack me with vigour on the first two hills, forcing me to ride "tempo" :-).
There was a little progress running - new shoes! The last two pair were getting a bit past there "best by" date, and I was getting VERY sore legs and feet each run. Each run in the new shoes has been better, particularly in regards to the sore feet. I may have been pushing my luck a little with the shoes! I will run in the new shoes for a few weeks and check the new model is OK, then look to get a couple more pairs and rotate them each run. Got a little over an hour and a half for the long run, which did feel OK, probably better than most that have been over an hour. Although I did finish a little later in the evening, and had run intervals early the next morning, and ended up tweaking the hamstring a little in that, and suffered a bit in that run! One good and one average... Did get another hour and a bit run on Saturday, so not a bad run week overall, and the hami settled down with the very easy run on Saturday.
Next month will be 6 months to Ironman. While that may still sound a long way away, the last few months have really passed in the blink of an eye. I think at the end of the month I will need to set some monthly goals again, and really make sure I stick to my guns in achieving them, or it will be 3 months to ironman, and I will be doing the same thing still!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
the tour de france...
The week that was training - bit of a mixed bag, which is going with the general trend. A few good sessions in there, but also missed a couple of days. 3 squad swims, which went OK, and swimming is close to back to what it was before the 3 weeks off (so fitness back after 2 weeks I guess). One session involved a big set of 25's (48 in all) which usually numbs my brain to the point of being quite painful - but I actually enjoyed it for a change- even the breaststroke pull and the butterfly! Running was again the big loser of the week. Got a few shorter easy runs in, but unfortunately I have to catch up on a few chores, including giving a talk for 4 hours, and lost 2 days training. Feet have been getting quite sore, and the legs feeling a bit hammered after running, so the running shoes are now officially past there useful point. I use two pair, and alternate them - one pair is definitely gone, and will only be used in an emergency I think, the other pair is not great, but not quite so bad (legs not quite so sore after). The better shoes are actually older than the stuffed ones. I have ordered a new pair, so hopefully the next run will be breaking them in. Unfortunately the shoes I currently wear have been superseded by the "new" model. This is always a bit of a worry, and little changes in design usually lead to disaster when in use. So the next pair will probably be a bit of a stop-gap while I organize/check what model to go with next.
Cycling was sort of steady as-she-goes. a couple of spin classes, and taking the school kids out on Thursday morning. The Sunday long ride was always looking like an in door trainer session with a "weather bomb" coming through. Having really missed my long run for the week, and Saturday ended up being a "working all day" day, combined with the end of the tour de France, I decided to have a bit of a solid ride on Sunday, and do 3 climbs up Alp d'Huez on the virtual trainer. I wanted to do each rep faster, and not really do the last one all out (so I could actually still get out of bed the next day). The graph of the session is below. A warm-up circuit and then 3 steady efforts. I worked out being a very good session in the end. I ended up with my best 2 hour power output - although that probably does not mean that much - as it is just a session that full that criteria more than anything. I have not really done a 2 hour hard out effort with the power meter to this point. I was happy to be able to hold over 300 watts at around 150 HR, and around 325 for just under 160HR on the last effort - which still felt quite controlled. More on that in a bit.
The tour de France is over - with CSC the very dominant team and Carlos Sastre the winner. Sastre executed a great race plan - sit and wait until the hardest mountain stage, and attack on the final climb, and hold off threats a couple of days later in the final time trial. It took courage to wait and put all the eggs in that one basket, but he did have a great team to support him, with initial pressure deflected by Frank Shleck while he was leading the tour. He also knew he was stronger in the last week of the tour, and that was the best time for him to attack. I think it was one of the best tours to watch, certainly not a forgone conclusion from the start, and many riders having the opportunity to take the title. My favourite, Valverde, lost time on one mountain stage, and in the last time trial - but the damage was already done so his motivation was probably gone. He did have a crash early on, which may have affected him at the crucial moments - but that is life in the tour! Tid-bits from the tour - Team CSC won 621210 euro's in prize money (top) and Lampre (bottom of list) won 9840 euros - probably not that much for 3 weeks hard work to split amongst the team!
The two main power meter manufacturers were good enough to put some of the power data from a few riders on their web sites. I find the information quite fascinating, and one of the reasons I think power meters are such a useful tool is that you can quantify what you need to be able to do to be good! Of course there are a few factors that you need to look through - such as tactics, but still good information. To do well in the tour, you need to be able to time trial well, and climb well in the mountains, and preferably not get caught in the wrong half of any splits in the bunch on the flatter stages. For the time trial, straight power output is the vital number. This, paired with your aerodynamic drag number is how fast you are going to go on the flat. So a bit of wind tunnel testing to optimize your time trial position, so your drag is minimized, while still being able to output a good power number is important in the build-up. Then you have to "produce the watts" on the day, given that you have ridden long and hard for several days before. The other important number is power-to-weight. This dictates how well you will climb. The good climbers are putting out 5.5-6.0 watts/kg on the longer climbs when the pace is on, maybe 5 at "tempo effort", and the sprinters in the "autobus", who are just trying to make the cut-off times are generally doing around 4 w/kg on the bigger climbs. So what the heck does that all mean - well, based on my Sunday ride on the trainer - I can survive with the sprinters on the bigger climbs (my last effort was 4.34 w/kg)! That is of course taking out the two weeks of riding that the tour rides have endured, and the 150km of riding they need to do to get to the base of the last climb! For an all out 30minute effort I can probably sustain just under 5 w/kg - so to be in the front bunch on the big climbs I either need to lose over 10kg (and maintain my power output), or improve my power output by over 20 percent... Ouch! Dreams are of course, in general, free...
Cycling was sort of steady as-she-goes. a couple of spin classes, and taking the school kids out on Thursday morning. The Sunday long ride was always looking like an in door trainer session with a "weather bomb" coming through. Having really missed my long run for the week, and Saturday ended up being a "working all day" day, combined with the end of the tour de France, I decided to have a bit of a solid ride on Sunday, and do 3 climbs up Alp d'Huez on the virtual trainer. I wanted to do each rep faster, and not really do the last one all out (so I could actually still get out of bed the next day). The graph of the session is below. A warm-up circuit and then 3 steady efforts. I worked out being a very good session in the end. I ended up with my best 2 hour power output - although that probably does not mean that much - as it is just a session that full that criteria more than anything. I have not really done a 2 hour hard out effort with the power meter to this point. I was happy to be able to hold over 300 watts at around 150 HR, and around 325 for just under 160HR on the last effort - which still felt quite controlled. More on that in a bit.
The tour de France is over - with CSC the very dominant team and Carlos Sastre the winner. Sastre executed a great race plan - sit and wait until the hardest mountain stage, and attack on the final climb, and hold off threats a couple of days later in the final time trial. It took courage to wait and put all the eggs in that one basket, but he did have a great team to support him, with initial pressure deflected by Frank Shleck while he was leading the tour. He also knew he was stronger in the last week of the tour, and that was the best time for him to attack. I think it was one of the best tours to watch, certainly not a forgone conclusion from the start, and many riders having the opportunity to take the title. My favourite, Valverde, lost time on one mountain stage, and in the last time trial - but the damage was already done so his motivation was probably gone. He did have a crash early on, which may have affected him at the crucial moments - but that is life in the tour! Tid-bits from the tour - Team CSC won 621210 euro's in prize money (top) and Lampre (bottom of list) won 9840 euros - probably not that much for 3 weeks hard work to split amongst the team!
The two main power meter manufacturers were good enough to put some of the power data from a few riders on their web sites. I find the information quite fascinating, and one of the reasons I think power meters are such a useful tool is that you can quantify what you need to be able to do to be good! Of course there are a few factors that you need to look through - such as tactics, but still good information. To do well in the tour, you need to be able to time trial well, and climb well in the mountains, and preferably not get caught in the wrong half of any splits in the bunch on the flatter stages. For the time trial, straight power output is the vital number. This, paired with your aerodynamic drag number is how fast you are going to go on the flat. So a bit of wind tunnel testing to optimize your time trial position, so your drag is minimized, while still being able to output a good power number is important in the build-up. Then you have to "produce the watts" on the day, given that you have ridden long and hard for several days before. The other important number is power-to-weight. This dictates how well you will climb. The good climbers are putting out 5.5-6.0 watts/kg on the longer climbs when the pace is on, maybe 5 at "tempo effort", and the sprinters in the "autobus", who are just trying to make the cut-off times are generally doing around 4 w/kg on the bigger climbs. So what the heck does that all mean - well, based on my Sunday ride on the trainer - I can survive with the sprinters on the bigger climbs (my last effort was 4.34 w/kg)! That is of course taking out the two weeks of riding that the tour rides have endured, and the 150km of riding they need to do to get to the base of the last climb! For an all out 30minute effort I can probably sustain just under 5 w/kg - so to be in the front bunch on the big climbs I either need to lose over 10kg (and maintain my power output), or improve my power output by over 20 percent... Ouch! Dreams are of course, in general, free...
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