Week 16 of 16 Coaching

It's a wrap. My first time with a coach and just finished my first coaching session. It was a 16 week program that started shortly after Cx season finished so was perfect timing.

How did it go?

Well it went pretty good. I improved about 10%.

While this doesn't seem like much the first half of the training I did only 1 other training session a week because I was busy getting ready for Christmas. Then over the holidays I got a nasty bug that kept me in bed and out of work for a week. Lost 5 pounds and was feeling pretty crappy for about 3 weeks after this. I ended up missing a couple of weeks of the program right after the Christmas brake.

I figure I lost the first half of the training program due to this nasty bug. I figure most of my improvement was done in the last 6 weeks so the 10% for 6 weeks seems good.

There are about 8 weeks til the season starts and I am optimistic I can add close to 10% more power in this time. I have finally dedicated 10 hrs a week to training, will have a coach set program and a power meter to train by.

If I can get that next 10% I will be pretty happy with my LT numbers.

Cheers,

Paul

PowerTap

I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a power meter. Its a PowerTap PRO+. Wireless and with HR. I am hoping that it will give me the motivation to train more and harder and more precisely.

I am hoping to get it for the weekend of the 19th-20th Mar. The hub is actually already in at the shop. It took me 2 weeks to decide on rim/wheel combination and the extra $ along with it otherwise I would probably have it right now.

So the wheels have been ordered, RHUS Elements I believe. Not too sure on all the details except they should be 500g lighter than my current wheels and I will be able to use them for cross and road. I trusted Mike on picking the wheels :) Looking forward to the surprise.

Because the rims come in a set I will be getting a matching front wheel. A little more than I wanted to spend but still a steal of a deal for the wheel set.

The timing is working out perfect as next week is week 16 of 16 of my coaching session at the shop. I have already planned on starting a training program with my coach , Jim Glover. http://www.peakperformancecoaching.ca/html/jim_glover.html

The great thing about using a power meter such as a PowerTap is that it is easy to make a training plan that is easy to follow with power and it is also easy to e-mail training sessions to the coach for analysis.

I won't babble to much about it today, but rather keep an up to date log of how it all works out.

Till next time,

Cheers,

Paul

Week 15 of 16 Coaching Session.

Another great, but extremely tough, coaching session has come and gone. I'd have to say this is the toughest sessions thus far. We did sort of a race type simulation for 1:45 plus the usual 15/15 warm up and cool down.

The session consisted of some LT and VO2 for some climbing with some 10 and 20 second max efforts at the top for the first bit. Then we did some sorter LT sections followed immediately by some short anaerobic to max downhill efforts which required some leg speed to keep the power on.

Things get a bit blurry after this as I went from felling great to feeling really faint after these efforts. We had some more sessions with LT then 20 sec Max effort.

After this I was thinking it was over but then we had some rolling hills and back to LT and VO2 max if I remember correctly.

The last minute or so was like a hill top finish that got steeper and steeper. I managed to recover enough to give the last 7 or 8 minutes a decent effort and finish the climb of 20-30 seconds in the 300-400 watt range :)

I can see that the training is definitely improving my performance. My average wattage was above my 1 hr LT by 4 watts and this was over 1:45 minutes.

Next week is the last week in our 16 week session.

The gang is looking for an extension month by month and I told them I was in for that.

All in all was a very tough session.

Winter Blues

Once again been neglecting the Blog. Been a tough few months health wise. This cold crappy weather had my motivation in a deep freeze but I am finally thawing out :)

At any rate been training more than I have ever before. Currently have been doing a 16 week coaching session. Getting near the end but the whole gang is hoping to add 4 weeks as I think we only have 3 weeks left.

I pulled the trigger on a power meter and it should be in this week. Have to decide which wheel to build it in. I am hoping the meter will allow me to optimism my training as I think it will be a struggle this year to get more than 8-12 hours of training/racing a week.

I did a tough week last week so this week I took it a bit easy after Tuesdays training session to recover. Planning a two hr roller session shortly.

Also picked up a special usb cable to charge my MP3 player so will be working on some playlists for training and up coming 24 hour events.

Hoping to pic up a portable camera tomorrow so I will be able to take more pics:)

Cheers

Paul

Halloween CX Race

I said a few days ago when possible snow was in the forecast that 'I hope it snows!'. Well I got my wish. We had a cold front come in and dump a couple inches of snow on the ground Saturday evening before the race.
We got to the race venue and the whole course was still under the snow. The few people warming up had not caused a path yet in the snow down to the ground yet.
While I was really looking forward to riding in the white stuff Megan was already sure she wasn't going to like it at all.
We got out with enough time to do a practice lap. I was finding the snow fun with lots of traction. Of course is was a bit slippy but I knew I would have no problems riding everything fairly quickly. Megan, on the other had was really struggling to keep forward momentum and she was sliding a fair bit. I guess those fatter 20" tires where clogging up. On top of that her hands were cold.
I sent her off to warm up in the van while I did most of the course. I then went and got Megan and we barely made the start. It wasn't long and she was really tired and wanted to toss the bike in the trees and go make snowmen. I did the first lap with her and kept her going. At one point she was starting to tear up. We took a minute break and got going again. It was nearing the finish and she managed to clear all the tough slippery sections including riding up the hill to the start/finsh. Awsome !!!
I then got to go on my own and did 3 pretty good laps. I was chasing Darrin for the last 3 laps. I was hanging on tight til the last lap when he gave it a shot of gas and passed a couple people in our small group. I was at the back of the group and was hanging on hoping someone would respond. No one did and I waited to long to go, but I went anway. I think I was closing the gap back up but ran out of real estate, and energy as well.
My biggest issue was clipping back in. My SPD's were clogging bag enough I had to knock my feet against the pedals to clear snow from the clips and pedals after every remount. I guess I was lossing close to 20 seconds a lap from this.
From the results I would have made teh lead lap had I did the whole race on my own, though I was happy to ride with Megan and keep her going.
It was a fun course and I really like riding in the snow :)

CX Race 1 of 2010

Race 1
Megan and I did our first CX race of the season, Megans first ever bike race.
We both had a good time and both of us finished our races without any mechanicals :)
It was a drizzly morning and the course was wet. It had pretty much stopped raining for the race or was very light and the temperature was perfect for the riders, altho it was a bit cold for the spectators.

Unfortunately Megans race is at the same time as mine so I can't watch and take pics. I did pass her out on course once so I did shout some encouragement to her and also reminded her to switch gears. She was smiling so that was great.
Megan is definitely at a big disadvantage as her bike is around 25 lbs and most of the adult riders are riding sub 18 pound bikes, and Megan is only around 48 lbs! I guess that would be like me riding a 70 pound bike!
I'm going to try lighten it up a bit for the next race with some of my spare parts.....

My race went good and bad. Mainly the bad was that I didn't push hard enough and finished a lap down. I needed to be 20 seconds a lap faster and I would have finished on the lead lap. I think I left too much left in the tank. My favorite type of racing is Endurance Racing so my pacing was probably in between Endurance and XC racing today. Avg HR was 166. Need to get that up to around 175. My max is around 181-183.
On the plus side I had no issues with the bike and had the tire pressure dialed in pretty good. On hard cornering I could feel the rear starting to roll so need 2-4 more psi in the rear. Traction was great and I had no issues in the slippery stuff. There were a couple spots that some people had to dismount to clear.

Nice to see lots of people out with many team Euro-sports/Foodery/Dal-cin members.
Thanks to my Mom who came out and cheered and took care of Megan while waiting for my race to finish.

2nd Cx Practice of 2010 Season

Megan and I got out to our second practice yesterday.

Was a pretty big turn-out with around 25-30 people.

Megan was practicing turns a lot and I was teaching her how to pick a smoother line.

There was a circle drill which I reall liked. At first I was not doing it right as I was doing more of two 180 turns with a lot of braking and then hammering out of the corner. Altho this method can be a fast way to do the small circuit, I was totally maxed out in 5 minutes. Not an efficient way to do it.

The I overheard someone saying the drill was to be done without brakes! Well there is no way I could do this quickly the 180 way, but I realized that you could be pretty fast doing a wide turn, thus the name "Circle Drill".

To add a twist we started doing this while pedaling all the time. I ended up crashing twice as I was turning in too quickly and my pedal would hit and pop the rear wheel out from under me. A reminder to try keep it wider and smoother.

We were doing this on the wet grass and I was having fun sliding the rear wheel out a bit and an occational recovery from a front wheel slide.

So I learned I can corner quite fast and pedal thru it if you get the right line.

I faired quite a bit better in the start drills. Not sure why, but I was starting in my lowest gear and I was shifting more thru the gears.

All in all it was a fun practice for Megan and I.