With Brad holding a training camp down south, this week's efforts were mostly on my own - no group sessions. AP was also on the camp so there was no combined efforts urging each other on up in the hills or Kings Park. But what a week it was. Some ups and downs to say the least but not just because of the hills...
After a great hills therapy ride on Sunday morning, an easy rolling recovery session out to Shelley and back via the Narrows Bridge still required a bit of work with the easterly wind blowing. Followed this up with the usual Monday commute with nothing special taking place so a pretty average day training-wise.
This was definitely not to be the trend for the rest of the week.
This was definitely not to be the trend for the rest of the week.
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Tuesday morning had me back to Crystal Brook Rd for another four repeats but this time round was not the most enjoyable experience as it had been on previous mornings. It was the first time I have completed the climbs with a reasonable easterly wind blowing and I just couldn't find the usual rhythm I get into when going up that hill.
My first effort was fine and I matched my personal best time of 04:12 but everything seemed to fall apart from there and I could not complete the next three climbs with the usual consistency that I have previsouly managed. My average HR for each climb was back up to the high 150's and the pace dropped off significantly with each effort. The easterly winds were gradually picking up as I went but I would not have thought that they would have had that much of an impact.
On completing the fourth effort, I was certainly dissapointed with the efforts but I felt that I still had some significant strength left in the legs and I was determined to improve the experience of the workout overall so decided to head out into the hills and completed the loop around Picking Brook and up Patterson Rd past the Observatory. I followed this by descending Walnut Rd and heading back up Glenisla Rd to Carmel Rd and back down Welshpool Rd to home. The additional climbing was great but I still struggled to get a decent rhythm so focused on keeping my cadence to around 70 to force the legs to work a little harder on the climbs.
My one highlight was a personal best top speed down Welshpool Rd at 88.9 km/h. It was certainly a rush to be passing cars on the way down. I tried to maintain the effort as far up Welshpool Rd and into Orrong Rd as I could before reaching home. A solid 2:10:00 workout but not one that I was completely happy with - but not through lack of trying.
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Wednesday morning was sprint work and I felt I could find a rhythm much easier than Tuesday morning. The morning's session was my first true concentration on flat sprint intervals where the focus was to ride at least 1 hour where a 10 second all-out sprint was completed every 4 minutes.
I decided to incorporate this into my ride out to Shelley Bridge and return via the Narrows Bridge with expectation that it would take at least one hour to ride from home out to Shelley Bridge and back to Canning Bridge so that I could put in a longer effort between Canning Bridge and the Narrows. The timing worked out spot on and I completed the first hour before reaching Canning Bridge on my return allowing me to hold 40km/h+ back to the Narrows.
The 10 second sprint intervals were a great workout and were harder than I had first anticipated. I expect that over time the duration of the sprints will gradually get longer and more difficult which will be a great help with increasing the duration of my finishing sprints for racing.
A late start on the ride between Canning Bridge and the Narrows probably kept me from claiming a PB on that stretch but was still happy to record my 2nd best time. I used the South Perth foreshore as a recovery (sort of) but was keen to keep my overall average up over 33 km/h. My last effort for the morning was a Strava segment called Aqua Skate which runs between Belmont Park Racecourse entry to the top of a short and sharp climb to Riversdale Rd in Burswood. It was rewarding to have completed such a tough session and finish it with a 3rd overall on the segment.
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Got the hills mojo back on Thursday morning with 3 repeats of Welshpool Rd. First time I have completed three of these and the aim was to keep to a lower cadence value of a round 70 for each of the three climbs. I have no doubt that the Crystal Brook Rd session I have been doing since my last Welshpool Rd repeats session has been improving my hill climbing ability immensely.
I could not believe how much more efficient I was able to be climbing Welshpool Rd using a harder gear combination and reducing the average cadence. The strength in the legs has improved dramatically as has my overall fitness. Brad assures me that my efforts up Crystal Brook Rd on Tuesday were still very good and the drop off is just an indication that an athlete's progress is never linear and that power can drop even when improvement is anticipated.
The first repeat was a steady one and I used it to get the feel for riding at a lower cadence up steeper hills and was surprised to still manage a climb at 19.5km/h. A loss of concentration on the second repeat saw me complete the climb at just 19km/h even as I had not checked the rear gear selection and found I had ridden in 23 and not 21 like the previous effort.
Each of the first two climbs also saw my HR down more than normal which I felt could be improved on the third effort and I managed to get it back up to a more respectable rate but still a bit lower than I had anticipated. The last climb was still enough to record a PB of 00:12:37 (20.3 km/h) on my Welcome to Perth Hills Strava segment but had no comparative recording for the Welshpool Hill segment as it starts further back toward Lewis Rd and involves more of a flat stretch at the start and therefore a slighly higher average pace - I only get a recording for my first repeat for that segment. Also managed to complete the last effort with a PB on the Petrol2Peak segment (even with a stop at Pomeroy Rd) which runs from the BP service station to the top of the peak just before Canning Road.
As with previous hills session this week and last, I added a loop out to Pickering Brook after the climb repeats although I found that even though I completed it well enough and enjoyed the ride, the legs were really feeling the pain as I climbed back to the peak of Welshpool Rd from Canning Rd. The legs were certainly burning more than the lungs this time around and I felt the soreness from the efforts for the remainder of the day.
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After Friday morning's commute to work, I'm thinking I will probably call Friday efforts "KOM Grabbing Fridays". My second opportunity for quite some time to have a crack at AP's Parliament Hill PSP King of the Mountain has finally reaped reward!!! Mind you, it didn't come easy. I certainly felt yesterday's hill climbing efforts as I passed under the pedestrian overpass at Mount Street with visions of the crown flying away toward AP's office in Subiaco.
The objective was to try and complete the segment inside 55 seconds which would/should register a pace of about 40 km/h up the hill but missed it by 2 seconds as I came in with a 56 second climb and the KOM crown. With only a 4 second gap to AP, I can't imagine I will hold it for long as I know it is one of his pet segments and he will not be happy to relinquish the KOM - certainly not by 4 seconds. At least I permenantly hold the mantle of being the first to complete the segment in under a minute!
The only drawback - neatly packed chicken and salad wrap lunches get turned into tossed chicken salads when the backpack gets tossed around a bit too much with the all-out sprint efforts. So much for packing the backpack tighter.
A charge at any KOMs on the ride home were quashed with a wind that was somewhat unfavourable. Couple that with one of the most unbelievable acts of stupidity I have seen from peds on the PSP near Burswood Golf Course Club House and any decent times were out the window.
I approached the bottom of the small rise up toward the practice chipping/putting green and I noted a dog on a lead to the side of the path at the top of the rise but could not see its owner. I was riding at pace and by 7:00pm the sun was down and the light was definitely fading. I continued with caution as one would do when approaching peds with dogs and as I climbed the small rise I could not believe what I was seeing.
The dog I had seen was indeed on a lead but was made from cord at least 6-8 metres in length and the lady owner of the dog was on the other side of the path with the lead strung out to full length spanning from one side of the path to the other (plus some).
As I quickly came to the realisation that this is a stupidly dangerous situation and began to brake, I was totally shocked to find that this was repeated by the woman's companion whose dog was on the other side of the path to her and yet another 6-8 metre length of cord spanned the width of the path (plus some).
As I hollered "bike" to make them aware of the situation they had created, I was presented with foul looks as I slowly passed by to avoid any entanglement in the cord which was not exactly being realed in in any hurry. It appeared that these two ignorami were of the opinion that it was I that was at fault and it was rude of me to have uttered "bike" as a warning to the situation they had created.
I would have to say that this rates right up with some of the most insane acts performed by peds on a shared path and I often wonder why it is, in situations like this, that people believe it is the cyclist that is at fault?
And so draws a close to a solid week of training with plenty of hills activity and some fantastic sprint work. The KOM this morning was certainly a just reward and a group 1 ride with the Garland Crew on Saturday morning will be most welcome. I'm also looking forward to taking in some of the action at Sunday's State Crit Championships. Good luck to my compatriot riders involved in the racing events.
Wednesday morning was sprint work and I felt I could find a rhythm much easier than Tuesday morning. The morning's session was my first true concentration on flat sprint intervals where the focus was to ride at least 1 hour where a 10 second all-out sprint was completed every 4 minutes.
I decided to incorporate this into my ride out to Shelley Bridge and return via the Narrows Bridge with expectation that it would take at least one hour to ride from home out to Shelley Bridge and back to Canning Bridge so that I could put in a longer effort between Canning Bridge and the Narrows. The timing worked out spot on and I completed the first hour before reaching Canning Bridge on my return allowing me to hold 40km/h+ back to the Narrows.
The 10 second sprint intervals were a great workout and were harder than I had first anticipated. I expect that over time the duration of the sprints will gradually get longer and more difficult which will be a great help with increasing the duration of my finishing sprints for racing.
A late start on the ride between Canning Bridge and the Narrows probably kept me from claiming a PB on that stretch but was still happy to record my 2nd best time. I used the South Perth foreshore as a recovery (sort of) but was keen to keep my overall average up over 33 km/h. My last effort for the morning was a Strava segment called Aqua Skate which runs between Belmont Park Racecourse entry to the top of a short and sharp climb to Riversdale Rd in Burswood. It was rewarding to have completed such a tough session and finish it with a 3rd overall on the segment.
--
Got the hills mojo back on Thursday morning with 3 repeats of Welshpool Rd. First time I have completed three of these and the aim was to keep to a lower cadence value of a round 70 for each of the three climbs. I have no doubt that the Crystal Brook Rd session I have been doing since my last Welshpool Rd repeats session has been improving my hill climbing ability immensely.
I could not believe how much more efficient I was able to be climbing Welshpool Rd using a harder gear combination and reducing the average cadence. The strength in the legs has improved dramatically as has my overall fitness. Brad assures me that my efforts up Crystal Brook Rd on Tuesday were still very good and the drop off is just an indication that an athlete's progress is never linear and that power can drop even when improvement is anticipated.
The first repeat was a steady one and I used it to get the feel for riding at a lower cadence up steeper hills and was surprised to still manage a climb at 19.5km/h. A loss of concentration on the second repeat saw me complete the climb at just 19km/h even as I had not checked the rear gear selection and found I had ridden in 23 and not 21 like the previous effort.
Each of the first two climbs also saw my HR down more than normal which I felt could be improved on the third effort and I managed to get it back up to a more respectable rate but still a bit lower than I had anticipated. The last climb was still enough to record a PB of 00:12:37 (20.3 km/h) on my Welcome to Perth Hills Strava segment but had no comparative recording for the Welshpool Hill segment as it starts further back toward Lewis Rd and involves more of a flat stretch at the start and therefore a slighly higher average pace - I only get a recording for my first repeat for that segment. Also managed to complete the last effort with a PB on the Petrol2Peak segment (even with a stop at Pomeroy Rd) which runs from the BP service station to the top of the peak just before Canning Road.
As with previous hills session this week and last, I added a loop out to Pickering Brook after the climb repeats although I found that even though I completed it well enough and enjoyed the ride, the legs were really feeling the pain as I climbed back to the peak of Welshpool Rd from Canning Rd. The legs were certainly burning more than the lungs this time around and I felt the soreness from the efforts for the remainder of the day.
--
After Friday morning's commute to work, I'm thinking I will probably call Friday efforts "KOM Grabbing Fridays". My second opportunity for quite some time to have a crack at AP's Parliament Hill PSP King of the Mountain has finally reaped reward!!! Mind you, it didn't come easy. I certainly felt yesterday's hill climbing efforts as I passed under the pedestrian overpass at Mount Street with visions of the crown flying away toward AP's office in Subiaco.
The objective was to try and complete the segment inside 55 seconds which would/should register a pace of about 40 km/h up the hill but missed it by 2 seconds as I came in with a 56 second climb and the KOM crown. With only a 4 second gap to AP, I can't imagine I will hold it for long as I know it is one of his pet segments and he will not be happy to relinquish the KOM - certainly not by 4 seconds. At least I permenantly hold the mantle of being the first to complete the segment in under a minute!
The only drawback - neatly packed chicken and salad wrap lunches get turned into tossed chicken salads when the backpack gets tossed around a bit too much with the all-out sprint efforts. So much for packing the backpack tighter.
A charge at any KOMs on the ride home were quashed with a wind that was somewhat unfavourable. Couple that with one of the most unbelievable acts of stupidity I have seen from peds on the PSP near Burswood Golf Course Club House and any decent times were out the window.
I approached the bottom of the small rise up toward the practice chipping/putting green and I noted a dog on a lead to the side of the path at the top of the rise but could not see its owner. I was riding at pace and by 7:00pm the sun was down and the light was definitely fading. I continued with caution as one would do when approaching peds with dogs and as I climbed the small rise I could not believe what I was seeing.
The dog I had seen was indeed on a lead but was made from cord at least 6-8 metres in length and the lady owner of the dog was on the other side of the path with the lead strung out to full length spanning from one side of the path to the other (plus some).
As I quickly came to the realisation that this is a stupidly dangerous situation and began to brake, I was totally shocked to find that this was repeated by the woman's companion whose dog was on the other side of the path to her and yet another 6-8 metre length of cord spanned the width of the path (plus some).
As I hollered "bike" to make them aware of the situation they had created, I was presented with foul looks as I slowly passed by to avoid any entanglement in the cord which was not exactly being realed in in any hurry. It appeared that these two ignorami were of the opinion that it was I that was at fault and it was rude of me to have uttered "bike" as a warning to the situation they had created.
I would have to say that this rates right up with some of the most insane acts performed by peds on a shared path and I often wonder why it is, in situations like this, that people believe it is the cyclist that is at fault?
And so draws a close to a solid week of training with plenty of hills activity and some fantastic sprint work. The KOM this morning was certainly a just reward and a group 1 ride with the Garland Crew on Saturday morning will be most welcome. I'm also looking forward to taking in some of the action at Sunday's State Crit Championships. Good luck to my compatriot riders involved in the racing events.
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