: Getting Serious

By: astroboy | No Comments » |

Well, its time to get serious… well, sort of serious… ok not as slack as I have been!

I’ve been riding since about 2001 and really started to get into racing in 2005 – my first race was the 2005 NZo 12hr. A mate and I foolishly decided to race as a pair (how hard could it be?) of course he subsequently fell off and broke his hand on his first lap and I decided to continue on as a solo. After a world of pain for the next 9 hours or so I was hooked on this silly sport of endurance racing.

Since then I’ve managed to get a little team of regulars together (Team Fake Rolex) and we now race most of the endurance stuff around Sydney but recently, I’ve been getting more into the solo thing. I did the 24hr solo champs at Easter 2007 and loved it. Solo endurance racing is a hard thing to get your head around but really (for me) it’s almost the perfect combination of mental and physical activity. Am I physically strong enough just to do this… can I convince my legs to go around for just one more lap (of course when you’re thinking this at hour 2 it can be a problem!).

Lately however, the racing is getting easier but I’ve come to notice a sad fact… I’m not getting faster. Sure I’m fitter now than I have been since I was a kid but its not translating to making me a faster rider. Now, I’m realistic and a Craig Gordon / Andy Bell / etc I’m not (nor will ever be!) but I figure I spend about 13 hours a week on the bike, spend most of my day thinking about the bike so dammit, I’d like to be quicker than I am

So, time to get serious about training. Based on a recommendation from my local bike shop (www.citybikedepot.com.au) As a first step I went to see Radek Valenta from Zoom In Zones (http://www.zoominzones.com.au/) to get some scientific information about just how fit I was (or wasn’t). The testing process was pretty simple, pedal on a stationary bike where the resistance is being upped by about 30watts every 3 minutes until you can’t pedal anymore. Every three minutes, Radek takes a pinprick of blood and analyses it for lactic acid build-up. This process took about 35 minutes for me to hit HR max and being ready to curl into a small ball and die.

Results wise, what came out was that my base fitness was actually pretty good – I can comfortably maintain a 70 / 80% max HR pace for ages without significant lactic acid build-up i.e. at this pace, I dissipate the acid pretty much as quick as its produced. This gels pretty well with how I feel out and about – I can potter on the bike for hours without significantly feeling any ill effects. However the story changed dramatically at about 85% max HR

At this point, lactic acid built up exponentially which eats into the power I had to go quicker. Also, my ability to deal with the ‘burn’ that goes along with this was not good. Basically, when the going gets tough, I descend into a world of pain and performance starts to suffer. This isn’t good for mountain bikers as all those short pinches push you into this zone. Luckily this is something you can train for… unluckily… interval training is the main way to do this

The other somewhat sensitive topic that Radek discussed was my errrr weight. When he divided my power output by weight it basically equated to the expected output for an average B-Grade club road racer. If was to gain another 30Watts of power (only 1 more step up and three more minutes) and loose 10kg (hmmm) then that would put my power to weight in the upper band of A grade road racers. The message being that hauling my 92kg self around wasn’t doing anything for my performances

So, what’s next

I’ve changed my training regime to include regular indoor sessions (spin) to focus on intervals, both upping my lactic threshold and ability to recover. I’ve also started seeing a sports dietician to see about how I shift that 10kgs. Over the coming weeks I’ll write more stuff on the ins and outs of the training programme and share the journey. In the meantime, feel free to drop me a note and let me know your thoughts – suggestions etc are always welcome.

 

Tags:Add new tag,endurance,racing,s,sydney,training


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