7 Peaks - Mt Baw Baw (7/7)

So over the Easter weekend, I completed my 7^th Peak as part of the 7 Peaks Challenge. As you may or may not know, I didn’t end up participating in the Peaks Challenge Falls Creek due to being stupidly sick. I had it pencilled in on the 26^th March to finish off the 7 Peaks Challenge as it is 2 weeks after the Peaks Challenge as tackling Mt Baw Baw straight after Peaks would not be the greatest of ideas.

The day came and I had the Canadian, my friend’s husband (Pete) scheduled in to ride up Mt Baw Baw. Pete is a pretty good cyclist. He rides to work everyday and he races A grade at crits. The Canadian has been having problems with his ankle and he didn’t get a chance to change his cassette on this road bike to be able to tackle Mt Baw Baw well so he ended up riding his mountain bike.

Pete and Dayna rode from Noojee with Dayna riding back to Noojee from Tanjil Bren where we parked (already a pretty big hilly day on the bike). We set off around 9:30am and the day was pretty perfect for the climb.

Once we rode through Big Tree Creek, it was a steady and very very manageable climb – so much so, I was spinning at 75-80rpm which we all know that it meant that we were not really climbing….

The official start for the 7 Peaks Challenge is at the Gantry and this is clearly marked on the side of the road. I saw a car parked there and it appeared that someone was just going to ride the 7 Peaks route without a warm up…

Once I hit the main climb, it was a struggle. The gradient was already above 10% and I was already standing up out of my saddle. I rode for about a few hundred metres or so before the gradient went above 12% for too long for me to be out of the saddle and I had to hop off the bike and walk… When I could, I got back on the bike but before too long, the gradient once again reached too high for me to pedal through out of the saddle. I got back on the bike on the start of Mt Baw Baw road after stopping to read about where abouts I am on the climb and if I have passed the 20% part or not….when I realised that I have not gone through Winch Corner yet….URGH! So I tried as much as I could to ride through it all by not looking up….but the gradient just shot up too high for me to ride through. 

Through this section of the climb, I had about 6 people ride pass me. All were pushing their max. All had sweat, snot, grinding teeth, grunts and just in a world of pain. Some were zig-zagging through the climb and eventually made it up….I walked (4km/hr).

Once I walked passed the stupid part of the climb, I got back on the bike and had 3 km left to ride to the end. I really just wanted it all to end but still had 3km to go, riding at 10%+….when I came around the corner and saw the entrance to Mt Baw Baw resort, I was so happy that it finally finished. The Canadian was waiting for me at the entrance and we stopped for a coffee before the descent.

My 7 Peaks time was 1:36 which placed me waaaaaaay below the Strava leader board but it’s all relative. Pete did it around 34min and the Canadian did it around an hour or so.

I put on both my arm warmers, wind jacket and gloves before we descended. To be dead honest, I didn’t even realise I was descending down steep roads. The disc brakes of my bike is great for that. I kept my speed below 45km/hr as the road conditions were horrendous. I stopped after the creek to take off my layers before the small climb back to Tanjil Bren. All throughout the ride back to the car, I was swearing to myself that I will not be riding up Mt Baw Baw ever again and this sentiment still holds. I don’t know if it was because I am not at 100% health wise (still coughing), over 4 weeks since my last hilly ride up towards Hotham, having an anxiety attack in the car when we got into Tanjil Bren or that mentally I was just not prepared to push through the uncomfortable-ness of the ride…

Mt Baw Baw is by far the hardest of the 7 Peaks to do. It is the only one which I had to hop off the bike to walk (I didn’t even walk up WTF, CRB, Meg…)

Now having done all of the 7 Peaks challenge rides, my personal ranking for the rides are as follows:

1) Mt Baw Baw
2) Mt Hotham*

3) Falls Creek*

4) Mt Buller

5) Lake Mountain*

6) Mt Buffalo*

7) Dinner Plain

*The climbs I have done more than once. 

Out of all 7 rides, my favorite has to be Mt Buffalo. I enjoyed how it was more of a constant climb and I could actually keep my cadence > 65rpm for 95% of the climb. I would do Mt Buffalo again in a heartbeat. 

Will I take on 7 Peaks again next year - the answer will be yes but will leave Mt Baw Baw out...because it is stupid..

Moving forward

It has been a week since my post. I am still coughing up my lung but no longer feeling drowsy or sick. I also haven't touched my climbing bike (Avail) since my last big ass ride up Hotham and not touched my Wilier since taper weekend. I think I may have forgotten how to ride a bike...

Well this week, I am going to ease myself back into it....starting out with CF altitude on Tuesday evening. I have also (already) signed up back to Art of Cycling (AOC) on Thursday 5:30am. The Spinroom is opening up a studio in Albert Park in April, I will see how these sessions are and may do these instead of the 5:30am at AOC. Driving all the way to Spotswood from Aspendale can take its toll especially over the West Gate bridge. I will have to be more prepared with my clothing and nutrition so I will drive to work instead of driving all the way home to get ready for work (what I used to do when I lived 2km from work).

This weekend, I have a few cycling things to do:

Easter Friday - I will be trying out track cycling at Brunswick Velodrome. I am excited, yet a bit scared about this...the whole not having control thing with no braking kinda scares me....but I am however looking forward to riding around and around on the velodrome.

(Easter) Saturday - I have planned (even with a Facebook event) to ride up Mt Baw Baw and tick off my 7th and final peaks climb. Fingers crossed I am able to climb this Peak....all I am asking for is good weather. If the weather is crap-o-la, I will try to do the climb either on the Sunday or Monday. If it can't be done during the Easter holidays, then it will be something I will just have to let go of as the 7 Peaks Challenge must be completed by 31 March.

If I have time over the Easter holidays, I may ride the Dirty Gran Fondo (65km) course on my mtb...

I still need to do some strength/endurance training as I have The Ascent ride on 17 April and this is an event I want to be able to complete comfortably.

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With regards to training events and goals for 2016/2017, I will need to look into them and put them down in writing. I know one is Amy's Gran Fondo - being able to finish this event under 5 hours is my goal. Taking in account a bike with more gears, me with stronger climbing legs and working on my endurance and road racing skills between now and the event in September. I need to move away from triathlon style training and work on getting stronger with a group.

I will also incorporate more commutes to work on the bike as now I live 13km from work instead of 2km.

It just wasn't my time...

So some of you are probably wondering now - what happened after my last post?? Where was the count down to Peaks? How was the day leading up to the big event and how was the actual Peaks Challenge?!

Well, pretty much the day after I wrote my last blog entry, I fell really ill. I only had a cold (no injuries or anything like that) but I was coughing, sneezing and drowsy pretty much from Wednesday morning onwards. I took a day off a few weeks ago as I thought I had a small cold and slept it off but last week, it came back in full-punch-in-the-face-style.

I had planned on still heading up to Falls Creek on Friday morning and seeing how I went whilst my partner would do some mountain biking around the area. After all, I had already paid close to $900 for 4 nights accommodation at Falls Creek already. Come Friday midday, I was still in bed and I hadn't packed my bags or bike yet so we changed our plans to drive up on Saturday morning instead. I pretty much decided on Friday night that I would withdraw from Peaks Challenge and only packed my normal bag (no cycling gear). Come Saturday morning, I was still really sick and was in no state to be in the car for over 5 hours to get to Falls Creek. We then decided to just stay in Melbourne for the long weekend instead. We then picked up our little dog from her Pet Country club (fancy dog kennel) and our little family spent quality time together in between my long naps.

On Sunday in between my sleeps and eating only oranges (all I craved and ate when I was sick), I paid close attention to social media and tracked how my friends were travelling throughout the day. The weather was good for the event (no rain as predicted) but it did get humid and hot after lunch. Most of the people I was following completed the event but all struggled and rated it the hardest thing they have done. This also how it was described from one of my friends who finished an "Everesting" only 2 weeks ago (Donna Buang).

Deep down, I was never confident that I would actually make the cut off time of 13 hours. Comparing my times against the cut offs they had provided, both my climbing and descending speeds are below their averages. I had always planned on keeping my breaks to 2min at each water stop (exc toilet breaks). I would have skipped my lunch break at Dinner Plain as I have never been a "eat lunch" kinda person on my long rides and I consume my calories pretty much on the 30min mark with sometimes a date in between. As I had mentioned before, Peaks Challenge is actually a challenge. It is unlike an Ironman where you can pretty much walk the marathon and make the cut off time of 17 hours. Even for a below average athlete like myself, I finished my (full) Ironman within 13:12, with below average times for all 3 legs and still had plenty of time for photos and smiles. During Peaks, you have no "rest" and it is not an event you can do with no hard training. A cut off time of 13 hours is actually hard to do!

I had plenty of support from friends who mentioned how much I had trained and how I would achieve this goal. It was very humbling to know that people believed that I was ready and some were even heart broken when I told them that I was sick and pulled out of the event. I know that I did put in some major hours on the saddle and most of it was done solo. I know that I have the mental endurance to get myself through the event, I guess my body's ability to climb and descend just need to catch up.

I wouldn't have said that my preparation was ideal. Many people have mentioned that I can be negative about myself but I would also like to point out some background:

• Since 2010, my road bike has Campagnolo group sets. Therefore, I never rode the bike on my drops as I wasn't able to reach the brakes or change gears (Campags have thumb shifters) and to make matters worse, I also have tiny hands. It is only October 2015 that I had a bike with Shimano group sets and I am now able to reach the brakes and change gears on my drops. Descending on the drops is something which I am still learning how to do. 
• Following on from the descending thing - I also have a fear of descending. There are a few factors which play in my hesitation when it comes to descending - my fall in July 2014, my lack of bike skills especially turning, my witness of someone falling off the side of the mountain at Kinglake 2011, I don't have a background in going downhill for any sort of activity - skiing, snowboarding, horse riding etc and just the lack of experience in positioning my body on the bike during descents. 
• Cadence along with a good power output is something which I need to work on. I have never been a high cadence person. I never used to race at 90rpm even during triathlon or time trialling. My comfortable race cadence was around 80rpm. My climbing cadence used to be around 40-50rpm. I used to climb Benwerrin in my large chain ring (no compact), low cadence. I should have been training years ago to ride on the small chain ring and higher cadence. Maintaining a higher cadence whilst also maintaining a good power zone is something which I need to gauge. Riding at a higher cadence = not tire out my muscles. 
• I was moving house early 2016 which meant that critical training sessions was not optimised. I had to (i)Look for a place to move into (ii)Pack the old house (iii) Move into the new house and this took a good 5 weekends out of January and February. 
• My cycling climbing only really started in Oct 2015. Prior to that, I would have only done about 4 rides/year in the "hills" since 2010 when I started triathlon. Hills = Kinglake or the Dandenongs (1-in-20). Due to being a triathlon assistant coach 2012-2015, I was often placed to ride with beginners at Studley Park or Beach Road and I would only be out on group rides at Kinglake or the Dandenongs only 4 times max during the winter months. Even then, I would be one of the slower riders due to lack of strength and experience. Since leaving the whole triathlon thing aside, I have climbed more within a month of February 2016 than I ever did my whole life.

I do have plans on completing this route in 2017. I will either complete it as part of the AUDAX (Alpine Classic weekend) or Peaks Challenge next year. These are a few things that I will need to work on:

• Monitoring my power on the bike. I am going to invest in a power meter in the next few months so I can gauge the power output on the bike especially during my climbs and holding it with a higher cadence. I have worked on this during my spin classes at AOC but it hasn't carried through where is counts, out on the roads and climbing. 
• Strength and Core As much as I have incorporated my s & c sessions during my build for Peaks, moving forward, I will need to tweak the program to something more tailored to cycling. Something which I will need to research into more and consult with Chris. 
• The times which I will need to climb the three peaks will need to be reduced significantly if I am to make the cut off. I need to aim to climb Tawonga Gap within 40min (current PB at 49min) Harrietville - Hotham down to 2:15 (current PB at 2:56!), WTF - Trapyard Gap down to 1:20 (currently 1:45). In between, I need to learn to descend properly and not be scared when my speed goes above 40km/hr (or 25km/hr around corners). 
• I need to incorporate some group rides in my program to be more comfortable about working in groups during the flatter sections in between the climbs. I actually didn't have a plan for this year about this as I knew that I was going to be at the back during the first section of the event (the descent after Falls) and was going to be pretty much by myself anyway.
• The hilly rides during winter need to be at least 3 (quality) hours long. Lets aim to do the Full Crucifix (inc Sky High) in 2016. 
• Aim to achieve PB for all my climbs - 1 in 20, The Wall, Inverness Road, Devil's Elbow, Lake Mountain, Donna Buang, Mt Buffalo, Falls Creek etc

I will leave the blog post here for now regarding Peaks Challenge. There are a few things I have lined up in the next few weeks which I will write about more but for now, I am still recovering from my cold and giving myself a break before I get back on the saddle. 

6 More Sleeps!

My God....I have 6 more sleeps until the big event. I am seriously just sh#ting myself at the moment.

Last week’s training didn’t go as planned. On Tuesday, due to a few accidents on the major routes in Melbourne, it caused massive traffic jams and I was not able to make it to the altitude session. Along the Monash Freeway, I moved 5km in 45min and actually escaped the freeway and arrived around Kew after 7pm (the session finishes at 7pm).

Then on Thursday, I went to my last Art Of Cycling (AOC) session before Peaks. It wasn’t my best session as my legs are feeling so fatigued and I was generally tired and not feeling 100%. I actually stayed home that day after the session as I felt like I was coming down with something. That afternoon, I went for a dry needling session to loosen up my hamstrings as the massage session previously proved to be too painful for relief.

On Friday, I booked myself in for a pilates session but I set my alarm for 5pm instead of 5am. Woke up at 5:50am (too late to attend session) and $25 down the drain.

Saturday, I did my first Beach Road ride from the new house in Aspendale. I rode up to Port Melbourne and back (approx. 60km and took me 2.5 hours). The roads were very busy! Sunday, I rode down to watch the Gran Prix crits from Hampton with my friend who raced the women’s Masters and rode back.

My legs are not feeling great at all. They are so fatigued. They didn’t want to ride at all over the weekend. I will have to put them in my recovery boots regularly until the event day.

I received a call from our accommodation at Falls Creek to let us know what is provided and what is not at the lodge. Looks like we will need to prepare some meals in advanced as we don’t have access to the kitchen but will be able to use the microwave. We might start to get some of our things ready for this weekend so I won’t be packing at the last minute.

I am genuinely nervous about this weekend. The weather at the moment does not look great for Sunday. Both Hotham and Falls Creek are forecasted to have showers and maybe some thunder. I know that I am able to ride the entire course, there is no doubt about it. I am just worried about making the cut off. I am not very good at both climbing and descending so I may struggle to stay in front of the lantern rouge riders.

So this is my “6 sleeps to go” blog entry before Peaks Challenge. Anxiety level 10/10.