What's next?!

At the moment, I am uncertain on what discipline of cycling I would like to do...it is the start of the Summer 2019/20 crit season yet I have signed up for a 3 hr MTB event on the 30th November called Bella Buxton and looking at the Otways Odessey in Feb (either 30 or 50km).

Since I bought my new mountain bike in March 2019, I have really enjoyed riding the mountain bike over road or track cycling.

Speaking of track cycling, I had another fall at DISC during the Women's Track Camp day and really contemplating if this is something which I am including within my cycling schedule. I have always loved track cycling at Brunswick and (knock on wood) I have not crashed. The boards are slippery and the banks are much steeper. I also have a bit of a reaction with heights. I don't know if you would call it a "fear" but when I am up high and peer down, a rush of sweat overcomes me and my visual just goes all "liquid" and my stability goes out the window. If I can, I will mix the Wednesday night Melburn Hurt session if I can over the summer months but I really can't do cold air during the winter and this is why I haven't been back for nearly a year. I will still use my track bike as a training tool, never have and never will race track.

I haven't done much road riding at all (out on the road) and have been utilising the Zwift on the smart trainer since we installed our room in June. My training has never been so consistent especially with the Zwift Academy which kept me on the ball. I have done one crit race this season but unsure about how many races I should be doing a year as my main goal is the Bella Buxton 3 hour and the Forrest race in Feb. I can't afford a cycling coach at the moment due to my payment plan with my Invisaligns which ends in 5 more months.

I haven't trained with Lead Out Cycling since April 2019 due to the winter air, the same reason why I had to put Track on hold. Due to complicated work schedule and not being able to wake up before 5am and no real road riding goals, waking up at 4:30am has not happened for over 6 months. I have been doing most of my "training" after work or at a sane time during the weekends. Events like Giro della Donna or Amy's Gran Fondo no longer interest me. The only road cycling event coming up is the Property Industry Foundation (PIF) ride which I have scheduled in on the 15th Nov. I have also signed up for a social race on the 16th Nov at Lysterfield which I am using as a training session for Bella Buxton. I guess the weeks before Bella Buxton, I should be doing more 3hr+ rides to get my body ready for Buxton. There is a social ride at Buxton on the 9th Nov which I am looking forward to ride. I really do need to ride the trails before the race. Similar to the 3hr Bendigo, without the social/skills session the week before, I don't think I could have ridden as much of is as I did.

Amongst the cycling, I have continued on with Pilates which I love. At lease one session a week is all I can budget but will do more if I can balance it out with cycling training.

That is all I say at the moment. This post is more of a brain dump of my up and coming races and what I am trying to squeeze in my life.

Zwift Academy 2019 - Finished

Yesterday, 20th Aug 2019 - I completed my first ever Zwift Academy...

Since my last post, I have completed all the necessary workouts and group rides.

Monday 12th Aug - Workout #4 
Anaerobic Power Development - After the high of Workout #3 with sprints, this one was prob one of my least favourite rides...the intervals consisted of a few rides > 90rpm hitting the high power zones. Great for 30sec - 1min but when you have to do 2 x 3min, it was hard especially as the aim is to ramp up rather than to start out too strong.

Tuesday 13th Aug - Workout #5
I have always been curious about this test as it is the means of assessing which power level you needed to work at for those spin classes I used to do at Art of Cycling. I used to base my power zones at 280W+ MMP. Having finally done this test, my MMP is 320W but this is prob not something I would use as a guide if I am to go back to Art of Cycling as 320W would be too high for the general workouts especially when I do double sessions.

Wednesday 14th Aug - Social Group Ride
This is my fave session of the week as it is like a recovery ride after two days straight of workouts. It is led my ladies who lead the AHDR Tuesday evening rides (they live in Adelaide I believe) and the pace is nice. This week, they didn't put up the fence as the glitch occurs where people who have been dropped are also kicked out of the session which is not the point of these fences - they are to keep the group together at the front. What ended up doing was a dozen or so went off the front and they were well ahead - we are talking 9min ahead of the group and were not interested in slowing down at all.

Thursday - Rest Day. I just did Pilates in the afternoon.

Friday - Rest Day. Another one....I needed it as the Pilates session was hard work.

Saturday 17th Aug - Workout #6
This one is called Chase the Breakaway and it consists of many quick sprints, surges, 10min ftp and more surges. I have a love/hate relationship with is workout as I love long sprints but I don't enjoy long durations....I have started to "count" during the sessions but it is mind numbing.

Sunday 18th Aug - Workout #7
After so many days of putting the hard yards on my legs, the VO2 Max development workout was hard. My legs didn't want to turn anymore so I tested out two modes of hitting those power zones. With ERG mode - you either hit those power zones by spinning hard or when you spin slow, the trainer will get harder so that when you turn at that speed, you will be hitting those power targets. I have noticed that my heart rate likes the slow pedals better but I could not sustain it as my muscles fatigued out. I have really started to learn how to appreciate what the ERG mode does now and will not stuff it up on my normal workouts.

Monday - Rest Day - got a massage afterwork to flush out stiffness

Tuesday 20th Aug - Workout #8
4min Power Duration - I thought I would love this session but I have underestimated how my body can sustain high power outputs. The workout started out similar to previous workouts with some intervals and ramp work before the 4min power test...I started out too strong but I am guessing that I am using my strength as I am not a ramp person....I realised that I was exerting my body over it's limit as I started to have a nosebleed half way...yikes..

Having done 8/8 Workouts and 4/4 Rides/Races, I have graduated from the Academy. I will continue with the workouts as I would like to cycle through them all to see if I am able to improve especially now I am aware of how the sessions are. I am also looking forward to do another ramp test (for ftp) to see if I have gained any strength from 163W but I will need to do this session with fresh legs and not so soon after a workout.

Here are a few interesting stats/data from Zwift Academy - downloaded from Today's Plan:

This image below shows that my strength is above the average of 30-39 females but way below the "best" within my age group - no brainer....you can also see my strength is in the sprints and very much close to the average after 4min...

The second image shows the different workouts and how it helps to "fill out the power curve"....we did the Sprint and Thresehold work within week 1 and you can see where the dark green is covered within week 1. Week 3 is where the VO2 development and fills out the 1-8min curve. 

The graph below shows where my strengths and weakneses are - great at sprints, terrible at endurance....hahhahaha....I can't believe I did two Ironman races but it makes sense that I did them so slowly!

Zwift Academy 2019 - Within the first week

For the first time since the launch of Zwift Academy in 2016, I signed up to do this as a challenge. We finally bought a smart trainer for ourselves which we have set up in the garage. Previously, we had a mid-range smart trainer which we borrowed from the shop to use at home.

We bought the top of the range Tacx Neo2 around April but didn't set it up until the last week of June. Since then, I have been the most consistent in my training during winter since the dawn of time. I am still doing reformer Pilates but have reduced the frequency to 2-3 times a week rather than 5. I have also taken a break from Lead Out as they put training on hold during July as the coaches went to Europe for the TdF and I haven't been able to ride at high intensity outdoors due to my weak lungs and the cold/dry air. I have been doing quality indoor sessions since the trainer has been set up, riding over 5 hours (>100km) per week.

I won't go into what Zwift Academy is about here and how the 2019 differs from the previous programs but the 2019 one started on the 5th Aug and will run until for 8 weeks until the end of September. Before the program, I needed to find out what my FTP is. I have written about my FTP before and how relatively low it is but I really wanted to gauge how I am. Instead of doing the standard FTP test, I opted for the Ramp Test instead. The difference between the standard test which can be 45min from start to finish with the 20min free ride test in the middle, the ramp test is much more shorter and mentally more interesting. You start out with a warm up and then go straight into the ramp which starts out at 120W for a min and goes up 20W every minute. The average W will go up (or down) based on how high you go in the test. I stopped at the 320W mark as I couldn't push anymore for that minute and my average W was hovering around 163W - my FTP. I think my FTP was at this 163W from the test I did at SpinLabs. I adjusted it to 160W on Zwift so my workout targets will be whole numbers - I like my targets to end in 5 or 0.

For 2019, the Zwift Academy requires that you finish the 8 Workouts and 4 Rides/Races.

So far I have done 3 Workouts and 3 Rides/Races all scheduled since Monday 5th. You can do the Workouts at your own time but I am enjoying doing it during set times so I am committed to them.

Week 1 - 5th Aug - 11th Aug
Monday 5th Aug - Workout #1
This session worked on threshold and pushing above and below. I found this session relatively easy to finish but found the 10min mentally challenging. I also found the high spin challenging in not going above my target power range.

Tuesday 6th Aug - Race - TT
I raced the TT race for the first time on Zwift. It was the Bologna route which is only 8km but it took me 26 or so to finish. The first 5 km or so was pretty easy to ride. The gradient was pretty easy with a few false flats but at the 6km mark, the gradient went nuts and it took forever to ride each 1km. I was exhausted at the end and my legs were so restless overnight. I actually want to do this TT again in the future now I know what the gradients are and how much I need to pace.

Wednesday 7th - Social Ride
This ride was wonderful especially 24 hours after the TT race which ripped my legs apart. The pace was lovely and I could message as part of the chat throughout.

Thursday 8th - Workout #2
This session worked on race practise. It included intervals of surges, sprints and a 10min (below FTP) range. Once again, loved the interval work, hated the 10min endurance.

I took a break on Friday as I have been doing Zwift for 7 days straight and I am glad I did as my legs were stuffed.

Saturday 10th - Workout #3
This was one of my favourite sessions as it worked on fast twitch power muscles. Lots of sprints at power range beyond FTP with a good break and the session ended with 2 x 25sec free ride which I loved. Maximum power and trying to hold it over the 25sec period to fill out the power curve. I hit max power at 648W, my 20sec was 556W. I know I can hit a higher power range if I was to do this workout on a stable Wattbike as I have hit near 900W before as max.

Sunday 11th - Social Ride
Another social ride for the week but the pace was much higher than one I did on Wednesday. The pace is often set by the Pace Leader and this one was someone I have not ridden with before. She kept the pace at 2W/kg but I found myself pushing beyond that just to keep up as people's weight varies. Compared to the social ride I did on Wednesday at which I finished the hour ride with 32km, this one ended up being 36km. It felt like a mixed grade social ride and a race rather than a social ride. You know it was a fast paced ride if in accordance to Today's Plan, I achieved a PR in average speed for Zwift.

In summary, I have done 3/8 Workouts and 3/4 Races/Rides which is equates to 50% of the Zwift Academy.

Next week, I am planning on doing Workout #4 and #5 on Monday and Tuesday respectively and will play by ear on the rest of the week as I have two full days of meetings back to back for work. If Workout #6, #7 and #8 are scheduled for the rest of the week, I will have Zwift Academy finished in 2 weeks.

What happens after this? I will continue joining the sessions to see if I have improved compared to the previous sessions or I will go back to training with Lead Out when the weather gets better.

Bendigo Women's 3 Hour - Solo Blazers

On Sunday 26^th May, I raced my first mountain bike event! It was a women’s only event hosted by the Bendigo Mountain Bike Club. They offered two distance/abilities – Blazers for beginners and Blitzers for the more intermediate riders. I signed up to Blazers and solo rather than in pairs. As I am new into this sport, I didn’t want the pressure of letting others down.

The weekend before, I joined in a mountain bike skills session by the Bendigo club which went for about 3 hours which helped me dramatically in preparing for the day ahead and understanding the terrain. Much similar to Castlemaine, the course is rocky compared to any green trails I have done in Melbourne. If it wasn’t for the skills course, I don’t think I would have ridden so much of it, I would have been walking and more nervous throughout the day.

I left the house at 6am hoping to get there around 9am. The race briefing started at 9:50am with the race start at 10am. I stopped at Woodend for a break before the turn off the highway towards Spring Gully. I arrived around 9:20am with time to collect my number plate, another toilet stop and to prepare the bike and hydration pack.

I had purchased a new hydration backpack as my Camelbak was too small to carry nutrition and a basic first aid kit. During my past rides, I have been putting my phone, keys, ID and nutrition in my jersey pockets as the small bag could only carry the 2L bladder. Due to the frequent falls, I needed to carry a basic first aid kit. I only needed some alcohol wipes and some large bandaids and hand sanitiser. The Osprey bag had a different hydration spout system where the tube hangs across your chest and held up with a magnet. During the course of the ride, the spout didn’t stay on the strap of the magnet and ended up hanging down for a lot of the day, it was a bit annoying.

I was never nervous leading up to this event as I knew that my aim was to stay upright and do as best as I could. My nerves really increased when I started to prep my bike. When I rode down to the briefing, I saw a few familiar faces and chatted to them. The briefing was informative but there were a few incidences where they mixed up the blazers and blitzers requirements. The blitzers started first. The standing race start (Le Mans) meant that we stood about 100m away from our bikes which were placed on the ground. When I heard that this was the way we started, I placed my bike in a position where it was easy to pick up and facing the right way.

The blazers started about 5min after the blitzers. The run up to the bikes was not great and I didn’t take it too seriously as I didn’t want my heart rate to be sky high. As soon as I got on my bike, I rode behind some of the girls in my group and we came to a halt pretty much straight away due to a few unprepared obstacles from riders ahead of me.

After the lumpy parts of the start, we rode on the section of the course where we joined up with the blitzers and this is where the course became pretty busy with two groups and the faster riders wanting to overtake. The climbs were not too hard, the terrain was pretty rocky and I started to just trust my bike when we reached those sections. There was one part of the course where I unclipped as a girl in front of my had fallen but it became the only section of the course where I unclipped for the rest of the day. I am pretty sure I rode over it during my skills course but I just didn’t want to jeopardise my event. The descents came about half way through the event and it was not much faster than the first half as I am not great at high speeds. There were a few tricky hairpins and falls but I just rode through them at a slow and steady pace and stayed upright.

I looked down at my Garmin after I had finished the first lap and it was about 22min. Based on this timing, I knew that I was able to do 6-7 laps within 3 hours. I consumed a bit of my gel within my flask after 2 laps which was good timing as I felt tired…I had ridden at threshold for 40+min and this is about the duration of my crits. I could see the benefits of being in a team as you can have a chance to take a break. I didn’t want to stop and rest so I kept going. On the completion of my third lap, it was about 1:10. At that time, I was pretty confident that I could do 7 laps instead of 6 and that was my goal.

I couldn’t remember anything interesting from laps 2 through to 7 as it was just about riding the same laps over and over. Not like road riding, mountain biking requires constant mental concentration as you are always required to ride over obstacles. Towards the end of lap 7, I increased my pace as I wanted to finish lap 7 at 2:50 so it gave me a chance to get back out there for another lap which is what I did. I saw a lot of the ladies along the side lines, they were either done for the day or are part of a pairs team. There wasn’t many riders back out during my last lap. I started to cramp badly on my quads especially when I was contracting them.

I thought the last lap was my slowest as I couldn’t pedal hard due to the cramping and I was just tired. But as there was not many riders left, it was a lap where I didn’t have to move to the side much or having to overtake. Throughout the 8 laps ridden, I think the ratio of me pulling over so that a faster rider can overtake to me overtaking someone ahead of me was about 70-30.

I remember being really hungry at about the 2 hour mark and just craving something calorie dense like hot chips. I couldn’t wait for the 3 hours to be done.

When I was finishing my last lap (1:05pm), I was coming in with the dirt squirt (kids) and so it wasn’t the fastest lap. I crossed the line and pulled off the side. I was relieved that the 3 hours was up. The presentations was at 1:30 so I knew that I had time to put the bike in the car and put on a warm jumper. I saw a friend from Footscray CC and she told me that I had come 5^th which was a massive surprise so I stayed around for the presentation so I could see if it was true.

I was very pleased with my results for my first 3 hour mtb solo event. I was proud of myself for pushing through with the aim to get as many laps in within the allowable time as I could. I have already looked into my next 3 hour race in June which is at You Yangs and the race will be on the Kurrajong trails which is very do-able for me. I really enjoyed the event as I was not out there all alone and I was able to push myself to my limit. Mountain biking is still new for me so I am really enjoying the sense of accomplishment for doing something new and out of my comfort zone.

Positives:

• Felt really accomplished for doing an event out of my comfort zone and being able to place (not last)
• I am more confident about the descents even over rocky and loose surfaces. I don’t think I would have entered the event if I knew the terrain was what it was 3 months ago.
• I actually can’t wait for the next race in 3 weeks time!

Negatives (to work on):

•      Need to see what I can do about the cramping. It may be just muscle fatigue as I drank an entire bidon of electrolytes on my drive up to Bendigo.
•      I may not be drinking enough during the event as I had plenty of fluid left in my bladder after 3 hours. I reckon I only consumed 750ml over 3 hours which may have led to the cramping as well.
•      I need to work out a better way to carry my hydration bag as the magnet was not strong enough to maintain the tube across the chest.
•      Still not great on cornering (on descents) and therefore I am still not flowing through the trail. 

I am still aiming to do one ride per week on the mountain bike....until the crit season starts again in October. 

Looking forward in 2019

(EDIT: I had to re-write this as I was not in a clear state of mind)

Today is the 10th day for 2019 (10th Jan). I haven't had a chance recently to write anything about the year that was (2018) and to what goals I wanted to set for 2019. In Australia, we have also had a short holiday over Christmas and New Years and I jumped straight into work on the 7th Jan. I avoided touching my laptop over the holidays, I really needed a break.

Now I am literally killing time (in waiting room), I am taking this chance to put a few words down to what I have achieved in 2018 and what I would like to work on in 2019.

I have written a few times on what I have achieved in 2018 with regards to starting up track cycling but I have also written how I have gone backwards. Compared to previous years, I have gone backwards on travel distances and elevations on the bike due to health changes. To my credit I have not lost the love of cycling which is what I was most worried about. My furthest distance in 2018 was 95km which was one of the days I rode the Festive 500.

Over the 2018 Christmas holidays, I didn't achieve the Festive 500. I started out strong with rides of 70-95km for the first 4 days but then weather played havoc with being too hot or raining. I just couldn't be bothered putting myself through riding through heat or showers, I am no longer in the mindset of "doing things" through all weather. I had achieved the Festive500 twice (2016 and 2017) and only 342km in 2018, which included one mountain bike ride.

I still fight with motivational demons in the morning especially during the winter months but it has made it easier for me to be "active" without being forced to wear lycra and breathe in cold air on the bike since taking up Pilates on a regular basis. My motivation has helped when I have friends who have arranged to ride together as I hate breaking promises or letting people down.

I don't have any events for 2019 lined up but will enter events when they come through. I am continuing with my training with Lead Out Cycling, participating in crits on Sundays before we lose Daylight Savings and I want to do a few off road/mountain-bike/gravel events.

I will continue track training with Melburn Hurt as well as seeing if I can fit in DISC training once in a while. I will not race track as it is not something which I have no interest in. I use track cycling purely as a training tool and up-skilling my abilities. I am going to buy a new mountain bike in the next few months as I am interested in doing a mountain bike event in February (Otways Gravel) and March (Shifty Fifty) and my current bike might not cut it anymore being more than 10 years old.

I have not signed up for Giro della Donna for 2019. I am seeing how my cycling will be during the year and how my body is adjusting to changes. I am going to continue with Pilates as I absolutely love it and something which is not weather dependent. I am currently doing a summer challenge of 20 sessions before 31st Jan and trying to fit it into my training schedule can be challenging. I am seeing improvement in my core and can see where the excess fat around my stomach area sits beyond weak and inactive core muscles.

I know that I will be sick over the winter months that I will be out of action on the bike for weeks, maybe months so will need to keep active as much as possible when I am healthy.

With regards to goals, I would like to be skilled and fit enough to finish with the main pack during crits. This has been challenging as I am still nervous about riding in groups at high speeds AND cornering at the same time.

I am really enjoying crits. They are short events and I do get a great workout and with every event, I am getting better and fitter. My heart rate is still at 165-175bpm as soon as the race is on and I just need to work at increasing my ability to work within that zone for longer. I am not 100% on road racing as the high heart rate combined with how shit I am at hills, I don't have the ability to keep up with the group. I honestly feel like I am going to have a heart attack or stop breathing.

There are crits being organised by SMCC and they continue to race over the winter months so I will continue to race them to improve my skills hopefully see an improvement for the 2019/20 season.

That's it for now. I don't have anything concrete which I am "training" towards. My main aim is to enjoy my cycling journey and just be a better cyclist.