The New Stead!

I know, I know, it’s been a while since my last post, which was my rant about my run in with the traffic. Update on this is that the body is fully recovered with only a few minor scars to show for it. More importantly, I have a new bike, care of (in part) the drivers insurance. I managed to get a good chunk of the cost of a nice upgrade bike, chipping in the rest myself. Here is a picture of the new stead.It’s a big step up from the old ride, in that it’s a dedicated time trial bike rather than what was essentially a road bike with aerobars. I was looked after really well by Anthony at CBD cycles in Melbourne (thanks), which made it possible for me to buy-up to this bike.

The Giant Trinity Elite comes stock with Zipp Flashpoints, I opted to swap those for a set of training wheels (har-har, yes I do need training wheels to stay on my bike….), as it made the bike affordable and I can pick and choose my race wheel combo next year when funds allow. The stock groupset is Shimano Ultegra, I have upgraded the front and rear derailers to Durace and had a set of carbon cranks fitted, to decrease weight and increase mechanical efficiency. I plan to upgrade my pedals as well next year, because as we know the biggest gains are made by decreasing the weight of rotating parts, and this is even more important with parts that move in bigger circles (i.e. wheel rims and pedals).

I’m happy with the colour, which is very important...

The setup is close to what I want, though I think a few tweaks are in order over the next week or so to get it how I would like it.

I am surprised that the saddle is not as comfortable as I expected. I have read reviews that rave about the Fizik Arione saddles, but I have to say my gooch (point of contact with bike saddle), disagrees at the moment. It is likely in part due to the more aggressive riding position, but I feel that the saddle on my old stead was more comfortable. I am going to withhold judgment until I get used to the overall position change, but the alternating burning and numb sensations in my gooch are not nice.

When it comes down to it I think I just need to HTFU (Harden The F**k Up).

I have a good feeling about the bike and I’m anticipating a significant improvement in my ride times due to the improved aerodynamics and weight of me and the bike and the psychological “look at me go fast on my red speed machine everybody!” factor. A set of nice race wheels will top it off nicely.

Training is generally going great, I am coming to the end of two “overload” weeks, injury free and coping. I say coping, as I am pretty tired and I’m noticing some carry-over fatigue each day, especially in the pool. I am working through in my head why I feel the fatigue most in the pool and the jury is out. I have a feeling that it reflects my lack of finesse in the water and that I muscle my way through the water with a background as a sprinter. I think that maybe if my technique was a little more solid I would be able to swim better when fatigued. I have a stroke correction workshop coming up soon, so hopefully I can continue to renovate my stroke and increase my efficiency in the water.

The coach says that training will ramp up again in the next few weeks and I say bring it on. I am looking forward to smashing it over the next three months so I can make a strong appearance in Tauranga in January.

Congrats to the guys and gals from ETPA that raced in the Cannibal Gold Coast Half Ironman last weekend.

43 days till Shepparton Half Ironman

90 days till Tauranga Half Ironman

97 days till the Wedding!!! Yikes…

Learn to love your magtrainer

This evening I did a strength session on the magtrainer. It was 90mins long and involved a lot of sprinting in short bursts with the tension and gears cranked to the max. It started to hurt by the end and it seemed to go on forever.

Now I know a lot of you will have done magtrainer sessions and a lot of you probably hate the magtrainer. Like me until recently you probably only used the magtrainer as a last resort, when the weather just wasn't playing ball.

I am learning to love my magtrainer.

My coach uses the magtrainer as a tool for taking environmental factors out of the equation, so that the only excuse I have for going slower is that I'm out of gas. I can't blame the head wind or the road surface or the hills for slowing me down. My pedals stopped turning because my legs stopping pushing.

The magtrainer needs to be elevated from the 'last resort' category, to the 'essential training' tool category. True, you don't learn the essential bike skills that you get from hitting the road and it lacks the satisfaction of actually going somewhere that you get on the road.

However, despite the fact that it allows you to train when the weather outside is not suitable, on the magtrainer you can focus on the task at hand and forget about avoiding traffic and glass and you can quit trying to look like your feeling fine. On the trainer you can groan and grunt and sweat on the floor and look like death warmed up, and it's fine. More importantly you can focus on one particular task, such as maintaining the exact cadence, or that perfect pedal technique. The magtrainer is the perfect tool to dial in your technique, or to smash yourself and not have to worry about getting home, or to build mental toughness. I think one of the keys to magtrainer survival is not to just get on and spin for long sessions every time, because that will become old real fast. You have to mix it up, one day do sprints, the next vary the sprints, another day do cadence work, the next some one leg work. Variety is the key to remaining sane on the magtrainer.

I foresee many happy hours on the magtrainer in my future, so I'm going to maintain this pro-magtrainer attitude as long as I can, and if I sound fanatical it may be because I'm losing the plot already...

Which reminds me of a joke I read somewhere a long time ago.

One Ironman says to the other Ironman “You will never believe it, but my wife left me this weekend”. “Thats sucks, what happened?” says the other Ironman. “She couldn't stand my peeing on the bike during my long rides” said the first Ironman (I bet you can see where this is going, but I'll carry on for the slow ones) “Really? Its all part of the sport and everyone has done it at some point” says the second Ironman. The recently separated Ironman replies ”Yeah, I guess it was more because it I was on the magtrainer in front of the TV in the lounge.”

Day off work after yesterdays Mag Trainer day of hell

Just got in from this mornings swim squad. I was feeling pretty flat when I got up at 4:40am but once I got in the pool I felt pretty strong and despite the aches in my legs, I had a solid session. I'm glad its the last day of the school holidays, because the pint sized pool demons that invaded our squad two weeks ago will go back to burning up the pool wherever they came from and let me rebuild my self esteem. I admire their swimming skills but being carved up by kids that look about 12-13 is killing my ego. Be gone little critters!

Yesterday morning was a strength session on the Mag Trainer which was reasonably painful, but was short and sweet. It was an hour including 10min warm up and down with a bunch of 20sec max efforts with the tension and gears cranked to the max, on a two minute cycle. Coach says that they will stretch out to five minute plus intervals as we get closer to Ironman, eek!

Last night I went along to the Mag Trainer group session. Usually its held in a gym in the city but we didn't have keys this time for some reason. when I arrived everyone was debating flagging the session, I said “Nah, we can do it outside over here.” So we did our session on the footpath outside the gym under the light. It was actually pretty sweet, I normally cook in the gym, outside last night was nice and cool. We did a 15min warmup then 4 x (3 x 5 min @ 90, 110, 120 rpm), it was a full on cadence session. The goal of the workout was to develop the ability to pedal efficiently at high cadences. The optimum cadence to cycle Ironman at is around 90-100 rpm, which is around the same cadence you should run at. The theory is that if you cycle at the same cadence you run at, you will adapt to running faster when transitioning from the cycle to the run.

I had a day off owing to me from Easter, so I thought that since I was struggling so much the last few days, that this would be a perfect opportunity to rest up and prepare for this weekends training. It feels good to do a training session then head home to relax and recover. I guess this is how a professional athlete feels, heh.

Easter Monday: morning swim, evening magtrainer session

Started the morning off with an easy 2km swim at a pool that I haven't been to before. It's a 50m pool, which is a novelty for me and it was a great pool to swim in. Though there were a few people in the fast lane that overestimated their abilities. I gave a couple of them the sly elbow and kick when they wouldn't pull over a bit after I tapped their feet a few times. Had a lot of pain in my neck when trying to breath to the left (which I don't do often) due to a combo of yesterdays ride and sleeping on it funny, I guess. A massage and anti flame seem to have helped a bit.
This evening I did a strength session on the Mag trainer. A warmup followed by a bunch of 20sec bursts with the tension and the gears cranked to the hardest they would go. It hurt like a b***h (b***h isn't one of those words that converts into asterisks well is it). Then a 20min spin in the TT (time trial) position, that hurt more. It was like a deep dull pain that I can imagine would last for the whole Ironman ride if you went at the right tempo, ouch!
All in all a good days training.