Time for some intensity

It’s been a while since I’ve reported on what I’ve been doing so I thought I’d send through an update. 

Firstly, I have been pleasantly surprised by how well I’ve survived my first aussie winter since 2001.  I rarely even complained about the cold this winter but think I was fortunate with such mild weather, compared to many wet cold winters Bob used to tell me about, as I was sweating it out in the northern hemisphere.

One of the reasons I haven’t written in ages is that I haven’t been racing (until the State titles this past weekend).  It has been nice to train and prepare for the pursuit so constructively this season.  I am fortunate enough to have a great crew of experts at the VIS who are doing everything they can to help me reach my goals. Over the winter, I focused initially on lots of strength and power work, spent many hours lifting weights and doing core work, and got out into the hills to get stronger. Then, to make sure everything is heading in the right direction, the VIS gets me to do a monthly power test.  I’ve nicknamed this test, the torture test as it really is a painful experience.

I don’t know how many of you get regularly tested but I think testing is fantastic for motivation, remaining positive during heavy training blocks, but most importantly to measure the effectiveness of our training.  In winter it’s often impossible to do fast times on the track so using watts and testing is great to see how well the body is responding to training.  I do my testing at the VIS lab but I can now also do testing at home on our wattbike. The British train with wattbikes which calculates left and right leg power individually. It calculates any left/right leg discrepancies at different power outputs. It’s a very cool bike that spits out loads of data.  It must be the accounting environment that I worked in for so long and has given me an endless love for numbers and graphs.

With respect to my overall plan, I now need to start doing some intensity. I haven’t competed in State Titles for many years as this is usually the time I am overseas racing.  As I lined up to start the time trial, I recalled the first time I won the State time trial title and how much specific threshold work I had done in preparation.  In comparison, this time around, I had ridden my TT bike twice and hadn’t done any threshold work at all.  Sure, I had done lots of strength work, but this race would be my introduction to threshold work and I was a little apprehensive about the pain I was about to experience.  I train with SRM’s on all my bikes and with Dan Dwyers help (VIS Sports Scientist) we tried to predict what power I could hold for 40mins, compared to what I hold for 4mins. I used this power target as a guide so I didn’t blow up after 20mins.

To be honest, I wished after 30mins, that I’d done even a little threshold training as I started to really suffer and I felt like I had very little tolerance for sitting above the threshold zone.  The course was really tough, constantly undulating, and finished with a 1.5km climb to the finish. With Scott McGrory (VIS track coach) yelling encouragement to me from the follow vehicle, I reckon I did the final climb like the last 6 laps of a pursuit and watched as my heart rate went from above threshold to maxing out. I didn’t spew at the finish but I was in a world of pain.  I finished in the top 20, but was 4mins off the pace.  Definitely, not a result I want to write home about but it showed me clearly what work lies ahead of me, in the coming weeks.
That afternoon, as a VIS ambassador, I headed to one of the local schools in Geelong to do a 1.5hr presentation to a Year 8 class. Its funny but I had to sit on a table in front of the class as standing after the time trial was just not an option!

The following day was the criterium. With a team of 3 VIS riders, our goal was to win the race. After rarely racing in Australia for so long, I hardly knew any of the riders and with each attack, wondered who that was, and could they hold off the field and win.  Fortunately there were many willing pairs of legs in the peloton, happy to chase down every attack, including one that I did, as I tried to blow out yesterday’s time trial cobwebs.
As I predicted, the race came down to a bunch kick.  With 3 laps to go, Peta, Tess and I were all in good position in the top 10.  It was the safest place to be with the swirling winds and nervous energy of the peloton. On the final lap, Jenny Mac eased in front of me and I happily let her in. She was a good strong wheel to sit on.  Up over the final climb, the pace eased and the peloton swarmed.  This rarely happens overseas as the lead out riders keep the pace high, however with limited team style racing here, it felt like each rider simply fighting for glory. With a strong tailwind, and the peloton charging towards the line at over 50km/hr, I admit to feeling nervous, particularly since my last big criterium in North Carolina ended in me breaking my clavicle.

In the final 500m, the peloton spread out across the road.  Peta now had Jen’s wheel, followed by Tess and myself. I was looking for a gap on the windy right hand side when I watched in what felt like slow motion, Tess get bumped violently and then watched as Tess along with all the riders to her left and right were suddenly on the ground, with other riders flying through the air.  The noise of carbon and metal hitting the asphalt was horrendous.  Without even touching my brakes, I prepared to bunny hop Tess, hoping I wouldn’t cause her too much damage. At the very last second, her bike slid slightly to the left and I saw a 2cm gap between fallen bikes and bodies.  I took the gap, made it through and turned in disbelief at the carnage, I had somehow avoided. As I rolled towards the line, I looked up and saw the finishing sprint – a great battle between Peta and Jen, with Jen narrowly getting line honours.  Well done to both girls on their results.

So what now? Well, I will continue with more power and strength work, as the pursuit, in its simple form is all about having the strength to ride fast for 12 laps. Sounds easy enough in theory but it’s a challenging event.  I hope you are all doing your best to avoid the dreaded flu and are finding enough hours in the day to get out on the bike.

Til next time. 
Helen.