Training Log Archive: MTBjen

Raced in a mixed pair with John. It was cold, and rained heavily for large chunks of it. Very, very muddy, with some deep ruts and massive puddles. Everybody's brakes stopped working, the service people ran out of spare brake pads after 2 hours, and after a couple of decent stacks (one right in front of duncan, who had a good laugh) i have still got mud and gravel coming out of some quite strange places, even after a good scrub. Luckily Duncan brought a tent (he loves his tent, and the mud) and a team of anaconda shop-assistants set it up for us proudly, so we had somewhere to get warm and dry between laps.
The first lap was a write-off - really congested as usual, with some stupid chauvenist roadie egos making things a bit unpleasant. The second lap i had no brakes at all, which makes things slower, and a bit more scary. The third lap i rode well. The fourth lap i rode HARD, needing to make sure i was back in time for john to fit in a final lap. So i think my times got progressively faster. Once i had my bike working and the track was clear i tried to push hard and not use the downhills as a bludge, etc, which went reasonably well. Felt strong on the last lap.
Passed Stu/Duncan just after the halfway mark. Also passed the second place mixed team at the same time.
We finished 2nd in the end (just for a change!) but don't feel too bad about being beaten by Anaconda Man and his partner who is an olympian. They only beat us by 10min anyway. Prize money paid for petrol and some of our entry fee.
Oh and we were announced at some stage as "John and Jen who are national world champion orienteerers. Orienteerers on bikes! Amazing!" which is a great plug for the sport and we can expect 200 newbies at the goatfarm in 2 weeks.
It was quite fun, in a muddy way, but i feel a bit bad for making john do it, i don't think MTB is really his thing, especially in the cold.

Oh and lap times:
Total 5:54:31. Laps: 0:46:38 (John 0:44:07) 0:43:08 (John 0:42:50) 0:44:12 (John 0:43:51) 0:43:36 (John 0:46:09)

C • National World Champion Orienteerers 1

Matilda Bay almost to the bell tower and back

To work and then to the beach

warm up, down and the running-in-circles bits

Standard stuff. I nearly didn't go because at 5.10 i was still asleep on the couch, and when riding there i couldn't get warm. But in the end, glad i did it. John ran scarily fast on the last couple of run-in-circles bits. And just about lapped me in the cardio bit, with a strange, wild-eyed grin. Sort of like the cat gets when she is being attacked by a rug. I think he was having fun, or perhaps just wanted some cat food.

VERY unkeen this morning. Legs hurt at the beginning and never stopped hurting. But i do feel masochistically better for having done it.

10min warmup (including small chain ring inverse buried pyramid)
5min hard, 5min harder (HR 154), 3min recovery
5min hard, 5min harder (HR 162), 3min recovery
5min hard
10min cooldown including some single leg drills

I have never done single leg drills before and was never aware of how much my right leg is bludging. I guess that is something else to work on.

Quite enjoyed the ride to work once i stopped shivering, because at least i was not on a windtrainer!

Home via the pub and dinner

With Vera, through UWA and Kings Park. Nice to catch up on gossip, and even nicer to get my run out of the way in the morning!

Unenthusiastic early morning bludge to meet vera, and then to work.

Even less enthusiastic pootle home. Stopped to say hello to the runners. I wanted to join in but Tooms said, no, you have to have my dinner ready or you will earn another slap. So i went home instead.

And some pain on the foam roller. Poor legs.

I'm told it was a group ride anyway. I didn't see anyone at all, until i took a short cut at the golf course and just managed to catch the poor sod at the back who'd been discarded by the group. Hung on to the tail end until the regroup and as usual they slowed down after that so it was ok. Until some tall skinny wannabe roadie went to the front and picked up the pace, before dying in the middle of his overenthusiastic finishing sprint.
Then i got stuck in front of a gas heater eating raisin toast and was almost late for work.

C • Poor Sod 9

To work 1 then to work 2. Work 1 was almost loggable this morning as a beefing-up gym session. I came out with really sore forearms and for some reason, thumbs. Got told at length about how the standards of swim squads are falling - let any punter in these days, apparently. And the women's field in the stair climb has never been very strong, because after all, i should never have placed in a race like that. All pretty rich from someone who takes 2 hours to reconstruct an ACL.

Home again

Same as last week. Long reps (610m) x3 and short (244m) x2

2.58 3.00 3.11 1.24 1.25

Felt good for 2 reps (and 7sec faster than last time). Halfway up the 3rd my legs seized up and i even walked for 2 or 3 steps before they got embarrassed and agreed to trot painfully instead. The two short ones just hurt. But were the same times as last week. Glad i went in the end, and there was a huge group which makes it a lot more fun.

Back to the polish single track for some specific polish weather training. Hardest part was dragging john out into the rain, second hardest part was getting the dog back in from the rain. The nav was pretty good except that i got dq'd by the stern polish officials for riding on an out-of-bounds road.