Caffeine is a strange animal

OK so it's 9:30pm on a Friday night, here i am sitting in the front yard wearing nothing but a pair of bib knicks and drinking a banana / blueberry protein shake.

I guess this is what happens when you have a doubleshot espresso at 3pm while on the tools.
https://www.strava.com/activities/251041985

I managed to set out at a decent pace and tempo which i thought i could keep up all the way out and back, funnily enough the roads were very quiet I was expexting alot more traffic and hoons out there, but it almost felt like i had the roads to myself, that is until you hit Dee Why and its 1000 sets of traffic lights. I was aiming for an average of 30kph, which for me would be good, alas, i managed 32.1kph average. Yay go me. now for bed.
Party on!

Feeling slow but good

After 2 days on the indoor trainer  I felt it was time to actually go ride a bike outside, the trail had a few puddles in the normal places with a few new ones which are understandable due to the amount of rain we have had over the past few days.

I didn't stop to take any pictures as i wanted to get the lap done at a decent pace, the only issue this ride was some grass in the cassette which made chaning gears a bit slippy and slow.

All up I managed to get out for a good hour and a half doing the 25km without hitting any threshold limit. The bike worked well but i might up the pressure in the rear shock for more top speed.
I didnt see anyone else out there apart from some fresh tyre tracks as to which i was trying to chase down but i think they were a few hours old. There's nothing better than rying to chase down a ghost.

https://www.strava.com/activities/248054422

I will probab;y do the same after work tomorrow and a bit more seeing as i finish work at 5pm which will let get me get an extra section on the cards.

If we get no rain tomorrow the trails will be sweet.

WTF is an isometric squat?

This is not me

I encountered my first Iso-metric squat today, who ever invented these needs a good kicking, i mean what's the point of trying to play i'm a little teapot while holding in the biggest fart you wil ever do?

Then just for a little more pain your legs start shaking uncontrollably, giving you the choice of
1. hold the "position" for another 15 seconds hoping no one can see you or
2. fall to the floor head first towards the corner of the cofee table.
I chose the latter for the win.
today's session consisted of sleeping in due to not seting my alarm properly, getting home at 7:30pm to remember I didn't charge the light for my road bike as i wanted to do my hill climb repreats.

I just worked out my cassette ratio is different where i've been doing my sets in the 13th rather than the 15th reccommended, no wonder I couldn't get the cadence I was after. then again 70kph on an indoor trainer isnt to shabby either, well for me.

So the indoor trainer is was to be...again.
Todays session was Spinervals 3.0 suffer 'o rama

Warm up
3x30 seconds effort
1 minute spin
5x1 killer minutes
2 minute spin
5 minute tempo effort (10 seconds seated/10 seconds standing)
SQUATS!!! as many you can do in 30 seconds plus hold the last one for 1 minute
2 minute spin
5x45 seconds effort
2 minute spin
4 minute tempo effort (15 seconds seated/15 seconds seated)
more SQUATS!!! as many you can do in 30 seconds plus hold the last one for 45 seconds
2 minute spin
5x30 seconds sprint
1 minute spin
3x20 seconds sprint
Cool down

Training Day 1

What i thought i woke up to.

I was so excited to get started on my training regime, only to hear the pitter patter of massive raindrops outside the bedroom window. This meant Day one started with a lie in.
All day at work I was constantly checking the radar hoping it would all clear up by home time.

This was not to happen so the bike went on the indoor trainer to do a Spinervals session.
Todays session was No Slackers Allowed!
http://www.spinervals.com/products/item8.cfm
This is a great way to start and make your eyeballs nearly explode out of their sockets.

Warm up - 4 minutes soft pedal

First warm up drill - 30 seconds hard pedal - 30 seconds soft pedal - meaning you are in a hard gear (53/11)for the first 30 seconds and then you switch to a very easy gear (39/15)to recover for 30 seconds. This drill is 3 minutes long.

Recover for 1 minute


Next is a 5 minute tempo effort - start at a very conservative pace and at each 1 minute interval you switch to a harder gear but peddle with the same intensity the whole 5 minutes. You never slow down although the peddling gets harder with each minute. Very tough!!
I sucked at this one big time averaging 75rpm instead of the asked 85rpm

Recover for 1 minute

This next set is hard to explain but it is tough. It's 5 minutes long and you start out on a hard gear for 10 seconds, then you switch and soft pedal to recover for 10 seconds, then you switch back to the hard gear but stand for 10 seconds and then soft pedal to recover for 10 seconds, you constantly alternate this pattern for a full 5 minutes.

Recover for 2 minutes

Next is the Super Spin - Spinning at a high cadence over 110rpm with your goal being to maintain that high cadence for 30 seconds and then recover for 20 seconds. You do this 6x each.
This is where my eyeballs nearly exploded.

Recover for 1 minute

Next is the Race Simulation - This is a 5 minute segment where you are constantly changing gears the whole 5 minutes, never know what gear he will have you go to next. Going up and down hills the entire time. If i wasn't on a trainer I would have fallen over

Recover for 1 minute

Next is a 5 minute Super Spin - during this segment you start out with a 20 second high cadence spin going all out - switch to a hard gear and peddle for 10 seconds still going all out and last you stand with that same gear going all out for 5 seconds, recover for 10 seconds and repeat for the entire 5 minutes.

This workout ends with a 6 minute soft pedal cooldown.

I'd really like to know how i gained 22m elevation on ans indoor ride!
It's only short but it is intense and better than doing nothing at all as every little bit counts.
It could be a nice Church Point and back ride in the morning.

What's it all about then?

Me, on a bike

So #Crankworx is coming to my side of the world, me being in Australia and #Crankworx being held in NZ. On a drunken adventure I decided to enter it to see what happens and by how much I will get may as handed to me by the pros. I watched it all go down in Whistler last year only to be very very jealous.

http://www.enduroworldseries.com/

What is the enduro world series, well it's a race against the clock where there is a time limit to complete all the chosen trails on which your times are added together, but at the same time you have to get to the start of the trail under your own steam and get there for your starting time, these are called liaison stages.
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Beginners-Guide-to-Enduro-What-the-hell-is-it-2012.html

I'm sitting here on a rainy afternoon with Rum in hand deciding how to train for this event.
I guess this blog will be my recording of such takings. I've heard talk of this thing called planking I might google that to see what it is. I will be riding bikes most of the time for ultimate #enduro fitness.

My weapons of choice are

Race Bike

Rocky Mountain Altitude MSL Rally edition. 160mm and 150mm travel front and rear

http://www.bikes.com/en/bikes/altitude-rally-edition/2014

Training Bike

Trek Emonda SL, no travel...
http://www.trekbikes.com/au/en/bikes/road/performance_race/emonda/emonda_sl_8/#

Sponsors/Helpers so far, include #Favouritecycles #rockymountainbicycles #Trek #Bontrager #Dharco #Teva thanks to you guys I would be playing Farcry4 and getting fat.

So, I will keep some kind of training progress blog update to keep you in the loop.

who are these guys that i might see again in Whistler?

#someguy #jay #genduro #ben #kisma #woody #mario# random# #tim #simon #luke #isharedacokewithWang #nickthefinger