The training week that just gone was a...

A good week, in terms of training. I did manage to do the planned hours and almost got the kilometers done, even though, a broken seat collar bolt prevented me from riding on Wednesday.

On Tuesday I did an easy ride to Sandgate, throwing in a few long sprints at the Nundah criterium circuit on the way home. It's a recommendation by Mr Cavendish (great video here). I must say, I always liked throwing a couple of those when returning home via Rode rd, there are a few little hills which are perfect for that but they never made me a good sprinter...

Usual way home: Rode rd

Wednesday: running around fixing bike.

To catch up, I went out Thursday afternoon on a mission to do a hard, long ride with lots of climbing. I even drew the route on bikely.com the day before (just made it public!) and almost followed it the whole way. At the end of the ride, I changed the route and took Youngs Crossing rd, intending to stay away from the afternoon traffic and ended up doing a few more hills.

The highlight was finally getting to ride Ocean View Road, which I only knew by looking at the 18% road sign on Mt Mee road. I have looked at that sign dozens of times in the last four years but never had the audacity to actually go up.

Of course, it is just a road sign and I didn't find anything close to the 18% I was hoping for (the Polar said so!). Nevertheless, it is a hard climb with a few 9 to 10% sections and great views, if one can be bother to stop and look. I just wanted to get to the top.

Distance: 134.5 km
Time: 4h 35min
Ascent: 2250 m

Friday, a day for another recovery ride and socialising. Sandra and I rode to town, had coffee with friends, rode home and went out again for a little loop. She had to do a few efforts so I thought it would be nice to hang around. I got home with 60+ km in the legs.

I had planned for a Saturday with lots of kilometers, including a criterium race in the morning and a time trial in the afternoon, thinking that it's what I will be doing on the first day of racing in Bright. Might as well get used to it...

Sandra was doing her CycleSkill Coach Course . We road together to Murrarie where she took a turn, heading for a day at Chandlers.

The race wasn't what I wanted. The bunch (B grade) was ridiculously big, my number being 65 and the legs weren't quite there. I should've saved my money or entered the B1 race a little later, just to avoid witnessing the chaos that it was. I ended up getting a puncture and getting out anyway, perhaps for the best.

Coffee in town with friends took almost the rest of the morning. From there, I paired up with a mate, and headed home for a refill and an intended ride to Lakeside where HPRW was having the end of the year trophy presentation.

We didn't make it to the presentation due to a grotesquely and absurd encounter with fate. Nevertheless, the two of us managed to get the kilometers, some very fast, my computer showing 93 km, in nine hours...

Sunday is a day for long rides. I would've done the Zupps if working in the afternoon but having the whole day to ride, another excursion to Mt Mee with Sandra and a friend sounded like the right thing to do.

I went up Ocean View road again, this time concentrating on technique on the sections that I have to focus on. For those who are like me and enjoy looking at graphs and values, the climb is like this:

Distance: 4.5 km Ascent: 297 m
Gradient: 5.5% (surprised?)

The sections:

- 1.5 km at 10%
- 0.2 km at 6.5%
- 0.2 km at 10%
- 0.4 km at 10%
- 0.3 km at 9%

Good for a work out, but for week three I am planning to do it twice on the same ride. Just to make it feel like the Mt Hotham ascent.

Week 2: 17h 35min; 467 km (5,000m)

A bit of recovery now, more hard ks from tomorrow.