Tis the season to be tested. So i ventured along to the labs and got myself tested to see where i am fitness wise. Did a nice step test on the Velotron. Started at 150W then up in steps of 30W every 3 mins. Took the usual lactate and gas numbers.
VO2max: 66.0ml.kg/min (@77.8kg) , absolute 4.5 L/min (peaked at 5L!!)
AeroWmax: 360W stage, failed 45 sec's into 390W
HRmax: 174.....hmm considering i regularly peak over 188bpm in races we thinks my legs gave up
Blood Lactate: Peak 11.6mmol
Lactate 'threshold' in at about 262W
Good increase in my maximal values, but a bit of a decrease on my maximal aerobic power. Normally up over 400W into about 420W. But its early season yet.
Wednesday, February 25
Monday, February 16
Spring has sprung
Its warm again!!! Well above 10 degrees anyway.
About bloody time, i was getting bored of the cold and dark. Its bright until 6 in the evening now so training after work is becoming easier. I don't mind training in the dark, i just prefer training in the day :)
Grand old week, got a good bit of running in and a decent amount on the bike. bit of a poor week in the pool, TBH i didn;t get in the pool once....I'll be in tonight though!
Long week coming up. Lots of work work to do and some meetings and reading to do for college. The weekend will see me doing a strength and conditioning course with the IAWA, and trying to fit in a long bike and run..... which could be interesting. But sure we will see.
Planning two bike/run commute days this week (tues and thurs) may as well get the long miles in on the way to college and allow me to get some work done during the day.
need to get me some new compression tights though as mine are dead :(
About bloody time, i was getting bored of the cold and dark. Its bright until 6 in the evening now so training after work is becoming easier. I don't mind training in the dark, i just prefer training in the day :)
Grand old week, got a good bit of running in and a decent amount on the bike. bit of a poor week in the pool, TBH i didn;t get in the pool once....I'll be in tonight though!
Long week coming up. Lots of work work to do and some meetings and reading to do for college. The weekend will see me doing a strength and conditioning course with the IAWA, and trying to fit in a long bike and run..... which could be interesting. But sure we will see.
Planning two bike/run commute days this week (tues and thurs) may as well get the long miles in on the way to college and allow me to get some work done during the day.
need to get me some new compression tights though as mine are dead :(
Wednesday, February 11
Raceing, Rice and Recovery
Its been a long long weekend. To be honest my weekend was due to start on Thursday as i was heading over to Manchester to race in the Hit the North 1.5 Winter Sprinter. The week leading up to the race was thankfully a rest week, i was totally jacked from the training of the few weeks before hand and it felt great to be able to chill out and relax for a while. Minimal training is nice every now and again :)
However the weather was to scupper all the prep work of the week leading up to the race. It snowed...heavily...and in Ireland where we fall over the second the white stuff starts to fall this was not going to be a good day. So long story short Dublin Airport shut for pretty much all of Thursday with only one or two flights leaving. Surprisingly enough not mine. Got the flights re-scheduled and the people at Ryanair were damn helpful! Thanks guys!
Finally flew out late on friday night, the airport was still frozen and i was delayed a further 2.5 hrs after i checked in. I went to the pub and did a bit of work for my Phd so no biggie. However most of what i typed was drivel....beer fueled drivel
Got in late and put the bike together, finally got to sleep about 1am and slept pretty damn poorly, which is odd for me, especially as i was tired and for a change not actually thinking about the race the next day. I had mentally more or less decided that it was now a training session and i'd just enjoy the trail.
7:30am...uugh...no wait hang on i'm awake....odd....ok skinsuit on....eat food...in car...20mins later at the race...WTF that was closer than we expected! Signed on and joined the field waiting for the sun to thaw out the frozen ground and inch thick ice....this was not to be.
Slick, crunchy, slippy, hard, slow, fast. That was what i remember of the course. Straight from the get go, i knew i was in with a chance to do well in the race. Most of the people around me looked liked Fred's bar the 40 or so people on XC and CX bikes. Right so a top quarter finish was on the cards. By the end of the first 200m i was up in the top 15 riders. Oh oh.... i may actually have to race now. Forks locked out....bring it.
The next hour and a half (3.5 laps) are a blur of cornering on ice, heavy breathing and pain. Utter pain. Sticking in a group of 8 of us with a mixture of CX and XC bikes made for some interesting racing. A crash on lap 4 took me out of a top 10 finish as i was dropped from the group i was riding in. Gutted i decided that minium i was going to get in as many laps as the lead rider, took lap 5 easy is so i could hold some back for the final lap. Made the cuttoff with 30 seconds to spare (planned it i swear), then took it home. Felt rotten for the entire of the last lap but still got 3 or 4 places back. However i didn't get my arch-nemisis (ehhhh apparently) Skellitor!!!
Overall happy. Finished 18th, 14th in my AG. Probably could have finished top 10 if i hadn't crashed...who knows. Overall 32km, at race pace, more so at Xterra distance and pace. Honest answer to the can i run off it question? Yes...but for how long...and what pace....i don't know.
Laps:
However the weather was to scupper all the prep work of the week leading up to the race. It snowed...heavily...and in Ireland where we fall over the second the white stuff starts to fall this was not going to be a good day. So long story short Dublin Airport shut for pretty much all of Thursday with only one or two flights leaving. Surprisingly enough not mine. Got the flights re-scheduled and the people at Ryanair were damn helpful! Thanks guys!
Finally flew out late on friday night, the airport was still frozen and i was delayed a further 2.5 hrs after i checked in. I went to the pub and did a bit of work for my Phd so no biggie. However most of what i typed was drivel....beer fueled drivel
Got in late and put the bike together, finally got to sleep about 1am and slept pretty damn poorly, which is odd for me, especially as i was tired and for a change not actually thinking about the race the next day. I had mentally more or less decided that it was now a training session and i'd just enjoy the trail.
7:30am...uugh...no wait hang on i'm awake....odd....ok skinsuit on....eat food...in car...20mins later at the race...WTF that was closer than we expected! Signed on and joined the field waiting for the sun to thaw out the frozen ground and inch thick ice....this was not to be.
Slick, crunchy, slippy, hard, slow, fast. That was what i remember of the course. Straight from the get go, i knew i was in with a chance to do well in the race. Most of the people around me looked liked Fred's bar the 40 or so people on XC and CX bikes. Right so a top quarter finish was on the cards. By the end of the first 200m i was up in the top 15 riders. Oh oh.... i may actually have to race now. Forks locked out....bring it.The next hour and a half (3.5 laps) are a blur of cornering on ice, heavy breathing and pain. Utter pain. Sticking in a group of 8 of us with a mixture of CX and XC bikes made for some interesting racing. A crash on lap 4 took me out of a top 10 finish as i was dropped from the group i was riding in. Gutted i decided that minium i was going to get in as many laps as the lead rider, took lap 5 easy is so i could hold some back for the final lap. Made the cuttoff with 30 seconds to spare (planned it i swear), then took it home. Felt rotten for the entire of the last lap but still got 3 or 4 places back. However i didn't get my arch-nemisis (ehhhh apparently) Skellitor!!!
Overall happy. Finished 18th, 14th in my AG. Probably could have finished top 10 if i hadn't crashed...who knows. Overall 32km, at race pace, more so at Xterra distance and pace. Honest answer to the can i run off it question? Yes...but for how long...and what pace....i don't know.
Laps:
| 19| | 38| | 6 | Greg May | | Dublin City Uni Cc | 00:23:15 | 00:22:43 | 00:23:23 | 00:24:55 | 00:25:43 | 00:28:22 | 02:28:21 |
Monday, February 2
Long dark teatime of the soul...
What a week, was feeling sluggish after Alkmaar last weekend so the start to the week was less than favourable. Felt like crap and wanted to kill people. Mailed Rich and he pretty much told me it was just cause of the training load, was the last week in a hard cycle and next week would be better. This made me feel a good bit better but that was Thursday...imagine what the 3 days before were like.
Anyway, did some good sessions during the week even though some felt very very laboured. Couple of good running sessions and i have to say my running is feeling fantastic. Managing longer sessions without having to stop, also feeling great after an hour half on trails!
Saturday had me doing my first real long run of the season. Was down as an 1:15 run but pushed it out the the hour half in my head. Ended up closer to hour 40mins but took some time at the top of Howth to recover before doing the second section. Trails were in bits. Mud and ice all over the place, impossible to grip in some places so having to use tree's to slow down on several occasions.
Sunday saw my first spin with the lads from Team-WORC...and Mel and Ryan from MAD. What can i say. I wasn't expecting it, lads are fast, very very fast. Fitness is normally a thing i can do, but they were well up on me. Not sure if i was still tired from the day before or what, but i suffered. Realise now that i need to do allot more strength work, and allot more climbing technique. However i do think that riding with WORC is going to get me that extra advantage that i need in Xterra. If i can paste people on the MTB, and then run hard off it, i can do this.
Unfortunately, i binned the bike and me at one section. Hopping over a log, hopped the front, lifted the back way to high and had to bail. Hit eject, over the bars, slam onto my right knee (typical) and rolled up. Knee is shredded again, it had literally just healed from the last time, and my left wrist is sore....not a good sore either. I can type, i can probably run, and i cycled home from the spin so it cant be that bad.....if its bad tomorrow I'll get Dr.Noel to look at it.
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