Love a ride in the Dandenongs

Today was the Queen's Birthday public holiday and Clint organised a club ride in the Dandenongs. I love riding in the hills and the Dandenongs is one of my favourite locations.

My recent bike mileage tends to be on the low side compared to other triathletes (and almost non-existant compared to a cyclist). Two factors let me get away with this - firstly I've built a good base by doing a lot of riding over the last 10 years and secondly I now focus on quality over quantity. Regular readers on my blog will notice this is very different to the approach I have taken with my running. Unlike running, I very rarely suffer injuries from riding, so I can get away with more intensity. However the main reason for the lack of bike mileage is the time it takes and also the Melbourne weather in Winter. Once Summer arrives and the days get longer I will definitely be extending my time spent on the bike.

I think of quality on the bike as riding at roughly 3 different speeds. First is easy riding which means riding at a relaxed pace. Second is prolonged efforts of 20 minutes or more at close to threshold pace (which for me is between 260 and 300 watts). Finally the last pace is going hard (300 to 400 watts). The easiest way to go hard is to find a hill. If the climb is between 5 and 8 minutes you can do repeats (refer to VO2Max Intervals). For longer climbs, I simply go as fast as I can. This means I am always trying to set a PB up every significant climb I do. Not only is this great training, it also sets benchmarks and allows you to compare your form against previous rides.

In the Dandenongs, one of these significant climbs is 'The Wall'. Just over 5kms long and averaging about 5% gradient, but with a nasty pinch in the middle that is around 10% for half a kilometre or so. Todays effort was 23 seconds slower than my attempt in December (when I was in pretty good form) but 1m42s quicker than in June last year. So even with my low bike mileage, I am very happy with my current form at this time of the season.

Elaine did a 91km Beach Rd ride on Saturday and followed it up by riding 60kms with Mark in the Dandenongs today. So far in June she has ridden 295km to my 205km. It is amazing what the fear of an upcoming Half Ironman will do to someone's bike mileage.