Bright Camp 2013

As usual I've neglected my cycling over winter, as I usually wait for the warmer weather before logging the big miles on the bike. However my riding form seems to be a little down on previous years, or maybe the other club members have just been improving. Heading to Bright for 3 days of cycling in the Victorian Alps, I believed I would struggle more than I did on the same camp last year.

Mt Buffalo

Friday afternoon and the first ride is up Mt Buffalo. The round trip is 70kms that includes a 20km climb up the mountain at mostly around 6% gradient (a small false flat in the middle brings the overal gradient down to 5.6%). Last year everybody headed off for the Buffalo ride together and I stayed with the group for the first half (10km) of the climb. This year lots of riders took off early and the main pack was much smaller.

The good climbers in the group were Robin and Brent, but they had compact cranks which meant they could hold a comfortable rhythm at slower speeds. With my lowest gear being a 39-25 (as opposed to a 34-28), I needed to go faster to hold a cadence of 90rpm, so I took off alone about 3km into the climb.

I figured it would take about 1 hour to climb 20km, so equilavent to the bike leg of an Olympic Distance triathlon. Therefore a heart rate of 160bpm seemed a good way to pace my ride (my Power Meter was on my Tri bike at home). Halfway up the climb I started experiencing cramps in my calf muscle, not a good sign seeing as I still had 10km to go to the summit. Dropping my heart rate back closer to 150bpm and using less heel drop as I pedalled, I managed to make it to the top. Not quite the Time Trial like experience I was planning, but still managed a 41 sec PB for the climb which was a promising sign for the weekend (those who have read my previous blog post will remember that Elaine posted an 8 min PB for the climb).

At the top it was 2.5 degrees celsius (according to my Garmin) and felt even colder. I'd carried up a vest, arm warmers and long fingered gloves in preparation for the descent, but it was still an uncomfortably cold ride back down. Mt Buffalo is not my favourite descent at the best of times, but being cold, stiff and sore made the experience far worse. I also didn't appreciate the numerous sections of very bumpy road, usually just before a blind corner.

RoseWhite and Tawonga Gap

The second day encompasses the longest ride of the camp. I act as coach for the slower group and we do the shorter 110km ride that goes over the RoseWhite hill and Tawonga Gap (longer ride options are 140 and 170km). As coach I ride sedately with the group making sure everyone is OK. This means I can't really go for PBs up the mountains, but in truth it gives me a good excuse to go easy. With my lack of riding preparation, the 110km in itself (equivalent to around 130km on the flat) is challenging enough and I'm very happy to just clock up the miles (especially when Mt Hotham awaits the next day).

Mt Hotham

Last year Mt Hotham mentally defeated me. I used to arrogantly thing I could climb any mountain on my bike. But Hotham left mental scars and I now shudder any time I hear mention of a climb containing sections with a 20% gradient. Maybe Hotham just brought me back to reality. I wasn't confident that things would change this time around.

A lot of the riders headed off from our camp in Bright to ride the 30km to the base of the climb in Harrietville. This flat warmup didn't interest me. Instead I organised a small group that would drive to Harrietville and take on the mountain fresh. The climb up Hotham is 30km long, add the descent and you have a 60km ride - enough for me (especially since my bum was killing me from the last 2 days of riding).

The Hotham climb is split into 3 parts - each part is 10km long. First 10km is a lovely climb that contains two nasty pinches. The initial pinch is the very first 500m out of Harrietville. Once you survive that you have another 5km of around 5% gradient before you reach the dreaded section called 'The Meg'. After 'The Meg' it settles back to around 5% gradient until the 10km mark where you reach the false flat. This is 10 kilometres of boring frustration that must be endured before you reach the Ticket Office. This last 10km starts with a bang and then just keeps on hitting you. Last year I finished this section a broken man.

With fear and trepidation (and other cliches) I held back for the first 10km and tried to hold my heart rate around 150bpm. It popped up to 160bpm going up 'The Meg', but quickly dropped back down. As I reached the false flat I could see Griff, Swanny and Robin up ahead. I pushed the pace a little to catch up and then enjoyed a nice tow in their draft all the way to the Ticket Office. Robin is an ex-pro triathlete and he regaled us with stories of some of the legends of our sport which took away the boredom of the false flat. Knowing what lay ahead, I made a conscious effort to take on as much nutrition as possible during this section. By the time the Ticket Office appeared, I was fully fueled and feeling good.

Last year the first pinch from the Ticket Office took me by surprise and almost stopped me dead. This time I was ready and even had enough energy for a small surge to get the steep section out of the way quickly. Next comes the infamous 'CRB Hill'. This is extremely steep and keeps disappearing (but not ending) around corners. No surges here, instead in the lowest gear and alternating between sitting and standing - this section was simply survival mode. Last year I was already broken by this stage, this year I was still feeling great. Confidence was returning and I didn't even bother using my lowest gear for the next few hills. Then finally the last hill of the climb - not super steep, but quite long, and made more difficult due to a far bit of fatigue in the legs. I could now feel the effects of past efforts in my legs, but seeing 29km on my Garmin gave me a mental edge and I actually enjoyed pushing up the last kilometre in my lowest gear. End Result, from Base to Summit in 1h40m - a 14 minute improvement over last year.

Catch Up

Life has been a little hectic lately and I haven't blogged for over 2 weeks. My athletes (the ones I personally coach) have been doing great things, so I thought it would be a good time to catch up on their progress.

Mark has been finding it tough to get in training hours lately. Work is very busy, he's had a foot injury since August and just recently his road bike fell apart. Not ideal when you are preparing for the 'Around the Bay in a Day' event (210km bike ride). However he somehow managed to get through the ride without any problems. It was a long day, battling strong headwinds for the last 40km. Mark not only finished the ride but has also pulled up well. Obviously still holding some residual conditioning from Ironman in March.

Mark now has his focus set on Challenge Melbourne (Half Ironman) and seems to have regained his training mojo. On Monday he did his first run since injuring his foot in August and also completed a swim session with very promising times for his 100m repeats. Followed by a ride into work on Tuesday. If he manages to keep this up, we could be looking at a Half Ironman PB in February.

Merryn completed her first Olympic Distance triathlon up at Yarrawonga. Not only did she complete the distance without any problems, but posted a great time and placed 4th in her age group. Her training over the last 3 months has been fantastic, borne out by the great result.

Elaine loved the break after London and took a little while to get back into training. Her first few runs were a struggle, so I decided she should run every day and her fitness soon came back. I have often found that run fitness tends to flow over into other sports and Elaine's swimming and cycling seemed to improve at the same time.

The weekend just gone, we spent 3 days up at Bright at the Bayside Triathlon Club Training Camp. At last year's camp Elaine rode half way up Mt Buffalo on the Friday and climbed Tawonga Gap on the Sunday. This year she climbed to the summit of Mt Buffalo posting an 8 minute PB. Had Saturday's ride cut short with a puncture, but climbed 20km up Mt Hotham to the Ticket Box, including the dreaded section known as 'The Meg'.

Merryn also attended the Bright Training camp. Up til now Merryn has avoided the ride sessions in the hills, but there was no escaping it at Bright. Riding up Mt Buffalo with Sarah, Merryn moaned and groaned the whole way up the 20km climb, but they both looked to be going great when I passed them about 5km from the summit and still looked good when I saw them at the top.

Then on the Saturday Merryn completed her longest ever ride - 110km including climbs over RoseWhite and Tawonga Gap. Even though the tough ascent up Tawonga Gap didn't start until the 80km mark, Merryn was still able to power to the top. Very satisfied, but also exhausted with her efforts, she decided to give the Mt Hotham climb the next day a miss and ran 10km instead.

Jen, who is training for Ironman Melbourne, was at the camp as well. Jen is very quiet, but like most quiet achievers she greatly impressed over the 3 days. Not only with her excellent climbing ability up Mt Buffalo, RoseWhite, Tawonga Gap and the whole 30km up Mt Hotham, but she also descended all the mountains like a pro as well. She rode the same distances as me for the weekend, but unlike yours truly, she also snuck in a 5km run on Saturday afternoon.

Back in Melbourne, Stef finished off her best ever week of training by riding up the '1 in 20' in the Dandenongs. Stef has set her sights on doing the Kinglake Ride. The 'Will Walker' hill in this ride is very similar to the '1 in 20', so she should have no problems completing this event.

Stef's work life has been ridiculously busy lately and training sessions have been haphazard at best. However a few weeks ago we sat down over a coffee and discussed her plans for the season. With a focus on ride events such as Kinglake and the Great Otway Classic, enthusiasm is back and she is training like a champion. Even her swimming is improving.

A new member Mick has also signed on. His official program will not start until a week after the Shepparton Half Ironman (he is training for Ironman Melbourne). However I have got him updating his training feedback now, and he has been training the house down.

The previously mentioned Bright Camp was awesome. But it wasn't all hard work as evidenced by the photo below of us enjoying some of the local produce.

Good Progress

Elaine has been struggling since the London race. She unintentionally started her taper a week or so early and then extended her after race break a little longer than originally planned. This resulted in an ugly surprise when she finally started training again. However things have definitely improved over the last week.

Elaine was very happy to read in one of my recent blog posts that in the base phase, we now train by feel and only keep going if we feel good. What I omitted in that blog post was that this method only works when you train every day. But to her credit, Elaine has trained every day in the last week and the results have been significant. After struggling to run 3km a week ago, she has since easily completed two 8.5km runs. Plus on Saturday morning she did one of her biggest ever swim sessions.

Unfortunately today she was diagnosed with skin cancer and has had two biopsies on her face. The result is that she won't be able to train for a couple of days or swim at all this week. This is a shame in regards to training, but Elaine's health is a 1,000 times more important, so in the grand scheme of things it is not an issue at all.

On a personal note, I managed just over 50km of running this week which is a very good start to my base training phase. However my swim and bike still needs work.

Lack of Endurance

To help make up for my shortened ride at Tynong on Saturday, I decided to joined the Club's Wednesday morning ride for the first time. The start time was 5:55am about 40 mins ride from my house, so I decided to leave home about 5:30am and join up when I saw them heading towards me. Since daylight savings, it is now still dark early in the morning and it was only Peter's Canadian accent that identified the group as it approached.

My previous Wednesday morning rides have been with the North Rd Road, and I'd noticed the group splits at Mordialloc with some heading back down Beach Rd and others continuing along Nepean Hwy towards Mt Eliza. I'd never done the Mt Eliza version of the ride before and always wondered what it was like (the Beach Rd version is a very fast ride back to St Kilda with speeds averaging between 45 to 50). I was cruising along at the back of our Club ride along Nepean Hwy (past Mordialloc) when the North Rd Ride caught us with us. I noticed the faster riders in the Club ride were jumping onto the North Rd peleton, so I jumped on too.

Unlike Beach Rd, Nepean Hwy has lots of traffic lights. Not wanting to be cut off from the peleton by red lights, I moved up towards the front and ended up in the rotation doing the work at the front. It didn't take long to work out that there were only 7 of us doing all the work for a peleton of about 50 riders. Clint later told me that most riders were saving themselves for the Epic Melbourne to Warnambool ride that Saturday, but this didn't make the effort any easier.

The peleton was travelling at roughly 48kph. We had a tailwind, but this was still a lot of effort. As part of the rotation you held the front spot between 5 and 10 seconds. But this also meant that as the outside rider (before taking the front), you had to ride faster than 48kph for 5 or 10 seconds to take your place at the front. Once taking the lead you could slow back down to 48kph. But I found I always had to surge as the next rider took over the lead as they were always travelling faster and I didn't want to create a gap. With only 7 riders doing the work, I was only getting 10 to 20 seconds rest before having to move to the outside lane and ride faster as I lined up to take over the lead once again.

After 30 minutes of participating in the rotation I could feel my legs starting to feel the effects. I managed to slip back two rows behind the rotation and suddenly everything felt so much easier. Unfortunately I made this move too late and only got a few minutes of respite before went hit the Kars St climb as we left Frankston and entered Mt Eliza. Being near the front allowed me to take the climb a little easier and slowly move backwards through the pack, but I quickly found myself at the very back. We turned off into Baden Powell Drive and I started to struggle. I could have turned myself inside out to keep up, but decided to head home once we reached Humphries Rd.

The puncture during the Tynong ride hid my lack of endurance. But the North Rd Ride definitely exposed it. So in summary, I can currently produce good power for 30 minutes which is fine for a Sprint Distance Triathlon (like London), but I need to greatly expand upon this to do well in Olympic Distance and Half Ironman Triathlons.

Good session for some

As mentioned in my previous post, Saturday's session was a long uninterrupted ride (no traffic lights) followed by a run off the bike - all designed to practise race pacing and nutrition. I saw this as an important session and recommended it to all the athletes I am coaching. Stef could not make the session, but Merryn, Jen, Mark and Elaine were all happy to make the long drive.

After a lovely Friday night spent with our neighbours (where we may have drunk a little too much red wine), we were running a little late on Saturday morning. Backing out of the garage we soon realised the situation was much worse as we had a flat tyre. After a lightning quick wheel change the Red Bull pit crew would have been proud of, we were back on our way. The spare tyre is a space saver tyre which means we were not supposed to exceed 80kph. Driving down the freeway to Tynong, I figured 100kph on a nice smooth freeway was probably equivalent to 80kph on country roads (easy to justify things when you are running late).

Predictably most of the other club members had already started the session when we arrived, but there were a few other late comers (including Jen) who were still getting ready. It was quite windy and Clint suggested that Jen and Elaine do laps on the short loop to reduce the time spent riding into a head wind.

Getting my stuff ready, I realised I'd left my Garmin watch at home. Doing a session to practice pacing without knowing my heart rate, power wattage or speed was kind of pointless. Luckily Clint had a bike computer and Garmin watch, so he lent me his Garmin 910. Starting my ride I was trying to get the watch to recognise my power meter when I realised it was on run mode. So I stopped the timer and switched the watch to bike mode and then proceeded to set configure it to detect the power meter on my bike (all whilst riding).

Clint and I did the big loop (48km) and although it was windy, we never seemed to ride into a direct head wind. For the first 30kms Clint and I rode side by side. But then I suddenly started to find it difficult. Looking at the borrowed Garmin 910, it appeared my power output was still good, I was just finding it hard to keep up with Clint. I figured Clint must have started putting in more effort, so I slowly dropped further behind. 10 kilometres later Clint was completely out of sight. It was around this time that I rode over a bump in the road and immediately realised why I had suddenly found it so hard to keep up. Stopping on the side of the road I confirmed that I had a flat tyre. It was a slow leak, so there was still a little air in the tyre (probably around 30psi), so I decided to ride the flat back to the car which I figured must have been close. I tried to find the distance on Garmin, but not being familiar with Clint's setup I could find any value that looked like distance, instead I found numerous fields that were showing zero. Turns out I was about 8km from the car which felt like forever, especially with the cross winds making the bike very unstable with the rim nearly rolling off the tyre on several occasions.

Once back at the car I pushed the stop button on the Garmin, only to see the message 'timer started'. This meant I had not been recording the first lap. After switching the watch from run to bike mode and then configuring the power meter, I had forgotten to restart the timer - I just wasn't my day.

With a new tube and the watch timer now activated I decided to do the smaller loop (22.5km instead). With the late start and puncture, I figured I'd cut my session a little short as we still needed to get home in time to pick up my girls. Thinking this shorter loop was going to be much easier, I was in for a big surprise. Unlike the big loop where we seemed to be mostly protected from the wind, the smaller loop was very exposed. At first it was the cross wind trying to blow me off the road. Then once I turned the corner it was a full on headwind that almost stopped me in my tracks - I was putting out 250 watts, but only travelling at 17kph. I started to laugh when I remembered that Clint had directed Elaine and Jen to do repeats of this short lap instead of tackling what turned out to be the much easier big lap.

70.5km was less than my planned 96km ride, but in such windy conditions it was still a reasonable session. I did a 4km run off the bike and felt good, especially when I ran with a tailwind. All-in-all I was reasonably satisfied that I'd salvaged something from the day, even if I didn't had a GPS record of half of it.

Of my athletes, Elaine was the first to finish her ride - 3 laps of the terribly windy short lap. She was not impressed, but still went out for a 2km run. Merryn and Mark were next. They had done the big lap and then 2 small laps, however both were still in good spirits. Lastly Jen (who started late with Elaine) finished her 4 laps of windy short lap (90km in total), she actually looked like she'd done it easy. Merryn and Jen did a short run, but Mark is still suffering from a foot injury so escaped this last part of the session.

Elaine spent a lot of time complaining, so I knew the distances she had achieved were spot on. But I was worried I made things too easy for Merryn and Jen. However Merryn later texted Elaine that her glute muscles were so sore she struggled to drive home and Jen later reported that she felt sick for several hours after the session. So other than me (who didn't really do enough), everyone else had the perfect session (ie. it was supposed to be really hard).

Slow Progress

It is amazing how quickly you loose fitness and conditioning. I was in pretty good condition for the London race, evidenced by my best ever 5km run split off the bike. However the combination of a 10 day taper (made longer due to the long haul flight) and a 2 week recovery period (where we eat badly and drank lots), has seen all my pre-race conditioning disappear.

I'm still feeling relatively fit, but my legs are struggling to withstand even small amounts of running. Previously it was usually my knee injury that gave me grief. Now my hamstring and calf muscles are pulling up sore after every run. My original plan of running every day has been put on hold until my leg muscles get their act back together.

In Iceland I did an easy 8km on the Wednesday, 5 days after the race. I pulled up OK, but not as good as I would expect after such an easy run. A week later, back in Australia, I went out for a lunchtime run. It felt terrible and I ended up only running 3km. Considering I'd only hopped off the plane at 5am that morning, I wasn't particularly worried. Feeling much better on Thursday I completed an easy 10km run, but felt very stiff in the hamstrings the next day. In fact the stiffness was so bad it stopped me going for my usual bike ride on Saturday morning and I didn't do any running that weekend (I did manage a bike ride on Sunday). Monday was a complete day of rest before doing another run on Tuesday - 7.5km that included 3 x 6km Tempo runs. The Tuesday run felt quite good but my calf muscles starting tightening on 3rd Tempo effort - so I cut the session short (was suppose to do 5 efforts).

We saw our Chiropractor on Wednesday and he suggested my problems were probably due to a deficiency in vitamins B and E, as I'd stopped taking these supplements since the race. Hopefully this will help my situation, otherwise my plans of building run mileage is simply not going to happen.

Since coming back from overseas, Elaine has remained in holiday mode and found excuses to avoid all running until yesterday. Reality hit pretty quick as she struggled to complete an easy 5km run. While my pre-London taper was about 10 days, Elaine's was over 2 weeks. Combined with doing no running for 20 days after the event, she really was starting again from scratch. However I don't believe this will be an issue. The significant break will have mentally refreshed Elaine and it shouldn't take long for her to regain fitness.

Serious training starts this weekend with a long ride out at Tynong. There is nothing to see at Tynong, but it offers country roads with no traffic lights and very few cars. Perfect for practicing long sustained efforts on the bike. The following two weekends will continue to have a bike focus before we head up to Bright for a 3 day training camp involving lots of riding up mountains.

Whilst all of the above mentioned training is designed with Challenge Melbourne in mind, it should provide an excellent fitness base that will see us easily get through the Noosa Olympic Distance Triathlon. Assuming we don't miss any key sessions.