Three bunch rides

I could have (should have) gone and raced the criterium at Murrarie Saturday morning. It would have been so easy. I just needed to tag along with Alberto. Instead I opted to meet my friend P and head for the hills. It was a good choice in one way because the morning was stunning and the route scenic. The early morning fog hung in the valley and the air was crisp.

But I should have raced! Should! Need to get my race legs back. Not long to the Tour of the Scenic Rim.

Early morning view over Samford Valley from the Goat Track

Sunday morning I joined three bunch rides. Three bunches and one confused girl! All bunch rides have their own etiquette. Some bunch rides in Brisbane have a long tradition. If you know the meeting place and meeting time and show up then you are on your way. You don't need to know riders in the bunch to be welcome. On the downside, don't expect anyone to watch out for you, wait for you or care if you hang on or not. Unless you've got a friend in the bunch, you are on your own if you get dropped or have a mechanical.

I had a choice between two rides, one hilly and one flat. The training program said four hours of low intensity so when over breakfast on Saturday morning Alberto's team mates discussed training options for Sunday morning I was interested in joining them to Mt Mee. I was torn because I also wanted to spend the morning with Alberto, who showed no interest in hills.

Alberto at 'Zupps' early Sunday morning

It always fascinates me how those bunch rides take off. You show up, stand around, chat if you spot someone familiar, and then you hear the clipping of pedals and everybody starts moving. It's a mystery to me on what signal this happens. And then there are always people waiting along the route who jump on and the bunch swells to over a hundred people.

As we were standing around, chatting, laughing, hugging friends not seen in ages, taking photos and admiring the sky, I saw Alberto's friends ride pass. A few people clipped in and started moving and so did I because that's what you do when you stand around chatting, waiting for the mysterious signal to clip in and start moving.

And so I found myself at the back of the bunch of about twenty heading for the hills, the QSM ride, Alberto's team mates. The first fifteen kilometers are along the same route as the Zupps ride, the one that I had stood and waited for, the one that Alberto was joining. I had plenty of time to undecide my indecision - which bunch to join and what ride to do.

At least I was riding and I could hear the mumbled chit-chat of happy voices in the dawn, people riding two abreast, rear lights flashing everywhere. I was last wheel and not even sure anyone had noticed that I had hopped on. Only much closer to Petrie, the decision-forcing turn-off, was I joined at the back by the two girls who had lead the bunch before. I knew them both, had ridden and raced with them before, really nice girls. We quickly caught up on everything new and the turn off came and the first incline and my legs were feeling weak and heavy.

All of the sudden the decision was easy and I told the girls that I was turning around, disappointment was expressed, quick good-byes called out and I reached the roundabout just on time to catch the other bunch. Only that bunch was the wrong bunch, similar in size to the Zupps bunch, it was the Cycological ride. I rolled up alongside the last pair of riders and asked them and to my relief they confirmed that Zupps was still behind.

Another turn off and more riders ready to join the Zupps bunch at the Petrie water tower and this time I was amongst them but I didn't even need to unclip. The big bunch, finally the right one, was breathing down my neck. The long line of riders swooshed pass me as I tried to gather momentum and I still had to sprint to latch on to the last few wheels.

Alberto, right at the front, had spotted me and showed up next to me a few kilometers later. He was happy that I had changed my mind, and then a gap appeared in the line in front of me. Courtesy demands to move up in the double file to close the gap. Like musical chairs, I now had an English guy next to me, new to town, very nice and eager to chat (not anticipating probably that Germany would beat England yet again later that day) and kilometer after kilometer flew pass until the speed increased some more, and then some more again.

As the bunch sped away, I found myself in a group of three, which became four and five ... that's how it always works.

Another half an hour or so and I spotted Alberto riding slowly, frequently checking over his shoulder, waiting for me, asking me what took me so long ... and from then on it was a steady tempo ... until my derailler cable broke five kilometers from home, leaving me with two gears, and a few last hills to push up.

Only much later I found out that the first ride I had joined that morning, Alberto's team mates, had worried about me after I had turned around. I felt embarrassed for having caused confusion. It shouldn't surprise me but it's great to know that there are bunches with an etiquette to look out for each other and care and make sure that everybody who joins their ride makes it home safe.

Thanks!

Jetzt geht's bergauf!

"It's uphill from here" ... how many times have I heard adults saying this throughout my childhood, mostly joyously, sometimes with a sigh of relief, sometimes with a lot of hope but always as something really positive? As I grew older I started saying it, too, never thinking much of it. It's one of those idioms that you just accept because you are brought up with them.

My mum would say it every year in early December, marking the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. I knew that she meant that the days were getting longer from then on and long cold dark winter nights were numbered.

Mum in summer 1953

I floundered when I translated this sentence into English and said it the other day. I got blank faces and funny looks. All of the sudden I realised that it is an odd saying. In English "uphill" usually means 'it's getting harder'. There is the "It's all downhill from here", which sometimes describes a good thing but more often it's used in a negative context, too (I turned 36. It's all downhill from here and that the same in either language, German and English!) ... so why is "uphill" such a good thing in German?

It's obviously not derived from the cycling world where uphill is dreaded by most and downhill is the welcome reprieve! I'm sure it's the same for Germans, even for Jens Voigt.

Anyway, the days are getting longer again for us now - not that it is noticeable, yet - and that's a good thing.

Maybe the Germans are onto something and uphill is indeed not such a bad thing, even as a cyclist? I'll put it to the test and seek hills tomorrow. Because it's uphill from here ...

Are your glutes firing?

Have you ever even asked yourself that question?

Because I hadn't.

And can you tell which fires first, your hamstrings or your glutes?

My hammies are firing first, which isn't exactly how it's supposed to work. I knew this once because my massage therapist told me, ages ago. I had completely forgotten about it.

But I certainly never knew that my right gluteus maximus isn't firing much at all.

How do I know now? Well, after several weeks of Heather telling me off in the gym not to drop my right hip when doing lunges, not to collapse the knees on the leg press, not to take any weight with my lower back at dead lifts and to keep the weight evenly distributed on my feet, she told me last week that my right glute's not firing. Not much anyway.

And then there is this age old acquaintance of mine, the hamstring niggle. It returns with certain certainty as soon as I put strength intervals back in my training program. It hurts right there in the crease, deep in the butt where the hamstring attaches to the pelvis (?).

Apparently this is not uncommon but a ... I almost said 'pain in the butt' but that's just too stupid a pun ... bit of an issue for cycling. At least if you want to go any fast!

What causes it? My daily nine hours in front of a computer - sitting! - most certainly has something to do with it. Tight hip flexors probably, too. I have been very undisciplined with my stretching.

I'll have to focus on getting my gluteals firing again and making them what they ought to be: the strongest muscle in my body.

So are your glutes firing?

Deeply satisfying

How it came that I didn't race yesterday after all? It wasn't nerves. It was just that I felt so damn tired when I woke up at six. Six should have felt like sleeping in, after all the four thirty starts. It didn't. My heart rate was 65 bpm, too. The Riverloop ride with friends the morning before had been too fast to be a proper recovery ride and too slow to be a training ride. Old mistakes repeated but fun nonetheless.

So I was awake but not, if you know that state. The coffee smell from the kitchen should have gotten me going but it didn't and Alberto checked on me when - half an hour later - there was still no sign of me moving. To my surprise he encouraged me to stay rugged up. He said to meet him down at the race just after nine and I could join them for a few kilometers then. I heard Alberto leaving at ten to seven for his race and I felt guilty but that was the last I remembered.

I woke up again at nine thirty. The deeply satisfying feeling of actually having slept enough let me forget the guilt of not having pulled through with my plan to race. Let's just assume my body needed the rest.

The mobile rang while I was still contemplating to leave the cosiness under the doona. Alberto was looking for me. He seemed pleased when I told him that I was still in bed. He was probably thinking of the more relaxed and pleasant me he was going to spend the day with. He asked me to hang on a second and when he was back on the phone he gave me half an hour to be ready. They would swing pass our place to pick me up for a two hour ride through Bunya, Samford Valley and up the Goat Track. He said they were tired from the race and that it would be an easy ride. Right!

I was ready.

And then I spent the next half hour hanging onto their wheels and even lost sight of them pushing up the steep hills through Bunya. High intensity was on my training plan and high intensity was what I got. They casually waited for me at the top of Bunya and I secretly hoped they wouldn't and leave me to potter on at my own pace!

So on I hang, down to Samford and through the valley, burning the candles even before we reached the bottom of the Goat Track. Thankfully, Adam and Alberto finally started showing signs of fatigue. Second in the A-Grade race that morning, which had been a points race (points for the first in the sprint in each of the 1.2 km laps), Adam's legs were now tired from all the sprinting earlier and he was happy to hang back with me on the climb.

We popped out onto the asphalt road on top of the gravel track and then stopped at Mt Nebo village for a coffee. I don't know how we all resisted the fine display of baked goods. I was still full from that bowl of muesli a couple of hours earlier.

The run home was quick and with 2 h 58 min, 71 km, a TSS of 248 and Intensity Factor of 0.917 I certainly reached my training objective for the day and ended up with a higher intensity workout than the half-hour race would have probably given me.

The sun is shining now and I'm getting ready for a three hour recovery ride - by myself to ensure that it will be recovery. I promise to be as slow as possible and anticipate how deeply satisfying this will be after my first week of building intensity.

Roadgrime and more technical problems

With the help of very knowledgable guys on the local forum "Roadgrime" and some input from fellow Twitterers I got my 'superpower issue' fixed. Thanks everybody for your help. The Powertap hub needed to be calibrated to the Garmin Edge 500, which was a matter of minutes ... after hours of reading the Garmin website forum to figure out in which sub menu Garmin hid the calibration function.

With that solved I was able to enjoy my training again. The Functional Threshold Power (FTP) test was repeated, this time with more realistic but encouraging results nonetheless. My 20 minute average power was 221 Watts, which sets my FTP at 209 Watts, up by 5% in comparison to this time last year. All the gym work and base training showing some result?

Sunrise over Brisbane from McAfees Lookout



John blinding me with his lights

Thursday morning I did strength intervals on Mt Nebo in the dark with my friend John when my gears started slipping. The chain was changed (thanks AMR) but that hadn't actually been the problem even so the chain needed changing. My jockey wheels needed urgent changing, too. Now, I never thought much of jockey wheels until I saw my new ones. Pretty, hey?

I'm going to race tomorrow. First race in over six months. Judging by this morning's easy river ride with my friends P and John, I will be in for a beating. It says high intensity on my training schedule and what better way to train at high intensity than a handicap race?

I'm not sure how I feel about racing again. A mixture of excitement and fear I suppose.

Superpower on the wind trainer

Sunset from Kurilpa Bridge last night

AMR ...

... and I ...

... fooling around on bikes.

Yesterday was fun. Today was training. And it had already a distinct different feel to it, even so it wasn't much different after all. Both days I rode to the city for coffee. It's all in the head.

But while yesterday we just went for coffee (and a little cake, too) today I first had business to do - wind trainer business. Five minutes easy spinning, three one minute fast cadence spins with one minute recovery, another five minutes easy spinning, followed by five minutes all out effort to get the muscles firing and that was only the warm up. Then I was supposed to do my 20 minute threshold power test. I didn't do the 20 minute test. My average power for the five minute blow out during the warm-up was 362 Watts. Threehundredandsixtytwo Watts! Oh, I just wish it was true.

In previous tests last year I barely managed 250 Watts. Since I haven't doped and haven't trained, there is absolutely no good explanation for such an increase. It must be incorrect.

The blown up figures only show up on the wind trainer. I took the bike off the wind trainer and on the road (to town for said coffee) and the power readings appeared correct, now showing the regular 180-220 Watts on that hill that always shows 180-220 Watts.

Has anybody experienced similar problems and knows what causes the power to read incorrectly on the wind trainer and how to fix it? Interference from my iPhone? Slip? I have done power tests on my wind trainer in the past and the readings appeared correct in the past.

I have scheduled some interval training for the upcoming weeks and always prefer to do them on the wind trainer because it seems easier on the wind trainer to stay in the prescribed power zone so any help would be appreciated.

Build phase starts now

Why is it that every time I decide to sleep in, I am awake before dawn, unable to sleep any longer? Bad karma? The sleep gods mocking me?

But instead of getting on my bike this morning, I used the early start to clean the house a bit more. Crazy? Looking at my upcoming training schedule, I won't have the energy to do the 'pull away the couch' type of cleaning for some weeks to come. I did a little bit of riding, too, which felt like nothing after the past three weeks of lots of long kilometers. Rest week - the first in months that I actually feel I deserved!

And with that my base training is officially over and the build phase starts tomorrow with - you guessed it - tests!

In the past few years I haven't been transitioning well from base training to build. I tend to get stuck in the base rut (= comfort zone) and struggle to reach the intensity levels that I need in order to improve and I expect this year to be no different, especially since it feels like I have been doing base training forever.

Looking a little closer; however, I realise that I'm way ahead. Two months in fact in comparison to last year and I'm starting my build at a much higher fitness level.

So let's bring on the strength endurance sessions, the hill repeats and the tempo and threshold intervals. I'm ready. I've got big goals.

Stretch Goal?

Remember the other day when I told you that I got the "All Clear" from the doctor to start training again? It just so happened that the night before Alberto had told me about going down to Melbourne for the Master's Nationals at the end of September. We had talked about turning it into a little holiday, about me joining Alberto for support and taking my bike as well for some 'coffee rides', and tying it in with watching Cadel defend his World Champion jersey in Geelong.

Now, please hear me out before you write me off as a complete looney. You might come to the conclusion that Hashimoto's not only affects the thyroid but also one's judgement but I'm now thinking about racing the individual time trial and road race at Master's Nationals myself.

Whoa!

Right! Talking about judgement! Or is it rather a matter of revisiting the basics of goal setting - SMART goals? R for realistic, right? A stetch goal maybe? Or is this right up there in the arena of 'mixing up ambition with ability' goals? I don't know what type of goal it would be but I have been thinking about giving it a shot.

And I'm not talking Gold Medal as a goal here. My goal would be more along the lines of "staying healthy" to start with and "training harder than ever before and getting myself in the best shape possible and then see where my best gets me".

I mean - hey - what's the worst thing that can happen? I could be fitter and stronger and in tip-top mental readiness and still get my arse handed to me big time for a painful reality check. Ouch! But that wouldn't be the end of the world really.

I'm realistic that this is way beyond what my level of racing has been (and currently is) and to be competitive at the Master's Nationals will require not just small and incremental improvements but extending myself right to the limit.

I'm getting the feeling I'm talking myself right into it here...

Tips and tricks on how to get out of bed early

I finished my base training in style today with a 140 km ride with the QSM Master's A team. It feels like I have been doing base training forever this year but it's officially over and done now.

Next week I will have a well deserved rest where I pledged not to force myself into the cold dark night unless I have an absolute desire to do so.

It was another early start (4:30 am) and the temperatures reached 11.5C at its coldest. The sun didn't come up until after six. But when she did it was an absolutely stunning morning.

I would have hated to miss this ride as it had all the ingredients for a perfect one: A bunch of nice guys (and I was the only girl this time so I was well looked after), a reasonable pace but in a social atmosphere, blue sky and sunshine (eventually), beautiful roads that I had never ridden (we ventured deep into the Southside of Brisbane around Redland Bay) and coffee at the Garage at the end. So I'm glad I made it out of bed despite less than seven hours of sleep.

So while I never regretted having gotten up at such an early hour, I almost always regret when I don't make it out of bed. Here are a few tricks I have learnt in the past few weeks that make it easier to leave the warm comfort of my bed in winter at 4:30am:

1. Lights! Always switch on all lights. The brighter the house the easier it is to wake up.

2. Do not think! Just go into auto pilot and start dressing. As soon as you start thinking it becomes agony.

3. Coffee! No matter how early, there is nothing that speeds up the waking up process than the smell of fresh coffee coming from the kitchen.

4. Sleep cycles! Work out your sleep cycle. I'm sure there is some research done on it and from own experience I can confirm that if the alarm goes off in a light sleep phase I have less trouble making it onto my bike by 5 am.

5. Commit! Arrange to meet friends for a ride, preferably the judgemental ones that you will definitely not text at 4:30 am for fear of being the coffee shop talk later that morning.

Hit me in the comments section with what helps you to make it out of bed and onto your bike on cold winter nights.

Go for it!

After several weeks of visiting the very gentle nurse who collected two viles of my blood to be tested for free T3, T4 and TSH levels I developed a little guessing game. Going by my rest heart rate and other symptoms I was trying to anticipate where my hormone levels would sit, above, below or within range. It was a bit of hit and miss but this week I was right. After a few weeks of heading into hypothyroiditis (under production) things were looking up again. My training had been going well with hardly any missed sessions, sure there were some tough days on the bike but all in all I felt "normal".

So it wasn't a huge surprise when the endocrinologist confirmed that my body fixed itself (for now) but I wasn't prepared when she told me to get back into full training. No restrictions, no caution - just plain "Go for it!". It took a while to sink in.

Photo taken by AMR

I guess I can stop feeling guilty now about pushing ahead in the past couple of weeks with 11 hours and 13.5 hours of not always low intensity riding and a couple of 100 k rides in the mix. After this week's 15 hours there is a rest week scheduled for next week and this will then be the end of my base training. The first race of the season should be less than a month away.