Training Log 3 Peaks Training schedule

[harmonix1234]

Hey, great to read and very inspiring.

Just keep in mind, don't feel guilty if you have to take more than one day off the bike to recover properly. All your gains are made in recovery, not in your riding.
It's easy to catch yourself thinking 'If my legs aren't constantly sore I'm not working hard enough'.

I tried doing 6 days a week of approx 35km high intensity rides fairly recently, and after three weeks I was a mess. I couldn't recover as quickly as I needed to and went into deficit. I then got sick, and undid all of my hard work.
I have relaxed my training and now have two or three rest days a week, two in a row and one single if the extra one is needed, and I also just took almost two weeks off the bike and I am now riding stronger and faster than I was when I was doing the harder efforts. It's weird but I am finding quality not quantity is working for me, but everyone is different and their bodies and diets and lifestyles are different so take what I say as just one mans observations.

Just don't beat yourself up if you need consecutive recovery days. It's your reward for your hard efforts.

 

[dusty_nz]

Heart Rate

Trying to get my morning heart rate.

Wake, Reach over for HR monitor and measure. Tends to range from 55-60/min

However during the day at work, Just before lunch it is often around 45-50

Does this tend to indicate I am still recovering?, Also recovering from a chest infection flare up.

Went for a pure aerobic ride this morning. 50km around the river. Ave HR at 141, Max at 152, Held between 140-150 even on the hill, friggin hard work. tqarget cadence 90, actual 83.

Will do a few more of these until my HR recovers.

Will try hearing HR monitor tonight and loggin my sleep. Will be interesting.

 

[dusty_nz]

Still a little concerned about my resting HR. Recorded the HR over nite, kinda boring and HR did not drop below 50.

Have a few days off so will see. Heading to NZ and taking my bike. Will be nice with the different terrain.

Sourced the advice of a coach and he picked up that my intensity is all to high.

He has recommended a month of pure aerobic. 140-150 for me, Then month endurance then month power.

Done a few rides clamping HR between 140-150 and average speed tends to be around 28-30. He was saying he would like to see me around 130 but that is scary slow.

Makes it easier getting the KM up over the week as legs stay fresher. Still pushing the 200's, done 180 in the first 3 days this week.

Off to NZ today

 

[dusty_nz]

Back from NZ.

Certainly a different style of riding.
The only flat section is between the Ranch slider and the sofa.

Lots of valley passes, rolling hills. Really nice riding. Rolling hills take there toll as most are only 100 meters long but regular 13-15% pinches. Really taxes the legs and ruins the average speed.

Long long hill climbs as well. Rode my first HC category climb.

Even found a few 300m sections averaging 22+% gradient. Pain

Getting my miles up as well. Touching on just over 300km/week.

Not feeling any fitter thou

 

[dusty_nz]

4 Dams Ride

Def starting to see big results.

Have to say the secret here is intervals. They are evil, suffering and I personally hate them but the results speak for themselves.

Upto 9min in E3 with 4 minute rest. 165 cadence (60/100 @ 5min) for an hour and a few others.

In the WE did a 200km, 2300m ride. Some long (14min) climbs. Coach told me for this "relaxing" ride that I should attempt all climbs in the top end of E3 (175-180) and E1 for the rest.

7 of us on the ride with 4 pole position contenders.

Started the 4th and longest climb (and interval) of the day and I brought my HR upto the 175 mark. 3 other mates kept pace. chatting away and after a few minutes down to one person. he then started dropping back before a last ditch effort to keep up however it was all over. 10 minutes latter I was still holding the same pace. crushed the climb holding 175-180 the whole way.

I then repeated this for over a dozen climbs during the day. I was certainly knackered however legs were good and I was still happy to deal with more hills.

Down to 12 more days before the big day. Still totally unknown how the hills will be. Biggest here is 260. Never any question of completing however would love to break 10 hours total time.

Hopefully after this ride I can keep the intervals going. Would have loved a few more months of training.

 

[dusty_nz]

Well it is all over.

Rode home with a time of 9:23 which is a good margin under my 10 hour target

Biggest killer was my weight. Still at around 91ish kg and it was noticed on the hill. Still held my own but if I could have started with 10kg less the difference would have been massive.

Hills were more psychological versus physical, Fitness covered the endurance but mentally to be grinding for 2 hours is punishing.

Other negative was went out to fast, Last minute course change meant it was hard to pace. First two climbs averaged over 172bpm. One for 30 minutes and the other at over an hour.

Aim to crush it next year.

 

[wilddemon]

Well done mate. You planned well, prepared and succeeded. Kudos to you.
Quick question and not to detract from your achievement. The Strava shows that the climbs don't go over 10%. Do you think that is accurate? If so I could possible ride them, provided that I can grind it out for the distance... Also, what gearing did you run? Cheers

 

[dusty_nz]

Correct, None of the climbs go over 10% but do hit 10% for some short sections. 100 meters or so.

All three climbs tend to be continuous 5-7% gradients. The killer is holding that for 7-30km.

I did heaps of training on upto 13% and hit a few 20+% gradient climbs so was not stressed about slope.

Fitted a sram red compact crank with a 49/34 (I think) and a 11-28 on the rear.

Didn't get into the lowest gear at all but was nice to have.

The hardest part of the day was the last hill with the temperatue. Most people rode managing there temperature. Lots of people collapsing from heat. Jumping in the creeks on the way up and refilling drink bottles from drains.

The normal route has a number of extended 13+ sections balanced with false flats. Think I would have enjoyed (Hated less) that option with a change of scenery

 

[Cuthbert]

Well done mate, all that training paid off.

I also did it - was hoping to go under 10 hrs and was on pace until the 120km mark but all fell apart after that. Went into the ride with some stomach issues which got made worse by the heat - literally couldn't keep anything down from the lunch stop to the finish. Ended up with a time of 11.5 hrs and was on the verge of passing out a few times, only positive out of the day for me was knowing how much I can suffer if I really have to. But keen as to have another crack next year and get the <10hr jersey.

Worst part for me was the 80km of flat back to Mt Beauty - was actually looking forward to the final climb

 

[dusty_nz]

Approach

I did a few things differently for this event.

First off, Carb loading. started 3 days before hand. Carb loading will unsettle the stomach so its important to start early to allow things to settle.
Second. Rode with a camelbak. 2 litres of water and electrolytes on the back. Pure water in a 800ml cage. This allowed me to skip all but one stop (Lunch). This was a big saving in time.
Third. Liquid food. Ran a bottle with 1000 calories of maltodextrin ( 6 x 45g scoops at 170cal/scoop + 20grams protein (Vanilla)).

At the lunch stop (120km) I swapped for a fresh bottle of malti and topped up cage and bladder. Also grabbed a banana for a slow nibble.

I avoided all food as whilst they are high in calories then are quite hard on the stomach. Eg fruit cake is not ideal in a race. I also struggled with hydration, Rode the 2nd half bloated and thirsty as was sweating faster then I could hydrate. Stomach backed up and had to reduce calorie intake to hydrate. Also had to bring HR very low on the last climb to manage heat and hydration.

I had been running this on my training rides as well. Total stationary time for the ride was 20 minutes. Most people had over an hour for the under 10 hour.

I started with Mark Guirgus (9.5 hour domestique) and passed him at the last stop (He stopped and I didn't). He caught me at around 3km from the end and it was all on, Held him off to finish about 30 seconds in front.
He had passed me at around 170km in a big pelaton (40 people), I dropped off the back in order to recover for the pending climb as their pace was slow on the flats and bit to fast on the hills. When he caught me at the top he had lost the entire pelaton, no one had managed to hold on.

Its a hard game to play by savig time avoiding stops. Great for the clock but hard on muscles. Its hard to be confident that by resting/recovering for an hour during the ride that I might have been an hour faster?? Would have been better hydrated on the ride.