Northern Combine South Gisborne Loop - C grade

After a week of training, my legs always feel worst on Fridays (my rest day) and heavy for the first few k's. This feeling normally lasts until the first serious attack which raises the heart rate and where you just buckle down in order to not get dropped. The race was held on a 8km loop with included a nice climb which averaged 6% for 1km into a head wind. Fortunately, I felt better on each lap and more comfortable on the climb as my legs loosened up. But today with the pace up and down, there was no real adrenalin pushing me like there was in the Modella handicap the other week. It was almost like interval training looking back over the Garmin data. For photos of the race, click here.

 I am feeling a lot more confident in general and especially in descending, today hitting just over 70km/h with a cross wind. They key is to get in the drops and get sheltered from the wind by other riders where possible. Unfortunately, I hadn't checked my solo drink bottle (I have cut back to one after not using the 2nd one in a few races) which obviously had been sitting in the car for a while and the contents tasted partially fermented, but not in a good way. There were no cramps today or even potential cramps which is great and can be put down to the longer road races and training I have been doing lately.  

Overall, we raced for 2hours and completed the climb 8 times totaling just over 800m of vertical climbing. The bunch was altogether at the base of the final climb but exploded very quickly in the fight for the finish. I had a crack up the last climb making up a lot of places but I couldn't quite catch the leaders finishing in the top 10 still. A great day out and perfect training for the future. Note to self, need to train on more hills and less time on beach road.

Easter Training Summary - Heavy Legs Part 2

I have managed to maintain a stable weight of easter which is not a bad effort considering I have destroyed a whole bunny in single sitting. It might be explained by my following training plan:
Friday          - 60km Mordiallic return
Saturday      - 90km Stockdale loop
Friday          - 35km RAAF base/town lap
Monday       - 90km Stockdale loop
Tuesday       - 60km Mordiallic return
Wednesday  - 90km Frankston return
Thursday      - 90km Frankston return
Friday          - 60km Mordiallic return (there wasn't much left in my legs today)

That's a bit over 550km's burning approx 10,000 calories in total. The other key benefit is maintaining my cycling tan into the start of winter. The only downside is the cost of food that is required to feed me. 

The red training bike has finally been serviced after approx 15,000k's of neglect receiving a well needed new chain and cassette (it'll never be this shiny again). It feels like new and unfortunately I have no reason not to train on it now.