Day 295

It's Thursday here, and I start riding tomorrow morning.  Because we go over the passage du gois, our start time is determined by the tides so we can get going until around 10ish.  That leaves me some time to do some last minute organizing in the morning.  I'm exhausted now and ready for bed.  I've spent the last couple of days walking all over Nantes picking up random items I need and looking for the next meal.  Big sleep tonight.  Otherwise I'm too tired to think of anything else to mention. 

Day 294

I'm not sure about what day it is... so I'm just going to ignore the half day that was lost to travel anyway.  Arriving in Paris yesterday was exhausting.  I showed up already exhausted after a second "night" without sleep in a row, got my bike about an hour later, and my rental van about an hour after that.  Then the projected 4.5 hour drive to Nantes took about 8 hours.  I lost track of how many times I almost fell asleep at the wheel between Paris and Nantes, but the driving around Paris definitely kept me awake.  I haven't seen driving like that since Kathmandu (minus the livestock and bad roads).  It was actually kind of stressful fighting for position in the rental van, in part because we'd decided against dropping another 1200 euros on car insurance.  At least the roads were paved...

I was planning to go for a ride today, but my legs are kind of heavy from walking all over town today and I think the rest will prove more useful in the long run.  So instead I'm gonna go grab a beer and finish working on the maps for the route... then I just need to find somewhere to print them.

Day 293

Sitting in the Montreal airport waiting to board for Paris.  I've slept about 10 hours combined for the last three nights, so hopefully this flight gives me a chance to catch up on that... but there are a few screaming kids near me now that might be an issue. 

Day 292

I wanted to get one last ride in, but I'm running out of time and have tons of stuff left to do.  So I decided to go for a pretty hard effort and test out the new GoPro camera I go from some friends at work!  Unfortunately I can't seem to get the video to load onto the blog.  Maybe I'll have better luck with the photos... 16.47km in 33:19 for an avg speed of 29.7km/h and avg power of 195W (223W normalized).

Day 291

Drove over to Cypress to get one last climbing session in before I leave.  The rain held off for the first 30min or so, then drizzled until I got to the top.  When I reached the top it started to pour!  The first few minutes of the ride down were painfully cold, but it eventually cleared and I warmed up again before reaching the bottom.  I didn't want to push to hard, so I kept the pace pretty mellow and felt really comfortable at that pace.  I'm hoping to keep a slightly slower pace in France, but we'll see how worn out I am from the cumulative effect (I'm just mapping the route right now and was excited to see stage 10 was only about 160km...).  Car to car, 26.74km in 1:12:51 for an avg speed of 22.1km/h and avg power of 185W (206W normalized).

Day 290

Went out around UBC to sweat out my hangover.  On top of the hangover I think I had a little DOMS from my Whistler ride... felt pretty weak.  30.39km in 1:04:31 for an avg speed of 28.4km/h and avg power of 169W (189W normalized).  Otherwise my day was spent running around buying supplies for the trip and sampling the taquitos at the new Chronic Tacos.  They're delicious, by the way.

Day 289

Went out for a ride with Julian in the morning.  The weather was bad all around us, so we decided to stay in the Point Grey area where it wasn't raining and did a couple of laps.  43.41km in 1:31:53 for an avg speed of 28.4km/h and avg power of 165W (184W normalized).

Day 288

Went for a nice ride up to Whistler along the Gran Fondo route I'll be riding in September.  I don't usually go all the way to Whistler, but since my dad/support vehicle driver in France wanted a test run on home turf, it seemed like a good chance to check out the route. There was a lot of traffic downtown so I hit the lap button at the end of Georgia to estimate the Fondo distance and did that (almost!) in around 4 hours.  I say almost because I punctured two kilometers shy of the finish and just called my dad to come back and grab me there instead of changing my tube at the end of the ride.  That had me averaging 29km/h for 4 hours solo, so I'm pretty happy with that. 

I wasn't expecting such steep climbs north of Squamish either... I'd only driven that before and my memory had me convinced they weren't much more than 5%, but most were 8s!  That took it's toll and I soon realized I'd gone out a bit too hard in the beginning.  I struggled to keep my power up for the last hour (avg 180W for the last 2 hours vs 195W for the 1st 2 hours).  Overall, including the traffic from Kits to the end of Georgia, the ride was 121.25km in 4:15:06 for an avg speed of 28.66km/h and avg power of 184W (202W normalized).  That's not including the 20min stop for coffee in Lions Bay, but I felt like a latte overlooking the ocean was an essential part of any ride up the sea to sky hwy.

Day 287

Didn't have much time for a ride after picking my bike up from the shop, but managed a quick hour at sunset.  30.46km in 58:42 for an avg speed of 31.2km/h and an avg power of 195W (220W normalized).  The new chain and cassette felt really crisp.  Didn't even realize what I was missing until I went out yesterday!

Day 286

Monday.  Day after fundraiser.  Hungover.  Raised somewhere around 3000 at the pub, and got another 1500 or so online in the last few days, so pretty happy about that.

Day 285

I was just about to head out for a ride today, even though I only had time for a short 30min blast.  Then I managed to snap the valve on my tube putting air in... no idea how I managed that!!  Either way, replacing the tube today was gonna make the ride to short to be worth it, so I'm washing dishes instead. 

Day 284

Didn't have a chance to ride today.  I spent the afternoon trying to find donations for the silent auction for tomorrow's fundraiser.

Day 283

Just over a week to go before I fly out.  Decided it would be a good plan to adjust my power training zones.  I've found that the most useful way to do this is the 30min power test, where I ride at the highest power I can for 30min.  This can be a little tricky in traffic, so I try my best to avoid it.  One option is UBC-SW Marine, because there are only a couple of lights, but the undulating terrain makes it hard to maintain a steady effort.  Also, once power reaches about 250W, the 30min test requires a full turn around as well, as the road runs into Granville!  The other option is to climb one of the North Shore mountains.  I've found that Cypress is the easiest to get to, but Seymour works too.  This allows for an uninterrupted 30min ride.  Today I had a friend's car, so I could drive there (the hour ride over is the only problem with testing in the mountains).  As for the test, things went fine.  I was pretty bagged at 20min but held on for the full 30.  It felt like that was pretty much as hard as I could go for 30min.  Ended up doing 7.96km in 30:01 for an avg speed of 15.9km/h and avg power of 256W (257W normalized).  This is about the best example of when normalized power isn't really an issue, as there were no big accelerations.  My last test in May had me at 244W and 15km/h, so I'm improving despite my playoff benders. 

Day 282

Went for a few laps around Stanley Park with Ben and Christian.   We were late to meet Christian after waiting for each other in two different places, so we kept a pretty solid pace for the first 20min until we got to Christian, then we eased off a bit.  The pace stayed pretty high though overall.  With all the traffic and construction on the way to and from the park, plus the slow-driving tourists in the park, we had a pretty fast average speed for the ride.  My usual pace is about 2km/h slower.  36.33km in 1:11:39 for and avg speed of 30.4km/h and avg power of 195W (228W normalized).  I felt pretty good throughout, so I'm happy with the way my training is coming along, despite missing a week recently.  I think I need to adjust my threshold power and training zones though, because that effort should have been more difficult based on my current threshold.

Day 282

Didn't have much time before work for a ride on Wednesday, but I managed to squeeze in a quick one out to Spanish Banks and back.   12.41km in 26:00 for an avg speed of 28.7km/h and avg power of 185W (219W normalized).

Day 281

Went out around UBC with Ben.  Not really an eventful ride, just a mellow chat.  32.57km in 1:07:46 for an avg speed of 28.9km/h and avg powerof 176W (212W normalized).  Oh yeah, I got my power meter back!

Day 280

Consistency is pretty important in training, and probably in blogging too.  I've been struggling with both lately.  I guess it's easy to skip a post when nobody's reading... roll call?  Yup, nobody answered.

In any case, I took Monday off.

Day 279

After an hour and a half of sleep, I rode over to the start of the Westside Classic.  I didn't really feel like I had good legs on the ride over, so I was hoping the coffee and smoothie I packed along would help that.  They sort of did, but I really had no chance.  I was racing in the 3/4 group, but had only done cat 5 crits before.  I figured this would be ok, since a road race seems to suit me better... but I'd also never done one before, so that was just a guess! 

It turned out to be a great learning experience, even though I only lasted about an hour.  Part of the trouble for me was that I haven't done any short interval training, so the climb we hit each lap was too fast.  On the first climb I reached the top at the back of the pack, then fought my way back on with the tail wind.  On the second climb I got dropped completely and couldn't get back on.  I decided that was pretty much it for me, but wanted to see the difference without the pack so I rode another lap at a hard effort.  This is when I noticed the headwind along Marine Dr.  When I was in the pack it was an effortless cruise, but now I was fighting.  By the time I hit the climb for the third time I had nothing left and just spun up it. 

Another interesting thing for me was positioning.  I knew I wanted to be at the front, but it wasn't easy to get there.  I had a slightly slower start than I needed and was in the middle of the pack by the time we got to Marine.  The trouble was I that I was on the right side, against the boulevard curve.  I could see people moving up on the left, but nobody was going anywhere on the right.  By the time we hit the climb, I was already on the back.  At least I was on the right side of the road.  On the second lap, I kept to the left so that I could move up, but then I got pinched off on the left hand into the climb and had to come to almost a complete stop.  Then I had to basically off-road through a bunch of holes in the road up the left side.  Needless to say, this put me off the back right away and I didn't have the strength to catch back on. 

It was a good experience, but the data really shows how hard it is on your own compared to in the pack.  Once you're popped off the back, it's really hard to get back on.  In the pack we were coasting along between 45 and 55km/h, and the effort on my part was minimal.  It was a pretty hard effort to keep it in the high 30s along the same stretch on my own.  The yellow cadence line on the graph is the best indicator... look how much coasting there is before the first climb (when the yellow hits the bottom), then less after that climb because I have to chase back on, then not at all after the third climb.  Those coasting parts are pure rest, just as you'd imagine... I was eating and drinking, recovering while going faster than my hard efforts! 

I'm sure taking the previous 7 days off (see days 272-278) to watch hockey and party didn't help.  I've never seen my heart rate so high!  But it was an enjoyable learning experience all the same and I'm looking forward to giving it another shot next year. 

Day 278

I decided that the prospect of one to two hours of sleep before racing on Sunday would be better served by an extended nap than a ride on Saturday.  I'm not sure it works like that, but I was exhausted to begin with, so I thought it was probably the best plan.  No ride today.

Day 277

I think the 4-day bender had caught up to me.  I couldn't sleep at all: get sweats, then shivers, then sweats... all night until around 6am.  Finally dragged myself out of bed around noon.  Looks like I've got too many errands to run before work to get my ride in today, but at least it's fixed (for now).  Tomorrow I have a later start time, so I'll be able to get a ride in and maybe register for my first road race, which is on Sunday.  I feel like crap right now though, so it'll be a sufferfest just trying to hang on. 

Day 276

Thursday was another tough morning, but at least we stayed away from shots the night before.  I finally had time to go get my pedals, but as the day wore on my hangover got worse.  I couldn't get myself out for a ride, even though I came as close as getting ready to go out, so it's a start.

Day 275

The awards show was probably the slowest part of the night for people buying rounds of shots, so the remaining part of the 12 hour party was a little painful.  I barely got breakfast in me before we had to go get seats to watch the game.  These playoffs are killing me!  Especially when everywhere fills up 2 hours before the game starts... it's like they're all double-headers.  I have to work the next three games, so my liver spent Thursday rejoicing. 

Day 274

A little slow to wake up again, and this time had a friend coming in for a couple nights to watch the Canucks and join Richie in celebrating winning best doorman of the year, again. 

Day 273

Took a while to get going and wanted to get a seat somewhere for the Canucks game, so no time to get my pedals fixed and ride.

Day 272

Sunday.  My pedals seized up on me.  Just wore out the bearings.  So I went golfing.

Day 271

Sorry for the long delay, but I've had a really hectic week and haven't been out since Sunday.  My pedal seized up Sunday, so my ride was cut short.  Then I couldn't find a chance to get it fixed until Thursday.  As for Saturday, I only had time for a short 16.52km ride, 32:33, for an avg of 30.5km/h. 

Day 270

Legs felt fresh again today, but I didn't want to overdo it.  I picked up the pace a few times, but kept getting stopped by lights and slow traffic.  In the end it was probably just as well, since it kept me going too hard.  But it sure is fun to ride with a tailwind!  On the way back I kept it around 40 along Spanish Banks, then later ramped it up to over 50km/h along Point Grey Rd, where I started out behind a big truck doing about 30, but then had the whole parking lane on the right to go around him and pick up the pace for about 500m until I caught up to traffic.  Overall, did 38.91km in 1:22:26 for an avg speed of 28.6km/h.

Day 269

Spent all day Thursday recovering from a big afternoon/evening drinking session.  The Canucks won, so it was a good time, but the drinks sure went down easily.  I was debating an evening ride, but the rain and my headache kept me inside.

Day 268

Wednesday morning I felt a little heavy in the legs from the big ride on Tuesday.  Did a nice slow 30.53km in 1:10:08 for an avg speed of 26.1km/h.  Felt good to loosen up my legs.