New Record. Mt Keira climb

New record. Mt Keira Time Trial
I broke the record this morning. My time was 18:51. The previous record was 19:05 (ie cycle2max.com). I did a PB by 24 seconds. I'm rapped with the result. Conditions weren't ideal. There was a strong westerly wind blowing which made the first 1/2 of the climb tough and also a few of the switchbacks were quite exposed.
I didn't even think about having a crack at the record this morning as it is my recovery week and I have been feeling a bit tired in the legs over the last 48hrs. I thought about just riding up Mt keira at a solid steady pace. I then remembered that Dave posted a message on my blogger and offered some encouragement for my attempt at the record, which was going to be at the end of the month. As I approached the climb I thought about his comments and decided I would hit it hard to the 1/2 way point. If I make it there in under 11minutes then I'll be in a position to have a crack at the record.
When I started climbing I really didn't feel that good. The westerly was blowing right into my face and I was in and out of the saddle struggling to find any sort of rhythm. So I conceded that I would just ride hard to the 1/2 way point and then cruise to the top. I hit the 1/2 way point in 10.23, I thought, wow I'm 40seconds up. I've got a real shot at this. So I went for it. My hr quickly climbed to around 175-177bpm and all I was thinking was keep the speed above 18kph. If I can keep the speed above 18kph I should come in around the 19min mark. Things got tough when a came through my first right-hand switchback. The wind was right in my face and dropping my speed down below 16kph. Three more of these to go. I had to find speed somewhere else. After the first switchback I dropped it into my 39/17 got out of the saddle and picked up the speed to over 20kph. Once there I sat back down and then held 20kph right through to the next switchback. Then bang, big headwind again. I worked it hard as I could around the bend, got back out the saddle, dropped two gears and picked it up to 20kph again. Once I made it through the switchbacks I was into the last 90seconds of the climb At this point there was no holding back I had come this far and I wasn't about to let this record slip by again. It was going to be close. I got back out of the saddle dropped it into my 39/16 and just went as hard as I could for as long as I could. I hit the finish line and hit the lap counter on my polar. My time 18.51. YES, I beat the record. At the top I rolled around for about 5minutes as I was pretty close to having a chuck. Then I rode a very easy spin back home.
I'm glad to have this record and I hope I can better it. My goal is to break 18minutes someday. I might have another shot at the record around Christmas time.
My next challenge is to break 28minutes up Macquarie Pass. I've never broken 30minutes on this climb (my current PB is around 32min). If I can break 28minutes up Macquarie Pass by Christmas I think I'll be well on my way to having a strong bike leg come IM Port next year.

fluro

Week ending 11/9/05

A pretty solid week of training. The breakdown was as follows

Zone 1: 10:40
Zone 2: 3:07
Zone 3: 0:32
Zone 4: 0:15
Zone 5a: 0:09

Total training time= 14:30

My BT session for the week was a ride around Jamberoo. I inserted 4-20 TT with the following results. 1= 40.2 av sp (145bpm), 2= 37.5 av sp (143bpm), 3= 34.2 av sp (143bpm), 4= 31.8 av sp (147bpm). The first 2 sets of 20min TT were with a tailwind and the last 2 were into a headwind. Overall I was very happy with my current level of TT strength. Will need to start building up my muscular endurance now that I have found my goal speed, which is 36kph (ie 5hr bike split). I’ll will address this issue by inserting 40min TT efforts into my LSD rides from now on.
The rest of the week was spent building my aerobic endurance by spending most of my time between easy and Aet. I’m still not 100% recovered with my compartment syndrome and will probably spend another week running very easy on a low volume. Had my first pool session this week. I’m holding around 47-49 per 50 as my LSD pace at the moment. This is too bad considering its my first week back in the pool since Forster. With 30wks left to IM Port I’ll start focusing more on my swimming now. My goal by Christmas is to be able to do 15-100 on the 1:30. If I achieve this goal I should be on target again for a sub 55min IM swim.
Next week I will continue to do my core strength work and flexibility training. I’m already seeing some improvements across the board.
Tip of the week
Consistency is the secret of success. It doesn’t matter if you train with a low hr and high volume or vice versa, your greatest gains will come from being the most consistent athlete over time.

fluro