Serious Legs

Today was a tougher day on the bike although the last two weeks of training are starting to pay dividends. We did race simulation type training session where we had to basically try and stay more or less at race pace for an hour and a half. My mistake was forgetting to take food with but then again I needed to work off the lovely pizza Mirit made last night. I didn't bonk but the energy levels were at a minimum at the end of the ride. I started out with Oren and Erez but Oren was pushing the pace and we pulled away from Erez after two laps of the route we had planned. I tried to stay within my limits as we went up the hills and then recover on the technical stuff. The track will be pretty technical on saturday as the area is littered with single track that they normally find a place for. I enjoy the races that have some technical aspects because that basically gives the mountain bikers the advantage over the road riders that are venturing out onto the dirt. In the south where the roads are more open and the guys form into peletons that push the pace.
In the end my legs were feeling good and would have really liked to push for another lap or two were it not for work and the fact that I hadn't eaten for the whole ride so didn't want to overdo it. the fact is that it is better that I still had legs left and wasn't completely bushed. So the race this coming weekend should be a success and I'm really hoping to get onto the podium.

Mirit's windy attempt

Another longer weekend came and went. My blogging attempts have been hit and miss. Seems though that I may not be the only one as Trio has also been battling the 24 hour day. I could really manage a 36 hour day where I would be able to sleep and still manage to get everything done. Procrastination may still take up half the time but that other half would be magic. As for the real world my excursions this weekend were more layed back after the century that I managed on Thursday. Can't believe how the time flies but I'm sitting here a week away from the Volvo Challenge and I'll be doing 50km race pace. Been putting in some serious saddle time lately so hope it all pays off.

On Friday I went up with Erez to Mishmar HaEmek where the race will be held just to get acquainted again with the hill's. We did some serious climbing for the distance with a serious wall climbing effort that had me crawling along in my granny gear barely able to turn the pedals over. There was a marathon going on, 80km of off road running. Far to many hours pounding away for me. We did run into some of the runners and one was quite chatty. He had just come back from a 24 hour race in the States where he road 600km in the time allocated. Madness!!! And here he was running 80km a little while later. Either he has tons of time for training or he is naturally fit because halfway through he was not even breaking out a sweat.

The weather went sideways from there and the whole weekend ride was put on hold as we got some more rain. I picked up a new helmet for Mirit as she is keen to get more involved in the cycling so I'm more than happy to push where needed. The wind and cold were not playing along as you can see how snugly she's wrapped up. We all know how it is to ride into a head wind and this is what we had all day. All day being an hour jaunt around the fields of the kibbutz. This was more than enough for her and I was really proud that she made it all the way.

Century Ride for March

Today was the day that I've been promising for the last three weeks. I went off this morning not really thinking about doing the full century but ended up seeing that I was almost there so made the extra loop to push myself over the line. I was supposed to be heading into the hills today with one of the Spider riders from Rosh Hanikra and then along the northern border. I must add that it was done on the road so I popped the road century cherry and I must say that I was just as pooped by the end of it as i would have been was I on a mountain bike. Well at seven my fellow rider canceled so I thought that I would head out and see what happens, seeing as with the financial situation as it is we are not working on a Thursday.

I headed up to misgav knowing that if I ran into any serious trouble I'd be closer to friends who could come to the rescue. After my puncture experience from last week my road cycling experience is already in safety mode. Well the climb on the bike with bigger gears made for interesting view as I huffed and puffed my way to the top. After thinking about it both my century's of the year were done on a similar route, one on dirt and the one of today done on the road. So after crawling to the top I did the same on the way down as my descending skills on the road are no where near my rocking hopping, tree bouncing mountain bike downhilling.

I was contemplating doing some further climbing to Ma'alot and then down but decided to rather go up to Rosh Ha'Nikra as I didn't want to overdo it and the fact that that route would take me near some of the villages. Something I don't want to do without some peleton backup or pepper spray. Seems like I'm riding through a gangsters paradise over here in Israel but actually 95% of the time everything goes smoothly, its that 5% percent though that seems to stick in the mind.

I made it up to to the Northern Border between Lebanon and Israel without any hassles and then came back through the chute of banana fields of Gesher Aziv. This is an awesome piece of road as it has a gate on either side but the road is smoothly paved so after spending the day with cars zipping past this was bliss. All of this changed though as I passed the hundred mark I went through the last intersection before getting back to the kibbutz. I was caught off and made it quite clear what I thought of his driving skills, after some heated shouting the guy pulls over further up the road waiting. Do I try and speed by risking him push me or stop and hear him out. Well I chose the latter unintelligently and he was waiting with a knife. I really couldn't believe it but luckily left unharmed. So another day of fun and games in a foreign country for me, sometimes I wonder what I'm doing here but then I realized what an awesome ride it had been. Don't let that 5% spoil it!

Practice with loaded legs

Went out for practice at Misgav with Spider and the legs were still loaded from the weekends bender. Did a forty forty, forty minutes of base and forty minutes of tempo. I felt fine but the gents were looking at pushing the pace. This can be both a blessing and a danger when riding in the group. When you're trying to get a good workout then you need not look any further but when you're trying to build correctly you need to keep within your limits and ride within yourself. So I dropped off the pace a bit and hang a few meters off the back. This seemed to get the message across and the pace slackened a bit but every now and then the guys would unknowingly push it up again. All in all a good practice but now with rain predicted I may be staying inside which is not the best.

Weekly Roundup - 22 March 2009

Decided that a Sunday would be the best day to put together a weekly roundup of my week of cycling. Finished up the training camp yesterday with a ride with the group of spider riders. Very easy paced ride to round off a successful weekend of training. Plenty hours with only a touch of drama on the Friday afternoon. Other than that afternoon ride i pretty much stuck to the plan and managed to do most of the hours and training i was given by Ofir. As you you can see below the hours sort of peeked on Thursday although Friday was meant to be the major day, I would have had another hour and a half were it not for the puncture. Quite interesting is the fact that the miles went up with the road riding even though the hours went down. Great week and really pumped with the fitness gains, I already feel full of energy which is probably a good thing. glad I wait a bit to get into the season before the serious training started.

Training Camp Day 3 & 4

The second part of my training camp weekend was done mainly on the road bike. I went out on Friday morning for an easy zone 2 ride with the threatening clouds hanging overhead. I went out to Nahal Kziv. This time of the year the water is flowing and you venture in with the knowledge that you will have some seriously cold and soggy feet by the end of the ride. Opting out of the soaking I turned around at the start of the climb into the valley and headed towards Rosh Hanikra. Basically cutting straight across the banana fields and onto the coast. From here it was north and then turning around at the border, probably the closest I'd ever get to entering Lebanon.

My legs were feeling the kilometers by this stage so once I got home a can of tuna went down the gut before heading to the ancient town of Acco for some fresh humus. Said (pronounced Sah'id) is famous in Israel for him humus so we tucked into our bowl of with some freshly made pita, everyone packed like sardines as you enjoy the meal at the same table with complete strangers picking olives and pickles from a shared bowl. Probably not to everyone's liking but once you've experienced it it makes dining out seem tame.

The afternoon I had some of my natural luck come into play. My first ride on the open road was effected by a puncture. not just any type of puncture but rather a tired shredding screw type puncture that ended my ride prematurely and leaving me stranded on the side of the road waiting for Mirit to come to my rescue. Up until that point though i had been loving it. The iPod playing some great podcasts while the kilometers melted away under my big chain ring. Ended up putting in 60kms and may even have broken that century had I not been stopped in my tracks.

Saturday was the last ride and I managed to do this with the group of some Spider riders. Uriel, Oren, Eliran and Erez. We chugged along at a nice pace but nothing like what i was pushing the day before. Probably better that way but I felt a bit dissapointed that the guys weren't pushing a bit harder. Its like getting a new Ferrari and then going for the leisurely Sunday ride with some VW Beatles. I did manage to gain the theoretic polka dot of the day by out gunning Oren. I basically sat on his wheel as he spun the compact gears very easily, I had to work hard but by the time we were almost at the top i used the power and went for the dash. The feeling on the road is absolutely amazing and can see myself spending some serious time in the saddle getting out and enjoying the open roads.

I hope this makes up for my missed attempt at last months century. I feel great even though I am a bit tight from the hours spent in the saddle. I don't have much of a choice but to do the actual full century next week, leaving it again till the last minute.

Training Camp Day 1 & 2

So the session of pain started yesterday. The fact that the financial situation is looking rather dodgy at the moment we aren't working on Thursdays so I thought I would use this to get myself into some sort of shape for the year ahead seeing as I've been sitting on the tub of lard all winter. So yesterday was the first day of a four day mini training camp. Almost three hours on the bike with most of it base building. The whole point of the weekend is to get as much time in on the bike and not worry about the kilometers. So the century challenge seems like it may be put off for another week although yesterday and today i hit the half mark and seeing as tomorrow is the longest day i might just make it.

Above is Tamir my partner for the Volvo Challenge - Mishmar Ha-Emek. I've been looking for someone with some serious pace as well as marathon staying power. The pace department is set as he is the Israeli Champ for the Masters category and for stamina he did the 24 hour race last year.... solo!!! So I feel I'm going to the race for the first time with someone stronger that can push a bit when I get lazy. But back to the actual training camp.

I went up to Misgav with for training knowing that I would probably warm up with them and then move off in my own direction. WRONG. Ofir decided it would be a good idea to also do some sprint exercises with the guys and then I could continue. This was explosive and after a mini-bonk I quickly got some banana's into my system and carried on riding with Matti and Oren. Half an hour of Base riding was followed by an hour and a half of Zone 3. This was quite fun until at the end I needed to do some cruise intervals. I was feeling the legs but managed it in the end. Cool down back to the car and I was off to the shop to pick up the road bike for the weekend to test ride, and test ride I will with some serious hours.

The afternoon session was an easy ride up to Rosh Hanikra for about an hour and a half. I'm sure I could do this route blindfolded already but its such a perfect ride to get that basic low intensity ride in that I seem to turn to it more often than not. Also a great ride to get to other parts of the north that branch off. I was pedaling thorugh butter after the morning session so I just took it easy. By the time I was almost home I got so ravenously hungry I was going crazy. Got home and ate four peanut butter and banana sandwiches with some honey. Perfect to stave off that monster hiding in my belly. Tomorrow is the long day with six hours of saddle time planned.

PAIN!!!!

Here's my weekend of pain line up. Playing around with GoogleDocs so excuse the bone head link but if the technology is out there I want to try and use it. Looking at sharing my training log this way. I think that Google has a webpage builder to boot so may just create a starter page and see where it leads. I love tinkering.

Its starting to get better

This morning went out for training again. After the weekends wall climbing I'm glad I got some rest in for the week ahead. Got the training program for the weekend for Ofir so its going to be an interesting few days to get me inot some sort of shape. Also finally found a partner for the Volvo Challenge so will be training full steam for that over the next few weeks.
Onto today's training though. We went out for some saddle time and not much in terms of technical stuff. An hour and a half of zone 2/ zone 3 riding with a bit of single track thrown in for good measure. Went out with some really strong guys and we were pushing it quite a bit. I must say that I spent more time in the upper limits but also feeling much better. Really just felt like continuing as the end came, thought about another half an hour but in the end realized I need to get to work.
On a final note I looked at a second hand road bike. Been given permission to look into a road bike from the minister of war and finance. I'll get it for the weekend to put it though its paces and if all goes according to plan I should have a road bike by the end of next week.

Weekend Wall Climbing

Went out for a long ride for Erez to a place called Shimshit. From there were cycled to Nazareth over a few crazy climbs. After the practice my legs were hurting and at the end of this I was done. At the end of the day we did 800m of climbing which is quite a bit for us weekend warriors. I was hoping for a bit of a easy laid back ride.

This was anything but an easy two hour jaunt to get the blood flowing. We hit a epic climb that pushed the heart rate up straight off the bat. We ended up being out there for four hours with about three hours of saddle time. Usually we like to keep the ride time quite close to the overall time but directions were a bit shocking today as we tried to make our way around.

Enjoyed it at the end of the day as good to simply get out there and ride in an area I don't normally get to. The whole place is also full of flowers after the rains that came down and the fact that its starting to warm up for spring. Hoping for a great week of riding ahead.

Erez showing me how to get it done.

The Young Guns

The Financial situation has hit home an dwe're only working a four day week. Ca't say I'm to dissapointed because it means i can concentrate on some cycling. Wanted to do a little mini-training camp over the weekend to push the fitness levels up but woke up yesterday with a pain in my neck. One of those days when you wake up and one of the muscles is pinching the nerves. So didn't do anything other than wince the whole of yesterday.
Today slept in late and then got some stuff sorted out. This afternoon went out for a ride with the youngsters in the team. these guys are fast and strong. With no weight on their bodies and all the fast twitching high heart rate muscles they make the hills seem like flats. GReat getting out there with them when i can but the practice turns into a bit of punishment for me. We did an hour of zone 3 riding or should i say chasing. I basically need to keep up with guys with heart rates at least ten beats lower than mine and much much faster. It made for some interesting riding though and I managed to eventually push them a bit.
Then we had to do some uphill big gear riding. I normally enjoy this session but today it was pure pain. Glad I went up there and spoke with my Ofir about a mini weekend next week. May be better as i can get some guidance from him. Tomorrow I'm off with Erez for a trip so photo's should be forthcoming and you won't have to read the dribble.

Pool Time

Spent about half an hour at the pool today after work. Really being meaning to get some more flipper time in but I get home normally after work completely drained. This evening forced myself out after watching the closing stages of the Paris-Nice. Brilliant watching those machines make it look so easy, Chavenel was a beast as he tour the peleton apart. Be interesting tomorrow when they get into the hills.
The financial situation is hitting home as we have no work this Thursday. Looks like it may continue until the holidays are over. So I'll look on the bright side and see it as a chance to boost my fitness levels. I have plans in my head for a bit of a solo cycling camp. Starting tomorrow I will spend the next four days putting in some serious saddle time and even possibly get the century under my belt. More on this tomorrow as I give it some more thought.

Great Training

Went out for training today with the team up at Misgav. Had an awesome ride with all the guys. The weather was brilliant even though last night I went to bed with spitting from above and the thunder gods starting to get angry. Woke up to perfect weather, I was shivering before the ride but within two turns of the crank I was fine and just glad to be on the bike.

Normally after the weekend race I'm all tight and feeling the legs quite badly. I must have done something correctly after the race because yesterday I was feeling fine and today didn't have any of that lactic kickback of the weekend race. We did just under an hour of riding in zone 2/3 so that was probably another thing that helped towards loosening up the muscles and being able to talk to all the guys from the weekend.

We had some great results as a team and Oren, above, absolutely ripped up the race. He's busy training for the BC Bike Race later in the year so he has been working closely with Ofir(coach) to build up for that. You can see the results as he was stroming the weekend.

After the fun we had to do a little work, some intervals. We did 6 minute cruise intervals repeat thrice. I enjoyed these quite a bit and the last one we had a calf runnning next to us and just didn't want to stop. I even held onto him for a while but he was hauling as, not sure if he was scared or what but he balked like a crazy thing, may need to check for Mad Cow. Ended up with 25km in the saddle, which is quite a bit for a practice where we normally only get up to 18km. So all in all a great training session.

Goals

I've taken the tortoise approach to the season. Slow and steady, more slow than steady but then again the season is changing and getting out of bed in the morning is no longer a chore. After yesterdays race I've decided to get more proactive in my training, by that I mean I will actually spend more time in the saddle than dreaming about longs rides. This has brought me around to thinking that it may be a good idea to set some targets for the year. Seeing as XC is out of the window this year I will concentrate on the marathon championships. I enjoy the longer distances as it gives more opportunity to make up for mistakes. So my main aim of the season is to win the marathon championships come October, this leaves me with a long season to build up to where I want to be. As for smaller targets I will be giving it some thought and putting them down here and trying on a weekly basis to see how far I've come.

Race Day

Done and dusted. First race of the season is done, unfortunately I have some serious work to do if I want to turn this little piece of silver into gold. Had a great race and finished 2nd in the Sport category. I will be sorting out the signing up to the Israeli Cycling Federation in the next week or so and then its up to the Expert level. Think i will suffer plenty with the big boys but I'm not doing this for the medals(although they are nice). I really want to push myself but because the season is long, I mean the peak need to be in October so I will concentrate getting some base training in for the next few months. Told my coach I want to sit with him and go over what I need to do to accomplish my goals.

Pre-race spin

Tomorrow is my first race of the season so I went out to the course for a spin of the legs after I did the couch potato thing yesterday. Glad to get the gunk out of the system before tomorrow. I must say that I'm not as pump as usual. My lack of fitness is sort of holding me back for getting to phsyced about the race. I'm also racing in the sport category again becasue I didn't sign up for the Israel Cycling Federation. So I will get that done in the next week.

I met one of my competitors from last year also warming up. He has gone up to the Expert level now so at least I can see that there will be some new faces around. I will need to get my focus on although I'm setting my sights on the marathons rather than the XC. XC seems to have more of the shine but I like slogging it out a bit on the longer distances, gives me a bit more time to make up for any silly mistakes.

Before the ride went up the the shop to get some suppliers, oil and what not. Also replaced my rear brake pads. they were worn donw pretty badly which is another indication to me that I have not been paying much attention to my two wheeled friend. Things are about to change, spring is upon us and today was uber warm making it my first ride with just a bib and shirt.

After the rains the tracks were pretty muddy but after two warmish days and todays pre-bake the track feels like it has been laid down specially for us. So smooth it unreal which makes them really fast. Need to pay attention becasue there are some vicious rocks strewn around and the extra speed may just bring those little bald headed bastards into my path.

The ride was really easy as I only did one loop on the track. Didn't want to over exert myself but the heart rate still climbed along with the steep uphills. This little monster below they save for us right till the end. It is one where yo can make up some time and I'm hoping tomorrow to just stay with the front runners toss the coin.

The legs are back

For the first time this year I actually felt like I was riding without needing to worry about the legs. So far this year I've been turning concrete but this morning was a whole new animal. It might have had something to do with the three hours spent cleaning the bike last night. I reckon I need to start replacing some parts because there is still a grinding on each turn.

Went out with Freddy, Shloosh and Shaked today. They are monsters that only have one pace, fast. I really enjoy riding with them and I've seemed to fall into a Wednesday morning routine that I may just keep up for the year. Wednesdays are normally the hardest day of the week for me becasue the travelling finally sets in and I'm like a zombie by the time I get home. Well the morning ride helps get the blood flowing and gives me that boost till lunch time. Maybe need to get a pair of running shoes and go for a run at lunch time.

We went up to Rosh HaNikra along the coast and then into the banana fields. We were in a train as soon as the legs we warm. I really felt great and pulled for some long sptetches and actually outwitted Shloosh on our weekly sprint for one of the gates. Seems to have become an informally little sprint and we really winded up today with Freddy leading us out brilliantly. I jumped out as Shloosh came past and he slingshot me to the line. Grreat stuff

Cleaning Time

Just a quick one seeing as I just spent three hours cleaning the junk and gunk off of my trusty stead. Inspired by Mirit as I got home to a sparkly home so headed out to the shed and started the spit and polish. Still not where it needs to be but definitely race ready. Removed quick releases, dismantled seating and even removed the chain for a thorough clean. So I'm ready for tomorrow's ride and looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow should be interesting, hooking up with Shaked and looking at getting together with Oren for the Volvo Challenge at Mishmar HaEmek. I'm hoping this year will be much better than last years dissapointing start that ended up being the finish.

We start with the Mud

So my season actually started today. Well at least any serious form of effort towards racing this year. We have a race coming up in our backyard this Saturday and thought it would be a great idea to get me started. Can't say that I've really gotten going this year with my racing scene as can be witnessed with Trio's Challenge so I really need to start wimping out when there's a bit of rain or if the morning chill seems like it would be so much better to stay in bed.

Well this morning was one of those mornings that I would have stayed in bed. The ride to training the drizzle started and I knew it would be a crazy practice. I get up to Misgav and the rain is about to come down and I get my bike out the car and put everything in place only to realize that my quick release on the seatpost was lying the workbench at home. Luckily I was able to organize one from one of the bikes in the club house. So off we set with the rain deciding to promptly join us.

I must say though that I had a great practice. Went around the race route and I did the Elite track on my first lap and then the sport on the second. Because I haven't signed up to the Israeli Cycling Federation I can only race in the sport category so I've feeling pretty good about the fact that its will not be such a serious race. Only two laps and no serious climbs, not that my fitness is anything near where it was last year this time. So the season starts. Lets see how the next six weeks go when I race my first marathon.

I've decided to concentrate on the marathons this year as the Championship for XC is exactly at the time of our wedding. So this has been the main reason for me not having any motivation for racing. Don't get me wrong I'm super happy about the big day but I will be concentrating on the marathons. the champs for the marathon is in October and the one thing I learnt from last year is that trying to keep fitness for so long just isn't going to work. So i need to start working on my base and this is what the next few weeks will be concentrating on.