And finally...the first 25 min test

With more downhill swoops on my fitness graph than the recent stock market indicators, finally this coming up week sees the first of my 25 min tests. Given my currently appalling recovery capability, the approach is going to be a slow one ie this time I will be going at what ever speed 160 watts gives me, check out what that gives me, how I feel then try again a bit later..the following week perhaps.

Work continues to be extremely busy..this Friday I was part of an interviewing panel from 9-2pm NON STOP. I was wrecked afterwards. Totally irritable and quite dizzy..although why dizzy is a bit of an interesting result...must google "dizzy" and find out all the reasons..see if interviewing for 5 hrs is a common theme!!!!! My stint as Acting Manager is coming to a close. The power to alter things that have been a problem for a long time has been very satisfying, so I've had all the fun and none of the overall heavy burden of responsibility.

On the bike side Alex has returned from Europe and the pair of us are enjoying planning next year's trip. His World Champs are in Poland during the same week that the World Masters Road champs are on( I have my eye on bettering my PB for the TT). We envisage going over early, spending time on road/MTB (me/him) bikes then separating to go to our various events. I rather fancy visiting Czech republic and Austria...July/August is a very touristy month, so perhaps not France, although I'd like to ride Galibier and Mont Ventoux before age and decrepitude put it out of the question.

In the meantime a bit of retail therapy is called for: we both plan on buying the Ride Blue.com TT bikes later this year but right now I'm spending my hard earned bikkies on a Zipp double wheel bag..the oval one. I can't imagine why all double wheel bags aren't oval, since with the round ones, the axles abut each other and end up being hard to zip closed. Gipiemme used to make one too, but I haven't managed to find where to get one

I also need to buy a set of these babies to provide a more aero aspect to my Corima 4 spoke front wheel. I've had the wheel for years and years and only just discovered (was shown) that it can accept a threaded thingey in stead of a skewer! Hmm.

And finally, with regard to the way the Masters aspect of the sport is administered in this country..it leaves me tearing my hair out. The rules say our toad TT's should be 20km...the State TT this year is 11.4km...two laps would be fine, but of course there'd be confusion (quote) if we all were to ride 2 laps. The solution is simple and is done every time that there is a TT around the rowing course at Penrith, NSW ..you send the athletes off a 30 second intervals in groups of say 20 with a gap to allow most if not all to finish before te next lot start so there is no overlap....sigh.

MTBO relays

As last leg rider Alex went out into the forest with his team sitting in 20th position. A good ride was needed to bring them up into where they deserved to be which was in the early to mid teens, (Adrian Jackson, Australia's gun rider, didn't travel this year due to a family bereavement..had he been there a different story would have been told) .

And he did it, coming in 9th fastest on the last leg he brought his team up to 15th position...well done Alex, a great ride under immense pressure.

For anyone looking at the results 2 things need clarification.

Firstly only one national team features in the results, so Alex's team was 15th in the results but 17th over the line as both France and Russia had 2 teams faster than the Aussies. Actually when it was live, the results had Aus 2 as 14th, but somehow the UK team's results hadn't featured.

Secondly, why was the stronger team called Aus2? Superstition. What happened was that in one of the very early World Championships Aus 2, then the weaker team, beat Aus 1 and if memory serves did it in another year too, or maybe did it in the womens race as well. Whatever. When the fickle finger of fate talks to you like that, you listen and since then the stronger team is always called Aus 2 and has always been the faster team.

Lesson...don't mess with fate!

Alex's magnificent adventures and my rest week

Alex

So, apart from the relays, the 2007 World MTBO Championships have been run and won. The best Australian places were taken out by Alex in the Sprint(14), his mate Paul in the Middle distance(18) and Alex again in the long(18). As it should be in a World championships, the times were tight; lose a minute and you lost 6 places. Alex's hope of an individual podium place (top 10 in MTBO champs) was not achieved, but he will be happy with his endeavours as the competition is getting harder and he's improving his results. His sports psychology sessions dealing with focusing were worth the effort and cost, with the splits reflecting that he no longer made a series of major errors..just singletons..sometimes big singletons;he had a very bad day in the middle distance race. Now he can ease off the MTB pressure for a while and look forward to developing his undoubted road time trialling skills. Oh, and earn some $$$ to repay me all those loans.....!!!

Me

What a week! First I discovered that once you have developed one problem, you can become sensitive to other things. My BPPV is an inner ear problem and I also usually wear multifocal glasses. The two do NOT mix well. Despite the fact that I've worn them forever, suddenly they were making me seasick. It took me a couple of days to realise there were 2 problems, but once I changed to single focal length glasses, most of my dizziness slowly vanished.. The BPPV is still there and always will be lurking somewhere, but not the all day dizziness I was experiencing from Friday to Wednesday.

Then some twit in a large Landcruiser with a roo bar on the front failed to stop behind me, causing grievous bodily harm to my tailgate. Actually I wasn't too distressed because I've twice backed into a wall, scratched the bumper with the bikes and had two cars cause damage of a "too small to get it fixed" level..so the end result is a better looking car at no expense to me.

And finally I had news that Jayson Austin has pulled out of making an attempt at the hour record for health reasons. He's had a couple of fairly bad crashes this year and last, plus never really recovered from his successful unofficial attempt. Memo to self...don't plan anything strenuous for a month or so post effort.

And finally, finally I'm going to see the film "T he Flying Scotsman" the Graeme O'Bree story..should be interesting. I read his book; a soul searching tale of a brilliant misfit, jerked around by officialdom. Not a comfortable read.

Endurance Training, MTBO and hour record people

Resting up after a 4 hour ride through an undulating part of rural Victoria I'm musing all about recovery. Personally I'm poor at structured recovery techniques beyond dragging on the compression garment (skins) and/or lying/sitting with my legs elevated. Apart from eating and drinking heaps...after all isn't that one of the reasons I go for long rides???

I recently found an interesting article which claims to debunk the recovery method of dunking oneself in a tub of iced water. I'd have to say there's NO way you'd get me to do that even if I was told it was the key to a certain rainbow jersey/world record/gold medal... I can't even bring myself to take a cold shower! so they can debunk as much as they want...wont make any difference to me!

Methods do change though; stretching has gone through many re-incarnations but a couple who visit my gym at the same time as me are set somewhere in the stone age. Their idea of stretching is ballistic to the nth degree and is so painful to watch I have to take my glasses off so I can't see them properly; I'm waiting for his hip adductors to tear. The gym manager says they've tried to explain the more modern approach but apparently he's a martial arts person from way back and knows what he's doing(!).

Alex is in Poland now, check out the blog..that's him in the pale blue Spoke(n) gear.

So to today's ride, designated LSD. It was a "Tour de Rural Industries" an interesting ride from a scenery POV but VERY undulating..check out the elevation by clicking at the bottom of the map. We passed agistments, wineries, many many ducks, nurseries, cheese places (well we went through Gruyere, so we're assuming there), vegetable farms, berry farms and dairy++. We also passed the Sylvan dam which is now 89.8% full. My gears decided to play up by going into "auto change" mode, which made me think twice about standing up on the pedals and on one hill the chain slipped off the chain ring completely. If I'd had any idea how to fix it, I would have done so, but I don't ...I just ride the thing. Intensity factor and Training stress score are w-a-a-y high and so they should be, the way I feel right now.

And finally, Shirley Amy has gone public and has decided she WILL go for the hour record for 55-59 yr olds. Shirley and I have crossed paths many, many times on road and more recently on the track; she is a strong rider and I have no doubts that she will create a good record.

I now have the correct stem for Stewy the blue bikey and that will be fitted tomorrow, with a visit to the velodrome on Tuesday am. If I can find someone to help me pump up the Ghibli's I think its about time I gave them an airing.

133 days to go.

Farewelling Alex..off to Europe for the World MTBO Championships

Today my older son Alex heads off to Europe for his 5th MTB Orienteering championships held this year in the Czech Republic. The team is diminished this year by the absence of its no.1 male rider Adrian Jackson whose father is critically ill.

Alex has all the attributes to do well but has had extremely patchy results, doing brilliantly for part of a race and then losing it totally over a few controls before picking up again.

After the trials, he finally acknowledged that he needed some help in the focus/concentration department and so I sponsored him for a few sessions with Paulette Mifsud, a Sports Psychologist who is very familiar with orienteering. Hopefully the work they did together will show some results as he has worked extremely hard to do well. He's looking forward not only to getting over there for the racing but also the weather...and I'm jealous. Both of us are weather wimps and suspect that, had we lived in UK or Europe, would have chosen an indoor sport!!!

The Aus team MTBO champs blog is slowly cranking into gear as the team members gather for pre champs competitions.

So, Alex... good luck, good riding, good decision making, good everything. Fingers well and truly crossed for a podium place.

Plans, MTBO world champs and a barista course

The powertap is back in use..it was in need of a battery change. Apparently the model I have needs a change every 400-500 kms. This doesn't quite follow as this is only my 3rd lot of batteries and its done 6217 km. Maybe the original batteries are of a better quality...the type the the duracell bunny runs on?

This week I've been resting, shivering in the cold, doling out wise owl advice to my friend/occasional training partner (fixmawheel blog) and enjoying the final days in my elevated position as "Acting Manager" rather than my usual senior worker ant position.

Plans for the next week are threshold training, the women's racing forum and enjoying the result of Alex's birthday present...a barista course. I have TT races on 1/7, 8/7 and 21/7 and will be farewelling Alex as he flies out on 11/7 for the World MTB Orienteering Championships in the Czech Republic . As I write this he is grinding out mega efforts on the trainer to a VERY LOUD Rammstein song...is it any wonder our parquetry floor is beginning to show signs of separating.

Orienteering is a very difficult sport. Not only do you have to be very, very fit, you also have to be able to problem solve correctly while at near threshold pace. Your eyesight needs to be good as you have to read and accurately interpret a topographical map while either running or riding. You have to have good control of your focus too, changing from the narrow focus of map reading to the wider focus of checking out the terrain...all while under competitive and aerobic stress. On top of that you have to have confidence in your decisions and interpretation and not be distracted by others around you who you know are doing the same course as you, but are not going about it the way you are.

And the trick is to compete on the knife edge of your skills...balancing speed and navigational accuracy/perfect route choices.

While competing you are so "in the moment" that later on you are able to say exactly where you went, what your decisions were and why, who you saw etc etc. By later on I not only mean just after your race, I also mean years later. I can vividly remember details from many, many orienteering races from 1975 on, but can recall few details of last Saturday's road race.

Orienteering, whether on foot or MTB, is a beautiful, frustrating, complex sport that may not survive the increasing petrol prices here in Aus as the bush(forests) is (are) a long way from the population centres.