12/12 Nice commute today, except the calf was a little sore from the cramp on Saturday. 42min.
17, 18 & 19 Deck Squats. Bit of a catch up with all the riding over the weekend

13/12 Calf's a bit better today 39min Commute & 20 Deck Squats
45min KB class of fun.
With the big weekend on the bike & that virus I had, has put me at the lightest I've been in 5 years at 60.1kg. Is this good is yet to be seen.

Big weekend on the bike

10/12 Race day at the Gazebo 3hr out at the You Yangs was a little warmer than expected , hitting 35C in the sun at 11am. Should have brought more fluid as it was only meant to reach 28C.

There was a great turn out of 125 riders for a spin on the flat course. This course is not one for the single speed & I knew it was going to hurt. As I was still only feeling about 90% after that virus, I took the start at a moderate intensity & slotted in with 2 other single speeders into the first of the single track in about the top 40. The tracks were dry, dusty & very loose in places. The course was good for a singles speed but on the fast sections spinning at 195rpm to reach 42kpm hurt too much to do more than once. Held it together pretty well until the 2:30hrs, when I ran out of fluid & the battle began with some cramps. Felt a lot better on the bike than I had any right to, I managed 6th in B grade or 25th overall. Was happy as I was the fastest of the single speeds. It was fast with 69km with 574m climbing covered in 3:00:59hrs. Gears would have made a big difference, but I had a great time racing the single speed, so I thinks I'm going to stick with this set-up for the series.

11/12 Back out on the Single speed again today for a ride on the fun trails between Bells beach & Anglesea. The trails were in great condition with just a few puddles from Saturday nights rain. Ended up doing 2:30hr of playing, with only one of the climbs bringing me to a grinding halt, which I expected as I usually climb it in 26x32 & it's hard to get up it in this gear. Felt good after yesterday, but the climbs today did rip the legs apart.

8/12 Nice commute 39min. Converted the Mountain bike back to Singlespeed, as I'm thinking of race it like this for this weekends Gazebo 3hr on Saturday. Not coughing as much of a Lung up today, hopefully I should be almost right by Saturday. Big thing I've noticed, is even though I'm still eating fine the body has been stressed with the Virus as I've lost almost 2kg in 10 days.

Deck Squats 15

9/12 Commute 40min & 16 Deck Squats
45min KB class. Did the same work-out as on Tuesday, they weren't happy with the rest option.

28/11 Easy commute 41min
5 Deck Squats

29/11 - 3/12 Sick with a narsty Virus. Couldn't do anything, a walk around the block required a 3hr nap to recover. Been 15yrs since I've felt this bad

4/12 Did a small work-out & deck Squat catch up
Deck Squats 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11
Squats 44kg 6min 60reps. Bar stayed on back whole time
20min spin on the bike coughing up all of both Lungs

5/12 42min Commuted only coughing up 1.5 lungs today
Deck Squats 12

6/12 42min commute & only 1 lung coughed up, so I'm getting better
Deck Squats 13
45min KTB Class with all rest taken in push-up position
Around body pass 2 x 20
OA Swings 30es
Snatch 8 x 8es
Cleans 4 x 15es
OA Jerks 6 x 8es

7/12 Short work-out
Deck Squats 2 x 20 & my 14 for the day
Cleans 6 x 10 40kg.
Legs still haven't recovered from the squats on Sunday, so they hurt today. Body about 85% of normal function

Forest Festival

It looks like I chose the right race to do with the weather conditions not being the best on Saturday.
Stage 1 was meant to be a 15km loop with about 11km of single track. Thought they would send us up the road & then onto the fire Rd before we hit the single track, to spread the field out on the Rd climb. This didn't happen, 200 riders after about 300m when into this narrow path with room for one rider. Didn't get the best of starts & got stuck in heavy traffic which ended up taking me the next 20min to get a clear trail with very little points to pass. The next problem was that I didn't know the course & so was holding back a little towards the end when I came insight of the finish tent & crosses the line with 11.6km showing on the speedo with 260m of climbing. This put me in second. Just before the end of the stage it started raining lightly. So headed back to the car to get dry & warm. Then the rain set-in.

Stage 2 was the 5km hill climb which was again short at 4.2km. Sitting around for 2:15hr watching the rain come down didn't help the legs at all, just couldn't get going all stage. Just felt like there was nothing in the legs at all. Came 6th on a stage that should have suited me.

Stage 3 was the timed descent back to the start of the climb. With dead legs just couldn't get going & had no flow and only managed 5th on the stage. Was a little cautious due the the crash a couple of months ago, because that's still rattling around in my head.

So I was 4:50min off 1st & 1:50 off second.

It to the car we headed back home & it to the flooding all around Geelong. Water was everywhere & it was nice to know my day was over unlike those doing the Garmin 24hr.

Stage 4 was a 50km loop with around 35kmor more of single track. The decision was do I ride for 3rd with 4th only about 30sec behind, or do I go for the win. Well no question I went for it. I kept within striking distance of Tim who was leading for 30km and then lack of training & racing started to take it's toll. At the 2hr mark I was done & struggled on to the finish, dropping 6min on the riders I was riding with, for a time of 2:45:37hrs. Just couldn't get the HR up with it dropping 15 - 20bpm.

So in the end I ended up in 4th, which considering the amount of training & racing I've done is a good result. Next year the results will be different.
It was a great race, well done to Norm & the crew for putting it on. We did get rain, but it just made things more interesting & the trails held up well.

26/11 1:11:57hrs 448m climbing, 3 deck squats

27/11 2:45:37hrs 831m Climbing, 4 deck Squats

24/11 Easy 38min commute just ticking over
1 Deck Squat

25/11 42min commute 3 x 3min at race pace to blow the cobwebs out for the next 2 days of racing
2 Deck Squats

I'm looking forward to the race. Have no real expectations, has I haven't been training as much lately. It will be interesting to see how racing on the Tubulars go over the weekends as I'm keeping the Tufo XC2 Plus tyres on & it looks as if we are going to get wet & muddy. At least I'll get to sleep this year, not like for the last 8yrs at the 24hr.

Jeff's shed training session Rosanna 3/12/11

Hi Everyone,
                   I'm running a training session at Rosanna Parklands, Bachli Ct, Rosanna 2:00pm Sat 3/12. A mix of KB, Sled, MB and other training. Hope to see you there.


Cheers
Jeff