I want to be a better cyclist - Goal for 2018

"I want to be a better cyclist" is easier said than done. I have always had the best intentions to commit myself to training, body maintenance as well as strength and core training, but life gets in the way.

I know that setting a goal like “Tour of Bright” will be out of the question as I am not at the calibre of a cyclist and will not be able to cope of that type of racing – TT, (hilly) road race and finishing off with a Mt Hotham climb, an event where each stage is held one day after the other. My capacity is to put all my eggs in a basket for one event and then recover for days after it.

With my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) – my body is not able to perform and recover the way most people can. I get DOMS after a short walk, pilates or massages. My goals for 2018 is to improve on different areas of my cycling, accumulating into being able to finish the Giro della Donna in November in a respective time of 4:30 (ave speed 16km/hr).

Descending

My descending skills (along with cornering) had improved within 2017 but unfortunately the fall of last year’s GdD has put a large hole in my confidence. I will work on this for the next few months to gain my confidence back again to be able to descend comfortably to make up for the decrease of speed when I am climbing. Climbing at my current weight is hard work.

Power to Weight

There is no hiding the fact that my power to weight ratio is low. My FTP is low as I lack the endurance, tend to burn much of my fuel early and my weight has increased >10kg since 2015 when I stopped running due to the increase frequency and severity of my injuries and also due to hormonal imbalances from having severe fibroids.

I do have the capabilities to lose fat % but the issue I have is to find the balance between fuelling my body for cycling and being tired from the lack of energy. At my lowest weight during the height of Ironman training, I found myself without strength. I also don’t want to be an food-obsessed-Nazi-elitist, life is too short.

Strength & Core

I will need to see what I can do with regards to working on strength in the gym along with my Pilates core sessions. I started to do Pilates on Monday mornings and I find this day to be the best as it gives my body a chance to recover sufficiently before the Tuesday morning Lead Out sessions. There is no need for me to wake up too early as the Pilates session starts at 6am and it only takes me 15-20min to drive to South Melbourne for the Beginners class. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have to get out of bed at 4:30am to get to training sessions around Melbourne.

Spinning

I have never been good at spinning (high cadence). I used to climb Benwerrin and 1in20 on the large chain ring but at a low cadence. Low cadence = lower heart rate. I also don’t have fast-twitch muscles so even if I am able to increase my cadence, I don’t hold it for more than a few minutes. I will need to work on high power and high cadence work during my spin classes and if I use wattbikes I will opt for the Pro versions if I have a choice.

These are some of the factors I will need to work on as part of my cycling training towards being a better cyclist and being able to complete events at a respectable time. I will continue training and improve with Lead Out Cycling, their guidance and support have had a major contribution to the improvements I had in 2017.

#Festive500 for 2017

Apologies for the delay of this post related to the #Festive500, I avoided my laptop for the holidays. For the 2nd year in a row, I finished the 500km and I completed it over 6 days. The Festive500 is a challenge to ride 500km between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve (8 days). In 2016, I finished this over 7 days with an average of 70km per day but this year, I stepped it up to an average of 80km per day and finished in 6 days.

Day 1
The first day was Christmas Eve (24th Dec) which was a Sunday. I did a solo ride towards Frankston then up to Café Racer and then back home. This was a 85km day but as it was my first long ride since the Giro crash, I took it relatively easy and manageable.  There was a Southerly so the ride down to Frankston was a bit of a tough one. I was mostly in the small chain ring and tried to spin out >80rpm as much as I could.

Day 2
I have been riding on Christmas Day for many years. I have not celebrated Christmas for years and years. The roads was not surprisingly quiet. I rode up to Sharon & Pete's house in Port Melbourne after riding a lap of Albert Park and the group ride went down to Black Rock and back to Port Melbourne. I had a small break at their house and then I ended up riding about 30 or so more around the neighbourhood, relatively relaxed which made up the shortest ride of 80km for the challenge.

Day 3
I didn't get a chance to do many laps of Albert Park Lake on Christmas Day so this day was dedicated to doing laps of the park, incorporating sprints and some skill work. As this ride was done by myself, I could practice on my no-hands on handlebars skills as much as I could. I got up to 6 pedal strokes but I find that my position on the saddle needs to be adjusted so I can remain balanced. I worked on sprint efforts along the pit straight too. I need to find the balance between higher cadence and heavy gears. After doing 30km or so around the lake, I rode down to Mordialloc and then back home which resulted in my longest day of 95km.

Day 4
The 27th Dec was my bday and also a day where strong gusts of hot Northerly winds were present. I decided to stay away from Beach Road and rode towards Studley Park instead. The ride towards Studley Park from home is already 20km. My plan was to ride both Studley Park and Richmond Blvd for 40km and then ride home. I bumped into Nat (from LOC) and we ended up riding together which alleviated my boredom. The ride home was enjoyable as I had a great northerly tailwind. The total ride for the day 83km.

Day 5
I slept in a bit more than the previous days and my friend Dayna messaged me whilst I was getting ready for the ride. We rode together, doing the same route as Day 1 but I had 2km extra as we ended up the ride at her house so I could visit her 10month old daughter.

Day 6
I only needed to do 70km for the day to finish the challenge. Dayna and I planned on doing the same route as Day 1 and 5 so I was sure that I was going to finish the #Festive500 on this day. We ended up bumping into friends and we chatted along the way through and even stopped at Café Racer for a coffee/tea break.

I was so glad I finished the challenge and I slept in for the remainder of the days of the challenge. My glutes really needed a break and I wanted the remainder of the holidays to be dedicated to cleaning my car and my house.


It is too early to plan for #Festive500 for 2018 as I don't know if I will be able to ride during the holidays or not but I will definitely look into either increasing the distance or try and complete the challenge over 5 days (ave 100km per day).