A few km's on the bike and my longest ride

I am flying out to Canberra tomorrow so over the past week I’ve been trying to do as much riding as I can, as I’m not taking my bike away with me. I just missed out on clocking up 400km for the week as I finished with 386km. I wanted to summarise my longest ride for the week, which was also my longest all time ride of 178.6km.

Thankfully we were leaving at 8am, which allowed me to have a little bit of a sleep in. I was riding with my cycling coach and also a mate who was coming along for part of the journey. It was 30km to where we were meeting, so that meant that I had already been riding for an hour before we even started. We were headed for Yungaburra, which is situated on the Atherton Tablelands and included the longest climb in Cairns, the Gillies, which is 19km long. I had been riding everyday of the week so my legs were a little bit tired when this ride began and I struggled a little bit going over the climb, but I managed to keep a steady pace and ended up doing my best time up there.

For Cairns weather it was pretty cold for the most part of the morning hovering around 15 degrees celsius. As we came to the lookout, my mate turned around and my coach and I continued on. It was about 20-30km of very undulating riding before we came to Yungaburra and I must say, the coffee shop was well awaited and I enjoyed the short sit down that we had. A quick coffee and some very delicious scones were eaten before we got back on the bike.

The ride home was much easier, although there were some short but steep climbs to overcome before we came to the decent on the Gillies range. I must say that by this time were legs were feeling quite shattered and the 19km decent back to Gordonvale was very nice. Thankfully Steve (my coach) didn't push the pace and was nice enough to wait for me if I dropped off the pace. We kept a steady pace back into Cairns, but by now, my energy levels were depleted and I had consumed all my food. I stopped at a Night Owl and devoured a can of coke before holding myself back as I rode home with a tailwind.

I came home feeling not as bad as I thought I would have and after about 1650 metres of climbing for the day and with an average speed of about 29km/h I felt really good, having enough energy to go fishing a few hours later. It was a tough ride and after just over six hours in the saddle, by backside was definitely starting to get sore, but it was all worth it, now knowing that mentally and physically I am strong enough to do something like that.

I didn't get any photos from the day, but I hope to get some out running, when I’m in Canberra over the next week.

What it's like in the peloton

Awesome video from Giant Shimano rider John Degenkolb during the sprint on stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse. Gives a real insight as to what it's like in the final kilometres of a professional race.



Via Kottke.

Catch Up and Criterium Race Report

So, I’ve been quite busy lately and haven’t had a lot of time to post about anything. A fair bit has been going on in terms of road racing and full triathlon training as well as my schoolwork.

Two Sundays ago I raced in the Cairns Cycling Club road race down in Bramston Beach and was able to come away with a 3rd place finish and I am super stoked about that. I rode tactically well and was just unlucky not to finish in 2nd.

Last Sunday saw me race in the Cairns Cycling Club criterium. I really struggled to get out of bed that morning as it was quite cold (13°) and I had become over tired from training that week. I knew that if I had one extra hard day then I was able to sleep all day Monday. There wasn’t a very big field as there was also a mountain bike race on, but the six riders to turn up were not slackers at all and I still knew that it would be a hard race. It was more than difficult to get my legs going even after a ride to the venue as part of a warm up, so I tried to do as little work as possible and conserve my energy. There were a small number of short attacks but I was able to follow all of them and no one was able to get away. Thankfully! As we came down to three laps to go, there were only three riders left including myself. We all started to look at each other, wondering if anyone was going to go early. Shortly into the last lap, one rider attacked and I predicted that this would happen so I was able to quickly shut down his move and follow his wheel. That left two of us until about the last 300m when the other rider caught back up. As he tried to pass I followed his wheel to get a good lead out for the sprint. As we crested the small hill leading into the finish and we could see the finish line, I opened up my sprint. Passing the rider who gave me the lead out, I pushed as hard as I could and was able to take the win by a clear bike length. I was over the moon, after finishing so many A grade races in 2nd, 3rd and 4th; finally being able to get the win was the best feeling.

Taking the win in the criterium on Sunday.

I have been swimming hard as well over the past week and I think that training everyday has left me a little tired. I slept for most of Monday and now I’m feeling much better.

I am heading away next week as my sister is having a baby so I’m trying to do a heap of kilometres on the bike this week as I wont get to ride for a week. I am also still running as I have state cross-country in around four weeks and I’m really hoping to do well there.

Only 3 riders left.

Cairns Ironman 70.3 Teams Event

Yesterday saw me compete in the Cairns Ironman 70.3 event as a team where I was to be the cyclist. It was a little bit of a funny story because I received a message on Thursday evening asking whether or not I would like to ride for a team and without hesitation I said yes. I had heard that my team was from Brisbane and that I would receive a call sometime on Friday to confirm that I could do it. Friday came and I got the call and that afternoon I met the lady who was going to run at the teams check in. On Saturday I had not met the swimmer and I thought we would have had a chance to meet. I then found out that the swimmer was unavailable to meet and that we would catch up on race morning. Sunday morning came and got a text message from the swimmer saying that she had found my bike in transition, but I got to the transition a little late and then realised I left my electrolytes at home. This caused some panic and forced us to rush back home and get it. Meanwhile, I had still not met the lady who was swimming so I had no idea who to look for when she came out of the water.

Sunday morning was quite miserable and the rain hadn't eased off at all throughout the night. This made everything more difficult because the transition was a mud pit and everyone was trying to keep dry. I stood in transition with my helmet on waiting at my bike. The first swimmers came through and lots of age group athletes started to head out onto the bike leg and I was still standing there. Suddenly this lady comes running up and says. "Cahn?" I responded with. "Yes!" whilst taking off the timing chip and putting it onto my ankle. I had told a few people standing near me about what happened and as I grabbed my bike off the rack I said, "Nice to meet you," before running off and hearing everyone laughing.

The ride was extremely tough yet durable due to the wet conditions and I witnessed a crash within the first few kilometres. I tried to stay in my aero bars for as long as possible even though it may have felt easier to sit up. I felt good and I was flying along averaging about 38km/h and I had my first gel at the 30minute mark. I was catching a lot of people and by the turn around I felt as though my legs were still fresh.

Around the 50km mark I started to become uncomfortable on my saddle and I put this down to the fact that my set up wasn't very good because it was last minute and also because my saddle isn't triathlon specific. I pushed through the pain as I knew I didn't have to run off the bike so I could come into transition absolutely smashed. As I came back into the northern suburbs of Cairns I found myself leading a small group of riders and by this stage only four riders had passed me. I was feeling really strong despite the head wind that I was faced with and with ten kilometres to go I 'hit the wall' and from that point I struggled to hold 26km/h. I realised that I didn't take in enough food while I was riding and this was the punishment I was given. I never realised how brutal it was and it just happened so quickly. I started eating as much as I could and with only a few kilometres to go I was able to get my speed back to around 32-33km/h.

I got back into town and completed the 90km in 2hr:35min. This is a pretty good time and something I'm happy with. Although Sunday was a big learning day for me and I have a lot to take away for next year. My team ended up finishing in 5th out of the mixed teams and 19th out of 181 teams overall. We raced really well and I already have my team worked out for next year.

Finishing off the 90km ride of the Ironman 70.3 event

Coral Coast Triathlon 2014

Over the weekend I raced in the Coral Coast Triathlon up in Port Douglas. After winning the open male sprint last year I had high expectations of myself for 2014, but I knew that I could only do my best. I was registered to race in the open male age group again for the sprint distance which meant that there was a fair chance that the majority of the athletes would be grown men.

The atmosphere in transition that morning was rather chilled out, until I realised that I had left my goggles in the car which was parked a few kilometres away. Once I had retrieved those I walked the 750m down to the swim start line. The water was rather choppy and that didn't suit me especially since I have had a lack of swim training. I struggled throughout the swim leg but knew once I was out of the water I would be able to make up some ground. I think that I exited the water in sixth position in my category and I was 22nd of about 157 competitors overall. I thought that this was pretty good considering I haven't done a lot of swimming.

Once I was onto my bike I felt a lot more comfortable because I had been working at this leg in particular. I had a very good average speed at 40.49km/h for the 20km bike ride and I managed to claw my way back through the field to get off the bike in what I think was 2nd place. There was only one person ahead of me from and he was from Townsville and I knew that from past races I wasn't going to be able to catch him on the run, so the next best thing was to not let anyone pass me when I hit Four Mile beach to start the run.

The only person to pass me on the cycle leg was a local triathlete and he never got too far from me because I jumped off my bike next to him. I flew through 2nd transition (T2) and hit the beach to start my 5km run. As I ran south along the beach there was a a rather large head wind which made running difficult, but when I reached the turn around at 1.25km it turned into a tailwind which was very much awaited. This allowed me to increase my running pace which made me feel like I was running really strong. My run wasn't as fast as it usually is but I think the wind was a factor because I still felt like I was running really strong and fast.

I felt really good throughout the whole race and I ran myself into 2nd place overall, although this is such a good position I am a little disappointed because last year I won the open age group. Hopefully next year I can come back even stronger and win the race.