It's been a while.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as I'm sure you're well aware, i haven't posted in a while. The main reason for this, is that i have recently come back from a six week trip to Europe. The trip to Europe consisted of a flight, from Australia, to Dubai ( i know that's not in Europe). That flight was around 16 hours. We stayed in Dubai for about 3 days. From there, we flew into Italy. Rome to be exact. Following that we stayed in Venice and Iseo. After that we took a train down to France and stayed in the alps. We stayed in two more places in France (by the way, the country side is phenomenal). Following that, we went to Germany (Dresden, Berlin and Munich) I think, overall that Germany was my favourite place.

I have been back almost 2 weeks today now. So, i shall do as much as i can in terms of recalling my training.

We landed at about 5AM on Thursday (2 weeks ago). I went to sleep when i got home (around 7AM) and then woke up at about 4:30PM. Once i woke up i got ready and headed to training. As a result of six weeks off, all of the weights are reset. I started the session with 70kg squats, sounds light, right? It felt light. However, the following days were pained by DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). After Squats i jumped right into Press. The weight was also lowered to around 35kgs. After that was Dead lifts. All of the weights went up.

Two days later, still suffering the effects of DOMS, i had training at DISC. Because I hadn't ridden a bike for over 6 weeks, I managed to throw up straight after the warmup. Good fun. We did gate starts that day and I was fairly happy with them. My power numbers weren't too down and neither was my time out of the gate. I haven't lost any technique.

Two days later again, after finally recovering from DOMS i had, you guessed it, gym. Gym was fairly similar to Thursday, increasing in squat weight, by 5kgs. I also did bench press and power cleans. Everything went up.

On the wednesday I was at DISC again, i managed not throwing up this time, which was good. Unfortunately i can't remember what i did at that stage...


On the Thursday all of the weights went up, I am happy about this. The progression is steady.

The next Saturday I was told that I was to go for a road ride instead. This was so that i am not over working myself. So I did, i ended up going for a nice easy 65km ride.

Monday, more gym. Squats, bench and power cleans. All went up. I'm looking forward to getting to some heavier weights where it is a bit more challenging.

On the Wednesday we did motor bike efforts. I was doing something a little bit different to the other guys so that I build up some more base and some speed before going away to Adelaide in a few weeks time. The efforts i was doing were erring on the side of Strength Endurance. I threw up.

Today, being Thursday the 12, I had gym. Once again, all the weight went up without much trouble.

It's definitely good to be back. I'm looking forward to this season.

Strength Endurance, Quite Painful.

I left off just before Thursday, so i shall continue from there. Thursday, as per usual, I had weights. Squats, bench press and power cleans. Everything went up, which is good, i am still progressing.

On Saturday we had an ergo, due to track being rained out. It was set up to replicate a track training session. The efforts were strength endurance efforts and they were somewhat painful.

The Sunday was the first time we had hill sprints, they were one of the more painful drills I have done. these sprints were done to improve our resistance to lactic acid build up, or in other words, were strength endurance efforts. 

The following Monday I had weights again, it consisted of squats, military press and dead lifts. Everything went up except for one rep of my press, but i think it was from a slight lack of recovery.

The Tuesday consisted of another ergo. It was fairly similar to the one that was done on the saturday, with a couple of the efforts being slightly shorter.

rain's a pain

On Monday, as per usual, I had weights. Happily, my form on most things is up to scratch and the weights are continually increasing every session. I'm still nowhere near my peak, weights-wise yet. Which is good, as it is only the start of the training season.

Tuesday involved a nice relaxing ride with one of my friends.

Today (being wednesday) would have been a track session, but unfortunately it got rained out, so instead i sat on my ergo for a while on high revs.

U19s, come at me!

So, it has been a few weeks since my last post. I have been fairly busy, poor excuse, I know. Anyway, down to the point. I have been lifting in the gym and increasing the load of the weight by 2.5 kilograms every time.

I have now done three track session since nationals. Every time they have been strength endurance efforts. Every time they have been very painful. My legs felt like they were on fire. I have been fortunate enough to only vomit during one of the sessions. There was a fair bit of it too, along with sharing a bin with one of my training partners.

After the first track session, it felt very good to get back onto the track bike and i enjoyed it a lot. The sessions have been increasing in gear size to help us transition into the U19s age group.

U19s, come at me!

The beginning of a long road ahead

I had a couple of weeks off after nationals, plenty of recovery. Now i have had three training sessions and a meeting since i've been back. The meeting was to talk about how we would be changing our training program and what new equipment we will need over the next couple of years moving in to the U19 age group.

The training sessions i have had back have been weights sessions. I have pulled back the weight from all of my exercises because of the time spent off. The first training session back i dropped down to 90kgs and am moving up the weight by 2.5 kilograms every session.

It's going to be a fairly long time before being able to compete because of the time between major events.

Nationals!

On Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, I had light training sessions. Wednesday was the First day of racing. It was pretty hot and the track was really fast. I hadn't slept well the previous night due to high amounts of adrenaline and I was ready to smash it. I warmed up with my fast wheels and aero-bars. I was on the rollers for 15 minutes before doing a power jump and an entry. When the time came for me to do a gate start, i was feeling pretty nervous. I came out of the gate pretty well, my first lap was feeling pretty good, i did a 19.1s first lap. The first half of the second lap was good, then i hit the wall. My legs died and so did my speed. My end time was 34.7s.

The next day was the match sprints. My favourite event. I qualified with a time of 11.555s. It was a PB. The first race that i did, i sat on the front and controlled it. I won. The second race, however, was against one of my training partners. He qualified four 100ths faster than i did. The first race i was leading and i jumped first. I decided to hold a reasonable speed and go for a double kick. Unfortunately, that didnt work. He came past me at the finish line. In the second heat that we had, i attacked and went under him, with just over 1 lap to go. I managed to beat him in that heat. In the final heat we ended up track standing in an attempt to make the other one take the lead of the race. I attacked with just under 3/4 of a lap to go. I fought to the finish but my team mate beat me to the line.

On the last day was the team sprint. I was in the gate. I did a 19.1 second first lap. The second rider came through and had our first 500 at a time of 33.9 seconds. Our last rider finished us off with a time of 49.853. We qualified 3rd behind our other Victorian team (who were supposed to be our B team) by less than a 10th of a second and behind the NSW team who broke the Australian record. We then raced of in the 3v4 final. My first lap was about 2 tenths slower than the first lap of our qualifying. We ended up finishing third with a time of 50.275. We won that race by 2 tenths of a second.

Overall i was happy with how my team and i went. Every event I did was a personal best.

Heavy Squats

Monday. On Monday we had single squats in the gym. I also did 3x3 of bench press and 3x4 power cleans. We did singles because nationals is about a week away.

On Wednesday i rode down to DISC. during my warmup my power numbers were reasonable. We did motorbikes efforts an had to pass the motor bike and beat it to the finish line. Hard and fast.

Today we had singles again. Had a number of PBs. PBd in Squats, Power cleans, Press and I also did a chinup (and a half) with a 32.5kg weight belt.

Nationals is 6 days away. Very excited. Hoping for mid to low 34s 500m TT, a place in the Match sprints would also be very awesome and my team and I are hoping to give the Aussie Team Sprint record a whack!

Sid Patterson Grand Prix

Saturday was the Sid Patterson Grand Prix. I was invited to race in the U17s category in the support races. There was a 5 man team pursuit, a motor pace and a scratch race. In the team pursuit i was leading it, i wasnt going out very hard but i still managed to drop most of the enduro's off the back for a couple of laps. After i did 2 laps i pulled off the front and let the others go through. That was part of the plan. I was still feeling fresh however, and probably could have continued to go on. We were leading for about 3 quarters of the race but the other team ended up gaining on us near the end. The next race was a motor pace, i placed 4th in the motor pace. Finally, in the scratch race i placed 3rd. After the racing i got given all of my Vic gear including my skin suits, booties, shirts and jacket.

Today i had state training. My watts were down after racing the previous night. We did skills work, break and run drills and some gate starts. I was happy with my gate starts, they were pretty perfect time wise.

Jumping on top of boxes!

Monday consisted of weights, 3x3 squats, 5x5 bench press and some power cleans. Squats were fairly easy, still on a reasonably light weight to work on technique. The technique is pretty good, so i will start moving up in weight. I changed up my hand held positioning for bench press, to work more on my pectorals instead of my triceps. Then onto power cleans, i only did one set, because after the first set my wrist was hurting.

On Wednesday we did motor bike efforts. Lots of fun, nice and fast! My watts were reasonable too, very much looking forward to nationals.

Today, weights. Smashed out a single rep of squats, before going on to do some plyo's, press and power cleans. Jumping onto boxes was done, then lifting of things over my head began. I  got 2 sets of 4 and 1 set of 3 (instead of 3 sets of 5). Press is proving to be fairly difficult at this stage, i think i am going to have to go up in 0.5kg jumps instead of 1kg. Lastly, came Power cleans. 3 sets of 4 accomplished. I am now the equivilent to top of the records board in the gym. I'm pleased with that. Now to add more weight!

Nationals is 2 weeks out from today. I am starting to peak performance wise. I'm going to give it all i have.

Another lazy week for updating my blog.

I suppose i will continue from where i left off. On Monday I had weights. I didn't get my original starting weight for squats, so i dropped down to 100kgs and did 10 reps. It was quite painful. Lots of fatigue builds up pretty quickly with that many reps. After squats i did dead lifts. They went up pretty well.

On the Wednesday I had training at DISC. During my warmup my power numbers were right up there, which means im back on track for nationals. The efforts were done on small-medium gears. The efforts were less intense than some of the more recent ones.

Thursday. Weights. I had squats, working on my form. Happily, the form was pretty good. Hopefully i will be able to keep up the form once i start getting to higher weights. Following Squats i did deadlifts again. I haven't been doing power cleans or anything that involves arms lately, as my wrist has been sore. I should be able to do arm exercises again by Monday.

Yesterday we did gate starts on small-medium gears. During my warmup i hit some pretty good power. My timing has been good and so has my speed. I'm looking forward to the team sprint at National.

Today i had state training, We did skills work and and gate starts. My power numbers were alright, but not quite as good as yesterday's.

Is this everything?

It's almost a week overdue, so i guess i'll post now. The Monday after the sprint series consisted of lifting of weights (as if you hadn't figured that out by now). Because of the lengthy weekend I only did a warmup set of squats and some bench press. I PB'd in my bench press which was good.

On the Wednesday I rode down to DISC before warming up. My power numbers weren't too bad, which means they are coming back up (good sign, considering nationals is close). We did some speed endurance efforts on small-medium gears. They were pretty painful. We were all lying on the ground complaining about the state our legs were in at one point or another, but alas, it is a necessary evil.

The Thursday following the training session, i had weights. Volume day. Squats were a fair bit lighter than i'm used to and i only did 3 sets instead of 5. The legs were sore before that and they were definitely sore after that. After that i did deadlifts (dropped about 10kgs because i was losing back extension).

And now for today. Today was club teams racing. I raced the team sprint in second position. My team came second overall, so that was good. When i got home from said event, i relaxed for a couple of hours before going and doing a strength endurance ergo. The first half of the session was good, but once i got to the second part, that's when the pain started to kick in. By the end of it, my legs were just about ready to fall off. Once again though, it is a Necessary Evil.

A wise man (or not) once said: "ask yourself this question: Is this everything?" The question was asked a number of times during efforts, it kept me going and made me push myself to my absolute limits every time. Is this everything?

Undefeated, except in the qualifying.

Roller warm up started at 10:30. Got there a little late so i missed part of it. Today was state training. We had a couple of gate starts, flying team sprints and some other tactical drills. After the state training I went down to BBN to race the summer sprint series. It was a really windy day, so times weren't fantastic. I qualified for A grade and i raced well. I was undefeated throughout the day but because of my qualifying time i ended up racing for 3v4 in the final. I won the final and $10, so it was a good day.

It's safe to say i'm pretty tired after the weekend's efforts.

About 70kms/h

I didn't sleep too well last night. not sure why, but i still had enough energy to train. Before training i left early to go down to Brunswick to get my new road bike from the bike shop. It is an Avanti Quantum 2. It has a full carbon frame with a 105 group set. I have got RS80 wheels (carbon). It looks very nice as well.

Following the events of the morning i got to DISC (about 2 hours early) and had a chat with some people. During my warm-up my power numbers were down, but during the efforts they picked up again. The efforts consisted of chasing a motorbike for a lap and a half, which meant that we got some fairly high speeds.

I was happy with today, the power was down a bit but it's better than Wednesday. Tomorrow I have state training and the Sprint Series!

Almost like it was easy!

I was pretty flat on Wednesday. I rode in to training, i'm usually alright after the ride in, so i must have pushed myself too hard. There was also a head wind. Once i arrived at training i spent about 10 mins on the rollers. My power numbers were down in the power jump during the warm up.  After the warm up we started our efforts. Motorbike entries. Normally theses would have been fun, but because i was flat it wasn't as fast as i would have liked. My speed was still alright though.

Following Wednesday was Thursday (quite obviously) which meant the lifting of reasonably heavy things. If you've been following my blog, you would know that I have dropped about 10kgs on my squats to work on form. At the weight, my form was reasonably good. I think i will, however, stay at the weight until the technique is close to perfect before starting to move up. Following squats i did 5x5 press. The second set was probably the hardest, but every set after that went up really quickly (Almost like it was easy!). After press, i had power cleans. I only did one set. They went up alright.

The last two days of training have been pretty tough. Today, being Friday, I am recovering before a very long weekend of training ahead of me. Training Saturday, Sunday morning and then racing Sunday afternoon. I'm going to be sore on Monday.

ONLY 10kgs

Weights. Squats went up due to some weight being dropped. I am planning on dropping 10kgs for both volume and intensity days. This should allow me to work on my form and get passed my sticking point. Following squats i had bench press. It was volume day for bench press. The weight that i did is the same weight that i stalled on before moving to the texas method. That's a good sign. Next I did Dead Lifts. I got 2 reps done before stopping. I will need to reset some weight and work on form as well. Chin ups were next on the list, I only had a 10kg weight vest on because i am going for more rep and i think this will help strengthen me.

I feel motivated when it comes to weights, however, i would like to see more PB's.

Necessary Evil

Thursday was lifting of the heavy things. Squats were done at a weight slightly lower than normal so that i could work on technique. I think that i will be staying at a lower weight for a little longer to make sure that my form is good and so that i don't obtain any injuries. Following squats I did press, i think i will be dropping off a little bit of weight next time i do this. The weight is getting heavy enough that i will have to be increasing the weight by only half a kilo! Following press I did power cleans. I only did 1 set. The weight was equal to the highest on the board. Judging by my performance of the set i should be able to get the full 3 sets next time I attempt them. Weights are generally doing alright at the moment, so I am happy.

On top of today (Friday) being the first day back at school, I also spent the evening at DISC. Today consisted of longer efforts on medium sized gears. Each effort was more painful than the previous and the last one was very tough, but it will all pay off when it comes time to race! I am not enjoying the longer efforts quite as much as the shorter ones but they are a necessary evil.

The 3 days have taken a toll on my legs, they are pretty sore. Recovery time!

Cramps!

Today has been a fairly long day. I rode to training (about 20kms) and when i got there i helped my coaches unload the bikes and things which were previously used by the U19s at Nationals. Generally they did quite well, they came home with a number of gold medals. Once this had been done I tok my bike down to begin my warm-up.

The warm-up was 50 laps behind the motor bike followed by a power jump and an entry + 100. Then the efforts began. They were done on medium to big gears. I like using the bigger gears. The efforts were motorbike efforts and were quite fast. We did 4 of these efforts and i hit a max speed of 71.9 km/h.

After the day's efforts I rode home. I was taking it nice and slowly. Around 5kms from home i started to get some cramps. They were pretty big and very painful. I had to get off the bike and wait around for 10 - 15 minutes before i was able to continue riding home.

Today's efforts were good, i had fun. I am enjoying training and am looking forward to nationals. Nationals is 7 weeks out.

Club Racing

Last Saturday i didn't have training, so i went to Blackburn to race club races. I didn't have my bike so i ended up sharing one of my friends bikes. He had a 93" gear on it. I was racing a in B grade and he was in C grade, which allowed us to swap the bikes over. The events that were on were a scratch race, a kierin and a team pursuit. I managed to place first in all 3 events and secure myself a nice $30. It was a good day out, it's the first time i have competed in the club races for a long time.

Today I lifted heavy things and put them back down again. I, unfortunately, failed my squats. In my bench press i got 1 set but failed both of the others (by just 1 rep!). Following bench, i did Power Cleans. I am currently Power Cleaning the second highest on the board. My goal is to achieve the highest ranking of power cleans in my gym. Following Power cleans i did chin-ups. I did a set of 4 with a 20kg weight belt on and then did 6 pull ups. Weights was good today, a little disappointed with my squats but the rest was good.

State Squad

I have had good news. I got selected for the state squad, this means that i will be racing nationals around march. I'm very excited!

After states i had a few days break. Today was spent and the Blackburn cycling club track for the Australia Day Madison event. I didn't ride but i watched most of the races and cheered friends on.

Following the races I went to weights. There i did squats, press, dead lifts and some pull-ups. I didn't get my squats or my press but i did get my dead lifts.

I wasn't super happy with the weight lifting but the rest of the day was good.

States

I woke up at 6:30 AM, went for a walk and then got all of my gear and packed the car. I started to head down to DISC with my family. We arrived at about 8:30. I set up my bike and and got ready for warmup. Once i had finished my warm up i went over to the straight where i would start my ride. My bike was put into the gate and i got onto it. Once everything was set up, i waited for the countdown. I came out of the gate a fraction too early which wasn't very good as i didn't get the jump out of the gate that i wanted. I got a time of 35.600s I wasn't very happy with this time. It game me a end placing of 4th.

On the second day of states we had match sprints. I qualified with a time of 11.7s. I was pleased with this time as it was an equal PB. The match sprints came after. I was happy with the way i raced them. For most of the races i sat on the front and controlled it. I ended up placing 3rd overall in the sprints, so i am happy with that.

The first day wasn't very good, but the second day was much better.

Rock Climbing

Instead of spending the afternoon in the weights room, we went rock climbing. We got to work the whole body lightly which meant that we are going to fresh over the next few days. Rock climbing is a little bit out of my comfort zone, but i enjoy it as it gets me doing something i'm not used to.

I am excited for states, i have felt small amounts of nerves over the last week during the build up to racing. I am looking forward to states a lot and am hoping to do well.

Full Dress Rehersal

Today was the last training session on the bike before states. Today was a "full dress rehearsal" which meant that we were all in full race gear and with race wheels. My rear wheel turned out to have a problem, so I was training with a powertap rear wheel. On the way home I visited the bike shop and they fixed up the wheel.

Today's training session was probably a little bit more intense than was necessary for tapering but I should be recovered before states as the next couple of days will be very easy.

Early Morning

As a result of my laziness, i didn't write a post last night. However, i have just woken up at 6:30 AM under coaches orders to prepare for having to perform in the morning. I was instructed to do something active, so i went for a walk once i had woken up instead of the suggested "play early morning drums" which i don't think my parents or neighbours would have been terribly pleased about.

To fill you all in, last night was spent in the wights room. The tapering had truly begun as it involved lifting of heavy weights very few times and jumping or even hopping onto the occasional box. After said training session was complete I went and stood in a blue wheelie bin full of very cold water. 11 degrees! After these activites were completed i hung around for a while and chatted with some of my friends who also train there about various things before heading home.

Gate Starts

It's one week away from the Victorian track championships. We have started to taper off in the weights room but we are still working fairly hard on the bike. I was feeling pretty good today considering that i have been sick over the last few days. As a result of sickness I have lost around about 3 kilograms in body weight. My power numbers didn't drop off very much and I was still able to keep my speed up.

Today involved gate starts where we were fiddling around with the order of the team sprint. We did one full team sprint at the end, the decided order felt pretty good but after a hard day of training i was feeling pretty tired during the effort.

Overall today was a good training session.

My Bike

This is my bike. It is a BT Stealth. Full Carbon frame and forks with 3T scato handle bars. When i'm training i use a Power tap rear wheel. When i'm racing i will use both front and rear Shamal's. I am restricted to racing on no bigger than and 82 inch gear.