Pinky and the Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain

Have I used that before? Whatever. Just a quick recap of traininginging over the Christmassy bit. Did a little bit of spin, and got to the gym twice. Squat continues slowly up, and I'm working hard on my form as it gets heavier to try to keep errors at bay. Press up at 60kg, unfortunately on the 4th rep of the first set I got in the wrong position and bent my wrist under the bar. Nothing dramatic, but it was too sore/weak to get even one rep up on the second set, though I tried twice, so abandoned that. Disappointed, as I'm sure I would have gotten it, but no big deal. Did 160kg on the deadlift afterwards. Got them up 5 times, but wasn't sufficiently happy with the form, so I may do 160kg again next time. Perhaps not, but it will depend upon how I'm feeling. Bench at 77.5 and I almost got it - only got to 3 in the last set though. The bench at the powerhaus is narrower, and the gap is in an awkward position whichever way around I put it, so that didn't help. Powercleans at 80kg, 3x4, and I kinda got them - only 3 in the first set, but all 4 in the next two. Looking at the video though I was breaking my arms too early and pulling rather than shrugging - I could feel it at the time, but video confirmation is handy. So though I could possibly quibble that I should be 'allowed' to take it up again next time, I'll repeat and make sure to get that shrug. Jumping chins are getting quite slow and controlled on the negative, so I reckon I might be pretty close to giving a real chinup a go soon. And that's about all for now. Will be good to get back on the track!

Beethoven's 9th

And herein begins the Ode to Joy...

Well, not really, but things are still progressing in the gym, which is satisfying. I missed training at DISC on Sunday due to lack of time/funds, so I needed a good session today to make me not feel fat and slow. Okay, 105kgs on the squat, not very exciting, and today it didn't feel all that smooth, either - felt like I was still shuffling around a little, trying to find the right groove. But they went up.

Bench up to 75kg now, and though it was a bit more of a strain than last week, only the very last rep required genuine teeth-gritted pushing up - I may have even closed my eyes. Otherwise they went up okay, though the bar path wasn't as well controlled as it has been.

Powercleans at 77.5, and frankly they weren't that pretty either. The weight itself didn't feel too heavy though, which was nice. Strength continues to grow, form was just off today for everything. These days happen, and today it happened without a miss on anything. Hoping to get a spin in on Thursday and then back to the gym over the weekend.

1812 Overture

Squats: 102.5kg. Oh yeah baby! Anyway. Focussed strongly on pushing the knees out, ignored the back, and it felt... well, different, anyway. Better. I'll take the camera next time to have a look.

Press: 57.5kg, like a dream. Maybe 3 out of the 15 were slow, including one that I let get out the front of me, but the rest went up strongly and nowhere near as exhaustingly as on my last attempt. So a new 3x5RM. Excellent!

Deadlift: Went for a 3x60kg, 2x100kg and 1x140kg warmup, and that felt pretty right. Waited a bit over 10 minutes, chalked up, and gripped the bar for 157.5kg. Set up strong, hips a bit higher, back tight, and took it up 5 times. Slight hitch on the 4th rep, but otherwise pretty smooth. Damnably heavy, of course, but went up. Another PR for the day! Okay, so it's still LP, every day should be PR day, but it's starting to get decently heavy - not exactly weightlifter heavy, but at 350 pounds, still a good lift. (Not) To mention that for a while I haven't been P-ing at all, L-ly or otherwise!

Sprint-ish

So figured I'd do a few more road sprints today, but it didn't quite work out as planned. To start with, heading up Hendersons I decided to give it a crack in 53x12 - and I broke something. I haven't been able to find out where it was from, but it looks like this:

Which kinda put a crimp in my plans. I still managed most of the sprints I'd set out to do, but they were a little 3/4-hearted out of nervousness. Hopefully I'll manage to work out what the hell it is!

Teh Band

Hopefully Teh Band don't exist. If they did, they'd play a mixture of hardcore and weak-arse.

Squats... well, they started at 122.5, but finished at 100. My form just keeps going to shit and I'm wasting time. I've lost nearly 10kg, which probably doesn't help, but just the same they feel crappy. So I went back down to 100 since the volume I'm getting done at heavier weights isn't going to maintain any strength anyway, so I might as well cut my losses and at least get some shit done and get LP happening again. Even if it means regressing by 4 MONTHS. Shit. Mind you, if I'd done it two months ago I could still be back up to 140kg by now. Shit.

Bench... well, after sitting at 65kg for ages, it's going up nicely now - 72.5 today, and got them done. Lost the bar path a little on the last of 15, but it only curved down my chest a little and I got it back up without too much trouble.

Powercleans at 75kg, I was really determined to get these done with good form. And it was certainly better than last week - I did catch one not far above my nipples and pushed it up the rest of the way, but aside from that the form felt sketchy, but not bad. The very last rep, I really nailed it - got the shrug, got the jump, and despite being the last rep, I nearly caught it with my nose. Just got to hold that groove in my mind until next week, onwards to 77.5kg...

BBN #4. Did somebody say 'BOOM!'?

That's what happens when your rear tyre, fed up with all of the abuse it's copped over the months, decides that that was one pulled wheel too many and goes pop. Or, as it were, BOOM. The shiny spot on the rim is where the concrete did a bit of polishing as I skidded to a halt from 30ish km/hr. Oh, happy days...

To add insult to injury, I was asked how long my spanner was, and received unfavourable opinions of my nuts. All's fair in sprinting and war...

That out of the way, and a spare wheel borrowed, I headed out with Nic to do some powerjumps. The idea was to do four sets on steadily increasing gears for the first three efforts, then back down to 82 (by which I mean 86) for the last set. Nic very generously gave me a 49T chainring to expand my selection of gears from (nominally) 86/92/99 to (nominally, and once I get a longer chain. Oh, and does one round up or down? Or 'normally'? I'll try normally for greater precision. If one can really be nominally precise. But anyway) 81/83/86/88/93/95/100/102. Huzzah! Not that I need so many 80s. But if I can manage something around an 82 then Carl, at least, will be happy, and 102 (or higher? Should I get myself a 50T chainring as well? 50x13 would give me 104 lovely inches. Probably don't even really need 102. But anyway) will give me a higher gear should that seem to give me better F200 times. And 95 is a nice in-between gear for racing at BBN. Oh yus, I spill all of my secrets hereabouts...

Oh, so the training. Well, that went well enough aside from exploding tyres, felt suitably strong and stuff, and almost chased down Nic's bad back on the 102" 1/2 lap. And the sun came out, which was friendly of it. Groovy.

Beatles

Or should that be 'beetle'? I start this post with a disclaimer - I'm really tired. Not been sleeping well all week and been really busy. So, I'm not too devastated that I failed in all of today's lifts. A bit, maybe, but, you know...

So squats actually generally felt okay, my stance and drive and so on felt fairly good, but my endurance was crappy - by the end of the first set I could barely hold tension through my torso for an entire rep, and each rep got harder and harder to keep tight. By the third rep of the second set, I decided to give it away, as I was back to just bullying the weight back up, which wasn't doing me any good.

I decided to keep the plan for the day rather than backing off, and it almost paid off for the press - 57.5kgs went up 14 TIMES. Damnit. But the 4th rep of the third set, I kid you not, took me a good ten or so seconds to lock out. How's that for strength-endurance? But I was absolutely roasted. No way I could even imagine attempting the final rep, I was as exhausted as a set of deads.

Speaking of which, I tried a slightly different approach to the warmup for the deadlift today - a set of 5 at 60kg, then a single at 120kg to warm up for 157.5kg. Didn't, on this occasion at least, work. I had three attempts at the bar and only got it off the ground about 10cms on the second try. Not because the weight was too heavy (though of course it was heavy!) but because despite at least 10 minutes of rest, I still had nothing and just couldn't set myself solidly.

So not the best session. Two of the attempts were PRs though, and I very nearly got the Press despite being so tired. Better to have gone than not, just the same.

Iron Maiden

So back to the gym I went, determined to have some better form in the squats. One thing (yes, another thing!) I realised was that I've been doing the valsalva a bit wrong (or, at least, it's crept that way) as I've tended to take a breath and suck in, rather than push out. I don't think this is all of my troubles, but doing it right today (at least, I think so!) more consistently helped see more consistently better form. Not perfect, and not every rep, but good enough that I got 15 done at 120kg much easier than has been the case. Even the last one where I completely lost tension, ended up in a full squat at a dead stop, and by gods pushed it back up anyway. With a bit of rounding, but I reckon, in this instance, I can be forgiven it.

Next was bench, up to 70kgs this week. I've had many, many attempts at 70kg, but never pushed all 15 up - until today! It wasn't a doddle, but it didn't feel unbearably hard at all. So a new 3x5 PR, and up to 72.5 next week.

Powercleans at 75kg... so close, but not quite close enough! Even with 8-10 min in between every workset, by the time I get to these I'm getting rather tired. And that's not good for a power exercise which relies on good form and a well-timed snap! Just the same it was only the second-last rep of the third set that I couldn't rack, but there was much usage of arm-pulling before I got to that, it must be conceded. So I'll stay at 75 next time, try to work on getting that jump/shrug happening properly at heavier weights.

SSS Round 3

Well all in all that was a bit of a bizarre day. Actually it started yesterday, when I rolled my left ankle and was limping around strapped up, telling myself that once you're clipped in with toe-straps done up, the ankle barely moves anyway.

So naturally as I roll out for my flying 200, as soon as I get on to the track, before even putting any power down, I pull my wheel - and I'm all strapped in, nowhere near the fence. Fortunately I manage to get enough leverage - with my left foot - to unclip and pull out of the pedal before I topple over. Thank the all-mighty Druw, for now, for 0 degrees of float.

So I went back to the end of the queue, waited for another 15 or so riders, cooled down thoroughly in the strong southerly, and eventually went out again. I was happy with my effort, felt like I jumped at the right point from about the right speed, kept accelerating down the back straight, and held the speed to the line - but only a 13.8 this month. Most times today (except A-grade, who weren't much slower, and Chris Dann, who was faster!) were more than 0.5 seconds slower, so I guess it's okay.

First race I was up against Nic again, and had the lead. I decided to leave him plenty of room, expecting that he would want to jump over the top of me. I was hoping to out-jump him, at least enough to keep him high, but not give him my wheel to sling around as he's done before in training. That didn't quite work, as he jumped out of turn 4 and managed to get past me in to turn 1, so I was on his wheel instead. Perhaps I should have taken height in turn 3? I suspect that would have been too late, so I just tried to come around him. And I almost almost made it, lost by what seemed like a tyre or so. Maybe it was half a wheel, I'm not sure - I was too busy trying to stay upright after pulling my foot off the pedal - strap and all. Somehow not only had the (brand-new. Well, okay, maybe two weeks old) cleat come out of the pedal, but I'd snapped all 4 cable ties that held the strap on to the pedal. I'm still not sure exactly how - I think that my heel may have clipped the chainstay, but I can't be sure. Why though? No idea. Unless in trying to protect my foot and be gentle, I didn't stomp the cleat in to the pedal hard enough and so was never properly clipped in. Impossible to know now. What happened though was that I wrenched my ankle even more, making it hard to even walk. I was not looking forward to my next race against Chris!

Chris had the lead for this one, and I decided to give this whole 'jumping from turn four' business a go. Didn't work though! I didn't really kick hard enough (not because my ankle hurt, but probably partly because I was aware that my ankle was sore. As it were) but in any case I jumped a bit too late to get the best advantage, and Chris (who probably has the better jump of the two of us in any case) held me off to the first corner and, unlike with Nic, I couldn't come around and Chris won easily.

So it was down to the last race against Ben, which was a dead rubber since the finals in 4-man B-Grade were set already, to give me my first win in B-Grade in my 4th round of racing there. I had the lead, and looked to hold the pace at a reasonable level so that I didn't have to jump hard from a low speed. Ben was sitting in right behind me, which makes it harder to see, but at least I didn't have to worry about him having height. He was sitting back a couple of lengths, which meant that I had to watch for him coming up to my wheel with speed. I covered that though, and coming in to turn one I wound the pace up - not a hard jump, but enough to make it hard for Ben to come around. I kept increasing the speed and coming out of turn 4 I had a look around to see Ben still a bike length back - finally, my first win in B!

But I still had to back-up for the 3v4 final, again against Ben. This time it was three laps, and this time Ben had the lead. I was unsure how he was going to play it, but was worried that he might elect to make it a 900-metre pursuit - and that's exactly what he did. I decided to just let it go for the first lap, see what the gap was and how I was feeling before deciding whether to panic or not. As we came up to 2 to go I felt comfortable despite not getting any draft from Ben, and the gap had stabilised to about 5 lengths - enormous, really, but we were only doing 40-odd. So I reassured myself that not jumping after him was the best thing to do, and worked on steadily increasing my pace. I was briefly uncertain coming up to one lap to go as the gap was still about 3 lengths and I was gearing myself up for an actual sprint, but as we closed upon the 200m line I could see that it wouldn't be necessary, as Ben was clearly flagging. After passing I had a quick look back and saw that he hadn't kicked again to get on my wheel, so I just rolled on with one more quick glance to be sure coming out of turn 4 before sitting up to roll over for third - my second win in B, and first podium! Sure, it was a tiny field in B, but third is third, damnit!

What is there to learn? Well, I probably shouldn't have left Nic quite so much room, I doubt he needed so big an invitation to jump. Still, it could almost as easily have been a win. Chris, well, I feel like I can beat him (at least sometimes!), but I haven't managed it in a race as yet. A combination of imperfect tactics and insufficient power application. Ben, well, it's a different set of tactics to an all-out sprint, and I managed to work it well both times, so that's something to be happy about at least.

A couple of months now before there's any more sprints - more SSS, and perhaps Vic Masters? It's a season goal, but given that I'll be racing against other Masters like Neil, and possibly Dino and Chris Ray depending on what entries are like, I'm not anywhere near the level of looking at medals. But then, goals aren't necessarily for the achieving so much as for their utility in driving training!

Tapper tapper tapper

Nothing very exciting today, just 3 downhill sprints. I did the same as last time, except in 53x14 this time to more closely simulate race gearing, and with a bit of a gusty headwind to contend with. The results were fairly similar except for the Ivanhoe sprint, being rather exposed to the wind. But the goal really was to sharpen up for the weekend, and I think I more or less managed that, and hopefully didn't blunt anything via my not-exactly-recovery average HR of 155. Rest tomorrow, bit of shpinny shpinny on Saturday, and all fired up for Sunday!