Biking Badger

Weekly Roundup - 25 April 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0000

This is something I've been meaning to do on a weekly basis but seems the last time I did it was a month ago. As I've been learning more and more this year, I'm taking it easier and doing things as best I can. There's no point in working myself into a spin because I can't update the blog or post somethings. the most amazing thing is that when I'm on the bike I have a million idea's and when I sit down in front of the ivory keyboard the mind is blank, clean slate. not sure how to take notes when on a ride but the the day they come up with a machine that plug's directly into the brain I'll be set with the creative juices to fill pages and pages.

This was last weeks graph, my third building block so next week will be an easier week in terms of intensity. You can see on the training days where the focus is more on quality than on quantity. We have our intensity levels up where the distance covered during these two session's pale in comparison to the others. Generally the session is about two hours and last week we had pukers and killers to make sure we remembered where our stomach's were situated.

Interactive Giro

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:22:00 +0000

Spent the morning just vegging in the sun and enjoying the sun. Sunbathing with Bob Roll's second book on his crazy adventures. His writing style lack's that rounded edge but it makes the stories so much more interesting and reminded me of Soiled Chamois and his turkey ballz. This led me to one of my favorite pastimes, no not hopping on the bike, that would be THE favorite, but in the top ten list is browsing through YouTube looking for video's. My current searching is finding some interesting historical clips from past Giro's. I've found some real keepers and made a list.
Had a big lunch as usual on a Saturday but still wanted to get a ride in this afternoon. However between the big meal and the lazy Saturday I was in sloth mode. I lay down for a little nap but luckily Mirit woke me up and I slipped into some Lycra and did my last ride of this heavy week. Did some serious training this week and my legs were loaded. Bobke did a training camp with Lance Armstrong during his recovery from cancer and covers it in one of the chapters of Bobke II. The way he manages to paint the visual pictures of the training camp is amazing and these images joined me as I wound my way north on the quite roads. I was really just keeping myself at a base training pace and enjoying the afternoon air. Some four wheelers were messing around and beaming past me but I just shook my head and kept the pedals going. You'll have boneheads everywhere but they can't spoil the feeling of saddletime.

The virgin ride on my new stead

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:07:00 +0000

Today went out for my first ride on the new road bike. Had a bit of a dodgy start but luckily Erez was on hand with his technical skills. As we were going up the first climb I shifted to the lowest gear but the limiter was not set properly and the chain landed into the spokes and bent the derailleur hanger slightly. So straightened it and Erez clicked here and screwed there and I was left with a ridable bike as long as I didn't want the second gear. The chain would simply skip second and go straight to third or not move up if I was going in the opposite direction.

After the little climb it was a crazy bit of downhill that I just sat on the brakes. I had done about three kilometers before the descent so I was far from comfortable on a road bike let alone a brand new one. I went down slower than I climbed it on the way up. Road rash kept blipping through my mind so I kept on the side of caution. Once down we went along on some rolling roads and I really enjoyed the ride although our pace was not as high as I thought. My favourite part was the climb back up. I followed Oren to the first few corners and then just stood up and started pumping. I have to say that the feeling of just standing up like that gave me the feeling that I had been looking out for watching the cycling races that come on teli.

You see the riders sitting and then all of the sudden they explode and shoot up. Well that's what I felt like. I was holding back most of the day, firstly because I was getting used to the bike and second because we were not pushing it. After yesterday's session of pain though I was still feeling tender, I discovered that the key to a fast recovery is stretching. Whenever I don't stretch my legs always complain. So managed about three and a half hours in the saddle so this is great. My new way of measuring performance is to watch my hours on the bike instead of kilometers. These junk miles are just not the way to go for someone with a nine to five job. The photo's as you may have figured out are of the shed and not the ride. I'm slowly turning the shed into my bike area where I have already spent many hours since moving to the new house. I need to put paneling on the right wall and then build something to hang the tools on and maybe put some drawers under the table. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Week of Pain

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:55:00 +0000

This is the last week in our build phase so the pain has been ramped up to the maximum. I was listening today to the Fredcast with David bringing in Graeme Street about quality training over quantity. I'm in this mode of looking at the kilo's I do a week instead of the hours, I guess we're all a little to blame for this. I must say though that after the podcast I can happily say that my coach err's on the side of quality and pain over junk miles.
Today was no different as we entered a world of pain and blood letting from the ears. We warmed up the legs with some spinning excercises and then warmed them up even further with some tempo riding. This set us up for an interval session that build's on the pukers. We had to do six and a half minute intervals holding it at what we call zone 5. This is directly translated as blood hard work as each time the pace was slowing we had to stand a push on a bit to keep the heart rate up. This was a killer session and after three of these I just got off my bike and lay on my back in the dirt trying to get oxygen back to the limbs. I loved it. Nothing like an all out session of solid quality to get those edorphins flowing.
This evening I prepared the Binachi for her maiden voyage tomorrow and as per normal I've decided to jump in the deep end. Oren and I will spend four hours in the saddle and get some solid base training in. Looking forward to spending time on the road. The last time I went out I really could feel the legs coming on as the the kilometers melt under the slicks. I may just get the century under my belt, I've almost forgotten about it so will need to get it in this weekend.

Let the asphalt commence

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:51:00 +0000

I finally bought my first road bike. I've been looking and testing for a month or so and finally got this old Bianchi for a steel. Not the prettiest bike out there but its hopefully going to travel with me for many happy miles. This is the before setup photo and can't understand how the guy rode with the seat pointed that far down. Struggled a bit with the handle bar and will need to get a broader one. Other than it being a touch heavy, coming in at a touch over ten kilograms, the bike is a work horse.

Thats my bank balance now completely blown after this and the Epic yearly BIG check. The pockets don't even have loose change so I will be scrapping through with what I have and resorting to begging. I have been looking at building an ecommerce site related to biking and the talks with the new shop seem to be going well. I will hopefully get some graphics going although this is all mostly new to me. Anyone wanting to see some serious bike work and something I hope we will be seeing a regular issue of, XXC.

Fifty Fifty

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:16:00 +0000

Today went out for a ride I like to call the fifty fifty. Half the time spent in Zone 2 and the other half doing Tempo. this is really great because not only do you work on the base a bit but trying to keep up a tempo ride for an hour always makes for interesting riding. For the first time this year I went up to the top of Nahal Kziv, I didn't actually go along the valley floor but rather used the climb to keep the heart rate up while spinning away like crazy.

I don't have a cadence monitor on the bike so I use the highly scientific method of counting the revolutions in six seconds and then multiply by ten. This generally gives me an idea of where I'm at. Today i tried to keep the RPM's between 90 and 110. I read an articel the other day I think it was on Velonews about the effects of cadence. I'm not a power rider with a slow cadence even though I'm a bit heavier. I prefer an easier gear and then just spin along. I'm trying to find the sweet spot and today seemed to pay off. I was not going slowly up the hill and stayed in tempo most of the way. I also saw that my heart rate recevoery was much quicker, on every little flatish section I had to up the pace or switch to a higher gear to be able to keep the heart rate up there in the zone.

My timing was perfect and managed to fit the two hours in just before sunset. This made for great conditions with that warm glow coming from the setting sun. The weather is also changing and I'm feeling the effects of the changing season's with some heat waves and the stuffy nose. I'm almost convinced that I have European blood in me now as the onset of the Israeli Summer does me no good. I prefer the cooler conditions even though back home in South Africa the temp's climbed pretty high, I even stayed in one of the warmest places in SA. So as we start to bake over here I have good memories of the beautiful winter and spring.

On a final note I've been looking for an entry level road bike. I was pretty close the other day to getting something and even had myself fitted to the bike, a bit prematurely at the end of the day. That fell through and all I was left with was a piece of paper with some measurements on them. Luckily the guy that did the bike fit said he'd be willing to help me out with the new bike. So I've lined up a Bianchi no-name oldish racing bike. I have to admit that the colour scheme is a bit '80's but for the price its recession proof.

Ardennes Week

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:12:00 +0000

Hectic hectic week and its only Monday. Yesterday I needed to be at work at five thirty, with an hour and a bit commute I'll leave the calculation of what time I had to be up in order to get there. So no ride in but I managed to get away from work for earlier because I had come in at the crack of dawn. So there were advantages and disadvantages. The major advantage was that I managed to watch the first of the Classics this week, the Amstel Gold. This was a two for the price of one day as Eurosport has been broadcasting the Tour of Tumbles(Turkey) the whole week. What a crazy race with some serious questions asked about Bos in the end. Just watch the video of the closing kilometers and tell me what you think about the pull down?

Today I went up to Misgav for training and after a week out due to technical issues I was unprepared for the torture I went through today. We started with a decent warm up that would be seriously needed for what I ended up calling "Pukers". I should just stop here and let your imagination wander but the pain of those short eight second intervals are just too good not to share. We need to be in a heavier gear and had a short but technical hill that we had to sprint up. these were brutal as your body does not realise what the hell is going on and you're already finished gagging for breath. How I love this sport. After this we did an hour at tempo and boy was I hanging. to scared to open my mouth for fear of catching my tongue in the spokes I sucked it in and just sucked Omri and Oren's wheel. It took one of the three laps to recover but going at tempo you never really recover hundred percent. Great practice at the end of the day, reminds me of a thread i was reading:

Dutchman Theo de Rooy is sitting in the Panasonic team car after abandoning the 1985 Paris-Roubaix. He's covered in mud after spending a major portion of the race on the front, escaping in the Arenberg Forest. He's interviewed by American reporter John Tesh of CBS Sports...

de Rooy: “It’s a pile of sh!t, this race, it’s a whole pile of sh!t … you’re working like an animal, you don’t have the time to p!ss and you wet your pants … you’re riding in mud like this and you’re slipping and … it’s a pile of sh!t, you must clean yourself otherwise you will go mad …”

Tesh: "Willl you ever ride it again?"

de Rooy, not hesitating for a second: "Sure, it's the most beautiful race in the world!"
Well I wasn't racing but i felt the pain today. The good thing to come out of it was that I saw that I need to hang in there when I hit a bit of a tough patch. Normally I completely go off the boil to recover but I saw today that suffering does not kill you, well if it does at least its slowly.

Quite day with another doper

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:41:00 +0000

My day was pretty quiet today and went for an easy ride up to the North. After spending the week off the bike because my bike was in the shop I decided to take it easy. I took my bike into the LBS for my pre-season/after winter pamper. Similar to what women do by going to the beauty salon I take the other lady of my life to her own special pampering parlor. Generally I have the cables and chain replaced as well as a general checkup where I replace anything that may be worn. This time around the headset, rear tire, BB and middle chain-ring all needed to be replaced, so this was a rather expensive trip to the shop and it took the whole week because of the holidays that were sprinkled between. At least now everything is working as required on the bike and I can know that something is not going to snap or break because I did not replace something before the time, much better to do it before the time and prevent problems.

Onto today's ride. I did an easy hour and a half ride up to Rosh HaNikra, the normal easy ride loop that takes me along the coast and with the weather lately the normal calm Mediterranean was kicking up white horses, I even spotted some surfers trying to catch the four foot waves blowing in. I was listening to the iPod and a new Podcast, the Two John's. Interesting stuff and its bike related so I'll give it a go. They have a wealth of knowledge but each show is about two hours long so its not a one sitting type of podcast I'm used to. An uneventful ride although it is still hell of a beautiful with all the flowers opening up on this harsh land.

Finally I read that we are once again befallen by another doping problem. Tyler Hamilton, of the badboys of cycling Rock Racing Team, was a little too bad. What i don't understand is that he knowingly took the substance, as if the riders that dope don't normally knowingly take the products. He claims to be suffering from depression so you sort of feel sorry for the guy but once you read that he once accused of paying some serious dollars to Dr. Fuentes you have to ask the question, why not go to a specialist and find some treatment that is not going to throw the entire peleton back into the spotlight. He will go on to retire and cycling will take another kick while its down. As if the news of Lance last week was not disconcerting enough now we have the real deal again. Lets hope that this will just go away quickly, thankfully he is not claiming his innocence and wondering who slipped something into his drink at the local pub.

Passover break

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:10:00 +0000

We've had the passover holiday over here in Israel so this is basically like the Christmas break in most of the western world. Had about ten days off work and have just been enjoying the time off. Wish I could say I was doing a ton of riding but that has not been the case. I did compete in a race about two weeks ago and managed to take the gold in that one. I hope to broaden out a bit but just wanted to wish everyone a happy belated Easter and Passover. Here are some pictures from a hike Mirit and I went on. If I couldn't ride at least I wanted to enjoy the outdoors!!

The area is just east of the Sea of Galilee in the valley of Daliah. An amazing place and I was already planning some return adventures to explore the mountains where you probably have the least populated area's where its not dessert. As you can see its still pretty green and the flowers are in full force. We had some rain but in about three to four weeks the whole area will be brown as this land of extremes plunges in the hot summer.

So close

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:17:00 +0000

Another Volvo Challenge under my belt and this time I had a strong partner. I quickly realized that a podium finish was out of the question as there were some seriously strong riders and our slower start wouldn't push us to far up. You also don't know during the race where you are at because all the categories are mixed and there are three different length's so trying to keep track while keeping focused was out of the question.
Had a fantastic start and didn't get stuck in the masses that normally eats not only time but also energy. The legs were cold as you can't get a good place on the line and warm up. They started us off on a hill that didn't help the cold legs but after working them loose we were on our way. Our slower start was fine because it was not too slow that we fell behind but rather a leg saving pace. Had a close encounter with a ditch that "burped" my front tire but luckily the tubeless setup negated a definite snakebite and just soaked it up.
By the second lap the legs were starting to feel the pain but I was munching on Hammer Gel all the way. Started with one at 20 minutes and was planning to take one every forty minutes afterwards. I realised that the pace was high so was taking in one every half hour. This kept off the cramps but created a whole different stomach problem. Luckily they had some banana's at the water point and I got some real food down.
We were cruising at the end and really burying ourselves to make up as much time as possible. This seemed to work as we were not passed by anyone and rapidly made up some places. The laps wall to the finish line we spotted so other competitors who we thought were in the same category as us. I urged Tamir on as we cranked our way up the sharp incline. I was on the wheel of the guy in front and had just past the other rider who had slipped off his bike. I was hoping Tamir was on my wheel but unfortunately as I got to the top I realized that Tamir and the other guy were coming up together. We arrived just behind them and finished in 11th overall and four place in our category. Not a bad result and my best so far. Tamir was brillinat and I'm super happy to have found a parnter that in at a similar pace as me.

Serious Legs

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Today was a tougher day on the bike although the last two weeks of training are starting to pay dividends. We did race simulation type training session where we had to basically try and stay more or less at race pace for an hour and a half. My mistake was forgetting to take food with but then again I needed to work off the lovely pizza Mirit made last night. I didn't bonk but the energy levels were at a minimum at the end of the ride. I started out with Oren and Erez but Oren was pushing the pace and we pulled away from Erez after two laps of the route we had planned. I tried to stay within my limits as we went up the hills and then recover on the technical stuff. The track will be pretty technical on saturday as the area is littered with single track that they normally find a place for. I enjoy the races that have some technical aspects because that basically gives the mountain bikers the advantage over the road riders that are venturing out onto the dirt. In the south where the roads are more open and the guys form into peletons that push the pace.
In the end my legs were feeling good and would have really liked to push for another lap or two were it not for work and the fact that I hadn't eaten for the whole ride so didn't want to overdo it. the fact is that it is better that I still had legs left and wasn't completely bushed. So the race this coming weekend should be a success and I'm really hoping to get onto the podium.

Mirit's windy attempt

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:27:00 +0000

Another longer weekend came and went. My blogging attempts have been hit and miss. Seems though that I may not be the only one as Trio has also been battling the 24 hour day. I could really manage a 36 hour day where I would be able to sleep and still manage to get everything done. Procrastination may still take up half the time but that other half would be magic. As for the real world my excursions this weekend were more layed back after the century that I managed on Thursday. Can't believe how the time flies but I'm sitting here a week away from the Volvo Challenge and I'll be doing 50km race pace. Been putting in some serious saddle time lately so hope it all pays off.

On Friday I went up with Erez to Mishmar HaEmek where the race will be held just to get acquainted again with the hill's. We did some serious climbing for the distance with a serious wall climbing effort that had me crawling along in my granny gear barely able to turn the pedals over. There was a marathon going on, 80km of off road running. Far to many hours pounding away for me. We did run into some of the runners and one was quite chatty. He had just come back from a 24 hour race in the States where he road 600km in the time allocated. Madness!!! And here he was running 80km a little while later. Either he has tons of time for training or he is naturally fit because halfway through he was not even breaking out a sweat.

The weather went sideways from there and the whole weekend ride was put on hold as we got some more rain. I picked up a new helmet for Mirit as she is keen to get more involved in the cycling so I'm more than happy to push where needed. The wind and cold were not playing along as you can see how snugly she's wrapped up. We all know how it is to ride into a head wind and this is what we had all day. All day being an hour jaunt around the fields of the kibbutz. This was more than enough for her and I was really proud that she made it all the way.

Century Ride for March

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:49:00 +0000

Today was the day that I've been promising for the last three weeks. I went off this morning not really thinking about doing the full century but ended up seeing that I was almost there so made the extra loop to push myself over the line. I was supposed to be heading into the hills today with one of the Spider riders from Rosh Hanikra and then along the northern border. I must add that it was done on the road so I popped the road century cherry and I must say that I was just as pooped by the end of it as i would have been was I on a mountain bike. Well at seven my fellow rider canceled so I thought that I would head out and see what happens, seeing as with the financial situation as it is we are not working on a Thursday.

I headed up to misgav knowing that if I ran into any serious trouble I'd be closer to friends who could come to the rescue. After my puncture experience from last week my road cycling experience is already in safety mode. Well the climb on the bike with bigger gears made for interesting view as I huffed and puffed my way to the top. After thinking about it both my century's of the year were done on a similar route, one on dirt and the one of today done on the road. So after crawling to the top I did the same on the way down as my descending skills on the road are no where near my rocking hopping, tree bouncing mountain bike downhilling.

I was contemplating doing some further climbing to Ma'alot and then down but decided to rather go up to Rosh Ha'Nikra as I didn't want to overdo it and the fact that that route would take me near some of the villages. Something I don't want to do without some peleton backup or pepper spray. Seems like I'm riding through a gangsters paradise over here in Israel but actually 95% of the time everything goes smoothly, its that 5% percent though that seems to stick in the mind.

I made it up to to the Northern Border between Lebanon and Israel without any hassles and then came back through the chute of banana fields of Gesher Aziv. This is an awesome piece of road as it has a gate on either side but the road is smoothly paved so after spending the day with cars zipping past this was bliss. All of this changed though as I passed the hundred mark I went through the last intersection before getting back to the kibbutz. I was caught off and made it quite clear what I thought of his driving skills, after some heated shouting the guy pulls over further up the road waiting. Do I try and speed by risking him push me or stop and hear him out. Well I chose the latter unintelligently and he was waiting with a knife. I really couldn't believe it but luckily left unharmed. So another day of fun and games in a foreign country for me, sometimes I wonder what I'm doing here but then I realized what an awesome ride it had been. Don't let that 5% spoil it!

Practice with loaded legs

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:41:00 +0000

Went out for practice at Misgav with Spider and the legs were still loaded from the weekends bender. Did a forty forty, forty minutes of base and forty minutes of tempo. I felt fine but the gents were looking at pushing the pace. This can be both a blessing and a danger when riding in the group. When you're trying to get a good workout then you need not look any further but when you're trying to build correctly you need to keep within your limits and ride within yourself. So I dropped off the pace a bit and hang a few meters off the back. This seemed to get the message across and the pace slackened a bit but every now and then the guys would unknowingly push it up again. All in all a good practice but now with rain predicted I may be staying inside which is not the best.

Weekly Roundup - 22 March 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:21:00 +0000

Decided that a Sunday would be the best day to put together a weekly roundup of my week of cycling. Finished up the training camp yesterday with a ride with the group of spider riders. Very easy paced ride to round off a successful weekend of training. Plenty hours with only a touch of drama on the Friday afternoon. Other than that afternoon ride i pretty much stuck to the plan and managed to do most of the hours and training i was given by Ofir. As you you can see below the hours sort of peeked on Thursday although Friday was meant to be the major day, I would have had another hour and a half were it not for the puncture. Quite interesting is the fact that the miles went up with the road riding even though the hours went down. Great week and really pumped with the fitness gains, I already feel full of energy which is probably a good thing. glad I wait a bit to get into the season before the serious training started.

Training Camp Day 3 & 4

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:03:00 +0000

The second part of my training camp weekend was done mainly on the road bike. I went out on Friday morning for an easy zone 2 ride with the threatening clouds hanging overhead. I went out to Nahal Kziv. This time of the year the water is flowing and you venture in with the knowledge that you will have some seriously cold and soggy feet by the end of the ride. Opting out of the soaking I turned around at the start of the climb into the valley and headed towards Rosh Hanikra. Basically cutting straight across the banana fields and onto the coast. From here it was north and then turning around at the border, probably the closest I'd ever get to entering Lebanon.

My legs were feeling the kilometers by this stage so once I got home a can of tuna went down the gut before heading to the ancient town of Acco for some fresh humus. Said (pronounced Sah'id) is famous in Israel for him humus so we tucked into our bowl of with some freshly made pita, everyone packed like sardines as you enjoy the meal at the same table with complete strangers picking olives and pickles from a shared bowl. Probably not to everyone's liking but once you've experienced it it makes dining out seem tame.

The afternoon I had some of my natural luck come into play. My first ride on the open road was effected by a puncture. not just any type of puncture but rather a tired shredding screw type puncture that ended my ride prematurely and leaving me stranded on the side of the road waiting for Mirit to come to my rescue. Up until that point though i had been loving it. The iPod playing some great podcasts while the kilometers melted away under my big chain ring. Ended up putting in 60kms and may even have broken that century had I not been stopped in my tracks.

Saturday was the last ride and I managed to do this with the group of some Spider riders. Uriel, Oren, Eliran and Erez. We chugged along at a nice pace but nothing like what i was pushing the day before. Probably better that way but I felt a bit dissapointed that the guys weren't pushing a bit harder. Its like getting a new Ferrari and then going for the leisurely Sunday ride with some VW Beatles. I did manage to gain the theoretic polka dot of the day by out gunning Oren. I basically sat on his wheel as he spun the compact gears very easily, I had to work hard but by the time we were almost at the top i used the power and went for the dash. The feeling on the road is absolutely amazing and can see myself spending some serious time in the saddle getting out and enjoying the open roads.

I hope this makes up for my missed attempt at last months century. I feel great even though I am a bit tight from the hours spent in the saddle. I don't have much of a choice but to do the actual full century next week, leaving it again till the last minute.

Training Camp Day 1 & 2

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:42:00 +0000

So the session of pain started yesterday. The fact that the financial situation is looking rather dodgy at the moment we aren't working on Thursdays so I thought I would use this to get myself into some sort of shape for the year ahead seeing as I've been sitting on the tub of lard all winter. So yesterday was the first day of a four day mini training camp. Almost three hours on the bike with most of it base building. The whole point of the weekend is to get as much time in on the bike and not worry about the kilometers. So the century challenge seems like it may be put off for another week although yesterday and today i hit the half mark and seeing as tomorrow is the longest day i might just make it.

Above is Tamir my partner for the Volvo Challenge - Mishmar Ha-Emek. I've been looking for someone with some serious pace as well as marathon staying power. The pace department is set as he is the Israeli Champ for the Masters category and for stamina he did the 24 hour race last year.... solo!!! So I feel I'm going to the race for the first time with someone stronger that can push a bit when I get lazy. But back to the actual training camp.

I went up to Misgav with for training knowing that I would probably warm up with them and then move off in my own direction. WRONG. Ofir decided it would be a good idea to also do some sprint exercises with the guys and then I could continue. This was explosive and after a mini-bonk I quickly got some banana's into my system and carried on riding with Matti and Oren. Half an hour of Base riding was followed by an hour and a half of Zone 3. This was quite fun until at the end I needed to do some cruise intervals. I was feeling the legs but managed it in the end. Cool down back to the car and I was off to the shop to pick up the road bike for the weekend to test ride, and test ride I will with some serious hours.

The afternoon session was an easy ride up to Rosh Hanikra for about an hour and a half. I'm sure I could do this route blindfolded already but its such a perfect ride to get that basic low intensity ride in that I seem to turn to it more often than not. Also a great ride to get to other parts of the north that branch off. I was pedaling thorugh butter after the morning session so I just took it easy. By the time I was almost home I got so ravenously hungry I was going crazy. Got home and ate four peanut butter and banana sandwiches with some honey. Perfect to stave off that monster hiding in my belly. Tomorrow is the long day with six hours of saddle time planned.

PAIN!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:42:00 +0000

Here's my weekend of pain line up. Playing around with GoogleDocs so excuse the bone head link but if the technology is out there I want to try and use it. Looking at sharing my training log this way. I think that Google has a webpage builder to boot so may just create a starter page and see where it leads. I love tinkering.

Its starting to get better

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:22:00 +0000

This morning went out for training again. After the weekends wall climbing I'm glad I got some rest in for the week ahead. Got the training program for the weekend for Ofir so its going to be an interesting few days to get me inot some sort of shape. Also finally found a partner for the Volvo Challenge so will be training full steam for that over the next few weeks.
Onto today's training though. We went out for some saddle time and not much in terms of technical stuff. An hour and a half of zone 2/ zone 3 riding with a bit of single track thrown in for good measure. Went out with some really strong guys and we were pushing it quite a bit. I must say that I spent more time in the upper limits but also feeling much better. Really just felt like continuing as the end came, thought about another half an hour but in the end realized I need to get to work.
On a final note I looked at a second hand road bike. Been given permission to look into a road bike from the minister of war and finance. I'll get it for the weekend to put it though its paces and if all goes according to plan I should have a road bike by the end of next week.

Weekend Wall Climbing

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:16:00 +0000

Went out for a long ride for Erez to a place called Shimshit. From there were cycled to Nazareth over a few crazy climbs. After the practice my legs were hurting and at the end of this I was done. At the end of the day we did 800m of climbing which is quite a bit for us weekend warriors. I was hoping for a bit of a easy laid back ride.

This was anything but an easy two hour jaunt to get the blood flowing. We hit a epic climb that pushed the heart rate up straight off the bat. We ended up being out there for four hours with about three hours of saddle time. Usually we like to keep the ride time quite close to the overall time but directions were a bit shocking today as we tried to make our way around.

Enjoyed it at the end of the day as good to simply get out there and ride in an area I don't normally get to. The whole place is also full of flowers after the rains that came down and the fact that its starting to warm up for spring. Hoping for a great week of riding ahead.

Erez showing me how to get it done.

The Young Guns

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:46:00 +0000

The Financial situation has hit home an dwe're only working a four day week. Ca't say I'm to dissapointed because it means i can concentrate on some cycling. Wanted to do a little mini-training camp over the weekend to push the fitness levels up but woke up yesterday with a pain in my neck. One of those days when you wake up and one of the muscles is pinching the nerves. So didn't do anything other than wince the whole of yesterday.
Today slept in late and then got some stuff sorted out. This afternoon went out for a ride with the youngsters in the team. these guys are fast and strong. With no weight on their bodies and all the fast twitching high heart rate muscles they make the hills seem like flats. GReat getting out there with them when i can but the practice turns into a bit of punishment for me. We did an hour of zone 3 riding or should i say chasing. I basically need to keep up with guys with heart rates at least ten beats lower than mine and much much faster. It made for some interesting riding though and I managed to eventually push them a bit.
Then we had to do some uphill big gear riding. I normally enjoy this session but today it was pure pain. Glad I went up there and spoke with my Ofir about a mini weekend next week. May be better as i can get some guidance from him. Tomorrow I'm off with Erez for a trip so photo's should be forthcoming and you won't have to read the dribble.

Pool Time

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:56:00 +0000

Spent about half an hour at the pool today after work. Really being meaning to get some more flipper time in but I get home normally after work completely drained. This evening forced myself out after watching the closing stages of the Paris-Nice. Brilliant watching those machines make it look so easy, Chavenel was a beast as he tour the peleton apart. Be interesting tomorrow when they get into the hills.
The financial situation is hitting home as we have no work this Thursday. Looks like it may continue until the holidays are over. So I'll look on the bright side and see it as a chance to boost my fitness levels. I have plans in my head for a bit of a solo cycling camp. Starting tomorrow I will spend the next four days putting in some serious saddle time and even possibly get the century under my belt. More on this tomorrow as I give it some more thought.

Great Training

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:23:00 +0000

Went out for training today with the team up at Misgav. Had an awesome ride with all the guys. The weather was brilliant even though last night I went to bed with spitting from above and the thunder gods starting to get angry. Woke up to perfect weather, I was shivering before the ride but within two turns of the crank I was fine and just glad to be on the bike.

Normally after the weekend race I'm all tight and feeling the legs quite badly. I must have done something correctly after the race because yesterday I was feeling fine and today didn't have any of that lactic kickback of the weekend race. We did just under an hour of riding in zone 2/3 so that was probably another thing that helped towards loosening up the muscles and being able to talk to all the guys from the weekend.

We had some great results as a team and Oren, above, absolutely ripped up the race. He's busy training for the BC Bike Race later in the year so he has been working closely with Ofir(coach) to build up for that. You can see the results as he was stroming the weekend.

After the fun we had to do a little work, some intervals. We did 6 minute cruise intervals repeat thrice. I enjoyed these quite a bit and the last one we had a calf runnning next to us and just didn't want to stop. I even held onto him for a while but he was hauling as, not sure if he was scared or what but he balked like a crazy thing, may need to check for Mad Cow. Ended up with 25km in the saddle, which is quite a bit for a practice where we normally only get up to 18km. So all in all a great training session.

Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:06:00 +0000

I've taken the tortoise approach to the season. Slow and steady, more slow than steady but then again the season is changing and getting out of bed in the morning is no longer a chore. After yesterdays race I've decided to get more proactive in my training, by that I mean I will actually spend more time in the saddle than dreaming about longs rides. This has brought me around to thinking that it may be a good idea to set some targets for the year. Seeing as XC is out of the window this year I will concentrate on the marathon championships. I enjoy the longer distances as it gives more opportunity to make up for mistakes. So my main aim of the season is to win the marathon championships come October, this leaves me with a long season to build up to where I want to be. As for smaller targets I will be giving it some thought and putting them down here and trying on a weekly basis to see how far I've come.

Race Day

noreply@blogger.com (Biking Badger) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:08:00 +0000

Done and dusted. First race of the season is done, unfortunately I have some serious work to do if I want to turn this little piece of silver into gold. Had a great race and finished 2nd in the Sport category. I will be sorting out the signing up to the Israeli Cycling Federation in the next week or so and then its up to the Expert level. Think i will suffer plenty with the big boys but I'm not doing this for the medals(although they are nice). I really want to push myself but because the season is long, I mean the peak need to be in October so I will concentrate getting some base training in for the next few months. Told my coach I want to sit with him and go over what I need to do to accomplish my goals.