Superb training ride

Training route to Royal National Park

This morning had great conditions for a training ride. I was up at 5h45 to catch up with a group going to Waterfall. Riding in a group past Sydney airport is essential as the route takes one on the airport freeway,and that is not a place that you want to be in a small group!

Once we got to Waterfall (about 50km mark), a couple of us turned left, into the Royal National Park. Its amazing how much cooler and wetter its in the park, amongst the trees, than out on the open road. My legs were still feeling the after-effects of last weekend's riding I think, but eventually I got used to the hills again and really enjoyed the climbs.

Route profile and riding speed

After the ride through the park we re-joined the maid road, and a different bunch of riders back to the eastern suburbs. Looking at the stats (available online at Garmin ) we climbed a total of over 1100m, which is in excess of the daily total climbing on all but one day of our Headride tour from Adelaide to Melbourne - that's a relief. Our average speed was over 30km/h which we'll probably exceed if we ride well in a bunch on most days.

Today was the last of my longer training rides, and I will not do much riding this week, so that I am well rested before the first day next Saturday.

Headride

Preparation for my way to Melbourne

My bike pod - thats how I take the bike on the plane with me

At this stage on my Way to Melbourne (just 10 days to go until we set off from Adelaide) the focus starts to shift to another aspect of preparation - equipment.

For eight days and 1100kms I will be dependent on 2 small areas of rubber no larger than a square cm between me and the road surface, light wheels, a simple chain and cog drive train, which actually requires some fine tuning to be effective, a carbon frame, GPS navigation aide, and well - an engine. (The engine has been the focus of most of the preparations thus far - to get and stay fit, and frankly by now its too late if you've missed the grade!) To address the former - my Giant TCR Advanced1 bike enjoyed a comprehensive service last week, lubricants, spare tyres and tubes were purchased and after completing 250+km over this last weekend, three punctures aside, I am confident that my trusted steed is ready to embark on the road to Melbourne.

Two other aspects are worthy of mentioning:

• on the road riders may, and are quite likely to encounter, temperatures ranging from less than 10 degrees to the high twenties or more; wind still conditions or breezes exceeding 30 knots -head on, cross wind, or hopefully a tail wind; rain or shine. The riders have to have appropriate clothing to cover all eventualities - gloves, sleeves, leggings, wind jacket, rain coat and thermals, all light and snug fitting so as not to cause unnecessary drag;
• a 150km+ day's cycling may require in excess of 8000 calories - these need to be continually replaced - its not sufficient to fuel up before - riders must have fuel to consume on the road including: electrolyte drinks, energy bars and gels, dried fruit, lollies, bananas, nutella sandwiches, protein shakes (post ride fuel) among other personal favourites.

In short there are quite a few things to think about.

I must say that embarking on arranging these final items I am getting really excited, and looking forward to the ride. Please go to www.headride.com for more information and to domate to the worthy cause that we are supporting.

Visualization of Day One

The team will be meeting up at the Adelaide Hilton on Friday 21st October. No donations will be going to fund our accommodation, each of the riders are paying their own way, although the Hilton, as a Bronze sponsor, must be subsidising the accommodation somewhat so that we will not be having to sleep by the roadside for the rest of the tour!

I would have preferred an earlier start, but we will be completing some formalities, including the official team photo, before heading for the Adelaide Hills by 9am on Saturday 22 October. Within 5km of the starting point we will commence our first climb up to Mount Barker. The climb will last for a fair distance - 14km, with a maximum gradient of around 8%. Following this we will surely know that we are now "on tour"! It will be quite a baptism of fire, initiating us early on with a toughie. The rest of day 1 will certainly be easier, but at almost 150km, will still be a test of our endurance. During a ride of this duration it is very important to keep refueling and hydrating since it's quite possible to deplete the body of all readily accessible energy resources, and grind to a halt - literally, also known as "bonking" in the cycling fraternity! From previous experience on a day similar to this each rider will be burning between 8,000 and 10,000 calories, and these need to be replaced during the ride. Professional riders riding competitively literally eat on their bikes, with support crews providing feed bags and liquid to the riders on the go. Our group, however, will be stopping at a number of pre-determined points along the route to fuel up, and stock up with provisions thanks to our support crew. We will also have a short break while we cross the mighty Murray River by ferry at Wellington.

We will be riding in a bunch most of the way - this enables riders to consume up to 20% less energy compared to if they were covering the same course alone! This is particularly important if the weather conditions are adverse i.e. if there is a head wind or cross wind! As will be the case every day, I guess, we will be very pleased to roll into Meningie in the afternoon.

I have been in Meningie once before, and from memory it would normally not warrant much more than a fuel stop. It is a very small settlement along the salt lakes of the Murray estuary system. I recall a bakery/cafe, a garage and the hotel lining a very short stretch of the main road! I can imagine that I will be looking forward to a good cold drink, putting my feet up, and a good dinner in the evening so that I am ready for day 2!

Profile of a typical morning ride around Watsons Bay to Bondi

From a difficulty index point of view, Day 1 ranks third, primarily due to the distance being covered, however I think the climb, of 500m over 14km so early in the day will substantially add to the difficulty. As a comparison, during a regular morning training ride around Watsons Bay to Bondi return, a distance of about 35km, I will climb a total of 570m, but with a welcome few down hills interspersing the shorter climbs!

Headride Training Programme

Taking on a challenge like the Adelaide to Melbourne 8 day ride has meant that I have had to significantly update my regular exercise programme and focus it on the specifics of the challenge. I guess one of the benefits of taking on such a challenge, is that one's training becomes very focused, and inevitably one becomes a lot fitter than would otherwise be the case.

Although most of the riders were finalised in early June, my ride was only confirmed towards the end of August, because, regrettably, I am filling in for David Anderson who picked up an injury, and was unlikely to recover in time for the ride. This has meant that my lead up time, and therefore training, has been compressed into just over 8 weeks. Additionally, I am the only one of the riders who is not regularly based in Melbourne, so I have not had the benefit of riding with the other riders in the Headride bunch - I am however going to Melbourne for a training weekend in two weeks!

My training objective at this point in my programme is to ride about 400km per week. This is being severely hampered this week / weekend, because of the rather ordinary weather here in Sydney! Upside is that I have time to update my "Road to Melbourne" blog and attend to a number of other preparatory activities - like analysing the ride route (I think that will be a subject of another blog post!). Thanks to Ollie Allan (www.tri-alliance.com.au), who helped me with training for the Tour de NZ two years ago, I have access to some of the methods of preparing for a multi-day cycling event such as Headride. Currently my goal is to ride six days a week and focus at least once a week on core strength exercise. 

 

 The above sees me getting up most mornings before 6am, so that I can be on the road before 6. When I ride longer on a weekday, I set my alarm for an hour earlier.

The one aspect that I have not attended to sufficiently is longer distance training. The longest ride during the event will be almost 190km, and in my training I have not had a longer ride than about 130km. I hope to address this in the up-coming long weekend in NSW, when I hope to get in a longer ride - perhaps a combination of group ride followed by an additional distance on my own. During the weekend of 8/9 October, I hope to meet up with the bunch in Melbourne and do Brighton to Sorrento, return with them - that should be a comparable distance to a long day during the actual event.

As I mentioned before, this is a charity ride being organised by Marg Noonan for the benefit of The Alfred neurosurgery unit. I would be really grateful if you could support me and the cause. Please go to www.headride.com/welcome.html to donate. I really appreciate it!