This week is all about the bike. I plan to ride some good milage on my TT but save some energy to have a real good crack at the Calga TT on Sunday.
Monday
I had planned to ride more milage today but due to a late start I only managed 3hrs (101km) a quick run off the bike and off to see my dietician. Some good and bad news from her and when I say bad it is more about things I need to work on. Across to the pool to surprise Spot by being at an even swim squad session.
Tuesday
Its Flanno's last week on the bike before he goes and has foot surgery. So we did a reverse beaches loop and a couple of laps around CP for 56km of effort and a 6km run off the bike.
Wednesday
It was the coaches birthday so it was only right that I made an effort to be at swimming to have my arms ripped off by a killer swim set. I headed home and donned my old Bondi Fit kit and for a sweat session on the bike doing a Zwift group ride and a short run off the bike. I rest up for the arvo before heading across to Homebush for a quick run before CanToo coaching. Today I put my athletes through a 3km benchmark test and they have all shown massive improvement since the last one with many of them doing 2-3min PBs.
Thursday
Big day today with a ride with Flanno and Trewie around CP holding 200w average. We managed to hold in excess of 36km/h and 212w for the 2hours of pain and we achieved 77km. I held back my run and ran an easy 7km later that day around SOP. My planning moving forward is to make Thursdays a solid TT effort day with a solid run off the bike.
Friday
An easy day today with just a 30km spin on the trainer to save my legs for Sunday.
Saturday
In preparation for race day I took my crew to Kirribilli where we ran the first half of the course and 9km. This was a challenge for some of them as it was extremely windy and the course is quite undulating but with so many CanToo people around it made for a great morning.
Sunday
Wow what a Sunday and what a Calga TT. I was pretty pumped for this event as I really wanted to test myself against the Moore Performance crew and the other people that turned up. I was lucky enough that I was starting 8th for the morning and with all but one Moore Performance rider in front of me I had plenty to chase.
I made the conscience decision that I would ride the first 5km a little easier as I felt last time I brunt too many matches early. I left the starting gate and proceeded to push the watts to 97% of my max. My goal was to come home harder which was a gamble but one that worked a treat.
I honestly thought I would pass most Moore Performance riders within 10km, the reality was I passed 5 between 13 and 22km which left Fiona and Jason ahead of me. I saw Fiona coming back for her home lap and Jason making the turn at Somersby. I would not catch either of them until the last 5km or so from home. I had to really work hard but I kept telling myself to hold my watts, control my breathing and get my nutrition in.
I passed Fiona on a slight up hill and cheered her on and I could see Jason just up ahead of me, I made the decision to push extra hard knowing there was a chance I could blow up. As we approached Blood Hill i could see Jason, he certainly wasn't pushing up the hill in his usual high cadence manner and I got to within 30m of him as we closed in on the finish.
As he crested the hill a 25km racer came past and Jason jumped on his wheel putting a little bit of daylight between us. I cannot express how this spurred me on, I crested the hill and drove as hard as I could to try and pass him. In the end he got me by 3secs.
Before the race started I stated in my cocky way that I was going to beat him by a minute. I didn't get the minute but I did beat him by 57secs, I did push my FTP up to 292w, I did PB by over a minute and I did finish first. Yes thats right I finished first. I have never finished first at anything in my life and whilst it may have been a reduced field due to fathers day I am a firm believer you have to be in it to win it.
Six weeks ago I didn't know where I stood with my training and since that day I have worked really hard to get fitter and stronger in all disciplines and it is really starting to pay off.
At the next Calga I am going to try and boost my FTP yet again but more importantly I am going to try smoother and faster yet again. I am really looking forward to the challenge of it too.
The weeks stats:
Swim: 6,800m
Bike: 357 km
Run: 39.7 km
Training Time: 17:48 hours
