Archive for May 2011
Restless nights, KB play
Posted on: Monday May 23, 2011
I haven’t been sleeping the best lately. I’m not worried about the wrap up with LP, or the next job (whatever it might be), but I am excited. Excited and maybe a little impatient. This morning I work up at 4 and could not get back to sleep. I thought about REA, Google, ANZ and the NAB. I thought about designing Neil’s HTFU kit. When I finally quieted my mind I lay there thinking nothing, and began to note a creeping awareness of the tension from last weekend’s racing and a week of office-chair sitting in my legs. All four quadriceps under load from knee to hip, through and into my back. Hamstrings. A dull, muted, not-quite-ache.
At 5:30 I got up and went to the bathroom and stretched. Stretched some more. Got down on the floor and stretched. Got out the roller and wrung the living shit out of the fronts of my legs. Parasympathetic sweats, the shakes, grit teeth, you name it. And twice more, maybe half an hour or more it took. And then I went back to bed, slack and sleepy, and drifted off to sleep.
So, a little tired this morning:
With the 16kg KB:
10 x RTW each way
10 x Figure 8 each way
10 x One arm swing e.s.
10 x Two arm swing
10 x Clean and press e.s.
10 x Snatch e.s.
10 x Clean and jerk e.s.
10 x Goblet squat
10 x TGU (5 e.s.)
10 x OHS
10 x Clean and windmill
Six Hours in the Saddle
Posted on: Saturday May 14, 2011
Neil had lined-up Jim and I for a reunion race of sorts. The idea was nothing more than a shits-and-giggles hit-up of the classic Beechworth Six Hours in the Saddle race. The setting is gorgeous, the course is fast and semi-technical and in a three man team we’d have energy and company to burn.
When Jim bailed, James stepped up; with a shiny new Baum to match (convenient!) and we were on our merry way.
It was 4°C when the race kicked off. While JP sat huddled in our down jackets, Neil stomped out a lap that sent me out in fifth position. I rode every lap like it was my last, posting times between 4 and 8 minutes slower than the big man’s, 2-4 behind JPs. And I could not have been happier.
The trails were perfect. Rocky, rolling and with plenty of grip. Racing Ralph’s felt great. The bike felt great. My back stiffened up as the race went on but nothing awful. At 12 seconds to 4:00, Neil came thundering into transition to tag me onto a lap that would see us cement our first category place by a lap, and pick up another two positions overall. 1st and 7th.
Very, very nice.
Also very nice: heated seats on a smashed P-chain, and being chauffeured back to the city.
Time on bike: 1:53:57
Avg Moving Speed:15.1 km/h
Max Speed:30.6 km/h
Elevation gain: 704 m
Avg HR: 173 bpm / 88%max
Max HR: 184 bpm / 94%max
Ten times up the short hill
Posted on: Monday May 9, 2011
2 x 5 Hill repeats (seated) @ Edgewater Blvd (a.k.a. “the short hill”)
Not hurty.
1 x evening of foam roller vs VMO and ITB.
Hurty.
