I have always enjoyed my training more when I had a goal to work for.
My new goal is the 24hrs of Wiesenhof in January. Once again I want to ride it in the Solo category. Just Me, Myself and the voices in my head.
The idea is not to win the race, but rather to push myself to the limits of my endurance and way past the percieved limits of my body. By not training for the 24hr I can easily reach my body's limit, but there is no fun in that. I want to be in good form so that I can go (relatively) faster, and I want to ride through the night. To achieve that I need to become a monster.
I've set up a 16week training plan that will culminate the week before the 24hr. At the end of the base building phase of the plan I will be doing 12hrs of riding a week. As the 24hr race is about endurance more than strength I might deviate from the plan to extend the base phase another 2 weeks to add a couple of 6-8hrs rides over the weekends.
The plan I developed uses the Polar 16 week training program to give me a breakdown of weekly hour totals I need to do. The daily breakdown is up to me to tweak the rides according to events and days available to me.
To get hours into my legs I will commute into Cape Town from my flat. I will do some epic long rides over the weekends and put in as many night rides as I can. The night rides are a necessity in training for the 24hr, and happen to be great fun as well.
All this riding will be best when shared with others, so feel free to join me.
Happy trails everyone
Peace
P
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
MTBing and Camaraderie
Through riding I've met a bunch of cool people.
Some of my best friends are mountain bikers, and I've introduced the MTB bug to some of my friends that have gone on to great heights.
There is something about riding that binds us together. Obviously you get A-Holes everywhere, and on a ride/race you will always get someone who won't take the time to greet you or help you when you have a trail side issue, but they are in the minority.
When I've had broken chains, punctures, cramps and even fallen off the bike there has always been someone who stopped and asked whether I'm fine, need help and even people who give up their races to get me to a hospital as soon as possible.
The Stanford race was a good example of this. In the span of 5km's I met 5 people, and we rallied together and motivated each when the going got tough. The random chit chat helped us to take our minds of the pain, and Philip Grutter's cramp stop pills helped me to finish. He didn't hesitate to give me the pills even though he was near cramping himself.
In the 06 Epic random people who I've never met helped me to push my team mate when he got sick. After doing about 130kms from Hermanus to Franschoek they still helped me to push Sybrand the last 5km's home. We made it, and finished the race, but to this day I believe it was only possible because we got help from total strangers.
On the other side of the coin I've had some great fun doing rides with friends where we had no goal other than to get into the mountain and have FUN. By sharing in the beauty of nature, in the fun of the trails and just being out there, we magnify the magic of mountainbiking.
That is essentially what MTBing means to me. It is magic. A potent cocktail of endorphins, adrenalin, thrills and friendship.
By sharing this magic, we are spreading the love, and that is beautiful.
Happy trails
Phlip
Some of my best friends are mountain bikers, and I've introduced the MTB bug to some of my friends that have gone on to great heights.
There is something about riding that binds us together. Obviously you get A-Holes everywhere, and on a ride/race you will always get someone who won't take the time to greet you or help you when you have a trail side issue, but they are in the minority.
When I've had broken chains, punctures, cramps and even fallen off the bike there has always been someone who stopped and asked whether I'm fine, need help and even people who give up their races to get me to a hospital as soon as possible.
The Stanford race was a good example of this. In the span of 5km's I met 5 people, and we rallied together and motivated each when the going got tough. The random chit chat helped us to take our minds of the pain, and Philip Grutter's cramp stop pills helped me to finish. He didn't hesitate to give me the pills even though he was near cramping himself.
In the 06 Epic random people who I've never met helped me to push my team mate when he got sick. After doing about 130kms from Hermanus to Franschoek they still helped me to push Sybrand the last 5km's home. We made it, and finished the race, but to this day I believe it was only possible because we got help from total strangers.
On the other side of the coin I've had some great fun doing rides with friends where we had no goal other than to get into the mountain and have FUN. By sharing in the beauty of nature, in the fun of the trails and just being out there, we magnify the magic of mountainbiking.
That is essentially what MTBing means to me. It is magic. A potent cocktail of endorphins, adrenalin, thrills and friendship.
By sharing this magic, we are spreading the love, and that is beautiful.
Happy trails
Phlip
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Mountainbiking and pain
Sometimes riding mountainbikes go hand in hand with pain.
There are three kinds of pain on a mountain bike.
Pain from Falling. Lets face it, it happens.
Pain from Overuse.
Pain from pushing your limits.
Falling
This past weekend I managed to fall again. Lately I havent had any bad falls, so was very fortunate up to now. Well that streak ended with a bang, and lots of scraping and a bit of swearing.
I am remembering all the disinfecting, bandaging and strapping skills I've picked up over the years. I've also bolstered my first aid kit with extra bactroban, betadine, bandages and gauze.
Pain from overuse
The repetitive nature of riding means that our jonts and muscles take a lot of strain, especially if a rider picks up his mileage very quickly. Every year at the 24 hour I push myself into tendonitis at the back of my right knee. I've made peace with it, but I really need to start paying attention to it. It is caused by a muscle imbalance between my Hamstrings and my Quads, as well as my hamstrings being to short. A proper bike setup should also help.
Pain from pushing too hard.
This is a good pain. The pain you feel when youride at a pace that is crazy stupid and you can hear your heart beating and your legs scream at you to slow down or stop and your lungs are clapping hands like a psycopath while your vision becomes like staring at a dark tunnel and the light is tinged red. And then you drop a gear and push harder for the last part of the hill or sprint to the finish line.
There is also a pain you get when you have been riding at a hard tempo for a while, say a MTB race and you press on and ride full tilt for the last 5 kms and then collapse from exhaustion after you cross the line.
I like this kind of pain. It's like a drug, and you feel like a warrior when you are cranking in your big blade after doing 50kms of hard riding. There is something satisfying about crossing the finish line knowing you gave your all.
The only way to improve is by working harder, and that means sometimers you will have to go through pain.
This is what seperates us from the TV crowd. We take the pain as part and parcel of the game. We learn to live with it, to embrace it, and to ignore it.
And pain makes beer taste better...
There are three kinds of pain on a mountain bike.
Pain from Falling. Lets face it, it happens.
Pain from Overuse.
Pain from pushing your limits.
Falling
This past weekend I managed to fall again. Lately I havent had any bad falls, so was very fortunate up to now. Well that streak ended with a bang, and lots of scraping and a bit of swearing.
I am remembering all the disinfecting, bandaging and strapping skills I've picked up over the years. I've also bolstered my first aid kit with extra bactroban, betadine, bandages and gauze.
Pain from overuse
The repetitive nature of riding means that our jonts and muscles take a lot of strain, especially if a rider picks up his mileage very quickly. Every year at the 24 hour I push myself into tendonitis at the back of my right knee. I've made peace with it, but I really need to start paying attention to it. It is caused by a muscle imbalance between my Hamstrings and my Quads, as well as my hamstrings being to short. A proper bike setup should also help.
Pain from pushing too hard.
This is a good pain. The pain you feel when youride at a pace that is crazy stupid and you can hear your heart beating and your legs scream at you to slow down or stop and your lungs are clapping hands like a psycopath while your vision becomes like staring at a dark tunnel and the light is tinged red. And then you drop a gear and push harder for the last part of the hill or sprint to the finish line.
There is also a pain you get when you have been riding at a hard tempo for a while, say a MTB race and you press on and ride full tilt for the last 5 kms and then collapse from exhaustion after you cross the line.
I like this kind of pain. It's like a drug, and you feel like a warrior when you are cranking in your big blade after doing 50kms of hard riding. There is something satisfying about crossing the finish line knowing you gave your all.
The only way to improve is by working harder, and that means sometimers you will have to go through pain.
This is what seperates us from the TV crowd. We take the pain as part and parcel of the game. We learn to live with it, to embrace it, and to ignore it.
And pain makes beer taste better...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Stanford race report
The Stanford 57km race is one of the hardest one day races I've ever done.
My dad and I burned through early morning in my bakkie. It was his first race in three years and we were both pretty psyched.
The race started fast. At about 4 km I took a reality check and dropped off the back of the bunch. At 5km while taking a sip of water a rock grew in front of my front wheel and I promptly fell my ass of. Great way to start the day.
We started climbing for what felt like forever. We reached the radio mast on top of the mountain and reached the first waterpoint. By this time I already finished a bottle so I refilled my bottle. The first aid lady wanted to clean my knee wound but i reckoned the blood and dust coagulated lekker so I pushed on. We raced down the mountain down a long rocky road. We lost almost all the elevation we gained going up to the mast, but now we were on the wrong side of the mountain. Not good. We raced down wind for a long stretch dreading turning back into the wind. This eventually happened and we realised the wind was howling. Not good either. After the second waterpoint we started climbing again. This climb killed me. The section between WP2 and WP3 was hard. It was one long drag of a climb that had me in the worst cramps I've experienced in my life. On this part of the route I met two other Philips, 2 ladies in Oak Valley Wines gear and Werner Hattingh. The camaraderie here was great. Everybody kakked off so we chatted and motivated each other. At Wp3 i felt elated. Especially after the kind ladies told me it 's 8km downhill all the way (they lied.) They informed me that I was rider number 15 and 12th man. The first aid lady wanted to clean my knee again but only warned me to be carefull on the downhill when I pushed on.
The downhill was bliss. It was long, fast, flowing, rocky at places, and quite sketchy, but most of all it was fun. I managed to pass the two Oak Valley ladies on the way down.
At the bottom there was a couple of short climbs. On the first climb I cramped in my calves, hammies and quads. I got of the bike to stretch the cramps out. Big mistake. If you stretch one muscle group the other two spasmed. I ended up sitting in a neutral position praying for the pain to go away. When the pain faded I got up again and headed home. I havent been so glad to see a race venue since day 7 of epic 2006.
At the finish my dad, Marike, Sheila, Nadia and Hilke were waiting for us, and I must have drinked a truck load of coke.
I really enjoyed this ride in a masochistic way. I will be back next year, and I WILL be stronger. The hills won't beat me again.
Afterwards the race experience unravelled a bit. The lady at the line told me I was 25th, meaning 12 people took the easier detour at Wp2 but still got placed ahead of me. Nadia fell and got hurt quite badly. My father, Harry, Sheila and Marike got lost due to bad route markings and Marike's 8k trail run turned into a 30min run and she barely broke a sweat as it was like 4kms. There were no first aid personnel at the finish and the first aid kit they had there didn't have any anti septic. Marike helped me and Nadia using the first aid kit I always have in my bakkie.
At the end of the day a great race with an awesome route was spoiled abit by the organisers dropping the ball. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and will return next year, but I hope they improve.
PS: My knee looks like it got attacked by a cheesegrater. Will post pics later. I'm taking the week off from the bike to give my wounds time to heal.
Happy trails everyone
Phlip
My dad and I burned through early morning in my bakkie. It was his first race in three years and we were both pretty psyched.
The race started fast. At about 4 km I took a reality check and dropped off the back of the bunch. At 5km while taking a sip of water a rock grew in front of my front wheel and I promptly fell my ass of. Great way to start the day.
We started climbing for what felt like forever. We reached the radio mast on top of the mountain and reached the first waterpoint. By this time I already finished a bottle so I refilled my bottle. The first aid lady wanted to clean my knee wound but i reckoned the blood and dust coagulated lekker so I pushed on. We raced down the mountain down a long rocky road. We lost almost all the elevation we gained going up to the mast, but now we were on the wrong side of the mountain. Not good. We raced down wind for a long stretch dreading turning back into the wind. This eventually happened and we realised the wind was howling. Not good either. After the second waterpoint we started climbing again. This climb killed me. The section between WP2 and WP3 was hard. It was one long drag of a climb that had me in the worst cramps I've experienced in my life. On this part of the route I met two other Philips, 2 ladies in Oak Valley Wines gear and Werner Hattingh. The camaraderie here was great. Everybody kakked off so we chatted and motivated each other. At Wp3 i felt elated. Especially after the kind ladies told me it 's 8km downhill all the way (they lied.) They informed me that I was rider number 15 and 12th man. The first aid lady wanted to clean my knee again but only warned me to be carefull on the downhill when I pushed on.
The downhill was bliss. It was long, fast, flowing, rocky at places, and quite sketchy, but most of all it was fun. I managed to pass the two Oak Valley ladies on the way down.
At the bottom there was a couple of short climbs. On the first climb I cramped in my calves, hammies and quads. I got of the bike to stretch the cramps out. Big mistake. If you stretch one muscle group the other two spasmed. I ended up sitting in a neutral position praying for the pain to go away. When the pain faded I got up again and headed home. I havent been so glad to see a race venue since day 7 of epic 2006.
At the finish my dad, Marike, Sheila, Nadia and Hilke were waiting for us, and I must have drinked a truck load of coke.
I really enjoyed this ride in a masochistic way. I will be back next year, and I WILL be stronger. The hills won't beat me again.
Afterwards the race experience unravelled a bit. The lady at the line told me I was 25th, meaning 12 people took the easier detour at Wp2 but still got placed ahead of me. Nadia fell and got hurt quite badly. My father, Harry, Sheila and Marike got lost due to bad route markings and Marike's 8k trail run turned into a 30min run and she barely broke a sweat as it was like 4kms. There were no first aid personnel at the finish and the first aid kit they had there didn't have any anti septic. Marike helped me and Nadia using the first aid kit I always have in my bakkie.
At the end of the day a great race with an awesome route was spoiled abit by the organisers dropping the ball. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and will return next year, but I hope they improve.
PS: My knee looks like it got attacked by a cheesegrater. Will post pics later. I'm taking the week off from the bike to give my wounds time to heal.
Happy trails everyone
Phlip
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)