Hugh Trenchard

After a short, but very hard time-trial effort up Munns Rd on Friday, followed by a hard 2.5+ hour Burnside group ride on Saturday with some solid paceline work and a number of sprint efforts, I was uncertain whether a 50km time trial would be the best thing for me. I have also been feeling residual fatigue from last weekend’s two longer, hilly rides and Tuesday’s sprint session that was followed by a hard weight training session. In short, despite a couple of weeks off prior to last weekend, this last week has been fairly hard, and I’ve been feeling fatigued. I am wondering if I’ve started in a little too quickly with higher-intensity workouts after my break, but one presumes the body is ready for it.

Nonetheless, I had concluded that a good threshold effort today was indeed a good idea, keeping in mind the current objective, the 5-stage international race, the Tobago Classic at the end of September. So, I made the drive up past Duncan with Vaughn Marshall in the pouring rain for the race. The rain was not in the least encouraging, but it was reasonably mild, about 16 degrees, so the worry of severe muscle tightness due to cold was somewhat lessened. For me the threshold for significant and detrimental muscle tightness is around 12 degrees and, if it is raining, even tights will do little to ameliorate this because cold rain will penetrate straight through to the skin. However at 16 degrees, a slathering of Tiger Balm over the legs as a protective coating from the rain is sufficient to keep the legs warm.

The 50km course from the north end of Duncan to Cowichan Lake, and back, is a challenging road of continuous undulations, but overall it is gradually ascending on the way out. I registered as the first rider off, as I simply wanted to get it over with with minimal waiting. Behind me were 16 other registered riders starting off at 1 minute intervals – a small field, likely somewhat reduced by the less-than-ideal riding conditions.

After over-cooking the first corner a few hundred metres into the race onto Cowichan Lk road, I skidded with brakes on hard into the oncoming traffic lane and found myself staring precariously eyeballs to eyeballs, straight-on, with a driver in the oncoming lane. Fortunately the driver slowed and I managed to avert a collision. Duane Martindale later went down on that corner and did not finish the race, but was not badly hurt. The organizers have promised to make adjustments to the course next year to make it safer.

On a course that seemed to be continuously uphill, punctuated by a few short-lived flats or slight descents, a steady rhythm was not to be found. In such a case one must simply adjust to grunting out the pace as best as possible and to the experience of varying degrees of pain and pain-plus-extra-pain.

The turnaround could not come soon enough, but eventually it appeared in the distance after nearly 25km of lung busting. About half a km before the turn, two vehicles passed me only to slow down to a crawl and force me to decelerate considerably, well before the turnaround, accompanied by my overshooting the turn by a significant distance.

By the time I was on my way in the opposite direction for home, I realized there were riders behind whom I had not gained time upon or whom had gained time on me. One of these was Derek Tripp. I learned afterward he took two minutes out of me on the first half.

For the return I felt I could sustain a rhythm that was both hard and focussed, and by the end I had not lost additional time to Derek. I actually thought I would have lost more time in the second half due to my absence of aero helmet, aero-wheels or specific TT bike/set up (I did use aero bars though) and because there was more descending in the second half. So at least that aspect of my ride was encouraging.

In the end Derek (57 yrs old, and an amazing talent) had the fastest time on the day at 1:12.28, Shane Savage (33) from Vancouver was second in 1:13.45 (who was forced to stop near the beginning to adjust his brakes to accommodate a broken spoke), while I was third in 1:14.30. Don Gillmore has the course record in about 1:09, I understand.

I was happy with my day, and was glad for the sustained threshold effort. I have actually done only a couple of time trials this year, and so it was good to get a full-dose reminder of the kind of pain one must endure at that sustained output. Most of my races this year, being road races or criteriums, have required the ability to recover rapidly from continual high intensity, over-the-threshold attacks, and so I have developed that ability quite well. Little of my racing, however, has involved the steady threshold effort of time trialing, and I would do well to do a few more of that sort of effort before Tobago, which will entail a ton of very difficult climbs.

My travel companion, Vaughn, was in at 1:26, which was good enough for the fastest time of two riders in his age category (45-49) but after age-grading he was second to the older rider. His time was roughly the same as his time last year when he completed the race as a two-up with another rider and in better conditions, so his overall ride was better this year.

Flowers for Anonymity – the audio version

After nearly two weeks with virtually no riding, I was back on the bike this weekend. Saturday was an easier paced 3hrs of climbing – Munns Rd, Finlayson Arm, Malahat and a return past Goldstream through Langford; followed on Sunday by a longer, faster ride, about 3:45, along the same route but including the Shawnigan Lk loop. The legs felt strong, as did the entire aerobic system. I avoided any group riding to ensure that I was riding mostly under my threshold, albeit with a few harder efforts on Sunday.

For my time off, there were two days of no training at all (Tues, Wed, two weeks ago, after the Kelowna race) followed on Thursday by a day of very easy jogging on the treadmill for 20mins with some light weights and core strength exercises. Friday was another day of no training. Saturday I went for a gentle 45 min run, followed on Sunday by another easy run around Elk/Beaver lake. I ran up to about 9km and walked the last km, as there was no need to push through the tightness building in my quads.

It is my experience that this sort of cross training is a legitimate form of rest. Intuitively it may not seem that running in this way is a rest from cycling, but it is my view that because a different neuro-muscular system (the running system) is engaged, the body is forced to recover in a way that speeds the recovery process from a sustained period of training another neuro-muscular system (the cycling system). This works for me, I believe, largely because my body is very accustomed to switching back and forth between running and cycling, and for a cyclist who has not done much running in the past, it may not be as useful to use running as a form of recovery. For me, this kind of short term cross-training is better than doing nothing for two weeks, although some might argue otherwise.

In any event, through this period, I had also made a more regular regimen of push-ups and sit ups – everyday, rather than once every two or three days. I’d like to maintain good solid core strength exercises through September, and throw in some extra weight training sessions too. I’ve realized that, while I’ve been reasonably consistent with core exercises, I’ve neglected some lower back exercises that I think will improve my out-of-saddle power just a bid.

Last Tuesday I decided to try a short tempo run to open up my aerobic system. I knew that my legs would not last long, but the idea was to get the lungs working hard without riding the bike. So, with almost 20minutes of running at my anaerobic threshold, my legs locked up coming down the far side of King George Terrace. The quads would take me no further and I walked for nearly an hour to get home.

Fortunately the next day the soreness was nearly gone, and I went for an easy spin on the bike for an hour. On Thursday I did some weights and core work, and on Friday I did no training, followed by my two longer rides this weekend, which begins the resumption of regular training on the bike.

Today, as a transition day between two jobs – having resigned from my paralegal position with the Legal Services Branch on Friday, to begin my position as an adjudicator with the Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles tomorrow – I threw in an easy 1hr20mins of spinning on a considerably cooler day than the last several.

I’m not sure if I’m up for the Sidney TT tomorrow – may opt for some hill intervals instead – will see how I feel come tomorrow.

BC Cup #7 – Kelowna. Three stages: 3.8 km hill climb & 60min + 2 lap criterium on Saturday, 120 km road race Sunday

Last year this time I was coming on to decent form and had what for me was a good race when I finished 15th in the general classification over four stages (it was shortened this year to three stages). This year my form is at least as good, but I have been feeling tired since White Rock, following on the Cascade Classic the week previous. And, after what felt like a very ragged week of quasi-training and resting and feeling on the edge of catching a bug, I was quite prepared to feel quite burned and flat for this race.

The 3.8km hill climb up Knox Mountain Saturday morning, after the Friday evening spent traveling with Trevor Connor and Casey Ryder, was painful and at 10:16 my time was a mere 3 seconds faster than last year. Last year I was on a heavier bike and generally inferior equipment, so my thought was that I was likely to be significantly faster than last year, so was a little disappointed with my time, but was not surprised given the week leading up to it.

Will Routley (Symmetrics) who was 19th overall at the Cascade Classic, took the winning time in 9 minutes flat, and there were about 25 guys between him and me of a field of 47 in the Cat 1,2 field. I would have been happier with a sub-10min time, but it could have been worse. Trevor Connor, who had been sick all week, managed to tough out the climb in 9:38, while Casey, riding his first stage race in the men’s master event held on for just over 12 minutes.

With lungs burning from the dry air and the effort of the hill climb, and my heart-rate remaining high through the day, I was not feeling optimistic about the criterium. However, once we began at 6:30 that evening, my solid fitness base took over, and over the 60 minutes plus 2 laps around the sweeping 1km course, I was able to generate a few attacks, get into a few breakaway attempts and generally make a good race of it.

While the criterium was rich with attacks, the bunch ultimately stayed together, and although I held a top 10 position for most of the race, by the finish I likely ended up somewhere around 20th (I have not yet seen the final results). A crash on the last corner, resulting from a fellow’s front tire blowing out, slowed up the field that followed behind, and I was just on the inside of him as he slid out. It looked a bit nasty, and I haven’t heard how he is doing.
The race went by quickly, and, when they rang the bell with 2 laps to go it seemed to me we had only been racing for about 40 minutes, which is a testament to my good fitness.

Fortunately, rather than breaking me down, I felt as though the criterium opened my system, and I felt more fully recovered after that than after the hill climb. After the race, with Trevor laying low at our UBC Okanagan campus digs for the evening and still suffering somewhat from his bug, Casey and I popped downtown for dinner at a lakefront restaurant – the busiest night of the year, we were told.

Overnight my heart-rate dropped and by the morning was 48bpm, and I felt rested by the morning, to my pleasant surprise.

The Cat 1,2 race was shortened to 120k after originally being slated for 130k, over an undulating, technical course with one steep and difficult 600m climb and a lot of tough rollers along the way. The race played out rather strangely. A breakaway of about 6 riders, with most of the major teams represented, rolled off on the first lap, just before the difficult climb. Being in a good position to join it, I delayed in getting onto it, largely thinking the field would follow on. It began to slip away, and leading onto the climb I closed the gap to the break, thinking the pack would then jump across to it on the descent. That didn’t happen, and so shortly afterward, I made an attempt to bridge across on my own. However, on the descent and up some rollers, I made no in-roads on the the breakaway, while the pack was content to watch it slip away. I thought best to drop back to the pack.

As the pack was not chasing at all, being a solo rider with no team mates, I decided I might as well get myself onto the front of the pack and ride tempo to keep the breakaway close. Many would argue this was a fruitless move on my part, but the race was over otherwise, in my mind, if we were to let the breakaway gain four or more minutes on us – over for me, and any others without teams, that is, but not over for those with team-mates in the breakaway. At one point, after I’d been on the front for nearly a full lap with Ryan Anderson and Will Routley of Symmetrics and everyone else calmly sitting on my wheel, Trevor rode up beside me and asked me why I was riding at the front, and demanded that I get off it.

Largely, Trevor was right, since I was gradually frying myself, but in the end it assisted in changing the nature of the race considerably, since the breakaway was held at less than two minutes, and ultimately was gobbled up, as I note below. Cyrus Kangerloo of Team H & R Block rode a similar race to mine, spending a lot of time at the front, as he had no team-mates in the break.

Events continued to unfold. Tim Sherstobitoff, the Symmetrics rider in the break, had a mechanical problem causing him to retire from the race. This forced Symmetrics to take up the chase. On about lap five, I took a short flyer just before the hill and, as I was cresting over the top of the climb, I could see Will behind me attacking it with a vengeance and shattering the group up the climb. All I could think of was “thank god I came over that hill ahead of the pack, since I might have been dropped by that attack.” When Will came across to me I took the ride on his wheel for the better part of half a lap, and when we went by Tim Sherstobitoff standing at the side of the road with a wheel in his had, it became apparent to me why Will had attacked and that he was attempting bridge across to the breakaway on his own (albeit with me on his wheel).

Despite being the strongest rider and significantly gapping the field, there were enough strong riders remaining in the group, and Will’s attempt was soon brought to bay. But his effort sliced the time to the breakaway, now being reduced to less than a minute. Ryan Anderson, who’d also taken up the chase for Symmetrics eventually dropped off, while the pack had whittled by steady attrition down to about 15, which group I managed to hang on to.

With a few more attacks from Will and others, finally I cracked up the last climb, and came in with Curtis Deardon (also of Victoria) and a Total Restoration rider, about a minute back. Total Restoration is a strong Kelowna based team, which had three guys remaining in top 15 by the finish. So, I think I ended up about 15th or 16th in the end, about the same as last year. I was actually quite happy with this, although ideally I would have stuck with the front group right to the finishing sprint.

The race was an omnium points format, and I finished outside the points in the HC and the crit, given to the top 10. Points went 15 deep in the RR, and if I’m lucky received 1 (!) for that stage. The RR was the most difficult of the stages, and the final omnium classification on points will not be an accurate reflection of how the race played out, and I would argue a time classification is the most appropriate format for a stage race, as it was last year. There are a number of arguments either way, and I won’t get into them at the moment. It depends a bit on how the final results for each race are posted as to whether one’s efforts are diminished by the omnium format. So, until I see the results, I’ll have to reserve judgment on it.

In any event, I was happy with my racing. After the race, Trevor suggested I had the strength to win this race, if I’d only allocated it more wisely. Perhaps a top 5, in my mind, but even so one never knows how a race will play out. I could easily have sat in the pack when the break went away, and it would have been 5 minutes up the road before anyone responded, and the race would have been over. For me, I’m more satisfied knowing I gave it everything I had on the day and finished 16th, rather than finishing in some unknown position by sitting in the pack. I love to race and bust my butt – not sit in and let the race be taken to me, regardless of the outcome. There is much for me to learn, this is true, but at my age, I’m perfectly happy knowing I can still race at this level – I don’t really have a burning need to perfect the niceties of racing strategy for better results. Then again, my current fairly high level of fitness has been a bit of surprise to me, and perhaps even a small adjustment in tactics will change my own results considerably.

So, the plan now is to take 5 days off the bike, and one week easy before building again for the five-stage race, Tobago Classic in September. That race will feature a ton of climbing, and will be very difficult, but doubtless will prove to be a fantastic experience.