Tag: Road bicycle

Training Week In Review – Week 5

Posted on by Chad Dobbs

For the first time in a long time I was looking forward to tackling another week on the bike. After taking a few hits mentally during the past couple of weeks it felt really good to want to spend more time in the saddle. Thanks to the previous week’s 250.3km of fairly high intensity riding I started the new week quite tender and fatigued.

While I had grand plans of long commutes on the roadie, Canberra decided it was going to be a very wet week with lots of fog. It is a fact that skinny tyres and wet/icy asphalt don’t mix so I prepped Zooey the Anthem with some lights, higher pressure tyres and dragged out my waterproof jacket.

I wanted to ride at least 50km each day while commuting; a goal I achieved on both Monday and Tuesday while riding in some light rain each time. Even at this early stage of the week I was feeling a lot of muscle fatigue but was still making gains while getting very wet and muddy.

Wednesday was dry enough that I was able to ride the roadie, but the aforementioned muscle fatigue was now in the fully fledged DOMS stage and any aspirations of a massive road ride were halted before the wheels began to even turn. But I still reached my 50km/day goal with a short commute into work and a longer commute home. I even managed to wash both Zooey and Sara taking advantage of the break in rain and brief sunshine.

Thursday was another mild Canberra day so I decided to take Kate the XTC into work. After riding Zooey and the ultra stiff (in a good way) Sara, riding Kate felt amazing. By swapping out a few components I’ve managed to keep my carbon hardtail under 10kg. With the front forks locked out and a good tucked position I quite often overtake most road bikes on the commuting climbs; something I relish doing. There’s nothing worse than tackling a long and difficult climb and having someone pass you looking cool, calm and collected. I aim to be that person; especially on a 29er while my prey is on a road bike sporting aerobars.

…But anyway, I took Kate to work on a particularly foggy morning the longish way and managed to push out 31.1km prior to work. On the way home my quadriceps were incredibly sore; but I wanted some off road time. A quick spin around the more fun tracks at Bruce Ridge went down a treat and I then headed off home covered in mud.

Thursday was also the day an article about my fundraising for Soldier On was printed in the Australian Army News.

Army News Jpeg

Friday was a complete wash out for commuting and to be honest I don’t think my aching legs had much more than a slow roll left in them. My bikes stayed at home and instead of riding I signed up for the JetBlack WSMTB 12 Hour at Dargle Farm on 10 August 2013. This will my first 12 hour and I’m looking forward to pushing myself over an extended period of time to test my body and mind before October’s Battle Of The Beasts.

This will also be my last race before my Wedding in September; so in some roundabout way the race will be my Buck’s Ride and I’m looking forward to spending the weekend riding with some of my good friends from The Berm.

At the end if this week I managed to push out 215.3km in four days riding.

Next week will be a much smaller week for riding as I only intend to ride on Sunday due to spending some time on my board in the snow.
Snow Gear

Training Week In Review – Week 4

Posted on by Chad Dobbs

Week 4 was going to be a larger week for the numbers from the get go.  I needed to break past 150km; a weekly goal I had only achieved once in the past three weeks.

I had decided I was going to spend more time on the road bike, but also knew I didn’t have the endurance to smash out the long rides I wanted to do.  My fitness has improved dramatically over the past few weeks but my quads are constantly screaming at me for a rest.  The only option was for some good paced commuting to work.

Monday I took the roadie to work along the short commute racking up 18.6km in the chilly Canberra morning air.  On the ride home I took in a more scenic 30.1km around a bit of LBG and exploring some of the bike paths near my suburb.

Tuesday was the day my beloved Kate was booked in for her first service at Onya Bike Civic.  I had experienced a fair bit of gear skipping during the previous Sunday’s CORC XC race at Kowen Forest.  As always the service, both mechanical and customer, was first rate and I soon had a singletrack eating machine firing at 100%…. Well for a about 6km of Bruce Ridge actually!  I managed to clip a stray fallen branch and snapped a spoke on my Crank Brothers Cobalt 29er front wheel.  After cutting my ride short at 7.1km I managed to fix the spoke with a spare included with the wheels.

Wednesday was a short commute to and from work on Zooey my Giant Anthem X 29er…  Not a lot to say about this apart from riding a 29er dualie on the road is a lot harder than sub 10kg road bike running 110psi.  I earned those 38.6km!

Thursday’s commute to work was on the roadie in subzero temperatures.  I was relatively warm in my leg warmers and wind-stopper; but still had ice on my legs when I arrived at work.  The commute home was a shit-fight of epic proportions; twin punctures, spat at by a bogan and a small stack due to a moron who didn’t have her inbred dog on a leash. <end rant>

Friday saw a ride to work in subzero temps and some incredibly thick fog!  There was even plenty of ice on my legs and crotchular region!
Ice Crotch
The ride home was almost as big of a fail as the previous day.  The dirty little secret of Canberra cycling community is the abundance of glass littered in cycle lanes and cycle paths.  There is a stupidly large amount that never gets cleaned up because TAMS (Territory & Municipal Services) couldn’t give a rat’s arse!
TAMS Tweet

<end rant>
After copping my fifth puncture in two days I called the girly and got picked up 2km from home.

Saturday was supposed to be a few laps of Mt Stromlo with some of the guys and girls from The Berm, but alas due to an oversight in forgetting my front wheel thru-axle that plan was aborted and I ended up riding in the afternoon.
My ride around Bruce Ridge and to home pushed me over my 200km goal for the week.

The close of the week saw a ride into Bruce Ridge and a spin around the grippy singletrack before the usual breakfast at Edgar’s and a steady ride in the pouring rain to home.

By the time my all my bikes had been cleaned and stowed away, I had amassed 250.3km for the week.  All in all I didn’t push myself too had and despite a few mechanical issues with two of my bikes I was happy with the end result.

Stable

Road(ie) To Recovery

Posted on by Chad Dobbs

Today I got back on the road bike for the first time in almost a month.  I haven’t ridden a lot since I crashed at Mt Stromlo on the 14th of April.  Not counting the 35km’s I rode to get home after I crashed; I have ridden a total of 40km’s since.  This is not a good thing; I went from riding 200-300km’s a week to not riding at all.  I was getting into a good training and nutrition regime that stalled abruptly, well the training side of it did.  In just under 4 weeks I managed to put on an extra 4kg’s by continuing to eat massive amounts of carbohydrate and protein rich foods.

I debated at length with family and friends whether or not I should race last weekend in the first round of the new CORC XC Series.  Well stupidly I entered and started the race.  Predictably I didn’t finish.  At around the 8km mark I clipped a tree with my left shoulder and decided I needed to pull out before I injured myself any further.  Luckily I pulled up all right and my ongoing recovery continues.
End result: Round One: Rider #266 – DNF.

Which brings me to today’s commute.  I decided not to ride to work this morning when I walked out into my courtyard and felt the chilly Canberra air.  So Sara got packed into the Girly’s car with the intention of riding the long way home.  Well that intention got left by the side of the road along with my confidence.

Today I felt something I haven’t felt since last September when I did my first mountain bike race with no lead up training.  Today I felt my quads.  I felt every single metre of the ride home as a deep burning pain in my legs.  I was out of breath very quickly and drank too much water which caused stomach cramps.  It is important to note that this was a 20km ride on tarmac with only a few moderate length hills to climb.  I have done a 100km mountain bike race and felt better afterwards.

Stupidly I thought getting back on the roadie would be as if the last month didn’t happen.  I had psyched myself up and honestly believed my ride home would be full of Strava personal records.  But alas it was not meant to be.  I came home quite disillusioned and somewhat angry at myself; I even managed to break the zipper on my Giant cycling jersey.

It wasn’t until I was in shower stretching out and enjoying the hot water on my aching legs that I realised what was going on.  I’m not as fit as I was a month ago and I’m still healing from a fairly substantial muscle tear.  I’m not ready to start training yet, I’m still in recovery mode.