Mt Coot-tha training

[vbplease]

What has happened to MrP?

maybe he hasn't done many triples lately.

No rides on Strava since 24 March.. hopefully he’s ok??

[warthog1]

What has happened to MrP?

maybe he hasn't done many triples lately.

No rides on Strava since 24 March.. hopefully he’s ok??

I think I remember him saying he was going away on hols somewhere.

[am50em]

Holidaying in Japan for two weeks he said in 10k topic.

[warthog1]

Holidaying in Japan for two weeks he said in 10k topic.

Lucky bugger! Cheers

[vbplease]

Holidaying in Japan for two weeks he said in 10k topic.

Ah that’s right.. hopefully it will slow his legs down a little to save embarrassing the rest of us doing tour de Brisbane

[Mr Purple]

What has happened to MrP?

I'm back! Just arrived back from Japan this morning. Probably should have hired a bike while I was over there, I wasn't aware how good their roads were (plus there were a fair few KOMs that looked like easy pickings near where I was staying).

Now the balancing act of getting a few rides in before the TdB on Sunday without wearing my legs out too much. Ended up doing 20,000 odd steps daily over there so haven't put on any weight at least.

Who's entered in the tour this year? I'll be in the 40-44 group and have optimistically nominated the 35-40km/hr wave.

[warthog1]

What has happened to MrP?

I'm back! Just arrived back from Japan this morning. Probably should have hired a bike while I was over there, I wasn't aware how good their roads were (plus there were a fair few KOMs that looked like easy pickings near where I was staying).

Now the balancing act of getting a few rides in before the TdB on Sunday without wearing my legs out too much. Ended up doing 20,000 odd steps daily over there so haven't put on any weight at least.

Who's entered in the tour this year? I'll be in the 40-44 group and have optimistically nominated the 35-40km/hr wave.

Hope you enjoyed your holiday.

[Mr Purple]

Hope you enjoyed your holiday.

Yeah, good to have a break from work and I think you need a few weeks off the bike (and Strava) occasionally mentally just to put everything back in focus.

Went out on a quick 40km ride today and managed a pretty easy 222W NP 40km today despite the time off and no sleep on the overnight flight from Tokyo which should be enough for me to keep in a decent group to the foot of Cootha 90km in on Sunday. From experience I probably won't be doing the climb at my maximal 120% FTP from there but to be honest I wouldn't be after 90km anyway, and if it makes a difference at that point something's gone wrong.

Might also have the early stage of a mild cold coming on so if all else fails I'll offer to do domestique duties for the Fulgaz team. They'd be over the moon with a 32km/hr average which shouldn't be too tough.

[warthog1]

Sounds good Mr P.

[jasonc]

headwind climbing up the back this morning wasn't fun

[bwdftp]

headwind climbing up the back this morning wasn't fun

That’s an understatement! Absolutely horrible…

[Mr Purple]

headwind climbing up the back this morning wasn't fun

It was absolutely bloody horrible. To top it off I'm still fatigued from the flight and out of shape, as well as inevitably picking up a mild cold somewhere along the way.

Slowest Cootha I've done for three years. At 188bpm average.

Be happy to break 9:00 on Sunday at this rate!

[vbplease]

That's terrible luck picking up a cold just before Tdb.. hopefully its a minor one and you feel good on the day.

Who's entered in the tour this year? I'll be in the 40-44 group and have optimistically nominated the 35-40km/hr wave.

Where did you see a timetable for a wave based on speed? I received an email this morning giving the wave times, but they're all based on age, not speed..
The womens 44 and under is the wave after me.. like last year, I'll try to latch onto the back of some very fast girls. It's a nice change from staring at the mens backsides for 3 hours

[Mr Purple]

That's terrible luck picking up a cold just before Tdb.. hopefully its a minor one and you feel good on the day.

Who's entered in the tour this year? I'll be in the 40-44 group and have optimistically nominated the 35-40km/hr wave.

Where did you see a timetable for a wave based on speed? I received an email this morning giving the wave times, but they're all based on age, not speed..
The womens 44 and under is the wave after me.. like last year, I'll try to latch onto the back of some very fast girls. It's a nice change from staring at the mens backsides for 3 hours

They asked at the 'wave nomination' section, but it doesn't seem to be reflected in the wave assignment so it clearly didn't matter.

Think I'm through the worst of the cold already so it seems pretty minor. My race tactic on the day will be to freeload in the lead peloton of the 40-44 age group until the base of Cootha and then try to break them. What'll probably happen is that I'll burn way too many matches in the surges that I'll lose all ability to climb by the time the climbing actually happens. Exactly what happened in the BVRT E2E!

[jasonc]

Saw a couple of bridgelane riders heading inbound on the western fwy bike lane this afternoon

[Mr Purple]

Strategy fail. The lead group in the 40-44 age group today was utterly brutal - stayed with them for 20km and then decided an average heart rate of 180bpm probably wasn't sustainable so backed off.

Got in a reasonable chasing group and blitzed them up the Cootha climb only to completely cramp up about 500m before the end - my slowest Cootha ever by 2 minutes because I literally had to stop and walk it out. Couldn't put any force on the pedals without cramping up for the last 15km so basically just soft pedalled it home from there.

Not sure I'd do that one again! The organisation is not great and there's genuinely some very technical moments that come up unpredictably. Wasn't expecting to have to jump off a curb 20m from the start.

Some very fast riders out there.

[vbplease]

I think TdB was a little tougher this year than last.. it was slightly warmer. The start included a lot more surging than I would have liked. The surging seemed like a waste when we were inevitably caught by a huge peloton on the western freeway. The peloton was great on the freeway, out and back to the airport and to cootha.. but I lost contact with just before cootha when I got stomach cramps and the start of a bonk from not enough energy.. cootha bought on leg cramps and the ride to the finish was done at about 140watts or less.
According to Garmin I think I knocked off about 10mins from last year down from 3hrs:28mins to 3hrs:18mins

[Mr Purple]

It got surprisingly stuffy in the tunnels. Going from Strava comments a lot of people were shocked by the pace in the first 20km.

I limped in with a 3:10, was aiming for sub 3 but honestly without the cramps I still wouldn’t have done it. Probably could have pushed a little harder than the group I was with but honestly after that start I was just grateful for the tow to the finish!

[vbplease]

Yeah the tunnels got pretty stuffy.. it was like getting blasted with cold aircon leaving them..

I found the marshalling and navigating road furniture to be pretty good, although agree at the start with the kerb was pretty bad.

There was a spot on the western freeway return where there was a split with road cones.. a lady was pointing left or right but no signs to say what was left or right.. I was shouting to everyone to go right to continue straight, but most of the group veered left unnecessarily into a feed zone.

[Mr Purple]

Did my first Cootha Back since last week's unpleasantness today. 8:50/317W/186bpm.

Not back to normal yet, but making friends with the mountain again. It was stunning up there today - light mist, and condensation in all the spiderwebs among the trees. Westerlies seem to be starting early this year though.

I have a new profound respect for the guys slogging up there doing over twice that time. After doing a 12+ with a little rest to reconsider my life decisions it's an epic effort just to keep on moving at that speed! Bravo.

[vbplease]

my legs are still pretty dead after Td Brisbane.. I tried a vo2max session today and had to pike on the 3rd round.
I think the vo2max and sweet spot sessions helped a little bit leading up to tdb..

I'm hoping the 4min x 300w with 4min break, will eventually get me up to 9min x 300w for my hopeful Cootha PB

[Mr Purple]

Finally getting the power back to some 'normal' levels but held back a little bit by the rain and wind direction.

8:17/352W this morning which is my most power for a Cootha Back in about 9 months, if not the fastest.

Some drift king has made a real mess of things in the first 200m of the climb - there's a front bumper pretty firmly wedged in the armco. Also watch for the random smashed china plate in the shoulder over the top. How does a plate get smashed on the road like that?

[jasonc]

I did see the smashed plate this morning and thought it was odd. the bumper was already there wednesday. can't remember if it was there tuesday

[jasonc]

headwind going up coot-tha this morning was unappreciated

[Mr Purple]

headwind going up coot-tha this morning was unappreciated

It's been nasty. Any time there's a notable headwind on an average 9% climb you know it's significant!

Makes a huge difference to my times, can add a good 20-30 seconds if it's blowing at the wrong angle.