GVCL Day-view

How are ya?
So training has been quite intense and more than my share of cycling recently. I've been riding a minimum of 90min a day. On the weekends I have been logging a number of 4.5 hour rides with the wheelers and I am seeing the results of the extra time in the saddle. This Wednesday the group had a tough swim workout in the morning. Activation. Meaning lots of fast shorter sets. I felt pretty good in the pool getting down to about 2.15's for a couple of 200s near the end of the set. So I was pretty happy with that. Later that day we met on campus for some good hard cycling. The plan was for some Ring road loops hard but with Exams finishing off, construction and hundreds of bunnies taking over the road the campus was busy busy busy. So instead we rode out the waterfront loop and did 4x5min efforts. As usual the effort was "Organic" making for some fast aggressive riding. I felt strong especially on the hills. I finished the ride off with 6x 30 second sprints around campus dodging buses pedestrians and of course those bunnies...

But the highlight of the day must be what came next. In a rather casual conversation with Joel, I mentioned that I was interested in getting into some Wednesday night Criterium racing. You know in the future some time. Joel said, "Sure, say today is Wednesday, how about you race tonight, nope wait you ARE racing tonight." I all of a sudden kind of regretted mentioning it. Within 3 hours I had to Time trial home, re-fuel, join a cycling team, figure out where the race was and race A group for the first time in my life after two hard workouts in the morning. Turns out the race was a Hill Climb Time trial up Neild Rd. A steep switch back road out in Sooke/Happy Valley.

So I arrived at the sight at about 5:55, 20min before start time. Once up the hill as warm up, wheel to the line and off I went. I went out hard and went kind of lactic within the first minute which had me concerned as I was not that far into the hill. But I managed to work it out and felt stronger there after. I concentrated on minimal movement. Relaxed upper body and I broke the hill down into segments. More specifically into quarters. As if I were running a mile on the track. Constantly thinking about where I am on the hill and how I should feel. My final time was 7.43 which was good enough for a second place overall 4 seconds behind Craig Ritchey. What a way to finish off the day and a good start to the Victoria cycling league. Results can be found HERE.

Here is a map of the climb:

200m Elevation Jump and 2.7km distance.
I may be a tad bit off on the distance.

Well I should be off.
Hope all is well and ciao for now,
Andrew