Happy Birthday Scotty!!

Cheers,

Andrew McCartney

Congrats to Simon and North Shore Road Curcuit

First Off big giant congratulations to Simon Whitfield for his Silver Medal at the Beijing Olympic Games. Bravo, what a gutsy run!Sunday Kenyon Campbell, Trevor Connor and I drove down to Bellingham for my first Cat 3 event. The North Shore Circuit Race. This is a 7lap, 90km, difficult Road Race. With two good climbs per lap including a short sprint hill to the finish.The first lap was quite slack. A few little attacks here and there but the race began on lap 2. On the first Climb an athlete was leading into the hill, Kenyon gave chase and I followed. The three of us quickly got a substantial gap. About a Km down the road it became Kenyon and I off the front. Over the next 3 laps we increased our lead up to 80seconds. At this point I was feeling quite strong and with an eventual hill-top finish I didn't want to leave anything to chance. So I put a surge in and Soloed it for 38kms to the finish. The Final Lap was probably the most difficult 12km's I have ever ridden, with my hands vibrating from the bumpy road, arms aching and my legs numbly grinding to the finish. I just talked myself through it. Results Can be found Here. (click on M3)Now time to recover for the Time trial.
Congrats again to Simon,
Ciao for now,
Andrew


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Listening to: Cut Copy - Saturdays (Reprise)

Time Trial, Send off and Preparation

(Start Line; Taking things way too Seriously)

So it was my first go at the Sidney Time Trial. I had no expectations so I just entered it with a have fun, work hard attitude. I made many position changes to try to find an optimal Aero position, making adjustments continuously leading up to the start. I finally picked the perfect gear to start in, in a time trial! So I was up to speed quickly. I concentrated on an even, smooth, round pedal stroke, relaxed upper body and "Mindfulness"(From my readings) but I will get into that later. So I rode through the first Lap in 12minutes and 13sec. I would finish the second and final loop in 24.39(12.26 split) giving me an average speed of about 45km/h. (4th on the day) Good starting point and looking forward to the next time trial.

At this point I would like to say Best of luck to the guys an gals this weekend competing in Beijing this weekend in the Triathlon and to the Victoria Crew competing at nationals in Kelowna.

Good Luck.

"If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves. "

~Thomas Edison

As for myself I am heading down to Bellingham for my first go at Cat 3. But more on that later.

Take care and ciao for now,
Andrew McCartney

Joy.

Tough finish of the week.

(Tired Photo trying to imitate Eddy Merckx Photo)

So It hasn't been an Ideal finish to the week. Although there has been some good quality, the quantity has fallen off.

Tuesday I joined Scotty for 3 reps of the observatory and then I intended on continuing around lands end but just outside of Sidney as I was putting in an acceleration and I blew a spoke. By the time I got home i was off to work. So a disappointingly short 44.88km ride.

Wednesday afternoon I was back at the observatory with the guys. Steady to the cross walk and hard to the top. The pace was fast especially the jump in speed at the top. Recorded times ranged between 5.30 and 5.10. Wicked fast. Although today the final sprints seemed to take something extra that I didn't always have today. Oh well. So I continued to warm down with the guys down town then rolled around the waterfront joining 3 other riders riding hard around to West Sannich I would finish with a smaller loop and back home. So a respectable 1o5km ride with some solid work.

Thursday was a rather busy day with appointments, swim and work so I was only able to fit a 65km ride in. Friday would be worse with work, appointments, swim and a bit of illness. I needed rest. I also had an appointment to prove that it is infact my IT Band. I would go for a run, aggravate it, return to the office freeze it and then try again. It was amazing finally for the first time in 6 will-testing, stressful, exhausting and frustrating months, I was running and I was running FAST! My lungs could not keep up with my legs. Problem was as soon as the freezing wore off the pain came. Wow, I definitely overdid the pain-free running. Good news is we know what to do and all should be fixed by maybe mid September!

So today Feeling the knee and still a bit of illness I ended up only doing lands-end about 65km. It should be back to normal tomorrow and will give me a chance to catch up on some mileage.

Total mileage: 544km's (Goal 600-700km)

So that was the week along with some good swimming. Who knows, maybe I will get a triathlon in this summer. Maybe.


Hope all is well.
Ciao for now,
Andrew



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Listening to: Radiohead - Videotape
via FoxyTunes

The Plan...

It has been a relatively good start to my plan. To get as many miles in as I can this week and my hard efforts early to recover for the weekend.

The plan began Saturday with the usual Wheelers ride including a hammer fest from Tilicum Mall out around lands end back along Lochside and then normally finishing off with a loop of the waterfront. This is a 116km ride but I stuck to my plan and continued on to the Observatory for 5 reps. Not fast, but hard as anything would be after 4hours of riding. It helped to have a family on the otherwise very quiet hill rooting me on every so often. In total it was a 154km ride(according to Google Earth) taking me about 5.5hours including a stop at Baba Rose's for an americano and a cookie. Riding home from the hill was quite difficult. With my legs on the edge of failure and keep getting interrupted by stop lights I would rest my head and upper body on the handlebars. So I got home safe and gulped back the Protein, made some blueberry pancakes and put the legs up for the rest of the now evening.

Next morning was an open water swim at Thetis. I am really enjoying the open water swims. Simon brought up a good point that the pace is always very "on" these days as we are all fairly evenly matched and If one of us falls off pace there is always someone to keep that pace up. This is ideal as we all improve faster and as "One."

So out of the water and into the Spandex. We rode out Happy Valley and did the Beijing Loop. The Beijing Loop is a fun fun hilly hilly Winding road near East Sooke about 50min long(km's Unknown). It has everything, Long climbs, short sprint climbs, fast corners, a 180, Rolling and a flat section to finish it off. There needs to be a cycling event here. Anyway, a lot of fun, hard hard workout, ride on home for a rest. Total distance 65km.

Weekend total: 219kms

Monday(BC DAY!)
Feeling the weekend I just had to get the time in the saddle so I mundanely rolled around the waterfront while taking in a bit of the festive atmosphere of the BC day celebration.(Approx. 45km) Water run in the lake with Scotty and I was finished for the day.

Week To Date total: 264km

That is all for now,
Ciao ciao,
Andrew