JASPER BLAKE RACING

Well it’s not actually an hour and i’m not sure how much power i have but it was quite delightful.  I joined super Mel for a few hours of super fun mountain biking in the dump.  I’ve heard of the hour of power but never experienced it first hand.  It’s an 8-10 minute loop with a mixed bag of terrain, some quite technical, some fire road.  We went for 4 loops.  It was super fun and I learned that control on the bike when you are going hard is a different ball game.  I think I faired quite well and Mel is a good guage considering she probably outrides alot of guys.  She kicked my butt on the more technical sections i cannot lie.  I was doing well on the third loop until I stuck my foot through my front wheel and broke a spoke.  But my Shimano XTR wheels (deliberate product placement) are bomb proof and i was able to ride the entire fourth loop with a busted spoke and very little wheel warping.  I even managed the ride home no worries.

It ended up being about 35 minutes of power…..infact i’m so powerful that is how fast i can do an hour of power…..in 35 minutes.  As usual, it was one of the most fun workouts all week.

Here is a random picture of Adam Campbell running.  He just finished his first year at law school and said it was pretty intense. Not as intense as an hour of power adam, not nearly as intense my friend.  Who do you think you are anyway, comparing law school to the hour of power.  I’m calling you out man, hour of power or law school?

He is doing the Vancouver marathon next weekend.  Send him happy vibes.  Go Adam

This weekend we did a big group ride up to Parksville and back with Mike Neill and Human Powered Racing.  This is a yearly thing for HPR.  Two days back to back 180km in each direction.  Group ranges from all levels, some making it up in around 5 hours, other up to 7.5.  Pretty epic days for some of the folks.  We stop in Chemainus on the way up for lunch which was an interesting way to break up a ride.

We hammered away with a group of about 5 and made it up in just over 5 hours.  I will admitt my legs were pretty smashed by the end.  Ben Cotter can mash some massive gears!

That night, cheap motel, pizza ordered in, bed by 8:45 then up the next morning for return journey.  An hour into Sundays ride I hit a rather significant hole and snapped my steer tube.  I would say I’m rather lucky to have stayed upright, we were on a slight downhill, probably around 50km/hr.  Lucky the steer tube went and stayed more or less in tact, rather than the stem, handlebars or tacoed wheel.  So my sunday was spent in the back of a pick up truck listening to 60′s rock with some of the awesome support group.  I got some sweet new aps for my iphone.

People often wonder how we get so tough for Ironman.  I always say it’s no great secret, come and train with me for a week and you will see…..we bleed toughness from our eyeballs.  This is some footage from a recent training camp here in Victoria.  Some people think this type of training is irrelevant for triathlon but I say the proof is in the pudding and until you’ve tried the pudding, you can’t really comment on what is and what is not appropriate training.  Everyone has their opinion about how to do it……and everyone is wrong……

Back home and heading into third week of first round of real speed/LT work.  Body is tired for sure and last week we ended up right on the bubble of being real smashed.  I will admit I feel quite wrecked today.

Some good work though and we are cranking pretty good.  A wise man once said:

“Speed Kills”

Which I would tend to agree with if you don’t watch it.  But we are hanging in there.  Threshold runs and rides with a big base and you can start to move.  We ran off the bike on Saturday- goal pace of 5:20/mile because I can’t do math.  I thought this equated to a 1:13 half marathon which is about the kind of speed we are looking for in a race.  But of course it is closer to a 1:09 which is a little rich.  It felt like we were sprinting and after a 4 hour ride we were pretty baked but we made it through real steady.  5:40′s is actually what we meant to run….a good lesson that if you accept that you have to do something you can probably pull it off.  If i thought 5min/mile equated to a 1:13 we probably would have run that and got through it…..which begs the question of whether limitations are physical or mental………..

The bottom line is that Finn looks good in sunny’s!

Recovery week done and now we start the real threshold work……12 weeks of it to be precise and that will roll us into the race season hopefully fit and fast.  Our weekly hours in this stage typically drop to between 20-25 for most weeks compared with 25-40 in the base and Ironman specific phases.  As a good friend once said “speed kills” so you have to be careful when you are ramping it up.  But it only takes the body a few sessions to get back into it then I think you can let’er rip, giver shit, get tough!  An even better quote from the same old wise man is:

“It’s not who can train the hardest that wins, it’s who can recover from the hardest training that wins”

Saudi continues to be a great place to be.  I watched Liverpool play Aston Villa last night and much to the cheering delight of my hosts, Liverpool crushed them 5-0.  It was a heck of a way to watch a football match…..perhaps in a different life I would be a footballer.  My new favorite player: Steven Gerrard…….check out this highlight real….all from outside the box….like a cannon!

Super Gerrard!

In Saudi you have to adapt.  We take a great deal for granted in North America.  Riding on the roads over here doesn’t seem to be a common theme.

So we head out of town and into the desert.  It’s not unlike being in Arizona really.  Yesterday we hit up an amazing network of dirt roads out in the middle of nowhere.  It’s hot here right now, mid to high 30′s which is throwing me for a bit of a loop.  We rode just over 2 hours and only had to cross a paved road on one occassion.  The paved road is laden with large trucks carrying sewage to “stink lake”.  Much of Saudi does not have the basic infrastructure, things like sewage and water have to be trucked in and out of town constantly.

We rode 2 hours up and down rocky terrain and I will say that it was a treat to be cruising outside albeit on a rather large mountain bike with road shoes and pedals.  Dina was rockin it!  She even made it up one section I had to unclip on and clumsily stumble up a narly rock road in my bike shoes, real graceful.

Tomorrow we run at the beach house, wicked sweet.

Landed in Saudi last night.  As this rant on Conan tells us, we should be in constant awe of the fact that one minute you can be in Victoria Canada and the next you can be in Saudi.  The contrast between the countries couldn’t be more extreme on so many levels.  I am treated incredibly well here and am really grateful for the experience.

http://coolclimatenow.com/lifestyle/ (I would embed it but apparently that has been disabled)

Today’s run with Dina was out out out in the Desert….like real desert, like hot middle of nowhere desert.  We did 2 hours 45 minutes on a mix of bumpy road, sand road and rocky mountain trails.  It was slow and steady but productive.  Dina does not get a chance to run outside very often in Saudi so I think it is a real treat for her.  We misjudged our water consumption and the last 45 minutes were a bit rough, everyone a bit dehydrated but we were saved by some Boedwin (sp??) people (Desert people) who we happened upon with a fresh supply of water.

Things you will never see in Canada:  Half way through the run a truck zooms past in hot pursuit of a crane like bird….hunting it for lunch.  They took a shot and got one of the legs but the bird continued on.  We were willing the bird to fly off into the mountains but it kept flying low over the desert which is an easy target for skilled hunters.  At one point the truck was barreling towards us…..bumping wildly on the rough desert terrain, driver gunning it towards the flying bird and passenger leaning out the window, rifle at the aim trying to take a shot……craziest thing I ever saw.  I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be terrified…..middle of nowhere, camel carcases, hyena and wolf tracks everywhere and mad hunters going 80km/hr leaning out the window trying to shoot a bird that is flying straight towards us.

Run done, onto the bike this afternoon…..oh and they eventually got the bird, it was a bit sad really but we did see them cooking it up for lunch so not a complete waste.

Yesterday marked the conclusion of 2 rather huge weeks and 12 rather big ones.  Base phase done and now we roll into a speed and balanced phase and get ready for the racing season.

This past week we rode and rode and rode and rode culminating with a rather wet ride to Jordan River on Saturday and another rather wet and snowy Mountain bike up Stewart Mountain and various other places with the Sunday breakfast rock and roll mountain bike club.

I got the bad attitude award on Saturday but Steve-o balanced us out with his usual happy and pleasant demeanor despite the Pinneapple express rain and near zero temps.

Time to head east……far east….more updates to come