… to get back the form you have worked for.

today i raced XC for the first time in while. it was shit loads of fun. i did go out a little to fast at first but settled then rolled with consistency. with it being the first round in the WSMTB club serious and only my second B Grade race i was pretty reserved with my goal. i was hoping to pretty much just roll it around and return home better than second last.

the night before i was at brents place for his son lachlans birthday and i did have to much crap food and 4 beers which will never get you across the line in a respectable position. we also didn’t arrive home till 12.00am and i still had to sort the kids out etc for bed, then look at getting carbo ready.

i rose early and let everyone sleep in as long as they could as i managed to prep everything for the race. both the boys were initially not going to race due to swimming lessons but we decided the night before hand to ditch swimming.
this was their first race on the bigger bikes. Big wheels, 6 gears etc and they love them so much. i was totally blown away by aidan. he was on fire. he was incredibly fast and did a total of 11 laps even after a very late night before hand. he finished second but only after being taken on the second last lap by a boy who would be 1-2years his senior. lachlan was doing great as well so i am so over the moon we did get them the big bikes for XMAS. one of those super proud dad moments.

my race day was great as well. as mentioned, i did hit out a little to fast at first but after the surge i settled and took up a very steady and comfortable pace. i have worked pretty hard over the last two weeks every night on upper body strength, core and stretching with it all paying off today. i am no where near as sore as before in my arms.

my legs aren’t there yet, i need to get back up the alpé with super reps over the next 4 weeks. even still i am strongest when climbing and also later on in the race. i had a massive sprint to the finish and from a behind position did pip the guy on the line. its just good to see my form return and with the recent freelance job now complete i am going to buy a trainer and do a full 2 week VO2 Max booster session.

the garmin 500 once again did make its cost worth while. running the splits myself is great but i just need to remember to turn it on, and off and all will be sweet. i didn’t turn it on so i missed the start and only started it on the climb at the tower. bugga! and with the sprint finish i was so not thinking to turn it off once i had crossed the line.

as far as my results go, i was so happy with my 20.xx min laps. that does position me well in the B Grade riders. its not top 10 yet but breaking down the race now i realise i do have it in me to finish top 10 with not a massive amount effort needed. i didn’t drop the bike, i felt strong and realise exactly where i let 5-6 riders by without real reason today. mechanically – the rear wheel on carbo seems as though it is true now [at last!] after a $35 excursion to blackmans, some lock-tite on the nipples seems to have done the trick.

with the race timing having some issues on the day i have estimated my lap times, – knowing 2 and 3 are accurate from the gramin.

lap 1 – 19:50 [approx]
lap 2 – 20:35
lap 3 – 20:55
lap 4 – 20:16 [approx]

i did get to have a quick glance at the timing results, even though they could be completely wrong, it had me positioned in 14th place. that’s a great result.

crits again on monday. i wasn’t feeling well at all, so much so i made a bit of a phopar and left work 1 hour earlier than i should have. doh!

i arrived for the first time with plenty of time to warm up, which looking back now could have easily been why i placed. after doing a lap and a half we were underway.

i did sit comfortably at the back for the entire race without once taking lead. on the bell however again a small brain seizure occured and i took off. i lead for a long while around the top section of the course but was quickly sucked back into the peleton on the front straight. i did however wrangle my way through and hold a sub 10 position into the bridge.

rounding the first bend i was in about 4th wheel but in a good position. a teschner was in front so i used him as a mild lead out. i sprinted well but by the time i hit the line on both sides i had been passed finishing in 3rd.

i know the earlier attack on the last lap was my biggest downfall.

best to view it in HD over here

baums latest creation

from the amount of work i have had on. coupled with the amount of rain in that same period i was just spent by the end of this week. the freelance work has hopefully almost finished up and that will let me focus more on resting up. i still plan on upgrading the roadie with the funds from the work.

today was the first time in a while i felt as though everything was under control with enough time to go for a ride. i decided to do the loop and during the rollout conjured up a new name – pensioner loop – aptly named due to its length 55-60km.

i hadn’t done the pensioner for a while so i pretty much knew it was going to be a struggle ascending alpé de heights but i was far from realising how hard it would end up being. i was fine for the rest of the ride with two sprint intervals attempted on castlereagh flats and the results i was super happy with. although the tracked garmin didn’t upload the exact speed i did manage to see it balloon out to 54km / hr so thats a good thing.

but

the alpé took me

big time

i nearly paused twice

and also felt very giddy during the last part

the garmin tells the story and the alpé never lies. i hit the split at the bridge and then again at the KOM pink line. it was a dreadful time of 13min 30sec. at best i can clamber up in 10min 30sec so i was pretty devisted when i got back home – what was left of me.

things will settle down now so it is going to be my new target goal. 10min up the alpé before the dirtworks.

garmin here

i drove to work again today, enabling me to leave early and make my way for the crits. i drove today only to find out how fucked up sydney really is. i drove today and seriously questioned lots of concepts, ideas and emotions. i drove today and realised I CAN FUCKEN RIDE TO WORK QUICKER THAN DRIVING [on a bad day].

to me this is an insane concept that is and really did play with my head all day. so much so it hurt.

i am better off averaging 33km/hr [ish] than traveling at 110km/hr at times only to almost fishtail slide to a hault in traffic. the drive today was annoying, unpleasant and seriously difficult.

i left work at around 4:50pm. i felt guilty but still followed through with the departure. then, low and behold, the traffic en route to the regatta centre was shite as well. at blacktown i turned off as the bumper to bumper gridlock had me stressed about time.

i arrive with the bare minimum of time. basically i set the bike up, rode down, pissed, signed on then made my way to C-Grade group and as we lined up i put my gloves on. not the way i like to start a race. its just too stressful but i can’t see any other way of fixing the timing issues.

i felt better than last week but not strong. with a fortnight of the most rain in penrith for 18 years it has taken its toll and finding time to go riding has just not been possible. i hit the crit happy but far from satisfied.

i did have a plan and i kind of stuck to it for the race. i intended on holding back until the last straight, make my way to the pointy end then sprint out to the line in readiness for the final sprint. i did almost follow through, amost. on the third lap i almost had a break away with another guy. we were out with a lead that could have been held if the work load with the other two guys was evened out but they weren’t up for it. they just wouldn’t take there turn out front. its all tactics.

coming across the bridge for the final time i was in an ok position but the chicanes took me to a position i couldn’t finish in. i had a rider next to me who boxed me in and it didn’t allow me to corner at full speed and hold it up front with the finishers. i totally believe that i have a very strong sprint finish speed but i need more skills in position myself to make the most of it. i finished my sprint strong but was still only in the top 15.

i need to be up front coming over the bridge. i mean 1st, 2nd or 3rd wheel. so i can take the bends at MY speed then it would be interesting to see how strong i am in a true sprint. i was surprised… the last lead into the sprint the pace seriously picks up a lot and i am now having to understand the whole – recovery – method that you body seriously needs to be able to do.

the 500 is still the best thing. i’m loving the tracking of the stats. i just need the rain to go away for good

tonight was the first true crit test. i drove to work then left earlier to make my way to the regatta centre. it turned out to be not that difficult but traffic was good tonight so that helped. i do need to leave a little earlier say 4:45 just to get there in time – warm up – etc. i always seem to be rushing around rather than relaxing and warming up beforehand.

the girl wasn’t in a good condition. she was filthy and the creak in the pedal/bb what fucken ever it is – is doing my head in big time. it has to be fixed asap. i will test on the weekend to see if it the pedal or the BB.

again C-Grade and i was actually last on the line. there wasn’t a lot of riders either. with the 2 weeks lead in i hadn’t really ridden at all and i new from the get go it was going to be a hard task to finish in a place.

we rolled out and i was pretty much all over the joint. i had no real solid plan for the race so i just basically pinned it for the entire ride. pretty dumb looking back at it all now due to my current fitness level with lack of riding in the weeks leading up.

on the first back straight i went straight out to the front and dragged everyone with me. i was like a man possessed tonight and did the same thing 3 times. eventually i pretty much dragged the entire C-Grade peleton up and past B-Grade which was silly and very amateur riding thinking back. they were a bit stunned the B-Graders and within 1/4 of a lap had all passed us back although we did remain within this distance for the remainder of the race.

i pushed too hard and realised how much on the second last lap when i attempted to do a rest period to recover. neither happened – i did stay back but rest only comes if you can recover and i couldn’t do either.

on the final lap again mr spastic arrived and i for some dumb reason decided to attack before the turn to cross the bridge. big mistake. i just didn’t have it in me to TT all the way to the finish. we entered the final straight and 2 had already passed with everyone catching way to fast. i gave in, it was pretty much all over. my legs had been tingling for about a lap and a half and they were so not in shape.

i rode with the garmin as well which was awesome. tracking the ride is really worth every $ spend on the 500. i know i was in full on mad men mode because after checking the old cycle computer from the last crit i did [it was the last time i used it] we only averaged 34.4km – today we did a whopping 40.7km.

garmin tracked here

with this small freelance job i have on at the moment i am going to need to spend some money on the roadie. that creak…

maybe it was that causing me to ride like a nutter today?!#^&

BROUGHT:
wiggle.co.uk – gold member price $300.67 shipped to the door
inside the box:
1 x device
2 x mounts
12 x rubber band mounts which have 2 different lengths and sizes for different
handle bar widths [i think 12 or so - heaps basically]
1 x usb cord – generic pin usb 2 i believe [like i need just one more of them!]
1 x power charger with mult-plug adaptors NOTE: NO AUSTRALIAN PLUG
this is due to being purchased from the UK, so it has UK, US and other plug fittings though.
1 x CD rom with software and manual.

POWER CHARGER & POWER ETC:
The supplied power charger is a usb 2 pin fit. luckily my blackberry mobile uses the exact same pin fitting and power amp watts thing etc so i can use it. no major issue even if i didn’t have that because it is plugged into a computer using usb, this also acts as a charger.
i haven’t done test as to which one charges quicker, i am sure someone here would know the amp/watts/electricity stuff from a usb out of a computer in relation to the actual in power socket charger.

in the real world. basically by the time i have remember to unplug it from the computer usb after uploading the activity its charged 100% and ready to go. suggest time of 18hrs battery life. way over what i would need in normal circumstances and have had no concern of running out of battery yet

SIZE:
pretty much perfect. it is about 30-50% bigger than most normal cycle computers but i found it to be a great size and was a little bit surprised at how small it actually is when taken out of the bag.
see pics but note: my MTB stem is an unusually short length 90mm.

MOUNTING:
too simple. couple of rubber bands wrapped around bars. job done the device is just a 90 twist lock mechanism into the mount that is stable and you feel comfortable it won’t drop out at anytime. [still haven't dropped the bike with it mounted yet so no TRUE test]

on the roadie – i have cockpit issues with the handlebar mounted ayups. so it is difficult to press the func. buttons on the ayup mounted side. to combat this i will need to remount the holder completely over the bar tape. i have tried with it half on the tape, half on the metal bars and its seems to slip move towards and off the bar tape.

on the MTB – no issues as i have it on the stem.

BUTTONS:
four in total – two either side in the middle. you do need to press them firmly for them to work no major issue, but as above you need space around them to press.

DISPLAY:
mono – dot matrix style
depends on how you customise the function set up [see below] but can be huge.
it can be a little difficult to read on a sunny day. does have a back light button
that works great for night. contrast and brightness can be customised in the settings.

FUNCTIONS:
basically a shit load as this thing does everything.. more than you would ever need. it has 3 pages to view. a button press will scroll from current page to the next page or you can set the unit up to auto scroll with various speeds – slow – medium – fast. currently i use manual scroll not auto. you can also turn a page off if you want i.e. there will only be two pages of data. on each of these pages you can customise the amount of data fields anywhere from:
1 field to 8. with 8 it is 2 cols wide by 4 rows deep.
1 field digits are huge
8 fields digits are at size in pic below were you have two in a row each field is customisable as well to one of 42 yes FOURTY BLOODY TWO! data fields. i won’t go through all obviously but to give an example:
avg speed, current speed, cadence, cadence avg, cadence lap, elevation, grade, GPS accuracy, HR [heart rate], HR %MAX, HR Lap %MAX, HR Graph, power, power 30s avg, temp ….. it just doesn’t stop.

after my limited use i have it customised to different rides.
PAGE 1:- for general riding speed, avg speed, distance, time of day
PAGE 2:- shit that doesn’t matter but is so cool to know temp, grade, time [riding time], total ascent, total decent, GPS accuracy
PAGE 3:- my racing page!!! Laps, lap time, avg lap speed etc.

thats the beauty, being able to set the pages up for specific riding.

it has the functionality to change bikes. you just add a bike to it i.e. nickname etc and then change that before you start riding. three bikes i think from memory.

you can do so much more with it but i haven’t got it all completely sorted yet. one thing i did see:
training/ghost ride - record a ride. then when you do the same ride it will show you in a kind of gaming type display with a line and two dots where your position is now as to the last time you did that ride i.e. are you riding faster today?

PAIRING WITH ANT+ TECH:
its simple. some devices are Ant+ wifi kinda like things. cycleops powertap meters. i probably will never get one but i would like too [n+1]

HRM – you just buy a garmin one and it will pair/sync about $65. i do plan on getting one

CADENCE – again as above and about same price – i could/may get one

GARMIN CONNECT:
to top it all off it connects to garmin connect so simply it is a benchmark for me when it comes to usability [which is my day time job]. i didn’t even have to think to get it to pair, link, upload, install, download etc. the connect website is so simple and again – has so much shit going on i am blow away – last week at the TDU i rode for 10:01:05 and a Distance 249.20 km.

WHY IS IT GOOD:
just to know shit, if you are a techhead/numbers junky and if you are training. things like looking at these two activities and comparing.
the recent WSMTB 4hr
distance: 51.80km
time: 3:52:51
avg speed: 13.3
then a ride i did in adelaide [same distance]
distance: 51.82km
time: 1:56:02
avg speed: 26.8

SO PROS:
• Small
• looks pretty good
• multi super dooper functionality & customisation
• easy online connectivity
• pairing with Ant+ – HRM – Cadence ect. all on one device
• essential training partner
• twist off, then place on other bike and ride off. no wires etc etc etc.
• connects with satellites pretty darn quickly [95% of the time]
•*splits/lap times – used smartly they rock. i now record my ride to work on the M4 where there is no lights etc to stop me as a lap. then when i enter the urban jungle with lights, turns, roundabouts etc as a second lap

CONS:
• screen can be difficult to read in sun
• you do need space around the device to press buttons with ease
• displays grade whilst on the road, can’t seem to find that data once you have uploaded it to the connect website
• unsure if temperature reading is correct [i could be just paranoid but it did say one day in adelaide it was 45º... maybe it was a reading like track temperature. either way - it was bloody hot that day!!!!]
• avg speed incorrect – unlike when you use a cycle computer that has a sensor. when the wheel stops turning the device will stop recording riding time and therefore give a more correct avg speed. with the 500 as an example i have to wait at the lights for 2 minutes it still sees me as moving so it thinks that last km took 2min longer than it really did. there is an “auto stop function when bike is stationary” feature but it beeped everytime you stopped which annoyed me. i will do further testing but i may have to have this turned on to get a more accurate avg speed
• it won’t make you a better rider

MY RATING
4.5 out of 5 stars

IMAGES:
back lit

hopefully a better indication of size:

this little beast is tiny and can do anything you want it to do. for an extra $50 a HRM can be attached, another $50 and cadence is counted for + it can sync with ANT+ products like a saris cyclops power meter.

it then syncs up with garmin connect so you can upload all the stats etc. it is almost the same as the nokia N95 but obviously a lot better as it is designed specifically for cycling. it comes with two mounts so it is a straight no brainer to run it on both bikes with complete ease.

looking forward to the help this will give me in training, and with my birthday in about two weeks – i’m hoping to get the extra accessories.

oh shit… thats right… i am 40 in about two weeks. lol… like i care

crap picture. sorry

so i took to the regatta centre again tonight for the second round of the summer series. it wasn’t overly hot which was good and the wind was reasonably bearable for penrith. with first place last week it was a definite to move up a grade so C-Grade was the focus this week.

i left home without my track pump which found me swearing the whole way down in the car. once i parked i saw a guy with one so i asked if i could borrow it – of course it was fine and the crisis was over. Karen and the boys came down which was really good. the boys did get a bit bored but more than anything they were hungry so they left before the race was over.

C-Grade wasn’t too difficult. i felt ok and for once had a semi descent warm up. i kind of never know how many laps we actually do but i am sure it was 6 in total. the cycle computer wasn’t working at first so i didn’t record the first 3/4 of a lap which sucked big time.

we rolled out at an average pace and stayed pretty tight as a bunch the whole race. there was nothing very special at all but i did take to the lead on the third lap just so the boys would see me up front. you gotta do that shit for the boys. i actually took lead a couple of times and am happy to do so. i think next race i am going to sit way back, just to play with the whole tactics thing.

the last lap saw the pace pick up slightly and i made certain i was in full contact with the fronts. i was totally tempted to just take off but decided against it. i know one week i will. lol. and probably pay dearly for the excursion as well.

we rounded the bridge – where i attacked last time and i was still in about 7-10 wheel. i noticed two guys making a surge on the outside. i also realised i hadn’t seen either of them the whole race. they were the sitters. the guys that do nothing except win [i think - results will tell]. as we went through the bends i smashed the pedals and found i took it reasonably nicely to the line. i held pace and in doing so it saw me lunge to the line to take 3rd place.

i am really surprised how much i am suited to crit racing and its pretty obvious for me now as i am really starting to enjoy it all. the tactics are so much fun – i kinda wish i had a friend or two so we could mess up the pack on occassions… i need to solo break away soon as well. unfortunately i have to miss the next 2 rnds but i will be back and will run C-Grade again as soon as i can