A mere 10 days to the Alpine Classic

Starting to feel very real now.

Been a solid couple of weeks on the bike. So far this year I've run up 470 Km, and a bit over 3000 m of vertical. The monsoon arrived in Townsville last week (which means a metric assload of rain), so I've been Zwifting for much of the last week. It does look like it's starting to dry out a bit locally though, but that also makes for crazy humidity with the ground so wet. I dare say a lot of the riding I do between now and travelling will be on Zwift.

I do though need to taper soon. In the last 7 days before the ride, it becomes too late to improve. After a hard ride, your body needs time to rebuild, replenish & strengthen, and that process takes over 7 days. Really all you can do is make sure you are refreshed.  I'll still ride a couple of times in the last week, but more just gentle 20 and 30km spins to keep in the rhythm of riding rather than hard climbs or long rides. Saturday will be my last hard ride (I might go up Alpe De Zwift actually).

I've started keeping an eye on weather forecasts for the day. 10 days out, it's still to far away to get a good read on what Huey will give us on the day, but it doesn't look like a heatwave or a blizzard. Good.

I'm also making some final tweaks to my bike. I'll stick on a new set up GP5000 tyres this weekend, which are universally regarded as an excellent tyre - fast & light. I like to run a bit more puncture resistance for day to day training on Townsville roads (so use either Maxxis Refuse or Schwalbe Duranos), but I think for an event like this a faster, lighter tyre will help. I'm also ditching my heavy duty light setup for a more lithe option. I doubt either make a significant difference to the bike weight or my speed, but if I drop a couple of hundred grams or find 0.5 Kph, but over 200 Km & up 4000m, it might save me 10-15 minutes on the day. I'm not worried about my time per se, but after 9-10 hours on the bike, finishing 15 minute earlier will no doubt sound great.

I was toying with the idea of removing my Wolftooth Derailleur Extender, and dropping back to an 11-32 cassette, but now the steeper Mt Hotham is part of the ride, I think keeping the 11-36 cassette is a better bet. And the shifting is good with the Wolftooth. So I'll wear the extra 17 grams.......

New PB up Castle Hill

On this morning's session, I did a a Castle Hill mid ride. And I cranked out a 16.25 - 15 seconds off my PB.

Here's the Strava link to today: https://www.strava.com/activities/8349756428 (carpark to top is the segment)

I was also rather happy that I had a few ks in the legs before I hit the hill. Most of the time when I do hills I go straight there (and it's around 10 Km from home). 

(And if you go into Analysis tab on the ride, check out the temperature graph on the bottom)

Few Stats off Strava & Plan for the run in

Just had a dig around Strava

Racked up 4350 odd Km in the last 7 mths of 2023 (and June was when I got my finger out after some tough love from Lang). That's around 620/mth or 150/week.

Here's the distances split into months:

And here it is cut up by elevation gain:

So the distances have been fairly consistent, but I've certainly ramped up the climbing of late. 

I'm hoping for a big 20 days from here. Lots of distance, lots of vertical. But by the time we hit the last week, the window for improvement has basically closed - all you can really do after that is basically refresh. That works in OK with the travel though. So my last hard ride might be Sun 22 Jan, I'm flying to Melbourne on Wed 25, and driving to Bright the next day. Alpine Classic is Sat 28. That'll give me a chance to roll the legs out & shakedown the bike on the day before. 

t= -1 month, Mission Beach & Chrimbo

Last 3 weeks summary

Distance: 344 Km (longest ride 54 Km)

# of rides: 16 rides

Weight: 91.8 Kg

Now even though the weight is up and the distances haven't been epic, I'm still racking this up as a win. I'm out the other side of Chrimbo with the weight numbers decent. I've also done a few days in Sydney, which always takes me off the bike for  few days.

I've also done a lot more climbing of late. So far in December I've done 2758 m of vertical. Easily my biggest month of the year.  And my climbing is much better for it.

My all time best Castle Hill was a 16.40. On Saturday I did a 16.48 and didn't feel like I was pushing crazy hard. That's about 90 seconds quicker than I was doing 12 months ago. Nice.

Now obviously the hills of the Alpine Classic are a different beast to Castle Hill, but it's still a nice feeling knowing I'm riding close to my PB.

I also did some riding on a quick family trip to Mission Beach. Mission Beach is a rather lovely part of the world about halfway between Townsville & Cairns. What makes it so lovely is the rainforest there pinches down to the beach. It's also largely untouched, and what is there is very laid back & casual. 

We were staying on the northern edge of Mission Beach in a small village called Bingil Bay. Great spot to cycle around. The stretch between Bingil & Mission hugs the beach and literally has rainforest on the edge of the road.

Now as much as I didn't pull the ripcord at Christmas, I did though get a rather cool present: a Garmin 130 Edge cycling computer. My old computer (an Edge 25) was still working OK, but it was a fairly basic unit when it was released in late 2015. 

Now it's not as if the 130 Edge enables me to watch PayTV on my rides or will give me a 75 W boost up the hills, but it's better. Nicer display, more options, but the best bit is battery life. My Edge 25 was only lasting 4 hrs, the 130 should last 12+

"He's going vertical, so am I"

 Last 3 weeks summary:

 Distance: 387 Km (longest ride 63 Km)

 # of Rides: 14 rides

Weight:  90.2 Kg

Good news is COVID is now well and truly in my rear view mirror.

With the change in route for the Alpine Classic has come a change in my riding. I wasn't really worried about climbing Buffalo & the front of Falls. Long climbs but not super steep. Now Falls is out and Hotham is in, all of a sudden by ability to climb seems so much more important. Time to get vertical.

So I've been riding more hills. Well more hill. Castle Hill. Half Castle repeats, full Castles, whatever I feel like on the day. Castle Hill is much shorter than Hotham, but it's steeper. 

Even though my monthly distances are down of late (and that's down to the heat - it's now too hot to be riding by 9), my elevation gain is up. Hopefully I can crush out a lot more hill sessions before the heat & humidity really arrive. 

I've also blown the dust off the Zwift setup, so I'll still be able to ride in spite of the heat & the humidity (we love air conditioning in North Queensland).

The big question is will all the training be enough? I hope it is, but I'm not sure. 3800 Km since June, most of it riding solo (which is harder work). Down 13 kilos. I'm in a decent place. And on the day it should be milder (but they get the odd baking hot day in the Vic Snowies over summer) & I should get to sit in bunches a lot of the day (which is significantly easier). But 200 Km is a big distance jump, and 4000+ m of climbing a monster climbing day. 

Landslides & Route Changes - things just got a lot harder

So with all the rainfall the East Coast has seen over the last 12 months, we've seen a lot of impacts on communities through Australia's eastern states.

Seems like the same fate has befallen Falls Creek, one of the towns through which the Alpine Classic rides:

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/landslide-threatens-to-bury-falls-creeks-summer-economy-20221031-p5bucf.html

There's been a major slow moving landslide which has cut the road between Mt Beauty & Falls Creek. And that's the "Front of Falls" - a major climb then descent on the 200 km route (not to mention a key piece of the 130 and 320 km routes). 

It seems trivial to whinge about the impact on my planned ride when road closure is having a massive impact on the livelihood of the people of Falls Creek, but impact my ride it has.

The 200 km ride hasn't been cancelled though, rather they've cut out the front of Falls and the two ascents of Mt Beauty, and replaced it with Mt Hotham.

Oooooooffff. Mt Hotham is a much tougher climb than the front of Falls. Higher, longer, steeper.  I'd picked the 200 as the route avoided the steep stuff. Front of Falls doesn't get above 6%, Hotham has plenty of 9 and 10%. 6% is a comfortable grind, 10% isn't.

Here's how the Climbing Cyclist describes the two climbs:

Front of Falls

Hotham

My arse is now sucking up buttermilk.

Here's the new route. I think the only pieces of good news about it is once I've done 150km, it's literally all down hill from there. And I get to ride up CRB hill, which looks like a cool piece of road:

I doubt it will look quite as cool on the day......

I see lots of hills in my future

The 'Rona for real. A fly in the ointment

  Last 2 weeks summary:

 Distance: 186 Km (longest ride 75.5 Km)

 # of Rides: 6 rides

Weight:  90.4 Kg

So the 'Rona finally caught up with me. Don't know where I picked it up. I did a short sharp trip to Sydney, and tested positive the day after I got back. Might have picked it up on the journey (plenty of close contact pinch points), though might have picked it up locally before travelling. 

It hasn't been terrible: sore throat, lethargy, bit of coughing- I've gotten off lightly. I am though quadruple vaxxed and the right side of 50, so I'd have been rather annoyed had it given me a right going over. 

It has though kept me off the bike. Sydney already pulled me off the bike a couple of days, then COVID reared up. Hopefully I'll be back on the road tomorrow (I'll keep it light), before another long ride on the weekend.

Weight still tracking nicely. Walked when I was in Sydney, and have walked a couple of days in spite of the spicy cough. It's no cycling, but it can't hurt.