Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Feb 8, 2012, 2:02 am
It is all go at the moment! We have bought our tickets and we are now anxiously getting ready for the great experience (getaway, if you like). In twenty-one days, we are hoping to have everything we own (apart from some clothes and a suitcase full of cycling gear) sold or in storage. We will then bo...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 31, 2012, 7:05 pm
About 8 1/2 weeks for THE CHALLENGE, it is time to get on the bike for some genuine training. The first thing, and hardest: testing. I need to do a threshold power test (FTP) to set up a bench mark and my training zones. These tests do hurt so I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I am looking f...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 23, 2012, 7:42 pm
My groover-half keeps telling me that I don't really know what I am signing up for when I plan to ride a bike in Europe, in March. She is not talking about cobbles or steep roads, she is talking about winter riding. The memories of filling one of my drink bottles with hot tea and honey for the early...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 22, 2012, 6:25 pm
Without a doubt, this is a great start for Green Edge, the new pro-cycling team. It is also a great overall win for Simon Gerrans, undoubtedly one of the best road cyclists in Australia. Unfortunately, they didn't succeed in getting a stage win. They were as close as half a wheel on the 5th stage, ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 19, 2012, 6:17 am
Where am I going with this? As per my usual loose dissertation on these pages, I am not very sure. What I know, and some might disagree, it's my patriotic duty to write something on the premier Australian cycling event, the Tour Down Under. I am not going to write any race reports because I am not ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 15, 2012, 11:31 pm
I have to say I am a bit of a sucker when it comes to good video productions, of any kind. But throw in a few guys or girls on bikes, a bit of technology, an exciting environment and a good sound track, I will watch it many times. They don't make me go out and buy the bike they are riding or drown ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 12, 2012, 12:45 am
Someone asked me another day how the training for the P-R Challenge was going. I answered that it was not going. Excusably maybe but with a bit of time up my sleeve, I chose not to start anything too serious, training wise, because I believe I need to sort out a couple of niggling bits in my body f...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 10, 2012, 6:26 am
The nice email from Scott (no sponsorship with GreenEdge if that's what pops to mind) came a while ago. I say nice email because he described the way he found my blog as "noodling through some cycling sites my Australian buddy showed me". And I always like to know that someone, somewhere on this pl...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 9, 2012, 8:38 am
"After a small meal, it was time to head back. This time, I wanted to stick to my low HR Zones even if that meant getting dropped by every bunch. That's what actually happened until I got picked up by a small group travelling on a smooth and constant 30 km/h. And smooth it was, perhaps the smoothies...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 6, 2012, 2:44 am
That should teach me not to comment on impressive performances, like I did here when Mosquera won on the brutal Bola del Mundo(Vuelta 2010). He has now lost his job without getting even one ride for his 2011/12 team (CyclingNews.com). Who's next? Nevertheless, as we start planning the course for the...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 1, 2012, 4:02 am
This is going to be short, from my part. I did start the year with my short commute. Yeah!! But it was just another nice commute to work, nothing to blog about. The ride home was better. Sandra came to pick me up and we rode and chatted for most of the way home, taking advantage of a generous tail-w...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Dec 29, 2011, 6:52 pm
I suppose leaving the house 20 minutes late, at 4:35 am, helped. I didn't go all out at any stage of the ride. In fact, I was too relaxed at the start as I rolled down the first hill and towards the magnificent sunrise. Work didn't matter for those first minutes... Having a little computer spitting...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Dec 26, 2011, 12:56 am
Beautiful day, perfect to be riding. Yet, I had to wait for my short commute to work. It is a thirty-minute ride, which I first started doing over six and a half years ago. I did it regularly for around three years, after that it became very infrequently. The damaged commuter never got rebuilt. And ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Dec 23, 2011, 8:19 pm
I am late. I wanted to post something yesterday. BSNY likes to post a Quiz every Friday. Another popular blogger posts an old photograph and adds a couple of swear words (or is that all he does?). I like to find and post something that can inspire and help us get motivated for a weekend of riding. ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Dec 21, 2011, 2:46 am
... not just when wet, as the city council sign warns us, or when preparing for the season, or event ahead. Yesterday, the ride was like that. No small or big ring, no heart rate strap around my chest and no hill repeats. I only took the computer because I wanted to plot the ride and show Toby wher...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Oct 17, 2011, 6:56 pm
Not without a little drama as the gentleman at Sao Paulo´s airport Federal Police insisted that I opened the bike box. - How long have you had this bicycle? - Mate, I´ve been travelling for the last 36 hours. I got here and had to wait almost one hour to have my Brazilian passport looked at by a t...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Oct 16, 2011, 11:59 am
No, it is not my training program and don't ask me what day it is because right now I am in the middle of a triangular time zone reckoning. Never mind. I am kind of half way to my destination, sitting at Costa Coffee (since 1971, they advertise), at the very same spot I sat ten months ago when retur...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Oct 9, 2011, 4:57 am
A disappointing result, I must say. The preparation for the Nationals road race was adequate, I believed. Perhaps I got to Ballarat a bit under-done but certainly not over-trained or tired. So, what went wrong? At dinner, the night before and after having driven the course, Brian and I agreed a brea...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Oct 3, 2011, 9:05 pm
Again, I ended my week on Saturday, and again with a criterium at our local circuit. It was my last chance to put a really hard effort and, with a bit of luck, get a good result to boost my confidence going into the Nationals. The effort wasn't record breaking but the numbers were good enough. My TS...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Sep 28, 2011, 9:30 pm
Yesterday's workout looks like this on WKO. I rode to the Nundah track (video), did a warm up (while I convinced myself I had to do the work) and I count from one to six, the number of intervals. Actually, I did ten but I am only showing the first six because that's what I did last week. And I can f...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Sep 26, 2011, 9:51 pm
Perhaps it was a bit of mismanagement from my part but I felt I should keep going with the training even if I was tired and saw some numbers going down. Isn't it about stressing the body? And how tired? I opened the WKO files looking for a clearer picture. The Performance Management Chart, and in ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Sep 19, 2011, 8:00 am
It is hard not to over do it, the last week (#31) being a perfect example. It could hardly be called Recovery Week when the Sunday ride turned out to be over 4 hours and 221 on the Training Stress Score (an estimate of the overall training load and physiological stress created by that training sessi...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Sep 5, 2011, 2:01 am
Back here! But with some difficulty, I need to say. And I don't even have a good reason for this month long hiatus, I just haven't been able to sit down and write. I haven't taken many photographs also, and as they make up a good part of this blog, together with my treasured charts and graphs, I hav...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jul 18, 2011, 8:10 pm
After waking up to a beautiful Queensland winter morning and doing the father thing that I came here to do, I set myself to do some training on the course of the race I had to cancel last week, the Calliope to Biloela, starting twenty kilometers out of Gladstone. It was exciting riding on new roads...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jul 15, 2011, 7:04 am
The practise of Iyengar Yoga kind of changed my life. At the time it took me back to surfing, a subsequent move back to living near the ocean and a healthier life on the whole. That was a while back. In more recent years, and on an on-and-off fashion, I have used yoga to increase flexibility, allevi...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jul 11, 2011, 7:11 pm
Illness kept me away from the bike for a whole week, dragging my CTL figures (fitness) on the Perfomance Management Chart down to the level I was six or seven weeks ago. That’s the bad part, the good part is (could be) that my TSB numbers (form) have peaked to an incredible high. And, I am experie...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jul 10, 2011, 12:16 am
I need to be honest. I haven't been a great supporter of mega-media conglomerates, mostly for having grown up under the corrupt and gluttonous influences of Globo, back in Brazil. OK, that's history I know but I haven't been too fond of the Packers and Murdochs since coming to Australia and learnin...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jul 8, 2011, 3:54 am
Photo: bikeradar.com Having put a bit of thought on my ride up Mt Baw Baw early this year, and how bad I felt after the finish, I now know I had bonked, was suffering from hunger flat, had hit the wall or was very close. Whatever term we might choose, I remember being fatigued, cold, slightly irri...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jul 4, 2011, 6:26 am
Definitely time for recovery, I feel, and I hope it is an earned one. Firstly, that's how I pencil my training programs, two on and one off. Secondly, week 20 took a bit out of me, when my TSS reached 840+ (my highest so far). I decided to back off on the intensity for week twenty-one and after the ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jul 2, 2011, 7:02 am
When doing a few training miles, commuting or just riding on the mess that our roads have become with all the constructions and roadworks going on, something like what you see in the picture becomes more and more likely to happen. Well, that WAS a new racing tyre. I made it home with one of those sl...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jun 29, 2011, 9:14 pm
The day after a 200+ TSS ride is pretty much set as a recovery day, the off-the-bike type I have been told a few times (yes, by Sandra). Add a couple of elucidating (and scary) blog posts on being tired (1) and TSS (2) on Joel Friel's blog and my plans for the day were all around Inbox clean-up, a f...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jun 27, 2011, 6:26 pm
"Gilbert had finished second in four editions of the Belgian national championships but was unbeatable in the scorching hot conditions. He must surely be the favourite to win the uphill finish of next Saturday’s opening stage of the Tour de France." Cyclingnews.com It is not the first time I writ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jun 25, 2011, 3:35 pm
It is that time of the year, when we (and that should be most reading this blog) are getting prepared for the biggest cycling event on the calendar, the Tour de France. Sometimes I think the Giro is a tougher race because of the lower temperatures and steeper climbs, more exciting, others affirm the...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jun 23, 2011, 5:43 pm
So, what are the odds of getting two flats in one ride? What would you do if you got a flat 10 km from home but only 20 min into the ride? First, you are riding well, 30km/h for the first 20 min is good going... The odds, I don't really know but I would hate to have to turn around and head home...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jun 19, 2011, 4:12 am
I always enjoyed watching the Rapha guys having a great time on their bikes. I even (and often) felt a bit of jealously watching those near perfectly shot B&W images, often in slow-motion, of their rides in those exotic locations. Those videos are pieces of cycling art, I dare. But then, Sandra show...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jun 18, 2011, 8:05 am
This is not the most important advice for riding a bike but as I see more and more people riding in bunches and racing without gloves (even in winter), I thought it was a good idea to start with it. Wear gloves because they: - provide a non-slip grip - allow you to wipe sting off your eyes - enable ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jun 15, 2011, 5:06 pm
Bozic wins Like Bozic in the Tour de Suisse, I would be ecstatic by crossing the line ahead of the bunch again. And, I thought the 2011 Tour de Tablelands was going to be it... I felt a bit tired by the end of week seventeen, the recovery week before the tour. I thought it might have been that I fo...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jun 2, 2011, 7:52 pm
I must say, I like when someone isn't in that ideal position but with a huge amount of talent ends up taking the purse. Like Australian Peter McDonald in the 2009 Australian Road Championship, when he took Gold over HighRoad team mates Michael Roger and Adam Hansen. Same story but in a Pro event thi...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - May 30, 2011, 8:00 pm
It was an emotional Giro. There were flat stages and there were beautiful mountain stages. There were bunch finishes, a punch finish and break aways. Winners and losers, too many to note them all. Riders fell, leaving the peloton in its saddest state. Persistently, a rider battled without respite. ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - May 27, 2011, 9:47 pm
"Veteran climber Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) took the first victory of his 12-year career as he came in just ahead of race leader Alberto Contador at the summit of the third-category climb into Macugnaga. The Italian had made his move with 6km remaining of the long drag to the finish, only to be caught...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - May 24, 2011, 8:19 pm
It wasn't the first time and I am sure it does happen to everyone in some kind of training regime. In my situation, sickness was the reason for the first change. Last week, I tried to keep going thinking the head-cold wouldn't last but the way I felt after the Recovery ride on Monday (admittedly no...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - May 18, 2011, 11:06 pm
New Zealand's Greg Henderson, last lead-out man for Team Sky's sprinter Ben Swift, has one of the hardest jobs in pro-cycling. He has to take the team's sprinter as close to the line as possible and in front of the rest of the galloping bunch of fast finishers. To do that, he must ride all out for 2...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - May 17, 2011, 9:47 pm
It is a bit of a relief to read that on Joel Friel's blog because my hours and kilometers last week (a Build week) were down by 4.5 h and 85 km. As a matter of fact, looking at those two figures, I could've come up with one ride, or two, with an average speed below 19 km/h to make it up but unless t...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - May 14, 2011, 12:09 am
Stories are many and often we hear the remark “He must be on drugs!”. It is not too uncommon that an amateur cyclist gets done for using some kind of illegal drug to enhance his/her performance. A few years back, in Melbourne, someone who won a couple of medals on the track tested positive for a...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - May 10, 2011, 9:11 pm
After the high intensity of the Battle, it was time for a good recovery before doing anything even slightly intense again. It suited me. It was also time to sit down and try to digest the data that has been collected with the power meter in the last month (I need to thank Sandra and Michael with all...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - May 6, 2011, 5:18 am
My friend Stephen, I must apologise for not catching up with you again and for not returning your text (my mobile phone was turned off for the weekend). But what a great weekend it was. Sandra and I stayed with friends in a huge house. Plenty of room, a pool and a well equipped kitchen where great m...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Apr 19, 2011, 10:50 pm
I am back. Many weeks have passed since I last added something to this 3 year old blog. Not a good thing, especially when I get folks (only two or three as a matter of fact) asking me when I am going to write again. Now, here is my theory for this long timeout. Esoteric as it might sound, I have cur...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 30, 2011, 6:41 pm
Dist: 150 km Time: 5h 21 min Fun... 100%!!
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 26, 2011, 11:44 pm
It was Australia Day and Lance and Robbie weren't there. It's was a bit disappointing because it was a great morning and they could have drawn a huge number of cyclists and collected a lot of money to help one of the national charity organisations. Actually, the numbers weren't huge this year. Some ...
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Alberto M. posted an article on Training and Racing - Jan 24, 2011, 7:06 pm
We are already nearing the end of January and I haven't stopped to think what I am going to do in relation to racing this year. There are a few things I need to look at in my life, or in life, and I might just have to put them before racing, for a change. It doesn't mean I will ride my bike less. In...
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