Many years ago I bought myself a cheapy cycling jacket from Uno clothes in Elwood.  It was a windproof membrane jacket with a fleece laminate.  It was great!  Warm, windproof, shower resistant.  The only drawback was that it was black.  Not the ideal colour for a winter jacket.  About 4 months ago I made the mistake of washing it in hot water.  It fell apart!  They don't make (import, of course, no-one actually makes anything here these days, except rowbust ...) it anymore.

So I need a new cold weather training jacket.  I'm getting one of these.  Similar idea, fleece laminated against a membrane by the looks of it.  The colour pattern is a bit busy but it should do the trick for Sunday DISC sessions and general warmup.  It'd be better in blue and yellow, of course.

I'm still in the process of adapting my weight training and ergo and DISC sessions to suit my available time.  Fine-tuning etc.  Last night was a moderatly difficult ergo session at aboc Spin, I probably should have lifted light tonight instead of going for 5 x 5's at my max.  I got 3 sets out ok, the 4th I got 4 and the fifth set I bailed on the first squat!  Still a PB, last week I lifted 5 x 3 at 167.5kg, and tonight I got 3 x 5 and then 4 at the same weight, but not the planned 5 sets of 5.  I'm not displeased, but my legs are still trembling!

Em, Dino, Merv and I did some kettlebell work and some rope pullups and some pushups to round out the session.  I think tomorrow will be a nice, quiet day!

So, looking at the program for lifting.  I'm roughly an intermediate lifter now (been lifting seriously for a bit over a year and am up to a reasonably decent load).  One heavy low volume day, one back-off day and one heavy high volume day a week will work out I think.  I should have made today the back off day and just done sets of 155kg or something else as an unload.  I'll try for the 5 x 5 again on Saturday.  So the plan :

Tuesday : High Intensity Low Volume - HILV (and then spin session).  3 sets of 3 lifts - this is the new max lift day - If Sunday the previous week was successful, add 2.5kg to the lifts.

Thursday : Repeat Tues spin session.

Friday : Back Off lifts - drop 10%, do 5 x 5's - so at the moment,  that's 5 x 5 at 150kg.  That's easy, but prevents detraining.

Sunday : High intensity High Volume - HIHV (and DISC) - repeat Tuesday's HILV weight, but go for 5 x 5.

Monday - lie in bucket of own vomit and blow bubbles!

I'll see if that works for the next week or so.  Remembering the target is 170kg 5 x 5's by June. I'm almost at 167.5kg 5 x 5's now.  It should be possible without too much drama. I may need to shuffle around a little, use Wednesdays as the back off day (when I coach the sprint squad in the 'haus), do the HILV lifts on Monday and the HIHV on Saturday.  It'll be a bit flexible, but that's fine.  The ultimate aim is faster flying 200's and faster standing 250m laps, so the on the bike work is critical.  The weight training is to build muscle, the on the bike strength and power work is to teach these cranky old legs how to use that muscle.

Sunday the 24th of May sees the first of the Blackburn time trials at the Yarra Boule for this winter season.  Now, I'm a sprinter, and yes, I've done one or two of these 20km efforts (on an undulating course, no less) in my time, and been slow (sorry Rob,it was our first time though and it was lots of fun).  This time, I'm bringing the secret weapon.  The big blue aboc tandem is coming, and I have a stoker with some serious power.  I think we'll still come dead last, but we'll sprint for the finish line better than anyone else there! Watch this space for the mystery stoker.

It's good to see that the Phillip Island race is chocka with entries, Mal and the crew at CCCC have a real winner with that race.  I remember racing the first one they did way back and it was simply a beautiful race track to ride around.   I don't think they've ever had any of the weather that the Island is famous for either.  CCCC also organised a fantastic race once at the Lang Lang Holden proving grounds, which is a huge (8km!) banked bitumen velodrome and some interconnecting roads.  It's a shame they couldn't get that course again, it was also innovative and a very challenging and exciting course. 

While I'm at it telling everyone who's still reading about the great racetracks CCCC have used, I'll mention one more. The race out at the Anglesea proving grounds ran a couple of times too, but I think it was a bit too far away for Eastern Combine people.  It was a big undulating loop and a shorter, but hilly and with a dirt section, loop.  I raced that day in B grade with one of my lads I was coaching at the time.  I knew I'd be off the back the first time we hit the hilly section so I worked for my team mate for the first half of the race (on the undulating loops) - the aim being to have him at the front and fresh at the start of the hills.  It was a pretty tough hour, I had to keep pulling back breaks from the boys from Burnley Finance who kept dancing away up the road every 10 minutes or so.  After an hour of smashing myself silly I dropped Wayne off at the start of the hilly section in third wheel and I peeled off and let the bunch go.  Mission accomplished and I was spent.  Wayne went on to get second and I felt like it was my placing too.  A very satisfying day out indeed.

1500 watts wasn't a fluke last week.  Tonight, 1485 watts.  That'll do.  Smashed legs after that effort.  We had another big turnout at Spin, 20 riders I think? The Deakin lads came along, and a pile of Blackburn people.  It's all good!

Tomorrow I lift heavy - time to consolidate the 167.5kg squats.  Thursday is recovery day.  I can't wait!

Reading around the traps today I see that the Brunswick Cycling Club is changing their Tuesday night DISC racing program to a more endurance focus over winter.  This format (longer track races) was started off last winter by the Hawthorn Cycling Club with their 'Sunday Roast' which it was quite successful after a slow start and some interesting decisions re how the racing would be formatted.  I think this is a good thing for a number of reasons.  Firstly I think it's valuable to have a varied race program to provide variety (although the success of Glenvale seems to suggest that variety isn't so valuable!) and thus maintain interest, but with a schedule so riders can plan for and know what to expect at each race meeting.

Also it's a compliment to HCC's vision (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!), and it may bring more roadies into track racing.  Track's seeing a bit of a boom at the moment, Blackburn's last two track seasons were very successful with big fields and quality racing, and well-promoted, exciting and varied (Northcote, you get that?!) racing is great for everyone.

I'm now the Deakin Uni Cycling Club 'coach'.  We're going to be running modified race skills sessions for them this winter at Blackburn on Tuesday mornings and they'll (some of, anyway) be coming to our Tuesday spin sessions.  They're a very keen bunch and I look forward to being part of their development!

I'm glad I did it back when it was 267km and 299km.  This year it'll be 265km.

More news here.

A good turnout at spin tonight, 19 riders braved our session.  A top bolla, and I got my 1500 watts!

Must. Sleep. Now.

I've just finished a medium set in the 'Haus, 5 x 5 squats at 155kg (backoff weight) and then a set of 10 140kg deadlifts. Right now I'm refueling as fast as I can, I've hit high 1400 watt peaks over the last two weeks, the aim is to get 1500 if I can, at tonight's spin session.

I spent some of today designing a logo for the aboc Sprint Squad and trying to find a t-shirt printer that does online small orders.  Cafe Press does it, and you can see the basic shirt and logo here.  The killer is the current exchange rate and postage.  A $20 shirt ends up at about $40.  The Australian sites I found don't have as good online design pages.  If anyone has any suggestions, please send 'em on through.

My copy of Mark Rippetoe's "Starting Strength" DVD arrived in the mail today too, so I've been watching it while working.  It's got some great instructional stuff about all the core lifts we do in the 'Haus, the squat, the press, the benchpress, the deadlift and the power clean.

Time to pack the rest of the stuff for tonight! Tonight's bolla sauce is a ripper.  I'm hungry!

Sunday was big squat day, I had to get 5 x 5 at 165kg (new PB) - and I got it, in reasonably good form.  I did them after Lucie and I had a good tidyup of the 'haus, moved stuff around etc.  The things you do on a cold and rainy day.

Alex picked me up at around 3:30 and we scooted down to Blackburn to pick up my bike, then in to DISC.  The masters omnium was on Sunday, and we were expecting it to be done by 5, but it wasn't.  Not really a surprise, so we got off to a pretty late start.  We got on the track as soon as the racing finished at 6pm, but were then waved off so that the presentations could happen, which oddly seemed to have to be run on the infield but facing the stands, which had all of 10 people (at most!) still spectating.  In the interests of fair play they could have had the presentation completely in the infield.  No matter, it just took an extra half an hour so we didn't actually get to start our session 'til 6:30pm.

We had a healthy turnout of about 10 riders, we did our usual warmup, then the enduros did 2 by 5 minute hard rolling turns, the sprinters did 3 x standing 125's, enduros did a few motorpaced high speed runs, sprinters did 2 x three lap revouts behind the bike and then we finished with a 10 minute 'take a lap grand prix'.  All done by ... 8:30pm!  Needless to say we were all famished!

Nath and I have our first DISC training session to run today, 5pm, after the Masters Omnium.  The weather forecast is ok, cold, windy, wet ... good for training indoors! The air will be cold and thick so we'll be slow, but we'll be dry and comfortable.  Before I go in I have to lift heavy again, this time 5 x 5 @ 165kg squats and some upper body assistance stuff.  Then it's strength and power on the bike at DISC.  IT'll be good to get my teeth into it.  Nath had a good night at DISC on Thusday winning a motorpace, Em and Dino trained well in the 'haus yesterday, we're all going great guns at the moment!

The rumours are true, soon there will be a PowerTap SL hub that works with fixed gear bikes, Rich Sawiris from Wheelbuilder.com is making them.  By hook or by crook, they'll be cheaper and more portable between bikes than the SRM track cranks, and we shall have one, oh, yes we shall!

Dino and Em came to the 'haus tonight to train with me.  They both set good PB's with both squats and hang power cleans, and we did a new pullup exercise that we'll all feel tomorrow.  I got the 165kg squats done (5 sets of 3) and was happy with how they went, but I didn't make 6 80kg cleans, I got 5 ... but number six was a failed lift!  Just as well the lifting platform is well padded.

After that fun it was off to the Blackburn AGM.  No real changes there, a few minor shuffles.  Status Quo continues.  Not a bad thing in many ways.  I'll have a go at addressing and proposing a solution to the junior retaining issue in a day or so.  Glad it's over anyway ...

Tomorrow, all day at the LBS.  I hope it's quiet, I think I'm going to be quite sore.

1466 watts last night at the second spin session of the year.  That backs up on the last week where I got 1473 watts. That's good, it shows that the improvement isn't a fluke.

We had 17 at the spin session I think - a few regulars from last year aren't coming and I'm going to give them a call and see what we're doing wrong and try and fix it.  Other than that it's going well, apart from everyone else having terrible taste in music.  That can't be helped sometimes.

Today I have to duck down to DISC to pick up the keys to the motorbike so we can motorpace at our sunday sessions, which start this Sunday.  I've got 4 people coming so far!  Anyone else?!  The dinner is getting closer too, please let me know if you're keen to come by email.  I might set up a signup sheet for it but for the dinner I'm happy to keep it informal but I need an email so I can keep track of it.

Tonight's the night in the 'haus when I'm going to be attempting 165kg squats.  It's only 2.5kg more than I did on Sunday.  That's not a lot more weight, really.  We'll have a full 'haus too, the Apolitos and Merv are coming to train.  After that it's off to Blackburn for the AGM for the club.  I've got all the food except pita bread there already.  Hot dogs, dips, spring rolls, ricotta triangles etc.   Hopefully more than 5 people turn up!

This arvo, after a disrupted and messy weekend ...

5 x 5 @ 162.5kg squats - 4,062.5kg tonnage

10 x 135kg deadlifts - 1,350kg

Total tonnage : 5,412.5kg - almost five and a half tonnes!

Got to go, guineapig's are having babies and Dad needs his PC fixed up ... fun fun fun.

This last two days have been mainly easy days, I lifted moderately heavy on Wednesday in the 'Haus (5 x 5 @ 150kg squats, 1 set of 10 130kg deadlifts, total tonnage 5,050kg) after Tuesday's spin session and on Wednesday night had a couple of short E1 rides for a total of about an hour and a half's riding.  Thursday was just an easy tootle to the LBS and back, no lifting and today was again around 45 minutes all-up E1 stuff. 

Tomorrow I'll lift heavy when I get back from the Baw Baw if I'm not too knackered from riding the motorbike out there. It's time to bump it up to 162.5kg squats again. I'll be trying for 5 sets of 3 reps, and depending on how that goes will up the deadlifts to 140kg.  130kg was hard, but I think I can manage 140kg for 10.  We'll see about that anyway. If it's not done on Saturday I'll do it on Sunday after Lucie and I go for a kayak paddle ... My arm's slowly getting better after the bursitis incident on Monday, I guess I'm starting to get old though, injuries take a bit longer to heal and mystery injuries crop up without explanation.

Speaking of lifting ... I'm a bit ashamed to say I was a bit bored on Thursday and watched a bit of 'the biggest loser' (the biggest loser is the person watching that rubbish... never again).  They had the punters all lined up in a semi circle with Olympic bars on their shoulders - except they weren't on their shoulders, they were way back off their necks on padding.  A big no-no when squatting heavy - it increases the moment arm around the lower back and increases the risk of lower back injury because to keep the weight over the lifter's feet they have to lean further forward, and they'll slump sooner or later and put a huge dynamic load on the lower back.  To make matters worse, they were doing it to failure and they were loading up the weights while the punters were holding the bars.  This made for asymetrical loads and twisting on the lower back as the 'trainers' (dangerous idiots) pushed the weights around while the punters were holding them up.  You wouldn't dream of doing that to experienced and strong lifters, let alone this bunch of untrained gumbies.

Could they do it in any more of an unsafe manner?  I'm not sure ... That was a pretty comprehensive catalogue of things not to do when holding a bar on your shoulders.  They got away with it ... But it was terrible.  So very irresponsible.  They should have had them progressively deadlift greater weights or something if they wanted to do something like that, at least a failure wouldn't risk blowing a back to pieces so badly. They'd just not be able to pick the bar up.  Shame on you, whoever came up with that stupid and dangerous stunt.  Lifting isn't a dangerous activity if it's done properly with good instruction from people who know what they're doing and with progressive and managed overload.  These idiots, on the other hand, threw essentially untrained people (who were no athletes) into a situation where they had to hold a (relatively) heavy weight in a biomechanically poor and dangerous position (padded out from their traps) while it was loaded up to a failure and twisted and pulled while they were doing it.   If I did that to anyone I was working with I'd expect to go to gaol for gross negligence when they got hurt.

Anyway ... Tomorrow I'm off to take photos of the lads racing the Baw Baw, I'll be at Winch Corner where it's an ~20% gradient.  Good luck to you all doing it. Pay no attention to the chalk writing on the roads! I've also been in touch with the bloke who built one of the AIS's sprint training ergos (the 'Wombat') and arranges wind tunnel testing - watch this space, we may have some slots to get into the tunnel and test sprinters for aerodynamics.

If you haven't seen it, Yehuda Moon is an excellent webcomic about a bloke (Yehuda) who works in an LBS. It's entertaining and written by someone with a real clue about the issues involved in riding on-road and also the funny stuff that happens at bike shops.

One of my favorites is this one.

I hope Rick Smith (author) gets back into it.  It's an entertaining and poignant comic that often strikes a chord with our experiences on road and in shops.  I hope I haven't ruined your day's productivity if you haven't seen it before and spend the rest of the day catching up from the first strip! Nah, you know the risks ...

13 people turned up to ride with me tonight at Blackburn for our first spin session for the winter of '09.  The lazy, fat sprinters did :

2 x 10s HCLR:2

3 x 10s MAX sprints:5 (2nd one seated)

2 x 10s HCLR:2

The enduros did E2's and E3s etc for 90 mins, lazy sprinters, 40 minutes.

My first MAX I hit a new PB, and a significant one.  My previous highest wattage was around 1387 back in September '08, I got a 1473 watt peak tonight.  Woo Hoo!  Almost 100 watts more than last year.  The bursitis didn't seem to be an issue on the bike, which was good.

This afternoon, after a morning's moping about, Dino and Em came over for their PowerHaus session.  I had to give it a try.  My target; 160kg squats (5 x 5) and 120kg deadlifts (1 x 10).  Got 'em!  4,000kg squatted, 1,200kg deadlifted for the session for a total of 5,200kg lifted. Em and Dino also PB'd volume (squats) and intensity (deadlifts).  A good session indeed for all involved. Now it's protein time!

While I was moping I made some new chocolate-chilli icecream, this time with 86% dark chocolate.  It's in the freezer and I'll try it tonight. Mmmm....

I wasn't watching the Roubaux last night, I was sleeping.  I woke up at about 2am, with a very painful left elbow. Painful enough to wake me up and I sleep through anything!  Huh?  I don't remember hitting it on anything or doing anything odd or unusual.  The kayaking wasn't hard and doesn't involve much elbow bending anyway.  It felt like a nasty bruise on the outside of my elbow (the bit you can't see).  It was hot and very tender to touch, and no matter how I moved it would not stop hurting.  Hrm.  Got up, checked the 'net for a local doctor who was open on a public holiday. While I was at it I checked cyclingnews for the result, no luck again for Big George Hincapie, but Tom Boonen ... wow.  Three wins for Tom. This morning I trundled off to see the local quack (open on a public holiday, good-o).  He takes one look at it and says 'Bursitis'.  Huh?  What's that?  He gave me a script for some anti inflams and an antibiotic (the heat, probably an infection).  It's ok to use it, he says, but not if it's painful, and it should be ok in a week.

Not a bad time to get an injury I guess, next weekend I'm going to take photos at the Baw Baw and this is mainly a strength phase of training and I think I'll be able to squat and deadlift without too much trouble. It's more annoying than anything.  On the way back from the quack Lucie and I stopped in at the local stupormarket and grabbed the ingredients for tomorrow night's first spin of the winter.  The clubrooms are probably still jam packed with junk that we'll need to move out to make room for everyone. At least with a dodgey elbow I can get everyone else to move things!  Small victories .... Ha!