http://app.strava.com/rides/1453653/embed/b3df99e4317064d790961e2e138cc7fd93b14169

Well I have started the big comeback.

It's taken quite a long time, and a lot of emotions, before I decided to make sure I really wanted to do this again. Something snapped and I finally wanted to do this again, after hating it for so long..

Glad to be back on the horse so to speak, and have a long way to go before I get close to where I was..

I have suffered from the Colds and Flu and work in "Piggy" central, and alas I have sufered a bit of a head cold and can't seem to shake the tail of it away. I have trained, and trained, but seem to have taken a step back.... But just a small one. In a matter of 2 weeks of being sick, I have managed to lose about 4 weeks of fitness, and that really shits me (sorry for the language)..  But it really does.

I struggle at the moment with efforts, and find myself in a lather of sweat only just over 15 min on the Ergo. So now I need to make a decission, either dig a deeper hole, our take it easier and get back to basics for a couple of weeks............ So I have chosen the later and decided to take a step back and gone back to the start, considering I have plenty of time (remember I am aiming for December).

So back to BASE for a little while..........

Like Carl i have had a vit of a head cold as of late (no we hav'nt been kissing....... No really) and have been a little flat. I took a week off racing and headed out to the Velo last night just to do one race and head home. I started to warn up and realized there was no way in hell i sould be there. After a mear 3-4 laps i was gasping for breath and need to stop and take a drink.... "Still not ready" was about the only thing i could think, but i will give the first race a crack anyway. I found a few good wheels, didn'y get knocked off (not from the lack of trying form the other riders) and managed to get to the bell before pulling out of the race..... I was trashed and a pool of sweat, so i know that next week will be a little easier.

I brought out some new Bike Bling to show off a little..... I like new toys, but this one has a purpose. I have found it really hard to get my position right, but with the ergostem everything is very easy. With the exchange rate at the moment, they are still pretty $$$$$, but a real investment if you want something to help.

Last Thursday night at DISC saw me get some very good results, and show that my training is going in the right direction. I managed a 4th in the Scratch and 2nd in the Motorpace. We don't talk about the Points as my whole goal there is not to get lapped.

Seeing me get closer and ever so closer to the pointy end of the fields in these races fills me with confidence that when we get to X-Mass, i will be going as quick as possable. The only thing i am looking at really doing this year is the X-Mass Handicaps and maybe even the Austral or Melbourne Cup on Wheeels.

These are old races steeped in history, and i am gonna tray and get my name in there somewhere..........................

Well after only three or four days off the bike, the decission was made. I am putting cash away now, and slowly picking up bits and pieces i will need to do the WHOLE X-MAS CARNIVAL CIRCUIT!!

For those that have never done it, or seen it, it begins in Horsham and finnish's in Shepparton about 4 or 5 days later. The racing is fast and hard, but you really need to be able to ride a very strong handicap and that's where my focus lies now.

I have started to do all the BASE work now. This is the hardest thing, beacause it is all done on race gears and done over 2-5 min intervals. I am starting to feel a bit flat already and it has only been 2 weeks!! The bonus is that when it comes to move focus, i will be absolutely firing and ready to go o the next level.

So off i go back to the Road and when it is to much the Ergo will get a workout...

I have been training up my endurance a little as of late to try and get over the line in a Handicap or Two if i get the chance. MAX efforts over 10 and 15 min with lots of seated and standing 10-15 sec MAX thrown in for good measure have made sure that i am kinda tired and need a little easy work to keep ticking over. I have been riding the Fixie as much as possable with a tiny 68" gear to keep spinning those legs and the extra K's seem to help.

But the heat stopped me in my tracks yesterday!! I had planned on racing at DISC last night and just couldn't find the strength to get on the bike and do 1 lap. DISC is no place for a summer race as it is real stuffy and hot, and there was no way you were getting me on a bike there last night, even the line judges were swetting it out.

So tonight in Air Con Comfort (my bedroom) i will snap out 3 x 15 min MAX and fall into bed wondering "When will this all be worth it. I know, when i place in my heat for The Austral Wheel Race".

Racing Thursday nights at DISC has been great for me as of late. I have been slowly creeping to the fronts of the field most weeks, and keeping up with a few of the faster legs in D grade. Over the last few weeks it has been getting faster and faster with the "Ring In's" down for Revolution or the Christmas Carnivals that are happening very soon.

I managed to enter myself into Bendigo on the 30th and have been focusing solely on getting my legs ready for the Handicaps. I have been doing LOTS AND LAOTS of 60 and 90sec MAX Efforts to get the power more linear and hopefully increasing my sprint length.

With my first ever place (3rd in the Motor Pace) at a Thursday Night race at DISC, I think i might be just about to peak at the right time. I feel really good and have kept up the training pressure, as for some reason I respond better training hard and raceing than raceing at the end of a recovery.

So i now look forward to racing Bendigo with the knowledge i might be a chance to make my final!!!!!!!

PS: I now to have a secret weapon!!!

Well today was the first time i have ridden into work for a long while. I took it real easy (well as easy as you can in a 20 knot head wind) and managed to do  2hr 20min for the 40 k's to Preston from Che Larkin.

On checking my data for the ride an average of 18.7 k/hr and a HR of 147 means i was just over my E1 HR for the ride. Pretty good for a 99kg sprinter who has struggle for time on the bike with sickness and a bad knee.

Now i look forward to a few more rides like that so as to improve my racing. Now that my Power and Strength are up where i like, i just have to get that endurance going.

Well as you all may well have heard, there were some records set at Spin last Tuesday Night.

I set a PB on the Power Tap and tried to calibrate it to the Kurt Kinetic Computer as they both show the power output in Watts for the rider. They are pretty close to each other (about 3-5% difference) which gives me a great idea when i am training on my own on the trainer.

So lets talk about the PB. Carl and i have been working on Strength and Power alot as of late. We have smashed ourselves into the ground with weights and standing starts, as well as short MAX efforts with a few F100 and F200's thrown in to keep things going along. Now we are kicking along with the enduro section of our prep and find a few extra K's of E1 to drop a litle of the "Winter Form" we are both holding. I am trying to keep "Fresh" for round 1 so will take it pretty easy the week before.

Well on Tuesday night i topped out at 1420 watts MAX POWER! I have struggled for weks and have now seen that i am capable of punching out what it takes to get gowing FAST. I realy surprised my self and those around me with what i was able t get out. I thought i might get 1300 by the sprint series, but 1400 + gives me a bit of an edge, and a great lead into the summer and the mythical 1500 i want to get to.

So in 4 weeks time i get to see if i am ready for B Grade like i had hoped, or will C Grade be my home for a little while longer??

I have been chatting to suppliers, friends, and enemies alike. With time my ultimate enemy, i need to get on the bike to do all my strength work. Power and strength= quite fast fat man!! But like i said i need to do pretty much everything on the bike so i need more gear inch's.

The major problem is my knee, and how much pressure it can take before it say's NO. I still have a bit of a struggle at the gym with squats, but can manage a Dead Lifts and some power lifts if i take a lttle care. I try and gget some upper body stuff done but doing basic chin ups and pull ups. At 97KG i really don't need weights, just body weight is fine.

So where to from here........... Well i have found the biggest possable gear i can find for Sunday to do Standing Starts over 1 lap. 54:12 will give me about 121.5 inch gear. That's only until i can get my grubby little hands on a 55 tooth chain ring................

DISC training was something of a fizzer for me tonight. I have been struggling with my knee as of late, and have had a bit of a cold i can't get past as well. But even though  i have had a struggle, i have been kicking along training as hard as possable. My strength has been getting much better, and my power is strating increase to a pont where i am happy with. I have started to get alot faster over the last few weeks, now i am working on getting my sprint a bit longer.

Tonight i was starting out the big gear standing starts in "Insanity" gear. For those that look at gear charts, 110.1 or 53:13 was what i was using tonight. I could manage a top speed of 48.9 k/hr over 125 mtrs. I am looking forward to chase out some form maths to be able to work out RPM and power over the distance.

I look forward to next weeks 1 lap standings. Will give me a better gauge of what i am capable of.  

I would like to thank John Nicholson for taking the training session tonight. He has a wealth of knowlege and loves to pass it on to younger, and older riders a like. We had a great time and i hope everyone enjoyed the small game at the end.

Thanks Everyone.

DISC on Sunday produced a few mixed results. I managed to keep Dino at bay with Some very good efforts and a reasonably fast F100 time to boot. Been having trouble with my knee as of late and managed to get a bit of a head cold, and even with those problems i have been able to stick very quick times over the 100 and 200 distances.

So i look forward to the Summer season and a few of the longer handicap races as well as the BSSS series.

I should be flying!!!

Carl and i have been working on "Bike Strength" for me at the moment as it is really ahrd for me to get to the Gym and train properly. I am waiting to get the stuff out of my garrage to be able to set up my own small Gym to get this done, but alas i have to wait a little longer to get this done.

With me putting some seriously good times down at DISC, it's really weird that when we are at spin on Tuesday i seem to be struggleing to make any inroads on the Power Meter to make the results i am getting look right. If i could get a pair of these SRM Track Cranks it might make a bit of difference in the abillity to get data. I might even try and get a pair for the Roadie

So all i need to do is keep punching out geat numbers on the track and do what i can at Spin and see where the new season takes me.

Tonight at DISC i managed to take 2 Flying 100's within .2 of a second of each other. I am trying to get my F100 in the 6.5 kinda range, and at the moment im in the 6.9 range.  Thats pretty quick for a second year rider, and i am kinda proud of getting close to my wanted time before the season starts. If i can keep my head down and bum up, i should be able to get to my goal before the season starts.

Training gets harder and more intense as we get along. The thing that keeps me going is the wish to be faster and get to the Masters..

With the BBN Track Champs just days away, i have finaly draged myself from be where i have been hibernating for the last 5 days with something like the Flu. I have only just recently been out and about with the general public because i have not been really able to leave my bed or even stay awake for more than an hour at a time.

I have had probably one of the worst years i can put to record. I have missed a fair amount of racing, had very interupted preperations for all my races, and really have taken to heart and felt quite down about my own performances and abillities.

I will try again to have a bit of a ride tomorrow just to get the legs turning. The Club Champs were something i really wanted to perform well in, and i know i will have to write that off for this year. I will need to put in a strong TSSS final round and see what i can achieve over the winter. I have some big plans for Summer 09, and have some really big races i want to be able to ride.

Well i have made the first commute from Preston to Noble Park Nth. It took about 2hrs and 15 min and i covered about 55 k. Now if my math is about right it looks like about 25.5 k/Hr. I have to admit that this is probably the longest single ride i have completed in a long time.

Now that this have been done, i really think i will have to look at doing this commute as often as possable due to the fact it takes bugger all time and i recon i could get it down to 2 hr or even 1.5 hrs if i get going a bit.

One reason for the commute is that i have been struggleing a little for fitness and my weight gust wont seem to drop. I have taken to diet but it just wont shift. So doing the commute will help drop the weight, and get some extra K's in the legs. I am also kinda proud that i was able to finnish such a ride. Bev and i have been doing our weekend Lunch ride for ages and i never thought i could cover the distance we do over 2 stints in 1 hit!!

Now i look to Shepparton carnival and a new year filled with bigger and better steps.

It has taken quite a while and with a few misshaps i think i'm ready to take on the riders at BBN Velo again. Times have been a little ruff for me at the minute and i think m y mind has been a little if not a lot preoccupied with other things. Time has been pf the essence, and yet i am still finding it hard to hit my straps.

I had a disastorus ride in Shepparton that has really put my racing and training back to a place i dont like, and that's back to the start. I was ment to be a social ride and something a few of us ABOC'ers were going to do for fun. I went for a training ride on Saturday to meet Bev on the road somewhere in between Cobram and Shepparton. Here is a condensed list of what happened in numerical order.

1) Ran off the road by locals and binned it in the thick gravel.

2) Swoop by a magpie for about a 12 k stretch.

3) Turned onto the Murray Goulburn freeway and was swooped by another bird for 6 k.

4) Had a snake take a liking to my shoes and give chase for 5-10 mtrs.

5) Had a puncture 9 k out of Tallygaroopna.

6) Forgot to bring money and ranout of drink just 6 k from Shep and had to stop a IGA for toilets and water. Thanks to Bev for Lollies as i even forgot food when i took a closer look.

So as you can see it was a kinda eventful ride to Shep and i was glad it was over when we got in. Had dinner and left Bev and Rob at the caravan park looking to the morning for the ride. When we got back to the farm i noticed that my knee was a little swollen and a small lump had  made it self home just under my knee. So thought i would see how this goes and make a decission in the morning.

Well with a bigger lump i was off to Cobram Hospital to see if there was anything they could do. Two X Rays and an ultrasound said i should keep off it for a couple of days and if it doesn't go down i will need to drop back in to the hospital or an Arthriscope. NO MORE SURGERY was the only thing i was thinking and came back to Melbourne as the lump seemed to go down almost overnight (OK it was still there 2 days later but was almost gone and was not there 4 days later).

So i still had a little pain and was a bit stiff so i went and got a massage telling the guy i had a fall and he should be a little gental on me. After about 10 minuets he managed to pop my shoulder back in (i didn't even think it was out) and felt a little more pain. More and more pain came in the dyas after so off to the Physio i went (on the recomendation of a few others) and he couldn't really find anything major untill we had the ultrasound and found the fracture in my Collar Bone!

So now over 3 weeks after the Shepparton debarkle i am almost fit (nothing hurting from broken or bashed) enough to have my first real race back. 

I had a bit of a ride this morning down to Glenvale for a look, then up to see my girls have a hit of tennis then home. 25 k with no pain in my shoulder but a little in the knee, but thats only because i have had trouble riding because of the other pains and it will come good over the next few days of training.

My Treck Summer Sprint Series was a fizzer as i could barely hold the bars and could only muster a 14.6 so a little dissapointed is an understaement. I know i can go alot faster and think the December edition will be a totaly different scenerio. 

Just a small note for all those concerned with all things Nathan.

Last night being Tuesday i finally managed to crack the 200 rpm cadence mark with a 202 (172.5 mm Cranks) in one of the HCLR runs. I never thought i would make it this far.

Now to crack 210.

I havn't written much lately as i have been training like a mad man and working myself metal. Time is a commodity i have yet to learn any respect for, and think it will last froever. I think i need to take a step back and look at all things clock related and determine what things i need to change to get the most out of my riding.

Wroking in Preston at the bike shop is a killer. It's about an hour travell each way by car; about an hour and a half by public transport; or if i tried to do it on the bike we would be looking at two hours. At work there is no shower so that makes riding in a bit of a smelly idea and working retail and being smelly dont really mix. I try and take the train as often as i can but with wanting to get home earlie to see my kids or needing to deliver something on my way home seems to keep the car an option for most of what i do.

Yet i still struggle to find time to train! Life seems to take time and piss it away for me. Working is taking up alot of my time. Traing is taking up alot of my time. Trying to be a good husband and father is taking up alot of my time.

Thank Christ i enjoy all the torment my lovely, delicate, chosen profession, sport, and family life or i would be a psyco by now.