Robb's Ride 2009

380 km in 3 days isn't a WHOLE lot of riding for a competitive cyclist or triathlete. 380 km at close to race pace, with over 2000 meters of climbing on one of the days, is a WHOLE lot of riding!  J0el Johnson, Andrew Sellars, Jason Kilmartin, Michelle Peletier and I were 5 BPR athletes that toed the line of this 3 day NON-race through Castlegar, Nelson, Trail, Rossland, New Denver and Kaslo.

This 3rd year of the event saw better weather than the first 2 years, and a much more interesting 3rd day of riding that took us up 2 major passes - the Bombi and Nancy Green. One mountain section of the road from Trail to Rossland was 10 km and did NOT let up for a minute with pitches at 10-14% throughout. It was there that my training partner Joel really showed what he is now capable of doing now. We started the climb steady, not too hard. I was at my LBP, and a very strong cyclist, Brian Marsh, was leading us out. About 4 km in, I took over the pacing and ramped my heart rate up to about LBP +10-15 and just gritted my teeth hoping that everyone would soon get shed off the back. 4 or 5 guys did, but Joel stayed right there behind me, and about 2 km from the top he made his move, and did he ever make his move! He jumped and had 40 meters on me within a minute, I simply couldn't respond. This was the highlight of the trip for me.

One thing I noticed a lot of this weekend was laboured breathing. My coach Andrew has us doing a fair bit of respiratory training with a Spiro Tiger, and with just awareness of breath when we train. After doing this for almost 2 years, my breathing never gets out of control anymore, even when I'm at 194 heart rate. I compare my 30-33 breaths per minute to those around me breathing 50-60 and I am very grateful that I've trained that system specifically. 

The road racing style of riding this weekend with intensity that fluctuated constantly was very different than my regular training. I think it was really beneficial to have this kind of variety of intensity in my plan this year, and I hope it will pay direct dividends to the mountain bike races that I do in 2009.  As I approach my next race, the Salty Dog 6 hour mountain bike enduro on May 24, I will be doing a bit more functional training in preparation. This will be the first time that I do in 2 years, however, because up until now we've been working on developing the structure necessary to support this kind of intensity. It should be interesting, stay tuned to this blog for results from the Salty Dog... my goal is to do every lap at the same pace consistently which will mean going really easy at the start and really hard at the end!

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Ski 2 Sea Kelowna 2009

Well, it wasn't a BPR team that I raced for last weekend at Kelowna's Ski 2 Sea race, but I flew the blue, white and black with pride on the Fresh Air Concept Team. The Fresh Air team recruited me for the road bike because, well, I think because they couldn't find anyone faster! I was up against a monster Time Trialist in the form of Corey Forrest. There's those guys that toe the line believing that they can beat Lance Armstrong if he showed up. I'm not that guy, I'm a bit more realistic. I wanted to lose less than 3 minutes to Corey and I'd see that as a very positive outcome. We started warming up on our rollers, there were three of us "hard-core" enough to go through all that effort. I looked even sillier than the other two guys because I was at the start line huffing and puffing into my Spiro Tiger at 50 breaths per minute to warm up my respiratory system. For those of you unfamiliar with an ST - think really high-tech balloon that you keep blowing up over and over. Although we were 2 minutes behind after the downhill and cross country legs of the race, our mountain biker kicked some serious butt and came to the start of the road bike in first, sending me off 20 seconds in front of Corey. I hate being in front because I usually have way more adrenaline and I just put the pedal down. So I did that for a bit but was caught after about 10 minutes by Mr. Forrest. From that point on, I was just trying to keep him in sight, which only lasted about another 10 minutes. At the end of the bike I was only down 2:48, which I was very happy about. I think I'm a good TT'er for a triathlete, but there's a difference between that and a TT specialist like Corey. I think a big part of the successful ride was the stroke volume rides that Andrew, Joel and I have been doing lately. Basically, we pin it at LBP-5 for an hour or until our heart rate starts to really drift. They are challenging sessions but pay good dividends. I also took my brilliant coach Andrew's advice and lifted my front end almost 2 inches so that I'm less aero, but my heart rate stays lower when I go into aero position. Without a wind tunnel, it's tough to tell but I think the trade off was more than worth it. In the end and after the run and paddle, the Fresh Air Concept Team was down 1:16 to Total Restoration which took the honors again this year. We were close, but it wasn't quite enough. I'm hoping to get a chance for a rematch next year!!!

Balance Point Racing traing camp Joshua Tree March 15 to 22

Wow, I am one crispy athlete after training with the rest of the BPR high performance team and others for the last 7 days in Joshua Tree California. Joshua Tree is a desert national park near Palm Springs and it was a bit of a shock to the system to go from -15 degrees in Vernon last week to +30 here! This is my first spring training camp ever but it definitely won't be my last. I find it virtually impossible to train 30 hours per week in March and Vernon this year was particularly cold and snowy making it even more difficult. We averaged almost 5 hours of training per day which was mostly biking but there was also great opportunities for trail running, swimming in an outdoor 50 meter pool, and mountain biking. 

It was an amazing week and the best way to start training in earnest after a long winter spent indoors. We trained like pros everyday with all of our healthy meals being prepared by Jorg of Magic Places. A typical day consisted of waking up, eating a big breakfast of oats, yogurt and fruit, training for 5 hours, getting home to take a cold shower, eat dinner and then socialize and recover for the next day by stretching, doing core workouts, and keeping our legs elevated. I could definitely get used to that kind of lifestyle!!!

We were also very fortunate to have a nutritional presentation by Juerg Feldman of FaCT Canada and Mary Ann Kelly, the Dietitian of the Desert. We learned about how crucial a role nutrition plays in recovery and specifically, strategies that ensure the optimal nutrients get to the cells that need them at the right time (chrono-nutrition).
I'm fired up and ready to keep the momentum going now that I've had the chance to establish such a solid training routine!

The highlight of the trip was a 170 km ride on the last day of training from the West gate of Joshua Tree to the South gate and back. Huge mountains were climbed and indecent head winds were faced, but staying strong all the way back home and having a delicious chicken pasta dinner afterwards made the epic ride a memory I won't soon forget.

Thanks Andrew and Ginny Sellars and Balance Point Racing for making it possible for myself and the rest of the high performance team to attend this camp and to get such a good start to the year. 

Yours in training,

Mike Champigny