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Prepared Training

School Holidays are the  BEST aren’t they? You can ride all day and live the “pro rider” dream.

I remember when I was young, (Matt Taylor also wrote a song about this)…..crikey I’m showing my age here.

We would all meet up at someones house in the morning and head off on an “epic”, maybe over Mt Dandenong or through the sticks, Warrandyte-Kinglake-Wallan. We’d end up back at someone’s home for lunch and after eating the contents of the fridge we’d go for a “cruise”, maybe a couple of hours “showing off” around Lygon St and the City.

Today I met a few people at Breamlea for a 2 hour smashfest, before I went to bed I got my bike ready, made sure I had 2 spare tubes and a pump… THAT WORKED… as well as a bidon that was full, laid out my knicks, undershirt, short sleeve jersey, helmet & shoes.

I went to bed knowing I was ready.

When I got out of bed the first thing I did was look out the window to the south west, that is where the weather blows in from and it was looking grey, so I logged onto the Bureau of Meterology web site to check the radar, sure enough it was raining through Lorne so I Grabbed a Long Sleeve thermal jersey, leg warmers, and a change of clothes for afterwards, had breakfast and jumped in the car.

When I arrived, the sun was out and everyone was in short sleeves, I suggested that they throw something warm or waterproof in their pocket because there was some rain coming.

Within the 10 minutes of us getting ready the wind was feeling colder, so I put my long sleeve over the top of my short sleeve and undershirt, pulled on the leg warmers, checked that I had some money, phone, identification and my rian jacket with me and we were off!!

The first thing we did was work out what everyone WASN’T SUPPOSED TO DO, Loretta was all green lights, one was only allowed to do 45mins max and at an easy effort and the comeback kid was looking for some k’s.

So we started off at a moderate pace and within 15 minutes the drizzle was falling on us, it wasn’t soaking just enough to make the road and painted lines slippery.

“Single File” was the call for safety and we kept an eye on the ride time so we would drink every 5 minutes, Yes you need to drink when it is cold as well!!!

At the 45 minute mark we told Mr T to get in the car and we lifted the pace a touch to satisfy the comeback kid’s need for  I-effort.

Pretty soon we were rounding the cement works so is was goodbye to the kid and hello to some 1 minute surges along the Anglesea Rd. Before we knew it we were coming through Torquay looking hard core pro with road grime spattered on our faces and legs shining with water spray, we timed it well with tthe 2 hour mark just ticking over as we arrived back at camp.

A quick change into dry clothes and a bite to eat… (1g of cho per 1kg of bodyweight) or roughly 50g within 20mins of finishing the session. For me a coffee, talking, laughing and it was time to head back to the @.i.s. where paddy (the horse) was getting the chiropractor to realign him… yes horses need a massage as well as us humans.

So what was the purpose of this dribble?

Be prepared BEFORE you set off on a training ride.

Check your Bike, brakes, tyres, tyre pressure, have spare tubes and a pump that works.

Carry something with your name, address and a contact phone number on it.

Take a phone in case you get stuck, take some money incase you go hunger flat or run out of water.

take a rain jacket… NO MATTER WHAT IT’S LIKE WHEN YOU START THE RIDE.

Check with everyone in the group what they can and can’t do, this way the ride will benefit all.

If it isn’t ideal to be 2 abreast go single file.

When you have finished the ride, change into something dry and warm and have something to eat that will help refuel your tank, NOT CHIPS, something like toast and jam or  cereal, even a chocolate milk is a good start to your recovery.

I’m riding tomorrow and seeing how it was a hard ride today tomorrow will be a relatively easy one, Lorne for a coffee and up Benny on the way home.

I’ll go through the same routine and have my rain jacket in my pocket… JUST IN CASE.

onya, Cam

This entry was posted by C. McFarlane on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Road.