Monday 31 March 2014

3 and 5 Dams Challenge - Final Training Week

Welcome to the final training week!

Months have become weeks and weeks have now become just days! The hard training is now done and our final task is to taper down from the hard training to some basic workouts to help maintain the level we have reached as the remaining days turn into just hours. This is not about suddenly toning down our efforts to just recovery rides with the intent to be fully recovered and expecting to go in "fresh" for the event. This is about maintaining a level and allowing the work we have done to come through and be completely ready to take on the challenge in a peak physical (and mental) condition. I'll also cover some "do and do nots" in this final edition of the program as part of our final approach.

Sunday 23 March 2014

3 and 5 Dams Challenge - Training Week #12

Welcome to Training Week #12.

This is it, the final week of hard training before we taper into the event on the 6th of April. This week we will lift our intensity and climbing efforts for the last time and test ourselves in an effort to see how our training has worked for us to date. We will re-introduce strength training on Thursday to help put some final conditioning into the legs. This could be our hardest day given the previous day's endurance training so expect it to hurt just a little bit due to the fatigue already in the legs. On Sunday, we will lift our hills climbing efforts for each level (3 or 5 dams) to see how we are going with the hills climbing.

Sunday 16 March 2014

3 and 5 Dams Challenge - Training Week #11

Welcome to Training Week #11.

This week, I wanted to cover some of the dangers of training at the level we have reached. Although it is unlikely that any of you will encounter any of these issues during this twelve week training program, you should certainly be aware of some of the risks that we as athletes may face when training at consistently high intensity and how to identify the signs that you may be doing too much. Two conditions that we may encounter are overreaching and overtraining. Both of these conditions can quickly ruin the hard work that we put in to conditioning ourselves for a specific event such as the Dams Challenge.

Tuesday 11 March 2014

Emma Molloy : My Cycling Adventures - 3 Peaks Challenge

Emma Molloy is a team mate of Dams Challenge Ride Ambassadors Tiff Dorrington and Katie Joyce. Emma has recently completed the gruelling 3 Peaks Challenge in Victoria and has written an incredible report recounting her experience, including a quick insight into how she prepared for the event and what was required in order to ensure she completed the event. If you have been following my blog and my training guides, then I encourage you to click over and have a read of Emma's report. I'd also encourage you to read a bit about her background and how she got into cycling.

I've had the privilege of attending events that Emma has participated in and know first hand how much work she puts into everything she does, whether it be racing, participating in long rides such as 3 Peaks or her training with Hall Women's Cycle Training. Her commitment to completing such a daunting event is highly commendable.

Congratulations on the ride, Emma. You are an inspiration.

Read Emma's report here.
Read about Emma here.

Emma is one of a few people I train who completed this challenge. Kudos to you all.

Monday 10 March 2014

WCMCC Age Division Criterium Championships :: 9th March, 2014

Last weekend was one weekend where the Unicorns came out to play. With the team having to choose between riding the State Criterium Championships at Technology Park and the WCMCC Age Division Criterium Championships at Rockingham, we were spread not only between age divisions, but also events. In the end, four of us opted for the WCMCC event while Andrew Patterson decided that he was a good chance for the Masters classification at the State Champs. Either way, we were all hopeful for good results and the start lists at each event certainly suggested we could all be amongst it. A good ocean of blue HCT jerseys adorning the backs of the ladies was also great to see and some very solid chances amongst them too.

Sunday 9 March 2014

3 and 5 Dams Challenge - Training Week #10

Welcome to Training Week #10.

If there is one thing that helps motivate us to tackle the next week in training, it's a positive result from something we have worked hard to achieve. In my case, it was the weekend's racing while for others, it may have been a milestone ride or stealing a long-held Strava KOM from a peer (you know I mean you, Scotty). Whatever your achievement, it can truly lift your spirits and inspire you to work harder to get yourself to the next level. It can help rid your head of negative thoughts and get you in the right frame of mind when it comes to the 3 and 5 Dams Challenge. This week, I challenge anyone following this blog and training guide to achieve a milestone or breakthrough ride and your best opportunity is likely to come during the weekend rides. Go for a sprint win during your group ride or climb a personal best number of vertical metres. The feeling of satisfaction is the best fuel that I know of to keep going when things get hard.

Sunday 2 March 2014

3 and 5 Dams Challenge - Training Week #9

Welcome to Training Week #9.

The countdown is now on. 4 weeks to go until the main event and to help count them down, we'll throw in some of the hardest training to date over the next three weeks followed by a nice taper before we tackle the Dams. No RE between now and then so I hope you enjoyed your rest and recovery rides over the last week. Intervals will be hard, strength efforts will require you to dig deep and the climbing will be taken up another notch and include repeats of a nice little climb that some may not know about. The focus will be to have you in tip-top shape in time for the challenge so that you might be able to complete the respective ride better than you expected. But .... you don't get results like that without putting in solid training.