Happy New Year Morning Glory Cycling Club!!!!

I hope all is well back in Canada, I know my time here so far has been amazing. The Melbourne cycling community has been extremely welcoming and helpful. 

About a week ago I ran into a huge problem, I had only one day to find a place to stay from Jan 3rd to 10th as my billets had family arriving for a week and the new arrangements had fallen through.  As the holidays where in full swing, all of my attempts over the week came up empty.  It just so happened that I bumped into Lee Turner (@lee_hollywood twitter) a well known Melbourne cyclist on beach road. He had this brilliant idea to use his Twitter to broadcast my distress.  I had a gut felling that this was it, and without a doubt it would work. Low and behold 4 hours later I got an email from Mick Inglis, offering a bed at his place. Perfect!!!  The cycling community down here really reminds me of the MGCC and how connected we are together.

A lot of the people here have been complaining about the weather. Saying that it’s cold and raining more then normal. Between you and me I don’t know what they are talking about. The weather is amazing, highs between 24-29 instead of 35-40.  Plus having this rain makes the area look alive!

Now finishing off the second week of January, with my strength training complete.  I would say I am happy with my fitness, especially my 4 min power. Being able to hold 470 watts at 80 rpm feels really good.  I have never been so strong and with my 2012 goals written down and etched in my mind (I review them everyday) I know I will achieve my objectives.  I really could not have done this without you, the MGCC.

All there is now is to get my leg speed up and fine-tune my training on the TT bike. With the next two weeks racing the crits, I am sure I will get my leg speed back!

Here is my Garmin file from a few days ago - I avg'd 360 watts for 3.5 hrs with a nice peak 1,244 Watts - I am super excited by the numbers I am putting up and I have been emailing them to all the Pro teams that are on my hit list.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/140995496#.Tw-FBUxHBHc.email

Hope all is well back in Toronto and everything surrounding the MGCC.  I wish the GTA peloton good luck in getting this world class velodrome approved and into the building phase.  This is a much needed peace of cycling that is missing in our country, let along in our backyard.  The GTA is about to become the mecca of Canadian Cycling.

I miss you guys.

Cheers,
Derrek

Good Day MGCC,

With almost a month gone since I arrived in Melbourne time is flying by!

Being able to ride every day and race when I want is really bringing my form up fast. It is to early to be racing every weekend but the races I have performed up to my goals during the races I have competed in.

The first race was a crit held by the St Kilda’s Cycling Club.  With 12 other riders off of the front, we lapped the field at an avg speed of 46.7 kph. I came in 4th, not bad for my first race!   It was extremely competitive and the caliber of racers in the elite field where beyond what I was expecting.

The second crit saw me almost take the win.  I attacked the field every time I could to get away. With 3 laps to go I got away trying to hold 450-475 watts. But coming into the finish I was caught with 300 meters to the line.

SO CLOSE!!!!!!

The training here is phenomenal, you have a costal road that goes on for 100k and a set of foot hills with tons of small roads to climb all day long. 

Having the opportunity to ride full time has given me the ability to train with the pros.

I have done a few rides with Greg Henderson and Jeremy Hunt from the Sky Pro Cycling Team.  They are great guys who have introduced me to a tonne of people in the cycling scene down here as well answering every question I throw at them on how to become a pro.

Hammering with them will surly bring my form up fast  Greg and Jeremy are getting ready for their season witch starts in 4 weeks so the rides have been increasing in intensity.  I can only imagine what the intensity will be like over the Christmas break.

Melbourne is a beautiful city, reminds me of Vancouver (minus the rain and door step mountains).  The people here are very friendly and the nightlife is fantastic although I have only missed my self-imposed bed time of 10pm once.   I am here for one purpose and that is to train, to race, and to get a pro contract.

As my time here has just begun, my performance has already seen a massive improvement from last season.

So far, everything is on track with my plan.

Thanks again MGCC, you are the reason I am able to follow my dreams.

Connect with me on twitter to get a more up to date experience. 

Twitter - @_Ivey_

Cheers,
Derrek

derrekivey@gmail.com

TO THE ENTIRE MGCC,

It is the night before I set off to pursue my career as a bicycle racer and with my nerves and excitement in check I can only think of what is yet to come.  It is all of you, my supporters from the MGCC, that are first and foremost in my mind, because without you I would not be able to follow my dream.

Tomorrow evening at 6:30pm I will board a flight that will, after a quick change of planes in LA, set me down in Melbourne, Australia on Thursday the 17th at 9:55am.  I am being met at the airport by the owner of Bike Force Australia, a 21 store chain, who I have been introduced to by MG rider Paul Jackson - THANK YOU AUSSIE PAUL.  

This winter training journey is without a doubt going to give me the edge for next season.  Being able to have 4 solid months of riding and racing in my legs will put me light years ahead of my competition!!!  It is my goal to secure a pro level contract with the results that I gather over the Australian racing season and upon my return to Canada at the end of March.

Bike racing is my life and it will soon be my profession.  I am 200% committed to achieving my goals on the bike and in life.  Every minute of every day will be dedicated to this.

Every week from now until my return I will be blogging to MGCC to fully include you in my progression and transformation in becoming a pro rider.  

Stay tuned, it is going to be an awesome journey.

Words cannot describe my excitement for this next chapter to begin and my appreciation for everything the MGCC has done for me.

THANK YOU MGCC!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

Derrek Ivey
derrekivey@gmail.com


PS - please email me at anytime as part of my goal is to give back to the club what it is that I learn as I take these next steps. 

 A German reader asked me today how fast fitness is lost if you miss a day or,
heaven forbid, several days of training. There are lots of confounding factors
here but I’ll take a shot at it.

This is a particularly tender area for me right now as I am missing beaucoup
workouts. While in Spain at a training camp two weeks ago I ran into a suddenly
opened car door on a ride. It wasn’t a parked car, which I’m always pretty aware
of, but rather a car stopped at a traffic light. A passenger decided to get out
at mid-block and threw open the door just as I got there. Her timing was
perfect. I landed on my hip which was fractured in four places. I’m now 17 days
into no training.

So, never miss a workout… Obviously, that’s something which is nearly
impossible to attain even if you haven’t broken your pelvis. Life sometimes just
gets in the way. So let's take a look at missed workouts--or decreased
training--from several varying perspectives.

Here’s what research on detraining by Randy Wilber at the Olympic Training
Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado tells us about the changes that happen
after three weeks of no training [Wilber]:

Effected Physiology
Heart stroke volume -10%
Heart rate at submax   effort +4%
Plasma volume -12%
Capillary density -7%
Aerobic enzymes -29%
Blood lactate +88%
Lactate threshold -7%
Time to fatigue -10%
VO2max -8%

Anaerobic fitness, however, seems to hang on somewhat longer [Coyle]. So it’s
aerobic function that we need to be most concerned about, especially since you
are undoubtedly an endurance athlete given that you’re reading this blog. Even
just reducing the number of aerobic workouts from 5 days per week to 2 causes a
loss of significant amounts of fitness [Brynteson]. And reducing the intensity
of your aerobic training below 70% of VO2max has been shown to also cause a loss
of aerobic fitness with a decrease in aerobic capacity, time to exhaustion and
heart size [Hickson].

There is also something relatively new, at least to endurance sport, referred
to as “residual fitness” by Vladimir Issurin. This suggests that specific areas
of fitness may be lost in a matter of a few days to a few weeks even if adequate
training continues in some areas but with little or no specific stress in others
[Issurin]. I’ll write more about this topic soon.

Using the WKO+ software model I can also tell you that if your fitness is
relatively high you lose fitness at a much faster rate than if it is low. A
single missed workout for someone with a CTL (Chronic Training Load) of about
100 TSS/day (high fitness) results in a fitness loss of more than 2%. But an
athlete with a CTL of about 20 (low fitness) will see an approximate 0.4% drop
in CTL when a day of training is missed. In other words, zeroes are more
expensive when you’re highly fit.


So I guess my only hope is to lose a lot of fitness so my rate of fitness
loss won’t be too great. That should be easy to pull off. But in the mean time
I’m going to do what I can to exercise while I wait out this 6-week down time. I
figure that even doing something is better than nothing—but probably more for my
head than my body.

References
Coyle, E.F., W.H. Martin, D.R. Sinacore, et al. 1984. Time Course of Loss of
Adaptations After Stopping Prolonged Intense Endurance Training. J Appl
Physiol. 57:1857-1864.

Wilber, R.L. and R.J. Moffatt. 1994. Physiological and Biochemical
Consequence of Detraining in Aerobically Trained Individuals. J
Strength Cond Res. 8:110.

Brynteson P, W.E. Sinning. 1973. The Effects of Training Frequencies on the
Retention of Cardiovascular Fitness. Med Sci Sports 5(1):29-33.


Hickson, R.C., C. Foster, M.L. Pollock, et al. 1985. Reduced Training
Intensities and Loss of Aerobic Power, Endurance and Cardiac Growth. J Appl
Physiol 58: 492-499.

Issurin, VB. 2009. Generalized training effects induced by athletic
preparation. A review. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 49(4):333-45.

Andrew's Result:

Total Time - 9:02:56
Overall Placing - 44th
Age Group Placing - 7th
Overall Canadian - 1st

Ironman Hawaii

Most athletes strive for a race effort where execution equals or exceeds expectation, and I was lucky enough to have one of those races this past Saturday.  My long day started at 3:30AM, up 30 minutes earlier than planned, but was awake and excited so no use trying to force sleep when it’s not there.  Ate 1000 calories and headed down to the race start by 5:30AM, did a final check on the bike, took a quiet moment to calm the nerves, and chatted with some friends until the start.

Coming from a competitive swimming background, I’ve never had a problem with triathlon swims – usually a quick 2-3 minute burst opens up clear water and I’m on my way with a small group of other swimmers.  Hawaii is unique in that it is a deep-water ocean start, affected by currents, and brings together a much higher quality field than any other triathlon its size in the world.  Getting to the front of the swim start line wasn’t too hard, but with three minutes until race time, there were elbows and knees battling underwater and lots of pushing and swearing as people tried to get up front.  The cannon fired at 7AM and it was absolute chaos – arms and legs flailing with too many people contained in too little space.  After about five minutes I felt the pace was way too high, and had a slight panic attack when I realized I had no choice but to continue at that pace because slowing down would result in getting run over from all directions.  After about 15 minutes we had spread out enough that I was no longer claustrophobic, but the contact continued throughout the 3.9K swim.  Swim time was 57:23, 106th overall, slightly slower than the plan but was more than happy to have that part of the day over with.

Long course triathlon racing is challenging as a successful performance requires a huge amount of patience over a very long day – it’s important to dose your effort evenly, and discipline is needed to keep that effort in check when people you’re racing take off up the road and you want so badly to go chase the down.  The bike course starts with a 15K ride around town that includes a short and steep uphill, a longer climb with a more gradual grade, then a third climb that is the steepest on the course (about 400 meters long).  I was getting passed like I was standing still on this section, despite seeing 260 watts and thinking I was working too hard – took a lot of patience to let everyone go up the road and do my own ride.  I stayed conservative throughout the first 96K, which ends at the top of the longest climb of the day.  At this point my average watts were 211, right at my target of 210, and I was feeling energized, strong, and not at all fatigued.  Over the course of the last 84K, I built the effort, having a few 5K intervals where my average power was in the 225-242 watt range which was a bit risky, but a lot of fun passing a bunch of the people who’d flown by earlier in the ride.  Bike time was 4:56:43 on average watts of 215, and I’d moved up to 97th overall.  Garmin data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/120025740

My run plan was to run 7 minute miles for the duration of the run, I’d done this in workouts all season and I knew that was the pace I could hold if I was smart.  Seeing the race clock at 5:59.11 leaving transition, I was tempted to push for a 3:00.48 marathon to dip under 9:00 for the day, but stuck to the plan as the probability of blowing up by attempting to run 3 minutes faster than planned was way too high.  Similar to the bike start, guys were flying out of transition and I let them go – at 1KM I checked my watch expecting to see 7:15 pace as it felt so easy, instead I was on 6:00 pace and immediately slowed it down a bit more.  From then on in it was a really steady run – every mile was right around 7 minutes with the exception of two uphill miles, and mile 5 that included a bio break.  A few times I felt rough, and my brain would try to focus on how much farther there was to run, I was able to change the focus back to just completing the current mile.  Once the mile was complete, it was time to stock up at the aid station on sponges, water over the head, ice down the race suit, sports drink, coke and salt tabs into the body; then back to focusing on the next mile.  I also had my family out cheering on the course, it’s a long day for the spectators as well so wanted to keep on pushing to get them out of the hot sun as early as possible!  I ran side by side with another athlete from mile 10 to 24 which made it so much easier, we fed off each other’s pace and were passing runners steadily.  I felt so strong with 1 mile to go I was able to drop the pace down to close to a 6 minute mile and closed strongly, in a lot less pain than the race six weeks previously.  Run time was 3:03:43, and I finished 44th overall with a final time of 9:02:56. Garmin data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/120025055

The race was flawlessly executed by the organizers, it’s arguably the most highly anticipated event in the triathlon industry and is supported appropriately by all the major players.  Sharing the course with the professional athletes is a special experience, and having so many talented athletes in one field is a fantastic challenge.  Thanks again to the MGCC for pushing my comfort zone on the bike all season long, at the start of the year I’d have been ecstatic with a 5:15 bike split, to come in sub 5 hours was really exciting.  See you out on the roads!

Cheers, Andrew.

This is a three part series written by Andrew:

Part 1: Written Sept 25th

Ironman Louisville - qualifying race for the Ironman World Championships

Aloha!  As a kid I saw this clip of Julie Moss crawling her way to the finish line in the 1982 Hawaii Ironman on ABC's 'Wide World of Sports' and decided that it looked just crazy enough that I wanted to give the race a go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbWsQMabczM  

Today the Hawaii Ironman is the 'Ironman World Championship'.  Professional athletes qualify through a points system based on performances on the Ironman circuit, and age group athletes qualify with a top placing in their age group at any of the 26 Ironman races in the series.  I'd made two prior attempts at qualifying for Hawaii, at Ironman Canada in 2008 and 2009.  In 2008 I had a decent result but was nowhere near qualifying; in 2009 I ended up dropping out with 7 kilometres to go in the run after completely depleting my body (and 7K is way too far to crawl...Julie Moss was yards from finishing when she started crawling, not outside the city limits!).  My weakness in both those races was a deficiency of both cycling speed and endurance, so I committed to not attempt another Ironman until I'd turned those weaknesses into strengths.  In the spring of 2010, I started riding with the MGCC, and getting repeatedly put in the hurt locker on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings transformed my cycling fitness from being unable to hang with the group on a full Bagel ride in May of 2010, to being able to take some pulls off the front in the fall of that year.  I carried that fitness into 2011 after a solid winter of indoor riding, and was very happy with my race results in 2011 leading up to Ironman Louisville.   

The race in Louisville played out almost exactly as I wanted it to - easy on the swim (which kept my heart rate and overall energy expenditure lower than in my previous Ironman swims) and was on the bike early without many other riders around.  I had planned to ride really easy (below my target power numbers) until I was caught by some stronger riders, then use those riders to pace with for the remainder of the ride (drafting is not allowed in Ironman racing, but even at a legal distance of 7 metres behind the rider in front of you, there is an aerodynamic benefit as well as a psychological benefit of having somebody else to 'chase' up the road).  Cycling strategy in long-distance triathlon is almost the polar opposite of road racing in cycling - both Derrek and Shannon posted about their experiences at the road race nationals, where each time the riders approached the hills, people attacked and power numbers went through the roof.  In an Ironman, because you need to run a marathon after the cycling leg, you want to minimize power spikes, so I climbed most hills with only a marginal increase in the power I was pushing on the flats.  This reduces the overall physiological 'cost' of the ride, and increases your chances of having a strong run. 

Here is my data file for the cycling portion of the race:   http://connect.garmin.com/activity/110727612  

The run started well, I felt strong for 10 miles, a bit rough for 3 miles, strong again until the start of mile 19 and then things started to fall apart.  Your brain is constantly trying to convince you to give up during an Ironman, and when I hit the 30K mark of the run I think subconsiously I knew that was the longest I'd run in training and that made me focus on the pain in my quads more than I should have.  By that point I was in the lead for my age group, with the second place racer almost ten minutes down, so I walked each aid station from mile 19 to the finish. 

Here is the run course data:   http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112244756  

Overall I was happy with the result, finishing 8th overall and 1st in my age group.  The top six in my age group qualified for Hawaii, so I gladly accepted the spot I was offered.  Because Hawaii is six weeks after Louisville, a quick recovery was important to be able to get back to training as soon as possible.  Right after the race, I received two litres of IV fluids while drinking an Infinit recovery shake, 500ml of chocolate milk and 500ml of orange juice to get some carbs and protein into my system to start the muscle rebuilding process.  Post-IV, I had two light flushing massages in the medical centre before being released to gorge on copious amounts of Kentucky BBQ.  A nine-hour day puts a lot of stress on the body, so the two weeks post-race involved only some light cycling - no swimming to allow a rib injury to fully heal, and no running as the weight-bearing nature of the exercise is too traumatic for depleted muscles.  I'm spending the final four weeks before the race on the Big Island of Hawaii, doing an intensive three-week training camp followed by a week-long taper (which is light on training and heavy on sight-seeing!).  

Mahalo, Andrew.  

Full Ironman Louisville race report is posted on my blog:

http://avacuumstraightaway.blogspot.com/2011/09/ironman-louisville-2011.html


Part 2:  Written Oct 5th

Ironman Hawaiii Preview   The training is done and dusted and the final race of the season is here on Saturday.  After taking two weeks to let my body recover after Ironman Louisville, I hit the training hard once I arrived in Hawaii four weeks before the race. 

Training totals for those weeks:  

Four weeks out: 18K swimming, 635K cycling, 72K running
Three weeks out: 19K swimming, 597K cycling, 100K running
Two weeks out: 21K swimming, 557K cycling, 75K running
Race week: 5K swimming, 100K cycling, 20K running  

No long taper for this race as coming off a three-week taper in August for Louisville and then two weeks of recovery following the race meant building fitness was more important than doing a long rest off of low volume.  Being in Hawaii and away from the office made it manageable to handle much higher volume than I put in during the year, especially on the bike.  During this past taper week, I've had some family here visiting, we've seen an erupting volcano, hiked through rainforests, body surfed some mean Pacific waves, explored the stunningly beautiful Waipio valley, and relaxed on both white and black sand beaches.  I'm feeling strong, healthy and well-supported heading into the weekend!  

The atmosphere in Kailua-Kona is fantastic - the sleepy village has been transformed in the last week, with all the major companies in the industry sending their A-teams to be present at the World Championships.  Specialized flew in their triathlon athletes from Olympic distance, XTERRA (off-road triathlon) and Ironman to launch the 2012 triathlon-specific Specialized Shiv which was unveiled on Monday, including Canadian triathlon stars Simon Whitfiled and Paula Findlay who were showing off their own custom Shivs.  We'll hopefully see these new rides in Gears soon!  

My hopes for the race:

Swim: The surf has kicked up in a huge way in the last couple of days, so it could be a rough swim.  The unpredictability of the ocean currents make it tough to predict a time, but there's a much higher percentage of fast swimmers here than at other Ironmans, so I'm hoping to find some fast feet to follow around the course.  Goal time is 55-58 minutes depending on ocean conditions.  

Bike: I've cycled the full course five times and know it well.  It's a rolling course with total vertical of 1200 metres over the 180KM ride, I'm hoping to average 210 watts for the ride, which depending on the wind conditions on the day should hopefully be a ride between 5 hours to 5 hours 15.   

Run: After mentally falling apart a bit during the 19th mile in Louisville, I'm planning on pushing through that 'dark place' in this race and running the full marathon, hopefully putting in a faster time than Louisville on a tougher, potentially hotter course.  Regardless of how the run ends up, I'll finish with a smile on my face and enjoy sharing the road with some of the best endurance athletes in the world.   

The race begins at 6:30AM for the professional athletes and 7:00AM for the rest of us (12:30PM Eastern time for the pros and 1:00PM Eastern time for the amateur race). 

Results will be streamed live at www.ironmanlive.com, including video of the professional race.   

Happy Thanksgiving!


Part 3 of Andrew's Blog will be a post race summary - stay tuned.

Start #              Finishing Time   Finishing Rank

1                      3 mins 32 secs              5

2                      3 mins 10 secs              1

3                      3 mins 27 secs              4

4                      4 mins 6 secs                17

5                      3 mins 40 secs              8

6                      4 mins 10 secs              18

7                      4 mins 46 secs              26

8                      4 mins 27 secs              22

9                      4 mins 29 secs              24

10                    3 mins 43 secs              9

11                    4 mins 27 secs              22

12                    3 mins 56 secs              14

13                    3 mins 38 secs              7

14                    4 mins 40 secs              25

15                    4 mins 57 secs              28

16                    5 mins 5 secs                29

17                    4 mins 2 secs                16

18                    3 mins 26 secs              3

19                    4 mins 53 secs              27

20                    3 mins 57 secs              15

21                    3 mins 49 secs              11

22                    4 mins 24 secs              21

23                    3 mins 33 secs              6

24                    3 mins 45 secs              10

25                    4 mins 17 secs              20

26                    4 mins 14 secs              19

27                    3 mins 55 secs              12

28                    3 mins 24 secs              2

29                    3 mins 55 secs              13