PRONOTPRO REPORT #2

Well. I missed the second week of of this report. It wasn't for lack of trying, I was just filling in all the cracks of time with other projects. I've been helping to get my coach Jacob's website off the ground so everyone can find out a little bit more about The Flying Squirrel Academy. In between that and work, I've done a mix of trainer workouts during the wet nights and outside on a mountain on dry ones. Last weekend though, instead of going out fer a rip on a group ride on Sunday I went into a lab in UBC to participate in a study, returning yesterday for the second session AKA 'the workout' and rode my ass off, inside on my day off, when the weather happened to be nice. THANKS THE WEATHER.

That said, it's the first study I'll have participated in that is paid, which is awesome. Any extra money I get right now moves me closer to taking myself on a warm weather training camp in February (I'm already getting jealous of a number of friends with concrete training camps planned). But the other reason it's interesting to me is I got to do a proper VO2 max test for the first time. It's a value a team asked me once when I applied, but this was some time ago and I didn't really have a comprehensive test. I remember thinking to myself that numbers are great and all, but I feel I'm willing to put more work in than anyone else I know, that should be worth a good test in my eyes. The reason the V02 test is so interesting now, is that I had my test a week after the topical Chris Froome released his data unto the world via Esquire Magazine. 

I can be the first to admit. I read the article the day it came out. I was so keen that I read it at work, while working away at something that let me gaze my eyes to the internet intermittently. What can I say, I'm a pretty huge nerd. I left the article thinking two things: that I should make the effort to sustainably get back to my race weight from 2014 (7 kg less than where I am now), and that Froome's power numbers didn't seem THAT crazy. I remember when I did the Seymour Challenge after my first year of racing as a Cat 2. I had done my first round of Superweek racing, gone to Mt Hood Cycling Classic and before that won my first PRO-Cat 1/2 race. I had a good hard season of riding and racing, after Superweek essentially had a huge block of rest and then produced a powerfile during the Seymour Challenge I was pretty stoked on. It translated roughly to 400w/36min. I remember stumbling on a Facebook thread where some other local guys had found the Strava entry and couldn't believe that I was attacking at 500w in the final minutes of the race. 

At the time, I had no idea why it was a big deal, figuring I just had a pretty good day. When people talk about Froome's numbers as a potential cheater, I'm not always sure the people casting stones actually have an idea what average Cat 1's can output. I remember people talking about the video overlaid with his power data. I truthfully never watched the video, but I do remember thinking 'well, I've done efforts similar to that' (bearing in mind I'm accepting that his efforts are in the middle of three week stage races, and they are NOT the same thing) so it seems no stretch that myself being an amateur athlete who works full time producing something similar means Froome, riding for the most well supported team in the world should be able to produce something extraordinary.

So I don't really know where this leaves me after this VO2 test. Mostly that I think the numbers are interesting to compare.. and maybe that I'm a little more motivated to make sure I'm eating properly over the next ohhh.... four? months before racing really gets ramped up.

Well now that I've rambled enough about tests, this week I also went to the Vancouver Premier of the latest MASH film. I can honestly say I wasn't sure what to expect from a full length fixie video in 2015 going in, but I left really stoked I went. It was just a bunch of good vibes and dudes having a sweet time on bikes, it was a super nice change from being a lab rat and intervals and so serious and yeah. Thanks to Kenji for putting the thing in motion, Jamie at Super Champion for putting on a rad alleycat for everyone, and the guys at The Standard as well, it was a blast!

PRONOTPRO REPORT #1

Vancouver days like this, are actually the best you could ask for winter training.

Winter is really weird. I'm definitely back training. Nothing crazy, a mix of intervals and group rides designed to make me hold fitness over the winter, not make gains, but hold so I'm not digging out of a crazy hole in February. THEN I make teh gainz.

I can say that this week I have spent more time riding in the dark, on TT bikes, the trainer and all kinds of things that don't count as the 'fun' part of cycling than I have actually riding a bike in good conditions, daylight or with actual people.

Ride ten minutes up in pitch black, turn light on, ride down.

I don't mean to be complaining. I realize that it's practically part of Vancouverite character to complain about non-issues: rain, how cold it isn't, aging winter bikes, how you're over/under dressed, not enough good light to make a cool Instagram post. But we really do have it pretty good. This morning I was actually thankful it rained overnight, it made the two hours on a TT bike I had to do, well, safe (less frost and ice when it rains here in the winter, clear weather means lower temperatures and ice we can't see). I also count myself lucky that a few times this week I was able to hammer out efforts on a mountain rather than the trainer. It was, however, climbing in the pitch black, saving my small front light for descending and my ride home.

Riding funny bikes into a rainforest.

As I'm writing this, I'm really procrastinating a bit before my second workout of the day, on the TT bike again, on the trainer. But on the plus side, I just got in from picking up my race bike for 2016, getting it a bit early so it can appear in a video project or two I've got in mind (and maybe on some dry days). I think that really, these kinds of things are what's getting me through the winter and being stoked about racing as far away as March and April, trying to get more creative projects going whether it's shooting more photographs, collaborative videos, t-shirts, stickers or hats. And then there's always looking at my race bike and dreaming of climbing in shorts and a jersey.