Anna's ask to get to Beijing, a 11.77 flying 200.  She's coming back from a broken C2 in a fall early this year.  She's been lucky with a world cup result earlier in the year that saw her keep a chance alive despite no competition for months.

Can she do it?

A packed Vodafone Arena, drums beating, heated air to make it less dense.  She's away.  Hitting the line at full speed, 200m done in 11.189 (64.35km/h).  The crowd goes wild.  She made it look easy in the end.

Afterwards she has time and the grace to give a couple of starry eyed junior sprinters a photo and encouragement to follow their own dreams and aim for the sky.

There was other racing on the night, but Anna was the main event, and she showed again what a champion she is. Go Anna. Go go go!

Monique Hanley, who was the guest speaker at the last aboc dinner, starts her defence of the Race Across America today.  Details here.

Tonight Anna Meares has her chance to get to Beijing.  She can't defend the 500m ITT she holds because it's no longer an olympic event, but she can race the sprints if she can do a flying 200 in less than 11.77s (61.172km/h).  At that time, she'd be about as quick as big Jeremy Mclay at the Bontrager Summer Sprint Series was (12.16s, on a slow outdoor track).  We'll be there to cheer her on at Revolution 3 tonight at Vodafone.

Yesterday at a closed session at DISC Shane Kelly and Ben Kersten had a race of sorts (645m ITT) to decide the final place in the mens sprint team for Beijing.  Shane Kelly was about 0.5s faster than Ben, and he is now going to his fifth Olympic games.  I've briefly met Shane and I count myself as a fan of him, he's a real gentleman of the sport and all I can say is 'top stuff, Shane' and good luck in Beijing.

Greedy, I know ...

http://www.calfeedesign.com/sizer.htm

Nice bit of kit.

After a reasonably light weights session around midday today (full squats, 3 x 10 @ 100kg, some bench strength work and 3 x 10 @ 100kg deadlifts to finish, so no real strength efforts, mainly hypertrophy) and feeling some achillies twinges during the squats if I wasn't very careful to keep my feet flat, and a distinct limp while walking, I wasn't expecting anything much at Spin tonight.  But, I managed to push out two 10s efforts above 1300 watts, including another PB.  1347 watts.  Still a long way to go before anything really worth getting excited about, but it was a pleasant surprise.  I only seem to get achillies pain when walking or climbing or descending stairs, on the bike with rigid shoes I don't notice any effects, and if I keep my feet flat on the ground no pain there either.

Nath and I are running half the spin session each, so we both get a sprint set in and the enduros get their full 90 minutes of pleasure.  We had a couple of enduros who switched over to the sprint group for some strength work, and while no-one chundered, it was close ... We might not train for very long, but it is intense and I think (and you know who you are if you're reading this!) it was a surprise to see just how hard a solid sprint session can be.  We do some high strength/power work, then a short high intensity endurance set of sprints and finish off with lactate work.  I almost brought up my lunch at the end of the second lactate effort .. urghhh

On the 'new gear' front, I've just ordered a set of Adidas "Ironwork II" lifting shoes from an interesting chap on ebay.  They're not cheap, $200 a pair, but they should be a lot more stable than runners when doing heavy lifting. The key thing about them is the firm sole, I think it's wood.  No 'squish' in them so when you lift your feet stay firmly planted.  I've read some recommendations to lift in bare feet, but the Power House isn't really set up for barefoot training and something in me likes the idea of token protection from dropped weights etc.

Tomorrow night is the first Blackburn club meeting with the new committee.  I'm catering for it if all goes well and it should be interesting.  Some of the club members aren't too happy about the roster for helping at races.  I hope the club sticks to its guns and makes sure it's enforced.  We have carrots, but also need sticks.

In other news, Tom Bonnen has reportedly tested positive for cocaine in an out of competition test.  Not good.  It's not something the UCI will sanction him for, but if it's true it's a shame.

On the good news front, Anna Meares will have a big contingent of aboc'ers cheering her on to do her best to qualify for Beijing at Vodafone on Thursday night. Her diary entry on Cyclingnews is a good one. Well worth a read.

My media passes arrived in the mail today. w00t
The program for the night :

Thursday 12th June :

EM : elite male
EW : elite female

racing starts at 7pm
1 : elimination 20 laps EM
2 : Anna Meares F200
3 : Keirin heats EM
4 : 2 k dash M17
5 : 2k dash W17
6 : sprint heats EW
7 : keirin final EM
8 : scratch 30 laps EM
9 : points 15 laps W17
10 : sprint heats EM
11 : 4k IP EM
12 : sprint derby consolation final EW
13 : sprint final EW
14 : sprint rounds EM
15 : points 15 laps M17
16 : team sprint Oz vs Malasia EM
17 : Keirin final EW
18 : 20 lap motorpace/20 lap points (?) 40 laps total EM
19 : sprint final EM

To put it in perspective this is no big deal :

On Sunday morning my achillies was feeling ok, so I chanced it in the power house.  Did deep squats ok, then lined up the heavy stuff for some 1/4 squats.  Not such a good idea ... felt the twinge on the 2nd rep, and that's it for squats for the day.  I did finish the session with some lunges and bench, but was Mr limpalong at DISC on Sunday evening.  Hoping it'll be ok to use tomorrow if I keep the weight low. Today I've been hobbling around.

I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised at the success that the Hawthorn Sunday Roast session is having.  I caught the last hour of their races and they had a very healthy turnout of riders and it seemed like a pretty good race.  The Llama was shattered before he did our session, but still managed to burn some more matches when we took over the track. It was great to see Mason, Mick and Will come along, Mason to see what it was all about, and Mick and Will had some fun and did some laps.  Nath's getting a lot of fun out of his new Hillbrick, he's thrilled with how stiff it is.

On Saturday we trooped off to watch the Olympic weightlifting trials for selection for Beijing, it was pretty exciting at times and the crowd really got involved when the lifters were doing big efforts.  I took the camera but it was very gloomy in the stadium and even at 3200 ASA my camera wasn't letting in enough light to get any reasonable shots.  I do have media passes sorted for this Thursday's 'Revolution 3' though, and it should be better lit.  My lenses are cheapies and they chew a lot of light.

Hopefully tomorrow someone from Trek will (finally!) get back to me on the sponsorship for the Summer Sprint Series.  I've been nagging them to make up their minds for a month now.  We need to get it squared away so I can start to promote the series properly.

Some personal stuff's been keeping me occupied and unable to commit to meetings with riders over the last week, but we're hoping that things will settle down in a few days and life will return to some semblance of normality.

We're hoping also to get some carpooling happening for more races etc, Blackburn's running a multi-day tour at Eildon in early July and it makes sense to share cars and fuel costs etc.  Let me know if you're interested.  We should really have a carpool section of the website to make it easy to arrange.

From today's Age :

"I already have to think before I drive. I am only going on short trips and walking more. Financially, I guess it is forcing me to look after the environment."

How about this bit?

Already, her three eldest children walk the 1.7 kilometres to school three times a week to save on petrol — while her three-year-old rides alongside them on a scooter.

Why were they driving 1.7km to school?!

Place your bets on when petrol hits $2/litre. This is only the beginning and it's going to hurt a lot.

Tim from cargocycles was due to show his Dutch cargo bike to Pete at the shop on Friday, but due to a combination of factors he was late and Pete was out, so I got the brief demo. It was quite fun to ride and is rated to carry 80kg of cargo in the front tub.  I don't think it'll be quite suitable for my freighting stuff to the Blackburn velo from home, but it might be a good shopping bike, given that the local stupormarket is only 1500m or so from home.  Worth thinking about.... If you live close to shops and somewhere reasonably flat and can't see a way to cart the groceries without using petrol (oil hit $139 USD/barrel overnight, in 1998 it was $10 USD/barrel) this might be part of your solution.

In today's ABC news :

A new report has found the Federal Government is saving more than $200 million a year in health costs through people riding bicycles.

The report was commissioned by the Federal Health Department and is aimed at encouraging state and territory governments to try to increase the popularity of cycling.

One of the report's co-authors, associate professor Chris Rissel, says the figure is a conservative estimate.

"Calculations like this always depend on what you include and don't include," he said.

"While we're talking here about direct health costs it doesn't include all the transport savings, and things like traffic congestion have been known to cause billions of dollars of lost earnings and income."

This isn't news to those of us who cycle, but it's good to have some numbers.

On yer bike!

Another very quick blog post.  I hit a PB on the powermeter tonight.  Totally unexpected. I was expecting to be around 1200 watts or so at best. 1334 watts and a good 10 second duration over 1200 watts.

Not at all what I was expecting. w00t!

A quick blog entry between a lifting session and spin.  Started with deep/full squats, 3 x 10 @ 60kg - not much weight, my balance and technique at these sucks.  More of a technique session for squats, given my still injured achillies, although I could feel my VMO doing some work at the bottom of the squat.  On to bench for some balance, easy enough, then lunges.  I haven't done much in the way of one leg stuff for a few months, so I slapped the empty bar on my shoulders and did 3 sets of 12 @ 20kg (unweighted olympic bar).  I have much technique to learn ... my balance was all over the shop and I was leaning forward a lot.  Bad!  Must arrange a time to see Peter Cayley or someone else to fix my bad technique.  Finished off with deadlifts, but I was too tired to push them much, and only did 3 x 10 @ 90kg. Overall the session, while hard, felt unsatisfying.  Nothing really felt stable or strong.  Maybe it's the leg injury, maybe it's residual fatigue from running on Saturday too, my legs haven't felt good since then.  I dunno ... I'm going to ride at spin tonight and share the session duties with the Foxy Ox (Nath) so I'll squeeze in 30 mins or so on a trainer tonight, will see if I have any power on the bike...

Time to pack stuff and get going!

I haven't done any running for a long, long time.  Way back in 1996 I played my last game of rugby, over in Perth for UWA, and then I busted a knee and decided running sports weren't such a good idea (busted the knee ski-ing, not running).  It's day one of the strength and conditioning course, and we're outside, and the drills we're going through are speed drills.  These guys are all running sports people, so .... it's running stuff.  Ok, I'll give it a go.  We do a few bits of some agility drills to 'warm up' (if you can call it that) and I do ok at them, old rugby instincts still work for playing tag.  For an old bloke with no running in his legs I'm not disgraced.  Then it's time for speed drills.  We do some rolling start efforts, running along at a jog then sprinting for 40 meters, walk back and repeat.  I'm not the fastest of the group, but feel ok.

Then we do 6 x 6 second standing starts on the 30 I think?  Something like that anyway.  I'm slow at these, close to last of our group, and getting some fatigue in muscles not used to working this way at all.  During one I get a small twinge in a quad, but it's ok.  Last one .. and about 5 strides in I feel my left achillies quite suddenly.  Ok ... That's not good!  I don't think it's anything bad, but it is quite tender to touch down one side of the tendon and walking (and stairs!) produces a bit of a limp as the tendon hurts when stretched.  I can get almost a full range of motion out of it and it doesn't feel swolen, and while I could ride last night at DISC during our warmup I didn't want to push it with any sprints so I ran the session from the floor, and gave the guys some time behind the motorbike (who crashed it?  It's bent!  Very unsettling to ride ...).  It's sore today but I'll take it easy for a few days to see how it goes, with some regular stretching etc.  So no lifting tomorrow I think, I'll just do an easy set on the rollers to tick my legs over for a bit.

We did catch the last 20 minutes of the HCC 'Sunday Roast' at DISC on Sunday, and saw Shane using his Summer Sprint Series honed sprinting skills at the end of his 120 lap race to win it.  I only had time for a brief chat with the V-Train but he seemed happy with how their racing had gone and was pleased with the turnout.

Also on Sunday the aboc MTB team rode at the second Chase the Sun enduro round and aquitted themselves very well.

Not much other stuff to report, the S&C course was good, but I felt a bit lacking, although once I get the workbook finished etc I'll have the qualification, it's really only L plates for a S&C coach, the information was covered quickly and with not a lot of depth, and the practical stuff was rushed and I think quite incomplete, but it was only two short days (9-4ish on both days) and there was a lot of material to cover.  Dean Robinson was our course lecturer and he's currently the S&C person for Geelong (AFL) and has a background in of all things rodeo riding, as well as both codes of rugby and weight lifting.  Quite an interesting bloke.  Very passionate about what he does. I think the level one cycling coach course better prepares a prospective coach for actual work in the field, despite being more general, but maybe that's the nature of the beast.

Time to scour the 'net for good ways to treat a strained achillies ...

Today's Age article.

The most worrying things in it :

The size of the challenge also puts into context this week's political scuffle over petrol excise and FuelWatch, notes one analyst as an aside. "You'd expect governments to be having a close look at what our universities are doing and trying to come up with longer-term solutions to the oil problem, instead of pissing about with a couple of cents here and there. But that's probably a big ask for politicians."

It's time I got going, S&C course starts today!

For anyone who fancies themselves as a bit of 'real enduro' trackie, Hawthorn's first Sunday Roast race session is this Sunday (1st June) from 2-5 pm, and is immediately followed by the aboc DISC training session.

I'm not sure how thoroughly HCC have publicised the racing, apart from their mailing list 'bicigaga', and a couple of posts on the Bicycle Victoria forums I haven't seen anything, but I haven't been to DISC to race since last winter, so maybe Stu et al have been publicising it there at Tuesday and Thursday night races?

You can download their PDF flyer for it here, or the full text of the PDF (bad HCC, bad! This should be available as a static page somewhere!) is copied here for your convenience :

Hawthorn CC
Present The Sunday Roast
on Wheels
When: Sundays 2-5pm (1 June – 28 September 2008)
Where: Darebin International Sports Centre (DISC)
What: Track Endurance Cycling
- Racing to suit road, criterium and track riders
of ALL levels of experience and ability.
- Distances will vary based on rider numbers
- YOU decide what races you want to ride
- YOU decide the racing format on the day
2:00pm: Warm up
2:30pm Support Grade 20km Scratch/ Points
3:00pm: Open 30-50km Points/ Madison (last weekend of the month).
4:00pm: Floor is open- Graded scratch/ points races for all riders,
Organise your own racing/ training.
Cost: $15 gets you 3 hours of PAIN.
THE TASTY WAY TO STAY FAST THIS WINTER
Info:
Tim Watson 0404 109 152
Stuart Vaughan 0404 480 629
www.hawthorncyling.org
A fyxomatosis design

I hope it's a success for them, it's in an interesting time slot, following the masters training session (3 hours of DISC time for $10) and followed by our session ($20 for 2 hours, controlled and coached), so they might pick up a few riders from each session as well as the HCC hardcore trackies.  It'll be interesting to see how it ends up in terms of structure, they're claiming it's suitable for many levels of rider, which I don't think DISC is at all, no matter what sort of racing (except maybe ITT's) is being run, and the very open format is also interesting, with what looks like two grades of racing as a couple of scratch or points races over long distances.   I know the people running it (Stu and Tim) are very switched on, and they'll adapt their program as it goes to make it work for who's there.  They'll have problems if they get a big spread of abilities if they stick to two grades though, but I'm sure they'll work something out to solve that if it happens.

Maybe they'd benefit from a microsite for the series similar to the one we do for the TSSS?  Everyone loves photos and results and having them somewhere consistant is good for the racers and encourages more people to engage with and commit to the series.

Things we made sure we had for the TSSS : 1st aid people and properly well-stocked 1st aid kit.  PA, scorers, commissaires, general helpers, it's a big job to run a race series.  I wish HCC well in this endeavour. The TSSS started small but once word got out it grew well, I hope they have the same experience.

Last night's spin session set another record for attendance, we had 21 people along, which is a far cry from some sessions when we started out two years ago, with two or three people.  Thankyou to everyone that's coming along and is part of our success at making the spin session useful and popular.

As always, we cn do better, please let me know if you have any suggestions to improve the sessions.

Today's Power House efforts :

3 x 10 full squats, with emphasis on speed of lift and a jump with 110kg with 90s recovery.  It's a little over half my partial (quarter, technically) squat weight, and it sure makes you get a pulse.  This is training for power without doing the Olympic snatch which hurts my elbows too much to be able to do regularly at the moment.  Hopefully this weekend's S&C course will give me a chance to check with the instructor there to see what I'm doing wrong with snatches. They shouldn't jam my elbows up, so I'm doing something wrong. The jump squats took about 4 days to recover from when I first did them on Thursday (I'm blaming them for my 0.1s slower flying 100's anyway ... ) but that's all part of the 'shock the body to make it adapt' program.  After 4-6 weeks I'll need a new shocker, but also will be due for a change in emphasis - back to hypertrophy for a block.  Hypertrophy, strength, power, lather, rinse, repeat.  That's the plan anyway.  October should be the end of the next power phase, just in time for the first round of the Summer Sprint Series.

After the jump squats I did some strength maintenance - 2 x max reps at 210kg, I got 3 and then 5 out.  210kg is a new PB for quarter squats.  I may have been able to do another set but this is a maintenance drill now so I'm not worried about it and doing too much increases the risk of back injury as the weight is big and it's easy to lose concentration, arch over and blow a few disks out of the lower back.

Then I did a block of 3 deadlifts, 10 reps at 70, 80 and then 90kg with 90 seconds recovery. This is more for general hypertrophy, already fatigued by this stage so they're not going to be all that good.  Deadlifts aren't considered (as far as I know anyway, if you know better please tell me!) terribly useful for cycling, but as a balance for the squats they're worth doing.  Like arm curls aren't terribly useful but to balance up triceps they have some value.  I did the deadlifts using the Olympic weightlifting grip, it's a bit different to a normal grip on a bar, it's called the 'hook grip' and is best described here.  They're right, it does hurt at first as you basically jam the side of your thumb against the knurling on the bar and your fingers and the bar squash it hard into position.

After that a few bench presses and some pulls just to keep the upper body and core happy, you've got to brace against the bars when hammering the pedals.

Before tonight's spin session I'll have to find an hour to do my own spin sets, max efforts and HCLR's at least, time permitting.  I'm looking forward to getting some assistance at the spin sessions so I can do some of the time there myself on the bike.

Jess and Norm Douglass run, by all reports, a great MTB skills development program, I won't prattle on about it here much because although I've heard good reports, and have spoken (email) to Jess, I haven't actually met them or been on one of their courses myself yet. I'd probably benefit a lot from doing one though, so will have to give it a go and maybe coin the phrase 'ungumby a gumby'.

Have a look at their site :

http://www.mtbskills.com.au/

I'm going to refer any MTB'ers who want to do skill development to them, I think they're offering something quite unique and valuable to the MTB racing and trail riding community.

Today's Age

Cherry pickings from the article :

3. OPEC can't change things. Members of the global oil cartel were the "bad guys" in the last oil crisis. This time round they seem to be making things worse by refusing to lift production, but increasingly it's looking like OPEC won't lift production because in reality it can't - the extra oil is simply not there.

In November, the International Energy Agency is due to publish a landmark report on the condition of the world's 400 biggest oil fields - it is expected to show OPEC has less oil than everyone thought.

10. The maths are scary. Back to Pickens: the veteran Texan oil tycoon says the world needs 87 million barrels and we're producing 85 million barrels a day.

So, peak oil's here?  The price charts suggest that it is.  What does this mean to us?  Transport gets very expensive, private car use will have to decrease.  Petrol gets rationed.  Air travel becomes a plaything of the very rich as the golden age of travel draws to a close.  Roads get more bicycles and less cars, so cyclists will be safer riding on the roads.  Food gets more expensive.  If you're going to watch The Tour, it'll be on TV, not by going there.  How soon does this happen?  That's the interesting question, not if, but when.  If I owned shares in anything dependant on cheap oil (travel, airlines, cars, toll roads etc) I'd be selling them while they're still worth something.  If I worked far from home, I'd be looking to change jobs.  If my car uses a lot of fuel, I'd be selling it while it's worth something.

I'd be getting used to riding my bike to as many places as I can.

I'd be growing veggies in the back garden.

On your bike!

On Wednesday the local Learsport/Azzurri rep came along to the LBS and showed us some bikes.  I was asked to testride the Primo, a carbon frame/Ultegra (SL?).  So today I took it for a spin.

First up I swapped off my pedals and the Powertap from my trusty '05 Trek Madone 5.2, set the saddle height and setback and off I went from the shop towards the V-Train's house to drop off a book Stu needed.  I decided to go via the Eastern Fwy path as it would make the ride a bit longer and give me a chance to see how the bike handled on some rough patches and sharp hills and corners.  First up the seatpost slipped, not a good start, but mainly my error when I set the height initially.

The bike handled the trail well enough, no twitchyness or uncertainty, the Mavic Aksium on the front didn't really impress me much, but Mavic's wheels sell well, someone must like them!  It didn't feel very lively, but it was competent and stable.  Under full torque up the little sharp rises it tracked true and the front end stayed put nicely.  It was a bit slow to respond, but not dramatically so, and certainly it rode a lot better than many other frames of the same or greater cost.

Overall, it looks reasonably good, the graphics are a bit overbearing for my taste, not as over the top as a Scott, for example, but quite loud.  But it rides above its cost, and the frame feels solid and secure.

Last night's ride to Chez Grace was good - I was rugged up for the milder than expected ride, just knicks, thermal and a windjacket and light beanie under the helmet and some 'batgloves' (Cannondale ones, quite good).  My good battery for the AyUps lights, and felt quite comfortable despite the generally downhill nature of the ride in to town.

But this morning ... cold and foggy at 9:30am.  Up the hill, I elected to take it very easy and ride up the Eastern Freeway trail rather than the road, which compounded the coldness, it's always colder away from builtup areas.  I'm currently regretting not having taken at least toe covers, I lost feeling in my toes by about Doncaster Rd.  Leg warmers might have been a good idea too ... C'est la Vie ...

I'm rugged up now in a 'Hugh Hef' and ugg boots (pure foot luxury!) - I'm afraid to get in to the shower though, the sharp pain of hot water on frozen feet is pretty special, and I want to warm up a bit before I get in. Rumour has it it was about 4 degrees in town this morning, and I'd believe it.