Season in Review

For those interested, here’s a pic of my PMC for the season:

Endurance build phase – pretty good
Transition / mid season racing – all good and had some great form

Race prep phase – getting harder to continue CTL build with the lift in intensity. Some training/racing interruptions (mostly unavoidable) in latter stages of phase saw an unintended mini-peak for State Champs.

Final race prep (hard!), taper and competition yielding great results.

Recovery period now for a couple of weeks.

The end of the beginning...

I’m calling the National Masters Track Champs the end of my season. In reality there is no start/end of season any more, just a change of season. Focus now moves to road events and getting ready for the World Masters Track Championships in October.

So how did I go for the season?

Goals (Actual Outcome):

• October 2006: Credible performances in State Masters Road race (7th place) & Criterium (4th place & big power PBs). Very pleased with form.


• March 2007 PB in Individual Pursuit at State/National Masters Track Championships (PB at both Championships by 2.2 seconds and > 6 seconds in competition). Nice work, especially at States!


• March 2007: Improve on 2006 Points Race performances of 4th at States and crash at Nationals (4th at States but took a lap on the field and Bronze medal at Nationals). Sensational!

Other notable performances along the way:

• September 2006: 1st ever win in Div 1 Friday Night Track Racing
• October 2006: Member of Bronze medal winning team in State Team Time Trial Championships
• November 2007: Winner B Grade open Brindabella Crit
• December 2007: 1st B grader at Open Heffron Pudding Crit (only B grader left standing actually)
• January 2007: Member and Captain of winning team at State Masters Team Pursuit Championships – 1st ever State Championship win
• All summer: Multiple placing in track opens

Personal stand outs were the National Points Race result, the Team Pursuit and Mum coming along to watch me win the Brindabella crit and Dad visiting and seeing me race the track for the first time ever.
Me on the podium with Stuart Vaughan (Left) and Graeme Albon (Centre):

Other items to note:

• MAP (+11%) & TT power (+17%) lifted nicely - as measured per tests although pre-comp numbers not tested so quite possibly better than that.
• Mental approach better, more positive than before.
• Training overall significantly more consistent than before.
• Training specifically tailored to event demands and personal power profile.
• CTL peak (100 TSS/day) much higher than previously attained.

So in essence, I attained all goals set and had other success along the way. So it’s pretty hard to pick faults with that lot!
What can I improve? Lots but that’s between coach and I at the moment ;)
Other activity:

• Cranking up the coaching business and becoming an RST Associate Coach.
• Guiding Tanya’s comeback. Seeing this cancer surgery comeback kid win two National championships, a silver & a bronze was pretty special.
• Performance Manager Beta tester and associated learning.
• Starting/maintaining blog.

Looking ahead:

My racing goal(s) for remainder of 2007 remains the same:
Make the Points Race final at World Masters Track Championships
and
continue to improve on my IP performance.

I am convinced (for some reason) that continuing to improve my IP will make me a better all round rider (even though I’m not a naturally gifted IP talent). Around the same time as the Worlds are the State Road and Crit Championships. Also, making the #1 TTT squad for the State Club TTT Champs would be nice. And have a great time racing along the way.

Beyond that, it is likely I will continue to focus on the same events at the State, National and World championships through 2009.

A great season and another step up for me – thanks to everyone out there for their encouragement and support. In particular my coach (Ric Stern), all my training buddies at Tempe who were all willing me along last week, fellow competitors for keeping me honest, my friends, workmates and family who put up with this strange obsession of mine, and Andy Coggan for his influence on many things.

Looking forward to the next phase of my cycling development.