Sports Science Institute's Tri-fit part 4 with Ralph Kujawa

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Friday, 18 March 2011 13:32

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Argus Madness

by Ralph Kujawa

Going into the sixth week, which is half way in the training course, my programme was tailored to taper for the big race on Sunday 13 March.

So, on the Sunday I went for a run all good so far. Arriving at SSISA on Monday afternoon I was told we were doing a 50 minute run. Oops… I was hoping this was not going to be too much at such a late stage before Argus. But I sucked it up, and off we went. The run was to be 25 minutes out and 25 minutes back.

I turned around a little early and ended up only doing 47 minutes, but was not too perturbed. On the way back I passed Mike who commented that I was clearly enjoying it because I was grinning. I later pointed out that it was no grin, but rather a grimace.

Tuesday morning dawned. The alarm shrieked in my ears again. I could not ignore it. On the programme for today was a high cadence ride at 60 percent. I kitted up. Water bottle filled. Helmet. Shoes. Bike. Check. I kept a cadence of over 90 revolutions per minute and at the end it averaged out at 96 revolutions per minute. My average speed was just under 27km/h. Not shabby for not once going onto the big chain ring! I felt very comfortable and decided that, despite some misgivings, I was going to trust the programme that Richard and Kim had sent me.

On Wednesday it was core strengthening day and swimming. I just can’t seem to get the hang of this swimming thing and I suspect, as a mate of mine said, that I am a landlubber. I was not pivoting properly and when I tried to focus on that then my stroke failed. When I tried to correct that my kicking failed. It was all falling apart again. No matter, I decided, because swimming is good recovery exercise for cycling so I was doing it for the upcoming race.

The misgivings I had had about the programme were in fact about the two sessions on the Thursday and Saturday morning. My normal routine before a big race is to go for one hour easy rides, just spinning my legs and keeping the circulation going. The programme said:-

Thursday – 1h30 at 6-7 RPE with 5 X 2 minute accelerations in a hard gear at which I was to ride at a cadence of approximately 70, with a five minute rest between accelerations.

Saturday – 1 hour at 6-7 RPE with 5 X 1 minute accelerations in a hard gear at which I was to ride at a cadence of approximately 70, with a five minute rest between accelerations (keep in mind the race was the very next day!)

I decided to quiz Richard about this because it seemed contrary to everything that I had previously read about race preparation. The explanation I got is that it was to activate the necessary muscle fibres and to remind the muscles of what they would be expected to do on race day.

Given the little training that I had done I decided that I had nothing to lose. I followed the programme, almost precisely.

On Thursday the wind picked up and it would have been an ordeal to ride my bike on my usual training route out to Llandudno and back. So that evening I got onto the indoor trainer and did one hour instead of the hour and a half. However, I included the five intervals and when I got off the training bike I was finished. There was a pool of sweat on the floor and I thought I would need a week to recover.

Now I was starting to dread the race, thinking I should not have followed Richard’s advice.

On Saturday morning I joined the club on their “leg-loosener” pre- Argus ride. Although I did not do the intervals I made sure to include some higher intensity harder gear riding. At this point I threw caution to the wind and decided whatever happens in the race I am just going to enjoy it.

The Argus registration went quickly and soon I was sitting eating pasta with friends and watching the Proteas squeak past India.

Race day. Somehow I always end up at the back of the bunch in the starting pens. The disadvantage is that it takes a minute or two to get over the mat and so the officially recorded time is actually a bit longer than the actual race time.

The start gun went. I took some time to warm up but was thoroughly enjoying myself. Riding up Edinburgh Drive someone fell behind me and clipped my back wheel. A close shave. I carried on and slowly but surely the pace picked up. Over Boyes Drive and the bunch was decimated. By Simon’s Town it was all back together again.

Over Smitswinkel the bunch was shattered once more. Two kilometres later it was all back together again and an amazing thing happened. The bunch grew and like an amorphous amoeba, started picking speed and swallowing up bunch after bunch ahead of us. By the time we got to Sun Valley the bunch was about 1,000 cyclists. It was hardcore. Jostling and joviality and tension.

Then, mercifully, we hit Chapman’s peak. The bunch broke up quickly. Because I had been tucked away in the bunch and had felt very relaxed until then I decided I was going to push hard up Chapman’s Peak. I did. I got to the top and a bunch of about 20 riders formed on the descent. We pushed on until Suikerbossie. As we did so I looked at my watch and saw that I would do better than I had hoped. This spurred me on and again I put in a big effort knowing that it was downhill to Camps Bay.

Ones and twos bundled together going down past Oudekraal and by the time we entered Camps Bay we were about 100 strong. Out the other end and a couple of riders attacked. I managed to go with them. A beast of a man was in front. He had put his head down and went for the finish line. It was all of five to six kilometres away!

I hung in there crunching my biggest gears and realising that every second counted. Over the finish line. I was ecstatic. A personal best! Richard and Kim have worked some magic in me over the last six weeks. I highly recommend their training services!