Chris Pryor Blog

The new season is upon us

2010-03-02

Well time now to concentrate on the new cycling season. I have had some time off the bike to relax and reflect on the Nationals.

Without getting to long winded, Peter and I discovered that my freshening up period in the lead up to Nationals may have been a bit short. It is hard to really determine if residual fatigue affected me, whether the hot pace in the 1^st two laps put me too much into the red or whether it was a combination of both. I’m tending to lean towards the combination, but it is really a guess.

At any rate the training that I did for the lead up to the Nationals has put me in good stead for this year. I have lost a little bit of form from the Nationals, but that was to be expected with my time off and the bike and the casual approach to training up until the last couple of weeks. Needless to say there is still some firepower there as I recently won a crit race, my first real race since the Nationals.

It was from a break away I started at the 12 minute mark from memory. I broke away again from the original break away of 10 riders, in the 48th minute (I think). I was joined by two others, then another 3 riders 10 minutes later. It came down to a kick to the line which I scampered away to take by a bike length and a bit. I hit some solid numbers in that race which is promising for the season ahead.

Well this year I am no longer riding for Fly V Australia. This year the directors have taken that team to another level hiring such riders as Darren Lill and Jay Thomson. I am still part of the program, being a member of the now feeder team to Fly V, Virgin Blue RBS Morgans. I’ll be pretty much doing the same type of racing as I did last year with the potential to do some racing in Asia. I will wait to see how that will pan out.

On paper the Virgin Blue RBS Morgans team is strong, comprising of up and coming youngsters, including National track champions and Australian representatives. I dare say I will be the butt of some age jokes as I believe the next oldest rider in the team is 13 years my junior!!! Awwww man!!:)

We have our team launch in a couple of weeks then straight into a training camp. Hopefully I can join the boys for a couple of days in that camp, but I will have to see how work will pan out.

This year we are riding Merida Scultura 909 bikes with Dura-Ace 7900. Wheels are supplied by eHub and racing/casual gear will be supplied by 2XU. This year I will be using Quarq for my power data. BMW have jumped on board as well supplying the team with a couple of X3’s which have just been done up in team livery. They look awesome.

If I can stick some photos up here I will try, so you can have a look at the all the gear.

So for the moment it’s back to getting some consistent training in (currently impossible as we are experiencing the wettest February in 100yrs) to build on my current form.

Cheers.

Long overdue update

2010-02-26

Hey everyone,

Apologies for not blogging for a while. Silly internet issues.

Anyway last time I wrote I was preparing for the Nationals. Overall training went really well and I felt I was ready to have a good race.

The first thing I notice when I arrived in Ballarat was the tempreture!!! It was stinking hot. In a way I was alright with that because of all the training I had done in the heat back home in Brisbane.

Come race day the heat was really on and the wind had died down. Our race was scheduled to start at 11am which meant we would be racing in the hottest part of the day.

I got myself a good starting position and we were off. Legs felt good, positioned well. About 1km into the race I peared over the riders in front of me. I noticed a group going off the front and also noticed that the peleton wasn't going to react. Well I did.

Holy cow did I have to shovel to get to the break. I held something like 430watts for about 6 minutes which is massive for me. This break was really moving. The 1st lap my NP was about 353watts (current FTP 340). The 2nd lap the climbs again were hit with gusto. Not as much as the 1st lap but still enough to pump out 390 watts. I was getting worried as I know I don't have that kind of fire power to maintain that pace. I backed off on the 2nd climb, got dropped however I calmly tempo'd back on.

The peleton felt that this break wouldn't last so they were happy to tap around. Well that cost them as by lap 4 we had a 7 minute lead!!! A 7 minute lead in that heat with 10 guys in the break, well it started to look like the break would have it. Speaking of heat, the on road tempreture recorded was 47 degrees!!! The tar was even melting!! Oh how good where the cold water bidons and the panty hose with ice in them. Such a treat!!!!

Unfortunately for me on lap 7 my legs just failed me. I hadn't had that sensation in a while where they just felt dead. I was so dissappointed as by that stage the pace of the break was easy. It was just like I trained back home, a good tempo that I knew I could hold.

In the end the break did stay away and filled the 1st 5 positions. The peleton reacted too late and there was not enough horsepower in there to bring the break back. Who would have thought that a break that went in km 1 of a 170km road race on a course like that and in that heat would survive.

I felt I made the right decision but who would have predicted the insane pace of those 1st 2 laps. It was ridiculous!!

So now I have taken the approach that I have some good training under my belt which has set me up well for this year. Which reminds me I will have to blog to fill you in on what is happening this year. Hopefully I can do this in the next couple of weeks as the final preps for the team are being completed at the moment.

Cheers.

D-Day this Sunday

2010-01-05

The race at Cronulla went well with my team mate Ben Kersten getting up for the win. He won a three up sprint against Graeme Brown and Chris Sutton. It was an awesome result for him.

It was a solid race, with the course lap record being broken some 3 times during the race. Naturally I was called on a couple of times to keep some breaks in check. This was pretty hard considering the type of training I have been doing is not crit based and plus I haven’t raced since late September. But you have to do it for the team. Plus it made a couple of beers at Northies afterwards that much better.:) Actually I almost didn't make the race as I missed my flight. I misread the itinerary. Here I am in bed and my team mate rings me. "Where are you?". I reply "In bed, where are you?". "On the plane mate." SH*T!!!!! Lucky I was able to get on a later flight.

Well this Sunday is D-Day. Nothing much I can do now except rest up, eat, drink and sleep well. All I will be doing this week is turning the legs over with some surges and jumps (not too hard) though to keep the legs going.

From my last blog I mentioned the likes of Andre Greipel and Bert Grabsch riding in the race. This actually stirred the pot. A few riders, with Robbie McEwan being the most vocal, objected to overseas riders competing in our National championships. I agree. These two alone could have a major impact on the outcome of the race. It is no secret here that Michael Rogers is gunning for the title, considering he missed out on it last year (he came second). He is that focussed on winning it he is missing his pet event, the National TT title. He is the defending champ in that event.

Training has been going well since my last blog, punching out some solid sessions. However for some reason I seemed to loose a little of punch after Christmas. Most likely fatigue finally caught up with me. It was really hard to train during the Christmas break as it was really hot and humid plus we had a massive rain cell dumping on us through out the period.

I did manage to complete all but two of my sessions successfully.

The good news is that I reached the training plan goal Peter set which I think was pretty good considering the short time span we had to work in.

As for the race itself I have no idea on how it will pan out. I still don’t know if I should try to get into a break or keep out of sight and mind back in the peleton. Being in the peleton I know that at some point later in the race the pace will certainly be wound up and my thoughts are do I want to be there when it happens? Will I be up to it?

I have done some reading up on the race itself, picking up little tips such as not to waste too much energy on the first part of the climb and to use the downhill section to get into better position, if required, for the climb (get sucked along by other riders trying to get to the front). I also don’t plan on making any moves myself, just follow. Well that could change coming into the pointy end of the race if I am in such a situation that requires an attack or 10.:)

I had a look at the weather and it may have been an advantage for me training in the heat. It looks like it will be fine and 31 degrees. Nice. The humidity won’t be as bad here though. I dare say that the temp may knock some of the southern boys around a bit. There is also predicted some light winds so that should not really impact the race across the top of the course.

I do hope that next time I blog I am able to write that I had a successful race, performing well and getting a good final position.

Nationals update

2009-12-12

Hey everyone,

Well the good news is that training is going really well. I'm actually a little ahead of schedule in terms of CTL and TSS which is a good thing. As Pete says it gives up some space. For some one like me that is a blessing as sometimes work and the weather can impact on my training.

I do feel like I'm getting stronger. Thursday's session was a good indication, especially when compared to a similar session from 2 weeks ago. For the same amount of time I put out more NP and AP than previously but the best thing is that I felt a lot more comfortable doing it.

I think from next week Peter will start to fine tune the top end and take this approach up till Nationals. We have 4 weeks left with one of those being a taper week.

Fatigue wise I have been pretty good, well till this morning. Due to two nights of poor sleep (due to the heat) and some solid training (in the heat) I broke my record for hitting the snooze button.:) 13 times!!! I just was really, really tired. Still feel a little spacey now.

The one thing I did learn this week is that not only do you need to train your body for a race, but you need to train your mind as well.

I admitted to Peter that I am pretty nervous about this race. The course is full on and so is the competition. We had a chat about this. From it he assured me that the training has gone well and that my endurance is pretty good. He stated again that this race will be a race of attrition. The most important part in my opinion was when he said I need to "Holster that shit". GOLD!!!:) This was in reference to my agressive nature in racing and that I will need to tone it down a little. Also for me not to up the ante just because I feel good. I need to use my efforts wisely, that is at the right time and in measured doses. Of course not to panic when it's hammer time.

So I will also be playing the race out in my head everynow and again. Smooth delivery, don't panic, positioning, save energy where possible and of course eat and drink.

For something different training wise I will be off to Cronulla tomorrow to race in a crit. The likes of Graham Brown (Rabobank) and Chris Sutton (Garmin - next year Team Sky) will be there as well as some other fast boys. Looking forward to it.

Oh yeah just so you get the idea of what the competition will be like at the Nationals, here is who is turning up from Columbia HTC:

Mark Renshaw, Michael Rogers, Matthew Goss, Andre Greipel, Bert Grabsch and their newest recruit Leigh Howard (up and coming freak from Australia). Yeah no worries.:)

Maybe I should start trash talking on the line, "Hey Bert you look fat in those knicks and Greipel you're such a mummy's boy.":)

Also a word from John Craven the race director says that this championship has the best field yet. He is really excited about it he said. Yeah well lets see how long your excitement lasts by throwing your leg over the saddle and race Mr Craven.:)

Well I think that is enough from me for now. I will post again soon.

The Nationals are getting closer

2009-11-30

6 weeks to go to the Nationals and training is looking good. The performance plan Peter created is being adhered to with TSS and CTL on the mark which is what we are after.

I have been using a circuit around Mt Cootha which has a similar profile to that of the Nationals. I am hoping that doing some training around this circuit will better prepare me.

I guess that is one thing to consider when preparing for a goal race. Is there somewhere that I can train that will help me adapt better to the race circuit.

What is a struggle now is the heat and we haven't even hit summer yet!!! Training in 35+ degree heat along with about 80% humidity makes for one tough day out. (A plus is my cycling tan is coming along awesome!!!!:))

With that in mind I am also looking at effective hydration.

Obviously hydration is key, but in situations like I had on the weekend, my body couldn't replace the fluid quick enough.

Of note for people who train first thing in the morning I think it is important to realise that there is a high probability that you will wake up a little dehydrated. I make sure that:

1. I have a good drink before I go to bed and I even have a bottle beside my bed

2. the first thing I do when I get up is drink some water.

3. I drink fluids straight away on the bike.

Also I have already made a note that if on race day the tempreture is hot, I will have some spare water bottles to use as cooling, ala Floyd on that stage in the TDF 2006.

So for the next few weeks I will be still loading up on training to toughen me up, mostly concentrating on low L4 and some solid L3 sessions.:) It will be hard but I need to put in the work to get the results.

I'm looking forward to it!!!!