Winter bike training

During winter I do a lot of bike sessions indoors on my Cateye CS1000 Cyclosimulator, a magnet/fan resistance turbo trainer. The Cateye has been around for a while and is popular with professional track cyclists. It has a very realistic, road-type feel and has excellent stability due to the front forks on the trainer that you lock onto.

On a turbo trainer you can simulate pretty much all the conditions that you encounter in a race or on a training ride. The added benefit is that you can target specific conditions and prioritise them. Set it up with a high resistance to simulate strong headwinds and work at this level for as long as you like to build power. Increase the resistance and do long "hill climb" sessions out of the saddle. These work particularly well on the Cateye due to the overall stability of the unit.

The Cateye is a major component in my bike training all year round. The simple fact that you can target specific conditions and hold them for as long you want makes for excellent training and there is also the added bonus of not having to worry about traffic or weather conditions. In the lead up to an Ironman event I will do 4 hour sessions made up up of two 2 hour sessions with a small break in between to trot around, stretch, refill bidons and perhaps change clothing.

I can highly recommend the Cateye CS1000. They don't make them any more but you can pick them up second-hand.

Sydney Duathlon Race 2

Up at 5.45am this morning for race #2 in the Sydney Duathlon Series at Parramatta, a 3.2km run, 20km bike, 3.2km run event. I always have something to eat before I race and for early races I usually have a couple of slices of gluten-free toast with peanut butter and a cup of tea. The energy from this light breakfast usually kicks in around 8am which is perfect as this is the start time of the race.

A rather chilly morning of 8 degrees at Parramatta so you have to keep nice and warm and make sure to warm up properly. This is a sprint distance race so getting the heart rate up prior to the start is a really good idea. In the colder weather I leave a t-shirt on for the first 3.2km run leg after which I have warmed up for the bike. Arm warmers are a good idea in these conditions and today I kept them on for the entire race. Clocked a good time today of around 1h 8m which should give me a top 3 finish.

I get home around 10am and have a nice brunch, usually eggs for the protein with GF toast and coffee. Looking forward to training this week with some longer sessions.