Red Baron Flies 30km along Freeway to a PB!

Sunday 18th March 2007;
Cycled 30km Freeway Bikehike (Burswood to Joondalup) in 65minutes 51 (splits 29.43/36.08) HR 141 at end. (higher during race!) Average speed 27.3km/h or 2min 11 per km. A P.B. by exactly 2minutes on my 2005 effort See Week 1 (scroll to bottom of page) 2005 @ http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/7549/runm05blogwks1to4.html or on blogger @ http://runmara2005blog.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_archive.html



Struggle to get organised, after St patricks party the night before. Decided not to take the car,and at 7am jumped on the Red Baron and cycled pretty strongly with the aid of a nice northeasterly tailwind the 16km from Beechboro to Burswood in 38min 19.
Average speed 25km/h or 2.23 per km.

Arrived at 7.40am with 5 minutes to spare and barged my way into B-Grade section (55min-70min predicted time for the 30km Freeway Bike Hike see http://www.freewaybikehike.com.au/index.php?pageid=14)....I couldnt remember what time I did in 2005, but I knew it was about 60-80minutes, and decided I would try to ride at 30km/h or sub 60min pace for as long as possible...They were rather late starting which suited me, got to see the elite A-graders start, drink a powerade, do some stretches before I headed off at 8am. Managed to get a good position near front of B-Grade bunch which ensured I would have plenty of space on the road, and would be getting passed rather than be trying to fight my way through packs of slower riders...and risking a crash... especially as I wanted to start fast.

Had myself positioned in a lower gear so as to avoid slowing up too much on the initial small hill at the start, and then clicked it straight into high gears, and hammered it down into the Northbridge Tunnel, once again what a cool surreal experience riding through the tunnel at 40km/h......In the early stages I found it easy to keep my cycle computer speedo over the 30km/h mark and went through 5km in 8min 28. Positioned myself next to a whiteline so as to make sure I was predictable to any riders around and especially behind, and this also helped me to focus on attaining maximum speed in a straightline. If you don't do that, you risk a crash in the chaos of riders that is the cyclists version of the City to Surf fun run.
Over 7000 entrants this year, up from 6000 in 2005, and 6500 in 2006.

Then the headwinds and uphills started to impact on me a little with my next 5km split of 11min 15. Managed to settle back into the 30km/h groove as things flattened out and we got some nice downhill sections and hit the halfway mark in 29.43 (split 10min.00...exactly 30/km/h or 2min per km)...So at that stage I thought I might still be a shot at going sub 60min. Was being passed by other B- Graders every now and then, but hadn't seen many MTB's if any...all fast racer bikes (with a kaleidescope of Lycra tops) that were going past me...Felt a tad out of place with my NB runners and funrun longsleeve top as most people around me had lycra cycling tops and cycling shoes...But this just added to the experience...Saw a team with Cows on the back of their tops go past and various other interesting tops...

In the second half of the race I started to want a drink, and the headwind and small hills started to take their toll on me, slowed to 27km/h and then struggled towards the end to hold onto 25km/h...dropping to 18km/h at some points, but I was still managing to get to 35km/h on some of the small downhills...Revised target to around 65minutes as it was clear I was not going to go sub 60minutes...Started to see a few of the same riders around me so was obviously settling in with a group riding at about 27km/h...Almost no MTB's though. Saw a few tandems. Splits were 12.05 from 15km to 20km, 12.05 for 20km to 25km and 11.58 for the final 5km, so pretty even at about 2min 25 per km. With about 5-10km to go I decided to grab a powerade, and stopped briefly for that and also stopped for a cup of water from the aid station to cool body temp a bit. Worked hard up the final big hill to leave the freeway and then settled into a strong 35km/h finish into Joondalup, cruising the last 300m a bit, which brought my Heart rate down a lot to 141. It must of got to 160+ up the last hill and for most of the way, a HR monitor or Garmin etc would have been good to have just to plot how that went during the race...So the final result;

Cycled 30km Freeway Bikehike (Burswood to Joondalup) in 65minutes 51 (splits 29.43/36.08) HR 141 at end. (higher during race!) Average speed 27.3km/h or 2min 11 per km. A P.B. by exactly 2minutes on my 2005 effort See Week 1 (scroll to bottom of page) 2005 @ http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/7549/runm05blogwks1to4.html or on blogger @ http://runmara2005blog.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_archive.html

All in all very happy to PB, especially as I did not know it was a PB until I checked my old training books and data when I got home. Caught the train back to Perth and then onto Bayswater. It was nice to get on before too many of the crowds from the slower riders arrived. Once again not many MTB's around, and as I finished more than 4 minutes under the B grade cutoff of 70minutes, I'd say I beat most of theC-Graders...

At Bayswater I jumped into the "cockpit" of the trusty Red Baron again for a 9.5km easy recovery ride back to Beechboro, for home, my wife, food and a shower. Took this ride pretty easy waltzing along for 37min 24. Didn't want to push too hard into the North Easterly winds that I had battled for much of the race....

Saturday 17th March; Went down to Shoalwater with my parents,wife and youngest brother and sister for a bit of a birthday celebration, and for fun we walked/waded, ran a bit, swam a bit across the sandbar to Penguin Island and back, I'm guessing it was for about 1 hour but not too sure how long we went.

This week I did 6 rounds at work, and pushed the pace as much as I could was hammering through my rounds in 4-6 hours most days which is significantly quicker than in the past. First time I have done 6 rounds in a week I think and hope to make that a regular occurence. Was keen to make up for money I would lose from not working public holiday last week. So as to give me and Kathryn my wife a good chance of maybe getting down to Dunsborough next weekend for a mini holiday, and hopefully a run in the Dunsborough Half Marathon for me as part of that.
Total hours for week only 29 hours, but I slogged it realy hard for every one of those 29 hours...