saturday 8th mar - canning vale (reverse)

ride report by chris

a nice day for a ride, not too warm, not too cold, it was just right. if a little humid.
pastor pete decreed we would follow the canning vale route today which always results in a little pain along bannister rd and today was no exception but we'll get to that in a little bit.
pre-ride briefing over with the fast points nominated as a part of nth lake rd, bannister rd and the finishing stretch of shepperton rd and riverside dve to the cafe.

we set off down the canning hwy at a steady pace allowing everyone to have a bit of a chat. incident free down to the nth lake rd turn off when i expected someone to have a dig but it seems people were saving themselves for the blast down bannister rd. so i went to the front to wind cade up along the rise to south st. mission accomplished i sat up and let the bunch blow by. i figured without our pastor i had better make sure that the flock stayed together. nice excuse to have a rest at the back too.

the run along south st was supposed to be a steady cruise but we were up near 40km/h the whole way. probably shouldn't have fired cade up 'cause we were all about to pay once we hit the fast stretch. i'm told it was he who fired of the front immediately we hit bannister rd. i was down the back after stopping to pick up a dropped light, thanks to mike b for staying back to help me catch back onto the group. sorry if i rolled over you too strong but i just wanted the hurt to be over.

so, no steady building of speed, it was straight to 48km/h and into the hurt box. luckily we got a bit of respite before the pace picked up again. we dropped a few guys along here and i'm pretty sure there was plenty lactic acid in the legs of everyone. my data tells me we spent around 12 minutes at about 40km/h. sounds great but to put that in perspective think of your average tdf stage where they average the same speed for ~200km over proper mountains. ouch!

the final regroup at nicholson rd, thanks to those who showed some restraint and called the front guys to back it off to allow the stragglers to catch back up. a little further along and mike b and the big chris were on the front, two strong fellows pulling well but the guys down the back were still recovering so i struggled up alongside and asked them to back it off a bit. i think big chris was happy that i made the request, mr bonner was hurting him a little. by the way mr b, i gather you did rather well at the pemberton race. i think there are a few team lamo boys who might be joining you for the fun of the tour de perth support race, should be well suited to your abilities.

a steady roll along the albany hwy as we all awaited the fun of the final drag to the coffee shop. the heat came on almost as soon as we hit shepperton rd and if anyone else was feeling like me it was a matter of looking after yourself for the final sprint. the recently married mr fynn was conspicuous by his absence from the front obviously out to avenge his recent run of losses in the sprint. this opportunity was spoilt by the meeting of our bunch with another at the causeway and the part road closure along the river front.

so an anticlimactic finish to a reasonably quick ride.

my stats say we averaged 33.7km/h for the 42.7km. for interest sake my average heart rate was 147bpm with a peak of 181bpm near the end of the run along bannister rd. And for those even vaguely interested my average power was 170W with a peak of 956W. pretty lame in comparison to graeme brown who, if i remember correctly, can top out at 1500W.

figuring i'd earned it i had the big breakfast with a mug of coffee. yumm!

the pastor was there to greet us with the up and coming ben to catch up with the action. nice to see him getting indoctrinated in the ways of the velo.

rumours: michael w missed today’s ride to taper for sunday’s corporate triathlon. He also missed the thursday morining thrash, the rumour are that one is he was at the pool having some remedial swimming lessons after nearly drowning at last years event.

editors note: if you want a good work out i suggest the following.
1. mountain bike
2. bike trailer
3. 14kg child plus all associated child traveling paraphernalia
4. mount st
5. repeated sets without standing.

i did just one taking the young lad up to sticky beaks playground in kings park and it almost killed me. harder than any saturday ride so far.