This season has flown by, with just over a week to go until Haleakala, and Dick Evans the week after, I'm in the thick of the final taper to boost my form as high as I can get it. On Wednesday I did 3 x 6km climbs a little below threshold to see what kind of VAM I could churn out for the best part of an hour of climbing. That workout turned out to be pretty good...

I never felt like I was on my limit but still managed 3 x 17min climbs, negative-splitting each one.

I've never averaged watts this high for 3 consecutive climbs, so I'm hoping that with a nice taper over the next 7 days that I'll arrive on Maui with the fitness that I should have had in 2007 - If it wasn't for my crash on Tantalus! Sea to Stars went well with me taking the win, but my time was still quite slow by my own standards - 2hr 40min vs. the record I set (2hr 27min). However, I'm not too worried about being 13min off because when I set that 2hr 27min ride I had peaked out 2 weeks too early and ended up being a bit flat for Haleakala when I rode a 2hr 50min ride there.

This weekend I'll be spending a little time doing some pre-Haleakala field testing with the cooling vest. Fun...